St. Paul's Walkathon 2014

The 2014 St. Paul's Walkathon was a huge success, and a lot of fun!

You know how I get excited about good parking spaces? THIS was a treat - somehow, we managed to get our own reserved parking space for the day.


The 'Rents sound check went well...


We welcomed new drummer Fabio!


Performing one song is hard work; good thing the catering truck was nearby.


But enough about The 'Rents! Here's Deacon in his official 6th Grade Walkathon T-Shirt. He won the title contest and logo design!


The back of the T-shirt.


Maren, and the back of her 4th Grade Fireballs T-shirt. She's not sure who thought of the Fireballs team name, but her contribution, the "Go-Getters," placed 3rd.


And... the 6th Graders are off! 15 minutes of running is HARD WORK!


Deacon ran 21 laps.


4th grade's turn. Maren at the starting line...


(Insert Chariots of Fire music here)










23 laps!


Sharing a post-run snow cone with team champ Jacqueline.


Jacqueline ran far and fast: 37 laps!! That might have been the record for the whole school, I'm not sure!


Mrs. Mindock and the girls.


'Rents equipment manager/performer (and St. Paul's Music Director) Mr. Bauer gets ready for the bands to perform.


The Concert Band rhythm section. Yikes.


Beginner Band: Maren readies her trombone!


The horn section!


Back to Concert Band with Deacon on tympani.


We have cell phone pics and regular camera pics, so they're kind of out of order. I could put them in order, but... meh. Here's Maren right before she went out to play trombone.


The finale of the day was the K4 class - a perfect way to end the day! They ran for 15 minutes, too! Here's Molly Bauer running with our friend Seth.


Mr. B takes a group shot...




...while the sky gave a spectacular show: a ring around the sun!


A great day, indeed.

We have many things to catch up on here at the AFB, including Thanksgiving 2013 and Maren's recent field trip to San Juan Capistrano. Will have full coverage ASAP!

The 'Rents at the 2014 St. Paul's Walkathon

We will have much, much more coverage of today's groovy walkathon in the near future. Until then, visit The 'Rents Band Blog to see The 'Rents' performance of 200 Miles!

The 'Rents Band Blog

The 'Rents Band Videos

Some of you may know that Derek & I are in a band called The 'Rents, which is a group of St. Paul's parents who got together for Taco & Talent Night and then had a subsequent gig at the school dance. I think we still have at least one gig coming up. Anyway, I spent the weekend editing and uploading, and here are all of our videos!

*Note to our grandparent viewers: if you mouse over the video image and click the little "box" in the lower right corner, you can see the video full-screen.

From Taco & Talent Night, 1/31/14: Sugar, Sugar


St. Paul's First Lutheran School Dance 3/14/14: I'm a Believer


School Dance 3/14/14: Ring of Fire


School Dance 3/14/14: Brown Eyed Girl


School Dance 3/14/14: 500 Miles


School Dance 3/14/14 Sugar, Sugar (Encore)


These are all available on my YouTube channel: Terri Voelz YouTube Channel.

Naturally we all hope to quit our day jobs ASAP and go on tour, living the rock-n-roll dream. Until that happens, we're available for potlucks, Bar Mitzvahs, and church picnics.

Science Fair 3/28/14

Wow, we had a great time last night at the St. Paul's Science Fair. Mr. Mindock always makes it a great show.

Deacon's project: A wind tunnel. Hypothesis: short, compact wings are more aerodynamic than long, flat wings.



There was something for everyone. Here's a knee diagram to show what the kids have to look forward to when they need knee surgery in 50 years!


It was 6th grade's job to man the booths. Here's Deacon at the toy booth.




But then... Deacon and Trent were called up to accept their BRONZE MEDALS for their Science Fair projects! So exciting!


...and suddenly, Deacon had to make a speech! Totally unexpected... but he did great, just recapped his experiment and how it supported his hypothesis.








Then it was Trent's turn. He did an amazing project about light intensity vs. distance.


Bronze medalists!


6th, 7th and 8th grades were all judged according to the same criteria. So 6th grade was already well-represented by the boys' bronze medals. Then... also representing the fabulous 6th grade, NICOLE won the GRAND PRIZE!!


Nicole is one of the nicest girls in the school and everyone was so happy for her. Her hypothesis was that larger dog breeds are smarter than smaller dog breeds, and that Australian Shepherds are the smartest dogs. She tested 30 dogs, 5 tests per dog, and found that in fact the small Maltese is the smartest dog!

I think it could win for cuteness, too!

Speaking of cuteness, here's Maren with some extracted strawberry DNA. Apparently it's super easy to extract DNA from strawberries.


Meanwhile, here I am taking a pic of Deacon for my live Twitter feed last night.


The pic.


Deacon and the fellas...




Deacon with his project.


Then we got home, and there was an earthquake! That's covered in the post below.

CONGRATULATIONS DEACON, and all the Science Fair participants. That was a lot of work!!

ONWARD... to Maren's 4th grade Mission project. Maybe by mid-May we'll get our kitchen table space back. :)

Earthquake 9:09 PM 3/28/14

Deacon's bronze medal-winning science fair project has rocked the world!

5.4 EQ La Habra. Felt at AFB HQ by Derek, who was standing in bedroom, not felt by Terri (washing face in bathroom), Deacon or Maren. Hanging things in house still swinging as of 9:19. Hear it was quite strong at Disneyland.

Grammie: the TV is fine.

Will update as the situation unfolds...

UPDATE 9:26 PM - USGS has revised magnitude to 5.1

9:46 PM: People stuck on rides at Disneyland

Super-Thanksgiving Doorbuster Mega-Post Part 2: Arrivals!

Sorry to be posting Thanksgiving in March. To see the ACTUAL post, which I backdated to December, click here.

This Morning's Shamrock Shake!

UPDATE 5:59 PM 3/17/14

Deacon has just informed me that when he arrived in his classroom this morning, his teacher pointed out that Deacon's history book had fallen off of the shelf! Apparently that was the only item displaced during the quake - hopefully it's not a sign that his History grades are dropping.

UPDATE - BREAKING NEWS 4:35 PM 3/17/14:

The kids are now home from school, and Maren told me she was sure she heard something fall off her shelf during the quake this morning. Indeed, we seem to have a confirmed case of shelf-falloff!!

Ironically, this TV set is the very same TV I was watching during the Loma Prieta quake in '89. It's in Maren's room now, and last night there were two horses on top of it.

Now only the baby horse is there...



The Mommy horse is down on the floor!





Even in the 7.1 Loma Prieta quake, things shifted, but nothing fell off my shelves.

Here's a selfie of the kids and I after school, enjoying our Shamrock Shakes!



ORIGINAL POST, 9:53 AM 3/17/14

This morning's "Shamrock Shake" earthquake definitely shook things up here at AFB HQ. But all is well.



I love the guys at KTLA IMMEDIATELY diving under their desk:



Naturally I headed right for the stash of Diet Pepsi after the quake - I guess it's Pepsi One these days, but here it is:



Here's my exact post-quake Diet Pepsi in 1989:



We received our expected phone call from Grammie, who immediately asked, "Is the TV OK??"



Here's my retrospective of Loma Prieta '89 from that quake's 20th anniversary in 2009.

Will provide blog updates as the situation unfolds, and I will always post the latest on Twitter: @set271.

UPDATE 10:28 AM 3/17/14:

My 1989 retrospective video isn't playing very well from the blog.

I uploaded it to YouTube: Short 1989 Loma Prieta EQ Retrospective Video

Embedding here, not sure how it will work:

The 'Rents Gig - 3/14/14

Here's a screen grab from Friday night's gig with the hottest band in North Hollywood: The 'Rents!

I am AIRBORNE, as is Mike Robinson (lead singer) in this pic.  Feet not on ground!

Will get video uploaded ASAP!

Save the DeWitt Theater!

The historic DeWitt Theater, in Auburn, CA, is in imminent danger of being demolished to make room for 42 parking spaces in a proposed new Costco parking lot.



I love Costco as much as the next gal, but...

This theater has a rich, storied history and currently serves as my Aunt Kay and Uncle Mike's Music & More Arts Academy HQ and performance venue. They have renovated the theater and have been providing an enriching arts education for the Auburn community for many years.

Here's Maren in 2009 performing a scene from Les Miserables:


Deacon and Maren were also able to perform in The Jungle Book, 2011.


Please help! There's historical info, media coverage, and a petition to sign right here:

Save the DeWitt Theatre!

Thank you!

#SaveDewittTheater

On Facebook: Save the DeWitt Theater! and Music & More