Melissa is HOME!

The REAL Welcome party!
All eight grandkids together for the first time!

Melissa with Grandma Judd who "used" to be a Sister Johnson missionary about 60 years ago!

Couldn't resist picking up the "Horton Hears a Who" movie complete with Horton puppet and book. Two of Melissa's favorite things combined - elephants and Dr. Seuss.

Melissa with brothers Mike & Brian

Melissa with Rob & baby Stetson

The foiled greeting party!

Well, the long anticipated airport greeting for Melissa didn't quite go as planned. Melissa’s plane was scheduled to arrive at noon, so we all hopped into two cars at 11:30, then got to the airport gates right at noon. Rob & Brian dropped us all off while they went to park and we hurried up to the gates. We looked at the flight board and it said that the plane was “IN” so we stood there with a “Welcome Home, Melissa!” poster in our little group and waited for her to come out the gate. We waited… and waited… and waited. Mike & Sally came, Jeff & Niki came (but Allie threw up in the car just as they were getting out – so Niki and Allie had to wait in the car in the parking lot). Brian & Rob were taking forever to get up to the gates, so Kristi finally called Rob's cell phone. Here’s what happened: Just as Rob parked and started walking toward the elevator his cell phone rang. It was Melissa! Her plane had arrived half an hour early! So she was already down in the baggage claim area getting her luggage. She was standing around wondering where her family was (and beginning to think it was a replay of the RM movie) so she finally found a pay phone and called Rob’s cell number. Then Rob called Brian’s cell phone because they got separated in the parking lot and parked on different levels. So Brian went down to the baggage claim too and found Melissa. They tried calling Kira’s cell phone to let us all know where they were, but Kira never heard her phone ring. They didn’t know that Mike & Sally or Jeff were up there with us, so didn’t think to try their phones, and forgot that Kristi had her cell phone on her. So just about the time that they were thinking to go find us, Kristi call Rob’s cell phone to see what was taking them so long. Sooooooo…. in other words, we missed seeing Melissa come off the plane! Poo! It never occurred to us to check the flight to see if it was on time or not. So poor Melissa got off the plane and walked through the gates with NO ONE there to greet her. Is that the saddest thing you ever heard or what??? So we all went running down to the baggage claim area and finally met up with her.

Then… after we all hugged and talked for a bit, we headed out to the parking garage. We were all parked on different levels so split up. The only problem was that since Melissa had called Rob just as he was getting out of the car… the distraction made him forget to pay attention to where he had parked. He ended up walking all over that parking garage looking for our car! Up and down all the levels. So we stood around with all her luggage on the level where Jeff was parked so that Melissa could go see Niki and Allie in their car. Brian got his car and drove over to where we were all standing, so we loaded part of her luggage in his car…. But no Rob and no car. Rob had disappeared. Finally… about half an hour later he drove up! Talk about a comedy of errors! Well, Melissa has always been the one to do things different around here! No ordinary, run of the mill, return missionary, airport greeting for her! So Melissa had no greeters, a throwing up niece, and a lost Dad/car to make her return interesting.

Anyway, we finally all got home and sat around talking and looking at pictures of Melissa’s mission. Grandma Johnson and Lurline came by and Grandma Judd came over too. Then we had to meet with President Deaton at 5:00 so that she could be formally released. She was kind of funny. When he got to the part of asking her to take off her name tag, she beat him to it. She yanked it off and handed it to him without any qualms. She said she was exhausted and ready to get back to normal life and be anonymous again! That Melissa. She just can’t do anything the “normal” way. Then we went back home and made Mexican food for dinner. Mike & Sally, Jeff & Niki, Brian & Kira and all eight grandkids together for the first time! And just to make Melissa feel even more like the RM movie, we hadn’t had time to get anything ready for her to come home. The Stetson house still has all her stuff packed away in the back bedroom, Brian & Kira were using Rick's empty bedroom. Soooo….. Melissa had to sleep on the hide-a-bed in the living room for the first three nights! Not even a bed or room to call her own. What a greeting, huh?

Blessing Bracken

Baby Bracken on his Blessing Day
The Johnson Bunch

Proud Parents

Proud Grandparents

Playing with Grandpa

Dancing with Kristi

Bracken checking out the "Hat"

Waving Goodbye and Blowing Kisses

Rob riding the Ellingford's horses

Brian being chased by an unhappy colt

Canoeing

Rob & Kristi went on a Daddy/Daughter Date

Canoeing on Tempe Town Lake

The weather was perfect and the lake smooth

Nothing like hanging out with Dad!

New Curtains

Niki & Sally decided to make some new drapes for our living room! I have the best daughters-in-law in the world! But they got in a little over their heads...

They were having all sorts of problems and taking WAY too long to make them... so we had to hire foreign help...
These ladies worked much faster...
A little bent over... but they seemed to know what they were doing.
Ta da! Definitely pays to go foreign!

This is a product of THREE long days of sewing and several trips to the store to exchange hardware. Awesome!

Fedora Date

Kristi is into Fedora hats lately
Amber, Spencer & Kristina dressed for the Prom -

is this a Fedora Prom?
Kristi's First Date!

Curly Locks

TJLA - Commonwealth School

Here's a peek into our commonwealth school - Thomas Jefferson Leadership Academy (TJLA)

Shakespeare Class

The students were assigned to make masks during the week to bring to class

They used the masks to get in character

This is part of their actor's training
Some made fairly simple masks

Some were very creative

and others very complex!

Hanging out during lunch break - always incorporates music

Lunch Break

Several of the students play the piano VERY well! They really inspire each other!

The Principles of Leadership Class have created a GREAT line dance!

Each of the students contributed to creating the dance steps

Meanwhile... the TJYC Class is busy writing essays

They studied John Brown this week...

and learned to look deep into their own hearts and motives

and to base all their decisions on truth and light - not just passion.
These are an amazing group of youth!

This is Sue's TJYC class - Thomas Jefferson Youth Certification

TJYC is a 3 semester course that incorporates writing, literature, history, government, and leadership. The students can earn college credit for this class - some high schools even give up to eight credits for this course. It is intense! They have written some amazing essays so far!

Here is what they study for Level 1 - First Semester:

Read and discuss biographies of Martin Luther, Patrick Henry, Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. - along with documents written by these famous men - Luther's Defense at the Diet of Wyrms, Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death", Lincoln's Gettysburg Address & Second Inaugural Address, Brown's Final Address to the Court, Gandhi's "It's a Sick World", King's "I Have a Dream", and finally the Declaration of Independence.

Afterwards they write essays on each of these men addressing some very difficult issues and penetrating questions.

Along with reading all of these biographies, they read and participate in a colloquium on the following classics: "Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens," "The Walking Drum," "The Chosen," and "A Tale of Two Cities."

They also have four lectures on Leadership Education encompassing the following: the 3 Systems of Education, the 4 Phases, 5 Environments, 7 Keys, Scholarship Ladders and the Liberal Arts, and 6 Keys to Personal Influence.

Finally, they have a written final, an essay exam, and oral exams by a panel of adults. And that's only the FIRST semester!

TJEd Forum

A few pictures of this year's Second Annual Southwest TJEd Forum sponsored by AzLAF.

We had a Youth Panel for those in attendance to ask questions of a few teens who have been homeschooled mostly using TJEd principles. They were asked various things about how it was applied in their homes and affected their lives.
Kristina answering some questions

Anyone who knows us well, knows that we have been homeschooling our younger children for almost 13 years now. This was initially a VERY difficult decision; after all, aren't homeschoolers just a bunch of weird fanatics?! Well, after 13 previous years of playing the public school game, being involved in the classrooms, PTA, parent committees, school board, etc. we'd had enough and knew that even if we couldn't do any better... we certainly couldn't do worse! That thought alone gave us the courage to venture out on our own. But not alone really. We spent a LOT of time on our knees and felt His guiding hand as we pursued our new adventure in learning. We spent the first four years of our "homeschool experiment" trying out all kinds of methods and curriculums getting our feet wet and discovering what education really was. After floundering around a bit, we read a book that literally changed our lives and the way we thought about education - simple book really, full of basic principles. We had already discovered some of these principles on our own through trial and error, so when we read this book it was like coming home - an answer to prayer. That book is:

A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille.

Don't be fooled by the title. It has very little to do with Thomas Jefferson. It's about how Thomas Jefferson and others like him were educated. It lays down those time-tested principles that remain as true today as ever. Principles that make it possible for us to take the education of our children into our own hands and provide the very best for them and our community.

Once we read this book, our little home school took off! We were doing reasonably well before, but now our children began to fly! We have since found a whole community of like-minded people who share these same core values and principles. It has become known as Leadership Education or TJEd for short. Sue is currently on the board of the Arizona based organization called Arizona Liber Association of Families (AzLAF). There are groups all over the U.S., Canada, and quickly spreading throughout the world - even Uganda, Africa! Look at the links on this blog for more information.