Andrew and His Elbow: A Tale of Derring-Do

This is the story of how Andrew solved world hunger and who shot JFK. Well maybe not.

Saturday Andrew was out riding bikes with his brother and friends. They approached an intersection in our sleepy neighborhood and Andrew went one way while his friend Jackson went the other way. Andrew turned his head to see why Jackson would do something so crazy as to go the wrong way and when he decided to look at where HE himself was going it was too late to avoid the looming white SUV sitting so innocently in his path. His right handlebar hit the tail light obliterating it. Science did the rest. I don't have the official formula but it goes something like this: Bike stopping plus Andrew's forward momentum (otherwise known as inertia) + ground = supracondylar fracture (a supracondylar fracture is a fracture of the distal humerus just above the epicondyles--just so everyone is clear). Jackson immediately rushed back to Andrew's side and asked "did you just get shot?". (As Erin put it - we are in Arizona after all).

After hours sitting in the ER (see attached picture), a priesthood blessing, surgery at 7:30 AM Sunday, three pins, a cast, and some home made chocolate chip cookies from the hometeacher (who Andrew had just complained to last week about how he never brings cookies), he was pronounced fit enough to play an hour on the Wii.

So far he seems to be doing well (they serve him food on a tray in bed and they have Cable!). He should be released sometime today (after school is over of course) and appears to be doing very well.

I am also fine thank you.

Love to all, Rebecca.

PS 1: do NOT look at the picture of a supracondylar fracture on wikipedia.

PS 2: the origin of the word derring-do is fascinating. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/derring-do.html

2010 Christmas Letter

The Scotts


We rang in 2010 with Catherine, Erin and Laura’s families at Disneyland. What a way to start the year! After the holidays, Jason went back to work in Utah and the rest of us had to make do without him back in Arizona. We took advantage of any excuse to go to Utah to see him including Nicole’s wedding in January.

Jason came back home to Arizona for Valentines Day week and the kids were glad to see him again.

We knew that Catherine and Noah were only going to be in California for a few more months so we took advantage of the short distance as much as possible by visiting in March for a weekend.

By April we decided Jason HAD to come back to Arizona. He got back in time for us to go back up to Utah for Aurelia’s Piano recital. We got to spend the night at Laura and Jeff’s in Las Vegas on the way back! The kids were excited to see all of their cousins. At the end of April I was laid off. After one day of feeling sad, I realized I was excited to do all the things I never had time for. I cleaned my baseboards and plastic plants and spent time with my kids. And then another office from my company called and asked me to come back to work. My kids were sad because they had been enjoying the home cooked meals. Anthony fell off the slide at school and we thought he had a broken elbow! After seeing three doctors they determined it was just a sprain and a week later he was back to normal.

In May we went to visit Catherine and Noah one last time. We spent time at the beach and celebrated Chloe’s birthday. School ended and suddenly the kids were anxious to find something to do. They worked on their swimming skills and the purchase of snorkeling masks made all the difference. Jason went to Scout Camp with Zach for a week and had a blast. Noah and Catherine came and stayed with us for a week which the kids loved. I think they enjoyed the pool by our house as well.

I had planned to take the whole family out to Aurelia’s wedding but since I was back to being a Newbie at work, I had to limit my time off. I flew out to her wedding and really enjoyed seeing everyone but missed my family. Megan finished her second year at girls camp and enjoyed it just as much as the first year.

July brought a visit from Laura and Jeff! We had fun seeing the fireworks and hanging out with cousins. Jason decided to go back to work in Utah and he took the kids up to Utah and they were gone for two weeks! We met back in Las Vegas in time to celebrate Megan’s birthday, spend a few days with Laura and Jeff. While we were there Grandma Zahller passed away.

I went out for Grandma’s funeral in August and then the kids started school the second week of August. This was a new school for the boys! They got to ride a bus for the first time and were excited about that. It took them a few months to decide if they liked the new school and Andrew still really misses his old school. With Jason back in Utah I had to finally bite the bullet and get a cell phone for Megan. I needed a way to coordinate with her to make sure she was home when the boys got off the bus. She goes to school outside our district and so can’t ride a bus. She suffered for the first two months riding her bike home in 100+ temperatures.

By October it had cooled down and just in time for Jason to come back home. He accepted a position with EPG (Environmental Planning Group) and we were all excited to have him back. He enjoys using all the knowledge he worked so hard to get in college and feels very appreciated at work. After the first week at work they sent him out to New Mexico for a few days to work on a billion dollar energy project that covers three states. He had to do some fast reading to get up to speed on that but impressed everyone with his knowledge. The owners of the company decided they needed to go to lunch with the biologists more often because they “talk about interesting stuff”. We went up to Utah to see Jubal perform in The Magic Flute (and listen to Aurelia play the piano in the pit orchestra). We got to spend time with Laura and Jeff and Joseph and Julia too! Andrew turned 8 and started cub scouts and he LOVES it! We celebrated his birthday as a family with a small party.

Then in November, Andrew was baptized by his brother Zach! Grandpa Andrews confirmed him and Laura and Jeff joined us for a big birthday party at the park with all his friends. We stayed home for Thanksgiving and I cooked a turkey for the 2nd time in my life. We went to see Tangled (I think everyone else in the family did too). The family purchased a PS3 Move as an early Christmas present and it was video games for a week straight. Anthony loves playing while Andrew prefers to watch. Megan is in Choir and Orchestra this year and they boys are tired of going to concerts. Megan had a vocal solo in the Christmas choir concert and we were so proud of her. She really enjoys singing!

We bought a real Christmas tree this year and it smelled sooooooo good. Jason had to spend a week in Las Vegas for work the week before Christmas so I took the kids with me to Dallas to visit Grandma Woodbury. Ruth brought her kids out and Barbara and Rick brought theirs up on the way to Denver. I exposed them all to strep throat before taking my kids to Six Flags. We managed to ride all the roller coasters before they closed. We made it back home to Arizona in time for Christmas. We made cookies and went Christmas caroling on Christmas Eve and then came back to read the Christmas story in Luke and used the hand puppets Grandma Woodbury made for us. Christmas brought the kids everything they wanted. This year they really enjoyed buying gifts for each other. I felt like it was the first year that they were more excited to watch each other open the gifts than opening their own. Megan wrapped Zach’s gift within multiple boxes and the last was completely covered in duct tape. She challenged him to open it within a five minute time span (and he couldn’t use any tools). That was fun to watch. We watched Disney’s The Christmas Carol and the kids thought it was good but SCARY.

Zach had is eagle board of review at 11:45 pm on December 31st so he officially got his eagle in the 100th year of scouting. We finished off the year with a bang and set off some fireworks while drinking hot chocolate in the 20 degree weather (COLD for Arizona). We hope your 2010 year was as wonderful as ours was and hope to see you this year!

Labor Day Weekend

Megan spoke in Sacrament Meeting for the first time! The topic was how she is preparing for marriage. Her response: “I haven’t really thought about it because that seems like such a long long long way away”. She did very well. She spoke clearly and slowly, looked up at times, and even got the timing right on her joke. Just a year ago she was mumbling through talks in primary so I’m not sure what happened to give her confidence to speak in front of 300 people.

She is settling into school and has had her first math, social studies, and orchestra playing tests. I’ve been trying to make math fun as we do homework by describing the variables in her math equations as actual things. Like p stands for purple pineapples and q stands for queer bats. This usually results in lots of eye rolling and attempts to keep a straight face.

This last week I got to go and meet with Andrew and Anthony’s teachers to find out what they will be learning this year. Andrew’s teacher likes to sing. They sing while they are at lunch, sing on the way to the library in the halls, sing during class work time and Andrew says she even gets out her Guitar to sing to them. She’s all about making learning a fun and non-stressful time. He is learning how to spell all those three letter words right now and got 100% on his first spelling test.

Anthony’s teacher reassured me that the kids get plenty of play time. I had just read an article about how kindergarten teachers are now spending a lot of time testing students because of the “no child left behind policy” and this is leaving out valuable play time resulting in stressed and depressed kindergarteners who feel like failures. So she relieved me of those concerns and also said Anthony is doing really well.

I’ve actually been out of the loop with Zach. Last time I talked to him he was at home on a Friday night getting ready to watch some movies. I did hear that he is now officially a Life Scout.

We went out to visit Noah and Catherine for the Labor Day weekend. Their house is very nice (considering I was expecting a shack what with the real estate prices out there) though Catherine misses her house back in Tennessee. I was excited for the kids to see the ocean and play at the beach. The boys have never seen the ocean and Megan had a rather dismal view of it on her 5th grade Oceanography trip. They got to walk to where the grass met up with sand and look at a piece of seaweed. They were not allowed to step on the sand. And it was very overcast and everything just looked gray.

So Saturday was sunny and warm and a perfect day. Everyone got sunburned of course and everyone was covered with sand. I forgot how nasty salt water tastes. I’ll put some pictures up on my blog so you can see everyone playing in the surf, building a sand castle, and burying Megan in the sand. We came home for dinner and watched the play by play on Yahoo (Jason monitored the computer) and ESPN (I monitored my blackberry). It’s an interesting way to “watch” a football game. You have to constantly refresh the screen and it’s a race to see who can call out the next play. Then when there is an injury or a timeout nothing happens for a few minutes and you go crazy wondering what’s going on. Jason and I were both ecstatic that BYU won. (Army also won which pleased Noah). So of course we went out to celebrate and had dinner (fish) at the pier. But first we went to the local fish market and got to see all kinds of fish, squid, clams, and other fishy smelling items.

It was fast Sunday and I appreciated hearing Noah’s testimony about the Book of Mormon and how much he loves his family. We went up to the LA Temple after dinner for a picnic dessert of brownies. We stopped at the Manhattan Beach Pier on the way home because I wanted the kids to hear the ocean at night. It was a little chilly and Megan and Ashton shared a hobbit? Or maybe it’s a wizard? Cloak…I did get a picture of it and also a video of them skipping together down the sidewalk singing songs.

On Monday we went out to Santa Monica pier and the kids enjoyed riding the carousel, roller coaster, giant ferris wheel, and other carnival rides. They all claimed it would have been the most perfect day if there had been time left for the beach. But unfortunately, all good things do come to an end. We ate dinner with the missionaries and then headed home. We got a little lost leaving LA but managed to make our way home at about 3am. Jason drove the whole way since he knew I had to work today. (Thank you Jason!!!) We really packed a lot into the weekend and Catherine and Noah fed us very well as usual.

Megan made it to school in time to hear President Obama speak (I’ll have to get a reaction from her later). The boys slept a little longer and so missed the president’s speech. I don’t know if they would have been able to sit still for ½ an hour anyway.

August 2009

The kids started school on August 10th. This was a milestone for me as I realized that I am one step closer to being an empty nester. I now officially have no more kids at home during the day. Megan started junior high and was very concerned that she would have no friends and would never find her classes. Her very best friend is only in ONE class (orchestra). I assured her that she would be able to make new friends and that all she had to do was smile. She didn’t believe me even after I informed her that smiles are contagious and that anyone she smiled at would smile back. I dropped her off for her first day and didn’t get any phone calls from the school during the day so assumed she was doing okay.

They boys go to school a whole hour later than Megan. I was a little worried about Anthony. At “Meet The Teacher Night” he wouldn’t say anything to the teacher and laid down on the floor in embarrassment. I didn’t get any calls from his teacher either. Anthony likes to point out that there are students in his class that don’t listen to the teacher or pay attention. I’m hoping he’s not one of them.

Andrew was the tallest person in his class. Teachers kept giving him a strange look wondering if he was lining up with the wrong class. He was very stressed out when he got home because Anthony and Megan both had homework and he didn’t have any. I guess he felt left out. He seems to make friends easily which is good because most of the kids in his class this year are new.

Megan described her first day as “Awkward” but on the second day had exciting news. It seems she tried an experiment. She smiled at a girl in her class (and of course the girl smiled back). On the third day that girl plopped down next to her in gym class and said “let’s be friends”. I think they have all the same classes – except Orchestra. This week Megan shared the secret with her new friend and they practiced smiling at random people. So far it’s worked every time. Maybe I should write a book…”The Secret II”…..

Andrew and Anthony were invited to a birthday party for two girls in their class at school. I dropped them off and gave them my phone number to call me when the party was over. I guess the mom promptly lost my phone number. So four hours later I decided I better drive over and check on them. The party was just winding down but the boys had started crying because they thought I’d left them forever. Plus Anthony had a breakdown after losing one of his candy bags and threw his water gun on the ground as part of his tantrum. Sigh.

The dollar movies are back! Well the $2 movies at any rate. We used to go as a family and then one weekend we went and it had closed down with no warning. I happened to be on Fandango the other day and it was back! So we went to see Night at the Museum II and only spent $10. That’s all five of us for the price of one regular movie ticket. Yay!!

Megan is beginning to enjoy Young Women’s. But who wouldn’t! They make popcorn balls, get miniature loaves of bread on Sunday, had a back to school party with lots of candy, and now they are going ice-blocking. This Sunday she walked out of class and the first thing she said was “you didn’t tell me that when I’m 16 I get to group date!”. I told her we’d discuss it when she was 18.

Zach has also started his 10th grade year. He has four AP classes (they count as college classes). He’s decided his English class is going to be boring because every day they start the class by breaking sentences down into their component. It’s going to be all about grammar rather than creative writing (which he enjoys). For his History class he was given the option to do some reading over the summer for extra credit. He read “Salt: A world History” and “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond. He liked the book on Salt and said the Guns book was the most boring book he’d ever read which made me feel better because I hated it too and it’s supposed to be this great book.

Jason had a job interview in Grand Junction CO. They flew him out and interviewed him but selected someone local so that was disappointing. He is considering going back to Utah to work for his friend again. The bank offered us a modification package. However, we have a three month trial period first (to make sure we can actually pay it). So we aren’t moving yet.

I auditioned and was selected to sing with the Arizona Mormon Choir. We rehearse every Thursday night and have several concerts already lined up. I love singing with a good choir!!!

And that’s about it for the Scotts!

www.thegreatscottsarizona.blogspot.

July 2009

Time Flies! About two weeks ago I got to go see the Broadway Production of Wicked at the theater at ASU. I went with some gals from my Book Club. I really enjoyed it. It was funny! Afterwards, we got to go backstage. One of the other gals from our Book Club is a seamstress and her job is to maintain the costumes (the costume designer won a Tony for the costumes in Wicked). So I got to look at the extravagant costumes up close, and inspect the stage props. It was cool to see how they had everything arranged and the stage floor that gets taken down and travels with them to each location. I didn’t really care to view the orchestra pit (once you’ve seen – and played – in one you’ve seen them all).

Megan has been practicing her writing and comes to me frequently trying to find new vocabulary words. She was trying to describe a young girls clothing and hair. She would describe them to me and I’d tell her the word. After giving her Chignon, Chemise, and Chemisette she wanted to know why everything that had to do with fashion or hair was French. I told her to ask Erin – our fashion guru. She wanted to look up words on the internet but Jason was on the computer. So remembering my lesson on Machiavellian tactics, she took him a large glass of water. She patiently monitored it and kept it filled beside the computer. Shortly thereafter, Jason jumped up to go to the bathroom and she seized her chance. He still doesn’t know quite what happened.

Every other year or so, I have a complete breakdown and this year I had one shortly before Catherine and Noah arrived. It scared Jason enough that he stayed up all night cleaning up his toys and mowed the lawn at 5:30 am (much to our neighbor’s dismay). Good things happened during our visit with Catherine and Noah. We made it to the last week of church at 8am! We now have moved to a 10 am start. I am so happy. In fact, I’m going to have a moment of silence just to pause and appreciate this new start time.





Megan enjoyed attending her first Young Women’s class with her cousin Ashton. She also had her first Young Women’s activity which she also was able to attend with Ashton. It was a volleyball tournament and she proudly announced that they lost EVERY game.

The kids spent a lot of time at the pool (what else could they do? It was 115). Andrew can now doggie paddle furiously ½ way across the pool. Both Andrew and Anthony’s skills dramatically increased after borrowing a snorkeling mask. It’s a lot easier to swim when they don’t have to worry about water getting up their nose. But if my kids are 20 years old and still swimming at the public school with a snorkeling mask on…..please don’t laugh at them.

We managed to go out on a double date to Ruby Tuesday and stopped off at Barnes and Noble to browse through the comedy section. I had to show Catherine some of Dave Barry’s work. Then we rented “Knowing” to watch. I recommend Confessions of a Shopaholic instead.

Megan celebrated her 12th birthday party and invited about 7 girls over for a “day at the spa”. We immediately put them in robes and smeared green masks on their face. They lounged around on our couches with their feet soaking in lavender water. Catherine and I massaged their feet with lotion and then Jason also helped to paint their toenails. Afterwards, they “blinged” some flip flops. This means they used a hot glue gun to put sequins, ribbons, fluff, roses, etc on the flip flops. Next was swimming at the pool while Noah grilled up some hamburgers and hot dogs. Unfortunately the glue on the flip flops melted in the hot sun so most of the “Bling” fell off between the house and the pool. By this point I was worn out and dragged the girls (who were still full of energy) out to the van to take them all home. I don’t remember what happened after that.

Catherine stuck around for the week since Dad was coming out. She spoiled my kids by making three square meals a day PLUS dessert. She even made an extra pan of my favorite (chicken broccoli casserole) to freeze. We enjoyed having Dad (the kids say thanks for the ice cream!) and Catherine’s family visit us. We can’t wait for Laura to be closer too!