June 2015

Brigham got a new violin teacher!  His previous teacher emailed me to tell me that she had taught Brigham about all she could, and he'd make better progress with a new teacher.  She gave me a bunch of recommendations, and I contacted several of them.  He ended up taking a trial lesson from two teachers, and we ended up with Alexander Serafimov, who (very conveniently) teaches from the same studio as Brigham's previous teacher.  He is an older Russian man who went to the best music conservatory in Russia, and played as a professional for many years.  His approach to teaching is very different from our other teachers!  He does not pull any punches, but tells Brigham exactly what he thinks, and exactly what he means.  I would probably have broken down in tears any number of times during the lesson, but Brigham ate it up.  He wants someone to tell him exactly what is good and bad and how to fix it.  He is tough!  The only problem I foresee is perhaps with Mr. Serafimov's accent.  He doesn't have a terribly thick accent, but it's enough that I can tell that Brigham doesn't always understand exactly what he is saying or meaning, and that has led to a few misunderstandings.  But Brigham will adjust.




During June, Ben took the boy scouts on two different camping trips.  The first was out to the Davis Moutains in west Texas where they did some hiking and then toured the McDonald Observatory.  A couple of weeks later, they went to the Gulf Coast and camped on the beach.  I drove Mosey out for the day they toured the Corpus Christi Aquarium.  It's a pretty good Aquarium, although recently all of the sharks had accidentally been killed by an employee, so a good portion of it was closed.  :-(
Ben is assistant Scout Master, but the scout master injured his back and so Ben has pretty much taken over his duties.  Ben is awesome in this calling, and the boys all really like him.  Next year, Mosey will get to go along on all the scout camping trips!











The other notable event of June was the saga of the SUV.  Ben had been on the lookout for a good deal on a Dodge Durango.  He test drove one a few months ago, and decided that would be a great vehicle to replace his Mercury, and it would be an especially great vehicle for all his scouting needs.  It is big, has good towing capacity, four wheel drive, etc.  He found one at a dealership in Houston with low mileage, in good condition, and for a great price.  So I drove out with him to pick it up one afternoon.  To make a VERY long story short, it turned out to be a lemon.  Apparently it had been driven in a place with tons of salt on the road (Canada, I think), and the entire bottom of it was rusted out.  After having one mechanic tell us it was just a cosmetic issue, Ben took it on his first scout trip out to the Davis Mountains.  Thank goodness there were no problems, because 2 days after he got back, it actually broke down in the middle of the road on 360 and 183.  It wasn't just a cosmetic problem. The dealership was pretty decent, though, and there wasn't too much trouble getting our money back.  Instead, we got a trailer hitch installed on our van and that will have to do for now for a scouting vehicle.