19 June 2022

Gibson's scout troop had a court of honor Monday night and Gibson received the last merit badge he earned for his eagle advancement: Emergency Preparedness. 

Becky sewed his merit badge onto his sash Monday night. He now has 22 merit badges, 1 more than he needs.

Thursday was Helen and Gibson's last day of school. It was a rough year, beginning back in September with masks and distancing in school, long quarantines when students got sick, worn out teachers, rude classmates and working to make up for everything they missed the year before. We didn't make it any easier for Helen and Gibson by pulling them out of school for three weeks for our trip to the middle east. They both worked hard up to the last day of school and ended the year feeling good about everything they accomplished.

One of Gibson's last school projects was an assignment to create a board game for a his geography class. He was assigned Mauritania, a country on the Atlantic coast of Africa. Gibson created an operation style game where the operation pieces are landmarks in the country. He built the game board and wired the electronics at Craterworks.

Helen and Gibson picked up their yearbooks. Helen's design was chosen for the cover this year. It's fun to see her drawings and handwriting on the actual yearbook.

Here's a photo of the back of the yearbook. The image in the center is a drawing Helen made of a cubist sculpture outside of the school gym. It's as blocky in real life as it is in the drawing.

Gibson helped his troop with a service project Thursday night. Medford is holding their annual classic car show this weekend and the troop striped the field for the car show so participants would know where to park their cars. Most of the project was fairly tedious as the boys marked off the field with string in preparation to paint lines on the grass, but the boys also got to ride along with their scoutmaster and take turns painting the lines with a paint sprayer attached to a golf cart.

Becky's doctor is a huge fan of genetic testing and has encouraged Becky to submit for testing to screen for various genes linked to cancer. Testing is expensive, however, and without specific concerns, Becky has declined genetic testing until now. Oregon's biggest medical school, OHSU, offers free genetic testing as part of a giant study they are conducting in Oregon. Collecting a sample was fairly easy. Becky only needed to swish strong tasting mouthwash for 60 seconds and then spit into a vial.

After collecting her DNA sample, Becky returned the sample to OHSA through the mail. Currently the study reports 32 genetic markers linked to different kinds of cancer and cardiovascular disease. OHSU will only report an abnormality if there is a treatment for the disease that is linked to the genetic abnormality. They don't want to make people anxious without offering help. It will take about 6 months to get the results back. 

On Saturday morning Brandan, Gibson and Becky helped clean the church and then got breakfast at a cute French bakery that recently opened close to our home. The bakery is located between the chocolate shop and the cheese shop, a perfect location for gourmet treats like the pastries we had for breakfast.