Firstie cadets found out their job assignments in January. While Jake has formed a bond with his fellow aeronautical engineer majors, most of them have pursued a pilot slot. Jake ended up being one of only two cadets in the entire class to be given the job of aeronautical engineer!

This comes as no surprise, of course. Jake came out of the womb trying to figure out how things work. I’ve been thinking back to all the electronic devices he has taken apart and put back to together…

I look forward to seeing how God uses Jake’s mind in the future!

We said goodbye for now to Jake and Tiffany when they left for Colorado early in the month. We sure enjoyed the extended time with them!

Some of us carried on our annual Lord of the Rings marathon tradition. Jim and Dad joined us later on.

Derek still had another week of break, so guess what he volunteered to help with? Algebra 2! This meant a lot, considering how much Derek loves math.

For Christmas, Jeremy got The Double Dangerous Book for Boys. He likes it very much and has done some of the suggested activities. Here he is playing with fire.

The month was dominated by wrestling. Peter wrestled so much this season that he reached the maximum number of matches allowed for one wrestler in one season.

He developed so much as a wrestler this year; we are really proud of his hard work ethic.

The team won conference for the second year in a row,

and a week later, Wheaton Academy hosted the conference tournament.

Derek came for the day, and the two of us scored one of the mats and ran the clock and scoreboard. We enjoyed more than a few belly laughs at the table. Ruth was our runner, bringing finished scorecards to the main table in the gym. She also was in charge of alerting the ref when the period ended if he didn’t hear the buzzer. She was to alert him by throwing a towel at him.

She was disappointed that the ref heard that buzzer every single time it went off, so she never had to carry out her towel-throwing duty.

Peter came in third for the 220 weight class!

Ruth has had some babysitting opportunities, watching one of the coaches’ sons. Here she is playing with one of the boys at a wrestling meet.

Molly turned 11 years old this month!

She may sleep more during the day, but she is still full of spunk and enjoys time on the prairie path.

Jake sent a video of his first skeet shooting experience. No surprise, he shot every clay target that his buddy threw into the air.