When our daughter was in junior high, students were required to make a project for the annual Science Fair. In the photo below, Alitza is preparing part of her experiment where she judged the quality of various forms of insulation as to their ability to retain heat.

In this photo, she is pouring boiling water into a container that is inside the red box, surrounded by one of the five varieties of insulating materials she was testing.

This photo shows the various boxes with their separate kinds of insulation. David is seated at our dining room table, and Solo is coming from the kitchen where Alitza was heating the water for the test. (This took place prior to Solo's death in 2001.)

In this photo, she is checking the temperature of one container of hot water to measure how much heat it had lost. Each box was similarly tested several times, and through those measurements, she was able to see which kind of insulation worked best at retaining the heat of the water over time. Alitza was a pretty good student in science, and had excellent grades. It didn't hurt that her dad was a scientist, I'm sure!

On May 16, 1993, at the age of 15 years, our daughter was confirmed in the Lutheran church where we were members. We had a dinner at the church for family members and friends, as well as the minister and his wife after the confirmation service. 

Here is Alitza's confirmation photo in front of the altar at the church. This is the same church where I worked as secretary for 15 years, with several different ministers. We all attended at this church the years we lived in Kanawha. Alitza had been baptized here, as was posted in an earlier blog about her early life.

For the dinner following the confirmation service, I had made this lamb cake. I also made a butter lamb, so got to put my ability to sculpt into practice. The photo on the table is of Alitza wearing the baptism gown that was worn by her grandfather (David's father). 

Here is the butter lamb. Not quite as detailed as the famous butter cow made each year at the Iowa State Fair, but it is quite obviously a lamb, and it served its purpose to decorate the table!

This photo shows a few of the guests at the confirmation dinner. On the far left is David, Marcus Hoelscher and Bill Schroeder, with a family friend from Ventura seated at the table. That is me standing in the center holding the champagne toast we were enjoying. To my right is my friend and co-worker at the newspaper, Louise Smith Hoelscher. Next is my son Dave, and a few other guests I can't recognize in this shot.

In this poor quality photo, family friend Tillie Hinrichs from Ventura, Iowa, and David's mother, Ann Rueber from Cedar Falls, Iowa, are pictured with Alitza before the confirmation dinner.

Here is Alitza with her sponsors, Bill and Lois Timmermann. Lois is David's sister.

This shot is of David's mother, Ann Rueber, starting to wash dishes after the dinner. It was nice to have so many people to help with that dinner!

And, there I am, peeking out from behind the refrigerator, looking rather 'pensive and serious,' beginning the clean up after the confirmation dinner was over.

And, here are my two co-workers (from the newspaper), and the minister's wife helping me get the dishes done after the confirmation dinner. On the left is Louise Smith Hoelscher, center is Twila Schroeder, and on the right is the minister's wife, Ruth Perkins. Ruth also was one of Alitza's baby sitters when she was small.

Here is Alitza with her three cousins who came from Sibley, Iowa to attend her confirmation. Alitza is on the left, with Scott, Craig and Donald Timmermann, left to right, next to her. 

In 1994, at the age of 16, Alitza and I took advantage of a couple of 'glamor shot' photos when a photographer came to Kanawha and set up at the community room to take this kind of photo. As you can see from this picture, our little girl was growing up!

Here is the photo we had taken together. It became one of my favorite photos of the two of us.

In this rather funny shot, Alitza is trying out a 'new style.' She is standing in my mother's hallway of her apartment. Behind her on the wall are the photos of me and my four sisters that my mom always had hanging somewhere in her home. My photo is to the right of Alitza...that was my high school 'glamor shot,' I guess!

This weird photo of Alitza was taken when my Cedar Rapids family got together at the home of my sister Merry after she and her husband Bob had purchased a really nice motor home. Alitza is trying out the bed in the motor home's bedroom which was pretty cushy for a travel vehicle!

My brother-in-law, George Thiher, pats Alitza on the head as she jests while sitting on top of the fancy toilet in the motor home...all brass and glass, that place was!

The kitchen in the motor home was not too shabby either! Alitza checks out the cabinets...

In this photo, Alitza had invited a young man she had met at speech contest to attend her junior prom with her. His name was Jeremy, and he was from Spirit Lake. In this shot, they are posing by our front door before they left to go to the prom.

Next, Alitza was invited to attend Jeremy's prom at Spirit Lake. I took her up there, and we stayed at a nearby motel so she could go to the prom with him. I think they had a good time, but that was the end of their relationship. Just not meant to be a couple...

As it was approaching Alitza's senior year in high school, she needed a good photo to accompany her applications for college, and this is the one we chose.

 

For her own senior prom, Alitza and her friend Katie Tveiten went together. Neither of them had a particular special friend at that time, so they attended their prom without dates. Alitza is actually wearing the dress I wore when her dad and I were married in 1975. Still looks pretty good, but by this time I was no longer able to get into it!

Below are Alitza's senior photos. There were quite a few of them, but it was really hard to pick from them, so I got a bunch! She was pretty photogenic!

 

 

This one ended up being the one she used for most purposes.

This is the newspaper article about Alitza's naming as a 'commended student' in the 1996 National Merit Scholarship Program. We were pretty proud of her, you can be sure!

In the fall of 1996, Alitza entered Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as a freshman. She had been awarded a scholarship that paid half of her fees, and began her life away from home.

In the next post, I will get back to my mother's life. She was having 'milestone' birthdays as she neared 100, and we had several special parties toward the end of her long life.

Come on back, and follow the stories of my family...