Happenings 4/28 - 6/08

April 28-May 2:
This seemed like a wild week, and it had its definite mix of up and downs.The biggest thing was the disappearance of J.B., our cat, who since we've been in Murray has barely ventured beyond our patio. On Tuesday night, a bunch of people came over to say goodbye to Jessica, and J.B. had been outside earlier and must have not gotten in on time and then was scared. Well, she never came in that night, and we were very worried because of the coyotes in our "back forty." We worried all night, and then worried all the next day as well, and I spent a lot of time in the back looking for her or for signs of a struggle among the wild blackberries and briars behind our house. ( I went around the neighborhood asking all the neighbors if they had seen her and even made up "LOST CAT" posters to start hanging up around.) Thursday morning was especially hard because hope was diminishing -- our J.B. was not very brave and had no front claws. (I was positive she was a coyote meal.) So I was feeling sad as I ate my breakfast, and J.J. had just brought the girls down from upstairs, when we heard a meow in our garage -- we had left the garage door open just a bit in hope -- and J.J. and I looked at each other, then I jumped up and opened the door and there she was, fine as ever. So we were very glad that she came back and had survived her adventure. (Who knows what happened for those two days, but she was very tired and slept for almost 2 days straight - even more than kitties usually do. I told Paul I am dying to be able to talk to her and find out what kind of adventures she had.)

During this same time period, another interesting thing happened. Tuesday afternoon I was working on some things in my office grading final freshman papers so that I could hand them back the next day, and there was a little power surge with the lights. Just a short time later, all the lights went dim, but my computer was still on. The fire alarm went off, and I quickly
turned off the computer, and then joined everyone else in evacuating the building. We waited outside for awhile, and then I eventually just went home because it wasn't looking promising. Turns out there was a small fire in one transformer room, causing some smoke and taking out power for some of the floors of our 7-floor building. I hadn't quite finished grading papers, and
had left them in the office. Later that evening, I got an e-mail that the building would be closed the next day, so I wouldn't be able to have the one class that I had on Wednesdays, that was actually supposed to be the last class of the semester. I called our babysitter and told her that she wouldn't have to watch the girls on Wednesday because I would be there all day with no office to go to. So I took the girls to storytime, and we did some things around the house, including look for J.B. while Rachel was sleeping. The word on the repairs that evening was no change, so my plan to spend Thursday morning playing golf worked out even better. (Isn't that wonderful. How come I never have things like this happen to make my plans to get a pedicure or something work out better - or at all!) I played the first nine by myself, and the second nine was joined by a musician who toured with Hank Williams, Jr. -- who lives in Paris, 20 miles from Murray-- and lives on the lake and plays golf whenever he is in town. He was an
interesting guy. It was a fun round, and my building opened in the afternoon, so I was able to go and finish grading and get everything ready to meet my students on Friday. The power was on on about half the floors only, but our 7th floor was fine. It was interesting to have a forced day
off like that, because even on days where I don't have a lot of classes or nothing is pressing, there is always something that I could work on at my office.

Jessica flew out for Utah on Wednesday, giving pause to that interesting chapter. We grew close to her, she was calling us Mom and Dad while she stayed with us. She will likely stay with us when she comes back, and we will see her when we visit Utah later and being a typical cell-phone-using college student, she may call a lot. (It was pretty crazy becoming "mom" to a teenager! But we sure enjoyed having her around the house, even with things such as flooding part of the kitchen by putting dish soap in the dishwasher. It sure made me laugh because I did the same thing when I was in college. Claire was especially sad since her live-in playmate was now gone. She did take over sleeping in Jessica's bed pretty quickly though.)

Friday we had the Eubanks over in the evening to have dinner and play Rook, and that was a lot of fun. It is fun to play Rook again, and it was fun to play. We played with our spouses this time, and everyone did fine except that nobody is really too brave with their bids. (I am getting tired of playing partner games because I always seem to be losing and I feel bad that the other person is losing also. That is why I insisted we play with spouses this time - I don't care if Paul loses too. My competitive edge playing cards just isn't there anymore, I guess I just get to busy visiting and distracted to worry to much about it. Their three boys came over again and Claire had a great time playing with them. Rachel was in bed by the time they got there.)

Saturday was a busy day. In the morning I built a small fence around our garden to keep the rabbits out with some small posts and chicken wire. It's nothing fancy, but it should work. It was the last music class for Claire, and I wanted to do several things outside because it was the last weekend day before we left for Utah. But it was also stake conference weekend, and I
had to go to Priesthood Leadership meeting at 3:00, and then J.J. was speaking at the adult meeting at 6:00. So we arranged for me to drive up and then J.J. came up with Trevor and Shara, and they met me after my meeting and I took the girls home to get them to bed while J.J. went to the other meeting and spoke. I missed her talk, but it was better to trade off on
meetings and get the girls to bed at a decent time, since the stake center is an hour away. (He sure missed out on the talk. It was on selfishness in marriage. They must have known that I am an expert since I have been married to Paul for 8 years. :) It actually wasn't too bad speaking. The chapel was full, but it is a fairly small chapel and unlike our stake conferences in Flagstaff, the overflow and part of the gym was not full and it was just the adult session. So I survived.)

Sunday we went back to the stake center for the general session, and it was good -- all that we heard. (For me that was not much at all. I spent almost the entire time sitting in an empty room with Claire in a corner or screaming or following Rachel around the halls. I guess Paul's experience was pretty similar.) Perhaps the good night's rest for the girls wasn't great after all because Claire was a pill and Rachel just wouldn't sit still, and since she started walking the week before, she had to practice a lot. So both J.J. and I were up a lot with the girls. The
missionaries came over for dinner that evening, and as usual, all the kids were out in our neighborhood so we ended up having Katey over for dinner, and then invited her mom over for dessert. That turned out to be a good thing because she got to meet the missionaries again and really talk to them, at least while Claire and Katey weren't chasing around Elder Gray.
Elder Gray knew he was being transferred in two days, and he has been here for 7 months, so we have gotten to know him well. While the Elders were over, they told us about the reaction of Mentos in diet soda, so they said they would get some mentos and diet soda and bring it over the next evening. Bridget and Katey were invited over the next night as well, and everyone
showed up. The Elders brought lots of supplies and we each took a turn dumping a pack of Mentos into a 2-liter soda bottle and the soda would instantly shoot into the air. It was fun, and the weather being perfect in the evening, we all visited for awhile longer. Bridgit said she would come to church with us when we got back from our trip, which was great, in large part because she was impressed with the Elders as she spoke with them about what they do. (I am sure Elder Gray impressed her with the raccoon hide he had just gotten and was pretending that it was biting his foot off and hand off. I''m not sure I would be sticking my arm inside that thing, but her was sure it was "cured". Bridget just let him know of all the diseases he could get. Anyway, the Elders were pretty excited to take it to transfers the next day and show it off to all the other missionaries.)

May 5- May 11:

The business with Faculty Hall's power in the last week of classes was kind of weird, and it kind of delayed some of my final grading until Tuesday because I had to stay home on Monday since Sarah our babysitter had finals on Monday. So Tuesday was a big day to get lots done for me. But on Monday I did have to enlist some help from Erin Eubanks to watch the girls for a couple of hours so I could go to a committee meeting to talk about choosing a book for incoming freshmen to read in the summer of 2009. But other than that, I was home with the girls, and then when J.J. came home, we had our fun time with the missionaries and neighbors.

Tuesday I some of the final grading and attended a luncheon with the university president and provost and the other new tenure-track faculty from this year -- about 10 of us. It was a nice lunch and the president was upfront about Kentucky's budget shortfall and hoped that we wouldn't let that drive us away from Murray State. The gist of the situation is a very small one-time bonus rather than a raise this year and no merit pay, but no faculty lines would be cut among other things being cut because of the budget shortfall. I like how the president and provost are protective of the faculty, even fighting the Board of Regents to do so. Wednesday I attended a luncheon with our college dean along with a smaller group of our college's new faculty, and the themes at that discussion were along the same lines only more specific about things. With all of the budget stuff, there seemed to be a lot of bad news, but people who have been there awhile say that this has happened before, so hopefully there will be good cycles in the near future. (I don't remember what the girls and I did, but I am sure it was very exciting and the conversations were stimulating.)

Tuesday evening we went as a family to the Murray State women's society family picnic, which was held at the president's back yard. The women's society was started this year by a good friend of J.J.'s who was the wife of one of the new faculty, and the president and his wife were very supportive of it. It was a nice picnic, and I was fortunate to sit next to the provost's wife, and later the president ended up sitting nearby and he and I spoke at length about various things, long enough for him to know who I am and about things that are meaningful. J.J. graciously chased kids around while I was talking, but she was also honored by the whole group for her work with the book club section of the society. So there was a lot of rubbing elbows with the administration on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wednesday Sarah watched the girls and I finished all of my grades and did everything I needed to do before we left for Oregon and Utah the next day. Sarah was sad to say goodbye to the girls -- she is graduating and moving away and she did a great job. She had actually done us a big favor that day by taking the girls to Paris to pick up our Wal-Mart family photos, and even
blocking the Wal-Mart photo worker's attempt to get us to buy more poses. Later that evening I planted corn, carrots, and squash in our garden with the help of Claire and Katey, and then mowed the lawn. Our peas and beans are coming up, and all the tomatoes are doing fine. I only hope that the weeds don't overtake everything while we are gone. Trevor, who is mowing the
lawn while we are gone, said he would try to prevent too many weeds, but I don't want him to work too hard with that. (I worked.) Both J.J. and I were up late getting ready.

Thursday we packed up and were able to leave the house by 9:00 am. Our goal was to make it to the west side of Kansas City. We drove a little different way to St. Louis, going northwest through Cairo, IL and then up to I-70 from there. We saw some neat things on the backroads before catching I-55 to St. Louis. We ate supper on the east side of Kansas City, and then drove to Topeka, where we stopped at a campground that was on a lake but also very close to regular neighborhoods. With this trip, we prepared to camp each night and to eat breakfast and lunch out of a box and cooler in the car. The weather was nice when we stopped in Topeka, and the campground had a playground that kept Claire busy for awhile after I set up the tent. But it
rained hard all night and was windy, which woke us up quite a bit, but we made it through. The tent was wet when we put it up, but no matter when we would open it again the next night.

So on Friday we thought we could make it to Denver, and that was easy, getting there at 5:00. We started to caluculate a little more and decided that we needed to go farther if we were to make to Klamath Falls by Sunday evening. So after we ate supper, we headed into the mountains hoping to make it to Glenwood Springs where it would likely be warm enough to camp. As we drove through the mountains, it was snowing, and that turned to heavy rain
once we were down a little. It was close to 10:00 when we got to Glenwood, and it was raining and the campground we stopped at was $39. So we decided to go on since the girls were asleep anyway. We made it Grand Junction, and ended up staying at a place in Fruita, setting up our tent at midnight. It had stopped raining, but our inflator for our air mattresses didn't work
with our power inverter in our car, so we slept on gravel that night. (One of my least favorite nights. A little chilly, some rain, late, and sleeping on gravel. I was ready for a hotel already.)

We were able to sleep in some (Not much since we were lying with little pebbles digging into our bodies.) and take our time Saturday morning having gone so far, but we were still off for Provo around 9:00. We got there around lunchtime and stopped in Orem to see Jessica's apartment and take her to lunch at Training Table (A must stop for us every time we are in Provo. I'm not sure Jessica understood the magnitude of our love for Training Table, nor latched onto it either.), as well as help her make a list of things she needed to do in the next few weeks. (We also discovered the low windows in her apartment with no screens by stopping Claire just as she was going to fall out - twice!) She lives on the other side of I-15 from UVSC. After doing all that we headed for Nevada, and we made it to Wells, where we found a nice little campground. It didn't rain, and we were able to inflate our air mattresses, but it got cold that night. We had put our sleeping bags together and also put blankets over us, and Rachel was bundled up like she was playing in the snow, but it was sitll a little cold. (There isn't quite room for 4 of us in the sleeping bags and trying to make sure Rachel wasn't squished and Claire was covered up, and with the spotlight in my face all night, this made for another not so favorite night.) I was okay, but J.J. got cold. To top it off, the campground had a street lamp near our site that shined right through the window in the top of our tent onto J.J.'s face. Needless to say, she didn't sleep that well.

Sunday morning we were up early and off to Klamath Falls, and we made it around 4:30 pm, just in time for dinner with J.J.'s family. (They had a nice Mother's Day dinner all ready when we got there. It was sure yummy and we didn't even have to make anything. :) Claire was very excited to see her cousins and they got along as if they see each other every day. They had a blast!) We were glad to have a home-cooked meal and to sleep in a bed that night. The camping thing is adventurous, but it is worth it because of all the money that is saved. (I guess I can do with a little less sleep and comfort to be able to make these trips. And, the adventures are pretty fun.)


May 12-May 18:

For me, our time in Klamath Falls meant a few rounds of golf with Ken -- we played at Shield Crest, Running Y, and Stone Ridge -- in Medford. It was fun to play. We played Stone Ridge early Saturday morning (May 17) before going to the district track meet to watch Rob's high school team. It was really hot that day, especially baking on the track, so when we got there, J.J. was about ready to leave with the girls because they were so hot. (Cornelea and I brought the girls to the track meet. If it were just me, I could have sat in the shade or wandered around for awhile watching, but with four little girls and one little boy, who were hot and didn't want to stay in one place in the shade, it wasn't that fun. I was sad that we didn't get to stay and watch the meet, but it wasn't worth chasing Rachel around trying to keep her off the track or listening to unhappy little girls. So, we drove to Ashland -after dropping off Rachel and Tilly at Cornelea's brothers apartment to take naps,- to the children's museum only to find out that it was closed that day. We stopped in Medford at Target so Cornelea could pick up a few things and then back home. Nothing worked out quite the way we planned, but it was fun to go with Corn and visit with her while driving.) I stayed and watched until the end, following Rob and assistant coach Nicolette around watching -- they, or he, can't seem to stay still. Occasionally I stopped to watch an event like the javelin or high jump or listen while Ken caught up with some of his old friends from his days of coaching high school. Ken and I drove back home and arrived before J.J. and the girls, who had spent some time in Medford.

Since we were in K. Falls while school was still in session, we were the only ones on vacation, so we had some relaxing time on our own around the house in the mornings and then things picked up when Millie got home from school and she and Claire played to exhaustion. Rachel
kept improving on her walking, and was glad to not have to ride in the car after 4 days in a row. We had some nice visits with Grandpa Bob, and Kari and I went out for sushi one night before we left. We also had a nice dinner and evening with Brian and Gretchen Charlton and their girls. It was nice to hang out with all of the family and spend time there. (We all had a great time. We had fun just visiting in the evenings and watching the girls play. Grammy and Poppa enjoyed it too, even with crackers, water, etc in their bed. :) Millie and Claire are just two peas in a pod. Nico has to keep track of everything and helps us all out and Rachel and Isa just try to keep getting the girls to let them play. And Tilly man, he just hangs out looking cute.)

May 19-May 26

On Monday the 19th, we packed up the car and enjoyed some time with all of the family before leaving early on Tuesday morning for Salt Lake via Wendover, NV. It had turned kind of cold again there, and the forecast for Utah was for cool weather as well. We made it to Wendover
around 6:00 in the evening, ate dinner, and set up our tent at a KOA. Claire played at the playground at the campground and about the time we were settling in for bed, a huge windstorm came up. Rachel was already asleep, but shortly after we were all in the tent, the wind woke her up. We didn't foresee any sleep that night, with the noise -- Claire was plugging her ears -- and I was worried about our tent holding up. It was a really powerful wind. Well, we decided we would try to sleep in the car, and then decided we might as well just drive the two hours to Kaysville, and that's what we did -- Mom and Dad and Julia and the kids were nice enough to let us arrive at 1 am, but at least we were able to get some sleep.

Wednesday we hung around Kaysville visiting with Steven, who was going into the MTC the next week, and the family there, who were also all in school still. Thursday Mom and Dad went with us to Temple Square, which was fun for Claire seeing the Tabernacle and the Church History Museum, which had a children's section with lots of baby dolls, changing tables and clothes. She had a ball there, and had me teach primary class to all of them after getting them ready for church. (She was in heaven. She dressed all the babies, with some help since there were about a dozen, and got them all ready for "church", where Claire conducted, I said the prayer, Paul gave a talk and we sang. We then had to get them all back in their jammies before leaving. They had little changing tables, all Claire's size, along with a doctor's station and everything. Claire could have spent hours there.) We had lunch at the Lion House, which was good food but Rachel was a pill throughout. (I'm not quite sure how the food was since I had to inhale it so I could get Rachel out of there.) That night Russell arrived home from a business trip in Texas so we were able to visit with him.

Friday morning Dad and I drove to Provo where we met up with Gordon and then I rode with Gordon to Richfield where we met Deloy and played golf at Richfield's course. Because of the cold weather, Dad recommended getting hotel rooms that night, so that's what we did, and
when J.J., Mom and the girls arrived, they were happy. (to say the least!! Good decision Mel!) They had stopped at Provo to visit with Jessica on the way. She was at her job at Wal-mart, but we did get to have lunch with her at a nearby Arby's. It is always fun to visit with her and Claire loved seeing her again.) Golf was fun, though all of us were up and down throughout the round, but the wind settled down somewhat while we were playing and it never rained too hard.

Saturday morning we headed to the campground after eating breakfast at JB's, where we met all of the Paskett-side of the family for a reunion over the Memorial Day weekend. The weather improved slightly as far as temperature, but both Saturday and Sunday made us unsure what to wear -- if the sun was out a T-shirt was fine, if it went behind a cloud, we needed a sweatshirt or heavier. (Sleeping the first night, we got very cold again, but thankfully Paul's cousin had a bunch of extra blankets the second night and even though it rained, I finally had a pleasant night sleeping in the tent.) We had fun hiking around Big Rock Candy Mountain, and although the campground wasn't the most convenient, it was fun for everyone to be there. Claire had a great time with all of the younger cousins, and Rachel tried, which made it hard to keep a handle on her. It didn't rain until Monday morning, but stopped when it was time to get up. We enjoyed hanging out, singing, and visiting with Mom's side of the family. On Sunday we went to
church in Marysvale, and could barely fit in because of all the vacationers. That afternoon, several of us cousins went for a walk and at one point Gordon and I led some of the teenagers and older up this rock. After stopping for awhile on one overhanging ledge, Gordon and I
went to go farther and he went one way and I went another and almost accidentally grabbed a small rattlesnake. I didn't see it until I heard and then saw it jump upside down and then right itself. I thought, "a snake!" and then looked at its tail and upon thinking, "a rattlesnake!" I jumped 10 feet backwards. Of course all of that happened in less than 3 seconds. It just stayed where it was and then it became something to show everyone, and when everyone had a look, we all headed back. We were in an isolated area where hikers don't usually go, so I didn't want to scare anymore snakes.
May 26-June1

Monday after breakfast we said goodbye to everyone, and then we caravaned with Mom and Dad on the scenic route through Capitol Reef and Hanksville, then down to Hite marina and throught Blanding to Monticello. We had lunch in Hanksville after forgetting the things we
had for sandwiches, (we almost drove right through the metropolis of Hanksville without even noticing until I said, "I think that was it" and we stopped at a hamburger joint and enjoyed some good lunch - I wasn't sad we forgot the sandwich fixins.) and stopped at Capitol Reef and an overlook near Hite. It was great scenery to look at when driving, and I wish I had two weeks and cool weather -- plus a snakebite kit-- to hike some of those canyons around there.

After the many days of travelling and being in different places between Klamath Falls and Monticello, it was nice to have a quiet time in Monticello and to sleep in a bed. Claire played with Salix, the neighbor girl who is almost her age, every day we were there, and I played 36 holes of golf with Dad and J.J. played 9 holes one day. We also went to Windwhistle to hike up the slickrock and into the hole, which was easier to get into than out of after I got into some mud inside the hole and couldn't seem to keep my foothold while trying to lift Rachel out with both hands. Luckily, she has some adept climbing skills at an early age and climbed right out to Grandpa's arms. (I was a worried mother the whole time taking Claire and Rachel on the hike on the rocks, but they were both champs and we all survived.) J.J. and I went to the temple on Wednesday night and it was a Navajo session. We chose to read the captions, and then they made us witness couple, which made it harder to read the captions sometimes. But it was a good experience. Steve Lovell, whom I had not seen for a long time since my scouting days, was one of the officiators but he didn't recognize me. I happened to see him the next day at the Merc and told him who I was and he remembered and we had a nice visit.

We packed up Friday morning to make a quick visit to Flagstaff before heading home. We said goodbye to Mom and Dad and then drove only four hours to Flagstaff. We stopped first at J.J.'s old office where we were invited to a pot luck lunch, and then visited with whomever was there. (It was sure fun to visit work and see all my friends. And it made me miss being there. While there, I got a phone call from a girl in the office where I work here in Murray saying that almost the whole office staff was let go that day. This is the third bunch to go through since I have been associated with them - about 6 months. It's crazy!) We then visited Debbie and Bruce Ostrander -- Debbie was Claire's babysitter for a year and a half, and we had a nice visit with them. We then went to Greg and Dionne Russell's house and had pizza with them and visited for awhile (we got to meet Bethanie - the baby they adopted - and she is adorable! She has the cutest cheeks and little cute knees. What a blessing to their house.) and then went to John and Lisa
Durham's house where we stayed the weekend. We had a leisurely morning at the Durham's house, and then visited the Buehner family, who are moving to Glens Falls, NY this summer, had lunch with them and then tried to visit our former next-door neighbors but they weren't home, so we returned to the Durham's house where we had a nice supper with them and Hillary Baker, who is Bull's MA and a good friend of J.J.'s. (It was so nice to just sit and visit with them. I sure miss them a lot! Claire had fun watching the "big boys" - Bull's twins who are 16 - and talking to them when she felt brave enough.) We went to church at the Walnut Canyon ward on Sunday, and enjoyed seeing so many of our friends there, and in the afternoon we let the girls nap at the Durham's and then had dinner with the Russells and Perkins. The Perkins were one of many people we know there who had a baby since we left but we didn't know. So they had a two-week-old baby there and it was nice to catch up with all of them. (Claire loved seeing the newborn baby. She just sat and looked at her for a long time and wanted to touch her soft skin - just like her aunt kari - and hold her.) We went back to the Durhams and visited with them by a campfire on their porch until around 10:30 and then we went to bed. They have two 16-year-old boys who were a hoot to visit with as well.

We left for home the next morning first thing, and we made it to Tucumcari, NM that night, where it was hot. We hardly used our sleeping bags that night and while setting up the tent, there was another little windstorm that actually did split one of our poles. I did first aid on it the next day before setting it up in Ft. Smith, AR after driving the hot road from New Mexico on I-40. (It was even hotter and more humid in Arkansas. The kind where you just sit still and sweat. I don't enjoy that much. Claire and I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in the bathroom there and there were thousands of teeny tiny little ones surrounding it everywhere. I went back later to use the bathroom again and the big spider was gone, but not the little ones and that made me even more nervous.) Even though we were tired of driving, we decided to take the scenic route on Wednesday through Arkansas, and headed north through the Ozarks, up many mountain/hills, over many creeks and rivers, with lots of neat vistas and sights. We stopped for lunch on the banks of the Buffalo River, and played in the water there, and then made our way back to Kentucky. (It was really pretty and it was fun to drive this way, but maybe not after a month of being on the road.) The problem with that route was that there were lots of roads but none of them headed to Murray. And even if they headed somewhat easterly, they were very curvy and slow driving. But we finally made to the border and across the Mississippi River and then into Kentucky and home. It was a long final day, but it was nice to see that area. (Two of the days driving home, Rachel wasn't feeling very good, so she slept most of the days,- not great that she was sick, but it made driving a little easier - but on that third day, she was just mad. She was tired of the car and seat and was just plain grumpy all day - who could blame her.) Of course, as our luck would have it, the nice weather we left here was gone as well, and it is now hot and humid, but we are so glad to be home. It was a great trip, and we had a ball, but home is always best.

June 2-June 8

We unloaded the car on Wednesday night, and on Thursday I went into work to catch up to a point where I could take another few days of being at home. Shara and Trevor came over Wednesday evening, and we caught up with them. They had watched over our house and Trevor had fed the cat and mowed our lawn, (and the good man changed kitty litter. They must think we are okay friends to do this. Shara being pregnant couldn't change the kitty litter poor thing. Trevor kept it so clean and nice, I think JB was sad to see us come home. We are not quite as diligent.) so we were very thankful to them. Friday J.J. worked all day and I hung out with the girls at home and we went to the library.

Saturday was a really busy day. I started early going for a run at 5:30 -- about the only time when it is bearable to go for more than 2 miles because the sun is not beating down. After running I washed both of our cars. Then I got some things at Lowe's, incuding an electric
hedge trimmer for J.J.'s Mother's Day gift (I have been wanting one for quite some time and was so excited to try it out and I did and I love it!) and a new grill for us for a Father's Day gift, I guess, and some things to hold our tomatoes up, which are looking good, as well as the rest of our garden after our trip. In the afternoon, I set up and cleaned out our tent, vacuumed and detailed both cars, and trimmed some branches from trees around the yard. I cooked some chicken on our new grill in the evening and they tasted pretty good, and then Alan Bakes, one of the counselors in the bishopric, came by to visit us after the kids were in bed. We weren't sure what it was about, but he explained that they had asked someone who was in a better situation to teach seminary this year, which was a relief. I was only a little disappointed as I had decided
that things would work out with it, but with all of the things going on this next year for me at work, I'm glad they found someone who is willing and has more time than I do. So I will remain ward clerk, which is fine.

Going back to our home ward on Sunday was nice, and it was nice to see everyone and to be back to normal. J.J. gave the closing prayer and nobody really heard it because as soon as Rachel heard her voice on the microphone, tried to go up there and when I restrained her, she
kept yelling loudly and madly. Everyone is amazed at her loud voice from her little body. (She just wants to make her needs and wants known and boy howdy does she. It is fun to be home, but now I realize how much I need to do for church and everything. I need a vacation! :)