This month has been a quieter one than June was. It was still busy however. We began the month with the 4th of July parade downtown. Last year when we watched we thought it was a little odd to have so many people packed into such a tight area (I swear there are like 200 people around that fountain), but this year we were more prepared for what awaited us. We even saw people we knew in the parade. That was really nice because that’s one of the things we really miss from home, seeing people around town that we know. After the parade we stayed for the concert until it got weird (they were telling the Farmer in the Dell) and then we decided to leave. The weather was sure nice though. We would have liked to go swimming, but didn’t get the chance until the following week I think. That was soon enough because we were there for a couple hours and got really burned, except Megan who for whatever reason never burns. We tease her and tell her that means she can’t be our daughter, but we all know that’s not true. She’s DEFINITELY ours. So, surprise on us, you can be sunburned at 75 degrees when it’s cloudy. Nice. After we were mostly healed from our sunburns, we got ready for youth conference.
We left for youth conference on the 14th and came home on the 16th. We went to St. Joseph for those three days. We had lots of fun at the youth conference. The youth played games, went to workshops, had a testimony meeting, a four-hour dance, stayed up late partying (so-to-speak) and also spent several hours at the YMCA. I think everyone had a great time. We had speakers like the stake patriarch, the Stake Presidency, the stake Young Women’s presidency, Bro. Millett from BYU, and then a few more couples. The topics included dating, more dating, manners, patriarchal blessings importance in our lives, who we are, why we are important, and more dating. They also had a couple come and show us the basic steps for the fox trot. I have at least three left feet, so I didn’t do well there. It was odd to have Andrew at the conference, but to be staying at separate houses (everyone stayed at member homes in the area). Overall though, I had a really amazing time. At the end of the conference they announced that next year we are going to Nauvoo. I can’t wait for that! I hope that we’ll all get to go and do baptisms while we are there and see the pageant and other things that I didn’t get to do when we stopped there for several days on our journey to MI from AZ. It was just simply a fabulous place to be and I hope we’ll get to experience that again. I know the youth are all excited about it. I guess they went to Kirtland a few years ago-how cool!
This week is Scout Camp, Andrew just went up for the weekend and got home a few hours ago now. He had a good time from what I can tell. They had some general authorities come and speak to them, but he hasn’t told me what they said, he is still processing the notes he took I guess.
This month I got a ton of pictures on a thumb drive from my brother who had digitized my Dad’s slides. It was so fun to sit and look through all the pictures. I haven’t seen some in ages and others I’m not sure I ever saw. The really special ones were the ones taken of the kids when we were younger. There weren’t really a lot of them, but it was still neat to see. I guess now I have to figure out how to put them into a format I can use more often. We have so many pictures that I’d like to digitize and then turn my TV into a giant photo frame when we aren’t watching other things. That would be beyond cool, but I’ll probably settle for something much smaller when it comes right down to it.
This month the Beehives and Laurels got new class presidents. It will be exciting to see how they respond to their new callings. I’m very happy to see that they are serious about doing things. They all have plans for how they can help the girls in their classes, Mia Maids included.
Well, an update for you on Andrew’s job hunt. He was formally accepted into the training program at Prudential. He will start training on August 15th I think it was. He will be training for about two months I guess and then he will graduate and start making sales, hopefully very quickly, and then will get paid. It’s looking like around the end of October before he starts getting paid. He is also going to work on learning to weld. This will be done at Kellogg Community College and then he will try to get a job at Teneco. We are hoping that this will allow for income while he gets things moving at Prudential. If he doesn’t get on there, at least he will have learned basic welding and that might come in very handy. They have a lot of different courses he can take and he can become a “master welder” supposedly from the program. I guess he’ll take those classes until he is unable to any longer or feels he has learned enough. Of course, then he is going to want the equipment for welding but that’s going to be waiting awhile. I’m excited that he will hopefully be able to make us a nice new bbq grill when it’s all said and done. We had a great one that fell apart and we’ve not liked any since then. His brother, Matthew, had given it to us for I think a wedding gift. Man I miss that little grill.
We got the papers in the mail for Megan’s school to begin. She’s in 8th grade this year. My word how the time has flown by. I can’t believe that in just one year she will be in high school already! I don’t know if I’m ready for that or not. She is just growing up too fast. I think I’ve got her to the edge of knowing how to cook, one of her least favorite activities actually. Today she got upset with me about it actually when I told her she was going to make something. She is annoyed that we keep making the same things over and over again. I told her that’s because they are the easiest and it’s also because that’s what we eat, over and over again. Tomorrow she will be making something else, hopefully without the drama.
Our small chickens have begun to produce and I guess I shouldn’t call them small chickens anymore since they are full-sized. The trouble is that when they first begin to lay, they lay smaller eggs. We have over 5-dozen small eggs and some are even too small to be small (they are sized by weight). Andrew is going to make French Toast and that will use up a lot of them. Too bad I don’t like egg salad. I think we might give some to the missionaries when they come tomorrow night for dinner. They like the fresh eggs too and we don’t get many people who want to buy the smaller eggs.
With not too much going on I’ve been reading a bunch of books the last several weeks. I read Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River of Secrets, and Forest Born all by Shannon Hale, then I read Peter and the Starcatchers and Peter and the Shadow Thieves, now I’m waiting for the library to get the other two books in to finish that series. I also read Leviathan and Behemoth and am waiting for the last book in the Trilogy. Finally I’m starting Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and I can’t remember the last one. I have really had a lot of time to read for fun and I’m trying to make the most of it. Sadly, my house reflects that so today I spent the majority of the day putting it back in order and cleaning it all back up. Andrew is so patient about it; he didn’t even mention me neglecting my house cleaning. What a great guy! I’m sure he was glad to have it looking nice again when he got home though.
I guess that’s it for the month. Next month will be slow and I’m glad. September Megan will be starting school at the beginning of the month and I will be joining the end of that month. I hope to do well again in my studies and have recently been thinking I might add another class so that I can make up for not attending summer school. We’ll see. I have to decide soon though or all the classes I want to take will be gone.
