The Four Seasons

To everything there is a season,

a time for every purpose under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Arts Express

For the past three days I've been in attendance at "Arts Express", a BYU-sponsored conference for elementary teachers of the arts. It is held every summer, this is my second year and I've loved it both times. It is basically a series of workshops to give teachers usable ideas on how to teach drama, art, dance and music in the elementary classroom. Oh, it is amazing. The presenters are all outstanding. We started the conference with a keynote speaker, Gary Lee Price, an internationally renowned sculptor. His work is inspiring. He talked to us about his love for the arts and how important it is to teach children to express themselves through art. With so many music and art programs being cut from the schools these days, it is an important and timely message.

We then broke out into smaller groups, I had signed up for a three day class entitled "Exploring the Blues", presented by Susan Kenney. Incidentally, I took a music education class from her at BYU nearly 20 years ago and loved it, she is still just as dynamic as she was back then. In the class we learned to use ukeleles, guitars, autoharps and percussion instruments to teach blues and jazz to upper elementary aged children. I can't even express how fun it was, and how excited I am to put everything I learned to use.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Last Monday afternoon we went to another temple open house...the Oquirrh Mountain temple in South Jordan. Gorgeous! Stunning! We all loved taking the tour, and going out to lunch afterwards.

A bolt of lightning had struck the angel Moroni statue the day before we went. It scorched Moroni's trumpet, arm and face. If you zoom in on the picture you can see the black trumpet.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

This has been the rainiest June I can ever remember. I swear it has rained nearly every day this month, and more is expected today. Multiple activities have been moved indoors or cancelled. Softball and soccer games and practices have been rained out, rain delayed, or played in the puddles and mud. This week I've been worrying about my son and his scout troop on an adventure at Flaming Gorge, hiking and waterskiing between downpours...or more likely in spite of them.

However, on the flip side...my lawn is glorious and my garden is flourishing...

... and I've nabbed some great rainbow pics!

So Far This Summer

It's official...Rachel can drive. She got her license last week, and today we signed the papers to get her insured. Scary stuff! May the Lord bless us all. (She's so proud.)

In other "Rachel news", she was at girls' camp the first week of June and had such a fun time. She was asked to be a YCL--Youth Camp Leader--which means she helped the stake leaders with activities, songs and skits. She loved it. She is also actively seeking a summer job...she's filled out multiple applications and had her first job interview yesterday. Stay tuned...

Stefanie has a love/hate relationship with softball. She loves her coaches and the girls on her team, and she really likes going to practice. But when it comes to the actual games she gets so scared and worried that she nearly gets sick to her stomach. Every game. The irony about it is that she's really a good little softball player. At yesterday's tournament game she had the best hit on her team...the ball went past second base, she made it easily to first base and brought two runners in. Yet, she said on the way home that she didn't think she wanted to play in the rest of the tournament. Silly girl!

Braden has had a crazy month. All this week he's been at a UVU basketball camp with his middle school team. I've taken him to the school at 7:00 a.m., they carpool to UVU where they've played up to six games each day, and arrived home exhausted at about 10:30 each night. He's loved every minute, including eating at Golden Corral (an all-you-can-eat buffet) twice each day. Next week he's going with the Young Men group in our ward on a "high adventure" scout activity to Flaming Gorge. He's excited to go waterskiing and wake boarding all day long for four days. Then the week after that he's going with his Dad's basketball team to St. George for a 5-day camp. Kent will actually put him on a team this year for the first time. They'll get home on Friday afternoon and leave minutes later for a "Fathers & Sons" overnight campout with the ward. And that wraps up June for him. I don't think he could get any busier.

And now an update on Kent, my poor husband. He has been sicker than I've ever seen him. Ever! For six days last week he did nothing but lay around and moan. It came on very quick. Friday was his last day of school, he was fine when he left, but at lunchtime he called to say he felt awful. He came home early and could barely drive home. He staggered to bed and didn't move much for the next six days. Here were his symptoms...

* high fever

*head ache

*body aches

*chills

*extreme fatigue

*sore throat

*severe cough

*no appetite whatsoever

*other "digestive issues"

Does any of this sound familiar?? If you've watched the news in the last month, you know that those are the symptoms of SWINE FLU! Last week there were four confirmed cases at Copper Hills High School. I tried to convince him to let me take him to the doctor but he's a tough guy and didn't want to hear about it. But I know that's what it was. He's much better now, although not quite 100%. Now I can only pray that nobody else in the family will come down with it. I've been a tyrant about hand washing. I've sanitized every surface in this house over and over. I've done loads and loads of laundry...so far so good. Please, everyone cross all your fingers and toes for us!

Signs of Summer

*Bicycles, rollerblades, skateboards and ripsticks scattered across the front yard.

*Colorful chalk artwork covering the driveway and sidewalks.

*Softball games.

*Late bedtimes and sleeping in.

*The sounds of neighbor kids shouting, laughing, playing.

*Eating breakfast out on our new deck.

*Bee sting ointment readily available. (Stefanie got the first one yesterday.)

*Cottonwood trees shedding their cotton until it looks like it's snowing.

*Horses grazing in the fields surrounding our back yard.

*The sound of irrigation sprinklers all night long in the farmer's fields.

*Cheers and shouts from the soccer games being played in the park down the street.

*Lots of itchy mosquito bites and the smell of bug spray.

*Soccer, baseball and basketball tournaments.

*New tricks on the trampoline.

*Garden tools, hoses and grass clippings scattered over the lawn.

*The roar of the lawnmower.

*Beautiful tan skin (on everyone in the family but me!)

*Dirt under my fingernails.
*Wet swimsuits and towels everywhere.

*The increased use of bandaids for cuts and scrapes.

*Music heard through the neighborhood coming from the ice cream truck.

*Backyard barbeques, hotdog roasts and s'mores.

WE LOVE SUMMER!!!