Zoo

I took some kids to the zoo before school started.  Cheyanne and Dravin’s mom is a nurse and dad is a stay at home dad  who wasn’t feeling well so I took them. Mom and dad are getting baptized on Saturday. Some lions were unusually close to the fence.  I growled at the one on the far right and he gave me a huge growl back.  We screamed and jumped! 

Watermelon

We drove to and  from Oxford Mississippi helping Frances and Marc get settled in their home.  On the way home we stopped for gas and found a huge watermelon stand. $5 each.  We took a screw driver and chiseled a hole on top  and used spoons to spoon out the deliciousness.  We bought 3, ate 1/2 of the big one in the truck, gave one away to the O’Connors, and weighed the smaller one at 48lbs we shared with our workers.

Help?

 Rachael's one day old baby.  #6.  5th boy! 9lbs 11 oz. No name yet.

Come Home to Kanesville

My friend Angie was in the Winter Quarters Musical a few years ago and I told her Ethan would really love to do this.  He is my grandson and 10 years old… a real ham.  He likes to memorize poems and perform in front of audiences.  I tried to talk Rachael into auditioning but little did I know, she was pregnant and due in Aug.  I decided to be in it with him in the ensemble… back ground.  I went with him to auditions and he got the part out of 8.  I also got a part with singing in it and lines!
We are double cast so I  go on every other night, mostly with Ethan.  It is a pioneer story about 2 families who lived in the area before heading out west with the other pioneers in the late 1840’s.
We started practicing on July 5th and had the script and a sound track.  We only had 10 rehearsals so we had to have everything memorized by the 5th.  Then rehearsal was from 6-10 or 11PM with every minute being used with 5 assistant directors and coaches.  Intense.
Two and a half weeks of shows, 17 total and we are to our last week.  Wow what a mind blast!  The show has mostly young adults in it.  I am a mother to 3 and have struggles and trials as a family.  I sing parts (by myself- scary? yesssss.  Ethan is in the other family and has some show stopping lines.  he is great and knows how to follow directions.  I am so  proud of him.  Because of the late schedules we are keeping (home at 11:30PM last night) Ethan is sleeping over at my house and we bonded.   Kay is out of town fishing in Alaska and was able to see our first show.  Because it is the final season we are having a DVD made so that is what we are gearing up to on Saturday.  
Rachael’s kids have been able to see it a couple times and loved it.  Isaac (2) was mesmerized by the dancing. I also volunteered to help feed the cast dinner which puts me busy all day cooking.  It has been a fun month.  My parents drove out from Utah to see  me perform 3 times and Lauren, my daughter came with cousin Mitch and Even my brother Jamon made it on his cross country trek.  Thanks!     

Aspen Grove Family Camp fishing

 

Car help

  Kay was working on a car and had two guys (residents) ask if they could help.  They went and got their tools and started taking the car apart!

New friends from Saudi Arabia

 
 I met some women visiting for a few months from Saudi Arabia.  They have been exercising at Curves and I see them about 1 time a week.  They have been taking English lessons so are getting better and better at speaking English.   They will be going home next month and I asked them if they had been in an American home.  They said no, so we arranged for a lunch.  They brought their brother who has been attending Creighton and is their driver and translator.   When we saw the wonderful food they brought, we stopped making some of ours and had a nice lunch, visit and tour of the house and yard area.  They were very kind and we learned about Mohammed and Muslem beliefs and they learned a bit about Mormons.  I had them go to Mormon.org to get an overview.  Maybe we will visit Saudi Arabia some day….. you never know.