Brag A Little . . .

I get to brag a little today.  McKaylie made the principle's list for this last grading period!  Whoo Hoo!  That means that she got straight A's with no A-'s.  I think that's pretty impressive.  She's been working hard to make this list.

McKaylie with her Award

  I'm super proud of her especially after I heard the stats for this.  There are 1500 kids in her middle school and only 41 kids made the principle's list.  That means that McKaylie's grades put her in the top 2.7% of the entire middle school!  That's something to brag about!!  Way to go McKaylie!

Changes

 Time gets away from me so easily.  I haven't been on here since they changed this whole format to post.  I'm not even sure when they did it.  Some things are easier, but the pictures were more of a hassle, I think.

So many changes going on in my life. It's been an interesting few months. My oldest daughter, Myshel, is married now and expecting a child of her own.  That's a pretty huge adjustment for us.  I can't say that being a grandmother already is something I'm ready for.  Just the idea of being called grandma seems foreign to me. 

It's interesting the different challenges we're given to help us grow. Some that you wouldn't think to be too difficult, are.  While others that would seem to be insurmountable, really aren't.  I'm grateful I haven't had to face them on my own.  I don't know where I'd be without prayer and answers to those prayers.

It's also been interesting to me how I've handled the changes/challenges of the last several months.  My reactions are not what I would have expected them to be . . . even a year ago.  I have no doubts that they came with the Lord's help as well.

So, in October/November our lives will all change again in a huge way.  Now I just need to figure out what I'll be called instead of grandma.

My Kiddos

 Here's my latest pics of my kids.  Don't worry, I'm working on getting copies out.

McKaylie 

 

Noah

Vance

Vance's isn't the best.  It was a little picture.  For some odd reason, I never get the notice that they're taking school pictures . . . teenage boys!

I don't have one of Myshel yet, either.

New Calling

About a month ago - just in time for my birthday - I was given a new calling at church. I'm the new primary president for the Salem ward. For those who might not know, the primary includes all the children ages 18 months - 12 years old. It's a large primary and we just had 3 new families move in this last week. They each have 3 children, so my primary just increased by 9 kids in less that a week. We have around 120 children on our rolls, I think.

Our primary and youth are also combined with a Spanish speaking branch in our stake. I think this (so far) is my biggest challenge. We don't have any records for some of those children. We don't know who some of the parents are and several speak very little English. It gets a little complicated some days. On the flip side of that, I love the song Nephi's Courage and I Am A Child of God in Spanish. The sweetest talk I've heard so far was by a little girl in our Sunbeams class. She gave her entire talk in Spanish. I understood very little of what she was saying but it still touched my heart and made me cry.

This calling keeps me really busy, but I'm enjoying it so far. Maybe someday I'll get to a point where I feel like I have a handle on things . . . I'm not sure if that point will come any time soon though. I have days I feel like I can handle everything and days when I feel like I'm in way over my head. I'm very grateful that I know the Lord doesn't give us anything to do that we can't handle and also that I feel his spirit helping me. I love serving in the primary and working with the children. I'm also really happy to get to be with McKaylie in her last few months of primary.

Raleigh, North Carolina Temple

We went to the Raleigh temple over the weekend. It was really nice to get away from things, even if just for a day and half. The temple was beautiful, even in the rain! I wish I could have weekends like this more often. Vance, Noah and McKaylie braving the rain for a picture.

Fishing on Shoshone River

Vance was determined to catch a fish in Wyoming. We made several trips without a lot of luck. The conditions were working against us because of a late runoff, but we had a good time trying. It was beautiful there and except for some wind (go figure--wind in Wyoming!!) the weather was great!

McKaylie, our little fishing-girl Vance--trying to be patient Myshel--our not so fishing girl Vance--still trying Noah--trying his luck Chad--showing them how it's done I love this picture of the 4 of themVance was very determined He was even willing to get wet All his hard work paid off in the end. On the last morning out he caught a nice fish! Yay!Just over 15 inchesHere it is, with my very proud boy, getting ready to go in the pan . . . . . Grandma Jo helped cook it for Vance. We all got a little taste, which was plenty of trout for me! I'm proud of Vance for hanging in there and not giving up! I'm also very glad he caught at least one fish!

Cody Nite Rodeo

Wow, this week has just slipped right by. I've have an interesting new job-I guess you could say- coming up, that seems to be taking up a lot of my thoughts and time, but I'll post about that a little later. I thought I'd go back to our Wyoming vacation for a little bit.

We had to take the kids to the Cody Nite Rodeo. I always liked going to see the rodeo when I was younger and knew the kids would enjoy it, too. We all had a really good time. The rodeo clown made it lots of fun.
Here he is before the rodeo started. McKaylie and Noah sat on bull before the rodeo. They were very brave~~even though the bull barely moved a muscle~~ha ha Here's a few other pictures that the kid's liked. These are of the kids waiting for the rodeo to start.
Myshel Vance McKaylie Noah

Miscellaneous For Today

I thought that for fun I'd just post some miscellaneous pictures today.

The dogs are always using the pillows on the couch as their own personal pillows (or beds). It doesn't matter if the kids are using them, too. That just makes it a little more cozy! Just call her our wolf-girl. She's into anything that has to do with wolves. The blanket she's wrapped up in has wolves on it, too. She got them both for Christmas. This is another Christmas present. It's Noah's. He is loving his legos and was so excited to get the Pirates of the Caribbean--Queen Ann set. McKaylie helped him put it together. It is pretty cool and even comes with little skeleton pirates! Chad and I went to the ship's Christmas party. (We totally went for the door prizes--came home with nada) We've decided we're much too old for that kind of scene--Truth is, we've never been much for that kind of scene! Chad's ship is the USS Ponce and it's nickname is the Proud Lion and it's colors are purple and gold. This was the ice sculpture they had that night. It was really cool and never melted, which I haven't figured out how yet. It's really not unusual to see Vanilla laying on the floor like this. If she wants attention, she'll paw at the air, too. It's quite comical and apparently, it's a corgi thing. Grandma Jo sent the kids their names in vinyl lettering for the rooms. McKaylie and Noah were nice enough to pose for pictures.

NoahMcKaylie Another Christmas gift was nerf dart guns. Vance, McKaylie and Noah all got one, with extra darts. I really think that Santa should have thought this through a little better, because the kids are always trying to sneak up and shoot someone, resulting in a dart war. Chad has been in on the wars, on many occasions and now has his own nerf gun, that shoots discs. So, I find little darts and discs ALL over my house . . . in my purse . . . on the bookshelves . . . in the dogs water bowl . . . everywhere!

Cody Gunfighters

Back to our summer vacation . . .

There's a small group that puts on a gunfight show every night throughout the summer, in front of the Irma Hotel -- they even have Buffalo Bill!! We felt like we needed to see the show again to get the whole "Cody" experience. It had been years and years since Chad and I had seen it.They saluted the military before the show-even had Chad come stand up front [he was the only active duty service member there that night (no picture---darn!) while everyone applauded his service--it was nice and really doesn't happen very often] This was a lot of fun, although, it was very loud. Noah loved watching the Cody Gunfighters. He insisted that we get all of their autographs on his poster and now his poster is hanging on his wall!

Mount Blue

Just before we moved from Maine, Vance and few of the scouts hiked to the top of Mount Blue. His friends took some great pictures, so I thought I'd share them.

It's a tough hike. I think they were all paying for it the next day. Here's one of the leaders on his way down.This is Vance at the top. He was very impressed with the views and how pretty it was up there. Love this one--such a beautiful scene and a great picture of Vance and his friends.The boys took a little break before they headed down. This is Vance's favorite picture. He calls it the "Lone Warrior".