Eleventh week of summer

Last week of summer. We better live it up...or down. Which ever is fine by me.

Sunday. Today Ford's Sunbeam teacher gave each of her students a scripture bag, that she made, with a BofM inside. He was so excited about that when he saw me coming down the hall at church he yelled, 'Mom! Look what my teacher gave me! Scriptures!' He proceeded to pull out his BofM and opened it to the very first page, a blank sheet of paper. On it she had written to each child. She told them that she had a testimony of Jesus Christ. And that she loved them. I got all teary eyed and thought, 'I love Jeanni!' I looked at him as I read these sweet words to him and he smiled so big. I told him that his teacher must really love him to give him a BofM. He said, 'Yeah. She does.' Thanks, yet again, Jeanni, for helping me raise my son in righteousness. You are heaven sent. And we love you, too.

Monday. I was suppose to go running with Kendra this morning but at 5:30 I woke up with a headache and stuffy nose. And after I texted her I fell asleep till 8:15. Then quickly got out of bed and threw the youngest ones in the shower and got Makinley ready for her Princess Party at the Workmans. I had an hour to do her hair and make-up and get her dressed. Then it was out the door and drop her off. Jenni and I traded kids. She took Makinley and I took Oakley and Kobey. They didn't want to stay for a Princess Party. I couldn't understand why? LOL. I told them next time they could use Kennidy's Halloween costumes and dress up like princesses too. They didn't really like my idea. Oh well. Brandon called and left a message this morning letting me know that his day quickly went to pot and he won't be home till really late. Like way past our bedtime late. We'll postpone FHE till tomorrow night. Adam is doing a skit on Heavenly Father's creation. After he had done this he will have earned his Religious Square Knot, 2 Red bead, Bear Badge, 1 Gold Arrow, and 1 Silver. Way to go, Adam. We are so proud of you. You are doing so well in Cub Scouts. Keep up the good work!

Tuesday. Lazy days? I can't remember doing anything today. I think Adam may have played with Kobey. And it's possible that Kirsten and Raquel came over. I know Adah and Madelyn came over sometime this week too but I can't remember which day.

Wednesday. Picked up 50lbs. of peaches this afternoon. Holy Cow. Kendra and I will be busy, busy Friday. We're canning all these fuzzy beauties. Can't wait. But that's a whole lot of peaches.

Thursday. Those peaches from Minton Farms are soo good. Brandon and I can't stop eating them but we better get control of ourselves or we won't have any to can! Oh, a doctor's appointment and Sand Harbor.

Friday. Canning Peaches! Kendra and I started pretty early with canning. And it was more fun doing it together than on our own. Her mom came down from Reno to watch her kids while mine watched a lot of tv and played the Wii. But we were done in about 3 hours. I forgot how pretty they are after they come out of the hot bath. I just love the reddish orange color they take on. The only thing I am concerned about is that they're not sealing. I think I timed them wrong because when I looked in my cookbook it said to only time them when the water is boiling. Only one has sealed and I have 10 that aren't. The book says to give them 12 to 24 hours to seal so I'll wait till tomorrow and then get stressed. Brandon took Logan and Dakota out for a game of golf and he really had a great time with these 2 young men. We took Kennidy to see the homeroom/core lists at the middle school before leaving for the temple. She's pretty bummed because Emma is not in her core. At the middle school they divide the 6th graders into 2 cores. Each core has 4 teachers that the students change between. It's a bit different but whatever. Kennidy is going to watch the kids tonight and we feel confident she will do a great job while we're at the temple. We did have to set some ground rules to help her and the kids. We came really late but everyone was in bed and nothing bad to report. Thanks, Kennidy. As we were coming in the gate, Brandon said, 'We don't have to take our babysitter home!' To which I replied, 'I know! She can spend the night!' We are entering a new stage in our lives and their are somethings we don't want to see change but other things we are really looking forward to.

Saturday. This morning at 8:00am we went to the Ward Garden. This is a first for us and we really enjoyed ourselves. We picked huge tomatoes and corn. Threw rocks over a fence, plowed some land, picked corn, fed some cattle cornstalks, and learned about the anatomy and physiology of corn. It was quite interesting. Like do you know how to tell how many kernals are on a cob? You count the number of silk threads it has and that is the same number of kernals. Wow! I didn't know that. Anyway...we had a fun time helping Bro. Hurst. We were late, along with others, and had to sing a song. But it was worth it. We went back home to clean, clean, clean the house before our big end of the summer BBQ. And what fun that was. The BBQ, not so much the cleaning. We ended up inviting 6 families. 45 min. before we were to start Brandon gets a call from the EQ Pres., whose family is coming over for our BBQ, and says that there is someone who needs help moving items into a storage unit. One look at the storage unit and the contents of the U-Haul and Brandon turned around and called me. 'This is a mess and we won't be done for a couple of hours. What do you want to do.' Luckily for us 3 of the 6 men invited were with him. So I just said, 'We'll start without you.' I said some other things to but I only want to remember the positive. So I called their families and said come over anyway and we'll see them when we see them. I have to thank Dan and Mike for helping with the BBQ meat and corn. You guys rock! I also have to thank Emily for letting us borrow her newly filled propane tank. We'll replace it but thanks for letting us use it. You're such a great neighbor and we love you. The kids had so much fun on the slip and slide and with the water balloons. And just being together and running around. I think we're all looking forward to school starting and this was a great way to end the summer. With yummy food and great friends. The men finally came back and all was well. They enjoyed their food and a friendly competition of Ping-Pong.