Little Jim and Big Jim

A week ago Royal, Elizabeth, Grace, Sienna and "little Jim" came to visit Saturday night, Sunday, and Monday on their way down to Orlando. We had such a delightful visit but it wasn't long enough! Elizabeth and I were so excited that school was cancelled on Monday due to weather. It meant I didn't have to go to work so she and I got to "play" and we all had longer to see the kids too. They also got to be here for our ward conference and the "linger longer" afterwards so some of the ward members got to visit with them too. On Sunday night, we all got together over at Kira and Ben's for Family Home Evening (we were missing Jim and JaNae due to work schedules) but we had everyone else who lives "in these parts". It was a nice (if noisy) get together.

Miles' Eagle project is finally finished! Three Saturdays in a row we have worked on it and it looks great! The woman at DHR (Dept of Human Resources) said that the project totally exceeded her expectations. The room is used for foster children visitations and activities related to that and it looked like a sterile hospital room...you know, not very child-friendly. DHR was just hoping for some toys and a toy box for the most part and maybe a DVD player. The tiny TV/VCR they had was borrowed. They got a whole lot more. The entire project was mostly funded by Wal-mart (and they donated a 20" TV),and three sisters in the ward gave him some money. He also asked for used toy donations from the ward. The first day was spent building parts of a shelf unit for a TV,VCR, DVD player, books and toys. It couldn't be completely finished because they have narrow halls so it had to be completely assembled at DHR when we got to that point. The second day was cleaning all the toys (earlier in the day we had a church building deep-clean "activity") and the third day was building a toybox, putting the shelf unit together and anchoring it to the wall, applying a mural and a few other things. The pictures don't show the whole room but you can see the shelves and the mural. Whaddya think? He is so glad to have that finished. The same day, from 7 a.m. to Noon was an ROTC car wash that he was in charge of (because he's the commander) then we did the Eagle project from 1:00 to 5:00.

Jotty knows what his project is going to be now too and I think that's half the battle. DHR needs a lot of work...in fact, there are about 3 more projects there. Most of it is painting and "cosmetic" work that badly needs to be done. State budget cuts have cut jobs and other money so painting is definitely not a priority and there isn't money for it. Of course this came about after all the wallpaper was removed. It is so ugly its depressing.

We are currently getting ready to "batten down the hatches" for Gustav and Hanna's approach. We will get mostly wind and rain but with those of course come the chance of tornadoes so everything has to be tied down or stored. It can be a real pain but at least we know what to do (we think we do anyway). Ian and Jessica are in Hattiesburg, Mississippi but he says he's not worried and that they have all the supplies they need.

Wherever you are...be safe!

My Girl

Yep, that's me girl. The first time I heard the name, Freya, it was the name of a character on a Final Fantasy game. The next time I heard it, it was the name of a song by The Sword. The other occasion was at EFY, when I met a female counselor with the name. After I named my iguana, Dad told me that it was the name of a major goddess in Norse mythology; the goddess of beauty and love.

As Mom said earlier, she is extremely sweet. She's does, however, squirm when she gets nervous. She's also gotten more active since I let her wander around a little bit (under careful supervision of course). She also gets along with the other pets, to the point of sharing her bath with the turtle (pic). Our cat, Keeter, has touched and sniffed Freya. (On a side note, Keeter is ENTHRALLED by the lizard. Ever since I put Freya in my room, Keeter has been there, as if she's is guarding the lizard.)

As far as likes and dislikes go, we've found that she enjoys her baths. Iguanas are very good swimmers too. After her bath, I can get her to sit still for about an hour by wrapping her in a towel and rubbing her head and neck. She also LOVES bread. I can get her to eat it out of my hand. Unfortunately, she doesn't eat as much greens, which is what she needs to eat.

Overall, I'm very happy that we have her in the family. Hopefully, she'll be around for a while and I'll continue to be able to take good care of her. Ahm Outta Heah!

School Dazed

This is Miles with his new "girl" Freya; she's very sweet. I will let Miles blog more about her...

School started Thursday and seminary starts Monday at 6:30 a.m. Whoopee. I just really hate early mornings...have NEVER been a morning person but life still seems to go on. Anyway, I don't know how the boys do it, but some of their courses sound very intimidating...especially the college ones. And with practice til 5:00 every evening...maybe its because I haven't been in school for awhile but it seems they have definitely "raised the bar" with some of these classes. Want to hear my big gripe? Too bad, I'm going to share it anyway...If a kid takes AP and Honors courses and gets all 'A's his GPA is the same 4.0 as the kid who takes basic "gimmee" courses.(yes, I understand that some kids should take the easier courses...but there are many who take them because they want easy A's) So, if a kid gets a B in an tough course, it is "weighted", and is the same as an A in a basic course...but they don't "weight" the GPA. So much for encouraging kids to challenge themselves...
At Mom's Day Out we had a couple workdays this week and an Open House but there wasn't much Milesa (my co-teacher) and I could do because they are refurbishing our classroom and aren't done yet. It's going to look great when they are done though. Personally, I like the idea of a spruced up room with more closet space but I'd rather have a new director than a new room. At any rate, right now we don't even know where we are going to temporarily be on Monday. I really wish I could quit and stay home and do genealogy and sew.


Miles' Eagle project goes to the council this week for approval. At least he already has most of the money donated. I asked the boys if there were any school supplies they still needed and Jotty started telling me about how all students received a "school bag". A homemade fabric bag with spiral binders, pencils,ruler, & colored pencils. Guess where they were from? Yep, Salt Lake. What is weird is that last year our ward did school bags for our humanitarian project. In fact I think that several wards in our stake also did. Well, you can bet that the story of school donations won't make it to the local newspaper,well,at least the likelihood of mentioning the church will be small.

On average, this summer we have had rain nearly every afternoon, consequently, the weeds seemed to feel that they were being encouraged to grow and three days after you mow, the weeds are 6 inches higher than the grass and it is time to mow again. NOW I understand why the guy who owns the empty lot behind us doesn't mow the weeds until fall-it's pointless. Meanwhile we can't keep up with it all. I think I like the lifestyle our former neighbor has now...someone else mows the lawns in the complex and he has only to take care of his front porch with two potted plants on it. I might be able to manage that.

We're excited that Royal and his family are coming for a short visit at the end of August! They will be on their way to Orlando (Disney World) with Elizabeth's Mom and sister. We'll take them anyway we can get 'em so we're glad they're making the trip. For those of you that don't read their blog, they might be moving to Jim's old "stompin' grounds" --- St. Louis . I think that after they go to Disney World, we will be the ONLY ones in the family that haven't gone...wait, no, Kira and clan haven't gone yet either. Doesn't much matter to me but I'll wager the boys would be glad to go. Jason and Michelle said they were coming back for a visit in December to get the rest of their stuff in storage. Its a permanent move I guess. One of my fondest desires is to get all the families together again for one more family photo. The kids are spreading out...Anna in Georgia, Jason in Calif, Royal in Missouri (or Kentucky), Ian in Missippi. I really think our window of opportunity is small for a family photo...Guess I can "photoshop" them together but it isn't the same.

Well, its time for me to get something done around here. For all you reading this...have you updated YOUR blog lately???