Memorial Day and the week before!

Devree had her final Advanced Choir concert for the year. She lettered in Choir for the second year. Her teacher put a sticky note on it that said I owe you a pin. But Devree says she still owes her a letter from last year too! Ha Ha! Devree was also voted by her peers as "Most Dedicated".

We visited Beth in the hospital. She was riding behind Jessica and they wrecked on an ATV. Beth lost conscienceness and was in ICU for one day until she woke up. Lots of bruises and bang ups but no broken bones.

This is the side that got banged up the worse. She didn't have a proper helmet to wear.

We were going to go camping this 3 day weekend but it is just so freezing, cold, windy, snowy etc. We decided to stay at home and camp. We didn't answer the phone and enjoyed just playing games and being together. We played Frisbee golf with the 1/2 of the "E" family. We walked down about 2 blocks to where they have put in a Frisbee golf place right next to the river. I am going to love to take the kids there for a picnic and swim later on in the summer. Anyone want to join us?

Good buddies! I have to tell you about these cute boys. I took them and 2 "L" boys to cub scouts on Wednesday. Dane has them starting to play the "Encore" game where you take a word and have to sing a song with that word in it. Dane has chosen "love" before and probably won the game because we have played it at home often. This time "M" chose "the" and his teamate was "JL". At first they started singing any song, but then Dane and his teamate started singing church songs. I was a team by myself and just sang Primary songs. I was impressed that those boys knew so many words to songs. What cute, good boys. I bet they are examples at school too.

These are the special Frisbees that Gary has. So basically you keep track of your color, but they are each special in different ways of how they fly.

Shay giving it a good flick of the wrist with a body umph! He has gloves in his pockets because he just got done with his Saturday job of dog poop and mowing the grass for one of his jobs in the neighborhood.

Ron and Leslie took us out to dinner in appreciation for taking Isaac to seminary this last school year. Seminary is now over but we still have 2 weeks of school. The kids need to be out. They are done. Next year we will see how this 4 day school week will turn out. Me as a Mom is going to like it. But what will happen with seminary among other things?

Devree had Dane pinned on the fold out couch yesterday and I didn't get a picture. So I wanted them to recreate it but Dane was not being too cooperative.

We are thankful to have a 3 day weekend to regroup before another busy week. Todd has had fun trying out some new dutch oven recipes here at home. We made this one that is a meatloaf that you put in a circle around the edges and then cook some vegetables in the center. We cooked asparagus, carrots and potatos. It turned out delicious and we can't wait to let Grandpa Rice taste it sometime. Today Todd is trying out this Chocolate Black Forest Cherry cake. My mouth is watering just thinking of it. We are truly blessed with all of our many many blessings.

Little Red is DEAD

You know... we might have to see if our home owner's insurance can help us with this problem. "Sometimes Life Comes At You Fast!!!"

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Is it difficult to take out two garage door panels and replace them? This problem might be bigger than a little fixit job!!!

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I could replace the 2x6 but it doesn't match at the bottom. So I believe that the main support on the corner got pushed out about 1 1/2 inches.

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Such a bad crunch. We are not sure how far the bumper and radiator got pushed back into the engine. Our family is used to having "Dad" fix it. I have looked at it enough to realize that this is beyond my capabilities to repair.

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"Little Red" has almost been like a family member. It is so sad to see him like this.
Posted by Todd. We bought this truck brand new in 1996. It has 276,000 miles on it.
Shay had his 8th grade band concert on Wednesday. He was voted by his teacher the 8th grade student with the most "Excelence". He was very excited because he got a medal too. (hanging out of his mouth).

A nice blurry picture. But they are smiling!

We still haven't heard if Shay won Freshman Class president yet. We had to end our blog on a good note. I guess I will be contacting insurance companies this week. Fun! Fun!

The funniest thing was getting the standard letter from Noble's mission president saying how our missionary had arrived safely to the mission. How we aren't supposed to send too many packages and not extra money or send money to any other families in the Philippines because that is what Fast Offerings are for. Anyway I am so excited to see the standard picture of our missionary with his Mission President and his wife and...IT isn't even our missionary!!!! I laughed and laughed. So maybe our missionary didn't make it safely there. This is a very tall Elder with reddish hair. So I mailed a letter back with the picture and said "This is not our missionary. Our missionary is about 5'10" with black hair, glasses and an easy smile.

Dane said the funniest thing too. Dane got to go to his good buddy's 10th birthday party. I had to get the gift without Dane again. The gift I got was a snorkel. I asked Dane if his friend liked the present. He said he liked it so much he started wearing it. Then I told Dane. "Hey your mom scored because that means 2 years in a row, that your friend liked the gift that I bought." Solemnly Dane said "Mom you have the gift."

So Busy! Did I remember to breathe?

Dane had his first piano recital.

He played with confidence. Bunny Hop and Traffic Jam were his pieces.

Here is his piano teacher. Thank you Mrs. S. This same night was Shay's Freshman Orientation at the High School. I didn't find him till the end, so I didn't get Shay's picture. This day I also substituted 4th graders and "one of the longest hours of my life" in the 5th grade. Todd immediately went home to prepare for the Scout Camporee.

We had Teacher Appreciation Dinner and this is Miss D. with Devree. Earlier this day was the Talent show at the Middle School where Shay was the MC. I got there late so I didn't get any pictures. I was substituting Early Childhood.

Devree gave a speech about how important knowledge is. She gave such a great talk that they asked her to speak again during church.

More of the Appreciation Dinner.

Another of Devree's Teacher's. Thank you Mrs. F.

Devree did a play on Monday. It was "Northwood's Nonsense". It was a comedy and Devree played a newscaster. DHS did a really good job with speaking loud enough and the acting.

Dear Red Eye, I don't like you. But possibly I will learn someday how to get rid of you. Or maybe get a better camera.

These are some of the posters that everyone has been commenting on for Shay's Freshman class President. Hopefully we find out tomorrow, Monday. We will let all of you know. The following pictures are all of the posters we made last week and one of Low Rider. Shay wore his suit many days and gave out stickers for the students.

What a needy dog! As busy as we are and he still demands attention! He drives me crazy.

So besides the pictures there was a baseball game for Dane on Tuesday with a hearing aid appointment for Devree and a vignette practice for me for the Stake Women's Conference. I subbed 3 days, had to get ready for the Scout campout for Todd and Shay. Devree also volunteered for a conserve water booth at Oodles of Noodles on Saturday. Devree also went to "Oaklahoma" with the Young Women on Friday night. I actually sat at home all by myself on Friday night. I was feeling a little lonely but then I got a phone call. A lady I visit teach lost her brother to suicide that day. Being at home gave me the time to make the necessary phone calls.

Saturday I dropped off Devree at 7:30 am to do her service and I drove to Women's Conference so we could run through the vignette's. Stake Women's Conference was so awe inspiring. It is exactly what I needed to get excited about making positive changes. I loved the many speakers and the conversation with friends.

That afternoon, I picked up Devree, came home and made dinner to deliver to the family and visited. Todd and the boys came home about 7:30pm. Dane had to go with Todd because there was no way we could leave him home through all of these other activities. He missed a baseball game but he had lots of fun and is looking forward to becoming a boy scout.

Sunday is finally a day of much needed REST...after my Sunday School lesson! We are anxiously waiting to hear from Noble. It is his P-Day already.

This week I look forward to exercising regularly, preparing my yard and getting ready to plant a garden. I might even make some bread, and cinnamon rolls are on order from the family. I am only scheduled to substitute 1 day this week and with my new exercise appointments, that is about all I can do. As I learned yesterday, "ENJOY LIFE- This is not a dress rehearsal".

Mother's Day Week

This week I got to be with Dane on a field trip to University of Nevada Reno (UNR) where we went to the Geology Museum and the Seismology Lab. It was very interesting.

Some of the boys in Dane's class had to get in on the picture.

This is a replica of some dinosaur bones found. This is a dinosaur that lived in water because the feet are like paddles.

As you can see, these 4th graders are all sizes.

This is part of the silver collection by the famous Mackey family that made their fortune in Silver in Virginia City. This was specially made for the Mackey's by Tiffany's in New York.

These are special minerals that glow in the dark or show up well in the black light.

There is a whole museum filled with people's personal geological finds from all over the world that have donated their collections to UNR.

This is the antique replicas of the old style way to record earthquakes. Everything is done digitally now.

Eating lunch in the quad.

With Dane's good buddy's Madsen and Jason. Two friends that he has known since we moved to Dayton.

Devree got inducted into the National Honor Society. Out of the 10 students, 5 were L.D.S. and 4 were from our ward. Congratulations to Devree, Ali, Elena and Katrina.

The 5 L.D.S. girls inducted into the National Honor Society

We rushed over to see Shay get his Star Scout award. He finally found his book and now we are just waiting for the time to fulfill his Life Scout requirement because he has enough merit badges. He is closer to getting his Eagle. I told him the scenario that he is so close that it would be like he walked to Smith's (about 4 miles away) and didn't go in to buy his favorite candy. I hope that helps him through the grueling looooong merit badges and project left. I really think Mom's should get more than a pin when their Eagle Scout gets his award.

Here I am pinning 3 pins.

A blurry picture of Stephen pinning his mom. Stephen got his Star rank too.

The Elders came over for dinner on Saturday. Elder Humphrey and Elder Carleton are great missionaries.

Mother's Day breakfast in bed. It was a lovely omelet, bacon and a blueberry muffin. Todd had written a beautiful letter for my Mother's Day. He also gave me a beautiful orchid plant.

Shay is running for Freshman Class President. We took photos to put on his posters for school and these are some of the slogans that Todd, Devree, Shay and I thought up. He added stars for his eyes and his slogan is "Only SERVICE can make YOU a STAR!

More stars on his eyes "Only Shay will make your Day!"

"Our future's so BRIGHT, I gotta wear Shades!

" You won't be Gamblin if you vote for HAMBLIN"! That is a slogan borrowed from Grandpa Hamblin when he ran for Senior Class President in Overton, NV. By the way, Grandpa won.

" Only YOU can vote for Shay!"

Shay says "It's COOL to serve our SCHOOL!

Super Shay will save the day!

This is the beautiful orchid and our beautiful Devree.
Devree calls this "Dane being a HAPPY Anime Super Hero". I guess his super power is sleeping since he is wearing my sleeping mask upside down.

Shay was a bit upset about working very hard to earn $60. for his part of Scout camp. Scout Camp is $240. and we had a fundraiser thatching and aerating yards. Each scout had to earn $60 to complete the amount. Devree was bragging that girls camp is only $60. and there is free time, a rock climbing wall, lake, canoes, zip line and GREAT FOOD! The girls were able to pay for all of their camp by the one fundraiser of thatching and aerating. Shay thought about all of the years that there has been crappy food at scout camp and he stated "I'm going to Girls Camp. They have lots more fun, GOOD FOOD and lots of GIRLS!

Hopefully your Mother's Day was wonderful. I know mine was and we still get to talk to Noble in a few more hours. I miss our Missionary.