Get ready, Get set, Go!

Well every August is busy for teachers going back to school, but this year is even busier. As you probably already know, our school is being remodeled. I went to school last Monday and they told me that they would have my furniture and boxes in my room by Tuesday. So early Tuesday morning, I went to face this enormous job. I walked into my room piled high with boxes and the furniture everywhere. I had to move all the boxes because they were piled where the furniture had to go. I finally got the furniture in place and that much took up most of my day. I unpacked a few boxes but not many.

Just having the furniture kind of where it needed to go helped a lot.

I ended up moving the furniture (at least some of it) about 3 or 4 times.

Then on Wednesday, I started unpacking boxes. I unpacked about 50 boxes on Wednesday and put the things away where they should go. Since I have a completely different room, I had to think where to put things because there was no prior place so I had to make a place for everything.

It seems so nice to have a clean, fresh room and brand new clean carpet. We have some cool new technology items in our rooms now. Now all I have to do is learn how to run it all.

Wednesday, I also got my bulletin boards put up.

I got my computers back into my room but they're not hooked up yet.

I have lots of books so my principal promised me lots of bookcases. I got 8 brand new ones. It took me a while to go through and organize the books and put them in a logical place.

Thursday, I spent all day there as well putting 50 more boxes of stuff away. Now I have all the boxes opened and most put away.

Some things I'm getting rid of so I'm just holding the boxes in my room until I can get rid of them and I'm storing some stuff in our grade level closet.

I feel so much more organized and unburdened now that I'm almost all unpacked and put away. It's a great feeling! Now next week will be finishing the room and planning and getting ready for the children. August 29th, here they come.

Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere!

Fo
This past weekend has been a busy one at our house. Heidi did the flowers for a wedding yesterday.
We drove into Vegas on Friday to pick up the flowers at a floral warehouse. When we got there we found out that we had a flat tire. Luckily there was a Goodyear tire store across the street. I went over there and they found a screw in my tire. To make a long story short, we got it fixed and then went back to pick up the flowers.

There were buckets and buckets of beautiful flowers all over my kitchen. When people came to our door, they said our house smelled so good.

The bride picked hot pink, bright orange and green for the flowers. They looked so summery.

This is where it all came together.

I loved the colors.

Heidi made 10 table centerpieces, one guest book arrangement and a large centerpiece for the food table. She also made all the corsages, boutineers, bridesmaid bouquets and the bridal bouquet plus a throw bouquet.

Here is the bridal bouquet.

It's pretty in the pictures but not nearly as pretty as in person. She stayed up until 3:30 Saturday morning finishing everything. Everyone thought they were gorgeous. The bride even commented that she got more compliments on her bouquet than on her dress. Way to go Heidi. You did a fantastic job!

Announcing Katelyn Joy

Yesterday, August 20 at 11:50 AM we welcomed our newest grandchild, Katelyn Joy Bartle, to the world.

She weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz. and was 20 inches long.

Heidi has had an extremely hard pregnancy, but now she's here it makes it all seem worth it. Thanks Heidi for your long endurance.

Garry is a proud papa!

Our Family Campout

Recently, we decided to do something that we haven't done in a long time. We decided to go camping! We went to Black Hawk Campground up Payson Canyon in Utah.

We reserved a campground in an equestrian campground.

What a beautiful place to ride horses.

We arrived on August 8, 2011.

The first thing we did when we arrived was set up camp.

We bought new cots and mattress pads. We were grateful for comfortable beds and we were grateful that we stayed warm.

We set up the porta privy,

our living room where we played games,

and our kitchen.

We were very crowded with two cars full of stuff, but when you consider that we brought up a whole house with a living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, it's easy to understand why we were so crowded.

We dutch oven cooked and also cooked on our propane stove.

From the beginning of thinking about going on this trip, we were kind of worried about bears. There have been several bear sightings and some bear attacks just this summer. The first night we were there, Heidi was awakened by an animal right outside the tent by her head. It made a kind of snorting, exhaling noise and then we heard it walking around on the sticks all around our tent. We could tell it was a large animal but we weren't sure what it was. It's a little hard to get back to sleep when you are afraid of what's out there. Well the next day, we were driving to Payson Lakes and about 2 1/2 miles from our camp we see a bear walking across the road. It stopped in this open field and then ran up into the trees. It's hard to see, but there is a black speck right in the middle of this picture and that is the bear.

After that exciting event, we got to Payson Lakes. It was an absolutely beautiful day.

There were lots of people canoeing, boating, and fishing.

We sat there thoroughly enjoying the beautiful scenery and the cool weather.

Here is one view of the mountain.

The last day, we packed up our tent and then drove the Nebo Loop to see a place called Devil's Kitchen. After we got to the place we had to hike up a trail and all of a sudden,

you see this beautiful sight! From the road no one would guess these gorgeous red formations were there because from the road you can't see anything but green.

This is a view of Mt. Nebo.

Mt. Nebo is the tallest mountain peak in the Wasatch Mountains (12,000 feet). It was breathtaking. As all fun things must come to an end, we will never forget this fun experience.

Friends Are Golden

About a month ago one of my dear long time friends asked me if we were going to get together again, as we have in the past, to have our "Laurel Reunion". The last three years we've gotten together but with a plan several months in advance. I started thinking and wondering if we could pull this now annual event, together in a short time. I called everyone on the phone and finally we had a date picked out. This particular group of women are my dear friends from elementary through high school and even to young marrieds. After graduation, we parted ways for several years while we were busy having and raising our families. After 15 years without seeing much of each other, I organized a reunion. We all met and it was so fun to catch up on each other's lives. After about another 20 years, I was able to get us together again. It was such a delightful experience for us all that we decided to do it again the next year. Our mother's were a little envious and wanted to be together with us and each other so last year we invited our mothers and also our dear sweet Laurel advisor, Sister Marva Davis. We had a great time but due to many different circumstances they didn't join us again this year.

Coleen Page hosted the event again at her house. We all brought food and had a delicious lunch of taco salad with all the trimmings and a couple of delicious desserts.

After we ate we went to Coleen's daughters home who lives close by and met some of her family. Coleen has a 14 year old grandson who is a very accomplished pianist. He showed us his remarkable talent and then he accompanied us while we sang some hymns. We used to get together and sing as girls and it was fun to try it again. We're sorry that 3 of our group couldn't attend today. We missed them and wish they could have joined us but we are now making this an annual event. It was suggested that next year we have a retreat some place away so we could just visit to our hearts content. We visit for hours but it just isn't enough time to catch up on all the events in our lives. The greatest part of having great friends is that even though you may part for years, when we get together, it's as if we were never apart. I love you all, my dear friends! Thanks for being such wonderful examples of faithful women and for remaining my friend.
In this picture from left to right are Linda (Worthen) Jolley, Debbie (Stubler) Oldson, myself, Connie (Ferguson) McDuffie, Coleen (Thistle) Page, and Gaynell (Larsen) Lippman. Jennifer, Dia, and Terry Ann, we missed you.