Willey Wonka Musical

A local children's theater put on the production of "Willey Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". I have read this book to the boys and we have watched both movie versions (they think that the new version with Johnny Depp is a girl playing Willie Wonka because of his long hair). This is such a fun story and the music is great. Needless to say the boys loved the play. When I asked them what their favorite part was they said, "all of it". It really was a fun play and the children who performed it did a great job. Actually, for being a local children's production I was really impressed with their acting and singing. Even before it was over the boys were asking if we could go again. I found the music online and ordered it so we can learn the songs and sing them. Tom says he wants to learn the songs and be in the play and do the part of "Charlie".

Tribute to Nurse Anesthetists

Here is a funny little song by the Laryngospasms, a group of nurse anesthetists.
This song is dedicated to my husband - future nurse anesthetist.

Pink socks

A fun primary song that we like to sing is "Saturday" -" Saturday is a special day it it the day we get ready for Sunday". Even Becca will walk around singing "Saturday, special day". The unfortunate thing is I haven't actually implemented the principles of the song very well - particularly the part that says to get our clothes ready.
When we arrived at church today Charlie exclaimed - "where are my shoes?" He hadn't put them on yet, because last minute before we left the house he was trying to find black socks, couldn't find any, so I made him change from his black pants to his tan pants so he could wear white socks (a vanity issue for me, white sock with black pants is not acceptable and not allowed at our house). In the hassle of it all he did get socks on, but did not remember to grab his shoes on the way out the door. Because we were already late I did not go back home to get his shoes, I figured going shoeless to church wasn't the worst thing ever, so in we went. After the opening prayer I glanced down at Charlie's feet and thought his socks looked pink - as if something red had been washed with them. I looked closer and noticed that they indeed were pink - they were a pair of Becca's pink socks. Oh, how I hoped that no one else was going to notice not only Charlie's shoeless feet, but that he was wearing pink socks.
Needless to say, we are going to be more diligent about "Saturday" and making sure we are ready for Sunday.

I feel so blessed

Becca is a joyful child. She if full of life and giggles and smiles. Becca is currently in swimming lessons and she hates the lessons, because she hates her face in the water. But despite her kicking and screaming, she is learning to swim and I'm hoping by the last day of class she won't protest so much any more.
This picture was taken at Disneyland, so of course she was happy, but truly, this is her normal expression - her beautiful smile.

The boys are also in swim lessons and they are enjoying it. We are fortunate to have a kind neighbor with a swimming pool who has a neighborhood swim day once a week. We enjoy taking advantage of that opportunity.

This scrapbook page of Becca is the first one I've done in months. For the first three months of the year I did great in downloading my pictures and getting some of them documented, but the past three months have passed by in a blur. When we went to Disneyland in May I hadn't cleared the memory card on the camera, thinking that there wasn't much on there. Unfortunately it was already more than half full and we weren't able to take lots of pictures of our vacation. Which, really, is probably a blessing, sometimes, with such big memory cards, it's easy to take too many pictures. Some times it is nice to just take a few and not try to document every moment.

My heart is bursting with gratitude. We sold our house today without even having to actively try to sell our house. Jeremy's school doesn't start until January, but we always figured we wanted to get moved by fall. The question was whether we should try to sell the house or just rent it. Jeremy didn't think it would sell, being a buyers market and all, but I didn't want the stress of hanging on to the house for the years that we would be gone. In my heart I always hoped that things would just work for our best good and if it was meant to be it would work out. Well this house must be meant for these wonderful people that are buying our house because basically they showed up on our doorstep wanting to buy our house. They are relatives of our neighbors that live on the street behind us and the husband remembered Jeremy mentioning we were looking to rent our house, but it would be nice to just sell it. Well, last week the neighbor called and said his brother was looking to move to St. George. Anyway, it all came together and today they made an offer and want to move in by the end of July. So for the month of August I think we will find a place here in St George to stay (hopefully Pine Valley, hint, hint, wink, wink, mom and dad Taysom) and then we will know where we are accepted to and we can just move there. I'm excited to embark on our new journey and selling the house just makes it all seem more real - it's really going to happen and it is really meant to be.

Evening in Pine Valley

We went to Pine Valley to visit Grandma and Grandpa Taysom and to go to an Elder's Quorum activity. The Myers have a cabin just behind Jeremy's parents so after visiting with g&g for awhile we went to the dinner at the Myer's cabin. We all had a nice time - there was lots of good food and the kids went on four wheeler rides and had fun playing with the other kids and I had a nice time visiting with friends. Jeremy wasn't there. He is on a motorcycle trip with his brothers and some other friends. Eight of them are on a road trip to northern California. Tomorrow they will be at the Redwoods National Forest. Jeremy is very excited to see the "tall" trees. Tonight he called and said he was looking out over the ocean. I'm glad he is able to have this time to spend with his brothers and to go see the Redwoods. I think he is having a good time and I am glad he is able to go do something he enjoys.

Yea for Me

We finally finished our last application for CRNA school. It only took us three months. I'm surprised at how long we drug our feet. Jeremy took the GRE in March and that was all we needed before we could start applying, but the paper work and writing the personal statement took us forever to do - of course weeks would go by in between doing each part of the applications. We actually finished applying to Hamot (in Pennsylvania) and the school in Florida a couple weeks ago, but the personal statement for Duke University took longer. Probably knowing that they are a more prestigious school and wanting to make sure we had a chance by writing a good enough personal statement. Today when I finished sending it in to Duke I had a wonderful feeling of relief, but also excitement. I think we have a chance of getting accepted to any and all of the schools we applied to. Now it is just the waiting game. Part of the process of getting accepted is to go to the school for an interview if we are a potential candidate. I'm hoping they will let us know sooner than later, but we might not really know anything until August.
I am truly excited for the adventure of moving away for school. Probably I'm crazy for thinking this will be a good thing - all the way across the country away from friends and family, me basically a single mom while my husband is consumed with school, and not least of all, poor, living on loans, but truly, I am excited and I know we are doing the right thing. Many times (even last week, for example) Jeremy will wonder if we are doing the right thing by going to school. On the other hand, I have never wondered, not even one time, I have always felt peace and "known" that this is the right path for us.

This month of June has been absolutely wonderful as far as weather is concerned. It has been mildly in the 80's and 90's. Last Friday we spent a wonderful afternoon at the park. The Nisson park in Washington city (15 minutes away) has wonderfully large cottonwood trees and a large grassy area. It also has a little stream that runs the length of the park and is perfect for the children to splash in.

Tom and Charlie are in summer school this month at Liberty Youth Academy, where Charlie went to school last year. Their teacher, Sister Dale, is wonderful and the boys love her. School is 5 hours Monday through Thursday - just enough to give them something structured to do during the day and enough time for me to enjoy some peace each day. Two boys so close in age can be a challenging thing - they each have such strong personalities, which often leads to competition and fighting.

I am unsure what to do with the boys for school in the fall. I would like to have them continue at Liberty Youth Academy. One thing that adds to the uncertanty is not knowing when we will be moving. Although Jeremy's school doesn't begin until January, we would like to move before then. We have September or October pegged as the estimated time to move.

I have long wanted to homeschool my kids, and I did with Charlie last fall, but the reality of it all was a little overwhelming - especially with a new baby. I'm hoping that as the baby gets a little older and the boys get more warmed to the idea that it can become a possiblity. That is what has been so wonderful about Liberty Youth Academy - it offers exactly what I would like my homeschool to be like - it is focused around God and the gospel, and also offers a good solid foundation in reading and math skills. It also offers one aspect that is more challenging to offer at home school - learning in a group setting. It is true that children can learn well in a group setting, but if done poorly, it can also be detrimental to their learning.
There are some really great homeshcool groups here in Saint George and for the older children (12 and up) there are common wealth groups avaiable for group learning, but for the younger age children they do more of book groups that do activities together.