Emma!

Today's post is in honor of my sweet Emma Lou!  I stand in awe of her and her courage and strength of character and her happy personality.  Last night one of the boys did something hysterical and her hearty laugh just makes me smile!  She has wanted to start teaching creative dance to children here in Worland since we moved here.  School has been very busy for her and she hasn't had a chance to really develop that idea until now.

There were many obstacles in Emma's way.  The main one was time during school with marching band the first half of the school year and cheerleading the second half.   With that obstacle out of the way the next one was where was she going to have this class?  She had to have hard wood floors, no carpet.  She needed a place big enough to dance in.  She needed a place that could be closed off so that there weren't lots of people watching and distracting the young children.  The elementary school gyms were a no, the community center was really expensive to rent as was the health club in town.

Last fall I had started going to Yoga with a new friend of mine, Holly Mickelson.  It was held in the cool old church that had been turned into "The School of Holistic Healing."  Now I really don't know what they teach there, but they do have awesome Yoga classes.  The space in what used to be the chapel is really incredible.  The original hard wood floors are beautiful and the stained glass windows add so much ambiance.  I asked the Yoga teacher after class one day about the building.  She told me she rents the space from the owner and it's very reasonable.  She gave me the owner's card.

Emma called the owner last night all on her own.  She explained what she wanted to do.  The owner was incredibly kind and excited for Emma.  She will take 20% of whatever Emma receives from the students each month, plus $100 a year for insurance purposes.  She will advertise for her as well.  Emma already has parents with toddlers excited to take dance!  She will start a summer class on Saturday June 6th which will meet every Saturday for 6 weeks.  She is hoping to fill 3 classes and each class will be an hour.  Then if people like it she will start a school year session, like BYU children's dance does, and go the entire school year with a concert at the end!  She is charging $30 for the 6 week sessions per child.  The ages will be from 3 years old up to 9 years old.

I'm so proud of her for organizing all this on her own!  She is going to do a great job and I'm sure the kids will love her!  What an awesome way to earn some money this summer!

One of the reasons she is so motivated to do this is that she needs to earn money for a Washington DC trip that her US History class will be going on next year in May.  She also is VERY interested in doing a Rotary International Exchange the summer after she graduates.  The Rotary Club her does a lot of exchange student programs and Emma really wants to participate.  She would love to go to Sweden or even Africa!  Wow, I did not have the confidence or courage that she has when I was 16!

So here is my cheer for Emma---GOOOOOO EMMMMAAAA!

Stake Conference -- Melchizedek priesthood

I was getting ready to write something on this blog for today, and Andy wanted to make sure I included the fact that yesterday at the track meet in Lander he had two personal records.  He jumped 31 feet 9 and a half inches in the triple jump and in the 200 meter hurdles he got 30.66 seconds.  He has one more track meet before the season is done.

We had stake conference today and Palmer's name was announced to receive the Melchizedek priesthood and to be ordained to the office of an elder.  After the meeting Brian ordained him an Elder!  Wow, what an amazing blessing for him.  I'm grateful for a son who wants to serve the Lord and is acting on faith to do so.  12 more days until he get's to go to the temple and 31 more days until he leaves on his mission, it's all coming up very fast!

Father and Son Campout

This weekend was the much anticipated Father and Sons camp-out.  This was done as a stake and the scouts helped lead everything from set up to cooking meals.  My boys had a lot of fun and it was the very last time Palmer will be going with his brothers!

It was a short drive to Hyattville.  I haven't been there, but it's a very small town of about 75 people and it's about 45 minutes away.  Andy said it was really beautiful and Eric wants us all to go there as a family.  It's a popular camping site for the local people and it's only $6 to camp for the night.  Sounds like a small overnight outing in the making for us.

While the boys were gone, Emma and Lucy and I had our own "campout".  We made chocolate crinkle cookies which we ate while watching an episode of "Good Mythical Morning" (a youtube channel).  Then we watched the second Percy Jackson movie, which was much better than the first one.  We then commenced our camping by dragging the mattress into my bedroom and setting up the laptop to watch episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch until we fell asleep!  An awesome night!

Congratulations

A quick post to yell the good news......AUDREY HAS A JOB...2 actually

She will be working part time as a copy editor for a company called AtTask in Lehi starting May 11.

She also just found out today that she will be working at the best place in the WHOLE world-The Orem Public Library!  This is also part time and she will be what I once was, a flexible library assistant.  She interviewed at a few other places and is very happy to have landed these two.

What a week!

At the end of my life, this last week has to be in the top percentage of best weeks of my life!  

We left Utah on Tuesday afternoon and arrived uneventfully in Utah around 10:45.  First thing the next morning I got up and picked Audrey up from her apartment and we headed to the temple for her endowment session.  It was an amazing and beautiful time with my lovely daughter, one that is hard to find words that would adequately express my feelings.  

Audrey's roommates for the nearly the past 4 years of college.  They met as freshmen roommates in the dorms and have stayed close friends ever since.  It was nice to have them in the temple with Audrey.

Along with Audrey's roommates two more of her friends came and my sister Susie and her husband Byran.  

After we left the temple we gathered our family and headed to Carrabbas restaurant to have lunch to celebrate Audrey's graduation.  

Peter got pepperoni pizza and said it was "yucky".  He didn't like the sauce of gourmet pizza!  He got to sit next to Grandma.

Andy loved his food as did Eric

Lauren loves to have her picture taken!  We had a great time.

We finished the day at a wedding dress fitting for Lauren and doing some errands and slept at Grandma's house.  

Thursday was filled with lot's of errands as well.  I was able to get more mission stuff for Palmer.  He and Emma were did not come on this trip with us because they had a band competition they couldn't miss.  We all helped Audrey move out of her apartment and clean it.  She has been trying to sell her contract for Spring and Summer for months now and she finally had a girl come by to see it as we were cleaning and she decided to buy it!  What a relief!

Friday morning I again got up early and took Lauren to the temple for her endowments.  Again it was sweet and beautiful.  I got to sit between my two girls in the temple, what a blessing!

Lauren and Matt, see Lauren can take good pictures!

Matt and his mom and his sister Emily were able to come with us as well.

My sister Susie and her husband came to Lauren's session as well and it was great to have so much family in the temple.  

After the temple Brian dropped me and Audrey off on campus and she put on her cap and gown for graduation and we walked around campus and took some pictures.  

This is the building she worked in as a receptionist for the History department and where most of her classes were.

It was starting to get very windy!

This is inside the Joseph F. Smith building with it's amazing staircase.

We then walked to the Marriott Center and I went to find seats to save for everyone.  By a wonderful miracle I ran into our very good friends the Runyan's who we have known since Audrey was a baby who's daughter Sarah was graduating with her husband.  They live in North Carolina now and it was so wonderful to see them!!  I loved graduation, it was wonderful to hear them announce Audrey's name!  Woohoo!  By the time we got out it was freezing outside and raining!

Right before graduation in the Marriott Center

We are all huddled under the overhang trying not to be blown away by the wind!  My mom's hair is hilarious in this picture as well as Eric's face!

Random shot!

Lucy receiving a kiss from Lauren with Audrey's hat on!

After this we drove back to my mom's house, packed up the truck, ate sandwiches brought to us by my sister and started the drive back to Wyoming.  It rained on and off along the way until we hit South Pass.  We drove right into a blizzard around 11:00pm and it was awful!  Thankfully we made it through and got home just before 1:00am!  

I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of all these happenings.  I'm so happy for my daughters and so proud of them for their choices in life and for who they are becoming.  I enjoyed every minute with Lauren and Audrey and I love them so very much!  

Lucy and Subway

Tonight I took Lucy to Subway to get her free kids meal for reading so many books.  She is fun to spend time with and loves to be silly!

Countdown!

Peter just lost a tooth while eating Wheat Thins!  Now his smile is even more goofy than before!

Last night Eric went to the middle school for all 5th graders who wanted to try out an instrument to see if they would like to take band next year.  Eric wanted to go so we went.  He wants to play the Baritone!  They didn't have one there for him to try, so he tried the trombone (because the mouthpiece is the same size as the baritone) and he got a pretty good sound out of it!  I didn't realize that he had that much air in him!  He then tried the trumpet, which was harder to make as a sound, and got that to work as well.  He moved on to the clarinet and played that too!  Yay for Eric!

The count down is on:
7 more days until Audrey is a college graduate
29 days until Lauren is a married woman
46 more days until Palmer steps on the plane for the DR!