Pictures from Teach

I wasn't going to share about Teach today, but I was so excited when she sent me some pictures, I just had to show you! She was thrilled to get all the birthday cards. Look at all those pink envelopes. The back of that picture said, "Best..Day..Ever!" She just loves getting mail.

Here is a picture before Sister Karratti went back home. Teach is expecting a transfer again next week. Likely either she or Sister Gentry or both will move. I will let you know.
 

Wow! Look how thin she is getting! Must be all that bike riding. She wears skirts most of the time, but they were getting ready to go to a service project and it required something less formal. She only has that one pair of jeans with her.

A trip to the mall looking for people to talk to. She loves turtles, I'm sure that's why we got this picture.

I love this one from a Relief Society activity. Who says you can't have fun while you are on a mission?

Although it's not all fun, here is a bit from her letter...

We had a young man - Johnathan try to tell us the Book of Mormon isn't true. We told him it was (smiley face) and an old lady told us we were going to heck! We laughed so hard I almost tripped!

Just kidding...maybe it's more fun than I thought. I'm just always glad to see her smiling!

Paperwork!

I may have given you this little rant before, but since I spent yesterday complaining about yard work, I thought I'd share another of my least favorite things.

Ever since we got married, my sweetie is under the illusion that I like paperwork! I think he believes this for three reasons, first, because I got my degrees in English, I must like paper. Second, I agreed to do all the paperwork even before we were married (but that is mostly because I was afraid that if I left it up to him it would never get done!) and third, he doesn't like to do it.

And sometimes I don't mind, really I don't. But today it has finally gotten to me. I have been trying to pull together my financial report for my Girl Scout troop, and that is not quite as bad as doing taxes, but almost. I have to find all the receipts for the year, log each one and make sure everything is in order to begin the next Scout year.

I also have all these bills coming in from my surgery. You know how that is, one from the hospital, one from the anesthesiologist, one for the radiologist...the list goes on and on. Looking through all those detailed lists to make sure they didn't double charge me has me wishing I might never see another doctor's bill in my lifetime, especially if it means I have to get cut open again.

Even the fun paperwork of planning our family vacation has me a bit down today. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it's summertime and my kids are all still in school and all I really want to do is play!

Now if someone would just sign my permission slip, I'd be out of here.

Yardwork

Let's just get this over with right up front...I am NOT a yard work fan! I have neighbors who can putter around in their yards all day long, but not me. I don't like getting dirty and weeding is just obnoxious like doing laundry...a never-ending task.

So imagine how I was feeling when my sweetie came home early from work today so we could plant tomatoes and flowers. I love seeing him while it's still light outside, but honestly I wasn't feeling well and the last thing I wanted to do was work in the yard.

Like a dutiful wife, I followed him out to the garden, but I also brought a chair and planted it in a shady spot so I could watch him work. He even had on his overalls I gave him for Fathers' Day yesterday and I must say, he looked pretty good! But I digress...

After about 20 minutes of watching him chop weeds with a shovel, I started feeling guilty and I invented a reason to go back inside (although Scout really did have to go to her dance class...).

After dinner, he made it clear that he expected everyone to work in the front yard as part of our family home evening activities. So we all reluctantly dragged ourselves out the door. I quickly assigned each child specific duties and then I went to work on the weeds. When my sweetie saw that I was planning to work, he sent Sport to the back yard to retrieve a chair for me, but there was no way I was going to sit and watch while everyone else was working.

I wish I would have taken before and after pics for you.We totally made a HUGE difference in the flowerbeds! I trimmed back bushes and roses, the girls planted flowers, and the boys attacked the big weeds. A couple more hours of work and it will look awesome (as long as we get it done before the weeds start coming back)!

I wanted to take a picture for you, but by the time we were cleaned up, it was already dark outside, so we came in and we each ate a big bowl of ice cream to celebrate. I had pistachio, one of my very favorites. It was almost worth the dirty fingernails and the multiple scratches from the rose bushes as they fell before my unsympathetic pruners.

Almost.
.

Fathers' Day

I wanted to share with you our activities for this weekend, including the rest of our Countryfest craziness and our Fathers' Day party with the kids today. The problem is that the battery died on the camera and we can't seem to find the charger.

And honestly, I haven't felt very well today, so I really just didn't have the energy to look for it. My sweetie even cooked his own Fathers' Day meal of his specialty spaghetti and meatballs which is my dad's favorite meal, but he didn't come up today so we had to eat it without him. We did have all the kids here except for Teach, of course. We ate dinner and then my sweetie opened his gifts.

I gave him a camping chair and some new overalls, some socks and a couple of books. He bought himself a wrist-rocket at Countryfest yesterday so I wrapped that up too. I think he was planning on giving it to Sport for his birthday next week, but honestly, I didn't want my 10-year-old to have one. My sweetie managed to do enough damage with it by himself.

For a 10-year-old...really?!!!

I caught Sport looking through the pile of just-swept stuff in the kitchen. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, "Looking for ammunition!" After that I asked the little ones to just stay out of the way when they were shooting. Those pieces of salt water taffy from Bossy's parade yesterday fly way too fast! He could put an eye out!

So hopefully tomorrow I will find the camera charger, but for tonight I'm going to try to get some rest so I can feel better. I need all my energy so I can get out of the way of any wild pieces of salt water taffy that might come my way.