I'm back. It's been a busy month. What can I say?
In May, I taught a class at Scrap Happy Sisters...it was a little travel journal that fit nicely in a tiny little suitcase. Very cute. I used Scooter's Vacation papers from Imaginese. I wish I had photos, but about the time we switched computers, my external hard drive died...totally. I've tried three different computer people to recover the data, but to no avail. There were over 11,000 pictures....lost forever. I can try Data Drs., but their estimate is $1,000-2,000 with no guarantees. And since I'm not independently wealthy, I will have to pass. So sad. Anyway, I don't have a picture at the moment of the project, but it turned out very cute. Every other page was a 7gypsies small tag to provide a journaling spot.
Ellen (one of my sisters) was in town for a few days, along with her two boys. One of them, Kyle, is married and he and his wife came with their twin girls, Jane and Eliza. It was really fun to catch up with them and spend a day visiting.
We've made several trips to watch Matthew play baseball. He's really getting to be quite a good ball player. His positions are pitcher and first base. And he's pretty good at hitting, too! It's always fun to watch him play and to visit with Dan, Chris and Emma.
Dallin graduated from kindergarten! Yea! Now he's a first grader. He's such a cute character. He's smart and has lots of ideas. His mom and dad don't always agree with his ideas, but he's a good thinker! And sometimes a little stinker!!!
Erin's girls have been busy taking swimming lessons. Ellie invited me to come because she wanted me to take pictures and make her a book!! Funny girl. She did really well. She's a good little swimmer. She even learned how to do to the breast stroke. Hattie, on the other hand....I'll just say that she cried the entire time she was in the water. The rest of the time she sat on either my lap or Erin's lap. The highlight (really, lowlight) of her lessons was the first day....she swallowed a ton of water and what went down, came right back up....in the pool! Poor Jenny! Had to quickly scoop out her pool!!! Poor Hattie. It was totally unexpected and not fun. All in all, she is able to get to the side of the pool and out should she fall in. I guess that's what it's all about!!
We were grateful to be able to watch the dedication of the Gila Valley Temple. That temple has special meaning to me because it's in the general vicinity where my mom grew up. She would have been thrilled to be able to see it! We went to the open house, too. What a beautiful temple!!!
I've also been busy creating a couple of projects for 7gypsies to use at CHA summer in Chicago. I'm not at liberty yet to share the new products nor pictures, but I will when the "cat's out of the bag"!! I'll just say....there is one paper line I LOVE LOVE LOVE...the other one is okay, but not my style particularly.
On Memorial Day, we met Brian and his family and Erin and her girls at the Veteran's Memorial Cemetery. We cleaned Mom's headstone and decorated her grave with flowers. It's pretty impressive to see a flag at the headstone of every grave in the cemetery. It makes you grateful to be an American and for the many freedoms and liberties that we enjoy, thanks to veterans.
Last week Erin and Brian (Trimble) were Ma and Pa on their stake trek. They had a good time, but it was dirty and hard! We met them when they came home, along with the girls. It was HOT, but fun!
Tonight is Relief Society. Roxann and I are "in charge". It's a Family History evening. We'll be learning about Family Search, personal histories and journals. There will also be a display table of various ways to preserve your family history....recipe books, scrapbooks, etc. And for refreshments, we're having cookies from Grandma's house (really, just their recipes!) and Boston Cooler punch. It's a mixture of vanilla ice cream and Vernors. Yummy!
Oh....and another thing. Mark has less that one year left before he retires! But who's counting? This picture is of his current squad....Community Relations.
