News #1: our ward boundaries were changed again. Its been about 5 weeks now. I've now been in my new calling for that long. I'm the ward Primary President. I love the kids!! Absolutely love them!! I do not so much love the calling of teachers to classes and deciding if they are exciting or loathing the fact that they are in primary. And nursery is even harder!! We have a super small, young married student like ward. My primary consist of 32 kids and 20 of them are 6 and younger. We have a fairly good size nursery-about 10 that come on a regular basis. Its been a trip getting my small primary staffed! I'm so glad for the experience I've had with bigger primaries.
News #2: McKinley graduated from Kindergarten. That's been a couple weeks ago, but I'm behind on blogging. Matthew loves the picture of her holding her duck upside down. It was while they were singing their color song. She learned so much in Kindergarten, but most of all, she learned to have lots of friends. She is reading pretty good and I'm so proud of her!! I worry about the future of public education here in Idaho, but I would never pull her from the system as there is no equal to the social aspect of school! ( and I can't afford the private school)
McKinley and Mrs. Darley. (Gavin and dad in the background, with Jamison on the bleachers.)
News #3: my youngest brother in law returned home from his mission-June 2 to be exact. The boys now have the band back together-except that all three brothers went out to work as river guides for the summer. Garrett had never met Jamison and Gavin didn't really remember him, as he wasn't even two when he left. Its so fun to have him back.
News #4: McKinley turned 6. She wanted to make a pinata. That was a fun adventure!! They actually helped with the paper mache, but the decorating was a little difficult to do with lots of kids. My awesome little niece, Zoe, helped me though. It turned out pretty good. We went down to Echo reservoir to celebrate with my family. Heather, my little sis, celebrated her birthday the day after McKinley. It was her idea to meet at the reservoir. It was a little cold, but all the kids ventured into the water. My mom, my brother Adam, and I were the only adults brave enough (or dumb enough) to go for a swim. Someone had to supervise the kids!!
McKinley takes after me-she doesn't care for cake. I haven't made her a cake for 3 years now. This year she opted for fruit pizza. Delicious!!
News #5: My garden is GROWING!!!! So excited!! I took pictures today, so I'll show you what it looks like. I had to replant all my green beans. The first set I planted didn't grow. I have no idea why. Too cold, too deep, root rot, bad seed? I really don't know. I think it was probably too cold. 16 rows!!! We originally planted pole beans, but replanted with bush beans. I'm glad now because we don't have to stake them all up!! Also had to replant my cucumbers and yellow crook neck squash. They are starting to come up too!! I'll take some pictures later in the summer when everything is big and green and fruitful. I'm so excited about this! My landlords were nice enough to let us plant on their property. We are sharing with them and our next door neighbors. Even sharing, I think we'll have plenty!! I go out and check the garden at least 3 times a day!! I'm so silly, but I'm proud of the accomplishment. Not very often do I start something and see it through. But there is such an intense sense of fulfillment to see something grow and be able to provide for your own table. One day I'll have an orchard too!!
There are my freshly replanted green beans, starting to come up!! I'm so glad they are coming up! I bottle these, and we love them!! It would have been a disaster not to have them.
Here are carrots, onions, and red potatoes. We only did one row of onions. No worries though, my father in law planted 300!!! No, that is not a typo!
My peas came up nicely! Some of them anyway.
Far left, middle of the side you see my zucchini plants. They came up beautifully. Not sure why the crookneck didn't. Oh well, they are also in this picture, but too small to see right now. All those covered things are the tomatoes. Two cherry, one early girl, and 3 normal.
And last of all, the corn. We have 10 rows, but some of the seeds didn't come up, so who knows how many ears we will get. But they seem to be growing well.I'm so excited!!
It seems I've been rather busy. Maybe that's why I haven't posted. And here I though my life wasn't exciting!
Until next time!
