Another post already?

Well - I just wanted to say that I have created another blog as well. As if I just sit around blogging all of the time right? Anyways - the other blog is ........ I will be using this blog to keep up with my seminary class. It will chronicle our assignments - especially the reading assignments will be posted there, as well as a commentary of what we've been doing in class each day etc. I'm hoping that the kids and their parents will use it to keep track of what is going on, and to keep up to date if they miss something. Seems like it will be a nifty little tool - we'll see. That's it - I made it through day number 2 so far. :)

It has finally started!

Well - August 29 finally arrived. No photos - but be assured I at least made it through the first day. Yes - I am talking about seminary...and people actually showed up. That was the real test - will anyone come??? I had 14 fresh live victims there - we'll see if there are any survivors. Really though - they are all really great kids and I think we are going to have a blast this year. We are studying the Old Testament, which is one of my favorites - so much action and violence, and inspiring stories. So - I got up at 4:30 and will do so again tomorrow (if not earlier), so I am going to bed. I am going to set up a blog for my students I think too... we'll see what they have to say!

At Home in our Elements!

We love to play in the mud in our back yard! As you can tell - the kids really had a day of it. Imagine, a mud body wrap in the privacy of our own back yard - and dirt cheap!

We spent an evening fishing nearby - but got skunked. Unfortunately, we forgot the hot dogs, and as we had no fish had to settle on corn on the cob and s'mores for dinner. No one seemed to complain and we had a great time!

Strep is NOT our friend! & and Rock band / classical Fusions

Well... it's hit once again. Our girls had their check ups this week, and since someone else in our home (no names, but it wasn't me or the girls) had strep the week before, we had them checked for strep throat. We thought that they might be carriers and someone is just sharing it again and again. I personally have had it in May, June, a sore throat in July, and one in August as well (but not the fever and chill and headache and aching symptoms). We are REALLY sick and tired of strep in our house. So - if you have strep - please don't come by. We are all on antibiotics, and once we finish, we will all be tested just to make sure no one else has it - it's ridiculous!
Well... onto to other items now that the strep disclaimer is off of my chest.

The last couple of weeks have been good. The girls just finished their last session of swimming lessons for the summer. I'm so excited to have that daily 2 hour block of my day back - they've been at it for a month.

As was alluded to in a posting comment, we had the big seminary kick off meeting two weeks ago the 6:00 am stands. Don't get me wrong - I do like my sleep too, but it ended up being the only time that could work for me. I'm pretty excited to start this month with it, and look forward to a really fun year.

I've played several gigs with my group the past two weeks. We just participated in a Relay for Life yesterday. We played the soft background music while they did the luminary ceremony. While this was as cool as always - there was a way more cool part of the evening. When I arrived, I went up to the stage to put my stuff down, and saw a friend who was doing some percussion with the rock band that was playing on the stage. He invited me to grab the tambourine and to jam away with them. So - I turned into the tambourine player of the completely non-famous garage band that was doing the entertainment. Besides the tambourine, I got to play an instrument called the 'cabasa'. No - that wasn't a typo. It is one of the main instruments that is used in Santana stuff (yes - that is the best description I can come up with). It really just looks like a lint roller with beads stuck all over it, but it makes a really cool sound. I have to admit - playing in a rock band wasn't as easy as it looks. I had to try and stay on beat, and the singer wasn't that great and they didn't want me to do back up vocals (I have NO idea why!) I guess the hardest part was when they kept playing music I'd never even heard before. We did play an old Police song - walking on the moon. Just for the record - the tambourine and the cabasa were RIGHT ON in both of those songs - the others were all just guesses. Anyways - it was pretty fun. I got to stand on stage in my black concert clothing with the garage band who was dressed up like Hee-Haw in front of approximately 200 people and pretend like I had an idea of what I was doing. It was awesome!

New news

We've been busily rolling through our summer with nothing major to report. We got our first zucchini's last week and our tomatoes look promising. Last week my husband had strep throat - we can't seem to go a month without someone having it! I got a 98 on my midterm - I'm at least thrilled about that... almost done I keep telling myself. I am officially done with Primary and am the new Seminary teacher. I am looking forward to that challenge, and my husband is signed up and ready to get back to work on that degree he's been working on. The girls have been doing swimming lessons, and we (glutton for punishment that I am) signed them back up for another two weeks! I'm looking at getting a new camera so that I can post pictures more easily - but I'll see if I can't get some more posted this week. :)

Cello at the Library

Here's a picture that showed up in the newspaper today - we had no idea. A couple of cellists came to the the library last week and did a presentation, and the girls got to try a child sized cello. If you weren't sure, the girls are in the upper right hand corner ~ you know, the cutest ones there!

MUDSLIDE

Well - we had one of those mountain storms today... I told the girls it would be over in 2 minutes. 15 minutes later we were still sitting in the Post Office parking lot - watching the hail stones and rain pelt down. The parking lot turned into a veritable river and we decided to wait when we saw the cars literally almost swimming down the street. The main street to get to our house was completely flooded... we went really slow and prayed we'd make it through okay - the water was probably at least a foot and a half high!!
I-70 had a mudslide that closed it down for about 4 hours, so my husband didn't get home until much later! Super crazy mountain weather!

Family Trips and getting back to life

We met family members at three different reunions last week - lotsa family!! It was fun and memorable, but always nice to get back to the cool mountains. Today we had a huge cloud burst that really cooled things down and was over in 3 minutes - it was fun while it lasted. The best news is that we have peas!! Our garden is producing well so far this year. We started to eat the first peas yesterday - they were divine! Someone commented that they were the candy of the garden - no wonder we like them so much! Our swiss chard is almost out of control, and the lettuce and radishes are almost going to seed as well. We've got to start giving stuff away. Our tomatoes all have flowers on them, but we really hope they'll hurry it up. I got up at 4:45 am today and went hiking. It's kind of fun with a head lamp cause you only see what's directly in front of you instead of watching ahead on the trail (add the increased fear of mountain lions and you've got some great adrenaline). We reached the top while I was still expecting several more twists and bends in the trail (yes - 'we' - there is actually someone crazy enough to go with me at that time of the day). Today I took the girls to play at the children's museum and in the water panning for gold again, and the girls actually found several nuggets. I'm not sure if they are authentic or not, it will be fun to see. Later we went to the library where a cellist played and did a story with music. The girls got to try to play a tiny cello and thought it was pretty neat - therefore pictures pending!

Pancake Picnic and park

Today we put pictures into a photo album, and then the girls decided they wanted to do something we'd done a couple of weeks ago. We made pancakes, took them upstairs and had a little breakfast picnic while watching a show together. My husband insisted that we go to the park to see the fireworks tonight. I didn't want to, but we did and it was pretty great. We met most of our previous branch there and some other friends came and met us. We didn't get home until after 11:30, and hope the girls will sleep late tomorrow! They really got a lot of good playing in!
Happy Fourth of July everyone. I am amazed and awed at the sacrifices made for the freedoms we have in our country. We will go to a ward breakfast party, then take naps and then do some all American Barbecuing. That's it for us for a couple of days.

I think I've figured this out!

So - after thinking about what to do with this blog all day, I think my main point will be to share some family pictures and try to keep people up to date.
Today - we cleaned the house. The girls have started to really have chores, and it's been an interesting learning curve to have our youngest cleaning the bathrooms and mopping, or in charge of all of the dishes. She's pretty independent, so I'm starting to plan much slower days! We put together 72 hour kits, and planted a ton of daisy and viola plants which a friend thinned out of her flower garden. I'll post a picture once we are sure they are going to make it!

Welcome to my blog!!

So - my sister in law has convinced me that I should begin to blog. She has also sworn to me that creativity is not a requisite for blogging. I must admit that I am slightly dubious - we'll see.
That said - I've never blogged before, but plan to use this as a spot to share our daily occurrences (that's ambitious - maybe weekly or monthly), thoughts, plans, dreams and maybe even keep in contact with people.
For those non spanish speakers (and readers) you may be wondering what exactly a 'rincon' is. First of all - it is pronounced 'reen, cone.' It's meaning is simple. It means a corner - as in my corner of the world, albeit small.
So - feel free to check in on what's going on in our corner, and also comment and keep in contact - and feedback too!