shooting stars and other wonders

Glen and I have been walking in the early morning for a month now. Last week for 3 days in a row Glen said that he saw a shooting star. I decided that instead of looking down, I needed to look up. Sure enough on that next morning I saw one. The next day I saw 3. Today I saw 7. I don't know why it is such a thrill to me to see them, but it is. I marvel every time.

Alex earned his Arrow of Light award and received it at Pack Meeting on Wednesday night. Very proud of him (and very grateful that Bro. Sommer is such a dedicated den leader). It is the only award that they can earn as cub scouts that carries over to their Boy Scout uniform. Alex will become a boy scout in 10 days...when he turns 11. Big excitement.

My camera broke while we were in Illinois in July. I will finally be getting it back next week. It's been weird not having it...have you noticed the lack of photos on my blog posts?

I've been working on family history again. How wonderful it is to be able to search census (and other records) on line. I remember going to the family history library in Salt Lake and searching films. Computers are such a blessing. I've been filling in info on my New York cousins. Great fun.

A few weeks ago in Stake Conference one of the speakers, Sister Knight (assistant matron in the Reno temple), talked about one of her husband's ancestors who lived in Scituate, Massachusetts. Last week I saw her at the temple and was able to tell her that I lived in Scituate for 3 1/2 years. Turns out Scituate is the only town that both she and her husband had ancestors who used to live there. They have been there and said they had the best historical society. For some weird reason, I mentioned that I lived on Captain Pearce road...to which Sis Knight replied that Captain Pearce was one of her ancestors. Doesn't really mean anything, but for some reason stuff like that makes me feel happy.

The tennis season ended for my children yesterday. Glen and I actually went to see Hannah play for a few minutes on Tuesday because the coach called and told us Hannah was playing. But Hannah didn't want us there and shooed us away. Yesterday it was brought to my attention that I hadn't been to any of Ryan's matches (and he won one of his doubles yesterday) and now it's too late. I think, knowing that Hannah didn't want me there, I projected that onto Ryan. Bummer because he's a senior and won't be on the team next year. Silly me. But how wonderful that Hannah and Ryan got to be on the tennis team.

Andrew is keeping busy (socially and educationally it sounds) at BYU. His calling at church is that he is the FHE Dad for his group.

Eric is keeping pretty busy too. For some reason I mainly see him working on his personal finance homework. 

And my last wonder for today. We bought a laptop. Six people using 1 computer was a little much at times, though I'm really surprised at how well it has worked out. But now we have another...so we can hook it up to our TV and watch General Conference this weekend without having to crowd around the computer in the office. Can't wait for General Conference. One of the best weekends of the year.

the last few weeks

Andrew--tried out for the BYU comedy troupe Divine Comedy. There were 120 who tried out and only 20 made it to the semi-finals. Andrew was one of the 20! Alas, he did not make it into the final round of 6, but we are super-thrilled that he made it as far as he did.

Click here to see some of Divine Comedy's work (http://www.divinecomedy.net/videos/)

Having 3 English classes, he says he spends a lot of time reading.

Eric--Eric says he has nothing to report at this time (actually when I asked him what I could put on the blog, he mumbled something and I don't know how to spell it but it was something like 'mpbuthhtmp').

Ryan--took the ACT. He is enjoying being on the tennis team (season's almost over). He is about to start piano lessons (after years of asking he finally gets to have some!).

Hannah--is now the school board rep for the schools (taking over Ryan's spot from last year) which means she reports once a month at the school board meetings on the activities of our schools. She is also enjoying being on the tennis team. She and Jamee won their doubles match on Tuesday in Incline Village (6-2)! She will be in the cast of the fall musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Alex--is a 5th grader who goes with a classmate to 6th grade math. He has about 3 weeks to go before his 11th birthday, when he'll leave cub scouts behind and become a boy scout. He has almost finished his arrow of light award requirements. He'll be our first boy to earn that award. He's also enjoying his piano lessons.

Glen--has had a change in the title of his church calling, though not in his duties. He is now the 1st counselor in the Stake Young Men's Presidency instead of the 2nd. He will continue working in the scouting program as his main duty. He is working on designing and building the set for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which will be performed in November.

Beth--I am into listening to books on tape while cleaning and driving (youth fiction seems the safest bet and is a lot of fun) and busy working on family history. My family history blog will have its first anniversary on September 23rd. I thought I was going to do just one more post, but now feel like I need to keep going. I am currently filling in some dates and perhaps finding some unknown children that were born and died in between census years.

So, life continues as usual. A few fun things happening, but a lot of the same routine going on as well.