What a couple of Month's it has been!

We are finally winding down on our trek season. I have one more week of heavy sewing and then it backs off drastically from there. I haven't had much time to update the world. So here it goes. Mary finished school. She is now officially a 2nd Grader. She got up this morning and said that she couldn't wait for her birthday because then she would be accountable and know right from wrong. We had yet another discussion about the fact that you just don't wake up one morning and know how to choose the right. You have to practice making choices every day.

About a month ago, after yet another screaming session of doing Mary's hair, I made an appointment with the local shop to have her hair cut. She fought me all the way but after it was done, she loved how not tangled it was. It is now a chin length bob and it is very cute. Now she does her hair almost constantly. Just before the hair cut she decided that it was time for her bangs to be cut so once again she cut her own hair. She cut them off right at the roots. Her hair might look normal for the beginning of school.

Business has been very busy. We have been sewing about 12 hours every day for a couple of months. To make matters worse, I'm not adjusting well to the earlier ship times so we have had to make rush trips to Salt Lake to make shipments at the airport on the average of twice a week. Hopefully next year will be better.

Our house looks like we are either moving in or out. Can't really tell which. I have been so busy that the unpacking just hasn't happened. I'm hoping that now that it is slowing down, I'll be able to finish putting the house together before the end of the first week of August.

In June, my heart flipped out. I spent 2 weeks in atrial fibrillation (a-fib). The doctors told me that because they have eliminated the stroke factor with the blood thinner, that the rest of a-fib is more or less just a nuisance. It makes me really tired; my resting heart rate was 140. Finally after they gave me a medicine to reduce my heart rate, my heart started beating normally again about 2 weeks later. The really bad part of it is that Mary will not go anywhere without me. She goes with me to Relief Society and Sunday School which is really the only place I go lately. She used to spend my sister's days off with her, but now she won't because she is worried that something will happen to me if she isn't around. I don't know how to help her out of this. We need to figure out a solution before school starts because I don't really want to go to 2nd grade.

One advantage to living so close to my parents is that we go to their house for lunch every day. My sister prepares ultra healthy food for my mom and dad so we get at least one healthy meal every day. Other advantages include that my dad mows my lawn and my mom doesn't have to drive 2 hours just because she's worried about us. We really like the small town living.

Mary had a great time on the 4th of July. We went to a neighbors house to watch the parade because our house isn't on the parade route. Almost every entry in this parade throws candy. Then after the parade the kids all head to the park where the firetruck soaks them with the hose. The rodeo grounds are right across the street from us which is where they light the fireworks so almost without my knowing, Mary set up a family BBQ to watch the fireworks. Someone in the family let me know that she had invited them, by asking what they could bring. She is definitely her daddy's little girl. He always wanted to have a group over for some reason or another and I was always the stick in the mud. We have a fire pit in our back yard. We had some very expertly roasted marshmallows courtesy of my nephew's girlfriend. Yum! The fireworks were great too. Front row seats and we didn't have to fight traffic afterwards.

When Earl passed away, I promised the Gillmore's that I would make sure that we made one trip a year to Seattle. We are going for 12 days in August. Returning on Mary's birthday. At first she wasn't very excited about that but then Grandma told her that it would be like having a birthday party on the plane. Now she can't wait and I hope Grandma's right. Mary starts school on August 20th so we have to be back in time for school.

My calling in the ward is "Audio Specialist" We have several older members that can't get out to church so we record Relief Society and Sacrament meeting with a Digital Voice Recorder, then I take them a transfer the recordings to CD's and deliver them to the home bound visiting teacher who makes weekly visits to these sisters. What a cool church we belong to. Always taking care of everyone.

I miss Earl every day. Today we had a pioneer centered program partly because of Pioneer Day coming up and partly because the stake just got back from trek. One of the sisters spoke about how she felt like those that had passed through that way in the 19th century were helping them reenact the trek. I think Earl probably is in that group. I can't imagine that he would be anywhere else but teaching others about the pioneers.