belt loops

All summer I have been nagging Luke to work on his scouting. He was not very happy with me about it, until last night. He earned lots of belt loops and his first few pins from the Weblos program. The smile on his face is priceless.


Julia and Lester were a big help in encouraging him to get everything done, and especially in earning his soccer belt loop. Tbey took him out several times to play.

After they had gotten their awards the 3 Webelos boys sat together opening them up. It looked like Christmas.

Guest Speakers

I love that people are willing to share their talents. During the summer we had several people come and talk to the Weblos scouts about their talents/share their knowledge.

In June Rocio helped the Weblos get their communications badge by sharing her talent for learning other languages. She grew up speaking spanish. Then in her early 20s she went on a mission to Canada. Within the first few months she learned both french and english.

In July Chelsea helped the boys earn their artist badge. She is majoring in art in college and talked with them about all the different careers an art major could go for. Then she did some art activities with them. If you ever need 10 year old boys to work quietly give them some paint and a brush. I'd never heard so much happy silcence as they were concentrating on their paintings.

In August - as in tonight, Lester helped the boys with their Readyman badge - teaching them about first-aid and CPR (Lester is studying to become an EMT). He was very prepared and knowledgeable, and patient as the boys all had something to say/some experience to share about every point he was making. I mean blood and wounds and how to pull a tick out of your skin is some of their favorite subjects. I kept thinking that Lester was working on these same cub scout badges a little over a decade ago, so he must understand them better than I ever will.

And, it dawned on me that in about another decade these boys may be asked to share their talents with a den of 10 year old scouts.

What a Weekend; Sunday: Happy 1st Anniversary!

To Lester and Julia. They celebrated by having several friends over, after church, to play cards and eat cake. With all of the weddings going on in my family (December will make 5 of my parent's grandaughters married within 16 months of each other) Julia and Lester have officially become old-timers. They are a great couple that illustrate how happy marriage can be.

What a Weekend! Saturday: Reggie's side

Saturday we attended a pool party/bbq at Reggie's Aunt's house. It was alot of food and alot of fun.






It was so fun to have a whole day of just hanging out and stregnthening those family ties: swimming, playing cards, etc.

The main event of the day was the pool basketball game. It was our sons-in-law, Lester and Andrew, verses Reggie's nephew's, Kyle, Blake and Trenton (high school kids). It was a knock down, drag out battle. They all came out of the pool with scratches and bruises and scraped feet. It was so fun to watch. Lester and Andrew did us proud.

What a Weekend! Friday: my side

This weekend was all about family. Hillary and Andrew came home Wednesday, just in time for all the fun.


Friday night we went to my niece's wedding-open house.





My brother, Lloyd, came from L.A. for the occasion and drove and took good care of my Dad. ( I am disppointed that I didn't get a picture of Lloyd, but here is my Dad with alot of his grandchildren and great grandchildren. Unfortunately Grandma was not feeling well enough to go.)


Luke had a great time running around with all of his cousins, and eating from the chocolate fountain.

Thank you Village!

Last night an old friend of the family called, out of the blue, to say he was in town and wondering if he could come see us. I said "sure - Hillary is here with her husband, Julia is here with her husband" etc. This sounded so strange to him because when he and his family lived in this area my girls were kids/teenagers. It was fun reminiscing about old times.

Today the 2 couples went across the bay to the temple together, and then on to visit the Bennings. Mike and Amy have seen my girls through alot. I mean my girls have always been good kids, but teenagers are teenagers - which means stress and worry for any adult involved in their lives. The Bennings probably prayed almost as hard as we did that the girls would make good decisions.

So I am sitting here thinking about all of the people that have been our "village" helping us raise our children. All the people that have taken an interest in them; planned youth activities and taken time off of work to go with them; made them feel optimistic about their futures; made them feel loved.

We appreciate it more than we can express.

goodbye to an amazing summer

I cannot BELIEVE that we had a wedding AND a vacation AND alot of family visitors all wrapped up into one summer. And to top it all off, I have been enjoying the last month working on cleaning projects by day and scrapbooking projects by night. My bed time has become 1 am, and then waking up around 9. How am I ever going to go back to work? How am I ever going to go back to the school year routine? I will have to go and read my old blog posts to remind me how much I love my job. I have to say, I am not the kind of women who needs to be out in the world to find fulfillment. I would be perfectly happy if my only occupation was that of a wife and mother. But, life has additional things in store for me, and I know that my family and I will be happy. If I can be as brave as Reggie, who goes to work everyday, and as brave as Hillary and Julia, who will be job hunting very soon, and as brave as Mariah, Samantha, Luke, Lester, Andrew, and all of the autistic children in my class who will be starting another school year, then I know that everything will be great!

HAPPY FALL EVERYBODY!

Dear Reggie, listen to #94 on our playlist. Love, Nancy

Hot Stuff!

My kids will roll their eyes, and say that this blog post is gross. But. Reggie is on a business trip to Arizona for almost 2 weeks, and I miss him! He has been telling me how unbelievably hot it is - over 100 degrees everyday outside, - and even hotter inside the building he is working in, as the air conditioning had not been installed the first few days he was there. Ironically, since he left, we have been having our typical summer fog. Its cold! Without my hot stuff - namely Reggie - I've resorted to turning the furnace on just to keep warm. He is my sunshine and I can't wait to have him home again!

Daddy's girl, Mama's boy

Have you noticed that the expression "Daddy's girl" is sweet and wonderful and a compliment to both, but the term "Mama"s boy" is a joke and an insult to mother and son? Well, I've noticed it and it bother's me! It seems especially that if a man had a good relationship with his mother growing up, everyone assumes that his poor wife will have a hard timeof it.

I guess I'm thinking about all of this because Luke is growing up. He will be 10 in a couple of months, and the fact is the more he grows the more I move into the background a little and Reggie movies to the forefront. And thats okay; thats how it should be. And to tell you the truth I am very happy to be in the background, or as far away as possible, when they start in on some of their male humor, or put on their super-hero movies. But I hope Luke never feels ashamed of (I won't say "being a Mama's boy") having a good relationship with me. And I hope that we remain having a good relationship, even through his teen years. I think I will probably get frustrated and bewildered, and Reggie will be able to step in and help me understand the male species a little better. All of our girls were
Daddy's girls", and yet I was able to help Reggie understand them a little better throughout their teen years.

Actually, maybe that is why there there is such a thing as Boy Scouts - to help the Mom stay relevant in the boy's life. Reggie always says that the Moms are really the ones who earn the Eagle scout award - by keeping their son organized, productive, and helping him every step of the way. I thought about that today as I was pitching the baseball to Luke, and hitting pop-ups for him to catch, so that he could earn his baseball belt-loop.

I just love that boy.

Happy 100th Birthday Lucy!

We are celebrating by having an I Love Lucy marathon - (yes, I do have every episode!) and making a heart-shaped cake for desert. I think everyone should do the same!

Giants game

Reggie, Samantha and Luke got to go to a Giants game tonight - which included seating in a luxury suite - courtesy of Reggie's aunt. They got a close view of Lincecum in the dugout and Wilson pictching, and they weren't too fazed about the fight that broke out on the field during the game. It was a fun, memorable night! Go Giants!

going home

The day after Julia's graduation we headed home together - Julia and Lester in their truck, Samantha Luke and I in our van. We got to Well's Nevada and decided to stop for lunch. When we were getting in the van to get back on the road, a man came up to me, out of nowhere it seemed, and said that he hoped I wasn't going very far, because the left front tire looked pretty bad. He said he would put the spare on for me. I motioned for Lester to come over quick - I felt safer letting that guy know that there was a man with me. Turns out there was a tire/auto body shop across the parking lot, and the guy worked there. The whole thing seemed a little suspect; I mean, maybe he was being a good Samaritan, or maybe he was watching cars passing by, trying to get some business. Anyway, I asked him how much he would charge to put on the spare, and how far he thought I could get on the it. He said "lets go over to the shop and get your van up, and I'll take a good look at it". Then he started telling me what was wrong with every tire. He said he could replace them all at one hundred and seventy-five dollars each. Ha! Well, that wasn't going to happen. Lester agreed that the one front tire looked a little worn, so I considered having the guy replace just that one. I called Reggie for his advice. He said that it sounded a little suspicious to him, but that maybe I should get the one tire replaced. He also said that he knew that there was a big Walmart in Elko, about 50 miles away, and that we could certainly get a much better deal there. Since I knew that Lester could help me if the tire didn't make it to Elko I decided it was worth the try. We made it to Elko just fine.

Before we left for this whole trip I had the car checked out, and I knew that we'd be needing new tires once we got home. Walmart had such a good price on the tires - $84 each (instead of the $175 each!) that we decided to just get them all replaced then and there. There was a bit of a wait, and so they told me it would take several hours to get it done. I encouraged Lester and Julia to keep heading home, and that we would be fine. They were reluctant to leave without us, but they had some commitments on Monday; so after treating us to some ice cream, they went on.

So how would you spend 3 hours in a Walmart with your children? Seemed like the perfect opportunity to do some back to school shopping. Walmart has such good prices on things that I even did some early Christmas shopping as well. That took a good couple of hours. We also had a tasty Walmart meal of popcorn chicken and fries, and we watched some of the movie "Rango" that they were showing in their t.v. section.

Finally, by 7pm the van was done. Unfortunately my bank felt there was alot of "unusual" activity going on with my card, so when I went to pay for the tires my card was "frozen". I was worried that we'd be sleeping in the Walmart that night. Luckily, after a frantic call from me to Reggie, he was able to make some phone calls and get it all worked out. We were on the road by 7:30. Reggie also reserved us a room at our favorite motel in Battle Mountain, which was another half hour away.

Five minutes after we checked in we were at the pool. One last night of vacation; one last time in a motel with a swimming pool. It was all SO much fun, but we were ready to get home.

It was SUCH a great, unforgettable trip, and I do feel so rejuvinated. I am happy to be home and back to my routine, of taking care of this house and this family. And most of all, happy to be back home to Reggie. I am so grateful to him for all the overtime he put in to make this trip possible; grateful to him for encouraging us to have a vacation, even though he couldn't. I am a very lucky person.

p.s. Once we got home Reggie looked up the tires and said we got a better deal than we had thought; better price and better warranty than what we would have gotten at Costco (we don't have a Walmart near us). What a blessing.

The Graduate

We are so proud of Julia! She has earned her Bachelor's degree - which took alot of hard work - and is now ready to take on the world! We are so blessed to have been able to share this day with her.



Lester is getting ready for his graduation next year.

Rexburg Rapids

This place opened only a couple of weeks before we got there. It was alot of fun.

Rexburg, Idaho

After 3 days in Utah we headed up to Idaho for Julia's graduation. The 4 hour drive was pleasant although I saw so many places that I wanted to stop, but didn't have the time; like a trading post on the Indian Reservation we passed through, the water falls in Idaho Falls, a potatoe museum, and Rigby Lake. We did stop in Pocatello and walked by the house that used to belong to my grandparents; brought back alot of memories.

Once getting to Rexburg Julia showed us all around the campus. Boy is it bigger than when I went there! New buildings all over the place, and more in construction.




And of course, the whole town is made up of student housing. Julia and Lester lived in a married student housing complex just above where I used to live, in Dorm 2.

(JULIA AND LESTER'S APARTMENT)



(Look Sheryl! It's our dorm! Other than painting the door it looks just the same.)




Julia and Lester also lived just down the street from the temple. It is beautiful.


And I had to get a picture of the wheat field across from the temple. I am still trying to convince Reggie that we need to move to Idaho and become farmers. He's not buying it. I admit, I would miss the ocean. But another one of my favorite childhood memories is visiting Aunt Dorothy and family on the farm.