Ingredients for a Perfect Afternoon

One river moving @ medium-fast speed

One ride up the canyon from a friend's dad

Four tubes with plenty of air

Four friends looking for a good time

Simply place tubes in moving river, jump on, and enjoy the ride!!!

Watch out for those rocks!!!

Three Words: RO - DE - O!!!

I look forward to the Pioneer Days Rodeo all year!

Where they still pray, in Jesus' name.

There are Cowboys and Cowgirls,

Broncs and Bulls,

Clowns and Fireworks,

(Notice I said "clowns.")

and a whole lot of Patriotic Pride!!!

These soldiers that you can make out in the arena below were two guests of great honor at the rodeo. Both are from Utah, and both served in Iraq recently. They are some of America's finest...special forces.

They do their job with the utmost precision and accuracy...hunting down the world's most wanted terrorists and putting a big zer-O on the back of the world's most wanted terrorist! That's right. These are the two men who took out Osama bin Laden!!!

And the crowd goes WILD!!!

What's not to love?

The Last Three Weeks: Utah

Here are the pictures from my family's visit @ the beginning of the summer...promised about a month ago. The summer is just not conducive to going inside and sitting down at a computer.

In the first week, I was so happy to have my family visit from Indiana.

Dad, Sandy, and Lindsey made the lo-o-o-o-ong drive out to Utah.

It was SO good to see them and spend some time with them.

We hiked up to a waterfall,

visited Park City, UT, looked at a lot of houses (not in PC ;-),

and enjoyed good food!

Well, Well, Well

After of three months of helter-skelter school work, three weeks of go-go-go vacationing, and three days of load-after-load of laundry, I finally have a few moments to sit down at my computer, upload & edit some pictures, and BLOG!

I dropped Lindsey off at the airport about 2 hours ago, and that marks the official end of vacation time. Now, it's hi-ho, hi-ho & off to work I go!

As time permits, I will be uploading pictures & video from our many adventures.

Let the summer begin!

God Did It!

Of the three bus routes run by our church, ours is the "bottom of the totem pole" so to speak. So, we have been "stuck" with using a 15-passenger van for the last several years. We are thankful for that, but our prayer has been for an actual BUS!

The kids that ride with us have been praying with us, as well. Even my grandparents have been praying for this situation. (Praise the Lord for a 'goodly heritage!')

Every now and then, the bus kids will ask, "When is the bus coming?"

On Saturday, Pop (my grandpa) asked if we had a new bus yet.

At that point, the answer was still, "Not yet, but hopefully soon!"

Then on Sunday evening, out of the blue, Pastor announced that we had a BUS right out in the parking lot!

A BUS!!! A real, true-to-life BUS to pick up kids for church!

Whoopee!!! What an answer to prayer!!! Nana (my grandma) said, "We were praying for it the other day, and I thought to myself, 'This is an awful big BUS we're praying for.'"

And there it is! Nana also said that we should put a flag on it that reads, "God did it!"

Praise the Lord! God did it!

Just Because...

Ahh! Time flies! So, I thought I'd share a little fact sheet, as that's about all I've got at this time of the year.

1. I have a new phone number, if anyone is wondering why my old number no longer works. (Email if you don't have the new number.) RING - RING!

2. We just finished a very long and tiring bus push, but we're praising the Lord that it was a profitable push, as well. We were blessed to break a record for our route and to meet quite a few new families to work with over the summer. What a blessing!!! AMEN!

3. I've been studying, making tests, and grading papers galore! UGH!

4. School is almost done for us...in three days, to be exact. WHOOPEEEEE!!!!!

5. Finally back to running. After a couple of ice skating injuries, I've been hobbling around like an old lady. Now, they have just about healed up, and I'm back on the road...losing weight, picking up speed, and feeling... GREAT!

6. Still working on buying a house. SCARY!

7. My family is coming to visit...in eight days. FINALLY!

8. Spring/Summer has finally come. Seemed like it would NEVER get here. It's still waffling back-and-forth a bit, but you can feel summer. It reminds me of the little couplet my mom used to say, "Spring is sprung, the grass is riz', I wonder where the flowers is."

That's about the extent of it. Have a great day!

A New Church Bus

Our church is looking to buy another bus. This is especially good news, as the van route that I am on is in desperate need of additional seats on Sunday mornings.

While searching for pictures on the internet, I came across an option for our "bus search," to make sure to do it right, you know.

Any advice?!?