Cutest Bags Ever!

Every ward does things differently and this is no exception. I really like some of the traditions I inherited as a Seminary teacher and have gotten really good advice to get things to work I could never get to work the last time I did this. One of the things this ward (stake, really) does is to hold Seminary by high school. The students from two public high schools and a private high school all meet in our building every morning and then head straight to school from there. It gives us a really good critical mass to work with. Another thing I really like is that the students have bags for their scriptures, scripture mastery cards, folders, living journals, etc. Normally we buy the mesh laundry bags but they're not very attractive and get ratty looking kind of fast since they're white. I decided for my class of Freshman this year I would make denim bags for their things. They ended up costing about the same (not counting the supplies I already had on hand) and turned out WAY cuter. The other benefit is I hope they'll last all four years.

I found the camera!

Since Summer had so many activities these last few months, I had loaned her my camera and she took tons of pictures but then the camera went missing and (until I had a desperate need) I couldn't find it. (Funny how that happens.) Now I have it back I can update a few things...

First of all, Summer went to Kirtland for Youth Conference the day school got out. She roomed with one of our favorite people, Christina...

...saw wonderful things

...felt even more amazing things...

and got to spend some time with another of our favorite people, Rachel!

What a great trip! Especially before she begins her study of the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History this year in Seminary. WOW!

The 4th (sort of)

On July 5th, we were blessed to have Russell and Marion Pack in our home for dinner. They were called to serve a mission here in the Washington DC Visitor's Center and had been here about ten days when I was able to see them at the Visitor's Center and invite them over. How sweet of them to give up some of their precious free time to spend with us!

Of course, being the 4th of July celebration, it was too hot to breathe outside so we enjoyed our air conditioning and talked about doing something special next year (if the weather cooperates).

Ready to move (again)

We spent a few days in Rhode Island this past week and fell in love with it! The weather was perfect, the scenery gorgeous and the mixture of old and new delightful. Mario had a meeting with his Santa Maria crowd and Summer wanted to check out Brown University so we all piled in the car and headed north.

We stayed just outside of Providence so we could get to Brown's information session early the next day.

We were able to go on a campus tour and get all our questions answered. Summer is ready to attend.

The campus is a nice mixture of older and newer buildings and is full of greens and trees. Her favorite part is how students design their own educational programs.

On Saturday we left Mario to his meetings and went to visit the children's museum in Providence. We had a great time and kept thinking that Sabrina would have loved it!

In the afternoon, we drove down to Jamestown to drop Mario off at another meeting and we drove over to Newport. We are officially in love and ready to move there.

This looks like a good place. We'll take it!

I Heard What You Didn't Say

Many years ago I read an article entitled, "I Heard What You Didn't Say." It was about communication, especially between couples and family members who share a history. For example, a husband and wife are seated in a restaurant and the wife says, "The fish looks good." Innocuous, right? But the husband throws his menu down on the table and storms out. His wife has been nagging him for years to stop eating red meat and to lose weight so he interprets her remark as yet another attempt to change his behavior. In other words, he heard what she didn't say. I have since thought of this communication between close friends and family to be fraught with innuendo and double meanings and have many times wished that amnesia protected me from hearing what (I assume) they didn't say.

At the end of last month when I finally got around to preparing my visiting teaching message (because, heaven forbid I get it done one week earlier than required!) I remembered it was May and, therefore, the message was to be taken from the conference talks. Before picking up the magazine, I started to think back over what I remembered hearing and Elder Nelson's talk jumped out at me--the one about Dear Ruby and family history. I recalled that during his talk I had written two goals down in my journal: 1) to write my personal history and 2) to write a family history for the Perez family. I even had the idea that it would be great for all the adults in my family to write their personal histories and exchange them for Christmas. I assumed I had taken note of what Elder Nelson said but, when I went back and read the talk so I could present it to my sisters, I discovered that he didn't say any such thing.

I have frequently taught the importance of going to General Conference with questions. I have even told stories of people who have received answers to problems they have struggled with for years during General Conference but this is the first time I can remember it specifically happening for me. Thank heaven we are sometimes allowed to "hear what they didn't say"!