Oh dear, I am dreadfully behind..This was a few weeks ago when we were getting ready for couples bunko in the back yard.   Kelley and KC sure worked hard to get the chicken coop finished and the yard in shape. Rick came over and replaced the broken lights in the rock garden.  He is a peach. 

KC power washed everything  and helped me with the tables and chairs. Kelley helped me with the food...made wonderful salsa and grilled the chicken. They are just the best!

Then Candice came over and helped me get all the food prepared and ready to serve.  We did Cafe Rio kind of salads.  There was kind of a lot to putting them together, but they were yummy!.

We had a nice evening...the weather was perfect,  KC was a good sport and substituted with Candice  for Jane and Sheri.  It was fun to have them.   They ended up winning the bunko prize! 

  

 KC took apart the swing set.  It was kind of hard because the wood had shrunk around the bolts so you couldn't get a wrench in there to unscrew the bolts.

Kelley came up and just kind of folded the boards up.

We had been trying to get the water in the pond to clear up,  it had gone pretty murky since we had to turn the waterfall off and get rid of the wasps.  We had been using the pond sweetener faithfully, but didn't really see much improvement.  The guy at the pond store gave me all these water plants that he said would for sure do the trick.  They look good, but didn't clean up the water.  So we decided to empty the pond and put clean water in.  Kelley hooked a big hose up by the pump and got the water draining out.  It got down below the pump and we thought we had better stop there so we didn't hurt any fish.  So then we filled it back up again.  We couldn't really tell what it was looking like because we were doing this in the night,  but when we went out in the morning,  it was still pretty cloudy.    Not a lot we could do at that point. 

There are about 50 new little fish in the pond now.  When we first noticed them, they were tiny black ones.  Now they have got to be about two inches and have turned orange. There is also one of the older fish that has gotten so fat it can't hardly move anymore.  I really don't know how it hasn't exploded.  We thought it was pregnant for a while, but that has been since the spring and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  I'm going to try to get a picture of it.  It is pretty freaky.  I was talking to  the guy at the pond store about it and he said it must have a tumor.  He said to check it's fins to see if they are ragged or beat up looking.  He said that is a sign that it is really sick.  I don't really think I can get close enough to it to check it's fins...I feel bad for it, but what do you do?   

The guy at the pond store keeps telling me that the murky pond is the best situation for the fish.  He said they love all the green stuff that makes the pond look dirty, and if we wanted our fish to spawn, we should leave it alone. Then he gives me a science lecture about the biological make up of the pond.   Ha!  He is a real nature nut!  I told him our fish were spawning just fine, and I wanted a nice clean pond.  He said, well, OK,  If you got to...put a cup of this stuff in the pond each day and it will clear it up..  I think he sabotaged our pond sweetener because it really hasn't cleared up much at all.  It looks so pretty though.  I love to sit outside and listen to the waterfall and the flowers are all blooming so pretty now. I sure do love the summer months!  

So today I stepped way out of my comfort zone...so far from it, I wasn't even on the same planet.
A few days ago, I got a call from Nancy, telling me about how she had been talking to someone who was in this singing group called Salt Lake Choral Artists and they said they really liked it.They said auditions were coming up and to give it a try.  I was just like.....hmmmmmm. no.  I don't sing that well.  Then she assured me that they didn't want any stand out voices...just ones that could blend with others.  I can blend.
So I went online to sign up and get an audition time.  They had me coming in at 8:30 Thursday. evening.  That was fine!  Then I got a call from Nancy the next day saying she had heard from the audition scheduler that he needed to move all the late appointments up to early afternoon.  This was not OK.  I had been planning for over a month  and was very much looking forward to getting together with my sisters on Thursday. So I figured it must be a sign and I shouldn't be trying out. ( I was seriously having diarrhea just from the anxiety of thinking about doing this anyway so I was relieved) 
Then I got to thinking about it and remembered a few years ago when I promised myself that when an opportunity came along that would help me grow, I would do it!  I thought...don't be a wimp...You can do this!  and seriously, what did I have to lose.  So I got the audition schedulers phone number and called and said I would still like to audition if there was another time I could come.They were super nice and said I could come at 6:30 or 7:00 and they would still be there. 
So now I needed to find a song to sing.  They said I could do anything...a hymn, folk song, popular song, whatever.  I went over a bunch of songs and felt pretty good about "In the garden".  It's always been one of my favorites.  I like to listen to the CD Angie made and sing along ...I always get emotional when I sing that one or 'Home" though, because that's what we sang at mum's funeral.  but I thought...yeah!  I can sing that one! 
Then this morning while I was waiting for my sisters to get here, I thought I would run over it without the CD.  Oh dear, I don't sound very good without my sisters!  All the beautiful harmony is what makes it sound good!   But it was kind of late to be thinking of a new song, so I just decided to go for it.
I had just the best day with my sisters.  They got here about 10:30...(how nice to have them come clear to my house)  We visited for a while, then got  busy planning the family reunion.  We decided we just wanted it to be a fun time for everybody, so we thought about going up in the mountains or to a lake.  We decided Pine view was about in the middle for all of us, so I got online and  found their website to reserve a camp ground.  It came up and said that wasn't going to work, so I called a phone number it had listed to make a reservation.  I got on the phone with probably the dumbest man alive.  I told him what we wanted to do and he kept saying "Now where do you want to go...Pinewood?  I was like NO!  Pine view reservoir...up Ogden canyon. He said...I can't find anything listed under that name...I don't think there is a place with that name.  This was after waiting at least 20 minutes for him to try to bring it up on his computer...then he said he wanted to try to bring it up on his phone.  Oh. my. goodness!.    My sisters could hear him on the phone and by this time, we were just laughing at him.  Yup...there really is a place called pine view.  wow.  I was just ready to tell him to forget it and he says " OH here it is!  really?  He said, " I cant really make a reservation for you though.  ( really?  this is the number listed under campsite reservations)   He said he had found a direct number to Anderson Cove...(a camp area at pine view) and he would  give that to me. I called that number and talked to a lady who told me all about what was available.  She said it was first come first serve though, so we need to get there early.    We thought it would be fun if Kelley could take the boat there and have everyone fish and have rides.  We planned what we would do for lunch and some other things we wanted to do. I am excited about starting our own new family traditions! 
Then we started watching the VHS movie we had made years ago of all mum and daddy's super 8 movies they had taken.  We had found a bag of movies when we were cleaning everything out that had not been put on the video, so we wanted to watch the old video to see which ones were on it so we didn't duplicate when we made a CD of all the movies.
  It was so fun to watch these old movies!   We decided once again that we truly did  have a charmed childhood.   How blessed we were to have been raised by amazing parents in a home filled with love and laughter. 
We sat there and watched and laughed and remembered.  Before we knew it, it was after 2:00.  We ran over to Cafe Rio and had lunch, then came back and tried to get the projector going so we could watch some of the super 8 movies.  Oh man, I couldn't remember how I had done it before.  We got out the manual and went step by step...still not working.  Then Leslie saw a slot we were supposed to get the film in that we had been missing. Then it worked like a charm.  We watched several movies, then all the sudden, it  wouldn't rewind.  I tried everything, but it wouldn't go.  Now when I even tried to play them forward, it wouldn't work. I don't know what happened, but it wasn't working.  We decided to see if Larry W. could look at it and see if it's fixable. 
It  was getting late, so my sisters headed for home.  It was sure nice to spend the day with them again.  I have really missed them.
I was surely having an anxiety attack thinking about this audition, so when Kelley and Kc got home, they gave me a blessing.  He blessed me that I would be able to sing like I never had before.  This could be either very good or very bad.  HA!  Either way, I felt a lot more at ease, and not so worried about it.
I got to the church where they were doing the  auditions...( a very cool old church down town that looks like a castle) and there were about 10 guys riding skate boards out in front of the building.  I went to the wrong door, and one said "I think this is where you go in"...then he went and opened the door for me.  As I went in he said "good luck...whatever your doing!"  Surprising and nice!
I walked down stairs and into a big room with a piano and a woman and a man sitting there very engrossed in conversation.  I stood there and waited till they finished their conversation, then walked in.  I told them who I was and the lady introduced herself, Jane, and the guy Brady ( he is the director of the choir)  We talked for a few minutes, then he said he wanted to find out what my range was.  He had me doing scales in some interesting and different ways I had done before.  They listened  and gave me tips on breathing and making  a bigger sound than I had ever made before.  I am not a loud singer, but what he had me doing, really made a big difference! I was kind of surprised at what was coming out of my mouth!  After they figured what my range was, he asked me what I had prepared to sing.  I told them 'In the Garden"  Jane said " I love that song.  That made me feel better!  I had him hit an A for me and I went for it.  I got a little emotional at first... it sounded so quiet without my sisters, but I kept going and it got better.   When I got done, He said, ' I think you are really going to enjoy this choir.!  Ha!  I wanted to kiss him!
He had me sight read a line of music and that seemed pretty easy. Then just like that, it was over.  He said to fax my audition form to them and they would be in touch with me.  I was just floating out of there!  I am so excited about it... glad I didn't give in to my fears and anxiety.This dream was plenty big enough.

It's been a wild month....not so that you would notice...it's mostly just been wild inside my head.
On July 15th I was called to be the new Young Women's president.  I was totally surprised,  ( Kelley has known quite a while...pretty much best secret keeper ever!) but when Bishop Blake asked me, a calm peaceful feeling came over me and I knew that was where I was supposed to be right now.
We were just getting ready to head to Newport, so  Bishop Blake told me to take the next few weeks and prayerfully choose my counselors.  The first people that came to my mind were Stacey and Bonnie Scharman.  But Stacey was in the Relief Society presidency, so I put that thought aside and tucked a ward directory in my purse to go over while we were on vacation. There are a lot of dear ladies in our ward, but as I went over each name, some reason would pop in my mind why they wouldn't be able to do it.  I kept coming back to Stacey's name.  When the Bishop called me, he said I could have anyone I wanted, but I didn't want to mess with the Relief Society presidency.  They are each such amazing ladies and have a great unity and love for each other and all the ladies in the ward. Stacey has done a wonderful job in Relief Society... and I knew that she loved it.
So once again, I tried to put that thought out of my mind.  I had been praying and asking for help and guidance, but it seemed like when I would go over the sisters names in the directory, I would just have a stupor of thought.
Around the middle of the week, Kelley asked me how I was doing on picking my counselors.  I told him what was going on in my head.  He said, "I'll text the Bishop and see what he thinks about it."
So the next day, Kelley gets a text back from the Bishop saying he had been out walking and had run into Tina ( RS president who is also a dear friend of mine) and had mentioned to her that I had been thinking about Stacey.  He said that Tina told him she would be sad to lose Stacey, but knew that she would be awesome in YW.
I felt a little weird that Bishop had asked Tina, because I had not really decided yet.  Then the next day, Kelley gets a text from Rick, who was wondering what Stacey's new calling was going to be!  Ahhhhhhh This is not how it's supposed to go!  I was freaking out and wishing I had kept everything to myself.  Not a lot I could do about it from California, so Kelley text the bishop back and said "Paula has not decided yet!"
Now I was completely confused, but tried to enjoy the rest of our vacation. I decided to just put it in the Lord's hands now. Then on the way home, I was thumbing through face book and came across a post from Emily Randall to Stacey.  She was thanking her for the great influence she had had on her as a young women leader years ago, as she was now being called to be a young women leader herself.  Those words jumped off the page like HELLO!!! Can I say it any clearer?
So the next morning, I met with the bishop and gave him Stacey and Bonnie's names.
There were lots of tears as the next few days played out.  Stacey wondering why she was having to leave this presidency she loved, Tina's sadness of losing her, and me, second guessing myself because all of the pain I was causing them. 
Stacey came over and I tried to explain why I did what I did,   She was very kind and said she had received a confirmation that this is where she is supposed to be.  She told me not to second guess myself... and reminded me of the scripture in the D & C that says something like..."Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter?...what greater witness can you have?"
As I thought over the past few weeks, I realized how many times I had had peace spoken to my mind, but had fought with it.  Man, I just gotta do it the hard way!
When I got to church this morning, Shirley (organist) greeted me with her sweet, laid back way..."How you doing?"   I guess I must have hesitated a bit before I said " I'm good" and she could see I was a little bit flustered. Without knowing what was happening to me that day, she gave me some great advice..."Just go forward and have faith!  don't think about things too much...we make ourselves crazy!"  Gosh I love her!
So this morning, I led the music for the last time...Can't really say I'm going to miss it..I never got to where I felt comfortable up there.  I did enjoy looking out over the congregation each week though and seeing these good people smiling back at me.
I couldn't really hold it together as we sang " I need Thee-Oh I need Thee...every hour I need Thee, Oh bless me now My Savior, I come to Thee!" 
As the bishop read our names and asked for a sustaining vote, I looked out over the congregation and  felt the love and support of our dear ward members.
After Sacrament meeting, everyone was so kind and wished me congratulations and  their support in my new calling. It was sure nice to hear from some of the young women's moms that they were happy with the new presidency.
 I talked with Colleen ( old YW pres.) and she gave me all her books and keys and showed me what was in the closet.  She was having a pretty hard time and I think went home after we talked.  We were all set apart and I sure received a beautiful blessing from the Bishop.  It's funny how that changes things and suddenly, you feel the responsibility as that mantle is placed upon you.
When we went into Young Women's, we were greeted warmly by all the girls. We invited Jenni and Cindy ( old counselors) to come in and bear their testimonies.  They are pretty special ladies.   We asked each of the girls to tell us a little bit about their selves...  wow! these are super talented amazingly strong young women!  I think they are going to be the ones teaching me!
The new presidency told a little about ourselves and it looks like we have a lot in common.  Besides enjoying a lot of the same things, we all have spent the majority of our grown up lives in Young Women and have a deeply embedded love for the program and the girls.
I had brought  a little dessert for us and walked down to the kitchen with Cindy to get the cake out of the freezer.  She told me that our presidency was just what the girls needed right now...they just need to be loved.  That meant a lot to me.
Stacey helped the girls write a creed for our Young Women group...they listed all the things they want our young women to be. It was pretty cool to see the girls desire to do what is right.
I don't like change, but as I was bearing my testimony,  I heard myself thanking the Lord  for the changes and challenges that have come into my life...cause that's what helps me grow. .Bishop said twice in my blessing that the Lord knows my heart and what I need in my life.  I think from now on, I'll remember that and let him lead the way.

Kelley took me to a fun pot store Saturday afternoon.  It's out south on State Street and kind of hidden.  It was fun to walk around and see all the cute things they have...and I got a lovely pot!

Kelley has been working on the pond, trying to get it put back together without any leaks.  Couldn't remember quite how it was before, so we made up a new waterfall.  Kelley is sure patient while I'm saying..."I think that big rock would look better over there...") Anyway, it turned out real nice!  Thanks to Rick for helping out too!

Putting the truck in the garage...not as easy as it sounds.  First we had to make a spot for it....which spot was packed with all the wonderful things I brought home from mum and daddy's place!  So first we organized the upstairs in the garage...took a load of stuff to the dump ( first time I had been there...very stinky and interesting!)  then moved all the things from downstairs upstairs.  Cleaned up the spot for the truck...then pushed it in there. KC's friends were over so they helped Kelley push while I steered.  It was very hot in the truck and it was quite a workout turning that steering wheel.  I came out drenched, but pleased with my backing skills.  My sisters wouldn't believe I could back up after watching me try to back out of mum's driveway, (that's a whole (very funny) other story) but when it comes to parallel parking or maneuvering into a tight spot, I'm not too bad!

We stopped at the Home Depot on the way home and picked up some mulchy stuff for the rock garden.  Kelley throws those bags of mulch like they are nothing. 

Kelley and KC were chopping the rest of the wood and I was helping them haul it over to the wood pile and stack it there.  KC had come over to help me unload a wheel barrow  full and we were talking and laughing.  Next thing I know there is this stabbing pain in my toe.  I didn't see it coming, but a log had dropped off the top of the pile and landed right on my toe.  I was laughing, crying...thinking it had just got  a good smack, waiting for the pain to subside, but it kept hurting really bad.  KC was really sweet..."it's really cut mom...I'm so sorry that happened...lets sit you down"  and he helped me over to the chair to sit down.  Kelley saw I was hurt and came right over to help.  He ran in the house and got a ice pack to put on it.  Then after looking it over, he wanted to put a pin through my nail  to release the pressure of the blood building up.  I don't think so.  It was already feeling like there was a red hot poker going through it.  I was really being a boob, but the pain was pretty intense.  I started to feel light headed and nauseated, so I laid down for a little while.  It seriously took a good half hour for it to stop throbbing.  Then there was just occasional stabbing pains.  Kelley cleaned it up and put some neosporin and a band aid on it. What a dumb thing...gosh you must have lots of nerves in your toes...that hurt like the dickens.

Can't begin to say how much I love these guys.

While we were in California, Rick ( who along with Stacey, took wonderful care of our yard, Lizzy and the chickens) sent Kelley a text saying the pond water level had dropped way down low.

Now before we left, I wanted to plant this clematis I had bought and when we went to dig a hole,the ground was really wet.  Kelley thought the water might be leaking out the back of the waterfall, so he shifted some rocks around to make the water flow a little different.  Well that must have really caused the water path to shift cause it was being lost out the side of the rocks.  (we didn't find this out till he got it all torn apart though)

So Anyway, Kelley asked Rick to just fill the pond up again.  We got another message the next day saying the water level had dropped  right back down again.  .So Kelley knew he would have to tear the waterfall apart when he got home.

So Monday, he went out and  started to move the rocks so he could get to the waterfall.  As soon as he moved the first rock, he was attacked by hornets.  They stung him on the arms before he could get away from them.  We have had hornets and wasps before, so we had some cans of wasp killer.  He

went after them with that.  Now they were really mad.  Kelley could see those few cans were not going to cut it, so he ran to Home Depot and bought 5 more cans.  I went out to back him up as he attacked the rocks again.  Those hornets just kept coming and we went through several more cans of spray.  I suggested calling an exterminator, but now Kelley was on a mission...and nothing could stop him.

We decided to check the Internet to see if there was some magical potion to kill these little devils.  Ha!  every website said to call an exterminator or buy wasp killer that has a long distance sprayer. ( and also to wait till they have come back to their nest in the evening when it is cooler to go after them.  So we waited till the sun had gone down, put on our protective clothing and went out to get them! 

   

 Kelley moved the rocks and KC and I were right behind him spraying all the hornets that came out.  When he got down the the black rubber that lines the pond and lifted that up, we saw where they had been coming from.  There was a pretty big nest in between the layers of rock.  Ewwwwwww!

We sprayed the heck out of it and all the rocks around the area too.

 The next day there were no signs of life around the nest. 

HA!  die suckers!

Now to figure out how to make the pond flow properly so it doesn't leak out the sides.  Kelley and KC moved the rocks around  and decided it would take more of that awesome foam stuff to fill in the cracks between some of the rocks.  So Kelley and I went back to Glover nursery.  They have a good pond supply section there.  Hope that will do the trick!

 Had to bail all the water out of the top of the waterfall so it could dry out to use that foam stuff. 

So grateful Kelley can fix things!  I'm having bunko here next week!  Ahhhhhhhhhh!

 Thursday afternoon, we went out in the bay on a little electric boat.  It was so fun to see the kids excitement at the whole experience and especially when we saw seals lounging on the boats.

Dan let them all take turns at driving the boat.  They loved that!

They were having some kind of sail boat race out in the bay. When we were heading back to the dock, I think we were right in the middle of it!  It was cool to see how they could control those boats...they were really zipping along and weaving in and out  around the buoys ( and us!).  Dan just sailed along and let all the sail boats dodge us. What a hoot! 

We went down to Balboa for dinner Friday night

 Got to watch a little bit of the opening ceremony's of the Olympics at BJ's

Fun night strolling around...fudge, ice cream and the ferris wheel.  Doesn't get much better than that!