Seth and Melissa, June 2009

Well this month has been full of work and school. Melissa has been out of town working in this lovely 100 degree heat and Seth is making A's in college. We don't have much to report this month, but we enjoyed hanging out with the fam on Fathers Day.

The house is finally getting to where we want it to look...thanks LG for the entertainment center! I will post pics as soon as Seth uploads them from his phone.

Kelly's lesson about temple marriage

Well,I was not sure how I would even start my lesson today. Shortly before I left home for church, I decided to grab some items for my lesson. I wanted to represent one of my siblings on their sealing day but I did not have any large photos handy.

What could I bring that represented a celestial family? I decided to take the framed photo of our family picture from our last reunion-perfect. Even though I am not sealed as a spouse, I am still part of an eternal family. I also took Kim's beautiful watercolor of the Boston Temple. (one of the sister's wants a commission of that for herself!) I took my mantel clock, a past Christmas gift from mom- it would represent "time" when I spoke of being married for time vs eternity.

Interestingly enough this week at school I was in shop and the teacher was teaching the kids how to make gum ball machines and they were using mason jars, but tossing the 'seals'. I told him that I would take the 2 doz he had. I told him that I would give them to a friend who cans fruit.

On my way out the door this morning, I grabbed the canning seals to give to a sters at church but as I did-I had a revelation. I was to give these 'seals' to the sisters as a part of my object lesson-to teach via an analogy about the how the good sealing of a jar preserves the good fruit inside for a very long time-not quite an eternity but, the correlation is made just the same. Without the seal, the fruit goes bad and would not stay inside the jar. The seal performs a great power. I challenged the sisters to use the seal to teach their families about eternal marriage with the same object. The Lord is truly a brilliant teacher!

I began my lesson and was already crying, the Spirit was present. All of the lessons in sacrament meeting spoke of family history and the temple work, in Gospel Doctrine we have studied the plan of happiness and also today the kingdoms of glory....all things that are discussed in the conference talks. The Father knitted the building up of my lesson for me, weeks in advance. Going to the temple this week, I was able to participate in a sealing as a daughter by proxy, and once before I had been at the altar with my own parents years before. God wanted me to know and to re-live that experience again, so that I would know that I have received the blessings of the temple sealing as a child. I only regret that I did not realize that at the time,when I was at the temple on Wednesday. But, I did realize it today.

In addition, I did tell them it was my wedding anniversary today. I was not crying about the sadness of being divorced because it was my choice and I was happy. Also, that one year ago today I told the sisters, I was at the temple-on my wedding anniversary. Bob was not happy about it at all, the temple has always been a bone of contention with him. He said that mine going was selfish and did not benefit our family. How so untrue that statement is, if he really understood what the temple really is about-bringing families together for an eternity. The temple afforded me peace and a vision of what was going to happen in my life.

For the sisters who know me, they were all concerned for me and having to give this lesson. Their hearts were knitted with mine and I felt their love and support thru the Spirit for me even before I began my lesson. I wanted to be careful also not to offend a young woman who joined the church a year ago and has found herself pregnant by a long time-good member teen boy of the ward. They were recently married in the chapel. I am curious if anything that was said registered with her.

The Lord directed me to cover what I was not sure of to teach. But, here is what the focus was on.

Salvation is a personal matter, but exaltation is a family matter. Elder Nelson.

Also, instead of saying you have a temple marriage-focus on the terminology of a celestial marriage. When you do, celestial becomes a verb, not just a noun. Many sisters pointed out you can have a temple marriage but not a celestial one, that having a celestial marriage doesn't happen everyday-it is a work in progress towards being one.

In addition, this earth was created solely for the exaltation of families. Without the priesthood being restored this realization of this goal by our Father could not have taken place.

I was glad I was able to not just get through my lesson by to learn what wonderful gifts I already can have from my Father. Being a part of redeeming my dead ancestors, giving them the gift to be sealed with their own families-is truly what brings me joy.

Amen.

Happy Father's Day

Blast from the past Pics!!!!

** Double click on this picture to see the blown up version. Check out my comb job and freckles. Hilarious!

Sea World Orlando - April 2009

Kelly's job situation

I have been blessed with a 2nd job to supplement me going to half a day during summer school. I am going to be caring for my student at school, 2 days a week for 5 hours at $11 an hour, tax free. It will be tough but it is enough to keep me going for now. I did not want a job that did not allow me the time with my girls when I have them.

I worked 5 shifts at the temple in the last 17 days.....yesterday I finished the temple ordinances for Ruby Bellflower and sealed her to Horace and Girlie- a fruitful visit to the temple! the Boston temple gardens are breathtaking as usual and there are sweet smelling flowers that maek you smile when you walk in and out of the temple.

Our last day of school is Monday-for 3 hours only! How stupid!

Mom bought a cowboy pinata for the birthday party on Sunday night.

here it is

new video uploaded to youtube

check out our family video at the right of this blog under the "video bar". click on sarah's picture to start the video. if it is not there copy this url into your browser. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMjW1uQ1_L4&feature=channel_page

Kelly's missionary work

Tonight my co-worker accepted the challenge to be baptized July 24th. It has been 20 years since I introduced a friend to the gospel and was baptized.

I have been praying a long time to have missionary oppurtunities for a long time. She already knew alot of core principles-she just did not remember it. Her only hurdle right now is gaining a testimoney of the Book of Mormon. She has 4 boys ages 10-18 mo.

She is meeting with the Elders in my home. I am so excited for her, she has been searching for joy in her life, for a very long time.

New rocking horse named "Penny."

Liz bought this rocking horse for $5 bucks at a grage sale. The kids absolutely love it. They have been trying to feed Penny apples too. They are a trip and a half.

wrestling

A proven fact....a Brock never gets pinned-out!

Olivia's wrestling videos and clips

Olivia attended a New England Women's wrestling tournament.....there was a 60 yr old lady competing! She made lots of new friends. They hungout and talked in between their matches. This particular girl photographed with Olivia was a killer on the mat and kept beating Olivia. After the matches they'd sit and giggle, you'd never know they were competitors.

Maya Toth's personal log --- changs and things

In the last few months it has been hard.Olivia left Mom's house and is always at my Dad's house I only see her Sunday-Wed AM before school; Wed.-Saturday. I only see my mom Sun. AM-Wed AM. I only get one full weekend with her ever other month.

I get kind of lonely without Olivia at mom's house. But I see her most of the time. I also kind of like it without her. Because it is quieter and there is not yelling like before.

I have started drawing monsters lately, it is kinda fun. I named this really cool monster that looks like a baseball glove and his name is goo-goo.


On Memorial Day I went to my mom's friend's horse barn. It is in N. Andover, MA. She teaches eventing and runs the barn for her parents. Her name is Beth but her nickname is RT. She rents stalls to people for their horses. One of them has an Appaloosa, Olivia's favorite kind of horse. Also for my birthday I got this wooden horse barn. Olivie rents a stall from me in my barn for her horse-the rent is free.

It was the first time for the season to be out doing jumps on a course. One of the horses is afraid of ditches. Before we left to go to the course, Olivia and I got to groom the horses. I got to give medicine to one of them.

There was a water course, where they had to goo in a pool. After the horses left I caught a big frog in it and there were baby electric eels- almost got stung.

The last day of school is Monday, June 22nd we got for a half day. My teacher says if we don't go we don't get our report card.

Kelly's family Spring 2009

At the end of March there was a custody change. Bob was awarded joint custody and the judge applied Bob's request for split visitation. I only have the girls from Sunday at 9 AM until Wed. at 9 AM:( It is clearly not 50/50 and it is sad to be so lonely by myself in Nashua with no family to be with when tbe girls are with Bob.

It is crazy that Olivia is 12 years old! Maya turned 9! Where has the time gone?! Olivia is wearing a size 9 shoe and is an inch taller than me. She got a good spread of makeup to use and a flat iron. Maya is growing too, changes are comgin for her developmentally.

Both girls participate in strong man training once a week with Bob. Oliva flipped a 400 lb tire last week on her first try. She deadlifts 200 now.


For their birthdays, I had a coupon for 2 hours of glow bowling, free pizza and drink. The girls invited a friend each and my neighbor/friend and her son who is freinds with OLivia too came. We had alotof fun. There were video screens above teh pins, that showed music videos from the early 90s- great music. Olivia said the guys with the long hair were ugly and they dressed even worse! SO true!


April 20th Paul Revere's midnight ride. Me and the girls went down to Lexington, MA on April 19th to get a good spot to see the ride. Maya hd wanted to see it last year, but we could n't do both since we were seeing the battles at dawn. We went down early to get a parkign spot. We all slept in the van from 930-11 PM. Olivia couldn't be woken, she endedup gettign sick the next day. It was really cool. THere were many regimented soliders talkign to us while we waited for 45 minutes for it to begin. At the house where Paul Revere stopped in Lexington, they did a play, re-enacting what discussions took place before he arrived and William Dawes coming first on horse. THe play lasted 20 minutes and then Paul came in on horse at full speed. He spoke his lines and then he took off. It was really cool! Love Revolutionary history!

I only got to see Maya for one hour on her birthday becuase it wasn't my visitation. We went to Hayward's to share a sundae. I did have Olivia for her birthday but she had alot of homework so we did nto get to really spend anytime together plus the constant conflicts don't help either.

Since Olivia would be missing her first temple trip with the youth, I wanted to take her myself. I invited our hometeacher's daughter to go with us who is 12our ward. They joined in with another group from our stake. Olivia was so moved by the experience...she wouldn't tell me htat directly. I had family file for her to do to make it more meaningful. I took some pics of her and her friend Emilee. It was so wonderful to be able to be so close to the temple and make her first time so meaningful.

April vacation- The girsl went with Bob to upstate NY to stay with his Aunt Babe. I worked for 2 days as a respite care giver. ONe of Oliva's friends ince 3rd grade has Down's. I took care of her and earned $10 an hour. SHe is really smart and just a bit stubborn. I was grateful for the work since there is no school I don't get paid.

On APril 28th I chaperoned the youth trip from our ward to the temple. A recently converted single mother came along and she so oved teh whoel experience. New Members get a speical packet (pic of Jesus,letter from teh temple president., temple scheduel etc0 for coming to the temple and they also sign in so that the president can track how mamny converts are making it to the temple. I also began my training as a baptistry coordiantor. I shadowed the two that were workign that night. THere is alwasy a sister and brother who run the baptistry. It seems very overwheleming as to what to remember. THere are so many variables in a session and how to get everything done correctly and efficiently, so that you are done on tiem-before the next group comes. The staff for the baptisry is pre-domiantely college students but, I want to do it since as a support worker, I cannot do anything important in my opinion upstairs. I feel like I can really contribute and be busy (instead of sitting the whole shift.Working at the temple has been a real esacpe for me. I work 2-4 shifts a month. I long to be there when I am alone. It gives me purpose driven life. It is there I feel like I am with family (those I work with). I am so grateful to be so close.

APril 25th was also our ward talent show. Olivia participated in a skit/musical with all of hte young women. They were so great to incoporate her beacuase she only joined YW just 2 weeks before. Olivia had a blast and did a great job!

I attended a Women's Expo and won a raffle for a free manicure and I got it eh newspaper. I was getting a chair massage at teh time....not a good angle of me, I think. The chair massagwe was wonderful though!

Maya's school had a talent show. She sang along to Love Story by Taylor Swift along with 4 other girls, they were very cute....no judging just fun!

Mother's day weekend. the Friday night before Olivia and I had alot of disagreements which resulted in at 1030 PM, me sending her to live with her dad indefinitely. I had reached my limit with her. She had been doing really great with me but since comgin back from Upstate NY she has been yucky again. I realized that night,taht if I loved somethign so much, Ihad to let it free adn if sshe came back it would be on her own. I toldher that she only had to comeback when she was ready for vistation again. SHe said this is what she wanted all along. She did come over for 2 hours on Mother's Day. She was happy and sweet.

On Mother's Day Maya made me breakfast in bed. SHe was so creative in what she made me. She is such a big girl now! Maya also made me a book in class of poems for each month of the school year which was spiral bound- a true treasure!

May 21st-I cut my toe very badly. I tried to lift a lawn mower in my van for Sister Favey. I knew I couldn't do it but I kept trying. Finally, I dropped it on my foot and damaged my big toe on my left foot. I knew I was going to need stiches and I could not afford the $75 copay for the ER.

May 24th Olivia gave her first talk in sacrement meeting. Her talk was from a sripture in Jeremiah. She did not work on it for the whole 3 weeks she had in advannce,so In Olivai form, we did it all teh night before. SHe and I worked for 3 hours. SHe thought is was crazy that it took that logn to prepare a talk that was 5 mintues. I wrote half of it but, she delivered it with ease and eloquence. She did a great job,liek she had gven a talk tons of times. Afterwards she sang iwtht eh choir which was beautiful!

Olivia and her friend Rashel sang in their school's talent show. They came in 5th. They sang a song by Miley Cyrus called Butterfly, Fly away.


I am looking for a 2nd job. I will loose a month of pay this summer. I only work 4 hours a day 4 days of the week.

Work is tough. Working with a high need autistic stuent is very taxing at times. He has becomw extremely violent in the last 2 weeks. I have bruises and nail marks on makny places. I can no longer be laone with him, I have to be at all times with someone who is certified in a special defense class called CPI. My student is larger than me and very strong. I never know what will set him off. To complicate things, he requires so much support with his commuication and discrete trials, it is hard to keep it all in my head what to do at the right time.

Seth & Melissa's Family News

Seth and I had a very busy couple of months (April and May). We loved eating at Grandma Bellflowers for Easter and hunting for eggs with the kids! I even managed to dye some eggs with some friends before the big day. After that I was out of town and had been for nearly the entire month of May. But Seth and I luckily made it to Chris Hargrett’s sealing to Kendal in Orlando last week. It was AWESOME! It was my first sealing since our own! Then after hanging out with Amy and Kim Seth and I drove back to Tally for the reception; I made some party favors for their guests (ribbon wrapped little pillow boxes filled with seed packets that said “Love is the Seed of all Hope” on them). Their reception was fun...Melissa Robel took their pictures and you can check them out at melissarobelphotography.com. And it looks like Chris and Kendal will be in our ward!

Seth started school last week and went part time at work. I think he really likes his classes, but we are both really pressed for time now with all we have on our plates.

For Memorial Day Seth and I went to the St. Marks lighthouse and refuge area. I had never been and he wanted to go fishing...so we did!

We can’t wait to see everyone in July and are busily planning and working to be able to make it! I especially can’t wait to see everyone’s skits (good idea Kelly!). Bet y’all can’t wait to see what Seth and I come up with! It will be T-I-G-H-T! Also, Seth has been doing AWESOME on his diet and workout plan and lost 15 lbs so far. Take that Dusty!

Dusty and Liz's March/April Family News

March & April 2009 News

Ava celebrated her 2^nd birthday in March. She had a Dora the Explorer friend’s party with some boys and girls from her Nursery class. Everyone decorated tambourines and then lined up for a dancing parade to Dora music. After a snack, everyone played outside on the swing set or with the bubbles and chalk. It was a beautiful day and a fun play date.

The weekend before Ava’s birthday, the girls attended the Chick-fila birthday party while the boys were at the Father & Son Campout. Ava didn’t like the chick-fila cow (a little too scary for her), but she enjoyed her meal, cake and balloon. Later we picked up a kiddie chickflick and had a movie night. Dusty and Ethan enjoyed their first Father & Son Campout. They went fishing and canoeing, roasted marshmallows and slept in their tent.

We spent most of Spring Break down in Orlando. Dusty and Liz were able to attend the temple together, which was great. The next day, the whole family plus Aunts Amy, Kim, and Emily and Cousin Maya went to Sea World. Amy scored us half price tickets and we had a blast. We went on some fun rides and enjoyed the Shamu and dolphin shows. The only downside was that Ethan threw up all that night and Ava came home seriously ill. She didn’t eat for about a week and still has not regained the weight she lost.

The kids went to a really neat Primary Activity this month. They brought their backpacks and scriptures and embarked on a scriptural journey aboard a ship. They traveled from place to place, learning scripture stories involving a boat (Noah, Brother of Jared, Nephi, etc.). Sarah and Ethan really enjoyed it. Sarah also went on her very first field trip. All the kindergarten classes went to the Challenger Learning Center and watched “The Little Star that Could.” In her field trip journal she drew a picture of her and her friends picnicking and wrote that her favorite part of the trip was lunch because she was hungry.

Anna is a sweet baby. Her brother and sisters adore her. She rewards us with her adorable smile. Unfortunately, she is suffering from congestion. Ava came home sick from nursery last Sunday and has shared her cold with almost everyone. Because she is under the weather, Anna missed her 2-month vaccines. So in a couple of weeks we will try again. She visited the eye doctor again this month to follow up on her cataract. I guess nothing has changed, and we will visit again in four months. The doctor wants to monitor the cataract to make sure that it doesn’t get denser or require surgery.

Liz just got released from her calling as Enrichment Leader and has accepted a new calling in Young Women’s as the Miamaid Advisor. It will be fun serving in YW with Melissa, but that means she will now be the “old” Sister Brock.

Dusty keeps busy with his calling. This weekend he participated in the stake youth service project as part of the Southeast Day of Service. They were going to clean up a park, but I think ended up picking up trash along the highway. Whatever they did, he did it with them in the heat with a sinus infection – what a trooper. He has also been dealing with more bad kids and their parents at school. One of the teachers wanted to press charges on a student for injuries that she received when he slammed a door on her. The parents got involved and things got ugly. The principal finally convinced the teacher to drop the charges, so the student could be transferred to another school.

Dusty’s Journal Entry:

Recently Ethan and I attended the Church’s annual Father & Son’s Outing. We went to Woodman of the World Camp ground in Hosford, Fl. It was a fun time. It was the inaugural trip for Ethan and I. Since I have been on maternity leave, Ethan and I left at around 230pm. We stopped at McDonald’s for lunch and ate it as we rode in the car. Ethan was excited to get a Spiderman toy in his lunch. He got hi favorite chicken nugget meal with fries and chocolate milk, and I got a side salad with a chicken sandwich and a Dr. Pepper for drink.

We arrived as one of 3 tents that I could see at the site. We picked an area away from others and I put up my tent. It was a huge tent for just the two of us. The tent actually sleeps 9 I think. What I quickly realized that it is a lot of work for one person to do when your child is young. Ethan played around the tent while I set it up. He talked to Liz for about 12 minutes or so. Liz said that was a special treat for her cause Ethan rarely stays on the phone for any length of time.

The tent was up and people began showing up to camp. I saw Rick and Mike Bergstrom setting their tent up from afar and we both went to say hello. Mike has two boys and Rick has one like me. There are likenesses in age to Ethan. I introduced Ethan to the boys and Ethan was shy at first. But all of the sudden, Ethan told the boys how fast he was. Then he ran a short distance to show his skills. I laughed. He ran back to where we were all standing and he said, “See!” How funny. Soon they ran off to play soccer. It was neat to see Ethan interact with other boys. As a parent you want your kids to be accepted by others. At this point, I was able to sit around a chat with Rick and Mike and visit a while. Later, we decided to walk to the pond and fish. Ethan was excited. We fished with no bait from the bank. I didn’t want to catch a fish honestly because I had no tools to deal with it, other than throw it back if we indeed caught one. So, we casted out our rod and I showed Ethan how to use it. He is in such a hurry to do it himself with no care for proper instruction by his old man. I guess that is kids…. or boys rather. I imagine I was much of the same mold as Ethan. I guess it is the excitement of things. We fished next to Mike and his boys. We actually fished with pieces of chicken nuggets. It would have been funny to catch something with that ”bait.”

Soon, we corralled a canoe that was there and we set off into the pond. Before I knew it we were afloat and halfway across the pond and I realized I didn’t give Ethan any instruction on canoeing either. I was afraid he would stand up and tip over into the water. He had his life jacket on good thing. The canoe was probably a 12-foot canoe. He seemed to be a mile away from me in the front. If he went over I would not have time to catch him. Oh well, off we go!

Ethan made nicely and began to row almost instinctively. I was kind of surprised at that. He didn’t even drop the paddle either, another success! We fished a bit there too with no catches other than “seaweed” as Ethan called it. One moment of hilariousness was once we entered the water on that canoe, I could tell Ethan was slightly, well more than slightly elevated in the air. With me being 325 pounds of man and he 45 pounds of boy, the canoe favored my weight more than his. I got a couple of pictures of it. It was funny.

Later that night we ate dinner in our tent. We went to a store down the road and got Ethan a corndog and I some chicken fingers and fries. We both drank soda. He loved having his own bottle of Pepsi. I loved my Dr. Pepper. I let him pick out some candy to eat as well. What the heck, it was his special weekend with dad. As we ate and enjoyed each other’s company I came to the realization that I should spend more time with Ethan. I never get to have one on one time like this with him away from home with no distractions. It was really a sweet experience for me. I love that Ethan boy. This moment was priceless to me. We went and sat by a big bonfire for a fireside. Ethan played in the sand and watched the fire with amazement. We later roasted marshmallows and he quickly learned how sticky they could be and also how tasty they are too.

I let Ethan chase the other boys in the night with his flashlight while all the fathers sat around the campfire and talked. It was good times. I am thankful for the gospel and the programs of building families. It’s great to get around other fathers and kids with the same beliefs and has no worries of any wrongdoing or inappropriate talk. Good clean fun. Ethan and I finally went to bed around 1148pm. He slept like a rock and I felt like I slept on rocks. We awoke the next morning early for a stake-sponsored breakfast. It was yummy, eggs, link sausage, and pancakes with orange juice. We went back to our camp; I broke it down and came home around 1030am. It was a fun trip. Short trip too. The gospel is truly restored and the priesthood lives.

Dax and Jackie Brock May News

Here's our news for May. Hope ya'll are doing well. Thanks Melissa!

Dax and I started the month off with our 13th anniversary. We went out to Chinese for lunch. That night, we actually hired a sitter. Dax and I went to a concert in the park and went to Jamba Juice for a treat. The weather was nice and the music was pretty good. We had a nice time. Isaac was not happy. Apparently he cried almost the entire time for the sitter and even refused to take a bottle. He was immediately fine as soon as he had his Mama back. When I took the sitter home, he cried again for Dax!

I also had a nice Mother's Day. Dax made me breakfast and later that night my favorite spinach lasagna with cheesecake for desert -- Yum! The men also sang for all the mother's at church. It was actually quite nice. They sang Love at home. The Elder's Quorum served brownie's and ice cream to all the mother's in Relief Society and even taught all the classes. Too bad Audrey wasn't feeling well and I had to take her home after sacrament. Even though I didn't get to go to R.S., since Dax was in charge I still got my treat. :-)

Dax is still doing some contract work. Hopefully he'll wrap it up soon. He's applied for a few jobs and looked into going back to school some. But, he really hasn't pushed anything too much. He needs to make up his mind and go for it. :-)

Isaac is so happy to finally be up at the table eating with everyone else. He has 3 teeth now (well really 2 1/2). He's still doing the army crawl all over the place and is getting around quick. He's pulling up now too. He's pretty fast at getting to his feet as well. The neighborhood pool is open and he went for his first swim. The water was a little cold, but he did good. He's been several times now and really enjoys it. He's 7 mos. old and last week found his voice. He's so loud! He's screaming, squealing, and babbling. He was having way too much fun at church the other week. I had to take him out. He's just so cute he was distracting everyone and making them laugh.

Dax and Jaxon went on a father/son campout with the guys from church. They had a good time. Jaxon said the highlight was some silly camp songs and when the glow necklaces broke. Apparently he and a friend smeared the liquid on themselves and looked pretty cool. The girls, Isaac and I went out for snow cones and rented some movies. It was a fun night. We watched Hotel for Dogs. It was a cute movie -- the girls loved it. Even Isaac stayed up late and was very happy. Maybe he'll be big enough to go next year.

The kids had field day this month. It's always a fun way to wind down the school year. This time Dax volunteered for the day. I pushed Isaac around in the stroller and watched the kids all compete in their class events. We even ate lunch at the school. We were there almost the entire day. It was fun to see them all laughing and playing and having a great time. Rather that trying to win, most of it was more about getting wet or getting a friend or teacher wet.

Audrey had a student led conference last week. It was great to see all the thing she's worked on this year. She showed us work samples from the beginning of the year too. It's amazing to see how much she's learned and grown this year. Audrey is the Queen Bee for her class this week. She put together a ME poster and shared about herself.

Kayla has a new friend that lives just down the street. Apparently they've been buddies on the bus most of the year. They just finally swapped phone numbers. I never new how close she lived. They've been playing together almost everyday. They're best friends. It's really good for Kayla. Especially since Audrey has a friend next door that she constantly plays with.

Jaxon just participated in a really cool P.E. field trip to the high school. They have a rock climbing wall, zip line, and some massive swing. There were so many kids that he was only able to do the first two. Apparently the swing was supposed to be the best of the three events. But he had a great day and it was a lot of fun.

Jaxon and all of the 5th graders have been working really hard on a 5th grade Business Fair which was held last week. It was really great. Each class had several groups. Each group chose a product that they would create, test, and sell. Jaxon's group made Aqua Bouncers. It's pretty much a water balloon that bounces. They also drew custom designs on them. They tested it and Jaxon bounced it so high that it hit the ceiling. He measured how high the ceiling was. Then his posters bragged that his aqua bouncers can bounce as high as 9 feet! At the fair, each grade has a turn to look at all the products and purchase them. I thought it was interesting that Kayla bought one of Jaxon's Aqua Bouncers. Without knowing it was his poster, she was sold on the fact that it can bounce 9 feet tall. Marketing at its best! Jaxon said that the Kindergarteners were their toughest customers.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone next month. We're making a list of different things to see and do. Hopefully we'll be sending an email out soon so everyone can have input.

Next week is the end of school. The kids get out on Friday, June 6th. One more fun-filled week of parties, field trips, movie days, read-a-thons, etc. I think all the school work part is already over. They turned in their textbooks last week.

We went to San Antonio this week for Memorial Day. I was teaching Sunday so we left straight from church. On Monday Dax spent a couple hours in the morning putting a new light in for my mom. That was her mother's day gift. It's was actually a pretty complex project. He had to drill through 2 floor joists, go over an A/C duct, and run the wire off the other kitchen light. He did a great job and was surprised how quickly and easily it all came together. After lunch we went to Sea World. We spent most of the time at Lost Lagoon which is a little waterpark inside Sea World. We stayed way too late. We didn't get home until 10:00. Which is crazy for a school night! Thankfully Dax drove while the rest of us napped.