May Photo Album

It's a good thing the month of May has 31 days, and lucky for me that school got out on Friday and my job is over until August. I need a few really long naps.

May began in Spokane, where I ran (walked) a 12K race with my sisters Janna & Kerri - their first race ever. There were 8 of us in the race counting 3 nieces, 1 nephew, and Emily. So fun, so hot, so nice to see the river front area of Spokane for the first time in years, so proud of my athlete sisters! 12K is a long race for beginners, they endured it well. Emily ran super fast, her longest distance ever, kind of all by herself in a crowd of 50,000 people. I'm proud of her. We all got interviewed on Kerri's radio show in Coeur d'Alene the next day, and met Tom Luna, State Superintendent. Eventful! Controversial!

May also brought the trip to the Temple with Steven prior to his mission. Marisa was in town, so she was able to join us there along with Thomas & Caley.  It was a session coincidentally full of people from Blackfoot, and a very nice night.

Emily turned 15 in May. Everyone came home in May. (We were just missing Doug, but I appreciate his part in getting Marisa here and back to her new job which started the day after Steven's farewell talk which also happened in May.) Our version of a Quinceañera for Emily was a wiffleball game in the backyard.

Steven left on his mission in May. We experienced our first curb-side rainy day MTC drop-off, not long after we dropped off Veronica & Kyle at the airport. It was a day of goodbyes.


Right after he got set apart on Tuesday night outside the Stake Center

But it was a good day, driving along in a rented Tahoe so all 8 of us could enjoy each other's company for those last few hours. We hurried home to a band concert, and found a little note and bag of Pay Day candy bars on our door. It really is a "pay day" for a parent to send their child on a mission, fulfilling that destiny that we have been thinking about and planning for since the day he was born. We have received one letter so far, and I'm a little sad that his missionary email doesn't seem to be working out for him, and tomorrow being Memorial day, there will be no postal service. His first letter was really good though, and I will just have to read that one again while I wait for letter number 2.
I got an award in May, "Inviting Employee of the Year" for the school district. There is one Teacher of the Year, and one non-teacher (me) who gets honored. I think I get a prize, I have to go to the August school board meeting to collect. I think I have to speak at the back to school meeting for district employees too. The extra special honor for me was that the person I will share the stage with is Mr. Hansen, who taught at least 5 of my children at the middle school, coached them in track, and took them on the 8th grade trip. He also holds a special place in my heart for getting Thomas something cool to drink when he was having chemotherapy on the one day that nobody from the family accompanied him there.
At school, I made a slideshow set to the music of Justin Bieber with 350 photos I had taken all throughout the year to show at the final Hall of Fame assembly, and burned 100 copies of the DVD for parents who asked for a copy. Baby, baby, baby, oh.

May also has brought some flooding to the area, I guess this means the drought is over. Kerry got called to fill sandbags Friday night out in Snake River. Our bike riding trail is now underwater at mile 4. And I think that's about all.
We said goodbye to a lot of family members, just temporarily of course, but the van was a permanent goodbye. We've had that van almost as long as we've had Marisa. It hasn't done much for the last decade except show up on our street-view on Google Earth. Not anymore.