Mila renounced her vow a little early because she was heading out to Ali’s house at the end of the month. Before she left, she enjoyed two concerts at the college with me—a clarinet recital (which Mana also attended) and a woodwind quintet. The newly formed quintet, made up of faculty members at the college, requested the audience to suggest possible names for their group. We came up with two: “Breaking Wind” and “Spitting Image.” They were not amused. Luckily, our submissions were anonymous. She and I also went to a performance of “Waiting for Godot” at the university and, with other homeschool kids, toured the Spori art gallery, which was hosting a display of Russian Impressionist art.
Mila trained her friends to do her paper route while she is gone; even Tallis did it once (after much goading on my part). Having a paper route was so inspiring to her friends that the Kennelley boys have also picked one up. In more somber news, Mila’s two adopted chickens, Maimed and Mauled, had to be airlifted out of the chicken yard and put in intensive care in the backyard. When they were big (and recovered) enough, they moved into the side yard with the goats. Unfortunately Maimed never really got better and flew to Vegas early one morning by way of the water bucket. Mauled, however, is doing well. Pretty soon we’ll just be able to call her Molly. She and Tal have been going to a singing class every Monday with other neighborhood kids (mostly homeschool group). Mr. Cherrington, whom many of you know, agreed to teach a weekly vocal class for the summer. The kids are really enjoying it.
Tal really enjoyed going to the father and sons outing with Devan. They chopped a lot of wood and did some target practice out on Hawkes’ dry farm. Tal has been taking trumpet lessons from our most recent houseguest, Janel. He sounds great! He also participated in a bike rodeo at the church for scouts. Since he rides four miles—and sometimes more—every day, it was a piece of cake for him. He always remembers to wear his helmet and he knows the correct hand signals.
Tal is doing so much biking because he returned for the summer to his alma mater, Shumway Academy, with his friend, Dustin Brower. The school is in Salem, not far from the Salem church. Every morning Tallis, Mila, Rowan (in a bike trailer), and I put our helmets on and head over to Browers to pick up Dustin. Often his younger brother, Dillon, comes as well. We are also usually joined by at least one Baird and one Gifford, sometimes two. So it is quite a procession we make as we go the two miles to Shumway, drop off two of the boys, and head back. Shanelle Brower picks the kids up in the afternoon—she often rides her bike or drives behind the boys as the pedal home.
Tal isn’t the only one who went back to school—I started a Master’s program in Humanities at Fort Hays State University, the same place Ali is doing her program. I’m just taking one class right now, but it is very interesting. I am not going to try to rush through it . . . I’ll probably take only a class or two each year. I also attended the adjunct retreat which was held in Driggs at Bennion Boys’ Ranch. Good conversation, good food, and good ideas for my next class were all in abundance.
Since Mila was flying out on the 26th, I took advantage of our trip and had a One Heart meeting with Dushku on Friday. The next day we met with two other sisters from our MTC group—“Group 13”—and went to the sealing in the Bountiful temple of our final MTC sister, Derebeeva the love-slava. It was so much fun to see them all. We had lunch at a great Japanese restaurant after the wedding and then Dushku and I travelled back up to Logan. Once there I had to gather the kids and head down to Herriman, where Beebs et al. let us crash since I had to take Mila to the airport the next day. We enjoyed a pleasant Sabbath with them, including a fantastic pot roast, and then Tal and Rowan and I headed back to Sugar City.
Rowan was accompanied on this trip by Tal’s baby, “Orbit,” and Orbit’s long-lost benign twin brother, “Tibro.” We were in DI (looking for a bicycle for Mila for the scout bike rodeo) when Rowan spotted Tibro in the toy section and was convinced that it was Orbit. Luckily for us they turned out to be related. Ro is really starting to vocalize. His favorite song is “Occo” (Popcorn), accompanied by appropriate hand gestures, and his repertoire of signs is growing. The other Sunday Devan had to take him out of sacrament meeting because he was being fussy. He seemed hungry and kept making the sign for “apple.” Devan offered him milk, cereal, banana . . . to no avail. Ro insisted he wanted an apple. Finally Devan took out his iPad so Rowan could draw. Ro grabbed the iPad, turned it over and pointed at the logo—an apple. That’s what he wanted all along!
Devan is an angel to take care of Ro during sacrament, even when he’s sunburned and tired from working on the shop all Saturday. It is going up and looks really good. Mana’s husband, Cameron, and Alec (from across the street) come by to help sometimes, and the Line men and Mitch Gifford have also pitched in. It will be nice to get that done. Dev is enjoying his work at the college and recently spent the day with administrators from LDS business college who had come up to visit campus and learn about some of the innovations going on here.
A fun, busy month!
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