We just finished playing Tribond with Maren and Landon. It was fun to have them over. Landon lost the first game and won the next one so it was a really up and down game.

I just talked to Nathan on the phone in Texas. He says that he should know by September when he will be going to helicoper school. He says that he will have an apartment sometime by himself because he is an officer. He will be able to have Sara and the boys visit him there. He rattled off a whole list of countries that they have caught refugees trying to go across the border. He says that a lot of the refugees are not just from Mexico.

We attended a great birthday party for Jaron on Monday, August 7th. Michelle had the party at the new Clearfield recreation center. They had a room we could have for a while where we ate pizza and fruit and cake and ice cream. Then we could all go swimming for a fee. They had some really nice water toys for the whole family and everyone had a good time except Jacob who got there just as we were all getting out because he was stuck in traffic after he got off work.

Last night we had Ethan and Hailee and Jaron and Kalisse over while Michelle and Dan went to a primary workers party. Grandpa barbecued some hamburgers and hotdogs and the kids had fun playing down stairs and on the trampoline. Kalisse is pushing herself around the floor now.

Kirsten had her foot operated on on Friday. I took her to the surgical center while Jon went to a job interview then he was back before they took her in for the surgery. They went over to Jon's parents for the afternoon and Ann, Jon's mom, took the kids to an art show and Jon helped his dad with fixing something. Kirsten's foot was pretty sore yesterday but she says that it is feeling better today. So, hopefully it will heal right.

I have been tending Brinlie for the last three weeks. It has been fun but I have to start working on school tomorrow so Friday was supposed to be my last day but then Landon had to work yesterday so I had her for the afternoon. Maren said that she crawled today. She was about ready yesterday but she kept pushing backwards. She is trying really hard to pull herself up to things. Maren is doing good in school and just has this fall to finish up her schooling. Landon has applied for a job in the oil fields in Casper but I don't know where that will go.

Some of us went to the Michealsen reunion last weekend, August 4,5,and 6th. That was one of the reasons that I could not make myself write in the blog last Sunday. It was late when we got home. Larry and I took Kyle, Kennedy and Brooke with us down as Kirsten and Jon had to work on Saturday. We all ended up sleeping in tents the first night. They had a lot of fun craft activities on Saturday for the kids, making boxes, printing on T-shirts with stamps, and decorating flip flops with tied cloth. The kids really enjoyed that. In the afternoon they put up a Blown-up waterslide and the kids had fun getting cool on that.

Larry got a room in Gunnison for Saturday night so Kirsten and Jon could sleep in the tent. We went there to shower on Saturday afternoon and a lump that Larry had the day before on his leg had doubled in size and was inflammed to I made him go to the Emergency Room in Gunnison. He had an abcessed hair folicle that they had to lance and put a tag in to help it drain. He was pretty sore on Saturday night and Sunday so we were glad he had a hotel room. Monday he had to see the doctor in Kaysville and it seems to be healing okay. They also gave him antibiotic.

Jacob got some free tickets from the Guard to go to the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert on Saturday night so Erick and BJ left to go North to go to the concert with them. They each had dates and Nikki and Lexie went to the concert but Jake had drill early the next morning so he did not go. Then Erick's date lived in Spanish Fork so after he dropped her off he came back to the reunion about 2:00 a.m. but BJ's date lives in Sandy so he stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Jenkins for the night and then came down in the morning.

We visited with Grandma and Grandpa on the way home from Mayfield Sunday night. They seemed to be in good spirits and were planning to visit Aunt Annette the next day. I talked to Mom on Thursday and she said they had a good trip and it was fun to talk to Annette before she got so busy with school. Annette is out of her boot with her broken ankle but it is still tender.

Erick spent two days in Coalville this week for work marking every storm drain in the town on an arial photo for a project they are doing up there. He came home pretty sunburned but at least he wasn't sitting in the office all week. He went out with a girl named Celeste on Friday and said he had a good time. He chose to do the dishes last night rather than play with the grandkids so I think mowing the lawn wore him out.

BJ has been working 12 hour days this week. He said that they have been working both at the Cache Valley Mall and the Cache County fair so they had to work double time. He is staying with Aunt Marva until the 26th because he can't get into his apartment until then and Christie's family came to stay at Steve and Christie's. He is finally accepted at USU so he is progressing but he still has to register and apply for aid.

Jeff and Misty went to Montana this weekend to take back her cousin Clay who has been babysitting for them. They just got back tonight and Misty starts her job at midnight. Jeff works from noon till nine so hopefully they can do all the babysitting.

Erick went down on Friday to have Jake help him look at his car that is stalling to see if they could figure it out. He got to the house when they were not there and when he walked in he set off the alarm. Luckily they got there soon. He said that Jake went to the University of Utah surplus place to get a laptop but he wasn't impressed with what you could get, nothing has a harddrive. Lexie just got her first homework. Erick was able to hold Ashton for 2 seconds without him crying for Nikki. And they figured out it might cost Erick about $400.00 to fix his car.

I have been finishing up a class on the Pioneer online library. When I wasn't playing with or taking care of Brinlie I was at the computer learning about the library. If you have not gone into it you should check it out at www.uen.org
then click on Pioneer Library. If you are going in from home the username is Pioneer and the password is cake. It has so many things that can be used from preschool all the way to college. I wished that I had gone in and learned about it when my kids were in school. It is a safe way for kids to do research and learn fun facts on the web.

I have also worked at the Family History Center twice this month. We have had a lot of people coming in this summer. I am starting to be able to help people more efficiently. I was able to get some information on Mary Pollock's first husband, Hazen Hatfield and his first wife and child this week so I spent the afternoon yesterday typing all of the information into PAF. It is really fun doing Family History work. It is so rewarding when you find something you have been looking for.

I have had a lot of episodes of my Fibromyalgia bothering me this summer. Yesterday I was reading a book that I got about the Martin and Willie handcart rescue when we were on Trek. It told about a girl whose father had a hard time because of his rhumatism and could hardly walk when they were trying to get through the snow. The man kept going and made it to Salt Lake only to die the day after they arrived. It made me appreciate the fact that I have a shelter and plenty of food and transportation and medicine to make me feel better when it is too hot or too cold. Although my arthritis and fibromyalgia make me feel like I am enduring a great trial sometimes, I realized it could be worse and I need to count my blessings.

We are having a birthday party on the 20th for the August and July birthdays. Jeff is July 18, Jaron is August 7, Larry is August 21, I am August 23, and Misty is August 28th. It will be here at the house at 6:00 p.m.