I took David and the Cluff boys to the St. George City pool on Friday to celebrate David being done with school. We tried to find Evan but couldn't ever get a hold of Kyle. Later we found out that they went up to Zion with friends. So, it was OK. The boys had a blast! We will have to go with the Wells' before school starts up again.
This entire summer David has been going to summer school at DSU with Evan and Scott Staheli. It's part of the STEM program. It's quite and amazing program but David and the young and inexperienced PA didn't see eye to eye. He wanted to hurry and do the homework and then have fun because he is a kid and she did NOT see the the need for any fun at any time. This program was not hard for David. He loves Math and that was what it was based on. Most days he would come home saying that he was totally bored because he already knew how to do what they were talking about. FOr example, they spent a lot of time teaching how to solve a Rubix Cube and he already knew how to do that. But, they had amazing field trips every Friday that he absolutely loved. So, he dealt with the week so he could go to those. We got a letter in the middle of the summer from his school stating that he ranked so high on his end of level testing in Math that they need to put him in the Honors Math class next year. I'm not surprised. But, when it came time to take the final test for this class to see if you could return next year David told me that he failed it on purpose because he did not want to go back next year. I think that was completely fine. His summer has 3 weeks left and he had not stepped one toe into a swimming pool all summer long. I think that is tragic. And I hate swimming. Kids need to be kids. If they love to learn and think it's fun then they need to do that in their spare time. But if they think that playing football or swimming is fun then they need to do that. Once whatever they have chosen becomes a negative force then it needs to be deleted out of their lives. For example. Beckstrands and basketball. They lived for basketball but it became such a negative force in our marriage and this family that it needed to be completely removed. Now it has been replaced with running and Ninja warrior things that are positive were people cheer you on and not tear you down. So that's where we are with David and this PREP class. He no longer feels like it's a positive thing in his life due to one of the PA's. So, he is moving on to something else. We don't know what yet but right now he is enjoying his last couple weeks of summer. He made some great friends and LOVES to spend any time he cane with Evan. This was their end of year "party". They displayed they project that they had been working on. David's group did it on earthquakes and how skyscrapers are made, through math, to withstand earthquakes. They had Lego's there so you could build your our and try it out. Evans was Snapology. It's like Origami. But how you can make different shapes with folding strips of paper at different angles. They had strips of paper there and showed you how to do it. It was cool.
Each kid was given a certificate. You can see David, the 4th one from the left on this picture.
This one is a good one of Scott. The first on on the left. Cute kid!
Then because it was alphabetical Evan was almost last. Always smiling. David on the other hand...Oi Vey. What a mess.
These are the teachers and David's PA. Can you guess which one she is?
I think these would be so cute as Christmas tree ornaments!
All in all it was a good experience for him.. I'm glad that he did it and he did learn a lot more than he thinks. More than just Math. He learn about life. Sometimes you have to do what you're told even if you hate it. When you're older, that person is called your boss. I'm glad he got to spend time with Evan and Scott. Those memories he will always cherish.
On Tuesday the 17th we went to BrAshely's for Ruby's birthday party. She is adorable. Jan brought her a Frozen dress up thing that had a crown wand and gloves. She fell in love with the gloves!! She thought they were the best thing ever. And not wanting Henry to feel left out Jan brought him a Pirate costume that had an eye patch , hook and telescope. Man did he love that. That kid has a great imagination. He instantly started telling us all about how if he has his patch on then he is a bad pirate but if it's off then he's a good pirate. Then he went of to kill the David and Evan monster.
Ruby got this amazing doll house for her birthday earlier that morning from Brad and Ashley and that night someone gave her the cutest little backyard b-b-q set to go with it. She loved it.
Ben is Henry's favorite and he came right over and gave him a huge hug. But unfortunately, Ben is too cool to play. It's so sad. Good thing Evan and David aren't cool yet! They are awesome!
This week was uneventful. We switched rooms for Ben while he was away and the week was SUPER quiet by the way. Then on Saturday John and Kristal needed help with the last load of things from their house in Vegas out to their new place in Logandale. John is keeping his job but they had been praying about whether or not to staying Vegas and that day someone in their neighborhood got shot. So they bought a house and moved. They were just renting at the time. Now they own a house in Logandale NV. Which is nicknamed "Moronville" by the people in Vegas. Which was another good sign to move there. When we got there a guy named Brother Jensen showed up not too long after to help and then a couple minutes later more and more men showed up. It was great. They were there just in time to move the piano in the house and to set up the Ninja gym.
It was so great to see so many willing people come help out. They will love it there I am sure of it. We left around 2pm and made it home just in time to see our entire stake digging everyone out of the mud. You see we have finally been getting the rain we so badly needed. But it came all at once and flash flooded down main street and filled the homes. We had this problem about 4 years ago. So, we hurried home to use the bathroom after the long drive home, grabbed Ben and some gloves, shovels and the wheelbarrow and headed back down to see where we could help out. We were there until it started to rain at 7pm. There were about 28 people from out ward that helped out. It was amazing! Other wards had handfuls of people. With all of the city workers from our city and the surrounding cities we had a good couple hundred people out helping clean up Main.
This was one of the houses up on top of main. A couple of college kids live here and they were lucky that they didn't have a basement and nothing got into the house, except a little into the back storage room but it wasn't bad. Just their back patio was covered with 6 inches of mud. We needed to dig them out.
Riley just kept saying how ready he was to do this all day long on his mission. It was great. What was even better was that he was already there helping before we got there. We didn't even have to call him.
Whomever didn't have a shovel removed debris out to the front of the house into a pile for the city to come pick up.
Look at their awesome faces!
Big piles of mud everywhere.
Then when that was all clean we moved down the street to the next house and kept going.
This is as we were headed down to Karen Jolley's at the end of Main. We were told that her ditch needed to be dug out because the rain had filled it with the gravel from the road. Sure enough, it was completely full. If it were to rain again the water would have come straight onto her grass because the ditch had no place to drain to. This picture was of the ditch cleaned out.
This was part of our group.
This was the 11th ward. Notice their bishop and Brother Jackson just standing there. I had to give them a hard time. Hahaha. Karen was sitting on her front porch watching and cheering everyone on. A little while later her grandson came and got some sandbags to reinforce her ditch with.
This is a picture of the clouds coming in. We got a report that Veyo was getting pounded. But we were ready now!
Here's a funny story about hero's and who you should consider your Hero is. I was digging and digging and thinking as people past that if I looked really pathetic maybe someone would stop and help out. Just then the fire truck came by and turned into the little fire station that they don't really use anymore that was right across the street from me. I thought. "Yes! My hero's! They are coming to save the day!" Just then they got out of the truck and walked around and went inside of the old building. I thought, "Really?!!!" Just when I felt defeated I heard someone say, "Do you need help?" I looked up to see the Elders. I wanted to cry for they were my real hero's. I said, "Yes, please." I gave one my shovel and gloves and went to get another one for the other Elder. What a great lesson I learned at that moment.
Here is Ryan and Ashley Chandler and their new baby. She is adorable. She was laughing so hard at her dad shoveling. It was so cute.
I just want to point out in this picture all of the gray part is the
gravel that we had to shovel out and it was clear up to the top. Then you'd get to the dirt and then
you'd finally hit the bottom of the ditch. It was a good foot deep.
These two even showed up after work with water and Gatorade for everyone. Then grabbed and shovel and started to help out! This was right where the ditch ended and went into the grate that goes under ground. It was a mess. This is what I was working on forever. It was really deep in this spot. They are my heroes! See the firetruck in the background.
Then the city got the sand bag station going and the firefighters came out to help with that. See how well they are helping?
Here is another one of my heroes. Katie Cluff. She was in a skirt filling sand bags! She is tough!!! And also so adorable.
Mike Allen, another Hero. ALWAYS willing to serve. He's a stud. He was flexing for the picture.
After it was over, we drove around to see what had been done. You could see the sandbags but you couldn't see the people scurrying around anymore. You could almost see the peace. Before it was like when you scatter ants and everyone was running all around trying to get everything done as fast as possible before the rain started again. But now, it was done. And people were calm and safe. Still muddy but safe.
Everyone drove home but one man, one crazy man was walking his muddy wheelbarrow filled with 4 shovels more than he came with and a box full of peoples gloves and kids half drunk Gatorade's and water bottles home. Joel refused to put all of this in our van. He said that he'd just push it home since it was only a half a mile away. Which is true. However, it's all uphill! That's why our ward doesn't flood! But that's why we go help out the others. He's is my favorite Hero.
