Janelle's Presentation

In Janelle's second grade class, each student was given an assignment to interview and make a poster presentation on a member of his or her family, or friend. Janelle chose to do hers on Janika. Actually at first she was going to do it on Jase. She even interviewed him with intriguing questions such as, "Have you ever been in love?" "Did you have friends when you were two?" and "Have you ever been to a chocolate factory?"

But I am glad that she switched to Janika. No offense Jase, it is just that "my sister gives me manicures, does my hair, and bakes me cookies" sounds a whole lot more sweet and sentimental than "my brother scares me with his fake skeleton, gets irritated and rolls his eyes when I pray too long, and grumbles at me when I can't keep up with him on the Wii." Not that she said any of those things -- but it happens. Now in his defense, I realize that Janelle could have also come up with many wonderful things to say about Jase.

But since she has always had a sweet sisterly bond with Janika, I think it made for a nice presentation. It was fun to watch her give her talk about her big sister. She obviously idolizes her. Janelle was animated, verging on silly -- not a speck of intimidation or shyness in her skinny little body. Great job Belle!

Jaiden's First Grade Class

Each of the classes at our school started out the school year with an Intern from Korea and each week the Interns switched classes. Our kids seemed to really grow fond of their sweet Interns and would tell me all of the exiting things they learned about Korea. Jaiden came home one day with a folded paper fan -- her neat written in Korean along the side. Janelle came home one day with a sweet little note written to her (in English) from her Intern in small, precise, beautiful print. Each of the Interns chose an "American" name such as "Miss Lucy,"or "Miss Monica," probably to make it easier for the kids to pronounce. Here is a class picture with Miss Lucy. Now all of the Interns have returned to Korea. We hope they all become wonderful teachers someday. Our kids miss them.

Picture Posting Problems

Okay, so I went to post some pictures this morning and a different set up pops up.  When I click on upload picture it shows it is loading but then it never loads.  Has anyone else had any trouble?  I tried to save the old editor but that doesn't work either. Frustrating!

Swiss Days Parade

The parade started and Josh said in a disappointing voice, "Is this a watching parade?" "Yes, aren't all parades watching parades?" He was getting really worried when four or five groups went by and no candy. "No -- I mean, will we get candy?" I assured him they probably would, and they did -- but not as much as the last parade they went to. We were at the end of the parade route and many candy-throwers had simply run out. Much of the candy tossed out was the red and white mints and other red hard-tack candy that is spicy. My kids don't like spicy candy and so they were a bit disappointed that they didn't get their usual haul. But I am perfectly okay with not having a ton of candy around. The kids still had fun and were excited to see Tarzan and Jane and the comic strip characters and darth vadar. Meanwhile Jase and Jared set up a booth on route to Swiss Days near our home selling home-made hats, capri-sun bags, water-bottles, and popsicles. I think they made about $15.00.

Swiss Days 5K

I just had to hurry and post our times on the Swiss Days 5K before we lose the cards...

Jared got 26:54.7
Wendy got 27.35.6
Jase got 31.37.3

This is Jared's first time running a 5K (and he hasn't done any training at all) and so he did awesome! I was also excited about my time too because I beat my last year's time by three minutes! My goal was to get under 30 minutes and I did it with time to spare. Woo hoo! Jase also beat his last year's time by two minutes. Great job boys!

Tarzan

Friday night we brought the family to see "Tarzan" at Tuacahn. It is a fun show with lots to see. It was Deaf and Hard of Hearing night and so the deaf community was able to get in for a discounted rate. Tonight's performance was completely sold-out. I had the CD to prepare for interpreting and so the younger kids already had all of the songs memorized. This is the first time we have brought Josh and he did great! Although he wouldn't get in any of the pictures with the characters afterwards. Since we knew he would be up way past his bed-time we made sure he took a good nap earlier in the afternoon. It took a while for him to fall asleep since he hasn't napped for well over a year, but he eventually gave in. All of the kids enjoyed the show and the deaf group really seemed to enjoy it as well.

Janika's friend, Madison, baby-sat Jenna while we were gone. She said that Jenna was good but when the Swiss Days' fireworks started she woke up saying, "scawey, scawey!"

The bottom picture shows a little friend we saw next to the water feature. The kids thought seeing a taratula was almost as exciting as seeing Tarzan.

Toad in my shirt!

Janika posted this on her facebook account and I thought I would include it in here:

My siblings were all out playing with the baby toads that live under our trampoline and they all came inside to do their homework. In the middle of their spelling test my four year old brother Josh suddenly screams: "There's a toad in my shirt!! There's a toad in my shirt!!" Haha sure enough there was a baby toad in... his shirt and he didn't even notice till now. That was the funniest thing! :)  

Not only was there a toad in his shirt, but a while later we found a toad in each of his pockets too! 

Janelle's Poem: Janika's Day

Janelle wrote this poem about Janika.  I thought it was pretty darn cute!

Stake Young Women's Night of Excellence

Janika’s Stake Young Women’s “Night of Excellence” was last Wednesday night. They had chosen eight girls (one from each ward/branch) to do a musical program written by Jenny Phillips called “The Parable of the Golden Pathway” and Janika was one of them. There were five songs in it and speaking parts. One song was with the whole congregation, one with all eight girls, one a duet with two of the girls, and two solo numbers. Janika had a solo number and her song was SO beautiful! I was very proud of her!

Deaf Branch Conference

Our Branch Conference began Friday night, September 17. We had about 75 people register for this year's conference. Participants started arriving around 4:30 and checked in to receive their T-shirts.  We all enjoyed socializing and then ate a wonderful meal catered by Staheli catering.  Joyanne Burdette was our keynote speaker and delivered a powerful message and testimony followed by a game directed by Ron Burdette.  Everyone was laughing and joking and learning at the same time as we tried putting church history events in their proper chronological order.

Our conference continued on Saturday September 18 bright and early at 7:30 a.m. for those who wanted to participate in the hike on the Temple Quarry Trail.  Danny Radford led the way and stopped us along the path to explain how the pioneers used the lava rock for the foundation of the St. George temple.  You can see holes in the rocks from the dynamite the settlers used to blast the rocks apart and then they had to drag the enormous rocks with a wagon down to the temple site.  The trail is a unique hike with incredible views and a fascinating history.  The pioneers sacrificed so much to build a temple here.

For the rest of the pictures go to our Deaf Branch Blog.

After the hike we were treated to a presentation given by Brett and Ericka Hymas.  Dressed in pioneer attire, they shared poignant stories about the sacrifices the pioneers endured and the faith they had to follow a prophet of God.  They had faith to consecrate all they had in order to build the temple, starting with the foundation.  Do we have the same determination, faith, and foundation in Jesus Christ today?

 After the temple quarry we headed over to the visitor's center annex where the group was taught by various members of our branch both inside and outside.   Group leaders that taught the lessons included John Lampe, Jackie Brown, Steve Christensen, and Chad Bonny.

 

After the Visitor's Center we all went back to the Seminary building for lunch that was provided by the Relief Society (thank you Bonnie Christensen for all your hard work!).  Then the group toured the Brigham Young home.  Our deaf branch tour directors were Pat Lein and Stephen Peterson (for the inside of the home) and Von and Betty Jones for the outside of the home.

Saturday night we enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, salad, and rolls, and apple crisp and vanilla ice-cream for dessert.  Then Danelle Lampe gave out some humorous awards to different members of the group.  We all had a big laugh guessing which people that she was mimicking!  Then President Jensen expressed appreciation for everyone who helped make the Branch Conference a success.  He also called up Liz Perkins to give her a special "thank you" since she put in many many hours keeping track of the entire registration process for the conference.  She was awarded a giant picture of the St. George temple and she and Dave received two participant T-shirts that were decorated by some of the youth in our branch.  We ended the evening with an inspirational ASL temple session.

We ended our Deaf Branch Conference with our regular church meetings on Sunday.  It was so neat to see so many people attend church!  It gave us all a vision of what this little branch could become.  The lessons were wonderful.  For Sacrament meeting the Branch Presidency called different members and visitors to come share their testimonies.  The spirit was strong and it was an amazing meeting.  We finished off with a potluck after church where everyone could gather and eat and socialize to their hearts (and hands) content!  THANK YOU so much to everyone who helped make this year's branch conference a success!  Also, a big thank you to those of you who traveled to attend.  We will see you in two years!