Peace

This summer has been a stressful one for me. I never wanted to be that parent that was jumping for joy when school started after summer vacation. I have become that parent and it has made me feel plenty guilty this summer. I can give you all the reasons why I turned into that parent this summer and honestly, as I look at it with a clear head now, I can see how it happened and probably would happen to any mother. However, it is what it is and I am glad to report that this week has been a nice change! I asked for a blessing from David last week and something that stuck out to me was to calm down. Though it didn't come easily, I can say that these last few days have been really great as we have kept very busy with friends. I feel at peace, even though situations around us and even in our family are anything that would promote peace. Being busy is good....so is a change of heart.

Becky and Ron Emro came to visit (from Idaho) their family this past week and so get togethers have been in abundance. Friday night we had a date night at La Casita. The Emros' and us are really the only ones who have a long term connection (Becky and I from growing up together....Ron and David from Rexburg) but through blogs and a day spent together at the pool, instant friends were made with the Bishop and Wilson families. I LOVE that about the gospel!

The next day, most of the Bass, Emro, Adams, Lester, and Wilson families headed off for Little Blue. Rose was so good with all the kids as she was the adult who spent the most time with all the little ones. She was so patient as she let them go "fishing." She took off the hook so no one would get hurt but the water was so clear that the kids got to watch as the little fish played with the plastic bait. At one point I was in front of Hyrum walking with him out of the water. I had a hold of the pole and could feel him pulling on the other end. I was in front of him so I couldn't see him and I just thought the pull was from his hands. But then I hear Rose cracking up while trying to get me to look at Hyrum. Hyrum was letting me pull him out of the water, all right! Apparently, I had caught a Hyrum fish!

We spent 5 hours at Little Blue and then headed off to the Miami pool. Some friends of ours, the Gibsons, have a family reunion every first Saturday in August after hours at this pool. We are not blood related but they have always been so good to us. This is another thing that I just love about the gospel. You really feel like family to so many people in church. I truly love the Gibson family. They have always built me up and I love them for that. Through them I have made a wonderful friend in Kristina. She was always my "summer friend" growing up as she came up from Tulsa to visit her Aunt Tammy. These reunions are usually the only times I get to see her anymore.

I love this picture because of it being Brighams' first time off the diving board but also because of the rainbow in the background. We have been in this horrible drought for so long that it was a wonderful sight. Our time at the pool was cut short because soon after lightening started to beautify the sky.

On the way home I actually called David to make sure we weren't in any type of a warning. The sky was lighting up like crazy but what kind of weirded me out was the dust of leaves flying around everywhere as we were heading home. The leaves flying around is another sign of our drought. It is not fall or even close to it yet many leaves on the trees around here have changed colors and have dropped to the ground because of the lack of water and very high heat. At one point, I drove by what looked like a baseball field. I have no idea what they were doing in that field, even though the lights were on, because so much dust and dirt had picked up. I could see absolutely no people. After our recent tornado scares, you can imagine my worried heart. It turned out to be a thunderstorm and I am very grateful for the rain. I have been praying for rain and just the other day when I said a prayer at the dinner table and forgot to ask for rain, Brigham got on to me. Yes! He is listening!