August

Busy, busy days. I feel like I am in the car so much that maybe I need to start audiobooks or something. Traffic around here is bonkers and construction is rampant. Someday they will be done, right? This made me laugh:

Elder McDaniel's schedule is full and complete. It will only change a smidge when Institute and Pathways start up mid-September but those are both online. He really enjoys most of his service opportunities and is learning to enjoy the ones that aren't his favorite yet. The rest home particularly loves him and he comes home happy. However, he has had several appointments that were made before his schedule was full so he has had to miss some of his service and far that he feels bad. He also got sick this week and had to take a day off to rest. He is at a zone conference right now.

School is going pretty well for the girls. Eva is doing great. She comes home brain-tired on A Days because of the AP and college classes on that day but her grades are good. B Days are her favorite. She adores creative writing and CDL (preschool) has started with the students coming this week. She always has a cute story abbot the little ones. So far two of them have glasses or are getting glasses. She was able to talk with them about her experience and hopefully make them feel good about getting glasses. 

Darby is struggling to get into the groove of high school. I have had to come and bring her something she forgot at school twice now. She comes home kind of grumpy too. She was able to find all her classes but the gym is still under construction so PE is kind of lame. They finally got lockers yesterday. She has to sing solos in choir in front of the class and she is terrified. She told me she was not going to do choir next year (to which I strongly opposed) but yesterday they had an afterschool rehearsal with all the choir (beginner and varsity) and she loved it. She was so happy when I saw her. "Mom, THIS is why I wanted to be in choir!" So I think she will grow into it. As she makes friends in choir it will be more fun too, I think. Her first AP class is very challenging as well. 

Paige has quickly made new friends in her classes. She is finding that she kind of likes art and theatre is okay (but there is some drama there, no pun intended). Her math class is difficult as well. 

She and I had a date this past week and she always gets a kick out of trying on the crazy shoes at the thrift store. We don't buy them, she just sees them as a challenge (that she can easily best because of her toe walking). 

Her YW class did a fun cupcake decorating activity and she loved it. 

She also taught her first YW lesson last Sunday. She looked very confident but the class was chatty and one girl even threw a paper airplane during the lesson. I was shocked a that. I mean, are we third graders? Anyway, their YW leader gave the presidency a talking to during their meeting and they came up with a plan to be better learners. Two girls even texted me to ask me to tell Paige that she did a good job. I thought that was sweet. Too bad the airplane girl wasn't one of them but oh well. 

Speaking of youth activities, Jason and I went with the youth to the Gila Valley temple this past weekend. We drove our girls and one friend of Paige's named Samantha who was going for the first time. It was a lovely experience and we did almost 200 baptisms. 

The weather is finally cooling off. We have been over 100 degrees for almost three weeks. It is much more pleasant to walk the dog when it's in the 70's in the morning. It still gets up to the mid 90's but we have a downward trend and a fair bit of rain, which is nice.

Earlier this week I noticed that Stella was peeing A LOT more often on walks and when she laid down she would leak a little. So I took her to the vet, hoping it was not incontinence. I mean, that's a big issue, hard to deal with and she's not THAT old. It turns out that she had a UTI so the vet gave us medicine for that. She had to wear a diaper on the first day as I needed to be able to trust her to not pee while I was gone taking Brendan places and also while she slept in our room. She is fine now. 

Youth Lake Day

Hi, this is Eva, and I'm blogging about our ward's youth lake trip. Every year, our ward takes the youth up to Elephant Butte to have a lake day, and it's always pretty fun. This year was Paige's first time going, and Darby and I went as well. It was an almost 2 hour drive, so we had to be at the church pretty early. The Smiths drove us, and on the way there we mostly napped. 

Once we go there, we set up the gazebos, got changed into our swimsuits, put on sunscreen, then got into the water. For a few hours, we just played in the water. Paige played with her friend Samantha, and Darby and I paddle boarded for about half an hour. There was beach volleyball set up, but none of us (the McDaniels) tried as far as I know. 

After a few hours we went tubing on Bro. Crosby's boat, and it was really fun. Paige went a few times with Samantha, and I went once with Darby. Darby and I stayed on pretty long, only falling off once each. It was fun but kind of scary, especially when we went out of the boat's wake or over waves. One time my knees were in the water. My shoulder were sore from holding onto the tube.

When we got back from tubing, we helped put away the gazebos and coolers then drove back. We were all really tired (and kind of sunburned) so we all took a nap on the way back. The Smiths were nice enough to drive us home. Funny thing: the Smith's youngest daughter is named Evangeline, but she goes by Eva (pronounced the same and everything). This happened a lot:

"Eva!"

"Huh?"

"Oh, I meant Eva Smith."

 

After a little bit, her mom started calling her Evangline. It was pretty funny, but confusing.

P.S. This is Christine. I didn't go to the lake trip so I asked Eva to write about it. All I know is the aftermath. They had a blast but were very tired. Every one of the girls had a sunburn. Darby's was REALLY red and she was miserable.  She did not reapply after being the in the water. Eva had a small one on the back of her thigh were she must've missed when she reapplied. Paige hd a red face that went to tan the next day. She has my skintone and looks like I did as a child. My mom used to say that between Shiloh (my redheaded sister) and I was a big difference and I'm seeing that play out between Darby (fair and freckled) and Paige (tan). 

First Day of School

 It's the first day of school for all the girls! We now have a 7th, 9th and 11th grader. It's also Darby's first day of high school and seminary. She was nervous but Eva was there to help her. Jason took them to seminary at 6:50am as he left for work. 

I left with Paige to walk up the hill at 7:10am. 

Paige is walking with Cassidy again this year though Cassidy has cheer after school most days so she will need to find someone else to walk home with or walk alone. Stella was particularly excited to be back in our walking routine and to see all the kids. Julie Ruth got this cute picture of our seventh graders. 

Paige was later than normal getting home so I walked with Stella up to see her. It turns out that they were late because Cassidy's new shoes gave her blisters so they walked slow. Paige's report about school was that it was pretty good. It turns out that Julia is in one of her classes and that a few other friends she didn't know about were in other classes. She does have two or three classes that she knows no one so she will have to make new friends. Not a big deal. She got her locker and is bummed that it is a bottom locker. She made it to all her classes on time except one because she took wrong turn. It is the class that is downstairs and across campus from the previous one. She knows she will need to really hurry during that passing period. Overall she is pleased with her classes and says her teachers seem nice, though she thinks her math class will be super hard because the teacher wasted no time in getting started with the teaching, even on the first day. Haha.

I picked up Darby and Eva at the church after school. They have A-Days ending at main campus and B-Days ending at both campuses. They arranged to meet in the courtyard and Eva would show Darby how to walk to the pickup spot. Tomorrow she would need to walk to the other pickup spot alone as it is closer to magnet campus where she ends the day. I made them tell me all about their first day. Darby said her seminary class was fun and that she made it to all of her classes on time. She was worried about that. The choir teacher recognized her from one of the competitions. I think that's a good thing. She was also worried about what her fashion class was going to be like as she did not sign up for that and it was just given to her as an elective. But after today she is excited for it. She says they will be doing a lot of sewing and will have a fashion show at the end of the year. She has the same teacher for Human Geography as Eva did. He is a good teacher but it's a hard class since it is AP. She said she made a new friend in Geometry and seems hopeful about that one as well. Eva and she met for lunch but she was unaware that Eva was walking all the way from main so she waited and waited and finally chose a table by herself before seeing her sister arrive.

Eva told me, "I have three AP classes and an OnRamp class in one day!" OnRamp is a dual credit class where they earn college credit. So she has English, Pre-Cal (that's the college one), US History and Physics, with the latter two being acknowledged but the teacher to be really hard classes. She said, "My brain is going to be melting!" Her English teacher is also in our ward and was her Sunday School teacher last year so she knows her well. She is also the same teacher Brendan had. Eva said Mrs Devereaux told a story about Brendan in her introduction. That made me laugh. So many teachers are surprised when they find out those two are related. Her Pre-Cal teacher had Brendan too. He hasn't made the connection yet. ;) 

Since FHS has a rotating schedule I also want to tell you about Darby and Eva's second first day. Darby forgot her ID and used her seminary teacher's phone to call me. I told her this was her one freebie as I won't be able to bring her forgotten things much after Brendan's calendar is full. The gym is finally renovated but the school is still waiting on inspections so Darby had a very boring gym class sitting in the cafeteria after the teacher introduction. She seems to think her other classes would be okay and liked her teachers. She has Bio, Spanish II (which she is looking forward to) and English Pre-AP. The teacher for that last one seems pretty strict but Darby is fine with that. She also ate lunch with her friend Dhiya since Eva is in the other building that day. And she made it to the other pickup spot just fine even thought she was worried. 

Eva loved her second day. It is filled with all her fun classes. She has Professional Communications first and she thinks it will be an okay class. Brendan hated it but Eva is not worried. It is a class about communication and of course our autistic son would think it was really hard. The teacher has a lot of books in the back of the room and she scored some points when she went back to investigate and the teacher noticed. She then has Child Development Lab for two periods. That is the on campus preschool program. Later in the month the little kids come start to attend class and she is really looking froward to it. For now they are cleaning and organizing. Her last class is Creative Writing and she is so excited for that one. She thinks it may be her favorite. 

Nineteen

Today Elder McDaniel turned 19. Can't believe he is only one year away from being twenty years old! As a missionary he still had things he had to to today, including his first day Good Samaritan Rest Home. It is a place that he has wanted to volunteer at the most since the beginning of his mission and the vetting process is finally complete. Here is what he had to say about it in his latest mission email:

"Finally, my schedule is done! All the assignments are vetted and neatly inserted into my schedule. I got to work at the rest home for the first time on Thursday, and it went really well. I spoke to Joe, a veteran who had been in the army for 35 years and had been to what sounded like all over the place. I also spoke to a 92-year-old Jewish lady named Helen, who made for pretty good conversation company."

Throughout the day he received emails and messages from family, which made him feel special. That night we took him out to PF Changs for dinner. 

After ordering we gave him his presents. Eva and Darby each made him a personalized card. They made him laugh and I know he liked them. What sweet sisters. 

Jason and I got him a new journal, a tie clip (with a D&D dice on it) and a new tie (covertly decorated with D&D dice as well).  

The restaurant gave him a birthday souffle which he shared with us. At home he wanted to play Civilization IV with his dad. Then it was scripture study, companion study and then his missionary bedtime.

 Happy birthday Elder Brendan S. McDaniel!