Hi!

I'm up a little bit before Ry, so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about what's going on with our little family.

I'm almost done with my Master's Degree.  YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!  I have about six more weeks left, and then I need to submit my portfolio and I'll be done.  I can't wait until my time is MY TIME again, and I can come home and not have to worry about homework other than the stuff I choose to bring home from school.  It'll be nice, and then in January I'll get another pay raise.  That's three in a year.  I can handle that.

We've had some visitors from the east this past week.  Ry's mom came in last Saturday and stayed till Wednesday, and his dad and wife came last night.  We don't get very much time with them, which stinks.  They leave here around noon today to drive back to Salt Lake and fly on to San Francisco for their vacation.  It was extremely sweet that they took a day out to come see us.  I honestly don't think we've seen them since Christmas two years ago, so it's been a while.  We're going to go out to breakfast with them this morning and then take them up on the "Wild Horse Scenic Loop" west of town and hope we get lucky.

We took Ryan's mom up there last week and I think we were there just at the right time, because we got the blessing of a lifetime!

A hoofprint.  See the horse hair near the top?

September 2nd was our first day of school.  I have a great class, although I think I've forgotten some that they're really still first graders when they come into second grade.  They're really sweet and funny.  And they love to learn and read, and that's half the battle right there.  I have several students who have some attention issues, so we'll be working on those this year.  I want some of those big exercise balls they use for OT, to see how those would work with a couple of my kidlets.  Sitting on those hard chairs all day long when you're seven or eight would be tough.  I try to have the kids get up and move quite often, but it's not enough.  We'll see how this progresses.

I don't know if I've ever divulged this information, but I play Bunco with a group of women from our district.  It's a total blast, and I have so much fun with them.  This month the party was at the home of the former secretary for my school, and she had some beautiful flowers.  Here they are:

Okay, well, it's about that time.  We're meeting my in-laws for breakfast, and I still need to do my hair and stuff.  Take care, JU!  I hope that you are well!