.S.U.M.M.E.R. .F.U.N.!

Life is moving on at BYU-Idaho! And I'm moving with it! :o)

June has been a month of adventures, learning, and enjoying! (And still counting...)

Here are some of the highlights:

The weather! It's been super, super nice for about 2 weeks (between 50-80 degrees)...OK, that may not seem very exciting, but after all the rain and corresponding gloom, we're soaking up the sun! I don't have pictures, but this week Friday, Sarah, Hannah and I had a great time at Porter park...they opened a really fun water park, with mini waterslides and fountains to play in! (Take note, all you future visitors of Rexburg - you don't want to miss it!) We had fun alternating between playing on the playground and getting super hot, going to cool off and get wet in the water, watching the fun carosel horses go around, and then jumping on the swings to dry off. Well, actually, the girls jumped on the swings, and I took my place as official pusher - featuring the "underdog," "underduck" (don't ask me what the difference is) "backwards drop-push," "foot pushes..."

Here's a picture of "the pass" as we used to call it in the winter when it was under about 5 feet of snow with one footpath running through. I much prefer the lilacs! It's beautiful - sight and smell!

Dispite the beautiful weather outside, most days I carry a sweater (my girls in Relief Society tease me about it), because inside, I'm cold! Blessed air-conditioning! Work is going great, and some days, it's even greater! My tutorees teach me a lot - the past 2 weeks, my writing students have been bringing their essays and I just marvel at what they write and the kind of people they are...any little thing I can help with is almost inconsequential. My international students are a hoot! We've had fun the past week by taking a game break. With Jenny (Brazil) I played Boggle, adding a rule that you must put your words into a comprehensible story as you find them...working on context and vocabulary. With Iljong (Korea) I played with Taboo cards. We had to get each other to say the word on the card, (eg. Adam) but could not use the other words on the card in the explaination (eg. Eve, garden, fruit, Satan, first, man)...working on vocabulary, context and pronunciation. Namsoo (Korea) is studying hard for the G-MAT test, he graduates and has a job lined up in Utah, so we did something a little different with him. He works now on the construction on campus, so we took a tour of it!

Here I am on top of the Manwaring center! It was a windy day, as you can see. A little bit of a challenge to my "I'm not afraid of heights" assertion!

Beautiful view! The temple and the Taylor building.

Tutor and student...I was definitely the student that day!

Look at those big cranes! From the rooftop, the 90' tall, 90,000 lb columns for the new auditorium look miniscule. Wow! What a difference a little change of perspective can make!

Speaking of perspective - I'm enjoying mine in the 3rd Ward! Our ward is so great! We've had a fun semester in all aspects - Relief Society, Family Home Evening, and activities. Our last 2 events are worth mentioning. The first was a ward FHE -The Price is Right night! Complete with prizes and a showdown (the grand prize was a $5 gift certificate to Jamba Juice) we all went away feeling like winners because we laughed so hard. Yesterday, we had a murder mystery night dinner. Each place setting had a number corresponding to a character in the mystery. One person was the designated "detective." Given 3 clues, each table then had to decide who did the murder and why, and the detective was voice for the table. After each table's report, the real murderer was revealed. (Over dessert, of course.) Our next activity is lined up as a service project, which is going to be fun, and we'll have a BBQ at Bishop Doman's for July 4th.

I can't begin to say how much I enjoy serving with such wonderful women in Relief Society! We laugh, cry, and learn together in a way that is truly marvelous! Only the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to bring 35 complete strangers (of college age) together in a way that unifies them together and also helps them develop and grow as individuals. It's a privilege to be a part of! :o)

Dating - I've set a new record for dates at school: 3 in one week! It was a fun week, and I decided that I like dating... I've heard girls who don't date often console themselves with, "boys are just trouble anyways..." but I say "bring on the trouble!" I am a better person because of my dating experiences, and I'm determined to keep it that way!

My dating adventures are as follows: Kaleb - racquetball, a little B-Ball, Idaho/potato theme birthday party with his roommate's & their dates, (potato soup, scalloped potatoes, fried potatoes, salad - YUM), making our own Mr. Potato Head creations. Here's how they turned out:

Some good looking potatoes if you're asking me!

Meet SPOT - it's a new day for Potato Head Dogs!

And it's a new day for Spot's friend as well, complete with pom-pom tail! Judging from the smile, at least.

A.J. - he's my F.H.E brother...called me and asked me to go to dinner. It was fun - we went to Fongs (a chinese place), tried to figure out how to eat without knives, and talked about our lives...

Bargains: One last highlight for this long post... yesterday, Sister Davis (a one-of-a-kind friend of ours) took Gretchen and I to Artco for the summer sale of 50% off. They have an absolutely amazing establishment, with stationary galore, cards, miscellaneous do-dads, vellum, ribbons, etc! You come out of there with such a sense of satisfaction, just knowing that you will one day find a use for all of it! Can't miss Artco, especially when it's located on STATIONARY RD! (no joke!)
We also visited a local dollar store that is going out of business, so everything was 77 cents...there's was only one thing worth mentioning there, and I will save it for my next post!

To be continued...