Another Update

Well, it's been a while. It seems like all of my posts start out that way. Honestly, I don't have that exciting of a life to write too often.

Anyway, for the past few months, my life has pretty much revolved around the Arise Youth Spectacular. It was a lot of fun to be a part of. I had tons of fun hanging out with the youth in my ward. Before this, I was afraid to work with teenagers (I have had some bad experiences working with other teenagers), but they were really fun to work with. There were tons of practices, some in rain and hail, some in deadly heat, and some in absolutely perfect weather. All of our hard work really paid-off in the end. The performance was amazing. I was really blessed to be a part of it.

This is me walking to my spot. I got to dance with the youth since there weren't enough boys, and it was a partner dance. I actually got mistaken for a youth at least once every practice, so I didn't look too out of place.

Also, in the past couple of months, Lance has traveled a LOT for work. He went to Washington DC twice, and St. Louis once for training. I stayed at my parents' house while he was gone. We both had tons of fun, him sightseeing and me hanging out with my family and shopping in exotic places like Salt Lake City and Park City, but we both like it better when we're not apart for so long.

This is Lance by the St. Louis arch. The picture is deceiving, because the arch is really a lot bigger than it looks.

Lance decided to take a walk up to the DC temple. It was nine miles one way. Yes, he got blisters, but it was worth it for the pictures.

Another thing I've been doing is gardening. I know, I'm shocked too! I actually like it! So far, what we've been able to produce is: raspberries, strawberries, cherries, peas, beans, lettuce, and spinach. We're waiting on zucchini (which is almost ready to pick), red and green peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, carrots, cucumbers, crabapples, and grapes. I feel so proud of my little seeds that I've nurtured and watched grow. I've also planted a bunch of flowers in my flowerbed in my front yard. They are starting to bloom. One of my lilies bloomed recently, my marigolds are out, I think one of my poppies are out, my zinnias are playing peek-a-boo, and I'm still waiting on my columbines and sunflowers, although one sunflower is thinking about blooming. I had some nice flower surprises throughout the rest of my yard, too! I had some orange lilies pop up last month, some sweet peas, and some roses. I was super excited to see all of them. These were all surprises, (well, aside from the roses, because I know what a rose bush looks like) because since we bought the house at the end of summer, I didn't know what flowers would bloom in spring and early summer. Oh! I almost forgot about my single lavender tulip. That one was very random, because it was just one, but it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!

This is one of the orange lilies that surprised me in my yard. (Soooooo pretty!)

This is a view of my garden. It's not the whole thing, but a good chunk of it.

Since it's July now, we've had two reunion type things already, and we had Independence Day parties. We have another reunion planned for July 31st. My family also had a camping trip that I crashed for a day, but I didn't stay over because I had to go to church early the next day.

I almost forgot the most exciting thing that happened recently!!! Well, it's kind of bittersweet. Our old camera died the first time Lance went to Washington DC this year, and that made us very sad, but we got a brand new camera (which is really special for us, since we usually just get everyone else's hand-me-downs of everything). It's a Sony Cyber-shot. It is 14.1 megapixels, which means that it shoots really, I mean SUPER clear pictures. It takes videos in HD. So, it's super nice. We've already taken tons of pictures.

Well, that's all for now.
-Michelle