All About the Argyles

I think this is pretty impressive stuff - and still ANOTHER reason I love life in a small town. How many of you got birthday letters from your Superintendent of schools for your big day? Well, you do if you live in our town. We have the most AMAZING superintendent. I have been so impressed by him. He sent McKinley (and Jensen) letters for their birthdays and it is signed by him. Granted, I know a secretary probably typed it up, licked the stamp, and stuck it in the envelope but I think that is so cool. They felt so good when they opened up the letter and saw it. Dr. Watkins also rotates among all the schools (even the high school!) and does car pool lines in the morning. He greets them and helps them out of the car - yes, cold days too. He goes to most of the games too. All the kids know him and yell "hi" to him when they see him. Impressive!!!! I am enclosing his follow up comments to an email I sent him about it just to show you what a nice man he is... "Tha...

I am going to try to to list a few things each week in November of things I am truly grateful for. Here is my starter list. Now realize that these are ASIDE from the obvious ones like Gospel, family. hubby, etc.. 1. I am grateful for my health. Watching my grandfather in the final stages of his battle with Liver Cancer and seeing how hard every day is for him has made me realize what a precious thing it is to have your health and to be able to do the things you love because you feel good. 2. Good Friends (Old and New) When we moved here a little over a year ago, we did it for the benefit of our youth age kids. Brent and I left an IDEAL situation for us where we had a TON of life-long, thick and thin friends that we did stuff with all the time and that were like family. We were totally willing to do it so that our kids could have more opportunities to make friends with other youth their age because there were hardly any in our old ward. I came here with the mind set that I didn't re...

I listened to a conference talk today where they referenced this quote from President Packer. I was so intrigued that I researched it and found it. Man, I love him! He is one of my favorite speakers. I e-mailed it to a dear friend going through a particularly hard situation and then had the after-thought that many of you are going through similar situations so it might be helpful to you: "We live in a day when the adversary stresses on every hand the philosophy of instant gratification. We seem to demand instant everything, including instant solutions to our problems. We are indoctrinated that somehow we should always be instantly emotionally comfortable. When that is not so, some become anxious... It was meant to be that life would be a challenge. To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is normal. Teach our members that if they have a good, miserable day once in a while, or several in a row, to stand steady and face them. Things will straig...

Imagine how ecstatic our 5 offspring were when we picked them up from school on Monday and then announced that we were going to get flu shots for family home evening. This is a yearly tradition. We have a"Staph-prone" child so it is a REALLY good idea for her that we try to maintain a flu-free home. After the shots we went to visit my grandparents. They just recently moved out of their home of over twenty years and moved into a "retirement community". It has been a tough adjustment, needless to say. My grandfater has stage 4 cancer and my grandmother has Alzheimers. It was time. Then we went to get ice cream at the place Brent refers to as the "$10 ice cream store". Its not far from the truth. A scoop of ice cream with a mix in is almost $10. I rationalized it to him by saying that it was the least we could do for them considering what the initial activity was.....

Happy Halloween everyone!!! Quote for the day: Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold. — Judith Olney Every year my grandfather's independent living center sponsors a really fun Halloween party. It is so much fun and the residents that live there love to see the kids. They all buy tons of candy and then sit in chairs/wheelchairs in the dining room and pass it out to the trick or treaters. They put together an awesome haunted house, and provide hotdogs,punch, and cookies for atleast 100 kids. This year they had a phenomenal balloon artist. He was the best one I have ever seen! Check out this spider he made for Reagan! They also have a costume contest: Tanner was Nacho Libre and Brady was Ramses (thankyou to the amazingly talented Sarah!!!) Kiki and Reagan went as farmers to Zeus's cow. We made "utters" and he wore a cowbell. They carried milk buckets and wore overalls and John Deere hats. The farmers ...

What are the odds of a wasp flying into the open window of a moving car and stinging an innocent person on the eyelid? I would like to know because that is just what happened to our poor Kiki last Monday night. Here is the proof. If I didn't see it for myself I would not have believed it.