Welcome to Dollywood...
The kiddos with a giant, fake cut timber.
Luke has tamed this dragonfly...
Sarah has learned to ride a caterpillar...
Eating homemade ice cream...it was alright, I think I make better though.
This old steam engine took us on a five mile ride...a bit dirty as it blew dirt on us upon departure.
Sarah was worn out, the train ride was just what she needed to unwind.
Flying a bee, Luke an Sarah hit the air...
This year we celebrated 13 years!!! We would have loved to gone off by ourselves, but it just wouldn't work out for that so we were all together for our anniversary. Aug. 2nd we visited the small ward in Pigeon Forge (pretty much like our ward here in Missouri.) We found it to be a very pleasant day. Jason is my best friend and a wonderful husband. He does so much to help me that I feel guilty when I hear other women complain about their husbands. I wonder how I ever deserved someone who is so good to me and helps me to want to be a better person. It hasn't been easy living away from family our whole married lives but I am grateful for the sweetheart who has been with me through it all!!!! I love you Jason.
Jason took off a week at the end of July in hopes we'd be able to go home to UT, but when we couldn't do that we decided to use up our timeshare points in TN about 7 hr drive. We went to Pigeon Forge. It was beautiful and made me so homesick for the UT mountains:( But I loved every minute of it. Most the time the kids swam, they had in door and out door pool, playground and some activities. It was a welcomed vacation...one of the best and one of the first that NO one threw-up!!!!! It felt so nice to swim, cool off, relax, no callings to deal with, no classes to teach on Sunday:) One of the few times Jason has been able to sit with me in Sacrament meeting, yippee! And not a commitment in the world other then my families immediate needs...so glad I went...
Our little swimmer...she gave us a horrid scare at the pool. We kept trying to tell her that it was too deep (3 foot) and she had to have her floater. She was playing in the little pool with a little boy, I had taken my eyes off her for a moment when I was with the big kids; she changed her mind about he kiddie pool and came over to the big pool, stepped down the steps and couldn't touch when I turned around all I could see was her pink ponytail. I yelled for Colton to grab her as he was the closest to her and I felt like I was in cement and couldn't move fast enough. My biggest fear was the thought of her dry drowning later, and so I had Jason give her a blessing and watched her all day. She was fine, but it scared me to death.
Having fun with my sister...
A picture by the pond with Colton, Luke, and Sarah...
Yes it's his big 35! He really made out this year, not from home though. Birthday money from family and a gift card to lowes from work got him a new cordless drill, nice powerwasher and then we gave him a night of golf with a friend, new temple pants and book on cd for long drives. The book is the second one from LDS author Sandra Grey - She wrote "Traitor" which we really liked and so I got him the next one called "Tribunal." We'll see if we like it too. 
We had a lot of fun at our Ward Pioneer Day on Sat. July 25th. We had bouncers and grilled hot dogs and played baseball, volleyball and heard a story about the pioneers. Whitney is in the blue striped shirt.
Sarah had a great time sliding down the non-slide (it wasn't slippery at all, so adults had to scoot themselves down).
Colton is on the right and Luke is on the left with Keegan.
These are the bouncers!
Sister Ray was holding Sarah so I could finish my game of Volleyball. No she didn't wet her pants, though it looks that way; she had just finished a soda and spilled it all down her front!
I pose the question because this week we found out what a wonderful summer school program the Kennett School District has. This is where Colton and Whitney have been attending summer school. Last week Colton came home telling me that they were watching Pursuit of Happiness, which I know is PG-13. He is 11 and it is a show I hadn't planned to let him watch until he was much older. (I don't really think PG-13 is very good for many teens.) Anyhow, I told Colton and Whitney that if they show a movie to please ask the teacher what the rating is and if it is PG-13 that the are not to watch it and need to tell me. Whitney came home Tuesday and said she had to sit in the corner and read a book during the movie her class watched because it was PG-13. She had asked her teacher what the rating was and told her she couldn't watch PG-13. (BRAVO to my daughter for being so brave!!!!) The teacher told her she didn't know what the rating was so she'd just have to sit in the corner and read a book. AAGGHHHHHH! I was so mad that the teacher would make no effort to find out the rating (Fantastic Four 2005 - PG-13), And that she would punish my daughter by making her go to this little alcove in the corner of the class and read while the rest of the class watched the movie. I called the school and of course, the principal was gone for the day.
Wed. we headed up to St. Louis to the Dr. for Luke's Diabetes check-up. He has done better this quarter! A1C is at 8.4 we are very pleased with his progress. Back to the story. So on the way up to St. Louis I called the principal. I Asked her what the school policy was for movies. She said that teachers could show G or PG movies but that she leaves it to the discretion of the teacher. I was furious, because she started to defend the teachers actions when I relayed the events. She felt it was appropriate for the teacher to send the student to another class during the film if they couldn't watch it. (that would be fine if it had to do with some religious beliefs, but she didn't send her to another class, she made her sit alone. Second she showed an inappropriate age movie to 8 & 9 year olds, without parent approval.) The principal couldn't see that it was that big of a deal, which made me more mad. She insisted that they hardly ever show a movie, which is not true, a friend of mine has a daughter who had that teacher last year and she said they put a movie in every time the kids couldn't go outside due to weather or whatever. The principal didn't apologize for having this happen at school. She didn't offer any solutions or indicate that she would enforce the school policy or anything. Finally she said she would talk to the teacher. Well, the teacher was less than nice to Whitney the next day when she put in another movie, telling her in an annoyed tone that the movie isn't PG-13 in front of the whole class. I was afraid she'd take it out on her. I almost went to the school Thurs. but felt that it would have been less effective with the attitude the principal had. We called the School Superintendent and Jason & I met with him Friday (the last day of summer school.)
I organized my notes and printed ratings for the shows that had been view at school both middle school and the elementary. I was so nervous so I said a lot of prayers. Thankfully it went very well. He was shocked that any pg-13 movies had been show at all in either school and the principals hadn't stopped it. He was mad that the teacher singled Whitney out in front of the class. The teachers are suppose to fill out a movie request form and it is suppose to be approved by the principal before showing a film. Obviously that hasn't been happening or it would have been caught before it was ever shown. He was very sorry it happened and was going to set up a meeting with the principal and then review the movie guidelines with the all of the teachers at their summer meeting to make sure that follow the procedures for such things this coming year. Also, He also said he would get back to us after his meeting. I felt really good about it and hopefully things will shape up for a while. The teachers have just gotten lax in preparing activities to fill the teaching gaps. We actually do not belong to the Kennett School District but we will have to do this all over at our district this year because they too have gotten lax with the policy, letting kids bring movies from home and such. It seems to be more of a problem with the younger teachers. The Superintendent agreed with us that things have gotten too lax. I pointed out that the student code of conduct would never tolerate the things spoken or viewed or worn in those types of movies and it is a double standard to expect the students to act one way, yet show something contrary when they are at school. I hope it will be better, but we shall see. It's a small town...I guess I should check out topix to see if my name is now being smeared all over the gossip section. Oh well, life goes on.
