All the rest of us.

Lately I've only been posting news from Collin because we're all so excited when we receive a letter or email. But the rest of us have lives and you may be wondering what we are doing. Here goes. Rich has been busy with the office, being a father and 2nd counselor in the bishopric. Something really fun that he started doing this year is early morning tennis. When Emily, Madelyn and I leave for seminary he wakes up and gets Spencer and Melissa up and ready and off they go to play tennis until about 7. This has really helped in getting Spencer to go to bed earlier. I, Dana, am in my 6th(holy cow!) year of teaching early morning seminary. This year is a good group and so far it's been good and I really have no great regrets. It's still hard to get up and I still want to barf in the morning. The city of Rancho Mirage (Boo! Hiss!) put up a bunch of big fences at the different trail heads to fend off would be hikers. This trail is VERY popular here in the Coachella valley. I think the city would be more successful at holding back the tide than stopping the hikers. I've been doing this hike for about 7 years or so and many have been doing it longer. So what do you think the hikers did? They hike right around these fences. One barbed wire section went up and was clipped down before I ever even saw it.  We already knew the City of Rancho Mirage was pretty lame and this just confirms it. The unofficial city motto is "Welcome to Rancho Mirage, now get the he** out!" On with the next person. Emily is having a wonderful year so far and you can read her blog to find out more. She auditioned and was selected to perform the National Anthem at the homecoming game on Oct. 3rd. She is excited about that. I'll most likely post it here for viewing later. She has had a poem accepted to be published at something called Blazevox. I don't know if I even spelled that right. She loves all her classes. In her Spanish class she was given permission to perform her oral presentations set to music she writes. Her teacher LOVED her performance and looks forward to her next presentation. These songs tend to be funny as Emily is quite humorous. Madelyn is VERY busy. This is her life. Seminary, school, volleyball, homework, sleep. She throws an apple or something in there somewhere and manages to keep going. I hope she doesn't wear herself out and become real sick. Spencer is busy doing boy stuff. Tennis in the morning, homework, legos and scouts. He is learning that earning a merit badge on your own is a lot harder than doing it at scout camp. But you actually learn! Melissa spends about 1/3 of her life upside down. She is constantly doing handstands. If you've been around this lately you may have accidentally received a foot in the shoulder or face depending on how tall you are. It is habitual for her. Maybe I'll post a video of how many times she does it at home just when she's walking around. On the plus side, she's very good. Straight up, pointed toes, perfect most of the time. All is well with all of us and we hope it is with you.