Consumed by tennis

It seems like lately our whole family has been consumed by tennis. From March 9-21 we were very involved in the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Ca. It's really quite fun but VERY consuming. Madelyn, Spencer and I all participate as ball kids or coordinator. Emily's choir works a concession stand in the stadium so she volunteers there. Everyone else comes and watches. Alec, our good friend from Finland, came and stayed with us during the tournament and we really enjoyed having him. Madelyn and Spencer were both invited back to work the final weekend this year and they were both happy about that. Madelyn got to be Rafael Nadal's towel girl on more than one occasion and  both she and Spencer got lots of autographs from high ranked players. I got to work stadium for the first time and my teams did well. They're all really great kids to work with and it's fun to see them year after year. Some of them come from far away and some are local kids. This year I had one girl nearly pass out while on court. She collapsed and myself and another person caught her before she was completely out. The chair stopped play and sent someone over to help. She apparantly hadn't eaten anything that  morning yet and that was the cause of her collapse. I made her take 2 bites of a banana and kept her out for a while. Her mother showed up soon thereafter and took it from there. I later told my other teams that if they ever felt sick on court to just sit down. I don't want anyone to hurt themselves by falling over and hitting their head or knocking teeth out. YIKES! That would be bad. We had some real fun stuff happen. Alec knows Jarkko Nieminen who is a player and Teemu Selanne who is a hockey player. They're all finnish. Anyway, so Teemu and his wife, Sirpa, came out and watched Jarkko's match with Alec, Rich and Spencer. I requested to work that court for the day so I was there with Madelyn on my team. It was great fun. Later, Jarkko was playing Blake on stadium and we had regular tickets given to us by Alec from Jarkko. Now the best part of this is that we could cheer. when you're in uniform you can't cheer for either player. So that night we were in normal clothes so we cheered very loudly! Alec taught us how to say "good" in finnish so we would yell that out whenever possible. People gave us ugly looks. Especially because Jarkko was playing an American. We were the only ones cheering for Jarkko in the stadium. It was fun. We were loud!

Collin has been doing great and we 're thinking that he will probably get transferred this coming Monday. He will be notified on Saturday if he does get transferred. He said that there has been a lot of rain lately and that he and his comp got stuck in the mud in front of a members house. It took quite a while to get out but eventually they did. All is well with our family and hope all is well with you and yours.

It's Been A Month!

Well... I looked on the dashboard and noticed that the last post was a really long time ago, so I'll just tell you all what's going on. :)
Mom and Dad are both very preoccupied with the new house and painting rooms, doing repairs, etc. Since the new house has every kind of citrus you can think of, Mom has been looking at citrus recipe books. On Sunday, we made lemon snaps (she and I) and they were really really good.
Collin continues to serve and teach on his mission. In his most recent email, he told us that he had been speeding around a corner because he had been trying to pass three cars and he got pulled over. As for me, I think he is kind of justified, since he was passing three cars and that's really hard to do at a normal speed (on a two lane highway, nonetheless). Rightly, though, Mom sent him a post card (in the style of Molly Weasley's Howlers) telling him to obey the laws and only then will the Lord protect him.
I got in to BYU, for everyone who doesn't know yet! I am very excited and have been looking at housing. I plan on participating in the Honors Program and double majoring in English and Music Composition. Also, All State Honor Choir is at the end of this month and if anyone wants to go, it's in Pasadena and I can give them more information.
Madelyn is doing volleyball and she had a tournament on Saturday. She made it into the Drama Showcase coming up with a speech by Winston Churchill. She and Spencer are starting ball kids next week, so you're sure to see a lot of posts on that by Mom.
Spencer made his school play as a character named Dusty (it's a cowboy show). He is very excited and it's kind of special, since it's hard to get in to plays as a 7th grader. He is always making noises with his voice and his hands, which makes it hard to read and stuff. He's really funny and can make everybody laugh.
Melissa is also doing volleyball and likes to bump/set/spike her volleyball in the house. She also likes to play with the neighbor's dogs a lot, causing speculation as to where she is a lot of the time. She draws a lot and today she had to take a state writing test. It was a narrative about what she would do if she were principal for a day. She said she would have a giant water party, no class all day, and free dress.
Well, I guess you're caught up for now! :)