Ryan's Court of Honor

Ryan's Eagle Scout Court of Honor will be held
Sunday, July 20th at 5:30 PM
at the Pomerado building

Some of these boys have been waiting a very long time for their buddies to finish up. It will be exciting to see them all honored on the same evening.

Back row: Trevor, Nathan, Brian, Blake
Front row: Nick & Ryan

More Beauty from Marianne

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 18 is one of my favorites! Shakespeare captured beauty and made it eternal through his writing.

Today we are blessed to have digital photography. Not only can we preserve the beautiful things in life, but we can share them with the world in a matter of moments.
Thanks to Marianne's eye for beauty, her creativity and her patience we have some beautiful photos. What an amazing thing to have:

An image of Marianne forever almost 12.

A flower that will never fade

A glimpse of Cammi at age four. I love the way her hair glistens in the evening light, the expression on her face and the fact that her cute outfit was a favorite of Marianne's when she was little!

Thank you Marianne for showing me the beauty all around!

There is Beauty All Around

My children constantly bring beauty into my life!

Evan finished his temple masterpiece.

Here are some lovely self portraits of my beautiful girl!

She assures me that she is not really sad, but just posing for a more interesting picture.

Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tell them dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for being ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;

Landscapes plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;

And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise Him.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Artists in Training

I love homeschooling my kids and I am fairly confident in my ability to teach them. There are lots of things I don't know, but with the Lord's guidance I have been able to learn and prepare myself to teach my children. And I am especially grateful for teachers and mentors who bless the lives of my children!

Although I am not an artist, I want my children to have an artistic education. Over the years, I have been able to learn quite a bit about art history. We have many art books in our home. I give my children lots of opportunities to create with all kinds of art supplies. We have visited many art museums and galleries. I even got out of my comfort zone last summer when I took a fabulous art workshop for parents from my talented friend Angela. I can support, encourage and inspire, but I know that my children need an art teacher!

All four of my children have taken art lessons from another wonderful artist named Kara. This week Kara gave her students an amazing opportunity. She took the kids to the temple for some on-location art lessons. Kara is not a member of our church, but she surely sees the beauty in this holy place.

Here is Kara and her class in front of the beautiful San Diego temple.

Here is our hero John! On Monday, the temple was closed. That meant the kids were trying to draw from outside the locked gates. It wasn't the best view, but then John came along. He unlocked the gates and invited the class to come and draw on the temple grounds.

Our artists are hard at work. Notice that Evan is sitting apart from all of the girls. I guess he just wants a different point of view. We all have different perspectives and that makes life exciting!

Now the kids are busy painting their drawings. I can't wait to see Evan's finished work of art, but I know that the lessons he is learning along the way are just as important. He is developing a love of learning and working hard to do his best. Most importantly, he is becoming aware that as children of the Ultimate Creator and Author of beauty, we are all artists.

Our anniversary

Twenty-one years ago today, we were married in the Los Angeles Temple.
John was so nervous that he didn't get any sleep the night before.
I was so uptight that I didn't really enjoy the luncheon and the reception.

Fortunately we have have great pictures to remind us of what a wonderful day it really was!
We had a fabulous honeymoon in Hawaii. During our week on the islands, our good friends were married in the Hawaii temple. It was wonderful because we could really focus and listen to the sealer because we weren't the ones getting married. It was also fun to be a bridesmaid & a groomsman less than week after our own wedding.

Marrying John was the best decision of my life. He is exceedingly kind, patient and gentle. I am so blessed to be married to a man who is a devoted husband and father. John is another example of the power of one. His love and influence have have made all the difference in my life.

Here is the picture I promised of my cousin Heather as a cute little flower girl. Jenny was a lovely 13 yo maid of honor.

Our Part in a Miracle

Ryan and Aaron were asked to be part of an LDS Scout Choir that sang at the National BSA Convention that was held in San Diego. They had an amazing director for this huge undertaking! To give you an idea, she was given 7 weeks notice to gather the young men and rehearse for this event. She was asked by the Young Mens' General Presidency to provide a "Tabernacle Choir quality" performance. They had to learn & memorize 6 songs with only 5 rehearsals. Their director, Sister Abernathy said, "This is impossible short of a miracle, so I'm planning on a miracle."

It truly was a miracle to see these young men perform. Their first performance was at at Duty to God breakfast with about 2,000 Scout leaders from around the country. As they came on stage, everyone was busy eating and chatting. Once they began to sing, a hush came over the room. A wonderful spirit filled that huge ballroom. When they finished, they received a standing ovation.

The next day, the choir sang at an LDS fireside that was part of the convention. I also had the opportunity to meet the General Primary & YM Presidency. They were so gracious.

I am so grateful that my sons had the opportunity to sing in this choir. They had to miss other activities to be at all the rehearsals. They had to get up at 4:30 AM for their morning performance. They had to meet very stringent rules about dress and grooming. They actually inspected the boys' haircuts and they were required to be in full scout uniform including socks!

But in the end, Ryan and Aaron said it was definitely worth it. They helped bring the spirit to this convention and they had personal spiritual experiences. General Young Men's President, Elder Dahlquist, promised the boys that they would be blessed for their diligence and he told them that they would have angels singing with them as they performed.

Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the choir and Ryan had to leave for work immediately after the performance, but here is Aaron. Don't you think he looks handsome?!

From China With Love

I have a love/hate relationship with technology. When everything works I love it! Last week my printer was being uncooperative and I was heading to the hate side, but this week I love my computer. Here's why . . . .

My Dad and my brother David are on a tour of China. They're having a great trip and learning lots, but the best part is that we get to see their photos every day or two.

We gave my mom a wireless digital picture frame for Mother's Day. All her kids and grandkids uploaded pictures to the website and she has a great collection of family photos. But now it's even more exciting. Every day she gets new photos from China. What could be cooler than that?!

The rest of us aren't lucky enough to own such a frame, but it is still easy for us to check out David's photos online. We can't wait to see more of their adventures!

Here are David and Dad looking especially "touristy" on the Great Wall.

John says he wants to bike it someday . . . well maybe not the entire thing! I guess I'd better get in shape if I want to join him. At least I have a bike now.