Sooooo...how do I sum up the last 4 MONTHS??? I feel a bit brain dead from the busy-ness. But, alas I am here now and so happy I made it through. Highlights were...Training 40 new teachers for Let's Play Music in the last few months. Working with the Advisory Board(the 6 ladies in the front) in the planning and executing the symposium weekend here in Mesa and teaching the classroom management workshop there. It all was so overwhelming, but turned out a huge success. We have the best advisory board. I just love these ladies I get to work with. A couple weeks later we were off to Utah for more trainings and an open house. We made house calls to teachers up there and got to see their studios. It was so fun to see new ideas! We worked our bootays off, and managed to have a lot of laughs. In the process, sadly my camera was dropped and busted, so even sadder I don't have many pictures of this summer! Good news is that we had a warranty and are getting a new one...any... day... now...

On the "family side"...Between all the projects and trainings, I was able to take my kids to California for 5 days to visit Auntie Lori. We went to Sea World, fished on the pier and spent a day on the beach. (Maybe sweet Auntie Lori will send me some pictures of my kiddos hint hint) Then we spent about 9 days at the Whiting Homestead starting with the 4th of July. We went to the Taylor Rodeo- my favorite place for the 4th! So AMERICAN! Sadie re-discovered her passion for horses. I discovered I want to live on a farm (don't know if that's just a mood I'm in though) It's been a month and it still hasn't gone away??? My kids really should live on a farm. Here' Sadie's new friend Sally, the Horny Toad. They would live at the homestead if they could.

Here's Hailee catching some air.
We had Steve's family come up there for the "Smith" reunion. Steve and I had fun planning the activities. We had an "Amazing Race", Horseshoe tournament, played Family Feud, ran down Greens Peak, yep, I still got it :) went crawdad fishing (and ate them! not me though!), we had a dance, and every night played 007. It was a fun filled weekend!

We've been home for a couple weeks now and we are itching to go back. I just finished recording a few songs for LPM, and just filmed a video for new teachers. And I think I can say, I am officially off duty. I would leave tomorrow if I could, but sadly I have Sharing Time this Sunday. But FO SHO after that! And I ain't comin back until school starts!!! I'm so sad summer is over! I'm trying to be excited that ALL my kids are going to be in school...Is this the day I've been waiting for - for 11 years??? Seriously? Now I'm kinda getting sad...is this normal? I always imagined all the things I'd do once they were all in school. Scrapbook, organize the house, bake cookies to have for them when they return :) Go back to school with all my spare time...ha ha ha ha! It's going to take some getting used to.
Well, I think this is a long enough post. I better save some for next time :)