Progress

First: Renovation News.

We gotta lotta dust.

(De)Construction continues at the Melton house.

If I had known how much DUST grinding and buffing concrete floors was going to create I might have thought twice about a finished concrete floor. I remind myself that it will be cool.

We are starting to see some of the fruits of our labors.

Our friend, Frank Catmull and his son put up the batten board in the living room and built a cabinet for the water shut off valve in the basement (yay!!!).

Here's the (sort of) finished product (before the final coat of paint). I think it's a definite improvement and breaks up the monochromatic brown of our house a little bit. I still need to get some things up on the wall to finish it off, but you get the idea.

The electrician came and brightened up the basement even more...

...we also had them install lighting under the deck on the upper patio. This picture is from Grace's 14th birthday party where we tried it out it for the first time. The spiral stairs off the deck are being manufactured and should be installed before the end of July.

For now, Roy is chipping away at the framing and sheet rock patching. Next steps will include staining and sealing the floor and then painting the basement and getting the kitchen cabinets delivered.

Other forward strides: 

We finally got the horse runs cleaned out at the barn, and new sand laid down.

Mom and Dad - Thank you for having a place where my kids have learned to do the "dirty jobs". Work is so important. Look at these confident, capable kids.

While Holly and Bruce were out of town for two weeks we added feeding the horses twice a day to our routine. Tillman was eager to do it (because I told him I would pay him a little something - and he is earning money towards his football registration) even though he is VERY allergic to horses. Every day he insisted on going. He would take a deep breath, dash into the barn, shoveling and feeding as fast as he could to avoid breathing in the dust for as long as possible. After the horses were fed he would come running out of the barn again as fast as he could straight into the house where he would wash his face and hands in an attempt to minimize the impact. Then he would sneeze, rub his eyes, and blow his nose and cough for the next hour until the reaction passed. One day I suggested that he use one of the construction masks we have kicking around the basement to see if it would help. He was skeptical but what do you know, it worked! He was able to feed the horses the last few days in relative comfort. We joked with him that now that we have discovered a solution to his disability, he should do 4H with the girls. He didn't think that was a great idea.

Our determined Tillman.

 Grace ran her first 5k - a very difficult trail run course above their school in the hills of Herriman. She not only beat me handily with a respectable sub-30 time, but was the third overall female finisher, earning herself a medal. I was proud of her. She plans to run on the Providence Hall Cross Country team this fall.

Don't tell anyone, but we've been sleeping on the same mattress for nearly 19 years. In our defense, it was a pretty high quality mattress gifted to us by Mike's parents as a wedding present - and I figured two small-ish people can't wear out a mattress that quickly, right? I had a hard time justifying the expense of a new mattress while our old one seemed perfectly good. Mike had been complaining of morning stiffness and finally insisted that he would NOT let our mattress hit 20 years. And just like that - we have a new space age mattress - and I LOVE IT. The first few nights I don't think I moved at all in my sleep and I had a hard time waking up in the morning. It was like my body was saying, "Why have you been holding out on me?! I'm not moving from this spot!"

It arrived in this bundle - and once cut from the wrapping grew into a full-depth mattress. Our buff UPS man RAN up to our porch with this over his shoulder, and as he laid it down, pointed at the weight on the shipping label as a warning not to try to move it myself, "110 lbs.." 

Abner graduated from the lofty academic heights of the Big Kids on the Block Preschool with high honors (i.e., the alphabet necklace awarded to those who had attained mastery of the English alphabet). Watch out Kindergarten!

Abner and Finn - natural smiles.

Abner with our neighborhood buddies.

I could watch this video again and again. Sweet Abner.

Untitled from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

Sully took swimming lessons. Here's a video of relay day. It took Sully a minute to get in his back kicking groove.

Untitled from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

Sully has been hard at work making plans for his up-coming 8th birthday party. Last week he handed me this schematic with this explanation: "First, someone teaches us to mow the lawn. Then we have lawn mower races, then we go to the Dollar Store, then we open presents, eat cake and then play until everyone's moms pick them up." A perfect plan.

Noble went to EFY in Provo with his BFF, Noah.

Settling in. They were SO excited.

They had a WONDERFUL time. In the past we've been on the fence about EFY; Mike used to jokingly refer to it as "Especially For Rich Kids." We made the plans with this friend earlier in the year - and I have to say it couldn't have come at a better time. It was life changing for Noble. Literally. So we're all in now. 

Anything that helps one of my children in a time of need has my support.

Summer wear.

The girls had their first horse show of the year. Considering that we've barely been to practice this year, the girls (and their horses) did exceptionally well. Grace and Pecos got a blue ribbon in one of their show events and Jessie and Dolli cleaned up in speed events. It rekindled the flame in both of them - they are excited for the next show.

Blues make Grace smile.

Pecos got spooked by a downed pole and Grace went for a little bronc ride. 

She stayed on. No big deal. ;)

Youth Conference 2016

When I was released from the Young Women's organization at church a few months ago I was bummed that I was going to miss youth conference this year in Zion and Bryce Canyons. So when the Bishop called me in about a month ago and asked me to be on the planning committee I was excited. 

We stayed at a little formerly-KOA camp ground between the parks on highway 89. The first day a bunch of kids played a version of pool volleyball with a piece of twine strung across the pool and broken tether ball. They played this for HOURS. (Noble and a few other kids decided instead to explore the near-by hoodoo cliffs...without telling anyone where they were going, by the way. Ughh.)

My assignment was to plan the camp activities. The result was an "Iron Rod Challenge" - where the kids participated in team-building challenges that we related to gospel principles and "holding to the Iron Rod." 

The first was - "Experiment upon the Word". The kids split into teams, and each team tried the Diet Coke / Mentos experiment - related to Alma 32 - planting the seed, and the good seed swelling and growing. They had a good time.

We also did "The River of Filthy Water" where the kids had to cross a span using just enough "stepping stones" (paper plates) for each of them, they had to get their team across without falling off.

There was "The Human Knot" - an object lesson for repentance.

Lastly, they had to "Press Forward" - (keep an inflated balloon wedged between themselves and the person in front of them without hands and press forward toward a Tree of Life).

In the end we made a Tree of Life (no picture - sorry) for them by inflating white balloons with a glow stick inside, and hanging them from a tree with ribbon. Attached was a "Hold to the Rod" key chain / pendant. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite dark enough by the time we reached the tree for the glow sticks to have their effect - but the Bishop fixed that by working it into his message. He told them to take their "fruit" with them back to their tents where the light would remind them tonight of the love of God. I think it worked out nicely. 

Day 2 - Zion. 

We began the day with a hike on the Zion Canyon overlook trail - one I have never done. 

After lunch we headed for the Narrows. 

WOW. So, so beautiful.

 Noble lead the cliff jumping at a deep spot. (I was super nervous watching.)

This little buck had nowhere to hide up the Narrows.

That night we had testimony meeting - such a sweet experience for me with 3 of my kids. The next day we went to Bryce and did the Queen's Garden hike and had a message before eating lunch and heading home. 

On the shuttle in Bryce.

Meanwhile, Mike had the taken the youngest 3 kids to St. George to visit Mike's parents (and Mike snuck up to be with us on our Zion day).

Hiking in Kolob.

They had their own adventures, especially on their way home on Wednesday, The truck lost power on a hill about 25 miles south of Fillmore. Mike had to call a tow truck that took them into their shop in Holden. Things worked out: the tow truck driver ended up being the brother of a lady in our ward, the boys happened to have their bikes - so they spent the afternoon riding around Holden visiting Mike's ancestral home, the cemetery where Mike's grandparents are buried, and the vending machines on Main Street. Mike's dad went above and beyond the call of duty, driving all the way up from St. George to pick up the stranded boys and bring them into South Jordan so that I didn't have to turn around and go back. (Dad of the year! Thank you!) The repair turned out to be fairly minor, and Mike, through a series of (un)fortunate events got a free shuttle ride to Fillmore to pick it up today. Tender mercies.

So that's our news.

Onward!