August 2013

August 2013

This month was a very busy month!  It seems like our summers come and go and it's just been a day or two, and in reality it's been three months!

Both the girls are involved in the summer dance classes at APAC.  Cooper is just filling her time with as much dance and voice lessons as possible because she leaves for AMDA in October.

We got tickets to go to the Broadway show Wicked again.  Cooper LOVES that show, and it's in Houston again.  We always go to the Saturday matinee as a family.  It's a fun afternoon.

Cooper is also doing lots of substitute teaching for different dance teachers at different studios.  She's early a good chunk of cash for school.

We went to lunch with friends a couple of time, which is always fun for us.

Cymbre's physical therapy is continuing, and some days we make some degree of progress.  It's a slow process, and Cymbre is always hoping that it will work and relieve her pain.

Cooper went to Austin with Bella for just a quick trip.  They had a ball.

Cymbre is continuing to work on her solos.  Her Senior Dance Intensive was the 12th-16th.  Cooper is going too.

Cooper is also continuing her voice lessons, and doing some private dance lessons for ballet and tap.

My Dad has been developing a lung fibroid disease that is terminal.  They have him on oxygen, and he isn't a happy camper. It is caused because he had rheumatic fever twice as a child.  It's progressing, and the doctors are saying we probably won't have him at the end of the year.  Guess we'll see.  At any rate, I took the girls to Denver on the 23rd - 25th to visit their Grandparents.  It was a fun trip, although hard to watch my Dad suffer with his chest burning and panting for breath.

Cooper hurt her foot, so I took her to Dr. Bacon yet again.  Just a bad sprain, and she has to rest and ice.  Thank goodness no cast this time.  Cooper was really upset!  This made it necessary for Cymbre to step in at Dance Central and help Andee with some dance classes.

School started on the 26th, so that meant we had to get Cymbre to seminary and then to school, and pick her up at 1:30 each day.  Can I just say I hate the school routine?  Seems like I just get something going and I have to switch gears, or I get somewhere and have to hurry home to pick her up.  Love that kid, but I will be very happy when she has her driver's license and can take herself all the places she needs to go!

We finished up more doctor appointments so we don't have to miss school for them.  Seems like all I do is take the girls to doctors.  Just had to finish up the allergist and dermatologist and dentist.

We fed the missionaries on the 31st, and that's always a fun and laughter filled evening.

I took my Sunday School class to the temple a couple of times to do baptisms.  We were learning about temple ordinances, and it was summer, so why not go.  Not very many kids ended up going, because their parents had other plans, but those that did had a great time.

As for Sunday School lessons:

The 4th was:  How Will Keeping A Personal Journal Bless Me And My Family?

I used 1 Nephi 1:1-3, Mosiah 6:5

What are some people in the scriptures who have been bledded by keeping records?

Obviously the Nephites, King Benjamin's people, 2000 Stripling Warrior parents...

Then we talked about some of the blessing these people received.

I took the lesson over to writing our personal journals gives us an opportunity to reflect on our lives and recognize the blessings God had given us in our daily lives.

The 11th was:  Why Is It Important To Learn About My Family History?

Object lesson was Starburst candy.  I called Cooper up and asked her to unwrap and eat the candy without using her body in any way.  Of course she couldn't do it.  Then I had Slade come up and help her.  He unwrapped the one she wanted and put it in her mouth.  Therefore, she was able to obtain the candy.

I likened it to there are temple ordinances that our deceased ancestors want, and need, but they cannot do them on their own.  We are the ones that have to help them here on earth to receive those temple ordinances, so that they can have the satisfaction of partaking of the eternal ordinances they need.

So, obviously the candy represented the temple ordinances.

It went over big time!

Then I spent time having them fill out family group sheets and pedigree charts.

The 18th  was:  How Can I Explain The Importance Of Marriage And Family To Others?

I took these sources:  Preach My Gospel, For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet, Family Proclamation, True To The Faith Book, Scriptures, Missionaries, Personal Testimonies, Church Websites.  

I told the class they could use any of these sources during the lesson time.

The object lesson I used was:

I posed as a non-member who had questions about why I needed to have a "forever family".  The missionaries came in and tried to help the kids with scriptures and doctrine, but what the kids learned is that they didn't really know how to answer the questions people commonly ask.  Then the missionaries took over the rest of the time, and helped us sort out scriptures, and teaching techniques we could use in teaching our friends.

It was a GREAT lesson!!

The 25th I did not teach a lesson as we just had Sacrament meeting because the Spanish Stake that meets in our building was holding their Stake Conference, so they needed the entire building with no overlapping.

Guess that's it for August 2013!