Looking forward to June

I just finished a fabulous read! I was in the library last week browsing in the section of my favorite author when I was 13 years old, Irving Stone. And I came on books by Gene Stratton-Porter that looked interesting. I checked two out and just finished "A Girl of the Limberlost". Loved it! Reminded me of myself as a young girl discovering the swampy North woods of the iron range and the many moths and butterflies collected and pinned in a box my father made for me and the study of nature and all I learned there. Here is a selection of a passage that I love as it reminds me of my favorite month, especially fitting for today:)

"'June is June, not because it has bloom, bird, fruit, or flower exclusive to it alone. It's half May and half July in all of them. But as I figure it, it's just June, when it comes to these great, velvet-winged night moths which sweep its moonlit skies, consummating their scheme of creation, and dropping like a bloomed-out flower. Give them moths for June. ...'"page 319

Flood relief

We traveled this past weekend for the maiden voyage in our RV we bought at auction last Fall. We went to help out the residents in Fargo, ND area remove sand bags that were around the homes. Ben's church scout troop and other members were organized to go in groups to help out so we geared up to go along Fri after school and spent most of Sat loading sand bags on to trailers and being part of human chain in passing bags(no pictures of that because we were all working). Mikey was even interviewed by local FOX station as they came to see what the large group of yellow t-shirted(Mormon Helping Hands)people was doing. The bags were heavy sometimes and wet and muddy but it was a beautiful Spring day and felt good to be helping people that definitely looked wearied after the past month. On the way home Mike said "I will remember this the rest of my life!" Love to hear that and see concern for others:)

Hawaii videos

Not sure if anyone but family will want to see these but here is some footage of whales breaching and jumping (the zoom is on all the way and they are probably about 2 miles out in the bay). And some video of the boys doing hula at the last luau we went to.
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/3097d6b91a15e1c1be?type=sd
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/3097d6b9161be6c4be?type=sd

Hawaii ID contest!

Ok, here it is. The fastest scrapbook I have ever put together! Now if I could just tackle those boxes and boxes of printed pictures with the same speed:)http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbId=1704103
(easier to see if you hit the button upper right that says View Full Screen)

Can you ID these pictures I took before I do? This one is a rare poppy that a ranger told us about growing in the lava bed at La Perouse Bay. And the next one is a bird at the Maui tropical plantation.

Blasted comprehensive exams

This week and next the kids are taking the tests the state requires. Sooo many notes and emails have flooded me with paranoia about getting the kids to bed on time and off to school on time with a good breakfast. Yesterday I finally felt good, coming out of the jet lag, and I had everyone off with hot breakfast and then today came! I stayed up one hour later than I need to to get 6 hrs of sleep before up to take oldest to seminary(studying the New Testament at church with other high schoolers at 6am-7am). And that's all it took. Then I "napped" for half hour stints between getting the other two to school. I did fine on the middle one but then slept over the half hour on the third. I got him to school just as the bell was ringing but he knelt down before going in the door and I thought, "hurry, get in there" but he had stopped to help a girl get her scooter unstuck so she could fold it up to put in her locker!

Here is picture of my new dew and I am halfway done with Hawaii scrapblog so stay tuned!