The Great American Challenge

In the 5th grade the kids learn about American History. There is a challenge that all of the 5th graders are given at the beginning of the school year. It is a lot of work and not easy but Megan decided that she was up for the challenge. She had to memorize the Preamble of the Constitution, know all of the states and identify them on the map, know all of the Presidents of the US, sing the Star Spangled Banner, write the Pledge of Allegiance without any errors, and memorize the Gettysburg Address. She started off by learning the Preamble thanks to American Rock. Then she didn't work too hard on the other things until February and then the race was on to finish the challenge by April. There were many times that she wanted to give up but she worked hard and I have never seen anyone memorize things as quickly as she did. The whole 5th grade class was challenged but only 5 students from the whole 5th grade class actually finished the challenge. She got an awesome trophy today at the school awards assembly. We are so proud of you Meg, you worked hard and didn't give up that is all we want from you is to do your best. She is looking forward to the 6th grade challenge next year. Way to go Megan!!! We love you and are proud of you and your accomplishment!!!

Dance Festival

I think that the dance festival is one of my favorite end of the school year activities. The kids did such a cute job with their dances. Megan danced to "Cotton Eye Joe", Parker to "Surfing USA" and Hailey to "All For One." This has been a great school year but I am glad it is over!! Way to go kids!!!

Cancer

It seems like this past month has been a whirlwind. I need to give an update on our life. For the past several years we have been trying to get Bill's parents to move to Utah from Idaho. They always had excuses as to why they wouldn't move to Utah even tough none of their kids lived in Idaho and four of the six kids live in Utah. Because of the lovely real estate market Bill's brother was able to help them find a beautiful house that would work for them and one that was affordable. They were set to come to Utah to look at the house and decide if that was going to work for them or not. We were all waiting for them to come to see the house. They were supposed to be here on Thursday May 7th around 4:00 pm. Bill called them to see where they were around 4:00pm and he got a huge shock. His mom had not been feeling well for a couple of years due to melanoma in her eye and thyroid cancer. She had been telling her doctor for some time about her problems and the doctor thought it was because of her thyroid. When she went to the doctor this month she thought that maybe she had problems with her gall bladder so an ultra sound was done, while doing the ultra sound they found that her liver had melanoma in it. She was told that the cancer was all in her liver and that it was a pretty advanced stage. The next day they came to Utah bought a house and this past weekend we moved them into their new house. After many doctor visits we found out that the cancer is in her liver and lungs. She has stage four cancer. There are chemo treatments to possibly extend her life by a few months. She has gone down hill very fast since May 7th. We are so glad that they live here now and we can all take care of them while she deals with this cancer and the treatments. I am so glad that we can serve her because she has helped us so much the past four years. We love Sylvia and we hope that we can have more time with her. I saw a sign that says "Cancer Sucks" I have to say I agree. This is going to be a hard journey for Sylvia and our family but at least we can make the journey together.