Our Highlights and Happenings of the Week

Its been another eventful week with us Paynes. Sometimes events that happened a few weeks ago seems like an eternity ago and other times it seems like it passed by in a blink. This week was one of those weeks that went by so quickly (at least for me). Here are a few of the highlights from the week: Summer school started for me at the school and I had a lot of fun. It's not bad considering its only a couple hours a week a few times a week, however its a busy couple hours. There are a couple down syndrome kids in my class, a couple autistic boys, a little boy on oxygen who needs one on one assistance at all times, and several other very low kids that need access to adult if needed. We have really had a lot of fun so far though and I have enjoyed it. On Wednesday night we had some good friends over for a BBQ at our new place. We had a lot of laughs and some good food.

Derek is busy with work, and then he mows some lawns throughout the week too. That keeps him pretty busy. A lot of people ask me what I've been doing now that I have the summer off. Well, I do keep busy with teaching piano, teaching summer school, and catching up on projects I've been behind on for a long time but I have to admit I have found a new guilty pleasure. I'd like to introduce you to Downton Abbey. Its one of my new favorite TV series. I've really enjoyed following it and a lot of days I'll turn that on while I work on projects and such. I highly recommend it to any gal out there that loves a good love story and story line. It starts in 1909 and goes through the 1920's. I'm half way through season 2 and season 3 comes out in the fall. There are only about 8 episodes in a season and each episode is about an hour. It's great. Give it a whirl and let me know if you like it.

Dave, Alan and Derek made a day trip down to Zion and hiked The Narrows on Saturday. They all looked pretty beat when they got home. They had a lot of fun and some battle wounds and scars to prove it.

This Sunday wasn't one of our most routine Sundays, it was quite eventful. First off,  it was Alan's farewell. He did a great job with his talk and had everyone laughing.  He had a lot of support from family and friends and there are only 10 more short days til he makes his way to Nicaragua (well actually 10 short days til we drop him off at the MTC in Provo and then head up to Yellowstone to enjoy a vacation, while he studies away for 9 good weeks in the MTC and THEN he will be on his way to Nicaragua). Here are a few pictures from the lunch after Alans meeting.

 

 Notice how Brian made it into both small group conversation shots but in different shirts. Just thought I would point that out. 

 

 

 
We spent the day going back and forth from Alan's farewell to my Dad's big day of becoming the new bishop of the Cedarview ward. I will now put in a dashing head shot of my father so you can all see for yourself the new bishop.

 Basically all of my life he has served as bishop or stake presidency member or this or that and now he's back to being bishop. Why? He's a good guy. And a good dad. And he will spend the next 5 or so years on the stand and being busy. We were able to make it to the most important parts of both events and spend lots of time with family and friends. It was a good week and an eventful week once again. Thanks for tuning in.

Oh... P.S. Derek has made a personal blog of his own to help with his resume building and such. If you would like to check it out as well you are welcome to: blog.derekmpayne.com .