New School Year

Peter & Libby at the bus stop

The 2012-13 school year has officially begun!  Peter and Libby were complete opposites about the clothes the night before.  Libby had to model every single shirt with every single skirt/pair of parts that she had, and I had to rate the outfit on a scale from 1 to 5.  Only the 4's and 5's were selected to go on to the finals, and from there she chose what outfits she would wear the first week of school.  I tried to get in some peeks on Pinterest between outfit changes.  Peter, on the other hand, figured out what he was wearing about five minutes ahead of time.  Except for the shoes.  He had those planned out way ahead of time, because they were the boots he got for his birthday!  It took all his powers of discipline to not wear the spurs with the boots.  I wouldn't put it past him to try it one of these days, when he gets comfortable at school.  I'll have to keep an eye on that...

Mary on the first day of school

Mary is in FX Show Choir this year, along with Madrigals. She also tried out for a Ballroom Dance team, and is looking forward to practicing and performing with them.  She also came out of her Freshman year with a 4.0.  Way to go Mary!

Jesse on the first day of school

Jesse is a Senior this year!  She is the only returning alto in Madrigals this year, and was elected the Section head.  Besides Madrigals, she is pouring all her extra time into maintaining her 4.0 and practicing the piano.  She will audition for the BYU Piano Performance Major in January.  Very exciting!  Her claim to fame this week was that she started her Senior year in high school as a 16 year old.

Jesse and Grandma W on Jesse's 17th birthday

But it didn't last for long, because the next day she turned 17.  I told Jesse it was almost a disappointment to have her turn 17, because now I can no longer say, "She's only 16...!.  She accomplished so much when she was 15 and 16, that I was constantly saying that when people asked how old she was.  Grandma W came over with the "art-deco" birthday cake.  I told Grandma that she was creative with a capital C!  We had a good laugh about it, but I thought it looked awesome.

Joseph and Libby at the Street Dance

I love this picture so much I could eat it for desert.  This is Joseph dancing with Libby at the Family Street Dance.  He didn't have many other people to dance with - he was an oldie - but Libby sure was glad to dance with him!  Our Street Dance was so fun, as it always is.  Our numbers were fewer, because there was a football game that night, but we had fun anyway.

Joseph on Stormy

Here's the posture Joseph has been in almost constantly for the past few weeks - riding a horse!  He and Bruce worked together to break Stormy.  This was a big accomplishment, because the first time they attempted it, Bruce got some bruised ribs and a bucking horse show to go with it.  There was some question as to whether Stormy was going to be broken at all.  But, at the insistence of Joseph, they went out and tried again.  It was wild, from what I hear, but they got a saddle on him and Joseph rode him.  They've since been on him several times, and it's working out!  My hats off to them - I would have given up a long time ago!  Yesterday, Bruce took Mary, Peter and Libby out riding, and they had a great time.

Joseph is enjoying his time here, because he is soon off to Rexburg and BYU-I!  Wow - I can't believe the time has come for him to go off to college.  I'll have to admit that it's been hard - thinking of him leaving, especially because we've been through it now, and we know what it's like!  The college part's not so hard, but knowing that the mission is coming up straight after that, well, that's a different story.  Man, we're gonna miss Joseph!

But he's so excited and happy that it's easy to be happy with him!

By the way, I have to add one more thing.  On my other blog, oilslorena.com, I wrote about Joseph getting thrown off Stormy while they were breaking him, and falling on his hip.  That happened on the day of our Street Dance.  So, when this picture was taken above, of Joseph and Libby dancing, Joseph was in real pain, holding Libby like that for that dance.  He told me later that it hurt pretty badly, but during that whole dance, even limping and all, he was a really good sport and danced and made a lot of girls feel happy.  Thank you, Joseph, for your kindness and cheerfulness, even through pain.

Ha ha - after writing that, it kind of looks like he's grimacing in the picture instead of smiling!  :)

From Calf Wrangling to Cousins Graduating

Last weekend, Jesse and I got to go down,

and be here,for this,to honor these great people!What could be more fun than that??

Congratulations Jarom and Darcy!

After seeing a piano performance at Darcy's Convocation, Jesse reached over to the program and said, "In a few years, this will say Jesse Lorena". So, in addition to being at the graduation, I have done my job of fully filling Jesse with the "Spirit of the Y"!

What fun to see Ashley again (I met her at Josh and Clarissa's wedding), and get to know her better!
And I was very happy to stand in the picture of those present from the family that had graduated from BYU.Missing from the picture: S. Bruce, Cedric, Rodney, Monique, Christopher, Elena, and Jaclyn. Someday we'll have to get that picture of us all together.

After that, Jesse and I went to Twin Falls for the Canyon Rim Classic Soccer Tournament. Jesse's team played 2 games on Saturday. Jesse and I also officiated for three other games, and then drove home that night. It was a whirlwind weekend, but fun!

(NOTE: Switch the Music Player song to "I'm From the Country" for full effect. Somehow Pomp and Circumstance just doesn't fit anymore. Ha Ha)

Bruce spent the day on Saturday helping his friend Lane tag, castrate, brand and vaccinate over 50 cows and calves. It took them from 7 am until 3 pm, with five men helping.
Visit our Picasa Web site to see more great pictures of the cowboys wrangling calves on the ranch!

My friend Wendy also wrote up a fun blog post about the event (and thanks for the pictures!!)

Here is Mary running the 100 meter dash. She also ran the 100 meter hurdles for the Middle School track team. Good job Mary!

A dove decides to hang out on the front porch! The kids fed it some of Cutie-Pie's seeds and took a video of it. (Cutie-Pie is our Quaker Parrot.)
The black bird layed these eggs in the nest in the barbecue! Still out there last time I checked, and the mama bird is taking care of them.
This was our one-year old colt Shadowfax. I say "was" because he is no longer with us. He had a freak accident. When Bruce was training him in the round pen, he reared back and got off balance and fell back on his right shoulder. He immediately started convulsing, with his eyes rolled back in his head, shaking, etc. To make the story short, he never recovered. He couldn't move his head above the position in the picture above, and his head was cranked to one side. He showed signs of paralysis on his right side also. We felt that he would not be able to recover, even with extensive veterinary care. After agonizing for five days over what to do, Bruce finally put him down. He was Joseph's horse, and Joseph used to go out and sit in the pasture with him when he was a young colt. But now he is on to happier pastures, galloping about at full speed. We'll see you again, but good-bye for now, Shadowfax!

Oh, and we can't forget to post this picture of Libby with her black eye. She got a serious shiner last week when she did a back flip on our trampoline and her knee came up and smacked her in the face! You can also see that Peter's influence is spreading - his neighborhood friend broke his wrist, and got a pink cast just like Peter had!

And one more tender moment. Mary and her friend Bailey, our next door neighbor, made up a dance for Bailey's brother Brady, who just returned from a mission last week in Singapore. At the end of their performance, this was the hug that Elder C. got from Bailey. I also want to remember the hug that I gave Becky, the missionary Mom, and felt her joy that her missionary son had come home!

My cousins BJ posted this on his blog. We loved it, of course, and I'm betting Jesse and Joseph are going to be practicing some of those moves!

The Soccer Project from Rebekah Fergusson on Vimeo.

My heart is going out today to mi patria México. Drug wars, depressed economy, swine flu and an earthquake on top of that! But they've also had a temple rededicated this year, and had 11 temples built there in the last 9 years. Estoy orando por mis paisanos allí. ¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Signs of Spring

You gotta love the daffodils and the tulips blooming!

And here's the announcement of the name of Lady's foal. She is a filly, and Libby named her "Cookie", much to Bruce's chagrin! Stormy is on the left with Strawberry, and Cookie is lying down in back of Lady.
Another announcement! Bruce has found a new, more efficient way to mow the lawn. It works in beautiful concentric circles, and is self-fertilizing. Inquire within! J/K


Jesse took this picture so she could remember how I braided her hair the night before to make it look crimped.

Josh is running for Studentbody Secretary at the High School. These are some of the images he used on his campaign poster.
He had to give a speech, and the election was today, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. If he wins over the two girls he was running against, he will follow in the footsteps of his three older cousins, Jarom, Whitney and Lindsey, who were all Studentbody Officers.

We put Iliampu and Sage up for sale on Craigslist this week. We've been hanging on to them for sentimental reasons. Iliampu is the mother of La Paz, Cusco, and Ruffneck, three of our good pack llamas. And her last cria was Sage, a female llama. Our original goal was to build up a herd of seven male llamas so that we could go on pack trips with our family. We have done that, so now we need to let these females go to another home. It tugs a little at the heart strings!We also put Chester up for sale on Craigslist. We sold him to some paisanos, who came and got him today.Chester, I'm sorry to say, will not be missed! Although Bruce does feel some regret that he was not able to work with him more and make some progress, this Blazer horse was wild to begin with, and stayed that way! It took two hours and careful maneuvering to get him into their trailer. Good-bye Chester!

Last night was the famed Pinewoord Derby for Peter's Cub Scout Pack. Oh, the woes, the excitement, the laughter and the tears.Look how many Cub Scouts we have in this Pack - all from one ward. My friend, Mary Jean, who is the Primary President, informed me that the girls their age all fit in one class, so about 1/3 the number of girls as boys. Interesting, no? It was the same ratio in our Spanish Branch.The hard working Dads: Chris, on the left, is going to be sealed to his wife tomorrow in the Temple. Todd, on the right, has spent the last week in the NICU with their newborn son (but they got home today!) Bruce, Joshua and I fasted for little Layne on Wednesday, and it was a neat experience to see how quickly he recovered after the fasting took place.Can anyone dispute that the Pinewood Derby is just as much an Elder's Quorum affair as it is a Cub Scout affair??I think not.

The hard-working Den Mothers,and the eager Cub Scouts, all look on as brightly colored cars speed down the track.

Experienced brothers look on,mothers sneak some chatting in,and cute little sisters cheer brothers on. (See Mary above, also)Cub Scouts grin,and Dad's beam,when their son takes second place! Congratulations, Peter!

But don't forget the triumphs of past years! Josh and Joseph display the cars that they raced in 2002.In 2001, Josh's first year, Bruce let Josh make all the decisions about the car - it was totally his own creation. And he came in last place. Disaster. Devastation.

Since that scenario didn't work out so well, in 2002, Bruce took the Pinewood Derby car business to heart, and he and the boys (that should be in quotation marks) made some really nice cars. Joseph's car had the fastest time of the night, and Joshua's won the contest. A distinct turn-around. The next year they did the Raingutter Regata instead of the Pinewood Derby, and Bruce says it was because they were "skeered".

Back to 2009 - after the main races, they let cars race for fun, so Josh, Joseph and Peter put their cars on the track. This race was serious - for bragging rights! All three cars came down together within 1/2 inch of each other. I think Joseph's pulled it out. Bruce said there were oohs and aahs all around because all three cars were so close!

Josh worked on his car a little, and then they did it again. It's Joseph on the left (green car), Peter in the middle with the "Speeding Bullet", and Josh on the right (orange car).
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Peter pulled it out, and he's not humble about it either! Josh said, "It did not help (meaning his attempted fix on the car)" and "Goodness!", and Joseph said, "_____". (I don't know). You can understand what Peter said!

After the Pinewood Derby I took Mary and her two good friends Kami and Britta to the local diner for Britta's birthday. It's fun to be with 11/12 year old girls! Happy Birthday Britta! Kami is on my soccer team, and she is my star keeper. If you're a soccer coach, you can relate - coaches love a good goalie!

While I was typing this blog, Bruce came to the back door and said, "Come and see this!" He had seen a bird going into this hole in the barbecue.So I opened up the barbecue and found this inside!
We don't know what kind of bird it is, a black bird, but it is building a nest inside the barbecue!
Bruce is all set on taking this nest out and cleaning it out. "What?", I exclaimed! "No way! That mama bird worked hard at making that nest!" I think I won the "discussion". We'll keep you posted.

BREAKING NEWS...

Here is Bruce shining the shoes of the newest SBO at the High School!Congratulations Josh! The others that made it - Mack, Kelby, and Sterling, are all his good friends, so they should have some fun.

Coming next post - pictures from the Senior Prom that will take place on Sat. night, and reflections on Easter! Happy Easter everyone!