Wow! Time really does fly!

Time is passing by so quickly, yet I think Rachel would also say sometimes it seems to not move at all. I guess it is just all relative.

I thought August was going to be a slower month. Hasn't happened so far and we are half way through it. Rachel started swim practice two weeks ago. She had a week of captain's practice and on Monday the coach began running practice. It is a new coach, the old coach (the only one the team had ever had) retired after 33 years of coaching. The new coach is the old coaches daughter but things are different. Rachel and her group of half a dozen or so 8th graders have all been asked to do the varsity practice and she is coming home exhausted every day. She is amazed at how hard she is being asked to work. They are the slowest lane and that means that the faster girls get longer rest periods because as soon as Rachel's lane finishes the coach starts the next set of laps.

Stephen is working, working working. He works 4 1/2 hours shifts each day. I believe that in August he is getting 3 days off. He had most of July off while he went to visit family out west, but it is making for a very swift moving month. He is ready for school to start. Monday he will start his college class for the fall. He will be taking Calculus II via the Univ. of Colo. at Colorado Springs. It is an online class with full lectures, white boards, discussion, Q&A sessions and all assignments submitted online. On one of his rare days off this month (next Monday) he will have senior pictures taken.

Icebox Radio Theater had their end of Summer live show bash on Wed. August 15th in Smokey Bear Park. Close to 200 people came out and listened to songs, skits, ads and a first, a feature length script by someone other than Jeff. Kenna Clayton, a local writer who attended one of the writer's workshops, completed a script and with Jeff's help got it edited and finished in time to produce it for the live show. It was called "Icebox Property" and was a fun story of local interests and intrigue. The show went very well and was well received. The first weekend in August IBRT recorded another new show, the pilot episode of "The Scoop Sisters" a hopeful serial series about a woman who owns a small town newspaper and her daughter and granddaughter who come to help out.

Diane works, helps out, and gardens. I have been harvesting beans, cucumbers and should be about ready to harvest zucchini. The tomatoes are very slow this year, but the first cherry tomatoes are beginning to turn red so we will be able to get a few tomatoes before the snow flies.
A group has started a local farmers' market so we have been able to enjoy local tomatoes already and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

We have spent several evenings or afternoons playing games as a family. On the return trip from picking up the kids, from visiting family out west, we stopped at a Twin cities game and comics store. We all had a wonderful time browsing and making a number of new game purchases. That has motivated us to get the games back out and enjoy as many moments as we can together. Time is definitely running down on the family nights together. We will have to make the most of the time this coming year.

Let us know what you are up to and know that you are in our thoughts and prayers.
Diane