Tristin's First Postcard Home (can't have had better news from him)

It's Friday when I wroth this, so I have a lot to tell you. I made friends with some people here immediately. Josiah, who is rowdy and full of camp spirit. Luke, we both think we met somewhere before, but can't remember where. Hannah Evanson, who is a venture scout, and a Mormon! There was another Mormon named Grant, but he decided he couldn't deal with camp, so he went home. I found out there's a Mormon group up here every week, so there should be church. Josiah is actually really interested in our religion, so Hannah and I have tried teaching him the lessons. It would help if you sent my "Preach My Gospel" (and my phone!) up here. It turns out the electronics rule applies to scouts only, and some counselors have Playstations set up in their tents. Oh - we have a lounge with service, so I could send pics.

(that last line referred to being able to get cell phone reception and use the camera from the phone to take pictures, which he could then transmit to the online photo album so we can see them)

So Much to Say, So Little Time to Say it.

I just don't have a lot of time to go into detail about all that has happened in the last month, so I'm just going to do a point-by-point list this time to catch everyone up on life in the Pratt household.

I finished Microeconomics at the end of June with a solid A. I took CPR at the end of May and got certified and killed off my health requirement for graduation. I have exactly 30 credits now with a 4.0.

Most of the kids have had four weeks of swimming lessons now. Aidan and Dallin both repeated levels 1 & 2, respectively, after the first two-week session. Ben and Will both passed level 3. Aidan passed level 1 his second session. He will join Dallin in level 2 next year, and Ben and Will will repeat level 4. That's okay. They were all very close to passing. Dallin's is a matter of strength and coordination. He doesn't have the front and back crawls for 5 yards down yet. Ben and Will passed everything except the Butterfly and Breast strokes. They both can do dives now.

I started Tennis this week. Thursday's class was very hot in the bright sun and 90 degree weather, but I enjoyed it.

Our kitchen is getting closer to finished. I painted all the cupboards, but still have some trim to do, which I hope to get somewhere with this week. The granite countertop was installed on Friday. It is gorgeous! I reinstalled the garbage disposal and got the dishwasher water reconnected, but I dropped the nut to attach the faucet and it rolled through a small hole in the cabinet and into a wall. We searched every hardware store in the area, but nobody carries a 3/4" nut with a 31/32 thread. I will have to wait for the $15 express shipment of a new nut to arrive on Tuesday to get water into the sink. I'll be taping over the hole before I try again...

We bought our backsplash tiles last night. I was so excited to find the style I liked the best on sale for $1.89 per square foot. ALL of the other tile on the woven grid was between $6.99-9.99 per sq. ft. In all, it cost $134 for all of the supplies! That includes the 2"x12" border pieces with the finished edge, the mortar and the grout. I'm so glad we decided to do it ourselves at the moment. It is so much less expensive than going with the standard granite backsplash, and is going to look so much better (provided I find myself able to successfully install it).

We have almost everything we need for Tristin to be ready for his CIT experience at Many Point Scout Camp. He'll be leaving for 5 weeks this weekend. I'll be driving up to Bemidji with him and Katie on Saturday. We'll spend the night at the Nelsons' and attend church with them on Sunday, then head to camp. I'll drop him off and head back home.

Meteorology is going well. I have figured out that I will probably be within about 3 points of an A before the final exam, which is a week from tomorrow. The final is worth 120 points, so as long as I get a few questions right, I'll have my A. :-)

Willy Wonka rehearsals are picking up this week. We'll be in rehearsal quite regularly from here on out. I'm not sure yet how it will turn out. We have some great talent in our Charlie and Veruka, as well as our Grandpa Joe. I'm hoping the others will come into their characters soon.

We had a great discussion with the kids tonight about agency. I think they understand how making wrong choices can limit their ability to have choices later, since the talk. It was interesting to watch how some of their understandings were improved on the topic throughout the discussion. Aaron is a great teacher, and I think I was able to help with a few examples of my own.

It has just started raining heavily. There is lightening. I hope I get some sleep tonight. Last night, it rained so hard and so constantly from about 3:30am on that I didn't get a lot. I did manage a little nap this afternoon, but napping with Aidan, Dallin and Ben in the house is about equivalent to trying to sleep through a thunderstorm for me.