It's Official!

Hooray! It's official--Dr. Rugh is now THE Associate Dean in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences at BYU, the best school in the whole world!!! She is a great one for the job. She's one of my favorite people in the whole world, and this will be an exciting opportunity for her. Look at her cute new official BYU photo! Here is the link to the press release: http://byunews.byu.edu/archive08-JUN-rugh.aspx.

It seems that it will be another wild day of weather in the Midwest. Here is a picture of Friday night's tornado south of Springfield which ended up going along a path just eight miles south of Linda's house! Linda e-mailed me this morning, and luckily she, her family, and their house were okay, but she said it was a pretty crazy night as they watched bad storms go both north and south of them. Today I was reading a severe weather blog posted by the State Journal-Register in Springfield. My favorite blog entry was from 9:35 a.m. It said, "So as to not freak anyone out, the Springfield Fire Department has canceled its monthly test of the city's outdoor warning sirens. It was scheduled for 10 a.m." Besides, a test would be kind of pointless since they successfully used the sirens just the other day :-)

Tomorrow is the big day when the Taylor, Barrett, and Agate families head off to Nauvoo! I was originally going to be getting married on this trip, but things got a little crazy with trying to finish school and my Zion book, and I found that internships in Illinois are quite hard to come by, so we bumped the wedding back to October. But, why not still have a fun trip to Nauvoo? Greg will meet us there on Thursday, so it will be great to spend the weekend with him. We're all planning to go to the Nauvoo Temple on Friday, and we'll spend the rest of the time sightseeing, eating delicious food at the Hotel Nauvoo buffet, and having a fun, relaxing time together. It will be extra fun because one of my other favorite people, Susan Easton Black, is in Nauvoo right now with a BYU alumni tour, and she's going to try to hook up with us while we're there. She and Harvey might even be able to go to the temple with us on Friday! Camden, Riley, Sidney, and Eliza are all very excited for their first airplane ride. :-) We will surely have many good times, and I'll write all about the trip when we return home on Sunday evening.

Berle

I am very, very sad because I just learned today that my good friend, Berle McKay, passed away from complications with lung and brain cancer :-( I met Berle and his cute wife Ayne in Mississippi. Ayne and I were the two seasonal park rangers in Natchez during the summer of 2006. Berle was not officially employed by the National Park Service, but he was always there at the park helping us with anything we needed. I became great buddies with cute Ayne and Berle. They were always so kind to me, and they always made me smile. Berle had a twin brother--named Merle! When he first told me that, I didn't believe him, but it turns out that it was true :-) Ayne and Berle were from Texas, and he was a retired police officer, and she a retired judge--so they were in Natchez just having a fun post-retirement adventure. I am so glad that I got to spend those six months with them in Natchez during 2006, because after that they went back to Texas to be near their children, and then Berle got sick. The last time I saw Ayne and Berle, when I took this picture of Berle, was at the "Christmas at Melrose" program in December 2006. Ayne was one of the actresses inside the house, and Berle and I were on the support crew--out in the cold :-) (That was one of the few times I was ever cold in Mississippi.) Berle and I were out freezing in the carriage house trying to keep refreshments on the table for the visitors, but our main job was to keep the candles lit in the 120 luminaries outside. That was quite a feat considering that it was a windy night in Natchez! Berle was a really sweet, kind person, and so is Ayne. I can imagine that she is very heartbroken. Even though it was only for a short time, I am grateful that I was able to know Berle McKay. He made me want to be a better person, and he made the people around him happy. I feel blessed that he was a part of my life, and I am going to try to do a better job of staying in touch with Ayne. When I first went to Natchez I wondered what on earth I was doing there, but in looking back I realize how enriched my life has been because of the friendships I made there. I think that in life it's not so much about the places you go, but it's the people you meet that are important.

New Baby on the Block

Hey, yo! There's a new rock star in town--named Eliza. She is a definite trend-setter, seen today sporting a new "I Heart Mom" onesie (very appropriate apparel for Sarah's birthday), a stylin' John Deere hat, and some sweet shades. She posed for a couple of pictures with her agent, Grandma Taylor. Please wait until Eliza is a little more comfortable with the alphabet before requesting autographs.

Switching gears now, the weather in the Midwest has been a little out-of-control lately. Mom and I have been quite shocked to hear about tornadoes hitting all of these places through which we recently traveled--i.e. Kearney, Nebraska; Laramie, Wyoming; Cheyenne, Wyoming. The big Parkersburg, Iowa tornado last week was not very far from where Greg's grandparents live, and today the Springfield, Illinois area got hammered by some nasty storms--including some tornadoes. Luckily Greg, in Athens, was a bit north of where all of the really bad weather was, but I am concerned about my favorite future boss, Linda, who lives south of Springfield--where the worst of the weather was. These photos were taken in New Berlin, Illinois this evening, which is only about seven miles north of the town where Linda and her family live:










There were also reports of a tornado about ten miles south of this area, and tonight I was reading some news reports about a thunderstorm later this evening that was dropping golf ball-sized hail in the same place!


The tornado sirens went off in New Berlin this evening around 5:45 p.m., then in Springfield at 6:00. I was reading that Illinois "lawmakers, lobbyists, reporters, and secretaries" at the state capitol building had to evacuate to some tunnels beneath the building where they stayed for 45 minutes. That was round one of the storm, and then round two blew in a little while later. Storm chasers were tracking a tornado--the one that probably went close to Linda's house--at 7:15. Yikes! I hope that Linda and her family are okay. Greg, do you want to move to Utah--to the safety of the wonderful mountains that generally disrupt the formation of tornadoes?

Graduation Day!

Our family now has two accomplished graduates: Miss Riley, from 3-year-old Preschool, and Miss Camden from Kindergarten! Today was Camden's fun graduation and dance festival extravaganza.

The morning started off with the dance festival. Camden was the best dancer in her whole class, and it was especially fun that she got to dance to a song from her and Riley's favorite movie, "High School Musical!"











Sid and Grandma thought it was all pretty great.











Eliza thought it was pretty great too. She especially likes showing off her new front teeth these days!











After the Kindergarteners' performance, all of the other grades did their own dances. It got a little crazy sometimes, especially with the "Chicken Dance." Eliza and Sid liked hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, but Sid wondered what all of those weird kids were doing out on the field, dancing like chickens.











Camden's cheering section reacts to the Chicken Dance:










Eliza thought that the Chicken Dance looked pretty fun, so she tried to escape and run out onto the field with all of the big kids--but Momma rounded her up.










Then it was time for graduation. Camden and her classmates did a great job singing the songs they learned this year!









Here comes the graduate with her diploma:













Way to go, Camden! Here is Camden posing with Grandpa, Grandma, Riley, Aunt Tiffy, and Sid. If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you will notice that Sid is either trying to make a scary face or check to see if she has any more teeth coming in. :-)











After graduation we all went to lunch at our favorite restaurant, Thai Chili Garden, to celebrate. What a fun graduation day! I am so proud of all of my cute, smart nieces!

Twisted Goodness

My favorite thing about being home, of course, is being with my family and friends here in Utah. I also desperately missed the mountains while I was away, and I enjoy looking out my window each morning to see a snow-capped Mt. Timpanogos towering above me. One of my other favorite things about being home is having Super Target and Wendy's just down the road! Unfortunately Charleston had neither a Super Target or a Wendy's.

This evening I discovered my new favorite treat in the entire world: a chocolate chip cookie dough twisted frosty from Wendy's! It is heavenly with its large, soft cookie dough chunks and scrumptious flakes of chocolate! Mom and I stopped at Wendy's after going to Super Target--the perfect outing--and brought home some of the new frosty shakes to share with the family. They come in three flavors: vanilla bean, fudge swirl, and strawberry, and are, like the twisted frosties, also very delicious. In addition to cookie dough, the twisted frosties also come in M&M and Oreo varieties. Life is good.