Indian summer

This post is a little random, so brace yourself. We were watching a football game on TV this weekend, and I was surprised (but not jealous) that people looked cold at the game! :) Unlike this time last year, I am basking in the high-desert heat and loving every minute of it. Has my body adjusted to Ridgecrest weather? Yes, yes it has! We've got another month or so to enjoy this ridiculous heat/warmth, even though the pool will be shut down Columbus weekend.

We had the de-feet party, and it turned out great. R invited 3 girls, and 2 couldn't make it, so we were glad to get Bailey over. Bailey was so sweet--about every other sentence was "This is SO awesome!" The girls soaked their feet in the pool, got foot massages, played Twister, guessed some famous "successful failures," had fun painting and adding stickers to their nails (er, I mean nail art), and ate cupcakes. They really liked the goody bags stuffed with microwave popcorn, granola bars, crazy socks, and a $1 manicure kit from WalMart. :) Wade had a friend over, too, and they played Wii most of the time. :)

Cupcakes make life sweeter!

Bailey brought a TON of cute nail polish! She was a lot of fun to be with.

More randomness--this is our Sunbeam class from church, all 11 of them. Right now they are taught by one teacher, who is so extraordinarily awesome with these kids that she's been given the nickname "The Sunbeam Whisperer." Thank goodness for wonderful people in our ward who help bring out the goodness in these kids!

Victory in de-feet

As you can imagine, Tuesday's election result was a tough pill to swallow. It was an out-of-body experience for me to watch Rhiannon exit the school grounds that afternoon and walk toward me, first with a goofy look on her face, which then slowly turned to a frown, and then tears. My heart ached for her and all the other kids who lost. Everyone had put so much work into it, from the terrifying speech assembly to posters to massive amounts of homemade stickers and trinkets to give to "voters." Rhiannon had a really good shot at winning the photographer position, but she was up against 5 or more kids for that slot. She was happy that her friend Ryan won, but she had wanted the job so badly.

So we talked a lot about what she was feeling, and talked some more. We talked about how others were feeling the same way. We talked about being a good winner and a good loser. We talked about supporting those who had won and being good sports. We talked about how life isn't fair, and how you can't win at everything all the time. And on and on and on.

THEN we talked about throwing a de-feet party, something that Grandpa Rich and Grandma Donna did for me back in middle school. I don't remember the election loss so much as I remember feeling loved and having fun doing something goofy to "celebrate" my failure. So we're throwing a De-Feet party on Monday for Rhiannon and 2 or 3 other friends who lost. I'm looking forward to it very much! Bring on a game of Twister, some foot massages, and pedicures! :) Hopefully Rhiannon will also feel our love and not be afraid to continue to try new things. I've been digging up some "successful failures" for a game and came across this absolutely splendid, wonderful quote by Winston Churchill:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

So encouraging! Life will go on!