Slow down, summer!

Summer is kicking my trash.

Seriously. The two Chinese girls have been here for a week now. What cute girls they are!

Their names are Xiou and Yio, and they are really fun. They have “school” every day where they learn about things in America, and then go off on an activity. Yesterday they went shopping at Park City outlets. They had fun, although said it was TOO much shopping. They came home with quite a few shopping bags, so they must have made the most of their time. This week they also had fun at the Clas ropes course. Today they go to BYU. Some of the days, my three girls also go with them as American buddies. Megan had fun at the ropes course, but she was WAY sore the next day.

They are pretty good about getting up in the morning on most days, but I’ve had to wake them a couple of times. They need to be ready to leave by 7:30. This week I haven’t been driving..yet. But next week I’ll be on mornings, and will have to pick up four other Chinese kids and take them to Orem by 8:15 am.

We have been bowling, shopping at City Creek, went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert in the conference center, hiked around bridal veil falls,
and out to dinner.

We took them to see Natalie’s play, Peter Pan, which ended on Monday, too.

One of them really wanted to cook, and when they saw John making an omelet one day, they were amazed. So, on Saturday, I taught them how to make an omelet.

We took them to church, and a little family party at my sisters. For Pioneer day we did sparklers and pop its out in the front yard and watched the nearby fireworks.

This morning my girls left for girls camp for three days. All three of them!!

Meanwhile, I am gone every night at rehearsal.
We moved over to the outdoor theater this week, and it’s fun to perform on the hill, but so different. I’ve never done outdoor theater before.

When we aren’t on stage, we sit on the grass on our blankets.

The show opens in just over a week!! What?

I had my costume fitting this week, and I LOVE my dresses. Except my peasant outfit, which has this corset thing. Not sure how I am going to get IN and OUT of that thing, but I’ll keep you posted.

I get home from rehearsal between 10 and 11, and then I have to decompress a bit, so I fall asleep around midnight. Then I have to get the girls up around 7 and get them breakfast. Next week I’ll have to drive them to Orem every morning, after later and later rehearsals. By about 1:00 in the afternoon I’m SO tired, I tend to crash and need a nap. Not every day is nap conducive, I tell you.

And have I mentioned our yard work?

It’s mostly Ryan doing it, but the rest of us have helped, too.
Once we got our fences up, it was time to landscape that back fence line.

All 280 (Is that right Ryan?) feet of it.

Ryan tilled it, trenched it, put in sprinkler lines and power outlets, and is digging out the rest of the weeds so we can lay down a layer of newspaper and then mulch. I’ve kind of lost track of the number of truckloads of mulch we have gotten, but I think it’s around 10. Not like dump truck loads, just our small truck filled with compost from the recycle center.

And there’s our tomato plants in the buckets. There are more in the garden area, too. Soon. Very soon, we will have tomatoes.

Silly chickens think I planted these flowers JUST for them to eat. Argh.

And remember this kitty? She’s been with us for a whole year, now! Happy Birthday?

So, yeah, things are crazy busy for me right now. And I’m tired. So tired. But I know it will just get worse next week. If I can make it through rehearsals, then actually DOING the show will be fun. And our visitors will be gone, and I’ll have a couple nights a week off. Just in time for school to start. Slow down, summer! You’re going to fast, and dragging me along behind you!