American Fork HS Marching Band

Our big news of the week is that Jumble has been recruited into the American Fork High School Marching Band. We are still not sure how this happened, but feel that it was definitely divine intervention. As long as Jumble survives Marching Band boot camp this week, this is going to be dominating our life and draining our pocketbook for the next 3 months. We are excited because the American Fork High School Marching Band is the best marching band in the state of Utah and one of the top in the nation. (The photos above are from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade they marched in last fall.) We are nervous because the rest of the band members have been practicing all summer and have half of the drill sets learned and all of the music memorized already so Jumble has a lot of hard work to do to catch up. She is also taking on a new instrument--the bass clarinet (second photo above.) The fingering is the same as the clarinet and they say the parts are pretty easy for this instrument. The hard part is going to be developing the arm muscles to lug this monster around. So everybody pray that her arm doesn't fall off this week and that she can learn the music and drill sets quickly! She left at 6:45 this morning for four days of non-stop marching and playing in Delta, UT. They told her to expect to feel like her head is barely above water for awhile so hopefully she can survive this part and have a great experience.

How did this happen? Last Thursday the director of the bands at AF Jr. High School called us because he saw that she was a new student and found out that she played clarinet. We were going to the school that day to fix Jumble's schedule so we arranged to meet with him to talk about Jumble and see if she qualified to play in the premier group at the Jr. High. Jumble took some of the music that she was playing at the beginning of 8th grade in Arizona to show him what she could do. After seeing that, he felt like she could definitely be in the top Jr. High group. And then, by the way, we are in desperate need of one more bass clarinet player for the High School marching band (he is the assistant director)--are you interested? Thankfully we can rent the instrument from the high school for a small fee. They are going to the Bands of America Grand Nationals in Indiana in November. That won't be so cheap. But we felt very peaceful about it--that this is exactly what Jumble needs in her life right now--so we feel confident that it will all work out. We are hoping that she will take this amazing opportunity that has been handed to her and run with it. We already met a distant cousin that is in the band. John and Renee Pew--youngest son (and his wife) of Glenn and Louise Pew--have a son in the band. I met Renee last week but haven't got to meet John or their son yet. There are a total of 5 bass clarinets in the band and the other 4 are boys! Jumble has 4 escorts to look after her now.

So for the fourth time this summer I have handed my first-born child over to semi- or total strangers. EFY, Girls Camp, and Band Camp have all been virtual strangers. Youth Conference we at least knew some of the leaders for a few months first. All four times Jumble has been dumped into a situation with complete strangers--even at youth conference they divided them into "families" and avoided putting you with anyone in your ward. Hopefully it will turn out as great this time as it did the other three times. I just have to sit here biting my fingernails for the next four days (and biting my fingernails is not even a habit I have.)

In other news, Jumble was able to get into Honors English and Peer Tutor for the entire year. Her counselor at the school was so nice--basically gave her whatever she wanted and said she was giving her the best teachers so hopefully this will be a great year for her--but she is going to be busy! They posted class lists at the Elementary School today so I went down to write down Minnie and Jet's teachers. They will also be going into a situation where they know no one. We are in a small section of the ward that goes to Shelley Elementary. Almost the entire ward goes to Legacy Elementary. So all the kids they have met this summer go to the other school. I didn't see one name on their class lists that I recognized. Minnie is pretty nervous about it but Jet seems unconcerned at this point. There is an open house on Thursday so they will at least get to go meet their teachers. We have heard it is an excellent school. Right now it looks like a disaster because they are remodeling the kitchen and lunch room and won't be done for a few more months.

Minnie and Jet are also signed up for soccer. Niles is going to be the coach for Jet's team and we just found out that Minnie is on the same team with her cousin, Emily, so we are excited about that. Niles is one of the new Webloes den leaders and I am one of the Sunbeam teachers now so they have us busy at church. Niles was a Webloes den leader for his first calling in Rose Valley Ward and I was a Sunbeam teacher for my last calling in Rose Valley Ward. Things are about to get really busy around our house.

Niles' brother, Ben, and his wife, Lori, were here visiting the same week as Hans and Griffin. We got to see them a few times and it was great to see them, but I forgot to snap any photos. Ben pulled his back out and landed in the ER the last day they were here. We hope he is feeling better now. Niles' dad, Russ, kindly arranged for me to go will Eileen (his mom) to the 4th annual BYU football women's clinic and we had a great time. We got to tour the stadium, meet some of the players and coaches, hear them speak and answer questions, saw a few video/power point presentations and learned more about football. We also got a bag full of cool BYU football stuff and a t-shirt. Again, I forgot my camera so I din't get any photos of the event. We are looking forward to a great season. I haven't been to a BYU game in LaVell Edwards Stadium since before the name was changed from Cougar Stadium--about 15 years or so since I have been to a home game--I am excited to be back!

Grandma Crane is here visiting from California this week and we are looking forward to spending some time with her. We had dinner with the Cranes last night and this is a photo of Grandma with Lauren.



Niles spent last week in the booming metropolis of Cheyenne, Wyoming at a planning conference. He brought back cowboy hats for the boys. This is Atom wearing his.

There are only two girls in the ward that are Minnie's age (both go to the other school) and she has gotten to be friends with them both. One of them, Kari, seems to have a lot in common with Minnie. They both like cooking, rocks, and Webkinz. Can I tell you how much I like this girl? She came to play last Friday and they washed Niles' truck and made a double batch of chocolate-chip cookies! Now that is a friendship the parents are hoping Minnie cultivates. (They made some bar cookies with some of the dough which is what they are showing off in the above photo.)