So, I haven’t posted in a long time. But there are so many things to write about and I can’t pos­si­bly fit them all in one post. At least not in their entirety. So, these are just the high­lights, includ­ing our best day ever:
May: Our beautiful friend, Jacqueline, got baptized, and 8 of us flew to Chicago to be there. 


May: I built gar­den boxes and planted a gar­den. (Okay, I know this one pales in com­par­i­son to the other events, but I’m pick­ing my first toma­toes now, and I’m pretty happy about it!)
June: Elder Edwards returned home from his mis­sion. This is it. The best. day. ever.
July: John and I went to Girls Camp for a week. Loved it!
August: Rebecca grad­u­ated from BYU.
Whew! Can’t believe the sum­mer is gone. But Gary and Jacque­line and Nate and Sarah and Lan­don and Rebecca have all gone home. And it’s pretty quiet around here. Just me and John and Scotty.
And speak­ing of Scotty, I have one last thing to write. He’s home. As days go, this day — when mis­sion­ar­ies come home — is a mom’s. best. day. ever. This is when you get to see the boy you sent come home a man. Con­fi­dent. Calm. Happy. Good.
This is when you see him be unusu­ally grate­ful for the most ordi­nary things: Mom’s rice pud­ding. A clean bath­room. A clean bed. A sofa to sit on. Shoes with­out holes in them. A car. This is when you hear him tell you the most remark­able lit­tle mir­a­cles that hap­pened, and the way he was blessed, and the things he learned, and the peo­ple he loved.
And you real­ize that what­ever lit­tle sac­ri­fice you or he made was noth­ing. Really, noth­ing. And you wish you could meet those peo­ple he taught and bap­tized, because you know they love him almost as much as you do.
Wel­come home, Elder Edwards. It’s good to have you around again.