Meditations from Mel

Wow! What an awesome summer! We have had so much fun this summer! Today Michael was just naming lakes and he said "fishing at Strawberry Lake, boat ride at Lake Powell, horse and church at Panguich Lake, driving past cinnamon gorge lake (I think he meant Flaming Gorge and I didn't see a lake) and now we can swim at Coralville Lake!" Needless to say, our very extravagant, but well earned vacation has impacted our kids!

We had a great time at Lehman Caves! Except for all the dirt and flies, I really liked the other associations we had there! Mom wanted to hear a highlight, but nothing really sticks out, I really enjoyed the food! We also enjoyed the hike, my kids took such great naps that day! It was really great to see Becca and Nick and get to know Nick a little better. The kids love to see Leslie, we want her to come to IA, Summer would you put her on the train? I like the reunion idea because it is scheduled time that I know I can see Mom and Dad!

Random news- Kambri is in kindergarten and loving it! She has a great teacher and 3 other kids have dental school dads! It was so cute to see her line up with her classmates on the first day all of them dressed up with over-sized back packs!

Andy started D-2 (that is the lingo in my hood) It is kind of weird, after having him around all summer, to just have it be me in charge of Michael and McKayla!

I don't want write too much or you guys may skip my article and think I am full of cheese! Feel free to call me or write I miss you turkeys!

Love--Melanie

PS:Well everyone is back to school here! Including Michael! He started preschool today. Kambri loves kindergarten, she has a great teacher! Remember my teacher, Mrs. O'Connel with one green eye and one brown eye and a little elf in her room and purple cow treat? I volunteered last Thurs and it was so fun! We made teddy bear biscuits.

Reflections from Rebecca

This last month sure has been exciting for Nick and me. It has been so fun playing house. I just quit my job relaying phone calls for deaf people and I started school on the 20th. When my conducting teacher was taking roll one of the first names he called was Rebecca Bryce. When I heard that I looked around the room to see who the other Rebecca was in my class. Oops! Finally I realized it was me so I shot my hand up in the air. It's so weird being at the beginning of the alphabet now for roll call. I am taking a lot of fun classes. Right now I'm learning how to play the bassoon and the French horn. Playing the bassoon tickles my lips so badly! I can hardly stand it. I look around the room and it doesn't seem to be bothering anyone else though. So I'm always on the verge of giggling. That didn't help me when my teacher told me I needed to cover my A-hole better. I almost burst into laughter. I feel like an eighth grader. I'm playing these songs in orchestra called the Ruckert Songs. They were composed by a Gustav Mahler. Well Mahler must have loved the harp because there are sooooo many harp parts! I have tons of solos. It's really scary. Last rehearsal I missed every single one of my entrances. But I'll have them by September 22nd and 23rd. (Those are the days of our concert.) I'm not going to Indonesia with harp fusion so I don't have to go to rehearsals until end of October. That is a major stress relief. I just couldn't stand spending 12 days away from Nick in a far, far away county. (And neither could he! JK )(Not to mention the country is on the brink of war.)

Nick takes his pharmacy exam October 20th. He has to pass that before he can be accepted into pharmacy school. So he's starting to fill out his pharmacy school applications. Last weekend he took me for a baja (Nick calls it Tooly-Bustin.) over Mt. Lemon. It was pretty fun. We had a picnic in the mountains. When we walked back up to the truck from our picnic though the truck had two flat tires! Oops. So we replaced one of the tires and a four-wheeler guy inflated the other one with something about as powerful as a bicycle pump. It worked though. So that was quite an adventure. Next weekend is the big weekend for picking chiles. Everyone goes out in the chile field and hand picks the chiles. Usually his parents use this as a test to see if the new family members are up to being a Bryce. They have to pass the test before they can marry into the family. Lucky for me we weren't dating last chile season. Nick's and my calling is in the nursery. It is so fun playing with the kids. They love us. Well actually they all cry for the first 20 minutes. But then they really love us. Last sacrament meeting one of the little boys from nursery was sitting in front of us. It was so fun making faces at him through sacrament meeting. The meeting just flew by. Playing with those kids in nursery sure does make starting our own little family tempting . . . Well

Nick and I are having a blast and still love being married. I hear that's pretty good for being married for over a month. We have so much fun being together we can't stand being apart! Well take care and we will talk to everyone later. Oh yeah, our new phone number is (520) 293-7718. Love you!!!

Love, Mr. and Mrs. Nick Bryce

(mid August) I'm meeting with the administration tomorrow to put some dates on the calendar and some other stuff I know will be a lot easier to get done before school starts. I've controlled my urge to write lesson plans though because of your advice last year of what Dad told you: "why write lesson plans during the summer when you will be able to write them just as easy when school starts. So instead, I've been contacting shopping malls, colleges, and other associations trying to find places for my groups to perform this year. We'll see what happens.

I've slowly spent the past few weeks getting used to everything. I've spent my days doing the school stuff, or just getting things managed and ready for when I go back to school and won't quite have the time to do as much. Ever since I came back home I've told myself I wouldn't finished Les Mis until I finished everything else I had "planned" to do (that blasted planner!!!:) ). Well, by the time I finished with my errands for the day I wouldn't have enough time by myself to sit down alone and finish the book. I tried a few times to get into it, but just didn't make the time so I would make myself stop (since the trip I had a little over 100 pages to read and I knew I couldn't read a chapter here and there, it would have to be a clean sweep). Anyway last night during dinner Jeremy asked me if I was going to finish the book before school started. I told him I didn't know if I would ever make the time I needed to finish it. So as soon as I finished my plate Jeremy "ordered" me into the bedroom and told me I couldn't come out until the book was done, that was 8:30. So I dove in. I backed up a little in the book to help myself get back into the mood of the story. Well, it didn't take long for the tears to come and then they never stopped, not until after12:30. Jeremy finally came in to go to sleep so I went in to the living room to finish it. I haven't read very many books in my life, but never, ever, have I experienced any movie, book, play, or music event that has ever moved me as much as this book. I can't even begin to describe how good it is, but sad, but still more good than sad--you uncontrollably sob because it is so good. Hat's off to Victor Hugo for being able to write such a masterpiece. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. Jean Valjean is such a wonderful, complex character. And the descriptions! Victor Hugo takes so much care into describing the sewer system of Paris, I felt nauseated at times. I have never felt like I personally knew the characters to a story before. The whole thing is beautiful. My eyes are swollen, my noses stings, and my upper lip is swollen this morning from last night.

Jeremy and I went to my classroom last Monday and decorated it. The room is so big it's hard to fill it up with cutsie things. We hung tiger pictures up everywhere (our mascot is a tiger) and then some computer posters of different instruments that I made up. I made one for each instrument group. For example, I put all the woodwinds on a page and then wrote "wonderful woodwinds." For the percussion, I wrote, "percussionists with pizzazz." I could not for the life of me think of anything catchy for the brass. Jeremy took over and told me to leave the room so he cold concentrate. Minutes later I heard him busting up at the computer. I kept asking him what he was doing, but he wouldn't let me in the room. A few minutes later he said he was finished and guess what it said??? He had the words Bad and then a picture of a donkey with his backside facing and then brass! I ended up making him change it to blazing brass. I just don't think the parents would go for bad a-- brass!

Love Martha

I enjoy my classes and they aren't that hard, they are just a lot of work. It gets a little boring, sometimes, constantly reading these textbooks; however I am enjoying my English class. We are learning a writing style that I am unfamiliar with and it is interesting. I also checked out a book from the library called The Elements of Style, by Strunk and edited by EB White. There is a lot here for me to learn, and I have to keep busy pursuing it to avoid homesickness and missing Emily. Another thing that helps is my apartment. My roommates are so much fun and helpful and I just love hanging out with them every night. I haven't made very many friends because I don't care to. I don't have a lot of time to play with friends, and the time I do have, I would rather spend with my roommate buddies than with anyone else. I start my institute classes this week. Tonight I have mission prep and Thursday I have Book of Mormon. I am excited for that. Anyway I have studying to do (as you can imagine) and I hope this letter can give you a brief glimpse into my new life.

Does everyone know they moved back to Moapa? Since they don't have their internet connected yet, I'll just fill you in on what I know. Chris is back to work here & never talks about missing Elko-I think he's glad to be back. Summer started school this week & is taking a pretty heavy load, including education classes. Leslie went with her dad to register for pre-school. Summer had so much fun bottling two boxes of peaches with me that she brought back two more from northern Utah after Labor Day weekend. We canned those up yesterday, & just stood back in awe to marvel at our work of art.

Although their tiny trailer may not be their abode of choice, I know they're glad to be home, & we are too!

One good thing about shaving your head is everything grows back nice and even. And that is exactly what is happening with my year so far. I took a summer literature class through the mailbox to make my schedule fit (American Literature just seemed to conflict with everything) and boy, how could I ask for anything better. I've got two Jazz bands, that's evened off with Precalc and Physics. Then comes Spanish, Theatre, US History, and to top it off I have the worse class of all...student aide for the counselor! That's simply a place holder so that everything else I wanted would fit together so it gives me time to make up all the magnificent homework I have. Uhhhh...

This year Jazz band harbors only five repeat musicians. That means there are sixteen newbies in the group. Our first performance is in three days at the Monday Morning Assembly. We've got plenty of ambition so we will be a great group once we get some experience. In the mean time we'll just take it one song and one solo at a time.

Mr. Dalley has held auditions and the results are in. I'm no lead part like Mother talked me up to be, but I do have a hilarious character that will let me be playful. My role is an insane man (the old lady's nephew) who believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt. I fire imaginary rifles, dig locks in Panama (the cellar), hold cabinet meetings with toy soldiers and run up the stairs yelling "CHARGE! CHARGE THE BLOCKHOUSE!" I think it fits my style just fine.

Long story short, Matt is happy.

Yes we're back to school too. Ken felt so miserable being back to work, that I decided to let him buy a new truck to see if he would cheer up some. So he took two days off school, and now, as we write, he and Clark are driving the new beast home from Nashville, TN.

I'm really excited about reading Les Mis; I'm already half way through - that's page 625! Martha's right...it is excellent. I think it's one of those books that no one can just read & forget about. You have to come away feeling like a different person. I finished Madam Bovary, & it was good. It's kind of a moral realism about a bourgeoisie wife of a doctor who wastes her time on the frivolous pursuits of extravagance & affairs, only to end up in complete despair. It didn't make me cry, just think. However, my true passions bloomed as I finished To Kill a Mockingbird, & it's left me with plenty of emotion. In fact, I'm now planning to teach it this year to my accelerated kids. I figure they need a challenge, the high school doesn't teach this book anymore (too much trouble), and one of the seminars Katy sent me to this summer had a workshop on teaching To Kill a Mockingbird to 8th graders. It's difficult to get into at first, but deeply moving & even hard to put down by the end. Matt loved it, & I think 8th graders would too. Hey, they whine & complain no matter what I give them to read, so I may as well give them something to whine about!

I've also done some house cleaning since Ken went back to school. I started with the kitchen curtains, washed out the dust, cleaned the windows & put them back. Then I took on the front room: washed the lace curtains (I forgot how white they used to be) & dusted the flounces on top. I washed the windows, swept out the spiders, & took a deep clean breath!

Remember Cheryl Jack? Of all the unexpected people, she actually made my day. She just returned from a trip to Italy where she visited the exchange student who stayed with her family last year, & she brought me a huge Leaning Tower. It took my breath away, it's so beautiful. I set it on the kitchen counter, so it inspires me to keep things cleaned up! Her son is in my class this year, & made a point of studying all the background for my novel on Leonardo da Vinci -- he's even seen the Last Supper! Hmmm...guess who my student of the year might be??

Ken & Matt & I went to see Arsenic & Old Lace in Cedar. What a delightful play about two old ladies who poison old gentlemen with their elderberry wine. Matt has one of the lead parts in it this fall. Apparently Ron Dalley's had Matt picked out for this part since last year. It should be great fun, & we can't wait to see it. We'll let you all know the dates.

I thought our reunion was simply super. I loved the way our boys all seemed to take leadership in keeping everyone busy and happy. I had a great time hiking Mount Wheeler, learning about the bristlecone pines and the glacier, and touring those caves. I especially remember those cute little grandkids. I've told my classes all about how Leslie took that valuable gold mine rock & threw it in the river. I remember all the thunder & lightning & how McKayla actually asked me to hold her during the loudest booms. I remember going for a walk with Kambri & seeing deer. And, I remember telling Michael & Kambri that thunder & lightning are really Heavenly Father's fireworks. But most of all, I loved being with all my favorite people having a great time together. It was so much fun that I can't wait to be together again in Mexico. Love you all, Mom & Dad