End of 4th Grade!

It was a bitter-sweet end to 4th grade for Leona. On the one hand, this year was extremely difficult, both because of teachers and her classmates, but on the other hand, it was a year in which she made some good friends. She didn't tell anyone until the last couple weeks of school that she wouldn't be returning next year. Her friends and the specialty teachers were really sad to see her go. Leona is also sad to go, but was feeling hopeful about a fresh start in fifth grade, with less crazy than she's had to deal with for the past several years.

At the crawdad party.

A few days after school got out, we had a really scary storm come through. We were woken up about 5 am by the wind and then the tornado sirens going off. Collin and I raced up the stairs to get the kids. We had to carry Tim downstairs. I'm pretty sure that the electricity was already out at that point. We gathered everyone in the office bathroom and said a prayer, asking for protection. We were in the bathroom for a while since the sirens kept going off and the storm was crazy loud. When we finally came out this is what the front and backyards looked like. We were very grateful to be safe and to have had the tree fall away from the house. Our friends, the Wises, had their trees fall right on top of their car. The Bernhisels' trampoline ended up in their neighbor's yard, over an 8-foot fence. The Elders Quorum formed a task force and went around helping to clean up at people's houses. With the help of chainsaws and many hands our downed tree was taken care of in under an hour.