Bus Tour of School District

This morning I got to have a lot of fun! As most of you know, I am the President of the Littleton Elementary School District here in Avondale, Arizona. Today we had induction of our new teachers to our district. It was fun meeting them at breakfast and finding out where they came from and now which school and grade/subject they will be teaching. After breakfast at one of our schools, we loaded up a yellow air conditioned bus and hit the road. I got to be the tour guide! It was so fun!! I shared info about the original days of Avondale being called "Coldwater" and about the founder Billy Moore. History about each of our schools, who they were named after, when they were built. I pointed out landmarks like....Fry's, Bank of America, Phoenix International Raceway...Cashion...post offices, etc... You get the idea!

A yellow school bus, similar to what we took this morning.
This is Estrella Vista Elementary School.
It is in my subdivision. This is one of 8 schools in our District area.

Computers and Bugs

We live in the modern age of computers where you just can't live without them! Emailing, checking weather reports, news, staying in contact with friends on Facebook, etc... Well..our computer on Sunday morning got a virus! Called msa.exe. Let me tell you...it is one bad problem. So finally last night after dinner we were tired of having all of these little pop ups from the internet! Sometimes there would be 15 of them on the screen. Someone figured out a way to get into the computer and took control. We have Norton Symantec service. So I get on the technical chat on line help with them (so great...not holding a phone to your ear for hours!) ... we were able to type back and forth about the problem. Well after $99.99 the technician could go in and repair the problem for us. So when his name pops up on the screen as to whom I am typing with....it was a long one. I recognized it as an "indian" name from India (not native american). So I asked...are you in India? Yes, he was. But after an hour and 20 minutes he had cleaned out the insides of our computer and removed that terrible bug and reinstalled Internet Explorer for us. So today we are bug free and not getting any more anoying pop ups. So my advice to all...be careful what email you open! I accidentally hit open instead of delete and hence our problem.

Wicked

Sat, July 20th we went to see the broadway play Wicked at Gammage Theater on ASU campus. Here is a photo of Sandi and Heidi at intermission. We had a great time. The message of the play was very good. It basically lets you know how all the characters from Wizard of Oz knew each other or were related and how they came to be viewed by others for either good or bad even if it wasn't true. The biggest message was "be yourself" and not let others label you. It was an emotional play. The audience was carried with every emotion from laughter to tears. It was the only play Curtis and I had ever seen where at the end when the two main characters "Glinda (the Good) and Elfiba (The Wicked Witch)" came to take their bows...the entire theater in breath stood on their feet and cheered! All these characters did a superb job in acting. Three of them were the understudies. I was impressed at how well it was done. Curtis was busy analyzing the entire play from a Bishop's point of view. He had a hard time with it but did like the ending.

Sandi & Heidi at Wicked

Camp LoMia near Pine, Arizona

I finally have time to post a few photos after being sick with Asthma for several weeks. Curtis spent a week at Girls' Camp for our stake near Pine, Arizona. The Camp is called Camp LoMia. It would be interesting to find out how that name came to be...if anyone knows, please share. Anyway...I was with my mom and dad during the time of Girls' Camp, however on Sunday I went and spent from 2:30 pm to 10:00 pm with the girls. The following photos were taken before the testimony meeting at the Ward cabin.

Sandi & Curtis (Bishop Nielson)

Becky Phelps, Cherish Parker, Callie Brown and Stephanie Walker.

L-R around the table:

Susan Walker, Morgan Fuller, Kassandra Smith, Kami Finlayson, Mackenzie Davies, Ericka Davies, Rhiannon McBride, Raeana White, Raeana's cousin, and Megan Burgess