The Joy of People!

There are a lot of random events talked about in this post, just be warned. I could have left some of it out, but a theme started to surface as I kept typing, and that was how many amazing people I have the opportunity to interact with in my life. I am sure I didn't catch everyone I have had great experiences with, but if I have interacted with you in some way, then my life is probably better for it! Just be warned...there is no order here, just my thoughts at way too early in the morning.
Life is crazy! I haven't posted for such a long time. March, I guess. We've had a cute little baby boy born since then. Easton Gray Corry. He's a keeper!

Baby E!

Easton was born June 3, 2017. Perfect. I believe in every way.
Just before he was born Jenna and I ended our school year out. Her dance studio, Red Rock, had some great performances and competitions. Jenna puts in so much work into that studio. Easton was along for the ride for all of it (inside of course!)! He even made it to Vienna in February with Jenna. I stayed home and watched the kids. I wasn't mentally ready for that journey, but Jenna and my sister Laura had a wonderful time. I am glad she was able to go.

Goodbye Students!

The end of my school year was pretty great for the most part. I really loved the kids I taught, even if they were pretty challenging at the end of the year. Good kids, I just wish that 11 and 12 year old children could catch the vision for their lives. Things are very much here and now at that point in life. I know I expect a lot, especially if I think about how I was at that age: Not mature. Life was all about my friends and my Game Boy. Ha. Kind of embarrassing, but mostly funny. Honestly, if I compare myself to these kids, they may be doing much better than I was! ANYWAY. The year ended pretty well, and as usual, I missed my students, though I was seriously ready for a break after all the end of year testing and activities.

Wes and Kellie's vows were awesome!

Back to Easton and our summer (sorry this post is going to be very...rambly...? That's not a word...but you get the idea.). Having a new baby definitely made the summer much more interesting to say the least. We went up to Stadium of Fire less than a month after he was born. Jenna had him in the mornings, but he was with me a lot of the day. Thankfully Ann Hepworth came up with Brynn to help out. It was a huge help to have her there. It all ended up quite pleasant and nice. Easton definitely had some rough times, but overall he was a champ. Especially for putting up with his dad. Another great thing about the Stadium of Fire trip is that we were just up the road from my brother Dan and his wife Brittney. Dan is currently attending PA school and it was awesome to spend a little time with their family!
Kellie and Wes were married the same weekend as Stadium of Fire. It was a very nice ceremony with family at Wes's parents house. We are really happy that Kellie has been able to find Wes. He treats her right, he has a great energy and is a great guy. He also brought two really neat children with him into all our lives.

Cousin time on the way to Cascade Falls

After that we had our Corry Family Reunion. I took the kids up Wednesday evening. While setting up my tent, we experienced a cloudburst...so we all slept in Dad's tent that night with the Robinson kids. Dad slept outside. Nate and Monica were there also and we did some dutch oven potatoes and chicken. It was pretty great (of course my panic attacks were full-throttle that evening...but you know. That's life for me some times!). Jenna of course stayed home, but she did come up the next evening for dinner with the family. After that night, Jenna and I slept in Orderville and came up in the mornings. The tent did dry out after a couple of days at least...
Other things that happened? I had some trainings/PLC planning meetings in June and July as well teaching summer school at the Elementary. During summer school I worked with Linsey Glover, Sharon Glazier, and Kim Swapp - as well as the super cute kids who came. They were all recently out of kindergarten or 1st grade. It was really fun to work with students who were much younger than what I usually get to work with. It was a good reminder of how much work our lower grade teachers put in to each student. By the time they get up to me they are doing pretty well.

Just an hour or so before my car exploded on our 50 miler reunion hike!
Dallin Corry, Bryan Kimball, David Crowther, Bryan's son, Brent Blodgett,
Brielle Blodgett, and Sam Barker. 

What else? The green car exploded. Literally. It had already hit a road sign and been flooded by water, so naturally exploding was next on its list of things to do. I had taken it to a 50 miler reunion (where we hiked maybe 5 miles instead of 50...) down on Webster's Flat. I went to cook some dutch oven for the guys and while parking went over a rock that I didn't see. I had moved the big one...but missed two smaller ones. There was some scraping, but nothing too alarming. I drove the car the next day to the hike spot, hiked just fine with Dallin, got in the car to go home, made it to Highway 14 off of Webster's and...it exploded. It was quite surprising, but we pulled over and were rescued almost instantly by Johnny Roundy and his family.
One thing I would like to point out about this whole thing is that I had asked Dallin to say a prayer just before we left after finishing the hike. I believe he prayed that we would get home safe. Yes, it was a bummer that the car exploded, but I can't help but think of how miraculous is was that literally seconds after I had pulled the car to the side of the road, Johnny Roundy and another man were walking towards me. Johnny loaded Dallin and I and our stuff up, got us in the car, and got us home. I was able to get everything worked out after that. Even insurance has stepped up and helped us out since then. So. As frustrating as it is to see a great car hit the end of its service (two days after paying it off no less!), I am so grateful that forces were at work to help us out of a tough situation. I fully believe that the hand of the Lord was in it, as well as blessings for trying to serve and paying our tithing. I know the Lord hears us, we just need to keep up open and constant communication. He can work our problems, trials, whatever out towards our good and experience.
Another positive thing was the care and attention we received from community members. Roger Goulding was so helpful in getting our car back and helping us out. He always is. He even got our Chevy Venture working well for us again, so I can drive that for a while.
What else happened? Easton was blessed. We were able to get permission to bless him at the Old Rock Church in Orderville due to family having to travel fairly far in some cases. It was really great to have them all there for it. I am appreciative to my siblings for being so supportive of each other. We spent a lot of time together in July and I am grateful for them and their examples to me.

Just outside the Payson Temple at Laura's Wedding

Speaking of siblings, my sister Laura married Rick Francis in the Payson Temple. It was beautiful and wonderful. One of the best parts of the whole things, besides Rick and Laura getting married, was being able to see all of my siblings and their spouses as well as all of my dad's siblings and their spouses gathered together in the Sealing Room. I feel extremely lucky to have been able to look around and see all of them there. The only exception, that was a bit of a bummer was that Jenna had to be out with Easton for obvious reasons. He was only a month old, and as perfect as he is...he may or may not be extremely fussy at times.
Other things? Dallin went to Cedar Mountain Science Camp again. He was able to go with Austin Little and Kaylin Haslem two of his great friends. Three gals from Kanab Elementary were also there with him: Hailey McQuivey, Emrey Kabonic, and Cora Shakespear. So they got to have a little post 5th Grade reunion of sorts. Dallin has been surrounded by great people and kids in Kanab and Valley. I feel lucky to be a parent to children who are able to grow up in Kane County. We have good people here. Very good.

Stadium of Fire! 

Allison was able to perform in the Stadium of Fire with Red Rock and had a great time hanging our with her friends in dance. She also performed well in competitions in the spring. Not only dance was big for her, she was also able to go hang out with her awesome Aunt Kellie and her daughters McKaela and Paisley for several days. We have great times with Wes and Kellie's family!
Which reminds me! In May we went to Scott's graduation! It was a pretty long drive up to Logan, and we were super tired as it hit right in the middle of the end of the school year and dance season. Scott and Stephanie put on quite a celebration for everyone and we had a wonderful time with all of Jenna's family. The ceremony was really well put together as was the luncheon Stephanie hosted beforehand. She is a class act and really knows how to keep things organized. We were extremely grateful that we had decided to make the trip.
Scott and Stephanie have since moved to Washington D.C.! Scott has started a job with Amazon as Stephanie continues to work with Malouf (a really nice bedding and sleep company). We miss having them so close, but understand that this is an amazing opportunity for Scott. Honestly, Amazon is lucky to have him. He's brilliant. Like really, really smart, especially in the world of computers.
Other things?
Well. We had a really fun birthday celebrations for my dad and Jenna's. For my dad with had a classic Corry family dinner at the old house. It may not be amazing for some people, but for me, it was perfect. I love the time we get to spend at the Corry house in Cedar. My dad is pretty awesome also. Mom always does great preparing for and getting us all together. I have two amazing parents, and I am grateful they are both doing well as they get older.
With Alan, we were able to have a really fun night out in St. George. We went to an Escape Room place with an Alice in Wonderland theme that was really fun. We also ate out and just had a great time visiting.
That same trip to St. George was doubly great due to spending time with Steve, Lindsay, and Henry and Lindsay's parents condominium. It was very nice and comfortable. It was the last time we were able to see Steve and Lindsay this summer before they headed back to Qatar. We have to take advantage of those opportunities! Wes and Kellie were also there with there family. So of course there was excitement abounding!
I also have to mention Parker! He was just with us most of the summer. He didn't get to go and do anything by himself, but he's been our constant little buddy. His favorite thing of late is Jenna's big pink workout ball. He just bounces, literally, all over the place. Of course this is also great fodder for some bedtime stories about Rocket Bouncy Balls...you'd have to be there. He did try cutting his hair yesterday if anyone is curious. I feel like it's a right of passage for a lot of kids: To cut their bangs super short at least one. He now has a very short haircut!

Fourth of July - Jenna style!

I did also want to pop in a little information on our Labor Day weekend. Jenna's Grandma "Applevalley" and Papa Bill were at there property with Bill's son, Tim, and his wife Sara (and their two cute kids). It was great also to hang out with them. We also got to spend time with Karen and Darrell (Jenna's parents for those who don't know) at Navajo Lake. It was so nice to spend that time with each of them.
There's so much more I could write about. It was an amazing summer overall. School is now back in session, and I am loving these new kids. They are really fun and they are good. I hope I can help them see how good they are. Nothing is as challenging to me as a teacher as seeing the great and good in my students and trying to help them see it. It is there in every human being. God is in us all.
Of course I want my students to succeed in Language Arts, but it is more important that while I teach them there confidence increases in themselves and who they are. Thankfully, I do not do it alone, Hollie Geiger and Tyree Thurgood are amazing team members and we work together often to make that difference!
If there is any common theme in all this rambling it would be that I am surrounded and blessed with good people. They are what life is all about. With all this fighting in the world about different ideologies and such, we tend to forget that we are individuals, and no, we're not exactly the same, but we are God's kids, and He loves each of us. If he can love each person, we can probably do the same. There is a lot to love about every person I've ever met (even if we have to work harder at it sometimes!). I'm grateful for the blessing of people. It's one of the greatest things we have.
I suppose if I looked out at all the hard things happening in the world, I could get discouraged, but I choose to see that in the midst of those hard things happening, in many cases (probably most), there are good people, doing good things, making the world a better place to be in. That's what I choose to see. I can see a hurricane (or two) and worry about the devastation, and it is devastation, but I can also see all the wonderful people being great examples and serving each other. It is sometimes when our comforts are stripped from us that our better nature takes over. We finally see what is important when we aren't blinded by our 'stuff'. Most good things in our lives center around other people.
Well. You all already know this don't you?
So do I. Perhaps I should live it better!
Until next time...