The Shippen Family

Tonight...random thoughts.  There will be little if any flow to this post.  No segways.  Very few paragraphs, in fact.  I should really switch my blog over to wordpress.org.  It's funny that I know I could make a really cool web site with it for the fam that would serve as a great family history record yet I always put it off.

I have really been enjoying summer and I feel like this entire year has been such a blessing.  Yes, I would like to be able to find a full time teaching job, but if I can get a job by next fall we can survive another year on my part-time income.  I LOVE playing tennis but this week I've actually picked up a golf club because Kirb and I are playing in the annual McDonald's tourney up at Teton Lakes.  Two days, scramble the first, two person best ball the second.  Kirby has me motivated to practice this week so I've been out at Sandcreek the last three nights hitting range balls, and tonight...putting.  Funny thing is I think tennis may have helped my game.  Mentally...plus a few swing thoughts and just coordination things.  We'll find out this weekend.  So on Monday (since Raleigh and Ty were in Montana at basketball camp--more on that later) I took Kysa and Shay out to the course and bought a large bucket for $4.75.  I had the girls practice chip shots with about 15 balls each while I hit 40 yard wedges with the 54 degree Taylormade I borrowed permanently from mom.  (LOVE IT!  Might be the missing link since I lost by Cobra 52 degree sand wedge a few years ago.)  Anyway, I figured out that natural consequences are effective in getting the girls to improve their golf games.  I told them if they could hit the bucket they would get an ice cream after golf.  Voila!  They were instantly doing better, Kysa in particular.  After chipping their portions of balls a couple times and after I hit all my wedges and then chipped them to a within a 5 foot radius, we headed to the range.  We did this Monday and yesterday.  Yesterday was rough because the girls were tired and Shay was particularly cranky, but it was still fun.  Of course, Kysa picked up about 50 tees from the driving range on Monday.  Yesterday a friend from high school, Joy Phillips who lives in Blackfoot, was hitting on the range with her husband.  THAT was unexpected as we were friends from track.  (Again, no segweys.)  I hit my driver like a champ, considering I haven't played a lick this year--literally haven't played a hole, so this practice time is pretty critical.  I had tennis last night at Tautphaus with my 3.0 team, then had another singles match tonight for my 3.5 team, and I have another one tomorrow night...the last one of the year before districts at the end of the month.

Tennis....ahhhhh...funny that I'm talking about golf when tennis has me completely addicted.  I pretty much LOVE it and it still feels like Christmas every time I get to play.  I keep wondering when I'll start to get sick of it.  I feel like a kid in a candy store when I'm on the court.  I enjoy the mental side of tennis...you have so many opportunities to be a head case and I love battling through and I love the opportunities to grow that come with each match.  I love the friends I've made through tennis.  What a blessing these ladies have been and will continue to be!  I love my friends who helped me coach at Skyline.  I love my players, former, current, and future like my 11 year old star Elizabeth Harrison who clinics with us now and rocks it.  I love my coaches, Gretchen of course but also Holger and Mark Rodel and Tollan who got me started with the beginner tennis clinic at Apple.  I love my Prince EXO racquet and I'm so thankful Gretchen told me I had a grandma racquet this spring.  Didn't play with it a single time after that and it sure worked out that Mark had a demo I could buy.  This weekend I enjoyed watching the Wimbledon finals and semi's and even grabbing my racquet and pretending as if I was playing--moving my feet and taking the shots that Federer, Murray, and Tsonga were taking (can't shadow Nadal or Djokovic because I don't want to and can't imitate their strokes.)  Because of shadowing Federer a few weeks ago I've added a one handed back hand to my repertoire and I feel like it will keep getting better and better.  From watching the Williams v. Rowanska match I learned to get lower on the hard, fast shots that are hit at my feet.  (Thanks Aggie.)  It worked tonight as I avenged the second of my two losses this season, beating Caitlyn Ball 6-2, 6-0 after losing earlier in the year.  I did drop one other match because Trisha thought I'd get DQ'd at 3.0 if I didn't, but it felt awful and Holger called the USTA and assured me I'd be ok for the remainder of the season since I was a computer rate.   (This is so blabby, as Shay would say but oh well.  If I don't write some of this stuff down I'll never remember it and so much is going on.  Trivial stuff, most would say, but I feel alive when I'm reaching for goals and improving.  I love setting goals and working towards them!  Tennis gives me so many opportunities to be a goal setter.  YES, I am passionate about it.  Heck, I'm not going to do the Spudman this year because districts is the same weekend.  No man can serve two masters and that weekend tennis is IT!  This season, as I did for my high school tennis team, our 3.0 team has used google docs to post lineups and it's been a great tool.  We have already set up five lineups that will work for Boise so everyone will know what to expect going in, and we will make adjustments as we learn more about the teams we're playing but I just love being a step ahead because of technology.  It's so nice!

Kysa and Shay have had a really fun week attending a "girls camp" from 9:30 to 11:30 in the mornings by a young woman in our ward named Maurie Cunningham who lives in the neighborhood.  Through the girls camp they have become friends with a darling girl named Zara Beck who has an older brother and two younger brothers.  I started to get to know Zara's mom a few weeks ago and we went running one time.  Her name is Aricka and she is pretty good friends with Heidi and she was our girls camp director.  Anyway, I'm super excited about Zara because she is going into 3rd grade and is just a great kid.  She helps mediate when the girls fight and she helped them clean up their room and their toys...and she seems to want to be around.  Like an older sister!  She gets along really well with Kysa and seems to put up with Shay.  Now I just need to have Shay invite a friend over to keep her occupied.  Maybe Zara's little  brother Dexter.  We'll see how that goes.  Dexter seems to be fiesty like Shay so it might not be a good matchup but I'll keep my fingers crossed.  Kysa and Shay have been playing tee ball this summer on Heidi's team and that has been a way better experience than I expected.  They love to go and pay attention pretty well.  Overall we don't have too many dandelion pickers on our team, so that's nice.  Not that they are good, but they are engaged and we do have some good hitters and we occasionally get legit outs.  No score keeping in tee ball but Heidi  makes them come off the field if they get out.  Heidi is the bomb, as is Ryan.  Cade and Raleigh are such good buds.  Ty went over to a grid kid football coaches meeting tonight and the boys played (and so did Ky and Shay with Jace and Macy.)  Then Cade came back over here to play tennis ball baseball outside with Raleigh (their made up game) and then Ryan came over to get him and it's just so fun to have friends that Ty likes through and through.  They are truly our Ty and Holly Haguewood in Idaho Falls.  (Holly is tearing up triathlons in Utah this summer, another random side note.)

It was this afternoon that Raleigh and Ty returned from the University of Montana-Western basketball camp.  Raleigh has heaped high praise on the experience.  A few gems, "Mom, there were ZERO things that I didn't like about it."  I asked him how it compared to the BYU camp last summer and he said, "I could go to the BYU camp 20 times and not get up as many shots as this one."  They also had some funny stories from the dorms.  I am thinking they will be going back next summer.

Tonight we got to watch some of the ESPY's which aired tonight.  WE really love the ESPY's so that will provide good entertainment for us over the next couple of days...oh, and we are always pumped for the Olympics.  Enjoyed watching the trials whenever we could too.  GO USA!

I went visiting teaching today with Rebecca Lords for the first time.  I was a slacker the last two months since I got the assignment and it felt good to finally go.  We visiting teach Liz Taylor, a mom with a 1 year old and a 3 year old who lives in Carriagegate.  She used to work for Melaleuca as a writer and she graduated from BYU-I and grew up in New York.  The other lady we saw today was Brenda Laws our classy primary president whose husband works for Kyani and has 5 kids (I think it's 5).  23 year old twins, a daughter in Logan, a daughter in Texas, and a son in????  I think that's right.  Errrr, bad memory.  Rebecca is very kind and devout and I am sure she will be a great partner.  I am definitely the slacker in the relationship.  She spoke in church a couple of months ago and sang as part of her talk--very musical.  She has five kids from young women's age to a toddler.  She graduated in 94 from Rigby but all her brothers and sisters live in Utah now.

Writing about what's been going on makes me feel so grateful for my blessings.  I have struggled of late with my testimony...not that I doubt my Savior or the Atonement...but I do not believe in the infallibility of the church.  I believe that it is Christ's church.  I think we all need to think for ourselves and I think statements that ask us to stop thinking and stop questioning are not of God.  The unexamined life is not worth living.  I believe humility and diligence in following the Savior is the key and I will make my choices based on my relationship with the Savior.  Not the young men's leader who stands at the pulpit and says it's not okay to miss mutual for your sister's sporting event or your brother's choir concert.  That sports don't count as "family activities".  Just one example of how leaders take their own personal opinions and insert them into how the church organization functions.  Gospel of Jesus Christ: true.  Church--we are doing the best we can with the resources we have (imperfect people).  I cringe at things that remind me of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  Now...off that soap box.