Pillowcases: $2 each, Paint: $.99 a bottle, Entertainment Value: priceless

For our branch talent show last night my girlfriends and I decided to show off our dancing moves and more comedic side :) Enjoy!

Proposition 8

I know that most of you reading this don't live in California, but those of you that do know why this video is so important. I've personally had an opportunity to participate with the Protect Marriage Coalition by placing phone calls to voters. It's hard to get hung up on and yelled at, but this is such an important issue. This may be something strange to ask, but please keep this issue in your prayers. We need all the help that we can get.

I Hope They Call GRANT On A Mission!

Grant received his mission call yesterday to the California Fresno Mission! He will be preaching the gospel in English, and will report to the Provo MTC on November 12. I am so excited for him!! The best part is, I happen to live in the Fresno mission :) My friends and I are scheming about ways to be able to see him in the next two years. Anyway, I am so proud of Grant right now and know that he will be one excellent missionary!

Back to reality

With summer coming quickly to a close, I thought I'd recap all the fun and wonderful things I've done in the last 3 months, since, according to some, I've been slacking in my blog writing :)

June - My birthday came the very beginning of the month. My friends threw me a surprise party on the 6th and we went to the local amateur baseball game that night where my name was put up on the billboard during the 7th inning stretch. Go Modesto Nuts!

Girls' Camp was the very next week (9th-14th), but I've already blogged about that.

July - I started off the month with a trip to San Fran to see my cousin David right after he got off his mission. Fireworks at the college on the 4th with my family. Lake trip on the 5th. An afternoon at the driving range on the 14th. (We witnessed a pretty good car accident just as we were getting there. Yikes!)

The month was finished off quite nicely with a visit to the county fair on the 29th to see Little Big Town in concert and my yearly quota of funnel cakes.

August - The month started off with a bang on the 1st when a couple friends and I pranked my 16 year old neighbor when she was away on the stake's youth Pioneer Trek. Poor Nicole never saw it coming :)

My mom came the next week, and that's already been recapped for you all. The occasional Sunday hang-out has been had after church at my house as well, but those are pretty uneventful. The night of the 22nd we got another itch to prank someone, but our initial target threw us a curveball when she didn't drive her own car home for the weekend, so we had to do some scrambling and ended up hitting our old branch president's daughter. Good times :) (On a side-note, do not mind the glowing eyes of the dang dog that wanted to be in every picture we took)

The next night, after not getting to bed until 4am after the prank, I was able to go see Hairspray on stage in Sacramento. That, plus dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory and great friends made for a great night!

The last week has been pretty fun as well! I got my first ride on a motorcycle on Sunday and we had another trip out to the lake on Monday for FHE.

It's been a blast of a summer, but as of Thursday I will be best friends with these for the next 3 1/2 months:

Hopefully everything will get approved though and this will be my last semester of coursework and I'll be graduating in June! I have no idea how much free time I'll have though, so this blog may have to suffice for a while. 'Til next time!

We Are Family

So, this is very late in getting done, but my mom and younger siblings came out for a visit from August 5-13. It was fun having my siblings around again. I miss the teasing I get to do sometimes :) While they were here, the cousins did a talent show for us grownups. It was quite hilarious and I'll have to post some video as well. The girls choreographed a dance to a Celine Dion song that was mighty cute.

A few days before they left we all went to Funworks and played put-put, rode the go-karts and the kids all played on the water/bumper boats and got soaked to the bone!

Aaron

Dallin

Sarah & her cousin Brooklyn

All in all, good times were had and I look forward to seeing them again for Christmas!

Sarah Nicole

Happy Birthday little sister! Sarah is 9 today (it's already the 3rd in Virginia, so I'm on time there). I'm excited to see her in just a couple days, as I just found out today that my mom, Sarah and my two younger brothers will be here for a week starting Tuesday! She's such a cute little girl and I am so happy to have her as my sister. Hope her day is great!

Fighting for Us

Well, yesterday was a day I've been dreading since last October when Justin got home from his first tour in Iraq. I was able to talk to him on Tuesday and say goodbye, and that made me an emotional wreck for the rest of the day, but that's how it goes. My parents drove down to his base in North Carolina to see his platoon off yesterday morning at 0720. I'll miss him like crazy for the next 6-7 months, but no matter what happens I know it's what the Lord has planned. I just thought I'd pass along his address as well, for anyone who feels so inclined to write him. He loves mail!

LCpl Rackham, Robert J.
1st Bn 2nd Marines, Alpha Company, MAP
Unit 73045
FPO AE 09509-3045