Savannah gave her farewell talk today in church.  She spoke on faith in Christ and did a fabulous job.  Many friends and family came to hear her speak and to wish her well.  After all the meetings, we had an open house here at our home so anyone could come and tell Savannah good-bye.  There was a touching show of support and we all felt loved!  Our out-of-town guests included Grandpa and Grandma Skinner from Rexburg, Matt and Lynsey's family from Rexburg including Grandma Mary, and Savannah's newlywed cousin Samantha and her husband, also from Rexburg!  You gotta love the people in that Rexburg town!

Sarah competed in the State Tennis Tournament in Liberty Park on Thursday of this week.  She and Allyson won their first match easily, but they lost in their second.  It was a great day, though, and they played a lot of great tennis.  She has had a super season.  She even thanked me profusely for getting her started in tennis because she has loved it so much!  She went to Sadie Hawkins on Saturday with Hunter Rogers.  They dressed for a 50s theme and she went in a group with all her friends.  She had a super time!  She also played a lovely piano solo "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go," for Savannah's farewell.

Megan finished the puzzle we put up for General Conference even after the rest of us gave up on it because it was too hard!  She is pretty stalwart.  Megan ran in the Cross Country Regional Meet on Friday and she got to run Varsity!  She did super awesome, too, coming in fourth for the team with a time of 20:24.  They only score the top five runners to rank teams in Cross Country, so to have TWO Skinners in the top five of our high school team . . . that is pretty major contributing.  She also went to Sadie Hawkins on Saturday.  She went with a large group from the Cross Country team and had a great time.  (I made her poodle skirt!)

Mariah also ran in the Regional Cross Country Meet on Friday.  She did great, too, coming in second for the team with a time of 19:24.  She improved her time from pre-regions by 1:35!  Wow!  Savannah came to watch, too, and reminisced about running the same course.  It was fun.

Cheyenne and Calianne had a great week going to school, reading books, playing with friends, going to robotics and having piano lessons.  They are sweet girls and I love them to pieces!

Bethany also had a great week going to school, playing with friends and going to piano and dance lessons.  This morning, while I stressed about having people over this afternoon, Beth wandered through the house singing a song they taught her in 1st grade, "No need to worry!  You're doing fine.  Life is for learning one step at a time."  She soothed me.  I love her.

Benjamin this Friday morning came to me and said, "What should we do now, Mom?"  Um.  Well, I didn't really need to be anywhere or do anything.  My life has this weird new component where I'm not running from one thing to another anymore.  So . . . Ben and I went to the pumpkin patch!  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.