Summer is settling in here in Bakersfield. This was much more of a typical week. It was hot, I had to travel for work and Shawna and the kids had fun with the Summer fun group.

I traveled to Malibu Canyon for a retreat for the management staff of the hospital. We conducted a training session in "Crucial Conversations". I would recommend the book to anyone. If you ever have to discuss something that is very important, where relationships are involved, and their is conflicting ideas, you would benefit from learning these principles.

Shawna and the kids had a typical week. Emily babysitted multiple times and everyone went swimming a lot.

Shawna and I went to the temple on Saturday and had a wonderful experience. We had a chapel session and received instruction from the temple president. He shared a key scripture that clearly expresses many of the thoughts that I have had lately.

Mosiah 2:41
"And morever, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and it they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of neverending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

Another Sunday afternoon but this one was not typical.

This morning when we got up we heard scratching in the exhaust fan about the stove. Our cat Zazoo was going crazy, up on the stove looking at the exhaust fan. It sounded like birds. Lately we have had some pigeons on our roof, so I thought that they were scratching around the vent outlet on the roof. We would turn on the exhaust fan and the noise would stop, so I assumed they heard the noise and would fly away. Right after I would turn the fan off the scratching would return. We just figured we would ignore it and see what happened.

In the afternoon, our Home Teacher came over and we told him about the sound. By this time we were getting very tired of it. We talked about having to get on the roof and scare the pigeons away. I did not want to do that, as we have a tile roof and did not want to risk breaking a tile, or worse me falling off the roof and breaking something else.

Leo, our home teacher, thought we could get in the attic and maybe bang on the vent and scare them away. It was worth a try. Once we started looking at the duct work, we could hear scratching in the duct. Looking through one of the seams we could see a pigeon in the duct. Were we ever surprised. The duct had a joint at an elbow, so we took the duct pipe apart, reached in a pulled out a pigeon. I could not believe we had one in their. It must have come in the outlet on the roof. We were happy that we got the bird out.

As soon as Leo and his boys left the house, I walked back into the home and could hear scratching again, I could not believe it. Now what could be going on? I went back to the attic and looked in the same vent seam and could not hear anything. I went down by the exhaust fan and could hear the scratching and even cooing. I thought great, ad pigeon has fallen all the way down the vent duct and is sitting just on top of the exhaust fan.

I called a good friend Bob over to get his help. We were able to find another seam in the duct work at the attic floor and separated the duct. I shined a flashlight down the duct, and sure enough there on the exhaust fan was a pigeon. I retrieved my handy shop vac, attached the extension and went pigeon fishing. Once we got working we could see there was more than one pigeon. I was able to get the pigeon with the shop vac and pulled him the six or so feet out of the duct. We were unable to get the other pigeon. In fact once we got this second pigeon out, we could see there were two more pigeons in there. We could not get the other two with my shop vac. Bob said he had a more powerful vacuum so his wife brought his over.

We began using the larger vac to try to get the pigeons. The problem was the duct attached to a larger rectangle piece at the fan level. So the pigeons could go out of our sight into this alcove. Finally we attached a hanger to a long pole, poke the pigeons until they came where we could see them and then got them with the vacuum. It took us about an hour to catch the pigeons. I have to admit I never thought I would have a Sunday afternoon fishing for pigeons in the duct work of my kitchen. It almost sounds like a fish story. It is true, we had four pigeons who somehow from the roof got into our exhaust fan duct work.

Sorry no pictures of our pigeon fun.

This week Emily was at girls camp. I will get her to right a post about it this week.

Haley and Hannah went to a day camp at he local children's museum. The camp was on science and they had a great time.

The rest of us just had a normal week. The temperature was a little cooler and we enjoyed it. Still hot enough for us to enjoy the swimming pool.

fun at the beach

Shawna got up Saturday 07/07/07 , a lucky day, and said, lets go to the beach! We loaded up the car and headed out of town. It was expected to be 105 in Bakersfield, so it was a good day to get out. We arrived in Ventura about noon, it took about 2 hours to drive. We got out of the car to find it a chilly 65. What a difference.

As you can tell by the looks on their faces, Emily and Ben found out the water was cold .

Shawna is burying Ben. Dad had to pull him out. Mom really buried him.
We tug two deep holes and then a tunnel between them. Haley and Hannah are both in the tunnel.

As you can see we had a great time at the beach. Until the fog burned off we froze. But once the sun came out it was a great day. We did all the beach things: dug holes, buried each other, hit a ball around, ran into the water and tried to body surf until you could not take the cold, and Hannah's favorite part, caught sand crabs. And did we ever catch sand crabs! Most everyone slept all the way home.

This week was also the 4th of July. We had a great holiday. We went to a pancake breakfast at the church. We ate a lot of pancakes and had fun visiting with our friends. We worked around the house the rest of the morning. After lunch Haley and Hannah went into the backyard to catch these little butterflies that we get each summer. I think at one time they had caught over 20.

In the evening we had about 30 people come over for swimming and barbecue. We enjoy having the pool and a big backyard for events like this. Everyone had fun, especially in the pool to get out of the heat. When it got dark we set off a few fireworks in the street. From our house we could see the fireworks from the county club very well. In addition we could see three of four firework shows off in the distance. A great 4th.

Allison continues to love being at college. She got great news this week. She passed the Advance Placement tests for English, Statistics, and Calculus. This is worth 14 credit hours. She is happier that passing these test gives here credit for Freshmen English and all the math she will need to graduate. Her hard work in High School and commitment to learning is really paying off.

This week in priesthood meeting we studied the principle of integrity. A great follow-up to our family home evening lesson on the same topic.

Elder Worthlin told a story about a time that he was the back for his football team. They were near the goaline and the play was for him to take it right up the middle. He soon found himself on the bottom of the pile. He could see that he was down about 2 inches from the goal line. He realized that he could push the ball forward the two inches across the goal line and when the referee's dug out the pile the ball would be across the goal line and he would be a hero for scoring the touchdown. He told of his desire to have integrity more than to be a hero in the eyes of others. Others would soon forget the touchdown but he would always remember his lack of integrity.

Being true to oneself, living in a way that is in line with your personal values brings great peace of consciousness. If we want to be true to our self, we care more for the truth than we do to what others think of us.

Fun Pictures

Riding bikes with Grandpa

Mom and Ben on the boat at Woods Canyon Lake.

Here is Hannah learning her soccer heading skill!!!

Welcome

We are the Judd family. I will try to post messages each Sunday so who ever is interested can see what is going on each week.

This last week we headed to Utah and dropped Allison off at BYU. So far she is having a great time. Hopefully not to much fun. She is staying on campus in Helaman Halls. Send her an email she would love to hear from you.

Yesterday the little girls, Haley and Hannah, played their last games of soccer. Hannah is the funniest she runs the most of any of the children on her team, yet never touches the ball. She runs around the perimeter of the action, circling and circling, yet staying clear of the mob. Her favorite drill was when they learned how to "head" the ball.

Haley is right in the middle of everything and has scored a couple of goals this season. She is the athlete in the family. Every thing that is physical comes very easy for her.

Saturday also found us at the Semi-pro soccer game, the Brigade. The little girls had a half-time parade. The game was fun and the fireworks after were even better.

In Sunday school today at church we were studying when Jesus instituted the sacrament amongst his apostles. We discussed the covenants that we make a baptism. We focused on the "always remember him". As the discussion proceeded I thought about the promise that we receive from Heavenly Father that He blesses us with if we keep our end of the covenant. The promised blessing is that we will "always have His spirit to be with us". What a great blessing that is. It was wonderful how later in testimony meeting most of the testimony were about the blessings that come from the Holy Ghost. Protection during a car accident, comfort at the death of a friends son, the spirit that protected and guided at scout camp were some of the testimonies borne. The ability to always have the companionship of the Holy Ghost is a great blessing in our lives. When we think about it most of the "tender mercies" from Heavenly Father come via the power of the Holy Ghost.