This has been another rainy week here in Wisconsin. The rain has permitted the fields to remain vibrant green. The garden, flower beds and trees are all doing really well.
Logan has started a new hobby- Chickens! Dad and Logan are in the process of making a chicken coop. It should be the most awesome chicken coop in Marathon county. We will be sure and post a picture in the blog when the coop is finally done. Logan has ordered and paid for ten chicks. They will be here in about two weeks. There will be about five white leghorn chickens and five dual purpose brown chickens. He is beginning to work on scouting more and more.
Emily had her end of the year soccer party on Monday. She has been preparing for school as well. She has a pretty heavy schedule. She is still trying to land a job. The market is pretty tight right now with the economy being down.
Lanette is working at a daycare. She has been there all this week and loves it! Not a surprise to anyone she especially enjoys the infants.
Mom had quite a hoarse voice this week. She confessed that she had sung to the Beetles the whole way from Janesville to Marshfield. She is starting classes this fall. We are excited to see Mom back in the learner ranks.
I had come back to one of busiest weeks of my time here in Marshfield. It is really enjoyable to be challenged this much. I have still been able to find time for some personal reading, working in the garden and personal reflection. Yes, I even had time to work on the chicken coop. Last night I enjoyed watching the full moon rise up over the horizon. It was amazing.
Grant had a pretty quiet week of just working. On Monday he had a manager training meeting in Stevens Point, which allowed for a nice drive through the country, despite getting lost on a dirt road in the middle of a field with hunting towers everywhere. (He felt like he was about to get attacked by NRA folks who would shoot him, thinking he was a deer.) Saturday Grant met LeRoy Butler at work, who he was told was a Green Bay Packers star...but Grant barely knows that the Packers play football, so needless to say he was unimpressed. Otherwise, not too much exciting for him.
Newport News
This past week we flew back to Virginia. We were so grateful that we were able to spend time with family this past month and it makes us more excited to be moving back west were there are actual mountains and to be able to see off the side of the road when driving down the freeway (for those of you who have been in Virginia you know what I mean). On Friday they had Super Day at Fort Eustis. They had free rides and games for the kids. The girls were able to go on their first real "amusement park" ride. They loved it. We only have about four and a half more weeks before Andy comes home. We are all very excited and keep counting down the days.
Albuquerque Jacksons
This week was very busy for Kevin since he took on the assignment to visit the members staying in the hospital. He had some wonderful experiences getting to know and bless the people there. On Monday night, he went to the hospital with another ward member and performed blessings. Meanwhile, Stacie babysat the ward member's 11-month old daughter. On Wednesday, Kevin and Stacie went to one of Kevin's home teaching families and Stacie got to hear more about the wonderful experiences Kevin had at the hospital throughout the week.
Kevin was also busy this week working on another article for the UNM paper. For this article he went around to local bookstores near UNM to interview the owner's about the history of the bookstores. On Thursday Kevin gave Stacie a big scare. He went out for an evening run and was gone much longer than Stacie expected. She began to really worry and decided to call home for advice. Grant helped her calm down until she saw Kevin coming in. Turns out he decided to run 13 miles, instead of his usual 5-8 miles.
On Saturday, Stacie and Kevin celebrated Pioneer Day by attending the stake's picnic in the mountains. They really enjoyed the opportunity to visit with ward members. The members of their new ward have been very kind and welcoming to them. On Saturday evening they decided to cash in on their Cold Stone gift card and picked up some ice cream. Although the weather has been much cooler than usual in Albuquerque, they enjoyed their little night out. Afterwards they went to Wal-Mart and Stacie purchased a cute children's book called, "Mama, How long will you love me?" It was pretty tender little story that enlightened her gratitude to have an eternal family and, especially, a mama that will love her forever.
The International Haws Family
Jeff continues to work with Matthew and Steven on the various aspects of software design, data collection and processing. One of Steven's employees is leaving giving Jeff even more opportunity. He had the interesting experience of seeing how the markets can be manipulated to cause crop prices to escalate for one person's benefits. Apparently the cocoa production is going very well. A very wealthy man purchased over a billion dollars of cocoa futures ;ast week. Then he began telling people that he was purchasing the cocoa because the production this year will be poor. As expected the price of futures skyrocked and he sold a large portion of futures he had bought only days earlier for a hefty profit.
Renata, Felipe, Lucas and Derick are doing very well. No real big news to add. Winter in Brazil is in full swing but that only means that they are enjoying rain and similar temperatures to summer in Marshfield.
The Lanes
This week we made the decision to move to a new apartment complex that has the same price just about for two rooms and a quite neighborhood. Jeff has had more long hours. Julie had enrichment on Tuesday a "Christmas in July" and she has been battling back the Christmas mood, it is not an easy feat especially considering how much she loves it. That is about it for us. Julie continues to work on our random needs and when she gets a moment she has been working on her rocking chair. We are kind of sad to be leaving our callings, yet, we are glad to be leaving the government housing area.
