July 18 2010

From The Editors Desk
The past several months have been wonderful months for mom and me. We have had the chance to spend time with Jeff, Renata and the boys, Melanie and the girls, Stacie and Kevin, Grand and of course with Lanette, Emily and Logan. Mom had the added blessing of spending time with Julie and Jeff in April. It has reinforced what a wonderful family we have. I really loved our recent vacation because I was able to spend time with many of you. Mom and I want each of you to know how much we love you!

From Wisconsin Haws Family
July 11th news
This has been a wonderful week here in Utah . Monday Emily started EFY.

Logan went to the soccer camp from Tuesday through Friday. It was a half day camp so in the mornings he attended the camp and in the afternoons we did things together. Mom, Logan and I went to a couple of movies- Toy Story 3 and How to train Your Dragon. Both shows were fun and I highly recommend them to you. We also went bowling. Mom bowled three strikes in a row and left Logan and me in the dust. We had a chance to visit with Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Dexter. we went miniature golfing and ate at a restaurant called Sensuous Sandwich. The Sensuous Sandwich restaurant opened during the years that mom and I were at BYU. It brought back some great memories.

Mom and I went to the Mt. Timpanogos temple twice during the week. I really enjoyed doing the endowment for one of our ancestors. The Mt. Timpanogos temple is quickly becoming one of my favorite temples because of its beauty and spiritual atmosphere. We were able to attend a sealing session on Thursday permitting us to participate in the sealing of Grandma Winnie as well as her brother to their parents. We also did the sealing work for about five other family members.

Emily seemed to have a good time at EFY. She has a new group of friends that she will be adding to her facebook.

Lanette has started her work study program. We were excited to hear that she was chosen to work in a daycare center. We think this will be a great opportunity for Lanette. She is helping to prepare meals, shop and interview for jobs. All important skills to develop for her personal growth.

It has been a pretty quiet week for Grant since everyone is away. His big project was painting the upstairs bathroom. He used a sponge technique to create a cool clay-like effect on the walls. Otherwise, it has been mostly just working for Grant. He had an interview with the corporate office this week and is now being recommended to move up beyond his current hourly manager position. This morning the baby robin that has a next above the back door of the house was trying to learn to fly, much to the delight of Molly who dreams of eating birds and mice. The poor bird filnally flew out of its next, onto the grass, and was promptly attacked by Molly. Grant saw what was going on and was able to grab Molly before she was actually able to hurt the bird. Needless to say, Molly is very upset with him, but the baby robin was fine and flew away unharmed.

July 18th news
We left Southern Utah last Sunday evening. We spend that night in Page, Utah by the Hoover Dam. The new day we traveled through the Grand Canyon and onto Albuquerque. We caught up with Stacie and Kevin at a Circle K gas station where their car had died (temporarily). That night we ejoyed a wonderful pizza with them at a favorite restaurant. The next day Stacie went off to work while Kevin, Emily and I climbed Mt. Sandia. It was a beautiful cliomb from the high desert terrain up to the crest of the mountain. It was a sever hour climb that ended with a car ride down the mountain. Mom and Logan met us there. They gave us a ride down to Panda Express. That afternoon we picked up Stacie while Kevin went off to work. Later we played games and had a good time. Wednesday morning was started with a terrific breakfast provided by Kevin and Stacie. We left Albuquerque and traveled on across the country to see the Arch of the Americas in St. Louis. We ended our trip by picking up lanette in Janesville before returning to see Grant( and Molly ). It was a long but wonderful trip and vacation.

The Virginia Lanes
We are going to go backwards this week:
Today- Julie had her primary kids act like they had leprosy and then were healed by Jesus. They loved that activity. she had a kid be the grateful leper too! Primary has gotten very interesting as Julie has become the teacher that participates during music time. The other teachers have begun to join in too! Jeff Had to work Saturday! :(
Friday we had a young married couples picnic, but since it began to rain it turned into us and two other couples at the church.
The rest of the week was pretty normal, except Jeff had to work extra hours at work! :(:(

July 18th News

This Monday we had FHE.

Tuesday was a relatively quiet day

Wednesday Mutual was cancelled so we ran to Michael's (the craft store) and bought some stuff to make some baby stuff. Not for us, sorry Greeeedyy Grandparents and Lanettttee. Julie is going to someone's baby shower soon and is preparing stuff.

Thursday Jeff went into work. We tried with little success to get a nap between then and when we had to leave for Washington DC to catch the bus to New York. We left Harrisonburg at about 9pm to get to our bus. It took us about 2hrs to get to DC and about another hour to get the boarding passes and park the car. The bus place didn't have parking located at the terminal so we parked a couple blocks away.

Wee Hours Friday, at 1am our bus left, and we tried to sleep on the 4 hour bus trip to New York. We got in about 5am. We took to #7 subway out to Flushing, New York; or in other words, China town. There was little English and much Chinese in that part of town. Jeff's brother, Eric, said that if had wanted to see that much oriental culture he would have stayed in Japan. Plus, it was more authentic there. To top it off we got Chinese ESL flier.

We got some delicious NY bagels and watched some videos of funny niece and nephew moments. The nephew (Tyler) has a "type a" personality, even though he is only two. He had gotten Eric to push Rachel (Tyler's new sister) in the baby stroller and Becky (Eric's wife) to push a grocery cart while he push an additional baby stroller. In a parade fashion they circled the island counter. They went round and round the counter until Eric decided to drive Tyler nuts by going the wrong direction or holding the stroller wrong. Tyler would try to correct him on each detail. Another video of Tyler displayed him sharing his playground balls with Rachel. Now Rachel is not even two months old yet, but Tyler decided to surround her with the bounteous amounts of his balls. We could only imagine the things Rachel was thinking as the balls poured on her head.



We then went to the Natural History Museum, ate NY hotdogs, stood in line for Broadway tickets, and (Lanette hold onto your pants) we ate at the McDonalds on Times Square. Then we went to the toy store to play with all their toys.... we mean shop for toys. We really enjoyed that part, including the life size dinosaur. OH we are going to forward a video of us getting into the dangerous part of town(www.jeffsjulie.blogspot.com). PLEASE VIEW!!! Then we topped off the night with seeing Broadway's "Phantom of the Opera". It was absolutely to die for except Christine's voice was soooo high pitched we almost lost the ability to hear it. The production overall was soo magnificent!!!!



The next day we bid good bye to Jeff's brother and then proceeded to go to Columbus Circle where we met with Aunt Donna and Uncle Steven. They took us to a fancy restaurant and then walked with us towards the temple, central park and our bus stop. Apparently, Matthew and Jeni have had another kid- making to total three. Stephanie is trying to move to New Jersey, but the works are still waiting to occur. Aunt Donna is having a nice time being close to her grand babies and Uncle Steven has dyed his hair pink, jk brown. Sorry Grant.



We got home safely. The day has been nice.

The Albuquerque Jacksons

We were happy to have Mom, Dad, Emily and Logan come to visit this week. We enjoyed spending time with them on Monday and Tuesday. Apart from enjoying that time together, this week was filled mostly with working. Kevin finished his training for his job at the YMCA. The job has been filled mostly with working. Kevin finished for someone with as much experience of has been difficult because it wasn't really designed for someone with as much experience or has been as Kevin. he looks forward to looking for more opportunities and jobs that can challenge him.

On Thursday, I went to Cub Committee Meeting while Kevin worked late. It was nice to continue to get know people from the ward, even if the meeting went an hour and half longer than it ought to have gone. On Friday, Kevin and I went out to eat at Red Robin. Mmm, so good. On Saturday we woke up early and headed to the church to set up for a Cub activity. We were worried when only two families arrived on time, but thankfully more individuals showed up for the bike rodeo we set up with the state. We are thankful that our first activity with Kevin as cub master went well.

After Kevin got off to work on Saturday we went out to see "Inception". First off, the movie theater here in Albuquerque is the biggest I have ever seen! Oh and the movie was awesome. We definitely recommend it.

The International Haws Family
July 11th News

Ouy week went well. The boys are in their last week before winter break. Excited about extra time they have begun to overstep their normal limits and found groundings to await them, but live and learn and all should work out for the best.
Renata concluded her semester wonderfully. Evening classes are accelerated so that a full school year is encompassed within a semester, thus she passed her year and will proceed to in direction of continuing her studies.

I too am well. Busy in work and considerations for future possibilities and understand the path to professional development in an area that has been fully unstructured. time ahs been short and pressure high. Still projects have been constant which fulfills the greater goal of stability and personal satisfaction.

Best wishes to all,

Jeff

NewPort News (currently in Utah)
This week I was able to go to the temple a couple of times, once with my sister Vanessa. It was so nice to be in the Lords house and do his work. The girls and I were also able to spend time with my dad and was able to celebrate his birthday with him. Andy had a four day vacation at work this past week. We were very blessed to be able to talk with him for most of it. We have about 5 more weeks until he comes home. Yeah! Right now we are trying to soak up the last few days of our vacation before going back to Virginia.