August 22, 2010

From the Editor's Desk

The week has flown by and here is the latest news from our family. Please keep sending information for the blog. Even if you think your life has been uneventful and uninteresting you may be surprised how great it is to hear about your life.

The BIG news this week is that Andy is coming home. Our prayers have been answered for his safety. Many of nights mom and I have prayed for Andy's safety. I am sure that Melanie and the girls were praying for Andy even more fervently. What a wonderful blessing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Wisconsin Haws Family

The summer is coming to an end this week. Logan begins soccer practice at 6:30 AM tomorrow. Emily has registered for her fall classes this last week and has some activity plans for this last week before school starts. Lanette has enjoyed time with friends and is dreading the start of a new school year. At the same time Mom is looking forward to the new school year and the quieter home scene. Grant has been experiences some of the vicissitudes of being a manager.

Mom enjoyed the blessing of going to the temple yesterday. She was able to attend the sealing of a very special couple that moved into our branch recently. Their names are Dick and Anne Bates. The are an older couple that have lived a very interesting life. His last job was a minister for the Church of the Brethren. Interesting he found out this week that his brother is a member of the Church and has served as a Stake President. Funny world with so many twists and turns.

For those of you interested in the chicken tractor updates- Yesterday we added the roof, ceiling light (plexiglas enlayed in the roof) and 70% of the shingling done. Logan suggested yesterday that we put air conditioning in the coop. I nixed that.


News from Newport News

Another week has flown by. Haley is excited because now she can see with her new Princess glasses; (I had no idea that she wasn't able to see anything.) Kayla of course is sad that Haley gets to wear them and she doesn't . We visited the Virginia Living Museum again this week. The girls love digging for dinosaurs bones, I love to set and relax for about an hour watching them dig. I was luckily enough to have a sitter for the girls so I was able to get my hair colored and have some "me" time. Andy is very excited and so are we because he will be home on Wednesday night! Yeah!

News from the Lanes



This week, Jeff taught more football facts to Julie for Family Home Evening, particularly the defensive line, line backers and secondary positions. If you ever need some one to give you football facts he is the man.
We also were attacked by a flood of moths or mice we cannot tell which it is; well actually we do not know how many either, but they manage to eat through four shirts. The upside of this is we had to go shopping! Julie says "darn--- not"
The rest of the week was devoted to preparing our "Deep in the Jungle with ravenous primary children party". At the beginning of the year Julie promised her primary kids a party if they kept some goals; for example, beat one other kid up once a week, steal candy from babies, etc. Just teasing--things like reading scriptures, saying prayers, etc.... When we told the kids in her class that we were going to move they requested we move the party forward, so we did. Our apartment was covered in tiki faces, construction paper vines, and balloons. To top it off we made lime cupcakes that looked like exploding volcanoes (see our pics- Martha would be proud). The kids loved the cupcakes. Jeff had a sword fight and video game session with one of the boys and the girls went crazy when they found that Julie had made them some Barbie supplies: food, clothes,etc....oh and Julie had a hand less-jello eating contest with one of the girls and one of the boys. Pictures included. The girls also loved tieing us up with the Mardi Gras necklaces. Julie is glad that she bought those beads they have come in handy for her.
After the party we took the girls to another member's home where there was an open-to-all BBQ being held. Not the people being BBQ just able to come. We had fun talking to people and watching the kids jump into the cold lake.The members dog was very funny as it swam around trying to catch the fish.
Today both primary and young mens had larger numbers than usual. Julie took another class making her class literally half the primary!!! Tonight he has a fireside.

Julie

The Jacksons

This week was yet another busy work week for Stacie. On Tuesday more than half the residents at UNM campus moved in, making Stacie's day very busy. However, the week lightened up afterwards. On Thursday Stacie and Kevin attended a Cub Committee Meeting and planned a fun Pack Meeting for Friday. This upcoming Friday they'll hold a "Raingutter Ragata" which is like a pinewood derby for foil boats. On Friday Stacie left work early (which was a wonderful blessing) and spent the afternoon with Kevin. In the evening their friends, John and Ashley Moffat, stopped by for dinner. John was Kevin's roommate a few years ago in Provo. He and his wife, Ashley, were passing through Albuquerque on their long road trip up to Chicago, where Ashley will be enrolled in pastry school. Stacie and Kevin enjoyed the famous Giovanni's pizza with John and Ashley. After the Moffats left they spent the evening watching the film, "The Adventures of Milo and Otis." Kevin enjoyed re-visiting a childhood classic.


On Saturday Stacie & Kevin woke up early and headed over to the Sandia Mountains. They climbed up the La Luz Trail, which is the same trail Kevin, Emily and Dad climbed in June. The trail was beautiful with several kinds of flowers in bloom. It took them about six hours to make it to the top of the mountain where they enjoyed a well deserved lunch at a restaurant on the top. The view from the top of the mountain was incredible. From the restaurant they could see 11,000 square miles of the New Mexico valley. They then rode the tramway down the mountain and laughed that what took them several hours to go up only took them minutes to go down.


Today Kevin & Stacie look forward to having dinner with another couple from their ward. They also enjoyed meeting a new young couple that recently moved into their ward and happen to live in their apartment complex. Although the week has been quite hot, right now they are anticipating going out in the heavy rainfall from a passing monsoon. We hope their roads remain clear and they can visit their friends safely. We also wish Kevin luck as he begins school this week.

The International Haws Family

Jeff tells me that they have had a very quiet, uneventful week. He didn't have a chance to send anything to me so I will leave his update short and sweet. I will tell you that he has given me a lot of good information since I will be visiting and staying with Steve and Dona this week.