November 14, 2010

News from Newport News

This past week we were very lucky to have Andy home for the majority of the week due to Veterans Day. We are very grateful for him and for all of the service members that have fought for our freedom. Thank you! When I dropped Haley off at school on Veterans Day the school had service members from all branches lined up in the hall handing out "good tickets" to the students; then later in the day the service members helped out in the classrooms by read books to the students. On Saturday I found some really cheap fairy rain boots for the girls. Once I paid for them the girls put them right on and did not want to take them off and of course on Sunday they were trying to find dresses to match their boots thinking that I was going to let them wear their rain boots to church.

The International Haws Family

Mom and Dad,

Allow me to sum up our past two weeks as we did not collaborate last week.

Life has been fairly exciting. There has not been much school due to excess public holidays, tomorrow the kids are off again. On their free time all of the kids have been learning some new skills.

First Derick had his first soccer game last week. His team won the tournament. Derick scored a well kicked goal against his own team but was forgiven as it was just as the second half started and he did not understand that they had switched goals. He still enjoyed himself quite a bit and was even given the trophy the team won.

Derick had more days off of school as he was a bit sick and then decided that he would learn to be an engineer and successfully took his trophy apart. He learned a hard lesson though in organization as he lost some of the pieces and could not fix the mess.

Felipe and Lucas also have been taking up new hobbies. They and their friends started a little musical . Even more impressive is that there was a local party at the neighborhood next to ours and their group sung and danced as part of the entertainment. We were most impressed as Felipe especially is extremely shy.

Renata has been frustrated as days off of school force her to stay home in the evening. She has noted how much of a relief evening classes can be as one escapes some of the mundane house tasks. She has been a good sport though and has helped quite a bit so that I can make changes to some programs including the iPhone app.

My excitement was mostly the approval of the iPhone app that I built for Steven. I am not sure if you have had the chance to view it but it was built to allow users to access the website better through iPhones or iPads. It was quite a project requiring that I learn a new programming language without the auxiliary of classes or tutors. We are still making some adjustments as clients begin to provide reviews and comments.

Besides that I have been excited as Steven has continued to hint at the desire for me to move to Pennsylvania next year. Though much is still unsure I am enthusiastic all might come together in the near future.

As a last note just to make Emily jealous, apparently several of the actors from the Twilight series are in Paraty; possibly as tourist, possibly filming. Paraty is just south of Angra and is one of the two locations where Renata and I go when we need a few days away.

Jeff

Grant's News

Most of this week for Grant centered around Veteran's Day. Applebee's is about twice as busy as a normal Friday that day, so needless to say it got a bit wild. However, it was fun to give out so many free meals and veterans seemed extremely appreciative. Otherwise, Grant has just been trying to survive so many days working without a day off. One of the other managers had a funeral to go to; thus, Grant ended up working on his day off. Luckily, he finally got this past Saturday off. The other fun aspect of Grant's week has been scheduling. He is in charge of scheduling all the bartenders, servers, and hosts...and this week he had to do the schedule for the Thanksgiving weekend. Yeah, so if Grant dies Wednesday it's because one of his employees was displeased that he is making them work. Grant has had a pretty uneventful week otherwise.

The Lane's of Virginia

This has been a relatively low key week on the Shenandoah front.

Monday we had family home evening: We made a football field and a bunch of foot balls (see pics) for a pin the football on the field TURKEY BOWL. (For those who do not know- Jeff LOVES football). UNBEKNOWN to Jeff we had to write something we are thankful for on a paper- the amount of things we had to write varied according to where the football landed on the yard lines. Then we hung them up to remind us all month of what we are grateful for!

Tuesday –Thursday worked on studies. Although on Thursday after Jeff closed the company building, Julie surprised Jeff by spray-coloring her hair black and putting lots of scary make up on! We had joked about how funny it would be for her to look goth! We got a good laugh until after the shower when we looked at the shower aftermath and found it left the shower looking Gothic. Luckily a little comet and elbow grease got it right out.

Friday a girl in our ward got baptized. She had been investigating the church for about 2 years. It was kind of like Grandma Stewart where they tried to give her callings and visiting teaching assignments. It was really neat to see!

Saturday was a leisure Saturday we mostly went and got groceries-got our first turkey! Later that day we walked to an A&W. Delish.

The kitties have begun to think that the big bed is there's. Daddy says other wise!

The Jackson's of Albuquerque

This was certainly an interesting week for Stacie and Kevin. On Monday evening they enjoyed going out for pie together. On Tuesday Stacie joined her coworkers in attending the Board of Regents meeting at UNM. The agenda included discussion of the buildings that the Regents plan to tear down in the residence hall areas, which is a big concern for Stacie's department since it will result in lots of lost jobs. However, they couldn't help but feel pride for all the student who showed up to support their cause. Although she fears for the future of her department, she feels comfortable that her job should be secure until the end of Kevin's graduate work at UNM. For mutual that evening, Stacie helped the Mia Maids complete some personal progress values. The new personal progress program permits Young Women, parents and leaders to complete the values multiple times, so Stacie has decided to begin the personal progress program again for herself.


On Friday Stacie was thankful to have the opportunity to leave work early so she could spend more time with Kevin. They enjoyed watching their favorite 80s television show, Remington Steele. On Saturday Kevin tried to attend a Cubmaster training on the other side of town, however he was unable to find the training and decided to go to a Boot Camp workout at the Y. Afterwards, Stacie and Kevin enjoyed eating lunch and going grocery shopping together. Unfortunately, when they left the grocery store they noticed that their car bumper was bent out of shape and soon realized that their car was the victim of a hit and run. Luckily the car still works well, it just doesn't look very nice.

Saturday night Stacie headed over to the World Wide Leadership Training hosted by the First Presidency. Meanwhile, Kevin went to a birthday party for a fellow grad student. After the meeting Kevin brought Stacie some of the meal shared at the party, for which she was very thankful, and they spent the rest of the evening watching more Remington Steele and enjoying the end of their weekend.

The Wisconsin Haws Family

Logan had fun this week roller skating with friends at the "famous" Melody Gardens of Marshfield. He also had the chance to have friends over yesterday. His biggest news is that he participated in his last Primary program in sacrament meeting. He gave a talk and sang a number of songs but he is happy to put off his stardom so that he can be in the Aaronic Priesthood. His chickens have become quite a pain in the neck as they are flying the coop a couple times a day despite netting. If they don't start laying eggs soon they are going to be our Thanksgiving meal.

Emily has been very active with stage crew for the high school play Arsenic and Old Lace. Emily has become a great carpenter, painter and general stage crew carpenter. She will actually be in the play next week playing a dead person. She continues to be busy with homework- mainly German, work and all sorts of other things. Her big excitement this coming week is the new installment of Harry Potter. She will be dressing up as Hermoine this Thursday for school and to attend the premier showing.

Lanette had a relatively quiet week at school and home. She is not real happy about the snow. She does not like to wear coats but her biggest disappointment was that her tape recorder broke. She did have the opportunity to talk on the cell phone with some friends which is one of her favorite hobbies (as you probably know).

Mom continues to enjoy time with Grant when he is here in the mornings before he goes off to work. She loves to have him come in late at night or very early in the morning to talk with her for a few minutes. Mom has been the chasing Logan's chickens when they get out during the day. I suspect that will not happen much longer without some fatal consequences for our feathered friends.

I received a call this week from Andy on Veteran's day thanking me for my military service. It caught me off guard because I look at my service in the military as hardly worth acknowledging compared to his devotion and sacrifice. Thank you Andy. I am very proud of my family. It is fun to see Emily's excitement about the play and Logan's enjoyment of time with friends. I appreciate Grant's pumpkin treats and kindness. I love each of you. Each of you brighten my day whether it be helping me with a computer glich or sending a picture of a new hairdo and hope that you will have a wonderful week.