January 23, 2011

The Jacksons of Albuqueque

The last few weeks have been very busy for Stacie and Kevin, however they were still able to enjoy some time together throughout the week. On Monday, Stacie enjoyed a day off of work in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Kevin and Stacie enjoyed dinner with their friends, Nick and Amanda, at a Las Vegas style Chinese buffet. On Tuesday, Kevin started off his winter classes. This semester he will be taking a lyric & poetry class and an introduction to Old English course. He has only heard frightening things about the work load and difficulty of his Old English class, so he is thankful that his work schedule has switched around so we can get more rest and spend more time preparing for his tests and work.

On Friday, Stacie was able to have another day off of work because she had put in so much overtime since last Saturday. Kevin and Stacie traveled a few hours south of Albuquerque to visit a national park called Bosque del Apache. It is a bird preservation and they enjoyed bird watching for a few hours. They were impressed by a pond filled with thousands of white geese. They also enjoyed watching hundreds of cranes and spotting a few elk and even some bald eagles. They were also excited to stop at a A&W in Belen which they once overheard an older couple excitedly talking about in the Costco food court.

On Saturday, Stacie and Kevin stopped by The Dollar Store to begin preparing awards for the Pinewood Derby their pack is hosting on Saturday. While on the town they enjoyed browsing through Barnes and Noble and Trader Joes. Although Anthropologie was closed, Stacie was very excited to discover that the fancy home decor and clothing store is nearby. Those of you that saw the nice mugs that Grant gave Stacie for Christmas can understand how excited Stacie was to discover this store, since those mugs come from it.

On Sunday Stacie and Kevin were invited to dinner at their neighbor's home. They enjoyed dinner and playing the game, "Ticket to Ride." They are sad to see their friends, the Thune family, move. They will be helping the Thune's move out on Saturday morning.


The International Haws Family

Mom and Dad,


Our week was busy but enjoyable.


After speaking in more details with Steven, Renata and I have been looking more at rentals. Among things that we have learned have been that apartment complexes don`t like three kids in one room and that low prices generally have hidden problems. Regarding the later we had a fun experience. Among other properties I came across an old home, built in 1900 and maintain and restored over time. The home has four bedrooms and a beautiful lawn with a low fence around the property. To top it off the cost was lower than most of the three bedroom apartments that I have come across. Becoming interested I called the property. I discovered that the property was so well maintained as its owner was located next door, a historic Catholic church and that the lawn was beautifully green due to an uncommon fertilizer for the lawn is a segment of the cemetery grounds that belong to the Catholic church. Renata quickly expressed her concerns and I was not able to get a discount for paranormal encounters so the search continues.


Looking for residence has also included examining the schools and school districts. I have used tools like GreatSchools.org to get some kind of a guide. I also spoke with Mom for suggestions. Toward the end of the week I began examining ESL (English as a Second Language) programs to compare their quality as that is a main concern. To keep the boys excited we also reviewed which schools had better soccer programs in the region. Among these two factors we found a very strong correlation as the experienced, qualified ESL programs tend to also be the schools with better soccer teams. This immediately became obvious, schools with more experience teaching English were generally teaching latinos and the latinos tend to have a significant influence on the quality of the soccer team.




The boys and Renata are all doing well. Mostly enjoying the summer month of beaches and free-time.


I will be traveling to the PA on the 21st of February.


I hope that you are well.


Love,
Jeff

The Colorado Haws Family

This week we were sad to see Nana leave. All of us had a wonderful time with her and Andy especially enjoyed being able to stay up late talking with her one-on-one. Kayla had enjoyed going to story hour this week at the local library and making Polar Bear masks. Haley was glad to get her new glasses and show them off to everyone. One other exciting thing is that Haley has learned to ride her bike without training wheels...Way to go Haley! Other than that not too much has happened this week.

The Wisconsin Haws Family

It was a cold wintry week here in Wisconsin. Mom was gone for the first couple of days so we tried to keep things together. We had the Elders over along with a new family in the branch on Monday night for family home evening. I was suppose to get Lanette to the school bus that evening but the roads were terrible. To my surprise, Lanette was very upset that she could not go to school. Wonders never cease. Thankfully Julie has been calling Lanette on a regular basis and reading Twilight. Lanette is really enjoying it.

Logan and I went camping on Friday night. Logan had a great time playing games and staying warm in the cabin. I decided I wanted to sleep in a snow cave. It actually was quite warm but the big issue was how small it was. It really gave me a feeling of claustrophobia.

Emily received her ACT scores back and is pretty pleased with them. She is anxiously looking into colleges that have music therapy and social work options.

Mom came home with lots of great memories from her trip to Colorado. She had such a great time. It was a terrific chance for her to spend time with Andy and Melanie and Kayla and Haley. Andy sent home a replica of an ox head for me. It will find a special place in our home probably a doorway.

On Saturday night we enjoyed dinner out with Grant. That was enjoyable as expected. It also keep Grant away from unwanted calls from Applebees.

We hope to see the weather warm this coming week. We are planning a temple trip this weekend. We will also be visiting Stephanie Haws who lives in the Twin Cities now. We are looking forward to the upcoming arrival of Jeff and his family this year and a potential visit from Andy and Melanie and girls this summer.