November 28, 2011

Grant's News

The start of Grant's week was rather slow due to hunting season. Everyone was out hunting instead of coming in to the restaurant to eat. Thankfully, the restaurant was closed on Thanksgiving and he was able to spend the day with the family. Friday was a doozy of a day since there was no school and work was nuts. Grant refused to participate in Black Friday shopping. He is convinced that Black Friday should be renamed "Buy Nothing Day". On Saturday Grant spent some time pulling the Christmas decorations down from the attic and then putting up the Christmas stuff around the house. Over a couple of days this week, Grant watched a really interesting documentary called ";Life in a Day" and is a record of July 24, 2010 from the perspective of people around the world. It was really beautiful and spoke to the beauty of ordinary days and regular life, as well as how people around the world are so similar in our hopes and desires for our lives. He highly recommends it and you can watch the whole thing on Youtube.

The Jackson's of Albuquerque

The week started out slow with the anticipation of the holidays and very few people at work or school. However, after 5:00pm on Wednesday the week started to look up. Stacie & Kevin hosted their annual pie party on Wednesday night. Thankfully there were no bacon milkshakes this year. On Thursday Kevin went running while Stacie watched the Macys' Thanksgiving Day Parade. In the afternoon they headed over to a fellow graduate student's house for their Thanksgiving feast. Afterwards they were very excited to go and see The Muppets movie, which they have been long-awaiting. Of course, they loved it.


On Friday Stacie ventured out into the retail world to pick up some fabric from Hobby Lobby. Thankfully Albuquerque is big enough that the Black Friday shoppers didn't make a huge difference in the traffic. While Kevin went to tutor a student, Stacie had some friends over to work on her baby shower invitations. The baby shower will be Harry Potter themed and she is very excited about the cute, baby-wizard-themed invitations. In the evening Kevin & Stacie enjoyed eating pizza and cuddling together to watch a movie at home. Afterwards Kevin enjoyed a ten mile run, boosted by the calories from a pie party and Thanksgiving dinner.


On Saturday Kevin visited his old friends from the YMCA. Stacie headed over to a private sewing lesson and enjoyed learning how to use a pattern. She spent the rest of the afternoon sewing a baby blanket and Kevin's Christmas present. Meanwhile, Kevin returned to tutoring his student. In the evening they went out for some hamburgers and watched another movie together. They will be sad to return to work and school on Monday, but were grateful for the quiet time they could spend together over the long weekend.




The International Haws FamilyIn general our week has gone well.

Felipe suffered his first break-up this week. He and a girl from the neighborhood have been communicating online as she was not permitted to see him but even that has come to an end and Felipe spent a couple of days in recovery mode. He now appears to be well and to have had the opportunity to learn a vital lesson, love can hurt.

Lucas' love is soccer. Though inanimate as it may be even this love can hurt. This week Lucas has been a little sick mostly, I think, because he has tried to take the idea of eat, drink, sleep soccer seriously and has forgotten that a little real food, water and rest can go a long way to helping your body through the soccer day.

Both Felipe and Lucas are coming down to the last few weeks of school. Finals will be the week that I arrive so big-bad Jeff will be there to help them cram for those.

Derick has been well. He is very excited that I will be arriving on hist birthday, next Sunday December 4. We have lots of plans for catching up on the time lost while I have been away.

Renata has been especially busy preparing things for my arrival. Besides caring for the boys she has been trying to make sure the house is perfect. She has also been trying to care for my plants. We have a couple o been trying to keep it that way while the arriving summer heat has been working against her.

My week went well. I had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Uncle Steven, Aunt Dona, Matthew and his family and Stephanie. Besides that I had some time to get out on Friday and Saturday to pick up some things that I wanted to take down for Renata and the boys. I also finished a book that I was reading by the title of: Justice - What's the right thing to do. It was a very fun book on political philosophy that I would recommend to anyone interested. The author is Michael Sandell, a Harvard professor, that has a course on the same subject. His course can be watched via YouTube or iTunes.

That is all that I have by the way of news.

I hope that your week has gone so well.

Jeff

Love

The Lane's of Virginia

Monday, for FHE we baked some pumpkin pie and an apple tart. Both turned out quite yummy!

Tuesday, we took dinner to a family in need. This family had a baby recently. The mother was at 25 weeks in her pregnancy and had a heart attack during her labor. The baby had to be transported to a hospital an hour away. They have four other kids and well they could just use an extra meal to say the least.

Wednesday we saw Alex.He is currently 4 lb 3 oz and is getting cuter every time, even though the ultrasounds show his bones and make him look scary. His kicks are hurting more since the water bag has now maxed out and he is getting stronger and bigger everyday. Alex is getting hair and likes to play with his toes (see pics). There is a picture where you can see his feet and if you look carefully you will see how he is playing with his toes. Most babies do not find their toes until later so we were so proud of the cute factor and the ahh its a baby moment for us.Those lovely Braxton hicks are occurring now from time to time. Jeff gets teased if he gets too excited :) He is going to make a very cute daddy. He has got the biggest heart and wants so badly to be a good one! He will read to Alex and say hello every chance he can.


Thursday, Thanksgiving, Jeff played in the church turkey bowl and had a lot of fun. Julie cheered him on from the sidelines. We then came home and made a veggie platter, bagel top finger munchies and a peach pie. We then gussied up and went to our OBGYN's house for a turkey dinner. We enjoyed the food and the company! The host and hostess shared lots of fun stories; including, how they keep their pets in the freezer when they die. Apparently, it is common among doctors to keep pictures or samples of the weird things they come across because our OBGYN was teased about having pictures of uterus-es or placentas that look weird on his iPod. Doctors- the weirdos! wink wink


Friday, we went to check out the black Friday sales. We were disappointed to see that the only really great sales were for TVs that we could not afford, but we did find a Kindle for Julie's birthday that she is aching to get her hands on and salivating over what books she is going to read. We played some video games to enjoy some last free time. We also rented "Hoodwinked too" and enjoyed that, but prefer the first one.


Saturday,33 Weeks in the pregnancy! NO More than 7 weeks left to we get to hold Alex! We hung draft protection plastic in some more windows and re watched the rental since Julie fell asleep in the middle and missed most of it- something about her being pregnant and in the last part of her pregnancy seems to make her want to eat, sleep, run to the bathroom, repeat- at any given moment. Jeff's Christmas presents that Julie ordered on e-bay came in the mail so we spent a chunk of the day testing those out to make sure sure that we did not have to return any. Much to Jeff's delight and joy. Julie then tortured him with making him put them away until Christmas. Mwhahaha


Today when we went to church we were surprised when they released Julie from the one calling she could keep with the baby coming. It sounded like they wanted to keep Julie in the primary teacher position, but Jeff teaches Elder's so one of us have to be released. So most likely Julie will be released here soon from all of her callings.

The Haws Family of Wisconsin

Thanksgiving dinner seemed so quiet with only six of us but we had a wonderful meal and a wonderful time. We enjoyed parade and then watch the Green Bay Packers easily win their eleventh win this season. Mom was disappointed with the lack of snow but that did not keep Logan and dad from skiing on Saturday.

Lanette and Mom had a good time together on Saturday as the Lanette learned to make Macaroni and Cheese together. Lanette really likes to learn to make things for herself.

Emily has spent a lot of time with friends this last week. She is getting tired of her job of Chips but I think most of us did not look at our first teenage job as the best job of our career.

Mom, Logan, Emily and I all tried out shopping at midnight of Black Friday. That was my first and last experience with that craziness. I think that Mom and Logan agree. As for Emily, I think she enjoyed the socializing more than the shopping so I suspect she will be out at Black Friday some day in the future.

We love you and hope you have a great week.

Dad

November 21, 2011

Grant's News

On Monday at the restuarant, they held a Veterans Eat Free Event, which made Grant's Monday very busy. He served from open until the dinner shift started and then volunteered to cover working the dish pit for the rest of the evening. It's kind of a nasty job, but also somewhat relaxing since you just chill back there, work alone, and listen to music. The rest of Grant's week was spent working on cleaning duties at work that no one has time to do, or is willing to do. All while still serving, usually as the only server in the restaurant. The weekend brought a huge slow-down to Grant's work as a result of deer hunting season starting and then a Packers game on Sunday.


News from the Lane's of Virginia

FHE we started to hang some draft-plastic on the windows. We had forgotten about some food on the stove and were particularly grateful for Julie's pregnancy super-sniffer nose because our normally over-active fire alarm did not go off and almost cause us to have an unsupervised fire. Julie had visiting teaching that morning. It was a really cool experience.

Tuesday, was a quiet night.

Wednesday, Julie had achievement days. Her girls performed some skits and commercials that they have prepared. Jeff worked extra hours. Julie had visiting teaching that morning.

Thursday, Julie went to Charlottesville with a friend. Unexpectedly, her friend ended up giving her a homemade-quilt that created a set with one Julie had already made for Alex. Jeff got some more extra hours. He wants to take off black Friday;hence, the hours. We ran into a friend at the grocery store. Julie had her visiting teachers come that morning.

Friday, Julie babysat for her friend and then we had our last birth class and then we picked up some pizza and watch "Radio" Jeff has been wanting to watch that one for a while, so he was particularly excited.

Saturday, Jeff worked half the day and then he wanted to go window shopping to pre-eye-out costs for black Friday. When we got back we decorated our tree. Julie had some more of those fun pregnancy tears that Jeff was very patient and kind through.

Today, we went to the other ward. We brought a corsage to thank Linda for the baby shower (She is the primary president and they were doing the primary program today). Afterwards, we went to the hospital we are planning on having Alex at -- to tour it. We think it is really nice. There are two rooms for each mother: the first room, the labor and delivery room is really nice. It is big and has a jacuzzi that Julie is really hoping that she will get to use. The other room is just a standard hospital room that they let you recover in,. The nice part about that is that it is a private room. We are really lucky to have such a nice hospital! Jeff's eyes nearly popped out when he saw that a simple soda was a $1.40 in their vending machines. We need to pack some snacks so we will not go broke!

News from the Haws Family of Colorado and Afganistan

This week the girls have been busy with schooland were getting ready for their Thanksgiving vacation. On Monday Kayla played with Emma,which she seems to always enjoy. On Tuesday Haley started basketball for intramurals. Wednesday I helped with reading in Haley’s class. Friday I took Haley to the doctors because she is still having stomach problems. The doctor had decided to get some blood tests and refer her to a gastroenterologist. When Haley was getting her blood test she was such a trooper and didn’t even cry when they stuck the needle in her. She thought it was awesome to see her blood go into a tube. Even though she was a trooper she still has my genes and ended up fainting towards the end. Needless to say we need to go back on Tuesday and finish the rest of the blood work which is okay with Haley because she thinks it’s cool. On Saturday I helped the girls put up the Christmas tree. I let the girls decorate it by themselves; so far it has been redecorated about 30 different times in less than 24 hours. Andy is doing well, staying busy and is doing a lot of driving mainly taking people to and from the airport.

News from the Jackson's of Albuquerque

The weeks continue to fly by with work and school. Kevin & Stacie look forward to spending some time together this upcoming week since it felt like they had little time together over the
past week. On Tuesday Kevin's college roommate, Stephen Potter, visited them as he was in town for a business meeting. They enjoyed going out to dinner with him and catching up. On Wednesday Kevin enjoyed making catapults with the webelos. On Thursday and Friday evening Stacie went visiting teaching. After her visiting teaching appointment on Friday she met up with Kevin & Nick at a bookstore to attend a book signing put on by one of the history professors from UNM.

On Saturday morning Stacie had her hair cut. It turned out much shorter than anticipated and is now shorter than Kevin's hair. In the afternoon Kevin went golfing with his friends Nick, Justin and Colleen. Afterwards several friends met up at their house for cake since it was Nick's birthday. They enjoyed spending the evening with their friends. They look forward to spending more time with their friends this week for their annual pie party and for Thanksgiving.

The Haws Family of Wisconsin

Tonight we made Thanksgiving Turkeys that listed some of our blessings on the individual feathers. Grant introduced us to that tradition last year. It has been fun. This last week we have been involved in a variety of activities. Mom, Grant and I went out shopping for new Christmas decorations for our front lawn because we cannot decorate along the rain gutters. (We are hoping for a new roof soon). Then on Saturday Logan and I set them up. I like them. There are two Christmas trees and lighted shrubs between them. We will have to send a picture. We put lights in the chicken tractor and the hens appear to have approved by giving us a bounteous number of eggs. We are all looking forward to Thanksgiving while Mom, Logan and Emily plan on taking on the Black Friday rush.

Sunday was a wonderful and sad day all in one. The Kolts family is moving out of our branch. They shared their testimonies to the branch that reinforced to me what terrific people they are. They have been like a pioneer family for the gospel in Wisconsin. We will miss them. Mom and I had the opportunity of visiting Sister Atwood, our 96 year old friend, in the hospital on Sunday along with a young lady that from our branch that was hospitalized in the pediatric unit.

Snow has started to fall in Wisconsin and I think the one can be pretty certain that it will be a white Christmas in the Upper Midwest.

Love,

Dad

November 13, 2011

Grant News

Grant had a pretty busy week at work. This week he had a menu proficiency exam at work which asked a ton of questions of different menu items and what is in them. He was excited to hear that he got a 96% on the test...although he is still unsure exactly what the Spamwich technically is. Grant found some time to go to Thimbleberry Bookstore, a used bookstore a block down from the restaurant and find some great, cheap books. On Friday night he and Lanette had some good laughs about what hurricanes would be like with particular names. Grant found a place online where you can see what they will name future hurricanes. Lanette is pretty sure Hurricane Grace would make a mess (Grace is one of the Elmhorst's toddlers.)

The International Haws Family

Things in Brazil sound fun. Renata had a very good birthday last week. And now shows the world what it is like to be beautiful even after three boys and thirty-two years. Her birthday was on the 5th and was full of supportive visits from friends, which made her quite happy.

Felipe is getting ready for his birthday this week. He turns 15 on the 17th and seems to believe that he is much older and shoulbe granted more freedom. That motion was quickly vetoed. Still he is excited for his birthday.

Lucas continues to do well in soccer and along with Felipe is busy as the school year comes to a close.

Derick has had a tough week as the PlayStation is broken. Apparently he lost and decided to knock it on the ground. When I went to scold all I could see was myself at sixteen head-butting my motorcycle and found myself at a loss for words. Derick's misery is soon to end as he and Mommy are going to get a new PlayStation later on this week.

Derick has another exciting adventure that is getting underway. Derick will be going on a crab/crawdad hunt tonight with Renata's stepfather. I am excited for this, while I am not sure how this will work with Derick in the swamp with grandpa for the better part of the night I think that it will be an adventure not soon forgotten and something neat that he can learn about while in Brazil. Needless to say those types of adventures will be much less frequent once he comes to the states.

My week has gone well.A t work I continue busy working wiht a database of weather data. While it may sound simple, weather data has posed many new challenges and different opportunities to learn.

Outside of work I thought that I would search to udnerstand the cosmos and started a book called "Fear of Physics" after the first three chapters I found myself terrified of physics and set the book aside for a while. I then moved to a book called "Justice." A Harvard professor, Michael Sandell, who has a class ont he same subject on YouTube that youc an watch if you are interested, wrote the book. He covers some of the area of political philosophy. The first was on Utilitarianism, which was interesting and raised several questions in me. It has been a fun challenge.

That pretty well. sums up the activities of our week. I hope yours were equally enjoyable.

Love,
Jeff

The Jacksons of Albuquerque

This week was a busy one for Stacie & Kevin, beginning at the end of last week. Kevin's homework has been steadily increasing with the end of the semester growing nearer. He was frustrated recently when his group finished a difficult and time-consuming translation only to discover that they had done the wrong section of the poem. Thankfully his professor extended their deadline so they could complete the correct translation. He has also been busy with increased grading and tutoring responsibilities.

Last Sunday Stacie's busyness started with the commencement of the annual conference for the Association of Intermountain Housing Officers. Her department has been preparing to host the conference for several months and had quite a bit of work to perform at the event. However, she made some great contacts at various companies and was honored to be nominated for the Most Outstanding Entry-Level Professional in the region. She also enjoyed the opportunity to network with other individuals from across the region and visit with some employees she knew from BYU.

The rest of their week was spent in semi-recovery from the busyness of staying out late for the conference each night. On Wednesday they were lucky enough to be able to go to campus a few hours later than normal. On Thursday Stacie started training a new assistant which should be a huge help to her during her maternity leave. On Friday night Kevin & Stacie went out to Tucanos with their friends Justin & Julie to celebrate Justin's birthday. They also spent last night at Justin & Julie's house eating soup & playing games. It was a nice way to end their week.

The Lane's of Virginia

This FHE we studied up the candidates
for our elections on Tuesday!

Tuesday we voted!

Wednesday, Julie had her
final exam for her Human Development in Infancy course! She feels really good
about it, so hopefully that will work out for her. Afterwards, we went to a
local Mexican restaurant for lunch.

Thursday, Jeff got his Patent Agent Certificate, so he can now practice in his own business if that should become an option. We also got to hear Alex's heartbeat which sounded much quieter than
normal, but when the doctor measured him last time he was on the small side and
this time he was on the big side, Julie is guessing he gained two pounds since
our last visit two weeks ago. We are also guessing that he is going to be
getting some of those tall Lane genes. We are so excited to see him at our next
visit the day before Thanksgiving! We are now 31 weeks! Yeah! At our doctor's
visit we were able to get a lot of peace of mind; since, we decided to take a
birth class with a recommended instructor who is a strong advocate of the Ina
May Gaskin's view of birthing Experience and began to feel a lot of distress
about our particular situation with the marginal cord placenta. (Marginal cord
placenta is where the placenta and umbilical meet up can cause a starvation,
rupture and suffocation of the baby if the proper precautions are not taken)
Anyways, the doctor listened to our preferences and fears and was able to put
our minds at ease to a degree. We are very grateful to have had such a wonderful
OBGYN office in our lives with these health issues!

Thursday evening, Jeff started to come down with a bug,
but we still celebrated his success!

Friday, Julie started to get Jeff's bug. Jeff was feeling a little better and decided to change the oil in the car. Julie also cut Jeff's hair and he shaved. It was kind of weird going back to that
style but a nice change. Julie is thinking of cutting her hair but is unsure of
how to do it.

Saturday, we went to the temple sniffles and all. It was stake temple day. It was cool to meet with the
stake in the temple. We are also very grateful for the additional opportunity to
get to go to the temple as a couple before Little Alex comes. On the way home we
stopped at Panda Express.

Sunday, Jeff taught elder's
quorum about the second coming while Julie watched the primary practice for
next's primary program.

The Haws Family of Wisconsin
The big news in the Haws home is that Mom, Logan and I put up a snow fence in the front yard. I think it is very cool but I have received all sort of harrassment from Grant. Emily just shakes her head and I just grin at my beautiful snow fence. Grant promises to take a picture for the family newsletter.

Mom and I were able to attend the temple on Saturday. We were able to do an endowment session and sealing session. It is so nice to get some more of the work done for our ancestors but it seems that as soon as some work is completed there is more to do. I surely appreciate the efforts in our family to do this vital work.

Logan had a piano party with her piano teacher and other students. He really enjoys his teacher. He loves to sing and dance around the home. It always brings a smile to our face. His chickens have been slowing down with their production but it may be because Molly bite off the tail feathers of one of the birds. I think they are protesting the dog brutality by not laying eggs.

Emily and Lanette had Veteran's day off last Friday. Both enjoyed the extra sleep and free time. Emily continues to look at college opportunities and is leaning towards University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She is waiting to hear back from the University of Minnesota and James Madison. If she is accepted at these schools it may make the decision a bit more difficult.

Lanette had plans to go to work in a daycare on Friday but the plans feel through. That was a disappointment as you might expect. On Tuesday I attended a seminar with her on a work/study program for next year. It may be a wonderful opportunity for Lanette.

Mom was delighted to see the first snowflakes of the season this week. The snow did not last long but I suspect that we will have snow on the ground soon enough. We are prepared for it now with a snowblower, shovels and plenty of warm clothes. Mom makes the best hot chocolate in the world. That is probably my favorite part of coming in after cleaning the driveway.

As for me, I have really enjoyed the watching the geese fly overhead. Mom and I have spent some time at the Wildwood Park watching the buffalo, the geese and the wolves. It is amazing to see these different animals. I miss the spring flowers and my garden but I know that spring will bring new opportunities to plant again. It will also bring surprises from all of Grant's hidden bulbs.

Love,
Dad

November 8, 2011

Happy Birthday to Renata on November 5th. Felipe's birthday will be on November 17th.

Grant's News

Grant didn't have to work Sunday night so he made pumpkin pancakes for dinner for the family. Monday he went to work as a zombie for Halloween and later that evening went to his friend Kaley's house and passed out candy with their friends, Jordan and Jessica. Tuesday Grant and Logan held an execution service for the jack-o-lanterns. They took turns launching them into the compost pile. There were no survivors. Grant worked most of the rest of the week, but Saturday morning he didn't work so he kidnapped Lanette and they went and got fried cheese curds and bacon cheeseburgers at Hudson's.

The Colorado & Afghanistan Haws Family

This past week for Halloween Haley was a vampire while Kayla wanted to be a super girl with her friend Emma. Haley and Kayla both celebrated Halloween by having activities and parties in their classrooms. On Monday Haley’s school also had their Renaissance Assembly where Haley received a certificate for doing well in her class. Later that night I took the girls trick-or-treating. I think we went to every house in the neighborhood. The girls got so much candy that it will probably last them until next Halloween. On Wednesday I kept Kayla home from school and didn’t take Haley until noon because of the roads being complete ice. Drivers were sliding down the hill that we have to go on to take them to school…why they didn’t cancel school is a very good question. On Saturday I helped with the Super Saturday activity for Relief Society at church which went very well. All of the planning and hard work paid off. On Sunday Kayla gave a talk in primary which she was very excited about. Andy has been staying very busy and working long hours. We are all looking forward for him coming home next month for R & R.

The Lane's of Virginia

This week for FHE we were made homemade, fresh apple muffins which we took to people who gave us large amounts of babystuff. We also rewarded the one trick or treater at our house with a gigantic lollipop.Tuesday we worked on the car lights which had broken. Wednesday was achievement days- we worked on some commercials and skits the girls have written. Julie was also having a rather emotional day and so we walked to the church together. Thursday was quiet. Friday we went on a date to Cici's Pizza and got things ready for Saturday's events. Saturday we had our birthing instructor come to our apartment. She taught us lots of birthing positions that aid in child birth. She also gave us some advice about how to deal with the threats of induction that some of the doctor's have made at us. We then met up with some friends and went to stake conference. Sunday we got up and went to go to stake conference. Julie was having some hip pain and put a hot sock on it. That or the car caused Julie to almost black out which was weird. So we came home gave her a minute to recoup and then headed down to stake conference again. When we got home we talked to Logan for a while about his auditions. We are really proud of his efforts and wish him luck for his next one.

The Haws Family of Marshfield

Not a lot of news here in Marshfield. We set up the home for the first snow of the year. I ran the snow blower for a while to make sure that it will start up promptly when I need it. So let it snow. Mom's joints have been bothering her so hopefully things will it be hard on her joints Mom really loves the snow.

Logan and I had the opportunity to go to the National Railroad Museum with the Boy Scouts on Saturday. It was really good. Logan earned the railroading merit badge. Unfortunately, Brother Taylor developed appendicitis during our trip and that definitely added to our excitement.

Lanette had a great time with Grant on Saturday. It was so kind of Grant to take Lanette out to lunch. She was so excited to go with him. She is looking forward to spending some time with her friend, Nona, at the daycare center.

Emily has come back home. Mom spent a lot of time to make her room comfortable for her. We are glad to have her home with us.

Mom has continued to be busy with all sorts of things. Her big excitement today was finding a Bethlehem Star at St Vincent de Paul. We had priced them on our trip to visit Jeff. They were quite expensive so we did not think we could afford them but leave it to Mom and now we have a star for our home.

We hope that you will have a wonderful week. Our prayers are with you.

Dad

Christmas Names

Christmas gift list


Andy and Melanie are giving to Logan
Jeff and Renata are giving to Emily
Grant is giving to Jeff and Julie
Jeff and Julie are giving to Lanette
Stacie and Kevin are giving to Grant
Lanette is giving to Andy and Melanie
Emily is giving to Stacie and Kevin
Logan is giving to Jeff and Renata