July 19, 2012

The Haws Family of Brazil


Mom and Dad,

And they're off! Felipe and Lucas have left for a week and a half at
soccer tournaments. That is the big news for the two of them. Both seem
to be doing well and phone conversation suggests that they would prefer
that we called less and just let them have fun.

Derick has been doubly spoiled during with the absence of his brothers.
On Saturday we went to see Ice Age 4 in 3D in the movie theater. The 3D
movie was quite fun. Following the move we did hamburgers and brought
home a neat toy. The toy was a dinosaur clad in clay that we had to use
wooden finger-picks and brushes to clear the clay and uncover the
dinosaur. While Derick and I found our first archaeological dig to be
great fun, Renata decided it was messy and ruled out the hopes of having
another dig.

Renata is doing well. She has been busy as always and missing the boys
while they are gone. Renata's sister is dating and Renata's joy is the
game of cupid and listening to the excitement of her sister's stories.

For me things are going well. At work I am going through a bit of
growing pains as we have set up too many routines and I need to rebuild
some to better manage the computer resources.

Outside of work I have had the chance to learn lots of new things. I
ditched the high costs of Windows and Apple when I came to Brazil
turning to Linux as an alternative. I used Ubuntu since I arrived and
confess that I thought it much better than Windows or Apple. Feeling
adventurous I moved from Ubuntu to a different version of Linux called
Fedora. I continue impressed. I am not sure which version I prefer.
Ubuntu is certainly easier for the non-programmer but Fedora offers some
added simplicity for the power-user (myself). For now I will continue
with Fedora but I might revert back to Ubuntu in the near future.
My suggestion for the week, if you are fed up with having all of the
viruses and headaches of your Windows machine, it might be time to try
Linux. If you are interested you might try out Ubuntu. Highly
recommended.

That is all for me.

Love,
Jeff



The Jackson Family


Stacie, Kevin and Henry are giddy with excitement about having Grant and the Hirzes arrive this upcoming week. Work has been increasingly stressful for Stacie, so she especially looks forward to taking a week off to spend time with people she loves. This past week the Jackson's enjoyed eating lots of apricots falling from their neighbor's tree. They recently purchased a Bumbo seat to help strengthen Henry's back and they were glad when it finally arrived. Henry isn't thrilled about it, but he'll warm up to it eventually. Henry still has a cough, but it looks like he is close to recovering.


The Wisconsin Haws Family

This is kind of strange preparing this blog update. Lanette is gone to the Elmhorsts. Grant is with Stacie & Kevin (and Henry, Carolyn, Brent & Clare).  Julie, Jeff and Alex are in Nauvoo. And Molly is at the kennel. Logan, Mom and I ate a very quiet dinner. We had one pizza and lots of left overs. This is really weird. We will be taking off soon to go to Nauvoo. It will be a wonderful chance to see family and perhaps friends (maybe the McKendricks). I need a break from work and Mom and Logan can use some fun.

This past week was wonderful because we had several good and much needed rain showers. The garden and lawn very much appreciate the rain. I must have saved several hours in watering time. My garden is looking pretty good and we are anticipating a good harvest. I do love to go out to the garden early in the morning and enjoy the bird's songs and the cool breeze. This Saturday we attended a branch picnic called heritage days on Saturday and later I was able to help a bit with painting at Julie and Jeff's.

I have been doing quite a bit of family history work this week so that we can do the temple work for our ancestors this week in Nauvoo. At work I have called Jeff for help on computer stuff. Reading his recommendation on computers makes me think that Linux may be my next move.

Mom has been working in her room trying to get it the way she wants. Logan enjoyed a back to school picnic. It was a good opportunity to spend time with friends. He has redecorated his room and had a wonderful time doing it. He is very proud of it.

We enjoyed having Emily over on Sunday.

We love each of you and hope that this finds you happy and safe.

Love,

Dad