September 23, 2012

Grant's News

The main event of Grant's week was planting bulbs on Saturday...which was Hobbit Day by the way. I planted over 300 bulbs around the yard and is excited for all the flowers to come up in spring. He planted tulips, daffodils, irises, hyacinths, and crocus among many other things. Work was somewhat busier this week and Grant ended up working an extra evening to help out with Marshfield's Homecoming, which makes the restaurant extremely busy.

The International Haws Family

Our week was highlighted by water and the lack of it. This morning we
awoke to our third consecutive day without water having left our
reserves depleted for now a second day and my challenge to find a pipe
with some remaining content that I might fill buckets and carry the
water home.

It may be hard to imagine the effects of going without something so
basic. We forget how reliant we are on the delivery of this commodity.
Clothes piled up, along with dishes. Cooking quickly became impossible
and baths needed to be delayed. Toilets can't be flushed and houses can
hardly be cleaned.

How many buckets of water do you need for your day? More than you might
think. And may I say that it is not light or convenient to carry
either.

At about noon today the water returned. It has been something of a
return to civilization, a cleansing, a relief.

Besides that our week was rather uneventful. Children in school, waiting
for the last approvals for us to travel and hopes that all might resolve
quickly, at least before mid-terms is how the prayer seems to go not
that I was aware there were mid-terms in Brazil.

Work has been exciting. Steven has allowed me to participate more in the
web development which is a new area for. Since I have no experience in
web coding we set up a backup site that I can use as my play-ground, a
place where I can have a crash-course without interfering with the users
in the main website.

Love,
Jeff


The Alaska Haws Family

This is a late posting. Melanie sent it to me last week.

This is a late/early newsletter that I am sending. The girls had a hard time saying goodbye to their friends and teachers at school a week ago. We are truly going to miss everyone that we have met in Colorado Springs. There are so many wonderful people there. On Friday Haley woke up in the middle of the night complaining of a sore throat. My first thought was, I hope she is not getting strep because we were leaving Friday morning. Well half way to Utah Haley ended up with a fever of 102, luckily I had some Tylenol and that brought her fever down. Once we got to my dad’s her fever was back, that is when I decided to take her to the ER and not to my surprise she had strep. The doctor gave her a shot and she was back to her old self again the next day. I was very glad that Haley was feeling better, because on Saturday my dad watched the girls so Andy and I were able to spend the day at the Manti temple. It was so wonderful to have Andy by my side again in the House of the Lord. I am truly grateful for the power of repentance and eternal families. While we were at the temple the girls also enjoyed some time playing with their cousins. Monday we had a wonderful visit with Elder and Sister Johnson at the park. On Tuesday we were blessed to be able to spend a few hours at the Temple with my Mom and her husband DJ. On Wednesday we headed out on our adventure after we dropped Andy of at the airport. We made it to Ellensburg, WA Wednesday night. Everyone that I have talked to said that Oregon and Washington are very green; well it was more yellow and dry with smoke in the air than green. Thursday morning my mom and I were blessed to spend time in the Seattle Washington temple serving before we headed up to Bellingham to catch the Ferry on Friday. Seattle was so foggy that you couldn’t even see the angel Moroni on top of the temple. To end the day we went swimming at the hotel.

The Haws Family of Marshfield

It has been a good week here in Marshfield. Logan has had three soccer games this week and he scored his first goal ever.  He usually plays midfield but he got a chance at forward. He was pretty excited about that. Logan's coach is really rooting for him to stay at Columbus next year. We will see if they give him a scholarship to help with tuition. Logan enjoyed a movie night with a group of friends last evening. 


Lanette had the chance to enjoy a special day and night with the Elmhorst. That is definitely one of her favorite things. She attending Emily's shower which she really enjoyed. She is working at Goodwill and I am looking into the opportunity to for her to volunteer on the pediatric unit at the hospital.

Emily had her wedding shower this week. It was very well attended by friends and family. She received many nice gifts for her kitchen. She is working only one job but making fairly good money there as she saves to go to college.

Mom and I have been working on storing our garden produce. We are learning a lot. We have put up more this year compared to any other for our year supply. This weekend I have planted garlic bulbs for next spring while Grant has planted a wide assortment of bulbs to beautify our yard this coming spring. We have enjoyed wonderful fall weather and marveled at the change in the leaves.