October 7, 2001

Dear Family,

Well I blew it last weekend getting a letter off so I’ll try to remember everything in this one. I’ll start with the weekends since they are the freshest in my mind. Last weekend, Mike had a daddy daughter date with Elicia and Kailey. IT was an Elder’s Quorum activity at the church. They ate "picnic" dinners and then played games. The girls thought it was a lot of fun. While they were gone, Keaton, Emilee and I went to Burger King (Keaton’s choice) with a friend of mine and her son. We also went to the mall for a little bit. After a couple hours we went home. The friends stayed and Alli and Don came over with a movie. We watched "The Wedding Planner" I thought it was really cute movie.

Saturday morning the kids and I had play practice for 3 hours. Actually we left after 2 ½ hours so Mike and I could make it to the temple. We went with our friends the MacCabes while their oldest daughter Stacy babysat for us. She brought over her youngest 2 siblings and Keaton went to their home. Emilee went to play with Shaylie. We ended up just barely making it into our session. We lucked out because we didn’t have time to wait for the next session. After we finished our session we had a quick bite to eat in the temple cafeteria before heading for home. Once we arrived in Pocatello, Rita MacCabe and I left for the Stake Center to set up our display table for the General Women’s Broadcast. Each of the wards had a table of different items their ward had done or may do in the future in Home, family and personal enrichment meetings. Rita had a lot of great stuff which helped make our table look really good. After setting up the table we had just a few minutes to go and get Emilee and take her home from Alli’s. When we got there, Alli decided she ride with us and after we dropped off Emilee we made our way back to the Stake Center. We got there just as our Stake RS President was opening the meeting. I enjoyed listening to the General Relief Society Presidency and President Monson speak.

Sunday morning I conducted RS. It’s really hard to get started on time. Mike is extremely prompt and so when he’s conducting the Priesthood they are always starting on time. I suppose it shouldn’t matter if we only have 2 sisters in RS but it’s hard to start when the opening prayer person isn’t there or the ladies doing the music. It’s a problem we have in our ward that I’m not quite sure how to remedy. After Sacrament meeting we had Visiting Teaching Interviews. The first sister I interviewed I ended up spending 45 minutes with (we only had a 10 minute slot)! I tried to hurry after that but found it hard. So many of the ladies just wanted to talk. I ended up being at the church an hour longer then I had planned on but really enjoyed getting to know several ladies in my ward much better. The other counselor was able to get done quickly but our RS President tended to take a lot longer with her interviews too, I didn’t feel so bad. Getting home later the expected meant that I had to hurry dinner up before Alli and Don got arrived. We trade off eating at each other’s homes on Sundays and it just so happened to be our Sunday.

This weekend was a long weekend for the kids. They didn’t have school on Thursday or Friday. On Thursday we went on a field trip for preschool. The older siblings came along too. We went to the "Cornfield Maze" here in Pocatello. The preschoolers didn’t seem to care for it as much as the older kids. Elicia and Keaton loved it. I thought it was a lot of fun but a little more difficult with little kids. I’m just glad we went in the morning and not at night.

On Friday, Mike got off work a little earlier and we took off in our motor home. We decided to go to Lava Hot Springs to camp for the night. When we arrived we took a walk through the town and looked in some of the shops. It’s only ½ hour away from Pocatello but it is the first time I’ve actually walked down the street and looked around the town. We have floated the river before and gone to the hot pools times. It was fun to see some of the stuff in the town. Elicia loved the little shops too. After walking for a while we went back to the motor home and got ready to go to the hot pools. IT probably would have been better to wait until evening. The water was really hot and it was pretty warm outside. We had a good time though and stayed for a couple hours. For dinner we went to a little pizza place. After that we got into our PJ’s and watched the Movie "Seven Alone". I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid. I think Elicia and Keaton had their eye’s "opened" a bit seeing what it was like in pioneer times.

Saturday morning we drove to Utah. We listened to conference as we drove. We planned it to get to Hogel Zoo in SLC right as conference was ending. We bought a zoo pass this year and used it at the zoo in Omaha, Pocatello, Idaho Falls and now in Salt Lake. The kids loved the train ride, Giraffes, Elephants and Monkeys the most. After seeing everything we stopped for icecream and called and visited with Mom there. We left the zoo just about the time the afternoon session of conference was starting. While driving we decided to stop at the VF factory 0utlet center. That is a fun place! We got some good deals there! We arrived at Darren and Karen McCabes in Riverton at about 5:00. Mike went with Darren to the Priesthood session while Karen and I loaded up all of our 8 kids in her van and drove to Provo. It was hard not having enough seatbelts. We ended up with Kailey and Caitlyn double buckling and Michael and Keaton sitting on the floor. In Provo we went to a Soup and Salad all you can eat place. The food was pretty good but the kids weren’t…well not too bad but bad enough. Being in Utah though I don’t think they "stood out" much. There were several kids there, quite a few Moms and not many Dads. I got plates for Emilee and Kailey and then went to get mine. When I returned I found Emilee dumping a salt shaker all over her food. I went back to get her cottage cheese …only…and put the saltshaker on another table. She was happy then. Kelsi and Elicia decided they didn’t want to sit by us and enjoyed sitting at their own table. Walking out of the restaurant I noticed we were right next to a Burlington Coat Factory and so I asked Karen if we could go take a look. We have been looking for Elicia a winter coat. We found one that she really liked there and the price was right so we bought it. As you can imagine shopping with that many kids wasn’t easy. I bribed Keaton to watch Emilee which helped. While looking at coats in the back of the store, we heard over the loud speaker "Karen McCabe, will you please come to the front of the store and pick up you daughter"… :0) Apparently Caitlyn had wondered off. We hurried after that and got out of there. We then decided it would be a nice surprise for our husbands if we stopped and picked up Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The line was huge! There were probably 20 cars in front of us but we waited. The kids were restless but we kept telling them they’d get doughnuts if they were patient. After leaving Karen and I decided that if Mike and Darren complained about us being late getting back we would tell them that we felt bad and that they could take off with all 8 kids for the next couple of hours! It’s a good thing they didn’t complain J We put the kids to bed and then played cards until late.

This morning we left the McCabes and listened to conference as we traveled. We learned about the US missile strikes in Afghanistan from President Hinckley’s talk. Following conference we listened to the news on the radio. It is a strange feeling to feel "safe" yet at the same time not to feel safe. It gives me a great desire to live my life righteously. I think many feel that way and that is probably some of the good that has come out of this war.

I think there is probably a lot more I could write about but my mind is going blank…probably because it is late. So I’ll bring this letter to a close. Hope all of you are well and happy!

We love you!

Shan (and Family)

October 14, 2001

Dear Family,

This week has been really busy. I wouldn’t say it was necessarily more busy then normal…but normal is pretty busy ;o) It is definitely one week I’m glad is over though. This week coming up I think will be slightly less busy which I look forward to.

Our "Mommy and Me" preschool is so far a success. I am amazed at how talented each of the Moms are and at all the fun ideas they come up with. On Monday and Wednesday, I took my turn to teach preschool. Together with another Mom in our group we planned several activities for the 10 kids we have in our group. I decided to try the first day at home but on Wednesday we had it at the church. There are pros and cons both ways so I’m not sure what we’ll do next time we have a turn. We have such a great group of kids and Moms.

Mike had a short little trip to Boise for Meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. I don’t really mind him going on these short little trips but wish he could have been at our Home, Family and Personal Enrichment Night since it was for husbands and wives. We had our "Fall Harvest Moon" dinner. It was potluck and we each judged and chose our favorite dish from 6 different categories. I made a candy bar brownie and won 1^st place for deserts! I have to admit…It was good. Of course it was chocolate…and that always seems to do the trick J We collect all of the recipes and at Christmas time we make a book out of them to hand out to the sisters for a little Christmas gift.

I had a really frustrating moment during the week. I had several bills in the mailbox to be sent off. Before the mailman arrived I noticed the door on the mailbox was opened so I ran outside to check and see if the bills were okay. They were all gone! It was extremely windy out and apparently they had blown out and all over the neighborhood! Keaton and his friend were outside playing. They told me two of them were up against the fence. But that was only two out of 9. I sent Keaton and his buddy looking up the street next to us while I looked down it. I found 3 more but 4 are still out there. I’m not sure if I’ll just repay them or wait to see if the checks clear. Since they were stamped (and I’m not very good at putting return addresses on) I think if somebody found them they would perhaps just slip them in the mail.

On Friday Kailey and Emilee were invited to a birthday party. I went along also, to help out. It was for Joseph Vaupel, a little boy in Kailey’s preschool. He had a dinosaur theme with dinosaurs all over the house. The cake had a dinosaur and all the games had a dinosaur theme. Kailey was so excited for the party all week! She is really "into" birthdays. She has been inviting people to her birthday party for months now…and yes, her birthday isn’t until May!

Thusday, Friday and Saturday, I had play practice. I finally got some music I had ordered in the mail. One of the songs that Alli and I are going to be playing is a duet, Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony. I had ordered it on the Internet and was getting worried that it wouldn’t get here in time for the play. Once I did get it, Alli and I started practicing it like crazy. We are going to be playing it during a "duel" between the hero and the villain in the play. There will be strobe lights going while it happens. Should be pretty cool! Also this week the kids painted "train cars" out of boxes. There is around 20 children that will wear the boxes and make a train. This will be one part that Elicia, Keaton and Kailey will have. The girls and I painted boxes on Saturday for it. I thought maybe we’d be spray painting and that was it, so I didn’t really dress the kids in "paint attire". Instead, each of the kids were given a pallet of paint to use and let go. Elicia had a great time painting her box. She wrote on it "damsel in distress" . There was a 14 year old friend of ours there that helped Kailey paint her box and I helped Emilee paint one for Keaton. We tried hard to not get paint on us but Kailey still managed to get some on her overalls. It was kind of funny to see all these kids just having a blast painting away. They were quite creative! We painted in the assistant director’s garage. I’m not sure it survived. The sheets and newspaper covering the ground took a lot of abuse. The kids are also animals in a musical number that will be performed and Elicia is in a dance. For those that live close enough and would like to attend…It is Saturday Oct 20^th at 6:30 pm at our Stake Center which is on Oak. I’ve been promoting it to everyone I talk to because I know how much work has been put into it. We would love to have a huge turn out!

Saturday was ISU’s Homecoming. It made it a busy day for us. Mike’s company had a float in the parade and so he needed to be there early to help get it ready. At the same time I needed to be at mandatory meeting for music teachers in the Pocatello Music Association. Mike was able to take Elicia and Kailey with him and Don watched Emilee and Keaton. Later Alli and I met Don and kids set up in front of Pocatello High School to watch the parade. The parade was about 1 ½ hours altogether. Kailey and Elicia rode on the float and threw candy. Keaton jumped onto when the float came to us. He had already seen and collected candy from 2/3’s of the parade so it worked out pretty well for him. Emilee was excited about all the candy but liked it best when she held the bag and I collected the candy to put in the bag. We didn’t get quite as much as in years past but enough to last for several days. Saturday afternoon Mike, Keaton, Don and Connor went to the Football game. Alli and I would have liked to have gone but we had play practice. Turns out, they didn’t need us too much at play practice and probably could have missed the practice. Oh well! Don and Alli stayed for dinner and then we played some cards. At 8:00 one of the car companies had fireworks so we watched from our deck. IT was pretty windy out and we weren’t to excited to get all bundled up and actually go to the lot where they were being launched. Watching from our deck seemed to work out well.

Emilee is learning her address. IT’s really cute how she says she lives on Camas "Plane". We are trying to teach her how to say Camas Lane. Emilee surprised one of the ladies in the nursery today when she told her mine and Mike’s names. She still has problems saying Johnston…Sounds more like "johson" but she can say Mike and Shannon really well. We love to hear her talk so we constantly are asking her questions. There were books scattered on the floor in the living room today and I asked Emilee who did it (knowing she had). Keaton was telling her to say "me". So she turned to me and said "Keaton did it". IT was really funny. Another thing that happened tonight that had us laughing pretty hard was that Keaton had written a letter to his friend Eddy. Kailey had also written several letters and put them all in envelopes. In them she wrote alphabet letters and few scribbles. After Keaton had finished his and put it in the envelope I wrote Eddy’s address on it and sat it aside. He didn’t realize I had already put the address on and little while later I caught him writing Eddy’s address on one of Kailey’s letters. When I showed him that it wasn’t his, we had a good laugh thinking of Eddy getting one of Kailey’s letters instead of Keaton’s.

I think I’ve covered everything or at least enough. We hope that you are all doing well!

Love,

Shan (and family)

October 21, 2001

Dear Family,

Most of our week this past week was devoted to play practice. The play was Saturday night. I think it went really well. The crowd seemed to really enjoy it. We had a great turn out too. It would be fun to do it a couple more times but I think Saturday was it. Elicia, Keaton and Kailey played animals, orphans and were part of a train. Elicia was also in a Calypso where she danced with several other young girls. Alli and I played Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (duet) during one of the scenes. They had a strobe light going while the hero and villain fought. The crowd was yelling and screaming so it was hard for me to hear Alli. We ended up finishing together so I guess it was okay. We played a couple other duets along with several other pieces and "bits" separately throughout the play.

We’ve been having fun teaching Emilee lots of different pieces of information. She knows where she lives (Pocatello), her address (998 Camas "Plane") and her birthday (June). She also knows her favorite foods are Cottage cheese, chocolate and candy. She knows how old she is and that her favorite color is purple. We are going to start working on her phone #. That might take some time though. We have been trying to convince her that she is not a boy. She goes back and forth when you ask her if she is a boy or a girl. She sometimes says she’s a girl and other times a boy. She knows that Elicia and Kailey are her sisters and Keaton is her brother though. Also that I’m the Mom and Mike’s the Dad :0)

Kailey absolutely loves preschool. She is a good buddy with a little boy that is 2 days younger than her…Quinton MacCabe. Whenever they see each other they hug and often walk around holding hands. IT is really cute! Quinton thinks he’s a buffalo, but Kailey doesn’t seem to mind. When Kailey isn’t at preschool, she spends a lot of time playing in her room (with fisher price people toys), writing "letters" on paper and playing on the computer. She is getting more and more independent on the computer. A lot of time when I exercise in the morning she will sit at the computer and "work".

Keaton has been writing lots of stories. I think it is neat that he likes to write them. HE will spend hours and make different chapters. The only problem is I don’t always like some of the content in his stories. He sometimes will write murder stories and "poop" stories. I thought maybe he was more careful about what he wrote at school but recently he brought home one of his assignments and it was "poop" story. I’m still embarrassed about it! I told him he shouldn’t have written it but he insisted that it was okay since it was a true story (YIKES). He did have good spelling and grammar in it though. He also is reading like crazy. His teacher has a competition going on where whoever reads the most books gets a prize. Keaton has read nearly 200 in the past month. He was ahead for a long time but on Friday he came home and said that another boy and a girl in his class past him up. We need to go to the library again tomorrow. We went on Monday and checked out 38 books. I don’t think there is a limit so we may have to check out even more than that tomorrow.

Elicia has been reading a lot also. She will wake up in the morning get dressed and sit in the living room and read. I usually will let her read until 7:30 and then I start getting on her to get her piano practiced. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings she is playing basketball (practices) She likes it better than she did at first, which we’re glad about. I try to get out and practice with her but if I don’t, she usually won’t do it herself. She would rather play with friends. There are 11 girls on her team. Her games start on Saturday. I’m kind of thinking it will be a low scoring game. What do you think? J They have 7 games altogether (on Saturdays) besides their practice 2 times/week. Her coach is a friend of mine. I teach her son piano lessons and so we talk about how basketball is going when she picks up her son. She told me I should think about coaching sometime. I think it would be fun, but too hard right now with little kids and also teaching piano lessons.

Mike went to Boise again on Monday. He was able to ride with his Dad and they stopped in Twin Falls to visit with Grandma Johnston. On Tuesday they had meetings and then drove home late Tuesday afternoon. This weekend Mike has been getting a satellite system set up to replace our cable TV. He’s really excited about it (as you can imagine). I think it sounds nifty but a little (okay a lot!) more complex then cable. Somehow we are going to have two satellite small dishes hooked up and two remote controls so we can watch two different stations in the house. You can also record up to 36 hours with the push of a button. He’s assured me that it’s not going to cost much more than cable and that I’ll really like it. We’ll have to see.

I’ve been working on Family Home Evening packets for my FHE group. There are 16 ladies in our ward that are in our group. We split the group into 2 groups of 8 and each of us chose a modern day Prophet. I chose John Taylor. I found out that in the other group my friend Rita MacCabe also chose John Taylor so we’ve been working together in putting packets together for everyone in our groups. We have to completely finish the packets. In ours we have a few games, a story, John Taylor’s favorite recipe and a song. The games are on cardstock and laminated. The cutting out of pieces has taken several hours. IT will be nice to receive 7 other packets of different Prophets though. We meet on Thursday to exchange packets and then will select another Prophet for the 2^nd round.

I think that catches you up on us. Hope all is well and that you’ve had a great weekend!

Love,

Shan (and family)

Oct. 28, 01

Dear Family,

It is hard to believe that October is coming to an end. Not just that "time flies" but the fact that the weather has been so nice lately. I hear that that is going to change but the last few days have been really nice. Especially Friday and Saturday. I was able to work on our backyard and get it ready for grass. I think we’ve decided to go the sod route. Hopefully it will be done really soon. I’m getting anxious to see grass instead of dirt out there. Also, I’m anxious to see cleaner clothes on the kids when the backyard is done. Don has been staining our deck too. IT looks really good. Last night we sat on our deck without coats on talking to friends until after 11 pm and just enjoyed the nice evening.

On Wednesday night, I was invited to a "How to host a Murder" mystery party with several lady friends. Since there were men parts in the script four of us were male characters. I just so happened to have been asked to be "Chief Breaking Wind" (yeah I know…LOL) I should have found a Whoopee cushion to bring, but instead settled with moccasin slippers and a feather headdress. My friend Julie Armstrong put it on and the food was really good. IT was a "Western" theme and a lot of fun.

On Thursday I met with my FHE group. We turned in the packets for the Latter-day Prophets we each did. It’s nice to have 8 complete packets done to use as a resource for FHE’s. Tomorrow night we are going to carve pumpkins and do some shopping for Halloween so we decided to do our FHE lesson today. We tried the packet out that I put together. It was on John Taylor and I think the kids really learned a lot. At least Keaton and Elicia. Mike and I too. There was a fishing game that Kailey and Emilee really liked but I don’t know that they could tell you much about John Taylor…just that it’s fun to catch fish.

Friday after school, Karen and Darren McCabe’s two oldest children came over to play. Karen and Darren had left their kids with Darren’s parents (here in Pocatello) while they went on a trip to Cancun. Friday night Mike and I went to a wedding reception and then I went with Alli and Elicia to another Pampered Chef party (I think I go to at least a couple a month!) This was one that Alli’s up line put on and was hosted by Deb Evan’s (a mutual friend of ours). The food was good even though it got burnt. Elicia was invited to stay the night with the Evan’s daughters so Alli and I left her there. When we got home Mike and Don were ready to watch a movie. It was kind of late but we decided we would do so. Keaton had a friend staying the night too.

Yesterday was kind of a busy day. Elicia came home from spending the night at the Evans. Keaton’s friend left that had spent the night here. We then went to the library to check out 44 books this time (the 2^nd library trip this week!). We also went to the store for some ingredients to make candy bar brownies. As soon as we got home I hurried and made the brownies (for the potluck cast party that afternoon.) While making the brownies I listened to my messages and found out that Elicia had to be at her basketball game by 2:00 instead of 2:30 so as soon as the brownies were done we rushed to the game. The game was late starting but we enjoyed watching the end of the game before Elicia’s. It was pretty entertaining to watch 4^th graders play basketball! Elicia’s game was even more so entertaining. They didn’t do so well against the other team. Elicia’s team just isn’t aggressive. In fact, not a single foul was called on Elicia’s team the entire game! It was fun to watch though. I think if Elicia sticks with it and practices hard she will be a good ballplayer someday.

After the game, we did some quick cleaning of the house when we got home. An hour or so later I took the kids and we went to our Melodrama Cast Party. It was a potluck dinner. I had the kids all eat but I didn’t eat (or at least not too much) because at 6:00 Mike and I left the kids with a babysitter and met some friends of ours at Sizzlers for dinner. We ate the "all you can eat ribs" which were really good. We also got to visit with Jeff, Mike’s brother that works there. While eating and visiting, Mike got a phone call and a lady from our ward (Marissa Smellie) was frantic telling Mike that Emilee had just been found in the middle of the street in front of her house by a stranger. IT was dark outside and Emilee had wandered down Rockypoint (a neighboring street that our street breaks off of). Apparently the stranger had found Emilee and brought her up to the closest house, which luckily are friends of ours. Marissa told the stranger she knew us and that she would take Emilee straight to us. She then immediately took Emilee to our house and said when she got here that the garage door was open (we had closed it when we left) and that she walked in and started yelling for me. Then she heard the TV going downstairs and went downstairs and found the kids and the babysitter. Apparently she really let the babysitter "have it" and the babysitter felt really bad. We got home shortly afterwards and the babysitter told us her side of the story and how bad she felt. It was pretty nerve wracking. Part of me is upset at the babysitter but yet at the same time I understand because Emilee has "escaped" other times (just never left our street). Emilee must have moved a stool to the garage door opener in the garage and opened it and let herself out. She said she was looking for me. She has let herself out of the house that way before too. In fact when the van is in the garage she will open the van doors and get in and find the garage door opener and open the garage door. I’m relieved that she was safe and not harmed. I think I’m going to have to really lecture the babysitters in the future on keeping a close eye on Emilee. AND hopefully this stage will pass soon. She is getting really bad whenever we go anywhere because she will get away from me and sometimes is hard to find. Kailey was always pretty good to stay close by me. When shopping if I ever got out of Kailey’s site, she would cry and I could find her. NOT EMILEE! She climbs out of the shopping carts by herself and will hide in clothes racks so I can’t find her. She thinks it’s funny. What a stinker she is! It’s a good thing she knows her name, address and who her Mom and Dad are. I don’t know if she tried to tell the stranger or not yesterday but I think if she would have tried she could have found out from Emilee.

Later last night, our friends the Lukers (the ones we also ate dinner with) came over so Mike could fix their computer. We stayed up talking until past midnight. Actually I think it was until about 1:00 am but fortunately we had the time change, which gave us an extra hour. It was nice to have the kids asleep (or at least most of them) so we weren’t being disturbed. Today we are a little tired though from being up so late. It’s now Sunday at 9:30 and both Mike and I are feeling quite tired. I think I’d better wrap this up so we can go to bed. Hope all is well!

Love,

Shan (and family)

November 4, 2001

Dear Family,

It’s been another busy week for the Johnstons. I don’t think we ever slow down!

On Monday I went to Kailey’s preschool Halloween party to help out. She was so excited for it and had her costume on first thing in the morning even though preschool doesn’t start until 12:15. Emilee also dressed up but she kept taking her costume off. IT was fun to see all the other preschooler’s in costume and to see their excitement. IT was fun party.

Tuesday was pretty crazy. After school I rushed Elicia and her friend Tiffani to piano lessons. Then 45 minutes later picked them up to take them to the primary Halloween party. I then was supposed to have my first piano lesson of 3 lessons but it canceled so I had a ½ hour to clean and vacuum out the van. Then Alli and Don brought over Shaylie and Connor so that they could leave for the temple. I watched them while teaching two piano lessons. Connor was a little upset after Alli left so I relied on the help of one of my piano student while I taught her brother his lesson. During my final lesson Connor fell asleep. After the lessons we had dinner and then I took Elicia to basketball practice. At 6:45 we picked up Elicia and headed to Idaho Falls. We got to the Temple at 7:45 and left the kids in the van for a few minutes while Mike and I went in. Alli and Don got out a few minutes later and drove the kids home. I guess it worked out pretty well even though I was worried about what would have happened if for some reason Don and Alli had been much longer getting out. We made it just barely in time for the 8:00 session. IT was a nice, small, session. I enjoyed the peacefulness. Afterwards we "had" to stop at Arctic Circle to get me a chocolate malt and then headed back to Pocatello.

Wednesday was Halloween of course. I spent a lot of the day figuring out how to decorate our trunk for the Trunk or Treat at the church that night. I decided to make a witch out of a life size doll Elicia has. I bought a cheap mask and hat and put it on the doll along with a black dress. I then made a caldron out of a laundry basket covered with a black bag. I made a sign that said "Trick or Treaters BEWARE" and set it to the side. Then stuffed the legs of a costume and had it look like a trick or treater’s legs were coming out of the pot. I also bought some dry ice to put inside the pot. I put up lights and cobwebs for a background. Then Kailey helped me scatter plastic spiders all over. We had spooky music to play too, which really set the mood. Before going to the church we let the kids trick-or-treat around the neighborhood. Elicia was dressed as Hermoine from Harry Potter, Keaton a Pokemon figure, Kailey a bear and Emilee a clown. Elicia thought that carrying around heavy books in her bag would add to her costume. You’d have to have read Harry Potter to get that. Most people that it was strange to add candy to a bag full of books. The Trunk or Treating was huge! There were lots of people there. We combined with the other ward in our building for it. Also, there were fliers sent around the neighborhoods inviting all people to join in. There was a dance (put on by Alli and Don) afterwards but we left to go visit the Grandma Sundrud, Grandpa and Grandma Johnston and a few other friends of ours. The next day I learned that we had won 1^st place in the trunk decorating contest! We won a couple years ago also when we had a spooky, morbid type of a display. Last year we had our McDonald Happy Meal decorated van (since we were Big Macs, Fries and Shakes in our costumes) and didn’t win. I guess for Halloween people like the scary and not "cutsie" trunks. The kids received tons of candy. They’ve eaten a lot of it too.

Mike left for a National Real Estate Convention in Chicago early Thursday morning. He traveled with Jim and Greg who also were attending the convention. He has called us several times to keep us updated on what he’s doing. He goes to classes and checks out the different booths but also gets to do things like see "Chicago" (the music group) in concert. He seems to be having a good time.

Since Mike was going to be gone I decided to put all housework on hold and start painting the girls’ room. I spent about 24 hours taking the room apart, preparing to paint, painting and putting the room back together. It was a pretty big process but now that it is done I think it looks really good. The whole house suffered mean while. The kids enjoyed watching TV and eating candy most of the time. After finishing the girls’ room I got to work on cleaning house. Elicia and I stayed up late Friday cleaning. It was midnight before we finished but nice to have the other kids asleep while we worked. It’s not easy when you are trying to complete one room while another is getting messed up.

On Saturday, Elicia had a basketball game. Trevor and Melissa came from Rexburg. They along with Don and Alli’s family met us at the game. They played a little more aggressively but still lost. IT was fun though to see them playing a little better. For being as young as they are they really aren’t too bad and are getting better. After the game we had lunch and then all of us left for Malad to see Grandma Pett. We spent the afternoon with her visiting and looking at scrapbooks of her trips. Elicia afterwards was a little upset at me for not telling her about all the trips Grandma Pett had been on. She thought it was really cool! We left Malad late in the afternoon and headed back to Pocatello. When we got home we ate dinner and then watched a movie (First Knight was the title I think---it was really good). While watching the movie my RS president called and asked if I would be in charge of giving a thought at our RS board meeting falling church. I had forgotten about the meeting so it was good she called. I stayed up late after the movie looking for something to speak on.

Today we went to church. We were all a little cranky and tired this morning. During Sacrament Meeting Keaton bore his testimony for the first time. He included the following "I believe in the church, I love my family and I believe in the Book of Mormon". I thought he did very well. I was worried he might go up there saying how thankful he was for Nintendo or something silly! It was not an easy task trying to keep everyone quiet during Sacrament meeting so I ended up taking Emilee and Kailey half way through the meeting. Keaton later came out too. After the Sacrament Meeting I sent Elicia, Keaton and Kailey walking home and Emilee went home with some friends of ours. I then went to my board meeting. I gave my thought on Gratitude. It wasn’t hard to speak on since I feel such an abundance of it. I shared with the sisters parts of President Hinckley’s chapter on Gratitude in his book "Standing for Something" along with my testimony.

This afternoon we went to Alli and Don’s house for dinner. Trevor and Melissa were still here. After we ate we decided to take a walk and look at the outside of a house that Trevor and Melissa are interested in looking at. They are planning on moving to Pocatello next month so they can go to school at ISU. We of course are really excited to have them come and live here.

It’s so nice and quiet right now because all the kids are asleep. I’m tired enough I could go to sleep too but it’s not even 10 yet and I hate to "waste" the time sleeping when I have this time all to myself! I think I’ll read for awhile—wow what a luxury!!! :0) Hope all is well! We love you all!!!

Love,

Shan (and family)

Nov 11, 2001

Dear Family,

This week as the subject suggests, we’ve been sick. And then, sick again! I think there was a "bug" going around nursery last week and affected several of the nursery kids. At least half. Monday night I heard coughing and then screaming coming from Kailey and Emilee’s room. I went in the room and Emilee said "Kailey pooped on my head". Not knowing what she was talking about I sat down beside her (she and Kailey share a bed). I then felt my hand wet and realized I had put it in throw up. I turned on the light and sure enough there was throw up all over the bed, Kailey and Emilee’s head! I put both girls in the tub and washed bedding. I wasn’t sure until later who it was that had thrown up. Emilee said it was Kailey but Kailey told me it wasn’t her and that she had been sleeping with her mouth shut. Emilee threw up several more times during the night so I realized it was her. After staying up all night with her I started to feel worn down and like a cold was coming on. I had a sore throat and just didn’t feel well. On Friday night Elicia and Kailey both threw up. On Saturday I didn’t feel well either. It was a rough day. We did a lot of lounging around and napping. Today we all feel much better except Emilee was coughing really hard earlier this evening and threw up. I’m thinking it was just because of the coughing though. Talking to friends and neighbors we’ve found that most families have been hit with this stomach flu. Fortunately it only lasts for a short time.

Well that was kind of a disgusting way to start the letter but consider yourself lucky that you haven’t had to deal with it! Except for Alli, because it’s probably going to be a long night for her tonight. Shaylie threw up twice while she was here tonight. Other then being sick, we’ve had other things going on this week. Mike returned home from Chicago close to midnight on Monday night. He had a really good time. It was Real Estate Convention where they learn a lot but also have a lot of fun. He was able to hear the music group "Chicago" in concert. Neat! On Thursday he went on a short trip to Seattle for a meeting. He returned home Saturday afternoon. While he was gone and we were somewhat healthy, Elicia and Keaton both had friends stay the night. I also had Don and Alli over and we watched movies.

The kids had Thursday and Friday off this past week for parent teacher conferences. They both got decent grades but there’s definitely room for improvement. Elicia’s teacher told us that Elicia had the best expression when she reads out of everyone else in the classroom. She complimented Elicia on it and Elicia told her she was practicing to be an actress. Keaton’s teacher told us she enjoyed Keaton’s sense of humor. I didn’t want to go into details about it though. I didn’t want her to comment on some of the stories he’s written in the past. The kids also had dental appointments on Thursday. We definitely need to do a lot more brushing and a lot less eating candy! They had 8 cavities between them!!! I couldn’t believe it! Last check up they didn’t have any. Oh well, maybe they’ll try to brush better. IT is so hard to make them do it. I ask them to do it every morning and night but sometimes don’t check to see if they have really done it. I think we’ll all try better. Also, the dentist recommended we take Elicia and Keaton to an orthodontist soon.

On Tuesday Kailey and Elicia began dance classes. Kailey loved it and looks forward to going every week! Elicia is going to find Tuesdays to be extra busy for her. She has piano lessons right after school, then dance class and in the evening basketball practice. Basketball ends in December though so we’ll just hang on for a few more weeks. Also on Tuesday, Trevor and Melissa came to get some things done before moving here. They are looking into jobs, going to school and buying a house. Mike showed them homes (us too) in the evening. It will be fun having them here in Pocatello.

We had our primary program today in Sacrament meeting. It was very nicely done and very organized. Keaton and Elicia both had speaking parts. We were proud of them for saying their parts memorized and doing a nice job. Keaton had a pretty long one and wasn’t overly thrilled about having to memorize it but he pulled through and did a nice job. After church later on this afternoon, Elicia had an Achievement day awards meeting. Her teacher displayed some of the things they had done including a cross stitch of President Hinckley’s "Bee’s" It is very nice. We need to get a frame for it now. For dinner today, Suzie and Brandon came from Idaho Falls to join us. It was fun to visit with them for a while.

I know that I’ve probably forgotten something since this is way to short, but It’s late and I have a dental appointment at 8:00 am in the morning. So it’s off to bed for us. Hope all is well!

Love,

Shan (and family)

 Dear Family,

Hard to believe we’re almost to Thanksgiving! I love this time of year! I love the food, the shopping, the music and wish it would snow!!! It’s hard to think about Christmas when your kids are wearing shorts to school! It’s nice the kids are able to still play outside without getting cold though. Actually today is a lot cooler out and perhaps a trend for cooler weather.

On Monday and Wednesday this past week it was my turn to team-teach at preschool. On Wednesday we had our Thanksgiving Feast. Instead of the traditional food we usually have on Thanksgiving we had several finger foods for the children to try. We also made Indian and Pilgrim costumes for them. They were very excited about the food and really cute! We sang Thanksgiving songs for the Mom’s and took lots of pictures.

I’m always relieved when we get through the month’s Home Family and Personal Enrichment Night. We had our Humanitarian Service night on Wednesday evening. For the past couple of months people have been bringing and donating items for personal hygiene kits and school kits. The evening went quite smoothly even though I stressed quite a bit over it. My Enrichment leader has been sick a lot lately and so I did the bulk of the organizing for it. I was so pleased with everyone’s generosity. We did more kits than I had anticipated.

Also, on Wednesday night, Mike was out of town again. This time it was only for one night and to Island Park. Which isn’t too far away. I think he gets to stick around for several weeks now. The kids and I miss him when he’s gone.

Thursday it has become a tradition to watch Survivor. Mike, Elicia, Keaton and I really like it. Keaton doesn’t care for all the in between "babbling" but loves the competitions and the voting at the end. It’s fun for us along with being an incentive for the kids to have all their chores and homework done so they can watch it.

Friday night Mike had tickets for the ISU Women’s Basketball game. It was a good game. ISU won by at least 20 points. We invited some friends of ours in the ward to go with us. We brought the kids along too. Elicia paid close attention to the game and seemed to really enjoy it. One of the title companies in town was sponsoring it and threw out lots of candy. The kids of course loved it. They would run to the front of the benches so they could grab for it more easily. It was a good thing we had baby wipes with us because most of us had chocolate all over us. After the game we took a trip to McDonalds. We let the kids play in the play center. They were the only ones and had a good time.

Saturday, we decided after Elicia’s basketball game that we would watch Don and Alli’s kids while they went to the temple and then meet them in IF and they watch ours while we go. (like we did last month) All went well until we got there and Mike realized he had forgotten his temple recommend. I’m glad Alli and Don were able to go through their session. We sent the kids home with them and then Mike and I did some shopping, went out to eat and then went to Suzie’s Opera Play that she was in. We joined Jim, Karen, Sherri and Greg at the Idaho Falls Civic Center. They had just been at the temple doing temple work for Jim’s father. Jim, we’re glad you’re no longer an Orphan! :0) Suzie was the understudy for the lead actress but since the lead was there she played one of the "extra’s" and did a lot of singing and flirting. Yes flirting! She kissed a bald man’s head several times! She looked really good with her ringlet hairpiece. It was fun to see the play and hopefully we’ll get to see some more in the future.

Today after church and eating lunch we decided to take a drive to the American Falls reservoir. We walked around and looked at the dam. The water was extremely low. We showed the kids where the watermarks on the rocks were so they could see how high the water has been in the past. I asked them if they remembered seeing the Owyhee dam (close to Nyssa) and they hadn’t so we might take a drive up there over Thanksgiving break. Too bad water won’t be going over the Glory Hole (at least I’m assuming it’s low there like everywhere else). Watching the water going into the Glory Hole is a fun childhood memory of mine. Whenever we went up to "The Dam" we always "had" to stop and look at the Glory Hole.

I attempted to finish this last night and send it off but our server was down so I’m going to finish up now and will send it. We can’t wait to see several of you in a few days and also to meet Jason’s girlfriend Christi!

Love ya,

Shan (and family)

Dec 2, 01

Dear Family,

Mike’s birthday was Wednesday, Nov 21st. We had eaten cake and sang to him the Sunday before since this was going to be a busy day. Elicia woke me up early to help her make "breakfast in bed" for her Dad. She went to work on making "cinnamon popups" which are a version of sticky buns made with refrigerated crescent rolls. She also made juice. I made hash browns, eggs and ham, which are some of Mike’s favorite breakfast foods. Meanwhile, Keaton made up a birthday poem. When we were ready we brought in Mike’s presents for him to open. The sticky popups were still baking so he took a shower and then ate breakfast. After breakfast Mike took the van in to get snow tires put on and then he went to work. I finished up packing and then took this week’s Real Estate pictures. Keaton and Elicia had a ½ day of school and then we were able to take off for Nyssa. On our way we stopped in Twin Falls to visit with Great Grandma Johnston. We arrived in Nyssa around 7:00. We visited with everyone that was there so far, including Trevor, Melissa, Ryan and Susan. After getting our kids in bed (or making our best attempts) Mike wanted to see a movie for his birthday. We invited Trevor and Melissa to go with us and met Jason and his girlfriend Christi at the theatre in Ontario. There we watched "Shallow Hal" . It was very funny and we all liked it. We went out for hot chocolate at Denny’s afterwards. IT was fun to get to know Christie a little better. She is a cute gal and very nice.

Thursday we of course had a very good Turkey dinner. Mom had us set up tables in the Family room so we could all fit in the same room. Everyone was there except Jared (on his mission in the Philippines). Jason brought Christi and that gave us a total of 25 people. It took a little practice to get the food rotating around but everything else went smoothly and tasted really good. After eating we worked on a tape for Jared. Keaton sang, "The Armies of Helaman" , Kailey and Shaylie sang "I am a Child of God" and Elicia played "Fur Elise" . Kimmi played the piano too and Chris sang " I hope they Call me on a Mission" with Keaton. We ate pie and played games the rest of the day. That evening we had to watch Survivor. It was on several of ours’ priority lists.

Friday was our big shopping day! Mom, Melissa and I took left Nyssa at about 5:30 am to hit the 6:00 am sale at Wal*Mart in Ontario. Meanwhile, Alli and Pam were hitting Shopko in Meridian. We were able to get our things at Wal*Mart fairly quickly and were on our way to Target in Meridian where we were to meet Alli and Pam. We got a little lost but made it. Alli and Pam had gotten there early enough to secure all the good sales before the store ran out of the sale items. We had walkie-talkies to communicate with each other and find out where they were when we got there. After our shopping at Target we all went to Karcher Mall in Nampa and to Ross and Pick n Save. We were pretty tired (and hungry) by the time we were done shopping. We got home to Nyssa around noon. After eating Mike suggested we go to the Owyhee Dam. Trevor, Melissa, Ryan, Susan, Riley and Kimmi all came too. That left Mom and Dad with an empty house. I think they probably enjoyed the peace and quiet. I had never seen the Reservoir so low. Trevor and Melissa walked around the Glory Hole which scared me to death! Someday we’ll have to take the kids back when the water is running over the Glory Hole. For those of you that haven’t seen it, it’s pretty impressive. We also walked across the Dam and looked over the edge. From the Dam we headed to Troy and Pam’s house for a Taco Bar, games and movies. We had a really fun night.

Saturday we took the kids to see Harry Potter. I read all the books to Elicia and sometimes Keaton. I thought the movie was really good and didn’t ruin the images I had already had in my head. It only enhanced them. Kailey went with Trevor and Melissa to Monsters Inc. I was glad they took her because she wanted to see it really bad and didn’t want to watch Harry Potter. The rest of Saturday we finished up the pies and played games. Troy, Pam, Alli and Don all came over too.

Sunday after church we ate and then headed back to Pocatello. We had a quick uneventful trip back. Which was just fine with me. Toward the end of the week I had started to get a cold and wasn’t feeling too well Sunday evening. At one time I had told Elicia we would perhaps put up Christmas Decorations after we got home but I really didn’t feel up to it.

Monday I still wasn’t feeling too well so we put off the decorations again. On Wednesday I felt like I had a little more time so we started the 3 hour project and put up the tree and decorations. The kids were eager at first to help but I think I spent the last couple of hours doing it myself. Which is okay because I like having the tree done my way.

Thursday night Mike, along with several other people and business owners in the community, was given a special invitation to Golden Corral before they officially opened. The food was pretty good, especially the pot roast and German Chocolate Cake. I think we’ll go back often :0) Friday was it’s official opening and Mike went there for lunch.

Friday night Keaton and Elicia both had friends over. I took Elicia and her friend Melissa to see "Princess Diaries" at the Reel theatre. Mike took Keaton and his friend Devin, and the little girls, to the Dollar Store. They each got to pick out something.

Yesterday, Elicia had a basketball game. They lost again and Elicia was very disappointed. During the afternoon we stayed home and did housework, computer work and homework. Later Don, Alli, Shaylie and Connor came over to celebrate Connor’s 1^st birthday with us. The little girls were very eager to help him open his presents. He was cute trying to get at his car. Alli wanted him to finish up unwrapping presents but he just wanted to play with his car he had opened previously. Last night we had an Elder’s Quorum bowling party. The roads were horrible so not many attended. Those of us that did had a blast though! I scored a 126, which may be my highest ever, score. Mike scored a 136, which was the 2^nd highest score from our group. We laughed a lot with each other. After 2 games we went to our next-door neighbor’s house for pie and ice cream.

Today Mike and I both had lessons to teach. Emilee told me when she woke up this morning that she wasn’t going to nursery. I decided it might really make matters worst if I pushed her to go so I let her attend Relief Society with me. She did pretty good while I was teaching. IT wasn’t until the end that she started distracting me. Luckily I was able to finish up without much of a problem. After church Mike and I both had meetings so I took the kids home and let Elicia babysit for an hour. I figured we were only a couple blocks away and could be home in a just a couple minutes if the kids were to call. IT’s nice that she is getting old enough to help out in this way.

This evening we had dinner with Don and Alli’s family, and then played Rook. We ended up having a tied game, which was good enough for us! We’ve been in the mood for Rook after that "high spirited" game Mike and I played against Mom and Alli over Thanksgiving. In that game Mike and I had the lead with 8 hundred + points while Mom and Alli only had 150 points or so. They made a major comeback and beat us in the end. I also went visiting teaching tonight. Knowing how busy December gets, we want to be done early.

At this moment, It is now snowing really hard and several other storms are predicted. I love the snow, although I don’t like having to drive in it. Elicia especially likes to play in it. Keaton does a little but doesn’t spend nearly as much time as Elicia playing in it. Kailey and Emilee spend about 5 minutes playing in it and then are ready to come in. That is after spending 30 minutes getting them ready to go out.

Well I think that covers the last couple of weeks. I like it much better when I only have one week to write about. I’ll have to be really good about not skipping weeks from now on. Hope all is well and that you are enjoying this Christmas Season.

Love,

Shan (and family)

Dec 9, 01

Dear Family,

We’ve had an interesting week weather wise here. I imagine it has been that way for most of you. Sunday night we had a pretty huge storm come in and dumped quite a bit of snow. Then we had a blizzard Wednesday afternoon. I thought for sure they would cancel school on one of those days. But no, school wasn’t cancelled those days but it was on Thursday. We had the first "rain day" that I could ever remember! Just about the time the kids were supposed to head off to school it poured rain. Later it did turn to snow and was quite messy on the roads. I just thought it was funny that school was cancelled and it rained. The kids didn’t mind. Keaton really had hoped that Tuesday would have been a snow day. AT about 6:45 AM he came upstairs to tell me he had thrown up. He took a bath and then got dressed and insisted he was going to school. I told him he had to keep breakfast down and if he did I’d let him go to school. He ate some oatmeal, very slowly, and then left to go downstairs to get his boots. Fortunately he was carrying a bowl with him because he "lost" it. He then knew he couldn’t go to school, which made him very sad. This was the first day he had EVER missed school. He had perfect attendance throughout Kindergarten and 1^st Grade and so far in 2nd. He kept saying "why couldn’t this be a vacation day?!!!" He was sick throughout the rest of the morning but by mid afternoon was feeling much better. Elicia brought home the work he had missed at school, which he was happy about. On Wednesday he was very happy to be able to go to school.

Mike has had a busy week with traveling. He went to Boise Tuesday night for a banquet and Wednesday for meetings. Also, Mike is the East district Vice President for the Idaho Association of Realtors and went to three Installation Banquets in the area to install new officers during the week. He didn’t think he was going to have to here in Pocatello but Friday afternoon they called and asked if he would. So Friday night we sat at the head table once again. I would much rather sit somewhere else! I guess getting to be first in line at the buffets isn’t so bad though :0) A BYU Idaho singing group (From the Heart) performed for the night’s entertainment. They did a nice job and it was fun to listen to them.

Yesterday we went to Elicia’s basketball game. She has been begging for a cat. Mike felt safe in telling her that she could have one if she herself made 5 baskets during the game. Her whole team hasn’t ever made 5 baskets in a game so he wasn’t to worried. She played the best we had ever seen her play and although she came close to making a couple of baskets didn’t make one. We felt so bad for her! She cried after she was done playing. It was good seeing her try so hard on the court though. She has potential and if she works hard I think she will be a really good player someday.

After the ballgame we traveled to Preston Idaho (1 hour away) to visit our friends the Lukers. Alli and Don came too. We there were treated to a steak barbeque. The kids enjoyed playing in the huge snow piles after they had eaten and while we were eating. After eating (actually we never stopped the whole night) we played a few games before heading back to Pocatello. It was so neat to drive down the main street and see all of their decorations. It’s a small town that goes all out and has a wonderful Christmas display throughout the town and in their parks.

Keaton must have been bored a few days ago because he took a pair of scissors to his hair and butchered himself! I couldn’t believe it! He has bald spots on top of his head! I hope people don’t think that I gave him such a bad haircut. I’ve been hoping for his hair to grow out since I shaved it off over the summer. I just think he looks better with more hair. I guess we’ll have to wait a few more months though. Now I really have to try and comb it right or it looks really bad.

We’ve really enjoyed the Christmas season so far. I try not to take on anything more than what we already have going on in December so that we can spend a lot of family time together. The kids love it when I give them fruit "smoothies" or hot chocolate and they can sit around the table sipping while I read Christmas stories. Mike likes the hot chocolate but has a hard time with the smoothies because he always gets "brain freeze". It’s hilarious! (sorry Mike) I just know better than to drink them fast. Mike has been reading a lot of stories to the kids too. It’s nice because he’ll come home from work and if I’m not ready with dinner he’ll sit in the living room with the kids and read until I’m done.

Keaton hasn’t been the only one sick this past week. I’ve been fighting a cold all week. By the end of the day I’m coughing and hoarse. Emilee has been pretty warm this evening and not acting too well. I hope it’s something that will go through her system fast. I don’t know which is worst, having sick kids or being sick yourself. We hope that all of you are feeling all right or getting better if you’ve been sick. It’s a wonderful time of year and we don’t want to be sick, do we?

Have a great week!

Love,

Shan (and family)

December 16, 01

Dear Family,

We are in the midst of December! I can’t believe how quickly time goes! We’ve been really busy and I’m hoping to get less busy this next week.

Monday night we decided to take a drive and look at Christmas lights. We have a few favorite neighborhoods that we check out every year. I love to listen to the Christmas music as we drive. All of the kids fell asleep except Elicia, which made bedtime really simple that night.

My hurdle of the week was Enrichment night on Wednesday. We had a progressive dinner. When I was called to be the Enrichment counselor I learned that previously I had been assigned to be the dinner chairman in December. Several weeks ago I helped line up the homes that we would be eating at and also those that would be on the food committee with me. On Tuesday, one of the homes cancelled so I volunteered our home to be one of the homes. Since I was already planning on fixing the main course, I changed the home route around so that I could keep the main course at my house. I shopped on Tuesday for the food and on Wednesday I cleaned and cooked. I also fit in piano lessons and going to Elicia’s class. The night turned out well. I had originally thought 35 might attend. I suggested this to my Enrichment board and then later to our RS president and they all told me I had better plan on 60. So food wise that is what we planned for. About 30 showed up. Mike had an Elder’s Quorum meeting later on that night and they enjoyed stuffing themselves with the leftovers. We also had leftovers for the next few days…in fact we still are! LOL I think if I were to help plan another similar activity I would try to do it earlier and take more time at the homes. I felt like I had to hurry people up at each house. The joke of the evening was how I made everyone eat fast or throw away their food. One lady stuffed her ham in her pocket so she wouldn’t have to throw it away. Each house we planned on being at for 20 minutes where we would eat and also hear a Christmas story. We had an "appetizer" home, a "salad" home, a "bread" home and the "main dish" myh home. We were in two groups and apparently the other group didn’t hurry as quickly. They finished about 30 minutes behind us. They completely missed the combined lesson we were supposed to have at the 5th house along with desert. From the length of this paragraph can you tell how exhausted I was by the end of the day?

I can’t remember what we did on Thursday. OH, yeah, we went to the dentist after school and to Shaylie’s Joy school play that night. The rest of the day I think I tried to catch up on things I had gotten behind on.

Friday we enjoyed a snow day. For lunch we were invited over to a friends house where a few other moms and kids joined us. The kids played and sledded while the Mom’s ate and visited. It snowed most of the afternoon and was really pretty. After we got home I put the kids in the hot tub to warm up while I cleaned house and did laundry.

On Friday night we went on a hayride for an Elder’s quorum activity. It was cold and windy but we were bundled up pretty good. We sang Christmas carols and rode down nearly every street on our side of the hill. Afterwards we had hot chocolate and doughnuts at our next-door neighbors house (Mike’s counselor) and then a few people came over to our house to play games.

Saturday, Elicia had her last basketball game. She has improved so much throughout the season. They weren’t able to win a single game but I think they all had fun. I enjoyed going to the games. The rest of Saturday I worked on getting ready for Alli’s and my recital that night. The recital went smoothly. I made the mistake of decorating the desert table with "icycle-tinsel" scattered all over the table. If only it would have STAYED all over the table. We found it all over the church as we were cleaning up. I won’t do that again! Even though it did look pretty. Elicia played Fur Elise and Christmas Bells. She has played them a lot better at home but was nervous during the recital. She did pretty well though.

On Wednesday, Elicia gave a report on a local Indian tribe. She was in a group with 2 other classmates. They gave the report and then showed a diagrama, and acted out a skit. Mike and I were able to attend and watch. Elicia described their diagrama and what each of the items were. As she was telling about it, a bird they had made out of clay fell from the top. She picked it up and said "and here we have a dead bird"…It was funny!

Speaking of dead birds, tonight for dinner we thought we were going to eat goose. After cutting into it though, we aren’t exactly sure what we ate. A friend of Mike’s that is a hunter gave him some packages of meat. I pulled one out of the freezer that I thought it was faintly labeled "goose". I opened it and stuck it in the slow cooker this morning before church. I let it cook all day and then for tonight for dinner we ate it with Alli and Don. When we started cutting into it we decided it didn’t seem like the texture poultry should be. WE then thought maybe we were eating moose. The thought of eating "Bull Winkle" didn’t set too well with me but later when I was ICQ’ing Pam she reassured me at least it wasn’t "Rocky". Mike thinks perhaps it was venison. When Trevor and Melissa move here, Melissa will have to inform us what the wild game we eat is in the future.

Later this evening we went to some friends’ home for a combined FHE with 2 other families. We had a talent show for the children to perform their piano pieces, singing or whatever they wanted to share. We then sang Christmas songs all together and had treats.

I’m exhausted this evening. Emilee decided to pull an "all nighter" last night. As I was getting into bed late (around 1:00 am) she woke up. She wasn’t feeling too well so I did my best to rock her and whatever else she wanted. We were awake until 5:00 am! I then was able to get a couple hours of sleep before getting up at 7:00 am to get ready for church. I think it’s about time to close this and get to bed. We hope you’re all enjoying the Christmas Season.

Love,

Shan(and family)

Dear Family,

I have a few minutes and a lot of catching up to do! It’s been two weeks since I’ve written and two very busy weeks they were! (by the time I finished this letter it had actually been 3 weeks) Hopefully I can remember everything.

On Monday the 18^th we had a Keller Williams Company Party at TJ and Gail Merzlock’s home. I prepared the ham and also a pan of potatoes for it. Besides eating (which is always my favorite part) we had a gift exchange and then were entertained by the group "Four-mata" . We left Elicia and Keaton home and took the Emilee and Kailey over to Alli and Don. Alli and Don were "on-call" for the night in case Elicia and Keaton had any problems. Don and Alli attempted to check up on Keaton and Elicia by telephone but they didn’t answer. We weren’t worried though. Elicia or Keaton called Mike and I about every 15 minutes with a question of some sort.

On Tuesday the 19^th, we had our ward skating Christmas party. The kids again reminded me that we have to go skating more often so they can get good at it. I’m glad they recognize that they have to practice to get good at it. For some reason they have a difficult time comprehending that in other areas. Santa Clause came and visited with the kids, which the little ones enjoyed. Also, there were a few skating games. One game Elicia, Kailey and I all won. We each received a free soda for it. Kailey thought that was really cool and proudly told everyone that she was a winner. Emilee did rather well on the skates and had a fun time. None of the kids wanted to go home and unlike past years we stayed until 9:00 when it ended.

Wednesday was a break from the busyness, which was nice. On Thursday, Mike and I went out for our anniversary. We went to Red Lobster for dinner and then finished up some Christmas shopping.

Saturday morning, Jim invited all the family that were able to out for breakfast. We went to the Golden Corral and had a really good meal and fun visit. After eating we took Jakob home with us so he could play and Elicia went to Kristie’s to play with Kassie. They played all afternoon and then we made an exchange before dinner. Saturday night Don and Alli’s family came over to watch a movie. Later Trevor and Melissa showed up. They are going to live with us until they find jobs and a home.

Sunday after church Melissa, Elicia and I started working on gingerbread to make a gingerbread house. We made up the wrong recipe and it turned out more like a cake. A little later we tried another recipe and it worked great for gingerbread men but wasn’t sturdy enough for the walls of a house. So we ended up with a LOT of gingerbread cake and several gingerbread men. The kids had fun decorating the cookies regardless.

On Monday we started the day cleaning and getting ready for Christmas. I think Christmas Eve is about my favorite day of the year. I love to see the anticipation in the kids growing. It’s fun to spend time together playing games too. Elicia and Keaton are both getting to be pretty good scrabble players. IT is our "game of choice" lately. Mike went into work for a few hours and then came home to get us. We went to rent some videos and did one last little shopping trip. At home the kids watched a movie while I prepared food for the evening. Around 6:00 Don, Alli and kids came over. Also, we invited Richard to come and join us. We ate pizza and chips for dinner. Alli made superb pizzas! Following dinner we helped the kids put on the story of Jesus’ birth. Kailey was the angel, Elicia the Wiseman/inn keeper, Emilee a shepherd, Keaton the donkey, Connor was Joseph and Shaylie was Mary. Some of the kids were a little silly, especially our Donkey. Afterwards the kids each opened a gift. I picked out gifts for Elicia and Keaton. They were excited to receive Roller Runners. Before bedtime we went for a drive to look at Christmas lights. We had hoped that maybe they would fall asleep in the car but no such luck until the end when Emilee finally was out.

Christmas morning Elicia woke us up at 6:00 am. This is the first year we didn’t have to wake her up for Christmas!!! The rest of the kids started to wake up and went to check out what Santa had brought. After playing with some new toys for awhile we dove into opening gifts. I think everyone felt pretty good about would they received, At 1:00 we went to the Jim and Karen’s to eat, play games and open more gifts. The food was great and the games were a lot of fun. Especially Jim’s money game. It was super cold outside but that didn’t stop Elicia and Keaton from wanting to go on a walk with Grandpa. Keaton didn’t have gloves and had some pretty cold hands when he came back. We spent the whole afternoon there before heading home to relax and watch "Shrek".

Wednesday was a "catch up" day for us. There was lots of cleaning and laundry to get done. I had pictures to take and also some shopping to do too.

Thursday Trevor and Melissa finished moving in. Later, Dad, Mom, Riley and Kim arrived in the afternoon. Don, Alli and kids came over too. We had dinner, watched Survivor and then visited and relaxed the rest of the day.

On Friday we headed for Malad. Don volunteered to watch some of the kids so we left Shaylie, Kailey and Keaton with him. We had a nice visit with Grandma Pett. They have a lot of snow so Elicia of course was out in it. She loves playing in the snow. Around 4:00 we left for home so we could get dinner together. Don and Alli made a bean soup and I made Chicken noodle. After dinner several of us went to the Mall to walk (for exercise). It turned out that we did more shopping then walking. That’s fun too though! We also went to Wal*Mart.

Saturday we went to Golden Corral for lunch. IT was good. We like going there because of the variety and that we can satisfy everyone. The kids love it. The rest of Saturday we watched movies and played games.

Sunday we went to church. IT was a combined 5^th Sunday. It was nice to not have to worry about anything and not feel rushed to be there early. At least I didn’t feel rushed until 10 minutes before when Mike told me he had to give the opening prayer so we had to hurry. Our lesson was on preparedness. We talked about food storage and several other areas in which we can be prepared. We were given and hand out called the Noah’s Ark Project, which tells us exactly what we need to become prepared as a family spiritually and temporally month by month. Mike and I are setting a goal to try our best to meet each month’s goals that are outlined in the project. Anyone that might like a copy of this let me know because I copied it on my computer.

On Monday Mike went in to work. The rest of us went sledding at Crystal Summit. The sledding was pretty nice. Emilee loved it. Kailey was thirsty so she complained a lot and Keaton was cold. He’s not much of a winter lover. Elicia had a blast. She LOVES the snow. We have a sled that holds 4 people and it was fun to go down on it. It was snowing quite hard and so whoever was in front got covered with snow. Later in the afternoon we had Turkey dinner. Just as we were finishing Troy, Pam and kids arrived. We snacked and played games the rest of the evening. Darren, Karen, Kelsi and Michael McCabe also joined us. We played the Family Feud and a "sign" game, which were both fun. I think midnight came too soon for some of us. Even though the McCabes left, Don and Alli and family left, Dad, Mom, Riley and Kimmi left, Trevor, Melissa, Troy, Pam, Mike and I stayed up and played Rook until 2:30 am. It wasn’t only fun, but peaceful to not have all the kids up and running around.

On Tuesday those that live outside of Pocatello started to gradually leave. The rest of us played games and snacked throughout the day.

On Wednesday the kids went back to school and I played "catch up" again. In fact the rest of the week I’ve been catching up. Thursday evening Mike started running a fever. He was really sick on Friday and on Saturday I took him to the Dr. Turns out that he has a really bad strain of Strep throat. His neck, throat and tongue are really swollen. The Dr. gave him some Demerol (in a form of a shot) and also some other painkillers and of course antibiotics. Today he’s doing much better. He’s able to walk without being dizzy and he’s able to eat a little bit. He hasn’t been able to talk well and hadn’t eaten for 3 days. He jokes that it’s his new diet since he’s lost 14 lbs. Although I don’t think he’d recommend it to anyone. I think he’s been sicker than I’ve ever seen him.

I think that catches me up. Sorry about this being such a long letter. Hope everyone is in good health…and Mucho Congrats to Jason and Chrisi on their engagement!!! We’re so excited for them!

Dear Family,

We are just cruising through January! The weather has been a little bit warmer the past few days and has made me a little anxious for spring. I love the snow but at the same time I would like to see it just go away. New snow is much prettier than old snow.

If you recall in my last letter, I told of how sick Mike was with Strep throat. He started felling better on Sunday and was able to go to work on Monday, though still not completely better. About the same time he started feeling better I started to feel bad. I suspected Strep right off the bat and so Monday late afternoon I went in for a throat culture. It was a long wait in the Dr.s office since they were so busy. While sitting there I progressively got sicker. After a nurse finally was able to give me my throat culture I received positive results. I was pretty achy but my throat wasn’t extremely bad so I told the nurse I didn’t need a prescription for painkillers and would continue to just OTC medication along with my antibiotics. I had assumed that I would gradually get better once being on the antibiotics. Instead my throat continued to get worst. I was really bad until Thursday when it seemed to just go away. What a relief! I was well enough to watch Don and Alli’s kids while Alli went to the Dr. Apparently she had caught the strep too. She went in earlier in the week but received a negative culture. By Thursday she was really miserable. I think we are past the point where anyone else in our household can get it. I’m really glad the rest of our bunch didn’t get it.

Balancing being sick and getting through the week was a little tricky. I went ahead and taught piano lessons. I wasn’t sick enough on Monday to cancel, Tuesday I didn’t have lessons, and Wednesday and Thursday I was on antibiotics long enough to not be contagious so I went ahead and taught. Also, Enrichment night was Tuesday night. Along with the Enrichment counselor from the Valleyview ward I was in charge of it and didn’t want to miss it either. We had planned this night several months ago for the Sept 11 enrichment night. Because of the attacks we rescheduled our guest speaker for this night. The speaker was Bill McKee, the Chubbuck Stake President. He is a family counselor and very good. We invited husbands to it, also. He shared a lot of wisdom and answered many questions. Physically I didn’t feel well at all but other than that it was a nice night. I stayed to help clean up afterwards and then left for home to hop in bed.

Wednesday night Mike left for meetings he had in Boise on Thursday. On the way he had apparently talked to Jason and was told that Christi is getting baptized a week before their wedding. That is so cool! We are so happy for them. We think we’ll be able to go to both the baptism and to the wedding.

While being sick earlier in the week, I didn’t get a lot of housework accomplished so on Thursday and Friday I played catch up. Shaylie and Connor were here quite a bit so I also played mediator between the girls and worked hard to make better friends with Connor. He usually doesn’t want anything to do with me but warmed up a little to me. That is when Trevor wasn’t around. Trevor’s his best bud. I was able to rock him to sleep on Friday; Connor that is not Trevor, and carefully left him snuggled up in the rocking recliner. I pulled the girls out of the room and shut the door so he could sleep. I then told the girls they were to play in Kailey and Emilee’s room so they would disturb Connor. They did this really will for about an hour so I thought I could sneak downstairs to change laundry without any problems. When I returned upstairs I could hear the girls still playing in their bedroom with Shaylie but noticed my bedroom door open. When I went back to check on Connor he was sitting up in the chair looking around with his hair all slicked back. The girls had been playing dress up and apparently wanted Connor to look good too.

Yesterday I had music sign ups for Festival on March 9. This is where students perform 2 pieces in front of a judge. Trevor and Melissa went with me and helped me sign up my students along with Alli’s (since she was still sick). I have 8 students signed up this year which is the most I’ve ever had signed up. I’m excited about it but at the same time it’s a lot of work to get so many students ready for it. They can’t really afford to miss a single lesson and so I’m really working hard at fitting in makeup lessons whenever we have a scheduling conflict. Also, during the lesson I feel like we have to really get the most out of the lesson. Since I have a few students that procrastinate memorizing their pieces (which is required) I spend a lot of time teaching them how to memorize and helping them to do so during the actual lesson. Elicia will be in festival for the 3^rd time this year. Since she received superior ratings at both her 1^st and 2^nd Festivals she will receive a trophy this year if she can again receive a superior. After the signing up, Trevor and Melissa bought books for their classes.

On our way home we passed Mike leaving to go up to Crystal Summit for our ward sledding party. He was one of the ones in charge of it so had to be there early to make a bon fire. Trevor, Melissa and I got ready, the kids in their snow clothes and headed up to the mountains. We had around 80 people show up for it. It was a pretty good day for sledding except for a little windy. The hill we sledded down was really slick though which made it fun. I went down with Emilee a few times and just like the last time we went she loved it. We had chili for lunch along with hot chocolate, crackers and snacks.

Last night we went to the ISU basketball game. Don, Alli and kids and Trevor and Melissa went too. They sat in a different spot than us since Mike had tickets from one of his title company friends. Our kids went back and forth during the game. During the 2^nd half I ended up sitting with the others since Emilee wanted to play with Shaylie and Kailey. It wasn’t nearly crowded by Don, Alli and gang so the kids could play more easily. We also didn’t have the coach’s wife standing up in front of us every play so I could see better. The first half was very close but the 2^nd half ISU had at least a 10 point lead most of the game. ISU won the game. I think it was Northern Arizona that they played.

It’s Sunday morning now and I feel like I’m doing pretty good to have this letter almost ready to send off. There are some advantages to our 11:30 church schedule. The afternoons are short but if we can get a lot done in the morning then we can relax in the afternoons. We hope that all is well for everyone. Have a great Sunday!

Love,

Dear Family,

We have been bombarded by snow and we mostly love it! The kids made a big camel in the yard out of snow that they played on a lot yesterday. Keaton isn’t usually one that likes to play in the snow but even he had a good time. I really don’t like driving in it though. For those of you that have been to our home you know that we live on a hill. We have two roads that we can get up the hill on but with snow they are not fun. Last Tuesday I had so many errands to get done and attempted to do them during a snow storm. I had to get Kailey to dance class, which is also on the hill. I had been at the bottom of the hill doing the errands and as I attempted to get up the hill I found several cars stopped in front of me. A school bus was also stopped. Getting up the hill with a little momentum isn’t so bad but once you stop it is really hard to get going. There was a van in front of the bus that was holding everyone up. It eventually was able to turn around and get back down the hill. As the van passed I noticed it was Kailey’s dance teacher. With that I decided there probably wasn’t going to be dance class. Once the bus had some help getting up I decided to make a go for it even though the car in front of me was struggling. I floored it and moving about 5 miles per hour (wheels spinning the whole way) I went around the car and eventually made it up. I was pretty nervous. In the spot I had been stopped it would have been extremely difficult to turn around and even harder to back down the hill with so many cars behind me. Other than that and a little bit of sliding the snow hasn’t been too much of an inconvenience. It’s been so nice having Trevor here because he keeps the driveway and sidewalks clear of snow.

Wednesday morning early, Mike and I left to Las Vegas. He had a Real Estate class to take and decided he would like to take me along. IT was nice having Melissa and Trevor here to watch the kids. They did an awesome job. In fact we could leave more often! :0) Don and Alli helped with the kids when Trevor and Melissa had class. I was very nervous about leaving especially since Melissa came down with Strep a couple days before but with the help of Don and Alli everything worked out (or so they tell me). Major thanks to all of them!

IT took us around 8 ½ hours to get to Las Vegas from Pocatello. Once we got there we checked into our hotel, the Golden Nugget (which was where Mike’s class was to be held). It was on the "old strip". We then went to the "new strip" for dinner. Mike has been talking about the fabulous buffets in Las Vegas for a long time. He took me the first night to his favorite, which is in the Rio hotel/casino. It was an "all you can eat" seafood buffet. We engorged on Lobster tail and crab legs mostly. So yummy! Then Mike thought it would be fun to take me on a Roller coaster ride at New York, New York. I’m not quite sure what is fun about eating a huge amount of food and then riding a roller coaster but we did it! On Thursday during Mike’s class I did a little looking around but after our room had been cleaned I stayed in the room and read. It was so nice!!! To be able to spend all afternoon reading without being disturbed hasn’t happened to me in a long time (if ever!). Again on Friday I did the same, read all afternoon. I started and finished 2 books. In the evenings we hit the buffets (not quite as ritzy as the first one) and again went on roller coasters. After two nights in a row of eating and then going on the roller coasters I convinced Mike it would be much more fun if we did the roller coasters first. So we did. Friday night we drove out to Primm, which is on the California/Nevada state line and road on a HUGE roller coaster. Mike said he believed it was in the top 10 roller coasters of the world. On Saturday we rode the Stratosphere roller coaster and Blast off which is the highest roller coaster ride and also thrill ride in the world. (or at least claims to be). Both are on top of the Stratosphere, which is higher than the Eiffel tower and is only a couple hundred feet lower than the Empire State Building. It is one of those things that you do once just so you can say you’ve done it! LOL

Saturday morning we were able to attend the Las Vegas Temple. It was nice to enjoy a quiet, peaceful, so much different atmosphere. It wasn’t quite as busy and a little bit more laid back then the Idaho Falls Temple, very beautiful though. After our session I informed Mike I was starving (since it was past lunch time and we’d skipped breakfast). He wanted to fill up the car with gas though and also get it washed. While filling up we noticed a group of black men washing cars and Mike thought it would be a better wash then the mechanical wash across the street. It was kind of odd to be sitting there in the car while the men washing it shouted out Praises to Jesus and biblical references. It was comforting to know they were religious though. At first glance I suppose I was a little judgmental and didn’t see that in them. We decided to use the last bit of a $50 food credit we had from our room, at a restaurant in our hotel. IT just so happened that the most economical and quickest restaurant in the hotel was YES, another buffet. And if you haven’t figured it out I will just tell you that we did eat buffets both for lunch and dinner the days we were there. And YES, I did over eat, and YES I did gain weight but boy was it good!!! I’m being good this week though—slim fast and protein shakes :0).

We left for home on Sunday. We were glad to get back Sunday night not only to see the kids but also the roads would have been horrible on Monday. Sunday they were only partially bad the last part of the trip. When we got home the kids were with Trevor and Melissa at Don and Alli’s. We unpacked until the got home. It was good to see them. They were so sweet telling us they missed us and loved us. They had a good time while we were gone though. They got to go sledding and to McDonalds besides all the other fun stuff they did at home. Trevor and Melissa didn’t even seem to mind sleeping with Emilee. In fact, last night Emilee wanted to go sleep with them again. We kept her upstairs though. Now I think I’ve caught myself up. I told myself I just have to sit down and write this morning before I put it off until next week and have 2 weeks to write about. Hope all is well and we look forward to Christi’s baptism on Saturday!

Love,

Shan (and family)

January 27, 02

 Dear Family,

We’re getting more snow this year than we have had in the past several winters I think. Or if we’ve had this much I just don’t remember it. It’s snowing pretty hard right now as I type.

It seems like I just barely sent off a newsletter. Maybe because I was so late getting last weeks out. Not a whole lot happened during the week but maybe I can remember a few things. We taught Melissa and Trevor how to play Pinochle and have been playing it during the evenings. Thursday I was able to go to a birthday luncheon for a lady in my ward. Thursday night we went to Pizza Hut so Keaton could use his "book it" certificate he received for meeting his reading goal. Nothing else, besides the usual routine, really happened during the week. The weekend was a little bit more exciting.

On Friday we picked the kids up after school and headed for Nyssa. While there we played games and visited but our main reason for the trip was to attend Christi’s baptism. She and Jason came over Friday. We played Family Feud with Jason being the host and Rate your Mate. Jason, Christi, Don, Alli, Melissa and Trevor played with us while Kimmi and Elicia read the questions. Mike and I were losers in both games. We were last place in Rate your Mate (like the Newlywed game). You’d think we know each other better after being married for 11 years! I think I know Mike just fine but he doesn’t know himself well enough! He answered some of the questions just plain wrong.

Saturday afternoon was the baptism. We traveled to Weiser. Mike and I left a little early to try and visit my good friend Amy and her family who live in Weiser but they weren’t home. Jason baptized Christi while the rest of us watched on. They kissed before leaving the font, which was the first time most of us had seen that! It was so sweet though. There was a nice program to go along with the baptism. They have a very supportive ward. With ward members, family and friends the Relief Society room was so packed that some people had to listen from the hall. I know because I was in the hall most of the time with Emilee. She was stinker but fell asleep…during the closing prayer. When we got back to Nyssa we had delicious lasagna that Mom had made. We played a card game of Rage and I won! It was the first time I’ve won in a long time!

Today we went to Christi’s confirmation, which was during their ward’s sacrament meeting in Payette. Jason confirmed her. I had goose bumps throughout it. Afterwards Mike and I decided to head for home without going back to Nyssa. It started snowing pretty hard around Burley so we were glad we were able to go through it during daylight. When we got home we had 4-5 " of snow in our driveway with more coming down. I guess Trevor will have a fun chore tomorrow ;0) He claims to like to shovel snow. Mike and I don’t have a problem letting him do it either!

We hope all are well. We’ve been battling a few colds but other than that are happy and healthy.

Love ya,

Shan (and family)

Feb 3, 02

Dear Family,

What a hectic week! We got back Sunday night from Nyssa so Monday morning consisted of unpacking and laundry. I also had to finish getting things together for preschool since this was my week to teach. We have preschool in the afternoon in the nursery room at the church. My teaching companion this half of the year (or should I say semester?) is Rita MacCabe. She is a good friend of mine and it was fun to teach with her. I can tell that the kids are growing up and maturing. They were a little bit better about paying attention. We taught about responsibility and gave each of the 10 children a hard boiled egg to take care of for a few days. They were to nurture it by singing and playing with it. Also, if the egg were to get a "boo boo" they were instructed to care for it with band-aids or give other medical attention to it. On Wednesday they were to bring the egg back to school and report on it. Kailey and Emilee were very excited about this. Kailey named her egg "Cola" . On the way home from preschool Emilee ate hers. Kailey, on returning home, wanted to play with Cola for a while so I let her. When she was finished we returned it to its bed in the refrigerator. A little later she decided she wanted to play with her egg again. She took it to her room and played with it like it was her baby but after awhile forgot about it while watching TV. She came to me a bit later with huge crocodile tears and the remains of Cola in her hands. Apparently Emilee had begun to feast on Cola when Kailey discovered her with the egg. No band-aid could "fix" the damage. I felt bad for Kailey but told her she would just have to put the egg back in her box and make the best of it. Elicia graciously made a sign for the little box. It consisted of three letters R.I.P. By the time Mike came home from work Kailey was still feeling bad. Even though I thought Kailey should suffer the consequences of not being responsible for her egg, Mike was sympathetic for her and made her a new egg. He drew a cute little face on it and hair but made a big mistake by making pants on it because Kailey didn’t want a "BOY" egg! She felt bad all over again. On Wednesday she decided to show the pieces of Cola to the class while Emilee showed the "BOY" egg. After preschool, unknown to the girls, I carefully discarded both eggs into the trash.

Tuesday appeared as if it might have been a more relaxing day for us. We casually got ready in the morning but then my list of pictures that I needed to take came in from the Real Estate Association office and was a lot bigger than usual. As soon as we could I got the girls ready and we headed off to take the pictures. It took about 3 hours even though none of the homes were very difficult to find. After school on Tuesday, Elicia had piano lessons and Kailey and Elicia both had dance class. Following dinner I took Keaton and Elicia to the library. The both picked out several books and read until bedtime (and beyond) In the evenings lately Melissa and I have been working out with weights and taking turns running on the treadmill. Afterwards we play pinochle with the guys. I suppose we taught Trevor and Melissa a little too well because they have been winning us lately.

When I woke up Wednesday morning I knew it was going to be busy because I had 2 visiting teaching appointments (procrastination doesn’t pay off!) , Preschool to teach in the afternoon, another visiting teaching appointment, 3 piano lessons to teach, visiting teachers coming to Melissa and me and after dinner my fourth visiting teaching appointment. About 7:30 am, my visiting teaching companion called and said her daughter was sick so she wouldn’t be able to go with me visiting teaching. A little later Don called and said Alli wasn’t feeling well and wondered if I would check up on her while he went to class. Since my visiting teaching companion’s daughter wouldn’t be in preschool I asked Don if I could take Shaylie with me to preschool and would pick her up right after I finished with my morning visiting teaching appointments. When I went to get Shaylie Alli was really feeling bad so I told her I took Connor also. When we got to the church in the back where the nursery is I noticed graffiti spray painted on the back of the church. It appeared to be gang writing and wasn’t pretty. Being there with 4 little kids and trying to get set up for preschool I just called Mike to see if he had time to make a few phone calls and handle it. He was able to call the Bishop, the person who is over taking care of the church along with the police. Preschool went along as normal. I was able to hold Connor in the sling the whole time. He was very good and slept most of it. A cop came and I had to leave the room to talk with him for a few moments. There were footprints in the snow around where the graffiti was. He asked me to not let anyone walk there until he got back with a camera. I didn’t expect anyone to go back there from our preschool so didn’t worry too much about it until I had to take something out to the van and saw some members of the church trying to clean the paint off the building standing write where they weren’t supposed to be standing. I guess I blew it. When I went out again the cop was back and talking to them so hopefully he was able to find an undisturbed spot to take a picture. After preschool Trevor was home and watched all the kids while I went visiting teaching again. Don came and got Connor while Shaylie stayed and spent the night. The rest of the day fell into place even though I remained quite busy. Mike had his presidency meeting at 9:00, I worked out during it (downstairs of course :0) and following it we played a game of pinochle with Trevor and Melissa.

Thursday morning Emilee, Kailey and I went to a big sale at Dillard’s with a friend of mine and her kids. There was major mark downs on their clearance racks. I bought several things for the kids to put away for school in the fall. It was fun but hard with the kids. Emilee was horrible. She kept wandering off. Thursday afternoon I went grocery shopping. Kailey stayed with Melissa and Trevor but Emilee really wanted to go with me. I’m not sure why I even considered taking her when Trevor and Melissa were able to watch her. She was again a pain to shop with.

Friday wasn’t too eventful I cleaned house and did laundry all day.

Saturday we woke up early, Mike 4:00am and me a bit later. We left a little after 5:00 for Jason’s wedding in Payette. Emilee and Kailey fell back asleep but UNFORTUNATELY Keaton and Elicia stayed awake. I tried to sleep but they kept talking to me. After it started to get light we put on a movie for the kids to watch. We went through a McDonald’s Drive through in Mountain Home for breakfast. We arrived in Payette at about 9:30. The wedding was at 10:00 at Jason and Christi’s church. It was a short and simple ceremony but nice. Keaton and Chris had to "steal the show" by "ooohing" (as in yuck) when Jason and Christi first kissed as husband and wife. I’m glad everybody thought it was funny. They had a nice little reception following the marriage. Afterwards we went to Mom and Dad’s to eat and then headed back to Pocatello.

Emilee Elizabeth Clifford Johnston (as she introduces herself) is doing great. She and Kailey have been playing so well together lately. They of course still fight but not as much. They will play together for sometimes upto an hour with no problems. It is cute when Kailey tells Emilee what to say when they play house. Emilee usually will say exactly what Kailey tells her so I get to hear it twice. Elicia will play with them too from time to time. When Keaton tries to join in it usually doesn’t last as long. He has been such a tease lately!

Kailey is learning to write letters and spell words. She knows a few combinations of words like her name, Mom, Dad but throws together other letters in attempts to make words. I had to laugh when she gave Melissa a "letter" with several letters on the page but one recognizable word right smack dab in the middle, NUDE. It was funny explaining to Kailey that the one word she had not knowingly written meant naked.

Keaton has been hooked on Marvin Redpost books. They are easy reading chapter books. He just read what I wrote and informed me that they are not easy and that he is just a good reader :0) He’s read 6 since we went to the library on Tuesday. He’s read a lot but this is the first time that he’s been "hooked" on a chapter book series. Besides Pokemon. Elicia finds series she likes too. It’s a lot nicer when we go to the library and they already know what they want.

Elicia can be such a big help. As I type this she is getting the little girls ready for church. She has dressed them with shoes and everything and is now fixing their hair. She also gave them breakfast. I think I’ll need to do a few adjustments to their hair but over all they look all right. She is also doing a little bit more babysitting for us. If we are going to be close by and have our cel phones handy we are able to leave her for an hour or so. Last night she babysat the very longest, which was the little girls for a couple of hours. We started a movie for them and let them watch it in Mike’s and my bed. I was going to just be at a lady in our ward’s house (less then 5 minutes away) while Mike and Keaton went to a basketball game. Mike and I got home about the same time and everything was fine.

It’s now time for me to get ready for church and try to get Keaton on the ball. Apparently he doesn’t like Elicia "taking care" of him as she has done the little girls. Hope all is well. CONGRATS TO JASON AND CHRISTI !!! Hope you enjoyed the hockey game.

Love,

Shan (and family)

Feb 10, 02

Dear Family,

From reading Don and Alli’s letter, and then Troy and Pam’s, sounds like we’ve all had a similar type of sickness. Emilee has gotten it the worst out of us. All day Friday, Saturday and off and on Sunday, she was feverish, coughing and even throwing up. She complained about an earache and so I put garlic in her ears and she hasn’t complained since. Kailey has also been coughing and feverish but not quite as bad as Emilee. She still functions, Emilee just lies around or wants to be held. I think it is something that is going around because several children in our ward have it too.

Mike was gone to Boise this week from Tuesday until Friday for meetings. When he’s gone it gives me an excuse to have to stay home a little more. This week he is going to New Orleans for a Real Estate Convention. I hope to be able to do a lot of scrap booking while he’s gone. Unlike Pam, I am SOOOOO behind. I don’t like it when he has to be gone for such a long time but hopefully I’ll distract myself enough to make the time seem to go by quickly. Ever other week does, so why should this one be any different? :0)

Saturday Mike announced he would like to take his girls out on dates. So Saturday morning he began with a date with Kailey. He asked her where she would like to go and she said she really wanted to go to the "Rainbow Store". Meanwhile Elicia began to get ready for her date with Dad. I wonder if she’ll get just as excited when she begins to date boys. She wore a new dress, some of my jewelry and of course perfume. She couldn’t convince Mike to wear a suit though. After Mike and Kailey were gone for a short while, they returned so Mike could take Elicia out. They decided on Dairy Queen, which was a good choice since it was Customer Appreciation day and Blizzards were only $ .89. After Mike and Elicia returned I handed over a sick Emilee to Mike and left for Keaton on a date. We went to Jack in the Box and then after only a little begging on Keaton’s part, we went to DI. He hadn’t been thrilled with his toy in his kid meal and thought he’d have a better chance at DI where there are tons of recycled Fast Food Kid meal toys! Saturday night it was my turn to go out on a date with Mike. We had our adult ward party. With Emilee still sick I decided I’d either have to stay home or take her with us. I thought she would just sit on my lap the whole time since she had wanted to do that all day. But no, she wanted to run around and play the whole time. We did have a really good Taco Bar meal and then played Balderdash with Mike hosting. The group was separated into 7 teams to work together on answers. I kept score. It was fun to hear the silly answers people came up with. I love that game! Afterwards, Mike, Emilee and I went to Dairy Queen for Peanut Buster Parfaits. They were also .89. So good!!!

Yesterday (Sunday) I was released from my calling in the RS Presidency. I’ve known since I was put in that it wouldn’t be a long calling for me since the RS President had already been in for a couple years and was going on 3 years. I at this time do not have a calling besides being a visiting teacher. The Bishop says he wants to meet with me but wants Mike to be there too and with Mike gone last week and leaving this week to New Orleans the Bishop is putting it on hold and letting me have a "vacation". I’m not complaining :0) Our next door neighbor Radene Barker was put in as RS President. She will be wonderful. She is such a neat lady!

Well it is 1:22 am in the morning on Monday and I think I’ll get ready to go to bed. Mike is just about ready to leave for his Dad’s house. From there they will head for Salt Lake to fly to New Orleans. With the Olympics there in SLC they want to make sure that they get to the airport in good time. We hope all is well for each of you. As for me, I’m falling asleep. Take care!

Love ya,

Shan (and family)

February 17, 2002

This week we were "fatherless’ for most of the week. Mike flew to a convention in New Orleans early Monday morning and didn’t return until late afternoon on Saturday. He was very thoughtful to send flowers on Valentines Day. He also called several times (as he does usually) to check up on us. He wasn’t too thrilled that Keaton had left several messages in a row on his phone within minutes while he was in a meeting. He left the meeting thinking that there might be some emergency (caller ID showing several calls coming from home). Keaton just wanted to know if Mike had some tape.

I had decided since Mike was gone I’d pull out my scrapbook "mess" and work on pages in the evenings. On Monday a friend of mine told me about a challenge she and some other friends had and wanted to have me join them. It was to do "28 pages" in the 28 days of February. I was able to get quite a bit done. I have 13 pages to do before I meet the goal.

Wednesday, Kailey had her Valentines Party at preschool. She was so excited to fill out her Blues Clues cards. She had them done a week early! I helped her by telling her how to spell the names but she did all the writing. I think it’s funny how she would run out of room and put the last letter or letters somewhere else on the card. She didn’t want to quit until they were all done. I remember Elicia doing hers for preschool several years ago and she could only handle doing a few at a time before being bored. I was impressed that Kailey really wanted to stick with it and finish them all. During Kailey’s "circus themed" Valentine Party, Emilee was invited to a Valentine Tea Party at Terese MacCabes. I stayed for the 1^st half hour before heading off to do visiting teaching. There were 4 little girls all together. They used Terese’s big sister’s tea set. Emilee drank about 20 cups of kool-aid in her little teacup. It was funny because the tea cup was so tiny she could drink a cupful in one or two swallows. They also frosted sugar cookies.

For Valentines Day, I left Emilee and Kailey with Alli and went to the school to help with Keaton’s Valentines Party. He wanted me to come so badly. I am glad Alli was able to help me with the little girls so I could. I prepared a "cake walk" game for the kids using candy bars for the reward instead of cakes. After I finished the game I thought I had better go and visit Elicia in her class so I did. When I got there she was sitting at her desk nearly in tears. She was so sad because one of the little girls had made half the class homemade cards and gave the other half store bought cards. Elicia didn’t get a homemade one. I gave her a hug and joked with her that at least the store bought one wasn’t a "teletubbie" card. She laughed and started to feel better. Thursday night Trevor watched a movie with the kids while Melissa and I went to play Volleyball. After playing for a little over an hour, we left and went shopping for Valentines for our husbands.

On Friday Shaylie and Connor came over while Alli went back to the doctor. She had found out that she does have Rheumatic Fever from complications from strep. The girls played dress up most of the time. It is Shaylie’s favorite thing to play. Every time she comes over she wants to wear the fancy blue dress in the girls’ dress up clothes. My girls love to play it too. Connor slept the first hour but then wanted to be held most of the rest of the time. A little bit before Don and Alli arrived he decided he wanted to get down and throw things. I think it is so funny that everything you give him he throws. He’s bound to be a ballplayer someday.

Today we talked in Sacrament Meeting. Our topic was on family scripture study. Emilee was the only one excluded but we were proud of her for sitting so nicely with Don and Alli. During the sacrament Kailey very seriously asked me a question. After the bread was passed, she asked me why they give us so little to eat. I think sometimes we assume our children just know things. I explained the sacrament to her a little but think we’ll need to do a better job in a family home evening. That way all of our kids are reminded of the meaning of the sacrament. Kailey gave a talk on Ester from the Old Testament. I whispered the words to her and she repeated what I said. Except I did not tell her to say, "Her was so kind and beautiful". I’m sure people wondered though because I was up there whispering in her ear. Keaton spoke on learning about the scriptures through music. He told of different primary songs, for example "Follow the Prophet", that teach us stories from the scriptures. Following his talk he sang a solo "We’ll Bring the World His Truth" , also know as "The Army of Helaman". He did such a good job. I had a hard time playing the piano because I was so moved by it. Following Keaton, Elicia spoke. She prepared her talk herself and spoke about Abinadi. She didn’t use a paper and spoke in her own words. Even though she was nervous I thought she did an incredible job. When it was my turn, I spoke of different ways to make scripture study a habit in our homes. It has become a habit for us and a blessing in our lives. Mike spoke on ways to make reading the scriptures enjoyable. I was very proud of everyone for doing so well and relieved to have it over with.

This evening Don and Alli came over with dinner (we take turns). After eating we played some cards and around 7:30 Ryan and Susan showed up. They joined us playing cards. We had a good time visiting and eating throughout the night. We called Jason and Christi and had them on speakerphone telling us about their honeymoon. It was fun to hear from them. Ryan, Susan, Don and Alli left around 10:00. Trevor and Melissa are out of town staying at her family’s Cabin.

We are enjoying a long weekend. The kids didn’t have school on Friday and don’t have school tomorrow. The forecast calls for snow so they are hoping they’ll even get more time off. I think by Tuesday I’ll be ready for them to go back to school :o) We hope Troy and Pam’s family can get themselves completely healthy and stay that way for more than a day. We’ve had our share of sickness this year and we’re glad this past week nobody was sick. We also hope Alli will hang in there with her sickness and all will go well for her. Take care everyone!

Love ya,

Shan (and family)

Feb 24, 02

Dear Family,

Another week has gone by. The weather has been warming up and given us a little spring fever. We still have snow, dirty snow but lots of grass patches too. As much as I love the snow I am anxious for this dirty stuff to be gone and for the kids to have fun playing outside. Elicia and Keaton both received bikes for Christmas that haven’t even been put together yet. We keep promising them that as soon as the snow goes away we’ll put them together.

This week has been a fairly normal week, school, work, home etc. The kids did have "fund raiser fever". I know it’s a worth cause (for their school), but it drives me crazy! Both Elicia and Keaton came home from school on Thursday briefly and then were out the doors trying to sell chocolate around the neighborhood. Several other children were doing the same. Both Keaton and Elicia have had "stars in their eyes" thinking they are going to sell $700 a piece worth of chocolate so they can win a little robot thingy. Mike thinks I should have a better attitude and not spoil their "hope". I just don’t think it’s possible and even though I LOVE chocolate I’m not going to be the one to buy $1400 worth of it so they can get their prizes. Any volunteers? Anyway, maybe I should just have a little better attitude.

Friday night, we watched Shaylie and Connor for Don and Alli to go to the temple for their ward temple night. Shaylie, Kailey and Emilee played very well together. They didn’t fight the whole time! We took turns holding Connor. He had a new tooth popping up which made him not to excited to be without his Mom and Dad. He couldn’t make up his mind who he’d rather be with so he went back and forth with us. Greg and Jeff came over with their dates and we played games with them. Connor decided he liked being with Jeff. He also liked being on the table. We had fun playing games. Melissa was able to get Connor to sleep a few minutes before Don and Alli got back. They said they had a good time and we were glad they were able to go.

Saturday morning we took our turn at cleaning the church. Trevor and Melissa helped along with a couple other families in our ward. IT went quickly since there were a lot of us. Mike used a vacuum and vacuumed the chapel. Elicia and Kailey dumped garbage and Keaton helped me a little with washing the glass doors. I enjoy the work. It’s sort of like service but at the same time it’s being responsible for what is partially our own mess too. Anyway it’s good for us.

We have been watching the Olympics throughout the last few weeks and enjoying the different events. I think figure skating has always been my favorite but I also enjoy most of the other events. Yesterday we went to Park City and to Salt Lake for a little bit of the "Olympic Experience" . We didn’t go to any events but just walked around and looked. First we went to Park City. We could see from the parking lot where we parked our car where some of the events were taking place. We got on a bus and road into downtown Park City (there wasn’t public parking available in town.) There was lots of free entertainment to see. There was a garbage can drummer group from Coca Cola. They drummed away while the big Coca Cola Polar Bear danced. It was fun to watch. The bear gave Kailey a big hug. The kids also loved seeing a clown make them balloon gifts. Kailey and Emilee received poodles, Elicia a flower and Keaton a sword. There were also a lot of advertisers from different companies handing out free stuff. We were given hand warmers from Sears, toy monsters from Monsters.com and energy bars from another company. After awhile we got back on a bus and made our way to our van. We had to walk across a very muddy parking lot to get to the van. Our pants were all splattered with mud besides our shoes being muddy. I did the best I could in a patch of snow wiping everyone’s shoes off. We left for Salt Lake. Once getting there, as expected, it was quite crowded. We spent quite awhile finding a parking spot and just as we found one, Emilee threw up. Her coat and pants were mess and there was no way that we could clean her up well enough to have her stay in those clothes. We had friends that had told us to bring snow clothes for the kids and so even though it had been forecasted to be in the 50’s (which it was) we had brought all sorts of stuff. We took off Emilee’s pants and coat and put on her snow pants and jacket. She might have looked a little funny but it worked. We walked around temple square (lots of lights) and enjoyed the visiting center. We then walked around the Olympic square. It was quite a lot of walking to do and we were very hungry and tired by the time we made our way back to the van. On our way home we ate at Golden Corral. I think it is kind of funny the things the kids look forward to eating. Emilee in the van before getting there kept saying she wanted salad and ice-cream. Keaton couldn’t wait for the jello.

Today we have our ward conference. IT’s going to be a little different then usual. We will all meet together for 2 hours and then go home the final hour and meet with our families. Hopefully we can keep everyone happy for 2 hours. We told our kids we would watch our new video "Legacy" after church. IT’s about time to get going so I’d better bring this to a close. Hope all is well for everyone!

Love,

Shan (and family)

March 3, 02

Dear Family,

We just got back from Nyssa and boy do I have a case of spring fever! The weather was SO nice there. I’m getting really anxious for our dirty and old snow to go away.

Monday night Elicia took her turn to make treats for FHE. I decided to just let her do it without my help. She decided to make waffle cookies. I went downstairs to fold laundry while she worked in the kitchen. After awhile Trevor and Melissa came home and asked if I had been upstairs. They thought that perhaps it would be a good idea if I didn’t go up quite yet. When I finally did go up, I was greeted with a HUGE mess. I still don’t know how there could be such a big mess without it being made on purpose. Elicia blamed most of it on Kailey. I had Elicia help clean up but did quite a bit of the clean up myself. The cookies were "different" but tasted alright.

Tuesday night we were able to go to the temple. Alli babysat for us and Trevor and Melissa went with us. After our session we went over to visit with Suzie and Brandon for a few minutes. They have done a lot of neat things in their home. They recently finished the walls in their basement and are getting ready to have carpet put down. It’s going to look really nice.

Emilee is addicted to ABC videos. I’m glad because it’s an easy way to teach her the letters and their sounds. I try to get Kailey to watch the videos with her, but Kailey claims they are for babies. They are actually video’s that the school gave Keaton when he was in kindergarten and it was recommended that the kindergartners watch the videos a few times/week. Kailey does like to write letters though and is constantly writing letters on papers and asking me what it says.

Kailey was invited to a Princess Birthday Party this past week. She was so excited planning on what to wear. We let her wear a fancy dress up dress and put curlers in her hair to make it curly. I also put make up on her and painted her nails. She told me she wanted to have a Princess party too. She has been planning a big party since her last party. She invites anybody and everybody. I don’t know for sure what we’ll do for her birthday but at least we have a couple more months.

I finished my 28 pages for 28 days of scrap booking, barely. I found out that the friend of mine that gave me the challenge along with the others in the group didn’t finish theirs. They said they were starting another challenge though for March, 31 pages in 31 days. I might do it again because it’s a good way to get me caught up. Will that ever happen? I doubt it :0) It’s fun trying though. I love to scrapbook; just don’t like the mess and what happens to the rest of the house while I do it.

Friday night Mike had a meeting in Boise. Since we were already planning on going that direction for Chris’ baptism on Saturday we decided to go and stay with Mike in the hotel. While he was at his meeting we ate at Carls JR and then went swimming in the hotel pool. The kids loved playing in the water. It made me anxious for summer when we can go swimming on a regular basis again. Emilee was more fearful of the water than I ever remember. I took turns walking/running/swimming across the pool with them while racing Keaton while he swam. After swimming for an hour we went back to our room and watched some TV before going to bed. When Mike joined us a little later, bringing with him different types of deserts.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at buffet in our hotel. Afterwards we did some shopping. The baptism wasn’t until 4:00 so after eating lunch at the cheese factory in Nampa we decided to visit with Mike’s cousin Lori and her family who live in Nampa. It was fun to visit them but we kind of lost track of time and also had several little incidents keep us from getting away for the baptism soon enough. Unfortunately we were a little bit late. We did get there in time for my piano solo though. I was getting worried. There stake center was clear out in the country and seemed like it took forever to get there. They also had both of Chris’ grandmothers speak. They did a really nice job. After Troy baptized Chris they had his confirmation. Following the confirmation we had dinner in a building next to the church. It was fun to visit with everyone. Mike and Trevor left from there back to Pocatello. Trevor had to be to work that night and Mike had to teach a lesson today. Melissa went with me to Nyssa. I was glad to have a little bit more time to visit with everyone. Jason and Christi came over and Don, Alli and family were there too.

Today we went to church. It was nice to be there for testimony meeting. I enjoyed hearing from old and new members of the ward. After church we had a superb dinner with Mom, Dad and everyone. After eating I started to gather our stuff. Just a few minutes before I wanted to leave, Dad got a phone call saying that Vear Haile’s house was on fire. I had spent a lot of time in that house with Amy his granddaughter, she being my best friend while growing up. Amy was raised by her grandparents. Mom and Dad suggested I call Amy (in Weiser) to see if she had heard. I got a hold of her and she hadn’t. A little later she called me back and told me that her Grandfather had died and she was on her way over. We waited until she got to Nyssa so I could see her before leaving back to Pocatello. The fire fighters said that her grandfather had died of the smoke inhalation and not the fire itself. They believed he had been sleeping in a back room. Amy was a little shook up but I think she’ll be fine. Her grandfather was old (92?) and Amy knows he’s in a better place now.

We had a pretty uneventful trip home. I enjoyed talking with Melissa while we drove. The kids were pretty good until the last hour when Elicia and Keaton had had enough of sitting by each other. About 30 miles from home we all picked the time that we believed we would arrive home. I think Melissa won. Keaton was pretty close too. It was close to 9 when we got in and ready for the kids’ bedtime. I’m thinking bedtime sounds pretty good right now too. Emilee just discovered Mike’s missing belt! He hasn’t been able to find it for a couple of weeks. We had thought we had looked everywhere! It turned up in our big crayon bank. Without Emilee I don’t know if we would have found it anytime soon even though we knew it had to be in the house. Belts just don’t usually fall off when you’re out and about. Since I can’t think of anything else to write about I suppose I’ll just close. We love you all and hope all is well.

Love,

Shan (and family)

March 10, 02

Dear Family,

I’m going to start backwards today so I won’t have to remember everything. First of all, today I received a new calling. I’ve been called to be in the Young Women’s presidency. I’m a little nervous about it. Not that I don’t think it’ll be fun, but that it’ll be quite busy. When I was in Young Women’s a year ago I was an advisor and that kept me pretty busy. The counselor was at least twice as busy as I was though. I’ll be over the beehives and that will be fun. All the girls in there were there when I was in before so I already know them pretty well. I was put into an existing presidency. The lady that I took the place of was the same lady that was released as Enrichment Counselor in the RS when I was put in. I told her it seemed as if I was following her and if they ever put her in as RS president we’re moving :0)

Yesterday was music festival. I helped in the morning getting the students into the rooms with the judges and listening in. I worked with Alli. She helped with the paper work at the front desk. Elicia received a superior rating which we were very pleased with. She will now get a trophy for accumulating 15 points (3 superiors)! I was pleased with some of my student’s scores and disappointed with others. I’m glad it’s over with though. I worry about it a lot more than I probably should.

After festival I cleaned house really hard. Keaton had been babysitting (Trevor was here too, but sleeping) and the place looked like Keaton had been babysitting. Actually it wasn’t horrible but needed a good cleaning. Mike arrived home from being in Seattle all week around 3:30. We are always happy to have him home. Last night our friends the Lukers came over. We ate homemade pizza, played pinochle and Balderdash.

Friday night Trevor and Melissa babysat for me so I could attend a "Mom’s night out" with a dice club I’m in. There are several other ladies in my ward besides a few others that were there too. We had a good time.

Wednesday and Friday I took my turn teaching Preschool. We had every kid there both days which with Emilee and the other teacher’s little girl we had a total of 12 kids. We did fun things like make little pizzas, practice letters in shaving cream, make pinwheels and lots of stories and games. We talked about the letter P and had snacks that went along with it.

Thursday night Melissa and I played volleyball. We played against Alli’s ward at first. I can’t remember who won. It was fun though. It had rained all day but by the time we were leaving to come home (10:00) it was snowing and blowing really hard. We had a difficult time making it up the hill. Since Melissa was planning on driving Trevor to work at midnight I told her I’d wait up with her and take them. (the van isn’t the best on snow but we do have studded tires). We went the back way off the hill, which is a little bit easier, but it was still really snowing and blowing.

Monday and Tuesday the kids didn’t have school. Monday for teacher’s record day, and Tuesday because the teachers went to a statewide strike at the capital building. Apparently the teachers aren’t pleased with the budget that the legislature is giving them for Education. Elicia and Keaton enjoyed their days off.

I think I covered most of everything. I hope everyone is doing well!

Love ya,

Shan (and family)

 Dear Family,

Earlier in the week I thought our last little strip of snow in the front yard would surely be gone by the end of the week. Instead we were hit with another big snow storm a few days ago. It also has snowed yesterday and is supposed to snow more today. If it was November I think I’d be more excited about the forecast. I’m ready for spring though.

Mike started teaching his Real Estate Class at ISU this past week. He taught Monday night through Friday night from 6:00-10:00 and then again Saturday morning. He’s had a hard time getting enough sleep. One night he was up until 3:00 am preparing for the class and then leaving for work the next morning around 8:00. It’s a two week class and so he’s ½ way finished. He seems to enjoy it and it’s a way he can recruit new agents to his office.

Tuesday evening would have been my first night in my new calling as the beehive counselor but since it was camp night we didn’t have mutual. Instead I went with the kids out to eat at Golden Coral (kids night .99 cents). We met my friend Lisa Chambers and her kids there. Lisa’s husband was out of town so we thought we take a night out together. I’m not sure if a total of 8 kids and us two adults equals relaxing but we did have a good time.

We went to the rodeo on Saturday afternoon. Mike taught his class in the morning and then met us at the rodeo at 12:00. Prior to leaving I was explaining to Kailey what a rodeo was all about. I told her she would see lots of people riding horses. She was excited and said she wanted to ride a horse. After getting there the first event was the Bucking Broncos. I asked Kailey if she still wanted to ride a horse, she shook her head and said "no way". We had a good time. The kids loved it when the clowns threw out Frisbees. Kailey and Elicia both caught one but Elicia gave hers to a friend of ours’ little daughter. Later they were handing them out as we were leaving so each of the kids received one. After we returned home we attempted to take naps. Mike was the only successful one. He was probably the most tired of us too. The kids and I played CLUE. Later we went and got Icee’s at Common sense. It’s cheap (29 cents) and fun for the kids. Later after getting Emilee to sleep and the other kids ready for bed, Mike, Melissa, Trevor and I went out to eat at Golden Coral. I ate way too much. That’s typical of me though. I "pay" for it afterwards.

I’m working on balancing my new calling with homelife. I already love the beehives and I’m excited about that part of my calling. The time away from home is what I’ll struggle with the most. This morning I had to leave Elicia babysitting while I went to a meeting. I’ll probably have to use her quite a bit. I’m glad she is willing and does a good job. Trevor and Melissa spoke in church today and gave excellent talks on gratitude and not murmuring. I’ve been thinking about it a lot today and I’m trying to have a better attitude.

I have a Youth Fireside to go to in just a few minutes so I’ll bring this to a close. I hope all is well for everyone and I’m glad Jason and Christi have hot water again. I don’t think I could last 3 days! Take care!

Love, Shan (and family)

Dear Family,

Spring is really trying to make an appearance. We will have a few days of beautiful weather (60’s) and then it will cool off again. The snow is completely gone off our front yard, though! I think it will take quite a few more days to get it to disappear in the backyard. I was able to find our bicycle pump so the kids took advantage of the nice days riding their bikes. Kailey tried to ride her bike a few times but after falling down hasn’t been as exited. Melissa told her a story about when she was little and how she kept falling down and getting back up and eventually learned to ride her bike. Hopefully that will help inspire Kailey.

I had a couple different activities for Young Women’s this week. We played volleyball for a joint Y.W/Y.M activity. IT was so much fun. I was surprised that so many could play well. On Wednesday, I got together with the other leaders to work on birthday gifts for the girls. We water painted samplers of the Y.W’s values and then we are framing them for their birthdays throughout the year. I was a little stressed about having to leave my kids but it worked out. I really enjoy the girls in my class. They are a fun group of girls. Right now there isn’t a beehive advisor so I’m anxiously waiting for one to be called.

The kids and I have been playing a lot of the game Mastermind lately. I love the game and I’m glad Keaton and Elicia can play it too. Kailey tries to play but doesn’t quite understand what she is doing. Emilee likes to play with the pieces and make designs. I find it a good way to reward the kids for doing something they’re supposed to be doing. Like I’ll tell one to go make their bed or to fold their laundry and then we’ll play a quick game. IT usually only takes 5 or 10 minutes to play a game.

Mike finished teaching his Real Estate class yesterday morning. It will be nice to have him around. After having him gone for a week to Seattle and then teaching for two weeks we haven’t seen him much this month. It’s close to the end of the month and our chances of getting to the temple this month were getting very narrow. We took the first opportunity and went yesterday after Mike finished teaching. After making plans with Don and Alli to watch our kids we dropped them off at the stake center where Alli and Don were. Don was playing in a basketball tournament. They later drove with all the kids to Idaho Falls and met us in the parking lot. We had hoped to finish with our 1:00 session and make it out so that Don and Alli could trade off and get into the 3:00 session. It turned out that the 1:00 session was a live endowment session with 6 or 7 people going through for the first time. That meant lots of family and friends and they were given the priority of getting into the session. It was packed but we made it in. Just didn’t get out until after 3:00, which meant Don and Alli missed the 3:00 session. They decided to visit the cafeteria and take their time getting ready for the 4:00 session. We went to Suzie and Brandon’s and visited for a while. They have fixed up their family room really nice and just barely bought new furniture for it. Connor wasn’t to thrilled about being there until he met Calvin the cat. The kids loved playing with Calvin. After returning home Mike and I decided to work on our taxes. It’s such a pain but we’re nearly finished now. Even though I wanted them done in February, we usually wait until close to April 15. If we get them in this week we’ll be doing great.

I think I’ve about covered the week already. I just can’t seem to think of many things that have happened besides the ordinary routine of things. We hope all is well for each of you and your families. Have a great week!

Love,

Shan (and family)

March 31, 02’

Dear Family,

Easter really snuck up on us this year! It’s a nice beautiful day out and although not typical of a Pocatello Easter, we’ll take it! I love to be able to go to church without finding coats or jackets for everyone. Finding shoes is hard enough. Mike didn’t have meetings this morning and so we both planned on sleeping in. Elicia woke me up early though. She was wondering if she could look in her Easter Basket yet. Within an hour all the kids were awake. I decided to get up and review my lesson. I taught my beehives a lesson on Eternal families. My favorite part of being in Young Women’s is being able to teach. I love teaching the Young Women. My class is really smart and threw out some deep questions. Some I did my best to answer but others I didn’t. I told them they needed to have faith in our Heavenly Father and that if we do as we are commanded we’ll be happy. After church we ate some lunch and then watched the living scriptures video "He Has Risen". I think the kids have had their fill on candy. I emptied their baskets into small bags and put them in the cupboard without them knowing it. I wasn’t trying to hide it, just didn’t want it on the cupboard. That was this afternoon and it just dawned on me that NONE of them have asked where their Easter Baskets and candy have went.

This weekend we were given a bunk bed that we put in Kailey and Emilee’s room. It’s the full on bottom, single on top kind. The girls have as much fun playing on it as they do sleeping on it. It takes up a lot of room in their bedroom though so I’ll need to get it organized in the next few days. I would like to get several rubber made cartoons that can easily be hidden underneath the bed.

Wednesday afternoon, Mom, Dad, Kimmi and Riley showed up. I was nearly done teaching my last piano lesson so it was good timing. We are glad they chose to spend some of their Spring Break with us. It’s so much fun to play games, shop, eat and visit together. On Thursday, they left for Malad to visit with Grandma Pett.

Thursday I taught the girls at achievement day a lesson on exercise. I showed them weights, videos, and other exercise equipment and let them try them out. I also taught them a few steps. At the end everyone did an aerobic dance together. Thursday night I went visiting teaching with Melissa and when we returned home, Ryan and Susan were here. I visited with them while everyone else finished watching Survivor. Then all of us talked for a while before Ryan and Susan headed to Don and Alli’s to spend the night.

Friday afternoon, Mom, Dad, Riley and Kimmi came back from Malad. With them, Ryan and Susan and all of us Pocatello crew we had quite the houseful. We ate Navajo tacos (thanks Don and Alli) and nachos for dinner then visited for a while before playing RAGE the card game.

Saturday morning was our Ward Easter breakfast and egg hunt. Mike had to be there early to help prepare the food. We had pancakes, ham and sausage. I helped line up the Easter Egg hunt along with several Young Women and a couple other ladies. We hid the eggs around the outside of the building. Then we divided the children up into 3 groups: Sunbeam/nursery, Jr. Primary and Senior Primary. Each family was to bring enough eggs so that each of their children participating would receive 10 eggs. Then the children were only to pick up that amount. I think it works out well because it guarantees each of the children some eggs. Mom helped Emilee find her eggs. She said Emilee knew exactly what to do and found her eggs very quickly. I had walked over to where the nursery children were to get a picture and she was already finished. After our wards’ hunt, we went to another Easter Egg hunt. IT was the NAACP one. Dad and Mike gave us a hard time for going to it but it was for the community and HUGE. Tons of children were there. Emilee and Shaylie did quite well. Kailey found one and Keaton, Elicia and Kimmi walked away empty handed. Emilee and Shaylie won several prizes so we waited in a very long line to claim them. They one mostly pop but Shaylie won candy too. Afterwards we went to grocery outlet. The kids were able to have their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny, get a balloon and win prizes by spinning a big wheel. There were also free nachos and hotdogs. We had a good laugh when Mom and Dad told us how a pink bunny had fallen off the register (or from somewhere) onto the conveyer belt with Dad’s groceries. Dad told the checker he didn’t want it but the guy must not of heard or paid attention because he charged Dad for it. He told Dad he was new and didn’t know how to void yet. Dad traded the pink one for a blue one for Keaton…who wanted to buy the blue one with the money he had won spinning the wheel. Since Dad had bought the bunny for Keaton, Keaton went back to find something else to spend his ‘free money" on. He found some gum and was given back change. Keaton thought that he had "scored" better then he had at the easter egg hunts! An Easter bunny, gum and change back when he had went into the store with nothing! It was kind of a funny confusing mess. Later in the afternoon we went to Golden Coral for dinner. It was good…gotta love that place!

I think I’ve covered most of the week and what I haven’t is probably not that interesting anyway. Hopefully you’re all well!

Love,

Shan(and family)

April 8, 2002

Dear Family,

I’m a little slow getting this letter out but don’t want to have to do a "two weeker" so it’s going to be sent out tonight—or perhaps early tomorrow morning. I need to not let playing cards with Trevor and Melissa all night take precedence over sending out a family letter! Playing cards seems to have become part of our nightly ritual though. We put the kids to bed and then start dealing out the cards. We also make "smoothies" in the blender quite often. We throw together frozen fruit, juices and whatever else we find that we think might taste good.

Monday night, last week, for Family Home Evening we had a short lesson working on the 10^th article of faith. Then Trevor and Melissa, who were in charge of the activity, treated us to a trip to the dollar store. Prior to FHE we had a hard time getting Keaton to come inside. We decided that since it was April Fools we would play a joke on him. Mike was working late and wasn’t with us but Trevor, Melissa, the other kids and I snuck out of the house and got into Trevor and Melissa’s car. We started to drive away with Keaton running as fast as he could behind us. He thought we were going to the Dollar store without him and was very upset. We ended up turning around just up the street and went back. Keaton was relieved and quickly joined us for our Family Home Evening lesson. We then took our "real" trip to the dollar store.

For Young Women’s on Tuesday night we went to the Institute at ISU to see "Noteworthy", which is an LDS singing group. Jeff is in the group. I would say he did an absolutely, incredibly fabulous job on his solos, but the theme of their production was pride, so I won’t say it. I don’t want it to go to his head ;o) I was so glad we were able to go to it. It had a very good message besides being entertaining.

Thursday I celebrated another birthday. Boy do they have a way of sneaking up on us! I, unlike Kailey, don’t count down the 365 days I have until I’m another year older! Thursday I had a great day. A good friend of mine, Rita MacCabe, invited me for lunch along with a couple other friends. Then in the evening after playing volleyball my friend Karen McCabe treated Melissa and me to ice cream. On Friday a bunch of other friends in my ward invited me over for a little birthday celebration. You get 8 ladies together and you can’t help but have a good time. Friday night Mike and I spent the night at the West Coast Hotel. He had went earlier and checked in. Along with checking in he stocked the room with snacks and set out a dozen red roses. I was very surprised and pleased. We had dinner in the hotel dining room and then spent nice evening together.

Friday Elicia wanted to celebrate her birthday at school since her birthday falls during Spring Break. Instead of having a "friends party" this year I told her we’d go "all out" for her school birthday party and let her bring a piñata filled with candy. Also, Mike sent Elicia flowers and balloons, which she was thrilled about. I went to pick her up after school and she was just beaming as she walked out with the flowers, balloons and what was left of the piñata. Friday night Keaton went to a sleepover. The boy that was having the sleep over was sick last week when it was originally planned. Then earlier this week, his house flooded because of a left on faucet. They went ahead and had the sleepover at his grandmother’s house. Keaton said they ate pizza and then went to see "Harry Potter". The rest of the time he claims they mostly played football.

Saturday we listened to conference throughout the day. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The speakers are truly inspired. There were so many things said that I feel like I need to incorporate into my life. I look forward to rereading several of the talks. Just before the Priesthood session, Darren and Karen McCabe and family came over. The men went to the Priesthood session while Karen and I visited and reminisced about our times together in high school and college. Melissa came up and joined us too. The kids played and swam in the hot tub. We made homemade icecream It looked great but tasted AWFUL! Emilee was the only one that liked it. IT was worth it though to watch Mike try to eat it. He ended up taking the whole canister and dumping it in the sink. I guess we won’t try the "just add water..mixes" they have at Wal*Mart again. After the Priesthood session, we played a game of RAGE and then "3-13". Both games were a lot of fun. We laughed a lot.

Sunday we again listened to conference. After the morning session we went to Mike’s parent’s home for lunch. We had a good time eating and visiting with everyone. Mike and I played the game "Sequence" with Greg and Grandma Sundrud. Mike and I started out winning every game but then they started to win and wouldn’t let us quit until they had won more than us ;o) The kids got to go on a hike with Grandpa in the backyard (which is a nice wooded area going up a hillside). Every time they go they beg Grandpa to take them on a hike. When I told them we were going to Grandpa’s, Elicia immediately said she hoped Grandpa was planning on taking them on a hike. Thanks Jim!

Today is the beginning of Spring Break so I’ve had the kids home all day. Emilee was in charge of treats for FHE. I let her pick out a recipe from the cookbook (Mrs. Field’s Cookie cookbook, with pictures). She picked out a chocolate, marshmallow, and chocolate chip cookie recipe. I needed to get some sugar from downstairs and when I came up I noticed she had started without me. She had mixed a few things together and added extra flour. I tried to scoop out as much flour as I could and then just added the rest of the ingredients. I guess it didn’t hurt the cookies because they still tasted good to everyone. I don’t think we could duplicate the recipe though. This evening we had our scripture study, sang a few songs and then went to look at some vacant homes for Trevor and Melissa. Mike bought us "icees" at Common Cents and the kids watched a movie in the van while we drove around. We also looked at a home that I’ve fallen in love with. It’s a bit out of our price range, but still fun to think about the possibilities. I told Mike when we were driving up the hill to come home that since he was in charge of the FHE lesson tonight that he needed to some how come up with a correlation with looking at houses. He told the kids that it is important to always keep their rooms clean. Not sure how that fit, but it’s a good enough message for me!

We have had some nice weather but it has been very windy! Kailey and Emilee came in yelling that a "Tomato" was coming after them. After a few minutes of trying to figure out what they were talking about I realized they meant a "Tornado" was coming because of all the wind. I love the warmer temperatures though. The girls constantly want to play outside. Kailey is getting better at riding her bike. Maybe sometime this summer she’ll be able to ride it without training wheels. Emilee zooms around on the other various "ride on" toys.

Mike spent a lot of time cleaning out his office here at home. Elicia enjoyed helping him. She liked be given the "junk" Mike was planning on throwing out. Currently we have a garage full of garbage. I’m anxious to have the garbage come tomorrow so I can fill up the dumpster again. I was glad Mike was getting rid of so much stuff. I need to go through some closets throughout the house now and dejunk them.

I’m just about ready to finish this letter and noticed the time. 10 years ago I was in very hard labor at this time and nearly ready to deliver a beautiful baby girl! I can’t believe Elicia is turning 10! Time really flies. What a special part of our family she is. We love her so much! Tomorrow will be fun celebrating her birthday. Happy Birthday to Mom too! We look forward to being in Nyssa for a few days this week also. We hope all of you are well and happy!

With Love,

Shan (and Family)

April 14, 02

Dear Family,

This week we celebrated Elicia’s birthday. Tuesday morning she came in to remind me that it was her birthday. IT was Spring break and I had been sound asleep. I woke up and made German Pancakes for her for breakfast. I tried to make it special with orange slices on the side and a mug of hot chocolate. I usually don’t go all out on breakfast during the week so it was something special for her. We had wanted her to hold off opening presents until Mike was home but sometime during the midafternoon I gave into her asking and let her open them. We gave her a bathrobe and bath items (shampoo, lotion, shower gel, etc), a pair of sandals and a new camera. Suzie and Brandon had a gift for her at Mike’s office which we went and picked up too. IT was an art set, which she loves. Wednesday morning when she woke up she found a gift from Trevor and Melissa, a Looney Toon book. She took it with her on our trip to Nyssa and had fun reading it with Kailey. Grandma and Grandpa Pett gave her a Harry Potter musical globe. She thinks it’s "way cool". Tuesday evening we went to Golden Corral for Elicia’s birthday dinner. She was sung to by the waiters and waitresses, which was fun. She claims to be embarrassed by it but secretly I think she was pleased. After dinner we visited Greg and Jim at their office and Jim gave the kids chocolate, extra chocolate to Elicia and me for our birthdays. WE then looked at a few houses, just for fun.

Wednesday afternoon we had planned to leave for Boise at 3:00 pm. IT ended up being 5:00 since Mike went to Les Schwab to have our snow tires taken off. We are doing well this year to have them off by the deadline! Our trip to Boise was uneventful. We debated on whether to stop in Burley for something to eat or to make it all the way to Boise. Since we had snack foods we went all the way to Boise. We called Jason and Christi to see where they recommended we could go for dinner. Since we were in the mood for Chinese, they suggested The Great Wall. IT was really good even though I sampled something (I’m not sure what) that was hotter then anything I’ve ever had in my life. It took several minutes of drinking cool water for my mouth to be back to normal. The rest of the food was great. The kids ate numerous dishes of red Jello. We stayed Wednesday night with Mike in his hotel. There was a Disney Movie on, "Just Like Dad", and we watched it while going to bed.

Thursday morning Mike left for a meeting while the rest of us slept in until 10:00 am. I was glad because I didn’t have the van to take the kids somewhere to get breakfast and the hotel prices were way too expensive. By sleeping in, we only had to wait 2 hours for Mike to be back. We then went for lunch at Burger King. Following lunch, I dropped Mike off back at the hotel (where he had more meetings) and left with the kids for Nyssa. We visited with Mom for awhile before Kimmi came home from school. Elicia and Kailey had gone to meet her but went to the wrong place and missed her. Mom and I had to go to the school looking for them. Thursday night we watched Survivor. Later we looked at several slides that Troy had converted onto a disc so it could be put on the computer. AT least that’s what I think he did. Kailey and Emilee loved looking at the pictures of me when I was little. They also liked the ones Mom had put on a slide show of them. As I was putting Emilee to bed that night she told me I was mean to leave Daddy at the hotel. She said she thought he was very sad by himself.

Friday morning Mom and I worked out to a new STEP REEBOK video she had. It was pretty intense but fun. I might buy one for myself. Afterwards we got ready for the day and with the kids hit some yard sales. WE had a good day and were exited about all our finds. Friday afternoon Jason and Christi came over and they had Mike. I was so surprised and happy! He had planned on riding home to Pocatello with his Dad but changed his mind and found a ride to Payette where he was dropped off at Jason and Christi’s. Jason and Christi stayed for dinner. Even though Christi wasn’t up for eating much. She’s sick with her pregnancy. I sure feel for her. Definitely been there! Hang in there Christi, it will get better!

Saturday we packed up our things and got ready for a picnic/barbeque at Uncle J’s car lot. It was so cool to get to see so many relatives I hadn’t seen for quite awhile. Our drive home was pleasant until Mike got a call from Mom telling us that I had left my purse. I was then stressed out. We worked it out that Mike would get it when he was back in Boise, which so happens to be today. We got home last night and then this afternoon he turned around and went back for more meetings this week. He’ll be gone until Wednesday.

Today a Beehive advisor was called to help me out. I had been thinking of names to turn in but the people I wanted weren’t going to work out. The whole time I was praying about it, a certain name (or person because I wasn’t sure of what her first name was) kept "nagging" me. I kept dismissing the name because I just don’t know the lady very well. Today I found out that they had found an advisor for me, (without telling me) and it just so happened it was this lady whose first name I didn’t know but face I kept seeing. I love teaching the Young Women and this will make my calling a little easier for me.

After church Mike left for Boise. He decided to drive on to Nyssa and pick up my purse. I will now be much more careful in the future and hopefully won’t ever leave it somewhere again. I know Mike won’t let me if he can help it. This evening Trop, Pam, family and Pam’s Grandma came for dinner on their way home from Utah. They are spending the night at Don and Alli’s. Melissa made some super yummy Chicken Coeur don blu. With mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies, Jello and rolls we made a great meal. We visited and played some Balderdash too. Elicia begged us to play with her. We both love that game but it takes some persistence to get others to play with us. Alli ended up winning. I usually do pretty good but tonight was an "off" night for me.

After everyone left and I got the kids to bed, I did dishes and then worked on my lessons for preschool this week. The actual teaching is pretty fun but the preparing for it takes time and isn’t as much fun. Emilee is excited she gets to go with this week (since I’m teaching). She pretty much fits in with the rest of the kids. I think I covered the week. We hope all is well for all of you. We love you!

Love,

Shan (and family)

April 21, 2002

Dear Family,

I nearly put in my subject something about the snow this past week. It has been incredible! Monday morning it was raining, turned to snow around noon and by dinnertime we had around 10 inches on the bench that we live on! I felt bad that the kids had to walk home in it from school. They both had only jackets and Elicia was wearing sandals! I didn’t want to drive anywhere since the roads were so horrible. Before going to Nyssa the week before Mike had gotten our snow tires off. He wanted to make sure they were off before April 15, which is the deadline for having snow tires on in Idaho. We didn’t realize that on April 15^th we were going to have the biggest snowfall of the year! It continued snowing throughout the night. Tuesday morning with the snow and wind together the roads were pretty bad. School was cancelled, even ISU! When Elicia woke up I told her she could go back to bed but she said "no way! It’s a snow day!" I made pancakes while Trevor, Melissa, Elicia and Keaton played RACKO. It was a fun morning. It stopped snowing around 9 or 10 and then warmed up to close to 60 degrees! All the snow was melting so fast that we had rivers running down our streets. On Friday it snowed really hard again and we received another 4 or 5 inches of snow. School wasn’t cancelled this time. Again, by the end of the day the snow was melted. That’s my type of snow! Very pretty winter wonderland in the morning and in the afternoon it’s gone and the kids are playing outside on their bikes.

If you haven’t seen Emilee you are probably wondering about my subject line. So I’ll not keep you in suspense. Wednesday afternoon she was with the kids watching TV in the family room. I heard screaming and Elicia brought Emilee up to me. She explained that Emilee had been rocking on top of a tall stool and that she had fallen off backwards and the stool fell on top of her with the edge of the seat smashing into her forehead. She had a huge "goose egg" on her forehead. I held her and rocked her and debated whether I should take her to the DR. After a few minutes of crying (mostly because I was trying to keep ice on her head) she got down and wanted to go play. I decided to keep and eye on her and just see how she was doing for a while. She didn’t complain anymore about her head even though it looked horrible. The next day her forehead seemed to be even more swollen. It was not attractive, but nothing compared to what she looks like now. Her forehead has a nasty black, purple and yellowish bruise on it and it’s spread down around her eyes. She looks similar to a football player or somebody wearing mascara while crying. Today at church everybody that saw her wondered what had happened. I asked Emilee what her nursery teachers said. She told me that they looked at her and said "Oh poor baby!". I’m so relieved that she is doing fine and that the swelling went down. I know the bruise will gradually fade and in the mean time I think Emilee enjoys telling her story to everyone.

Last Sunday, Mike headed back to Boise for meetings. I had accidentally left my purse in Mom and Dad’s car and so he drove all the way to Nyssa to retrieve it for me. I was glad he was able to get it. It was really a pain not to have it. The meetings lasted until Wednesday and then Mike was able to travel home.

Tuesday night we had our ward talent show. I helped, as the narrator, in my beehive class’ skit. Today at our Youth Meeting a member of the bishopric chastised all the Young Women and the Young Men with the exception of the beehives for not being involved in the talent show. I was proud of my beehives! Elicia performed twice in the talent show. She played a piano solo, "Pumpkin Boogie" and also was in a dance with the others in her dance class. She told me it was a dance from Fiddler on the Roof. IT was very cute!

Friday night was my "bonkos" night with my lady friends. I was so ready to get out of the house. Emilee had spilled a gallon of milk on the kitchen floor earlier, Kailey had cut holes all over our basement couch covers and Emilee had written with permanent marker on her table and bookshelf. There were spaghetti noodles on the floor and peas all over the table when I left. Mike was very good to have it cleaned up and the kids in bed when I returned home.

Saturday we were able to accomplish quite a bit during the day. Mike took two trailer loads of junk and yard waste to the dump. He also hauled a load of stuff to DI. I worked on the yard and also the garage while he was gone. Emilee went with him and the older kids were invited to go to a movie with Don, Alli and family.(Mega thanks guys!) It was nice to be able to work without any distractions. Between loads to the dump Mike, Emilee and I went out and took pictures of homes for the association office and also Mike’s company. We took 19 pictures altogether in just over 1 ½ hours which is really fast. After working all afternoon, Mike and I went with a couple friends of ours out to dinner. We went to a Mexican restaurant called Senior Iguanas. We had a good time visiting but didn’t come close to eating all of our food. They served us HUGE portions. Since we weren’t going to be gone very long we left Elicia in charge. When we arrived home I was so pleased that she had been cleaning up the house. She had made the kids a small dinner, cleaned up everything and had put all the dishes in the dishwasher too. As hard as it is to see her grow up, it is so nice that she is learning to do so much. She loves to cook and so I try to teach her things all the time. Sometimes she doesn’t care much for my advice but in time I think it will help her. She would like to create recipes more often but I told her that she would have to earn money to pay for the ingredients if she did very much "inventing". I’m a little reluctant to have her dropping bags of chocolate chips, marshmallows and whatever else is "yummy" in the cupboard into a big pot to see what happens. She does have a couple of her own cookbooks, which she uses recipes from quite often.

Later Saturday evening Greg and Jeff came over to play cards. We played a game of RAGE with Elicia and Keaton joining us. Keaton won and hasn’t let us forget it. After putting the kids to bed we played another game that Greg had learned about on his mission. After the games I worked on my lesson.

We had a pretty normal Sunday today. It was nice out so after dinner, Melissa, Alli and I went for a walk. I pushed Emilee in the stroller where she slept most of the time. When we returned we played RAGE and 3-13. We also ate Melissa’s Dutch Oven apple cobbler. It was really good. It is now past midnight so I think I oughta just send this and go to bed. I always remember things I could write about after I push send but I’m tired enough to not care right now. Hope all is well with everyone!

Love,

Shan (and family)

Dear Family,

We’ve had a very busy and full week. Being the end of the month just makes life hectic. I put off visiting teaching until this past week and also going to the temple, which we didn’t make yet. I also had a stake Y.W’s meeting besides our regular night of mutual. It just seemed like everyday was full and busy.

Emilee’s bruises, which I talked about in my last letter, are starting to fade. Still new people notice them everyday. I’ve told the story of how it happened so many times. The kids, including Emilee, have told it several times too. My neighbor asked me if she had fallen off the RV to get them. I told her no but asked why. She said she had seen Emilee up there recently. That little stinker just isn’t afraid of climbing.

Kailey went to a birthday party on Saturday. It made her all the more excited to have a birthday party of her own. I suppose I should start thinking about it since we only have 8 days left.

We went to the library early on in the week and Keaton checked out as many Marvin Redpost books as he could find. He’s read them all before at least once but wanted to do so again. I’m glad he loves to read them but would like him to try another series sometime.

Elicia made honor roll this time on her report card. We were so pleased with her for bringing her grades up as high as she did. The past couple of grading periods she received low grades in several subjects, mainly because she wasn’t turning in all of her work. Since she had nothing lower than a B this time, Mike promised her a trip to TCBY. They were able to go Wednesday evening. Elicia ordered a "fancy" parfait.

Thursday evening after my stake meeting I changed and went in the gym to play volleyball. When I got there Trevor and Melissa told me I needed to call Mike. I called home and Mike asked me if I wanted to go to Utah over the weekend and be an "extra" in a Disney movie. Apparently Eric had called him and asked us along with other siblings to come join him in doing so. We worked out the babysitting with Trevor, Melissa, Don and Alli and arranged to go Friday evening. We had originally planned on going to the Temple that night after babysitting for Don and Alli while they went. We did baby-sit but decided to try to go to the temple on Tuesday instead. We left for Utah about 7:30 pm. Suzie and Greg came with us. We had fun talking but not so much fun driving through a storm. When we got to Riverton, about 10:00, we stopped at Ruby Tuesday, the Restaurant where Cindy works. I think she was pretty surprised to see us. Since it was late she wasn’t extremely busy and was able to visit with us while we ate. We stayed for an hour and then left for Eric’s house in Orem. He lives just 2 doors down from Uncle Tom and Aunt Georgia! What a small world! Eric showed us some of the things he’s been working on and some video’s of shows he’s helped produce or has been in. We then went to bed. Early the next morning we got up, ate breakfast that Mike and Eric made and then headed for the movie shoot. It was raining and we were worried that they might cancel. When we arrived we were told even if it was cancelled we would all still be paid since Disney has insurance. We were shuttled in busses to a large tent where we filled out paper work, ate breakfast (I wasn’t hungry since we had already had breakfast) and then sat and waited for a wardrobe person to come and check what we were wearing. It was pouring rain by this time and very windy out. We played cards for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. Finally, Mike and Eric were taken to a place where they were shooting a scene with disgruntled fathers. They decided both Mike and Eric didn’t fit the part of disgruntled fathers so they were sent back. Suzie and Greg had to leave for a scene also. Around 3:00 we had a lasagna, spaghetti dinner. Following that, the weather had cleared enough for us to leave to shoot some outside scenes at the racetrack. The movie is called "Right on Track" , at this point, and will probably be on the Disney channel in the Fall. It is about a young girl racecar driver. The star of the show is an actress from the TV show "Seventh Heaven". Another big actor from General Hospital was in it too. "Bobby Brady" Mike something or other, was there helping film the show. I thought that was pretty cool. Mike stood by him and talked to him some. I was in a couple different scenes. One of them I walk right by the lead actress on the sidewalk. I couldn’t believe how long it takes to just get 10 seconds worth of film. The movie is supposed to take place in Arizona so we weren’t able to wear coats even though it was freezing out. They told us to think 100 degrees to psych ourselves out. When we weren’t working on a shoot then we would put our jackets or coats on though. A nice man came and gave us all hot chocolate, which helped warm us up some. We were finished around 8:00. We then had to turn in our paper work and were shuttled back to our cars. Another thing I thought was neat was that when we first arrived Eric introduced us to the boy that will be playing the Young Joseph Smith in the new production of The First Vision. Eric is going to be an assistant producer for it. I was able to talk with the Joseph Smith actor’s mom quite a bit. She said that by doing the part of Joseph Smith, her son would earn enough money to pay for his whole mission. She thought it might be kind of strange for him when he would show the video someday to investigators. It was a long day but also a fun day. We were glad the kids did well without us. Don and Alli took Emilee to Malad with them. Don had a job removing junk from a house while Alli was able to visit Grandma with the kids. This morning I asked Emilee if she had fun. She said she liked going to Great Grandma’s. She liked playing house with Shaylie too. Later Alli told me that Shaylie and Emilee had played "house" in a tree house in a neighbors yard. They didn’t have permission and Alli made them get back to Grandma’s. Also, Emilee told me that when she stayed at Shaylie’s house she slept the whole night in Connor’s crib. I thought that was kind of funny but apparently that’s where she wanted to sleep and Alli said it was fine with them. Since Melissa had to work Saturday, Elicia spent the day babysitting Kailey and "supervising" Keaton while Trevor slept. Trevor said they were really good by not waking him up, so he and Melissa took the kids to McDonalds for dinner. We arrived home around 11:30 Saturday night.

Today I taught my lesson in Young Women’s. Part of the lesson was to show the video of The First Vision. My girls were impressed when I told them the church was coming out with a new "First Vision" video and that I was able to meet the Young Joseph Smith actor. We had a couple meetings this afternoon but then this evening we were able to relax with Don, Alli and kids, Melissa and Trevor. Right now it’s pretty late and Mike’s telling me it’s time for bed. Hope all is well for each of you.

Love,

Shan (and family)

May 5, 2002

Dear Family,

Hello from windy Pocatello! We have another high wind advisory out. Wind is my least favorite form of weather. I would much rather it be raining, snowing; even plain cold if the wind didn’t accompany it. Of course on a really hot day I don’t mind a slight breeze.

Saturday of last week we missed our opportunity to go to the temple. So on Tuesday we decided if we were going to make it in April (going every month is a goal of ours) we had to go on Tuesday. Tuesdays are typically busy days for us. The girls have dance lessons, plus Elicia has piano. I also have mutual. Since it was the Young Women’s camp night and my advisor could be there in my place I was able to go with Mike to the temple. Before leaving Pocatello we picked up Elicia from dance class and dropped off the kids at Don and Alli’s where they were invited for cake and ice cream. We said Happy Birthday to Shaylie and then headed for Idaho Falls. We made it in time for the 8:00 session (the last session of the month). It was so nice! I think there were 10 couples total in our session. It was the smallest session I have ever been in at the Idaho Falls Temple.

On Wednesday, I went with Kailey to kindergarten round up (early registration) at the school. We looked at her classroom with a little friend of hers that will be in the same class. I can’t believe that Kailey will be 5 tomorrow! I should believe it though because she has been anxiously waiting for her birthday for several months. I don’t think a day has gone by in the past few months that she hasn’t been doing some birthday planning. She was invited to another birthday party yesterday, which has even made her more excited for her party tomorrow.

The other day the little girls and I went to DI. We looked at several things in the store including swimsuits. With having a hot tub, summer at the pool and just playing around in the sprinklers I like to have plenty of swimsuits for the kids. They go through them so fast! I found one for Keaton and Kailey. Emilee found one for her but I told her no because it was only 18 months in size and not big enough for a nearly 3 year old. The girls started to get a little impatient sitting in the cart. I told them they had to if they wanted to get something out of the toy section. I finally gave in to their "please let us out" pleading and let them out IF they held onto the cart or me. While I was looking at some things with Kailey I noticed Emilee and the cart were gone. Kailey and I began looking throughout the store. We couldn’t find Emilee or our cart anywhere. We even looked outside. Finally we found the missing cart in the middle of the store but still no Emilee. We were heading up to the front of the store to ask the clerks if they had seen her when we spotted her! I couldn’t believe it…She was walking through the center of the store with no clothes on except this tiny 18 month sized swimming suit! I quickly grabbed her and asked her where her clothes were. I was a bit relieved her clothes were in a dressing room and she had changed there instead of scattering her clothes throughout the store. We may have never found them…they could have been sold! I was about ready to go home then but since Kailey was good I told her we would could go back to the toy section. Near the toys I spotted a treadmill. I looked at the price and at first I thought it said $615 it looked really nice but I thought it was way over priced. Then I noticed the one behind it was only $10 so I asked the saleslady and she said that the other one was only $15. I of course wanted to get out and see how it worked. The lady helping me plugged it in and it sounded horrible and smelt like burnt rubber. We then plugged in the $10 one and it ran really well. IT was missing a couple bolts but for $10 I couldn’t resist! I bought it, took it home and cleaned it up. Don found some bolts at Anderson Lumber and fixed it for me. THANKS DON! It seems to work really well. It has a mile counter, calorie counter, incline, decline & pulse check (haven’t figured that out yet). It goes up to 10 miles/hour. I don’t think I"ll ever try that but Don did. Alli and I couldn’t believe how fast he was going! I was afraid he was going to fly off and slam into the wall.

With Mike in the business of Real Estate, quite often we will go out and look at vacant houses. Sometimes just for fun, other times because it might possibly be a home we would like to buy. There were a couple of homes vacant that I wanted to see Friday night so Mike took us. One of the homes we really like. After receiving a couple of phone calls Saturday morning from people "hearing" we were moving, we had to tell the kids not to spread any more rumors.

Yesterday we were able to accomplish a lot. Mike finished cleaning out the garage. He hauled just about everything out of it and put it into the driveway and yard. I can’t believe how many people just so happened to be driving on Camas (our short little street that isn’t generally a "through traffic" street) and stopped to ask if we were having a garage sale! I told Mike he should have said yes and asked them to make an offer! Our neighbor heard and came over laughing his head off. We were laughing at HIM as he went back home carting off a bunch of our junk. Mike was able to take another trailer of junk to the dump and a trailer full of more useful items to DI. Our garage is SO organized now! We just want to keep going out there and looking at it. Most of the time while he was working on the garage, I was helping Elicia and Keaton clean their rooms. I think they were the worst they’ve ever been. It’s been since January since I’ve actually helped them clean them. They have claimed to clean them several times since January. And actually their rooms at times didn’t look so bad. IT was just that they (especially Elicia) stuff things in drawers, on shelves, in their closets and under their beds. I couldn’t believe how much stuff we pulled out from under Elicia’s bed!!! I found 12 towels, ramen noodles, pop cans, clothes, chocolate chips, Emilee’s missing sandals, you name it—it was there! In Keaton’s room the biggest project was organizing Pokemon cards and cleaning up Legos. Both Elicia and Keaton had a hard time "sacrificing" a few treasures. I didn’t even ask them about rocks, sticks and junk mail. I just threw it away. We also, worked a little in our front yard. Mike bought a bunch of bark and bark mulch to put in our flower gardens and around our trees. AND, HOLY COW THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS ARE DOWN! How many years has it been? J

I’m doing very well today to get this done early. It seems like the last couple of times I’ve written it has been late in the night. Since I can’t think of anything else to write about I’ll get it sent. We love you all and hope all is well with you and your families.

Take Care,

Shan (and family)

Dear Family,

Happy Mother’s Day Mom, and to all the other Mom’s that read this. It’s been a beautiful day today. Perfect for Mother’s Day. We went to church and listened to a family in our ward, the Wrights, speak on motherhood. It was really good. Following sacrament meeting we went home and got ready to visit Portneuf Valley Rehab ( a nursing home) for sacrament meeting. IT was just our family putting it on, besides 2 young men to prepare, bless and serve the sacrament. We helped the kids learn a mother’s day song and Elicia and I both gave talks. I told Elicia she could speak on Motherhood and that she could look in the back of her scriptures and look under mother. She did, but didn’t get the scripture I had suggested (the mothers of Helaman’s Army). Instead she chose the scripture, D&C 88:94. You’ll all have to look it up and read it to understand the feelings I had when she was reading it. After reading it she told everyone how she felt it related to Motherhood and how I was an example of it! :o) I didn’t say anything to her about it (besides good job Elicia) but someday well share with her what she read and what it meant. I spoke on the conference talk given by President Monson this past April. He spoke on "hidden wedges". Melissa led the music and I played the piano for the 3 hymns we sang. We were done in less than a half hour. I always enjoy the opportunity to visit there. It’s good for our kids too.

Kailey turned five on Monday. Sunday night Alli invited Emilee to stay the night which meant Monday it was just Kailey and me. That was very nice. We cleaned house and then ran errands together. We also went to McDonald’s for lunch. Monday afternoon Kailey had preschool. She brought cupcakes and juice for all the kids. After teaching a piano lesson, we had a birthday party for Kailey and her friends. Kailey has been waiting for SOOOO long to have a birthday party. She was so excited. We handed out 13 invitations and 11 showed up (besides Kailey and Emilee). It was quite the busy group! I had help from Elicia and a couple of her friends. They played "pin the tail on the Donkey", broke a piñata and played a balloon game. The big girls also helped them play hide-n-seek and Duck, Duck Goose. They had cupcakes and pop and then went home. A pretty good party. Following the party, we went to Golden Corral with Don, Alli and family, and Melissa and Trevor. Kailey loved it when the waitresses and waiters got together and sang to her. When we got home we helped Keaton with his science project, a solar system display and then watched a movie.

On Wednesday I went to a mother/daughter brunch with Kailey. IT was for preschool. She was very excited to serve me my food and take good care of me. They presented us with cards where they told certain ‘facts" about each of the Moms. Kailey had answered questions to the best of her knowledge. She said that my favorite color was blue, My age was "so old", my favorite food was salad and that my favorite thing to do was to do chores. I guess she wasn’t too far off! LOL

Last night we had the "10 Virgins" production for our ward. Melissa and I set up tables "reception style" in the gym. She borrowed decorations from her Mom, which worked out so nicely! The tables were very nice. Prior to the production we went out to dinner with several friends from our ward. We went to a Mexican restaurant where the food was really good. After that, I had to get to the church to play prelude. If you haven’t been to a "10 Virgins" production it is really cool! We started in the chapel for an opening prayer, song and introduction. Following that we were separated in 10 groups. We then moved with our group from room to room throughout the church visiting each of the 10 virgins. All of the "virgins" played active women in the church. Five weren’t living their lives like they should even though they may have held temple recommends. Each room we stayed in 7 minutes and listened to the "virgin" tell about herself and/or the gift she had for the wedding. After rotating through each of the rooms we met in the foyer and watched how only 5 of the ‘virgins" were allowed to enter (the RS room). The ones that weren’t allowed to enter were sobbing. A mother and daughter were split up which was a tearjerker. After the 5 bad ‘virgins’ were cast out, we were all allowed to enter the room. A song was sung followed by a closing prayer and we were led into the gym for refreshments. It was such a neat night! It really made me think of ways I need to improve.

This evening we went to Don and Alli’s for dinner and birthday cake for Don. It’s pretty neat that his birthday just so happened to be on Mother’s day. We asked who made who breakfast this morning. Alli said Don made her breakfast. Good for him! J After eating we looked at the pages Alli has done in scrapbooking. She’s gotten a ton done lately! I need to get back into it. I did so well during February and March. Later Melissa, Alli, Keaton and I played Upwords. Now we’re home and I’m going to get this sent. Hope all is well for each of you! We love you tons!!

Love,

Shan (and family)

May 19, 02

Dear Family,

What a week! That’s about all I can say about last week. That would make this a pretty short letter though so I better elaborate. Our house has been on the market for just over a week now. Since putting it on the market we’ve had 11 showings (I think) and an offer. We are countering the offer now so I’m not sure what will happen there. I’m hoping it works out though or something does soon because having a house on the market while living in it is not fun. Yesterday was kind of interesting because the people that put the offer on our home decided they wanted to see it one more time first. The Realtor had talked to Mike and he told her he was going to ISU graduation yesterday afternoon. She apparently assumed that the kids and I would be going to graduation too and unexpectedly dropped in with her buyers. I was babysitting Shaylie and Connor, had a couple extra neighbor kids and my own four kids running around the house. There were toys scattered and a few other messes. Upon picking up Connor (he came running to me when he saw we had company) I found that he had a dirty diaper. So needles to say, we weren’t as prepared for these unexpected visitors as I would have liked to be.

On Wednesday we went on a preschool fieldtrip to the zoo. I felt a little rushed in them morning preparing the house in order to leave. We arrived at the church (our meeting spot) only a few minutes late. When I got there I was told that I had a flat tire. I felt there was enough air in the tire to make it down to the bottom of the hill, so I filled it at Common Cents. We went to the Zoo and the kids enjoyed seeing the animals. I think Kailey and Emilee liked the bears and the petting zoo the best. After leaving the zoo, I spent a few minutes at Les Schwab. The girls and I "picnicked" in the van while our tire was being fixed.

Emilee is a busy body. She is soooo independent. Especially when it comes to getting her own food. The other day just prior to a showing, she decided to get her a cup of blueberry yogurt. She dropped it on the floor and it splattered from the kitchen clear across the living room floor. It also hit the ceiling! I quickly cleaned it up and sent her outside to wait until we were ready to leave. This afternoon she ran into Melissa and Trevor’s doorknob so may have another bruise on her forehead. I need to get professional pictures of her taken but she always has an injured face! What a kid!

Kailey plays and plays and plays with barbies. She likes to play with them in her room or anywhere in the house and outside of the house including the bathtub and hot tub. IT is really cute to watch Kailey and Emilee play with the barbies together. The only bad part is that I have to really get after them to get them picked up after they’re done playing. I think they’re getting a little spoiled with our house being on the market because I do most of the picking up for them. I also make their beds every day.

Keaton came home a few days ago from school telling me how he ran the fastest time in the ½ mile from his class. Every fall and spring they are timed to see their fitness level and improvement throughout the year. Keaton ran 20 seconds faster this spring then he did in the fall. In the fall he had placed 2^nd. On Friday, we were able to visit Keaton’s class to see the Solar Systems. We didn’t spend as much time as we would have liked on Keaton’s but it still wasn’t too bad. He wadded up newspaper that we sprayed and painted to look like planets. We then attached them with string to a rod, with tags explaining which planets were which and a few facts about each. The class also had an assignment to write a short story about their make believe trip through the solar system. The teacher had a cute little page that they were to write their story on. Keaton ended up making a book instead! His story consisted of 15 chapters, and 13 pages! His teacher said that she waited until her lunch period so she would have enough time to read Keaton’s story. She said that she laughed a lot while reading it and that people in the hall would come into the classroom to see what was so funny. Keaton does very well in reading and writing (his creativity…not penmanship).

Elicia is doing a great job annoying Keaton. Keaton told me to write that. Melissa and Elicia have been making treats this afternoon. As I type this I smell good smells coming from the kitchen. Elicia has also been a big help getting the house ready to show. On Friday she helped mow the lawn. I usually get a little frantic about the time we need to be gone before a showing. Elicia helps gather up the kids and puts them in the van. She needs to make sure that she gets everyone to the potty, though. It seems about every time we try to leave Kailey has to go to the bathroom.

This weekend Mom and Dad came down for Spencer’s (cousin) wedding and also Don’s graduation. It was fun to visit with them. Congratulations to Don on graduating from ISU! We had a fun barbecue/party at Don and Alli’s following graduation. After that we showed them the house we would like to buy. They were able to tell what type of fruit trees and also what some of the plants were. Trevor and Melissa have news to write in their next newsletter, but I won’t spoil it for them and tell you.

We look forward to seeing Jason and Christi this weekend. Hopefully they have a smooth trip and Christi travels well pregnant. We love all of you and hope all is well!

Love,

Shan (and family)

Dear Family,

We are in the midst of putting as much as possible into a week. This week has been an extremely compact week. At night I have a hard time going to bed because I just want to relax and enjoy an hour or two of peace…without sleeping through it :0) I’ve been waking up earlier in the mornings and so it’s not always good that I go to bed so late.

I’m pretty sure I wrote last week’s letter before church and so I need to start this one with last week’s Sunday afternoon. Right before church last week our friends the Lukers called and told us they were in town. We made plans to meet with them right after church so we could show them the home we are buying. About a half hour after we returned home from church they came over and soon after Ryan and Susan surprised us. We went up to "Ivan" (the name of the new street) and showed all of them, along with a few friends from our ward the new house. Following that we showed Ryan and Susan Trevor and Melissa’s house and then met Don and Alli (and kids) for dinner. Jason and Christi spent the day in Malad visiting Grandma but later came back and joined us to visit for a while. On Monday morning they headed home. Don and Alli and kids went to Nyssa for the week. Mike got up early (5:30 am) and with a friend of ours, Bret MacCabe, started working on our roof. There was one side that needed to be redone and also a few places to patch up. They spent all morning and into the early afternoon working on it. Bret’s older sons came over and helped too. Elicia helped me mow the lawn and Keaton and his buddy Devan MacCabe pulled weeds. After working so hard, I decided since it was a holiday we needed to do something fun. So, I took the kids swimming. The pool was PACKED but still we had a pretty good time. Mike stayed home and worked. He finished a siding project, some rainspout work and painting. Trevor helped him and put a trim in Keaton’s room along with fixing a light fixture. After dinner we had FHE and then Mike and Trevor did hospital visits. Melissa, the kids and I delivered cookies to a family in the ward. Actually I dropped off Keaton and Elicia with the instructions to put the cookies on the doorstop and run while Melissa and I parked on a side street. We dropped them off and then waited, and waited and waited. Finally Melissa got out to see what was taking so long. Apparently the little note we had put on the cookies had flown off and Keaton was looking all over for it. After the "drop off" we went to the dollar store. It’s the kids’ favorite store.

I’ve started boxing up items. I figured I would start on the little girls’ room. I emptied out their closet and boxed up most of their toys. It’s nice because their room stays neater now! I also boxed up our game closet, a few other items from hall closets and under the sinks. So far I haven’t missed too much. Except, we put all of our "hand me" down item containers into a storage unit. All of the kids except Emilee have enough summer clothes out. Emilee on the other hand, only has about 3 outfits, which on some days she will get them dirty and need to wear all three! I’ve been looking around for a few more outfits for Emilee, especially since we’re leaving on a 10-day trip! I found some cute ones on ebay that I bought in a couple "lots". I’m hoping I’ll receive all that I ordered before we leave on Thursday. I think I’m turning into an "ebay addict". Whenever I need something I check there first. Right now I have a bid on a wallpaper border (new of course) for the new house. If it goes through I’ll be paying less then $5 a roll!

Keaton has been begging for bleached hair. We’ve been saying "no" over and over again. He was naming off a few kids that have their hair bleached and then some that are naturally blond. I told him that those naturally blond ones were born that way. He came back with the comeback that he was born with blond hair and so why couldn’t he have blond hair too. I did a little bit of compromising with him and bought some "sun in" which you can spray on your hair and with a hair dryer it will bring out natural highlights. We put some on and he didn’t think it was enough so we tried it a few more times and now he has lovely "peach colored" hair. I don’t care for it much but Keaton loves it. Elicia is begging to get hers done too. I’ve been pointing out that with her complexion that it wouldn’t look very good. At least with Keaton, his will be grown out and cut within a month or two. I think I might have to just get rid of the bottle before we go overboard with ridiculously looking children with peach colored hair.

We procrastinated getting to the temple until the end of the month, again. We were able to make it Thursday evening though. Trevor had to work Thursday night but Melissa was able to baby-sit for us. Before leaving to the temple, Kailey lost her first tooth! She had been trying to open something with her teeth and came into me screaming. I was teaching a piano lesson at the time. She had blood allover her mouth so I told her to get some tissue. She came back with a handful. I held it up to her mouth and when I pulled it away her tooth was on it. She then started to calm down and was excited to tell everyone she had lost her tooth. After returning from the temple Melissa informed us that not only Kailey had a tooth under her pillow but also Elicia had one under hers and Keaton had lost two! Melissa said Trevor had to help pull out one of Keaton’s. The kids are trying to earn money for our trip to Disneyland and I think they thought losing teeth would be a faster way.

Friday night we were invited by our good friend Susan Pence to tour the new Farm Bureau building during their "friends and family" open house. It’s a huge "glass" building near the Interstate. You can see all over Pocatello from it. It is a really cool building. After the tour we were fed hamburgers and hotdogs and the kids were given a goodie bag. After we returned home Mike, Keaton along with Don and Connor took off in the motor home for the ward Father & Son outing. I took the girls swimming for the evening.

Saturday we spent all morning fixing and cleaning the house. We had an appraiser go through on Thursday and he had a small list of things we still needed to get done. We were grateful that they were small inexpensive items. Mike had them all finished in a couple of hours. It took much longer to clean the house. At 1:00 the buyers, their Realtor, and a home inspector came up for the home inspection. The man doing the inspection planned on taking a few hours so we loaded up the kids and took off. We hit McDonalds for lunch, visited Grandpa Johnston and did a couple other errands to kill time. At 3:00 we left for Preston to visit the Lukers. We had a barbeque that ended up in their garage since it was extremely windy right about that time. Later the wind died down and the kids had fun playing outside until late. The adults visited and played cards. When we drove home (around 11:00 PM) we drove through a major rainstorm. We were happy to have the rain and have more rain this morning. This morning I woke up early and read while it rained outside. It reminded me so much of a Sunday just over a 3 years ago when we were still living on Debbie Drive nearly ready to move. I remember wondering if we’d be happy in our new home and ward. I felt some of the same feelings this morning. This ward we’ve been in has been such a good ward. We’ve been very blessed to have such good friends and to be around so many people that live the gospel. I was thinking about how before even going to this ward so many people from the ward came and introduced themselves and met us. They made us feel so welcomed. It will be hard to leave them. Mike keeps reassuring me that I will love our new ward because I have loved every ward that I’ve ever been in. After church today we talked to the Bishop about leaving our records in the ward for just a couple weeks after we move since Keaton is to be baptized the first part of July. It would not be a good time to have our records in limbo. I’m not in a big hurry to leave the ward either.

It might be a couple weeks now before I get another letter written. Hopefully I can get off another one before we move, though. We hope everything is well with each of you. We love you tons!

Love,

Shan (and family)

June 16, 02

Dear Family,

We’re back! We had a great trip over the past 1 ½ weeks. We left Pocatello on Thursday the 6^th right after school was out. We then made our way to Sacramento. We had planned on stopping in Reno but were making good time so went on. We spent the night at Wal*Mart. That sounds funny, I know. We pulled our motor home in on the far side of the parking lot. The next morning we went into the store to buy sunscreen, sunglasses for the kids and a couple hats. We then were on our way to San Francisco. When we arrived in San Francisco we had a hard time finding a place to park. Driving in a motor home in China Town was NOT fun. In fact, it was rather scary. It was an hour or so before we finally found a place to park. We then walked around the wharf and bought tickets to ride the ferry to Alcatraz. While waiting for our ride, we looked in some shops and also watched the Sea Lions that had made their home in one of the docking areas. There were tons of them and they were fun to watch. Apparently after the San Francisco Earthquake (1989 I think) they made their home there and were a nice touristy site and so were allowed to stay. Alcatraz was interesting. We took some pictures of the jail cells and walked around the building. After ferrying back we went to Gheradelli (sp?) Square where they are notorious for their fabulous chocolate. We shared a couple ice-cream dishes and then walked back to the RV. We then left San Francisco and headed for San Diego. We were extremely tired (past midnight) as we drove into the LA area. We decided to find a place to pull over. We took an exit and ended up in a really nice area were we saw lots of gates. We couldn’t find a place to pull off so found another exit with an all night shopping center. We later realized we were in Beverly Hills. Saturday morning we drove a couple more hours to get to San Diego. After checking into a KOA RV park we took a bus and tram to the Mexican border. What a difference a short distance makes! It was so different being in Mexico (Tijuana). Several people approached us to buy things from them. Many children came up to us wanting to sell gum. The people seemed really small too. One little Mexican girl came up to Kailey and touched her hair and face. It was a little heartbreaking to see how some of them were living their lives. Especially the little children that had cups and were begging for money. On the other hand, it was totally fun shopping there because things were very cheap. We bought Keaton a guitar and pokemon ceramic, Emilee and Kailey bracelets and dolls, and Elicia Stained Glass and a bracelet. Mike and bought a blanket and numbers for our house. We also bought Mexican sodas and candy. Some of the candy we bought turned out to be gummies with chili powder on them. We didn’t care for them so gave them out to others when we got home. Trevor and Don like them so they took the rest of what we had left. We still have gumballs with enchilada seasoning in the middle though. Those ones aren’t too bad. We left Mexico after a couple hours. It took a long time to return across the border. There was a huge line. When we got to the border they asked for our driver’s licenses and also a few questions to the kids. They asked Kailey who Mike was. She replied, "That’s Mike" (we were glad she didn’t say Miquel!!!) but when they asked who is he again she told them he was her Daddy. We were then able to go through. After returning to our RV park we let the kids swim for awhile in the pool. It was only around 60 degrees and Mike and I didn’t want to get wet so we just watched. It was a cool park we were at. We rented a 6 person bike cart and rode around the park for a while. Mike was done after about 5 minutes. We made him stay on though since he was the main peddling power. Sunday we went to the beach for a couple hours. The kids swam in the ocean, but again I thought it was too cold and waded and watched the kids. We found lots of seashells. We made dinner in the RV. When we got back to the RV Park we had a little lesson and also watched "Legacy". We tried to keep Sunday more relaxed and calm then the rest of the trip. On Monday we checked out of the RV park and went to Sea World. I think this was the warmest we got in California. For the shows you sit outside. Some of us got a little sunburned, even though we had sunscreen on. My lips didn’t handle the sun or lack of sleep very well and I’m really paying for it now. The past few days I’ve had to take pain relievers along with regular cold soar medicine since my lips are in bad shape. Hopefully they heal soon. After Sea World closed, we traveled to Anneheim to an RV/Trailer park close to Disneyland. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we spent the days at Disneyland and California Adventure. I don’t think anyone could "talk up" that place enough to leave you disappointed. We had a blast! Elicia’s favorite ride was the Matterhorn, Kailey’s the teacups, Emilee the Dumbo ride and Keaton’s was the Roller coaster California Screamer that was in the California Adventure Park. The roller coaster is probably the best one I’ve ever been on. It was fast and fun but smoother then most roller coasters. It also had music playing from your headrest. Mike and I really liked the Soarin’ over California ride. IT was incredible and anyone that goes there better try it. The kids, except for Emilee who wasn’t tall enough, loved it too. It was like you are on an airplane flying over California. IT was sooooo realistic. You felt the same thrills and even could smell the oranges! The "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" show was also really nifty and we all loved the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland. We did good not to lose any of the kids (for more then a few seconds anyway). Emilee insisted I carry her most of the time which was pain but at least I knew where she was. We thought about renting a stroller but knowing Emilee she would have wanted out of it after the "novelty" of it wore off. Thursday after the park closed we left for Las Vegas. When arriving there we couldn’t find a place to park and so drove on to Mesquite. It was nearly 3:00 am and we were very tired as we pulled into a casino parking lot. Other RV’s were parked there so we figured it was probably okay. IN Las Vegas we were told by a couple of bike police that RV’s couldn’t stay in the parking lots there anymore after September 11. When we woke up Friday morning it was VERY hot and I was ready to get out of their fast. We did, after 4 hours of sleep. As we drove towards Idaho, we learned some bad news on our house. The buyers were backing out. We are just going to have to see what happens now. We have a lot of our house packed up. I really don’t want to unpack but at the same time there are things we are going to start missing pretty soon. BACK to the trip…Friday evening we spent the night at Dawnetta, which is a Hot Springs outside of Downey, Idaho. The Johnston side of the family was having a reunion. It was fun to visit with Mike’s relatives. Our kids played really well with all their cousins. After lunch on Saturday we left back to Pocatello. I did 8 loads of laundry and straightened up the house. Mike mowed the lawn. Keaton and I helped pull weeds while Elicia entertained the girls. Right now I don’t know what will happen with our house and the one we want to buy. I can’t wait to write next week’s letter to see if anything new has happened :0) We will just have to be patient I guess. We pray that whatever is best for us will happen. Mike is hurrying me up to go to bed and so I’ll bring this to a close. Happy Father’s day Dad, Jim and the other Dad’s! We love you!

Love,

Shan (and family)

July 2, 02

Dear Family,

I’m going to get this letter written and sent before I fall too far behind. We’ve been busy here. Keaton, Elicia and Kailey all are playing ball this summer. For the first 1 ½ weeks after our trip they had practices. Last Wednesday they started their games. Nearly every day over the next 5 or 6 weeks at least one of the kids has a game. Some days we have two. It’s fun though. Kailey is still trying to get the hang of it. She loves her team shirt though. IT’s purple and her team is the wildcats. Keaton is doing so much better this year. I love watching his games. He can hit it clear out into left field over everyone’s heads. His team has a blue shirt and they are the Eagles. Elicia was upset we missed the opening meeting for her team and she wasn’t there to help pick out the name of the team and the color of shirts. She was VERY pleased to know that they decided to go with tie died shirts and that their name is the "Lucky 13’s" (they have 13 players on her team). After the games we’ve been going swimming, a lot. Last week was so hot and the swimming felt nice.

Emilee and Keaton both had birthdays last week. Emilee was very excited to have a birthday. She picked McDonalds for dinner. I made her a cake and we had it afterwards. On Keaton’s birthday we went to Golden Corral. He actually wanted to go to McDonalds too, but we talked him out of it. The employees at Golden Corral sang to him and brought him a cupcake with a candle on it. Later Saturday night, Mike took Keaton to see Star Wars Episode 2. Keaton loved it.

Kailey recently had a Dr. Apt. to get her ready for Kindergarten. When the nurse was looking at her charts she asked if I knew why she was charted on a boys chart. Apparently all those times they told me Kailey was only in the 50^th percentile as a baby she actually should have been in the 75^th and higher percentiles. I always had wondered why she seemed so much bigger than the other babies her age but was plotted right down the middle of the growth chart. Right now she is in the 90^th percentile for both height and weight. She did so excellent for her shots! She didn’t cry and barely moved when she was injected. I was so proud of her! I took her to Wal*Mart afterwards and let her pick out a Barbie.

Elicia just finished up basketball camp on Saturday. We signed her up in May and she was so excited. I kind of worried about how she would like practicing basketball skills from 9-4 Thurs,Friday and 9-12 on Saturday. It seemed like a lot to me. She said she had a lot of fun though and learned some new things. I hope she’ll continue to want to play basketball and softball and any other sport she wants to join. She has been slacking on piano practicing though. I need to get her back at it.

As for our house situation, we are still "on the market". The house we wanted so badly sold last week. We were disappointed but there is one other on the market that we like really well. We are still hoping we can sell our house and can buy this other one. I just want it to happen quickly. It is such a pain to have a house on the market. Especially when we have

We kind of blew it in June getting to the temple. We were able to get to the Nauvoo Temple Dedication though. It was really nice. I hope that someday we’ll be able to travel there and attend a session. I think it is so cool that they have been broadcasting those "significant temple" dedications. They make you feel like you’re sitting right there in the temple in the presence of the Prophet. It’s a neat experience.

I started this yesterday (Monday) and I hope I can get it finished and sent this morning. I just returned from one of Keaton’s ball games. He did really well. He caught a pop fly and was able to throw it to first base and get the runner that had run to 2^nd out. He also hit a ball clear out into left field over the other players heads. He’s feeling pretty good about himself today.

Last night I stopped writing so I could get to Don and Alli’s and borrow their wheelbarrow. We found a family in our ward that had a lot of dirt they needed to get rid of. We need a lot of dirt so Mike and Trevor went over to load it up into another ward member’s dump truck. It took a couple hours and then they brought it here. Melissa and I stood in the dump truck and dumped dirt into the 2 wheelbarrows underneath. Mike and Trevor then hauled the dirt down into the hole in the backyard. We filled it up about 1/3 –1/2 way….I haven’t looked yet this morning and last night it was dark so I’m not sure how much more dirt we’ll need. It was a big project and I wish it was finished. We were pretty dirty by the time we were done. The wind was blowing and it made it even dirtier. It was 11:30 by the time we came in to finish off the night with a card game.

With everything going on around here I know I’m forgetting something but I want to hurry and get this sent. We look forward to seeing many of you this weekend. Keaton’s baptism is at 4:00 on Saturday. We hope all is well for everyone one. We love ya tons!

Love,

Shan (and family)

July 14, 02

Dear Family,

It has been scorching hot here the past week. I know that all have you have been experiencing the immense heat so I won’t complain too much. I think we got up to 106 degrees the other day. I had heard on the radio that parts of Californian were 134 degrees! I can’t even begin to imagine. How unbearable! I’m so grateful for Air Conditioning! At church today my classroom was extremely warm. It was cool in other parts of the building though. The bishop told me he thought the air conditioning was just overworking itself and had gone a little haywire. I sure hope that the thunderstorms we keep hearing about bring a lot of moisture. We might literally be burning up without it. Last Sunday there was a huge fire on the outskirt of Pocatello (Buckskin) and several homes were evacuated. We could see the smoke and flames from our deck. A friend of Mike’s, from his office, had to leave with his family from his home. On the news it told how people needing a place to stay could go to an LDS church in town. It is nice to hear how eager people in the church are to serve. Fortunately there weren’t any homes lost (not that I’ve heard of anyway). Today it was really smoky. We heard that the fire was around Malad. Hopefully all is well there.

Last weekend on Saturday July 6, Keaton was baptized. It was a special day for us. We are so proud of Keaton and love him so much. We were also pleased that most of you were able to attend. It is amazing to me to think that I have kids getting so big. A few days prior to the baptism Mom, Dad, Riley and Kimmi came. They were able to watch Elicia and Kailey’s ballgames. On the 4^th of July, we went to the parade in the morning. There wasn’t a lot of floats but several people threw candy…and that’s what the kids like the best. In the evening we went to the Johnston’s for a barbeque. They always have the best food! We had fun playing cards…until Mike and brothers started cheating. It’s just not fun anymore when that happens ;o) Around 9:00 we left and met up with Alli and kids, Mom, Dad, Riley and Kimmi to watch fireworks. We heard they were charging at the fairgrounds so we went to a church nearby and sat on the lawn. It was a lot easier to drive away from the church then it would have been closer to the fair grounds.

On Friday we went swimming in the afternoon. Then Keaton had several friends spend the night for a "birthday sleepover" . Jason, Christi, Troy, Pam and family, Ryan and Susan also arrived. WE had a HUGE houseful Friday night. I think we had 37 at one time. IT was crazy, but fun. We also love to have company, especially family come and see us. Alli made taco salad for everyone and then we ate popcorn and birthday cake. During the night we had a huge thunder and lightening storm. I was surprised that so many slept through it. Keaton said that he and his friends didn’t and woke up to play Nintendo.

Since I already wrote about Saturday and Sunday, I’ll now move on to this week. Most of the week has been ballgames, pictures and swimming. We’ve had a few house showings and it’s always easiest if I can get the house ready to show in the morning and then leave all day. We are hoping that if we are able to get our house sold it will happen soon so we can move in August. There have been interested people but each of them has either a house to sell or not able to get financed for a big enough loan. It’s nice that people like our home though. One family that went through last week told their Realtor that they LOVED it but were scared of living on the hill. They were "out of towners". They said if it weren’t on a hill they’d probably buy it. Another showing sounded "golden" until they didn’t show up. Apparently there were only two homes on their list and ours was second. They looked at the first house and wrote up an offer on it without even looking at ours. Oh well. Maybe something will happen this week.

On Wednesday last week Keaton’s friend Devin MacCabe (for those that were at the birthday party, he was the one that cut his head) spent the day with us. His Dad just found out earlier in the week that he has cancer and they needed to go to Salt Lake for a consultation. This was quite a blow to the family. They have some real ups and downs in their lives. I told Bret that he was just too much of a "thrill seeker" and that before he came down to earth he chose a real wild "roller coaster" of life. Fortunately they’ve detected the cancer soon. He has surgery on the 25^th of this month. We are praying for their family and hoping for them that all will go well. They are just the best family and really good friends. They are also moving to Rexburg on the 22^nd of the month where he is to start a new teaching job this Fall.

A few days last week I watched Shaylie and Connor. Connor is just starting to like me and now they’ve moved. Thursday they closed on their house and Friday morning they were all packed and heading to Rexburg. We will really miss having them close. We’ve had so much fun. I’m happy for them though and glad they didn’t move to another State and are only just a little over an hour away. We still have Trevor and Melissa with us. They were supposed to close on their house a month and a half ago. They keep waiting for news to see if anything will happen soon. The owner has to do a quick sell before they can buy the home. We joke with them that if they get into their home and we have to get out of ours "too" soon that we’ll have to live with them. We could then at least keep up with our pinochle games.

Friday night I had my "mom’s night out" with my "Bonco" friends. We played our dice game and ate some really good food. Afterwards a few of us went over to see my friend Lori Christensen’s new home. She and her husband are building. We stayed outside and talked for a couple of hours. I’m hoping that when we move I’ll be able to keep the great friends I’ve made in this ward. It has been the best ward ever!

Yesterday, our friends the Lukers came over for a barbeque. Jim was in this part of town so we had him stop to eat with us too. Lately, hamburgers have been very appealing to me. Maybe because they are just easy to make and they’re out on the grill so less mess (and heat) in the house. I think we might grill some for dinner tonight too. It’s strange to think Don and Alli won’t be here for dinner. We plan on going to Rexburg next Sunday though to see them.

Well I think I’ve managed to highlight the last couple of weeks. Hopefully Troy still has some things growing in his garden after the "shed" incident. IT may have not have been so funny to have had the neighbor’s shed trample their garden, but in the future they’ll probably get a good laugh out of it. I wish I had a garden right now, I"d love some homegrown tomatoes! We hope that all is well for each of you. Have a great week!

Love,

Shan (and family)

July 22, 02

Dear Family,

Another week has come and gone. I’m not sure if I’m more ready for summer to slow down or for Fall to get here. I love all the fun things we do in the summer but at the same time I like getting us on a regular schedule and organized in the Fall. I suppose I’ll just enjoy it while it’s here.

The ballgames have been going on steady. We had 8 last week and 6 this week. The season wraps up while we are on the Salmon River. Keaton is disappointed about missing his last couple of games but Kailey and Elicia don’t really care. They like to play but aren’t as crazy about it as Keaton. Keaton would love to have games every day. He is so much more interested in sports this past year then he ever has been.

As I’ve said before, we go swimming nearly everyday. While at the pool I spend most of the time helping Emilee and Kailey learn to swim. Kailey the other night swam to me about 5 feet. She is mostly just treading water but it’s a good start. I’m trying to teacher her how to stroke with her arms and to swim under water. Today she swam a little under water while holding her nose. We have some water "noodles" that they let us take in the pool and while I’m helping Kailey Emilee swims all over with a noodle wrapped around her. Elicia and Keaton love playing with the noodles too. Kailey likes to ride them like a horse. We only have two and that has caused a little contention. I’ll have to get another couple since they’re only $2 at Grocery Outlet right now.

Housewise, last week was a slow week for showings. I think we only had one. Everyday I still got the house ready and packed up the kids for the day just in case. This week we’re going to have a Realtor Luncheon. Maybe we’ll have a few showings as a result of it.

Saturday the Pocatello Stakes celebrated the 24^th of July with their annual parade and park festivities. The parade was awesome! Our ward had a really nice float. I helped build it, along with the others in Young Women’s, Tuesday night. Mike was again in charge of the live fish catch. He had thought he wouldn’t have to do much this year (which is his last) but one of the guys in charge didn’t show up so Mike filled in. When we arrived shortly before 12:00 the fish (several hundred trout) hadn’t shown up. Mike made some phone calls but couldn’t figure out why there weren’t any fish. A reporter was there from channel 6 to cover the story. After waiting for an hour or so, Mike and the reporter came up with a "where are all the fish" story. It was cute and they had it on the 5:00 and 10:00 news. It turned out that there was a misunderstanding on the "fish order" and they actually hadn’t been ordered. While at the park, we spent time with our friends the Wilsons. They used to live in Pocatello but several years ago moved to Idaho Falls. They now have 6 kids and Larry Wilson is a Bishop. They have one older then all our kids and one younger but the 4 in the middle are the same ages as our four kids. After having fun at the 24^th festivities we all went to Golden Corral. Elicia hit it off really well with their daughter Lindsay (one month younger). We ended up keeping Lindsay over night and dropped her off in Idaho Falls on Sunday.

Sunday we attended our church meetings. I decided to teach my lesson outside on the lawn. It was a very nice day and the girls were in agreement. I love teaching my beehives! They are so smart and always have lots of great input. After church we ate and changed clothes before heading for Rexburg. We stopped in Idaho Falls to drop off Lindsay. Her mom was frantically hurrying to get things ready for dinner with the missionaries so we didn’t stay long. Within a few minutes we were back on our way to Rexburg. We found Don and Alli’s home quite easily. It’s a nice home. They’ve done a lot of work on it already. They live in a really nice neighborhood too. Only a couple blocks away they have a super cool park. Our cousin Kelly and her 5 year old son Kelton joined us for dinner. Trevor and Melissa weren’t able to go this time. They are celebrating their 1^st anniversary by spending a quiet night alone at the Black Swan Inn. Keaton wondered why they would want to stay in a hotel and watch movies when they could do that here. Mike explained that it was because they had a better TV at the Black Swan Inn. Keaton then wanted to go too…which Trevor adamantly said "no way".

I started this yesterday but I ended up not finishing so I’ll get it sent off now. Hopefully all is well. We look forward to seeing many of you again soon. I love summer because of all the family get-togethers!

Love,

Shan (and family)

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Rocket Power

September 29, 02

Dear Family, 

            It’s a windy, rainy day here in Pocatello.  I love it too.  These rainy days are not only needed but help us appreciate the beautiful, warm, sunny days. Now that we are at the end of September I know from past history that snow could be here within the next few weeks.  It was either last year or the year before that the kids were “given” an October snow day and didn’t have to attend schools that day.  I look forward to winter just as I looked forward to summer in the late months of Spring. I love the changes in the weather and also love the coziness of winter. 

            Many of you haven’t received my family newsletter for quite a while.  I apologize for that.  Somehow in our move my computer stopped working and it wasn’t until a few days ago (thanks to Troy and Mike) that I have it up and running.  I did use Mike’s computer for a few weeks but it didn’t have my email program and address book like this one does.  I think most of you know that we did move in August.  We love our new home at 404 Arabian Ave.  We are excited to be Pocatello’s newest Arabians ;o)  The actual move went pretty smoothly and we are all unpacked with the exception of a few boxes in our basement. 

            Grandma Pett’s funeral was held Tuesday in Malad.  I still have to keep reminding myself that she has passed away.  I really thought she’d be around for several years.  I learned so much from her and love her dearly.  The viewing was Monday evening.  In the obituary it said that the funeral home was on Malad street.  I went with Alli and Troy and Pam followed us.  I thought I had remembered the funeral home being close to the church but we drove around for several minutes looking for a Malad Street.    We finally broke down and asked for help.  We learned that there wasn’t a Malad Street in Malad and that the funeral home was near the church and right around the corner from Uncle Marvin’s home.  A building I have passed several times growing up.  Once we finally arrived I felt dumb for not remembering exactly where it was.  Not overly dumb though because Troy and Alli didn’t remember either ;o) Grandma had planned her funeral several years ago.  She had outlined exactly who was to do what and what was to be done.  It turned out to be a beautiful funeral.  Several years ago Alli and I were asked to play a piano/organ duet.  I hadn’t played the organ for several years so I felt quite unprepared.  Alli and I found an organ arrangement of “The Lord is my Shepherd” which luckily was in the same key as the hymn in the hymnbook.  Alli improvised her piano part.  We practiced in the church Monday evening for a few minutes and then a few minutes prior to the funeral.  I think both Alli and I agree that we played it the very best during the actual funeral. Aunt Marci gave Grandma’s life sketch and Dad and his brother’s each spoke for a few minutes.  Following the graveside prayer we went back to the church for lunch.  We took pictures there and I learned that every one of Grandma’s grandchildren were there with the exception of three missionaries.  Also, all of my Dad’s cousins were there.  I just thought it was quite incredible to have so many there, on only a few days notice and with some traveling quite far.  Grandma had put our names on the heirlooms, which were to be passed onto us.  Following the luncheon we went to her home to gather these items.  These items included pretty trinkets and dishes to practical items such as Grandma’s vibratory belt. (Probably only those close relatives will know what I’m talking about)  ;o) Jason and Christi were “treated” to a fertility goddess. They obviously (with Christi due in a few weeks) have little need for this and will probably pass it on at Christmas time.  No it is not my turn!  The way I see it, a few of you have a lot of catching up to do. Anyway, it was strange to see grandma’s home torn apart like it was.  She always had it so neat and clean.   I hope Heavenly Father had her busy and she didn’t see the mess that was generated by 5 children, 24 grandchildren and several spouses and great grandchildren  scattered around her house;o) 

            Jason, Christi, Kimmi, Troy, Pam and family stayed with us before the funeral and Troy’s family stayed for an additional night afterwards.  We really enjoyed their company. Hopefully over the next several months we’ll have our basement finished and even more can stay with us at one time.  Tuesday evening we went to Golden Corral with Trevor (Melissa had class) and Troy’s family.  Everybody needs to keep visiting us so we can make excuses to go there. 

            Wednesday and Thursday I played catch up on housework and laundry.  Wednesday night Mike had home teaching for a few minutes, but it was actually the first night he’s had some time at home in over 3 weeks.  He hustled to get a rocket sanded for Keaton’s Pack Meeting on Thursday.  After football practice Keaton helped Mike paint it and glue parts onto it.  It wasn’t the fanciest, but was finished in time for the rocket derby Thursday night.  We nick named it the “yellow banana”.  The rockets were powered by rubber bands.  They were shot across the room hooked to fishing line.  I had never even heard of a rocket derby.  Apparently many others hadn’t either.  I think the car derby’s are still the favored, though.  Keaton was so excited to have his rocket win 4 out of the 5 races he competed in.  He received a 2^nd place pin and ribbon. This was Keaton’s first pack meeting.  He was awarded his Bobcat along with a couple of other awards.  He should be done with his Bear by the next pack meeting.  I’m glad he’s excited about scouts and doing so well. 

            Later Thursday evening Don, Alli and kids arrived.  Don had class Friday and Saturday so they stayed with us.  We had fun watching a few movies with them in the evenings. On Friday, besides Alli and her kids, I had Karen McCabe’s 2 youngest daughters stay with us.  They were really good and played well with the kids.  During the morning, Alli and I decided to take them all on a walk.  We started with a couple of the older children walking but by the time we were half way finished we were hauling four of them in the wagon with the two youngest in the stroller.  It might have been kind of funny looking seeing us hauling so many kids but it was fun anyway. Later, in the afternoon when Don finished his class, he and Alli went out for lunch. I sat outside and watched the kids play on bikes, and ride-on toys.  It is so fun to just sit outside and watch them.  Connor loves throwing balls so I played catch with him for a while.  He was doing really well to catch a football.  It is so cute to see how excited he gets.  He’s hilarious to watch bat a baseball, too. 

            Saturday I had an annual music meeting (teacher’s music club) in the morning.  After being apart of it for 4 years things are starting to make sense to me.  I really enjoyed it this year.  It was nicely organized.  The rest of the day was spent cleaning and doing errands.  Kailey was also invited to a birthday party for a little girl in her school class.  She said the party was a lot of fun.  She did a nice job sewing a Barbie sleeping bag out of felt while at the party.  Saturday evening we went to the ISU football game.  During the first 5 minutes Sacramento State scored 2 touchdowns.  It made us a little nervous.  But by half time ISU was only 2 points behind.  It was an exciting first half.  The 2^nd have didn’t slow down a bit.  ISU scored 2 touchdowns within 2^nd’ half’s first 5 minutes.  ISU ended up winning.    I knew I was missing  the General Women’s Conference Broadcast but since we have a family pass and there are only 6 games in the season I decided I’d record it  and watch it later.  I was able to watch it today.  It was quite inspiring and I enjoyed listening and watching it. 

            Today was fast Sunday since next week is General Conference.  We didn’t realize it, until choir practice.  Apparently we weren’t the only ones that didn’t realize it was.  We had a very nice Sacrament Meeting though.  The spirit was strong.  Elicia bore her testimony.  She told how during her first sacrament meeting in this ward she missed her old ward terribly.  But now, she doesn’t miss the old ward that much since people have made her feel so comfortable.  Her testimony was made example of in a later testimony and then in Sunday school.  Both told how we need to make new members feel comfortable like the little girl told in her testimony.  We had a joint 5^th Sunday lesson with the RS, Priesthood, Y.W. leaders and Primary leaders combined.  We had it in the RS room but I doubt they’ll do that again.  It was quite crowded and several had to stand in the hall. Bishop Hayes spoke to us.  He is a sweet, humble man and makes a wonderful Bishop.  Following church Trevor and Melissa came over to eat.  Melissa made some yummy chicken and pasta salad.  We’ve missed having them live with us but are glad they live close enough we can still see them quite a bit. 

            I think I’ve covered everything.  We hope all of you are happy and well. 

Take Care,

Shan (and family)

A Fishy Day

October, 9  02

Dear Family,

Last week we had snow!  If you remember, in my last letter I said I knew it could come soon ;0)  It wasn’t enough to really stick but it sure gave us a taste of  cold weather.  Keaton had a football game on Tuesday, which we froze through.  We had our winter coats on besides being wrapped up in blankets.  Several of the kids were injured during the game and I’m not sure if it was because of the other team just being rough or something to do with it being cold out.  Our little guys just aren’t as aggressive as most of the other teams.  Keaton’s football has been taking up a lot of our time lately.  He really loves it though.  He says he plays it everyday at school and wants to be a football player for Halloween.  While he was at one of his practices last week I took the girls to DI to look at costumes.  Elicia decided she wanted to be a bride for Halloween.  We were able to find her a long, pretty white dress, a veil, some white shoes and white gloves for a total of $7.50.  I also found a red polka dot dress for $1 so with some convincing I was able to talk Kailey into being MiniMouse.   I told her that her Kindergarten teacher would love it since she used to work at Disneyland.   We bought her some white gloves too. With her black tights, some ears and a black long sleeve shirt she oughta look perfect! 

We’ve been really excited about cubscouting in this ward.  Keaton’s leaders are so good.  Last Thursday they took the kids fishing.  I think Keaton has only been fishing once before and that was several years ago.  He loved it!  He caught more fish then everyone else.  He out braved the others by sticking it out in the cold, which I’m sure helped.  He caught 7 fish but they split them up between the kids and he brought home 4 trout.  That was fine with me.  4 were definitely enough.  A little while after he had returned home I asked him where he put the fish.  He told me they were up in his room.  I had him get them and we stuck them in cold water in the sink.  I then debated if I had the guts to clean them.  I’m quite squeamish when it comes to fish, but not nearly as bad about lake/river caught fish.  I can’t even be in the same room as a dead aquarium fish.  I thought I could maybe talk Keaton and Elicia through the process of cleaning but neither one of them wanted to touch the fish.  I knew Mike wouldn’t do it either.  So I thought I’d make last minute attempt at getting a hold of Trevor or Melissa.  Neither one were home. That left the cleaning to the kids and me.  I knew if I were going to make them help I had to make the first move.  I grabbed a fish, thank heavens it was completely dead!  Then with a knife began to scale them.  Keaton was eager to cut off their heads and so he did that.  Elicia grabbed my camera and kept the little girls out of the way.  Keaton really started getting into it and even cut out the eyeballs, which I think he stills has in his room somewhere.  After getting through the initial grabbing of the fish, I didn’t have a problem cleaning them.  I baked them the next day with lemon pepper.  Mike ate  some but didn’t like picking out bones and the girls wouldn’t touch them.  Keaton ate a little and I ate some.

I’ve been working with Kailey and Emilee on reading and math.  Kailey has shown more of a desire to want to read.  She sees the older kids reading and wants to be like them.  She is beginning to sound out words and picks out words that are familiar to her.  I’ll read the Dr. Seuss books and let her read the words she knows or can easily sound out.  I think Emilee just memorizes the books as we go along because she’ll say a word that I’m trying to help Kailey with.  I think it will be like it was with Elicia and Keaton.  I would work so hard helping Elicia on something and Keaton would pick it up easily in the background.   So far it hasn’t bothered Kailey too much but it has always drove Elicia crazy when Keaton is learning the same things she does.  I have to remind Elicia that there are lots of things that come easily to her too.  When it comes to cooking and cleaning she can and does an excellent job.  Keaton has greater room for improvement in those areas.  For one of his cubscout requirements he had to help with a meal.  Last week I let him pick out a recipe from the cookbook and we gave it a try.  I learned right off that I haven’t let him spend as much time in the kitchen as he ought to.    He was unsure about what measuring tools to use and where and what certain ingredients were. He picked out Cheeseburger Pizza.  I thought it was a bit unusual to have a pizza with pickles on it but we did it.  Keaton thought it was great and I didn’t think it was too bad.  On the other hand, Mike wasn’t impressed. 

Elicia has been busy making friends.  She told me the other day that some girls asked her at school to practice basketball with them.  She was thrilled that they had asked her.  They told her they saw her on the list for the basketball team they signed up on.  They haven’t started practices yet but the practicing at recesses will help.  Last year Elicia’s team didn’t win a game.  I have a feeling this team will do a little better.  From what I’ve heard, the school we are in now is highly competitive.  Elicia hasn’t ever been on a “winning” team so it may be a change for her.  Hopefully they won’t be so competitive that the fun will be lost or the kids won’t be as nice on the court. 

It seems like our weekends have been incredibly full lately. Saturday was the first day in a few months and the last Saturday of the season that we could make it to Lagoon.  We had free tickets that we didn’t want to miss out on.  It was our first time to go during Frightmares.  We had extremely nice Fall weather and the park wasn’t very crowded.  We were able to walk right on several of the big rides and all of the little rides.  I think the only time we had to wait more than five minutes was at the special spook alleys.  During Frightmares they have 2 pretty scary ones and then a couple “kiddy” ones.  The kids liked one of the little ones that gave out trick-or-treat bags and they were able to walk through and receive candy from costumed employees.  The whole Lagoon Park was decorated for Halloween and in the evening they had Fog machines going and “Ghouls” walking the streets.    We watched a show, “The Frankie Bunch”, which was really cute too.  While riding a few of the rides I felt a little sick to my stomach.  I thought at the time maybe as I have gotten older I’m more prone to motion sickness.  I felt better when I wasn’t on the rides and throughout our drive back to Pocatello.  Sunday morning, I woke up sick though.  Gradually throughout the day, I got worst until I was having stomach cramps overlapping each other.  By evening I started to feel somewhat better.  We had invited Jim, Jeff, Greg and his girlfriend Jenny over for dinner.  Mike did the cooking.  I think he did pretty well.  I wasn’t up to eating so I wouldn’t know for sure.  Yesterday I felt weak but lots better and today I feel pretty much over it.  Mike thinks it was something I ate. I’m not sure if it had anything to do with it, but I don’t think I’ll be cleaning and baking fish for a while. 

Even though it was kind of a busy weekend, we were able to listen/watch most of conference.  Saturday morning we were able to listen to conference on our way to Lagoon and then on Sunday.  Since I had to be sick, Sunday was a good day since I could just lie around.  If it had been a regular Sunday there is no way that I could have made it to church.  I have enjoyed listening to the talks so far. There are some things I feel like we are doing okay but I know we can do better.  With our kids getting older it makes me feel an even greater pertinence to spiritually prepare them for the things they will encounter in life. 

I just realized we have only 15 minutes until Kailey leaves for Kindergarten and we haven’t had lunch.  I’d better bring this to a close.  Hopefully all of you are doing well.  Have a great week!

Love,

Shan (and family)

Homecoming

October 14, 02

Dear Family,

I think if I remember right, I started last week’s letter in the middle of the week, which is good, because I have a hard time remembering what goes on early on in the week. The days here have been very nice lately.  Emilee wants to learn how to ride a bike. I believe it will be some time before she actually gets it though.  She wants me to hold her hands on the handlebars and run up and down the street with her.  Kailey on the other hand, hasn’t been as interested in riding her bike as I had hoped she would be. 

Elicia began her basketball practices this past week.  They are a really good team. Last year Elicia’s team lost every game.  This new team at Gate City was apparently undefeated.  They plan to be that way again this year.  I was surprised that they (the three men coaches) started the girls with lay ups right off the bat.  I don’t think Elicia’s team ever did them last year.  The coaches told the girls they all had to make baskets by lay up before they could quit and go onto something else.   One little girl on the team has a broken arm.  She plays right along with the other girls.  She makes a lot of baskets too.  There games start in a couple weeks.  Keaton is supposed to start basketball soon too.  He finishes football this week. 

Friday night I had my “Mommies Night Out” for Bonkos.  We had a good time listening to 80’s music and eating while playing our dice game.  It got over a little after 9 and then after visiting for awhile, my friend Julie and I went to Wal*Mart.  We both realized that night that we needed to get birthday presents for a birthday party her son and Kailey had been invited to.  While I was away Friday, Mike took the kids and had what Elicia described as the “Best Night Ever”.  They had to do a little shopping at Home Depot and then went out for ice-cream and McDonalds before coming home to watch a movie. 

Saturday was an extremely full day or us.  It began with Mike leaving for the Homecoming Parade at 8:30 am.  His office had a float in it which he road on.  Shortly after he left, Alli and kids arrived.  We woke up Elicia, Keaton, Kailey and Emilee and got them ready to leave.  We then picked up Trevor and headed for a spot in front of Pocatello High School.  There we set up chairs on the sidewalk and got ready for the parade.  Kailey had to be at a birthday party at the 10:00, the same time the parade was to start.  Fortunately it wasn’t too far away.  I took her to it and then got back to Alli, Trevor and kids.  There were 100+ entries in the parade and lasted for over 1 ½ hours.   The homecoming parade is one of our favorites in Pocatello.  They throw more candy then any other parade :0) After the parade we picked up Kailey from the party and then headed home.  We weren’t home for long when Mike arrived home to take us to Bengal fest.  It is a bunch of activities that take place prior to the ISU football games.  After eating free hotdogs and watching the kids bounce on a trampoline and run an obstacle course we went to the Football game.  The games usually last for around 3 hours and surprisingly the kids did really well.  Keaton and Elicia enjoy watching.  Kailey and Emilee will even watch a little but prefer watching people around us and the other stuff that goes on during the games, like the cheer squad.  The game was really a good one.  We barely won 18-14.  In the final seconds of the game the other team lost control of the ball in the end zone.  We couldn’t even see the final play from where we sat.  It wasn’t until we saw it on the news that we actually figured out what had happened.  Following the game we went home to quickly eat and Mike and I left for a wedding reception.  When we returned home our friends the Lukers had arrived.  We played games and snacked until late.  After they left, 11:30 pm, Mike and I quickly left for Smiths Grocery Store.  We wanted to take advantage of their “case lot” sale.  We grabbed a few cases and a couple gallons of milk.  We were pretty wiped out by the time we arrived home. 

Sunday Mike and I went to choir practice.  We’ve enjoyed singing in the choir together.  It is the first time we’ve been able to do so since Elicia was a baby. We are working on Christmas music which is really fun.   After choir practice we had an hour to get everyone ready for church. Since both Mike and I were giving the prayers in Sacrament meeting we wanted to be there early so we could sit close  to the front.  In our ward if you don’t get there a head of time, you end up sitting clear back in the gym.  We had some super good talks in Sacrament meeting.  A lady in our ward spoke about how we can relate the story of the 3 little pigs to real life.  She explained that we need to be prepared for the “Big Bad Wolf” and build ourselves a strong home of bricks.  I never had thought of that analogy but thought it was a good one.  While the lady was speaking her husband had to take out their baby leaving their 3 year old on the bench by himself.  Mike motioned for him to come sit by us (only a few rows back) several times  Finally the little boy started to come back to us.  When he got to us he politely informed us that he already had a Mommy and Daddy and then went back up to his bench.  It was really cute. Keaton thought it was hilarious.  After church Trevor and Melissa had dinner with us.  Melissa had to go to work but Trevor hung out with us for the rest of the day.  We decided to go for a drive in the mountains just outside of town so we could see the beautiful scenery and it’s Fall changes.  Later we ate popcorn and watched the Living Scriptures DVD Lorenzo Snow.  Elicia seems to really enjoy the Prophet Documentaries and Keaton will watch them too but Kailey and Emilee usually don’t last long.  We have our DVD player in our bedroom but have it wired so we can watch whatever is playing throughout the house.  In the middle of our show the screen changed and we saw that the DVD player was being opened.  Next thing we knew , Peter Pan had started.  Mike ran upstairs and found Emilee to be the culprit. 

I think I’ve covered pretty much all that is worth covering.  We look forward to hearing about Troy’s family’s trip to Disneyland.  Hopefully all went well for them.  We love you all! 

Take Care,

Shan (and family)

UPSIDE DOWN

Oct. 20, 2002

 Dear Family,

I have a few minutes so I’m going to start this week’s letter and hopefully get it done today.  I find when I put it off I’ll either wait too long into the week or skip a week altogether.  Most of the week was a pretty normal week for us.  I’ve tried to get into a better routine in the morning with the kids.  If I hustle them along in the morning it is amazing what they can get done and our whole day goes smoother.  It is always nice when Elicia can get her piano practiced before going to school.  After school she gets busy with homework and other activities.  After a neglectful summer, I don’t want her to fall too behind with piano. Also, reading our scriptures as a family before school is working out rather nicely.  I never thought we were “morning people” enough to try it.  I still don’t think we’re fully “all there”  in the morning but it’s getting done at least.  It is kind of nice that the kids are too tired to start goofing around also. 

Thursday and Friday the kids were out of school for Parent/Teacher Conferences.  I went to Kailey, Elicia’s and Keaton’s all in a row on Thursday morning.  Kailey’s was first.  Her teacher asked me if she has a shy bone in her body.  Kailey is doing really well.  A year ago I wondered if I should get her some speech therapy but her teacher said she didn’t even notice a problem and that the people doing the kindergarten screening didn’t detect any sort of a problem.  In fact, in the kindergarten  screening her Language skills were extremely high. Her teacher told me very few students scored as high.  The gross motor section of the test is where Kailey struggled the most.  We need to work on hopping on one foot and skipping.  Elicia struggled the first few weeks of school and her report card reflected it.  I think she was just trying to hard and not utilizing her time effectively.   For example, her teacher would ask the class to write down answers as the teacher asked questions and Elicia would try to write the whole question down and not have time to write down the answer.  She is doing much better though and working on concentrating.  When she concentrates on the task at hand she does really well.  Keaton’s teacher describes him as a nice, quiet boy.  I warned her not to let him get to comfortable in class or that might change :0)  With the exception of handwriting, he received nearly a perfect report card. 

Keaton finished up with football this week.  He really enjoyed it and looks forward to playing again next year.  He says he would really like to be a receiver.  He loved having Trevor work with him on it Thursday night.  I told him if he kept practicing catching throughout the year perhaps next year he might get a chance at being a receiver.  I think next year we’ll for sure try to get him on Gate City’s team (where he goes to school now).  He loved playing with Jefferson’s (his old school) kids but it was just too long of a commute to go every evening.  He starts basketball practices this week and they won’t be too far away.    Speaking of basketball, we decided to get a portable basketball pole and hoop.  We have a sloped driveway so thought this would be better for us.  We’ve missed having a hoop since moving to this new home and promised Keaton we’d get one since we had to leave our old hoop.   I’ve taken the kids to the school a few times to practice but that’s not as easy as just going out the front door.  Mike left out of town and so I took it upon myself to put together the hoop.  IT said that 2 adults were required but I figured Keaton and Elicia would do.  We worked hard on it one day and then realized that there were 2 left brackets instead of a right and left bracket in the kit.  I had to call the manufacturer and get a right bracket.  It came quickly within a couple of days so we could get back to work at setting it up.  After putting it together twice (since I accidentally forgot a part the first time) we stood it up and noticed that the hoop rim was upside down.  Although Elicia and Keaton said they didn’t care, I knew I had to change it. It looked kind of silly upside down.  Now it is all put together but we need to get sand or something to put in the base to keep it from tipping over. 

Early Friday morning Mike flew to Coeur D Alene, Idaho.  He had some meetings to go to.  He should be home in a couple hours.  I like his quick trips a lot better then his long ones.  Friday night I was so exhausted from just keeping up with the kids.  Besides missing Mike when he’s gone I realize how much I really need him too. 

I committed several weeks ago to help out at our ward’s Super Saturday, which was yesterday.  I also learned late in the week, Keaton had one more football game Saturday morning.  With Mike out of town this put me in somewhat of a bind.  I was glad Alli was able to help me out.  She stayed and watched Keaton’s game while I went to Super Saturday.  Later we had Elicia baby-sit while Alli came to the church to work on a project.  After an hour or so the kids called and said Connor was hurt and so we packed up our stuff and went home.  Keaton had taken Connor in the front yard (which he shouldn’t have with us gone).  He pulled him in the wagon hooked up to his bike.  Apparently Connor fell out of the wagon and scraped up his face.  When they called I could hear Connor crying but when we got home a few minutes later he was up in Keaton’s room content watching Keaton play Nintendo.  Elicia was really upset about it and blamed Keaton for not obeying her.  Next time I’ll have to give better instructions before leaving the kids at home. After we got home and got things organized a bit, Alli and I took turns cutting each other’s hair.  We figure we’ve saved quite a bit of money being able to do this for each other.  Also cutting the members of our families hair has saved us bundles! 

Emilee is tugging on my arm wanting me to play “match game” with her so I’d better close.  Keep us updated Jason and Christi---We can’t wait for Molly’s arrival!  We love you all! 

Love,

Shan (and family)

THREE GREAT GAMES!

Oct. 27, 02

Dear Family,

I’m going to start backwards today.  That way I can get right into typing and not have to sit here and try to remember everything that happened during the week before I even get started.  Besides, yesterday was a fun and exciting day and I’m anxious to write about it.  First of all, I wanted to mention that Mike received a calling today.  He’s the Varsity Scout Coach and will work with the 14 and 15 year boys.  It will be a different calling then he’s used to but I’m sure he’ll do well at it. 

Now on to Saturday.  We had 3 games to hit starting with Elicia’s.  In the past couple of letters I think I’ve said that she was going to be on a really good team.   I think that is an understatement.  They are an incredibly good team.  Elicia does pretty well but doesn’t get much time with the ball since a few awesome ones take turns passing it back and forth and making the baskets.  At least one of the girls on the team has private basketball lessons.   They won their game 34-3. 

While Mike, Emilee, Elicia and I were at Elicia’s game, Keaton and Kailey attended the primary program practice and luncheon.  After Elicia’s game we dropped her off at the church and ½ hour later picked up Keaton for his game.  His game was a little slower than Elicia’s.  It was the first game ever for most of the kids if not all of the kids playing. The teams are made up of 2^nd and 3^rd graders.  Whenever the kids made a mistake they would stop the game and explain what had happened.   Keaton’s team made 5 baskets and the other team 3, even though they didn’t keep score officially.  Keaton made one of his team’s baskets, which he was thrilled about.  Right after he made it, he turned to us just grinning! 

Saturday afternoon we went to Bengalfest before heading to the game in the evening.  ISU won Weber State in a shut down 34-0 game!  It was pretty cool.  ThunderStix noisemakers were given to the first 6000 people into the game.  We all received them.  With 6000 people banging them together, there was quite a bit of noise.  The kids all thought they were pretty nifty.   A lady from the newspaper came and interviewed our family.   I didn’t see anything in today’s paper so I’ll have to keep checking to see if something comes up.  She asked us about our family season pass and how the kids like going to the games, etc. 

Friday night Mike and I attended Know Your Religion.  We have been the ticket selling representatives for our ward and were asked to help out that night taking and selling tickets.  We got there about 45 minutes before it started.  I waited in the foyer until after it started. Mike led the music and then stayed in the foyer while I went in to sit down. He stayed in the foyer the rest of the evening.  Sister Pohnke (I’m not sure on the spelling) spoke to us.  It was really good.  She taught us how to overcome trials in our life.  She told us how a few years ago she was getting frustrated with her trials.  One morning she walked into her kitchen and out loud asked Heavenly Father to give her a break.  She said apparently he didn’t answer her prayer because shortly after she was taking out the trash and somehow fell into the garbage dumpster with her arm still stuck in the handle.  Even though she described it I still can’t quite picture how that happened.  Anyway she had a lot of pain in her arm and called her daughter to take her to the hospital.  There she was told that she had broke a bone in her arm.  She then remembered how she had stood in her kitchen that morning asking Heavenly Father for a “break”.  She told us to be careful for what we pray for ;o)  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to her speak and the evening went very quickly.  Before closing she sang How Great Thou Art.  You could feel the spirit strong and it was such a perfect ending.  After she sat down nothing happened.  While sitting in the foyer earlier I thought I had heard them announce that a Sister Johnston would be giving the closing prayer.  I didn’t think it could have been me though since there were around 400 people there and must have been another sister Johnston somewhere in the congregation.  Besides I hadn’t been asked .  After several seconds of awkward silence and people looking all around, I saw Mike in the doorway motioning to me to go do it.  Somewhat reluctantly I went up to the podium and prayed.  Later I learned that the guy in charge had forgotten to get someone ahead of time and just prior to the meeting starting, gave the Stake President (who was conducting) my name…at least my last name.  He then had gone out to the foyer to tell me, but I had already went inside to sit down.  I felt a little silly but oh well, life goes on. 

Thursday night Keaton had a Pack Meeting.  He received a badge for fishing.  We need to really work hard to have him ready for his Bear next time.  This last month we’ve sluffed a bit.  I also had a DOTS stamping club party Thursday evening.  I had to drive pretty far out in the country for it and although many years ago had been to this friends house forgot kind of where it was.  I was glad I had my cell phone so I could call her when I got a little lost.  I learned I was only a few yards away from her Driveway.  I left about 8:30 and picked Elicia up from basketball practice at 9:00.  Then at home watched Survivor with Mike and Trevor. It’s been fun doing our little point thing at Yahoo with several of you  We have some work to do if we want to catch up with Jason. 

Wednesday evening we did something…I just can’t remember what J  I know Elicia had basketball practice later on in the evening though.  I went and watched.   

Tuesday evening we went to Golden Corral for Keaton’s end of season football party.  They gave out awards and we ate.  The coach said that Keaton made more tackles (or pulled tags) then any other player on the team.  Keaton said he really likes defense but next year he wants to be a receiver. 

Monday night we filled the base of our basketball pole/hoop with rock salt.  We thought it might work better then sand or water.  It took us a while to get it filled.  Jeff helped us, which made it easier. Thanks Jeff!!! After that we ate dinner and had family home evening.  Elicia made yummy Carmel apples for the treat. 

Emilee has just showed me her face covered with makeup.  I’m nervous to go and check out the damage but I better bring this letter to a close anyway.  Hope all is well for each of you!  We love ya!!!

Love,

Shan (and family)

Trick or Treat

NOV. 3, 02

Dear Family,

It’s beginning to look a “lot like Christmas” around here.  Not only is there snow on the ground but Christmas in the stores, on the television, in our ward choir practice  and my kids are listening to Christmas music as they go to bed at night.  Elicia’s favorite are the Gate City Choir CD’s we bought when Jeff was in the choir  I know some say they feel like it is too soon for Christmas and we need to wait until after Thanksgiving. But, if it were up to me I’d have it “Christmas Season” year round.  I feel like December is just too short for the wonderful feelings that Christmas brings. Mike tells us everyday how many days are left until Christmas. 

Our Highlight of the week was definitely Halloween and it’s festivities. Monday night we carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening.  Kailey and Elicia did their own, Keaton left his with a painted on face and I carved Emilee’s.  I found it really interesting that our neighbor across the street asked us if we carved the pumpkins ourselves.  Apparently her kids told her that we did it ourselves and they wanted to do jack-o-laterns “homemade” instead of buying them pre-carved.  I know we aren’t the only ones in our neighborhood that carve pumpkins because there is a very talented family that had pumpkins carved with CTR and a temple carved into one. 

 Wednesday we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat.  The Youth put it on and had several activities for the kids to participate in.  We also had a hot dogs and chips for dinner.  After an hour eating and playing inside the church, the adults were excused to get their trunks ready.  5 minutes later the kids were let loose.  We decorated our van similar to how we did last Halloween.  We had a “home made” witch stirring her brew of trick or treaters with a “Trick or Treaters Beware” sign in front.   Also, we had lights plugged in and scary sounds and music in the background.  It was snowing quite hard outside so the Trick or Treaters moved quickly from car to car.  Several slipped and fell along the way.   A few years ago there was snow on the ground when we went trick or treating but this was the first year I remember it actually snowing hard while trick or treating. 

 Halloween day, Emilee and I went to the school to help with Elicia’s Halloween Party.  We also spied on Keaton and Kailey’s classes for a few minutes.  The younger classes put on a Halloween parade for the kids in the older classes just prior to the class parties.  Then, each class had their parties.  I was in charge of the relay race.  It was funny to watch the kids in it.  One of the gals was dressed as a “high school student” and was wearing boxers with baggy pants.  While removing her relay costume she accidentally dropped her pants.  The kids thought it was hilarious to see her standing there in boxers.  I bet a few that actually wear clothes like that have had the same thing happen. 

After eating dinner on Halloween evening, Keaton and Elicia both took off with their friends to go trick or treating.  There wasn’t only snow on the ground but also fiercely cold temperatures.  I took Kailey and Emilee up and down our street but then they were ready to go home.  We had heard from neighbors to expect anywhere from 150-400 trick or treaters and that they “bus” kids into our neighborhood from surrounding communities.  I think because of the cold we had a really low turnout of 60.  About 8:15, we left in the car to go to Grandpa and Grandma Johnstons, the Pences and Grandma Sundrud’s.  We also stopped to visit Trevor at Common Cents.  He gave us free Icee Coupons.  Since it was after 9:00 we decided to save them for another time.  I think everyone definitely received enough candy. 

We didn’t have too much planned for Friday, which was nice.  Mike and I both hit Albertson’s .10 sales.  I bought 137 items for $18.00 and saved close to $70.  There were things like cans of pineapple, burritos, snack cakes, Rice a Roni, cans of pop and much more for only 10 cents each.  There was a limit of 10 items per customer so Mike and I both went.  Mike saved another $50.  I love bargains so this just made my day! :0) Friday evening we watched “The Rookie” as a family at home. 

Saturday Elicia and Keaton both had games.  Both won their games.  Elicia’s coach came up to me afterwards and told me that she was doing 100% better.  She did do well in the game.  Keaton had pictures taken before his game.  He’s a lot more “coachable” when on the court then he is while getting his picture taken.  Getting him to smile right is really hard.  He has a cute smile too.  Alli and the kids were able to watch Elicia’s game and later we picked up Don and he was able to watch Keaton’s game.  Connor really wanted to be out playing basketball too.  Don took him out to “shoot hoops” during the time outs and between quarters.  Following the games we went to McDonald’s with Don, Alli and Family. They then left back to Rexburg.  Don finished his Saturday Classes and will test Wednesday and Thursday for his CPA.  Our prayers are with you Don and that you retain that which you have learned. 

Late Saturday afternoon, Suzie, Brandon and their new little puppy Bailey came over.  The kids were so excited about the puppy.  They played with Bailey, helped feed her and Elicia even cleaned up when she went potty (it was outside Mike).  Elicia made a huge Christmas list.  She wrote a list of several different types of dogs.  She was sad when Mike said “no” to each one. 

That evening, Mike and I went out with Suzie, Brandon and Grandma Sundrud to Golden Corral.  We enjoyed visiting with them while eating.  Mike and I weren’t very hungry since we had eaten a late lunch but still enjoyed steaks and mushrooms along with salads and deserts.   I think we’ve eaten more at Golden Corral then anywhere else over the past year—definitely literally.  It is our family favorite.  After eating desert, Mike and I left to do a little shopping. We went to some of the new stores in Pocatello that we haven’t been to before.  We first hit Pier One Imports and enjoyed looking around but didn’t buy anything…yet ;0)  We then went to TJ Maxx (Mike’s first time)  and bought a couple things to hang on the walls.  The prices are pretty decent there.  We also went to the new Dollar Store and to some of the stores in the Mall.  It was fun, but after being gone a couple hours we figured we had left Elicia home long enough babysitting.  We were glad all was well when we got home.  We put the kids to bed and cleaned up while listening to the ISU/Portland Football game in Portland.  It was an EXTREMELY close game, Portland scored the winning field goal in the last 4 seconds winning the game 27-24.  I think I would have been on edge the whole game if we had been there.  I think it was the first football game I’ve ever really listened to on the radio. 

Today I taught Kailey’s class in primary.  They usually have 4 altogether but today there was only one other girl in her class.  It was fun to teach them about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy.  We all sat around the table and colored after the lesson.  I haven’t been in primary that much since Mike and I have been married and it was a lot of fun to watch the kids and sing with them. 

Keaton, Elicia and Kailey are all working hard on reading.  Kailey has learned over 40 “word wall” words that she can read by memory.  I’ve also been helping her with rhyming words and sounding out words.  I don’t remember Keaton and Elicia’s kindergarten teacher sending home words for them to learn.  She was an incredibly good teacher…just didn’t send home words.  Kailey has been very anxious to learn the new words she brings home each week.  Keaton is trying to be at the head of his class in turned in reading time.  He does really well at reading without even being told.  I wish he would read more then just the Louis Sacher books over and over again though.  Elicia’s teacher was very excited to tell me at the Halloween party that Elicia (Diane to her) was the first one in the class to meet her Accelerated Reading goal this grading period. Last grading period she wasn’t even close to making her goal so this was quite a surprise to her teacher.  Her reading 3-4 hours a day when there wasn’t school helped.   I’ve been keeping up with my homework too.  Elicia’s teacher has been sending home papers for me to grade.  I appreciate it because it’s hard for me to get into the schools to volunteer with Emilee still at home and Kailey at home in the mornings.  I like to feel like I’m helping out regularly and this is a way I can do it.  So far, I’ve been very impressed with the teachers at Gate City and their desire for parent involvement. 

Well I think we’re going to go on a scenic drive.  That is kind of one of the fun things we do on Sunday.  Usually we sing songs and are able to get our scripture reading in while doing so.  Hang in their Christi and good luck these next couple of days.  We’re excited for baby Molly to come and for you and Jason to become a Mommy and Daddy!  Hopefully all is well for all of you. 

Love,

Shan (and family)

“AS IS” Family

Nov.  10,  2002

Dear Family,

It’s a cozy late afternoon here in the Johnston household.  Mike is away at a convention in New Orleans.  The rest of us are here enjoying our Sabbath afternoon.  It’s cold outside and looking more and more like winter.  We’ve had snow and rain off and on all weekend. 

Tuesday evening Don, Alli and Family came to stay with us for a couple days while Don took his CPA exam.  The little girls and Connor kept us pretty busy.  There wasn’t too much time for a dull moment.  They were running around and Emilee crashed into the brick around the fireplace.  She scraped her chin up really badly.  I’ve been waiting to get our family picture taken until we all look “good” but things keep happening.  In September Kailey cut off part of her bangs and now they are starting too look somewhat normal.  Now we’ll have to wait until Emilee’s face heals.  And just yesterday I noticed Keaton has been messing around with his hair again.  He cut a big chunk off the top of his head and also part of his bangs off.  I guess I’ll just have to schedule a time for us to go “as is” or it might not happen. 

Thursday night the kids had a PTA fundraising school carnival.  We didn’t have school carnivals at the kids’ old school so we weren’t quite sure what to expect.  IT turned out really fun.  There was dinner in the gym that we paid tickets for and then used tickets at the different games in various classrooms.  After the little girls used up their tickets and had enough prizes and junk food I took them home and put them to bed.  At the end of the carnival I went back and got Elicia, her friend Aly and Keaton.  None of them were quite ready and had tickets they were scrambling to use.  They loaded up on junk as fast as they could so we could go. 

Friday night I had my “Boncos” night.  I left with my cell phone with me so I could keep tabs on the kids. About an hour before leaving it had snowed incredibly hard.  Huge flakes were coming down and the ground was covered within minutes.  It had stopped but I was a little worried about driving across town in snowy conditions so I took Mike’s Blazer.  Fortunately I didn’t have any problems.  Elicia babysat and I received several phone calls throughout the evening.  Mainly asking if they could eat “this” or “that”.  I had a good time at the party and won the 2^nd place prize of the night.   It is nice to be able to visit with some of my old friends.  We always spend the evening eating and laughing.  Next month is my turn to host so I’ve been starting to plan prizes and what we’ll eat.  Some of the ladies go “all out” and others keep it simple. 

Yesterday was another 3 game Saturday.  Both Elicia and Keaton’s teams played and won their games.  I had to do somewhat of a juggling act to get both kids to their games.  Keaton had one at 10:00 at a school near us, and Elicia at 11:00 at a different school over by ISU.  We left the house at 9:35 and I dropped Keaton off for his game and then drove to Elicia’s where she was to have team pictures taken at 10:15.  She stayed there while the little girls and I drove back to Keaton’s game.  We watched his that ended close to 11:00.  We then quickly left for Elicia’s.  Her game was at the beginning of the 2^nd quarter when we arrived.  Keaton’s game had been quite close, with Keaton’s team trailing at ½ time but winning in the 4^th quarter.  Elicia’s team won by a landslide.  Elicia came really close to making a basket and I was so hopeful.  I told her that she’d just have to try really hard and maybe by the end of the season she’ll make some during the games.  Saturday evening I braved the ISU game with the kids.  It was nice of Trevor and Melissa to come and join us at half time.  Since they are students, their student cards get them in on the other side of the minidome but at half time they can get into our side without having a ticket.  We had a few seats in front of us vacant and so they were able to sit with us.  During the half time show they had a remote control car race and the car representing our section won.  Since our section won, we were given free 22oz pop coupons from Taco Time.  Trevor and Melissa happened to make it over in time to get them too.  ISU won Northern Arizona easily.  We were also surprised to learn that Portland State had lost to Weber State.  Last week we lost to Portland and on our Homecoming we slaughtered Weber. If we keep winning we could be in the 2^nd spot of the Big Sky Division.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the letter, Mike is in New Orleans for a Real Estate Convention.  He left Wednesday morning and will return late Tuesday evening.  It’s been a long week without him and we miss him.  The kids are asking me all the time how much longer before he gets home.  He lost his cell phone in a cab and so we haven’t been able to keep in touch as well this trip.  He has called a couple times and sent a couple emails but we haven’t heard from him as much as usual and as much as we like to while he’s traveling.  We’ve been watching home videos today of when Elicia and Keaton were babies.  The kids have gotten a kick out of seeing skinny Daddy.  Emilee has been really confused and asking where she was.  We told her that she was still living with Heavenly Father  but that didn’t make much sense to her and she said she wanted to be with us.  We told her Kailey was there too but she said she still wanted to be with us.  She wanted to play with Elicia way back when she was her age.

After leaving and coming back to this several times I think I’m ready to get it sent.  We hope everyone is happy and well.  Congrats again to Jason and Christi on a beautiful new baby!  We can hardly wait to meet her.   Have a great week, we love you all! 

Love,

Shan (and family)

2 out of 3

November 17, 02

Dear Family,

It’s another Sunday afternoon as I sit down to the computer and begin typing another family newsletter.  I know you probably won’t get this until Monday (the server isn’t weekend friendly lately) but I’m still writing it on Sunday.  Don’t want anyone to get confused about my “todays” and “yesterdays”.  I’m listening to Christmas music as I type this and almost feel legitimate in doing so.  Christmas is only 37 days away according to Mike.  Many of you know that he keeps a fairly accurate count of how many days until Christmas throughout the year.  One thing he doesn’t do well at Christmas time is surprise me.  He picks up gifts for me and brings them home for me to wrap.  I on the other hand, don’t even let him know that I’ve bought him something and wrap it up right away or else he’d be snooping for it.

Mike returned home from New Orleans on Tuesday evening.  We put the kids to bed and then went out to dinner to eat and talk about everything that went on while he was gone. It was hard for him and us for him to not to have his cell phone (it was lost in a cab the first night).  We are so used to talking back and forth all the time when he’s traveling.  So we had a lot of catching up to do.   We are glad he’s home safe and sound.

Keaton had a Pack Meeting on Wednesday evening.  They finger printed several of the parents and then let them leave their prints on various items.  The cubscouts had to figure out whose prints belonged to each object.  It wasn’t the easiest task.  After that Mike had Scouts and a little later Elicia had basketball practice.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but Elicia has practices 3 nights/week from 8-9 pm. It’s pretty late but at the same time it’s kind of nice that it doesn’t interfere with earlier activities that might go on in the evening. 

Thursday evening I went to Enrichment Night.  I made an apple crisp for it.   Our theme for the night was being prepared.  We had a couple speakers come in and talk to us about creating wills and trusts.  It was interesting and I learned a lot. 

 Friday evening Mike and I were able to get to the temple. We’ve had kind of a hard time getting our time organized to get there the past couple of months and so this month we decided our first free chance we’d take.  I think that Friday was the only evening for the rest of the month we could have made it work too.  Everything went really smoothly getting there also, which isn’t always the case. It is always so refreshing and good for us to go to the temple.   I was glad the adversary left us alone. 

Yesterday was our last “3 game” Saturday for quite awhile.  Elicia’s team played their hardest game yet.  They lost by two points.  Their top scorer on their team didn’t even make a basket.  Several of the girls were crying afterwards.  It was the first game that this team had lost in two years. I think they probably needed to be humbled a bit.  They’d been sort of cocky about all their wins.  The next game is against Jefferson, which is our old school.  Keaton’s game yesterday was against Jefferson.  Keaton’s team won.  I think Keaton enjoyed playing against some of his old friends.  He really did well.  He scored the first two baskets of the game.  ISU played their last home game last night against Cal Poly.  They didn’t play their best but fortunately still won.  It gets us a little closer to the playoffs.  Next weekend will be a tough one against Southern Utah.  Also, yesterday late afternoon, Mike and Elicia went on a Daddy Daughter Date for achievement days.  Elicia decorated both of them matching shirts.  They went bowling and had Pizza.  I think Elicia told me she got 72 for her score.   As soon as they got home we took off for the ISU football game. 

The kids are always doing silly little things and I usually can’t think of them when I write my letters.  I’m trying to think of some of those things.  Last night (it’s now Monday morning)  Melissa and Trevor were over.  Melissa was rubbing Emilee’s back while her PJ’s were on and she thought it felt funny.  We checked under her PJ’s and she was wearing her swimsuit.  We asked her why she had her swimsuit on and in defense she explained, “but I still have my panties on”.  Sure enough they were on top of her swimsuit under her PJ”s.  It actually didn’t really surprise Mike or me since she does silly things like that all the time but Trevor and Melissa were quite amused.  Usually she will have on 5 pairs of panties or something like that.  I’m not sure why.  We have been  trying to work on Emilee’s face.  She has a problem with eczema around her mouth.  At least that is what the Dr. told me one time.  We suspect it gets worse when she eats an abundance of dairy products.  She still loves cottage cheese but I try to limit her intake.  Apparently the other night while we were gone to the temple she helped herself to quite a bit and now her face around her mouth is really broken out.  We are having family pictures taken Thursday evening so I really would like it to clear up.  She throws a fit when I try to put on any medicine though.  I guess I’ll have to settle with washing it with a clean cloth and perhaps some makeup on Thursday. 

Kailey is very much enjoying Kindergarten.  She especially likes the social part of it.  She comes home everyday telling me who is playing with who and what club was formed at recess.  She told me the other day that she especially likes to play with a little girl named Kelly.  While telling me this she suddenly got really serious and told me, “Mom, she’s a bus girl”.  I wasn’t quite sure what she meant at first and then realized that Kelly rides the bus to and from school.  Kailey is apparently a “walker”.  I need to work on my Kindergarten Lingo. 

Keaton is really trying hard to get a trophy for reading.  He will read several hours at a time.  The problem is he will read the same books over and over again.  He finished one last night and told me it was his 8^th time.  He has other books he’s never read before but I think I need to get him to the library so he can find some more that he really likes.  Besides reading, he likes to “shoot hoops”  which I think is great.  Much better than when it’s too cold outside and he gets stuck in front of the TV. 

I’ve been trying to help Elicia organize her time.  She was complaining the other day that she doesn’t have enough time to play with her friends.  I realize she is really busy between homework, basketball, piano, chores and everything else  but she still can have some playtime. We went over how many hours there are in a day and what she needs to get done when and how.  She agreed with me that when she gets her piano practiced before school it saves time after school.  I’ve been trying to explain to her keeping her room neat is quicker then having to clean it up when messy.  I don’t think that has quite sunk it yet.  Although, her room is 10 times cleaner on any given day than it was in our last house.  Keaton’s on the other hand is 10 times worst in this house.  I think it is because he spends a lot more time in his room now then before. 

Well this has become a two day letter which I didn’t plan on.  Oh well, I think I’ve covered everything and will get it sent.  Hope all is well.  We love you all!

Love,

Shan (and family)

Let the Parties Begin!!! 

December 9, 02

Dear Family,

It’s been two very busy weeks and I’d better get started on this before it turns into 3.  Last Sunday we were traveling home from Nyssa on Sunday and that evening put up our Christmas Tree so I didn’t have time to get this written.  The week of Thanksgiving was very busy preparing to travel for Nyssa. Wednesday afternoon we left for Nyssa.  We stopped in Twin Falls to visit Mike’s Grandmother.  Her health seems to be going down hill rapidly.  Just a few years ago she was white water rafting with us.  She now walks with a walker and has a hard time hearing.  It was nice to visit with her for a while. 

Thursday we had Thanksgiving dinner at Mom and Dad’s.  It was really good.  We didn’t have as many there as usual since Troy and Pam were in Utah and Don and Alli, Trevor and Melissa had Thanksgiving Dinner in Rexburg.  Later in the week they all came but Ryan and Susan had to get back to Utah.  Jason blessed Molly on Sunday so we attended their ward in Payette.  Throughout our time there we spent lots of time shopping, playing games, watching movies and of course EATING.   

This past week the parties began.  On Wednesday evening we had our ward party.  Mike was in Boise and so the kids and I attended by ourselves.  We began the evening with a program in the chapel.  The older 3 kids sang with the primary and I sang in the ward choir so Emilee joined me on the stand and played under the piano.  Following the program we were to go into the gym to eat.  There were a lot of people so we were divided into groups.  We were lucky to be able to go first.  Not that there wasn’t plenty of food, we were just hungry with it being after 7 before the program was over.  There were tables set up everywhere, including the stage.  The kids immediately decided they wanted to sit at a table on the stage so I joined them.  After we finished eating I hadn’t heard if there was anything else going on.  I asked a few people and they didn’t know either so the kids and I left.  Elicia had basketball practice at 8:00 anyway.  Mike returned at close to 1:00 AM.  I stayed up cleaning and working on a few Christmas tasks.  I talked to Mike on the phone several times to make sure he was still wide-awake.  I don’t think he had too much of a problem though.  He had checked out some books on tape from the library and listened to them while he drove. 

Thursday night it was my turn to host “bonkos”.  I spent all day cleaning and cooking.  That afternoon three of the ladies called and cancelled so I had to scramble to find subs.  Melissa was able to be a sub and so was my next-door neighbor.  I was still short one but we were able to use a teddy bear decoy to take the extra spot.  For the food, I prepared dips to go with chips, bread and vegetables along with some sweet things and hot cider.  It was a fun evening.  After the ladies left, Trevor came over and along with him, Melissa, Mike and I watched our pre recorded Survivor Episode. 

Friday evening was the annual Pocatello Association of Realtors Installation banquet.  Mike installed the officers.  Mike has been traveling around to several areas to Install officers since he is one of Idaho’s Vice-Presidents.  Following the dinner and installation we visited for awhile and then went home where a couple friends joined us.  We played games and ate some of the leftovers I had from the night before. 

Saturday, Mike convinced me it would be fun to look around at some of the car lots in town.  For the past month we’ve been keeping our eyes open for a vehicle for Mike.  His Blazer has become less reliable and where he does so much traveling he really wanted something that he could trust.  He kind of was looking at trucks but I convinced him to go the SUV route since they seat more people.  We found that we both really liked Mitzabishi Monterro’s until we found a decent price on a larger vehicle.  We decided to test drive a Ford Exhibition which seats 8.  We drove it home and found that we could fit it in the garage so it’s a keeper.  The color is kind of hard to explain. It is sort of an Earth tone Green color.  Melissa said she would describe it as a silver/green.  I think it is similar to taupe, the color of our van, but with a green tint instead of brown. 

After we got home, Mike helped Keaton pass off several Cub Scout requirements.  I’m so glad because Keaton is so eager and although I have helped him some, I just don’t do as well as Mike.  I read Christmas stories to the girls while they did that.

Saturday night we took the kids Christmas shopping.  They’ve been doing chores and saving up for gifts that are needed by a couple families our ward is sponsoring.  Elicia had earned the most money and found a gift easily.  Giving these gifts comes easier for a couple of the kids than for the other couple…I won’t mention names J We kept telling the kids to think about how excited the recipients would be when they opened their gifts.  It’s kind of a hard concept to teach when the kids would like to keep the gifts themselves but we’ve done this for a couple years and hopefully in years to come it will get easier.   Sunday they were able to take the wrapped gifts into the Bishop.  I think they liked adding theirs to the pile that was already there.  The kids drew names for each other for Christmas gifts too.  Keaton drew Elicia’s name but says he’s “burnt out” on doing chores and doesn’t know if he’ll be able to get her anything too great.  I told him he was going to have to do chores regardless if he gets paid for them. :o)

Yesterday after church, Trevor, Melissa and Melissa’s younger sisters and brother came over.  It was Melissa’s youngest sister’s Birthday so we had her choice of a meal, Hawaiian Haystacks.  We also had cake and ice cream.  Keaton loved playing with little Trevor (Melissa’s youngest brother) since they are the same age.  We played some games before they left.  Later we watched Mr. Kruegers Christmas, read stories and updated the advent calendars.  I just love Christmas time!!!   

I think I’ve covered a good portion of the past couple weeks.  Emilee just finished gluing together a broken Christmas decoration with a glue stick  (Hum) she is now wanting me to listen to her read.  Better go.  Love ya all! 

Shan (and family)

Merry Christmas

Dec. 25, 02

Dear Family,

It’s been awhile since I’ve written and so I need to just start.  It’s been a busy month and I’ve been putting it off.  I’ll just begin with Merry Christmas!  It is Christmas night right now and I’m not sure if I’ll finish this tonight but I’ll wish every one a Merry Christmas anyway.  We had a nice calm Christmas Eve yesterday.  We had light snow falling throughout the day, which made it really pretty.  I felt like it was a bonus because there was no snow in the forecast for Christmas Eve. Mike went into work that morning but came home early in the afternoon.  The kids were just finishing up their graham cracker “gingerbread” houses when he got home.  The kids also talked us into letting them open up one of their presents.  After we cleaned up and had some lunch we took a drive so I could take my MLS pictures.  That took about two hours and by the time we got home it was late afternoon and ready to get dinner put together.  We asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas Eve Dinner and it was unanimous that we had Fondue.  So we had cheese fondue for dinner followed by chocolate fondue for desert.  It worked out really well and I was glad we were getting some healthy food to go along with all the junk we’ve been eating. After dinner we read some Christmas stories along with Luke Chapter 2, Christ’s birth, in the Bible.  After the stories we each opened up another Christmas gift.  We watched “Mr. Krueger’s Christmas” on video too.  Before putting the kids to bed, we drove around looking at Christmas lights.  While we were driving around some friends of ours called and wanted to go too so we picked them up.  There were 9 of us in Mike’s 8-passenger vehicle but with Emilee sharing a seatbelt it seemed to work --really cozy.  Chubbuck has a competition within its neighborhoods and throughout the town.  They have some incredible displays so we spent most of our time looking there. We got home around 10:30 and the kids were either asleep or nearly asleep.  We put them to bed and Mike and I watched a movie while awaiting Santa’s Arrival. 

This morning the kids started to wake us up at 7:15.  We told them not to get out of bed until at least 7:00 and we had to go downstairs as a family.  Mike went down the stairs first with the video camera.  As the kids were going down the stairs, Mike yelled quite seriously, “He didn’t come!” ,”Santa, didn’t come!”  The kids were quite distressed until they realized that Daddy was only kidding.  After checking out their “goods” from Santa, we preceded to open up the rest of the presents.  After playing for an hour or so, I started the Turkey while Mike cleaned up the boxes and wrappings.  The kids began eating from their own special box of cereal that Santa had brought.  After breakfast it was back to playing.  We spent the rest of the morning playing with toys and playing games.  Don, Alli and kids arrived around 12:00.  We worked on our lunch of ham, turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, salads, rolls and veggies.  Afterwards the kids watched a new DVD, Mike taped off of TV some old James Bond movies and Don, Alli and I played a game.  We also joined the kids in watching the movie “Clock Stoppers”.  Around 5:30 Don and family left.  IT was a fun afternoon. This evening we’ve played more games.  Kailey received Disney UNO as a gift and I’ve played it about 10 times now.  Mike has played battleship a couple times with Keaton, I played a sports game with Keaton and a few games of Mickey Mouse Match game with Emilee.  The girls are watching “The Care Bears” movie right now.  It’s been a great Christmas. 

Now moving back into December, I’ll have to try to wrack my brain and remember what we’ve done.  Mike and I had our 12^th anniversary on Saturday, December 21. The Johnstons had a family dinner that evening and so we attended that.  We enjoyed it.  The dinner very good as it usually is when Karen prepares it.  She adds a lot of special touches and makes it really nice.  Grandma Sundrud, Kristie and her children, Suzie, Eric, Greg and girlfriend Jenny and Jeff along with his new fiancé Shannon (yes there will be another Shannon Johnston) were all there.  After eating, we watched part of Eric’s “Thanksgiving Documentary” he’s working on. It gives the point of view of the whole family over a Turkey they raised and killed for Thanksgiving dinner several years ago. It was quite funny to watch.   Then most of us took off for an ISU basketball game.  After the game, Eric, Suzie, Jeff, Greg and girlfriends came over for ice cream.  We had fun visiting with them and also singing some Christmas Carols.  After everyone left, Mike and I drove his car down the hill to get gassed up.  So we did get to spend a few minutes of “alone” time together on our anniversary.

The kids had their school parties Friday and are now out for Christmas break until January 2, 2003.  Last Friday night, we had Greg and Jenny, and our friends Aaron and Noel over to play games and snack.  Elicia also had a friend spend the night. 

Mike and I went Christmas caroling last week with our ward choir.  The Bishop gave us a list of over 20 homes he wanted us to carol too.  It was snowing quite hard and it made it even more fun.  We split up into two groups so it wouldn’t take so long.  Afterwards they had a chili and doughnuts but Mike and I left early to pick up the kids and head to an ISU game.  On the way to the game, Emilee fell asleep.  She ended up sleeping the whole game on my lap but woke up on the ride home.  When we got home and I was getting her PJ’s on her she was really confused as she told me “but we didn’t go anywhere Mommy”.  I told her she missed the whole basketball game.  I don’t think she cared too much and I know I didn’t :o) 

Mike had his Keller Williams company party a couple weeks ago.  He is pretty much in charge of it all.  I made roast beef for it. We had the party at TJ Merzlock’s home.   There are a lot of new agents at his company.  We ate, played some games and had a gift exchange.  A few days later I had Enrichment night where we had a Christmas party.  I made up a “left/right” story having to deal with R.S.  Lots of people laughed…mainly because they got confused on which way to pass.  I also made a stew, a cake, helped serve and played the piano for the evening.  It’s probably the most I’ve been involved in the ward since we’ve moved in. 

We’ve taken advantage of driving around looking at Christmas lights a few different times.  One Sunday we had Grandma Sundrud along with Trevor and Melissa over for dinner and then went to look at the lights.  Mike had a meeting and so I drove.  I drove slow enough that we could enjoy the lights ;o) Besides looking at lights, we’ve probably done too much eating and snacking around here.  I’ve made lots of goodies and we’ve been given quite a bit, especially over the last week.  I don’t want it to go to waste and so I know I’m eating more than I should.  We really need to get our treadmill up and running!  

The rest of the past couple of weeks we kept pretty busy but I don’t think I’ll go into details.  It’s been a long day and I’m getting tired. Hopefully all of you have had a great Christmas and will continue to enjoy this Christmas season.  Congratulations to Jeff and Shannon! 

We love you all,

Shan (and Family)

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