2003 Newsletters
January 5, 2003 to March 30, 2003
No More Nursery
Jan 5, 03
Dear Family,
I just finished reading all the newsletters in my email and decided I better get on the ball and get mine written. I don’t like it when I wait too long because I always forget things. I’ll start with the weekend following Christmas. That Friday morning we loaded up and left for Nyssa. We stopped in Twin Falls to visit with Mike’s Grandma for a while. She’s had a lot of health problems over the past few years. It’s hard to believe that 6 or 7 years ago she was white water rafting with us! We enjoyed a short visit before heading back on our way. Our next stop was at the cheese factory in Nampa. The “squeaky cheese” is so yummy and so when the opportunity arises we go and get some. We arrived in Nyssa late in the afternoon. While in Nampa we had tried to call Troy and Pam and had no luck. We were pleasantly surprised to find them at Mom and Dad’s. The kids were very excited to see their cousins too. Jason, Christi and Molly came over a little later. We had Christmas again with everyone opening presents. When we walked in I couldn’t believe how many presents they still had under their tree! With us adding the presents we had and also presents sent with us from Don and Alli we had a great time. There are still gifts left for those that didn’t make it for Christmas. Mom and Dad will just have to keep their tree up until February when Jared gets home off his mission. We played games that night including Rage and Millionaire.
Saturday, Mike, Emilee and I went to Boise to do some shopping. We were hoping to find some post Christmas sales but didn’t see too much we were interested in. We stopped to pick up Keaton from Troy’s on our way back. He had been having a lot of fun with Chris. Saturday night we played games and watched movies.
Sunday we were concerned the weather perhaps wouldn’t hold out for us so we left fairly early in the day, following Sacrament Meeting, straight home. I finished reading a book to Mike on the way home. We had started The Alliance by Gerald Lund on the way to Nyssa and after reading it whenever we got in the van and before bedtime we had it done easily on the way home. We both really liked it. It was one of those “hard to put down” kinds. The trip home was uneventful. The sky looked pretty dark but there were no storms while we traveled. Within a few minutes of arriving home, a family in our ward called and invited us over for cookies. Although, we were all pretty worn out from traveling and just wanted to relax we decided to go. We had a really good time and the cookies were so good. I was glad we went. This family has a huge Dog named Hagrid. The kids had a fun time playing with him. I thought he looked more like a bear then a dog. He was a nice dog, unlike the one it sounds like Mom encountered. OUCH Mom!
Monday evening some friends asked us if we wanted to join them bowling for FHE. We decided to and had a pretty good time. Kailey and Emilee although excited at first, got bored and I spent a lot of time just helping them. (Alli talked about “ball helpers” at the place they went to, that would have been nice. I was the “ball helper” at the bowling ally we went too.) We went to Jamba juice afterwards.
New Years Eve morning brought us a storm. We had planned on going to Salt Lake and staying in a hotel with a pool. Since the snow was coming down quite hard we decided to just stay home. We ended up buying some movies and pizza. That night we ate the pizza, watched “Horse Crazy” , and played several games including LIFE, Stratego and UNO. We’ve played Uno about 50 times since Christmas!!!! The whole family can play UNO (yes even Emilee) which makes it fun for everyone. With the exception of Emilee we all made it up until Midnight. Emilee came close, dropping off at about 11:45.
New Years Day we stayed home the entire day we didn’t leave farther then the front porch to get the Newspaper. I don’t think that has happened in a LONG time. Except now that I think of it, we may not have left anywhere on Christmas. So it had been only a week…not quite as long as I had thought :9) We watched movies and played games along with eating of course. We do those things really good. That night we did our best to get the kids into bed early. They struggled with getting to sleep. After being used to going to bed late and waking up early it wasn’t easy. I don’t think any of us slept very well even though we were all tired. Thursday morning was really hard to get up and get everyone off in the morning.
Friday night, Mike and I left the kids and went out for dinner. After we got home we let the kids stay up and watch a movie hoping that they’d sleep in well Saturday morning. They did, actually too well. I was taking a shower at 9:00 when the phone started ringing. Everyone else was still in bed. After I got out of the shower I answered it, it was somebody from the church reminding us of a primary activity “Meeting the new Teachers Breakfast” at the church. It had started at 9:00 and it was 9:10 when I answered the phone. I hurried to get the kids up and ready. Mike showered quickly too. Elicia and Keaton weren’t too hard but Emilee and Kailey were horribly hard to get up. I sent them out the door with Mike at 9:30. They were there in enough time to eat and visit with their new teachers. At 10:00 we picked them up and I took Elicia to ISU for a tryout for the ISU’s Children Choir. The Choir director was very interested in the fact that she could read music. He said he needs kids that can read music and sing other parts besides soprano. She made it and we bought her a dress and shirt before leaving. Hopefully it will be a fun experience for her.
Saturday night, Trevor and later Jeff came over and watched Football with us. Keaton has been big time football kid lately. His favorite team is the Greenbay Packers and since they were playing we “had” to have a party. Keaton didn’t care much for all the teasing he got when “his” team lost. It wasn’t the most eventful game but it was still fun. Apparently the ones yesterday were much better…which Keaton wasn’t able to watch. He taped them though and will probably start watching after school today.
Sunday, the kids all got new teachers in Primary. We no longer have a child in nursery! It’s been over 9 years!!! I think it’s pretty cool to have them altogether in primary. I was worried about Emilee because she has loved nursery so much and her teachers. But, she did great in primary. She loved the Sunbeam Crown she was given to wear. It was glittery gold and she looked adorable! RS got out a bit early and so I along with several other Moms peaked in the Sunbeam room through the little window and watched the kids. They were just so cute! Since our church now starts at 8:30 am (YES THAT IS VERY EARLY) even though I had a meeting afterwards, it was still great to have such a “huge” afternoon ahead of us. Mike and I went to choir at 2:00 but still got home at close to the same time that we got home from church last year. I was surprised at how many came to choir practice. I suppose with it in the afternoon, instead of the morning, makes it easier for lots of people. Our ward has a lot of talent and it has been so much fun being a part of the choir. Yesterday evening, Trevor and Melissa came over for dinner. After eating they joined us in a family UNO game. I think we need a new game to play. The kids love it but I’m getting a little tired of it.
Well I think I’ve caught up. Hope all is well with each of you!
Love,
Shan (and family)
Back in the Swing of Things
January 12, 2003
Dear Family,
We’re getting back into the swing of a routine. It’s still hard to pull ourselves out of bed in the morning but not as bad as it was last week. I don’t think it ever gets totally easy for us to wake up around here. We’re a bunch of “night owls”.
On Monday Elicia started Children’s Choir. She is excited for a tour they will take in June to Southern Utah. Elicia sang beside her good friend Aly in the 2nd Soprano section. She also won a prize in the early bird drawing. With Jr. Music Festival only a couple months away, Elicia has also been working hard on piano pieces for it.
I signed Keaton up for soccer that will start this Spring. Although he’s never played before he was very sure he wanted to. Hopefully he picks it up quickly because I imagine most of the kids have played a year or two already. I don’t know much about soccer at all so I don’t think I’ll be much of a help to him. Keaton has been driving us nuts lately with the football playoffs going on. He is constantly asking us whom we think will win and who he is sure will win. He records the Sunday games and then watches them during the week. He comes and tells us exactly what is going on every five minutes. Also, he carries around the football he got from Troy and Pam’s family for Christmas everywhere he goes.
Kailey and Emilee keep each other entertained. It’s been a bit tough for Kailey because we haven’t found her any good friends her age. There aren’t any other girls her age in the ward that are also in Kindergarten. I’m glad that Kailey will play with Emilee pretty well though. They play house and barbies a lot together. The other day they were playing outside with one of the little neighbor boys and had sleds, strollers and other various items spread across the front yard. Mike had called me and told me he was on his way home and I had wondered if I should go and check the driveway to see if it was clear when I heard a honk. At first I thought he just wanted somebody to move something quick and then I heard another honk and another honk and the horn pressed down. I couldn’t believe he expected me to run out there and clean off the driveway when he could easily step out of his car and do it himself. I did go out to check though and found Kailey, Emilee and their friend in my van honking the horn. I was relieved it was them and not Mike being a jerk ;o)
Speaking of Mike, he’s had an extremely busy week. His company has been taken to court over a Real Estate transaction that happened in 1997 before Mike was broker and before their company was even Keller Williams. Since Mike became the “keeper of the files” he has been heavily involved and up on the stand a couple times already. They’re expecting a 3 week trial and this past week was the first week. Mike will leave at 8:00 in the morning and not get home until 1:00 AM. In the evenings he has been meeting with attorneys. I think the whole thing is really ridiculous and that the jury would be out of their minds not to side with the defense. They had a hard time coming up with jurors that wouldn’t be biased. Apparently they had to dismiss so many from the original 75 that they had to pull new people in. There were a few that knew Mike and they were quickly released of duty. Especially when they stood up and said they knew Mr. Johnston to be a man of integrity and would be swayed by whatever he said. Hopefully this will go smoothly and pass quickly.
As for me, it was pretty much the same old thing through out the week. Friday night though I had my ladies Boncos night. It is always a lot of fun. Then Saturday night we had the Lukers over to play games.
Well this is a short letter, or at least I wrote it a lot quicker than I sometimes take to right a letter. Good timing too because Emilee is in need of a snuggle. Hope all is well!
We love you,
Shan (and family
I Like it this Way!
Jan 20, 03
Dear Family,
Today the kids are home from school and so far we’ve been a bit lazy. I figured I’d give them a little bit more “lazy time” while I write this letter and then we’ll get to work around the house. Lately one of our fun ways to clean the house is for me to take one child at a time and spend 3 minutes each on 6 different rooms cleaning as fast as we can. Usually by the time I get through all the kids the house looks pretty good. With Elicia we alternate her practicing a piano song in between rooms and she can get her piano practiced too. I let them choose what on the room they want to work on while I usually pick the least desirable part to work on. The kids had Friday off from school too so it’s been a long weekend.
We’ve been working on Emilee’s face trying to get her Eczema to clear up. She gets these little pimple like spots around her mouth and then licks them which irritates them and chaps them. It can get pretty bad. We hit a bad point about a week ago and I showed her in the mirror. She just looked at herself smiling and said, “I LIKE it this way!” We promised her some bubble gum tape if she lets us put medicine on it until it clears up. Also, we’ve had to keep cottage cheese (her favorite) out of the house. It seems to really aggravate the rash. We are also working on getting a wart off her finger…, which she claims is a part of her and she doesn’t want it gone.
Kailey has matured so much over the last several months. She can write lots of words now and writes me letters all the time. It is amazing what a little bit of reading can do for a child. Like the other day she wanted to know which button to push on the VCR. I told her to read the buttons and find out which one was PLAY. She was very excited she could read it on her own. She also gets involved in the “big kid games” now. She played her 2nd game of RAGE with us last night. She still needs a lot of help or she screws us all up…for those that know how to play, you know what I mean ;o) But she has been one of the top scorers both times she has played. She’s a good little UNO player too. And she cracks us up when we play Disney Charades.
I really enjoy football but I must say I’m anxious to get through the season. Keaton has been driving us nuts. All he talks about is football. He also carries around the football Troy and Pam’s family gave him for Christmas everywhere in the house. Including to bed with him. Keaton is kind of fanatical about things. He finds a love of something and literally spends hours upon hours at it. When he was a preschooler he was so addicted to the computer we were worried about his getting enough exercise and being social. Then he went through a phase where he was into maps, reading atlas’ and made several maps a day of the United States or World. He would draw on everything he could get his hands on…including his walls. Last year it was story writing and he’d write these “huge novels” which his teacher claimed would take up her entire lunchtime to read. He would spend hours a day writing these stories in his room. Well now it’s football. He spends his time watching it, playing it or learning about it. When the newspaper comes he grabs the sports page and reads anything he can find about football. Wouldn’t it be great if I got him excited about the piano?!!!
I sometimes wish Elicia would get a little more fanatical about something. She relies so much on friends and doing things with friends. I’m glad she has such good friends from church. She struggles with a few of the girls from school and has come home very upset about it. I’ve tried to tell her to just concentrate on those friends that are good to her and not worry about the other girls. She then proceeds to tell me that I just don’t understand. What is amazing is I think I do understand and the older she gets the more I remember about being her age. I hesitate to tell her that it doesn’t get much easier for several years.
Mike spent his time in court again last week. He said that the original 3 weeks of court has turned into most likely 4 weeks. It takes up so much of Mike’s time and he really feels himself getting behind. It has been quite draining for him. They have had to use the alternates on the jury so hopefully nothing happens to any more jury members, which could cause them to go through the whole process again.
Friday night was “Know Your Religion”. Michael Alred spoke to us on Forgiveness. He gave us the example of Nephi and how he continually forgave his brothers It was really good and enjoyable to listen to. The CES really knows what they are doing when they choose their speakers. The three we have had so far this season have been wonderful. Our next one is the night before Jason and Christi are getting sealed in the temple. Since Mike is supposed to introduce the speaker and we’ve become the “official” ticket takers I think we’ll either have to leave late Friday night or early Saturday. If you guys have a time yet at the temple let us know.
We just completed our Stake Conference. Saturday morning since our ward was hosting, Mike helped put up over a thousand chairs…I can’t remember the exact number he gave me. Besides filling the overflow, gym, stage they had chairs in several of the rooms. Sunday during the session the Stake President told us the building was filled to capacity with 1800 people. I kind of suspected it would be huge when at the adult session, Saturday evening; people were packed nearly to the stage in the back of the gym. I knew we had to get there early Sunday to get a seat. Mike said the Priesthood session on Saturday had a good turn out too. The speakers were all so good and if my kids hadn’t been so “busy” I could have enjoyed it even more so. Our Stake theme was “Do a little more, a little better”. They stressed at the adult session to have Family Home Evening regularly and to have the whole night being a family night…not just a short lesson and everybody does their own thing. Also, they encouraged regular temple attendance, family prayer, scripture study and to be self- Reliant. Sunday besides the things they stressed on Saturday, they encouraged us to plead with our Father in Heaven for moisture and to make our lives worthy of the blessing of moisture. They told us to keep the Sabbath Day Holy and we would be blessed. Afterwards we talked to the kids and asked what they learned. Although they were restless and drawing part of the time, I was pleased that they picked up a few little things. Except for maybe Emilee. When we asked her what she learned, she told us “to go to the Dollar Store”.
Well I’ve given the kids enough time now to not do anything and we had better get to doing something. We hope all is well with each of you.
Love,
Shan (and family)
2/2/03
Dear Family,
It’s a beautiful WHITE day here in Pocatello. It’s the first truly white day we’ve had in over a month I believe. I know most of you are having the same type of weather issues we are…not enough moisture. So, the snow was quite welcomed and we continue to pray for more. Speaking of weather, as most of you may have had, we had record high temperatures during the past week. It was amazing how warm and spring like it was with temperatures in the mid 50’s. We also received rain off and on during the week, which we are grateful for. According to the forecast, it sounds like February might provide us with a “real” winter.
We were saddened yesterday morning to hear that the Columbia Spaceship had blown up. We watched the news yesterday and I kept thinking about those poor families who were anxiously awaiting their loved ones. My heart goes out to them. What a tragedy. I find it amazing to live during history in the making. That sounds strange since everyone who has ever lived has been in history in the making. But, we are living in the history of our future and that just fascinates me.
Saturday the trial Mike has been so heavily involved in concluded after 4 intense weeks. Although the verdict was not what he had hoped for, he is glad it is over. Although I never did go in and listen to the trial, from what Mike has told me it sounds so much like a big game. Not necessarily whomever who is in the right but whoever plays toughest wins.
On a brighter note, we were able to attend a couple ISU basketball games this past week and they were both incredible. Thursday evening Mike, Keaton and I went to watch Eastern Washington play ISU. Eastern Washington came undefeated in the Big Sky but after a double over time left defeated. We barely won. Last night we played Portland State and it was another really close game but ISU pulled it off with a one-point win. Elicia is earning money for her choir tour in June by babysitting and doing other chores. It was nice that she was happy to stay and watch the little girls. Keaton on the other hand really was excited we took him with us. Several people from Mike’s office have tickets in the same area as us, which makes it even more fun.
Friday Kailey had a fieldtrip and Emilee and I joined the fun. They had story time and took a mini tour of the library. I love watching kindergartners! They are so funny and enthusiastic about everything. The story time was filled with stories from pop up books, flannel stories and a short video. Emilee started out sitting with me but later joined Kailey on the front row sitting on her lap. Kailey was very proud to have Emilee there.
Yesterday Mike was tied up with work and court. Elicia had a birthday party to go to and I took pictures for Homeseekers magazine. I promised the rest of the kids a trip to the dollar store if they were good in the car while I drove around to the different homes that needed to be photographed. I’ve taken pictures before for Homeseekers but not regularly. I think I’m going to be doing it every month now. I still take pictures for the association office weekly.
Last night after the game, Greg and Jenny came over along with Jenny’s roommate Val. We played RAGE ( a card game) and ate Nachos. Growing up it was one of our favorite family games and we are trying to instill that into others. Last weekend we had a get together with several couples in the ward and taught them how to play. One couple had the game and it was also one of their family’s favorites. We’ve also been working on teaching our kids how to play. Keaton and Elicia do pretty well with it but Kailey still struggles some and we haven’t attempted to teach Emilee yet.
Today, Keaton had to give a talk in church. We had planned on being in Utah this weekend for our friends Darren and Karen’s son’s baptism and also their new babies blessing but since the trial went throughout Saturday we had to cancel those plans. Anyway, it meant Keaton still had to give his talk. Last night I remembered and had him look for something. Today Mike and I went into primary and listened to the talk he had prepared all on his own. He talked about John Taylor. He had watched the Living Scripture video on John Taylor last Sunday and so it was fresh on his mind. While in primary Emilee’s teacher she had a few weeks ago told us how he was teaching the sunbeams about Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove and Emilee raised her hand. He asked her for her comment and she told him that her Dad really likes to get his back scratched. He thought that was quite funny even though it was off the subject. They changed classes and now he, brother Neider, is Keaton’s teacher. Emilee is sad because she used to be called “Princess Emilee” when Brother Neider was her teacher.
I started this letter earlier this afternoon but got interrupted. I think I just better get it sent before something else comes up. Happy Anniversary Jason and Christi! Whenever somebody reminds me it’s Groundhog Day, I’ll remember it’s your anniversary. Happy Groundhogs Day to everyone else! :O) Hope everyone is having a great Sunday.
.Love,
Shan (and family)
Coughs and Runny Noses
2/10/03
Dear Family,
This last week seemed a whole lot more like winter than any weeks in January. It got very cold and instead of being 20 degrees above normal it was 10 or 15 degrees below normal. What a difference that makes! I hated going outside much. It did snow quite a bit during the first part of the week, which was nice. I shoveled the driveway for the first time while living in this home. Elicia loves the snow and took the opportunity to go sledding with her friends a couple times. There is a vacant lot with some big hills that several of the neighborhood kids go to. Most of the time Keaton would rather stay warm then play in the snow. I always have a hard time convincing him to wear boots to school too. He says he can’t play basketball or football that well with boots on. Speaking of sports, a couple of weeks ago we had a ring for Keaton specially ordered. It was a CTR ring with football players on the sides of it. It was really cool looking and he could hardly wait for it to come. When we got it, it was a lot bigger on his finger than we thought it would be. We figured he’d grow into it though and could wear it for a long time. I put scotch tape around the bottom of the ring so it would stay on his finger. He didn’t like this at all. Apparently on the way to school he took the tape off. After school he came home very upset saying he had lost the ring at recess. He felt so bad and I felt a bit sorry for him although I was mad he took the tape off. I went with him to the school and we looked on the playground…, which was useless. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack…maybe worst! Especially with the soft new snow covering the ground. We told the secretary in the office and she said she would let Keaton know if anyone turned it in.
Emilee and Kailey spent nearly the entire week sick last week. Emilee came down with a bad cough and runny nose. Within a few days Kailey too was coughing. We tried to get them to take cough syrup but they both threw up after taking it so I figured why bother. There were a couple nights where I think they coughed nonstop nearly the whole night. They are doing much better today although they still cough a little bit.
Wednesday Mike had a meeting in Boise and was gone for the entire day. Since there was a basketball game at ISU that night Keaton and I went by ourselves. It was against Weber State. Although we lost it was a very good game and we really had fun watching it. Keaton kept saying he couldn’t believe they won us. I could though. Weber scored 70-80% 3 pt shots—9 in the first half. When we arrived home Mike had made it back. After putting the kids to bed, Mike and I went to Smiths to buy candy bars on sale 5 for a $1.00. Mike bought them for his office. It is a lot less expensive then hiring a company to stock their candy supply. Anyway, he purchased 498 altogether. We along with the cashier had to count all of them and she rang in the total. Afterwards she scanned the fresh value card so we’d get the savings. She should have done this first because it then went back through every single candy bar to deduct the savings. As you can imagine, this took some time. I think about ½ hour. There were some people behind us that stuck out the long wait just so they could see the final receipt. Mike rewarded them each with a candy bar before we left. It was 10:30 pm or so which made the store not so busy, thank goodness. When the receipt finally printed it was probably 10 feet long. I had it hanging on the fridge for a while so everyone could see it. The final cost was $105 and our fresh value savings was $198. The cashier said she had never sold so many candy bars.
Friday night I had my Boncos night. It seemed like the whole night went rather fast. A lot of people asked me about the court case Mike was involved in. One of the lady’s husband, a contractor, was cheated out of $7000 by one of the plaintiffs so she knew what type of people the Realtors had been dealing with. It had hit the paper earlier in the week. The media only had one side of the story so it was pretty biased. Mike was contacted by the media but chose not to comment. He preferred it to blow over quickly, which it did. The Realtors are appealing the case. After I got home, Mike, Melissa, Trevor and I decided to do a “Wendy’s” late night run and then played a round of cards.
Saturday morning my visiting teacher called and reminded us of the Primary Children’s broadcast. I was glad she did because I thought it was on Sunday. Keaton and Elicia were not overly thrilled about having to dress up in the middle of the day. They were already cranky because we had informed them we wouldn’t be going sledding as planned because Emilee and Kailey were still sick. I thought the broadcast was really nice though and enjoyed it. Mike spent a lot of time shopping for lumber and needed items for the basement and also working on wiring the basement. We also went for a midafternoon lunch/dinner to Golden Corral.
Yesterday was a pretty typical Sunday. We went to church in the morning, choir practice, home teaching for Mike and then dinner with Trevor and Melissa. We also watched the church video “The Worth of Souls”. It has 5 short stories on it. I had forgotten how sad “Uncle Ben” and “The Mailbox” were. I don’t think I cried as hard when I was a kid watching them.
I need to take Elicia to choir practice so I think I’ll just send this even though I’m probably forgetting a few things that happened during the week. Hope all is well. We are excited for Jared to come home off his mission!
Love,
Shan (and family)
2/16/03
Dear Family,
To start this letter, WELCOME HOME JARED!!! We are anxious to see you and several others of you at his mission homecoming next Sunday. It is amazing how quickly two years seems to go by. But yet, I see lots of changes in our lives and in the lives of our extended family.
It’s always easier to remember the end of the week then the beginning of the week. Maybe because we get busier and our activities are more interesting than the beginning of the week. I know on Monday we had FHE and Emilee and I made Valentine Sugar Cookies for it while the kids were in school. Tuesday night, Mike had scouts. Wednesday night I helped set up for Enrichment night. Besides that, I’ve been walking on the treadmill in the evenings. Mike was able to get the necessary bolts for it a week ago Saturday and we finally got it up and running again. Elicia has been jogging a mile on it everyday. Keaton likes to get on it and run a half-mile as fast as he can. He said next time they test at school he wants to have a really good time. He had the fast time in his class last fall but recently someone beat him. Emilee and Kailey would like to try it out too but I won’t let them because they aren’t tall enough.
Kailey was so excited to pass out Valentine cards and have a Valentine party at school. Emilee used all Kailey’s extra Valentines to make up for her friends. They taped bubble gum to the outsides of the cards.
I just asked Keaton what he’s been up to. He immediately said that he went to church. He also tells me to tell about a new little (dollar store) plastic basketball hoop that we hung above his door. I didn’t realize how noisy it would be to hear him in his room shooting a little plastic basketball. Saturday morning we were awakened by the noise. Usually its TV’s going on that wakes us up. Not yesterday morning though. He’s only had it a few days and has spent hours playing with it.
Elicia wants me to tell you about her newest hobby of drawing on wood and then painting it. We have lots of wood scraps in our basement so she has huge supply. I don’t know where we are going to put all these wood projects though. She’s also been distracted with an idea of changing and painting her room. We’re trying to hold off on it though. It’s only been a 6 months since we moved in, painted and decorated her room.
Wednesday Emilee and I went over to Emilee’s friend Alyssa’s house so they could play for a while. I stayed and visited with her Mom. She showed me how she did her scrap booking on the computer. She said in one evening she can make 30 pages and best of all no mess! It is something I definitely want to start doing, especially since Mike gave me a digital camera for Christmas. The lady is also a professional photographer and she showed me a lot of her work. Emilee and Alyssa played super well together. They are cute little girls both having curly dark hair. I think Alyssa looks a lot like Kimmi.
Thursday I helped out with the Valentine’s Party in Kailey’s classroom. I helped the kids make “Valentine Flowers”. It was so fun to see all the kindergartners so excited about everything going on. I took lots of pictures. Thursday night for Enrichment night we had a production of “The Ten Virgins”. Since I’m on the Enrichment committee I helped with the planning and set up. It was the same group that performed for us in our old ward so I was familiar with it and also knew many of the ladies involved. Husbands, Priests and Laurels were also invited. Afterwards and today I’ve heard lots of comments on how good everyone thought it was. It really made me think of areas I need to improve on in my life.
On Valentines Day, the kids didn’t have school. We all slept in a bit. Then I made some heart-shaped pancakes. After breakfast we worked through our morning routine and chores. I told the kids if they hurried and we got the house cleaned I’d make a treasure hunt for them. Around 1:00 they were all in Elicia’s room waiting for me to hide the clues. While hiding the clues, Trevor called and said he’d locked his keys in the house and needed a ride to his car at auto body shop where a spare set of keys were. I decided to add one more clue and piled the kids into the car. Without telling the kids anything, I gave them the “new” clue which read “What’s Big, Red and starts with M”. I really though it was an easy clue and told the big kids to let the little girls try to get it. They were really stumped. Then when I turned towards Trevor’s house they yelled out “Melissa!”---I told them that wasn’t it and Melissa wasn’t big and red. We picked up Trevor and they asked him what he thought. He asked them what their Dad wore to work that day. LOL…I couldn’t believe that my clue was so hard. Then after seeing the sign, I remembered that the M on McDonalds was yellow and not red. The answer was McDonalds. The building itself was red so I wasn’t too far off. We picked up lunch at McDonalds, dropped off Trevor and then headed back towards home so the kids could finish their treasure hunt. That evening, Mike and I went out for dinner at Chang’s Garden. Fortunately we got there before the huge rush. We didn’t have to wait very long for a table. Following that we went to the video store and picked out a couple DVD’s. We watched “K-19” ---have any of you seen it? It’s based on a true story of a Russian Submarine in 1961, which nearly caused a nuclear war. Mike really liked it. I liked the historical value of it. It’s worth watching. Harrison Ford is in it too. We also watched “Signs”. We liked it too.
Saturday was a day for haircuts. Mike’s wanted a haircut for a few weeks now and Keaton has needed one even though he hasn’t wanted one. I also trimmed Kailey and Emilee’s hair. I trimmed Elicia’s last week so she and I were off the hook. We just worked around the house most of the rest of the day. Mike took off for a while to get my van’s oil changed and Elicia went to a movie with her friends. That evening, we had to drop off books at the library, fill Mike’s car up with gas and picked up Icees on the way home. We then played games before putting the kids to bed.
Early this morning Mike left for Las Vegas. I’m never thrilled about handling church alone but we managed. We got there right at 8:30 and it was just about to begin. I had sent Keaton in quickly as soon as we pulled up in the parking lot so he’d save us a bench. He was successful; he saved the front bench for us. Since it was that or the overflow and the kids had already made it up there I reluctantly joined them. There is nothing like sitting under the Bishopric’s noses with squirmy kids. Fortunately they weren’t too bad and I could tell the family sitting behind us was struggling with their little ones too. Emilee was determined she was going to lie down on the floor and roll around. I didn’t want her to do this but gave in after several times of pulling her up off the floor. She also kept wanting drinks. One of these weeks I’ll have to remember to put a water bottle in my bag. After Sacrament Meeting our neighbor told me our garage door was open so I went home before Sunday school to close it. I stepped in the house for a moment and heard a noise upstairs. It kind of freaked me out and instead of checking, I just left. After church I had forgotten about the noise and we all came into the house. It wasn’t until later I remembered it. I guess we are all here several hours later okay so it must not of been something dreadful. I’m waiting now for Melissa to come over and we’re going to make dinner. I think that pretty much was our week. We are all healthy and well this week and hope the same for you!
Love,
Shan (and family)
A Needle in a Haystack
2/25/03
Dear Family,
I think if I’m to get a newsletter written for last week I’d better do it soon and now is as good of time as any. It was kind of a busy week for us, especially the weekend. The first half of the week Mike was in Las Vegas for a Real Estate Convention. I think Las Vegas is one of his favorite places to go because of the food. They have an excellent seafood buffet there which he tries to always go to. He returned at about 2:30 AM Thursday morning. Although he flew from Las Vegas to SLC, he had to drive the last to Pocatello. He said it was kind of hard staying awake. I’m always happy when he returns safely from being out of town.
Last Tuesday, Keaton came home from school with a hurt knee. I answered the door for him and he told me he thought he had a broken leg. Since he was walking I didn’t think that was the case but could tell there was a lot of blood. I took him to the bathroom where we examined his knee which he had fallen on. It was really gross and I had to leave the room. Since it looked so bad, I debated whether or not I should call the doctor. His skin had deeply rolled off a part of his knee. I decided I would call the doctor and get some advice on what to do. A nurse told me if there wasn’t away to put in stitches I might as well clean it and bandage it myself. Since the skin was basically gone, I knew stitches wouldn’t work. I cleaned it and pulled out the gravel as best I could. Keaton wasn’t too thrilled about it. He was more worried about if he’d be able to play football or basketball though then the pain he was in. The rest of the day he mainly stayed down. Wednesday I drove the kids to school and told him to be careful. Apparently he decided he would be able to play football and while doing so landed on it. This caused it to bleed again and when he got home from school it looked a mess. It’s looking much better now a week later and he isn’t limping quite as badly. On a better note for Keaton, the other day a friend of his found the CTR ring he had lost a few weeks ago. Keaton was so excited and we are happy for him. Since it is such a big playground and they play football over a big area, I was surprised it had been found and by a friend of his that knew he was missing it.
Thursday night we went to an ISU basketball game. ISU won which made it fun. Saturday night they played there last home game. We were out of town so we missed it. I believe they are tied for 3rd place in the Big Sky with 2 more games to go. If they make it to the playoffs we might get one more home game.
Elicia spent a lot of time last week working on my cupboards and drawers. She’s been organizing them to earn money for her choir tour. Her tour is in June and will cost $200. We told her we would pay for half of it and she would have to earn the rest. So far she has been very eager to do so.
Thursday in the night, or actually it would have been early Friday morning; Emilee woke me up telling me she had thrown up in her bed. I cleaned her up and made her a bed on our floor. I gave her a bowl and she proceeded to throw up about every 30 minutes for the next several hours. She continued to throw up during the day on Friday but not nearly as often. I ended up not being able to go visiting teaching as I had hoped and cancelled a play date for Emilee.
Friday afternoon we pulled the kids out from school an hour early and left for Nyssa. Trevor and Melissa rode with us. I sat next to Emilee in the middle row and held a bowl, just in case. She slept for 2/3’s of the way and didn’t have any problems. It wasn’t until we were in Nyssa and just before bedtime that she threw up for the last time.
When we arrived in Nyssa, Melissa and I made our announcements that we are both expecting. Elicia confessed that she had been praying for twins and I guess close in age cousins is what she is getting instead. We are a week a part with our due dates. We spent the evening visiting with everyone. Jared just recently returned from his mission in the Philippines. He was freezing most of the time we were there.
Saturday afternoon we left for the Boise Temple where Jason, Christi and Molly were sealed. It was so neat to see them so happy. What a special experience. Molly was a doll! She is only a few months old but was just grinning. It was so neat to have so many relatives there too. I found out I have a few cousins expecting babies this summer also. After taking pictures in front of the temple, we went to eat at Golden Corral. Lately salads have tasted really good to me so I took advantage of some of the salads and fruits. Also, they had the best German Chocolate Cake. It was so good! After eating Ryan, Susan, Melissa, Trevor, Mike and I did some shopping. Melissa and I hunted for maternity clothes and did pretty well I think. I haven’t pulled out my old maternity clothes. Some of them are over 11 years old and I’m not overly anxious to go through them. It was nice to get some new things. Saturday evening we watched “Singles Ward”.
Sunday, Jared gave his mission report in Sacrament Meeting. All the grandkids and Kimmi sang, “We’ll Bring the World His Truth”. They did a very nice job. Mike bribed them with candy bars before which I think helped ;o) It was neat to hear Jared talk about missionary work and his mission too. After church we made our way back to Mom and Dad’s. When I walked in, there were kids I didn’t recognize. Some of my cousins were there that I hadn’t seen for a long time and the unidentified children belonged to them. Besides seeing some cousins, throughout the weekend I saw all my aunts and uncles on both sides. I thought it was cool that they several of them traveled from so far. After eating we left for our 4-hour drive back to Pocatello. It seemed to go quite quickly. Maybe because I slept part of the way ;9)
I think I’ll close this now and right about yesterday when I write my next letter. We love you and hope all is well.
Love,
Shan (and family)
March 2, 03
Dear Family,
This week went by extremely quickly. It seems like I was only writing my weekly letter a few days ago…(maybe because I did). That’s okay though, I don’t mind if the next several weeks go by very quickly.
Monday evening we went to Highland High school for their Spaghetti dinner fundraiser. I didn’t think the spaghetti tasted all that great but it’s always nice to have a night off from cooking and cleaning up the mess in my kitchen. After that we bought some Carmelcorn from the Karmelkorn store in the Mall. We had a buy one get one free coupon that we wanted to take advantage of. We also bought cheese popcorn and multicolored/flavored popcorn. We kind of went through our FHE routine in the car. Probably not what the leaders of the church recommend, but it’s nice to have the kids sitting still while we sing songs and talk. When we got home, we watched “Singles Ward” again (a lady from work lent it to Mike) while eating the popcorn.
Tuesday evening was the Blue and Gold Banquet for cub scouts. It was a patriotic theme and the boys made some of the table decorations and also their placemats. We had a potato bar and salad for the dinner. Mike had to leave early for scouts but the kids and I stayed and listened to the lesson and played games.
Wednesday Mike woke up early and left for Montana. He came back that evening. Besides having a Dr. Apt. in the late afternoon, I pretty much stayed home and cleaned house most of the day.
Mike was on a radio talk show Thursday afternoon. It was the “Trish and Haley” show for you locals. A friend of ours that has been on the show several times invited Mike to join him talking about PDA’s. I listened from home and then in the car on the way to Idaho Falls. I thought Mike sounded really well. I met up with him at the temple and we went and did a session. On our way home Mike was busy in his head moving onto his next assignment, a scout campout Friday evening. It seems like he just takes one thing at a time and when it’s over he moves onto thinking about and planning the next thing. We got home around 10:00 pm but he had to round up his gear for camping which included going to a ward member’s house to borrow a backpack and boots.
I think Mike should be writing this letter because just about everything I have to write about is about him. Friday morning he had several meetings in Idaho Falls so he was back in IF again until mid afternoon. He then spent a couple hours at the office, came home for a few minutes and left on his scout campout to Island Park. At first he told me they were going to have to hike 8 miles in the snow and how cold it was going be etc.. Turns out, it was a 1 mile hike to a heated cabin where they watched “Toy Story 2” during the evening, he slept in a queen sized bed by himself and the next morning slept in until nearly 8:30. He then made everyone hash browns, eggs and pancakes. That’s Mike’s idea of roughing it. All these retched scout stories about freezing in snow caves I‘ve heard all my life, were they actually bluffs? Mike just came in and is defending himself. He said they had snowshoes and there was nearly 6 feet of snow in some areas.
Friday evening the kids and a I had chili dogs (we eat the stuff Mike doesn’t care for when he is gone). Then Elicia and I watched “Rigoletto” (good movie) while the other kids did their own things. I had looked forward to sleeping in Saturday morning but Emilee woke me up bright and early to tell me it was time for scripture reading. We usually do read in the mornings but on weekends we take advantage of sleeping in and read later on in the day. Unfortunately Emilee doesn’t quite know the difference between weekdays and weekends.
On Saturday, I took pictures for “Homeseekers” Magazine. Emilee went with me but the other kids stayed home. Emilee is getting better at counting down pictures. After I take a picture I’ll ask her how many are left and a lot of the time she knows. I remember doing the same thing with Keaton when he was little. I’d make little math problems out of it. For example I asked him how many we started with if we’ve taken 8 and there are 2 left. Emilee isn’t quite ready for that but she does well with taking away one house at a time. Emilee also constantly asks me how to spell words or she’ll come up with some combination of words and ask me what the word is. It seems like when we are driving around we talk about numbers and words more then any other time. She gets really frustrated when I tell her that a group of letters she gives me doesn’t make a word. So most of the time I do my best to sound it out and then she’s not only satisfied but amused. About 3:00 in the afternoon, Mike returned home. He showered (his luxury of a cabin didn’t have running water in the winter) and then played basketball with Keaton and hide n seek with the girls while I drove Elicia around town so she could post her “adopt a pet” fliers they made in achievement days. Saturday evening Trevor and Melissa came over and had dinner with us and then spent the evening with us playing cards and watching “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.
Today was a fairly typical Sunday: church, choir, and home teachers. They made the announcements today that our Area Presidency has asked for the home teaching and visiting teaching routes to be changed so that we are going to and being taught by our neighbors. I’m going to miss the ladies that visit teach me. They have been super good.
We are looking forward to Spring Break in a couple of weeks. We are going to go on a vacation to the Oregon Coast, Seattle and into Canada. It will be the first time the kids will go to Washington and Canada. We’ve been planning it for quite awhile but all of a sudden its seems really soon. I think we’ll be ready for a vacation though. The kids always look forward to no school and Mike will just finish up teaching his Real Estate class which starts tomorrow.
I’d better bring this to a close; hopefully everyone is doing well and has a great March. We love you all!
Love,
Shan (and family)
To Stuff or not to Stuff?
March 10, 03
Dear Family,
I remember last week when I wrote, I thought the week went rather quickly but this last week seemed to go a bit slower. Mike started teaching his Real Estate class last Monday. The class is for two weeks and we are heading into week two today. It’s from 6:00 till 10:00 pm but usually he leaves at around 5:15 for it and doesn’t get home till close to 10:30. Then he stays up for another couple hours preparing for the next day’s class. Needless to say, we don’t see him that much. The class is a lot larger than the others he’s taught in the past. This one is nearly twice as large.
Last Monday Karen McCabe and her kids came from Utah to visit. We spent the day visiting while the kids played. My kids didn’t have school so between both of us we have 9 kids. It got a little wild at times. It was kind of cold for them to play outside, although we did try to get them out a few different times. Later in the afternoon Karen and kids left for her in-laws who also live in Pocatello. That night after she put her little ones to bed and I got Kailey and Emilee in bed Karen, her two oldest and new baby came back and we watched a movie.
I absolutely can’t remember what happened Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday that would be worth writing about. I guess kind of the same old thing. Nothing was going on in the evenings so we just kind of went through our regular bedtime routine. Let me tell ya, I love it the moment everyone is sleeping soundly in their beds. Unfortunately that usually isn’t for an hour or hour and a half after they’ve gone to bed.
Friday night after Mike’s class, Mike picked me up and then we picked up Trevor and went to Elmer’s (where Melissa works) for desert. We then hit Albertson’s 10 cent sale. We stayed up pretty late since we knew we could sleep in on Saturday. That is always the plan but the kids have a tendency to destroy that plan once Saturday morning comes along.
Saturday was Music Festival at ISU. There are professional judges that come and judge the kids that participate in it. Elicia played the piano and I was a doorkeeper for it. I told Elicia if she did well that I would help her rearrange her room. She did do well and when I got home she had already started on her room (Mike had picked her up after she was finished). I couldn’t believe all the junk she had put in the hall so she could move her bed around. I began helping her. One of the techniques she had used to clean up her room in the past (oh please let it be in the past) was to “stuff”. Her room would basically look clean as long as you didn’t look under her bed, behind her dresser and bookshelf, in her drawers or in her closet. Everyday the kids are supposed to have their rooms straightened up and so she would opt for the quick (stuffing) version. We organized every drawer and shelf. Altogether I think we did 3 loads of laundry with the majority of the laundry being socks and towels. I think she has about 30 pairs of socks in her drawer now and a few days ago she didn’t have any! What I had hoped would take a couple hours ended up taking several, I think 5. Meanwhile the rest of the house seemed to fall apart. It was late by the time I got done with Elicia and then I quickly worked on cleaning up some of the other rooms in the house. I didn’t take time to eat and by the time Mike got home I was really hungry. So, even though it was late, we went out to dinner. Eating Mexican Food after 10:00pm probably wasn’t the best thing I could have done. It was fun at the time though.
Yesterday I had a headache most of the day. I think not eating for 4 hours while I was at church and a meeting afterwards might have had something to do with it. Also, my back has been giving me problems and I think that contributes to the headache. Mike must have felt guilty for being gone so much, J because he gave me a 45 minute massage. I also took a long bath. I was able to sleep so good last night! That is, until Emilee woke me up and told me she had thrown up in her bed. At least I got a good 4 or 5 hours of solid sleep in before that happened.
Today Emilee acted pretty normal but continued to throw up for the first few hours after she woke up. She threw up again later today in the car but it’s been a few hours and so I’m crossing my fingers that whatever it was, it’s out of her system. I can’t really think of anything else to write about. Hopefully you are all well, we love ya tons!
Love,
Shan (and family)
Spring Break to Canada
March 24, 03
Dear Family,
This past week the kids were out of school for Spring Break. We decided we’d take advantage of the time off and go on family vacation to Canada with various stops along the way. In this letter I’m going to write about our trip and try to cover each day before it leaves my memory.
Saturday Mike finished up his Real Estate class. He gave the test at noon and the last student was done around 2:00. He then came home and we finished loading up the van. We left our home at around 2:30 but didn’t leave Pocatello until around 3:00. We stopped at Keller Williams for a few minutes and saw Jim and Greg. We also stopped at Common Cents to fill up with gas and saw Trevor. Before leaving town we stopped briefly to see Great Grandma Sundrud. We decided we wanted to take lots of pictures on our trip and had already take 4 or 5 before leaving Pocatello. We made a few more stops along the way, including a stop in Twin Falls to visit with Great Grandma Johnston. We also stopped at a McDonalds in Boise. The bridge between Idaho and Oregon leading into Nyssa was closed so we had to drive through Ontario to get to Mom and Dad’s where we would spend our first night.
Sunday we attended church in Nyssa and then had dinner at Mom and Dad’s before leaving to Portland. Since it was Sunday we didn’t do a whole lot on our way to Portland besides stopping to look at a few waterfalls. Once we made it to Portland we found the temple and took a few pictures. We then went to our hotel. We decided to stay at Holiday Inn since kids stayed free, breakfast was included and it had a pool. We were so impressed with the hospitality of those working that evening we decided to stay an extra night. They were so good to us. They let us use a couple rollaway beds without charge and so nobody had to sleep on the floor. They were very helpful in telling us about different sites and things to do in that area also.
Monday morning we woke up and had a super breakfast. IT wasn’t just a “continental style” breakfast. There were eggs, bacon, hash browns, fruit, cereal, and muffins besides them making omelets or waffles if we so desired. The kids enjoyed the waffles which they received piled high with whipped cream and fruit. After breakfast we left the hotel for Salem. We then looked around and inside the capital building. After that we tried to take the kids on a carousel ride at a nearby park but it was closed on Mondays. The kids were able to play on the regular playground equipment for a while though. After they were done playing we left for the Ocean. We stopped in Newport and visited the beach. The kids were so excited to play on the beach. It was windy and rainy so I told them not to get their clothes wet but allowed them to wade in the waves. Elicia was standing facing us as the waves hit her ankles. We yelled at her to get out of the way when we could see a larger wave coming. She kept yelling back “what?” and wasn’t moving. Finally she turned around and saw it coming and started to run. She didn’t get away from it and ended up with her whole bottom half soaking wet. It was actually kind of funny and we laughed about it. She was cold after that. Keaton “accidentally” got wet too. If it wouldn’t have been so cold and windy I would have loved it if they could have played more in the ocean. After some time on the beach we decided to head up the coast and stopped at Depoe Bay for some lunch. We also looked in some of the shops and the kids bought some souvenirs. We found a store that had luggage and bags for a supper good price and so we bought a few things there. We again journeyed further up the coast stopping in Tillamook. There we went to the Museum of Flight and also to the cheese factory. Since it was close to closing time and Emilee was acting up I stayed with her in the gift shop at the Museum. Mike took the other kids in to look at the airplanes. I think all the kids enjoyed the cheese factory. Mike and I did too. They had good ice-cream that we had besides trying cheese samples. It was fun to see them making the same cheese that we see in the store and when the price is right it makes it to our house. After our time in Tillamook we traveled back to our hotel just outside of Portland. We then spent some time swimming. The pool was quite warm, not hot, but just perfect for swimming.
Tuesday we again had a super breakfast and then checked out of the hotel. We headed for Clackamas Mall. There we went to “Build a Bear” where the kids were able to choose an unstuffed animal in the store and proceeded to bring their very own bear to “life”. They were able to decide how much and what type of stuffing they wanted in their bears. There was “friendship”, “kindness” etc…stuffing bins which they would put into the “stuffing machine”. After their bear was stuffed, they put in a heart, their choice of soundbox and a special barcode (incase it gets lost and has info on them.) They then had to twirl around or do other various activities suggested by the store clerk to help bring the bear to “life”. They were sewn up and then each of the kids were to take their bears and give them an air bath and groom them with a brush. Next they found clothes and shoes for their bears. This took some time especially for the girls. Keaton knew right off that he wanted his bear to be dressed in a football uniform and cleats. Kailey and Emilee both wanted “princess” outfits. Elicia chose a more casual outfit with a denim skirt, a white shirt and denim sandals—oh and I can’t forget the satin panties :0) After they dressed their bears they made birth certificates and we picked up their bears in their bear “condo” boxes. It turned out to be a somewhat “pricey” but it was definitely one of the favorite parts of the trip. Following our time at the mall we went to the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). They had lots of cool displays there. Probably one of the highlights for Keaton, Emilee and I was touring a submarine. IT was one of the 3 used to film “Hunt for Red October”. I thought it was fun to look in but I would never want to live several months (or even days) in a submarine. The living quarters (especially beds) are just too tight. They told us how it gets even tighter under pressure. Mike, Elicia and Kailey decided to go to the planetarium instead. We all watched an IMAX movie on Corral Reefs. Before leaving Kailey and Emilee played in a little kids discovery area. There was big sinks of water set up which the kids could dip buckets and boats in. They wore boots and plastic aprons to help keep them dry. They still got wet but loved it. Kailey also did some painting in another section. After 3 or 4 hours in the OMSI we left towards Seattle. After arriving in Seattle we decided we were making good enough time that we’d just head up into Canada. We were also getting somewhat concerned of the “border tightness” with the war with Iraq getting closer. Once at the border it was difficult to get in since Mike and I didn’t have passports. We did have our driver’s licenses though and all the kids’ birth certificates. The border guard told us that we needed to get passports for next time but she’d let us in. We stayed at a Days Inn. Not very impressive but we were all tired.
Wednesday morning we had breakfast at McDonalds “on the hotel”. In the description it said “continental breakfast served” and their way of doing that was to give us McDonald Vouchers. The kids didn’t mind. Before leaving the hotel we had heard that the border was getting extremely tight and they were starting to require passports. We were getting worried so we decided to only spend a few hours in Vancouver and did a little shopping. We went to a Kids Market and also a big Mall. We also ate at an Oriental Buffet, which wasn’t that great. We left Vancouver early in the afternoon. Once we got to the border they were disappointed that we didn’t have passports and questioned the kids and us for a few minutes before they finally let us back into the United States. We learned shortly after on the radio that the war had begun. We listened to it on the radio while we drove. Once we arrived in Seattle we decided to go where it was a little less crowded and went to Tacoma. We stayed in a King Oscar Motel. A few miles up the road we had passed a Chuck E Cheese restaurant…Guess where we went for dinner? The kids loved it. After eating and playing for a few hours we went to the hotel and swam until nearly 10:00. Needless to say, we were all pretty tired by the end of the day and the kids slept well that night.
Thursday morning we ate the continental breakfast provided by the hotel and then drove back into Seattle. As we drove into the city we stopped in front of Sanfeca (sp?) stadium and took a picture of Keaton. We parked our van near Pike’s Market. There we toured some of the shops. We saw quite a few “peace demonstrators”. After an hour or so we took the monterail to the Space Needle. We went up to the top but probably should have just stayed down below and looked because most of the kids weren’t overly impressed and it cost a lot of money. I think they expected it to be more of an amusement ride since it was in the middle of an amusement park. It was raining and the rides around the space needle weren’t running. Emilee was quite upset she couldn’t ride on the carousel. After the space needle we rode the monterail back to our van and left for Boeing Airfield. Mike was really excited about this since we would be able to see and tour a former “Air Force One”. I thought that was kind of nifty too. There were also lots of other airplanes and displays to look at. There was a kid’s section where the kids could play on a hang glider and get into an Air Balloon Basket. They also were able to get inside several actual airplanes and pretend to operate them. After a couple of hours and it getting to be late afternoon we were all starving. We had skipped lunch and ready to eat something big. We found a buffet closer to our hotel. Buffets most of the time please everyone so that what we aimed for most of the time on our trip. After eating we stopped at a dollar store close by and then went back to our hotel to swim before bedtime.
Friday we checked out of our hotel and left towards Portland. We stopped at the Mt. Saint Helen’s visitor center. We were able to look at several artifacts affected by the volcano and also watched a couple films, which Mike the older kids and I thought were very interesting. I can still remember hearing about the volcano erupting when I was a kid and how big of a news story it was. After our visit there we left again towards Portland. We stopped at a place similar to Chuck E Cheeses called Bullwinkles for lunch. Mike and I weren’t overly impressed. The food was gross. The kids claimed to have had a lot of fun though. We decided after that to drive to Eugene to stay the night. For seven dollars more we could upgrade our room to a suite at Quality Inn so opted to do that. We had two bedrooms, 3 beds and the hide a bed besides a VCR, microwave and fridge. I thought for $7 that was pretty good. That night we watched the movie that Mike and I were extra’s in last Spring. It was on the Disney channel. We weren’t able to see us but will watch it again (after it’s recorded) and rewind to see if we could pick us up. We saw both Suzie and Greg though.
Saturday we left in the morning to cross the state back to Nyssa. When going over the mountains we had a lot of rain that turned into snow. It was kind of messy but we slowly managed. It was a pretty long and uneventful journey back. We didn’t make as many stops, since there was hardly a rest area on that highway. I think the speed limit was only 55 most of the time so we just dragged along making it to Nyssa at about 7:00 pm. Shortly after we arrived Emilee started to claim she had a headache. That rapidly turned into a fever, which led to a long night. She cried about her head hurting whenever she was awake. We couldn’t get her to take any medicine to help bring down the fever. She did drink some water though and I think that helped. Sunday morning while everyone went to church I stayed home with Emilee and we slept until 11:00 am. After church we had lunch and then Jason, Christi and Molly showed up. We visited with them for awhile and then left at around 2:00. I think the last 4 hours of the trip from Nyssa to Pocatello were the calmest we had. Emilee was still feeling quite sick and was either really quiet or slept the whole way. Keaton and Elicia listened to the tapes we were listening too and Kailey just did her own thing.
We enjoyed our trip and spending time together as a family. It rained nearly the entire week. I think I saw more rain than I have in a year living in Pocatello. Also while traveling in the van we listened to Mom’s “Work and the Glory” cassettes. We finished up the last tape only 20 miles outside of Pocatello on our return. Elicia decided she really liked them and wants to listen to them again. It had been several years since I’ve read the series so it was fun for me to remember what had happened in the first book. I had brought a couple of Alli’s books to read but have had such a hard time with headaches lately, listening to tapes worked out better. Today, Monday, is a huge “catch up” day and so I think I’d better bring this to a close and tackle all the things I need to get done. Hope all of you are well!
Love,
Shan (and family)
Grandma the Basketball Player
March 30, 03
Dear Family,
It was a beautiful day in Pocatello today. I’m looking forward to more spring weather. We’ve enjoyed spending the past few days with Mom, Dad, Jared, Riley Kimmi and Don and Alli’s family. Today they left back to their homes.
Monday this past week was a major “catch up” day. I worked on mounds of laundry, went grocery shopping, took pictures for the GPAR (Greater Pocatello Association of RealtorsÒ) and went visiting teaching besides trying to care for Emilee who was still sick. That morning she just lied down on the couch and every little bit I would hold her for a few minutes. I wasn’t sure if I was going to accomplish much of anything that day. I was still having a hard time getting her to take her medicine and new if I could get her to take something she would feel much better. I finally asked her if there was anything she wanted to drink. She said “Root Beer,” which I gladly gave her…spiked with some “Motrin”. Within about a half hour she was feeling so much better and we were able to leave the house to get our errands taken care of. She was very impressed that “Root Beer” made her feel so much better. I never told her that there was medicine in the “Root Beer.”
Tuesday I again had pictures to take for the GPAR. I also spent a great deal of the day cleaning house. Tuesday night, Mike had arranged several weeks ago for a Young Men/Young Women’s joint activity at our home. They were going to watch “Singles Ward” and have a little party. Monday I had learned that Elicia’s achievement day group was having a Mother/Daughter activity. I told Mike I just couldn’t miss her party and would he be willing to “run” the houseful by himself. Of course there were some other leaders that would be here too so I knew he could handle it and he did. We left Keaton in charge of watching the little girls upstairs. Elicia and I had a good time eating, playing games and visiting with the other Moms and daughters. They played a “How well do you know your Mom” game. The moms filled out questionnaires ahead of time and then during the game the girls were asked to give what they thought were the correct answers. Elicia got 6/10 right. She missed a few that I thought she should have gotten. She also embarrassed me when they asked her a childhood hobby of mine. Perhaps I had made a mistake in sharing some “silly” things I did as a child with Elicia. She told the group that my childhood hobby was placing dog poop in a baggy on the trampoline and then with my friends jumping with me we would try to push each other onto it. Actually it was something my friends and I did once, got in trouble and never did it again. IT was HARDLY anything I would call a hobby! I suppose it was more interesting then my actual answer though. I had written down playing the piano.
Wednesday I had to finish up visiting teaching and also went to a Dr. Apt. Or at least I thought I had one. Once I got to the Dr’s office the lights were off and no one was there. When I got home I checked my appointment card and it turned out my appointment should have been on Tuesday. It was the first time in 5 pregnancies to miss an appointment but Mike sure has given me a hard time about it! :9) Possibly because it’s not the only thing I’ve forgotten lately. I think I have “prego brain”. Wednesday evening Mike and I went to the temple. It was our stake “Fill the Temple” day. We learned today that out of 2300 possible only about 300 seats weren’t filled throughout the entire day. Nearly all the sessions were filled to capacity. I was glad we were in the 8:00 PM session because it wasn’t quite full. I had heard from a lady in our ward that she earlier couldn’t get into the session she wanted to. This stake did it a little differently than other stakes I have been in. They sent around sign up sheets several weeks in advance where you were to sign up for the session you wanted to attend. They also gave us reminders the week before. Going to the temple is always so good for us and I’m glad we live close enough that we can go regularly. Earlier today Mike set up his booth at the ISU Minidome in preparation for the annual Spring Fair. The booth looked like a drive way with a basketball hoop on it so people can shoot some hoops and earn a Keller Williams Realty water bottle if they shot three out of three shots. They have a very nice booth with a swing that they are giving away as well as a TV that displayed many of the listings their company has for sale.
Late afternoon Thursday, Dad, Mom and kids got here along with Alli and her kids. After visiting for a few minutes we went to sit in Dad’s car so we could listen to the radio. Mike was on the “Trish and Haley” show again with a friend of ours. We couldn’t pick it up very well on the radio inside the house. Mike did a nice job talking about PDA’s. We kind of laughed at one point because a caller had asked him a question. Mike went on to tell the guy just what he needed to do, step by step. The problem was, the guy was driving and talking on his cell phone already. He kept saying “uh huh” to everything Mike was telling him and we kept picturing this guy swaying around the road trying to accomplish all three tasks at the same time. After the radio show, we went inside and made homemade pizza. We spent the rest of the night just hanging out and visiting.
Friday the kids didn’t have school because of parent teacher conferences. Alli and I cut each other’s hair. I cut off at least 3“ on Alli. She has a really cute short haircut now. She trimmed mine and cut the layers a bit shorter. I think both of us were happy with the outcome. For dinner we had a barbeque. Don joined us after finishing work and getting a ride to Pocatello. Later several of us did some shopping. We left the kids home with a few of the adults. They were pretty absorbed in a basketball game and must not have noticed what was going on in the kitchen. When we got home we found several apples with bites in them and spaghetti noodles poking out of them. Also there was pop and other sticky stuff all over the floor. It was a pretty gross mess but a few of us worked together and had it cleaned up. Keaton thoroughly enjoyed all the people he had to play basketball with. He played numerous games of “Pig” with Riley, Jared, Trevor, Melissa, and Kimmi.
Saturday, Mom, Dad and Jared went to Provo to visit with Ryan and Susan and later to Malad to Uncle Marvin’s retirement party. Kimmi and Riley stayed with us. Don, Alli and their kids went to Jerome to visit with part of Don’s family. I worked on cleaning house for part of the day, taught a “make up” piano lesson and took pictures for HomeSeekers. Mike did some work in the basement. That evening we went to the Minidome at ISU for the Spring Fair. Mike’s company had a booth set up. We spent some time looking at all the booths and I think the kids had a pretty good time. They got really sticky from eating cotton candy. Mike stayed and came home about midnight after helping take the booth down (with help from Grandpa Johnston and Uncle Greg)!
We had a couple funny little incidents that happened while everyone was here visiting. First, on Friday morning I went to a parent teacher conference. While at the school a neighbor of mine commented that she thought she had just seen me out playing basketball with Keaton. I told her that it must have been my Mom (since she was the only other lady at our house and when I had left she had been outside helping Kailey jump rope). When I got home, I found that the “mysterious basketball player” was Jared. He had his sweat jacket hood up on his head and was doing all sorts of lay-ups and other basketball stunts. I just found it funny that after talking to this neighbor, I left her believing it had been Mom doing all those tricks. Another little funny thing that happened is that while all of the adults were downstairs talking, Kailey came downstairs and told Alli that Connor was stuck up on top of the bunk bed. Alli asked Kailey if Elicia was up there (meaning upstairs so that she could help get Connor down). Kailey looked at Alli again and very determinedly told her again “NO, not Elicia, Connor is stuck on the bunk bed”. Anyway we all got a good laugh over Kailey’s misunderstanding.
This morning I felt a bit rushed getting myself and the kids ready for church. Mom helped me get food ready for after church. When I went to get Kailey dressed I noticed she had a fake tattoo on her arm. I told Mike about it which he was upset about because we just don’t “do tattoos”. But even worst, it was a tattoo with the Remax emblem on it. She had received it from their booth the previous night. Tatoos are a big “no no” in themselves but especially ones from Remax (lol). We made sure to have it scrubbed off before church. During Sacrament meeting, Emilee began asking us if she could go up to the pulpit to bare her testimony. She wanted to the last Fast and Testimony Meeting but we told her we wanted to wait until we knew she could do it on her own (and be serious about it). Well, she kept asking over and over again and was being really good listening when she wasn’t asking. Finally Elicia told her she would go up with her. Emilee was such a big girl about it. She started out all by herself and then Elicia began to help her. I think she may have been able to do it alone but since Elicia was there she let her help. After Emilee was finished she stood nicely beside Elicia while Elicia went on to bare her testimony. Then they came back down to sit with us. Emilee sat on my lap very nicely listening to some other children bare their testimonies. After a few minutes she turned to me and asked if Jesus was happy or sad. I told her that Jesus was happy. She then asked me as if I didn’t quite understand what she meant; was Jesus happy that she “did a testimony”. I told her he was so happy which made her smile and she again began to listen. I thought it was so sweet and I suppose that I had underestimated her desire to bare her little testimony. I had thought she just wanted to try something new and do what the other kids were doing. But now I really believe she wanted to make Jesus happy. We enjoyed the rest of our church meetings and then came home for a crock pot roast beef dinner, salads and rolls.
All our company left throughout the day. It was a lot of fun to have everyone visiting. I must say I’m tired though and ready for a good nights sleep. We stayed up pretty late the past few nights. We hope all is well for each of you. We send you all our love!
Love,
Shan (and family)
April 7, 03
Dear Family,
This has been a strange week weather wise. We had 70 degree weather on Monday and snow nearly every day the rest of the week. We are very happy for the moisture…but is it necessary to have the cold with it?
Keaton started soccer this week. On Monday he had his first practice. This is the first time he’s ever played soccer. He’s really excited about it though says he’s pretty good. Of course he thinks he’s pretty good at everything :0)
Tuesday afternoon I had my first experience as a cubscout leader. The boys had made kites the week before and then attempted to fly them on Tuesday. They didn’t have much luck but seemed to have fun trying. It was on April Fools days so the other den leader thought it would be fun to have “dirt and worms” for desert. Each boy had their own cup of pudding and added oreo crumbs and gummy worms to the top. We didn’t have any spoons so they used a cookie to eat the treat.
I am really struggling to remember anything big and exciting that happened on Wednesday and Thursday and I’m not having much luck. I suppose it was just a calm couple days.
Friday was my birthday and the kids made sure I didn’t forget. Keaton and Elicia woke up early and made me breakfast in bed. I did pretty well this year…despite being pregnant. I ate as much as I could and it tasted really good. They made pancakes, scrambled eggs and a yummy orange/milk drink that tasted super good. There have been a few times they’ve brought me breakfast that it hasn’t been so easy to eat. I was glad it wasn’t covered with cake sprinkles this time. While I ate the breakfast the kids sat on the bed and Mike read the scriptures to us. Emilee helped me eat my scrambled eggs. Then after we had our family prayer the kids started to bring in gifts they had put together. I received all sorts of “hand me down” toys, lots of candy and some neat pictures and notes. They really made it a special morning for me. The rest of the day was pretty normal. That evening Mike took me out to Red Lobster for dinner. We splurged on a great meal. The waitress brought me cake after we had finished eating. I was so full but with Mike sharing with me we managed to finish it. After we got home Mike worked on getting a printer hooked up to my computer. I told him that is what I really wanted for my birthday. Although it was quite late when he finished, we stayed up and watched the DVD “Sweet Home Alabama” that Mom and Dad gave me for my birthday.
Over the weekend we watched General Conference. On Saturday we also tried to get many things accomplished that we had put off for awhile. Mike and I worked on our taxes and were able to get it all organized to take to our accountant. Keaton painted his Pinewood Derby car and Elicia and I worked on her piñata that she‘s going to take to school on her birthday. She last week with a friend made the piñata and Saturday we worked on paper macheing it. It took several hours. Elicia thought it would be cool to go into business making piñatas. I told her it wasn’t my thing. After buying the materials and candy it cost us nearly $10 to make. To buy one and fill it from Wal*Mart would cost around $18. For the amount of time it took us to make, I don’t think it would be a very productive business. Last night, Trevor and Melissa and also Grandma Sundrud came over to join us for dinner and also to play cards. We played RAGE and had everyone playing, including Emilee. IT got a bit wild. Later after we put the kids to bed, Mike worked on my computer and Trevor, Melissa, Grandma and I played pinochle. We played it the way Grandma likes to play which is different then the way we usually play.
We just got home from having an ultrasound done. When we walked into the room where the equipment was Emilee asked the ultrasound technician if she would make the baby a girl. The lady said she would do the best that she could. We began to watch on the ultrasound and right away it was obvious that the baby was indeed a girl. Keaton will be a bit disappointed but I think the girls will all be quite happy. I was happy my due date moved up a couple of days. IT is now the August 22.
Watching the news of the war in Iraq has consumed a lot of our time. We are glad that it looks like this is getting close to being done. I think this will be one of the shortest letters I’ve written. I just don’t have a lot to write about. Hopefully everyone is doing well. Have a great week!
Love,
Shan (and family)
Elicia’s 11!!!
April 13, 03
Dear Family,
Boy are we getting Spring Fever around here. It is so fun to have nice weather and the kids wanting to play outside. We even had to break down and turn on the A/C on Saturday. It is cooler out today (Monday) and supposed to be cooler this week. That’s okay though. I love variety in the weather.
Keaton and I had our first try at selling on Ebay over the past several days. We gathered up about 10 items and sold everything except one. We made over a $100 between the two of us. He made over $70 himself which was very exciting for him if you can imagine. He sold some gameboy cartridges and pokemon cards and I sold some clothing. We had listed them on April 2nd and it wasn’t until the 7th that Keaton started to get some bids. He was very disappointed those first few days and kept having me lower the prices (which later they all sold for much higher then his original asking price) . On Wednesday when the auctions came close to closing, we kept a close eye on the auctions. Keaton’s started to skyrocket. He sat at the computer the last few minutes refreshing the screen watching his items go higher. He thought it was “way fun!” I have to admit, I did the same with my items when they got close to closing. This was a lot more fun then the yard sale we had last fall.
Tuesday evening was the Pinewood Derby for Pack Meeting. Mike and Keaton developed a really cool car. Keaton ended up getting 3rd place overall and 2nd in his pack.
We celebrated Elicia’s birthday on Wednesday. She had a special request for breakfast in bed. I brought her waffles, fruit and muffins. After she finished eating she got dressed and we all met for scriptures, within a few minutes of finishing scripture reading the doorbell rang. It was her friend Rebecca arriving 20 minutes earlier than the kids usually leave for school. We invited her in to watch Elicia open her presents. I think Elicia was quite happy with her presents, especially her Autumn Harvest Doll (which is quite similar to the American Girl dolls —perhaps identical except for price). After opening presents, Rebecca and Elicia left for school carrying the piñata we had made last weekend. After dropping Kailey off for kindergarten, Emilee and I went to Mike’s office to fill balloons up with helium; we had several plain and a Mylar one that we bought at the dollar store. After filling the balloons we attached a stuffed bunny and some candy to hold the balloons down. Then Emilee and I dropped them off at the school so they could be delivered to Elicia in her classroom. After that task, we went to work making Elicia’s birthday cake. Since Elicia had left me without any requests, I let Emilee choose the flavor of cake and frosting. We made a chocolate cake separated in a round pan and a rectangle pan. I needed a few items from the store and so we picked up chocolate frosting and strawberry frosting. We then frosted the round cake with chocolate frosting and pastel sprinkles and cut the rectangle cake into petals frosted with the pink frosting so that we would have a flower. I took pictures but later they were erased unfortunately. I erased all the pictures on my camera after Emilee and Kailey had a “hayday” taking pictures of anything and everything. I just wasn’t thinking when I did it. I was glad I did have pictures of the piñata though…it took a lot of work.
Wednesday evening, Mike left to Boise for some meetings. He was gone until Friday. He felt like he was getting sick while there but was feeling better by the weekend.
Friday night, I had Boncos. Mike got home from Boise just a few minutes before I had to leave. I had a good time and ended up winning the 2nd place prize. Afterwards several of us went to IHOP. I had strawberry crepes and they were sooooo good!
Saturday Keaton had his first soccer games. He had one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They won the first one but lost the 2nd. Keaton made a goal. His first goal ever in a game. I thought he played really well, (although I know little about soccer). We saw lots of people we knew at the games. There were about 8 fields with games going on throughout the day. I suppose that is what it will be like every Saturday. For those people that live close and would like to attend any of his games I’ll email a schedule.
Saturday evening Keaton went to play at our old neighbors, the Cooper’s home. Mike took him over to play with their son and brought back their two daughters to play with our girls. The Coopers brought Keaton home and picked up their daughters. We visited with them for a while and found out they are expecting a new baby. We were surprised since their youngest is nearly seven. They also had mentioned before that they didn’t think they would be having anymore. But this was a surprise and they said they would need a larger home. Mike told them he had some connections in that area ;0). We told them that we would love to have them move close to us again and they thought that would be fun too. Although the parents are members of the church they aren’t active. I don’t believe their kids have been baptized (they hadn’t been when we moved). We had made some effort in inviting them to church activities and sometimes they came but I always felt like maybe we could have done better. After they left our home, we put the kids to bed and then Trevor and Melissa came over. We had planned on going to see the movie “RM” but when we got to the theatre it was already packed. We ended up renting a DVD and went home to watch it. We’ll try again to see “RM”.
Yesterday we enjoyed a nice Sunday. I can’t think of too much to write about it. Mike had a stake Priesthood meeting in the evening but other than that, it was pretty typical Sunday.
Today has been a regular Monday filled with housework. I suppose if anything really exciting happens today I’ll write about it next week. I thought I’d try something new this time with adding pictures. If you don’t get them or if it takes too long on any of your computers to get this let me know and I’ll “zonk” the picture idea. We hope all of you are doing well. Have a great week!
Love,
Shan (and family)
Easter
April 20, 03
Dear Family,
Happy Easter everyone! It’s been a really nice day here. We had to get up pretty early this morning to get everyone ready for church. Mike and I along with another couple were asked to sing prelude prior to Sacrament Meeting. That meant we needed to be to the church by 8:15. It was not easy, especially since it was Easter. When I woke up the kids I told them they couldn’t check out their Easter Baskets until after they were dressed. That really helped because usually they are just dragging on Sunday mornings. (In writing this I just was reminded of Kailey last week. While we were getting ready for church Kailey told me that she DID NOT like “Fast Sundays”. I thought it was funny for her to say that because it wasn’t even fast Sunday and she has never fasted and I didn’t realize she even understood exactly what a fast Sunday was. I questioned her as to why she didn’t like fast Sundays. She told me that it was too hard to be fast in the mornings ;0) this morning they all hurried. I put hot curlers in Elicia and Kailey’s hair which took some extra time so I was glad they were being cooperative in getting dressed and ready. At about 8:15 I was still at home looking for my car keys. I had told the kids to get into the van (Mike leaves early on Sunday mornings to set up chairs so he wasn’t home to help) and went out to question them about my keys. They had them with them in the ignition ready for us to take off. I then rushed to the church with us opening and shutting every door in the van, as I drove, until we figured out which one wasn’t shut all the way. Once we got there I was huffing and puffing but we were able to start singing prelude by about 22 or 23 after. Since the ward choir was putting on the Sacrament meeting program we arranged for Elicia and Emilee to sit with a family in our ward. Keaton and Kailey sat on a bench by themselves, and fortunately behaved themselves.
Now I suppose I need to back up and talk about the rest of the week. Monday evening we were invited to attend Family Home Evening at the Fishers, some friends of ours. There were 2 other families invited which made for a lot of kids between us. Our kids had a blast playing with the other kids. The home we were meeting in has a pretty nifty basement. They have it sat up like a 50’s diner with tall tables and barstools. There are murals on the walls which really add to the room. There is also a kitchen like area where the food was served. Besides that, there are pool table, air hockey and foosball game tables which were invaded by the kids. In other rooms there is a playroom with lots of toys for the little kids, and a luxury Entertainment Center room for the “big kids”. When we were ready to go our kids really didn’t want to leave.
After school on Tuesday we had cub scouts. I helped the boys make chocolate chip cookies. Some of them were very interested and some of them weren’t. Keaton was in the “weren’t” group. He wanted to go outside and play basketball or football. Tuesday evening, the Young Women and Young Men in the ward put on an Easter Egg hunt. They had it nicely organized which was good since there was a ton of kids. Each kid was instructed to only find 8 plastic candy filled eggs so everyone would be assured at getting some. They also did it by ages so the little ones wouldn’t have too difficult of a time. When they weren’t hunting for eggs, there were tables set up inside the gym for the kids to color Easter eggs. Each child was able to color one egg. When the kids got home they wanted to color more so we I hard boiled a couple dozen and let them have fun at it. Elicia is getting really good at making pretty eggs. All the eggs varied from interesting to pretty. After putting the kids to bed, we went with Trevor and Melissa to the movie “RM”. I thought it was so good and so funny. It is by the same people that made “Singles Ward”. I liked “RM” a lot better. Mike’s Brother Eric was an assistant producer for it and also appeared a few times. He was one of the policemen.
Wednesday evening Mike was home and was able to help Elicia on a project. They made a doll bed for the doll she got for her birthday. Mike built it with wood and then Elicia painted it. I took Keaton to soccer practice. After practice Mike spent some time with Keaton on the computer playing a game Keaton received for Christmas but until now hadn’t been able to play it. Mike traded my computer with a faster one that can handle games.
Thursday evening Mike was gone early on…and I can’t remember where. Oh well, I’m not going to wrack my brain trying to remember. The kids and I just hung out at home until bedtime. Shortly after the kids were in bed Mike got home. I then cut his hair and made brownies for a Real Estate thing he had on Friday. It just came to me that I think he was doing some shopping at Home Depoe earlier on that night. Not that any of you really care…J
When I dropped Kailey off for Kindergarten on Friday, I also checked out Elicia. I then took her to Mike’s office since it was “Take your Daughter to work day”. First they went out to lunch at Sizzler. Then back to the office where Elicia was able to answer the phone for awhile. She answered it saying “It’s a Great Day at Keller Williams, how can I help you?” She said she loved doing it and hoped some day she could get a job there. Mike told her she had to wait until she was 16. Friday evening we were invited to Kristie’s house for a Birthday party for Jim. It was nice that Suzanne was able to drive to Pocatello for a few minutes in between anchoring the 6:00 and 10:00 news in Idaho Falls (HI SUZIE!), and that Eric, Russell and his boys were able to come. It has been a few years since many of us had seen Russell and the boys so that was really cool. Also, everyone had their boyfriends and girlfriends there. We were able to Meet Kristie’s boyfriend, Russell’s girlfriend and Eric’s girlfriend for the first time. They all seem like neat people. Greg was there with Jenny too. Jenny pretty much feels like a part of the family already. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins. Kailey and Erica printed off several birthday cards for grandpa that they made on the computer. After he finished work, Jeff came for a few minutes. After leaving Kristie’s, we convinced, Jeff, Jenny and Greg to come to our place to eat enchiladas, chips and salsa. Kristie’s two youngest children came to stay the night with us also. Elicia stayed at Kristie’s so she could spend some more time with Kassie.
Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to Golden Corral where Jim treated the whole family to breakfast. Thanks Jim! We had over 20 of us sitting at a long table. I was glad the restaurant wasn’t too busy.. It was funny to see some of the things the kids ate. Emilee insisted on green salad like she does every time we go to Golden Corral. I can’t remember which kid it was but one had his plate filled with just sausages. Nick had his plate filled with strawberries. Other kids had cold cereal…which I found amusing because that is what they probably eat everyday already. As for the adults, we know how to eat! After we finished breakfast, we when back to our place and Russell, Tanya and boys met us there. We visited with them for a few minutes. The boys played with Keaton’s basketballs. Nick timed Keaton and Zack while they bounced the balls. After they left we got ready to go to Keaton’s soccer game. Elicia stayed home so she could go on a picnic with her friends. Keaton was able to play goalie. He likes to fall down on the ground to catch the ball which made me nervous. I kept thinking he was going to get kicked in the face. Unfortunately Keaton’s team lost 1-3. Both teams seemed fairly evenly matched though and it was a good, hard game. Following the game we returned home and got ready to go to Preston and Logan. We first went to Preston and had lunch with the Lukers. Deann Luker is such a good cook. We love it when they feed us! After eating we all left for Logan. Mike had to get some things for work and we just had to stop for Icecream at Caspers. We then headed back for the Lukers home where we played cards before leaving back to Pocatello.
I started this letter yesterday and started with Sunday. I guess that means I’ve finished the week and can get this sent off. We hope everyone is doing well and have a great week!
Love,
Shan (and family)
My Heads to Fuzzy to Think of a Subject
April 28, 03
Dear Family,
I usually am more motivated to write on Sunday afternoons but was lacking in the motivation department yesterday. I figured if I didn’t want to get too far behind I had better get a letter sent off tonight.
Monday and Tuesday Mike was out of town last week. It wasn’t too eventful for the rest of us. Elicia had a report due that she spent a lot of time working on. Each of the kids in her class have a state they are in charge of studying, making a report, poster and float for. We spent Tuesday evening working on her poster since I had some time to help her look things up on the Internet. After we completed the poster, she told me she needed to have the rough draft of her report in by Thursday and wanted to get started on it. It was already getting late but she stayed up and worked on it quite a bit. The next morning she again was working on it. After school she finished it. She picked a cursive font that she thought was really pretty. I told her I didn’t know if her teacher would appreciate the style of type but she claimed her teacher wouldn’t care.
Thursday night we were able to make a trip to the temple. I was beginning to wonder if we could fit it in this month. We seem to have something going on nearly every evening. Before going we had an art gallery at the school to look at. Both Elicia and Keaton have spent the last month working on art projects to put on display. They had water colored pictures and charcoal drawings amongst the different artwork they had done. Since it started at 6:30 we had only a few minutes to walk through their classrooms and then get the kids home so we could head off for the temple. We made the 8:00 session which is my favorite because it usually doesn’t fill up like some of the other evening sessions do. After the session, even though it was getting late, we stopped by Suzie and Brandon’s house. We visited with them and their foster daughter Ashley for a little while. They have done so much to their yard and house that at first we weren’t sure it was their house when we drove up.
Friday evening Elicia had a slumber party with a couple of her good friends. She had wanted a birthday slumber party but those weekends surrounding her birthday were quite busy for us. This was the first weekend it was convenient for her to have one. The girls made their own mini pizza’s, we had cake and icecream and her friends brought presents. I also made up a treasure hunt for them. I tried to be tricky with my clues but they were pretty smart and didn’t have too much trouble with any of them. I didn’t even have to give hints.
Saturday Keaton had a soccer game scheduled. We woke up to snow on the ground but it melted before the game was to begin so we started off for the game. As we drove towards the soccer fields it started to sleet and snow. We arrived at the soccer field and there was another game finishing up. Keaton’s teammates were beginning to arrive and we settled in with our lawn chairs and blankets. When it was time for the game to start, there wasn’t another team there for them to play. Keaton’s team practiced for a few minutes and then we left. We grabbed some burgers at McDonald’s for the kids and took them home. Then Mike and I went out for “real” sandwiches at Schowloskies (sp???) Deli. We then did some shopping before heading home. We worked on some things that needed done at home the rest of the afternoon. Saturday evening Trevor came over for dinner (Melissa was working) and then we went to Home Depoe and a couple other stops before going to Elmer’s to pick up Melissa. We drank hot chocolate while waiting for her to finish up.
The last several days I’ve suffered from a cold. It started out as a sore throat but eventually has left me with a chest cold. I’ve had some rough nights trying to sleep. Every night for the past 5 nights I’ve ended up in the recliner. I just couldn’t breathe lying down. Sunday morning I woke up and couldn’t talk. I wasn’t quite sure how I would get everyone up and ready for church by 8:30. Mike leaves early so he wasn’t here to help. I learned something though. I found that I could get us all ready on a Sunday morning and to church on time without raising my voice. Of course it could have just been a fluke J I’ll have to try whispering next week and see how it goes. I think the kids felt sorry for me and were just unusually cooperative for a Sunday morning. At church I realized how much I missed my voice. I couldn’t sing or make any comments. A whisper is about all I could get out. After church we had some lunch and then I tried to take a nap. I am just not a good nap taker though. I tried for about an hour but then got up to join the kids watching some church videos. By the end of the day I had a little bit more of a voice but it was still quite raspy. Trevor and Melissa came over for dinner and brought Chicken Cordon Bleu that Melissa had made. It was really good. After dinner we went for a drive and then put the kids to bed.
Today I’ve been able to talk a little bit better. I’m coughing more though. I’m not a very good sick person. Part of me wants to lie down and relax but once I do I stress out about everything that needs to be done. I pretty much spent the whole day cleaning and doing laundry. Late this afternoon I was watching the news and saw Tornado warnings for Pocatello. Golf sized Hail was apparently accompanying the storms. I called Mike to tell him and he told me he was on his way home and would park in the garage. We got the biggest hail I’ve ever seen but only for a minute, not much of it and that was it. Keaton ran out and gathered up the few largest balls on the lawn. The rest of the evening turned out to be pretty pleasant outside. After dinner we had Family Home Evening. Since Mike was home early he was able to help Emilee prepare a treat…sugar cookies while Kailey helped me color some pictures for the lesson. We talked about being truthful. We’ve had a bit of a problem with that lately. Hopefully the kids learned something and will try to always be honest. After the lesson, since Keaton was in charge of the activity, we played a family basketball game. Kailey wasn’t being cooperative so she didn’t participate but the rest of us played. Keaton and I were on a team, and Mike, Emilee and Elicia were on a team. They beat us but not by much. After playing for awhile we had Emilee’s treats. She was so proud of her clover, heart, star and duck shaped cookies. Then we put the kids to bed and I sat down to begin typing. I think it’s close to my bedtime now so I’d better bring this letter to a close. We love you and hope all is well with all of you.
Love Shan (and family)
Dear Family,
May is such the “Spring” month. I love the mild 60 degree weather that it has brought us so far. Of course we’ve also had the rain but that is a good thing and we continue to pray for it.
Emilee and Kailey have both been working at filling up charts I made for them with stickers. Both have their own chart with 100 squares to be filled by stickers. Once their chart is full they will be rewarded with a new Barbie. I’ve been giving Emilee lessons every day from a “How to Teach Your Child to Read Book”. There are 100 total lessons(about 15 or 20 minutes each). Emilee for a long time has been asking for help to read. She really wants to be like the big kids. This book has been great. She is about ¼ of the way through it. Kailey earns her stickers from every book she reads. Most of the books are the easier Dr. Seuss books. I let her pick and Dr. Seuss is her favorite. Some of them like Go Dog Go and Hop on Pop she will read over and over again because she already knows them pretty well. She gets a sticker each time she reads one regardless of whether she has read it before or not. She wasn’t reading at all before kindergarten and has come a long way over the past year. Both girls have also been really intrigued with the calendar lately. At first I was getting “how much longer before the baby comes” nearly every day. I finally sat down with a calendar and helped them understand the months. I showed them how many days in a month and how many months it would be still. As we were doing so I pointed out all the holidays and family birthdays including their birthdays. This was a few weeks ago and Kailey has been counting down the days until her birthday ever since. Her birthday is on Tuesday and she’s been making sure we don’t forget.
I believe I already wrote about Monday last week and so I’ll start with Tuesday. It was BUSY! Throughout the day I had visiting teaching to do, cubscouts, pictures for the GPAR, helping Elicia do a fundraiser, and soccer practice for Keaton. Wednesday was also pretty busy. A lady in our ward came over and did a photo shoot of Emilee and some other little girls in our ward. When we had our service auction for Relief Society Enrichment night I along with another lady won the two photo shoots that were up for bids. I decided it would be easier to just have Emilee done. The other lady in our ward had both her little girls done. We had a lot of fun and by Thursday I was able to look at the pictures on the photographer’s computer and choose the ones I wanted. I was so pleased with how they turned out. I will definitely have her take pictures for us in the future. It will be a lot less expensive than school pictures and a lot better pictures. After the pictures were taken I went grocery shopping and to a Dr’s Appointment. Wednesday Evening Mike and I went to a party which was hosted for several Realtors. We ate incredibly well and too much.
Thursday was a bit calmer and we actually were able to enjoy an evening together as a family at home.
Friday Elicia was excused from school and went on an Elementary School tour with her choir. They sang at several elementary schools throughout the day. Friday late afternoon Keaton went to a birthday party for one of his friends and Friday evening we watched Harry Potter “The Chamber of Secrets” as a family.
Saturday we were able to sleep in and have a big breakfast together as a family. It was nice. Keaton was to have a soccer game in the morning and in the afternoon but the morning one was changed to Tuesday evening. The afternoon game was at 3:00. We were able to get a few things accomplished. Mike helped a family in the ward move for about 3 ½ hours. Meanwhile I helped Elicia on a school project. A few weeks ago she paper macheted a shoebox float. On top she needed to display items that were representative of Wisconsin. She wanted to make a sugar cube miniature model of the state capital building. We tried a few nights ago to do so with corn syrup and sugar cubes. This turned out to be a flop. A few of you helped me out (thanks) and gave us a couple of ideas to try. We debated on using glue or frosting. Elicia thinks she would like to eat it afterwards (yuck) and so we decided to go with the frosting. It turned out really well. I used a recipe for frosting that was fast drying. We also made some flowers, bushes and a tree for the landscaping out of sugar cubes and frosting. We added food coloring to these items. I think it turned out rather well. Other items she has on her float are a collectors spoon she got when we visited Wisconsin a couple years ago, a ceramic cow (since they are a big dairy state) and several miniature ice-cream cones that we made out of frosting and sugar cubes. She still wants to add a state flag to finish it off. It was a fun project and I’m glad it’s done a few weeks in advance. She’s been really good not to procrastinate on all the state projects she’s has due. As we were finishing up the float, Mike returned home and he and I took off to Wal*Mart to do some quick shopping. We then had a few minutes to pick up Keaton for his Soccer game. When we got home he wasn’t ready and hadn’t eaten anything (neither had we). We ended up having him put his shoes on in the car and we did a quick run through the drive through at McDonalds on the way. We got to the game right at 3:00 and found that they were still short players for their team. After a few minutes they started with 5 players (6 are needed and Keaton’s team has 11 members) within a few minutes another boy came. Also within a few minutes of the game starting it began to rain. It didn’t just rain a little, it poured! Mike and I sat under umbrellas so we didn’t get wet but the boys were sopping. One of Keaton’s teammates was in tears because he was so cold. Keaton didn’t seem to care (later he told me he thought it was kind of fun). They ended up losing their game but Keaton didn’t mind too much since he was able to play the entire game and he scored a goal, the only goal his team scored.
Saturday night, we had a family in our ward over for a barbeque. We tried some marinating techniques and new ideas for recipes. Mike did a lot of it himself. I cleaned up after him J I think everything tasted really good. Afterwards we played cards and visited. We found out that the wife/mom is expecting in November. I was excited about that because before that I knew of only one other pregnant lady in our ward and she is moving in a few weeks. Speaking of pregnancies, yesterday we also found out that Valerie Felt (the neighbor we had while living in the Standrod House) is expecting triplets this summer! We spent a lot of time with them when we were neighbors and she was expecting her first the same time I was pregnant with Keaton. We shared the same due date then.
Today we went to church. I’m still getting used to the 8:30 time. It’s been 5 months and we still are rushing and not as organized as I would like in the mornings. In Sacrament meeting we had two babies blessed and also a change in the Bishopric. Our Bishop bore his testimony. He told how touched he was when a four year old primary child asked him if he was Heavenly Father. It made the Bishop quite emotional who already was teetering with his emotions because of the birth of a new grandchild this morning and losing one of his counselors (who is moving).
After church we ate lunch and then watched “Saturday’s Warrior”. Mike went mother’s day shopping the other day and bought it for me on DVD. He asked me if he could give me my gifts early and I told him it was okay since everyday should be “mother’s day” J The kids had never seen it so it was fun to watch it with them. Emilee liked how the youngest child in the family had her same name. She kept saying “when do I get to come down to earth?
That sums up the week. We hope everyone is happy and well.
Lots of Love,
Shan (and family)
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