Fat Black Crows

Aug. 29, 2010
Dear Elder Alex,
Thought I better send off a quick note in case my other letter from last week didn't make it for some reason. So I'll just catch you up on the news from the week.
First-we'd love to have a mailing address where you're living. So send us that if you can.
Today church was great. The Simpson's spoke and Dustin did a fantastic job. He has a gift for speaking and I really enjoyed his words. He talked about music and his favorite musical of all time, Les Mis. Then he told the story behind Les Mis and tied it into his talk.
I talked with Sean tonight. He's all settled into his new apartment. School starts tomorrow and he has all his classes, etc. He said his new ward looks like it will be fun and it's about 70% girls, so I told him to get busy and date. He's decided his major will be print journalism, but he will also be taking all the pre-med classes and apply to medical schools.
Kirk is still here and working and texting Laura. Last night it got so cold here and he was working at the fair. He said everyone came inside the buildings because of the cold and the Blue and Orange store did $8,000 worth of business (mostly sweatshirt sales). The BSU fever is starting to spike around here. In fact there are so many people going to the first game next week in Virginia, that I have to teach the RS lesson in the Eagle 2nd ward. Very strange!
Kristina is still driving with her permit. The little girls think she drives too slow, but I think she's doing a great job. She's excited for school to start but a little nervous about going to high school. I know she's going to love it, but I'm sure it's a hard thing to start a new school. She said she got all the bad teachers according to everyone who looks at her schedule.
Leah and Nikki are just glad that they are getting to go to Eagle Elementary. Leah is happy with her teacher, Nikki is not so happy. The big thing for Leah this year is she gets to stay up til 8:30pm and Nikki has to go to bed at 8pm. So far, that is not going over well.
We spent the last few days painting the little girls' room. Kristina and Leah are going to sleep in there, so it's lime green with black and white accents. Nikki will be sleeping in Kristina's old room(of course, Nikki feels that's a punishment). Leah and Nikki will trade rooms every 6 months which seems to appease them for now. I'll send you some pictures once we get the room completely done.

I've got a presidency mtg in the morning and we've got a lot of things to go over. The next 2 months are going to be very busy for us.
Dad is busy with work and is trying to get credentialled so he can work in Ontario, OR. Right now I think he's thinking of ways to retaliate against the black crows who swooped in and ate every one of our purple grapes off the vines. They are the sweetest, best grapes and now we just have a bunch of fat crows flying around the yard mocking us. If you have any retaliation ideas, we're very open to them.

I heard from Cameron's mom tonight. She showed me a website called missionsite.net where families can post letters, pictures, updates, etc about their missionaries and family and friends all have access to it. We can link it from your Facebook page. She had a couple pictures of you and Cameron in the MTC on his page. I've asked Kirk and Sean to take a look at it and see what they think. I don't know that you'd want me to print every one of your letters on that site, but maybe you do. I can always do some editing of the letters if you want. Let me know what you think. It's not something you can ever look at, but your family and friends could.

Austin goes in this Wednesday. In fact, Sean might be picking him up from the airport and taking him to the MTC. Cameron is worried about getting his visa on time since there are so many other elders there that are not getting theirs.

That's my news for this week. Did you get the package we sent you in Nashville? Whenever you get packages, etc let us know so we know that they got there. We got a nice letter from the mission home letting us know that you arrived safely, had interviews and were having some training meetings then shipped off to your first area. It was nice to hear that.

We can't wait to hear where you are, who your companion is and how things are going for you. I hope you are well and happy. Remember to write in your journal. These are unique experiences that will become a blur to you later on, so think about the lessons you're learning each day and record your thoughts.

Love you,
mom
xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxooxoxxxooxxxooxoxoxoxo