At Steve and Carolina's

June 26, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

So here we are in Utah for the weekend and right now we're at Steve and Carolina's. Sean's laughing at me because we've been sitting in the living room having a birthing discussion with Laura and all of a sudden I said, I need to write Alex. Fond memories almost 20 years ago. I still can remember how sad I was to have to leave the hospital without you in my arms. I guess I was a bit traumatized.

We went to Charmaine's ward this morning mainly because she had the latest ward. We got back home so late last night (around 2am) from the Manti pageant. Charmaine's ward is quite interesting. It's mainly young married couples with tons of small children. It was the largest ward relief society I've ever been in. The ward has 2 elders quorums, but all the women are in one room. It was a wonderful lesson. When it was over I turned to the sister next to me and said, "I always learn something new in every relief society lesson." And I really mean that. I think back in my life and so much of what I've learned about the church, about being a mom, taking care of my home, preparing for the future, etc are from being in Relief Society. I've also learned a lot from listening to what the other sisters say in their comments during the lessons too. So much of my testimony has been gained from being a part of relief society.

This afternoon we had lunch here at Steve's. Today we had all of us, Steve and Carolina and their 2 girls, Axel and Laura and their 2 in-utero girls, Charmaine, David Lutz and his girlfriend, Serena. We've been having fun, typical Uncle Steve type conversations all afternoon.

Yesterday we spent the day in Manti and along the way we made some stops thanks to Charmaine's local knowledge. She knows the land quite well. We met up with Dr. Moss and his family at the pageant. The pageant was a lovely show. It could use a new re-write or two, but the sheer vastness of the whole thing was impressive and the most magnificent part for me was being able to sit there right at the foot of this beautiful temple on a hill. I'll send some pictures next week when we get back home and download them.

The day before we drove to G&G Thompson's and along the way we stopped first in Twin Falls and looked at the actual Twin Falls. However, now there is only one fall. The other one got dammed up for electrical power. We also stopped in Layton to see Tracey Long Braithwaite's parents. I was very close to them growing up and I wanted to visit them in their home. Turns out they live in this absolutely beautiful site with a creek running through it. Her dad is an architect and designed and built their home. It's kind of a frank lloyd wright style home. anyway, it's really cool and I loved being there and being able to see it.

Now Steve's talking so loudly because he's upset at how many hours they ask doctors to work. I love it when the conversation gets so lively.

Tomorrow we drop off Kristina at EFY for her first EFY experience. I know she's going to love it. In fact, I know she'll love it so much that we'll hear about it for quite a while. I'm sure you remember how many new friends and stories you came home with. I'm excited for her. She and Mallory Moss are rooming together.

After we drop her off, I'm going over to Help International, the place that hosts the internships that Kirk is doing. I need to talk with them about getting some little dresses made from pillowcases sent to Uganda. Then we'll treat Sean to a lunch and take off to Sandy to spend the night with the Thompson's again. I hope we'll be able to meet up with Tani and his family too.

So how has your week been? I've been thinking about your mission president and how he's getting ready to leave. How does that transition take place, do you know? Does he stay there with the new one for a few days or does he just take off and let the assistants ease the new one in? Just curious.

Tell me a little about your new area. Do you have a car, foot, bike? Who is your companion/s? Where are they from, etc? How many wards do you cover? Who are the investigators you're working with?

Tomorrow morning Carolina, Dakota and Kassie are leaving for Spain. They're then flying to Rome with Isaac and Carolina's brothers and sisters. They'll be in Spain for a month or so.

It's definitely summer time here. People going here and there. I hope you are well and busy and happy. We pray for you always.

Have a great week and I always pray that you'll have many opportunities to share your testimony each day. Tell your investigators that it's ok to "believe" something is true, then act on that belief until one day they will "know" that it is true. It's always ok to believe until we know.

Love you much,

mom xxoo

Daddy Day

June 19, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

I can't wait to hear how your week went in your new area. We've got you all pinned up on the map in your new area. Looks like you went south of Nashville this time. I actually have heard quite a bit about Franklin. Lots of times when I've mentioned Nashville, people tell me that the place to live is Franklin and that they have good strong wards there too. If it's one of the wealthiest places around, you may have your work cut out for you as far as investigators, but maybe the members will be a big help to you.

Dad had to work last night, so his Father's Day has been full of drifting in and out of consciousness. He said Mel Hugentobler had to wake him in High Priests cuz he was making too much noise. :) The girls and I managed to smuggle a brand new grill onto the back porch last night so he was loving cooking steaks for dinner today.

I've been driving myself crazy trying to figure out a way to convert a ppt into a dvd so I can just take the disc and play it on the tv at church. It's all because I made a ppt with music and so it won't convert everything over. I'm going to just play the ppt which I burned onto the dvd and play the music from my ipod in the background. Good enough! I have a meeting with the ward humanitarian leaders on Tuesday, so I just wanted to let them see my vision for our stake having a humanitarian work day once a month on a stake level. I'm hoping to get them excited about the project and the music is key. We'll see how it goes. BTW, my big old antique iPod died a couple weeks ago. So then I thought, I'll just borrow Alex's iTouch until he gets home. But then I remembered that my speakers don't charge it, so that was a pain. So then I bought new speakers that charge it, and if it's okay, I'm using your iTouch in my quilt room. I just can't enjoy quilting, etc without music and I only put 1 playlist (maybe 2) on your iTouch.

We heard from Kirk earlier. He's been busy meeting with an optometrist and a dentist and will be setting up an eye clinic with a tooth clinic. This next week he has to meet with groups and ask for money. That's probably hard in Uganda. He went whitewater rafting down the Nile last week, so he's obviously having a lot of fun too.

Sean starts summer semester tomorrow. He had dinner with G&G Thompson and Charmaine today. He finally took out the niece of the Cameron's last week. He said he had a fun time, but she's leaving for China for a month to teach, so I guess any second date will have to wait.

Kristina had a great time at girls' camp last week. Here are a few pics from her adventures. Their theme was Hidden Treasures and they did all their activities helping the girls find their hidden gifts and talents and abilities. They even rappelled down a 120' rock cliff and Kristina was the first one off. There were lots of rattlesnakes there too and they even killed one, skinned it, cooked it and ate it. Kristina is the one on the left just about to go down.

Leah and Nikki finished their first week of tennis and they love it! They have lessons next week too and now they want to sign up for more tennis throughout the summer. I'm pretty sure they'll be ready to take you on by the time you get home. Leah also finished her week of art lessons. She says she still wants to be an art teacher when she grows up.

I forgot to tell you a funny story from last week. During the last week of school, the elementary school had a field day and one of the events was a strength event. Nikki signed up for it. She said she didn't really know what it was going to be. The kids were asked to carry buckets on each arm and the teacher added weights to them. Then they had to carry them around a track. Slowly each kid dropped out with the amount of weight, but no, not Nikki. They just kept adding more and more weight until she had 50 lbs in each hand and she walked around the track 4 times. The kids started yelling for her to stop so she did, but she said she could have kept going forever. Nikki won the contest as the strongest person in the elementary school! She's so funny.

I loved your Mustang story last week and grandpa got a kick out of it too. It was great to hear that Ifeanyi got baptized. Sounds like he'll be a great member.

In our RS lesson today, we talked about obedience. Susan Madsen gave a great lesson. I know that we can't expect miracles in our lives if we are not willing to obey with exactness. Russell M. Nelson said, "obedience brings blessings and exact obedience brings miracles". This was from a devotional he gave at the MTC recently and I thought you might like the quote.

Have a great week. We will be in Utah the end of this week taking Kristina to EFY. She's been practicing a dance with Mallory all week for the talent show. They're very excited. So we'll take pictures and write you from the road.

Thank you for bringing such a powerful spirit into our home. You're always in my prayers and thoughts.

love you much,

Mom xxoo

Eagle Fun Days

une 12, 2011
Dear Elder Alex,
Eagle Fun days, you can't beat that for small town fun. We had excellent weather the whole weekend so it was very enjoyable going to downtown Eagle and walking around. On Thursday last week, dad hired Jared to be his son for a day and he worked in the yard all day. Jared lost his job at Scentsy and since school is out, his wife Kendra is not working any more. It was fun having him here. Then in the afternoon Sean all of a sudden just drove up into the driveway. He had the weekend off and decided to surprise us and come home. I think he secretly just wanted to go to the Eagle parade or maybe he just wanted one of these turkey legs that the girls devoured.

So while he was here, we caught up on some movies, Thor and Super 8. They were both very good. Friday night we walked around downtown Eagle and Saturday, of course, we went to the parade after a lovely morning of working in the yard and garage. I thought we were out of the wet zone, but obviously that was not the case but the water felt good.
Saturday night we went to Brittney Stafford's wedding reception. Lots of people. It was great seeing everyone.

The girls are officially out of school-Kristina did well on her finals, except math which she seems to be giving up on now, Leah officially graduated from elementary school, Nikki is excited to move up to being a senior in her school, and now the constant barrage of "What can we do?" begins. Leah starts art lessons tomorrow which will be great. Then Leah and Nikki are taking tennis lessons starting on Tuesday through Meridian Rec. Also tomorrow Kristina takes off for girls' camp and she is very, very excited to go.

Last Thursday, Sally Larsen took Leah and Nikki with her girls to Wahoo's for the entire day and then they went to Chuck O'Rama for dinner. Sally knows their sweet spots. She has always been so kind and generous to the little girls ever since we first adopted them. Sally and her sister used to call and ask if they could take the girls out with them all the time. They also brought clothes over for them when they first got here. Sally totally understands both of them and is just constantly saying how funny they are, especially Nikki. She loves her one-liners.

Today Kristina spoke in church on family history and genealogy. She did a great job, wrote the talk herself and even spoke just from some notes. She's growing up... Someone in the ward thought she looked just like Kate Middleton (Princess Kate). Our choir sang a beautiful arrangement of Secret Prayer.

So you're feeling a little heat and humidity there, eh? Ah, I remember that well, too well. Every picture in the South of our family that was taken in the summer shows my red face. Remember the iced bandanas we'd wear around our necks, ok, maybe that was just me. Just desperate attempts to keep cool. If I were to move to the South again, I would definitely get a house with a pool. I hope you are finding ways to keep hydrated and cool.

Dad and I went to Josh Gilman's farewell today. He spoke on the spirit of Christ and you can tell he's ready to serve a mission. I know it was a hard road for him and I'm proud of him and the work he has done to get to this point. In his ward there was a couple visiting from Knoxville, TN. They said they go to Nashville often, so if they do they under command to find an Elder Thompson. In fact, you would recognize him because he's Brother Irwin's brother and he looks just like him and speaks with an English accent.

Dad says to say sorry about his letter this week. When he addressed it, he accidentally put the wrong zip code and it just got returned to us. So it will be coming next week.

So hopefully you'll be reporting to us that Ifeanyi got baptized and that all went well for him.

How was the temple? Did you go with the whole mission, or ZL's or what? We are getting kind of sad here that the Boise temple will be closing in just a few weeks. We've been so spoiled having it close by. First we get the news that they're building a temple in Meridian, then we get the news that beforehand, you won't have any temple near you. I'm sure it will be a fun event when we rededicate it though.

Sean just called and when he got home today, his 911 training group took off to Goshen, Utah where the church is building a Jerusalem set for church movies. Sean said it was pretty cool. You look down the street one way and you see Pilate's residence and you look the other way and you see Harod's palace. They've built all the landmarks of Jerusalem in one place and he said it was pretty awesome. He wasn't allowed to take pictures, though, so I don't have any to share. So far they've made one movie there, The Good Samaritan on lds.org. He said they have about another 100 planned.

Dad's working a lot this week, so I'll be doing a lot of chauffeuring around town, especially with Kristina gone. I love having a licensed driver back in the house again. I hope you are doing what you can to help Pres. Hutchings on his own next transfer home. I saw your new mission president and his wife in the Church News last week. I'm sure they're getting pretty excited.

Have a wonderful week. You know there's not a day that goes by that I don't think of you and pray for you. Work hard so you can always look back knowing you gave it your all. It's a great feeling.

love you,

mom XXOO

June 2011

June 5, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

Well, here we are again. I don't know about you, but my weeks seem to be flying by lately. I guess it's been cuz I've been pretty busy. Loved your Panda picture last week. I guess that's what inspired our Sunday dinner today of orange chicken, spicy chicken and egg rolls and rice. It was quite a rich meal, but Leah and Nikki couldn't get enough especially since it was Fast Sunday and they had suffered for so long beforehand.

Kirk called today and yesterday. He sounds good and he's still really loving it in Uganda. Sounds like he's working pretty hard too, lots of physical labor. He called today to give me his list of classes that he needs to get signed up for for Fall semester. He's going to be out of touch with society for a week while he and his roommate go off and live in a really remote village and teach the people there about nutrition and hygience, mainly just common sense things, but he says they all really need some help in that area. So today he met with his Ugandan Bishop and got his ecclesiastical interview submitted (which he had walk his Bishop through since he'd never done one before). So I'll be signing him up for his classes this week.

Sean also just called and he's keeping pretty busy with his job. He's been working some night shifts lately, so I think he has a little more empathy for dad. He's still in the training phases but almost done with it all. Today he couldn't wake up with his alarm and his roommates didn't even bother trying to wake him and ask him if he was going to church. By the time Sean woke up, it was 11:30am and he had to scramble and just find another ward to go to. He wasn't very happy with his new roommates.

I heard from Kristina who heard from Scott who was there because his sister was there that Dayna got married this past weekend and had her reception. I was kind of sad that we didn't even get invited. I would have loved to have gone. There are going to be a lot of weddings in the next few weeks. A lot of it is because the Boise temple is closing in a month, so I think there are a lot of couples scrambling out there.

I went to Living the Legacy academy on Friday. They held it up at Glenwood this year so it was nice for us not to have to drive as far. My presidency and I spoke to them Friday afternoon outside. I started them out by playing the numbers game to loosen them up a bit. It was fun seeing them laughing and getting into it. Then we read them this poem that my counselor changed the words to from Dr. Suess's Oh the Places You'll Go.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to great places!

You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the girl who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up colleges and jobs, and maybe a travel place or two. Look ‘em over with care. There’s always BYU.

About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. Maybe all you’ll want is a white wedding gown. Or a “Sister” missionary tag to pin on your dress. Whatever you decide, you’ll know what is best.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just trust in the Lord. He’ll tell you what to do.

When you’re alone in a strange place, and you’re feeling down, a Relief Society President will make sure you’re found. You’ll get visits and lessons and activities too! With all of these great things, you won’t have time to feel blue!

Oh! The places you’ll go! And the people you’ll meet. Don’t sit around waiting. This life can’t be beat!

And in all that doing, don’t you forget, that Relief Society is the best - On that you can bet!

It’ll teach you things you never thought you could do, and the sisters you meet, will become best friends too! They’ll support you, encourage you, and cheer you on. You’ll be ready for anything….C’mon, bring it on!

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!

(99 and ¾ percent guaranteed)

Girls, you’ll move mountains!

So, be your name Eldridge or Cameron or Smith or Shumway, you’re off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

After the poem which of course we read with Dr. Suess hats on, then each one of us spoke for a little bit. I basically welcomed them to RS and talked about what they will bring to RS, their youth, creativity, sensitivity to the spirit at such young ages, their technological savvy and how all these gifts came with them and are to be used to build up the kingdom at this time. I also talked with them about committing to always making an effort to be a part of RS no matter where they live and no matter how long they live there. I gave an example of a sister in Augusta who came to us when I was in the RS presidency there and even though she was only going to be living in Augusta for 3 months, she wanted to know if there was anything she could be part of or help with in RS cuz she knew she probably wouldn't even get a calling living there for such a short time. She could have hidden out and taken a vacation from church duties for 3 months, but she made such an impression on me and I remember thinking that I wanted to be just like that. That sister had a lot of fun with us in our activities, etc for the short 3 months she was there and I'll never forget her example. So I promised the Legacy girls that if they would put forth an effort and be actively a part of RS all throughout their lives that they would experience a rich, full, charitable life one that they could never experience in any other way.

We really enjoyed being a small part of Living the Legacy.

Is Ifeyani still progressing towards baptism. That was cool that your President was there to help set the baptismal date. Are you able to keep in contact with all the people you've had a part in baptizing thus far? I'm just wondering if they enjoy being able to keep in contact with the missionaries that were so much a part of their lives.

Here's a pic of Nikki. She got her haircut last week. It was back down to the middle of her back again. I can't believe how fast her hair grows. She's loving having it shorter though because it's so much easier to take care of.

Dad is working in Mountain Home tonight. He hasn't had to work on Sunday for a long time, so I know he wasn't very happy about it. We missed him at church. I know he has to take his turn though in covering the ER on the weekends.

Leah got a special award at her 5th grade graduation. Only 4 kids got it and it was for hard work and extraordinary improvement throughout the year.

Kristina is in the middle of finals. I helped her study for her Spanish final last week and she said she did really well. She'll be happy when Wednesday is finally here and they're finished. Can you believe she's going to be a sophomore?

Our weather is finally warming up here. Actually went up into the 80's the last couple of days, but we're supposed to dip back down again this week. Of course, I wouldn't mind at all if it stayed in the 70's all summer. I'm all for that. It's been nice sitting out on the porch at nights again, that's one of my favorite things to do here when it warms up.

I hope you are well and of course happy. Your excitement about the gospel, about people and about the work you are doing is very contagious and I enjoy the boost I feel every Monday when I hear from you. Here's a quote I made a note of that I heard from BYU Women's Conference last month. You have proven to be someone who is steady in small things over time, so I thought of you:

"As you and I become increasingly steadfast and immovable, we are less prone to zealous and exaggerated spurts of spirituality followed by extended periods of slackness.

“A spiritual ‘spurter’ is one who is given to short bursts of spectacular effort followed by frequent and lengthy periods of rest,” he said. While “a big spurt may appear to be impressive in the short run, … steadiness in small things over time is far more effective [and] far less dangerous and produces far better results.” Elder Bednar, BYU women’s conference 4/2011

Keep up the good steady work of the Lord.

I love you,

Mom XXOO

Memorial Day weekend

May 29, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

I'm having a little piece of angel food cake while I'm typing you. Leah decided to make that today and we put it in a bundt pan that was too small, so it was quite the sight in the oven watching it build up 4 inches higher than the edges, then spill over into the oven, then to smell the lovely sugar burning smell all over the house. But in the end, it tasted great. It was a good follow up from our Costa Vida salads we had. Yummy!

Church was wonderful and packed. I guess everyone decided to come visit families in our ward for the weekend. We had another new family move into the ward today too. We've had quite a few these past few months-two doctors, one lawyer all of whom are just recently out of their respective colleges. Then Sis. Reeves brother and his family moved into our neighborhood too. The outgoing families were the Houssians who are headed to Tampa and the McCallisters(McCauley's daughter) who built a house in Middleton and the Beagleys who moved to Star.

So your concert was awesome! I can see you being in a group like that and doing firesides and concerts, etc. If it pays the bills, that's even better. I'm glad to hear your zone conference went well also. Thanks for sharing the pictures of Terrance's baptism too.

Kirk didn't call us today so I don't have much to report from him. He must still be busy with pigpen building. I wish he'd post pictures more often or email.

Sean is still training and auditing a class. The Cameron's are still trying to set him up with their niece and he finally made contact with her this weekend. No date plans yet, but at least contact was made.

Kristina had her end of the year concert Thursday night. Because McMullin had been sick for 3 days before the concert, Kristina said they barely knew their songs. I went to the first part of the concert so I could hear her group and yes, she was right. I could tell they didn't know their songs very well but I also stayed for Premium Blend and the combined choirs which was good. Kristina said it was very emotional at the end, which happens every year. She's excited to be in Bella Voce next year so she can actually be in a choir that is an audition choir and with others who actually want to be there. Last night she went to a stake dance and the theme was 70's-I'm sure you would have loved that one. She also had her end of the year bbq for lacrosse on Tuesday evening at Guerber Park.

Leah says the guy that broke his leg is not going to be able to come back to school this year. I think we're going to take him some cookies. She had her team lacrosse party at Louie's Italian restaurant on Monday evening.

Nikki is....still thankfully, Nikki. Nothing new to report there.

The dogs are doing fine, just always getting into the mud and sand and thinking it's fun to bring it into the house each day.

This past Thursday I visited the Meridian North Stake at their humanitarian day which they hold once a month. It was amazing how much they accomplished in just 3 hours. I had decided a few months ago that our stake needed to have an opportunity to do more humanitarian work, so I was able to get a humanitarian specialist called, Sis. Howard (she used to be in the 6th ward and her husband used to be a counselor to Pres. McCauley). She and I made the visit on Thursday and she is very excited to get things going in our stake. She will have projects available to work on each month and people can just drop in for however long they like. The projects they did last week were birthing kits going to Haiti, loom yarn hats, ABC books for hospital children, walker bags for nursing homes, pillow case dresses (which BTW are getting donated to me so I can send them to Kirk to disperse in Uganda-that was very unexpected and I'm very excited about it) Most projects however, will go to local charities and organizations.

Dad has to work tomorrow, so there's no big celebrating for us. I'll probably take the girls to the new Kung Fu Panda movie.

Idol wrapped up last week leaving 2 country singers in the finals. They were both very young and will most likely get a fun career out of it. Tennessee will love them

.

We got news last week that the Boise temple will be closing in July for an extended period of time. So extended that they will have a re-dedication when it finally reopens. In the meantime, we are to go to Twin Falls which is by appointment only and does not rent clothing. That will take some discipline and planning ahead on our parts. Probably shortly after that dedication, our new temple in Meridian will be ready for dedication.

I'm getting ready this week to go to Living the Legacy on Friday with my presidency. We're going to talk about how RS is a lifeline throughout life no matter where you go. I'm going to talk about our spiritual lifelines as well as our temporal lifelines in life. We have a poem similar to Dr. Suess's Oh, The Places You'll Go where we talk about the different courses of life all these girls will take in life and how RS will always be there for them, a place to give service and a place to receive service. We're going to give them one of those really long licorice ropes with the poem attached to it. I'm also going to have them play the numbers game (I learned that from the academies) and use a bonding analogy. Hopefully all will go well and they'll start to catch the spirit of the relief society.

Both grandparents send their love to you. They look forward each week to your letters and are so proud of you.

As I close my letter it's nice to hear your BYU Men's chorus singing The Iron Rod in the background. It's so uplifting and I can almost hear your voice. :)

Stay close to the spirit, Alex, so you can be guided in everything you do and never forget how it feels to be so close to the spirit every day so you will seek after that same feeling throughout your life. Remember to have great faith because it is truly Christ's church and He will not let it fail and He knows each of us and loves each of us.

Have a miraculous week!

Love you,

Mom

ps Can I have your permission to de-friend my brother Scott on your Facebook(the old one)? His language and anti-Mormon sentiments sadden me and I wouldn't want anyone you know there to see or read anything from him. I still love my brother very much but I think sometimes he says things outrageous just to get reactions. Let me know.

May, spring and everything in between

May 22, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

Yes, we finally had a whole week of spring like weather. Can't say the same thing for Utah. It rained there every single day and Sean says they are all getting tired of it. We've been sitting out on the porch in the evenings and it's been wonderful. Tonight the Campbell's came over and sat out there with us. But they actually came over because Holly has been running a fever for a week now and needed to see dad. But it was fun being out there nonetheless.

May also signals the beginning of the end of the year concerts. Last night was Nikki's last concert at the Cathedral of the Rockies. Other than the fact that it seemed interminably long, they did a great job and there were some fun songs, a lot of them coming from Disney movies. Next year their group has been invited to sing in Carnegie Hall, so looks like we might have to make a trip to New York next spring.

Leah had her last day of lacrosse yesterday morning. It was a really fun and exciting game. The lead went back and forth all game and in the end we won 11-9. So her team took the championship. Tomorrow night we're going to Louie's for the awards banquet. We also went to the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie yesterday. We got to see it for free with Bro. Call's business. His business rents out a room at Edwards each year. Last year we saw Furry Vengeance-yeah, the title speaks for itself. So this year he vowed to get something better. Pirates was better but still not as good as the first one.

Dad went to 11 yr old day camp yesterday. It's weird to think that he's going there as a leader now when he used to go all those times to help me out when I was running it. It was at the Tanner's back yard and he said it was fun.

Leah had kind of a rough week though. Monday morning I flew home from SLC and jut as I was getting my stuff unpacked, I get a call from the elementary school telling me I need to come right away and assess Leah's leg. She apparently ran into a boy playing soccer and both of them went down in lots of pain. I brought Leah home, tried to keep ice on it for the day, but it hurt too much for her. The next morning I took her in to get it x-rayed. There were some suspicious things in the x-ray, so Leah had to stay on crutches until the official radiologist report came in. In the meantime, we heard from the school again telling us that the boy had gone in for x-rays and it was a clean break of his tibia right in half. Leah couldn't remember what happened. I guess the sheer trauma of it all erased her memory. Our report came back and he said there was no break, but she had to stay on crutches for a few days. Of course, rumors went around the school like crazy. I'm pretty sure no one wants to play against Leah in soccer any more (this was just a recess game, by the way). Most likely Leah kicked the boy at the same time he was kicking. I found out later that this boy is one of the biggest and best football players in her age group. Bro. Zollinger said he knows the boy and can't believe that Leah wasn't the one who got so hurt.

So by Saturday, Leah felt like she could play in her lacrosse game, but as it turned out, she could only play for a short time because it was really hurting her leg. I'm glad it wasn't broken, but Leah wants to make some cookies to take over to the boy.

We heard from Kirk today. He's doing well. This week he'll be working on building some pig pens for a woman who raises pigs for a living. He's going to be doing all kinds of service projects while he's there. If you follow his blog, you've probably been able to see some of his pictures. I hope he sends more.

Sean only has a few more weeks of training for his 911 dispatch job. He's getting paid for his training and then gets more money per hour once he starts actually working. He's on a softball team right now and always does well.

Kristina has her end of the year concerts this week. They also get their yearbooks this week. So I'm pretty sure not much will be happening in the classroom. She and Scott Beckstrom have a little "thing" going, but I'm doing my best to keep things at a distance. It's hard when they attend the same school. Thank goodness for summer.

Here's some photos of the Nikki and Leah that Kristina took today on a walk where they did a photo shoot.

So how was your week? How was your Zone Conference? I can't wait to hear how things went for you. Did you have to speak? And how about the Nashville Tribute Band?

Did Terrance get baptized? I hope some of his family was able to attend. The lady in our ward who's investigating the church is still coming each Sunday and she just loves the little journal I gave her. She's always taking notes in all of the meetings. I felt such a strong impression about getting that for her and I'm so happy to see her using it all the time. I carry mine around with me to my meetings too and I'm so happy I have it now. I always think I'll remember that great thing I heard, but I never do unless I write it down.

We all loved the pictures of the cicadas. Yes, we had them in South Carolina too. When we first moved there, dad thought the noise was from the electrical wires. I sent your pictures around and I got some fun responses back. Are you still enjoying their presence? What about lightning bugs? Do you get them there?

Today we had the seniors speak in church. Can't believe another group is moving on. They all did a great job. I think Bro. Cameron is going to have a hard time letting Tori go off to school. He gets a little teary eyed whenever he talks about it.

All else is going well here. Just waiting to hear your stories about your week.

I love you.

Mom xxoo

Quilt Market

ay 15, 2011
Dear Elder Alex,
I'm sitting here in my motel writing you. I am so tired. We worked very hard these past four days and quilt market is finally over. dad and the girls are driving home as I write. I fly home tomorrow morning. I think jan did very well at market, but we'll know more when she gets home and does all the tallying. Jan tells me I should have been an auctioneer or pitch person by the way I draw the sales in. I can do it for four days, but probably not for a living. I just really enjoy talking with everyone. People are inherently very interesting to me.

This morning I got all ready for church and went into downtown salt lake hoping to find a ward. Dad thought a ward met in the joseph smith building, but when I got there, the doors were all locked. So then I went to the tabernacle and got in for the morning broadcast. I am so glad I got to go. The music was beautiful especially the walls of Jericho and the added blessing of having president monson there. I heard people talking afterward and they were talking about the feeling they had while listening. These were some of the ladies from market, not members. One woman said each time she comes to salt lake and walks around temple square she gets such a strong feeling insidd that she cant describe, but she always likes to feel it so she makes a point of going to temple square each time. Its amazing how the spirit works. Then I walked over to the salt palace and got to work for the day.
Dad and the girls stayed with thompson's and they went to the zoo, this is the place, salt lake cemetery, temple square and the roof of the conference center. Saturday night we all went out to dinner at the red iguana. On Friday night dad spent the night with me and went to the market with me the next day. Finally he got to see what I've been talking about all this time. Sean and Kristina even came in and took the big tour.
Kirk called me today while I was at the market. He sounds great. When I get home I will send you some of his pictures. It's still so odd that he calls and chats from Uganda.
How was your week? It seems like it was so long ago that you called. So I'm anxious to hear from you. Let's see...the news from the week is that axel and Laura are having twin girls. So of course steve and Carolina have already been to park city on a huge buying frenzy. It's very easy to buy for little girls so they will have a fun time. Heidi is having a boy, Katie is having a boy. Aunt Patrice had an appendectomy and is recovering well even though it was a ruptured appendix.
Sean is enjoying his training as a 911 dispatcher. He even drove a smart car round campus then other day. He'll be putting in around 40 hours a week during the summer, so this should really start to build his bank account....finally.
I hope you are well and happy. There is a peace in my soul because of the gospel.
I love you,
Mom
Xxoo