Saturday, June 12, 2010
Happy Birthday Garrett
Garrett turned 15 and our tradition is to open presents in the morning before Dad goes to work...here he is with his stash. He was most excited about his new shirt...a friend of ours has started his own company and this is one of his originals...Sugarsteakapparel.com. Garrett is enrolled in Driver's Ed and has his permit...Bill is braver than I and has taken him out on the road...at this point he still scares me to death! Teaching teenagers to drive is NOT one of my favorite activities! Pray for us:)
Mr. Grant
Sixth Grade ceremonies are always a little "over the top" for my liking. Luckily Grant's elementary school must feel the same way... there were no frills. In fact, Grant wore a t-shirt. Of course there were several girls who were all dressed up, but a lot of the boys were casual...just my style. Grant received the Presidential award which he was excited about...a fair number of kids earned it. There were several academic requirements that had to be met over the last 3 years...apparently there are some fairly academically inclined kids in his grade. The award I was most surprised by was the "best average in science" award...I have never been good at science...he must have gotten that aptitude from his dad. Great job Grant!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Returning With Honor
We are so fortunate to be in a ward that produces so many worthy and willing servants of God. I have the privilege of compiling excerpts from their weekly emails to their families into a monthly "Missionary Newsletter". It's an opportunity for the elders and sisters to hear how each other is doing. This week Elder Ellis Ferrer returned home from the Peru Lima East Mission. Our family was at the airport to welcome him home, along with several other ward members, family and friends. It was amazing to witness his reunion with everyone, especially with his mom. She is a dear friend of mine and I could feel her relief and joy...really, it was a tangible thing. I cried, as did the other missionary parents in the crowd...even the dads. What an honor to be there and to welcome Ellis home. Of course it made me miss William and think about what our reunion will be like in a very short 7 1/2 months.
Ellis and his proud mother Nancy.
Ellis and his proud mother Nancy.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Allen High School Graduation 2010
The Friday before graduation we had a BBQ/swim party at our house for Christine. It was so nice to relax and enjoy good food and good company with friends and family. It's always nice to have a reason to celebrate...this is a picture of a couple of other seniors...Tyler Tryon and Blaine Laherty. Some good kids that think hanging with their parents and siblings is an "ok" way to party :)
Graduating from Allen High School is never an intimate affair. With more than 1100 students in Christine's graduating class, the ceremonies were held at The University of North Texas in Denton...it's about an hour away...totally inconvenient. But we must not break from tradition. We must attend and support our sweet Christine. The reading of the graduates took about 1 hour and 50 minutes...and then there were the speeches...all in all, the whole thing took about 2 hours and 15 minutes. We took some pictures outside afterwards. Christine was happy to be done...she looks like it in her pictures. We survived another Allen HS graduation and will be repeating the process again in 3 years...time is flying! Congratulations Christine on a job well done! With little effort she graduated in the top 25% of her class...imagine what she could achieve if she really applied herself? We are proud of her just the same...Also, last night she graduated from seminary. She was one of 7 who achieved "Seminary in Excellence" all 4 years...there were about 50 seniors graduating...now THAT we are proud of!
Christine and one of her best buds...Blaine Laherty...Happy to be done with high school.
Graduating from Allen High School is never an intimate affair. With more than 1100 students in Christine's graduating class, the ceremonies were held at The University of North Texas in Denton...it's about an hour away...totally inconvenient. But we must not break from tradition. We must attend and support our sweet Christine. The reading of the graduates took about 1 hour and 50 minutes...and then there were the speeches...all in all, the whole thing took about 2 hours and 15 minutes. We took some pictures outside afterwards. Christine was happy to be done...she looks like it in her pictures. We survived another Allen HS graduation and will be repeating the process again in 3 years...time is flying! Congratulations Christine on a job well done! With little effort she graduated in the top 25% of her class...imagine what she could achieve if she really applied herself? We are proud of her just the same...Also, last night she graduated from seminary. She was one of 7 who achieved "Seminary in Excellence" all 4 years...there were about 50 seniors graduating...now THAT we are proud of!
Christine and one of her best buds...Blaine Laherty...Happy to be done with high school.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
One more thing...
Not only did I have a great time hanging with my friends at Women's Conference, I had a blast at dinner one night with several of my cousins! Kathy Clark and her girls Kim, Kerrie and Annie and her daughter-in-law Andrea as well as Julie, Kathy's sister and I all sat at Cafe Rio eating yummy salads and talking non-stop! It has been way too long and I loved every minute. Living so far from everyone can make me a little complacent and detached...I am grateful for family who makes being together a priority and who reminded me of the importance of keeping family bonds strong. I am blessed to be part of such a great group of people. Thanks girls...let's do it again next year! (Sorry. No picture! I am so lame.)
Catching Up
Grant played his final flag football game in Saturday. It has been a great way to keep playing, even though it is different than tackle...Grant even forgot that he was playing "flag" for a moment and tried to clothesline a guy...he had some great catches and they played tough...Mom is glad to not be running him to practice...summer is almost here, which means a lot less running around!
Bill and I spent 4 wonderfully peaceful days at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Our idea of a vacation is sun, water, a good book and someone waiting on us! We were not disappointed! We had never been to Ft. Lauderdale and loved it...the coast anyway. We can't speak for the inland areas. We didn't really venture far from our hotel. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory (twice) and Bubba Gump's (twice) and took a great little river cruise that spotlighted some of the wealth in the area! I had no idea. It was amazing...all of the yachts and mansions...simply amazing! I also had no idea that Ft. Lauderdale is nick named "The Venice of the United States"...hundreds of miles of inland waterways. Venice, Italy has fewer than 100 miles. Also, from our hotel room we saw several cruise ships leave from the very busy Ft. Lauderdale Port...we longed to be passengers on one of the ships...one day soon we hope. We spoke to our missionary...not ON Mother's Day as planned. His calling cards wouldn't work...I was very sad and disappointed. But we did speak on Monday...he is well and speaks with a thick Spanish accent! He struggled with English...always a good sign that he is speaking a lot of Spanish. Bill spoke to his Venezuelan companion...all is well in Colombia! 8 1/2 months to go! Time continues to fly!
My annual trip to Utah for BYU Women's Conference. I had a wonderful time...being with friends is always the highlight for me. This year I had so much fun with Jennie, best friend from college and Lorie, best friend from my youth. Also, Sue Vunder, Lorie's mom and the best Laurel Advisor ever. It was therapuetic spending time with all of them. Sue fills a void in my life that I hadn't tapped into lately. She and my mom were very good friends...that connection touched me deeply. I am blessed with amazing friends...such a lucky girl, I am.
A trip to a local "trade days" and I came home with these wonderful things! And such a deal...both of the planters for $52. I love them!
The pool is ready for swim season...now if the weather would just warm the water up. Soon enough we will be loving the air conditioning and the pool will feel like bath water...we LOVE Texas!
Bill and I spent 4 wonderfully peaceful days at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Our idea of a vacation is sun, water, a good book and someone waiting on us! We were not disappointed! We had never been to Ft. Lauderdale and loved it...the coast anyway. We can't speak for the inland areas. We didn't really venture far from our hotel. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory (twice) and Bubba Gump's (twice) and took a great little river cruise that spotlighted some of the wealth in the area! I had no idea. It was amazing...all of the yachts and mansions...simply amazing! I also had no idea that Ft. Lauderdale is nick named "The Venice of the United States"...hundreds of miles of inland waterways. Venice, Italy has fewer than 100 miles. Also, from our hotel room we saw several cruise ships leave from the very busy Ft. Lauderdale Port...we longed to be passengers on one of the ships...one day soon we hope. We spoke to our missionary...not ON Mother's Day as planned. His calling cards wouldn't work...I was very sad and disappointed. But we did speak on Monday...he is well and speaks with a thick Spanish accent! He struggled with English...always a good sign that he is speaking a lot of Spanish. Bill spoke to his Venezuelan companion...all is well in Colombia! 8 1/2 months to go! Time continues to fly!
My annual trip to Utah for BYU Women's Conference. I had a wonderful time...being with friends is always the highlight for me. This year I had so much fun with Jennie, best friend from college and Lorie, best friend from my youth. Also, Sue Vunder, Lorie's mom and the best Laurel Advisor ever. It was therapuetic spending time with all of them. Sue fills a void in my life that I hadn't tapped into lately. She and my mom were very good friends...that connection touched me deeply. I am blessed with amazing friends...such a lucky girl, I am.
A trip to a local "trade days" and I came home with these wonderful things! And such a deal...both of the planters for $52. I love them!
The pool is ready for swim season...now if the weather would just warm the water up. Soon enough we will be loving the air conditioning and the pool will feel like bath water...we LOVE Texas!
Monday, March 22, 2010
London England
Christine and I spent Spring Break in London for her senior trip...wow have times changed! I think I stayed home when I was a senior for Spring Break. Needless to say, we had a great time. I only posted some of our pictures...for fear of boring the reader...certainly I will scrapbook more and hopefully document our experiences in greater detail in my journal. I wish I would have taken it with me. I do have notes. But being "in the moment" would have been better. We saw lots of sights and met some wonderful people from all over the world. London is much more diverse than I had thought. Lots of French and Italian folks...many who spoke only a little English. When asking for directions, we often would be met with a blank stare. I learned to read my maps thoroughly and ask store keepers for help. We found the English people to be very kind and patient. For such a big city, we never really felt rushed. We have made some lasting memories for sure...because after all, we are in the business of "making memories". Sorry for the few imperfections on this post. I don't have the energy to fix anything...too many other things to get caught up on....Enjoy!
We went to Church in Hyde Park. This is the same building Bill's dad served in as a missionary in the early 60's. What a diverse group of people. We enjoyed being there.
We made our way to the Apple Store in Oxford Circus on Regent Street most every day. Internet in our hotel was ridiculously expensive, so we emailed for free. Thanks Apple! (Plus, they had a great bathroom, which I rather enjoyed!)
Holy Heck! Most of the time these escalators were operating, but ocassionally we came across some that weren't. In those cases, we hoofed it! We climbed many a stair during our stay!!! No need for the gym.
The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace was interesting. The whole process took about 30 minutes...it was nothing like I had imagined. The band played "Copacabana" and then an ABBA medley. I was expecting some "royal" music I guess. There were a ton of people there to see the event. Glad to have been a part of it.
The London Eye...we just took a picture. I am way too whimpy to go up in that thing! But it looked cool from a distance.
The River Thames and the Houses of Parliament are in the background.
We loved Westminster Abbey. We couldn't take pictures inside the Cathedral, but here is Christine in the Nave, looking out onto a beautiful lawn area.
Outside of Westminster Abbey
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Fourth row seats to see Les Mis! Incredible as you might imagine. One cannot see Les Mis too many times...:)
We are inside the Tower of London with the Tower Bridge in the background. We spent several hours wandering around the tower...very interesting things to learn here. We also saw the "Crown Jewels" which we loved.
Walked on the Millennium Bridge across the River Thames to the "Globe Theatre"...patterned after Shakespeare's original theatre.
One of my favorite pics of Christine in the "Fashion" section of the Queen Victoria/Prince Albert Museum...what a ginormous museum that is!
Warwick Castle was amazing. It was beautiful and ancient...isn't everything in England? We hoofed up 530 steps through 3 different towers and had sore thighs as proof. What a cool place little Warwick England is.
This is in Stratford Upon Avon, the town where Shakespeare was born...a quaint little place. We stood in the room where he is believed to have been born over 400 years ago! We didn't have much time here but did enjoy a great lunch in a French Cafe before boarding the tour bus for Oxford.
a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEDgd2lpfq0HIy26hVMiQ119ir4hXarxxnGWliFUEsu7k8Zm2IjlXdTUyhl8X5X_nC3qTEaiCiD2PdS6cfvTzmL-o0zQhWBvhlSWuL1duR93iEU7l57KGc40N9juB9oV73LBEnfSwNdIA/s1600-h/London2+107.JPG">
We're in Oxford at one of the many colleges...the place is amazingly ancient! The good weather didn't last and we had traveled 1 1/2 hours outside of London so we were bound to hit some rain...it was lovely just the same!
We went to Church in Hyde Park. This is the same building Bill's dad served in as a missionary in the early 60's. What a diverse group of people. We enjoyed being there.
We made our way to the Apple Store in Oxford Circus on Regent Street most every day. Internet in our hotel was ridiculously expensive, so we emailed for free. Thanks Apple! (Plus, they had a great bathroom, which I rather enjoyed!)
Holy Heck! Most of the time these escalators were operating, but ocassionally we came across some that weren't. In those cases, we hoofed it! We climbed many a stair during our stay!!! No need for the gym.
The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace was interesting. The whole process took about 30 minutes...it was nothing like I had imagined. The band played "Copacabana" and then an ABBA medley. I was expecting some "royal" music I guess. There were a ton of people there to see the event. Glad to have been a part of it.
The London Eye...we just took a picture. I am way too whimpy to go up in that thing! But it looked cool from a distance.
The River Thames and the Houses of Parliament are in the background.
We loved Westminster Abbey. We couldn't take pictures inside the Cathedral, but here is Christine in the Nave, looking out onto a beautiful lawn area.
Outside of Westminster Abbey
<
Fourth row seats to see Les Mis! Incredible as you might imagine. One cannot see Les Mis too many times...:)
We are inside the Tower of London with the Tower Bridge in the background. We spent several hours wandering around the tower...very interesting things to learn here. We also saw the "Crown Jewels" which we loved.
Walked on the Millennium Bridge across the River Thames to the "Globe Theatre"...patterned after Shakespeare's original theatre.
One of my favorite pics of Christine in the "Fashion" section of the Queen Victoria/Prince Albert Museum...what a ginormous museum that is!
Warwick Castle was amazing. It was beautiful and ancient...isn't everything in England? We hoofed up 530 steps through 3 different towers and had sore thighs as proof. What a cool place little Warwick England is.
This is in Stratford Upon Avon, the town where Shakespeare was born...a quaint little place. We stood in the room where he is believed to have been born over 400 years ago! We didn't have much time here but did enjoy a great lunch in a French Cafe before boarding the tour bus for Oxford.
a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEDgd2lpfq0HIy26hVMiQ119ir4hXarxxnGWliFUEsu7k8Zm2IjlXdTUyhl8X5X_nC3qTEaiCiD2PdS6cfvTzmL-o0zQhWBvhlSWuL1duR93iEU7l57KGc40N9juB9oV73LBEnfSwNdIA/s1600-h/London2+107.JPG">
We're in Oxford at one of the many colleges...the place is amazingly ancient! The good weather didn't last and we had traveled 1 1/2 hours outside of London so we were bound to hit some rain...it was lovely just the same!
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