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May  2007

 

Ruth and Adam Olson Family

 

Oh boy another month gone already, I canąt believe how fast things are
going!  I remember the school year use to feel like it was so long.  I 
guess I am just getting older.
 
In April we went for a fun drive around the area and saw some beautiful
sites around that we hadnąt seen before (some pictures included).
 
Ruth: Well we have had a great last month and Ruth is feeling more worn 
out as the bread rises in the oven, if you know what I mean.  Just over a 
month and oh boy a new little baby (boy).  We found out some very happy news, 
Ruth really wanted a midwife and none were available that is on our 
insurance plan.  Well after much begging again we were able to get with the 
midwife that is on this plan and "she is wonderful" in the words of Ruth. 
Adam hasn't met her yet but if Ruth thinks so than so does Adam.

Atom:  Atom got three shots for school coming up in the Fall and cried 
and said in his frustrated voice łI donąt want to be here!˛ furrowed  eyebrows
and all after the doctor gave him his shots and left the room.  It is
strange to think that we are going to have a child in school.  You of 
course plan for it but we just donąt have kids that are school age they stay 
little guys forever right?
 
Joshua: Joshua is a cutie and follows almost everything Atom does to a 
T. If Atom wants something than so does Joshua.  If Atom stands on his 
head than Joshua has to do it too.  This is where the older siblings get 
there complex in having to be the perfect example for the younger children.
Joshua was acting up the other day in the store and randomly went up 
and just hit an older lady in the store.  She looked at him and said, 
łDonąt do that˛.  Those are the days you wonder was that really my child that 
just did that.
 
Adam: This VTC (vtc.com) has been dragging on for a long time and 
finally the check was mailed only to find out that it was mailed to Denver and 
our mail is no longer being forwarded.   Adam has been having fun with
Shenandoah University and the joys that come with being a teacher.  One 
of his students was going to fail his class and is suppose to graduate 
this semester and had plans to go to LA.  Adam would not pass him and so he 
had many long meetings about it and even a meeting with the student and the
Dean.  Adam did not feel like he should be let off just because he was
supposed to graduate (hard nose).   Adam also had another student go 
crazy in his office (details not included).  Well soon it will be on to a 
Masters Thesis all summer and seeing family!
 
We love you all and are longing for the next family reunion.
 
Sincerely, Ruth, Adam, Atom, Joshua & (Eli[ot])

 

Mike and Rachel Guymon Family

 

Hello Family!!

 

We had a great month here!! 

We started our month in Chicago, IL visiting Liz.  We had a great time!  We went to Downtown Chicago on the commuter train into Union Station.  The kids loved it!!  We walked around and saw the sights.  It was a beautiful day!!  After that we went to Nauvoo for 3 days.  What an amazing place!!  It was soooo cold and we weren’t prepared for that kind of weather.  When we left MN, the weather people said it would be in the 50’s and 60’s so we brought light jackets.  Well, over the course of the week it changed (even snowed here in MN) and the light jackets were not sufficient!!  The cold and wind put a slight damper on the outside stuff but we still had a great time.  The temple is beautiful inside and out!!  The kids liked most of the little demonstrations and really like the little school house!  It was fun to go to the Hall of 70’s and see our ancestor’s names on the books there.  The kids spent their money at the Red Brick Store buying bonnets and hard candy.  Gorgeous sunsets by the river, wagon rides, swimming in the hotel pool, and making our own rope were also highlights.  We also went to Carthage jail and that was very touching.  The man that was conducting our tour (senior missionary) looked familiar to us and we realized after a few minutes that he is the Judge in “The RM” movie.  We talked to him for a few minutes.   Anyway, we had a great trip and enjoyed our first time to Nauvoo.

 

A few fun things we did this month were:

* go to Amber’s school’s big fundraising carnival ---- the kids had a blast!! 

* Rachel helped plan a funeral luncheon for someone in the ward – Fun? Uh -Eventful!

*Found a hole in our grass with baby bunnies in it.  We thought it was a mole at first and the neighbor guy almost whacked it with a shovel until we looked closer.

*Had two convert baptisms in our ward, which was fun for our family to attend.

*Discovered several ant hills in our basement.  We are trying not to be “Ant Bullies”, but when they are in the house we take action. 

*The kids spent a few Saturdays rollerblading, biking, etc. for hours at a time!!  We love the spring weather here!!

*We like to watch American Idol and our favorite is Jordin Sparks.  We freaked out when we thought she was going home a few weeks ago but they were “toying” with everyone and no one had to go home that night.  Oh, the horror!!  This is the only show we watch on TV.  Mason cried/sobbed last week when Phil went home.  It was sooo sad/funny to see him be so emotional over something so trivial.  He just likes the guys and is sad they keep getting voted off. 

*Talia and Sarah graduated from the DARE program on the 19th and had a graduation ceremony.  Drug Abuse Resistance Education is huge here and the girls really enjoyed their 10 week course.  I think it is the perfect age to help them understand all the bad things associated with drugs. 

*Amberly was involved in some TD (talent development) classes at school.  She started in the “Challenge” reading program and is enjoying that.  She is loving piano and is a good practicing.  All the girls are having fun with the piano and it isn’t such a fight to get them to practice.  Their teacher doesn’t challenge them as much as some others have, but they also enjoy the more relaxed pace and I don’t have to get frustrated with them hating piano. 

*Mason “likes” a little girl from church.  She is the daughter of the RS Pres. so they see each other quite often.  Driving the other day to piano on a Tuesday, Mason says out of no where “Julianna wore a beautiful red dress on Sunday.” J He commented the next Sunday on her pretty blue dress.  He makes cards for her but is too shy to give them to her himself.  When he sees her in the hallway at church, he looks the other way with a little shy, embarrassed look on his face.  When she was at Kindergarten and her brother, Blake, was here playing I heard Mason ask him, “Do you like to play with Julianna?  What do you play with her?”  Funny kid!!  She is a little cutie though!

 *We took Braden to the Pediatric Dentist and left in shock.  He will have to be sedated two different times and has like 7 different areas to work on.  I am just frustrated because they are baby teeth.  The dentist said that he has decay on 4 of the five surfaces of one of the front teeth!!  All three of my nursing babies have had weird top front teeth.  Amber's and Mason's just didn't get decayed.  

*Braden has also picked up a new addiction.  Mom!  Ever since we came back from our vacation, he will not let me out of his sight!  If he calls me and I don't come running he loses it and is scared to death.  Since he doesn’t have his binky, I have to hug him to calm him down whenever he gets upset and he makes this sigh noise like he used to do when he would get his binky.  I don't mind it most of the time though.  He is getting so big and I love his big hugs with the sigh, as if to say "I have my mommy, life is good!"  Mason is our daddy's boy, and Braden is our momma's boy! 

 

We love you all!!  Families are awesome!!!  Have a great month!!

 

Love, the Guymons   

 

Rebecca and Rich Jarvis Family

 

Dear Family,
 
I am not feeling so bad now that I haven't done my newsletter till now since there are only 2 there to read.....which I thoroughly enjoyed!!  Both made me laugh, and Ruth I loved the pictures.  And well, It is embarrassing when your child hits someone randomly, but I was even more embarrassed when Joseph went up and smacked the Bichop on the bum at church.  Then he giggled and tried to do it again.  I tried not to wonder if he wonders what we teach our kids at home.  Ha Ha!
 
Well, life here in the Jarvis home seems to just keep getting busier!!!  This last week we met Mary half way and picked up Brandon, Lizzie, Jacob, and Benjamen for 10 days.  Damien had also come up for a visit 2 days before, and then Mel and Shannon dropped in for a few days too, which was extremely helpful and I was soooo sad to see them go.  Mary's kids LOVED them!!  They became the favorite aunt and uncle as Rich and I had assumed the parent role for the visit, funny little switch!  All in all it has been a lot of fun!!  Total chaos at mealtimes and bedtimes, and in the morning as I have been getting Brooklynn and Richy out the door to get on the school bus.  The cousins have had soooo much fun together!!!  We have played lots, read, planted potatoes, made bread, done some school time each day for Lizzie and Brandon, played baseball and soccer in the front yard and just had fun.  There was only one very stressful time and that was yesterday,(monday).  Michael turned on our broken sprinkler line which proceeded to flood the basement.  I learned this because Lizzie and Jacob came running upstairs to tell me about this really cool and really HUGE puddle i had to see.  At the same time, Baby Benjamen woke up with poop up his back and down his legs and Michael didn't quite make it to the potty and had poop in his underwear too!  At he same time, Richy and Brooklynn came home on the bus ready to join in all the fun.  So Rich and I spent a couple of hours vaccuuming up water with our Rainbow and Mom's carpet cleaner vaccuum while trying to keep all the kids occupied outside or safely inside.  It was quite the adventure.  There were a few more crazy things that happened during this time too, but I will spare you the details.  Rich and I fell asleep before we even laid down I think...I don't quite remember.  Today has been much better!!  Yeah!!  All in all, we are sooo grateful that everyone has had fun and has been safe!!  Thank goodness for prayer!! 
 
Life has been so fun this last month and there is way too much to write, so call me!!  By the way, I loved all the wonderful b-day songs!!  Thanks sooo much!!  They sound like angels!! 
 
Richy entered an art piece in our school fair and his piece won first place.  He was chosen to represent our school at the District level. (One student from each school is chosen, including middle and high school)   We went to watch him receive his certificate and he received another award there which was kinda fun.  His artwork was chosen out of ALL the elementary schools as first place and will forever hang in the district office.  He was sooo excited, but hates all the attention.
 
Michael shocked us all when he decided that he was going to get out of the boat and try to waterski all by himself.  He couldn't keep his skiis straight though, so our friend got in the water and held him stable.  He popped up on the first try and was so shocked and excited.  He skiied for a while and then we stopped the boat and pulled him up to the boat, skiing the whole time.  It was fun!!!  Rich was sooo excited that one of his sons may have some amazing love for waterskiing after all. 
 
We all tubed and had a blast and were so grateful for some great weather!!!  Life is busy and fun and we are soooo grateful for the peace that the Gospel brings!!!  What a blessing in this crazy world!! 
 
Love you all,
 
Becca

 

 

Mel and Shannon Guymon Family

 

Hi Family,

we have two months of updates to catch up on, so here goes:

Shortly after Jordan turned SIXTEEN YEARS OLD, he and Mckaela, Damien, and Alex came to Seattle for Spring Break.  We had a great time.  The whole family went on the local sea plane tour (Jordan had already been, but this time we took everyone).  The kids had a lot of fun playing our new game Guitar Hero.  We saw this at our friends house, so we had to get this game.  It's pretty fun to rock out to guitar hits from the 80s (and fun to watch).  Jordan got a real electric guitar w/ amp for his birthday, so he can rock out for real.  We're looking forward to seeing him in a band someday.  After a couple days, we all packed into an suv and headed east to the snow.  We spent a few days at a cool house in the snow with a pool table and jacuzzi on the back deck.  We went snowboarding and made snowmen, sat in the hot tub and explored the local area (train tracks & trails). 

From there, we continued to Boise to visit the Jarvises!  We had a great time 4-wheeling and playing with the kids.  Then we all went to Twin Falls for the day for Brandon's baptism.  It was a great day of picnicking, whiffle ball & lots of cousins.  Michael and Alex were "buddies" which was pretty cute.  It was fun to see the Ferguson family, whom we hadn't seen in a while.  The weather was beautiful.  Rich and Rebecca took us to a yummy Thai place for dinner, and the next night we took the Guymon kids to a Japanese place where they cooked our dinner in front of us.  Very exciting.  The kids flew back to Phoenix from Boise, and Mel & Shannon drove back to Seattle.

At the end of May we went to San Francisco so Shannon could be a bridesmaid in one of her best friend's weddings.  Shannon sang in a quartet during the ceremony which was fun.  More beautiful weather.  April was a pretty quiet month.  Mel had to visit California for work a couple times.  Alex turned 20!  Near the end of the month we had a smelly adventure when our 100-yr-old sewer pipe backed up, due to a couple of breaks.  After over a week of not being able to do laundry in the house and other fun stuff the plumbing company fixed it.  That was a truly happy day, filled with many loads of laundry.  At the end of the month, we headed an hour north to the Washington Tulip Festival.  That was a beautiful sight with many rows of tulips.  Next year we want to go at the beginning of the month, before many have been harvested.  Our last picture is taken from our upstairs window.  We've been fortunate to have some really stunning weather here in Seattle.  Not what we expected - and Spring here is gorgeous!

Love to all, and we hope to see more of you all.  Summer is a great time to visit Seattle :)

 

 

Liz and Corky Clark Family

 

In April, Haley went with her daddy to work for "Bring your Child to Work Day" where she impressed everyone with her artwork.  Haley Clark originals are now hanging on everyone's cubicle walls. 

Seems like there were a couple of weeks where we had someone over for dinner every night,  but most exciting of all was meeting the Macaskill's who came for Sunday Dinner.  Angus Macaskill who lives just down the street from us  is the son of a family that lives about 10 miles from Huntly Scotland.  We were a little nervous about meeting them because well, it's a little awkward having a family you never met before over for dinner.  There was sure nothing to worry about.  They were a ton of fun, and we got along very naturally.  Corky and Angus shared rock n' roll stories and we all talked about Scotland.  It was fun to hear the accent that Mom and dad hear everyday.  We will be going over to the Macaskills for dinner when Angus' mom comes to visit in a few weeks.  She will be making some of her local favorites, we can't wait. Yum!

Corky took his scouts camping and wore himself to the bone, this was hardcore camping with no benches or tables or water.  It was raining when they got there and they slept in Army tents (none of that pop 'em up and go stuff), shot archery (Corky's favorite) and worked on rank advancements.  Corky who hasn't done scouting since he was 17,  feels very fortunate to have a 30-year scout as his assistant. (You know the type can build fires by rubbing 2 sticks together) He knows he'd be sunk without him. 

We have been watching American Idol as well.

Haley's favorite was Haley until she got voted off.  For awhile she refused to watch but now she is voting for Melinda.

Corky, Liz and Donelly's favorite american idol is Blake Lewis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o28DMu0CDc&mode=related&search =

Sorry Guymons but Jordin Sparks is going Down!  (Although, Jordin is from Glendale, AZ) (:

Liz had fun giving Reese a ponyhawk hairdoo in memory of Sanjaya and made american idol t-shirts for the girls.  They have also been on a "Herbie" kick and have been watching the series in order each week.  We have adopted Mike and Rachel's friday night movie and pizza night.  Liz also made "Herbie" shirts for all 3 kids.  Reese loves to go around saying, "Herbie...vrooooom vrooom."

Take Care everyone!  We hope to see some of you this summer!

 

 

 

Mary and Mike Ferguson Family

 

Hello friends and family!
 
  I just wanted to write a little bit about our trip to Scotland to visit my parents on their mission.  Mike, Katelyn, and I had a wonderful experience with mom and dad sight seeing and doing some missionary work too.  The Highlight of our trip was watching a couple get baptized that mom and dad had taught for the last month or so.  Glenn was about 62 years old and his wife Peggy was a little younger, I think.  He is a very fun loving, short, Scottish man (his father was actually American) and she was very Scottish.  It was a challenge to understand the accent and the different words they used but we were able to communicate pretty well.  Mom gave the talk on baptism and dad conducted the service.  It was so neat to see how much the wee branch loved mom and dad.  They will definitely be missed  when they come home to the states.  mom asked if I would teach the Young Women's lesson to the three girls in the branch. My topic was Temple Marriage.  It was rather interesting thinking about growing up in the mission field.  There were not any young men in the branch although I'm sure somewhere in Scotland there are some.  The youth are the future of the church in Scotland mom and dad say.  it looked like a hard road to travel as a youth.  We saw a lot of teen pregnancy, smoking, and many more challenges that the youth face.  I have to say that I felt very grateful to live where I live and to have a ward to attend.
 
The countryside was breathtaking and mom and dad's little village or town was just out of the storybooks.  you could walk to the center of town and down the road to a huge castle ruin.  Everywhere was lush and green.  Huge, fat sheep and baby lambs dotted the hills, highland cows, and pigs too.  Everyone had animals that lived with them; dogs, cats, etc.  We toured Edinburough on a bus and enjoyed seeing a few Famous Fergusons (maybe we are related:) statues, tombstones.  We visited a tartan shop where we looked up our clan and found some fun souviniers, children's museum, art gallery, and famous fudge shop (yummy!)  I enjoyed the architecture of the city and seeing really old cool buildings.  Katelyn's favorite part of Edinburough was seeing the place where J.K. Rowlings wrote her first Harry Potter Book.  Her face just lit up when she heard it! 
 
We enjoyed seeing some of St. Andrews and walking on the famous golf course, the beach, aquarium. and cathedral.  Here we saw our first Haggis shop (this is the famous Scottish dish that is very hard to stomach).  We stayed in Bed and Breakfasts and experienced true Scotland hospitality.  I just kept saying to myself that I can't believe I am doing this.  Another highlight was our trip up to Inverness and the Loch Ness Monster exhibit, castle, and historic battlefield in Culloden.  Here we saw a man reenact being a soldier in this last battle and describing his weapons (bagpipes playing in the background).  It was so cool!   Again, I was in awe at the history of scotland.  Some of the weapons dated back to the 13-14th century.  It was amazing. 
 
Driving on the other side of the road and seeing the round-a-bouts (no stop signs over there) was a little scary at first.  Mom and dad seem like natives.  I am sure they will have to get used to things when they come back.  They have family pictures up all over their flat and keep in touch with the family regularly.  they are awesome missionaries doing a great work in a hard place.  I felt very blessed to be able to visit them and so grateful to my sister Becca, her husband Rich, and my bother Mel and his wife Shannon, and everyone else who helped with my kids.  When I got home and went to get the kids they were not too excited to come back home.  Becca had made such an impression on Jacob (3 yr old)  that he has asked for her daily and told me how much he loves and misses her.  Little Ben came back with a cute new hair cut and looked a year older to me.  he didn't learn to walk while we were gone which I was afraid of.  Katelyn stayed awake almost 24 hours on the return trip.  She was a great traveler and had a fun time being the center of attention.  At first she really missed her other siblings and had to get used to the quiet...by the end she was lovin' life and enjoying being the only child:)  Well that's a synopsis of our trip!  I hope you enjoy the pictures!