Lauren & Zoe are doing well. The are renting a condo in Scottsdale and neither one of them sleeps in there room. They fall asleep every night in the living room watching a movie together. Zoe has a small job at a bagel deli shop near her condo and loves it. They will transition her into serving soon, tips will be good. She is going to Scottsdale Community College and hopes to get on the Nursing School wait list after this summer.
Lauren is a massage therapist at Elements Days Spa. It is about a 1/4 mile from her condo, so that is great. She loves her job and is doing so good. She continues going to AA and working on the 12 step program. She loves being involved and is asked to be a speaker at many meetings. Her group has been doing so well, they were asked them to speak New Years Eve at a Tucson branch that was really struggling to keep sober at all. She really loves helping people. Neither of my girls want to be in a relationship. I am not sure if I should be happy or not. I like that they are waiting til they have there lives more together to get involved, but worry of course. I always worry!
The triplets are doing good, they love to tell everybody they pass that they are 4, they are all 4. They get such a big response they love it. They got to ride in the back of Jason's Dads truck while in a parade. They got to wave at everyone and got so much attention, Cash is a natural. He laughs every time anyone says hi back. The boys just got done playing flag football. It was funny for sure. Lucky would cry every time he got his flag pulled. He really didn't want to play football and was always looking up in the air or stomping on leaves. His passion is race cars so we decided to get him a kart for kart racing. Jason's friend from college has a Porsche shop and sets up a race track in his parking lot for his 5 yr old boy. So we are going to take the kids down and let them start. Lucky is a natural and loves it. Cash had his ups and downs. He is so fast that he loved that but he tends to tackle and it was only flag. He also didn't want to play again if he got hurt or his feelings got hurt. So maybe we will try t-ball for him. Lily loves her dance class and just started a hip hop class. She is very good and has only been doing it about 6 months. 4 yr old hip hop is so stinkin cute. She had her first performance in December and has her 1st hip hop performance on 5/14. Not sure if we will be able to make it because we leave at 4 pm that same day to Florida for a Disney Cruise vacation. Zoe and Jason's Mom are going with us. I am so excited for that.
I am still in school although I keep changing my mind on what I want to do. Right now, there is a program at ASU that combines a Law Degree and PhD is Psychology. But who knows what I will end up with. I almost just want a degree now so that I have ANY DEGREE. I am in Organic Chemistry this semester and I actually like it. Real Estate is going good and Jason is loving it. He is keeping busy right now.
Jill and I are trying to plan a girls trip to DC and New York. I really like girls trips, I had a lot of fun when we went to visit Tahna and New Orleans. But DC and New York shopping... that sounds like a lot of fun too!
Monday, February 28, 2011
My Primary Class
Emanual (Mano 4 yrs), Parole (2 yrs), Michele, and Sara. They do not know the BofM stories and songs so I am starting with Nephi's Courage. Little Parole is the only one with 2 parents and she doesn't understand much English but she sure likes Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.
On Saturday we went to the Visitor's Center to hear a concert wiith the Washington DC Mormon Choir and the Alfred Street Baptish Church choir with guest soloist Alex Boye' of the Mormon Tab Choir. It was all African Am Spiritual music for African Heritage month and the place was rockin'. Wow! Alex Boye' is super. He is the black man who does solo's in the Mormon Tab Choir. The Alfred Street Baptist Choir was established in 1865. While we were there our College Park Ward had an international night. Everyone in the ward brought diisplay items from their country. We heard that there were 52 countries' flags and 22 diferent languages of books of Mormon and 6 long tables of food. That lets you know of the diversity of our area.
We had another baptism on Sunday. It was a little stickey for awhile because when the wife saw the font she ran out of the room. The husband told them to go ahead with the baptism. The wife is very catholic and had refused to listen to the discussions but the husband wanted to join very badly. The Elders and Bishop met with her for about 1 hour after and things got resolved.
We are having a great mission and are loving it. Can't wait for you all to visit. We will show you around and take you to dinner at a tavern where George Washington used to eat dinner.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Hello!!
Hi Family,
I finally figured out how to post on this thing. We are all alive right now. Thank goodness. Tres had a bad scare and hit a tree snowboarding and broke his femur last saturday. He did not have a helmut on, so we are glad it was just his femur. Hopefully he will be back to school this week...so I got to miss a week of work taking care of Presley and Tres at the same time while the workers were here tearing my shower apart because of the leak, so I have had a fun week. Tatum is wanting to apply to be a 911 operator....I guess she gets bored easily, and would like to make more money and have better benefits, so we shall see how that goes. She has been dating a boy name Andrew Trejo from Gilbert. He is a nice kid, and his parents are Mission Presidents in Russia, so we are all happy he comes from a good family...We shall see if there is a wedding in store this year, they are together every night. Dana is still working at Keegans and school and still dates Brandon Farmer. We dont see her much, but will see her in Tahoe when we all go skiing (except Tres will watch) in March for spring break. Tres is wheelchairing it right now, and will take over the family concession business this fall to make money for his mission. No girlfriend, thank goodness. I am enjoying my new learning at St Joes and always something new at home to contend with. Presley is already hitting the terrible two's dumping everything out, taking her diaper off ( and I mean not a clean one) etc... She is the center of the family, and is so stinking cute no matter what she does. Darin is busy with floods and there business is really growing, thank goodness. He stays busy with things I need him to do, and the kids. We are taking Presley to Disneyland and the beach in May for her birthday, so that should be fun. We are thinking about coming in the fall to see Mother and Randall (maybe a girls trip for me and Jenny) if I can get away with it??? Darin and Tres will be hunting in Colorado in October, so maybe they will let me? I love and miss you all...even the ones that live close that I dont see much!!! Keep warm in DC! Talk Soon!
Love, Jill and Family
I finally figured out how to post on this thing. We are all alive right now. Thank goodness. Tres had a bad scare and hit a tree snowboarding and broke his femur last saturday. He did not have a helmut on, so we are glad it was just his femur. Hopefully he will be back to school this week...so I got to miss a week of work taking care of Presley and Tres at the same time while the workers were here tearing my shower apart because of the leak, so I have had a fun week. Tatum is wanting to apply to be a 911 operator....I guess she gets bored easily, and would like to make more money and have better benefits, so we shall see how that goes. She has been dating a boy name Andrew Trejo from Gilbert. He is a nice kid, and his parents are Mission Presidents in Russia, so we are all happy he comes from a good family...We shall see if there is a wedding in store this year, they are together every night. Dana is still working at Keegans and school and still dates Brandon Farmer. We dont see her much, but will see her in Tahoe when we all go skiing (except Tres will watch) in March for spring break. Tres is wheelchairing it right now, and will take over the family concession business this fall to make money for his mission. No girlfriend, thank goodness. I am enjoying my new learning at St Joes and always something new at home to contend with. Presley is already hitting the terrible two's dumping everything out, taking her diaper off ( and I mean not a clean one) etc... She is the center of the family, and is so stinking cute no matter what she does. Darin is busy with floods and there business is really growing, thank goodness. He stays busy with things I need him to do, and the kids. We are taking Presley to Disneyland and the beach in May for her birthday, so that should be fun. We are thinking about coming in the fall to see Mother and Randall (maybe a girls trip for me and Jenny) if I can get away with it??? Darin and Tres will be hunting in Colorado in October, so maybe they will let me? I love and miss you all...even the ones that live close that I dont see much!!! Keep warm in DC! Talk Soon!
Love, Jill and Family
Albrights
That would be so fun if Ron and the kids can come out in May. We were thinking of coming out in May sometime too.
School has been going great around here. The kids are working hard, and we are having a lot of fun. They are learning so much, and we are finally having time for the fun stuff that has taken a backseat since Abigail came. I feel like I am finally somewhat on top of things. I carry Abigail around with me a lot in a wrap, and that helps. She is such a good baby. I went off milk and dairy for two weeks because she was so fussy, obviously in pain, and had an allergy rash on her bum, and constant volumous spitup and green BMs. That was really hard; I especially missed the cheese. That was on top of going without garlic, onion, peppers, and chocolate. Yep, my food is pretty bland. Her rash went away and the spitup lessened as well as the fussiness, but still green BMs. What's up with that?!? So I tried reintroducing the dairy, just to be sure, and went a little overboard in my excitement to eat it again. She spit up everything that went in for about 2 days after that. Bummer.
Annali has started 4H, riding horses, and she is crazy about it. They have their first Showdeo today. Cody is going to try to convince Corban to enter and try to chase down and pull a ribbon off a baby goat's tail. Chandler may do something too. He was thinking about doing Tae Kwon Do but when we went to watch it was on a day when the kids were individually being tested in front of the instructor. The kids were so nervouse, and Chandler decided right then it wasn't for him :)
Cody is plowing up a section of land with the tractor to garden, and inviting all the neighbors to plant on it if they will help take care of it. Between that, our 47 chickens, the barn built for the tractor so it could get off my front porch, but currently full of hay for the chickens, while the tractor still sits on the porch, and the pig Cody keeps talking about getting for Anni to raise, I must admit we are true hicks... but none of this was my idea!
School has been going great around here. The kids are working hard, and we are having a lot of fun. They are learning so much, and we are finally having time for the fun stuff that has taken a backseat since Abigail came. I feel like I am finally somewhat on top of things. I carry Abigail around with me a lot in a wrap, and that helps. She is such a good baby. I went off milk and dairy for two weeks because she was so fussy, obviously in pain, and had an allergy rash on her bum, and constant volumous spitup and green BMs. That was really hard; I especially missed the cheese. That was on top of going without garlic, onion, peppers, and chocolate. Yep, my food is pretty bland. Her rash went away and the spitup lessened as well as the fussiness, but still green BMs. What's up with that?!? So I tried reintroducing the dairy, just to be sure, and went a little overboard in my excitement to eat it again. She spit up everything that went in for about 2 days after that. Bummer.
Annali has started 4H, riding horses, and she is crazy about it. They have their first Showdeo today. Cody is going to try to convince Corban to enter and try to chase down and pull a ribbon off a baby goat's tail. Chandler may do something too. He was thinking about doing Tae Kwon Do but when we went to watch it was on a day when the kids were individually being tested in front of the instructor. The kids were so nervouse, and Chandler decided right then it wasn't for him :)
Cody is plowing up a section of land with the tractor to garden, and inviting all the neighbors to plant on it if they will help take care of it. Between that, our 47 chickens, the barn built for the tractor so it could get off my front porch, but currently full of hay for the chickens, while the tractor still sits on the porch, and the pig Cody keeps talking about getting for Anni to raise, I must admit we are true hicks... but none of this was my idea!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Ronnie and kids may visit first week of May
Well, I finally got on the blog to check it out. The apartment looks really nice. Things have been very busy around here. I had my last final for the quater today and now I have a week and a half off before the next one starts. I am 7/12 of the way done!
Well, Ronnie has his last class to finish his Masters on March 2. His graduation day is May 7th. I think him and the kids are going to come out for the graduation. They will probably arrive on Wed. the 4th and return home on Sunday night. He says it is too expensive, but he thinks everything is too expensive. I guess there are quite a few other guys flying out to walk for the graduation, I want him to also. I cannot come with them because of school and Katie is not sure if she will be able to go because she has her AP tests at the beginning of May but she doesn't know the exact date. We will let you know the details when we figure them out.
Katie has decided to go to ASU instead of NAU. I am glad about that. They offered her another scholarship at ASU so it worked out even better than NAU.
Natalie is still cheering but is ready to be done. She has decided to go to EVIT starting next year to get her cosmotology license. It will only cost about $600 for the entire thing and then when she finishes high school she can cut hair while she is going to college. This is the only way Ronnie would agree to her getting her hair license. He refuses to pay for that.
Abbie turned 13 today she is officially a teenager and taller than me. She grew another tow inches and is 5'5 and 1/2" Her endochronologist says she will grow at least another two inches!
Shane started baseball last week, his games don't start until the middle of March. It should be a good season, his team looks like they are going to be really good.
We miss you and the kids are excited to come see you.
Take care,
Heather
Well, Ronnie has his last class to finish his Masters on March 2. His graduation day is May 7th. I think him and the kids are going to come out for the graduation. They will probably arrive on Wed. the 4th and return home on Sunday night. He says it is too expensive, but he thinks everything is too expensive. I guess there are quite a few other guys flying out to walk for the graduation, I want him to also. I cannot come with them because of school and Katie is not sure if she will be able to go because she has her AP tests at the beginning of May but she doesn't know the exact date. We will let you know the details when we figure them out.
Katie has decided to go to ASU instead of NAU. I am glad about that. They offered her another scholarship at ASU so it worked out even better than NAU.
Natalie is still cheering but is ready to be done. She has decided to go to EVIT starting next year to get her cosmotology license. It will only cost about $600 for the entire thing and then when she finishes high school she can cut hair while she is going to college. This is the only way Ronnie would agree to her getting her hair license. He refuses to pay for that.
Abbie turned 13 today she is officially a teenager and taller than me. She grew another tow inches and is 5'5 and 1/2" Her endochronologist says she will grow at least another two inches!
Shane started baseball last week, his games don't start until the middle of March. It should be a good season, his team looks like they are going to be really good.
We miss you and the kids are excited to come see you.
Take care,
Heather
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
We working hard
The Elders are keeping us very busy. We go to the Visitor's Center by the temple almost every day with investigators and sometimes 2 times a day. The Elders are not allowed to give rides and most people do not have cars here. Sunday is by far our busiest day. We attend 2 blocks of meetiings and eat our peanut butter sandwich driving to the French Branch. Sacrament meeting in French is very tranqualizing : >) Then we have 2 hours of trying to keep the children busy. We usually have between 4-10 kids in Primary. They do not know the B of M stories nor the primary songs so that is where we are going to start. Then often we have a fireside or baptism after church. Once a month they have a fireside at the VC called, "Why I Believe". The new converts are asked to introduce themselves and 2 are asked to give a short talk. Wow, it is so powerful. The converts are from all over the world. I don't think anyone living here was born in the US. The man from Iraq who we were helping the Elders with was scheduled to be baptised last week but it had to be postponed. His immigration counselor told him that if he joined the Mormon Church they would not sponsor him anymore and he would be deported. He told us that his father had been murdered in Iraq because he was Christian. Everyone has a sad story and it is easy to get caught up in things. We are loving it here and the cold weather has not turned out to be as bad as we expected. We are working with a woman named Joyce Gulu from Malawi (a small country that was in our Zim mission). She has been here about 8 years and left her children in Africa. She sends them money when she can. We sent their contact info to the Stevens in Malawi so it helps us feel that we are fiinishing our African mission. We were invited to Monica's house (she's from Nigeria) and she fed us sudsa (called fu fu in Nigeria) and minced fish balls cooked in oil. (Sudsa is corn meal flour cooked in boiling water until it is a thick paste.)
Friday, February 4, 2011
Music Sites
Here are some websites I like for primary:
http://divinesecretsofaprimarychorister.blogspot.com/
http://www.thecrazychorister.blogspot.com/
http://www.primarychoristers.blogspot.com/
They have really great ideas archived in catergories on the side of the blog.
We miss you guys. It has been in upper 20s here. We fed 10 missionaries once. Crazy. Annali has written you lots of letters that I still need to send. Cody's home sales are really good the past 2 months. We've been hatching baby chicks with our incubator. Abigail is growing like a weed like the others did, and is smiling big now, and has lost all the hair on top of her head, looking like the cutest little old man ever :) . Before any inckling of an upturned lip would get all three of the older kids so excited with shouts of, "She smiled at me!" They all adore her. Corban pretends slices of cheese are guns and aims them at me. Gotta go, but will write more later.
http://divinesecretsofaprimarychorister.blogspot.com/
http://www.thecrazychorister.blogspot.com/
http://www.primarychoristers.blogspot.com/
They have really great ideas archived in catergories on the side of the blog.
We miss you guys. It has been in upper 20s here. We fed 10 missionaries once. Crazy. Annali has written you lots of letters that I still need to send. Cody's home sales are really good the past 2 months. We've been hatching baby chicks with our incubator. Abigail is growing like a weed like the others did, and is smiling big now, and has lost all the hair on top of her head, looking like the cutest little old man ever :) . Before any inckling of an upturned lip would get all three of the older kids so excited with shouts of, "She smiled at me!" They all adore her. Corban pretends slices of cheese are guns and aims them at me. Gotta go, but will write more later.
I Love You!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Our apartment
Here is our living room. The trees are really big since we are on the 5th floor. The apartment is very nice. The weather was nice today. The first day it has been above 36 degrees. I signed up in Sunday School to feed the Elders and when they called to confirm I asked them how many were coming. They said 4 but then said the French Elders (3) might also come. They called back later to say the the ASL Elders were also coming so last night I fed 9 Elders who were just coming off a fast.
Tonight we are taking 3 French-speaking African girls to the visitor's center at the temple. They have lots of programs there and a theater that seats about 500.
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