OTHERS May 2010

Dear others.

The John Marshalls are doing fine. John is working in Rockville Md and Suzanne is not. Life is good.

John marshall

Sent from my iPhone



WARD WIDE WEB
Jeremy took the boys for the night to the annual Fathers and Sons camp-out/over-nighter. They had a great trip - all 12 hours they were there. They headed up the hill for a slice of pizza before making their way over to the campground. Jeremy set up a tent, sleeping bags, pillows, etc., projector, dvd player, big screen, grill, and whatever else only to take it all down again in the morning. The boys had a great time just being with dad, hanging out, and sleeping in a tent together. Is he the best dad or what?

Jennifer is still just busy with life. No big news. Nothing new happening here. Piano lessons, housework, (no homework this week - one blessing of STAR testing), cooking dinner, blogging, and date nights are the norm around here.

Trevor (in case you haven't heard) WON 1st PLACE AT Destination Imagination STATE FINALS!! His team is now on their way to Tennessee to compete in the Global Finals. We are currently fundraising like crazy to pay for this trip. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation please visit our family blog and click the PayPal button on the top right of your screen. Or, you can donate items to our Yard Sale this Saturday, May 8th, at the kids' school. Stop by and buy some treasures for your home and support Trevor's D.I. team!

Logan is busy playing baseball. He has 2 games (3 hours each) + one practice every week (2 hours) = 8 hours of baseball a week! That's a LOT of ball time! He's still working on his catching and throwing. He is doing really well with his batting - first in the line-up - that's my boy! The best part of the season so far was when the coach realized that Logan was related to Grandpa Louie. Coach then relayed a story from his teenage years: he was out T.P.ing with some fellow deacons and got caught and "arrested" by Officer Duran!

Lizzie lost one of her two front teeth! She was so excited to leave her tooth for the tooth fairy, but she was busy that night. All her cousins assured Lizzie that in fact, the tooth fairy can be VERY busy at times and not to worry - she'd be there the next night for sure. (Thank heavens for cousins!) And yes, the tooth fairy did show the next night. All is well in our 6 year old girl's life.

Jackson is finally pooping on the toilet!! Yes, he is 4 years old now. And yes, he has finally mastered the art of going #2. We all feared the poopy chonis would be with us the rest of his life, but no worries - he's good to GO! (all puns intended here... get it? - good to "GO", *wink wink*)

Waddell's

We're all in good health, minus some colds and lots of reflux still, but we can handle all that. Still in Colorado, still looking for another job and still trying to survive crazy weather out here...

What i really want to say is HELP! I found out that a great Dr friend of mine has a son with cancer that needs some blood donated in his name to the California Blood bank and I knew that my family could help me out in my absence... The child's name is Max Hinton and you can just go down and say that it's for him before you donate and they'll set it aside for his use. He's 6 years old and will need lots of transfusions due to cancer near his kidney and spine. Prognosis looks iffy at this point, but they can use all the blood you can spare. Being out of town, i feel helpless, so if you can and want to please go and donate. Thanks so much, I appreciate you all.

OTHERS April 2010

Waddells

Eric is busy interviewing up a storm. Yes, he is looking for another job while he still has his here in Denver. He's interviewing for a job in Germany, Hawaii and we believe one in Barstow... We'll see how it all goes from here; exciting!

Caralee is busy cleaning up pee and spit up all day long. Lucas is potty training and Violet is a great spitter. We may rename her "Camel" as she spits just like one.

Lucas is very funny lately. He is potty training and loves to go on mommy dates. He also says sometimes that Caralee's food is "UGH DISGUSTING" and then keeps eating it... It's the reaction that he loves. He also likes to strip down to nothing in the middle of the night and pee on his bed. Very funny (sarcasm)...

Violet is getting fat somehow. We wonder how because she spits up almost every ounce that she gets, but she's growing out of her diapers and is getting the cutest rolls! She's now 7 weeks old and can claim only a 4 hour stretch of sleep a night at a time. We're hoping for more by two months! She's so sweet and it's nice to have a sweet baby in comparison to a "funny" two year old. :)

OTHERS March 2010

Waddell's

Okay, Violet Marilyn Waddell finally graced us with her presence on February 13th weighing in at 5lbs 8oz, 19 inches long; one week early. She is a tiny, sweet thing and we are all excited to have her in our family (Lucas is trying to be happy about her). Labor went well for Caralee and she and baby are doing much better now that a couple weeks have past. If you want all the nitty-gritty details, contact Caralee and ask. We're still in Denver and Eric is actively searching for another job as his is a little boring to him now. Lucas is trying to love his sister, but sometimes finds it hard. He's getting big now and has a rather large vocabulary that he uses to tell us to come play with him and "leave the baby" wherever she is. Silly brother!

VALLEY SCOTTS
Spring is in the air as well as the flu. We have just spent the past few weeks watching the flu pick off each member of the family one by one. We are back on our feet again and grateful to be well.

Mike and Jenn are doing the normal parent routine: Family stuff, school stuff, church stuff, ect.ect.ect... It is so much fun watching the kids get older and move into new adventures and new activities.

Cambria is now a big 12 yr. old. She has enjoyed moving into the Young Womens program, going to her first New Beginnings and is anxiously waiting for Girls Camp. She also spent a week at the Headlands Institute in San Francisco with her 6th grade class. She will be bring alot of fun facts to Pismo this year. At school she is getting ready for the Fresno County History Day competition. She will be performing a play that she wrote on Benjamin Franklin. It will be perfomed on March 20th at Fresno Pacific College. We are all excited for her.

Lydia is on the move again. She has been getting ready for this years track season. She also spends alot of time talking to friends on the phone, listening to music and just having fun.

Brinson has been working on building a robot. He would like this robot to clean his room, but he still is having some trouble getting it to do what he would like it to do. He is also doing well in school and is looking forward to a field trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium.

D.J. is having a great time in pre-school. He can write his name and count to 100. He is also learing to write all of his A,B,C's. In his spare time he is Nacho Libre, the famous wrestler. He runs around the house in his underwear wearing a bright blue cape. He tries to take down anyone and anything that gets in his way.

Devon is happy to be two. He quite often will come up to you, hold up two fingers and say, "I'm two." When you ask him how he is doing he will say, "I'm Devon." Life is one adventure after another for him. He loves to go through the kids rooms and take apart anything he can. He also likes to go through the fridge, Jen's drawer looking for gum and Mike's drawer looking for his wallet. He also likes to ride the dog around the backyard when she will let him.

So life seems to be normal and still a lot of fun.

We look forward to reading about your fun lives as well!

Marshall Noose: by Suzanne

February was a nice month. It wasn't too crazy busy like some months. Over President's Day weekend we drove to Oregon and visited the Oregonians. We had a wonderful visit - saw McKay's new studio that he is developing, went to the Portland Art museum, celebrated Austin and Marissa's birthdays, toured McKay and Amanda's new house that is being built, and generally stayed up too late every night and ate way too much. The perfect weekend!

The next weekend we got to spend with our other grandchildren. The R. Marshall kids stayed with us while Ryan and Kelli went out of town. It was great! Again, we stayed up too late and ate way too much. We have wonderful grandchildren. It is a delight to be with all of them.

Our exciting news is that after over 1 1/2 years "on the bench" (with pay), John has an assignment in Maryland that is starting next week. With the economy downturn, being "on the bench" without an assignment was a scary place to be. It was nice to have him home all that time, but needless to say we are relieved that he was called back to work.

Nancy and I are turning 60 this month and John and I will be celebrating our 38th Wedding Anniversary. Nancy, how did this happen? What happened to the last 20 years? I don't know about you, but I think I am going to have to do something radical to my hair to satisfy my mid-life, old-life? crises. I'm thinking red with blond streaks....

SNOW FLURRY

Hello all you Others. We in Payson, Utah are doing fine. We can hardly believe we are looking forward to a Temple less than 3 blocks from our house. We are trying to be patient, I can't believe how I wish it could hurry up and be built. . .We are all busy, we all have work and school and probably like the majority of people, could use a little more work and more time. Here is a little bit from Tiana: Hello my dear family and friends! Anyway, things have been going pretty well for us here. We are working hard. It is fun.  We got a few new investigators this week- mostly ones that were passed on to us. But that was alright. It is always nice to have lots of investigators. Especially when they can’t meet with you that often. One of the investigators, her name is Olga. She and her son were investigators of the Elders here, and then her son got baptized. The Elders continued teaching her for a while, but they just passed her off to us this week. I am really excited to work with her- I have gotten to know her in the time I’ve been here- she comes to church and English club and all the firesides etc. She is a really awesome lady and her son is making a great member. I hope that we can help her overcome her fears and setback so that she can get baptized soon. She almost got baptized once but… I think there was some fear and doubt etc. She is really good though- reads the BOM regularly etc. As for the weather… sometimes it gets warmer (technically) but as the temperature increases so does the wind.  Haha. Good thing I have chosen to love winter. Last Wednesday we had culture night, and we went to an opera. It was interesting. The opera was not my favorite- but it was fun to be there. Oh guess what! The Opera was in French! Or maybe Italian. And then at the top of the stage they had this little screen where they had it translated into Russian. So it basically required three languages in order to understand that! (the English to make sense of it all in my head). Pretty interesting. Love you all tons! -Sister Tiana Boggs It is great to have families isn't it? We are grateful for good examples, and good friends and loved ones---often coming from FAMILY. Thank you all for your kindness and good examples. We miss you. --those crazy Utah relations (Payson, Ut not Ogden)

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY is busy busy busy with work. He put on a great teacher inservice day this month, went to about 50 principal meetings, and did a presentation at Fresno State for soon-to-be teachers. He also gets to share the gospel with the newest member of our ward. She comes over once a week for a discussion - it has been so wonderful to have this experience for our family.

JENNIFER is rolling with the routine of life. She gets the kids out the door to school, does housework, runs errands, chauffeuring, teaches piano lessons, goes to mutual, does homework with the kids, cooks dinner and all that great stuff.

TREVOR had the biggest news in the family this month. HE WON THE SCIENCE FAIR competition at his school! He is still so elated and feeling good about his win. You can visit our family blog HERE to read more about it.

LOGAN also got some big awards this month. He earned "Student of the Quarter" for his class and was recognized as part of the school's Chess Club. He also started practicing baseball for the first time ever. His team is the Dodgers and will play their first game next week.

LIZZIE is 6 and fabulous. Lizzie loves to do homework and read - she even got to read a level 5 book to the principal! She is still enjoying the mix CD from her birthday party. Lizzie loves to crank up the music, sing, and dance with whoever is over to play.

JACKSON has become a sassy boy over these past few weeks. His spit and vinegar has been dialed up a few notches and is enduring more time-outs because of it. His latest shenanigans include throwing your words back into your face. ex:
Mom: Jackson, if you don't stop ________ then you're going to get a time out!
Jackson: No, YOU get time out!

OTHERS February 2010

Great Scott! The Utah Scotts

What a January we have had here in Utah! Not only did we get to meet the newest McCrary (He is SO cute and SO tiny!) but Nancy came up and visited as well. It was nice to see her, and hear how things are going for them in Texas!

Toni had a death in her family just after Christmas. The bittersweet side to that, was that her sister who also lives in Texas came to visit for almost a week. It was lovely to have her back this January. Toni's loving her job (and glad to have it in this economy!) and for her anniversary present got a Wii, and some fitness games. She's working on this being a healthier year for the whole family.

Ben is settling into his new job as assistant manager at Lumber Liquidators. His boss is super nice, and its something he really enjoys doing. For Ben's anniversary present he got his very first tattoo (and is very excited about that!) and he took Toni to a fun fondue restaurant in Salt Lake City. It was a lovely, romantic evening, and we can't believe it's been 4 years already!

Rebekah is so close to finally being potty trained. We figured out what was slowing her down: a fear of the big potty seat! So a solid weekend of making friends with the big potty seat, and saying "I won't fall in!" over and over, we think she's got it! Hopefully the next newsletter will be a celebration of no more diapers! Bekah is also excited to be in the "big kid" class at her school. She's now upstairs in the preschool and loving it! Circle time, themed parties and counting are some of her favorite things now. Her imagination is just soaring and now she constantly has an imaginary "Grammy" or "Grandpa" in tow.

Hope everyone is as psyched for February as we are!



McKanda Mail

Hello All. This year is off and running for Amanda and me! We're both working long weeks and boarding up the windows on the weekends. Amanda was just promoted at the Nike Foundation's Girl Hub. She's helping adolescent girls in 3rd world countries and making a difference in the world. Last week her passport came in the mail, and next month she may be in London! Wow, really?! Crazy.

I am viciously pushing my new studio forward (www.theclink.tv) and landed some big clients like Adidas and Wacom– which is pretty exciting. I'll be moving into the new space sometime this month after a few more trips to the Apple store, Ikea, and maybe West Elm (Manda get's the credit for the last one... she's got mad interior chops). The studio is in Oregon City and should be pretty fun. Whenever you are in the Portland area, stop by for a visit!

We're busy with church as Priest Quorum and Beehive advisors; I just spoke in Sacrament meeting yesterday; Amanda just threw a life-sized game of Candyland for Mutual; Went to a Trailblazers game and watched them get slaughtered by Utah; Helped some friends move; stopped off for some Yo-Cream (highly recommended); Considered taking down the Christmas decor; Played some racquetball; Cooked an Acorn Squash (with minimal success); Consolidated my student loans... That's about it.



Here is a picture of our little guy! Thought you all might want to see what he looks like. A friend of mine took these photos and made up the announcements.

Carolyn



Rabilin & Family
Hello-I guess it is past time for a Loveland-Boggs family newsletter. We are doing well, a few colds maybe but no extraordinary aches or pains.We are all in school, and have a least part time jobs. We have food to eat and a place to live and guess what??? The newest announced Temple is 3 blocks from my house. We are all so very excited. Mathias thinks we should open a "Cold stone Ice Cream Franchise, so that people will have someplace to get their ice cream (a tradition when you go to Provo Temple is to visit BYU Creamery for ice cream) -- anyone want to help us? Or else he said I have to keep the freezer stocked. School is quite challenging for me, and yet it is good :) We wish we could hop over and see all you wonderful people in Fresno Area and other areas too.

I am sending along Tiana's last letter--and reminded of how grateful we are for all the people who have helped support missionaries--unsung heroes, we will not mention any names here. I am very challenged by my computer class--blogs, wiki and etc. Wow. Wish I had time to play on the computer and really learn some of these things. . .Mathias is recovering very well--from a broken collar bone, (playing football with his friends of course). He is having a very hard time staying away from sports and we hope he does not hurt/break it again. Well, other than being grateful for Family I have nothing else to say....except watch out, Mathias is going for his drivers license tomorrow. Stay off the roads and sidewalks!




Feb 03, 2010 12:37 AM

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Hey everybody!

Hows it going? I hope everything is well. I feel like I start my e-mails almost exactly

the same ever week- sorry about that. Kinda lame. Well anyway, maybe if I think all

this week I can come up with some more creative beginning for next week... :)

Well, first off... Tranfers. Dun dun dun. This tranfer I think every sister

companionship in the mission had a change! Kinda crazy. Well, I am staying here in

Novosibirsk- on my nice little (huge) right bank. My companion is also staying in Novo.

But she is going to be serving on Left Bank. (I think this is the first time any sister

in this mission has gotten a transfer but stayed in the same city!) Anyway, she will be

taking Sister Gneiting's place. By the way- I can't believe that they are separating me

and Sister Gneiting! She was my companion in the MTC and we have been

"together" since July! :( Sad day. She will be serving in Irkutsk. My new

companion is Sister Mitchell III (the third sister mitchell to serve here)!! She is two

transfers older than me- goes on our visa trips with us- and is an American. She is also

from Utah- some little farm out in the middle of nowhere. Apparently she doesn't even

live in a town or anything. :) Kinda fun. She got here this morning and we picked her

up from the train station. I am excited to serve with her- although she said her Russian

got worse last transfer because even though she was serving with a Russian they always

spoke english together (kinda like me and my comp maybe). Anyway, it will be

interesting. I have to show her around here... and I just hope she can read Russian maps

better than I can. If not... it'll be a little bit of an adventure. But anyway... I am

excited.

Sometimes I still can't believe I am on a mission (in Russia of all places).

Missionaries are these people that everyone looks up to... and I guess I never really

thought I'd be one. It is interesting.

This past week or two I keep having these experiences that make me go- "man I am

sick of this language barrier! I think I would be a much more effective missionary if I

could understand what this person was saying... or if I could explain the answer to their

question..." etc etc etc. But don't worry- it has been more of a drive to do better

at learning the language than a "i give up I'm never gonna get this." It helps

me want to do better and study better and learn more. I mean, I can understand a lot of

what is going on, but... not enough! I know I have to have patience and keep working at

it- so I will. By the way, did I mention it is hard to make small talk? It is... And I

was thinking about it today... it is hard to know what to study to make small talk. If

you are talking about what they do at work... or what they like to do for fun or

something.. that is a HUGE variety of words! Kinda tricky to know which ones to choose

in advance. Just something I notice. Anyway... Those are some of my random thoughts for

the day.

One of our investigators, Nastia, came back from her "vacation"! It was really

exciting to see her and be able to meet with her again. She is such a sweet girl and we

took her to family night at a member's home. This family, by the way- is awesome! The

mom is pregnant with her fifth child (which is unheard of around here). They are so

strong and just an awesome family. So they are great to take investigators to. It was

good. We did the spiritual though- one that Erin told me about strenthening families- it

is from the war chapters- Alma 50:1-6. They were pretty impresssed- so thanks Erin! :)

Well, have a great week everyone! Thats all for now. Over and out!

-Sister Boggs

WARD WIDE WEB
2010 has begun at the Ward house! We kicked it off with a bang - our annual tradition of the Polar Bear Plunge. (Notice there are no dads there in that line-up. Ahem.)

Trevor and Logan competed in this year's Pinewood Derby and each were so proud of their car designs. Trevor's was the Blue & Gold Truck (Cub Scout colors) and Logan's was a yellow school bus!

Lizzie turned 6 years old! And celebrated with a wing dinger of a birthday party. 25 little kids running crazy through the house for 2 1/2 hours was SO MUCH FUN!

Jackson got a chance to work on his putting skills at the miniature golf place. This boy loves his sports - golf, bowling, driving the car down the street...

Jeremy and Jennifer are back into the full swing of life - routine days full of work, and kids. We do enjoy about 40 minutes of TV together a couple nights a week (yay for PSYCH, White Collar, LOST, and Chuck!) and go out on Saturday nights for some dinner.

OTHERS January 2010

No entries this month.

OTHERS December 2009

MOTSCHIEDLER MADNESS

November was a whirlwind. We filmed a holiday commercial for my school on channel 47 to air through December. Watch for us if you're local.

Ken and I met with a landscaper to design our backyard after some failed attempts at it ourselves. We can't wait to get the project started and then finished!!

For thanksgiving we had a turkey feast with the Motschiedler family and had a cuz and wife stay with us from Utah. We watched football and played Killer Uno til we couldn't think straight.

Ken and I started an intense workout (called P90x for those that have heard of it). We couldn't walk for a couple of days but now we have it down and are enjoying it.

December is here and we're looking forward to all the parties and events it brings.

LA FAMILIA DURAN
Thanksgiving this year was awful! We didn't have any leftovers and thought we were going to die. Jennifer's table was beautiful, the food was delicious, the company and the games we played were very entertaining but, when we got home at the end of the day and didn't have any gravy or turkey or pumpkin pie in the house - AWFUL! Hope yours was the same - just awful like ours.



WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY had a week off at Thanksgiving and it was wonderful to have him home. He got all kinds of house and car projects done, put up Christmas lights, helped with all the housework and decorating for Thanksgiving, did some SERIOUS Black Friday shopping with his sweetheart, and got to see 2 movies at the theater.

JENNIFER got to decorate for a fall themed wedding. She worked with her sister-in-law, Kari, and had a great time fussing with everything fall. Cornstalks, pumpkins, pomegranates, persimmons, gold toulle, and gold berries galore!

TREVOR sang in his first choir festival ever! He's the cute brown haired boy in the front row on the left. Check out his mouth wide open and that concentration! His choir did an excellent job with their 2 songs - one of them was in Latin and they scored extra points for it's level of difficulty.

LOGAN's soccer season has come to an end. He had a great season - played hard, had fun, and thought he was on top of the world whenever he scored a goal during a game.

LIZZIE's soccer season has also come to an end. The highlight was having daddy as one of her coaches. She also got to play a game at Chuckchansi Park where she received a "Gold Medal" for playing!

JACKSON loves bowling. He asks at least once a week, "Mommy, we go bowling?" And finally we got to go! The day before Thanksgiving is our traditional bowling night. Jackson was in heaven! He never missed a turn and never once dropped that ball on his foot. Check out his cool bowling shoes!! He was so proud to wear those things.

OTHERS November 2009

MARSHALL NOOSE

by Suzanne

We have had an eventful October. I went out of town with friends to cabin in Sonora for a weekend Girl's Getaway, then barely escaped having jury duty the next week. We hosted a "Newcomer's Potluck" for all the new people in our ward and also threw a big Halloween Party for 300 in our church parking lot. We had a dunk tank, carnival games, and all the chili and hotdogs you could down. Our little local family got together for a pumpkin carving bash. Mini McKay's pumpkin took 2nd place at their ward party, as did his costume. The Ryan Marshall costumes were wonderful! Garrett was Peter Pan, Kelli was Wendy, Brooklynn was Tiger Lily, Maddy was Tinker Bell, McKay was Captain Hook, and Ryan was the funniest. He was John. Looked real cute in his night shirt, black hat and big round glasses. John wore his wet suit and scuba gear (in anticipation of being in the dunk tank), I was the Cat in the Hat, Allyson was dressed in 80's fashion, and Ken came as himself. He was the scariest!

In the midst of our Halloween festivities we celebrated Ken's Birthday with a delicious birthday dinner at Ken and Allyson's house.

We are gearing up for the holidays! Planning on a trip to Oregon for Thanksgiving, so there will be no Turkey Bowl this year for the first time in about 30 years! I'm just about finished with my Christmas shopping. Are you?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Motschiedler Madness

October was Ken's birthday (the big 4-0!!!) so I surprised him with a long weekend in Yosemite. We had a romantic dinner and then spent the next day hiking. It was a beautiful, sunny day andthe falls were flowing from the recent rainfall. We ended the day with massages back at the spa and drove home to have pizza and a movie. It was perfect.

Allyson had a lot of fun dressing up for halloween on two days at the school. (Check us out onFacebook - search for Bluff View in Fresno.)

She even managed to stay in costume for a pumpkin carving festival at the parental's. Check her out with Snorkel Bob:

Now on to the next month of fun, parties and more food! Peace out.

La Familia Duran

by Elizabeth

Gramma Wars. The “other gramma” wanted to take MY grandkids trick or treating so I devised a plan to sabotage her. I encouraged my grandkids to overload on the candy that they had gotten the night before at the ward social. “Here kids, eat some more of your candy, these ones are really good.” Four kids on a sugar high, that should deter her from encroaching on MY TIME with MY grandkids.

Devious thoughts. Worked too. THEY. WERE. CRAZY. Seems the “other gramma” is better at these Gramma Wars than I am. I know because the “other gramma” bailed at the last minute and so I got to keep the sweet darlings. Hmmmmmm. And a Happy Halloween to you too!Actually it was really fun being with everyone and doing all the Halloween stuff. Even the throw up part was okay cause Louie cleaned it up. Now on to the next activity: SHOPPING! Only 50 more days till Christmas!

WARD WIDE WEB

Jeremy's school won the National Blue Ribbon Award! He got to take a trip to Washington D.C. to collect his award and took Jennifer along for the ride. Check out the family blog to see pictures and watch short video clips from the trip. wearethewards.blogspot.com

Jennifer had a birthday in October! She turned the ripe ol' age of 31 and celebrated with the family. Check out her new birthday present - a new bike!

Trevor and Logan had a blast one Saturday at the bike park out behind Woodward Park. There is a track with lots of hills for bicycles. Check out their moves!

Jackson had a great Halloween. He got to dress up 3 times this year! Once was for preschool when he got to take a trip to the pumpkin patch. And who else would he dress up as than a Thomas the Train character.

Lizzie carved a Jack Skellington jack-o-lantern for Halloween this year. It turned out really cute! She is our sweet girl that loves all things Tim Burton style - her favorite movies are The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride.