July 2013

Elizabeth with Mom and Dad at Garden of the Gods

Hi Zuster!

First, we just got an update from Emily so here is her post if you are interested.  I am recording Emily's MTC experiences on a blog so you can view her letters and photos. 

Thanks to Laura for her help. Click on this link.  http://hermanaisraelsenchicagowest.blogspot.com/

I mostly get in the car and drive with Rachel to Waterworld everyday.  She is working, working, working and her shift is usually Thunderbay which is a little stressful.  She can count on at least one save a day and has had a few rough ones lately.  Elizabeth is still working hard at Mathnasium and finished swimming.  She spent her last Sunday in Primary today.  Weird that I will no longer have any children in Primary - then I drive Jake to school in a few weeks - stop the torture already!  

Gross!

Tuesday, I was meeting with some teacher friends about online stuff and got a text from Loralee.  Apparently Jake had been trying to call me but the call didn't go through.  He was injured at the work site and had to go to the emergency room for stitches.  He was pushing a wheelbarrow full of rocks and got a running start and the front of the wheelbarrow hit a grate and stopped but Jake didn't.  His leg hit a bolt on the wheelbarrow which split open his shin and then cut down.  It is not a nice injury and there will be a pretty good scar for him to remember Egress by.  We went to the dr. the next morning though and he was cleared to work on Thursday.  So, we wrapped his leg up good and he worked on Thursday and Friday.  He is on antibiotics and doing a good job of keeping it wrapped.  

Stitches!  Manly Scar!

Still Standing!

Matt and Becca Thornton and Family

Elizabeth and kids at Garden of the Gods

Dinner!

Matt and Becca and their family came to visit us this week.  They arrived on Wednesday night and stayed until Friday about noon.  We fed them here on Wednesday and then on Thursday, we drove to see the Temple and then to The Garden of the Gods and Red Rocks.  On Friday, they drove through Rocky Mountain National Park and then on to Glenwood Springs to sit in the hot springs.  They saw Moose and baby moose, mountain goats and elk.  I think they saw more than we usually  see.  It was fun to have them but I decided I am to old for grandchildren.  Thursday night we kept the 5 kids so that Matt and Becca could go to Boulder, Pearl Street and eat at Cheesecake.  The boys knocked the medicine cabinet off the wall and broke it so you and Elizabeth will get to have something new in your bathroom!  It was fun to see them and I can tell that Matt feels the weight of the world on him as the Bishop of his ward and Becca seems overwhelmed with it as well.  They have a very young family to have that kind of a calling.  I wish them all the best and hope that we made their vacation a little  easier.  We cooked on the deck and had sausages and pancakes for breakfast.  You dad left me to make pancakes on Thursday morning when he had jury duty and I left him on Friday morning when I took kids down to the History Museum to give some feedback on a new website about Amache that opens the museum experience to you online.  They had some great ideas and the site is amazing.  

I went to see Curtains as the Arvada center on Friday night with the ladies except for Alice.  At the last minute, Bruce has some chest pain and when they took him in they found that he needed 4 stents in his heart but can only to 2 at a time.  He has 4 veins that are 80-90% blocked.  Can you believe that with his exercise schedule?  He is very upset but I am glad they found it before he had a heart attack.  It is important to take care of yourself!  I didn't like Curtains that much.  The cast worked so hard and it is a fun show within a show but it just lacked something...  We are changing it up next year and seeing different things, a new dinner theatre in Longmont, the symphony is doing a Beatles show at the Paramount, the new musical that won the Tony for Best Picture "Once" next May.  It should be a fun year to try new things.  

Today I did a primary song review by playing pictionary with the songs they need to know for the program.  Next week we start learning A Child's Prayer - any suggestions as to how to teach that?  

We didn't hear back from Zuster Robinson and don't dare count on your release date so we think we will have to let the river cruise offer go - bummer.  Keep us posted.  Once we meet up with you, we just want to do what you want to do.  

How is your transfer?  Do you just have one companion now?  I would guess that you are going to be training all the time from now on.  

Love you,

Mom

China Scrapbook Finally Done!

Finally done with our scrapbook.  Everyone helped to narrate it and while there are many pictures not in this slide show, this is a great representation of our fabulous trip!  It was hard with summer jobs and we missed Megan but I am so glad that we went!  All the sacrifice, saving money and work to get here was worth it!  A once in a lifetime kind of experience.  I'm so glad we shared it together!

Customize your own free slideshow

4th of July and Israelsen Reunion

Dear Megan,

I just got back from the Reunion and I wanted to send you a letter. Its late so I will try to be brief. 

The Reunion was fantastic as usual, however the only ones from our family that could go were Elizabeth and I. Jake and Rachel took all of there time off for the summer to go to china so they couldn't get more time off to go to the Reunion. So Mom stayed to home with Rachel and Jake and Elizabeth and I took off.

Daryl family was in charge this year and they had a Dr. Sues theme. Mandy put together a picture of everyone in the family in a WhoVille type body all holding hands. The picture said "all the Izzy's down in IzzyVille for something like that. Everyone wanted to know how you were doing and they all want you to know that they Love you and pray for you all the time. I believe it to because every prayer that was offered at the reunion they all prayed for you. They all love getting you letters every week and they follow it very closely. Emily starts her mission this week by going to the MTC in Mexico then she heads to Chicago, Spanish speaking. she was worried because she didn't think that she could write letters like you do. That's what she told me anyway. Several of my brothers and sisters commented on your letters, Aunt RuthAnn told me that her sons would only write one or two sentences and they were done.

News from the Reunion: Taylor brought a "new" boyfriend to the reunion. His name is Tanner not Taylor who is scheduled to come home from his mission in a couple of months. I guess this new boy friend is something else if he is replacing the old boyfriend that's still on his mission. ( a little of bit of a scandal  Not really but kind of. You know Taylor, her bestesterest friend). Trevor and his wife are expecting in about 3 weeks ( a boy I think), Mark and Mary are expecting a BOY (after 4 girls) very soon too. Liz just got married about 3 weeks ago to Justin Krough and they seem very happy. They got married in the Nova Scotia Temple. Matt was called to be a Bishop about 3 weeks ago. Mandy and Tyler seem to be coping well after little Marshall death. I talked to Tyler Stout about his sister and how much you enjoyed her in the mission. He said that he talked to his sister about you and how much she liked you also. Elizabeth spent one morning taking care of sammy, Katies baby! (that seemed a little scary but life just keeps moving on)  Eliz was in heaven taking care of all the babies. Camie was there but Justin was on a business trip to China, he has been there for a couple of weeks. Camie is doing so much better after her tubal pregnancy which was very scary.  Valerie stopped by on there way back to Kansas ( they moved there a while ago, not sure if you knew that). Brandon broke his leg several months ago and had to have surgery. He is still limping and trying to get his leg to heal. This has been very hard on him! He has several scares on his leg from the surgery which as pretty nasty. Shawn and Hanna are still living in Grandma and Grandpas basement. Kelly came to the reunion almost the whole time. I think she was trying to put on her best face for this new boy friend of Taylor's but she got a bad headache on Sunday morning and Neal took her home. To bad because I think her favorite part of the reunion is testimony meeting.  Steve was there and he is doing so much better from his cancer. Brittany was there with her little girl, she is recently divorced from Wade. I'm not sure what happened there, but she seems to be coping. Bobbi is planning to go on a mission in the fall. She is just trying to get a job to make enough money to go. 

Most importantly, Grandma and Grandpa said to give you a big hug. So, wrap your arms around yourself and give yourself a big hug from them. They love you so much and are so proud of you. Grandpa says that he has an article that he is going to send to you. Its something about when he was in Belgium, someplace that you will know. He says that he going to have to send it to you over "snail Mail". I also sent around a thing for everyone to write to you so I will send that this week some time.

That was my quick update, Now how are you doing? Did you have a baptism this week? Last week you said that you were close so I'm hoping that it happened or is very close. And it sounded as if your teaching pool is getting very big or bigger. 

At the reunion there was a lot of talk about the new direction of missionary work. Has anything changed for you yet? In such a short time. 

I love you so much, I just want to give you a big hug.

Keep on doing your best and trust in the Lord.

Love, 

Dad  

Hi Megan,

How are things going?  I hope you were able to resolve some things with your Dr. and change the meds???  Please let me know.  This week, Rachel and Jake have been working working working!  I have been trying to clean out some drawers and do some technology, reading and catch up.  I am not making much progress.  I drive Rachel (actually I sit in the car and make her drive) to work and then exercise, do some cleaning, take Elizabeth to Mathnasium and swim team, read a little and it is time to pick Rachel up again and make dinner so I just feel like I'm in the car a lot!

Dad and Elizabeth went to the Family Reunion.  They left on Thursday and I haven't heard yet when they are leaving today.  Rachel and I went over to the Ellis's to watch the fireworks after Rachel got off work.  Jake and Luke had a friends BBQ and walked to the Westminster fireworks.  Many cities cancelled their fireworks this year due to fire danger.  Over 500 house burned in CO Springs and several fires are springing up all over the state.  19 Hot Shot Firefighters were killed in AZ last week - crazy how intense the fires have been.  Anyway, the cities didn't shoot them off as high in the air this year but we could see Westminster and Broomfield from their deck.  We liked Broomfield the best, they even spelled out USA in fireworks.  I've never seen that before. On Friday, I went downtown to work with Michelle at the Museum.  We are preparing to do some professional development in Oregon in August.  Her director is trying to put together a job offer for me to join them as well.  It would mean a substantial cut in salary so I don't think I could even consider it especially with you and Jake in school/missions etc. etc. etc.  It would be fun though!! 

Jake took Ciara to the Boulder Dinner Theater last night for her birthday and Rachel got off early because of rain at WW.  I tried to convince her to go to Despicable Me 2 with me but she was to tired.  I will wait and go with you!

This morning I have been busy trying to get together a matching game to teach Families Can Be Together Forever in Primary but I think the older kids will know it so we will spend some time on I Am A Child of God in Chinese.  It takes a lot of time to prepare for 20 minutes of music.....  I also sent out the agenda for a Public Affairs meeting so still trying to do both.  We shall see.

I can't get the Pianostreet people to email me back so Dad and I are going to try to call them this week.  

We tried to get in touch with the Andrews about traveling to the Netherlands but they haven't returned our call - perhaps they are gone for the holiday.  What do you want to do when we come?  We are thinking of making this our 25th wedding anniversary trip too so will come the week before during my spring break (if I can make arrangements for Rachel and Elizabeth).  Viking Cruises is offering a two for one on Rheine and Danube River Cruises if you purchase before the end of July so we are exploring that.  We just want to start making a few plans but want to know what you want to do.  We think with work etc that we can pick you up on April 2 and then plan to fly out on the following Sunday or Monday so that would leave us 5-6 days to explore.  Do you think that is enough or do we need more?  We figure a few days in Belgium/Netherlands and then we are thinking of going over to Germany or Paris and flying out of there.  Any ideas???

I Love You!

Mom

June 24, 2013

Top of Mountain at Copper - rode the ski lift up - beautiful!

Hello My Cute Little Megan, I hope you are having a good week! I had a fun but tiring week. I attended TIE Conference in Copper Mountain. We raised money this year and rented a house for the teachers at Hulstrom to stay in. There were only 10 of us but we rented a beautiful house and had a great time attending the conference and brainstorming ways this applies to our school. We think we are going to push a one to one policy at Hulstrom as soon as we can - perhaps getting parents to purchase an iPad or computer for their kids for Christmas.  Speaking of which, we are wondering what you would think of sending Jake with your laptop until you return. He got an iPad but we think that between the two of you coming and going that the technology will be outdated and you will want a new one anyway - we would help you get a new one. How do you feel about that? The technology I was exposed to at this conference is incredible - curriculum is moving ahead and I hope that I can keep pace with all that is happening! There are 3-D printers now that actually print out a plastic model of whatever you want copied. People are printing out chairs and tools to try in plastic before making them out of steel. They are also printing in chocolate, human tissue and plastic - crazy! There are many new things to use in education. I went to one class where they pushed everything out to your iPad - so the teacher controlled what you were looking at and you could take a quiz, read a passage, draw for understanding, take a picture of something and work together all as a class - incredible! I am going to try that! I am going to use infographics as one menu item for kids to create presentations with. Researching is also taking on a whole new look with research built right into your google docs and the citation created instantly. I will have to show you a few things when you return.  I rode my bike with Tara and Christina to the top of Vail pass - 6 miles straight up! Crazy - well I had to walk my bike a little bit. It is 1,000 foot increase in elevation from Copper to the top and it only take 5 mintues to get down - crazy!! I sent you a few pictures from TIE from my phone - hope you got them.  Today was my first day as Primary Chorister - Dad helped me make a punch the primary song board - the kids punch into the cups covered with tissue paper with slips of paper telling kids what song to sing. It was an odd day though- we only had a two hour block because there was a special training from SLC for Mission Presidents and Ward Councils. We tended the boys so that Cory and Heather could go to the meeting. They said it was about more changes in missionary work. Missionaries will be using more technology, answering text messages and staying in the church building so that people can come and take a tour of the building if they want to. Interesting changes. Are you hearing anything about this? Dad is leaving on a business trip to St Louis tomorrow - pray for him to have success - they are having some trouble with the sensors at Hormel and need them all to work so that he can get this sale! Right now we are listening to a huge thunder storm with much lightening and rain - it is kind of fun although the Ellis boys were scared!  I am finally home this week and am going to try to finish our China Slide Show so hopefully you will get to see it next week. Jake and Rachel are back in the work groove! Sean was fired from Northglenn this week - apparently for having a pocket knife n his locker and complaints about a hostile work environment under him. We aren't quite sure what the truth is but the hired Collin or someone like that. Jake is trying to find a day that he can take a drug test so that he can supplement his income with side life-guard jobs. I'm not sure what to think about Northglenn. Rachel is loving Waterworld. Anyway, Sean is going back to Provo to work at the same place he worked before and hopefully to get back on track. His dad told your dad that he kicked him out and that it was time for him to get on with life. Sad..... Well, the lightning is still going on - crazy!  Take Care, start making a list of what you want to do when we come to the Netherlands. Do you know if we have to get a VISA? I am going to start planning!  Love you! Mom Sent from my iPad
Dear Sister Israelsen,   Well, this week has been a little boring. Not much to report.   I guess Shawn Lungren was asked to resign from his Northglenn because several of the workers complanined that he creates a "hostile work environment" and then they found a pocket knife in his locker. So now he as moved out of his parents home and moved back to Provo and is working at guess services or something. I asked his Dad if he was going to chalk up this year to a learning experience.   Mom has been at a tech conference all week up in the mountains. I think she had a blast and got a lot of new ideas for teaching next year. Rachel seems to have a "save" at waterworld about once a day and is very glad that she is not working as a garbage clean up person. Elizabeth started back at Mathnazium this summer this week and she loves it! She has been swimming with the snapper swim team since we got back from China and she has her first swim meet on Saturday. She doesnt really want to swim in the meet but I think it is good for her. So we signed up for her event today online.   This week I was home with the kids while mom was at her conference. Its hard to keep everyone busy and do my work. I am still suffing from a little stomach thing ever since I got back from China. I started taking an antibiotic that i got from the doctor before I left for China which is supposed to help with stomach virus'.    I am traveling to St. Louis tomorrow and ending up in Minnesota to work on my big order some more. We have had some problems but hopefully we are back on the right track. The whole company is working hard to win Hormels business. I hope it works.   This summer I am planning to reread the BOM again. I am really looking forward to teaching it this year. What is your favorite section or chapeters of the BOM? and why. What advice would you give to students learning about the BOM this year? Did you guys play any games that you liked in seminary that I may not know about? I really need to figur out how to  make my class more fun and interesting.   Be faithful and follow the Spirit and the Lord will bless you, hopefully in a way that you can find a perfect potential member.   I love you!!!   Dad

Home from China

Great Wall!  Elizabeth just fell so she is sad.

Jet Lagged Smile

Terracotta Warriors in Xiong!

Jake at the Great Wall coming out of a guard annex.

Hi Zuster!

I have spent the past 3 hours trying to create a Smilebox about China that I could send you and haven't been able to get it to work.  You will have to settle for more pictures.  We are all exhausted and not on schedule yet!  We are getting up in the middle of the night and trying to nap in the day.  We finally tried to bite the bullet today and your Dad fell asleep in church.  Hopefully we will be able to make our early wake-up calls for tomorrow!  Jake goes back to work, Rachel has an inservice, I am driving to Copper Mountain for TIE and Dad has to go into work.  Elizabeth will be home alone for the morning.  Here we go, back to the craziness!  

It was so nice of you to send Dad a card.  It came yesterday and I hid it and gave it to him this morning.  He was so glad to see it!  He had just made the comment that he was missing you.  We were so lucky to get such a great Dad in our family.  

Yangshou Mountains are so beautiful!

Now that China is over, I am going to concentrate on planning the Europe trip - of course after TIE, Primary Music and Public Affairs of course!  Why am I not thin?  

I am sending a Travel Smith dress and hoping that Lands End makes more skirts - they are having a big sale right now and only have size 2 and 4 available.  I will keep checking.  It looks like (from my phone app) that you guys haven't been very warm yet.  We are in the 80's but there have already been terrible fires over here.  Almost 500 homes burned down in CO Springs.  We flew into Denver and it looked like we were flying into Beijing.  So scary and sad for those families!  

Take Care!  Your blog now has more than 4,000 hits!  Crazy!  

Love 

Giant Panda Exhibit at Beijing

Letters From China

Dear Sister Israelsen,

Wow! where to start?  It was so fun to get your letter while we were in China. We really didnt expect to have very much access to the internet while we were there, but we were lucky several times to have access. So that is why you were able to get Mom's email. We were able to do some missionary work of our own on this trip. We talked to every one about you and what you are doing on a mission and then we were able to talk about the gospel. I think everyone in the family had some time to talk to someone. We spent one night with the family reading your email. I speak for the whole family when I say that we love getting your letters. You are such a good example for the whole family. Thank you.






Thank you for the Fathers day card. You have a way of making me feel like a million bucks! It got here on time by the way.

I like the way that your district is helping each other out. Hopefully you will all be able to get new investigators.

Well, China was amazing! we started in Beijing and saw the Great Wall, Tienaman Square and the Forbiddin City (by the way the hike to the great wall was a rough one, we got a work out). We even went one morning by ourselves to the local market and bought a few breakfast items. Some items a little interesting and then a few that were amazing. One morning we went to a local temple/park and there were a bunch of old people exercising. A little odd but fun to watch what they do in their old age. Then we got on a plane to go to Xi'an where we saw the teracotta warriors (unbelivable), and another city wall that surrounded an acient city about 800 to 1000 years ago. We rented bikes and rode around the wall which was about 9 miles. This city was extra interesting because nobody obeys the traffic laws and pedestrians better watch out. Our guides had to help us cross the street several times. 

We then got on a plane again and went to Youngsho, this place was amazing!! they had little mountains, thousands of them, that jutted out of the ground about 600 to 1000 feet. It was in the rainforest and cool as heck. I think mom will send some pictures. The one problem that we had was it rained most of the time and we had to cancel a couple of events that we had planned. However, we went to the town and bartered with the locals and  bought several trinkets. Jake had a lot of fun doing this and he was good at it.
Our last stop was Shang Hi, what an amazing city (huge!!). They have about 24 million people in that city. To compare, New York has about 12 million. More than half of Shang Hi has been built in the last 20 years. It growing so fast. fast growth brings different problems though, they have thick smog most of the time. And they have really old, decrepid parts of the city and very new, up scale parts. There is a huge contrast between rich and poor there.

We finally made it home and I am still suffering from jet lag. I have not been able to get on a good schedule yet. I still keep waking up at 3:30 in the morning and I cant fall back to sleep

Enough about us. How are you? 2 companions is a little odd. I did it for about 1 month once on my mission. It was fun but sometimes 2 is company and 3 is a crowd. So I hope it works out for you.

I have been so impressed by your progress in the gospel. I can tell that your testimony has grown. I love reading about your experiences. Your mission is a little more like mine, in that it is hard to get investigators and when you do you really cherish them. Keep praying and working hard and the Lord will bless you.

I love you, may the Lord bless you and keep you safe!

Love DAd!!

Nehou, We are running ourselves ragged and I am hoping that this email will get to you. It feels like we do a weeks worth of activities every day. It has been a very fun trip, we just wish you were with us. Tonight we are in Xion after spending three days in Bejing. We have seen the Terracotta Warriors, climbed the Great Wall, seen the Cube and Bird's Nest, entered the Forbidden City and Tieananmen Square. We have eaten Peking Duck, lots of different Chinese dishes served family style on large tables with centers that turn. We had a delicious lunch near the Great Wall with smoked trout and lovely stir fried vegetables. Today we had a dumpling lunch with 15 different kinds of dumplings and then mongolian hotpots for dinner - too much food today! We rode bikes on the old City Wall in Xion and got foot massages tonight. We haven't had much sleep and everyone is a little grumpy at this point. We have to get up at 4:00am to catch a flight to Guiyong in the rain forest part of China.  We have had a few hiccups. We had a 6 hour flight delay yesterday due to lightning and thunderstorm in Bejing. This put us into Xion very late but we did fine!  Jake is having a great time bargaining with the locals and seems to have more souveniers than anyone at this point. I am going to attache a few pictures and go to bed for 4 hours. We will tell you more when we are better rested!  Love you from China! Mom Sent from my iPad

June 2, 2013

Dear sister Israelsen,

Sorry I did not write last week, everything flew by so quickly and before I knew it I was traveling for work again.

This week I went to Hormel to install our new system for them to evaluate. I went with 3 engineers from our office and it took the whole week to install and get the system to work right. Wow! that was hectic. Meanwhile Mom was here trying to get everyone ready for the China trip, our family and all the other people from the school that are going. I am getting very excited but it takes a lot of work to get everyone where they need to be.

Rachel started work at Water World this past week and I think she is enjoying it a lot more than last year when she was a garbage picker upper. In fact, its a little funny because the life guards kind of think they are on the top of the totem pole. Which they kind of are. Plus, Rachel went to Eliches this week with some of her friends after they sent her home from work because it was kind of an overcast day and they didnt need all the life guards. Boy is she lucky. Tonight, she is packing for the trip and her room is not clean! Shock!! We told her it had to be clean before she left, she may be sitting home by herself. I'm not confident that her room will be done by the morning.

Elizabeth is in full summer mode. She likes to stay up late and sleep in when she can. She is signed up for swimming 3 days a week and then we are going to sign her up for Mathnazium again when we get back. I think that everyone will have to work through the summer with not time off when we get back, so Elizabeth and I will probably go to the Reunion by ourselves this year. We'll see how that goes when we get back also.

So everyone in the ward has had their graduation party now. Good! one more thing to check off the list. I guess Kawika barely graduated from High school and I dont think he is planning on going on a mission. He could still surprise us but the rest of the guys are going (Josh, Trent, Jake, Brady,  and maybe Garron will go on a service mission). Thats a lot of people. We went from all of those guys in the Priest quorum to just Curtis Murphy. They all became Elders over the past couple of week. 

I dont know if we told you but Jake was ordained to an Elder just 2 weeks ago. It came up so suddenly. I had the pleasure to ordain him, with the Stake President there. He has also decided to get is Patriarchal blessing. Not sure when he is going to do it but he got his recommend. Its all going by so fast. In fact, I think if he wants to go on his mission in April/May timeframe he will have to put his papers in sometime in january or February! Thats just around the corner!! We will pick you up and send him off in about a month or 2. Cripes!!!!!!! 

The Priesthood asked me again about doing your plaque. What is your favorite scripture that you would like on the plaque? your choice or I will put the one that is on your home page. 

I love reading your letters! Its the highlight of my week. I am so proud of how your are doing! It is hard when you open a new area and start from scratch! I hope you are able to teach more now that you are getting familiar with the area. It sounds like things are moving along. Even being able to help the less active is important. So keep up the good work.

I LOVe YOU!!!!

DAd

Dear Megan,

We are madly trying to finish packing so this will be short - sorry!  Rachel just got off of work at Water World and she is much farther behind than she led me to believe.  We may never go to sleep - well at this point she is on her own as she has had all week.  She may be pulling an all nighter. 

Dad was gone this week trying to make sure that his Hormel sensor project worked.  He had a terrible first day but after that the tide turned and the project has proven successful since.  Here is hoping that they continue to get good results and he can sell this!  

I went to Boulder to exchange money for yuan twice and finally was able to get some.  The exchange rate is 5.3 and Mao's gigantic picture is on every bill - it looks like play money.  

I lost my wallet this week and went into a panic.  I was at Kohl's trying to pick up a few things for the girls and when I left, I saw that I didn't have my glasses so I took the stuff out of my purse to see if they were at the bottom of my purse.  I back tracked but was late to pick up Elizabeth from swim team so left the store on Colorado and ran to get her.  I was going to dinner with Christina and Tara to celebrate making it through one more year and had to call them about the being late.  I called Kohl's and they didn't have it so I said a prayer and drove over there to see if I could find it.  As soon as I walked into the store, there it was on the display where I had stopped to look through my purse for my glasses.  I was so thankful!  I had money and all my credit cards, driver's license etc. in preparation for our trip and didn't know what we would do if it had been stolen.  I was soooooo lucky.  We were 30 minutes late to dinner but all's well that ends well.

Conner is going to come over and water the flowers and garden - yes in the middle of all the chaos you Dad put in two raised beds.  I picked up some plants that are well on their way since we are late in the growing season and we planted them yesterday - crazy!  We will see if anything grows.  How much should I pay Conner?  What did your pay per day translate into?

Dad got home late Friday night after Michael Thornton had been here for about 4 hours.  We had a fried chicken dinner and talked to him until late.  He got up and went downtown Denver to take another test after the magic test taking breakfast of eggs and blueberries.  He left after his all day test and flew back to UT.  He had pictures of his cute new baby boy Clark who is 4 weeks old.  I think it must be hard for Mandy to have him in the family so close to Marshall.  

Well, when we get back, I will check on your classes, send you some skirts and start planning for our trip to the Netherlands!  

We won't have much access to wifi so I'm not sure if we will be able to write to you this week but we will try.  I checked out a few videos from the library to educate us a little more and we are excited but also worried about the long flight ahead of us tomorrow.  We will have adventures to tell you the next time we are able to!

Take Care!  We love you!

Mom