15 March

Well here it is Sunday again. It is the 15th of March already boy the time is flying really fast. We were called by our supervisor on Wednesday to see if we would start working 5 days a week in Elberton. We were happy to do it. We will miss serving in the temple 2 times a week but we know we were called to serve as imaging missionaries. So we will serve. We are trying I to decide whether to move out there or not. Do we want to put the miles on the car or stay close to Atlanta with our friends we have made in the apartment. There are two things to look at. We could go and expand our horizon by moving, meet new see new places, or at least some of the new place. Elberton is a very small town, the big thing to see is the new grocery called Ingles. Not to much of anything else. Pretty country, but very small town. It is a two hour drive one way, we work about 7 hours and then it is home again. Oh what to do what to do!!!
The weather has been cold and rainy but we are not complaining as they really need the water. We went from 80 to 45. But the trees are being stubborn and are continuing to bud. Pretty pinks, reds and whites all over the hills.(or valleys) It is going to be beautiful when it is truly spring.
I have been sewing made a little quilt and now am going to start a couple of baby blankets to crochet around. Hope I can remember how to do the edge.
I read to Paul daily as we are driving. We have read several books and now are reading about Abraham Lincolns wives family and the civil war. She had 14 brothers and sisters and half were for the south and the other were for the north. It has been interesting. It makes the time go quickly.
As always we are busy and blessed. All is going well here and at home. We have been out over 6 months now and it is flying. Still we think about home and all that is going on there.
We are pretty isolated here and just going about the same routine. Paul makes a comment once a while "it seems like we have done this before" remember ground hog day. You keep going until you get it right. Hopefully we will get it right.
My friend at Relief Society gave me a great thought which has made me really consider all things. "Live in such a way, that those who know you but don't know Christ, will want to know Christ because they know you." So I leave that thought with each of you for the day and the week. Love to all

SNOW IN GEORGIA

yes You eyes are not deceiving you this is snow!!!! And it is March 1st. This is an unusual happening down here. The kids were so excited coming out of church. It started at about 12:00 and it is still coming down!!

This picture is looking out of our window from our apartment and the house across the parking lot. It is so cool!!! Like being back home in Utah. Wait a minute I thought that I was getting away from this stuff. It makes me a little homesick. However, the forecast if for sunny weather beginning next week so that I will like better. I guess they do not have equipment down here to cope with the snow so the kids are praying for school to be closed tomorrow, maybe they will get their wish or not.

We have another of our favorite Temple missionary couples that will be leaving us tomorrow. This was from their farewell dinner. It is Brother and Sister Hopkins they are from Firth Idaho. They have been here working in the temple for the past 18 months. They are very excited to go home but also sad to leave all of us and their temple work. They are great people and have been such an example for us we really have grown to love them but I am sure that their family will be anxious to have them back.

Life is good here we have been so busy I don't have time to do very much extra. Paul is still working in the temple on Saturday but I need to have another day off so I use that day to clean, wash, iron and get groceries. (Is that a day off????) Actually this past week we took Thursday off and went to see the Body Works in downtown Atlanta. They had actual human bodies on display to show how the body worked and all about it. It made me know beyond a doubt that there is a God and he has done so much for us. How else besides a God could our bodies have worked like they do? Someone had to create us and this world for us. I am thankful every day for his love and our blessings. Now is the time for us to be better prepared for the 2nd coming. We must always study and pray so that we are ready for this time. I realize every day how short our time is here on the earth. We may think that it is so busy and we will be around forever. But life passes in an instant. One day we have all of our family with us and they are young and going going, and the next they have families of their own. What a better life can we ask for. I am so thankful for the time I have had here. For the blessings I enjoy each day. Just take time and look around and enjoy!!!!

>Life is a gift. I wrote down a couple thoughts from an email or something I want to share:

Old age is like a bank account, you withdraw in later life what you deposited along the way.

These are simple guidelines to life:

1. Free you heart from hate

2. Free your mind from worry

3. Live SIMPLE

4. Give more

5. Expect Less

Oh I wish I had this engraved in my mind. It is the simple things that are the most important.
Have a good week everyone!!
March 1

Ice Fishing Princess

Dad- you wanted to see some pictures of the new van so here are a few. It has been some nice. We love having the space. We certainly don't have to crame in any more.

Abi had the opportunity to be one of the guys. She went Ice Fishing with Jason and some friends and had the time of her life. She loved it. She even helped bring in a fish. They took the sled and had a wonderful saturday. Madi and I went grocery shopping and spent time in Pocatello. It was fun spending some one on one time with her also. Dad I also put a few pictures of the van on for you also. We hope you are doing well.

Hello Family- We hope that everyone is doing well. Christmas was
alot of fun and now we are back to everyday. It was really cold
up here today so the girls decided to go on a walk in the house.
They had a lot of fun. We hope you are all doing well.

24 JAN AND BEYOND!!!

One more week behind us. This week we worked at Elberton and had our first negative audit. We have to redo about 800 documents because we did not have the focus on the camera set right
Okay so we decided to be brave and change the camera height to accomadate more view of the document and having not done it before did not get the correct focus. OH BOY> we have now learned the hard way how to do it. Tony Rielly to the rescue, our supervisor. He came out on Friday and helped us reset it. Good thing. So we decided to be better safe than sorry and will redo not only the two folders but the other documents we had already done and not sent also. So next week will be rework time. A little deperssing but a good lesson for us to learn.
Today is a lazy day, we went to the gym (boy do we need it) and exercised and of course on the way my cute Paul said lets go to waffle house (a southern restaurant) so we did. It was okay coming out we decided we need to eat better and to not eat out as much. Sometimes it is hard when you are not here.
We have been taking our lunch out to work, but when we spend the night like we did this week we ate out. We went to a place called Richards, it cost us $23.00 for hamburger steak (short for hamburger without the bun) So we will try to be more frugle next time. then again what do you when you don't have anything to do ??? Eat!!

I have been pretty sad after hearing that Bryan and Shauna were moving to Argentina, however news - they will not be moving -n the company is doing a restructuring and will have them stay here for a while longer. Okay with me but the kids were sad.
I still think they will get an opportunity at a later time. So we are sorry they are not going but glad at the same time. Thankful in this time that all of our children have jobs and we all have our health.

Nice day today, 60 here, we like it. Guess I will sign off for now and go do laundry, not all fun for working missionaries.
Life is wonderful.1 Samuel 16:7 For the Lord seeth not as man seeth' for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. He knows what we do not. We can only follow him.

Feb 8th Okay I have had the draft for awhile so I best finish what I started. Thanks Michelle for the cute pictures, and Amber for your updates on your blog. It has been great to have you all post to it.

We have had some great weeks imaging the documents are getting better and we are getting efficient as all is in one style now. At least for awhile. We have been quite busy so I have been writing in my journal instead of bloging it. Sorry.

We had Jeff and Kris come visit us the past weekend it was GREAT!. We had a marathon day on Saturday going to the Aquarium, The coca cola factory, cyclorama (about the war of Atlanta) and to Stone Mt. We left after breakfast at their hotel at 9:00 and did not get home until 9:00. It is a good thing they were on their way to Puerto Rico so they can get some rest.
We really enjoyed the visit with them it was good to catch up on all the family news.

We celebrated our 42nd anniversary on the 27th by going to Applebees with Tom and Bonnie and it was a good visit. Dad and Tom both have great points of view so they can talk up a storm. They are good people.
Today we had a linger longer after ward conference it was the first time I have attended one we had soup and salad it was very good. We have some great people in our ward.

Sundays are a little quiet (not a little a lot) When the weather is good we can walk otherwise it is walk the halls, read or just watch each other and read. today is one of the quiet days, where the halls may just be in order.
I am going to start doing some of our family history I will need to email Keith Cragun as there are none of my dads family is in the PAF yet or at least I can't find them so the search begins. Well best I begin my walk so love to all. MOM Please keep posting, Becky what is going on in sports, music etc, shauna how are all doing. Thanks Amber for your posts. Daina what about you!!!!! Michelle thanks for the cute pictures of the girls dad wants to know where is the car???

Next Michelle has a birthday and Abi is coming up . Have a good week all!!!

WOW Jan 18th

Here it is Jan 18th and the month is almost over. And what a month it has been.
We are finally getting imaging done in Elberton. It has felt great. We decided if we have to drive out there on two consecutive days that we would just spend the night and not push ourselves. We have been staying at a Econolodge which serves breakfast so it has worked out great and the price is right. If we book it through Choice hotels it saves us $10 a night so it has been good.
The temple has been closed for the past week and will be closed this week also. We worked there cleaning one day so we were able to get some good time out in Elberton. Bryan and Shauna flew into Atlanta on their way home from looking for a home in Argentina. Yep that is right Argentina. He has been offered an Executive position over South america and has accepted it. They will be leaving here fast because they want the kids to start school this next quarter in Buenos Aires. So they will leave on the 28th of January. Wow what a whirlwind they are experiencing. The good thing is they will be able to fly home twice a year When they have winter there we have summer and so forth it gives Paul and I somerwhere to go visit in the winter months when we return home.

Life is crazy. But we remain blessed. Bryan and Shauna will have some wonderful experiences and learn more about our world. It can't be all bad. We will miss the kids running over to visit on the spur but we know they will be returning home after 3 years or less so it is good. I guess you could say that Rob and Becky paved the way to show that you can do a lot of different things if you accept the challenge.

The month of February is coming up and we have two birthdays . Michelle is on the 13th and Abi is on the 25th.

The family is having family home evening tomight at Rob and Beckys house it will be the last to share with Bryan and Shauna. Katelyn will sure miss Logan as we all will and the other kids to. Maybe it won't be quite as hard to see them go as we are not there!!!!! One never knows.Thank goodness for the camera on our computer it has helped us see everyone and not get to homesick. Have a great week be sure to add what is going on in the family so we can all see. Love all

Well here it is Jan 4 2009, another year behind us. The holiday was quite different this year as we were not with family. We have a new family here in Atlanta, we went over to Brother and Sister Sharps home for Christmas Eve. They have a lovely home that was decorated with lots of nativity scenes. It was very nice and she was a very gracious lady. On Christmas day we opened our presents from our kids, thanks for the nice sweat suit, scriptures for dad and the wonderful photo album. You made our day.
We had breakfast with the other missionaries here strawberry waffles and blueberry pancakes with all the trimmings. Later in the afternoon we had ham sandwiches with all the fixins and watched a very touching movie called the Christmas shoes.
One of the sisters read a bulletin from home and I thought it had a very great idea. One of the sisters in her ward said that they discussed with their children how we need to keep the spirit of Christmas and they could do it by following this simple rule. The children would get the following for Christmas: Something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. If we would all follow those simple rules wouldn't Christmas be much simpler??
On New years eve we went over the the Hendersons, they work in the temple, they had a real southern dinner, collard greens, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, and lots and lots of pecans, sugared pecans, pecan pies, Cinnamon pecans and plain pecans he bought about 300 lbs and he shells them by hand. He has a little crusher then just shells them. talk about patient. Well we are doing fine, I can't believe that 4 months has passed and we are good.
Still waiting for the equipment to be replaced in
Elberton but hope it will be here this week. Moving onward ever onward.!!!!!