brrrr

sunday, january 20, 2008

[ a cold week ]

It's been cold this week! We haven't gotten much new snow--it's been mostly snow flurries but the weather is COLD!!!

[ house ]

I went up to Logan to check on the house on Friday, January 18. Everything looks good. My apologies to whoever goes up next--there's a lot of snow and I didn't shovel the driveway. I got there late and didn't think I would have time to shovel the driveway and I wasn't sure if we could use the snowblower. One thing--the water in the toilet in the downstairs bathroom looks kind of funky. It's almost like someone used it and forgot to flush. The water's yellow looking and has some kind of scum on the top. Mom and Dad, what do you want to do about that? Otherwise everything is fine.

[ remodel changes ]

Well, we've changed our kitchen remodel plan. Julie came down on Monday the 14th and we talked about what we wanted to do. Originally we were going to put in linoleum but Julie said tile would be better. I hadn't really considered that because I thought it would be really expensive but we went over to Lowe's to look at their tile selection and there were some nice looking tiles for a good price. Steven wanted to paint the walls before we did the floor. So we thought we'd paint, do the floor and then do the other projects. Then he decided he wanted to get the lighting changes done before painting so all the painting is done at the same time.

[ other house stuff ]

Well, as if all that wasn't confusing enough, to muddy things even more, we are looking at having a home electronics/security company put in semi-permanent electronics for the phone and doorbell. The equipment we have now that makes lights flash when the doorbell or phone rings is not working so great now (that's why we miss your calls sometimes). Some friends of ours used this company (called 4 Home Control) to wire their house and it works really well. The electronics will work with the lights in the house already but if at some point in the future we sell the house and move, we can "unhook" the switches, etc. and take the equipment with us and have it re-installed. So now we are thinking we'll do that first and THEN start on the other projects. We'll keep you updated as things progress.

[ jordan ]

Hi Grandma and Grandpa! I am really learning lots in school and church. I'm learning to add 3s (3+3, 3+4, etc.). I'm also having fun reading. We have been talking about weather and I made a weather book with pictures of the different kinds of weather we have. We have sunny weather, windy weather, snowy weather, rainy weather, and cloudy weather. Every day we have a list of 16 words we learn. We talk about them and if we don't know what they mean, my teacher shows us and tells us what they mean. I am learning lots of words! Last week I saw Christie's Indian project on display in the library when we went for library day.

In Primary today, in Sharing Time, we talked about the Plan of Salvation. In class we talked about choosing the right.

I love you and miss you and hope your mission is going well.

Love, Jordan

[ christie ]

Hi Grandma and Grandpa! I really, really miss you!

I passed off my 3 times table last week and now I'm working on my 4 times table. I have already passed off my 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 and 11 times tables. My Indian project is on display in the school library. In science we are talking about the sun, moon and stars. I've learned that the moon goes around the earth and the earth goes around the sun. I joined the school choir. We practice every Thursday morning and will have a performance in May.

I go to activity day with the girls from the Westbrook 4th ward two Fridays a month. At the last activity day, we made thank you cards to give to someone. I gave mine to Mommy and Daddy.

Today in Primary I learned about prophets in Church history. I know our first prophet was Joseph Smith. Our prophet today is President Hinckley.

We're going to paint my bedroom. It's going to be light blue with darker blue stripes above and below the chair rail. we're going to put posters of Tinker Bell and flower gardens and some Church pictures. I'm excited for that!

I love you and hope you're doing well.

love, Christie

[ merilee ]

I spent several hours yesterday (Saturday) helping to train the Deaf Mentors on the Shared Reading Project. That is a part of the Deaf Mentor program that teaches parents how to read stories to their deaf child using ASL.

I'm starting to think about gardening. Yeah, I know, it's the middle of January. The garden space isn't that big and so I want to plan out having early, mid and late season crops. That'll require some planning and research to make sure we have the right type of seeds and plant them at the right time. I'm enjoying winter but am also looking forward to spring.

I finally got a new set of dishes about 2 or 3 weeks ago. See picture.


There's not a whole lot else going on right now. My days are kept busy with running the house, keeping on top of homework, Deaf Mentor projects and other projects.

I enjoy reading your blog entries. It's so fascinating hearing about your mission. Hope you can post some pictures soon.

love, Merilee

[ steven ]

Well, Merilee told you a lot about what's going on already. I'll just add a few things.

Work is going well. We have a few new things that will be added to the VideoPhone firmware, but I can't tell you what they are quite yet, sorry. I expect that these new changes will go public in another month or two. But we are excited about these changes in the company. They will hopefully help us remain at the forefront of the industry. These new things are things that nobody else is doing.

As far as the kitchen remodel goes, I think what we'll really do is investigate a bit further and see how much the various parts of it will cost and that will help us know which one we want to do first, etc. The lighting above the cooking area of the kitchen lowers the ceiling height at least a foot in that area. We want to get rid of that and since that will affect the wall above the cabinetry, we're thinking of doing that part first and then painting, and then the tile. Kind of a top-down approach.

Church is going well. I am enjoying teaching from the new Joseph Smith book. They've taken an interesting approach but one I like. They're combining elements from his various talks, the D&C, J.S. History, and other writings and (so far anyway) focusing on what he taught about specific parts of the gospel in each lesson. I'm sure you're familiar with the lessons that are taught so far, but I do like how the first lesson focused on the First Vision and then the second lesson focused on Heavenly Father. All of his teachings start with that foundation and go from there so I am enjoying teaching those lessons.

I'm enjoying reading your blog posts and seeing how things are different in South Africa. Look forward to seeing more.

love, Steven

[ other stuff ]

I just read your latest post to Christie and Jordan and they think you having monkeys in the backyard is just the coolest thing! Hope you can get some pictures of them!

Jordan says to bring home a real monkey! Christie says pictures will do just fine!

We love you and miss you. We know you are doing the Lord's work and are so happy you're off to a good start.