Working on a goal.

It's been fun having Mike home with us before his upcoming wedding. We only had him for less than two weeks after his mission so it's been nice. He and I decided to "train" for the Dam half Marathon in Rexburg for June and have a 8 weeks training program (easy beginners) and a 12 week program we'll do after the 8 week, which is more intense. Mike already surpasses the 8 week, but he has talked Nicole into training too while she is with her parents in South Carolina. Any whoo the weather has been a bit of a hinderence but we decided to be like Post Persons and come rain or shine or snow we'd be out there. So Montana weather dumped almost a foot of snow on us this week and here we are out to conquer it. I'm sure we are using 10 time the calories (hope hope) as we trudge through the white stuff, sometimes slip slidding along the way. We are having fun and feeling good!

The spirit works hard out here!

"I had to get a shot of the Orem sign."

"The results of the 2 1/2 months that I've been out here. The work goes on. The spirit works hard and we're running our feet off trying to catch up."

"Me at Utah Lake. Not much of a lake right now. It's completely frozen over. The ice covering the lake has snow on top of it. I'm starting to get into a routine and getting more comfortable with the area. Transfers came and I stay with my companion. I am happy. The mission had to open up seven new areas because of the huge group of missionaries coming in. The people in Orem are really cool and I've made some lifetime friends for sure."

Home under the table

On a recent trip to Washington Max had pulled me under the table to visit his "home". He proceeded to furnish it with some new trucks and cars he received from great grandma Joan and a few books. We played cars by driving them under the tunnel (table stand) and sliding them down the ridges. We read some books and then he decided he needed to invite dad and then grandpa down into his make believe world.

Dad was quite amazed at Max's imagination as Max proceeded to explain his little world.

I love the childhood imagination and am tickled it starts so young. We all have had a touch of it and to a certain extent it remains in our thinking. Sometimes its great to just escape into our own little world to ponder life or relax from worldly stress. I have found it in a good book, pondering when I'm writing, taking a brisk walk outdoors exploring my world and even, when I can, go to the Temple to shut out the world and ponder eternity. It causes me to recover and redirect my life and set goals to help make my life and those around me better.

Jolly Jingles

We had a holly jolly Christmas and here are pictures from our day. Even Saydie dog got a visit from Santa

Mike and Doug were pretty excited by the simple things

Awesome brag board hand made by Debbie with the help of Tony.

Now for a good nites sleep!

A much needed piece of technical equipment. J's new toy...

A traditional breakfast of toooooo many calories..... Ice-cream, strawberries, waffles & egg nog. Must be Christmas...

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. So thankful for all it stands for.

Hermana Stacey Update

It was great to talk to Stacey on Christmas. She sounds just totally involved with her mission and having a great time. This is a picture of her new companion Hermana Quishpe. She has been out 10 months and comes directly from Ecuador. She is still learning English and Stacey is still learning Spanish, so they are helping each other and loving it.

Stacey is making home made totillas with Yolanda, an investigator.

Time for a much needed hair cut.

Ahhhhh and a new look, but she did find a grey hair in the lot.

"Oh! I have to tell you about the food I've had so far...we are fed every night except for Monday. And I'm sure they would feed us then as well if we let them. Some of the most interesting things I've had are ( I don't know their spanish names) Green Pumkin Soup, which is really good and a warm cinnamon rice milk drink, some put corn in it. The most interesting soup I've had so far I dub it "Chicken Guts Soup". It has EVERY part of the chicken you can think of in it, brains and all. It's a tomato soup which makes it look even worse. And they put corn, lettuce, and chicken in it. I first thought it was tofu because of the texture, but I looked closer and it wasn't tofu. My companion couldn't eat all of it so we brought some home and that's how I got a picture of it."

"Here I am raising a cup of Egg Nog on Nog Night." An Epperson tradition.

Hermana Quishpe and Stacey at Zone Conference. The transfer started with a bang....4 baptisms and have 5 more planned for the beginning of the year. " We are teaching 27 investigators. We are averaging 3 teaching lessons a day. We are so blessed here in Utah. This was the last place I would think to find so much work. It's amazing!"

Stacey and her companion had Christmas dinner with her High Councilman in the Stonewood Stake. She says it was fun to eat with a Utah born and raised family. The mom made American Tostados which were really good, but they were nervous when they saw my companion but they relaxed a little when we told them she was from Ecuador and they don't really eat tortillas there. It's more of a Mexican thing. It was really fun but we couldn't stay long because we went out and taught 3 lessons Christmas night.

"He gots the grasshopper!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!!

Yesterday was Mike's birthday. Wow 22 years...yikes! I have to tell a little story about him. When we lived at the 'apartment' in Oregon City the boys were real good about finding all sorts of homeless critters to offer our home to. I'd find all kinds...allllll kinds....We had an old fish tank that became a little village of critters. Mike and Doug had invited a praying mantis to 'join' our family. So into the fish tank he went with all the sticks and leaves to make it feel more at home. They searched the libray to find out what a praying mantis eats. Discovered it was grasshoppers so they went out shopping the wild back yard for a morsel for the mantis to munch on. They found an abundance of the hoppers and had fun capturing a couple and carefully placing them in the Mantis den. Well to the boys disappointment the mantis wasn't hungry for a few days. One day as J was messing with our new video camera recorder, Mike and him walked over to the Mantis den to capture, for posterity, a look at the wild critter. All of a sudden you hear Michaels little 5 year old voice exclaim...."He gots the grasshopper!" The mantis finally did get hungry and we have Mike's little voice recorded to prove it. WE LOVE YOU MIKE!!

Me fine!

I always thought that 'dog clothes' were just a tad eccentric....but then I realized there is a time and place. We had very coooold weather here...10 to 20 below...our poor Saydie Dog was freezing her tush off every time we needed to take her out for her job. (We don't have any yard). She'd rush outside happy and anxious as ever. Then two minutes out she'd look at us and lift her paws up one by one and seemed to say..."are you crazy". So we broke down and got her a winter outfit and it was hilarious watching her walk, but it didn't take her very long to figure it out.

Sometimes when you ask Max if he wants something or let him know he needs to do something he'll reply "My Fine"....... I escaped once again to Tacoma the weekend of the 12th to get a snuggle from two of my favorite kiddlies. Here's Max with one of his favorite christmas story books sitting under their beautiful christmas tree.

Ryan is definantly into food. He gets his little bird mouth going and sits up in this cute little chair and munches away.

This is one of my favorite pics of a super cute Ryan. Getting him to smile and laugh is priceless.

Tony was sacked out on the couch and Max decided he would take a nap with daddy. So he crawled up onto the couch with his "nite, nite" (blankey) and laid there for about a minute and then "all done" came back down to build some more airplanes with his blocks.

Catching Debbie in cuddle times with Ryan.

These trips come not often enough. But I'm glad we have the benefits to make the flights as often as we can. Thanks Tony and Debbie! So until next time...."My fine"......