15 January 2017
Dear everyone!
First off, Happy birthday to Sam coming up in just a few days! It was nice to talk with you the other day while you waited for Bradley's plane to arrive from DIA. I hope you're having a wonderful birthday visit.
Ben, thank you so much for the email and for the video! It looked like a beautiful day to go skiing; but as clear as the sky was, I imagine it was pretty cold too. Those boys are going to be hooked; the ski resort knows what their doing. :) So, you'll be off to Japan again soon. Wow, who would have seen this coming! I hope the work goes well and that they are more prepared for your crew than last time.
Last Monday, the 9th, Dad was sworn in again as Sheriff. This could turn out to be the last time...I guess we'll just wait and see! They've made a few changes in personnel recently and are off to a good start on this term.
Last week my partner couldn't go visiting teaching with me so Gran offered to go instead and it went really well. She had never really spent any time visiting with Lucy Shipp and enjoyed that very much. Lucy is from the Philippines; she is about my age and had never been married before. She met a divorced man from our Ward, online. He went there to visit a few times and eventually they married. So she went from single woman to wife, mother of 7 kids and grandmother of almost 20! She is a good lady; she and Darnell seem very happy together. Gran and I also visited Lisa Enno and her boyfriend, Peter. I think he'd been drinking and he wasn't as friendly as usual; we didn't stay long. We visited at Sandy Woods; she doesn't get out of her house very often, but she remembered Gran from years ago and we had a really nice visit.
Last fall I met a new housekeeper at the hospital; he's a young black man named, Caleb, super friendly and we just hit it off. We mostly just make small talk and never have time to do more than that. Well Friday, we were both sitting in the prep area, waiting to give blood, so we had time to get to know each other better. He told me a little about his family and how he ended up at BYUI and that he is majoring in accounting and plans to become a CPA and set up practice in Rexburg someday; he really likes it here. Then he asked me about my family and I mentioned how you kids live all over the country and ended with saying we have a son in Minnesota. He asked where he lived and I said, Apple Valley. He smiled really big and said that he had been there, that he had served his mission in Minnesota. I said, well, he used to live in Prior Lake. Caleb just froze and said, "What's your son's name?" I told him and he about flipped out! He said he knows Sam and his family; that he's been in their home. I guess it was several years ago, about the time Maddie was a baby. I texted with Sam at the time and called him later. He said that he used to go on splits with Elder Davenport and that together, they would help people moving in or out of the Ward. Caleb had said, "Yeah, he was the buff, go to guy in that Ward!" It was pretty exciting to find out that this nice kid I've been making friends with knows my family! I'm hoping we can have him and his family over sometime. And maybe we can have them again next time Sam's and Natalie's family comes to visit!
I think that's about all the news from here. I hope that some of you might have a minute to write. I love you all...each one!
Mom/Johanna/Nana
Hi everybody!
Ben, I really enjoyed your email too. And I'm so excited you get to go back to Okinawa! Such an amazing opportunity! And way to go Joseph with your skiing! I recently tried cross country skiing again for the first time in about 25 years and did just fine on the flat snow, but really struggled on any sort slope. No big surprise, but I'm going to try again! I'm just not sure that down hill skiing is anywhere in my future.
Mom, I also loved reading your email. Congratulations to Dad! Hope your next four years as Sheriff are just as great as the last have been. And, Mom, that is such a fun story about Caleb! I love the connections we can make in the church.
We have had a pretty good week. The kids finally had a snow day on Monday. They've been waiting for a very long time - years in fact! It's been especially hard for them to wait this year because we have had so much snow. We got 26 inches in December and another 11 so far in January. Yesterday Stephen got to go work at the library shoveling snow off the roof. It's a flat roof. He, and 6 other guys got it done in about 4.5 hours. He made $80! When he came home, James was shoveling the snow off of our roof, so he climbed up and helped him. The rest of us were on the ground shoveling snow they were dumping onto the porch, driveway, and walkways. So much snow! I am actually really enjoying having a real winter again. It's kind of funny, but I like it!
Some of you know, but I wanted to tell all of you, that Annie and I are training to run in the Snake River Canyon Half Marathon on March 4th. It's along the Snake River, but only about 45 minutes away from our house. We are both excited and nervous. I've been struggling a little bit with shin splints though, so we'll have to see what I can do. Just in my right leg. It's so frustrating to me that my muscles and lungs and heart can handle the running just fine, but then my shin starts to hurt. So I've slowed down and my leg is currently taped with kinesiology tape. It really doesn't matter how fast I go in this race, I could walk the whole thing if I want to, so I'm not worried about my speed. Just my endurance. I had already decided that this would be my one and only half marathon, and then back to biking. I just really wanted to do this once!
We were looking through the Moscow Parks and Rec booklet this week and found a couple of neat pictures of Noah playing basketball last year! https://www.ci.moscow.
Naomi and James went to a UofI vs. BSU swimming and diving meet yesterday. BSU totally stomped on UofI. BSU got 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in every race but one. One girl from UofI managed to get 2nd place once. Naomi really enjoyed it anyway!
I think that's everything. I'm attaching three pictures of regular life around here. One of Stephen doing homework, one of Annie, Noah, and Naomi playing a game, and one of Spencer building with blocks. I'm not sure where Ellen was when I was taking pictures. Lots of love to all of you!
Love,
Aimee
p.s. Mom, Spencer mentioned again this morning as he was putting on one of his new ties for church, "I really like this tie." He has actually used them way more than his remote control Lamborghini.
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