News from Mom

Dear Family,

Here it is November, and school is one quarter done. This month we had a bomb threat, so we spent the morning on the football field so we'd be safe. I asked the kids if the excitement traumatized them, but it just seemed like they felt anti-climactic after the previous week when we had a lock down while police searched the neighborhood for an intruder with a machine gun. I also learned that when I mention the song "My Girl" by the Temptations, the kids stop what they're doing, start to sway back and forth, and the singing begins. I've used it as an example for proverbs, poetic devices, and just for fun to calm down a surly student. My life at school seems like some sort of Twilight Zone parallel universe that doesn't really exist after I go home.

This month we attended McKay's baby blessing for little Jackson, and then we travelled to St. David, AZ to be with Becca when they blessed little Elissa. I've decided that no greater joy can bless us than watching our children live successful righteous lives raising their beautiful families. We have tons of fun travelling to all your homes and playing with the grandchildren, and going on outings to see the sights. But the greatest joy comes from knowing that you're all doing a great job at home. Remember President David O McKay said, "No success can compensate for failure in the home."

Keep up the good work. We're proud of you.

Love & prayers, Mom

Atwoods in October

Dear Family,

Looks like another month has whizzed by us. Nothing like a full calendar to help wear everyone out! I guess I will just do a fast recap...Kayla and Milo started gymnastics, Kambri and Kayla started dance, Michael, the awesome scout, is cruising rapidly toward his wolf, and Andy found a new model for his ad campaign...

"Dearest Children" the closing song for the primary program still makes me cry and think about Grandpa Whitney even after singing it every week in primary and then in the Sacrament meeting program. We painted a bathroom, Kambri's room and the master bedroom, but the master is too dark and we need to repaint it. Kambri did awesome in her little school musical. All the kids did awesome in their first piano master class. We only got a few Halloween pictures; I am hoping to get Kambri and Milo to put their costumes on again so I can take pictures of them. Halloween was clear and cold, but we got lots of candy, and we want to eat it all the time and leave wrappers all around the house. At least some members of the family do :) Andy and Kambri are singing in the ward choir. I went with the 3rd graders to the Issaquah fish hatchery to see salmon spawning, very exciting. We miss everyone and hope everyone is doing fantastical! We don't have Thanksgiving plans and would love some great company for the long weekend...

Love Andy and Mel and our very wild, happy, sugar-crazy children

Martha & Jeremy

Fall is a beautiful time in the East. The weather in October was even nicer than the weather in the previous month. Most days are sunny, and the cool air is crisp. The leaves are turning every shade of red, orange, yellow and even some pretty shades of brown. I regularly see leaves flutter slowly to the ground. I think that fluttering leaves are my favorite part. We've spent the month outdoors as much as we could. We also celebrated Hyrum's 2nd birthday. He received trains and train tracks for presents. For the climax, we took the boys to a train museum. Both Lyle and Hyrum ran and yelled "all-aboard" non-stop. The only trains they've seen up close are trolleys and subways, so the big steam engines were amazing to them. I think Jeremy and I had just as much fun watching the boys play and run as the boys had playing and running. It was a fun day. We also enjoyed the Halloween festivities. Everything is just so much more fun with kids. I can say that right now while they are peacefully taking their afternoon naps! October is a fun month to spend in the East.

After reading Becca's article last month, Jeremy and I laughed and commented, "Wow, life is sure different in a big city." I've forgotten about country life and all the fun quirks. Philly, the nation's 5th largest city, definitely has its quirks--although they sometimes don't seem very fun . . .

You don't see any joggers exercising at night, unless you count the ones running from the police.

We live on a one-way street that becomes very narrow at night with all the cars parallel parked on either side.

Our neighbors living in close proximity to us represent 7 different nationalities.

You can get a parking ticket parking at the library if you park too close to the corner.

At the other library close to us, you can get a parking ticket if your meter runs out.

You can be playing at a park and suddenly see a 150-year-old tree come crashing to the ground blocking everyone in for the rest of the evening. When this happened to us, a police officer finally had pity on me with the kids and took us home. His only comment was, "Oh, you live in this neighborhood? I hope you don't go walking outside by yourself. We get good business here."

We live less then a five-minute walk from a liquor store, laundry-mat, and two pizza stores and a Wendy's. We live less then a 10-minutes walk from a police station, Sear's, McDonald's, a movie theatre, a concert hall (rock concerts) and the subway. It takes more than 10 minutes to drive to these same places.

I've never been to Jeremy's school (besides dropping him off) because it's in a(nother) bad part of town.

A fun past-time with friends is to compare scary real-life stories with each other.

If you don't speed up for yellow lights or run just-turned-red-lights you get honked at and/or rear-ended.

I know all the new rap music without ever having turned my radio to the rap stations.

Hyrum's name COMMONLY gets mistaken for Tyrone-- for which I receive many compliments.

A lot of people have guns here too, except they are not used for hunting animals.

To call anywhere, you must dial the area code first. Our ward boundaries represent 3 different area codes. This is not including the cell phone area codes.

Our church is downtown and surrounded by a 9-foot tall black gate. This gate is locked every day except for Sunday.

Downtown, people park in the middle of the road--and do not get parking tickets.

The local newspaper is sold in the middle of roads.

We can be watching an Eagle's home football game on TV (Philly's pro-football team) and see the before-game fireworks and fighter jets fly over the stadium. If your window is open, you can hear them too. If you look out your window and it's a clear night, you can see them too.

You can also enjoy all the historical benefits from living in Philly--but it's best not to explore it alone!

Living in a big city is definitely an adventure for a small town girl who used to think Provo was a big city with lots of dangerous criminals. It's been an exciting experience for us all.

Becca & Nick

McKay & Keresa

Matthias

Querida Familia,

So more one month down, one more to go before finals and this crazy first semester is over. Yuck. I guess my classes are just a little bit calmer now that I've eased back on my job and I have three more afternoons a week to do my homework and study for my classes. Even though my classes seem to overwhelm me, especially around test time and deadlines, I still really like what I'm studying. That's a good sign I suppose. Yesterday I had another test in my Calculus class and it just wiped me out. It's just frustrating because I like the class, I feel like I've got a good handle on the material, I can do the homework, and then I take the test and die! It just doesn't seem like these crazy tests are a fair representation of what I know. Whatever, one more month before finals, and then I can start fresh with a more manageable schedule.

So here's some news. Since that trip I made conference weekend that I wrote about last month, I've kinda had a girlfriend. Well, no kinda about it. Her name is Megan, she's from Sierra Vista (that's kinda towards St. David), and she's a third year mechanical engineer. When school started, I tried to put as many girls into my dating pool as possible, and Megan was one of them. Then after that conference weekend, I just kinda started seeing Megan more than others and now just her. So it's worked out kinda nice. I mean, after being wiped out by a midterm week and every other stress around, it's nice to have someone to send me encouraging text messages, pat me on the back and say that it'll be okay. For Halloween, I'd been growing a beard and I had planned to make it a goatee and paint it white to be Col Sanders. But then the week before, Megan took me down to meet her parents, so I went clean shaven and had to use my poncho and be a Mexican for Halloween. But after my weekend with her parents, her mom sent around an email with a picture she'd taken to her whole family with this text: Here are pictures of Megan and Matthias Whitney. They are dating. He is a really nice guy. He went to the Dominican Republic on his mission. He got home August 2. He is majoring in Optical Engineering. It has something to do with lens (es?) and mirrors.

I've also been called to be an instructor in the Elders Quorum in my singles ward. I've given two lessons so far and it's been pretty fun. And with the two lessons, I was able to apply math equations to both! I mean, remember the lesson in the Pte. Wilford Woodruff book, Becoming Saviors on Mt. Zion? As the Savior did work for us that we could not do for ourselves, in the temple, we have the responsibility to do work for our deceased relatives! That can be setup by a simple ratio! It's a lot different teaching a range of freshman to Phd Students to established professionals than it was teaching semi-illiterate Dominicans. But it's still pretty fun.

Have a good month!

Con Amor, Matthias.

PS, Does anyone have plans for Thanksgiving yet?