News from Mom

Dear Family,

Here it is September, and it's back to school. Mojave's not nearly as bad as I expected, and I'm settling down to my in-school routine again. My chief yearbook editor introduced herself to me, and she's the most vivacious creative little gal you could ever imagine. I just couldn't figure out her background culture, so I finally asked. It turns out she's Dominican!

I still feel great relief when the weekend comes, and we get to go to the cabin. We spent Labor Day weekend installing the kitchen counters. They're butcher block, if you can imagine, and it just looks so cool! Dad also finished up the railings around the patio, while I created a couple of humming bird feeders that turned into party city for all the local hummers.

I also manage to get into some of my best reading at the cabin. This time I read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. He delves into the most interesting study about all the recent global changes in science, technology, marketing, and how so much work has been off shored and out sourced to other countries. To illustrate he asks, "Remember how our parents used to tell us to eat all our dinner because poor children in India and China are starving." Now it's become, "Do your homework because children in India and China are starving to have your job." It's a bit frightening that as Americans, we lack adequate education and training in science, technology and engineering. In the future we will have to look to foreigners to fill these positions because our own people don't have the skills. So to make a long story short, parents: make sure your children study all the advanced math and science classes possible while in middle school and high school. That way they can be prepared to study technology in college and take on leadership roles in the global economy of the future. Don't be so worried about them having fun in school that they forget about studying. Academics should always come first, and children need to be reminded that their parents' first priority for them is to get the best education possible. Of course I can testify that all my grandchildren are definitely above average, therefore I expect them to take advantage of doing their very best in school, or home school. Especially after seeing them all at the reunion, I know that they are bright children!

Love & prayers, Mom

Atwood News

Dear Everyone, Here are the happenings for our not-so-little family these days.

The Amazing Milo:

Milo is done with all diapers and loves his Scoobie-Doo underwear; this toilet training has been a family affair. Milo is so lucky to have a brother and sisters to cheer him on and encourage him to be a big boy. Just in time for his #3 birthday coming up on this Friday Sept. 15.

Milo learned not to push small objects into his nose (like beads). They tend to get very stuck! Milo is thankful for his dad who used the dental suction tool to pull the bead out.

With the big kids gone back to school, Milo enjoys going in the stroller while Mommy runs, and choosing his own TV shows. His favorites include Little Einsteins, Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Train Engine, and A Bug's Life. (TV is such a blessing)

The other kids are back in school and seem to be adjusting fine. They leave for the bus stop around 8:45, and Milo and I meet them at the bus stop after school around 4:05. I have learned to be there, or the kids will take a "short cut" and stop in the park on the way home.

The kids have a great piano teacher, so great in fact that her only openings is 6:30 on three different mornings. Sigh. I guess we will be forming good habits of getting up early. This conflicts with my workout, but I am trying to rearrange things.

I am in charge of decorating for our enrichment dinner on Friday, so now it is time for me to track down some things in the ward: plants, table clothes, white lights, ect.

I know this letter seems incomplete, but I am hoping to write more often, smaller letters and hopefully stay in touch better. Thanks for your news! We love, miss and think often of our families back in UT, NV and all over the world.

Atwood News #2 September 17, 2006

Here we go with a little more of what's been going on in our lives. We are starting to feel "settled in." I think we have all the boxes unpacked, except for a couple boxes of books that we need shelves for. The walls are still very empty. I haven't hung any pictures because I know we are planning to paint, but I just don't know when we actually will. I am full of great reasons for putting things off!!

We all seem to be settling into a nice fall routine. Andy goes to work early and comes home late. Lucky for us, he had last Friday off. Lucky for him, he found a nice guy with similar hours to carpool with. He has been more stressed this week trying to hire new employees, dental assistant & office manager. And filling in for his Hygienist who has been in the hospital with Meningitis, (thankfully she is expected to make a full recovery).

McKayla lost her first tooth! We were practicing piano together, the tooth was just hanging by a thread and she wouldn't let anyone touch it, but I surprised her and reached up to tap it out, she jerked her head and the tooth flung out of her mouth and across the room! She cried, then when she realized it didn't hurt she started laughing uncontrollably. She is doing so well in first grade. I love seeing her get on the bus with the big kids.

Kambri and Michael got an exciting package in the mail, a game cube. Now they finish their work in record time. They even do extra jobs to play a little longer. Is this considered a form of bribery? Andy and I call it rewarding good behavior.

Kambri has been feeling a little stressed adjusting to fifth grade and making new friends. Fifth grade at Rock Creek El. is more like middle school she has a math teacher, Social Studies teacher and a science teacher. Her science teacher Mrs. Johnson is also her reading/writing teacher. She is so responsible that she will be fine.

All the kids are swarming me they want to play monopoly. I will write more later!

Love Andy and Melanie & family

Martha & Jeremy

Hello Everyone,

It was sure great seeing everyone at the reunion. Jeremy was sure sorry he missed it. Thanks to everyone who helped me with camping. In times like that I always try to be a superwoman and fail miserably. So it is nice to have such good brothers. Because of all the help, I was able to sleep comfortably and even Andy helped by washing our breakfast pans. Lyle and Rummy have not stopped talking about the snake the cousins found. In fact, Rummy now calls his number twos snakes. He and Lyle will stand over the toilet for many minutes talking about the snakes and comparing it to the one Grandpa held at the reunion!

We really enjoyed our time in the West. The boys (and their Mom) loved being able to swim every day. Grandma taught them how to jump off of Dawn's ladder and pretend to be "Buzz Light Year." In California they showed off their skills in the Tanner's pool and left everyone in awe.

Since we've come back we've been enjoying the weather. It's started to cool off and every once in a while I can smell a little whiff of fall. I love fall here. We went on a picnic today and enjoyed seeing the boys run and run and run. We're starting playgroups for the boys next week. They are excited to start playing with friends. I'm excited to go to stores by myself. Jeremy's still pulling teeth and doing other mouthy things.

Thanks again for the reunion memories. We wish everyone well.

Love, The Tanners

Becca & Nick

Whew! What a month. I don't even remember the reunion happening this month. We are moved in to St. David now. Our new address is 490 W. Smith St., St. David AZ 85630. Our new number is 520/720-2629. We are still working on a few more boxes but overall we are basically moved into the house. In the last week (from last Friday to this Friday), we have signed papers to buy the St. David property, moved out of our house in Tucson, then a few days later we moved into our house in St. David, then the next day we went to Tucson to sign papers on selling our home in Tucson. Meanwhile we've been unpacking boxes and finally making some noticeable headway. And yesterday I finally realized that I'm pregnant! Not only that but we're having this baby in a few days or sooner!

Jonathan has really been becoming more and more independent. Maybe it has to do with all the neglect he has been experiencing over the last couple months with all the business I've been attending to. A couple weeks ago after spending a few hours running house selling and buying related errands he really took charge. On the way home he was telling me how hungry he and Estelle were. I assured him that when we got home I'd get him something to eat. Well when we got home of course I had to go to the bathroom and then Nick called so I was gone from their sight for about ten minutes. Then I came into the kitchen thinking to make Jonathan and Estelle something to eat only to find that Jonathan had already prepared a hearty meal for them. He had gotten out bowls, spoons, goldfish crackers, and milk. Yes, he poured both he and Stelli a bowl of goldfish and milk to eat like cereal. And there they were, sitting up to the table, eating the meal with out any complaints or problems.

Estelle hasn't been taking all the neglect and change of scenery quite as well. Sometimes when Nick is at work she asks if he is home, as if he went home and we are all just hanging out at this strange house with our stuff. Then last night when Grandma Bryce was leaving our house she said, "Ok, well, I'm going home now." Estelle got really upset and started crying her broken leg cry. She really wanted to leave with grandma. I was tempted to send her since she's been so moody lately anyway. I just hope she can handle getting a new baby next week! Who knows, maybe we're scarring her for life and she'll be meeting with a shrink in her adult years because of it!

We'll be in touch. Love, The Bryces

McKay & Keresa

In July we got to have a 4th of July party of cleaning out our junk room (most people have a junk drawer, we have a room) and making space for Sydney. She helped us move her closet items into the new room. Somehow, she knew the bunk beds were just for her, so when we were almost done, she pulled her bear and blankee out of her crib and put them onto her new bunk bed and climbed in. She has been sleeping there ever since! She does more and more grown up things all the time. It's just hard to think she is becoming a little girl.

Into the mid month Chris and Summer invited us up to Brianhead for a work vacation, that turned out to be mostly a vacation. They broke a lot of ground in their property in preparation for the cabin. It's called a cabin because it's in the mountains, but really It's a house I think. Chris used me most by sending me through the dense forest looking for a good path to run a string to mark his property boundaries. We had fun chain sawing and playing Bucheron. Summer hosted an excellent spread, complete with private casita for our family, and she made a primo dinner of meat and beans. Martha would have been proud.

We have been in a parenting class for a few weeks now that is a lot of fun as a date. Plus, Keresa's little sis has a steady baby sitting job with us that I think she rather appreciates. The class is called love and logic, and we would highly recommend its precepts to not only parents, but youth leaders, dentists who work with children, piano teachers, etc. It is a lot of the same kind of parenting that a counselor would use, so some of it is very familiar (because of our counselor dad).

In church on Sunday I reached over to whisper something to Keresa and Sydney looked up at me very seriously and quietly motioned her finger to her lips, "Shhh." She is in nursery now. It's very good for everyone. I'm sure you all remember sending babies to nursery and getting to go to your classes again. What a relief!

Sydney has been potty training. We got her some pee pee candy (skittles) that she gets to eat one each time she goes in the toilet. Of course it has been frustrating for Keresa with Syd not understanding about going in the place she is supposed to, but they are both surviving, and Syd seems like she is really making progress after a week. The first poop she did in the toilet is memorialized by photograph.

Saturday we did a boat load of chores. It seems like our first Saturday home after weeks of reunions and scout trips. It was nice to do so much. We even gutted the swamp cooler and began using it at night instead of the A/C. It cools us down to 70. (brrr)

I have also been selling my old school books on ebay. It was good that after all the shipping, ebay costs, etc. has been paid for, I am left with $170. I know I know, it is not enough to quit my job or anything, but it's a nice little bonus.

With love, mk kgw srw

Matthias

It feels kinda strange writing writing up my all my news on a normal day, o sea, un dia que no sea P-day! But I suppose it's a nice little freedom now, isn't it? I was just getting excited about the new Eegee's flavor of the month that'll come out tomorrow, imagining what it could be, and deciding who I might want to take out for lunch tomorrow to go try it, when I realized that Eegee's new flavor of the month and the Newsletter both coincide on the first part of the month. Here's the latest skinny on the fat!

So two weeks ago yesterday, Dad and I drove down to Tucson and he dropped off my scooter and all my other paraphernalia I cleaned out of Mom and Dad's closets and there I was ready to start adventuring. Naturualy the first thing I unpacked was the dance-dance revolution set-up. My re-introduction to the singles ward life was a fun one too. My first Saturday here, there was a big single adult conference with keynote speaker Sheri Dew. She came right out and said, "I know you kids don't want me to talk about marriage, but let me at least talk to you about the importance of NOT BEING SINGLE!" My given topic of the conference before hand was Living Waters. I never quite made the connection. The next day in sacrament meeting, a young girl gave a talk on the importance of dating (specifically her) and getting married. She gave an account of a young man who proposed to a girl on the third date two weeks after meeting. The story was her parents. Then one of the counselors in the Stake Presidency got up and talked for a good while on getting married and not being single and everything in between. And he also told several incidents about young men and women getting engaged practically moments after meeting. Then in Elder's quorum, the lesson was, you guessed it, Marriage and the family! And at the end, the Bishop got up and gave his challenge to all the new faces, including mine, that as an Elder's quorum we need to be going on dates at least once a week! Now that means Elder Oaks's 3 P's: Planned, Paired off, and Paid for. You know, the whole thing was enough to make even me feel guilty for not being married yet, and I had barely been two weeks home from Santo Domingo!

Needless to say I went out and bought a can of Axe body spray in efforts to meet my priesthood challenge, and I've been on maybe half a dozen formal and informal dates now. Most of them are just asking girls if I can give them to activities on my scooter. But last Saturday, Britt, my old roommate, and I took out a pair of girls to Eegee's for dinner, and then to the Gaslight Theatre where Phantom of the Opera had just opened. Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Gaslight Theatre, it is strictly parodies and melodramas where everyone boo's at the villain and his dastardly ways as wells cheering on the hero as he saves the girl and vanquishes the villain. So that was our version of Phantom. Just to help you understand, the Phantom's theme song was "'Cause I'm a Wanderer," not "Music of the Night," and the love song between Raul and Christine was, "Sugar, Sugar," not "All I ask of you." But it was amazing fun. And Betsy, my date said she had a good time too. My dating plans for this weekend include going to get an Eegee's for lunch to try out the new flavor of the month, and also maybe going to the cheapie theatre where X-Men 3 and Da Vinci Code are playing.

Hmm, what else. Classes are really hard and many. I don't know who signed me up for such a schedule, oh it was me. But I'm managing so far. Silly professors don't seem to be reviewing much of anything that I learned two-three years ago. But I'm trucking along anyway and remembering old stuff as I'm learning the new.

I just got a job too. I'm working with a company that installs home furnishings, like window coverings, blinds, closets and the like. They said I can work as little or as much as I want, which is great for my schedule. They'll start me at $10 an hour to train, and then move me up to $12, and then when I feel like I've got a good handle on things, I can choose to get paid by job. So I go in, decide I have time to do three jobs that afternoon, each one pays so much, I do them and that's what I make. Sounds like an amazing job for college students. So I expect to maybe be working around 15 hours a week, so that'll be great.

For anyone I didn't tell yet, my cell phone number is 702-994-0861. My address is 1250 E 10th #105A, Tucson, AZ, 85719, although I don't really expect care packages anymore! Ooh, one more thing. So I guess I instilled a legend here in the Tucson single adult population my freshman year. There were several people who came up to me my first week and said, "Oh! You're the crazy guy that made the video where you drove around on a scooter wearing a pink helmet, yellow goggles, and a Speedo!" Ah, the memories.

Have a great month!

Con amor, Matt