Sunday February 1, 2015

Dear Cass –
I hope you are doing well today. As always I really look forward to Monday so I can hear from you! This is called "Missionary Monday" here for the moms. People ask, how's your missionary Monday going? and things like that. A few things about your last letter...

You've been out 3 months! Amazing - though it feels like a lot longer for me too!

You ran! (good job) Have you done it again?

Your Tuesday report made me both sad and laugh...laugh at the "larping" and yes Colten did have to explain to us! And sad because it was otherwise a rough day with being rejected and SPIT ON! Terrible! I'm sorry.

I'm excited to hear about your referral who you were teaching this week.
How's David? Did you teach him again?
The Handel House!!! Looks amazing and so interesting! I'm super glad you were able to do that! And with the RS and not on your pday. Very fun! Thanks for all the pictures!
I also loved your explanation of the differences in the Book of Mormon reading in German. Isn't it interesting the little differences and how different of a perspective it can give you? Thanks for sharing those.

As for here...

WE GOT YOUR CHOCOLATE!!! Last Monday it came and what a TREAT! Wow, it's delicious! I put on Instagram a picture of it all with your letter that said, "We got our first package from Germany! With a letter! With HER handwriting! And CHOCOLATE! And I have approximately 12 minutes before kids start coming home from school, to sample them all by myself!"

And I did sample them - by myself! It was awesome! I don't know why, but it was really neat to see your handwriting! And the chocolate - I'll send you a pic of us holding our favorites but Colten liked them all but the peppermint. He really likes the Marzipan! Hadlie didn't mind it. Nobody thought it was yucky but probably wouldn't eat more than a square. River liked the white chocolate, Hadlie loved the peppermint and is now taken the rest for herself. Dad actually liked the nugat one the best! And I loved both the Kokoa-mousse and the nugat. Anyway - thank you so much for sending it! I don't know how much it cost to send but if you ever want to send something and can use your credit card do that and we'll pay for it. Would that work using your card at a post office?

So the chocolate package was the highlight of our Monday. We also went to the YSA Ward's fhe that night because they were having a talent show. It was good. There are actually quite a few talented kids there. It was small of course and River kept asking if this was all their ward and why it was so small and how weird that is.

As for the rest of the week...it was pretty normal. A lot of running around in the car. Work a few days in the week for me and dad had to stay late one day at work for a conference call in Taiwan! I'm sure he'll tell you about that. I'm also trying to be really good about exercising. I've been doing an hour on the treadmill 3 times a week and going to kickboxing once. River decided to stop doing her hip-hop class and we got lucky and there was one gymnastics spot open at a gym in Salem for her. So she went to her first class on Thursday. She actually did really well. She can still do most of the things she learned at her other place. Her teachers were Cheyenne Randquist and Colten's friend Peyton Hunter. So that was fun. I'm hoping she can stick with this!

River also did her science fair project this week. She decided to see if kids vs. adults preferred different types of popcorn. We had a few neighbors over with their kids and did a lot of popcorn popping!

The other thing I did this week was I started a book online through Shutterfly of my blog. So clear back in 2007. I've been going through blog posts and putting together a book to print. It's been a little tough to figure out and it'll be a lot of work for sure, but I want to get it done. It's been fun to go back and look at things from the that year. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. You were in 5th grade! And now in some ways it feels like we have a totally different family. I was thinking how different your growing up years were compared to River's. Just the difference in being the oldest and youngest.

Yesterday dad and I went for a walk on the River trail. At the end of January! Can you believe that. Cassidy - we've hardly had winter here and I'm not even kidding. We had a couple of snow storms over Christmas break and then nothing. And not only that, but this week and most of last the temperatures have been in the 50's! It feels like March. So we went on a walk. It was chilly but nice. Hadlie, River and I have also done an online yoga thing a couple times this week. I think they like it. They even did another "bedtime yoga" stretching etc. last night before bed. They however won't let me take a picture of them.

So when I log in to your facebook to link to your blog I get all your notifications - so I thought I'd tell you about a few. Rachel Hatch got her mission call to Fort Lauderdale Florida. Erica Olesen is going to Virginia Chesapeake. And there have been a few articles written this week about Lucky Smith! He's been all over Europe at fashion weeks - walking the runway modeling for famous designers! He's got like 285 thousand Instagram followers and that's crazy. I tell you this so you can look for a billboard or something. I wouldn't be surprised if you see his face somewhere over there.

It's SuperBowl Sunday here today. All of my family is gone. Chelsie's family is flying to Disneyland today. (Isn't it weird that we were there just a year ago) Grammy and Papa have been in Oceanside all week and now they're in Vegas for Penny's blessing today. Brooke's family is also down there for that. And we've been watching Ziggy! It's been an adventure but for the most part ok. She doesn't like to poop outside or doesn't know how to tell us she needs to go or whatever so she's had a few accidents, but no pee. She's also very energetic and agile. She jumps everywhere and likes to get up very early in the morning. Anyway...we're having all of dad's family over for dinner and Super Bowl. I'll send you a pic of when everyone's here.

Well - I hope this gives you enough of an update and you feel like we're staying in touch with you ok! I love you so much and pray for you multiple times a day!

Love - Mom

 Our German chocolate package!

 Holding their favorites!

River's science fair project