She's got the look!

Straight or curly? What do you think?

Comments welcome,

Jaimie

Piranhas

Jaimie's on Warrensburg Piranhas swim team this season. This was a meet in Lawrence, Kansas. She also swam at a meet in Gladstone, and has a couple more meets this winter. She goes to practice 4 days a week and they work very hard. At this meet, she beat all her past times. She swam in the 200 freestyle, 200 breast stroke, and 200 backstroke, and the Freestyle Relay.

Gotta love these people!

Back to Bucharest

Jeffrey's back in the big city! Recently, the church was featured on a program in Romania. The video is 10 minutes long and mostly in Romanian. You can see it at http://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/romania-te-iubesc/romania-te-iubesc-mormonii-o-confesiune-religioasa-controversata.html.

It is great that the church was able to get this publicity! Great things are happening in Romania. Click on the link to the Mission President wife's blog - Small things...(bottom right) - she shares many of their adventures. She has also started a blog listing the miracles happening in Romania.

Occasionally, Elder Divis shows up on the blog. That should happen more frequently since he is back in Bucharest and living near the mission home now.

Plaza Lights

Giant screen we were watching! It's David Cook!

For 79 years Kansas City has had the wonderful tradition of the Plaza Lighting Ceremony every Thanksgiving. The Plaza Lights are the oldest continuous lighting ceremony in the U.S. They set up a big stage and have some entertainment until it's time for the big lighting. Typically the crowd numbers near 300,000 every year. We were a block away from the stage, but had a big screen to watch so we didn't miss a thing on stage!

Each year a celebrity is invited to flip the switch. This year it was David Cook -American Idol winner and native Kansas Citian. They always choose a child from the audience to help them, so David chose his niece. She was about 9 years old and very cute. They asked her to say something nice about her Uncle and she couldn't think of a thing. Then David whispered what to say in her ear and she just giggled. Afterwards, Jaimie and Becka (cousin) got his autograph - on Becka's coat!!!

And for those who remember Santa's Workshop - it is still there! We stopped by the house after we left the Plaza. He's added some new displays, but some of the original stuff is still there. This guy has been decorating his house forever. This was a regular stopping off point every year when we were kids.

Apparently it is still popular. There were lots of people and even a bus there. The homeowner was out front talking to everyone. The garage is original (Santa's Workshop) along with the roof display, but a lot of the stuff is newer, like the talking tree. Santa coming out of the window is an old one, too. I remember seeing that when I was a kid. The owner said that he just leaves Santa's Workshop up in the garage all year round, but the rest he takes down and puts it back up every year. He has to start in the summer. Even inside his house there are Christmas dolls and stuff everywhere!

Tie Collection

There is no doubt that the favorite hobby of Elders in Romania is collecting ties. Romanian ties are very colorful and cheap.

Oradea District

This is a great picture of Jeffrey's district in Oradea. He enjoys it there. It's very beautiful, up in the mountains of Romania in the west. This region use to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is also the Transylvania region and the ancient home of Vlad the Impaler.








Yummy! Prune Pizza! Yes, it's a favorite in Romania, I guess.

It's beautiful country!

Spelunking

A Pday in the caves may be fun, but I don't know about those Romanian bats!

Oradea Branch Fall Party

This guy looks a bit scary!

The kids are so cute!

Trip to Estes Park, Colorado

What a beautiful place! September 7-12th I had the opportunity to take a class in Estes Park. 15 students participated. Basically, we did real life work for the Rocky Mountain National Park Museum, the Estes Park Museum, and the Estes Park Public Library. We got to work with Archives collections, index oral histories, and do repairs and encapsulation on maps and blueprints.

We also learned a great deal of history about the town and the park. This is a picture of "Enos Mills" (actor portrayal), the father of Rocky Mountain National Park, telling us his story and what life was like in Estes Park in 1915.

In this photo I'm with some of my fellow ESU Librarian wanna-bes. The girl on my right is from Utah and a member of the church. We had a lot of fun talking during the week. (ESU has cohort classes in Portland, Denver and Salt Lake City as well as Kansas City and Emporia, so there were students from all over in our group there.)

One of the highlights for me was observing the elk in the park. The rut was just starting and I caught some video of bulls bugling. I also had a rather unnerving close encounter with an elk. We were walking through the woods to a class, and suddently came upon an elk next to the trail. He was less than 3 yards away. He didn't seem concerned about us, just looked up and kept chewing. We, however, kept moving. I did gather courage to turn around and snap a picture, when I felt safe enough to do so. Every year, Estes Park sees people gored by elks because they get too close. It's a challenge, because they are all over the town. They cross the highway regularly, and take over the golf course completely during the rut. You really have to keep your eyes open.

Bruise Update!

I wanted to show off the pretty colors I have on my arm now. Yes, I am being extra careful on the stairs - I usually am. They just don't like me.

Call me Klutz!

Those of you who know me well, know that stairs and I have our troubles every now and then. Well, this weekend was a now and then.

First, on Saturday, I twisted my ankle going up the stairs to the pool. Then, I twisted it very badly coming back down the same stairs. In my defense, coming down, I was helping Jaimie carry her "Party Island" which is a huge floaty about 9' across and we had to get it through the narrow gate and down the stairs and I couldn't see where I was stepping. Anyway - I had to wrap it up because it was pretty sore, and wore a lovely ankle brace to church the next day. (We have a nice assortment of ankle wraps and braces at home for these occasions.)

Then, Sunday night, Indy (my dog) woke me up in the middle of the night to go outside. I was wearing an ace bandage on my ankle and as I went down the stairs to the front door, I slipped and fell on my tush. As I fell I swung my arms back to catch myself, and hit the back of my left arm on the stair handrail. As you can see, I have a ginormous bruise.

The good news is....no broken bones! Yeah!

The scary news is....in 2 weeks I will be in Colorado for a class in Rocky Mountain National Park, hiking in the mountains. Please say a prayer for me that I won't fall down the mountain side or go over a cliff. ;-)

Divis Camp 2008

Divis Camp started 3 years ago when Jaimie's friends (Mojeh, Jaleh and Tessa) came down for a week to swim, eat, do crafts, make a movie, and other fun stuff. Every year we add something new and different. Last year it was bowling.

This year

The Elders came for dinner, gave a message, and stayed to play....

Spoons!

Watch out Elders...these girls are serious players!

Bekah, being Bekah

This year we had
--Manijeh & Mojeh Tammehr (Mojeh has been to every Divis Camp)
--Bekah and Jenna (Jaimie's cousins-the redheads :-)
--Allena, our neighbor (the one with the kittens)

When the games were done, it was pouring rain outside and the Elders got soaked.

I have a video of the rain and the fun and games, but I can't get it to load. Oh well...

It was a great week, we had a lot of fun and we are ready to do it again.............

next year!!