Dear Family,
I’m a day late and a few dollars short, but wanted to get something submitted for family letters. The last 2 months have just flown by. Paulette returned to TX on 4/29 after finishing her first year at BYU with good grades and a good experience, and we are enjoying the brief period that we have her together with us again. She and Marina just started their summer jobs at Hawaiian Falls, a water park about 10 miles from home, which has summer programs for kids which the girls are involved as a counselor or as the entertainment. As most of you know by now, Paulette opened her mission call on Sunday and learned that she is assigned to serve in the Phoenix, AZ mission starting in the fall. She’s assigned to serve the Spanish-speaking people there, and will attend her MTC training in Mexico City (reporting September 25th). Now that she has her call, she’s in a position to obtain a temple recommend to receive her endowments, and is looking forward to that opportunity.
Paulette has been attending the local singles ward, as the stake presidency here encourages them all to go there after high school graduation. It is conveniently held in the same building as our ward, overlapping with our meeting times. Paulette has been very diligent in her personal habits, like exercising and studying scriptures, in addition to honing her cooking skills by heading up the dinner crew on many evenings lately.
Marina and Grant’s schools let out for the summer last week, so they’re pretty happy. A few weeks before school ended, Marina took a trip to the state capitol (Austin) with an education club (Texas Association of Future Educators – TAFE). She appears to have had fun, but I can’t speak too well about what all they accomplished. Marina has also been taking some voice lessons at home from a sister in our ward, although she doesn’t care to talk about it much (probably best not to ask). Marina has a lovely voice, and I’m glad she’s doing it. Holding down her first job is a big thing as well, so hopefully it will turn out to be an enjoyable, profitable and learning experience.
Grant is too young to be legally employed, but he has been earning some good money under the table (assuming the IRS is not yet monitoring this publication) by mowing the lawn of a family who is California for several months while the father is performing a contract employment assignment. Apparently his employer is reimbursing him for yard care, and he gave the young men’s president the funds in order to pay boys earning money for camp. Remarkably, most of the young men have not signed up to earn the money, so Grant has received more than his share of the opportunity. I think he has realized that there aren’t too many opportunities for a 12 year-old to earn more than twice the minimum wage! It’s only about an hour a week, but at $20-25 per time, it doesn’t take too long to earn the 50% of the camp fee we agreed upon. Camp is next week, and I’ll be attending for the whole week along with the scoutmaster. I’m looking forward to everything except sleeping in what I fear will be hot weather. I bought a nice cot to get me off the ground, so I should be a little more comfortable as I toss and turn in the heat. Grant is taking the summer off from his piano lesson schedule, but Angie is still having him practice a couple times a week so he doesn’t completely forget what he’s learning. I’m hoping he’ll stay with practicing, because he’s got some good potential there, even though he’s a relative beginner.
Angie’s staying super busy, only the schedule changes as people need to be different places at different times. The fact that Paulette has a driver’s license is helpful at times when she needs to go somewhere, but since we don’t have 3 cars and I’ve got one at work during the work days, Angie’s role as a chauffeur hasn’t diminished much. She’s still playing piano for the Primary, and it’s a good thing she plays so well because the Primary’s music director gets into some pretty complicate arrangements for the Primary.
I’m sure there are other things which I should write, but I’m overdue and need to make sure I get something in. We’re looking forward to seeing many of you at the upcoming Barrus reunion (in fact, looking forward to seeing everyone who will be there). We’re flying into SLC before driving to Montana for the Dahl’s reunion the week of July 4th, and will be back down in Utah for Monday and Tuesday of the Barrus reunion. We would love to be there for more, but appreciate your understanding of our limited time this year. There are some very exciting activities on the schedule that we’re looking forward to, and greatly appreciate the generous hospitality of those who will open their homes to us, and the hard work of those who are doing most of the heavy lifting in regards to activity planning.
We love you and pray that you are well.
Rob, Angie, Paulette, Marina and Grant
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