Dear family,
Happy evening of the 10th of the month! Running up against the deadline, looking to keep the streak alive, however short it may be at this point. We hope this finds you all well, and we look forward to reading your letters and seeing some of you in June (Ann’s wedding). Only a month until Clark and Ali’s wedding – sure wish we could be there with you!
It doesn’t seem like we’ve done much exciting, but as always, life seemed super busy. Maybe some cobwebs will shake loose as I type (do I say that every month? If so, I apologize). I think I told you about getting a dog in February, and while everyone seems to enjoy Penny’s company, there have been a few dramatic moments that make me wonder if she is long for this world (good thing the Department of Children and Families doesn’t have a Canine Division!). Various members of our family have had experiences such as trying to track the dog through the neighborhood after a front-door escape, getting yelled at by one of the neighbors for “letting” Penny do her business on the lawn (not our lawn), watching Penny bite a neighbor child (minor flesh wound), leaving her at the “pet ER” for overnight monitoring after she ate an unattended pack of chewing gum, wondering whether a chewed up candy wrapper (contents included some chocolate) meant the dog had chocolate poisoning, etc…. After the last mentioned incident, I persuaded Angie to not take her to the vet ($), since it appeared that any consumption (tiny, if any) would have occurred the day before and the dog was showing no discernible signs of distress. Small victory…
The children have been doing even better than the dog. Grant earned four merit badges during March at our stake’s Merit Badge College, which took place over two Saturdays. Grant also went to a couple birthday parties, and enjoyed the week of Spring Break. On the last day of Spring Break I took a vacation day from work, and Angie and I took Grant and a friend to the Bureau of Engraving, which is one of two facilities in the U.S. that manufactures paper currency (the other is, of course, in Wash., D.C. – free samples members for government employees. Just kidding, in case the NSA is reading this). The facility employs some very high-tech printing equipment, and prints huge amounts of money each day, although I don’t remember the numbers, and it was worth the trip to see. One thing I do remember from the audio tour headset recording is that employees of the facility belong to 11 different unions. Good thing they’ve got a vehicle to contribute to the politicians who are approving their pensions. Sorry, just remembered this is supposed to be a family letter and not political commentary. One final point of trivia I learned from Angie’s uncle who was an attorney involved in the transaction – the government purchased the land to build the facility from Jim Wright, local congressman and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. I wonder how hard it would have been to find suitable land not owned by a senior government official.
Marina is doing well, can’t believe she’ll be finishing her junior year soon. She traveled to Austin, TX to complete with her classmates and fellow members of TAFE (Texas Assoc. of Future Educators) in a statewide competition. They had a good time and did well enough to qualify for the national competition in Minneapolis, MN. She left for Minnesota this morning, so we’ll have to do without her company for a few days. We’ll let you know how it goes. Marina is still singing in the Voices of Flower Mound community choir with Angie, and preparing for a spring concert.
Paulette’s mission departure date is rapidly approaching (April 23rd), so she’s winding down her jobs and completing last-minute preparations. She continues to have a very busy social calendar and stay involved in the YSA ward. She’s taken the opportunity to attend the temples several times lately (what a blessing it is to live fairly close to a temple – 25 minutes, in our case). We’ll miss her but are excited for her to be sharing the gospel on her mission. She’s a great example, and tries to help our family be more missionary-minded.
Angie’s still serving as the Primary pianist, which she enjoys and doesn’t take a lot of outside preparation for her. Perhaps feeling she’s not overwhelmed with that calling, the bishop extended a call for Angie to serve as our ward’s Cubmaster. Fortunately, she’s previously had a cub scout, so it’s not entirely new territory. She’s doing a great job in the month or two since she was sustained.
I also received a new calling in the ward. I was released as YM secretary and Scout Committee Chairman and was called as the ward clerk. I’m excited about this new opportunity, which I’ve not done before but is somewhat familiar from the time I spent in the bishopric. As I’ve done training in the calling, I am catching a vision of how this calling has spiritual dimensions as well as temporal. I hope to step up my game, as far as personal organization is concerned, so that the bishopric has the best information available to inform their ministering efforts.
Thanks for the birthday wishes, as I officially turned old (50!) this week. The idea was a bit depressing to me, but Angie and the kids helped make the day wonderful with remembrances of good times past and shared memories. My kids wrote special cards listing a lot of things they say were significant to them, which made me feel great. I’m sure they still can remember me yelling at them from time to time (and other such errors), but I’m glad they’re able to see we’re trying. What great kids I’ve got!
Well, I’d better cut myself off right here. We love and miss you all, and pray that you are getting out of life what the Lord wants you to get. Thanks for sharing your letters each month. It was wonderful to experience General Conference last weekend, and to know that you were sharing the same experience. What a wonderful blessing it is to have prophets, apostles, and inspired officers of the church to teach us what the Lord wants us to hear at this time. I look forward to going through the addresses again in the coming months.
Love,
Rob, Angie, Paulette, Marina and Grant
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