Sherri, with her very own....

...mustache.

More Wedding Pictures...

Since Marcy and Wynn weren't able to come to Nathan and Rebekah's wedding, I didn't want them to feel left out.  Here's a picture from Marcy's wedding....

The End of an Era

Steve was busy cleaning out our garage this past week.  Time to get rid of excess junk.  We've had 3 car seats in there for quite a while.  Now that Stephanie has moved to South Carolina we really don't need that many large plastic objects cluttering up the premises.  We're keeping two - the booster seat and the better infant seat.  This one had to go.  We bought it 14+ years ago - it was Danny's second car seat.  Or maybe it was his first.  At any rate, we've had it over 14 years and it has taken a lot of abuse.  And by abuse I mean that I backed into it with the van once (it was empty!), it has been peed in, barfed in, eaten countless french fries in,  juice boxes have spilled in it...you name it. 

Rest in peace, little car seat.

Work it, baby, work it.

The Christmas 2009 Mens Collection

Reversible - flame print on one side, basic black on the other,  black webbing belt with parachute buckle. Optional "tie" applique on cream canvas.

I made a lot of aprons over the last 2 or three months.  During Christmas break I think I made 10.  Yes, 10.  Three of them were for guys - as you can see modeled here.

I didn't post these before, because they were the last pictures that I took with my old Nikon - before handing it down (up?) to Steve.  He had it with him when he went to Idaho (that's why all the pictures he took of Nathan and Rebekah in their new apartment were dark and grainy) - so I sort of forgot about it.  Until now.

Our Man in Japan

This is a picture of the Port of Shingu (I found it on Google Image)...I'm not sure it's where Andrew is going...but it might be.

Dear Family,

It sounds like all of you are doing great. That`s wonderful to hear. Things are going well here as well. Yesterday some member`s father came to church for the first time. He stayed for all 3 hours which is pretty cool considering he`s 96 years old. He enjoyed it I think but didn`t understand a lot I think. That`s partly due to his age, inexperience with Christianity and hearing. I think the hearing was a large part of it. His hearing has recently gotten worse so they bought him `Hearing aids`. Unfortunately they`re not very good quality. In fact they look like one of those child spy toys where you attach headphones to a little microphone thing you can hold in your hand. I felt bad for him as he tried to adjust the volume to avoid screeching feedback problems... Anyways he was nice.

We had transfer calls this morning. I`m transferring to Shingu. It`s at the southernmost part of the mission by the ocean. I imagine it`s a very beautiful place, probably. Whenever there`s zone conferences and things the Shingu elders leave the day before and spend the night in a closer apartment. It also consists of the smallest branch in the mission consisting of about 3 active members and 4 semi-active members (I think). My companion is going to be Elder Slater who`s on his 5th transfer, which means I`m going to be branch president. I think I`ll get better at giving Sacrament talks really fast, I think maybe every week. Though I won`t be district leader which means I`ll have a lot more time in the evenings after planning probably. I`ll see how things go.

Take care of yourselves. I`m not sure if Shingu had email or not, but I haven`t heard that it doesn`t.

Love,

Elder West

01/02/2010

I can't believe I missed yesterday's palindromic date.  Steve mentioned it on the way home from church today...

Speaking of today, it's Alex's birthday.  He will be pretty darn old when his birthday is a palindrome (01/03/3010).

Word of the Day

Resolution
res⋅o⋅lu⋅tion  [rez-uh-loo-shuhn] –noun

1. a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club, or other group. Compare concurrent resolution, joint resolution.
2. a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.
3. the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.
4. the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.
5. the act or process of resolving or separating into constituent or elementary parts.
6. the resulting state.
7. Optics. the act, process, or capability of distinguishing between two separate but adjacent objects or sources of light or between two nearly equal wavelengths. Compare resolving power.
8. a solution, accommodation, or settling of a problem, controversy, etc.
9. Music. a. the progression of a voice part or of the harmony as a whole from a dissonance to a consonance.
b. the tone or chord to which a dissonance is resolved.
10. reduction to a simpler form; conversion.
11. Medicine/Medical. the reduction or disappearance of a swelling or inflammation without suppuration.
12. the degree of sharpness of a computer-generated image as measured by the number of dots per linear inch in a hard-copy printout or the number of pixels across and down on a display screen.
(Dictionary.com)


As in:
Last year I made several New Years resolutions.  Four weeks into the new year I broke my wrist.  Many of my resolutions were "broken" at that time too.  I wish I could resolve to not break any bones this year - but I guess I'd better concentrate on the things I have a better chance at controlling.