DAVE “THE INTIMIDATOR” AND COUSINS ROCK!!!

Thanksgiving was great. We are so thankful to our Heavenly Father for the great blessings of life, liberty, religion, home, family, and friends and on and on and on.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and spent time with family. Dana’s family came to Shillville for the weekend and the kids had a blast just playing with their cousins. We took them all to the go kart track on Friday. David, who is 9, was “racing” solo for the first time. He did great and was quite an aggressive driver. Dale Earnhardt would have been proud. Perhaps the reason for his aggressive driving style was that he didn’t know where the brake was!! When the officials stopped the race midway, Dave looked like a renegade pinball bouncing off cars. He was therefore banned from the track for the remainder of the day. Dad was so proud!! His Uncle Rich took the gang back the next day for more racing action. In the meantime we had taught David where the brake was. He did great and wasn’t banned!

We received our first couple of letters from Jordan. He sounds like they are being immersed in Italian and reports that he can pray and bear his testimony in his new language. His letters have been short, but at least we know he is alive and well and enjoying himself.

Jake has been engineering a toothpick bridge for his Physics class and getting ready for Westwood Choir’s annual Canticle of Carols. We always look forward to this performance.

McKayla loves spending time with her cousins. They drove go karts, rode her motorcycle, went to the movies, and even made a movie. The movie was pretty funny.

David also enjoyed spending time with cousins. When they are here they are constantly going and running and playing. The minute they leave Shillville is back to dulls-villle. (well… according to the kids)

SHILLVILLE SENDS OFF A SOLDIER

All is well in Shillville and Jordan has entered the Army of the Lord as a infantryman to bring souls to Christ.

The family is adjusting to the absence of one of us. Jordan left for the MTC earlier this week where he will spend 9-10 weeks learning Italian and studying the gospel. He will then depart for Milan Italy. He gave his talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday and did a great job discussing “Why we should have Standards in our lives”. He also sang with his Aunt Shana, Brother Jakob and mother Marci. The talk was great and the song was wonderful.

Our Stake President gave him a wonderful blessing when he was set apart on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, my sister Brenda picked him up at the Salt Lake Airport, took him to lunch and then to the MTC where they had a short meeting and said goodbye. We very much appreciated Jordan being able to be looked after by his Aunt for those several hours. Cousin Clay also spent some time with Jordan before he had to leave. I am sure that snow, slopes and Clay nearby would be a temptation for a snowboard or snowmobile excursion if Jordan was not totally committed to his new job.

It is clear to me that Jordan knows what he is doing and has some fear of the unknown and some fear of the known too! He is very conscious of the sacrifices he is making and still willing to do so. It is wonderful to see him challenged by leaving his home, family and friends.
We all miss Jordan. Even Jake has said how much he misses his older brother.

Jake, McKayla and David are looking forward to playing musical rooms. We have been cleaning out Jordan’s room for the anticipated moves and finding many treasures and surprises. The next few weeks should be full of kids moving rooms and dividing up Jordan’s clothes and other treasures that he left behind. Saturday while doing some of the laundry Jordan left behind, Marci discovered a treasure trove stash of socks. We are now set for the next several decades in the sock department! All these years we thought that we had a whole family of the sock eating monsters that most families only have one of.

As the Father of this gang I am feeling extremely blessed to have a family who loves the Lord.

CHANGE IS COMING . . . .

The time seems to be flying by and it is now less than 2 weeks until Jordan leaves for the MTC. The instant change will be strange for us especially right before the holidays. We are grateful for the blessings that are coming to him through his choices and are all excited for the growth and evolution that will occur over the next two years…..and that is CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN!

Marci is finding many old friends and some new on Facebook. She loves catching up. Many conversations these days start out. ”Oh, guess who I found today…..!”

Rolland had surgery on his knee a few weeks ago and has recovered quickly.

Jordan is in the final two weeks of carefree, civilian life. He has quit his job so he has time to get everything ready and have plenty of time to hang out with friends. He has enjoyed his friends getting their mission calls too. Kind of reminds me of Alma the younger and the Sons of Mosiah when they were going off to serve missions to the Lamanites. It will be a great reunion coming home in two years and seeing the growth and strength of your buddies and knowing that they love the work and the Lord just as you do. He has been able to go to the Temple with his friends too.

Jakob is recovering from his Football injury. His clavicle is healed enough to begin Physical Therapy next week. Oh fun!!!! Last week was Homecoming for Westwood. Jake was the protector extraordinaire as he and his buddies sacrificed life, limb, cell phone and driving privileges to protect all their hard work and sweat from the evil Sophomore and Junior classes. He came home very late each night with stories of defense and conquest that scared his old folks into less hair or gray hair. (less for Ro, gray for Marci). Thankfully no one was permanently injured and those incarcerated have now been set at liberty. As a side note…if you are trying to reach Jake please call his home phone and if you own a car he could always use a ride!


McKayla is like, doing great in school. She like, loves being with her friends, they like, hang out and like, totally paint their toenails and do hair and stuff. She like, totally has the best friends evvvver and like, Poston Panthers are the best! Totally!!!


David continues to astound us with his love of science and space. He shows us a diagrams of the generator he is building. Apparently Jordan has been showing him the workings of a car alternator and so he is ready to build one. He loves the Discovery Channel and especially Mythbusters, Planet Earth and Time Warp TV shows. David is playing the Violin in orchestra and doing very well learning to play the Piano.