Shelly's email to Amy Nov. 18th

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving week!

Amy, I'm so excited to hear that you may have received my package that I sent back in September for your birthday! Is it true?!? Mother just told me that your mission office emailed her to say that a package arrived but that she hadn't sent any and so it could be the one that I had just finally given up on being lost or stolen. I really hope it's true because it actually had several of the things in it that you had asked for on your Christmas list. That was actually one of the highlights of my week. I have to tell you a sort of funny story about the package, too: I thought I was being really smart by going to the post office and picking up one of those flat-rate priority mail boxes and getting it all carefully packed and addressed in advance of shipping it. Then on the day I actually went to ship it, I of course had Miles with me and he was running around the post office and I finally had to pick him up and hold him to keep him from running out of sight and he started crying. There was an older guy in line behind us (there is always a long slow line at our post office) who then proceeded to lecture me on "smothering" my child and criticizing my parenting and telling me that Miles's crying was hurting his ears, so I had really had it by the time I finally got up to the counter. Then the post office worker told me that the flat-rate to ship priority boxes to Russia was almost $50, but at that point I was so desperate to get out of there I didn't even care even though I hadn't realized in advance that the flat-rate is not a good deal outside the US--there was no way I was going to re-box things and come back another day. Haha, funny now but that day I was about to strangle the guy in line behind us and ship Miles off to you in the box I was sending. Just know that if that box did arrive it was not without a lot of effort : )

Anyway, we had a rather un-eventful week here other than I had the pleasure of having my first kidney stone over last weekend. (Daddy, just so you know they did end up doing a kidney ultrasound and it did show some mild hydronephrosis but the urologist that consulted said that once I passed the kidney stone it would likely resolve on it's own and didn't warrant any intervention unless it took more than a few days to pass the stone, which fortunately it didn't).  Anyway, luckily it passed in three days and I immediately felt better. 

We also had our first big snow of the winter, which actually was the biggest snow-storm I can remember having since moving to SLC. It snowed for almost three days straight and we ended up with probably at least a foot and a half accumulation. It has warmed up and most of it has melted now, but it was really beautiful while it lasted and I'm sure the mountains now have a great start to the winter snow-pack. We also took Miles out to sled and it was super fun--he was mad that I wouldn't let him go alone down the huge hill. I will try to upload pictures to the blog tonight.

Other fun things Miles and I did this week were going to the pool and going to the "jumpy place" where they have all these big inflatable jump houses. Miles is really starting to get independent and wants to do everything on his own, from going down the slides to jumping in the water. It's fun but a little scarey because he a little too brave for his own safety at times. You guys will really get a kick out of him next time you see him, I think. Hopefully he will be awake on Christmas when we skype with you, Amy.

Well, that's about it for us. I am scheduled to work on Thanksgiving night this week but we will head to Elko on Friday to spend a the weekend with Mother and Tina. It will be kinda weird having only a few of us there for Thanksgiving, but Christmas should really be fun. Hope you both have a good week. Love you!

FML
Shelly

Is It Really November Already?

Ok- since I don't seem to ever have anything to post about, I have copied and pasted my email to Amy.
:-)



Dear Amy-

We got an email last week on Oct. 31st from you mission President saying they were having the missionaries stay in their apartments on Nov. 1st as there was supposed to be a demonstration against the church in some of the cities- was Podolsk affected?  I googled some words, but nothing came up, but googled again after the 1st and found a couple articles about it, though none of them mentioned how many people actually showed up to demonstrate, etc, only that they presented a big symbolic (fake) plane ticket one way from Russia to Washington DC outside the church's Russia head quarters (not sure if that was the mission office, a church or what).  Your mission is so much different than Cami's was- the only thing I worried much about with her was a- getting hit by a car while riding her bike or b- a earth quake-  You I have to worry about going to jail or being the target of a protest!  Seriously though, I know you are in the Lords hands and other than praying for you, don't fret much.  Evidently they are protesting the church because they know the CIA likes mormons and they say the missionaries are spies.  You know how people can leave comments at the end of internet articles?  Someone posted a comment that said something along the lines that spies don't usually wear name tags in public :-).  This reminds me of another funny I saw on Facebook- with the presidential election Tues (did you get to vote?) Mitt Romney and the church have had a lot of media coverage.  Evidently some of it was saying that the church is secretive, etc.  So the Facebook post showed two missionaries walking down a street with a caption something along the lines of : the Church of Jesus Christ of Later day Saints:  so secretive, they send out representatives to try to others who will listen about it.

Thank you for the lovely nose get well card- it took a while to come through the mail, but did make it.  And I am fine.

Halloween- did you get my small package I sent you? I had an email from the mission office letting me know they had received it.  The local update on Halloween goes something like this:  I had the better part of 8 costco boxes with hot cider mix- 60 envelopes per box.  I figure there was at least enough for 450, which got all passed out by 7:05 and had to shut off the light. I had started passing out at 5:30. I think it's the earliest I've ever turned off the porch light.  It was a pleasantly warm Halloween evening, so maybe we had extra kids due to the good weather.  I always feel a bit of a dilemma as to what my trick or treating responsibilities are- should I by a bunch of cheap stuff to have enough on hand for everyone, by a bunch of good stuff for everyone near and far, or do like this year where by I had a nice treat with what would see to be a reasonable amount for the neighborhood.  By the way, I saw Annette (daddy's old nurse) out with her kids/grandkids, as usual. 

Today the Navaro's were visiting in our ward for a baby blessing of one of their relatives, and since it was fast Sunday,  sister Navaro bore her testimony and mentioned the primary children's program as well, which the theme was I Can Choose the Right (which I told you about last week).  She mentioned that she has taught her children that choosing the right is kinda like shaving for men- it's not a one time deal and then you are done- you do it one day, and then the next day, there it is again waiting for you to act on.  Then someone else stood up and said that sometimes he's thought he might like to grow a beard!  Anyway, it was a good analogy.  Joey and his sister were there so I went up to say hi to Joey, because I know you guys were pals- he's at BYU Provo and his sister is at UVU .  He said to tell you hi and was telling me about the different activities/classes you guys had together.

Friday I left in the morning to drive up to Boise and picked up Carol and Chris.  The Boise temple is currently having a open house, so we thought we would go to that before driving up to the cabin.  It was about 1:00 Friday when we got there, but cars were lined up to pull in to park- we had to drive around the block to get to the back of the line due to the traffic. I was really surprised, as it had already been open about a week, so it wasn't the first day- I had sort of had the notion we would pull up and walk right in and just a few people would be there.  We were so impressed with all the organization and people there to make things move smoothly- I bet they had 15-20 people just directing the parking.  They had everyone go into the church prior to going into the temple, so there were people there to greet and direct you- when the room was about full, they had a host couple welcome us and introduce a short video (maybe 10 minutes max)  which was about temples in general, the history of the church in Boise and the Boise temple.  From there a host couple walked with our group from the church to the temple where there was a set route to keep the flow going smoothly.  Afterwards, they invited everyone to come back to the church and ask any questions (since the tour was more less silent- there were placards with info on what they were seeing, but we were asked not to talk in the temple, as there were a lot of other groups going through at the same time), fill out comment cards, etc. in the cultural hall, which was set up very nice with tables to sit and write and a lot of beautiful pictures of t he savior around the room, etc.  Anyway, I was really glad we were able to go, as I believe I hadn't been to a open house since before I was married!  From there we ate a early dinner in Eagle and drove up to the cabin.  We spent the evening playing games and talking, and the next day we got up and did some raking and winterized the house and drove back to Boise and back home.  So had a pleasant weekend.  I would have stayed and driven home on Sunday but they were trying to get back Sat. night for a friends birthday party (that's another story), but just drove back to Elko since it was just more unnecessary driving and it was winterized.

Don't forget to give us some ideas for Christmas- we will need to sent your package soon if you will be able to receive it before then!

Have a great week-

Love
Mom

Camilla's Letter to Amy and Family August 26th 2012

Yoo hallo family!

Sorry for not emailing last week, but the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind.  Sean and I were supposed to meet up with his family at the cabin in Idaho so they could spend some time together before Sheldon left for his mission, but they found out that Sarah's sister had a tumor.  They had an appointment with a specialist in San Francisco during what would have been our trip to Idaho, so the trip was canceled, but Sean and I still went out to Sacramento for a few days.  At the doc's office in San Francisco, they found that Sarah's sister had a cyst instead of a tumor, so that was good news.  At least we got to have a fun couple days in San Francisco instead!  We went to Golden Gate Park, which is the largest park in the city, and saw different gardens and pools and walked on the beach a while.  We tried to go to the Golden Gate bridge, but it was fogged in and you couldn't see much.  (Since they can't actually close the bridge for a Johnson-attempted visit, the next best thing is to shroud the attraction in thick icy fog).   We still went but you couldn't see too much and it was windy and chilly so we didn't stay long.  For some reason it was warmer and less foggy just a short distance away.  

We stayed at an Embassy Suites in Walnut Creek, which is a Shoemaker family tradition and a very nice hotel.  There is a kind of a large indoor garden in the middle of the foyer, but I didn't understand why they all loved the hotel so much until breakfast.  They had mentioned liking the breakfast there, but I figured that meant that they have danishes and make-your-own waffle iron.  Instead they had a chef making omelets to order, and all the food was excellent.  None of the Motel 6 breakfast stuff.

I also got to stop in Chinatown, which was fun and I was able to get some teas that I haven't been able to find since I was Taiwan.  That was probably the biggest highlight of the trip for me.  I love Asia :)

The trip to San Francisco was just an overnight trip, so that is about all that we had time for, but we had a nice time.  We spent the following day relaxing by the Shoemaker's pool in their gorgeous backyard, which was a much needed relaxation.  The trip was sometimes tense since everyone was under a lot of stress about Sheldon leaving and Sarah's health scare.  We drove back last Sunday and Sean's family stayed at our house for a few days.  We were packed like sardines in our little two bedroom apartment, but we made it work.  

Sheldon left for his mission on Wednesday.  It was neat to be able to go to his setting apart and to drop him off at the MTC.  It will probably be the last time I am at the MTC for a very long time, unless Sarah decides to go on a mission.  Sheldon will be a good missionary because he starts talking to random people all the time anyway.  He sometimes is unaware of social norms though (I had to tell him last week that making comments about strangers when they can hear you is rude and makes them uncomfortable, whether you mean the comment to be neutral or not.)  He is an odd duck.  But like I said, being an odd duck can still in some ways make you a really good missionary, so I'm glad he decided to go.  

Sean's dad left Wednesday night, and his mom and sister left on Friday.  I was glad for the company because Sean had left for his race on Tuesday night.  He ran Hood to Coast with Aunt Joy.  It is a 200 mile relay from Mt. Hood to the Oregon Coast, split between 12 people.  Sean ran 18 miles in three segments over 24 hours and ran in the 9 minute mile range, so he was happy with how it went.  He had never done a race before, and he had a ton of fun.  I think he will want to do more in the future and hopefully we can do one together sometime.  I was signed up and was training for Hood to Coast, but didn't think that I should train to be able to be ready to run the 18 miles while pregnant, so I let someone else have my spot on the team.  I didn't even get to go and cheer him on, since I took a couple days of last week and am leaving for Turkey this coming Friday.  That is the thing I miss about being in school - when you are out for the semester you can travel or do whatever you want the whole time, but when you are working you are always counting how many days you can still take off, but you always have to compromise.  I guess there are pros and cons, but missionaries and military men don't really time off either, so I shouldn't complain.

School for Sean starts tomorrow, but he won't be back until tomorrow evening, so he is missing his first day of the new semester.  I tried to see if Tina could get him a buddy pass to come back today instead, but the afternoon flights didn't look very promising so he didn't even try to get on.  Other than that, things are OK here.  I've been thickening around the middle and some of my pants are getting a bit tighter (I'm 4 months now).  I joked to Mother that I was worried that I'd bring pants on my trip that I wouldn't be able to button by the time we get back, but Mother is bringing me some stretchy pants I can wear in case that happens.  Then all I will need is a visor and fanny pack!  Daddy may rethink his brags about his daughters lol.  

Anyway, I'd better start getting ready for bed.  Hope all is going well for you both.  I think of you often.

FML-

Cami

PS - Amy, a sister that gave a talk in church today went on her mission to Moscow, but she would have been getting back at the time you were coming, so I didn't ask her if she knows you.  But it made me think of you!

Elko County Economic Diversification Authority_v.21

Great video highlighting the many reasons I enjoy living the good life in Elko County! I have to say, perhaps they color touched the photography- being high dessert, it's not usually this green....

Fun video clip/story song

Enjoy this fun little clip  :-)

Elko and the Mining Industry

My friend Joan Oliver posted this on her Facebook page so I am reposting it from her.  I thought it was fun to see a video from the national news regarding our local economy's bread and butter!

CNN Money and Barrick and Cortez Mine

BOO! Tiful Autumn Day