Hi Girls

We are in Russia. It is very far away. We rode many trains today. They go veryfast and are very crowded. We will bring you Russian candy.Today we saw a little dog wearing clothes. I took a picture which I will show you on Monday. Be good. We love you. Mom and Dad.

Greetings to Michelle and Hannah

Hello my girls!

I hope your teacher will let you read this.

Dad got to Washington D.C. yesterday. This morning we are leaving to go to Moscow Russia. We are at the Washington D.C. airport. We will fly from here to Nashville, Tennessee then to Chicago, Illinois and the to Moscow Russia. We will be on 3 airplanes!!

The flight from Chicago to moscow will take 12 hours! We will eat dinner and breakfast on the airplane. The airplane has chairs that change into beds where we can lie flat. We will be sitting in seats number 2D and 2G. They will give us DVD player to watch movies but I think I will just watch my shows on my ipod instead.

It was very hot in Washington D.C. It was 95 degrees!

We will stay in a hotel in Moscow. I will post pictures later if I can.

One thing I forgot to tell you about - when Dad arrived in Washington D.C. he caught the metro to the hotel I was staying at. The metro is a train that goes underground! It goes very fast!

We love you both and hope you are being good girls. Be obedient to Susan and Aunty and Jacob and Gabe and your teachers.

We are so proud of you both because you are both learning so much. We are so proud of you because you are both so kind. Remember to always be kind.

Love from Mom and Dad.

Food Storage

The Church has always taught its members to store food and supplies for emergencies or as a fall back in case of economic hardship. We have had an addition to our food storage in an unexpected way.

The other night I kept hearing our dog Elvis barking outside. I yelled at him to stop - which he did. The next day he barked on and off for periods of time - I'd yell at him to stop and, again, he would stop.

Yesterday Leo came home and said "Where did the chicks come from?"

Oh no, I thought, not baby chicks again. About a year ago a chicken laid eggs in our yard and 8 chicks hatched. Cute things - until they got old enough to crow - then they'd crow at all hours - including 2:00 in the morning. Finally, after many attempts to get them to move out of our yard Gene succeeded - although I will not tell you how (it was not homicide).

Since that time every so often a chicken will come in our yard and lay eggs. Gene will take the eggs and relocate them (I'm not saying where) and that would get rid of the mama and daddy too. No worries about crowing!!!

So when Leo mentioned the chick - my mind went back to our past experience.

"Gene will have to relocate them," I replied.

"But they are out there in a cage with food and water," she said.

"What!!!" - I ran out to see - at first I saw this -

Hmm - that is our beach towel - but what is it covering?

So that's what the dog's been barking at!

But where did they come from?

The culprit.

Those of you who know me know that I love animals - in the zoo. I am not a pet fan. This is why we have had fish, 3 rabbits, 2 rats, a duck, a turtle, a cat, 10 guinea pigs, a dog and now 3 chicks and I have never, ever, fed, petted, touched, bathed, watered, walked, or took any of them to the vet. I refuse to give them any attention. (Most of the animals have come via the culprit above)

And although I am not an animal fan - even I admit that letting these little chicks loose will mean their quick and certain death from neighborhood cats and dogs.

So I have been trying to find a silver lining in all of this and I think I finally have...food storage. We do eat chicken.

God wraps many of the most beautiful gifts in packages we never open

I may have sent this link to you of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent. If I didn't (or even if I did) - it deserves at least 1 more viewing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I'm humbled.

Now Isn't That Special (Olympics)

Last Saturday the girls participated in the Area Special Olympic Track and Field Games. They have been "practicing" with their team (Kamalii Koa) for about 6 weeks - on Saturdays. Usually Jacob or Susan will take them. I say "practicing" with "" because Michelle mostly wants to walk or sit while Hannah doesn't mind running - she just goes in whatever direction she wants. Oh - and there are only like 2 other kids on the team - both teenagers.

Their coach is a very nice young lady named Kat (she's an engineer!) and Mark (I think he is an area support staff) assists. We are in awe of these volunteers - they are there every Saturday rain or shine! I am sure the Lord blesses them for their service. They are really a blessing to us.

Additionally, at the Games themselves there are hundreds of volunteers who help cheer, escort, coach the Olympians. The local Lions Club provides a free lunch for everyone too.

Anyway the Area Games were at Schofield so we had to leave by 8:15 to make the Opening Ceremonies. The girls marched in like Olympic athletes - waving pompoms.

They both participated in the 50 meter run and soft ball throw. Hannah did the running long jump and Michelle did the standing broad jump.

Michelle walked away with 2 first place blue ribbons and 1 2nd place and Hannah had 1 first place, 1 second and 1 fifth place. (If you are unfamiliar with Special Olympics - everyone is a winner...)

We were surprised that Michelle beat Hannah in the 50 since Michelle hates to run - but evidently, if she has a crowd cheering her on she does just fine! They were both smiling at the grandstand and each other as they ran!

I only got to take pictures of one of the times they went up to the winners stand - my camera died after that! But here's the proof!

Notice the close up below of Hannah's shoe. When we arrived at Schofield I noticed that she was wearing her oldest, most ripped up pair of shoes! I noticed cause her sock was sticking out about 1 inch at the toe. We saw a Games official using duct tape to mark off the finish line. Gene asked him if we could have a piece of tape for a "Special Olympian with a ripped shoe." It held well - she took the socks off so they wouldn't stick to the tape. We threw the shoes away (finally!) when we got home.

The State Games are next month...looking forward to it! Hannah will have new shoes by that time and we probably should get them special t-shirts too.

If you ever want to have a lot of fun while serving someone - volunteer for Special Olympics!

The Haircut

So I've been under the weather - and today Gene asked Jacob to watch for Hannah's bus because I was going to take a nap. Well he watched for her bus but then failed to watch Hannah after she got off the bus...and, as I'm sure you have guessed from the title of this post...she cut her hair.

Its bad. Susan took some photos on her camera but hasn't given me them yet. But this shot (taken after her hair was fixed) shows the shortest strands.

I was going to take Hannah down to Fantastic Sam's to get it "fixed" - but Susan thought she could do it - and by golly I think she did a GREAT job - especially considering there were probably 15 different lengths to blend in AND the fact that Hannah has like 4 cowlicks didn't make it any easier.

Traveling FOG

FOG (Forty and Over Group) went to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany in February. Vivian took lots of photos but I'll just post a few now.

We took a cruise down the Rhine and saw numerous castles - like maybe a dozen or more. really incredible.

This is a shot of the whole group minus Vivian the photographer.

Here is another shot of some of us posing somewhere. I can't remember - but maybe where the Rhine and the Moselle River come together.

One of the advantages of being short is that I can lean on Gene and go to sleep
anytime - anyplace.

WARNING - Rated XXX parting shot

The best part about traveling is going with the one you love.
(WOW - my hair sure looks black!)

Easter Bunny

So I had to crop this photo in a really weird way in order to even see the girls' faces! The photog takes a photo in which the Bunny is the major focus! What's up with that?

Anyway -we took this in the mall on Saturday. The mismatch clothes should be a clue to you that this photo stop was totally unplanned.

General Conference

Been listening to General Conference on the web. Two things have stuck out in my mind.

1) Satan wants us to think we are too far gone - but the Lord embraces our return to Him no matter where and no matter when. Any time any place is the right time and the right place to seek Him.

2) The natural man will never be satisfied.

My AWESOME Cuz

This is my cousin Trey Mossman. He is the General Manager at Nick's Fish Market at the Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea. He is AWESOME! He always treats us like royalty! Gotta love that boy!

Sharon and I ate dinner there last night. It was FANTASTIC! We had appetizers - sashimi, kalua pot stickers; soup - japanese pumpkin with lobster cake; island snapper; and the great strawberry dessert that he sets on fire!!!! He makes a cute decoration on your plate - using brown sugar, devonshire cream and chocolate syrup. You dip the straberries in the sugar etal and achieve palate nirvana!

Here's the design he made on my plate.

Have a Lavender Day

So I went to Maui with Sharon - a quick overnighter. We got there on the 31st at about noon, picked up the rental car and headed to Kula to the Lavender Farm. We had a cart tour with Alii Chang, the owner of the farm. Although there was tons of lavender I ended up taking one picture - not of lavender but of eunum schwazkopf - a black flower from Holland!

I highly recommend the lavender farm for its fantastic view, relaxing atmosphere and great tour with Alii. The gift shop is richer from my purchases alone...the shampoo smells heavenly.

We stayed overnight at the Marriott Wailea and lounged around most of the day until our noon check out.