Spring Break 2010 (Part I)

Spring Break started early for our family this year. Mindy, Claire and Ian flew to Dallas, TX early on the morning of Wednesday, March 17 to participate in national children's choirs for the OAKE music educators conference. Later that day, Andrew flew to Salt Lake City for a "college visit" at BYU (and to hang out with Scott).

Spencer and I held down the fort in Hilliard. On Saturday, March 20, Spencer and I packed up the car and headed for New Orleans. We drove to Nashville the first day and stayed overnight at a Quality Inn...(a bit scary, especially the big brown spider in the sink - which Spencer did not see). Spencer enjoyed watching the last of a Harry Potter movie, while I watched BYU lose in the NCAA tournament (online).

On Sunday morning, Spencer and I left early to drive on to New Orleans. Andrew flew from Salt Lake to meet us in New Orleans. He volunteered to change his flight and rather than flying through Memphis, he came through LA (and received a $200 voucher). Mindy, Claire and Ian flew from Dallas to New Orleans.

Spencer and I arrived at our hotel in New Orleans (Metairie) around 1:30 p.m., but the rooms were not ready yet. So, we headed off to Spencer's favorite spot for lunch - Subway. We went back to hotel after lunch and were able to check in around 2:45 p.m. We then unloaded the car and rested for a bit before heading to the airport to meet the two flights. Andrew's flight arrived shortly after 5:00 p.m. and Mindy, Claire and Ian's flight arrived around 5:30 p.m. Mindy, Claire and Ian were visibly "pale" as they had a fairly rough landing...one which drew spontaneous applause once they were on the ground.

After gathering everyone and their bags, we headed back to the hotel to unpack. We then went to a nearby IHOP for dinner.

Monday morning we headed downtown NOLA for a tour of the city. The (Grayline) tour included the city and highlights of the effect of Katrina. It was a 2 1/2 hour (very comprehensive) tour. We saw and learned about all areas of the city. Following the tour, we ate beignets at the Cafe du Monde, walked through the French Quarter and French Market and visited the outdoor shops. We took a very brief stroll down Bourbon Street (to allow the kids to check it off their list), but avoided the skankier store fronts and bars.

Monday evening we met our good family friends - Jessica and Emily R. (who live in New Orleans now) for dinner at Voo Doo Barbeque. We had a great time visiting with them over dinner and learning about their schooling and other activities. It was neat for the kids to hear Jessica's Katrina story first hand. Following dinner, we drove past the LDS Chapel located on St. Charles avenue and then headed back to our hotel.

Tuesday morning we headed to Camp Hope to start our volunteer service. Initially, there was a bit of confusion, but it was quickly resolved and we were assigned to assist an organization called "Serve Green." We traveled to the offices of a non-profit organization (Common Ground Relief) in the Lower Ninth Ward and assisted in landscaping and planting a "rain" garden. The rain garden consisted of special plants that retain water in order to reduce the amount of water running off into the ground water and drainage systems. We worked together with two student groups (of about 12 students each). One group was from Ohio University (Athens, Ohio) and one group was from the University of Illinois at Chicago. The project coordinators were two Americorps Volunteers assigned to Serve Green. It was interesting to work at Common Ground Relief, which was in the heart of the "Brad Pitt" homes being built in the Lower Ninth Ward. We worked all day, taking a break for lunch. We made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and ate other snacks at the car. We cleaned dirt and sand out of the streets and gutters surrounding the office, planted plants, placed flagstones and worked on a couple of ponds. We ate back at the hotel (soup and salad) and enjoyed the evening.

Wednesday morning we headed back down to Camp Hope. The original plan was to assist in a cemetery clean up and restoration project. However, we were running a few minutes late and the cemetery crew had already left. So, we hooked up with one of the Americorps volunteers we had worked with on Tuesday and left to work on a shoreline clean up in St. Bernard Parish. The drive to the clean up area was about 45 minutes. Again, we were joining a couple of "Alternative Spring Break" college groups. One group was a Jewish student organization from The Ohio State University and the other group was from The University of Illinois at Chicago (different students from the Tuesday group). As soon as we opened our car doors, we were immediately accosted by mosquitoes and gnats. We immediately sprayed ourselves with Off, but it was already too late. Most of us ended up with a number of bug bites.

The Americorps volunteers had a small shallow boat that was used to ferry us to the opposite side of the canal. Only four workers could ride with the two rowers at a time and so it took a little while to all reach the other side of the canal. We spent the morning cleaning up the canal shoreline that had an incredible amount of garbage. There where countless plastic bottles and aluminum cans, but also things as strange as shop vacs (2), shoes, lumber, aluminum siding, golf clubs, fire extinguisher, miscellaneous electronics and household items, old broken/bent lobster traps, plastic shopping bags and more.

Once again, we took a lunch break at the car and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with our other snacks. Ian, Spencer and Andrew spent time at lunch with the student groups. We visited a nearby Katrina memorial during lunch time. After lunch, we started ferrying the garbage from the shore back to the Americorps' trailer.

We finished working around 4:00 p.m. and then headed back to the hotel. We next got cleaned up, ate dinner at the hotel (hot dogs and salad) and piled in the car to go back downtown. We attended a New Orleans' Hornet vs. Cleveland Caveliers sold-out basketball game at the New Orleans Arena next to the Superdome. The Cav's prevailed 105 to 92, with LeBron scoring 38 points.

Stay tuned for more Spring Break news coming soon!

2009 in Review

Mindy prepared our family Christmas "letter" and so I thought I would share it here:

This is a special Christmas--- being back in our home after an 8-month displacement from a house fire and all being together again. Here are highlights from the year:

DAVE

*Family trips to Florida and taking Scott to BYU
*The death of his father, Wally Cook
*Overseeing the rebuilding of our home
*Serving in the Stake Presidency
*Rotary board member

MINDY

*Sunbeam Teacher
*PTO President
*Compiling the insurance inventory
*Life in a hotel, rental home and moving back home

SCOTT (18)

*Playing “Tommy Djilas” in Music Man
*Graduating in the top 10 of his high school class
*Becoming an Elder; receiving his Patriarchal Blessing
*Completing his Eagle Scout Award
*Attending BYU-Provo on a scholarship

ANDREW (16)

*Turning 16 and getting his drivers license
*Attending EFY in KY and Prom in WA
*Appalachian Trail 50-mile High Adventure
*1st assistant in the Priest Quorum
*HS Basketball, Sr. Choir, and Student Council

CLAIRE (14)

*Turning 14 and attending Stake activities
*Attending a new middle school
*Playing soccer and softball
*A bad bout of poison ivy!
*1st chair violin in Concert Orchestra

IAN (10)

*Getting his own room!
*National Children’s Choir Trip to DC
*Playing “Winthrop” in Music Man
*An undefeated soccer season
*Student council, safety patrol and FOCUS class

SPENCER (7)

*Playing the part of “Peter Pan”
*Taking care of Tish, the guinea pig
*Playing soccer and baseball
*Playing with Cook Cousins in Washington
*2nd grade, Mrs. Miles and Explorations class

Our Eventful 2009

I gave the following talk at the Columbus Ohio Stake Conference general meeting on November 15, 2009:

Stake Conference – General SessionNovember 15, 2009

I. Introduction:

Late in the afternoon, on Friday, February 20, 2009, I was in my office trying to wrap up the week’s work and leave early enough to make it to a Hilliard Davidson/Hilliard Darby JV Basketball game…the final game of our sophomore son Andrew’s basketball season.

I received a call from Sister Cook, in which she was speaking seriously and earnestly, but not frantically. She had noticed some smoke coming from the dryer and asked what she should do. I suggested she pull the dryer away from the wall to determine if the smoke was from the dryer itself or from the vent hose. I mentioned that there was a fire extinguisher under the kitchen sink, if she needed it. I mentioned I would wrap up what I was doing and come home rather than go straight to the basketball game.

I quickly logged off of my computer, gave a couple of files to my secretary and headed out of the office. On my way to the parking lot, I was prompted to call my Brother in law, who happened to visiting our in-laws, and asked him to check and see if Mindy needed any help before I arrived home. We are blessed to have Mindy’s parents living nearby in our neighborhood.

For the rest of the story as to what happened after Mindy and I completed our call, I will leave for Mindy to tell, perhaps on another day. Since it was Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. and I was headed out of downtown, traffic was not moving very quickly. I was driving north on Riverside Drive and had just about reached the 5th Avenue intersection when I received a text message from Mindy. The text simply stated, “the garage is gone.” So, in the course of about 20 minutes, my mind had to make the adjustment from “there is a little bit of smoke coming from the dryer” to “the garage is gone.”

Well, as the night progressed, the fire did in fact take out the garage, the laundry room, a main floor bathroom, a second floor bathroom and a second floor bedroom. The rest of the house received substantial smoke and water damage, but did not burn. In the days following the fire, we were told by the contractor it would take 3 to 4 months to repair our home. The insurance adjuster chuckled and said no, most likely it would be closer to 6 months.

Following two nights at our Mindy’s parents’ home, we moved into a motel for a two-week stay while looking for a house to rent.

Just a short month after the fire, we had scheduled a Spring break trip with another family. After the fire, that family had asked if we still intend to take the trip, in light of the fire. We decided that it would be important to go on this trip as our oldest son was graduating from high school and this would be one of our last trips as a family before he went off to school, on to his mission and at some point marriage. To prepare for the trip, Mindy took our 6 year old GMC Yukon XL in for repairs. We paid a substantial amount to have the vehicle prepared for our trip.

We left Hilliard, early Saturday morning before the week of Spring break and less than two hundred miles into the trip; the Yukon began to lose power on the hills in northern Kentucky. We could see the other family’s van pulling farther ahead with little power to catch up. Finally, we stopped to check the oil and other fluid levels to see if that was the problem. It was not. So, arrangements were made for Mindy and Spencer to ride with the other family, the 45 minutes or so to Louisville to try and make arrangements for a rental car. Ian and I waited for the tow truck, while Scott, Andrew and Claire prepared to kill time until we could get back to pick them up. The Yukon was towed to a dealer in Louisville and since the service department closed at noon, the Yukon could not be looked at. In the meantime, Mindy had arranged for a rental car. The crossover had the necessary number of seatbelts (7), but little room for our luggage and food for the week. We eventually squeezed into the vehicle with as much luggage as possible and moved on. If you would like to hear about Scott, Andrew and Claire’s four hour adventure in a small town Kentucky Wal-Mart, you can ask them directly.

We went on to have wonderful trip to Florida despite rainy weather, but incurred the cost of the rental car for the week, as well as repair bills on the Yukon of nearly double the amount we had paid to have it repaired prior to the trip. So, within the course of two months, we experienced the fire and major car difficulties on our family trip.

Scott and Andrew had an old Toyota with more than 220,000 miles to drive. The first weekend of nice weather in Spring, one of the Toyota’s windows was smashed and Scott’s wallet taken. Later in the Summer, during a heavy rain storm Scott was driving the same car on I-70 during rush hour. The roads were slick; he spun completely around on the freeway, hitting the concrete barriers on an overpass. The car stopped facing the oncoming traffic, but he avoided all of the oncoming cars. The car was totaled and because of the age and condition of the car, we only had liability insurance. So, once it was determined the car was totaled, we had to replace that car.

What original looked to be a six month period out of our house was now looking to be 7 months or more.

On Friday, September 18, 2009, I received a message from my brother that our father was not doing well. I had spoken with my mother earlier in the month and knew that he had suffered a fall with damage to his back that caused him great discomfort. I contemplated going to Washington State to visit my father over the weekend but my brother assured me he would let me know if things became too serious. Over the weekend, I had a sense for how serious his condition was based on Facebook comments from a niece.

On Tuesday night, September 22, when I returned home in evening Mindy told me one of my sisters had called. I called and learned that she and my other sister were making the 3 hour drive to visit my dad since my mother was especially concerned. Later that night she called to let me know that his condition was very serious and that she would call me with more information on Wednesday morning after they had spoken with the doctors.

Wednesday morning I spoke with my brother and sisters a number of times and it was clear that my father’s condition had worsened tremendously overnight. I made flight arrangements for the earliest flight possible. The flight would get me to Portland at 10:30 p.m. Eventually, I spoke with my father’s physician. She (and my family) felt that even with the most invasive and intensive care, my father would not live until I arrived later that night. The family left the decision to me, whether to take my father off of the ventilator and make him as comfortable as possible or to try and prolong his life until I arrived. I felt peace and calmness as I discussed the decision with the doctor and asked her to make him as comfortable as possible. He passed away a short time later with my brother, sisters and mother in the room.
I continued with my flight plans that evening and then my family was able to fly out on Friday, with Scott flying from Utah to join us for the Friday viewing and Saturday funeral.
Finally, on October 27th 8 months (or to be more specific according to Andrew) 249 days following the fire, we were able to move back into our home.

During the 8 months out of our home the economy has suffered a serious recession, which has impacted everyone. Our oldest son graduated from high school and left home for college. We have dealt with mean people and petty problems. Some problems have been as simple as a cell phone dropped in the toilet or an mp3 player ran through the wash.

So, when it came time to write a talk for Stake Conference, I thought I would write on “adversity” and trials in our lives. But as I started to research the topic, it became clear to me that while our family has faced difficulties over the past 8 months, our burdens pale in comparison to the difficulties and adversity that others have and may continue to face. I know there are those in this congregation that have suffered loss of employment, loss of loved ones, loss of health and other significant heartaches and burdens.

II. Elder Clayton/Our Family’s Blessings

In this most recent General Conference, Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy spoke on burdens. He stated:

In a general sense, our burdens come from three sources. Some burdens are the natural product of the conditions of the world in which we live.

Other burdens are imposed on us by the misconduct of others.

Our own mistakes and shortcomings produce many of our problems and can place heavy burdens on our own shoulders. The most onerous burden we impose upon ourselves is the burden of sin. We have all known the remorse and pain which inevitably follow our failure to keep the commandments.

No matter the burdens we face in life as a consequence of natural conditions, the misconduct of others, or our own mistakes and shortcomings, we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father, who sent us to earth as part of His eternal plan for our growth and progress. Our unique individual experiences can help us prepare to return to Him. The adversity and afflictions that are ours, however difficult to bear, last, from heaven’s perspective, for “but a small moment; and then, if [we] endure it well, God shall exalt [us] on high.” We must do everything we can to bear our burdens “well” for however long our “small moment” carrying them lasts.

Burdens provide opportunities to practice virtues that contribute to eventual perfection. They invite us to yield “to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and [put] off the natural man and [become] a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and [become] as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father.” Thus burdens become blessings, though often such blessings are well disguised and may require time, effort, and faith to accept and understand.

Our family received tremendous blessings during 2009 and I am sure there are additional blessings that are “well disguised” and will require time, effort and faith for us to understand. But some of the obvious blessings include the following:

· Mindy was blessed with the inspiration to close the door between the house and the garage. We were told by a number of firefighters that this simple action during initial stages of the fire saved the rest of the house.
· There were no injuries to our family, pets, friends or safety personnel during the fire and the aftermath.
· While we stood in the cold February night watching the fire fighters work on the fire, one firefighter brought us Andrew’s scriptures from his night stand…because he thought they would be important to us. In fact, we were blessed not to lose any important family documents or photos.
· A neighbor opened their home that evening for Mindy and the kids, provided us with coats and hot chocolate. Later that night, the husband offered that I could come over for a tequila and I realized I had some missionary work to do.
· There were good friends that stopped by that evening just to make sure we were okay.
· Mindy had the opportunity to have an extensive gospel discussion with the individual that came to our home to collect our clothes for cleaning.
· The General Contractor who repaired our home commented on our food storage and asked if I could provide him with information on what he should store and how it should be stored.
· Priesthood brethren and extended family members assisted in moving our food storage out of the house and later back into it.
· School and community members have blessed our lives with service. This service has increased our family’s understanding of the goodness of people.
· A next door neighbor of our rental house was receptive to discussions about the gospel and attended Sacrament meeting.
· Bailee at the hotel – lost and also the kindness of the maid (food, food dish, etc.)
· Good friends helped with our pets when we needed to travel.
· We were blessed to find a rental home in our neighborhood.
· Family members and Sisters in the Ward assisted in cleaning our rental home when we moved out.
· Despite the costs and inconveniences experienced during Spring break we had a wonderful time as a family and with the other family, created memories that we will treasure always.
· When our Toyota was broken into, we found the wallet nearby. The small amount of cash in the wallet was gone, but Scott’s driver’s license and other important cards were found.
· When Scott totaled his car, he was uninjured.
· When my father passed away, I received numerous expressions of sympathy from friends that facilitated gospel discussions regarding the plan of salvation.
· There were a number of tender mercies we experienced in connection with my father’s passing and the services. While I was unable to arrive prior to his passing, my brother, a nephew and I were able to dress him at the funeral home. The time I spent dressing him was as choice as or more choice than the time I would have spent with him unconscious in his hospital room. I was blessed to feel his love and spirit at that time.
· Tish – lost and found.
· Increased closeness of our family, based on common experiences and trials.

Elder Clayton continues:

[B]earing up under our own burdens can help us develop a reservoir of empathy for the problems others face. The Apostle Paul taught that we should “bear . . . one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Accordingly, our baptismal covenants require that we should be “willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; yea, and [be] willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort.”
Keeping our baptismal covenants helps relieve our own burdens as well as those of burdened souls we serve. Those who offer such assistance to others stand on holy ground. In explaining this, the Savior taught:

“When saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
“When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
“Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Through it all, the Savior offers us sustaining strength and support, and in His own time and way, He offers deliverance.

Mercifully, the Son of God offers us deliverance from the bondage of our sins, which are among the heaviest of all the burdens we bear. During His Atonement He suffered “according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance.” Christ “suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent.” When we repent and keep the commandments, forgiveness and relief from our burdened conscience come with the help that only the Savior offers, for “surely, whosoever repenteth shall find mercy.”

III. Conclusion.

One of my favorite scriptures is 1 Ne 11: 16, 17:

And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God? And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.

I certainly do not know the meaning of all things, especially the meaning of our trials and burdens, but I know God loveth his children and that He loves me and my family.

We are definitely hoping for a quieter 2010!

Many of you will receive our family letter with our Christmas Card this year, but I thought I would post the letter here, too.

COOK FAMILY NEWS 2008

Scott (17) is living up his senior year at Hilliard Davidson HS. He is busy singing in 3 performance groups: Senior Choir, Madrigals and Boys in Blue. He serves diligently as Student Council Co-President and enjoys writing and performing songs with his friends. Other activities include Chamber Orchestra, performing in the school plays, early morning Seminary and activities with his Priest Quorum. He was chosen as Homecoming King and is looking forward to college next year. He is a caring brother and son.

Andrew (15), a sophomore, is also busy with high school life. He performs with Scott in Senior Choir and Chamber Orchestra and serves on Student Council. He and Scott played “Come Sail Away” with their band for the Homecoming pep rally and Variety Show. He plays on the JV basketball team and was selected for the OCC Honors Choir. He really enjoys his early morning Seminary teachers and currently serves as the Teachers Quorum President. He is excited to drive with his temps and continues to bring fun and laughter into our family.

Claire (13) enjoys 7th grade and middle school life. She played soccer on the school team and enjoys being goalie. She plays violin in two school orchestras and enjoys all her teachers. She is in the Beehive class presidency and loves the Young Women’s program at church. Her reputation as a great babysitter has gotten around so she earns lots of money! She has another year to go with braces…hurray! For her 13th birthday she got a tabby kitten, Bailey, which we are all enjoying. She is a great big sister to Spencer and Ian and is a great helper for Mindy at home. Having grown 6” in the last 2 years her graceful presence is a blessing in our home!

Ian (9) is in 4th grade. This brought new friends, teachers and homework responsibilities for him at school. One day a week he attends a FOCUS program for gifted children at the 6th grade school. He loves to play soccer and also enjoyed baseball this past summer, especially when he got to be catcher. He takes piano lessons and sings in the Columbus Children’s Nina Choir. He is a Bear in Cub scouts. He loves to read and play with Spencer on Webkins or with their friends on our court. He keeps us on our toes and makes family life fun and lively.

Spencer (6) is in 1st grade and loves his teacher, Mrs. Clifford. He has excelled in reading and writing and enjoys recess where he can collect bugs, spiders and other living things. He has started piano lessons and loves to sing Primary songs from the church website. He is often found singing, humming or whistling a tune of his own creation around the house. He is just starting to play T-ball, soccer and basketball…we’ll see how he likes sports! He is a smiley, social boy who brings joy and smiles to those around him.

Mindy turned the big 4-0 this year and was spoiled by a gift a week from Dave for the big count down. The demands of home and family take much of her time but she does make time for reading, knitting, and supporting community recycling projects. She serves in the Primary presidency in our ward and enjoys teaching and interacting with the children. She is the Drama Boosters Secretary for the high school and PTO Vice President at the elementary school.

Dave continues to successfully balance work, family and church responsibilities. His efforts serving in the Stake Presidency culminated this fall when our new Stake Center was completed and dedicated. He travels often with his legal immigration work but also took the family on some fun trips this year. We visited NYC for Spring Break and the Outer Banks of North Carolina over the summer. He and Mindy celebrated their 20th anniversary with a cruise to the Bahamas.
Although life is demanding we count our many blessings at this joyful time of year. LOVE AND GREETINGS TO ALL!

Christmas Traditions

I am going to be lazy. Each month a member of our Stake Presidency writes a message for the Stake Newsletter. I was assigned to write the message for December. Later this month I will update you on the "family happenings," but for now I thought I would share the message I wrote for the newsletter.

Stake Presidency Message
December 2008

Brothers and Sisters:

We are entering a wonderful time of the year. I love the Holiday Season. I enjoy recalling family traditions from when I was young. We often decorated two trees…one real tree and one silver aluminum tree. We would place a “color” light wheel next to the silver tree and watch it turn from blue, to yellow, to green, and to red. Often our natural tree would be “flocked” or decorated with tinsel. Only my father had the patience to place the tinsel on correctly, strand by strand. Another tradition the kids enjoyed was selecting one present from under the tree and opening it on Christmas Eve, following our reading of the Nativity story from the New Testament. One of the prized gifts we received each year was a “Book” of Lifesavers. We also enjoyed watching my mother look for a hidden gift placed in the tree by my father.

Other traditions involved visiting neighbors and friends. I grew up with three sisters and one brother. We would visit families on Christmas Eve and each of us would be allowed to carry in and delivery a carrier with six bottles of soda for our friends and neighbors.

In our family now, we are working to develop family traditions. When I served as a Bishop, our family invited the members of the Ward to join us for a Family Home Evenings in December. These Family Home Evenings have provided us rich memories to reflect on. We make an effort to go caroling each year. We have started a practice of donating food to the Mid’ Ohio Food Bank and shopping for Secret Santa gifts. We often gather with extended family for an enjoyable dinner on Christmas Eve, followed by a reading of the Christmas Story from the New Testament. Another family of close friends often joins us late on Christmas Eve to assist with important tasks, after which we may watch a movie. Finally, much to the consternation of our kids, no one is allowed to open a present on Christmas morning until everyone is awake and gathered around the Christmas Tree.

President James E. Faust taught that family traditions can enrich family life. He stated:

Some of the great strengths of families can be found in their own traditions, which may consist of many things: making special occasions of the blessing of children, baptisms, ordinations to the priesthood, birthdays, fishing trips, skits on Christmas Eve, family home evening, and so forth.

Underlying these traditions, is a desire to gather with family and friends to feel the Spirit of the Season. It is the opportunity to contemplate and recall the life and teachings of our elder brother, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. It is my hope that each of us may remember the true meaning behind this wonderful season as we carryon or establish traditions:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

I know and testify that as we remember the true meaning, we will receive His gift of peace.

Merry Christmas!

Our New Addition - Bailey

After trying our hand over the years with three dogs, we are now officially a cat family. Claire adopted "Bailey" on October 22, 2008. She is a five-month old tabby. So far, her favorite spots seem to be under mom and dad's bed and on Claire's bed. She is in danger of being "cuddled" to death. I don't think she knows what to make of all the attention she receives...mom is trying to teach Spencer how to hold a kitty.

Scott is busy preparing for a school production, "The Man Who Came to Dinner." Ian has a small part as a choir boy, together with a number of other young boys. As I noted in my last entry, Scott was also selected as Homecoming King for Hilliard Davidson High School (below is a picture of the future king and his mother on the track, just before learning he was selected as King).

Andrew and I had a fun time running in our 50-mile relay in Pennsylvania. However, the funnest part was golfing on the afternoon before the race. Andrew is excited to get out and play again.



Claire is the newest teenager in our family. We celebrated her birthday with a run to her favorite restaurant - Chipotle. She and her mom have worked very hard to redo her room (a prerequisite to adopting Bailey). They did an expert job painting her room and are moving on to the accessories.



Ian is enjoying flag football after school once a week and is learning to play the cello. He had a fun Halloween and dressed as Robin Hood.



Spencer was Dash (from the Incredibles) for Halloween. He and I had an enjoyable visit to the main downtown library in Columbus yesterday.



Mindy continues to be busy with the kids' activities and hosted a baby shower on Saturday afternoon. She was especially busy this month with Claire's birthday and other activities since I traveled each week this month.



I traveled to State College in Pennsylvania with Andrew to run the distance relay. Then I traveled to New York City for a Conference and client meetings. The next week I traveled to Philly...and was there for the first day of the World Series. Even though the first game was in Florida, the city was fired up. All of the buildings were decorated and everyone seemed to be wearing Phillies hats, shirts and gear. Then, this past week I traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska for meetings with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services as a member of the American Immigration Lawyers' Liaison Committee.



November should bring less travel for me, but Mindy and Scott will travel to Utah for an official visit to BYU.


Last Sunday night while I was talking with Mom and Dad, they asked who I was voting for. At that time, I was undecided. I really don't care for either McCain or Obama. Yesterday, I went for a slow 5 mile run and Claire kept me company on her bike as I ran. It gave us a nice time to visit about school, church and politics. It occured to me as she and I talked...if I can't bring myself to vote for either of the candidates, maybe I'll write in Romney. We'll see.


Take care everyone.

Hmmm...Does this work?

Since there seems to be so much happening all the time with our family (and I do a poor job of communicating to our extended family), I thought I'd try a blog.

Scott was selected as Hilliard Davidson H.S. Homecoming King this past week.

Andrew continues to prepare for basketball season and will join me (and five other runners on our team) in running the Tussey 50 mile relay this next weekend.

Claire just completed a successful year on her middle school soccer team. She played on the "A" team which consisted of both 7th and 8th graders.

Ian is totally into the Buckeyes this year. It's been an interesting transition to see his interest in sports grow exponentially over the past year. He is playing soccer now, and is much more "active" than in past years.

Spencer is our "whistler." He loves to whistle, hum, sing and has now started piano lessons. He, too, is playing soccer. His current strategy is to simply stand in front of the opponent's goal and call his team mates names continually...hoping for a well-placed pass.

Mindy is incredibly busy doing good...as always. She is Secretary for the High School Drama Boosters, Vice President of the elementary school PTO (she'll be President next year), and 1st Counselor in the ward primary. She does a great job of keeping up with all the kids activities and still finds time for many charitable projects.

Me? I like to ride my motorcycle (when I have time).

Let me know what you think of this whole blogging idea!