irielife.net

Maryland is absolutely beautiful this time of year. Although I’ll take
California weather over Maryland any time, having 4 seasons is actually
pretty awesome. It’s not that I like winter – everything is gray, cold,
and barren – it’s that the contrast between winter and spring is so
stark that spring arrives as a wonderful sensory overload. Everything
is green and flowering, and it’s really quite stunning, and the further
you get from Baltimore the better it gets.

{mosimage}Spring
also means the ant colony that appears to have taken our lawn hostage
decides its time to come indoors looking for food. Seth is thrilled
with these new �playmates’. We posted some video we took this morning
of Seth discovering that ants don’t live just in the lawn. You can
click on the picture on the right to view the video.

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Rusty (who is currently “working” in Galway, Ireland) and Sally made a Mother’s Day video for the Grandma’s.

You can view the video by clicking on the picture of Ryan just to the left of this text. You can also right click on the picture and save the video to your computer.
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Seth was in my basement office the other day and somehow managed to find the “Cha Cha Bear” that we stashed away, hoping it wouldn’t be found until the kids reached voting age. But Seth dug it out and pleaded with us to make it dance. So we did, and once again, as it has been with each kid, the cha cha bear is the new favorite toy in the house. Click the picture on the left to view the video of Seth and the cha cha bear.

Speaking of dancing, for family nite about a month ago, Seth was the ‘spotlight’, which entails giving one of the kids a chance to show off a talent. Seth opted for dancing, which we’ve captured on video. Click on the picture to view the video.

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We just wanted to say hello and to let everyone know what is going on with us. It’s been an exciting year to say the very minimum. Corey is hosting a pancake breakfast for 2000 on Mother’s day which will be exciting, and he even was interviewed by the infamous Curtis Kim on our high budget local news station.

A sidenote to those family members that appreciate drama–I made a little scrapbook of his pictures and they fell of the paper while he was on air. Corey was so calm all he said was OOps!

Also, today we got a phone call from CA dept of Forestry wanting Corey to start a month early! We are so excited that he finally gets to start on his career. I am getting used to the idea of him being gone 5 days a week.

For me, I am almost finishing my second semester in purgatory. I am improving. It only took Corey 10 hours to have his teeth cleaned, and I finished mom in a speedy 8.5 hours. Slow down speed demon. Seriously, I am getting used to the idea of taking care of others oral hygiene. I am anxious for any volunteers that can afford to miss a week of work to spend at the dentist! Anyway, We love everyone and are sorry that we lose contact for weeks at a time.
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DAY 3 of my business trip to Oregon.
I have watched him drive long distances and seen how he reacts to crazy drivers, how he insists I wear my seatbelt, and how he handles long stretches of highway that would invite lesser individuals to get a few speeding tickets. He made me a fabulous roast supper (yes, including lots of green beans) on Sunday and has been equally impressive, mealwise, ever since. I observed him while he coached the women’s and men’s soccer teams and admired his patience and his willingness to accept negative feedback. We went with two others from the singles ward to visit two elderly women, only one of which we saw because the first took a good hour and a half – she was an amazing woman!

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Dear Lisa, JB and Susie, Mary, Rusty and Sally, Katherine and Corey, and Susannah,

I don’t really like sending a bulk e-mail to all of you–the forwarding makes me nuts and Dad and his brothers and sisters make fun a little bit about the bulk mailings from their Dad-mostly–although now that most of them are parents multiple times they surely see the convenience. I admit the convenience and appreciate it but I expect to use it only sparingly and at least I’m addressing you all individually and not lumping you. It occurred to me this morning that I could just put what I want to say to all of you in the blog and then just e-mail each of you and tell you to go there–it felt like a shortcut at the time. Dad was going to write on the blog last night but he got involved in getting 2 viruses off Katherine and Corey’s cumputer so Katherine would have it for school and didn’t get past that–unless he did and didn’t tell me.

Although I hadn’t discussed my letter to you all with him–he was, as you’ll remember, camping when I wrote it–he did find it as he was cleaning up my computer in the virus crisis. He thanked me for it and for enlisting your help and said he felt surprisingly–I think his term was “preternaturally”, and I’m fighting the urge to go look that up (it’s these digressions that defeat me every time) calm about his upcoming ordeals i.e. interviews–and I think that’s true because he slept last night. Also, He bore his testimony yesterday and that was very touching–he talked about a scout testing the veracity of the teaaching he’d been given about the value of boiling water–would it work on really dirty water? The kid tested the theory by boiling the pond water at the camp–think Lake Ralphine–and drinking it. Dad compared it to testing various spiritual promises and it was a very effective illustration. Dad did comment later that he really hopes Jonathon does not get sick any time soon–I think that’s less lack of faith in the principles involved than concern about how long he might actually have boiled the water–and there may also be a sermon in that concept.

Lisa cleaned up his resume and made some smart suggestions and he is at work now looking for possibilities and feeling preternaturally calm–thanks to you.

Love, Mom
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so I’ve been hired by 3 swimming pools since my move to Utah and am determined to work at them all. I moved out of Lorin and Laura’s and moved at least my things into the Glenwood near BYU – which is actually not near any of my jobs. But I don’t spend much time at the new place, I’ve only slept there once (turns out I really enjoyed Lorin and Laura’s).

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Note: This is the obituary for Susie’s grandfather.

OGDEN – Leonard Wayne Garrard, Sr., 80, died Wednesday, April 14, 2004 in Ogden.

He was born October 24, 1923 in Ogden, a son of William Lenard and Eva Margurite Larsen Garrard.

Wayne was reared and educated in Pleasant View and North Ogden, where he spent most of his life. He graduated from Weber High School and attended Weber College.

On July 17, 1942, Wayne married Donna Knight in Malad, Idaho. Their vows were solemnized in the Salt Lake LDS Temple on January 29, 1943.

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We drove into Dublin late on Friday and camped out at our hotel room for the night – Jury’s Inn – but it is pronounced Jew Ree’s Inn. It was nice enough, and the hotel was right near the river liffey about a mile from the port of Dublin where the ferries would come in from England and a few blocks away from the downtown area, so we were well situated. Unfortunately, the baby doesn’t sleep well in hotels, so Sally slept while Ryan and I walked around early the next morning to find an ATM and some breakfast. Within walking distance we found McDonald’s AND Burger King and we felt “spoilt for choice”. So we had McDonald’s for breakfast and then hit the streets to see the sights of Dublin by foot. We managed to walk down Grafton street which has street performers and beggars (Gypsies with Babies asking for change who cast a spell on you when you tell them you don’t have any change. Just as well, I was kind of lying when I said it, so perhaps I deserved the spell. I did have change in my pocket after all, I just didn’t have any for her.) We saw some entertainers from London playing electric violins that sounded really neat, and some guys trying to pass off their beat box and bad dancing as music and theatre. All in all, it was quite an experience, lots of shops and lots of people everywhere. We walked around for a while until we found St. Stephen’s green. Sally’s eyes lit up because it is a three story mall with some great shops inside.

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Note: This is the text of Rusty’s first email since arriving in Ireland. It was sent 3/29/04.

Hey everybody –

We are here! Today was my first day of work. I am just finishing up and none of you are probably even awake yet. We just had daylight savings time here on Saturday Night and our clocks went forward an hour. That makes us 9 hours ahead of California, I’ll let the rest of you do the math.

We got to London without a hitch (That’s Irish for problem) and then had a bit of a hiccup at immigration. It seems there was an English lady there who wanted to throw her weight around, and tried to stop us from coming across the border since I didn’t have any official documentation detailing my job here in Ireland. Well, she took our passports and walked into the back room and left us sitting there for a half hour. We couldn’t get upset because then she could do who knows what with us, so we just had to sit and wait and pretend that it wasn’t bothering us…

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