Monday, January 9, 2012

2011 Christmas Letter

Guest Gazette, December 2011

Highlights from our year:
·
Bill IV accepted a job as an assistant
actuary with a Medicare health insurance plan and moved his family, wife
Rebekah, daughters Jessica(5), Bradlei (4), and Avery (2) to Salem, OR. We are
thrilled to have them much closer to us and they are enjoying the Salem area.
Jessica started kindergarten and loves it. Little William Charles Guest V is
due to arrive mid February. A special thanks to Bekah, Jessica and Bradlei for
helping me make our Christmas cards!
·
Jenny, her husband Tyler and their son
Xander (4), and daughter Ryan (2) have been in their home in the Portland
suburb of Troutdale for a little over a year and are happy there. Tyler is the
assistant controller for LaCrosse Footwear. Jenny will be having a little boy,
due to be delivered January 16. At this point we are all calling him baby Zach.
·
Josh and his wife Susan welcomed their
first child, Virginia Lin (Ginny) last July. They are having lots of fun
learning the ins and outs of parenthood. Susan recently finished her nursing
degree and currently is a stay at home RN. Josh is in his second year of a four
year program to get a combined JD/MBA at Brigham Young University. In the
spring he finished his first year of law school, this current year is all
business school. The next two years will be a combination of the two.
·
Andy is also at BYU and is majoring in
Economics, with long term plans for an MBA. He has another year left of his
undergraduate work. He strapped on his
running shoes again this fall to participate in the Red Rock Run in the Zion’s
National Park area. His team of 12 ran
187 miles in a little over 24 hours.
They came in 5th overall out of 300 teams.
·
Jake finished up a fun and successful
freshman year at BYU last spring. He is currently serving as a missionary for
the LDS church in the Brazil Goiania Mission. He says he loves everything about
Brazil and he is very happy.
·
For all the last school year, all four
of our sons were living in the Provo, UT area. They got together on a regular
basis for intramural sports and other activities, and Sunday dinner. They had a
lot of fun together, and I'm thankful for the chance they had to grow closer
and be supportive of each other.
·
Katie is a junior in high school. She
had a fun soccer season this past fall and is currently on the school swim
team, which she doesn't find fun, but she does it for the exercise. She was
recently inducted into the National Honor Society and is a photographer for the
school yearbook. One of the highlights of her year was in August when she
fulfilled a lifelong dream :) and got to go to a Josh Groban concert in
Portland.
·
Bill's big project for the year is to
become healthier and lose weight. He is doing well with this project and has
lost 41pounds since July, with a goal to lose 76 more. He is in his 7th year
serving in the stake presidency and sixteenth year as CEO of Cascade
Comprehensive Care. He was elected
Chairman of the Board of one health plan and is in his sixth (and last year)
serving on the Board of the local Senior Center and Area Agency on Aging. He's counting down the next ten years to
retirement.
·
Sue finished her year as a kindergarten
teacher, glad that she took that opportunity, but exhausted and happy to go
back to substitute teaching. She was also released from her calling as the
Relief Society president, and now is
working with the Young Women as secretary.
She is also working on the weight loss project with Bill, but won’t be
discussing numbers.

Most of the family got together for a vacation in
the Mount Hood area of Oregon in July.
It’s a beautiful area and we
had a great time. We also spent some
time at Lake Tahoe in the summer and Southern California for spring break.

We are grateful for our family and friends and hope
this finds you well and happy. All the best for a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous, happy
and healthy 2012!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Grown Man X: "I need to turn off the water for the winter."

Sweet Little Old Lady: "OK"


GMX now must put his arm down a hole in the yard and turn the water spigot.


a few minutes later.....


GMX: "I need help!"


SLOL: "What is it?"


GMX: "There are frogs in the hole!!" "Will you get them out?"


SLOL: "You're asking me, a sweet little old lady, to get the frogs out?"


GMX: "Yes!"


SLOL: "Why me?"


GMX: "I'm afraid (I'll kill them with my big grown man hands)."


SLOL....thinks to herself "right"


SLOL gloves up and pulls out a frog


GMX: "I think there are two down there."


SLOL pulls out another frog


GMX puts his arm in the hole to turn off the water: "EEK!! Another one!"


SLOL pulls out 3rd frog...and then #4


GMX can now turn off the water in peace.




GMX and the hole and the super scarey frogs

Sunday, November 7, 2010

These pictures were in our local paper today, illustrating an article on volunteerism. The two little girls pictured are in my kindergarten class. I was so excited!




http://pioneer.olivesoftware.com/OLIVE/ODE/HERALDANDNEWS/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=UEtGLzIwMTAvMTEvMDc.&pageno=MjU.&entity=QXIwMjUwMw..&view=ZW50aXR5

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Back to School Night


My first bulletin board.


Favorite of the day: The children were making self portraits and were supposed to color their paper doll with the clothes they were wearing today. I had to tell one little girl that she should just color the shirt, NOT what was *uh hum* under the shirt.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

First Day As A Real Live Kindergarten Teacher

I texted to my family during first recess "I love them already....even the naughties :)"

Favorite of the Day
Me: "Jimmy (not his real name, and prone to physical "incidents") did you hit Johnny?" (also, not his real name)
Jimmy: "Yes, but it was a soft punch."

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

More pictures from Utah trip

Bradlei, Mema, Avery and Jessica



Mema and Avery



Jessica and Bradlei


Bradlei and Avery



The 3 youngest Guest girls....Bradlei, Jessica and Avery



Decorating a gingerbread house with Mema












Bradlei sacked out with her dad.