March 30 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Mar 30, 2014

Dear Family and Friends:

Wow, where did March go?  The saying goes that when you are busy time flies by, and that is so true.  It is hard to believe we are going into the 4^th month of the year.

First we would like to say Thank You to Deven for putting the “Roberts Review” together, and for all those who wrote.  It was so good to read what everyone is doing in their lives.  We printed it off and that was the first thing we did when we got home Monday was to read it.  Next time hopefully all will write an update of their family. 

Robin, our IT guy came in Monday and was hoping us and Williams were not in the office as he wanted to install the new firewall in our building, so we said we would leave at 4.  He said it should take him a couple of hours.  When we got to the office Tuesday morning I opened the door to put our lunch in the refrigerator and saw wires all over where he was working when we left Monday and said I was sure we had no internet, and we didn’t.  As we walked through the office at Buckland House to go get the mail, he said there was something wrong, and he had been on the phone all day with Salt Lake and Queensland and they couldn’t seem to get it resolved.  He came in just before we left on Tuesday, we had stayed late for Family Home Evening, and said he had patched it up again and he would not be in for 10 days, he has finals.  So far it is working. 

Family Home Evening was the farewell party for the Tanners, they return home to Payson, Utah in the morning.  We are sure going to miss them.  They are still going to continue with the articles for the Mormon Newsroom, AU, until the new couple come.  They are supposed to be here on the 15^th of April.  The Moore’s did the dinner, all the Tanners favorites, lasagna, spaghetti, pizza and French bread.  Their gift was a book on Sydney with history and beautiful pictures.  We then played Pictionary and that was a hoot.  Another really fun night.  I guess you saw the picture dad took of all the couples that were there.  Next month we will get another one with the Archibald’s there.  Elder Archibald was in New Zealand working and Sister Archibald is in Utah with a new grandson.  Hopefully Tina got to meet her. 

Dad has been emailing Salt Lake all week about more lights for our camera.  In order to install a new program they want us to use we need more lights so we ran around on Wednesday looking for 200 watt bulbs and there are no such thing in our area.  We went to the office at 7:30 on Friday to call Henry and he was already gone but Darin was there so he got on team viewer and told Dad to lower our lights and see if that would work, so he installed the new program on the computer and said he would be in the office for about another hour.  We tried to calibrate the camera and it wouldn’t calibrate so Dad called him back.  He had to uninstall the new program and put the old one back on and said to just work with it.  Dad was still on the phone with him when we left for the Birthday Morning Tea.  The Physical Facilities team were in charge and they had little sandwiches, tortilla’s with mayo, ham and lettuce or turkey, then rolled up and cut and stood up.  They looked really cute and were very good.  They also had strawberries, grapes, watermelon, nuts, cookies, potato chips, crackers, and dips.  It was really good.  After Sister Moore had everyone stay for a picture, missionaries in front with name tags on holding boxes of Sanitarium Cereals.  They are made by the Seventh Day Adventist, and they have a meeting with them next week, so they are going to show them that we love their cereal. 

On Wednesday we got an email from Mark saying he wanted to have lunch on Thursday and asked Sister Williams to organize it.  Paul Pardin and his wife joined us, he is over Family History somehow, I don’t know his exact calling.  We ate subway sandwiches, chips and grapes.  Mark showed the results of an online survey about family history given around Australia.  It was very interesting.  It is good just to visit also.

Yesterday we took the Killebrew’s on the rivercat to the Quays and walked to the bridge pylon so they could see it.  I did not walk up the 200 steps, I just sat on a bench.  They had not been down to Sydney so they really enjoyed it.  We hadn’t been on the rivercat for a while so it was fun and it was perfect weather.  We had fish and chips when we got off the cat and then walked.  We got home around 6:30.

Church today was very good.  It is good to be back after missing a week.  We missed Ward Conference last week, and a baptism yesterday because we didn’t know about it.  Priesthood and Relief Society combined was on missionary work.  It was good. 

Tonight we went to the office for the very first NSW Multi-Stake Webinar Devotional titled “Sharing the Gospel Online: Good, Better and Best.”  It was really good and very informative.  Steve and Kathi Tanner have worked on this for several months and this is their last official thing to do.  They leave at 5 in the morning.  When you have time look up on YouTube “Baptist converts to Mormon.”  He talked on the webinar, he was a Baptist missionary in the states and ran into missionaries in a Southern State.   Just as we were getting ready to leave the office we had thunder and lightning, and rain.  Since we got home we have had really hard rain.  We have had rain off and on all week and everything is so green and beautiful.  There is a tree blooming all over with really deep beautiful purple flowers.  I hope we get a picture this week.  I need to find out what it is. 

We are so glad Ezra and Kaylee and Rowan are together again as a family and beginning their new life in the Marines in Yuma, Arizona.  We will see where Deven and Michelle and family are tomorrow when we call.  They are going to be loving Skype and the media as we do.  Can’t imagine being this far away without it.  When we don’t have Wi-Fi in the office I am frustrated because I can’t call or text any of the kids.  At least when it is out I can bring email and Facebook up on our work computers that are wired direct.

Friday we sent in 15500 images so we are right on track to finish in October.  We need to stay ahead for when we have a lot of meetings and activities.  We were actually surprised it was that many when we unhooked the hard drive.

The Killebrew’s brought up some chocolate cake and we had it when we got home from the office.  It was really good.  They wanted to tell us thanks for taking them yesterday.

In closing I want to quote the 3^rd verse of “Let Us All Press On”

If we do what’s right we have no need to fear,

For the Lord, our helper, will ever be near;

In the days of trial his Saints he will cheer,

And prosper the cause of truth.

Chorus:

Fear not, though the enemy deride;

Courage, for the Lord is on our side.

We will heed not what the wicked my say,

But the Lord alone we will obey.

We Love you and Pray for you all!

Mum and Dad

                                                    The Dish at Parkes, NSW Australia

      Family Home Evening, LtoR,Smith's,Killebrews,Moore's,Tanner's,Jeff's,Williams,Feils,Roberts

                                                    Enjoying the water at Palm Beach

March 23 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday March 23, 2014

Dear Family & Friends:

Happy Birthday Onalie!  It was good to talk to you for a few minutes after Church today.  We just finished eating a bite and it is after 8 pm.  We didn’t get home from Dubbo until almost 8 and we unpacked, changed clothes and here we are.  It has been a long two days but I will tell you about that later.

Monday morning we got a letter from Ann and Dan and that was so good.  We love having news from home.  She sent us a clipping of Marjorie Simmons 95^th Birthday.  She is quite a lady.

We finished reading the book “A Lion and a Lamb” and it was really enjoyable.  We learned a lot of Church History by reading it.  If anyone has a chance to read it you should, it is very easy reading.

On Tuesday I had visiting teaching at noon.  We ate our lunch and visited, then Sister Williams gave a lesson on the Light of Christ.  It was very good and we always enjoy getting together. 

Friday we got a knock on our door around 10:30 and it was the Hill’s from Brisbane.  They are the couple that met us at the airport and took us up to Bundaberg to meet Sister Rogers.  They had come down to Sydney for a funeral, so stopped in to see how we capture the cards.  They helped box them up and get them loaded on the truck to bring to our warehouse.  It was good to visit with them for a little while.  We are always happy to show off our project. 

Saturday morning we left the flat around 9, went and got fuel, then left for Parke to see the Dish.  It was about a 5 hour drive, with one stop to walk around.  We got there around 2:30 and went to the café and got some lunch.  We both had the dish burger which was a hamburger patty, with bacon, pineapple, cheese, beet root, caramelized onions, fried egg, tomatoes and lettuce.  We had to eat it with a fork as it was so big but really good.  We were able to watch to dish move around while we ate, and that was pretty cool.  It is huge, as we were driving we could see it for 2 miles away.  It started working in 1961 and continues to work today 24/7.  The telescope does major observations in space in studying and detecting new molecules that point to regions of forming stars.  So much history and we really enjoyed learning all about it.  It also played a major part when Neal Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969 as it was the telescope that sent the pictures for the television for all of us to watch it.  We then drove to Dubbo that is about another hour and a half away.  We checked into our motel and went and found the Church.  It is very small with a very large lot of grass and trees.  As Dad was taking pictures of it, two missionaries walked out of the Church.  They are both from Utah, Elder Janes from Syracuse, and Elder Randle from Holladay.  They were waiting for some neighborhood kids to come and play basketball and soccer.  They said the branch is very small, and the Branch President lives about an hour away and hasn’t been there for about 7 weeks.  The counselor takes care of everything.

We went for a ride out to the country and saw lots of pasture ground and a few kangaroos in a field.  It was a beautiful drive.  We then got fuel, and an ice cream bar because we weren’t hungry and went back to our room to study our talks.  Church started at 9:30 so we went about 9.  We met the missionaries and the counselor in the parking lot and then went in for Sacrament Meeting.  The District President was there visiting, he is from Cowra and had about a 3 hour drive to get there and go back home.  With us there was a total of 11 people.  They have no one to play the piano so we sang to a recording, and a man who has never led the music did, and he did a good job.  We were the only speakers and they were glad we came as those that are there just take turns each week.  They had one high school girl and the rest were adults so she just stayed with all of us for Sunday School and joint Priesthood and Relief Society.  There were only 4 women with her, and 6 men as one man went home after Sacrament Meeting so if us and the District President hadn’t been there it would have really have been small.  They had a wonderful Spirit and we really enjoyed it.  We left around 1 as we called Onalie for a few minutes.  We had rain part of the way home and we stopped once on the way home.  It was just getting dark when we arrived in town, and so we are not going to enjoy the long trips from now on as the time changes here next month.  We do not like driving after dark.  We had construction that also slowed us down a bit. 

Guess I will close for now as it is getting late.  Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

We Love you and Pray for you!!

Love,

Mum and Dad

March 16 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Mar 16, 2014

Dear Family and Friends:

Happy St Patrick’s Day!!  We have just had the most fun evening.  In fact everyone just left so I will tell you about it first.  A couple of weeks ago we got a package from Tina and in it was the ingredients for a Leprechaun Cake with topping.  It was so cute we decided to share it with the other couples, so we invited them to come about 6-6:30 and it is now 8:45.  I made the cake this morning, a little worried if it would turn out on this side of the world and at sea level.  It was perfect and really, really good.  We had vanilla ice cream to go with it.  Those that came were the Williams, Feils, Tanner’s, Killebrew’s, and Moore’s.  The Smith’s had to teach a class tonight, and the Archibald’s are out of town.  We visited, and laughed and just had fun.  It is going to be sad when the Tanner’s go home on the 31^st of this month, and the Williams on the 26^th of April.  We are really going to miss them.  Everyone said “Thanks Tina”!  She also sent us some Leprechaun Chowder I will make for tomorrow.

Seeing as though I started the week backwards I will just continue.  Church today was wonderful, in Sacrament Meeting a returned missionary spoke, he went to the Salt Lake City South Mission and absolutely loved it.  He told his life story, he was born in England and came to Australia when he was 16 with his mother and stepfather.  He moved out when he was 17 with a friend’s family because of problems with his stepfather.  In his Sr year of High School a girl invited him to Church and he said he has no idea why he said he would.  He had never been inside a Church before in his life.  When he got there it was a Spanish Ward and he couldn’t understand any of it.  He was ready to leave after the meeting but a lady asked him to stay for Sunday School and again he said yes.  She bore her testimony to the class in broken English and he was very touched.  The next week he found a ward closer to him in English and started going and really enjoyed it.  He went through several sets of missionaries but couldn’t commit to Baptism.  One night he read the Book of Mormon again with real intent and with Prayer and knew it was true so he was baptized.  He was 19 and knew he would never go on a mission until the Bishop asked him if he wanted to and again he said yes not knowing why and said it was the best thing he has ever done.  He was so good.  The counselor in the Stake Presidency also gave a really good talk.   We enjoyed it all.  It rained really hard all the way to Church with thunder and lightning, and the sun was shining all the way home.  We also got a really big storm last night for about an hour.  We need it so we are glad to have whatever we get it.

Yesterday after cleaning we went with the Williams to Palm Beach, about 45 minutes away.  They needed to get some red sand to take home and that is where it was.  We took shoes off, rolled up our pants and went in the ocean.  It was really fun.  We found a place to eat on the way home in a little town.  We were looking for fish and chips but went to a chicken place and it was really good.  Sister Williams asked a man on the street where to eat. 

Friday we sent the shuttle off with 20,000 images, a really good week.  We averaged 4,000 a day.  That’s what we can do when we don’t have many meetings and interruptions.  One day we found a card that had the name “Swagman” on it with a burial date and cemetery.  We showed it to Mark and he thought it was pretty funny also.   Friday night we went to Buckland House and watched “Saratov”.  The Archibald’s had just got it that afternoon so we had an impromptu party.  We took nuts, Sister Tanner made brownies and had ice cream, Archibald’s had popcorn and cookies.  It was a great movie.  I told Tina to buy it and share it with all of you.  We want to have it in our library.  It is about 2 missionaries that were kidnapped in 1998 in Russia, and held for ransom, this is their true story.

Last Monday night was Family Home Evening and the Archibald’s and Moore’s were in charge.  Sister Archibald made enchiladas and a salad, and Sister Moore bought a birthday cake and had ice cream.  We were celebrating Elder Archibald and Elder Moore’s birthdays, both tomorrow.  We played musical chairs, pin the tail on the kangaroo, played the candy bar game, and learned line dancing and round dancing from the Feils.  It was so much fun, and we were exhausted when we got home. 

It was good to have the William’s back after being gone for 8 days.  Mark was in the office all week, but he pretty much stays in his office working.  With the Williams there we kind of visit back and forth, and we eat lunch together.

This morning and after dinner while waiting for everyone to come we started reading the book “A Lion and a Lamb” by Rand H Packer.  It is the true story of a young couple’s 24 year mission in New York living in the Joseph Smith Home.  We are really enjoying it.  Hopefully we will finish it tomorrow night, or at least this week.

Can’t think of anything else now, I was asked to say the closing prayer for the meeting tomorrow so now I can worry about that.  We are looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

We Pray for you all and Love You!!

Mum and Dad

                                                Petting the Koala and the Kangaroo's

      Margaret Hill, Alison Rogers, Sister Roberts, Doug Hill, Brother Rogers, Brother Roberts

                        Termite Hill, they live in these and they are as hard as cement

March 9 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Mar 9, 2014

Dear Family and Friends:

Happy 52^nd Anniversary to us.

It has been a good week, a little short because I wrote last Monday night.  The weather has been a combination of cloudy, some rain, and some sunshine, temps ranging between 70 and 80.  It is so pretty as some of the trees are blooming again, and it is really green after rain.  There is always something blooming over here.  It smells so good when we walk outside.  On Wednesday Mark came in and asked us to write an article about Sister Rogers to submit for the Ensign.  We spent the afternoon working on it.  He just mainly wanted the facts so we had to read her history and her notes about the project before we could begin to write.  He is going to put what we sent him into an article.  We also sent some pictures.  We had good days capturing the cards, we are trying to average 4,000 a day and we did 3 days last week.

Yesterday we did some deep cleaning seeing as though we have been gone for 2 weekends in a row.  We finished about 9 and ran to the office to call Tina and see if she got the hot water fixed in our house.  When there is no hot water there is no heat, and she has a Relief Society activity up there this week.  Then we went to the Koala Park Sanctuary about 20 minutes from our flat.  It cost us $27.00 each to go in, but we decided it was well worth it.  We saw Penguin’s, they are warm water ones that are found only in Australia and New Zealand.  They are very small, called fairy or blue penguins.  We were there in time to watch them being fed.  We also saw lots of birds, cockatoos, cockatiels, kookaburras to name a few.  Then we saw wombats, emus, echidna, wallabies, possums, flying fox’s, peacocks, and we got to pet a Koala and kangaroos.  Pretty fun.  They also have sheep and shearing but we have seen that before.  It was fun to watch the kids feed the kangaroos and pet them.  We then went down to the mall just down the street and ate lunch at the food court.  It is probably the largest mall and largest food court we have ever seen.  When you park in the car park you have to remember what color it is and which door you go into the mall, because they have 4 decks of blue parking and no numbers.  Thank goodness others have told us that information.

Last night we went to dinner at the Sheen’s home, in Kellyville, about a half hour away.  Thank goodness Matilida guides us there, (the GPS).  They have been Sr. missionaries over housing for all the missionaries, and were released a couple of weeks ago after 2 years.  Arthur is Australian, and Judy is Chinese.  They met at the Temple where they both work on Tuesday nights so we get to see them.  They have been married almost 2 years.  She cooked an authentic Chinese dinner and it was delicious.  She had us there for Arthur’s 70^th birthday, so they had his family and some friends.  It was a lot of fun.  They have fixed up the back of their house for 2 sister missionaries.  They should be moving in soon.  For dinner she had Chinese vegetables, honey chicken, sweet and sour chicken, ham fried rice, egg rolls, pumpkin soup made from a real pumpkin, pork ribs.  For dessert she made a layered cake with pudding in it, cream puffs, pudding, watermelon and grapes.   It was a lot of fun, and good to meet his family. 

Today has just been kind of a lazy day until we went to Church.  I try to have dinner almost ready when we get home about 5 so I put ham in the crock pot, made cheese potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a corn casserole.  When we got home cars were lined up on the street to get into the garage, and cars on the inside trying to get out.  Yup, the automatic door would not open.  When we pull up to it inside to go out it automatically opens, and to get in we have a clicker, or punch a number in the key pad, or swipe another thing we have.  Nothing would work, so Dad parked on the street after he went inside to look at it, along with a bunch of other people.  We went inside and told Elder Killebrew what was going on and he said he would go look at it with Dad.  I came upstairs so I could get things in the oven for dinner.  You can’t leave things in these ovens because they will only heat with the fan on, and the fan only stays on about 45 min. before it goes off and the oven gets cold.  Strange!!   Dad ran up to the mission warehouse because our car was out, and got the tool box.  They took the bottom bar off the door and was able to push it open half way to let the cars out and the others go in.  There were several that were going to work and were late.  Hopefully it gets fixed tomorrow.  Workman in this country do not come out on weekends no matter what. 

We are going to try and get some more pictures posted this week before Family Home Evening tomorrow night.  That is about all for this week so I will close.  We are going to watch a movie Dad rented the other day “The Dish”.  We are going to see the dish that it was made from when we go to Dubbo on the 22^nd and 23^rd.  Dad talked to the Branch President the other day and he said that he lives an hour away so he wouldn’t be there, but his counselors would.  He said they love other people to come and talk because they have to just take turns.  In Church today there was a return missionary who just returned from the Perth Australia Mission.  He joined the Church a year before he left and is the only member of his family.  He gave a wonderful talk.  It is really a fun ward.  They are going to have a Cultural night on the 22^nd representing the countries they have in the ward with food and a program.  They have Tonga, Samoa, other islands, Spanish and Russian, to name a few.  We would love to go but that is the weekend we go to Dubbo.  It is pronounced Duhbo.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow and talking to you, and finding out from Deven and Tyson how the Farm Bureau Banquet went.  First one we have missed.

We love you and you are all in our prayers!

Mum and Dad  

                                           The rug(afgan) Sister Rogers made and gave me.

Back: Doug Hill, Sister Rogers son, Elder Roberts, front: Margaret Hill, Sister Rogers, Sister Roberts

March 3 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Mar 3, 2014

Dear Family & Friends:

Here it is Monday night, we got in too late last night to write.  We didn’t even unpack, we just went to bed.  It has been such a big week, and here we are in another month.  The time is really going by so fast.

Last Monday night was Family Home Evening and we had the dinner.  We didn’t get home until Monday afternoon so it is a good thing we ordered pizza and garlic bread on Friday night.  We ordered 6 large pizza’s because the owner gave us a good deal, buy 2 and get one free.  When we added up how many people were coming it was a good thing, we had 20 people there and they ate all of it except 3 slices.  They all enjoyed it because no one had had pizza before.  The Williams had dessert, strawberry shortcake and it was so good.  They gave the lesson on Family History and showed a short video.  It was very good and everyone learned a lot.  The program has really changed lately with the new things the Church has available.  Now I want to really do more, but no time at present.

Friday was the Birthday morning tea and they had sweet rolls and croissants, cheese and crackers, cheese balls, red and green grapes and sugar plums, potato chips and dip.  It was very fun as usual but we ate so much we didn’t eat lunch.  Friday was the last day of Feb, and the last day of summer here.  On the news they said the Sydney area was hotter than usual, there were only about 4 days that were uncomfortably hot for us.  It was also drier than normal and we knew that.  We had rain about 3 days last week and most of the weekend and it was very welcomed.  We were noticing how green everything is looking this morning.

Saturday morning the William’s picked us up at 6 am and took us to the airport.  Our plane left at 8 to go to Brisbane, Queensland.  It was a 1 ½ hour flight. We lost an hour going there.  The Hill’s, Doug and Margaret, met us at the gate and we went to their car.  We went about 2 hrs and stopped at a park in a small town and had morning tea.  They had brought sliced beef, cheese, crackers, grapes and lemonade.  Then we had chocolate candy bars and cashew nuts in the car.  We got to Bundaberg about 2 and checked into our motel.  We then went to Sister Rogers home and she was so excited we were coming she was outside waiting.  She is the cutest lady.  She just can’t believe we are really working on the cards and they will be put out for indexing soon.  We had taken a book of pictures for her to see how we do everything and left it with her.  She told us about getting these cards.  She and her husband were asked by the Family history department in our office to get the records of deaths and burials in the Queensland cemeteries.  They loaded their little car with a camera for microfilming and other supplies and off they went.  She said that her husband had never driven so she did all the driving.  Queensland is a state bigger than Texas or Alaska.  They would microfilm the records and then move on to the next cemetery.  When they finished that, they were sent to the cemeteries in other states.  Australia is bigger than the US.  It took them over 5 years to finish this.  Then they and their son and daughter in law took the information from the microfilm and wrote them on cards, over a million, with about a ¼ with ifo on both sides of the cards.  Then they were all alphabetized and put in the boxes and eventually donated to the Family History office and here we are.  She is so excited that we are doing them.  She is still creating cards from the obituaries in the newspapers.  She absolutely loves Family History.  She then showed us her projects to keep her busy.  She crochets rugs (afgans) and gives them away at different activities she is involved in.  She brought 4 of them out and they are beautiful.  She asked me if I wanted one and I thought she was kidding, well she wasn’t, and I just started to cry.  Here is this lady we had just met and she gave me this special gift.  We will try to post some pictures this week.  She also knits, covers hangers, and many other projects.  She goes to a couple of markets each week and sells the little items.  We then went on a tour of her house, and outside and she has a couple of fruit trees, and another bush that she will be picking the little flowers to make jelly this week.  She will be 87 years old in October.  The Hill’s had told her we were taking her out to dinner so we left so she could get ready and we went back to our rooms to freshen up.  She wanted to dress up and she looked so nice when we went back to get her.  We went to Sizzler, the first one we have seen here in this country.  The prices start at $35.00 and go up from there, however each meal does include the salad bar.  It was really good though.  We just stayed there visiting until about 9.  We took Sister Rogers home and said we would meet her at Church.  Sacrament Meeting started at 9 and they have a pretty big ward.  Sister Rogers said she had some papers in the car for us after the meeting because we had to get on the road. She had copied her life story, the story of going to the cemeteries and creating the cards in her own hand.  She told how they did it in each town and cemetery.  We are looking forward to reading them.  We got pictures after Church before leaving for home.  We did drive through the town and it has some really old buildings.  In 2011 it rained so much that the river flooded over half the town.  On the way home Doug stopped so Dad could take pictures of termite mounds, sugar cane fields, soybeans, macadamia nut plantations.  It is a beautiful drive.  We will post pictures as soon as we have time.  We stopped at a rest stop for afternoon tea from their cooler, and went to their house for about an hour, and we ate dinner that their daughter had prepared.  We certainly ate well on this short trip, before they took us to the airport.   When Mark came in today to see how the trip went, Dad showed him the pictures and I showed him the histories and I told him I thought this story needed to be told in the Ensign.  He agreed so I emailed Doug and Margaret and asked them to write something up and we will send it on to Mark with some pictures.  We are hoping and praying it will work.  What a wonderful weekend we had.

Today at weekly staff meeting they announced we had taken 6,000 images in one day.  That was really neat.  Most of the employees at Buckland have no idea what we are doing.

We left work a half hour early for Dad to go to the skin Dr and have the stitches out from behind his ear.  The Dr said it was cancer but he got it all.  He wants to see him in July for a checkup.  We walked up the street and found a place to eat dinner, I had salmon and Dad had king prawns, brought out in the shell with the eyes and all.  He said it was very good and mine was so good.  Then we came home and took the afgan up to show the Williams.  They leave in the morning for Melbourne to visit family history centers until next Wednesday night.  It is going to be quiet in the office. 

We hope Chase and Bob had Happy Birthday’s.

We will close with our love to all of you.

Mum and Dad