Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Our tree last year not only had slippery needles that dropped any ornament that was the least bit heavy, but came with a common stand for which the vendors peel the outside of the core so it fits in the holder, and there’s no water reservoir. It was dropping needles on the first day! [...]

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Elder Tim Jensen in the Colorado Denver South Mission

Well, it’s almost New Year’s now but I can’t get the pictures from the London trip off the little camera, so I thought I’d do some catch up about Tim.  (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)
We had a lot of back and forth as to whether he was being set apart as a missionary [...]

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I’m Ba-ack!

Well, it’s almost Christmas, and I think I promised a catch-up back in September.  That just means I haven’t changed, right?
Bryan arrived today, having finished his finals and a long work week.  We have two weeks until he goes back.  Fun time!  Christmas will be at the Peters’, some Irish friends here, and then we’re [...]

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Tim’s Mission Call

It finally came!  Tim is going to the Denver Colorado South Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He reports to the MTC on Sept. 2, 2009, so we’ll be heading back to the States for our next “home leave” towards the end of August.
We tried to have Kim and John on [...]

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Home Again!

OK, between tonight and last night, I finally got all the blogs I wrote along the way posted with pictures.  I’m glad I wrote as we went, made it lots easier, but it still takes a while to go through the pictures, format them, and upload everything decently.  And as soon as we got home, [...]

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Lovely four weeks, but good to be back in Ireland

Well, I’m home.  For those of you out west, that’s home in Ireland, not home in Indiana.  I had a lovely visit, wonderful time with kids, parents and brother (missed my sister, drat!), and old friends.  But approaching Shannon, looking down on green fields divided by hedges instead of fencing, exiting the plane to see [...]

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Wildlife Safari and Elephant Car Wash

I haven’t been to Wildlife Safari in years, decades even, and Mom, Dad and I went last week with a special purpose:  an elephant car wash.  We drove through the park, had a close encounter with an emu (or was it an ostrich?), loved watching one giraffe wander in and out of the feeding barn [...]

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Indiana/Oregon visit

It’s been interesting adjusting to the U.S. again.  When I first started driving, it wasn’t a problem to stay on the right side of the road, but parking lots with no lane lines were iffy.  And I really had to stare through the glare on the windshield to see where the steering wheel was before [...]

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Back Home in Indiana–Temporarily

Glorious, glorious blue skies in Indiana!
We arrived on Saturday and had two days of sun and 70+ degrees.  Now it’s in the 50s (10-12 centigrade for all you Irish friends), but still sunny.  Bright sunny, which I’ve missed in County Cork.  Spring is farther behind–the daffodils here haven’t started to bloom yet–but I walked in [...]

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Bryan Arrives and Leaves Again

Well, the big day came.  After leaving his last missionary area in Trevelin, Argentina on Sunday, November 30, Bryan finally landed in Dublin on the morning of December 4.  L-O-N-G time traveling!  Mostly flying at night and waiting in the airports during the day, but one of his early comments was that he never wants [...]

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