Hey Family

I couldn't find a recent picture of shaun and I, other than wedding pictures from a year ago, so i thought i'd post a picture of the wonderful temple that shaun and i get to go visit in D.C. Isn't it so beautiful? Things here in VA are going really well. Shaun started his masters program at JMU this week, he's teaching early morning seminary, and he's working part-time at the university. He's really busy. I'm working for a company called Mast Landscapes. Most of the time I'm a gruntworker on a crew with a bunch of guys....it's not my favorite thing in the world to do, but it is very satisfying to see the transformations you can make to somebody's yard after a full day. The people I work with are really nice though. The full time guys are all married and have kids, it makes it a little bit more comfortable. They are also very religious and I hardly ever hear them swear ( a stark contrast to most of the redneck gruntworkers to be found in the landscape industry, so I got really lucky). I enjoy doing design work the most and hopefully I'll start to get to do more of that in the future. Other than that there isn't a whole lot going on. I sure do enjoy this little blog thingy though, it's so nice to be able to communicate with my family...keep the stories coming. Love you all

Okay - I know my dad forwards Tara's emails to everyone, but just in case you missed it, here is an excerpt from one of Tara's emails.

So, every morning I wake up, get ready for the day for 31/2 hours (shower, breakfast, study...lots of study), and then I walk outside into my own winter wonderland. I want to sing that song almost every morning when I leave the house...and I usually do:) I love winter. It's so beautiful everywhere. The trees are all white everywhere, and the air is so crisp. Plus, I can hear the snow crunch under my feet. That's fun too. And, when we ride on the bus, and the windows are all frosted over, I often find hand prints or little footprints made by hands. It's makes me grateful to be here.

Are missionaries supposed to be this positive? I am so grateful to have Tara as a little sister. She makes me want to be a better person because she sees so much good in everything. Anyway - I just thought I would share.

What a fun day!

Hi there everyone,

Hope you all had a great holiday. We sure did. I thought you all might like this picture.

Christmas Oranges

We spent Christmas this year in Beaumont Texas with the Longs (That's Timothy's mom). We really enjoyed our holidays and hope you all did too. I realized that Mary loves oranges, or actually just the peals. She couldn't get enough of this one. Cute!