Christmas Eve

We have a tradition of going to Steve's parent's house every Christmas Eve. We usually have a nice dinner. The grandchildren put on a nativity, which is always fun. Then we open presents to each other and from Grandma and Grandpa.  This year was a little bit unique when it came to the gifts.

We had a few funny stories I wanted to mention. It was quite hilarious yesterday... well, not that funny. When we got there, we were all just sitting around talking, and Douglas, one of the cousins,  came up to Chris. Chris leaned town to talk to him and Douglas spit right in his face!  Of course, Chris is too nice to say anything to Todd or Denise, but he was really surprised!.

Grandma and Grandpa were passing out presents to all of the aunts and uncles, one by one. When they got to John and Molly, Molly opened a gift for her, and it was some clothes. Then they realized that they COMPLETELY forgot about John. There was no gift under the tree for him. Grandpa ran upstairs and grabbed some money, and gave it to him... Later on facebook, John wrote, "Nothing says I love you like the phrase, We forgot about John!" It was pretty funny.

Then if you look at the picture of Conner, they gave him a nice BYU hoodie. They bought one for Jake, Cameron, and Conner. When Kelton opened his gift, it was a pair of gloves... wow, he just sat there looking around like it was a joke... it wasn't. Pretty funny year at Grandpa and Grandma's house.

Carving Pumpkins

I've had my dad staying with us, and he will be here until November 9th. My mom is traveling in the Middle East with Uncle Lee.  It's been nice having him here. Tonight we had dinner, Erin's family came and then we played games. After they left, we carved jack-o-lanterns with Grandpa. It was a nice evening. We didn't get done with the pumpkins until about 11:30pm. Crazy!

The kids are all out of school tomorrow (Halloween Day) and I have two tests and a lecture. So it will be interesting. They will be here alone all day with Grandpa. (Dad's in Georgia this week.)

Kaylea took a trip to Rexburg last week to visit BYU Idaho. She said she really loves it there, and wants to apply to go to school there. I hope she can go there. It's a great atmosphere. I can't believe she will be 18 this month! And going to college at the end of this year. My house will be so quiet with just Conner. (well, maybe not, he's quite lively.)

Juvenile Court

 

 

On Thursday, Stansbury and Grantsville had their first football game together, they're in the same region now. Both teams were 4-0, and we were really expecting it to be a huge game. The Freshman game was on Wednesday, and they didn't do too well, 47-6 for Stansbury, but Conner said he expected that. But the Varsity game is another story. Well, Grantsville was a whole lot of talk and they just didn't play, they were blown away, 44-3. Very sad. Kaylea was thrilled. Conner, not so much.

Kaylea ran her Region XC race. The Ogden team is AMAZING!! I think every person on their team came in before any other school. And the girl who came in first was 17 minutes! Kaylea was more like 21 minutes and came in 16th place, but Stansbury came in second place and Grantsville came in third place, so both teams will be competing at state. Jessica and Avery came to watch the race with me. It was really nice, we got to sneak away afterward with Kaylea and go to lunch, and shopping. It was a nice day, except Jessica locked Avery in the car. We had 2 police cars, and a fire truck with 4 fire fighters come and save the day, and we were sufficiently embarrassed, and Jessica was pretty upset, to say the least. And after a pretty good day, went home in tears...

 
On Friday, I had to check Conner out of school to go to the courthouse in Tooele. He had to talk with a probation officer for Juvenile court... I was extremely frustrated. Right after Conner got his cast on, he called and asked for a ride home from school. I was in Tooele, so I told him to just get a ride from a friend. Conner rode on a Ranger with a friend. A ranger is like a 4 wheeler, but the seats are side by side, and Conner and his friend were both wearing their seat belts. Well they were pulled over because they weren't wearing helmets. Conner got a $47 ticket, and then a week later we received a letter stating we had to meet with an officer of the juvenile court... (This has been a rough month.) Anyway, when we to the courthouse, the probation officer said he shouldn't have gotten a ticket, and just warned Conner to wear a helmet in the future. They waived the fee as well...thank goodness.

I threw a bridal shower for Anna Tuckett yesterday.  She is marrying Kreg Sattler. They're getting married next Friday, and Steve will perform the wedding. She was one of my Mia Maids when I was in the YW presidency, and a neighbor of ours for many years. Our families are really close. I was happy I was able to help her get started in her new life with Kreg.

General Conference

So it was general conference this weekend.  We had Jessica and Chris come over for the Sunday afternoon session. It was nice hanging out with them again. We also had our neighbors behind us come over for lunch between the two Sunday sessions. Their son is on a mission in Everett Washington. He's coming home on Halloween day, Oct 31st. We ate barbecued halibut, it was SO good!

I worked in the Neuro Critical Care unit on Friday. Taking care of those who have had strokes, or brain, or spinal injury/surgery. It's amazing how quickly a person's life can change. Someone who was completely normal, gets drunk, falls down some stairs, and causes bleeding in the brain, suddenly can't comprehend anything for weeks and weeks. I don't know how people with such extensive injuries can recover...maybe they really don't. It was a good day though.

Conner got a hard cast on Tuesday, now he can mow the lawn and do chores, that he wouldn't do last week. I forgot to take a picture of it. It's red, and all his friends have already signed it. Kaylea medaled in a race on Friday. She was first on her team, and 7th overall. She told us the race was in Park City...it was in Orem...silly girl. Steve is in Florida, you'd think with all of his traveling there, he'd have a pretty good tan by now... :)

Best of times, and worst of times

For Kaylea, this has been the best of times. Kaylea was voted 1st attendant for the Homecoming royalty. Tyler, the boy she's been dating was also voted 1st attendant. The girls got to be in the Homecoming parade...the boys didn't.

I wasn't able to watch the parade, but Steve, Aunt Erin, and Kaylea's cousins came to see her. Erin said her daughters were disappointed that Kaylea wasn't dressed in her princess dress for the parade.

During Half-time at the Homecoming Game, the dads got to walk their daughters out on the field. It was so cute to see Kaylea and Steve interact. I think she looked like a princess, I hope she felt like one.

Great, great high school memories!

For Conner, it's been the worst of times. Conner went with his dad to the BYU/Utah football game on Saturday. It was a horrible, depressing, blowout. 54-10.  On Tuesday evening, I was shopping for a Homecoming dress in Salt Lake, when I got a call. Conner was hurt, we're positive his arm or wrist is broken. We have called an ambulance.

I met the ambulance at the hospital. Conner was in pretty good spirits. Aunt Erin came over to the football field from her house and was with him until the ambulance took him away. I think that was a comfort to him. Steve was in Florida on business.

This is in the Emergency Room.

If you look at the bend in his "wrist", that's not exactly where his wrist is supposed to be. Apparently he broke the growth plate completely off of his radius.

Because the growth plate is such a sensitive area, they called in an orthopedic surgeon to look at it, and even thought about sending him to Primary Children's hospital. The Surgeon said they could set it, but were worried that Conner might flinch, or bump it, and traumatize the growth plate more. They decided it would be best to take him to the operating room and put him to sleep before they set the arm.

He was happy, he didn't want to be awake while they were setting it. He'll be out of football for the season.  Conner was riding home from a football game on a four wheeler with his friend. They were pulled over by the police and given a ticket for not wearing a helmet. (It was a Ranger, and they had seat belts on.) Conner came home, gave me all the money in his wallet, along with the ticket, and said, "This is the worst week of my life."

Fun Times!!

This week has been full of excitement. Kaylea was nominated by the Student Government to run for Homecoming Queen. Kaylea is a very fun-loving girl, with such a positive attitude. She was really fun to watch in the pageant.

 The pageant was on Wednesday, then they narrowed the contestants down from 19 to 6. Kaylea was in the top 6. After the pageant, I took this picture of Kaylea and some of her friends. It's pretty funny, because these three girls ended up being Homecoming royalty. Tali, in yellow is Queen, Kaylea, in blue is 1st attendant, and Rebekah, in purple is 2nd attendant.

 Little problem with this situation is that Kaylea wasn't planning on going to Homecoming because the cross country team has a race in Boise, ID that weekend. She and Tali will have to juggle their schedules a bit to make it to the Homecoming game this Friday.

 It was kind of sad, Kaylea didn't have a lot of family make it to the pageant. Her dad has been out of town, and had to be at the stake center that night. Her Grandma and Grandpa Collings were out of town on vacation. Conner and Jessica were both unable to make it. Thankfully, she had a great fan there. This is Tyler, Kaylea kind of likes him. And, of course, I was there. She did an amazing job.

 On Thursday, the Freshmen had their homecoming football game. They really fought hard, and I think Conner had one of his best games of the season. It was sad that they didn't win.

 Conner made two touch-downs, and received several passes. He does a great job.

 It was fun to have Aunt Erin and Conner's cousins there cheering him on. He was disappointed he couldn't win for his fans. Maybe next week. Corban was so cute in this picture, this was during half time. Corban was told he couldn't go on the grass, but he listened to all that the coach had to say to the team, and I think he wished he could be out there with them.

Friday was the Varsity homecoming game, and they won!!! What a great week!

Catch up time September 2011

I've done poorly at posting on my family. Life is good around here, although always busy. We are all healthy and happy.

Kaylea has been running on the cross country team since her freshman year. She is a senior this year, and is really enjoying her team. They went to Idaho Falls last Friday and competed in a race. The Stansbury team took 3rd place overall. They were pretty excited.

Kaylea was nominated to run for homecoming queen. The competition is this coming Wednesday, I'm excited to see her compete. It's fun when your kids get this age, life is fun.

I've started back in nursing school. This is my last semester, and it's been pretty intense so far. We are requied to do 45 hours of community service on top of our ICU clinical work. One of the options we were given was to participate in a community preparedness drill. There were about 300 people who were injured in an earthquake and were taken to area hospitals. I got to be one of the patients.

They put makeup on my leg to look like it had been hurt in a car accident.

These are other ladies from my section who participated in the drill, I've been with these ladies since first semester. Can't believe we're finally close to graduating.

This is Krista, my study buddy, and very good friend. We got to be hurt together today, but she had to be a 24 year old boy. It was kind of funny.

Last weekend Steve took Conner to the BYU game, they played against Ole Miss. They flew to Nashville, then drove several hours to the Mississippi stadium.

Steve's brothers and nephew were there too. I'm glad BYU won the game. It made it a lot more fun for them.

Steve's area for business has changed a bit in the last few months. He is now responsible for the Northwest, including Alaska. Poor guy had to go there a couple of weeks ago to do some inspections. He decided to do a bit of fishing to make the time go by a little bit faster.

And went out to dinner at a few unique restaurants. I told him he probably shouldn't go to Alaska anymore, all that work is really hard on him...

Maybe next time he can take me, I might make it more bearable.

New area, New companion, New address

 me eating like the most tasty bacon wrapped on a stick that I have ever eaten before

 We´ve got my last picture of Würzburg

 Elder Hulet infront of a funky car

a picture of me infront of my new City

a picture of me and Elder Hulet

Hello Family!


I am now in Offenbach with Elder Hulet. This area 500% different from all of my other areas, it is a massive huge city, and everbody is Muslim. We have 2 investigators, and like 45 less active families in this ward. Elder Hulet is very new on his mission, he just started his 3rd transfer and he is a really good missionary. He is not afraid to speak German, he might even say too much every now and then haha, and he wants to improve which is awesome. I have only been here about 2 days and one thing is sure, things have to change haha. They have been doing TONS of work with less active, and meeting with members about 4 times a week, which is way cool, but, all of these people that they are meeting with live over an hour a way. We basically need to use the time more effectively. These last couple of days have been the first days when I have come back to our apartment feeling like we we haven´t done a lot of work in a long time, we are outside, but, the days are poorly planned so we don´t get a lot done. Hopefully I can learn this area fast so I can help with our planning and make it a little more productive!

We do have a baptismal date in three weeks. This lady, Peppe, was found at a blood drive that the Church held. She had interest and wanted to learn more. They set a baptismal date with her over a month ago and then she disappeared. Apparently right before I got here they finally got contact with her. We have met with her 2 times since I got here, and she still wants to be baptized. We got her to come to Church for the very first time, and she loved it. After Church she talked to members for about 30 minutes. She told me that she believes the book of Mormon is the Word of God that that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. She has no problems with the Word of Wisdom which is way rare in Germany, and she seems pretty golden. Basically all that we really have to do with her is make sure she has a testimony. I think everything makes sense to her (She went to Oxford for school) and she says she feels warm inside when she meets with us, so, we´ll just help her on her way haha.

Other than that there´s not much to say. The couple of days I have been here has been riding our bike somewhere... Our bikes breaking half way.... Walking back, Elder Hulet saying we have to fix them.... 30 minutes of fixing, riding back to where we want to work, bike breaks again..... repeat..... then going and waiting forever for a train.... But, today I told him the first thing we are doing is getting our bikes professionaly repaired, we are buying a map so he doesn´t need to come back to our Apartment to find out where to go, and I told him we will only be coming back to the apartment for Lunch, and then we aren´t coming back until 9. He´s a way cool guy and wants to work hard, he´s just new out here and doesn´t really know how the plan an effective day yet.

So yeah, that´s a little bit about the new area, all the missionaries out here call it Turk town because everyone is Turkish, but, I don´t care who´s here, the Lord prepares everyone, and they´re all my Brothers and Sisters =) By the way, I gave you the wrong address for my new apartment, it is



Elder Steve Collings

Glocken Gasse 40

63065

Offenback

But the whole Cornelius Str. address still works. That´s the mission office, and the Mission office is in my district now, so I think I can still get my mail there.

Anyway, thanks for everything, you guys are awesome. I´m glad you´re all having a blast, but, I´m having more fun =) thanks for the address!

Elder Collings