We truely live in a small world! Today I went to the wedding of my nephew, Jordi. As we were waiting in the chapple of the temple, a lady came in that I had met many years ago but couldn't remember her name. Right after her a man and his wife can in. He looked real familiar to me but I just couldn't place him. I asked Ardery if he knew them. No help there. Finally the man came over and than I knew exactly who he was. Chris Mickelsen. The lady is his sister, Joy. Way back in 1987ish I worked for a modeling center and Chris was one of the boys there. He is the uncle of Julianne, the new wife of Jordi. The world gets smaller. As we talked I found out that he had been in the military. I told him that my nephews were also in that branch of the military. I said Storer is their last name. He said, "Ron". Oh my heck!!! Chris has gone out to dinner many times with Ron. Ron is living in Boise and Chris lives in Merridian. Which is also where my sister-in-law lives. I have so many good memories of Chris and the modeling center. It was so good to see him again. You just never know who you are going to run into :).

Last week i had the chance to go to Charleston, South Carolina with Heather. We went to visit Keeley and Andrew. It was a fast 5 days but so much fun. It was good to see Keeley and Andrew again and see their home and visit the many attractions that are around their home. Here are a few pic's of what we saw and did. I can't wait for next year when the whole family will be going back for our family reunion. This is only a few of the pic's I took. We went to Mepkin Abbey, Middleton Place, Cypress Gardens, Beach, Carriage Ride, Miniture Golfing and a couple of tours around Charelston. And I am sure there is more I just can't remember. (That old age thing again!) Again,,,,Thanks Heather and Keeley!!!!

Exchange Students

Nicole Luci

Most of you know that we have had exchange students live with us. It really has been an experience that I would not change. Each one has been different. Our first student was a big surprise. Andy came home from school one day and asked if Rodrigo could stay with us because he was having problems with the family he was staying with. Well, at this time we still had all the kids at home. Jason was just getting ready to go on his mission. I told Andy that if we had room there wouldn't be a problem but until Jason left we just didn't have a bed for him. Well the next day I got a phone call from the rep. for exchange students. She said it was very important that they get Rodrigo out of the home. So Rodrigo, or Larry as he liked to be called, came to live with us. He slept on the couch in the basement until Jason left. He was only with us for a couple of months. Larry was from Brazil. While he was here he wanted to listen to the missionaries. He couldn't get permission from his parents to be baptized. He was really disappointed. When we took him to the airport he came off the plane 2 times before he finally stayed on. He really didn't want to go home. Many years later, when Heather was a senior, the exchange student people called and asked if we would be willing to be a host family. After much thought and prayer we decided to try it. We were able to choose the girl or boy who we wanted to stay with us. Luci, just stuck out and we knew she was the one. Luciana was also from Brazil. She was a quiet girl at first but started to go to church with us and she made a lot of friends. As host families we can not make the students go to church with us, so it was a surprise when Luci said she wanted to go to church with us all the time. She later told me that she had met with the missionaries when she was at home in Brazil. She asked to have the missionaries come to our home. It was such a spiritual experience. She was baptized while she was here. We have tried to keep in touch over the years. I am so glad that she is still going to church. After Luci left to go home I just couldn't see myself with another student. A few years went by and all the kids where married and the house was feeling empty. I was going through a rough time and during church one sunday I had the feeling that we needed another student. This came from out of nowhere. During sunday school class Ardery whispered to me that we needed another exchange student. I couldn't believe he was saying this. I had not told him of my thought earlier. Well I guess I couldn't win this. Someone needed us. So that week I contacted the rep. and said we needed to meet. She was thrilled. We looked over so many pictures. Should we get a boy or a girl. Once again we decided on a girl. This time from Germany. Nicole, we fell in love with her right off. She on the other hand was ready to go back to Germany as soon as she got here. Yes, she knew English but was taught British english not American English. She couldn't understand us. Needless to say the first few weeks were hard. But it didn't take to long. We had many nights of her sitting on my bed and just talking. During her stay she had to stay at Dalan and Gina's because we had a cruise planned before we knew we were getting her and she cried, I felt so bad. Her family was able to come and get her at the end of her stay here. It was so fun to try and talk to them. We have so many memories. We stay in touch with her as well. Each christmas she sends us German Chocolate. YUMMMMM!!!!!! Luci and Nicole both want to come home and visit. I can't wait for when that happens. I would really love to go and see them in their countries. What a trip that would be.

I had the best day
yesterday!!! Savannah
and Anikah came to visit.
We had such a good time.
I am looking forward to seeing
the rest of the family in
May. It's really hard when
they live so far away.
We love and miss all
of our family in Washington.

Here are some random pic's from Hunter's birthday and from the weekend we had Ayla and Lily. Sorry some are duplicates. I'm watching Hunter right now and I lost track a few times.

So it took me a day or two but I finally found my pic's on the computor. The first one is just a brief January thaw. The other pic's are from our trip to the museum with Cindie and Darrel.

Here it is Feb. 8th and I feel like it should be the end of the month already! What a busy 2 weeks I have had. Last weekend we watched Ayla and Lily so Jenn and Jordan could get some much needed time alone. They celebrated their 7th anniversary. Ardery and I also had our 34 wedding anniversary on the 1st. Man time fly's. Heather and Jake wanted to go snowboarding on Tuesday so we had Hunter Monday night and most of the day Tuesday. I also watched Andy's kids for awhile on Tuesday. They had a temple assignment. During all of this I was getting ready for 6th District Drill Competition. It was all day Saturday. I have 3 weeks before the next competiton. I was going to take pic's of all the fun I have been having but just never could remember to take my camera with me. I have some really great ladies to work with on these two competitions. They have become my dance family I guess you could say. Not having a team anymore has been nice but yesterday for just a sec. I actually missed having a team. It was great having my girls on the team and than being my assistants.