She was right

Colie was afraid I would blog this. She was right. Too hard to resist. Hey Bryn and Scarlet and Rach, do you think you could keep up with Pop and Colie? I know Daph could!!

Why not to be a Stake Pres

Why? Because you have to sit through a 6 hour meeting while your wife gets to have fun wandering the streets of Paris. It's not fair. If we missed your Sunday calls, it's because we were there and not home!

Thirty Five Years

Uh huh! and still going strong 35 years later! Happy Anniversary to us! I still laugh at the 70's outfits, but hey, we were rockin' in the 70's! PS. that is not Aunt Renee, just a girlfriend that Steve thought he was going to marry, I think her name was Ramona? And Cindy was 5 years old, and Scott was 10. How was I to guess that I was marrying into the greatest family ever. Edna and Loren are still among my top heroes.

2011 High/Low

A couple of people asked if they could know the high/low of everybody. I hope you don't mind me posting it here. I don't think anybody reads this except the contributors....

Thanks for sharing everybody! A concise capsule of the year:

Dan High: coming home from Middle East
Low: losing baby this summer
Lara: My high was my 10 year wedding anniversary.
And my low was my husband leaving for 4 months.

Seth Low: Lukie sick in the hospital with RSV. No question. That was miserable. High: Driving over the Coronado bridge and realizing that was where we were going to live for the next while.

Heidi:

I feel like we had a good year and had a lot of highs:

1. Lukie was born the night before the new year, so does that count?

2. We moved to sunny San Diego and really lucked out on living in Coronado!

3. We've had sunny weather almost every day for the past 6 months.

4. Taft got potty-trained!

5. We've made great friends here

Low:

1. When Luke had to go to the hospital at 1 month old for RSV.

Jake:

High: Working for Gallup, where lots of people tell me they like me...a lot.

Low: February 15, when lots of people told me they didn't like me...at all.

Mel:

Low: Enduring one of the worst winters NYC has seen in years and Jake losing his job

High: Gaining an appreciation for NYC and the growth we had there and moving to bigger space, with a a yard, and exploring the many farms and things to do around New Jersey

Natalie :

Winter/Spring

go to Utah to visit family and snowboard/ski. Bryn skiis for first time and loves it. Noel loves that she loves it. I am so cold the whole trip and am grateful I no longer live there!

BELGIUM!! FRANCE!!! love love love.

Easter in at a beach in France for 2nd year in a row. Who knew?

GREECE!!!

Summer

Girls take swim lessons. lots of time spent at the pool this summer

Bryn takes Ballet Folklorico (dance) and goes to spanish camp

for my bday this year I was very sick and threw up all day. Felt better on Noel's day and went to dinner & movie

Book Club officially ended. I had been in charge of it for 3 1/2 years, and was kind of relieved to be done with it and have one less thing to be in charge of.

jaylie 5k. First time photographing an event.

Bryn's first dance recital. I loved watching her dance. I'm glad she liked it and will gladly sign her up for dance again just so I can attend the recitals. so cute!

Fall

School Starts! My life is changed forever. I now have a child in the public school system.

On Isa's 1st day of preschool, Noel and I celebrated our newfound freedom with a lunch date.

I FIND OUT I"M PREGNANT. hip hip hooray!

California for family reunion: welcome home steve from mission. beach. My first time at disneyland & the kids too. I decide that although I loved it, *MY* happiest place on earth is the beach.

Assistant photographer at my first wedding under Allison Notgrass.

Bryn takes gymnastics

TAYLOR SWIFT concert with cortney. Seriously such a fun night.

Winter

IT'S A GIRL!

Mexico: Cancun just Noel & I. Acapulco with his extended family.

Nidia's wedding: My first wedding as the photographer.

Also I've had my photography business for 1 1/2 yrs now and it has been more successful than I imagined! But I am looking forward to a break soon to prepare for and enjoy our new baby.

Noel:

High - Ski with Bryn. Travel to France, Greece, Mexico. New job position. Natalie pregnant.

Low - Economy. Heat.

Nicole

Highs:

1. Thailand & Cambodia (Thaibodia!) trip with Mom in January

2. free trips to NYC, New Mexico, San Francisco, Florida, & Texas (thank you Jed & JetBlue)

3. driving a Mini Cooper convertible for a weekend in New Mexico

4. Moab trip in May

5. St. Sebastian/Picos de Europa trip in July

6. San Diego family reunion in September

7. starting my MSW program & taking Dr. Dave's therapy practice class

8. discovering a new secret ingredient to delicious french toast (which is interestingly enough also the secret ingredient to yummy black beans)

Lows:

1. not getting in-state tuition at the U...the lil' stinkers...

2. working full-time & going to school full-time (and my body deciding to tell me it wasn't happy about that schedule by being sick all semester)

Steve

High: Seeing family after two years

Finding out a lady I tracted into was baptized a year later by Scott, a convert I had confirmed.

Getting A’s and B’s for the first time in my life

Low: Getting back into real life: work and school. Kind of a bummer. Missing my mission.

Tom:

Highs: Being married to a woman who has loved me for 35 years, given me 6 amazing children, and still looks great at 55.

Being with my kids and grandkids

Living my career dream living and working in Europe at a senior management level.

The light of the Gospel still burning brightly in my heart

Lows: Working for the boss from Hades

Getting sick after India

Anita

Highs: Picking up Steve from his mission and getting to hear his homecoming talk in the Imperial Beach ward. All the family reunions we experienced in connection with him coming home in New Jersey and in California….and Lara making that drive on her own with the 4 kids to be there.

Trip to Thailand and Cambodia with Nicole

Lots of fun travel: Dolomites in winter and summer, Spain, Dordogne with Portugals, India, Coronado and Carmel in the space of a couple of months.

Lows: Wrecking the Honda, and the van flunking control technique, thus requiring 2 new cars within the same week.

Deciding not to buy the house in Carmel.

Getting to the airport in Berlin and realizing I had misread the return flight

Brugge never Disappoints

Wednesday morning was the funeral service for our neighbor: Marcel Stoop. It was a beautiful Catholic service and a fitting tribute to Marcel. His grandson played the violin while his daughter accompanied on the piano. Stunning. Of course the one with the hard job is his widow, Julienne. Always the one left behind has the toughest job.

Afterwards we took the one hour drive to Brugge. Always impressive. Always fun. Plus when you add Steve and Nicole, it is never, ever, ever dull. I wish I could bottle them up.

Have we left out Anything?

Now here to prove that Tom will try his very best to fulfill your birthday wish: Colie wanted Dad to play games with us. He did!

Happy 25th Colie Bolie. That beautiful bouche was made of 3 different types of chocolate mousse! Wow!

Oh yeah! Movies and candy!

We are really making a dent in the list.

Moules at Chez Leon

Millet Bakery (bouche)

Istanbul

Kinepolis (Mission Impossible 4)

Tervuren Park and walk the circuit (daily)

Downtown for the Christmas Markets

Haircuts

Christmas Market in Aachen (bratwurst, dumpfhnoodle)

Gym (measly attempt to work off all the fabulous food)

Deli France sandwiches

Goat Cheese Salad

Pesto Sandwiches

And then of course everything you do without having to put it on the list:

Games (every night)

Talk

Watch movies

Back Massages

Waffles from Stokkel Market

Waffles at home with cool whip and fruit

Carrefour to get favorites: chocolate ice cream, yogurts, bread, candy, etc.

Talk on the phone to family

Down time for book reading and quiet time, naps

But I have a MAJOR problem. The time is flying by! Please slow down.......

Elder Schuetze

Elder Schuetze

From left: Elder Kleijweg and wife (temple pres), Pres Poznanski and wife(mission pres)

Elder Schuetze and Tom and I.

. He was fabulous. A real treat to host him for the week-end. He is 70 years old and has the energy of a 50 year old. He grew up in Eastern Germany, just he and his mother. When he was 4 years old the Russians came through and kicked them out and said they were going to make (Germany) part of Poland. The Russians threw all their belongings in the river and told them to get out. So they walked to his grandparents house which took them 3 days. There they met the church. So many Germans had lost family members during the war that they were very receptive to the plan of salvation. When they heard the plan they all joined. Their previous minister had taught that there was no hope of seeing family members again, so the plan of salvation truly was their plan of happiness.

The grandfather in order to feed the family became a baker so there would always be bread in the house and they wouldn't starve.

Growing up he spent 40 years in communist East Germany as a member of the church, which meant you couldn't get a job, it was the end of your career. Really hard to find a job.

He met his wife at university. Her father had graduated from college and he couldn't find a job. The German secret police got him a job. They took such good care of him that he lost perspective and joined the dreaded gestapo because he was so loyal to them for finding him a job. The family was embarrassed and were actually relieved when he died in the bombing of Berlin.

Bro Schuetze and his wife, when they were single adults both got into West Berlin for a church activity. He said they realized they were 'free'. They thought about just staying but his wife(girlfriend at the time) said, 'don't you have a church calling?' 'yes' So they went back to Leipzig for the church calling!

Sad story: He was married to his wife for 34 years. He came home from a church assignment and she and their son picked him up from the airport. They spotted a traveler on the road needing assistance. They stopped to help. His wife, rather than staying with the car, got out and was hit by another car and killed.