Christmas 2007

I hope that everyone has had a good Christmas. This year marked our first Christmas spent alone as a family. Mom and Dad had originally planned to come down, but the events in Utah made this incredibly improbable. Which brings me to these events. For those of you who are unaware, my Grandmother passed away on the 15th of this month after a long battle with Dementia and Alzheimer's. I had to fly out hastily. I stayed with Korynn (thanks, by the way) and got to hang out with all my siblings for a couple of days. As sad an occasion, it was fun to see everyone again and to re-unite with relatives that I haven't seen in at least a decade or two. The funeral service was really neat. It was held in the Rock Chapel in Farmington, UT. Talks were given by Tom Brown, Marilyn Reed, LaVerne Buckmaster, Rodney Olsen and Dad. They were all really neat. Richard Bushnell dedicated the grave site. After the funeral, the Farmington 1st ward relief society had lunch for us. The potatoes were excellent. Mom and Dad headed down to St. George to see Grandpa who has been struggling with heart failure. Apparently he is doing well. Mom and Dad then went home and rested. It was a long and stressful week for all of us especially them. I hate to think how tired they would have been if they had continued another 600 miles to Tennessee.
I got on a plane the next morning and headed to North Carolina for work. I worked some really long hours and got home at noon on Saturday. Then I slept most of the day. Church was dead on Sunday. In Sunday School there was probably 10 people which made participation mandatory. Christmas was awesome. Roxy and I were up by 4:30. We had to wake the kids. We had it all over with before it was really light outside. Roxy and I then took turns napping. We played all day. Yesterday we went to the movies. We had a good weekend but now it is back to business as usual. I will post pics as soon as I post them to picasa. Love all of you.

Spencer

We've Made it; Thank you.

This weekend we accomplished the daunting task of getting into the new house. We had so much help from the ward, it was ridiculous. We started about 8:15 and were done by noon.

We got up at 6AM and dressed and fed the kids. Roxann dropped me off at U-Haul at 7:15, picked up 2 dozen doughnuts for our movers and dropped the kids off with Cammie Walker. I got back to the apartment a little before 8. Grandpa Westmorland showed up at 8AM sharp. We waited for about 15 minutes and then our home teacher, Bro. Cloward and his wife showed up and we drove to the storage unit. I was a little worried that no one would show up, but by the time we got to the unit, at least 6 more people showed up. Chris Westmorland, Mike Arnold, Dave Fite, Mike Stuteville, Owen Fisher, a couple of others whose names escape me (sorry). We had the truck loaded in about 15 minutes and then drove to the new house to unload. By the time we got there, the Beyal family was there along with the younger Kelberer kids. All in all, I think that we had between 15 and 20 people helping. We moved to the apartment to load the rest of the stuff. We had a line of people stretched up the stairs handing down boxes and furniture. The truck was loaded in approximately 30-40 minutes. When we got to the house, we backed the truck up to the front door. By this time, I think we had reduced our force down to about 10-15 people. We had a line stretched down each hall and we called out the destination of each box as it was handed out. Roxann and Sister Cloward got real chummy. She speaks very little English, but is from South America and speaks Portugese. She taught Roxann some phrases. Roxann has been practicing them all weekend. With the truck unloaded, the guys helped up position that beast of an entertainment center. Good news. It was out of square due to our last move. Now it is back in square from moving around this time. Awesome. David took me back to U-Haul. I got the truck back with 10 minutes to spare. While I was gone. Sister Liddell and her kids came over and helped Roxann unpack the kids' rooms as well as put the beds together. Later that evening they brought us dinner.
We are so blessed to live in and be a part of our ward. I am so glad that we were able to stay. The outpouring of love and help has been a real blessing. It is a strength to our testimony of the gospel and charity. Thank you all so very much. We love you all.

Spencer, Roxann, and the kids.

Manna.... pure manna...

You always hear people stand up and tell these stories in Fast and Testimony meeting, but you never really expect it to happen to you.
As you have read, Roxy and I are struggling to get our of our current living situation and into a better one. All the stars have aligned. We have found a house. We have been able to break our lease with a minimal penalty. We have been able to come up with all the money to get into the new house. But there was one thing that is vexing us. That is our Car payment. We had it split up into 2 payments for this month to ease the burden. We had already sent in the checks before all this happened. This week we have worried about whether or not we were going to be able to afford the deposit and the car payment this weekend. Both of these things MUST be paid or this whole thing doesn't work. With my salary, we can afford to do both, but we would be short on our tithing. We were not sure what to do at this point. I had decided in my mind and I am sure that Roxann did as well that we were going to pay our tithing anyway and just pray for a miracle.

Today, we went through the daunting process of calling our car creditor and asking for the check (read: ach) not be processed. They told us no, but we could either let the check bounce or put a stop on it but be behind in our bill either way. So Roxy and I talked about it this afternoon and we decided to go ahead and put a stop on the check. So I hung up the phone with her and tried to get back to work. She called 10 minutes later. Through tears, she informed me that we had recieved a check in the mail for the exact amount of the car payment. THE EXACT AMOUNT. Now Roxann hasn't checked the mail on her own since the criminal incident as the mail box is 10 feet from where it took place. She told me that she felt like she should go and check it because someone could have sent us money. I have to tell you that there are several reasons why this happened. We have been praying for guidance and success in our move, we have been paying our tithing and our children have also been praying for success in this endeavor. When I called our contributor, I was informed that a lesser amount was to be sent, but a prompting for that exact amount was received and was followed.

Words cannot express how much this means to us. We have been directly blessed by the Lord for paying our tithing and communicating with Him. To our contributor, you have been an instrument to answer our prayers. Thank you. We appreciate all of your prayers but we still have a week or 2 to go so don't stop now.

--Spence

Things I hear my children say..and then don't know what to do...

So, this is my first contribution to our family blog. Please forgive the lack of sarcasm, I just don't have Spencer's "talent". (Although, after almost 10 years of marriage it has started to eek in.)
I believe it was Monday when we were in the van after dropping Ben and Spencer off at their respective areas, when Matthew inform me that "when Jesus comes he is going to be Barricade." (Transformers, for those not in the know.) Matt precedes to tell me all about how is is going to share his Transformers with him and they are going to play all sorts of games together. He can't wait to play "membory" (Memory), Whack-a-Mole, and Candyland with Jesus when he gets to our house.
Now my first thought was to tell him that Jesus was not going to want to play a tournament version of Go Fish when he comes. But, then thinking about it a bit longer, I figured it was rather sweet and that it was pretty neat that he thinks of Jesus as a friend. And, Hey, as long as Matthew is willing to share, what could go wrong?! -MotherMonkee

The Great Escape

We have been trying to find a way to unwrap ourselves from our lease this last week in order to find a safer dwelling. Initially we called the management office of our apartment. They basically told us to stick it in our ears. I sent Roxann in to plead our case after my visit failed. We were told that we would be responsible for the remainder of the lease if we moved out. We called the Corporate office in Ohio. I called first and was given an unsympathetic answer. I was also told that the situation had been handled. Later Roxann called with much the same result. However, we were told that we could only be responsible for one month extra rent according the Rutherford County law. They also told us fun things like: "you should have checked the crime rate before you moved in" and "We cannot be responsible for crime". Awesome. We gave our lease to Christopher Westmorland who is our Sunday School teacher and a Lawyer. He was able to confirm the apartment's claims of our responsibility but was unable to find a loophole in the lease under the circumstances.
So on Saturday, we were on our way to Parent-Teacher Conference with Ben's teacher. Our neighbors in the next building were moving out. Roxann stopped and talked with them. These guys have been really good neighbors. They are 2 college guys who have always been pleasant and fun, love the kids and love to play. They said that they were also involved in the altercation; trying to stop it from happening. They explained further that not only were 2 other families aside from themselves moving, but the original perpetrators had not been charged with a crime because the victim would not press charges and continued to hang out in the area threatening people who "got them in trouble". These bad men are friends of a girl who lives in C building. They were her guests and no action has been taken against her that we know of. Her friends continue to lurk, making us all uneasy.
What to do. We took counsel with our Bishop on Sunday and told us flatly that we should leave as quickly as possible. So today we are finalizing our escape. We have found a place to live that is north of us in a subdivision. We will be at least 3 miles from any retail civilization with a fenced yard and 1600 square feet inside the house. The Bishop offered to help us with part of our escape funds owed the the apartment complex. Now we are doing our best to come up with the rest. Please pray for us. We have been fasting and praying and we know that this is the right thing to do.

By the way.... Brian... Good Luck, we have been praying for you...

Heroes and Villians

Villians
They exist and a lot closer than we thought. Friday night was really fun for us. We took the kids to the Trunk-or-Treat and chili cook-off at the ward. Ben, again, dressed as Harry Potter, Matthew as Tigger, and Caitlyn in her Orange and Black Halloween dress. As I gathered the kids to make rounds to the trunks for treats, Benjamin informed me that he was not a baby and wanted to go with his friends. OK. I had no problem with that and he is probably right. So we saw him maybe once or twice all night, but he had fun with his friends. Matthew as usual, was always one trunk ahead of Caity and me as we gathered treats of all kinds. The night ended well. Roxann won the award for "Most Creative Trunk" and we all had the best fun. We went home and put the kids to bed. A couple of hours later, we followed turning in for the night. All was well.

We thought.


Around 1:45-2AM I awoke to Roxann. She was hollering at me to get the phone so that she could call the police. As I stumbled out of bed I heard the commotion that sounded as if it were coming from the other side of the front door. There was loud yelling and cursing between what seemed to be 2 or three men. It sounded horrendous, loud and violent. As I got downstairs and fumbled around for the phone I heard what ran a cold chill down my spine: "He's got a gun!". I grabbed the phone and ran upstairs. I handed it to Roxann (she is better at calling the police) and she dialed 911. She told them what she heard. Almost immediately we saw 2 squad cars, shining their lights toward our buildings. They passed down the street as they looked for the perpetrators who by this time had scattered. They passed down the street. We then observed 2 black males running toward a 90's model Toyota Corolla. They jumped in and the car sped away. We called the police again to tell them what we saw. The police simply missed them. 45 minutes later we saw an unmarked Crown Vic pull up outside of the house. 3 detectives climbed out and headed toward our door. I fumbled around for some pants and went downstairs with Roxy to answer the door. 3 detectives all alike. Same mustache, same shirt, same height, all alike in every way. They questioned us about what we had heard and saw. They left. It was 3am by this time and we crawled back into bed, tired but unable to sleep. We heard more talking later and sprang to the windows, It was the detectives questioning more neighbors. I finally made it to sleep around 4 but it was far from restful. I tossed and turned at the thought of not being able to protect my family. What would I do if someone came into my home? I was freaking out.

We went about our activities on Saturday with apprehension and unease. The vulnerability that we felt created an unspoken tension that was present throughout the day. Around 2 that afternoon we saw more police in the parking lot. They were questioning our neighbors in the next building over. Roxann called one of our neighbors who lives down on the corner of the other building. She told us what had happened the night before and why the police were there this afternoong.

Friday night, 5 black males were raping a girl in our parking lot. One neighbor, a large black man, confronted the group and tried to get them to stop. This was the yelling that we had heard. One of the men in the group who were pulled a gun on the good samaritan. He announced that this man had a gun and retreated back into his house. The men scattered. The next day,they came back to the good neighbor, put a gun in his face and threatened him. This is why the police were back.

So... we are looking to move as soon as possible. I have to call our management company and explain to them why they are going to let me out of my lease. We looked at a house last night. It is in the ward and Ben will be in the same school. It is big and we are excited about it. Wish us luck and please remember us in your prayers.


Heroes
So the second season of Heroes is causing blood to shoot from my eyes. Their constant pandering to the political correct themes of the day are making me wish I had never set eyes on the series. Don't get me wrong. I love the story line. It is good, but they are interjecting things that make me want to find the writers and punch them in their faces.

Let me give you a run down of the feed from heroes. New story lines have been introduced and they make me sick.

1. Katrina Victim.
A new girl with special abilities who happens to be Micha'a aunt is a young single black woman raising her brother and taking care of her mother in "Katrina Aftermath" New Orleans. Not only do we get to see her struggle at the fast food restaurant where she works, but we were even treated to a photo montage of the Katrina devastation with the ghostly "double exposure" image of this poor woman's face so we can see the tragedy of Katrina and its affects on poor black people. Holy freakin' Crap! It is bad enough to hear her whining about what she is going to do constantly because the hurricane took everything, but now we have to put up with video montages. Good job, Hollywood. From what I can tell is that Black people will never get over Katrina and are only good enough to work at McDonalds. Way to keep stereotypes off the books. They have been rubbing this in our faces for so long now... Watch a New Orleans Saints Football game lately? I have and you will hear the word Katrina at least 20 times an hour. When are we going to move on with our lives. Sure it was tragic, sure people died, but move on. It was by far not the worst disaster ever. And black people are better than that. They do not have to work at McDonalds and obsess about the last disaster in their lives.


2. Illegal Immigrants are people, too.
The latest characters are a brother/sister duo from Mexico or South America somewhere and they are going to have a better life if they just get to America. No, really. They are trying to illegally cross the border to have a better life and find answers to the powers that they have. I cannot stress enough how much this makes me want to stab my own eyes out with a twizzler. We get to see them make deals with Coyotes and run from the law to have a better life in America. H O L Y C R A P !!!! It only gets worse when they finally cross the border and are confronted by the Minute Men. Or at least their version of it. This was last night. This was the point where I seriously contemplated not ever watching it again. Our "Heroes" find a hole in the fence at the border. They are elated. We get some soliloquy on freedom is just over there (not to mention free health care and schooling). They drive through and are immediately seized upon by the "Minute Men" who are a bunch of rabid, gun-toting, rednecks hooting and shooting off their guns and as if that is not enough, they attack the car rocking it whilst yelling, hooting and shooting their guns in the air. At no point do these men actually speak words. They just grunt and hop around like apes making noise and being violent.
Words escape me.

Spence

Fun with Delta Airlines or How I Learned to Travel Inconveniently

After a circus of incompetence, I found myself trying to get a flight home from Ft. Myers, Florida this week.

Last week started out with my inability to go to work due to the death of Roxann's Grandmother. So I had to stay home and go out on Friday to the install in Mexico's sunny Reynosa. Thursday night, my co-worker Randy and I flew 4 hours with layovers to Harlingen (pronounced HarlinJen) via Southwest Airlines. We stayed the night in McAllen TX and would cross the border to work the next morning. After waiting an extra hour for our liaison to arrive, he informed us that the Vice President is coming to town this weekend and the Federalis and Militaria would be in town so we would not go over. I am feeling safer by the moment. So after much conferencing calling as well as name calling, it was decided by the think-tank-juggernaut that is my company that Randy and I will fly to Florida to complete another install. Ft. Myers. 4 Hours worth of flight later and a 2 hour drive from Tampa we arrive in Ft. Myers. We sleep and arrive at the site the next morning. By the end of the day on Saturday, I knew that we would be able to fly home on Monday. Not really...

Southwest Airlines was all booked up for flights into Nashville for the next 3 days. So I turned to the other airlines. Delta. Delta had a flight that went through Cincinnati, Ohio. It would take another 4 hours to fly home. Yay...! So I booked the flight.

I get on the airplane. No pillows. Just blankets. You see, usually I roll my worthless airline pillow into a blanket to make a larger, firmer pillow capable of putting me to sleep. No such luck here. To make matters worse, it is 90-odd degrees outside and stuffy in the plane as usual. As soon as the plane decided to back away from the gate, the air spouts turned off. Many passengers were seen reaching toward their air spouts wondering why the only real service that is wanted on a plane has to be denied until take-off. Then there was the constant feedback on the speakers that were not shut off the entire flight. Randy and I plugged in my PSP to watch a movie. Because we were not paying attention, the flight attendant skipped us on drinks and peanuts. We had to call them back.

Then we landed in Cincinnati's International Airport and we had to get to gate C52 in 30 minutes. We were at B11. In order to get to terminal C, we have to go down the escalator and ride a shuttle bus. At the bottom of the escalator was the door to the shuttles over to the right. However, the line went off to the left, down the hall to security in a seemingly unending oblivion that eventually turned back around and came back to the door. Confused travelers listed to the right toward the doors after leaving the escalator only to be shouted down and verbally assaulted by weary line sitting airport patrons. We eventually made it to our Terminal and gate with five minutes to spare.

The flight was delayed. Why? Because the flight crew was not there. They gave the time 3:25. An extra 25 minutes. We went for lunch. Apparently they were just kidding about the time because 10 minutes later they boarded the plane. We made it and the plane pushed back from the gate at 3:20. Ha ha Just kidding about that whole delay thing. Hope you made it. This plane was the smallest aircraft I had ever been in. CRJ-200 - holds about 50 people but only about 3 comfortably. I had to check my laptop under the plane because the overhead bins were the size of bread boxes and there was no room under the seats. Again, no air until takeoff. Even then, it was pitiful.

We landed. 20 minutes later I finally had my laptop. An underpaid attendant rolled a cart up to the terminal gate where we were waiting for our stuff, stopped the cart and walked away. Thanks for the service. Then it was off to baggage claim to get my suitcase. In the Nashville Airport, Delta has 4 baggage claim belts. They were only going to use 2 today, however, and doubled us up with a flight from DC. The hordes of people standing there left no room to see what is on the belt, because hey... if you are not standing directly in front of the belt, your luggage will not show up. So we waited. Finally, Randy's stuff showed up after about another 15 minutes of wait but not mine. We continued to wait until there was no new luggage on the belt. Defeated, I fished my claim ticket out of my pocket and headed to the office to file my complaint. Well... Obviously I had not waited long enough was the reply and then I was directed to a group of bags down by the fourth belt. They had taken the liberty of removing some bags from the cart and placing them over here. No where near the office or the belt we were all watching and for no particular reason. Great.

Honestly I survived but I am quite leery of Delta now as well as Cincinnati's International Airport. What is the moral of the story?
There really isn't one.

Spence

What a way to start it all.

I guess that I too was inspired by the Stevens' Blog as well as Danny's little blog. I find this an interesting way to keep a diary as writing with a pen has become an archaic and almost barbaric practice whose usefulness is limited to signing bank card statements and releases of privacy to the corporate debt machine.

Let me give you all the rundown on where we are at right now.

Roxy and I are happily living away in Murfreesboro, TN. Murfreesboro is just south of Nashville for those who do not already know. We are nestled in the gateway to the deep south where we have found the people to be quite conservative and polite beyond all reason. The Ward we attend (Stones River Ward) is fun and exciting. There is a generous mix of young and old and an unwaivering willingness to serve. Roxann is serving in the Relief Society on the enrichment committee and I am serving as the Scout Master. Life is good here and we really enjoy the members that we serve with.

Benjamin is attending 2nd Grade at John Pittard Elementary School. He is well liked by his classmates and is doing quite well. We just need to get him to focus more on his schoolwork. Matthew is attending a 2 day a week pre-school at a local church. He gets really excited on the days he attends and loves his teacher. We love to hear his retelling of bible stories when he gets home... which is really cute... until we made one mistake. We had rented Evan Almighty, a cute PG rated movie about a man who is chosen to be a modern Noah, hustling to get arrangements made before a flood. God is played by Morgan Freeman and you can imagine our shock when we began to hear odd quotes from Matthew like "God Says: 'Oh no you didn't'"... wow. We put a stop to that pretty quick.

Caitlyn is getting more and more independent. She owns the house in an interesting way. She struts around with her dolls (of which she has many) and lets us know exactly what she wants and doesn't want. She picks her own clothes by stripping out of outfits she doesn't like. She is still cuddly and cute when she wants to be and has learned to defend herself against unwarranted attacks from the boys.

All in all we are doing well. My job keeps me out of town more than I would like, but it pays the bills. Feel free to email us and let us know how you are doing. Also, you can add this blog to your RSS feeds for instant updates. I will try to put in at least a few times a week and keep this thing going. We miss all of you who are not with us. Keep us in your prayers.

Spence.