Scavenging

"Crud, forgot my lunch" I groaned as I walked down the aisle with my friend, Albane, from Algeria. "Forgot mine too." he grumbled. So we started off on the hunt. "Derek, can we eat your sandwich." His sandwich was like cake. White bread, marshmallow fluff and peanut butter. Good food. Yes! We got the sandwich and split it 2 ways.  Visit www.superspencersports.blogspot.com to find out what I do next.

The pick up

On Wednesday morning I witnessed something sort of interesting for me. I watched an illegal immigrant get arrested, detained or whatever you call it. I was on my morning run/walk that I do most Wednesdays and about 1/2 mile into it there were a few vehicles pulled to the side. A police car, a border patrol car and the alleged bad guy car. At the moment I ran past they had this guys hands behind his head and were handcuffing him. He was in tears. He was wearing a chef's uniform. The black pants and white jacket. He had been driving a metallic blue sporty looking car. Anyway, it was weird. I didn't want to look to close. I know that most of the time I am of the opinion that if indeed he is here illegally he knew that this scenario was possible. For a brief moment my heart went out to him. I wondered if he had a wife and kids who would be wondering where he was. I have noticed that since this economic downturn I see border patrol cars in the area more often than I ever did before. Hmm. Maybe no one wants to cross lately so they've shifted agents here. Makes me think of a scripture in the BOM in 2 Nephi 1:6. I quote,  "Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall ^anone come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord." 

That's interesting to me. Lehi is speaking about this land of Liberty. Makes me wonder about everybody.

Life goes on.

Here it is January 2009! Life is busy and I'm currently sitting in my car outside of the building where Spencer has piano lessons. Someone in said building has an unlocked wi-fi so I've hitched a ride onto the internet to blog. This building is also next to a municipal airport and 3 private jets have taken off in the 20 minutes that I've been sitting here. I love listening and watching airplanes take off! Ok. So about Christmas. Everything was great. Our telephone call from Collin was great. We recorded it on the mac and I've gone back and listened to it twice. It's just good to hear his voice. He sounds the same. Even the slightly annoyed part when we were all talking at once. He is doing well and did not get transferred on Monday the 5th of January. He told us in his weekly email that when he does get transferred  he will have spent 1/4 of his mission in Quitman. He and his comp had 4 more baptisms over the weekend. They're having success there. He gave Melissa a Texas Longhorn shirt for Christmas. She likes it and it looks good on her. Especially with the old cowboy boots we have. 

Emily is working hard towards everything. She made California All State Honor Choir! Yipee! She will perform in March in Pasadena. Should be fun. Her most notable Christmas present was a bicycle. It is an Electra Alexander Girard Art bike called the "Madonna." It has LOTS of personality and little old ladies roll down their car windows when they see her and say stuff like, "You have a beautiful bike!" It's true too.

Madelyn is playing club volleyball and also got a cool bike for Christmas. Her's is the same make but a different model. It's called the red tulip or something like that. It's bright yellow with red tulips painted all over it. Cool. In volleyball she is the setter. Her coach asked her if she wanted that position and she declined at first. She wanted to be a hitter. They had a conversation about it and she understood that he sees things that she can't. He told her that he thought she had the presence of mind to be a good setter so she happily accepted. Now she practices setting over and over and over and over and over....

Spencer wants to do everything and we're trying to find the time to let him do just that.  I do wish that everything was a bit closer. He received a lego train for Christmas and our ward missionaries helped him put it together on Christmas morning. It has lots of track. He loves playing with his cousins.

Melissa had a blast playing with her cousins over New Years and wishes that she could have brought home one of their puppies. 

Just some other notes. We made a real quick trip to AZ to spend New Years at my sister's house. We stayed up until 2 am, shot off fireworks and ate too much junk food. Rich rode his bike all over the Phoenix metro area and ended up on the new light rail system there. He said it was fun.

I got the bike I had hoped for and it truly is a beautiful bike. I hope to have Emily, Madelyn and I ride our bikes in a local bike event in February. 

We went and saw 2 movies over break. Marley and Me and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Marley and me wasn't what I expected. It's more of an adult movie than a kid movie. Benjamin Button was great!