Home Again

So Reagan and I had a nice time in Hawaii. We spent a good portion of our time fixing up our condo, and hiring a new management company, that hopefully will not rob us blind!

We did enjoy the wonderful weather and the beautiful beaches of Maui. All in all we had a good time, taking time to just be together and slow down, if only for a couple of days.

We got home in time to attend Jake's Crim swim Pentathlon. There were over 60 participants in each the boy's and girl's events. Jake took first place in the 100 Breaststroke and took 5th place over all!! Way to go Jake.

Then we celebrated Matt's 2nd Birthday. Shawna made the cutest dragon cake, and a wonderful meal. It was such fun to be together as a family to celebrate the blessings of life and family. Chuck's parents were able to visit for this wonderful occasion---we are blessed.

I had a lot of time to think while in Hawaii, and I came to the conclusion that I had taken my off the ball. I realized that I had gotten so caught up and busy with 'life' that I had forgotten what this life is for. I promised myself to slow down( Jen, I can totally relate--God must be sending out the same message to many of us--those who will listen are those who will be blessed) stop and smell the roses and enjoy each day! Needless to say that life came at me full speed upon our return home...but i am trying to keep the brakes on.

Haylee had a swim meet in Goodyear(outside of Phoenix) this past weekend. This meant an evening drive to a hotel and a long long day ahead. A full day of swim will wear anyone out--even those in the stands! Reagan and Jake had a scout camp Friday and Saturday...this put Reagan in an quandry as to which he should attend. It was decided that a nite out with the boys would be the best for him and the kids...I think that was a good decision! Thanks to the wonders of cell phones with text messaging, Haylee was able to keep dad up to date on her events and times, while dad and Jake were able to play with the 'boys' as only boys can do.

Monday found everyone at nanna and papp's for FHE, Ashley supplied the dessert, Shawna the lesson and nanna and pappa the home! Shawna and the kids were here most of the day, I do enjoy their company! After a very enjoyable but long day Reagan informed me that my 'grandkids had left a nice gift for me downstairs'. The building blocks from the afternoons construction project were strewn all over the floor, the kitchen wasn't quite cleaned up and I had 3 loads of laundry to finish and look forward to folding the next morning. Remembering my promise to myself, I happily replied... 'I'm sure they did' , i put soap into the dishwasher and added 'Aren't we blessed to have grandchildren.', Kissed my sweatheart good nite and knelt down to thank our loving Father for the wonderful 'messes' of my day! I feel much happier so far this week ...now to keep my on the big picture for any length of time...thats the hard part.

Hello one and all. I hope that your week was just fantastic. I am greatful for all of the e-mails that you have been sending me. Keep it up as I love hearing from all of you and your happenings.

So, we had Zone Conferance yesterday and it was awesome. President and Sister Peterson are such amazing people. As zone leaders we had our own time to teach everyone and then just our zone, so we get to teach twice. Both went really well and they seemed very productive. President Peterson used a part of our teaching in his, so I guess it was alright!

We have set up many appointments for this week and I hope to see some great things from these people as they will all be first visits. We are really trying hard to find new amis, but it is difficult. Above all that, I am always sooo tired. Keep me in you prayers so that I will have the energy necessary to continue to do the Lords work.

We continue to see miracles all the time. The other night we had worked in another city and got home with about 30 minutes before we were to be in. It was way too late to try to go to peoples houses and so we decided to go to a park, there was no one except 2 men that looked like they were drinking, but as they were the only ones we went and talked to them. We ended teaching them right there in the park and set another appointment. They were pretty cool guys and it was a great blessing as we don't have many people to teach at this time.

Oh, there was a mistake in my address that I gave you, my companion told me the wrong street name. If you already sent something, don't worry because I got grandpas letter all the same so they obviously figured it out at the post office. The real street name is CENTENAIRE not centaire.

so the address is :

Chemin du centenaire, 4

CH-1008 Prilly

Suisse

Voila, there you go. I hope that you all had a great week and that you make this one even better. I am praying for you and I love you all. Keep the e-mails coming!!! Until next week

Elder Dahl--

I wanted to be sure you all got his correct address!

So Reagan and I are off to Hawaii for 10 (well deserved--For Reagan at least) days! we will have to be up and at um by 3am and on our way to San Diego by 4am--yuck!!! The summers here are NOT Reagan's cup of tea!! Hawaii has been calling for several months, and luckily he has wanted to take me along with him--away to Paradise!! He would like nothing more than to own his won boat and spend the days out on the ocean. I hope this trip will be a relaxing as he needs it to be!

Kaycie 7th grade

Haylee 6th grade

Jake Dahl (Gold Medalist)

(this is one of those things that you just have to have been there to unerstand--Believe me--It is a true statement just the same)

I finally got those first of the year pictures. I can't believe how they have grown! It is hard to believe that my 'baby' is in middle school and that Flakey Jakey is no longer my little boy, but a bright, intellegent( and Very Handsome) young Man! It will not be long before he too will take flight and leave the nest! I hope they all remember that there is alway room at the inn for them always.. no questions asked--always loved unconditionally and welcome to give mom lots of love, hugs and kisses.

Josh will be home in a few short months--just long enough to regroup and be on his own. These thoughts are bitter sweet! as if watching a caterpillar transform into a beautiful butterfly and take flight. One watches hoping to never really lose site of those they have helped ( at least we hope we have helped) grow into wonderful beings --into what the Lord intended them to be -- and always hopeful of their return-- if only for a short time--taking in all the love they offer and hopefully giving back more than we recieve. We hope that this refueling will give them the boost they need and desire to keep them on the right path. The one we are all hopefully on, and, that at the end of this mortal journey to arrive at the same destination to be together forever!

With all this in mind it is very difficult to leave for 10 days! even knowing that Chuck is more than capable of taking care of them and in fact, or more correctly, they are capable of taking care of themselves and each other! yet I still worry, as i just can't let myself come to terms to the knowledge that they really do not need me to be at their side all of the time.. Which i know is such a drag to them (most of the time) I definitely have control issues---but i argue that it all stems from my GREAT love for my husband and children, and my desires for the best for them.
This excuse doesn't usually hold up for very long, especially when you are an atractive, active, bright, wonderful,17 year old(did i mention handsome) boy, but it does work a bit better with an active,loving 11 year old girl. And alas,as some of you have had the great opportunity of experiencing--you just have to hold your tounge and your breath and PRAY for the best with the 12 year old girls, trusting in the Lord that you will survive another day and that it will all be worth the worry and effort!

Until next time--Aloha!

News From Switzerland

Well here it is, as I promised. remember Josh can get emails: jz4josh@yahoo.com. You can see he enjoys hearing from friends and family(even those of us with not so good taste!lol)

this is not the lake he is on but is in Switzerland(ithink)

Hello everyone.

Thanks for the many e-mails. Sounds like all of you are doing well and that is always good. Here is the latest on me.So, I am in a smaller city that is part of Lausanne, called Renens (it is on the map at home with my mission stuff). It is just on the lake, but unfortunately there is quite a bit of smog polution so you can't see the mountains very well. The apartment is a studio! Talk about tight quarters! I'll get used to it. It is the smallest apartment in the mission, but we are looking for another. We are in a ward here of pretty small numbers, but we are working on that.I am still a Zone Leader and at the same time the District Leader for us and the Sisters that are here. There is another companionship of elders actually in Lausanne. They are in my zone but are the district leaders of another district.

So, here's a miracle for you. We had an appointment fall and had nothing to do last night. So, as we have no amis we decided to go porting (door to door). We were going to go to an area that we have been doing but on the way I had a strng impression from the Holy Ghost that we needed to do a certain building. We went in and taught a few lessons at the doors of homes, but nothing real big. We did the building right next to it and you would never guess it. We found an in active member that has been inactive since her youth, is now married and has a son and is not found on the ward lists as her name is changed. We talked to her for a little and then she invited us to come back next week and we could talk with her and her husband! It was so sweet!!! I was walking on cloud nine the rest of the night.

Ok, so here is my address

Elder Dahl

Chemain du centaine, 4

CH-1008 Prilly

Suisse

That will do it for this week.

Mom, I want a new tie and since your taste is not really the best, you wanna send me some money so I can go buy one or two? Thanks and I love you!!!

Take care everyone and I hope to hear from you all next week.

Make this week a good one and let me know how you all are doing.

take it easy

Elder Dahl

Ok I changed the template because i wanted to, and this one seems cooler (in temperature) and we need cool here in Yuma.

Josh has been transfered and is now back in Switzerland and is serving with Elder McSwain, who he served with a year ago! I don't have a physical address yet, but am hoping to get one in his email tomorrow. I do know that he is in Lausanne.I will post it if i get it.

The kids have started school and are getting into the swing of things again. I usually take pictures of the kids on the first day -- but as things have not been real usual ( what is usual?) around here, I have not as of yet snapped those photos.

Haylee is back to her swim team and boy is it GREAT! it just eats up all her energy and everyone is much happier!

Kaycie started piano lessons again today..with a new teacher(i think this is her 5th teacher in about 6 years!) She is not complaining, she really loves the piano.

Jake is taking 7am seminary, 3 classes at the high school and 3 classes at the college. He has thrown himself into swim and is just exhausted at days end! They have a very young team this year and he is afraid that they will lose all of their meets. Their first meet is at home tomorrow and he is nervous! He is going up against the state champ in both of his individual events--the 100 Breast and the 200 IM. He will be fine after the meet!! He is supposed to be getting started on his Eagle Scout project but has had a hard time getting a hold of the right people...we think we have all the correct phone numbers now, so hopefully the project can get underway. I don't know exactly what it is but it is large enough that another young man in our ward is doing his project, not exactly with Jake, but along with Jake. As I understand it the projects involve some demo. work and then rebuild and laying irrigation pipes and such, at an outdoor location here in the city!( a park I think). This will keep Jake busy and out of trouble for a while anyway!

Well that is about all I can figure out for now. Keep in touch!

Heat and more!!

This week has been a dosey around here! after a much needed vacation and a good time at the family reunion, we returned home to a yard that was very much over grown. Mind you we are glad that it was alive and green but 2 plus feet of grass on our 1/2 acre lot and no riding mower was a bit intimidating. So saturday morning Reagan and I set to work. He took one lawnmower and set it at the tallest setting, he then set my mower at the middle setting, and we set out to conquer the yard!! 4 1/2 hours later Reagan had finished his initial pass and i had only one 'small' spot left as i followed behind. We were exhausted, hot and miserable....thanks to the 107+ temperatures and not to mention the humidity---yes we have quite a bit of humidity here in the desert during the monsoon season---. Unfortunately for us we managed to both get heat exhuastion!!! Luckily not heat stroke. Reagan got hit the worst and just couldn't seem to beat it. So today we went to the doctor and it was determined that he had overcome the heat just fine but had contracted food poisoning!! The doctor figures that he contracted it on Thursday but we are almost certain that it was actually Wednesday night that he picked it up. We had eaten at Hometown Buffet for Haylee's birthday, Chuck was not well that night and Reagan and I ate the same things on Thursday--which wasn't much. I guess this will put an end to Haylee's Hometown Buffet routine. Reagan now has some medication and hopes to be back on his feet in a couple of days.
All of this and Reagan had to preside at church on Sunday as well as care for the arrangements for a funeral of a young man in our ward whos funeral/memorial was yesterday. He just couldn't get himself to drive to San Diego for the burial this morning...
I feel so bad for him, but am glad he decided to take care of himself for once. I have tried to do what i can like keeping the toilet paper stocked in the bathroom and having white rice available for his meals!!
Jake started his senior year of high school yesterday and is already hard at work at swim practice. We expect good things from him this year in the pool as he was a leader last year as a junior and a big part of the mens team graduated in May.
Sorry there is no picture to tell the tale of our experiences. I need to get Shawna over --she is the real wiz at all of this.
Keep in touch..

ok my turn!

thanks to Shawna and Chuck for getting me up to speed on this. I hope i will be able to use this site to the benefit of all our friends.

Long and Short of It

I hope that you all had a great week. For some reason, I cannot send e-mails to AOL so if you know someone on AOL that would like to hear from he, please forward this on. It just started and I dont know why.

Anyways, I am only going to give the long and short of the week otherwise we would be here all day.Wednesday, Preparation Day cut short to go to Geneva. Thursday, Zone Leader Council in Geneva. Friday, exchanges with the Elderd in Colmar, Saturday met some crazy lawyers who threatened to send us back home if we kept proselyting, Sunday we had nothing but fallen appointments, Monday we had a Zone meeting and then exchanges with the Elders from Nancy, Tuesday ended exchanges and one of the sisters got bit by something and her face swoll up like a balloon (it was freaking hilarious, but we tried our best not to laugh) and tried to really contact a lot of people because with all the crazy stuff happening we have not had a day yet like last tuesday. and to top it off, it is rainy again meaning no one wants to stop and talk to us.That is it in a nutshell.

Two weeks left in the transfer and we are hoping to stay together thought it might be that I will leave. That would stink, but I will live.

So tell me about all of you. There are certain among you that I have not heard from for easily about a year or more. I hope you are all still alive.That will do it for this week. I love you and miss everyone of you. I hope that your lives are just filled with tons of great things every day. Take care and until next week. -- Elder Dahl

We did it! Hopefully Josh can too. See nothing is impossible!

My First Entry on Behalf of Elder Dahl

This blog is our feable attempt at incorporating the technology of today with the age old desire to brag about our loved ones. Lets see how long we stick with it and how well we make it work! With love to you little bro.!