On His Way To Saint Croix

Josh called on Christmas. It was great to hear his voice. He will be flying to Saint Croix (Virgin Islands) on Friday, December 26th.

Matt In Afganistan

Matt sent an email yesterday. He made it safely to Afghanistan. His message was short but it was a relief to hear from him. We will be praying for you Matt. Keep in touch.

Our Family Picture

I really wanted a family picture this year but one of my kids wouldn't cooperate. So this is it. Whitney is holding a missionary nutcracker to represent Josh and Michael is holding soldier doll to represent Matthew. I got the nutcracker and the doll for my birthday. Our next family picture is scheduled for October 2010. The Calton kids better start planning now because they are all going to be in it this time. It will be my graduation and 25th anniversary present.

Matt Is Leaving On Friday

Matt is leaving for Afghanistan (not Iraq) on Friday, December 19, 2008. His phone number is 520-449-4749 if anybody would like to call him before he leaves. He promised me he would be home in May for Emily's graduation.

Locks of Love

Whitney donated 11 inches of hair to Locks of Love.

Whitney has been thinking about getting her hair cut because it gets in the way at basketball. Yesterday she did it. She loves it! It made her feel better to be able to donate it to Locks of Love. The lady that cut her hair said the donation was worth $100 and inch. She has been growing it out for five years so I told her it would count as a Personal Progress goal. I'm sure somewhere it will brighten a child's life. Way to go Whit!

Twilight

Calton Girls and Ang

All dressed up and ready for the midnight showing of Twilight.

Yes, we are crazy but doing crazy things makes life memorable. The movie was great if you just wanted to stare at good looking guys for two and a half hours. If you want dialogue or plot go see something else. If you don't read the books before you see the movie you probably won't understand anything. Edward spends a lot of time just staring at Bella. He may be able to read peoples minds but most of us don't have the same advantage. We were an hour and a half early but the only seats that were left were on the fourth row. The audience was pretty calm except for us. I think Whitney and Ang were the only ones in the audience screaming. It was great fun to be with my girls and Ang. I would do it again just to spend time with them. Thanks girls. How many days until the next movie Whit?

Iraq Again

I promised Ang I would update my blog so here it is without pictures.

When Matthew didn't come home for Josh's farewell he promised he would be here for Christmas but he is going to Iraq instead. Of course he can't give us any details because everything is top secret but he did say he leaves sometime in December.

Josh got to Puerto Rico and all is well but only spoken is Spanish. I will post his letter and new address on his blog.

Whitney was chosen as student of the month at the high school. She was excited. She was nominated every year in middle school but never got it so it is about time they picked her. She will also be playing on the high school basketball team. Her games will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Emily and Amy are busy with dance. They will have a Christmas performance sometime in December.

We need to find Michael a hobby that does not involve technology. It will be good for him when swim team starts again. I wish Salina had an indoor pool so they could have swim team all year.

Zach needs to start his own blog so we can keep up on his news. So get one Zach, and update better than your mom does hers.

Jim is taking computer classes in hopes of becoming the next network specialist at Redmond Minerals.

I just found out I have taken way to many of the wrong classes for the wrong major. You think they could have told me this a little sooner but I sure feel smart ;P It will only take me two more years to finish my degree which should have only taken two years in the first place.

Twilight in only how many days? I'm not sure ask Whitney, but I know it is getting close and I am looking forward to watching it with my girls and missing a day of work.

Pumpkins

Amy and Michael carved pumpkins for youth council for decorations for their dance and we didn't get a picture of them. Michael's was a cat and Amy's was a Witch, but she took my Twilight one instead. The pumpkins were judged and Michael's won first place and Amy/Whitney's won most original. Since they didn't get to bring them home I made another one and here it is.

Love,

Whitney

Elder Calton

I didn't want to put all of Josh's updates on our family blog because it might look like I am playing favorites, so I made Josh his own blog. (Thank you for your help Whitney.) Josh will not be able to post on the blog or read it but we will post pictures and some of his letters so that the family can stay updated.

Josh left the Provo MTC on Thursday. He will be in the Dominican Republic MTC until November 11. I do not have a current address but his email address is:

joshua.l.calton@myldsmail.net

If you go to this web site you can write a letter and they will print it and send it to Josh. This is free while he is in the Dominican Republic MTC.

http://www.dearelder.com/

Trip Up North

When we moved to Salina I hated it when people would say "Up North". It think it sounds so hillbilly but after almost nine years I sometimes find myself using the term. The girls and I went up north last week. Emily wanted to go to the BASH concert with Zach because her favorite band was going to be there. I have never let her go before because I didn't think it was a very good environment. This year she really wanted to go and she is almost 18. I thought if I drove her up and back it would make me feel a little better about the whole thing. Amy and Whitney and I stayed at Ang and Mike's while Zach, Emily and Katie (Emily's friend) went to the concert. We all went to Gardner Village on Friday night to see the witches. We had a great time at Ang's making jewelry, it was kind of therapeutic

.

Wearing our new jewelry

Zach's new roommate

Zach's new apartment in Taylorsville

Busy, Busy

Okay, I don't know how some of you keep up with your Blogs every week. I have had a busy summer so please forgive me. From now on I will post something every week even if nothing exciting happens. I think I have everything updated now but I did leave out a few things. Michael received his Arrow of Light in August and Whitney has been playing on the high school soccer team. (See Pictures) Emily and Amy have started taking dance and Zach moved into a new apartment. Matthew was deployed to Texas for a couple of days to help with the hurricanes but it blew right over them so he didn't do much. AHHHHHH I think I finally have everything updated. Have a great week.

MTC

MTC does not stand for Mother's Torture Chamber but somebody did tells us that the missionaries sometimes refer to it has spirit prison. Josh will soon find out. We dropped him off on Wednesday, September 10. I was the only one who cried. The kids were trying not to cheer too loudly. He has tortured them so much in the past week that they were ready for him to leave. I think Josh did this on purpose so they would cry when he left. We haven't heard from him since we dropped him off so he must be busy. For those who would like to write him his address is:

Elder Joshua Calton

MTC Mailbox #340

PUR-SJUE 1002

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, Utah 84604-1793

He will be there until October 2. Most missionaries who are learning a language stay there longer so I think he will probably go tot the MTC in the Dominican Republic after he leaves Provo.

Lake Powell

Redmond Minerals has started sending all employees and their spouses to Lake Powell each year for a company training meeting. Our trip last year got cancelled so we were really excited to go this year. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. We had a great time swimming and boating and it was nice to relax in an air conditioned house boat when we were done. I am already looking forward to next year.

Josh's Missionary Farewell

Thank you to everybody who came to Josh's farewell. It went great and we had enough food to feed the Army which is what we were planning on but Josh's army friends got called to a mandatory army meeting at the last minute and only a couple of them were able to make it. It was great to have so many family member there. Josh really appreciates all of your support.

Salt Lake Temple

Josh went through the Salt Lake temple on August 20th. It was great to have Aunt Gini and Grandma and Grandpa Stoker with us.

Girl's Camp

Thank you for all your Girl's Camp ideas. Girl's Camp was great. Out theme was Steadfast Like the Stars and we had Amy's science teacher come to camp with a telescope. The sky was perfect and we got to see Jupiter through the telescope. It looked just like it does in pictures. I can't believe how many stars you can see in the mountain sky. The girls were great!

Driving for 12 hours with seven people in a van didn't turn out so bad even though two of the girls had PMS. It was great to see Matt. He lives in a little apartment by himself and spends most of his day working on airplanes. He didn't get out much because he didn't have a car so we helped him get one while we were there. We stayed at a great place. It was a condo on a golf course. We got a great price because nobody wants to visit Arizona in July when it is 110 degrees. What were we thinking? We were all amazed by the cactus. There were so many everywhere. It was kind of like sagebrush in Utah. I think next time we visit we will go in the winter. WE LOVE YOU MATT!

Thank You

Thank you for all your great comments and ideas about girl's camp. Our girl's camp will be July 30, 31 and August 1 so if you think of anymore wonderful ideas before then let me know. Our theme is Steadfast Like the Stars so we are looking for any quotes, craft ideas or stories that are associated with stars. Thank you for all of your help.

Have a great day!
Love,
Annette

Keep On Treking

Jim, Emily, Whitney and I participated in our stake youth trek this past week along with 110 other youth and adults from our stake. We pushed handcarts for 20 miles over three days and slept under the stars. I really gained more of an appreciation of the things the pioneers had to go through. The road was a four wheeler trial so we did see a few "civilized" people along the way. A group of ATV riders saw us and wondered what all these Pilgrims were doing. Emily said that people were probably wondering what the polygamists were doing on vacation. We were all sore when we got home and glad to take a shower but I think it was a great experience we will never forget.