30 January, 2016

Entropy

Here's Drew's car, which used to be Sarah's car, which has actually been serving numbers of us since we bought it back in 1998, after young Mr. George Hess of Sugarhouse, in Salt Lake City, got through with it.


29 January, 2016

This impending baby!

Counting down, care of this crazy medical technology.

You're seeing a hairline, and his/her dukes put up ...

Some of the products of a pretty unsuccessful photo shoot (The Dancers)

Mathieson and Madeline, and Weston and Sena, went to the MORP dance last week. That's "prom," backwards. The dance's theme was famous couples, so you are seeing Danny and Sandy, for some reason, and of course Ron and Hermione. You'll also see Claire, her mind all knee-distorted, leaning in to upset some of these already upsetting compositions.









24 January, 2016

Claire's knee

Good times, from earlier in the day.


















Mum, Matt and Claire go up to the Sundance ski resort on the MLK holiday. They have fun. Claire, who by the way is reasonably confident on the slopes, takes a late run on Top Gun. Later, quite safe, she pauses to reflect upon the event. "I have to admit I might have been going a little faster than I should have ..."

She's going good, but then she hits that one mogul at that certain angle, and now she's careening off toward that stand of trees ...

What's that sound? wonders Matt, from further up the slope. Is Claire laughing? He listens more closely. Yes, he decides. But also, no. She isn't. He looks down, and looks to his mother, alongside. They can't quite make it out. "Is that a badger coming out of that thicket?"

Meanwhile, Claire had managed to run straight into that big tree there, causing what's known in the industry as a yard sale. She says that a multitude of thoughts came to mind in the instant before impact. She said that it was a surprisingly ordered array. I sure used to fight a lot with Spencer, said one of them as it passed by. After a reasonably blunt collision, a more pressing idea presented itself. Ouch!

Matt and Mum were light of heart. Unworried, you might say. After all, wipe-outs are funny! (This finally ended up being the right idea. The she's okay idea that is, not the one about laughing at the injured.) They make their way down there. Ouch, Claire continues. Also, I think I'm okay. Mum and Matt dig her out, try to prop her up, and ascertain that some assistance would actually be helpful around now. Ski patrol; toboggan; doctor (neighbour John T.), x-ray and, a day later, an MRI.

Report, from the surgeon: "She has a contusion to the Vastus muscles, a bone contusion of the inferior pole of the Patella, and a knee effusion. She also has some prepatellar fluid/bursitis from the direct blow ..."

Wha? Dr. John translates: "She should be fine, but she should also be compressing the knee with an ace wrap to get rid of the swelling... If she keeps it wrapped and immobilized it would allow the anterior structures to heal quicker than if she was bending it a lot. As long as she's improving she'll be okay ..."

23 January, 2016

15 January, 2016

Open house

These kids and these cousins on an excursion to the beautiful new Provo City Center (LDS) Temple, January 15, 2016:



















You can sort of see it for yourself, here: http://bit.ly/1Nd7GUn

11 January, 2016

Spencer, updated


"Salève is an interesting sector. We live in Annemasse with the other elders who work there, but we never do anything in Annemasse. Our sector is all the little villages and cities to the southwest. That's why we have a car. It's not too hard to drive. It's just a little scary when you're driving on the unlit freeway at 110 km/h and a big curve jumps out at you." (January 11, 2016)

Not too shabby!



Drew and Matt and Claire made a Christmas movie

(Edmonton)










The following short film seems to be about snow sports, and the Sneetches, and the enmity that exists between man and beast, not to mention Ms. Streisand's eccentric virtuosity ...

Link: http://bit.ly/1OdnnPm

Greetings and photos from Zuster Sarah Duncan

"This is Brugge, and this is Gent, and this is beautiful Belgium, on a beautiful winter's day."




































Transfer!

Spencer is moving away from Perpignan, on the very border of Spain, to Annemasse, in the Upper Savoy region, right on the border with Switzerland!

Overshadowed by this massive thing






About like this, topographically speaking


More information pending ...


Nice work if you can get it

Bedroom makeover, all for the sake of Prince Milo; or, a Ptolemaic cosmology, with a cat at the very centre of the solar system ...




Out with the old, in with the new

Our ever faithful, still-functioning Sony 27" TV, relegated by this come-lately Samsung flat screen, sitting smugly in the background there ...

Goodbye, old friend ... (Oct. '95 [!] to Jan. '16)

02 January, 2016

Cousins/skiers/complainers (Sundance ski resort, January 1, 2016)

Brooke, Annee, Matt and Claire (listing them chronologically, by order of arrival) sent this picture to try to make the case that 12˚F is too cold for skiing. There was a further claim that this was taken at the precise moment that Annee broke her spoon in that container of frozen Nutella ...




Tracks from the deer family, seven strong, that rooted around in our yard for about a half an hour on Christmas night







A few fun photos from our missionaries

On Christmas Day, with some kind (LDS) member friends

The Heeren family, Lokeren, Belgium















The Benedettis, Perpignan, France















Looking happy, with some of their buddies:















S.'s companion, Sis. Karlson, food-tempted














In Lyon














Some seasonally appropriate wildlife ...

































It's hard being a missionary at Christmas!