THE SPECIAL EDITION 2008 WILLES CHRISTMAS LETTER

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hello everyone and thank you for logging on to find out more about our little family. This is your SPECIAL EDITION CHRISTMAS LETTER. It's one-of-a-kind and will only be available as an archive folder in 30 short days! Wow. Aren't you lucky?! So let's get started, shall we?!

As we said this year has been loads of fun. We'll divide it up by month so it's easier to keep track of. Oh, heck, we'll go week-by-week and tell you every little detail about our lives...just kidding. If I don't mention the month then re-read the month before. Same thing...different month.

January: We headed up to Flagstaff for a bit of snow tubing with the kids. We went to our regular spot near the fair grounds, but the kids are getting bigger and making the slopes seem smaller so it looks like we'll be finding a new spot next year. Katie, Emma, and Cousin Haylee joined Running Club and did very well in their races. Katie participated in a Choral Festival at the Chandler Center For the Arts. Emma continued Piano lessons.

Zach enjoys the snow.

March: Troy got to travel to California with work this month and spent some time with Grant and his family. During Spring Break, Mom took each of the girls out indivdually for a date. The girl picked the activity and resturant. Within one week Rachel ate at 3 different resturants and went to Border's Books, Ross Dress 4 Less, Micheal's, and Target. Whew. A great time was had by all.

April: All of Katie's hard work for the past 8 months finally came to fruition when Shumway Elementary School presented "The Sound of Music" to an excited audience. Katie, one of the few 4th graders to get a speaking part, played Marta VonTrapp. She had a blast but was so tired. She plans on signing up for the next Drama Club event. She's been bit!

May: Rachel and sister-in-law Tana worked on Memory Books for cousin Haylee's Kindergarten Class. Each one is an individual piece of art and done scrapbook style. It takes FOREVER, but Rachel tends to get too involved in making it "rock!" Rachel did Emma's Memory Books last year and agreed to help Tana this year. Next year she plans on doing Claire's Memory Books and two years after that, Zach's and Haydn's. We're submitting paperwork to Guiness World Records to see if we can get the "Most Kinder Memory Books Made" award or at least the "Most Stupid Thing To Keep Volunteering For" award. She's got a good shot at both. Katie also had a concert for her singing group, Chirping Crickets Chorus. She was, of course, fantastic. Totally heard her above the other 60 kids...

June: Summer vacation started and Troy again went off to California. This time he got to go to San Francisco over Rachel's birthday. We tried to figure out a way to get Rachel there to, but finding someone willing to babysit 4 kids for 3 days is understandably kinda tough. We did swim lessons for Claire and Emma with Mom, Katie and Zach just swimming and soaking up the rays while they waited.

Rachel took an overnight BFF trip with her girlfriends to Scottsdale. They went to dinner and the Showstoppers Live show at the Arizona Casino. It's a big show with impersonaters who perform as Elvis, Neil Diamond, Garth Brooks, etc. The night they went to that den of iniquity the casino was filming a television commercial. They had to sign waivers to agree to appear on tv if they stayed. Of course...they did. Still haven't seen us in the commercials they are showing, but it's the right show. We'll still look for our 15 seconds of fame. They went to a boutique hotel in Scottsdale decorated in early 60's Rat Pack. A good time was had by all.

The family also went on a camping trip in the mountains with the ward. The location was great and the weather beautiful, but the trip's luster was lost when Claire and another little girl got lost up on the hill. We found them within minutes but that was enough time for Rachel to picture all sorts of "Movie of The Week" moments.

July: We took the big Summer Vacation this month up to Boise, Idaho, to visit Troy's family and attend his mom's family reunion. We flew up there and stayed 2 weeks. We did many fun things: zoo, rafting, playing in park, eating out, swimming, going to Idaho City, etc. We also ended up camping at the reunion, where Claire got lost...again. Technically, she didn't get lost as she had gone with Poppa Willes on a hike, but noone knew about it and we started searching. THIS time she was "lost" for a longer amount of time and Rachel ruined her shoes sloshing down the small creek on the site as someone had said they spotted her going down there. Yeah. Rachel has now banned family camping until Claire is older or until we can buy a really long leash...or a shock collar. The whole trip was great, however, and the girls even missed the first 2 days of school. Katie was bummed...Emma & Claire...not so bummed. The girls also week to Kidz Kamp with Gilbert Parks and Rec for a couple weeks for games and crafts galore.

The Gang in Idaho City.

August: This month brought a quiet calm over the house for Rachel...at least between the hours of 8am and 11:00am as school started back up. Claire started Kindergarten and Rachel picked her up when the other kids went off to lunch. Katie began 5th grade and Emma started 2nd grade. All the girls have great teachers. Claire started piano lessons with Emma. Rachel got to spend two Saturdays at the Chandler High School Pool with the Stakes Swimming Merit Badge Day Camp. Nice work if you can get it, I say...

October: Troy traveled to Mexico for work this month, taking a couple extra days for sightseeing. Intel is cracking down on travel and this may be the last "big" trip Troy will get to take. The girls had a two-week break from school and although the first week was the WORST week ever (see post dated Sunday, 5 October) the second week was fun for all. Jackie, Rachel's college roommate and BFF, visited with her family. They stayed here for 3 days and two nights and all got along wonderfully. Jackie has three girls all the same ages as our three girls and they had a blast with the Super Duper Sleepover. Even Jackie's one boy who's 13 enjoyed hanging out with our one boy. Too fun. We did the Trick-or-Treating Blitzkreig again this year, hitting the ward Trunk Or Treat, Intel Cubicle Trick or Treat and regular neighborhood Trick or Treat in fast succession. Much candy was gathered. I think we're still trying to get rid of it.

Zach refused to wear the knight costume he picked out so he became a surfer dude complete with foamboard surfboard. Claire is Supergirl. Emma is a fairy princess and Katie is a Matadora. Troy's wearing his annual "Halloween" shirt...that's not part of his normal wardrobe.


November: This was a big month as Emma was baptized. Great Grammy Reva and Aunt Sarah flew in for the event and Ken and his family drove in from Kingman. Emma had a friend's party AND a family party. Troy auditioned and recieved the only tenor solo for our stake's production of The Messiah. Katie began practice for this year's Shumway Drama Club performance of The Wizard of Oz. She got the part of "Purple." Yeah...it's obviously a different version of the play. Basically, she and two others act as the Greek Chorus and narrate the action of the play. She's excited to have a speaking part but bummed out as the show isn't a musical. Oh well...life isn't always a musical now is it.

Claire started attending Kindergarten all day, as the rest of Arizona now does. Rachel picks her up for lunch and lets her come home and rest for a bit before taking her back. She loves it and is doing great.
As part of the Stake Temple Day, Rachel and Nate had created a Lego version of the Arizona Temple. Rachel wrote a Sharing Time to go with it and then bought a Lego kit of the temple for each ward. She was able to see a couple of the wards do the sharing time. It was a huge hit and Rachel and Nate have had many requests for additional kits. We may have a part-time business heading our way. For more details and photos check out http://rwilles.blogspot.com/ .
December: This month found us prepping for the awesome holiday season of Christmas. Rachel had to calendar every different event on the calendar so that nobody's events, parties or concerts would be overlooked. Katie performed again with the Chirpin' Crickets Chorus. Troy was amazing in The Messiah. He nailed his show opening solo. Many crafts came home from school to decorate our house and help that festive spirit abound. The family performed for the Ward Christmas party. They did a rousing rendition of "Feliz Navidad" with Rachel on guitar, Troy on trumpet, the girls belting it out and Zach on maraca. We wore serapes and sombreros, even! Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay and Ole! Katie also performed a solo, "Mary's Lullabye", and was Mary in the Christmas Pageant. Claire and Emma were angels. After many class parties and gift exchanges and secret santa's, we finally closed out the semester for the year.

Semester report cards were awesome. Everyone has straight A's with Katie reading on a 9th grade level and Emma officially clocking in on a 6th grade level. That's the highest level the 2nd grade test goes. Rachel is going to try to get her to take the 5th grade test and see where she places. Claire is reading all over the place and already has her sight words down pat. Katie flourishes in math and science and Emma is all over the reading and writing. Claire is great with both but prefers to be the center of attention.... heavy sigh. And although Zach didn't receive any report card he shows amazing intelligence as well. (Hey...you willingly came to visit and read our blog so....) He is increasing his vocabulary daily, sometimes with words we would rather he not use. In his defense, it wasn't his fault his version of "truck" came out sounding like it did...

Troy and Rachel are both busy but happy. Troy's gig at work keeps him entertained and he recently upped his status level when he was made manager. So far it's a lot like being Elder's Quorum president, make sure people are following through on things and attend a million meetings. He is starting to get the hang of it and is busy trying to interview people before Intel puts the hiring freeze into place. He took the time to redo our small bathroom upstairs with tile and new paint. It was more of a test to see if he wanted to take on the bigger tile job of the master bathroom. He decided he could wait a while.... He risked his life to climb up on a tall ladder propped in the back of a big truck to put up Christmas lights on the second story of the house. Rachel was grateful for the lights, the effort and the fact he didn't plummet to his death. (She was bracing the ladder, by the way, and would have had a front row seat for that plummet.)

Rachel still loves being the Stake Primary President and had a great time this year planning events. She even added keynote speaker to her resume this year as she spoke at the Stake Girls Activity Day event. She always gets to speak at training stuff, but not ever as a "Special Guest!" She still does part-time accounting for the law firm and babysits her neice and nephew a few times a month. She's been very popular at Shumway as she's gone over a couple time to tell stories to Claire and Emma's class. When she showed up to Emma's class the entire second grade was waiting for her. Unexpected, but still fun. She's scheduled to go back in next semester. She does enjoy having only one child at home during the day. It's been 11 long years in the making.

If you are up for even MORE detail, check out the archives of our blogspot. Troy does a great job of writing out a weekly update and sending it out to his family via email. I don't do as great a job of posting it to the blog, but I do get it there eventually. We thank you for caring enough about us to read this whole thing. We wish you the best of everything this Holiday Season. We express our deep gratitude for the Savior at this time of His birth. He has been extremely kind and loving to us and we are thankful.

ALL OUR LOVE,

The Willes Family: Troy, Rachel, Katie, Emma, Claire, Zach

Happy Thanksgiving!: Week of Nov 24-30

Sunday 30 Nov. 2008 – Thanksgiving week

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We missed our extended family members this weekend, but trust that you had a good holiday wherever you spent it.

This week was nice. Only 3 days of work then 4 days of weekend. Every week should be like that! People at Intel started leaving on vacation on Tuesday, so things slowed down and Troy was able to catch up on a couple of tasks that had been neglected.

Wednesday we got the first rain in the valley since August 30th. Nearly 3 months of dry and sunny. As the sun sank low around 4 or 5pm there was a break in the clouds to the west which created a beautifully bright full rainbow. Troy followed the rainbow most of the way home before the sun set. Very pretty.

Thursday morning was the annual ward Turkey bowl. The Men and Young Men (youth) of the ward met at the Islands park and played flag football. We were afraid that we might have to call the game off due to the rain, but just as we were starting the game, the clouds broke up and the sun came shining through! Troy took the girls down and let them play on the playground. After trying to keep score, Katie even decided to join the game for a little while. There were about 20 people that showed up by the time we were done. We played for nearly two hours – until none of the “old” guys (myself included) could run anymore. Then we broke for juice and donuts. Of note: Tom Pawlak – the most avid football player in the ward was set on coming – even if it was raining a bit, but decided that he better leave about game time to get to his family’s T-giving celebration in Thatcher.

Thursday afternoon was spent cooking, cleaning and setting up for dinner. Grammy and Grandpa Z (Ann and Martin) and Bob and Sarah came over for the evening. After a delicious Turkey dinner, we sat around the table and played Rachel’s homemade Family Memories game. We ended the evening with Zachreson family slides. After watching those slides, Katie decided that we should try to get some of the slides that Papa Willes has of Troy and his family when he was young. Maybe we can have Grammy Willes bring a few rolls down with her when she comes next time.

Friday was time to clean up the cluttered garage and put up the Christmas lights. While Troy and Rachel cleaned the Garage, the kids setup a table and put some of the items we cleaned out up for sale. In order to “attract” customers, they started doing a little dance and made up a song to go with it. After a few minutes of singing and dancing, but no customers they gave up that Marketing campaign – which is good, because the way they were singing and dancing, we weren’t sure what kind of business they were going to attract. So now they decided to walk to the houses of their friends in the neighborhood to advertise. This brought some of the neighborhood kids down to take a look, and brought in a couple dollars in revenue. After counting it up that afternoon, Emma announced, "We have three dollars and thirty-three cents. If we split that up three ways for Me and Katie and Claire, we will each get one dollar and eleven cents." We thought that was pretty good for a 2nd grader – without a calculator.

Troy and Rachel got most of the outside lights setup. The kids were getting bored that evening, so we even put up the Christmas tree before they went to bed.

Saturday was pretty low-key. Troy made pancakes for breakfast and then did a few chores around the house while Rachel went out shopping – not really Christmas shopping – just for household items. Saturday afternoon Troy took Claire and Emma to the city library to look at books and color. Saturday night we met the Zachresons (including Tana, Haylee and Haydn) at Carls Junior (with playland) for dinner. Instead of letting the leftover pies go to waste (or worse - Troy’s waist) we took them to the restaurant in a little cooler and then pulled them out for dessert. We are regulars at that restaurant and it is never very busy when we are there, so the staff didn’t complain.

Sunday was 5th Sunday. There were no meetings before or after church and no family dinner, so we all enjoyed a relaxing Sabbath.

Zach
Zach’s words of the week are “Awesome!” and “Cool!” He even uses them correctly.

He was pointing at some sea creatures and knew the words for fish, crab and whale. There was a fourth one that he wanted to know the name of so he asked Daddy. Troy didn’t know what it was either, so he told Zach it was a mollusk. After trying to say mollusk a couple times, they decided just to call it another “fish”.

Zach’s motus operandi this week has been to find an interesting looking box of toys, carry it to somewhere in house and then dump the entire contents onto the floor. After playing with some of the toys in the pile for a couple minutes he will walk through them to spread them around a little more. It’s hard for his parents to keep up with the sheer volume of messes this creates. They are working to train him not to dump the whole box out.

Claire
The Claire-ism of the week happened after we put up some of our Christmas tree this weekend.
Claire: “Mommy – how long until Christmas?”
Rachel: “One more month”
Claire: Excited “Hooray only one month!”
then thoughfully “How many days is that?”
Rachel: “Thirty Days”
Claire: Appalled “Thirty Days! That’s a long time!”
Well, it might be a long time in Claire years, but it’s going to be here might quickly I’m afraid.

Emma
Emma and Claire played school and teacher for a good part of the weekend. I guess they live it so much that it’s hard to just stop cold turkey… Ha Ha. get it? Thanksgiving. “Cold Turkey” Ha Ha Ha.

Katie
Katie has been struggling to read as many books as she is supposed to. She has to read nearly one per week. She tested at a 9th grade level, so she has to pick good-size chapter books that are at or above that level.

I think that should do it for now.
Until next time…

Steady as she goes..Nov 17-24, 2008

Sunday 23 Nov. 2008

Steady as she goes for this week...

Rachel

After all the parties of the previous week. Rachel was able to relax just a bit this week. She took care of Haydn on Tuesday, so Rachel and the boys took Great Grandma Willes out to the Airport in the morning and dropped her off so she could catch a plane back to Texas. On their way back, the boys were enjoying seeing the planes so Rachel pulled off the road into a parking lot to watch the planes fly over their heads as they landed. Rachel was expecting the 2 yr olds to be excited by the planes, but they were a little too loud and too close for comfort. As the first plane flew overhead, the Zach covered his ears and ran frightened into the van to watch from a “safer” vantage point. Haydn watched a couple more nervously from outside the van, but then told Rachel he was ready to go. Before going home Rachel took them to the drive-through and the park for a fun lunch (and to wear them out).

Grandma GG had to spend most of the day at the airport before she was able to get a standby flight out. She said she found a quiet corner of the airport and read her book.

The rest of the week Rachel and Zach hung out in a quiet house while the rest of the kids were at school.


The Weekend

The highlight of Troy’s week was Friday date night. On Thursday Rachel noticed in the paper an advertisement for Chris Botti Jazz Trumpet concert. Troy is a fan, and we knew he was coming to town this winter, but the date snuck up on us. Fortunately there were still some tickets available and Uncle Bobby was still free to babysit. The concert was very good. He played a good mixture of some standards and some of his more popular songs and some of his newer songs. His albums are mostly “new age” jazz. If you like trumpet and you like Jazz, you should check him out.

Saturday was Stake Temple Day. Troy went to a morning endowment session. The temple was very busy, all the sessions were packed full. At 11:30 Rachel and the kids met Troy on the temple grounds to walk around and go to the visitors center. The weather has been very nice lately (Sunny and 80 degrees for the highs) and it was nice to be out. We took a few minutes to watch a couple of the brides and grooms pose for pictures and make googly eyes at each other. Once the kids got tired of walking around we went into the visitors center. We spent a few minutes in entry room with the big statue of Christ. Then we watched a new movie about Joseph Smith. The movie was a little over an hour long and told many of famous tales of his life. It was inspirational and moving, but more like a French tragedy than a Hollywood happy-feel-good movie.

As part of the Stake Temple Day activities the stake hosted lunch at a nearby chapel – and it’s a good thing they were, because the kids were starting to get hungry and cranky! We stopped in for a bite of lunch. The kids had a big time getting their own apples and chips and lemonade. Troy enjoyed his barbecue pork sandwich.

Rachel stayed at the temple and did some initiatory work. Her mom was there as a Temple worker that afternoon, so for the last round her mom was able to perform the proxy ordinances. It was a neat experience for both of them.

Katie
Katie is still studying about the human body. Generally she enjoys learning about the body. (See the skeleton story earlier). This week, however, they had to learn about the digestive system and the urinary system (Eeeeuuuwww!) In a few weeks they will also cover the reproductive systems, which she is also not looking forward to. She also had the great experience of seeing "The Film" at school this week. You know, the one about "your body and it's changes." Yes, we've all been there. She went in well-informed as we had had the talk already, but she was still mortified at having to share that moment with her girl buddies. She reported everyone had bright red faces as the lights came on after the film...

Zach
Zach and Haydn had a good time playing together on Tuesday. As noted earlier, Zach and Rachel hung out at home for most of Wed through Friday. By the time his sisters got home from school he was ready to play. His sisters were tired from school by this time, however, and just sat around and watched T.V. Zach quite often wanders around the house aimlessly saying sadly, “I Miss Booey” (his nickname for Haydn). The rest of the time he can be found carrying loads of toys to and fro – leaving a trail of stuff wherever he goes.

Claire
Claire is going to school for the whole day now. That’s a long day for a 5 year old. It wears her out. A couple days last week she took a nap after getting home and then still went to bed on time.

Emma
Emma wasn’t the center of attention this week. That didn’t seem to bother her too much. She was just disappointed that mom and dad didn’t cater to the princess’s requests as readily. Sorry Emma – back to reality.

That should do it for this week. Have a great short work and school week and a Terrific Thanksgiving!

Na-na-na-naa, na-na-na-naa, Emma's World: 9-16 Nov 2008

Sunday 16 Nov. 2008

This week it was Emma’s world and we were just living in it. Starting last Sunday when we had a family birthday party. Haydn’s birthday is Nov. 5th, so we celebrated together for the last couple of years. Emma picked the menu, settling on London Broil, mashed potatoes and corn, and brownies for dessert. After dinner Haydn and Emma had a present opening frenzy and then their brownies and ice cream. It was great!

On Tuesday all of the Kids were on vacation from school due to Veterans Day. Emma had her friends party this day. She invited a couple of friends from school and then her sisters and Cousins attended. Emma chose a dolphin theme, so Rachel hung some Dolphin banners and blue table cloths around the back yard. Rachel came up with an obstacle course relay and some crafts. They finished it all off with ice cream and cake, of course.

Wednesday was Emma’s birthday day, so she got to take some treats to share with her class. Rachel wrapped up some leftover Halloween candy in bags – a good use for all of that candy!

Thursday Great Grandma Willes arrived – and brought a few presents with her. She flew in from Texas to be a part of the baptism events. On Friday she went with Rachel and Zach and Haydn to the Lego store as something fun to do for the afternoon. They all had a good time looking at all of the sets and picking out some Legos to take home.

Saturday was the big baptism day. Everyone got up and got dressed and then went down to the church at about 9:30. Ken and Rhonda’s family drove in from Kingman and were there waiting when we got there. Grammy and Grandpa Z and Bob drove down from Mesa and even Aunt Sarah flew in special from Las Vegas (where she recently started a new job). Preston Scheier conducted the meeting and the rest of his family came to support ours. Sister Archinuk (the primary president) and Sister Misseldine (wife of the Bishop) also came.
The whole event went very well. The Girls sang “I Like to Look for Rainbows”, and Emma and Leslie Hodgson played a duet on the piano, "When Jesus Christ Was Baptized." Grammy Z spoke on Baptism and Uncle Bobby spoke on the Holy Ghost. Troy performed the baptism and the confirmation with other priesthood members supporting.
After the baptism, Rachel’s family came over to the house for lunch and socializing. As usual the kids had fun playing together and the adults had fun talking – until nearly dinner time. The weather is very nice this time of year so we set up tables outside, and let the kids run in and out as they pleased. Legos are also a big draw whenever Kyler comes over. The boys make trucks and airplanes, and even the girls get involved making Lego houses complete with furniture for the Lego people.

Back Row: (L-R) Ken, Rhonda (Ken), Rachel, Troy (Rachel), Zach (Rachel), Bob, Nate, Sarah, Dad Zachreson

2nd Row: Kyler (Ken), Grammy Reva, Katie (Rachel), Tana (Nate), Ashlyn (Ken), Mom Zachreson

Front Row: Claire (Rachel), Emma (Rachel), Bryn (Ken), Haydn (Nate), Haylee (Nate)

Sunday the parties continued. The family came back over for dinner and a special family home evening that Grandma GG prepared. She talked to the group about Ensign Israel Stocking and his adventures as a Mormon Pioneer.
Troy is practicing with a Stake choir to sing selections from Handel’s Messiah. He sang in a similar choir a couple years ago, so this time is a little easier to pick up the music. The music is challenging and fun to sing. The director has done Messiah choirs a number of times in his career, so he knows what it takes to get the choir to sound good.
After a week of parties Rachel was worn out and ready to relax for a couple days.

Zach
Zach likes to carry around a little basket of cars. This week he took it to a new level by filling up a small rolling suitcase of cars and toys and wheeling that around the house with him. Whenever Rachel took him anywhere he had to get his suitcase of toys and he wheeled it out to the garage to go with him in the van. Zach’s words of the week are Orange and Robot – which come out more like “Hoshange Obot”

That should do for this week. Tune in next time for more updates on Katie and Claire.

Let the Holidays Commence: November 1-8, 2008

Sunday 9 November

Katie
Katie started Drama Club this week. This year the Drama Club will be performing the Wizard of Oz. Somewhat to Katie’s disappointment, It’s not a musical this time. She got a part in the Greek narrative chorus. Each member of the chorus is a different color. Katie is “Purple” – her favorite color!
Katie is studying the body in 5th grade this week. She put together a paper cutout skeleton. She says they ran out of grommets, however, so her skeleton couldn’t bend his legs. Poor guy.

Emma
This is Emma’s favorite time of year. Lots of candy at Halloween and lots of presents for her birthday. Emma’s birthday is this coming Wednesday. She is having big parties this whole week! Today is the family party here at our house. On Tuesday all of the kids get Veteran’s day off of school and she will have a party with her school friends here. Yeah more presents! Finally, next Saturday she will be baptized and we’ll all celebrate with Ken and Rhonda’s family who are planning to come down from Kingman. Great Grandma (GG) Willes will fly in on Tuesday for the festivities. I’ll write all about it next week.

Claire
Claire started attending Kindergarten for the whole day, and is doing just fine now. She was the only one in her class left doing a half day schedule. Rachel picks her up for lunch at home, but then takes her back to finish the school day. The little time at home seems to give her a little mid-day pick-me-up.
Claire and Rachel went to do some toy research surveys on Saturday and got $15 and a free Polly Pocket toy for their time.

Zach
Now that Claire stays at school longer, Zach now has to entertain himself for most of the day. Rachel says that he plays well on his own for about an hour or so and then has to come get some wrestling or other attention from her a little while. After a little play time with Mommy he’ll go back and play on his own. Recently he has discovered that he can play some of the Toddler computer games that we have. He has also learned that it is important to reserve Mommy’s computer by calling out “I play Mommy’s!” whenever people are heading upstairs to play.

Rachel
Now that her big Stake Primary activities are over for the year, Rachel has been busy planning all of the upcoming family parties. She went to 4 or 5 different stores yesterday getting all of the supplies she needed.
Rachel contracted a cold from the kids, so she stayed home from church today. She didn't get a lot of rest as Zach stayed home with her...

Troy
Troy attended a New Manager Training class for most of the work week. He learned some useful tips in dealing with and managing people. He manages 3 people now; 1 more is due to start in November. He phone interviewed a number of people and arranged for 5 people to come onsite for an interview next week. Unfortunately Intel decided on Friday to close all external job postings – meaning that all that work will likely go to waste. Due to the economic slowdown Intel decided to keep total headcount flat for now – meaning no new people will be hired. As you know there are many other companies that are laying people off right now. At the moment, Intel hasn’t had to go that far.
Troy played flag football with the ward on Saturday and then spent most of the rest of the day cleaning up the yard in preparation for the parties to be held out there this week.