Greetings from our home and hearts to yours!
Chandler made the big jump from elementary school to junior high this fall. With it, he’s added several inches to his physical stature. We guess that his body has expanded to make room for the vastly enlarged knowledge that junior high will bring. (Well, that’s the theory, anyway.)
Chan has graduated from pirate (of the Caribbean) to adventurous archeologist. That is, he was quite taken by the new Indiana Jones movie. He then discovered real relics from the distant past: the first three Indy movies from the 1980s. Since then, he took to bull whipping his way through the day—until our new puppy, Koda, chewed up his bull whip.
Chandler loves Scouts and the rugged campouts that Scouts go on. He usually returns home covered with half the mountain’s dirt on him, but tells us he had a grand time! Chandler also enjoys passing the Sacrament with the other Deacons on Sundays.
Miranda has been bitten by the literary bug. She’s currently hard at work on a magna opus of teenage proportions. In plain English (which we literary types almost never use), she’s finding her voice as a writer. For many years, she has been an avid reader (if she only had a nickel for each time she’s read a Harry Potter book…), and recently has set her hand to writing her own tome. The drama of high school life has gone from being a major annoyance to fodder for a semi-fictional story. Not surprising, then, English is her favorite subject in school, followed closely by boys—who also follow her closely. But that’s an old story; on to new things.
Miranda will turn 16 next April, and is anxious to get her driving permit and hit the road. Until recently, she’s been a bit apprehensive to get behind the wheel, but seeing the freedom her older siblings enjoy (read: escape the torture that is home life!), she has reconsidered and is now wanting to learn to drive. She’s been getting lessons from her sister Ashley and her friend, Chrissy.
Alec is making great strides toward independence. Just before school ended last spring, he took a job at Smith’s (a local grocery store chain) as a bagger, and immediately impressed the bosses with his skill and charm. (Hey, we know it’s not the executive suite, but you have to start somewhere!) He worked steadily through the summer and is even paying for the Chevy pick-up he talked Darrell into buying him after he got his driver’s license. Alec’s much relieved by the current lower gas prices, because he also pays for all of his own fuel.
This school year, Alec enrolled in a basic auto mechanic course at a local applied technology college, where he’s both earning school credit and keeping his pickup in fine repair. While he’s not planning a career as a mechanic, this instruction could lead to some pretty good after-school jobs, and the skills will always come in handy.
Alec continues to improve his guitar playing, and is even getting a bit of a reputation as a great guitarist. He tells us that kids at school he doesn’t even know talk about his fret board frenetics. While his music choices still aren’t wildly popular at our house, he does impress us with his talent.
Ashley finished her fourth semester at BYU this fall. She’s also on her third major! She began last fall as an animation pre-major; then, when the competitiveness stripped drawing of its joy, she switched to music. But alas, that, too, was work, work, work! So now, she is following her other joy, Japanese and hopes to one day be a Japanese translator. (Well, this is the time to experiment—before she has major commitments to family, career, etc.) She is about to say “sayonara” to the teen years; Ashley turns 20 on January 2. She recently sent her BFF (best friend forever) into the mission field. Bryn is serving in the London South mission. Even though he writes often, Ashley has suffered considerable withdrawals since he left three months ago.
When she’s not doing school work (or pining for Bryn), Ashley stays busy with her part-time job at BYU Broadcasting, where she does all kinds of promotional and marketing tasks. One of these is to write deko, the informational banners that occasionally run at the bottom of the screen, telling you what program you’re watching and what’s coming up next. She was recently put in charge of scheduling the international promotions, as well as those on BYU-Television.
Jennifer loves to teach. She currently serves as an advisor in the Young Woman’s program to the 12-13 year old girls at Church. Jennifer also continues to enjoy being a Director and trainer with The Pampered Chef. This past July, she took Ashley to Chicago with her for Pampered Chef’s National Conference. There, Jennifer was honored as one of Pampered Chef’s Top Performers. They spent some extra time in the Windy City shopping, eating deep-dish pizza, sightseeing and watching the Broadway musical Wicked. In October, Jennifer was honored as Pampered Chef’s Top Recruiter out of 80,000 consultants. She is taking Alec on her next big trip. They are deciding between the Mexican Riviera and Paris. (Tough choices!) Visit Jennifer’s website to see which trip they choose: www.pamperedchef.biz/jenniferharmon Jennifer spent part of this year slowly updating our home by painting walls, extending the hardwood floors, tiling two of the bathrooms, and refurnishing our living room. (She hired out the painting and floor installs.) That was her contribution to stimulate Utah’s economy. Well that, along with shoe shopping and lunches out with friends!
Darrell is still teaching people how to play nice at work (and at home) through the Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations courses that he teaches. This year has been another good one for his company, and he is slowwwly learning how to market the courses, in addition to teaching them. (He is not a natural-born salesman.) When he’s not teaching people how to resolve their interpersonal problems, he takes his communication skills to the basketball court, where he referees games. He felt that wasn’t getting his sanity questioned enough at home; but at least he now has a whistle and can call fouls! He’s also serving in the High Priests group leadership at church where he enjoys gospel fellowship with seasoned men of faith. His associations there are choice, as he and his brethren learn how to follow the Savior in their daily lives.
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Our annual family letter wouldn’t be complete without a travel log. Here are some highlights of 2008 on the road:
Jennifer did it again, earning a Pampered Chef trip for the family to the nation’s capitol. We enjoyed five days in Washington, D.C. this past June. There we visited the National Zoo; some of the Smithsonian museums; the Holocaust Museum; and one of the boys’ favorite places, the National Archives museum, where we saw the original Declaration of Independence. Pampered Chef also treated us to an exclusive night at the National Air and Space Museum, which maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. We were able to ride in aircraft and spin in space simulators. That kept Chandler busy for hours! One day, we rented a van and drove to Georgetown where we did some shopping. That night we took a drive around D.C. to view the national monuments. They were spectacular all lit up at night. Darrell then surprised Jennifer with a trip to the Washington temple in Kensington, Maryland. It was breathtaking!
Our second family trip this year was braving the roads west to spend some time in Grants Pass, Oregon for Thanksgiving with some of Darrell’s relatives, the Weiss and the Martinez families. We had a blast—literally—as Grandpa Jay took us up to “Weiss Mountain” to shoot skeet, ride the ATV, and move dirt on the John Deere front loader. Ashley and Alec helped with the driving to and from Oregon. On the way there, we were on a remote stretch of highway while Alec was driving. All of a sudden Darrell yelled “STOP!” There was a big buck kneeling in the middle of the road! We guessed that he was enjoying the warmth of the road. Alec made a controlled swerve as the buck jumped up and staggered toward the van, just missing us. It took several miles for Alec’s heart to stop racing, but he did an excellent job in avoiding a calamity!
We hope you are keeping faith alive in your life. We know that we each choose what we believe and what we do, and we are grateful to count ourselves among the many who have found faith in Christ. He is the reason not only for this season, but for our lives all year long.
May the light of Christ guide you to make your life spectacular—no matter the economy, politics, the weather or your health. And may His peace sustain you in times of challenge. We hope the holidays warm your heart and the events of next year enrich your life. Keep in touch.
Warm wishes to you for a happy holiday season.
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