January has come and gone

It's been a crazy week. We were told when we moved to Ohio that they have pretty mild winters in the Cincinnati area. Not sure why, but it seems that the first winter anywhere we live becomes the worst winter in history. That sure happened here. We got dumped on this last week. In fact, the girls were out of school Tuesday-Friday! Of course, Miami only closed on Wednesday. Those of you out west who like to laugh, there is a thing called ice when you get anywhere with moisture in the air. That ice sticks to the roads, sidewalks, powerlines and cars. Try shoveling a foot of show that weighs a ton. It isn't fun. So, for the girls it was a slow week. For me and Russ, life goes on.

Classes are going fine. It's different this semester with no education classes. They are actually all generals so I'm doing lots of big lectures, three tests, maybe one paper due. It's a little strange, but I am learning quite a bit. My family thinks I'm getting paranoid about germs, but try sitting in on a lecture three days a week dedicated to human diseases and microbes, I think you'd be washing your hands more too.

Ryan is having a great week. His new address is:
9431 Cedar St
Bellflower, CA 90706

If Bellflower sounds familiar, it's where the lady delivered the eight babies. He likes his new companion and the area. They had 5 investigators at church last week. He said they've been working really hard.

Maura competed in her first and only Mock Trial competition. They have been practicing for so long now. They have a team of two different sides, prosecution and defense. They won one an lost one so will not be going on to the state competition. She had a lot of fun doing it and will probably do it again next year.

Lindsay went on a date yesterday! It's weird that she is dating and meeting people we know nothing about. She is having a lot of fun out at BYU. Hopefully studying as much as she should be.

Emily is taking an Art class at the university every Saturday morning. She just started two weeks ago. She's already used some big words like natural and surrelism. She is also starting up her gymnastics again. She started private lessons with a university student. We'll see if she can make some progress or not. Her back doesn't seem too flexible. We really need to work on that.

We did the usual Blair family outing yesterday and went to a movie. The girls saw the new Inkheart movie and Russ and I saw Taken. It was pretty good. Lots of action and such. The theatre was very nice. The screen huge and the sound great. Doesn't make me miss the little Benny Decker on Yokosuka.

We just got some bad news a few minutes ago. A former co-worker and friend of Russ' died yesterday of a heart attack. His name was Werner Jurnika. He was a great guy. Russ really respected him. He worked with Russ on the Kittyhawk. They left Japan shortly after us and moved to Italy. It was a shock to open the email. Werner was our age. It really seems like life can be pretty short. Our prayers are with his wife Hannah and their family.

Hope you enjoyed the update.