some NEW pics of our Elder Bobby Jones on Christmas

Christmas time also brought us the infamous call home from
our Missionary,
Elder Bobby Jones. We were all excited to hear from him and listen to his voice (wow he sounds so much like is dad!), and then the very next day Sister Julie Scherzinger, bless her heart, emailed me pictures taken of him and his companion, Elder Nielson ( from Alberta, Canada), and their family where they spend Christmas day at. You'll see in the pictures that her son Bradly and Elder Jones get along like two peas in a pod. THANKS Julie for adding to our holiday JOY with those pictures you sent to us and for being Bobby's saragate family and doing it so well! BIG HUGS!
(*ps... I should add to this post that Elder Jones officially turned the "BIG 21" on the 18th of December, I can't believe he's that old already...I'm sure I'll be shocked enough when he comes home in just a few months by his transformation in size and spirit. HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO YOU SON!)

JESSICA is an Official CNA now~! (thats a Certified Nursing Assistant)

Drum roll please...... tada tada tada... Anouncing the graduation of Jessica Jones in her quest to become a CNA which will help her earn some moolah to pay for college!
She actually graduated a few weeks back and is now officially working at the South Peninsual Hospital here in Homer 3 times a week in Long Term Care. It's only part time but a great start to her future! Here are some fun pictures of her graduation party and her at home after her first day of work.
We are SO PROUD OF YOU JESSY!

THE FLU hit our house over the Holidays

First off, all us girls went to see the new TWILIGHT movie and had a great time! The movie theater is close enough we all walked there and back. Then after wards Jessica, Krystal & Wendy drove out to the Haas's house for a slumber party, ...sadly to say Jessica wasn't there long when the flu bug hit her hard. Poor thing was throwing up all night long! Wendy drank from the same soda and popcorn so she was a bit queezy....so after they returned home late the next day, Jessica tried to recover and just when Wendy thought she had skipped it altogether it got her too. In fact I took her to get her Birthday 1 hour Swedish Massage and after wards to Two Sister's Bakery for a treat, she had one bite and one sip and said she felt sick. I brought her home and sure enough...she had the flu too. So we just laid low and skipped the cake, party, pictures and festivities while she threw up and slept. She did open her gifts that evening and we all sang the monkey song to her.
"Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
You look like a monkey
...and you smell like one too!"
It was funny cuz all of us looked bad and felt horrible,...we laughed and called it a day. So Wendy made her cake a few days later and Jessica took the picture of it and Wendy who was still recovering from the flu bug (hence the half smile).
HAPPY BELATED Birthday WENDY!!!!! Let's hope NEXT year is MUCH MUCH better! (*on a good note she absolutely LOVED the massage and wants to do it again real soon!)
Also I forgot to mention, I normally don't allow myself time off to just sit and read books. I normally multitask in order to keep up and feel productive and since I'm not a fast reader and it takes A LOT to keep my interest to struggle through a book and sit that long, I only do it about once or twice a year. After seeing the TWILIGHT movie, I decided I was going to read the 4 books in the series. I had NO IDEA they were so long. Over 600 to 700 pages on some of them. So during all the flu bug ickies at our house... I crawled into bed and read and read and read and got up to pee and eat briefly and back to bed to read and read and read some more. I got very little sleep but finally finished all four books with in a three day period. I LOVED the books!!! Can't wait to see how they create the next three movies to cover the story line. The movie condensed parts and moved some sequencing around, but over all did a good job at portraying the charactures in the story. I'd see it again if it were playing here. It's one we'll definitly buy for our collection for sure!
Then a last note about what me and the girls did to celebrate 2008! Since no one was feeling up to a big party and I was done baking goodies for big parties and church/community events, I decided to treat us ALL to a 1 hour swedish massage at the Homer Day Spa on New Years Eve day. I sent Jessica & Krystal to get theirs first adn they came back glowing with rave reviews to do it again! Then Wendy & Brittany and I went to our session. The two younger girls were in a room together and I had the yurt. I LOVE the smells of the essential oils and the feel of my skin afterwards. Being warm and letting my muscles get the attention they need to relax and rejuvinate is uterly amazing! We tipped big and decided we'd start a tradition and do it again next year! If your interested check out their website. The summer months are booked months in advance since they are a hot spot for tourists that come to enjoy Homer, Alaska, but the winter months...they have LOTS of openings and the pretty view from the bluff is amazing as well.
http://www.homerspa.com/
HAPPY NEW YEARS everyone!

Merry Christmas...

December started off on 'fast forward' to celebrate the holiday season early when Rob called from the slope to let us know he would be coming home for the holidays...SORT OF... but only for a week and then he would have to return back to work for three more weeks after that to finish out some 'end of the year contract jobs' for the company. So we moved up all our holiday festivities & celebrations and prepared to cram them all in the one week he could be home.
Tree & house decorated, (60=cards/family photo/family newsletter-printed, folded & stuff, shopping done, presents wrapped & labeled, holiday songs sung, Santa came, presents opened, massive amounts of goodies baked, eaten, and shared, girls happy with getting & giving, and most of the mess cleaned up. So that 'one week home for rob' has come and gone (we will miss him the rest of the year!), and I sent him back to the slope this morning, needless to say I'm just a little bit tired!
The girls still have one more week of school ,holiday concerts, another church potluck & a few dinner invitations and Christmas parties to attend to, an orthodontist appointment in Soldotna and helping me stay on top of the laundry, dishes and more holiday baking still yet to be done...so the festivities aren't completely over with, and the word "BUSY" still applies to the Jones household name for the month of December.
Next comes the other big project I do every year...the family calendar. It was put on hold while Rob was home and I will dive back into it as well as two other artwork deadlines this and next week. So I might find time to post again before the end of the year..but if not... here's wishing you and yours a very MERRY CHRISTMAS & a HAPPY NEW YEAR from the frozen chosen Jones clan up in the great white north of Homer, Alaska!

Climbing the hill...ROB 46! Jessica 19!

A tad behind am I for posting new news! Sorry about that. This time of year I'm running around with a zillion and one things to do and that list keeps accumulating & adjusting daily,... it's hard to keep up with everything. So to start off we had two birthday's at the end of November.
Robert's and Jessica's birthday was on the 27th of November (and on Thanksgiving day wahoo!), but due to the fact that Rob wasn't going to be home on the actual day (because of his work schedule up on the slope)...we celebrated it early and had a full blown Thanksgiving meal with all the fixin's with his Dad n Mina who drove down from Kenai to celebrate with us. GOOD company, GOOD FOOD! We ate till we just about burst! The day before we also had a Thanksgiving potluck at the church, so after two meals in a row to celebrate the turkey day..come the actual day of Thanksgiving, we were almost turkied out! Then the Clutt's family knew Rob would be out of town and invited us to their annual feast out at the Anchor River Inn where I was requested to bring my famous homemade crescent rolls and various pies (I think I made over 14 pies in all). After all that food and stress...it was nice to indulge in a little R&R with a side by side hour swedish massage at the Homer Day Spa with Jessica the following day. Jessica said it was one of the best birthday presents she had ever had!

Our Missionary, Elder Jones*(just under 5 months till your home again)

I don't know if you all keep up with the updated emails I post here of Elder Bobby Jones on his mission, but if you happen upon our family blog and scroll all the way down to the bottom that's where you'll find all the most recent scoop of whats going on with our Missionary. So for today I thought I'd share some recent photos he sent home in his last few emails to show you his great big smile, and for all of those who have asked about how he is doing ... see for yourself...He's busy busy busy... sharing the restored gospel with all the passion of his personality and LOVING what he's doing! and here's a quote from him in one of his previous emails ..."This has been a great experience to see the Lord mighty work through his servants (the missionaries) to bring about the eternal life & happiness of his children! I truly am grateful to be apart of that and for having an awesome family and great friends like you all back home cheering me on. I couldn't ask for anything more!" Elder Jones

She did it Again!

Wendy auditioned for Borough Honor Choir and All Sate Choir along with Northwestern Choir. She MADE it into Honor Choir and performed this evening,..singing 6 songs in 4 different languages (English, Swaheelee, Hebrew, Spanish) singing under a guest director from New York. We were very proud of her! Then she informed us that she made it into ALL STATE CHOIR! (*we wont know about her status of the Northwestern Choir for another month or so)
Here is a picture of her happy smile AFTER the concert was over.
CONGRATS WENDY BIRD...we LOVE to hear you sing!