It looks like we'll be on our way! I got the phone call this morning from my new job that they have accepted me and I am expected to show up for my first day on March 20th. Things were getting pretty interesting there for a couple days. I will be working until March 8th and we will begin our cross-country journey on March 13th. It will be a 15% increase in pay and a 50% decrease in the cost of living! It looks like this is the beginning of a whole new life for our little family! Wish us luck. We'll make sure we keep all of the family's contact information in order to keep in touch after we move. Thank you for all of your prayers and love.

Don't need to brag, don't need to boast, but the U.S. and Spain are both Ranked 6th in the FIFA Rankings..shhhhh...ANDY and NINHA we know Brazil is # 1.

The U.S. Men play Poland at 2 PM Estearn on ESPN2 Wednesday, March 1st.

P.S. Mom...thanks for the EASY BUTTON!!!!!!!!

So here I am at work with...another hair color. The picture isn´t very good, but at least you can see the color of my hair. The color I had last week, faded so much after washing it only twice, I couldn´t handle it. It was a orange strawberry blonde. ICKY. So here I am with nice brown hair. I actually really like it. Let´s see how long it lasts!! Love you all. cindi

OH!! GOOD FOR YOU ANDY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!! (ayer)

Well I can tell you one thing, Chicago is COLD! The funny thing is that when I complained about the cold, everyone kept telling me how much warmer it was than last week! We're in for a shock for our first winter. It'll be nice to move there at the end of the winter so we get a little taste of it, but not have to live through the whole thing.
The interview wasn't really a sit-down interview. I showed up at the school, met up with the director, and pretty much followed her around the whole day. The good thing was that she was my instructor when I went through the program 5-6 years ago. She showed me all aspects of the facility, explained to me the responsibilities that I would have as an instructor, and asking me if I had any problems with any of it. She is the director and there is one other instructor under her. There are two classes that will be running at different times of the day, one starting at 6 am and the other starting at 8 am. She gave the other professor and I the choice of which schedule we would like. The other instructor didn't care, so I got to choose the early one. This means that I would be done with work at 2 pm. How amazing is that? She didn't say that I got the job, only because she had to report to the human resources headquarters in Phoenix about my visit. I should get a call on Monday or Tuedsay.
While I was there I had the chance to visit a few houses for rent. I really liked the houses, but one of them didn't have a garage, and the other one had tiny bedrooms! It looks like we'll be searching furiously to find something in the next two weeks.
If everything works out right, we'll be moving out on the 14th of March. We have to make sure we say goodbye to mama Cass after she gets home from her international trip.
We'll have more after I get the much-awaited phone call!

A picture of me at one of my best friends wedding. Ryan and Tiffany Van Dorn got married Saturday morning. I was at the wedding as well as the lunch. It was great to see all of my Utah friends...almost everyone was there. We have been lauging all day. It has been fun times and great stories of our past. Hopefuly I will get more pics here in the future. But for now, this one works.

I hope you are all happy and that Andy has good news for us as well as has returned from CHI TOWN safely.


Love ya!

Hello everyone! Well, as you can see in the pictures, we have had two major events in this neck of the woods this week. We took Cassy to the airport this afternoon to send her off to visit Jocelyn and family. She had taken one of her valiums before getting to the airport, and when she called from the airplane she had already taken another one. I hope she is coherent enough to see what's going on when she has her layover in London! We wish her well and hope she has a fun visit during the next two weeks. Also, congratulations to Alienore for turning 8 and her upcoming baptism! We are very happy and proud of her!
Little (getting bigger!) Drew IV is already working on his snowboarding maneuvers for the 2014 Winter Olympics! Unfortunately, he mistook the bed for the jump and the tv stand for the landing! He ended up with a huge bump on his head. Andy knew that nothing was wrong, but we spent the evening in the E.R. at Mission Hospital to get the second opinion of a cat scan and the Dr.'s O.K.! He suffered a large hematoma on the right side of his head and forehead, but there was no fracture under the skin. He's already back to climbing and diving from everything that is taller than him. Unfortunately, we know that this is only the BEGINNING!

The Hillmans new baby- Elizabeth and the Entertainment Center I am building to go into the new house (there will be two of these towers with the TV stand in between.).

I love hearing from everyone. Congrats to Andy I think we are all proud of you. Cant wait to see the Californians this weekend!!!

Leave it to the Nortons to choose the coldest weekend so far this season to hike all over Washington DC. No problem, we just got bundled up and braved the elements. We focused on the American History museum this visit and had a great time exploring everthing there was to see. Everyone, of course, had their favorite sights: Spencer, the guns, Abby, the history of travel, John, the machinery, Parents, the first Ladies. We think we will go back again in a few months and target a different museum.

The word is out - Abby turned 10 on Monday. Don't even start trying to figure out how old that makes me. Old or not, I am staying fit thanks to John who could run a thoroughbred into the ground. Abby was on cloud nine after recieving her IPod Nano (the must have gift for pre-teen girls I guess). Funny that at this age she is rocking out to James Blunt (the edited version) one minute and playing with American Girl dolls the next. Truthfully, she spends most of her time reading and is well read enough that I am glad she doens't ask me too many hard questions.

Congratulations to Andy! We will be looking forward to news on the big interview in Chicago.

Lots of love to everyone.

I forgot to mention that we also had "oreja" for dinner along with the octupus. For those of you who DON´T know what "oreja is it´s the cows EAR, with little hairs and everything!!! ICKY!!!!!! My mother-in-law loves it!!

Well, yesterday was a happy happy birthday for Abigal Norton and Julia Gomez (my mother-in-law). Over here in Spain we went to a restaurant to celebrate by having salad, ham and octupus! I know you´re all jealous you missed that!! I hope Abbi had a great day. Love you lots Abbi! (I love the rest of you too.) -- cindi

Nothing too exciting here.

Just some kids in the bath.

Happy to report that Patrice is safe and sound in his hotel (which is guarded by armed men!) in Saudia Arabia. Apparently all foreigners live in gated/guarded communities - for their own protection of course.
We are all getting ready to welcome a Valium-laden Gramma Cass this Thursday evening in Brussels. I thought maybe I should take a picture of her as she comes off the plane (Shhh)! I know her expression will be one of total relief that the plane landed and she could put her feet back on solid ground.
How was everyone's weekend? Well, need to get on to other computer stuff this evening. Make a great day!
Jocelyn

Cindi as a Red Head kind of
Beautiful sunny day with rain in Southern California
it never does

Now that Andy has finished his degree, he will be available for more responsibilities around the house. This will free up Ninha to pursue more of her personal goals. One of which was to continue her own education in the medical field. In Brazil she had finished High School, Junior College and was almost done with the state college with a degree in nursing/medical assistant. She had already begun working as a nurse in the E.R. in the capital city in her state. Unfortunately her illnesses brought her down and stopped her progress as a student and employee. Then of course, Andy came along and she put everything on hold.
Just a couple of weeks ago she began her journey again to become either a nurse, or something even better. Even though it was only the first two weeks of class and she was already showing signs of being one of the best in the class. Her classmates had already nominated her as the leader of their study-work group because of both her expertise and self-confidence.
Now that Andy has received this opportunity of living and working in Chicago, Ninha must once again put her dreams on hold. One good thing about this move is that Andy will be getting off work at 2 pm every day, with weekends off, so that he will be able to help Ninha with whatever schooling she needs to accomplish to reach her goals of either becomming a nurse or medical assistant. She has been very patient as Andy has continued his education, let's see if Andy can return the favor!!!!

Hello ALL,
I know we have not been around on the blog very much lately. We apologize about that. Here is the news for our side of the family. Andy has finished his degree with a Bachelor's in Business Management. This is amazing since it has only been about one year and a half since he started. He is very excited that he has more time during the week now to spend with the family. Even though he just finished, he is still deciding whether or not to continue his education. The university where he attends has a program that will be less than two years again for his Master's. We'll let you know when he makes up his mind. For those of you who don't know why he started his education in the first place, it was to find a way into the corporate side of VW of America. About halfway through his degree, he started sending his application in and applying for various positions within VW of America. This gave no results and actually left him disappointed and depressed about the whole corporate thing. On Monday evening he found that there was an opening for a VW instructor for kids that just finished auto. tech. school. He applied online on Monday night, received a phone call with an initial interview on Wednesday, and had a second interview this morning at 8 am. They called back at noon today and informed Andy that they had a plane ticket for him to visit the campus on Feb. 23 and 24. We are confident that they have already approved him for the job, but just need to go through the formalities of actually meeting him in person. The position is located in Chicago and will be started as soon as possible. It looks like our little family will be moving out of sunny southern California at the end of February or the beginning of March. We have lived there once before and it was a positive experience for us. We will keep you posted about how the third interview goes next week.
More to come about Ninha's latest news too.......
(no, not pregnant)

Hi All
Got a letter from jimmy today. Had some good advice for you Jeff
This is a quote "Maybe Jeff would have better luck if he stopped
teaching women yo KICK HIS BALLS AROUND. He he he ---- seriously
he is lucky to be doing something he is interested in"

Also " So, I guess Dick Chaney will get the Aaron Burr Marksmanship award!"

He also sent a picture of a Harr's Cafe in Hawaii and said he didn't know that Harry
had started franchising............!!!!!

Jim has an interesting sense of humor

Lastly, Thank you all for your input and photos. I feel it is really helping us become
more of a family. Which is a very hard thing since we are spread from California to
Europe. TY Nathan for getting this started.
Oh! here is a photo from cathy webb Cassy Ginn thought it was great

The kids that came to the Valentine´s party we had. It may seem like there aren´t very many, but it was actually a really good turnout.

OH! Jeff,your post... too funny!!!

SAW THIS AND THOUGHT I HAD TO SHARE.

LOVE Y'ALL

We took a walk in the woods yesterday. As we were getting ready it started to sprinkle but with all the effort we had gone through to get the kids ready, we decided to go ahead with it. We had lovely Luxembourg weather the whole time, it rained, rained, rained. I found out that snow gear is not necessarily water-proof. I came home soaking wet and caught a cold. I'm spending today recovering!
Patrice is spending today at the Saudi Embassy in Brussels getting paperwork ready to go to Saudi Arabia next Tuesday. I told him I'm glad he's not fair with blond hair! Then I would REALLY worry!
Well, hope you have a great day and keep filling us in on your activities.
Jocelyn

Thanks Jeff, I just laughed out loud. I cannot tell you how many times I have said a prayer for the doughnuts to nourish and strengthen our bodies. I am still laughing.

Well, we are off to Washington DC this weekend for a little R&R. Does going anywhere with three children constitute R&R? Just kidding, our kids are great travelers and they love the Smithsonian museums so we should have a great time. I will post some pictures when we get home.

Our love to one and all.
Marion

Single awareness day gave me time to read an email from one of my lds players. I thought I would share it with you...

Jeff Foxworthy on Mormons
(Foxworthy did his research pretty well)

(this is just funny, dont get offended or anything)

This is to all of you that may be a Mormon, that may know a Mormon, that may
live in Utah, that may have lived in Utah or have heard about Mormons.

If all your dishes have your name written on them with masking tape...
You might be a Mormon.

If you postdate your checks while shopping on Sunday...
You might be a Mormon.

If you believe Heck is the place for people who do not believe in gosh...
You might be a Mormon.

If your Mom was pregnant at your sister's wedding reception... You might be a
Mormon.

If you pray that your food might "nourish and strengthen your body" before
eating doughnuts...
You might be a Mormon

If you think Jell-O is one of the basic food groups...
You might be a Mormon

If at least one of your salad bowls is at a neighbor's house...
You might be a Mormon.

If you've ever written a "Dear-John" to more than two missionaries on the same
day....
You might be a Mormon.

If you were frustrated when your son "only" got accepted to Harvard...
You might be a Mormon.

If you have one kid in diapers and one on a mission...
You might be a Mormon.

If you have never arrived at a meeting on time...
You might be a Mormon.

If you have more wheat stored in your basement than most third world
countries...
You might be a Mormon.

If you've already got your order in for volume 50 of "The Work and The Glory"...
You might be a Mormon.

If you think it is all right to watch football on Sundays as long as a direct
descendant of Brigham Young is playing...
You might be a Mormon.

If you have to guess more than five times the name of the child you're
disciplining...
You might be Mormon.

If you automatically assume that BYOB means, Bring Your Own Burgers...
You might be Mormon.

If you go to a party and someone spikes the punch with Pepsi... You might be a
Mormon.

If you arrive to a church activity an hour late and are the first person
there...
You might be a Mormon.

HAPPY VALENTINE´S DAY!!!

So, to fill you all in on my life....not much happening.

I made a billion heart-shaped sugar cookies for the party we had for the youth on friday and they didn´t eat them all so I brought them to work with me today and shared. They were all so excited!!

Davids father is still in the hospital. I´m going to see him and Julia tonight after work. Cristina, the middle child, is getting married in September. The stork still hasn´t stopped by to visit us.

The missionaries came over last night. We´ve got one from Arizona and one from Alaska. The one from Alaska is young and talks A LOT especially in our house where he can speak in english. Oh Jocelyn, the language issue isn´t too much of a problem, but boy do I know how you feel!!

Nothing else to say. David works all day. I work all day. We watch some fútbol and then go to bed. That´s about it every day. hugs to you all.

(I hope you MEN have done something special for you wonderful wives...they desirve it!)

A baptism for the Lord with Elder Webb's help
Elder Webb and comps as just boys
A very humble hard working Elder Webb
The lfe of a missionary=the greatest time of life
nothing to worry about just enjoying the Lord;s work

We get to cam with Cindi almost every weelend
it is the thing that makes her being so far away
almost bareable
Dad Ginn

Cindi, when are you going to update US and tell US about YOU?


Love y'all :)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you...
...for all the blogs you have posted. It helps so much to have something to do during the day!! I´ve got the picture of Natalie (in black and white) on my desktop of my computer here at work. She is TOO cute! Nathan, did the girls ever get their birthday cards I sent? Love you all and keep 'em coming!!

Since it's Sunday, I thought I'd tell you a little about my recent visiting teaching experiences. They may give you an idea of what our branch is like, as well as make you count your blessings.
Two weeks ago, my visiting teachers came to visit me. Maria Rodriguez, a Spanish sister who came here as an adolescent (now 36), and Manuela Oliveira, a Portugese sister who just arrived with her husband and two children in December. They are both very strong members. The visit was interesting in the fact that there was no one common language among us. This happens often in our branch though. Maria could speak to me in French, Manuela could speak to me in broken English and they could communicate with each other in Spanish/Portugese. But we could not all speak to each other together! It's interesting here!
Last week I went visiting teaching. My companion is Natasha Jouravlev, a Russian refugee that has been here with her husband and 20 year old son for about 3 years now. They met the church and were baptized shortly after arriving here. She speaks broken French. We went to visit a Mongolian sister and her family. They have been here about 3 years also. I didn't know, but found out that Natasha was actually the one that introduced the gospel to Sister Bayanaa. They were both taking a French class at the time. (Sister Bayanaa speaks French fairly well and Russian too) The Bayanaa family are also refugees. The have a teenage daughter, a 10 year old son and a 1 month old daughter. They just moved closer to town (they were previously living out in the boonies in northern Lux and could not attend church) and now have two rooms. Both the Jouravlevs and Bayanaas live in refugee housing, but not in the same complex. Each family have two rooms to live in, though the rooms are not connected, and the rest of the house is communal - kitchen, bathroom, etc. - that they share with several other families. It's kind of like dormitories. Again, it was an interesting visit for me but for different reasons.
I left the Bayanaa's house in awe of the sacrifices that some people have to make to secure for themselves what we would consider the absolute necessities of life. Sister Bayanaa was a family doctor and Brother Bayanaa was something like a civil engineer before coming here. Now they aren't allowed to work and only have limited rights. It's a difficult situation for the political refugees here.
Anyway, one thing is for certain, the gospel is true no matter where you live or what language you speak. I'm happy to have that testimony.
So next time you go visiting or home teaching, be thankful that you can communicate!! And be thankful for all of your blessings. We really have been blessed abundantly, individually, as families and as a family.
That's my thought for today. Hope you have a happy Sabbath.
Jocelyn

Stacia 4th Bday

I put a counter on the blog... Look at the left under the monthly archives..the counter tells how many times total...if you clikc on view my stats, you can select country/state/city...and it will tell you where and how many times.

Hey, it is good to hear from you all. Marion and Jocelyn it is good hearing from you. We have been non-communitive for too long. Jeff, convert the girl FIRST, then marriage, then pregnant! Don't get your priorities mixed up. Cindi what happened with the interviews, yours and Davids? Bobby looks like the house is doing great! Where are pictures of the kids? Nathan, don't you have pictures of the girls? It sure was fun to talk to Natalie. When I figure out her language or she learns to speak mine it will be even more fun. Andy, Cassy haven't heard from you for a while??? guess that covers the ginns. Ed and I are like the mice (or when I first heard the story it was frogs)We are still kicking-just to the whipped cream stage, maybe it will trun to butter someday! Love you all, Mom

Here id Jeff Ginn's latest status according to the lemon tree

Hey, it is good to hear from you all. Marion and Jocelyn it is good hearing from you. We have been non-communitive for too long. Jeff, convert the girl FIRST, then marriage, then pregnant! Don't get your priorities mixed up. Cindi what happened with the interviews, yours and Davids? Bobby looks like the house is doing great! Where are pictures of the kids? Nathan, don't you have pictures of the girls? It sure was fun to talk to Natalie. When I figure out her language or she learns to speak mine it will be even more fun. Andy, Cassy haven't heard from you for a while??? guess that covers the ginns. Ed and I are like the mice (or when I first heard the story it was frogs)We are still kicking-just to the whipped cream stage, maybe it will trun to butter someday! Love you all, Mom

Here id Jeff Ginn's latest status according to the lemon tree

Nate,

Why don't you put a stat couter on our blog so we can see how many times Cindi looks at the page each day?

Story Of The Day-


Two mice fell into a pot of cream. One gave up and drown - the other swam and swam, kicked and kicked......Eventually turning the cream to butter. This mouse (exhausted) crawled out of the pot and lived happily ever after.


Keep Kickn everybody!!!!!!!

BGINN House update. Closing has moved up to March 9th due to good weather.

Family Room, Outside with Brick done- Stucco to come. A view out the master bedroom window to the west.

Thanks to Marion and Jeff that have given me something to laugh about while at work!! I do expect some photos from the Nathan Ginn family and the Bobby Ginn family, soon becuase they both have had birthdays in the family lately and I´m SURE they´ve taken lots of pictures! Tonight I am putting on a Valentine´s Party for the youth in our stake. We´ll see how it goes. I´ve made about 120 heart-shaped cookies and lots of pink frosting. Love you all.

Surely, Jeff, there has to be some lds girl in the mid-west that doesn't turn and look when she hears someone say, "look at the hefer." I think the catholic option is out. In New Jersey if you get a catholic girl pregnant her brothers Vido and Carmine come after you, "ya know what I mean?"

On that high note, I thought I would post a picture or two so that Cindi would have something to do for a few minutes (did computer solitare finally get to be too much for you?). Life is good in Jersey (thats for you Jocelyn). We are keeping busy with everyone's schedules plus the half dozen church callings we are currently juggling. Glad to hear news from all of you.

Take care, Marion.

Catholic girls are hot!!!!!

This past Saturday evening one of the baseball players at the school passed away as he and two other drunk baseball players played tag with the guard rail on their way to Omaha. Today we went to the funeral. I dreaded going because I can't stand how I feel when I enter their church house...so uninspiring and gloomy. As Coach bennett and I sat in the back, likely the only two people in the place that did not tap their forhead, and chest as they walked through the door. It was interesting to watch Coach Bennett experience Catholocism for the first time. We squirmed every time we had to stand up and sit down...gret work out....no wonder all the chicks ther were fit.

Anyway, as stated in the first line...i couldnt help to wonder if i was being punished...hot chicks in Catholic Schhol girl out fits...and hot chick half dressed at church....We have conveniently chosen the religion where we are modest and corn fed. I can only imagine if the girls at our church looked half as good as the majority of this goup what life would be like in the mid west.

I came to the conclusion....either mary a rollie pollie from the lds faith or get a hot catholic girl pregnant and convert her as time goes bye....what GREAT OPTIONS!!!!!!!

Love y'all!

life is tough!! Pam got through the op ok. now it is wait and see
how did ur interview go cindi? mom was sick with the flu for 2 days. went to work this am
hope i don;t get it. now im late for work. yes please post everybody i check it out every day
at least two times. any picsof the house bob. OH HAPPY BIRTHDAY STACIA MARIE GINN. EVERYBODY SEND HERE AND EMAIL
CARD. love dad

Hello to all. Just a quick note to say.....PLEASE WRITE SOMETHING OR POST PICTURES!!!! At work right now things are VERY SSSLLLLOOOOWWWWWW and I have nothing better to do than look at the blog a hundred times a day. Love you all and hope all is well. Hugs and kisses to all. cindi

Things are getting busy again. My knee still hurts. I don't think I will be able to train this Friday as projected, but that is fine. It is healing up well. I am going to have knee problems all of my life. I am sure that my MCL will give one day as it is "inflamed, yet intact and strong."

Spring training has began. I now get up every morning and lift at 6:30 AM. Not my favorite thing in the world but it is good for me. This week is sort of a hell week for our IWCC players as they ae having to run 2-4 miles a day and lift tues and thurs as well as work on sprint work and muscle memory work 3 times a week. This week is rather vigorous.

This Friday we are flying 5 girls from Utah/Idaho to come to a try out/school walk through. We will also have about 20-30 local girls coming. We have rented out an indoor soccer facility...synthetic grass, but full field all under a roof. We will be having our recruits play our current team. I believe that it will be a great match. We have some players that we are real excited about and we believe we will be even stronger next year. It should be a blast this Friday.

Club soccer is going well...we have a web site being built as well as technical training sessions developing our players individual skills. This is a great place for me. I truly am gaining confidence as well as excelling in what I hope is a long coaching career. It is becoming more of a job, as Bobby said it would, but the club teams really keep me going...I love seing their progression and their passion for the sport glow as they learn new moves and skills.

Love y'all...I will try to get a picture to you sometime of my mop.

Hi All,

This is just a quick note to let you know that Kenny Virgin's wife Pam has a brain tumor. They are operating
tomorrow morning Monday the 6th. So keep a prayer in your heart for the Virgin family that the outcome of the surgery
might be positive and that Pam will recover and be able to return to her family.

Love you all Dad Ginn

Thank you Perceval for pushing that button. As I was saying... She was excited to lose her first tooth but is still a little bit selfconscious when going out in public. Her second front tooth is also loose so she will be a toothless beauty in her baptism pictures next month!
So glad to have the digital camera back in action. How did we live without them?
Have a great day.
Jocelyn

Here's Alienor with the hole from her first lost tooth. She was excited to lo

Here is a message I sent to Cindi on Tuesday. Thought the rest of u might enjoy it also


From: aginnjr@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Re: how´s it going?
Date: January 31, 2006 10:16:20 PM PST
To: rodriginn@yahoo.com

Hi C
Mostly just resting. Last nite I did something in memory of my dad. I remembered a nite when
U came into a room and there was this horrible smell. Like toe jam or the very worst pair of smelly
sneekers u could ever imagine. WHAT IS THAT SMELL DAD!!!!!!!!! I SAID. Hw looked up from the crackers and cheese
and said It"s LINDBEGER cheese and crackers. you want some? NO I YELLED and left the room holding my nose. I think I
could smell it for a week.
Lately I have been wondering if it really was that bad a smell and wondering what it tastes like. I asked mom a few weeks ago if I could try it she immediately said NO!!!!
so guess what? I bought some on Sat and last nite I made toast and put avacado on it. then I gently opened the LINDBERGER cheese. it didnt smell too bad
My nose must be going bad too. Then I cut off little pieces and put them on the avacado and carefully took a bite. mmmm not to bad !!!! do i put little pieces on on the rest of the
toast and avacado and ate it all gone. (No choc syrup added). I had spent a few moments with my dad and we had had a good time together for just a little while
with no one to tell us we stank.
What was left of the cheese I wrapped up put in the trash so it could be out of the house before mom got home.
I am glad someone in the family is going to make the papers and be locally recognized for daughter srealling and fleeing across international boarders to escape Cindi and Dacid were interviewed by the local paper about why he married a forgener
and why they were living in Terassa of something like that???
.
LOts of love DAD