Gramma Cass bought each child a toy to even things out a little after Alienor's baptism.

Guillaume got Kapla which he's been missing from his days at school - he misses the one at school. It's a box of 200 building blocks roughly 6 in x 1 in x 1/4 in. They are supposed to be very good for children to play with to help them with those important creative and logical brain developments etc. They seem very simple (and really are) but it's amazing how many different things you can build with them. They are defintely more versatile than regular blocks.

Some pictures of Gramma Cass's sledding adventures in Luxembourg. After a couple trips sledding, I decided she needed to have a chair to sit on so as to avoid getting soaking wet. She said it was nice to stray dry but with the air circulating under her, it was still very cold. Hopefully her next visit will be a little warmer.

Talked to andy just as they were entering illanois this afternoon.
They should be in chicago tonight. Andy promised to put some updated
info in here for us. pics of the new place his work area etc.
They stopped long enough to have dinner with Jeff Friday night.
then continued on to Des Moines
Bobby should be getting into the new house this week. cant wait to
see it. yall be good dad ginn

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK´S DAY!!!

Beware the ides of march----someone once said-----
Andy and family stopped on their way out of town to chicago
for one last goodbye here is a pic of andy shawna ed and marie
the picture of ninha didn;t come out so this is all we have.
drew was asleep in the car. U can look for them to stop by your place on the way
to chicago.

Well, good (that his birthday is in December) now I have time to send him a real card!! Hope you all feel better.

Sorry - Patrice's birthday is December 3 (1969). I'll have to send you the Ginn family contact sheet that I had put together with everyone's birthdays! Ninha's is the 19th so Happy Birthday Ninha - before I forget!! Hope you have a fun cross country jaunt.
It rained this weekend so no more snow.
We are almost over all being sick this past week. Mom did get away just in the nick of time, without getting sick.
Nothing great going on here.
Jocelyn

We are almost on our way!
In two of the pictures you can see how both Drew and Shawnna are equipped with clothes that will help them conquer any type of storm in Chicago!
The other two pictures show us flying our new kite! We had our roof replaced recently, and had to cover the garage with plastic sheets. We were taking them down and had left them out in the rain overnight. Today we decided to put them out in the front yard to dry out before our move. The wind was perfect that we held onto both sides and let if fly like a huge kite! It got so strong that it almost lifted Ninha and Shawnna up off their feet. What a good time!
We should be driving out on Wednesday, hopefully missing any type of storms and tornados! Wish us luck!

Happy Birthday Patrice!!!!!!!!

I thought I would update everyone on my birthday week.

Honestly, I thought it was going to be rather depressing, but I think I will leave that to the 30 year mark. For now, I am happy and busy and tired and happy...did I say...HAPPY? I have realy tried hard to be selfish the last few months. The immediat family has been telling me for years that I am too generous with my time and talents. Well I suppose I have gotten the courage to finaly do it. I'm not going to lie, I feel like I am taking some major risks with financial demands and extra responsibilities. I am nervous that one day it will all fall apart. What keeps me motivated is that I finaly feel like my family is sotked for me and what I am doing and completly support me and my goals. Not that it has not been there, but I can feel the suport because I am no longer just saying..I am actualy doing.

With IWCC Soccer we have amazing athletese heading our way...i love the College job, but it in itself is not satisfying. The soccer club that I have created with members of the community have really allowed me to saturate myself in the midwest culture and the COuncil Bluffs community. I never thought I would be asignificant member in any community and now I am recognized as a leader and visionary in this growing town. It is nice. However, it is EXTREMELY humbling. Any wrong move I make is magnified and talked about. Listen to me...I sound like a politian! Honestly though I feel like I have to do everything right and make no mistakes and be mature and make myself respectable. You all know this is difficult for me! Fortunatly, I have an amazing supporting staff that genuinly works at doing what is best for the soccer kids in our community. It is nerve racking.

A cool thing happened two weeks ago. A girl joined my U-13 team at the last moment. She is from across the river (omaha). I was about to begin a training session with my girls and this girls dad was near me when I was talking about one of my IWCC buys leaving for his mission this month. The father of the new girl asked if we (my IWCC player from Utah and I) were mormon. I am always nervous so i look for the smiley face every time. Sure enough he had the white shirt under his business shirt...STOKED, I said yes. He smiled and asked how I came to Iowa. We chatted. It is great to have an LDS girl on the team. It makes me feel less of a loner in my faith. it also keeps me on my toes...I say Dang a lot mor now ;)

Anyway, i want you all to know how happy I am and how grateful I am for all that each of you have done for me in the past 29 years. I know I have been a pain most of the time and I apologize. I really am trying to act the mature age of 24 these days.

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Iw you want to keep up with the development of the soccer club...we have a new web sited developing over the next few months...it compliments me well! www.cbsoccer.com

Love y'all

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATRICE!!!

Sorry I didn´t get a card off to you.

I hope you have a fabulous day and you´re not working TOO hard.

Love you lots, have a great day.

cindi

p.s. i hope it´s your birthday. i never know if i can trust my dads list!! :)

We got these white chairs for free. The white is not going to "fit in" with the new house's look.
So I stripped the white, laquer,baked on paint. Put on 2 coats of stain, 3 coats poly....

Goes with the house decor now.





One day I will be rich and will be able to afford new chairs!!! I enjoy working in the workshop!

The first pic is "Tower 2 half way done. The 2nd is "Tower 1" 90 percent done.

The stain process is a difficult one. I didnt want them black and I didnt want them brown so I stained them a Walnut stain, then wiped on an oil based black paint, wiped the black off almost immediately so only a little black would stay. (a little antique look) Lots of wiping. Then more walnut stain, then 3 coats of polyeurothane(sp). Lots of fun hard work.

mmmmm.......gma's old school tacos!!!!

GMA taught Nina ......Nina taught Gina

MMMMMMM

Hi all,
We look forward to seeing pics of Alexa and Brinley in their princess dresses.
They called and said they were going to Disneyland on Ice Sat afternoon and
they were all dressed in their princess outfits

Here is a pic of jimmy ginn in Hawaii with the QE ll in the background. He looks
great for 70+ yrs. He swims almost everyday after a walk to the beach. no wonder
he is so fit.

POR FIN!!!

THANK YOU NATHAN FOR WRITING AND THE CUTE PICTURES OF ALEXA. I WAS STARTING TO WONDER IF YOU WERE STILL ALIVE! LOVE YOU ALL.

Nathan, thanks for the offer. I would LOVE the information! Send it when you get a chance. I'd be interested to find out how a charter school works too. Patrice had thought about trying to set one up here (don't know if that would be possible though). I don't know if you have info on it, or maybe websites you could point be towards, but it's nice to know I have someone (and family to boot!) that I could ask when I have a question.
Thanks for all the fun pictures.
Jocelyn

Well, Nathan is finally getting a chance to report in. Work and life have been VERY busy lately. Right now all things are good. Saturday was a very eventful day here. It was nice and sunny with a pretty strong breeze. Anyway, just look at the pictures and I am sure you will figure out why Alexa had a good day. We only had a few bumps, crashes, and bruises. Thanks for all of the updates. BY the way Jocey I am not sure if you knew this, but I am the Curriculum chair for the Charter school that Alexa attends. I can give you a K-6 grade curriculum. It is in an Excel spreadsheet format, if you would like to know exactly what a US kid has as a curriculum. It is a Core Knowledge Curriculum and is about as close as you get to a College Prep Elementary School and yet it is still a public school. Let me know.

Love you all,
Nathan

Feliz Aniversario Jeff!!!

We just wanted you to know how to say it in Portuguese too! We hope to see you next week on our cross-country journey. We love you and hope the best for all you do! Call me!

Well, I got mom to the hotel near the Bussels airport last night and decided to let her get a few hours rest without us - so I headed home with my two holy male terrors. Today both Margot (gastroenteritis as they call it here) and Alienor (fever) are sick. I'm crossing my fingers that mom's trip home is uneventful and does not include a barf bag!
Happy Birthday Jeff!
I think the snow has finally slowed down here. It was snowing on the drive home last night (early morning actually) but seems to be raining today. I can't wait for the weather to warm up and spring to arrive, although I know I still have months before that happens.
I broke the news to mom while she was here (no, not pregnant!) so can share with all of you now. I did the paperwork and took Guillaume and Margot out of school. We are officially a homeschooling family. I'm only on my third week, with a week vacation in there, so it's still very new but we are enjoying it. The first week was great and there was an amazing difference in Guillaume's behavior. Since, I have not been as structured (I'll blame it on mom's visit!) and I haven't followed my schedule so well. (mom would say, what schedule?!) I'm basically doing a different theme each week and then all the activities are focused around that theme. I'd like to focus on reading too because they don't start reading and writing until first grade here so Guillaume is behind according to US standards. I took them out now so I could spend the rest of this school year as a trial basis. Guillaume would normally start first grade in the fall. I've decided to keep all the kids home until first grade. But I'm not sure past that. Patrice and I don't agree 100% so there is still some negotiating to do!
Mom's survived her two weeks at our house and is happy to head home ALONE! Don't forget to ask her what her impressions of our branch were. The look on her face was pure ... I don' t know exactly but she looked very disturbed. I'd say she was overwhelmed to say the least!
Well, need to get Guillaume at music. Have you ever heard of boomwhackers? I bought some, had them shipped to mom and she brought them. When I dropped Guillaume off at music today, I saw his teacher had a set in her hands. It's a small world. www.boomwhackers.com. Mom thought I was crazy to bring them into the house and that I was only asking for trouble!
Have a great day!
Jocelyn

Happy Birthday number 29 Jeff
mom and I will try and contact you today
but you are a busy man and hard to
catch sometimes! Just want everyone to know
that we love you so very much and want the
very best for you. Sorry, but no broads in a
box were available to send to you. You will have
to find your own. Love mom and dad

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!!!!!

FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS JEFF!!!!!

FELIÇ ANIVERSARI JEFF!!!!!

LOVE YOU. HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

hi all
in response to c's comment about boreing---- no pic or entries are boreing
we luv it all and it is only boreing when no one places an entry
have a great day love to u all dad Ginn

Monica enjoying fajitas!!!!

The second round David beat us all. He LOVES to win!!! We went bowling after eating and I was wearing a skirt and boots. Of course, I had socks under my boots.... let´s just say I wasn´t embarrassed, but David sure was!!!
We suprised Raquel....this is when she saw us (she thought she was just going to dinner with her boyfriend). She was so excited. She is from way over by Madrid so she doesn´t have any family here to celebrate with. So we tried to plan something special for her.

These pictures are probably boring for you all, but I know mom and dad like to hear about random stuff!!

YUMMY!!!!
Loving the nachos...as you can see David is REALLY getting into it!!
29 years old..."how embarrassing!!"

Raquel´s (the red head) birthday dinner. We went to a mexican restaurant...I was in HEAVEN!!

We decided to take Shawnna to the Mini Golf today. Sort of a last fun day in California thing. It was also somewhat of a late birthday gift. We've been sorting through all of our papers and junk in all of our drawers and found some amazing things. We found two gift cards from Christmas that we had lost. So, after paying for the mini-golf and go-karts and video games and dinner and a shopping spree to Old Navy, we only spend 5 dollars today! I guess moving can be a good thing sometimes!
Less than 2 weeks to go!

Stacia putting her dolls to sleep in the cradle Gma Ginn gave her. Cindi, do you recognize it!!!!Thanks. We will save it for your 8 kids.

Stucco is done, Kitchen is almost there and the laminate flooring is in. Final walk through is Thurs 9am. Garage door is on too! Gina has NEVER had a garage.

So, this is the view out of Jocelyn's front windows looking towards the street. It has snowed on and off for the last 3 days, as you can see it's almost a foot. Love this white winter wonder land but I'm starting to get nervous about having to fly out - you know, that having to de-ice down the planes-HeeHee! The snow is fun for the first couple of days, but would like to be seeing more than the inside of Jocelyn's 4 walls!
Love to you all -
Grandma Cass or Aunt Cassy - whichever one works for you!

Here's Margot making a snow angel.


Here are a few pictures from our sledding excursions these last few days. We have a great sledding hill just across the street and back into the woods. Mom (Cass) has enjoyed the snow.














She didn't quite fit on the sleds we have but made a go at it using a little flat one (I call it a butt sled!). This picture is her after her roll off the sled and down the hill. She was dizzy for the rest of the afternoon!