Hi All! Things have been tough lately around the Normand house, so Ninha thought let's shake off all the dreary drudge of life and chemo treatments and let's go on a 'weekend getaway.' Of course, it was with Shawnna and Drew and a number of the ladies that Ninha works with and their families too, but it was a 'getaway' just the same. FINAL DESTINATION: THE WISCONSIN DELLS - WOLFLODGE. Here are a few of the pics enjoyed over the weekend. Pics were taken with a phone camera and had to work with Ninha's 'shaky' hands, but I hope you can get the idea that the kids were really excited and everyone had a great time! (Sorry the pics aren't in the better order). Hopefully there will be more photos to come!

Hope you all had a great weekend too - Good to hear from Ed! To know he is on the mend.

Love you all - Till' next time!

Sassy Cassy

Sassy Cassy

Hi all, I am on the mend. Life moves very slow laying on your back, Goig to the potty is the greatest accompishmshment (without any errors) .

I an very touched at the many efforts made by all to celebraate our 40th Thabk you!

must stop now too druggy cant seem to focus

Later Ed

June 2 we had a ward temple trip. No time to recover from jetlag! It was the first time that we actually rented a bus and all went together. The bus was full - we had about 25 children and 30 youth/adults. It was a good turnout. Luckily the weather was nice so we took the children to the park nearby and played most of the time that the adults we in the first session. Then the adults switched (except me) and the youth did baptisms while we took the kids back to the park and played and had a snack. Unfortunately there were also 2 German wards at the temple that day doing more or less the same thing as we were (minus the Primary children) so compared to usual, the temple was packed. That means that the switch of adults was not as smooth as planned because everyone was late coming out of the first session. That was why I just couldn't get myself to leave the chaos of the children to get to the youth baptism session as there was only one adult at that time to watch the kids. I'm sure I should have gone and it would've been fine but it was just too chaotic at that moment to leave them - maybe I have control issues! It would take too long to tell you about everyone in the photo so you'll just have to come to Luxembourg and meet everyone for yourself! We have an interesting bunch - but people are more or less the same wherever you go.

I hope you have a great Sunday. Jocelyn

Hi All! I know it's been some time but thought I would post some pics of Ninha, Shawnna and Drew enjoying the sites and sounds of Dana Harbor while they were here over spring break. It was fun to see Shawnna and Drew checking out the water, then Drew chasing the seagulls and Shawnna striking a 'model' pose by the tide pools. I'm sure many of you remember days like this at the 'little wave' beach, and checking out the Pilgrim tall ship moored at the dock and splashing through the tide pools. A good day was had by all!

Love you all - Till' next time

Sassy Cassy

Hi All! With 'Bandanas' comes the possible necessity of a 'WIG', so Ninha is checking them out. A friend of hers makes wigs and thought maybe this one would be just the 'perfect fit' - heehee! But alas, Ninha thought it wasn't her style, but was really cute on Drew. It gives us a little glimmer of what Drew will be like as a 'wild and crazy' teen, just like his Dad (for Ninha's sake, I hope not!)

Love you all - Till next time!

Sassy Cassy

Thanks for the birthday wishes Cass, I really appreciate you thinking of me. On Mother's Day Abby told me that they would have made me breakfast in bed but it would have meant that they had to get up before me. Apparently, getting up before me is not an easy thing to do. I had a good day even without the breakfast in bed or the nap.
I was so sorry to hear about Ed yesterday. I wish you the best and pray for your speedy recovery. So nice that everything could be there with you. My love and best wishes to all of you.

HEY MARION! THAT POST ABOUT YOUR BIRTHDAY WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN PRETTY PINK (Hopefully like this one). DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED - THE BLACK IS SOOOO TOTAL PLAIN! WHICH YOU ARE NOT!
LOVE, CASS

MARION!!

HAPPY BELATED 38TH BIRTHDAY!!

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE DAY!!

HOPEFULLY YOU GOT BREAKFAST IN BED

AND ENJOYED AN AFTERNOON NAP

WITH YOUR FEET UP

(BEING THAT YOU ARE PREGANT AND ALL!!)

SORRY I AM LATE WITH THIS SPECIAL

BIRTHDAY WISH

BUT WAS ON A ROAD TRIP TO UTAH

FOR ED AND MARIE'S 40TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!

I AM THANKFUL

THAT YOU ARE MY SISTER!

LOVE YOU LOTS!!

YOUR SIS, CASSY!!

HI ALL!! HOPE EVERYONE ENJOYED A WONDERFUL MEMORIAL DAY!! HERE IS HOW NINHA, SHAWNNA AND DREW ENJOYED THE DAY. THEIR WARD HAD A ‘HOLIDAY BRUNCH’ IN THE WARD PARKING LOT AND THEN, THERE WAS PLAY TIME ON THE ADJOINGING LAWN AREA. DREW ENJOYING THE GRASS AND PLAYING WITH MOM – SHAWNNA ENJOYING BEING A ‘MONKEY’ IN THE TREE – LUCKILY NO BROKEN BONES!! NINHA IS GETTING INTO THE SWING OF WEARING THOSE ‘BANDANAS,’ WHICH I AM SURE WE WILL SEE MORE STYLES IN THE DAYS TO COME!

AS FOR ME, I ENJOYED VISITING WITH FRIENDS IN ST GEORGE, UTAH AND THEN THE LONG DRIVE HOME. WAS SURPRISED THOUGH, THE TRAFFIC WAS PRETTY BAD BUT NOT ‘TRULY INSANE’ LIKE I PREPARED MYSELF FOR – LUCKILY, I HAD MY FRIEND, NANCY MCKEEGAN RIDING SHOT GUN / NAVIGATING IN THE PASSENGER SEAT, SO THINGS WENT ALONG PRETTY SMOOTHLY. BROUGHT LOTS OF 'STUFF' FROM JOCELYN AND PATRICE'S STORAGE UNIT IN OREM. ONE ITEM WAS THE ROCKING CHAIR I USED WHEN JOCELYN WAS A BABY! BROUGHT IT HOME ON TOP OF THE CAR, WHICH NEEDED SOME RE-ARRANGING IN BAKER (OR WE WOULD HAVE LOST THE PADDING FOR SURE - HEEHEE!) BUT OTHER THAN THAT, WAS A GREAT ROAD TRIP!!

LOVE YOU ALL – TILL’ NEXT TIME!
SASSY CASSY

HAPPY 40th ANNIVERSARY ED AND MARIE

I hope everyone has a wonderful time together celebrating. I will be thinking of you all. Take care and my love to all of you.

What a surprise! Once again Cindi pulls off the big surprise. Marie and I were asleep at 8:30 am Sunday and the phone rings. I figured it was Cindi so I thought I would let her talk to Marie first so I let Marie answer the phone while I dozed for a few more minutes. Then I heard Cindi's voice very clearly say good morning and I thought wow that speaker phone is really clear this morning. But I rotated my head from the pillow to see what phone Marie was using and what to my surprise a vision of Cindi appeared before my eyes.... about this time Marie started screaming like I have never heard her scream before... it was bone chilling and Cindi fell into her moms arms and they hugged and laughed and hugged some more......It is going to be a wonderful weekend in Utah. Bobby has worked real hard to make this a life time memory for everybody. So come let us have a reunion and be happy!!!!!

The Norton family is fine. Yes, there was a massive fire burning about an hour away from us, but the rain we recieved last night seems to have helped. All these fires buring is terrible. The one here in New Jersey was about 13,500 acres. They say it may have been accidently set off by a flair from an Air National Guard plane. Good to talk with Ed, Marie, and Cass on Mother's Day. I have emailed Jim before. He has an address but thus far hasn't been able to send an email. He told me recently that he is going to try and become computer literate so that he can start getting into the swing of things. Our best to everyone.

Marion I know about Griffith park and Avalon Burning and Georgia and Florida burning but I haven't heard a thing about New Jersey Burning!!!! See Jocy our coverage of news in the states is pathetic. You it the EU know more than we do! By the way Marion is your house on fire? If so we haven't seen it burning on CBS.
Talked to Jimmy the other day and I think he is finally going to become a computer owner and internet surfer and a totally cool guy. WOW And Cassy ty for the large type but I really only need half that big at this time not quite ready for the white and red tipped stick yet.
Love to you all
Ed

Marion - I was just wondering if the fires in south Jersey are affecting you? I don't know the area well enough to know if they are near you but I hope you are not one of the 2500 homes that were evacuated! Let us know that all is well.
Jocelyn

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO EVERYONE.

This has been an interesting last few days. Bryan performed his first marriage ceremony yesterday for the mother of a woman from our ward and we just got a call an hour ago that one of the members of our ward passed away tonight. Most likely this gentleman's funeral will be this week. Officiating a marriage and a funeral all in the same week; I can honestly say I never thought I would be seeing my husband do either of these things. Life is interesting or as we like to say in our house "There's never a dull moment!"

Our best to everyone.

<http://www.ldslivingonline.com/article.php?articleId=2686>

I thought this was a good article on the importance and value of mothers. We don't really get the credit - and unfortunately we don't give ourselves the credit - we deserve for all the hats we wear and all the everyday stuff we do. But hang in there ladies, we're all doing a pretty good job!! Keep up the good work and happy mother's day!
Love
Jocelyn

Happy Mothers Day to all!!!
These are our Virginia's Orchids!
So beautiful just like she was.

THIS IS THE LAST ENTRY, TRY TO START FROM THE BEGINNING! (THE FIRST BLOG POSTED ABOUT CAMP)

The second day thankfully it didn´t rain!!

BATUKA!!! This is the morning workout it´s called Batuka and it´s bigger here than Jane Fonda ever was in the US!

In this picture you can see the stake YW president: the leader in the middle-right wearing her PJ´s and a white puffy jacket. And the first counselor: the leader in her yellow PJ´s to the left of the other. I have to admit, they didn´t help much with the preparation and organizing an buying etc, but they sure were great at supporting me and just being there to cheerlead when I felt like nothing was going well!

Camp didn´t turn out perfect, it didn´t go exactly as I had planned (and let me tell you... I PLANNED!) but it went well enough so that I think they will let me have GIRLS camp again next year (I mean without boys) without fighting for it, and that´s accomplishing A LOT!

Just want to thank mom and dad for all the ideas and thoughts and worry that they put into camp! We are very lucky to have such great examples of dedicated leaders as parents!

Hugs and kisses for everyone!

Thank goodness for this covered area...it saved camp! The first day it rained almost ALL day. I was getting really bummed out because even though we survived the first day the second day was going to be imposible in the rain. Besides with rain the girs (and myself) weren´t very excited about being there.

These are two of the workshops we had. The first is a service project...we made singing time helpers. For each of the wards we made little (I don´t know what to call them?) signs on sticks, you know, a sign of a little boy which means only the boys sing, a girl which means only the girls sing etc. The other activity is painting prayer rocks. I translated the little poem that goes with the rocks and in order for it to rhym I fuged on the endings of some of the words...for any of you that know a little about spanish you´ll know that the ending of the word is the most important part of the word! But oh well it was cute!

This was the workshop on backpacks and preparation. My Laurels did a GREAT job!

I´m sure that most of these will not be interesting, but I had promised mom and dad for some pictures of girls camp....here they are.

The night before camp the Laurels (Youth Leaders) slept over at my house so we could get an early start. We ordered pizza and chinese!!

My Laurels got their tents up before the rest of the girls arrived so they could help with the other tents. This worked GREAT, we had camp up and ready in just over an hour! (Last year it took us 5 hours to get the tents up...of course it was raining, but that´s NO excuse!) Oh, this is probably the only picture of me. I´m the blond girl with the black hat and grey jacket...it´s a picture of my "best side".

Tents all set up.

May 10, 2007
UYSA Hires Bobby Ginn as New Executive Director
Utah Youth Soccer Association is pleased to announce Bobby Ginn as the newest member of the UYSA office staff. Ginn has been hired as the Executive Director. His soccer knowledge and business experience will continue the growth of the Utah Youth Soccer Association.

Originally form San Juan Capistrano, California , Bobby moved to Utah in 1989 to attend school at Southern Utah State College (currently Southern Utah University) in Cedar City . After a year at SUSC Ginn resided in Washington state for two years. When Ginn returned to Utah in 1992 he attended Utah Valley State College to further his academics. Ginn had family in the Utah Valley area and was asked to coach a city team in Provo. The passion for soccer he had as a kid was rekindled and soon he became a competitive coach. Due to his involvement he was soon recognized in the soccer community and became the assistant coach of UVSC's Women's club team and eventually became the head coach. Soon after marrying his wife Gina in 2000, Bobby was offered an assistant coaching job at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa where he also finished his degree in Business Management. Ginn spent two years as the assistant coach and in his third year he was awarded the head coach position.

Prior to becoming the Executive Director of UYSA, Bobby has been involved professionally in real estate as an investor and advisor. Bobby has also held other positions in upper management such as Director of Operations, General Manager of Customer Service, and Director of Marketing. During the 4 years he spent coaching at William Penn University his team accumulated a 62-17-5 record, he coached 6 Academic All-Americans, 2 All-American Player's and his teams were regional contender's all four years. He was named Regional Coach of the Year by the coaches in his region in 2005.

Bobby is married to Pleasant Grove Native, Gina Lemke and has three future soccer players of his own; Stacia (5) Landon (3) and Milena (1). Bobby is excited for the opportunity to be involved with the development of soccer for every kid in the state of Utah.

Yes we have noticed and we have missed you Cindi. Welcome back!
Really have enjoyed Cassy's and Jocy's and Nathans latest entries. Hope to hear from
Bobby and Marion soon. Thank Goodness it is Friday!
Later Dad

I´M BA-ACK!!!!!!!!
I´m sure that you all haven´t even noticed I´ve been "MIA", but I sure have. I´ve missed the photos and family news! My internet has been down for the past few weeks....NOT a good thing! I don´t know if I could have lived all the way over here without the internet!!
Anyway, to fill you in on my uneventful life...two weeks ago I quit my job in Barcelona (for many reasons) I have been doing some training the past two weeks to be a store manager of a clothing store. It´s not Chanel or Prada, but at least it´s only 2 minutes walking distance from my house! I am enjoying the extra time I have at home, (since I don´t have the travel time) - time that I´ve never had before...I´ve always worked outside of my city. I have to say, at least for now I´m happy with the change and a happy Cindi makes a much happier home!
David is keeping busy at his job. He´s learning to "get things done". He is working on building a school that has to be done by September (they only really started on it in January) so in order to make sure everyone is doing their jobs he has to be a bit hard, and it seems that in the construction business the only thing the subcontractors and workers respond to is "get it done my this date or you won´t get paid!" It´s hard on David some days, he doesn´t like to be the mean guy (but I think it´s good for him! he´s too sweet otherwise!) Beside it´s really helping here at home...with this whole internet thing his has called the company and been able to really "stick it to 'em", something that I´m unable to do!
This sunday I have to give a YW class in another ward (it´s their ward conference and it´s my turn to teach-out of the presidency). The class is based around the mutual theme for the year "...let virtue garnish thy thoughts..." if anyone has any fun ideas let me know!!
Ninha I´m so sorry. I want you to know that you are in our prayers. We love you very much!
We´ll be thinking about you in a few weeks when you´re all together and we´ll be wishing we could be there with you. Have a wonderful day! hugs and kisses from spain!

I'm fascinated by the Ginn family photo. I've never seen it before. I'm trying to decide who looks like who. Now that you've started sharing the photos, you'll have to start sharing the stories of the people in the photos. I met Uncle Hal once when Marion and I went to San Francisco in the summer of 1988. I met Aunt Bertha a few times over the years when she would come to Gramma and Grampa's house to visit for various family occasions. I never knew any of Grampa's other siblings. I wish Grampa had sat down with me with that little white suitcase!
So Champy, have you started your little video sessions to record all the stories that you recall of the Ginn family? I can just see you leaning back in an office chair to get comfortable in front of the video camera. A good Sunday afternoon activity. It reminds me of a few things I can be doing now that could be considered 'family history'.
We'll be waiting for more pictures.
Jocelyn

Well here it is midnight and I can't sleep. So sorry to hear about Nina. Hope all goes well.
please continue to keep us informed. As to the French election--caght a glimps of the new pres making his acceptance speach and then his opposition lady saying something and then a nice long pan of the anarchist riots at the Bastille. LA loves a good riot we had one a few days earlier on Cinco de Mayo in Mc Aurthur park. Stupid cops started beating up the press corps. Tonight we have big fire raging around Griffith park and LA Zoo. Of course they abandoned all the animals in the Zoo. It is a crazy world.
Now to the important issue the results: top was Harold Ginn, next was Craig Ginn the adopted son of Jay W. Ginn and his 2nd wife Noreen. Cassy told me she had a crush on him, next Jimmy Ginn the son of Edmund C and his first wife "Billy", next Jay W. Ginn and finally my grandmother Ida Woods Ginn.
Well the codine seems to be taking effect so time to go to bed.
Love Dad

Hi All! I know Easter has long passed but thought I would show you some pics of Easter at my house, even though it was early and was thanks to my neighbor, Tina. When Shawnna opened up the front door, there on the porch were Easter Baskets left by Nona Tina, the neighborhood Easter Bunny. It was so nice of her and the kids were so happy and surprised! Also, there are some pics of the Easter Parade of new clothes. Thought they were cute pics! I just love them both in Shawnna's Easter bonnet!

Love you all

Till next time!

Sassy Cassy

I know that it has been a while since I have posted, so her goes. Ninha, I am very sorry to hear about your illness. Please let us know if we can help in any way. Jocelyn, because France is France, I think that of the 2 candidates, Sarkozy is the best. Considering how Liberal the French are in general, this guy seems to be a little more conservative. Although, he appears to be a moderate conservative, which moves him about equal to Nancy Pelosi. This said, at least he wants to make nice with the USA and I read a quote where he stated that he sincerely admired Tony Blair. It sounds like tough luck for Turkey getting into the EU, but thats probably OK anyway. I could say more, but I am sure that everyone else is already looking at someone elses post.
I think it would be interesting to hear a few Bishop Norton comentaries... I have no doubt that he could tell some whoppers about how someone confessed to knocking off their cousin because the cousin looked at his girlfriend the wrong way while eating the last slice of pizza pie.
Jeff announced Bobby's new job, yet we don't have any details there...

Nates family is doing great. I put in a lot of hours at work, as we all do. Brandi is becoming quite the soccer mom and ballet mom and achievement days mom, etc. We are still working on our yard. I will try to get some pictures of the phases of the new "house" we are building. Mostly, we are all just looking forward to seeing everyone at mom and dads anniversary. Sorry for those who won't be coming, especially those from across the pond, but we will miss you.

Back to work for now,
Love nate

Hi All! Ninha wanted me to put up a couple more pics of her and her new short hair cut, so here they are. She says that these will probably be the last pics of her with hair because last Friday she was definitively diagnosed with stage 3 stomach cancer and is now undergoing chemo – please keep her and the children in your prayers!
Love you all
Till next time,
Sassy Cassy

Hi All! It's me again. Wasn't able to post all the pics on the first post, so here's the rest of them. We enjoyed a nice picnic too, and the weather was great, so was a nice day and of course, no one wanted to go home!

Love you all

Till next time!

Sassy Cassy

Hi All! Thought I would post some pics of Shawnna, Drew, Ninha and yours truly enjoying a day at the Stonehill Park during their spring break visit. I was so surprised at how well Drew took to the rope ladder. I put him on it and right away, he knew where to put his feet and scurried right up to the top and then, down the slide. Of course, Shawnna could do everything - it must be that 'gymnastic' training she had! Anyway, a good time was had by all. Made me realize I'm not as young as I used to be and that I need to get out and work my muscles more or the next time they come to visit, I'll be sitting on the sidelines.

Love you all!

Till next time,

Sassy Cassy

Dear Jocy,
One of the reasons the USA is so disliked by the rest of the world and more importantly the EU is that we are so engrossed with what is happening in the almighty homeland that we take very few opportunities to look outside ourselves and see whats happening in the rest of the globe. So as one who surfs the 11 o'clock news of cbs, nbc and abc I can honestly say I have never heard of the man you mentioned. I have only heard a few snippets about Mitt Romney so I have heard nothing about the French elections. Now Nathan who is much more politically inclined will tell you that if I were watching fox or cnn I would be better informed because those news peddlers are much less myoptic and tend to cover more of the globe and even some of Mitt Romney. I will have to say tho that abc hates Bush so much that we get a fairly complete suicide or truck bomb report and body count every night.
My report for you Jocy.
Come on Nathan tell us your view from the eastern slopes of the rocky mountains. I doubt that the rest of you even care.
Love Dad

I don't know if I was clear. I meant that I don't know how the American media has portrayed Sarkozy and I would be interested to find out.
Jocelyn

Yeah for Nicolas Sarkozy!! I know we are SUCH a political family (!!) so I'd love to hear what you think about Sarkozy and how the American media has been portraying him. We watched the debate this past week and we much preferred Sarkozy to Segolene Royal. We think he has a much better approach to improving France's economy etc. I have a hard time explaining it... considering how politically well-versed I am (not!!).

Hope you had a great Sunday. I'm feeling a little better. After my 'perfect' day last week I got sick and spent Th, F and S on the couch with a fever. Sometimes at the end of a normal day, I don't feel like I've accomplished much. But when I spend 3 days without doing anything, I realize how much work it takes just to keep the house from falling apart. So I recognize that normally I must be doing something! Patrice paid me a nice 'male' compliment. He took care of lunch and dinner Th, lunch on F and by Friday night he said, "I don't know how you do it." What a guy! It's true that normally I cook 3 meals a day and that takes effort too. So, all that to say that there's nothing like a little illness to be VERY thankful for my good health. And all I need is a little illness because I can't take any more than that.

Have a great week. I'm looking forward to finding out the names for the people in the photos.
Jocelyn

Sorry about the spelling it is Natalie Ginn

Thank You Jocy and Cass for playing my game with the old pictures. I will give the answers on Tuesday so any other guesses will be appreaciated. Here are a couple of pictures of Naalie Ginn getting her hair cut just like the others have recently.
Love ED

GOSH, THAT WAS SO DUMB OF ME!

I READ JOCELYN'S NOTE WRONG AND

THOUGHT SHE SAID 'GRANDMA'S MOTHER,'

SO WAS TRYING TO GIVE YOU ALL A BETTER SHOT.

I DON'T THINK ANY OF YOU WILL GUESS THE FIRST BABY.

HE'S NOT MENTIONED MUCH IN FAMILY STORIES OR HISTORY

BUT KEEP GUESSING.

TILL NEXT TIME

LOVE, SASSY CASSY

GOSH, MAYBE I SHOULDN'T TELL WHO THE PICTURES ARE OF?

MAYBE A LITTLE GUESSING GAME WOULD BE FUN

BUT I'LL GIVE A LITTLE HINT -

AS ED SAYS THEY ARE ALL GINN'S

BUT THEY ARE FROM GRANDPA GINN'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY!!

Till next time!

Sassy Cassy

The top one looks like Uncle Hal. I don't know for the brown eyed baby. The second baby is Jimmy - I cheated and read the caption! I don't know for the headshot of the adult male. The last one I'm assuming it's Grampa's mother?
Those are my guesses. Keep the photos coming!
Jocelyn