Updated pics. of Asher

Asher is 2 weeks old. I can't believe it's already been 2 weeks but he seems to change and fill out more and more every time I see him. He is such a cute little guy!
Steve....being goofy as usual. :)

Christopher and Lesa got a piano from someone in her family. I think Maddox thinks it's a new toy for him. He had fun playing on it.....and eating cookies at the same time.

Homework

Here is some of the homework I had to do for class (2 of 5 papers). Don't be impressed cuz I'm sure I did some of this wrong. Like last week.....I did totally wrong. How I know this is that we had to hang up our work in front of the class and mine was the only one that was the wrong size and very different. But that's ok. Part of learning right? But I do enjoy this class and it is a lot of fun. We'll see how it goes tonight. :)
But there was tons of measuring outside and then scaling it down onto paper. Lots of erasing and redrawing.
And here is my mad scientist daughter. She rocks!!

3 joys in my life

Honestly....these 3 guys are practically perfect in every way!! Everything about them I love. I just wanted to share these cute pictures of them and I'm always thinking about them!!!

Insurance

It seems like the older I get, the more I learn and the more opinionated I am. I'm not sure that's a bad thing if I keep an open mind. For example......yesterday I took Emily to the doctors. She's been running 101 fever on Advil for the last 3 days. Sure enough, she has a sinus and throat infection. The doctor gives her a prescription for Amoxicillin. We go get it filled and the pharmacist tells me that the insurance company is denying Emily the meds. It had something to do with her weight. Emily weighs 105 pounds now. The Pharmacist was talking to the insurance person and telling him/her that Emily was standing right in front of him and that she couldn't be more than a 110 lbs. For some reason they wouldn't believe him and denied the prescription. I've never seen my Pharmacist get mad but he sure was yesterday. I've known him for many years (all during Steve's major illness and was getting meds. for him a few times a week). We got the prescription filled and the pharmacist charged us the insurance price and said he and the doctor will work with the insurance co. to get this worked out.
My cousin told me that the insurance co. consider kids adults once they hit 100 lbs. and it's so they don't get over medicated. That's all good but it seems like there could be an easier way to avoid this than to deny medication to someone who is sick and needs the meds. They said it will take 3 or 4 days (minimum) to get this worked out so that means that Emily would have had to wait an extra 3 or 4 days and get sicker till they said it's ok to give to her. That's just not right. So I'm glad the doctor and pharmacist are working it out for me and Emily is on the meds.

Nathan's email

Hey Mummo,
Elder Behnke says ''COOL, A BABY'' anyway.. haha that's really cool that you all got to see and hold the baby. nifty things.. and by the way Mummo is Finnish for Grandma. thought you would want to know. Anyway things here are going good.. not too much happened.. we did a lot of tracking and stuff for the purpose of finding more people but not a whole lot happened.. oh and if you want to send the package to our land of pori the address is Satakunnankatu 12 C 20... I believe.. or you can look at the mission website.. You can talk to elder Behnke's mom cuz she knows the address... plus through the website you'll know where I'm going for changes and stuff.. so you should ask her about it... So yeah.. coolio stuffio.. haha.. So the Green Bay Packers made it to the Super Bowl and Elder Behnke is SUPER EXCITED and is yelling really loud and its hard to concentrate.. haah.. its pretty funny. but anyway.. that's about it.. but take care and have a good week. I love and miss you a ton!!
Rakkaudella,
Vanhin Peck
P.S. hey I'm not going to be able to Email everyone this week if you could let everyone know im super sorry and shall email next week

Free Range

Yesterday Steve and I went out to lunch. While we were eating we started talking about the food industry....mainly the meat part of it. I have heard and read so many things about how hormones, antibiotics,etc. are added to the food they feed the animals and what it can do to our bodies. And how the industry treats these animals. It's really easy to just ignore it and not think about it. I have been for years but lately it's really been on my mind. There's not a whole lot I can do to change the industry but I can change my decision on what I buy and what I eat. I wish we had enough land that I could put a cow and some chickens on it but that's not going to work. So we are going to start small.......first we decided to buy free range chickens and eggs. After lunch we went to the store to look and see how much more it would cost than the "chickens stuck in a tight cage" meat. The store we went to it was $9/lb. for chicken breasts. Holy crap that's expensive!!! We went to a few other stores and landed at Walmart to get other stuff we needed. And guess what? They have free range chicken for not too bad of a price. So we got some. Also you can buy free range eggs at the health food store. They were about a dollar more a dozen but I'll spend the extra dollar for free range. Steve cooked some up last night and said they taste so much better than regular eggs. Beef is next on our list.......and growing a better garden.

The Brain

Somewhere along the last 26-27 years I have lost my ability to use that part of my brain that you need for school. I have been trying to find it but it's a slow process to get it working again. I'm taking a landscape design class. I ask more questions than anybody else does in the class. Maybe they all get it and I just don't and I have to have the teacher repeat what she just said cuz I didn't understand what she was saying. I am one of the older ones in the class. There are 3 of us and the rest are just kids. Probably in their 20's but still kids (especially since my oldest is 26). I have to do a lot of drawing, measuring, planning and THINKING. I'm finding out that my brain turns on the most at about 1am. and plans are going through my head and how to make them work. .
I think I'm going to like this class. The drawing is fun. Getting the dimensions right on paper is tough. But I like getting that part of my brain revved up to start working again. Ooohhh...I have a do a report with power points in it. I know what power points are but I have no idea how to do it. Like how to make it "go" or get it on the screen. So my 13 year old daughter is going to teach me. :)

Hanging out

For the last few days I've been watching Maddox while Christopher goes to school. It's 3 or so hours of fun playing.....and breaks for eating. We've been playing with the domino's, reading books (Go Dog Go), pushing Maddox in a box and chasing Doc around the house and playing with pots and pans.
Maddox also had fun hanging on to Doc's tail. Eating ramen noodle, gold fish and cookies was also in the agenda.

Seeing Asher

All of us (Steve, Jaron, Emily and I) went to see Asher. Steve brought his camera and I think he took over 100 pictures. Most of them really good with a few blurry ones. So here's just a handful of them.
Asher is so cute!! He opened his eyes a few times for us.
Jaron kept saying how little he was. But Asher weighs about a pound more than Maddox did. He wasn't here when Maddox or Kingston was born because he was still on his mission.


Maddox seemed to be doing pretty good with a new little brother. I brought over a bag of gold fish and that seemed to make him happy. :) Maddox is going to be a great big brother!!

Nathan's email and pictures!!

Hey Pops,

hey so how is everything going? that's way cool to here about Asher... and its crazy that i wont see him for another year.. pretty weird.. anyway things here are going good not much has been going on besides doing some finding.. however we were let in 6 times this week from tracting and going to comebacks and what not.. so that's pretty awesome.. we've got a couple of good investigators and a couple of people who are going to become good investigators.. haha.. but yeah it all going really good.

So last week i gave my first talk in sacrament meeting.. which was obviously in Finnish.. so that was pretty crazy.. I'd been working on the talk for about 2 weeks so that i could make sure that all the grammar and everything was right... haha.. but it went pretty good so that is pretty cool.

So its been pretty warm here lately... today its +3 degrees C so its pretty warm.. so its pretty weird.. and 2 days ago it was -25 C... its pretty crazy how quickly the weather (Your word is Weather: ... Can you use it in a sentence? I don't know whether the weather will be good today. um... W.H. ERRRRRRR...... sorry thought you would like a little Simpsons quote) can change... haha.

Welp i do believe that's everything so take care and have a great week with everything. I love and miss you.

Rakkaudella,
V. Nathan Peck







Mommers,
Wow that's so crazy that Chris and Lesa had another baby!! its super crazy too cuz i wont see him until hes over 1 year only... super weird... he'll be older than Maddox was when i left. weird.... anyway.. before i get to anything else I have a favor to ask of you... So I had this crazy idea.. so all of my Mr. Mac stuff, if i remember has a 2 year warranty, if I'm not wrong.. and my Black Suit and a bunch of my tracking pants don't fit anymore.. because I've lost like 5 kilo's sense Ive been in Finland.. and i was wondering.. if I were to send them to you would be able to get refunded on the money for them (just the things mentioned above)... so next time your in the mall if you could talk to them about that it would cool.. however.. if all they can do is exchange stuff it wouldn't really be useful because it would cost more to send the things back and forth than to just buy new stuff.. but yeah.. if you could check on the refund deally that would be cool.
So anyway this week went pretty good. We have been gaining a lot of investigators this week and its been going really good. We had and entire week with absolutely nothing going on (splits or meeting of any kind) which doesn't happen too often. and we've got another week like this next week so we are just got to try and dominate Pori and find more people to teach. so we'll see what happens. also this last week i gave my first talk in sacrament meeting.. it was pretty intense i thought.. so yeah.. that was pretty nerve wracking.. haha.. but it went good. hmm... i do believe that that is everything so have have a dandy day and have a fun. I love and miss you.
Rakkaudella,
V. Nathan Peck

The many facial expressions of Kingston

Kingston has soooo many facial expressions!! He really cracks me up. Maybe because he reminds me of Timothy at that age. He also had a ton of them and kept me laughing a lot when he was little.


I love this one. It got all of us laughing.
I miss you Kingston!!!

Pics. of the last 2 days

Maddox in a box. Empty boxes are always so much fun....especially if Fasha-pa is there too!!


Asher
And a big yawn

The guys

Asher Seeley Peck

Christopher and Lesa had their second son tonight at 7:01 pm. Mom and baby are doing great. Asher weighs in at 8.5 pounds and is 20" long. He's a big guy for little Lesa. We will get pictures up tomorrow. :)

Marching Band Pics.

I'm pretty good and stealing pictures from other peoples fb or blogs. Here are some of Jaron when the U of U went to Vegas last month for the bowl game.



This picture was at the BYU vs. U of U game. It's kinda hard to see Jaron but he's the 5th row up on the very end on the left.

And another picture in Vegas.....at the M&M factory. :)

So What's going on....

What's going on is...

I'm going to be a grandma again this week. Christopher and Lesa are having another little guy. If Lesa doesn't go into labor by Friday she will be induced. I was induced when I had Jaron. The doctors hooked me up and a half hour later Jaron was here. It was a half hour of total intense labor but I don't think I was the norm. Hopefully Lesa will have him by Friday evening.

Jaron started school yesterday at U of U. He's taking a huge load of difficult classes. He's smart and he'll so great!!

I had to drop my class. :( It's a long story but I will pick up again this fall.

Nathan didn't get transferred. He's still in Pori. He's been there since August but his mission president likes to keep the missionaries in one place for a while. Nathan likes it and is happy so I am too.

Steve is back to teaching. He's very busy but it's part of the normal routine. :)

Emily is back in school and dance. She dropped her German class so she could add another drama class. She loves drama and her friends in it. Her dance company is getting ready for spring performances. With all the practices I do a ton of driving but I'm not complaining. I love to go and watch her dance!!

Timothy, Jess and Kingston are back in CA and are so missed by all of us!! Timothy starts school Monday and Jess is pulling some double shifts here and there. I stole this picture of Jess and Kingston off their blog. Soooo....cute!!!!

Nathan's email

Hey mommers!!
How goes it? Things here are going good, and don't worry I knew that I had no money... So that is clear... I bought a cool European suit/shirt/tie, all for under 100€, thus i thought it was a good deal, plus i now no longer look like an American walking around. so that's pretty cool. Anyway things here are going good... I did not get changed an neither did Vanhin Behnke, so everything here is the same.. So fun fun.. OH i have a favor to ask of you... We forgot to get my driving record before I left, And if just remembered.. yesterday.. that I was supposed to get that.. but anyway if you could try and get that, it would be really awesome... but if you cant, then... oh well.. haha.. But anyway things are good here.. not too much has happened.. we are trying to do a lot of tracting and stuff now with this new change coming up and are just going to try and do a ton of finding and find a bunch of new people. Then we will find people to baptise which would be cool. hrm... I really cant think of anything that happened this week... Sorry... but yeah.. i don't know.. yeah.. well.. So... Things are good... haha.. Well i really cant think of anything else, sorry... but yeah take care and good luck in school, I love and miss you a ton!

Rakkaudella,
V. Nathan Peck


Hey Pops!!

Hows it going? So that is really cool that you are reading the Kalevala. I want to read it, however not in Finnish.. I was talking to this one Finn in our ward and he said that the Finnish in the Kalevala is crazy hard. Finns even have troubles with it... so Ill probably read it in English.. haha..

So things here are going good, I didn't get changed and neither did my companion so we will both be staying here in Pori for at least 6 more weeks so that should be exciting.

So not too much has been happening this week, except that it has been really warm.. its been about 1 or 2 degrees C every day this week.. and it just feels so warm.. haha.. i haven't even been wearing my coat.. so that's pretty crazy...

Welp Pops thank you for everything!!! I love and miss you! Take care!

Rakkaudella,
V. Nathan Peck

Coupons

I thought it might be fun to see how much I save in one year with coupons. I know I'm starting a week late but I don't think it will make a HUGE difference. But I've always been curious about how much I've saved in a month or year so I'm going to give it a try. I've been couponing for most of my married life. It was a NEED when Steve was in school and to feed our starving kids. :) Plus you can never fill up teenage boys....so I was desperate for food.....If you know what I mean. So maybe once a month or so I'll give a grand total of how much I've saved so far....if you're interested. I'm not going to calculate percentages or deals or anything like that. When I use coupons, most of the time they are on items that are already on sale or that are a great deal. So know that I use my coupons wisely. :)

Dyann's birthday

Last night we went up to Salt Lake to celebrate Dyann's birthday at Sizzler. The food was really good. Last time I went the food was so-so but I was very impressed with this Sizzler.
We went to their apartment afterwards to have cake and ice cream. Some of their friends showed up and Steve's cousin and daughter. It was a lot of fun just sitting around and talking.

Happy Birthday Dyann!!

No blog today

I feel a little pressure (that I put on myself) to blog consistently. But I go through spurts where I feel there is nothing to say.....like now. So Steve said to take some time off (a day or so) and not blog. So today I'm not going to blog. And one of the reasons I'm not blogging today is because I'm so tired and wasted. Life can be just so busy. I can't blame it all on school but I think that with it and regular life, it keeps me hopping. School makes me stay on task. I have 38 quizzes still to take this semester and my teacher said if we miss one.....too bad no retakes. So I have to make sure I don't miss any. Plus he said we have to keep checking on blackboard daily cuz he may change some of the quizzes. Aaauuuhhh...I have to be really organized for this class!! The quizzes are on different days of the week. Not necessarily on the days I go to school so I have to think about it all the time. My brain is very full. So that is why I'm not blogging......I have a full brain.

Funny mission story and school

This is a funny story from Nathan's companion.....Elder Behnke,
"As for a funny story. Elder Peck and I go a visit this wonderful woman. She makes us pastries. I take a bite out of this one and it tastes ok. I keep eating it and now it just tastes horrible. It was awful. I'm struggling trying to eat all of it. I get time to one bite left. I'm so done and ready to throw up and try to get Elder Peck to eat the rest for me. He wouldn't do it! I'm stuck! I man through it and survive. After we left, Elder Peck turns to me and says that he can't believe that I ate that whole pastry that was covered in mold! DANG COLOR-BLINDNESS! I couldn't tell it had mold at all! Elder Peck hung me out to dry. It was a horrible experience. :) "

I also started school today. I'm taking an accounting class. It sounds very, very interesting and I want to learn all I can in this class. After reading the syllabus I realized that it's going to be a very busy class. We take 39 quizzes, 3 tests and write 2 reports. Yeah....it's around 2-3 quizzes a week. I have to stay up on it and not fall behind or I'll be in deep do-do!! My first quiz has to be in by tomorrow. I'm so excited about the class but also scared spittless!! Wish me luck. :)

Nathan's email plus pictures

Hello Father,
So its been pretty warm as of late, its only been at about -10 C most days so its not really too bad. but -34 F that sounds pretty cold.. I am glad its not that cold... I think that this winter is supposed to get down to about -30C here in pori.. but we shall see, in the north it will probably get a lot colder... but no worries I'm staying warm..
Well we are finally getting back to normal schedule, we've been totally thrown off with Christmas and new years, i think it will be good to finally get back to normal. So I'm actually pretty excited about that. hm... what else has happened.. I dont really know... Not too much has happened this week so I'm not really sure what to write about... sorry, but Take care and I love and miss you,
Rakkaudella,
V. Nathan Peck






Hello Mother,
Hey so how is everything going there?so quick question... did you make a blog about Christmas and all the gifts and everything that everyone got? if so could you send it with the next email... cuz I'm kinda curious what everyone got... and did Tim get a calender? Well so everything here is going good.. i hope you enjoy the pics and I hope that they worked... if not sorry ill try again next week... Any way things here are going good.. we have change calls this week so next time i email i will know if I'm going anywhere... I'm guessing not but we shall see.. We are also having district meeting this week so that's going to be fun... we are going to be going down to turku again, so that shall be awesome. hmm... not too much else happened.. we didn't really do anything for new years eve cuz we weren't allowed to be out past 6:00 due to drinking and crazy people... so i don't really know what happened.. you probably would know more that me if you looked at the pori cam. Hmmm... i don't really know what else... it was a pretty lame week... welp. take care and have a dandy week.. I love and miss you. take care.
Rakkaudella,
V. Nate Peck