5.27.18

I don’t know how wives of husbands that are gone a lot do it. I’m lucky and blessed to not have mine gone too much. Ray went to Pennsylvania to visit his family for almost a week. I was glad that he got to go and visit, but I sure missed him! He was a big help to his family while he was there. His aunt was in the middle of moving and his mom was in the hospital for a few days. He came home Tuesday night. Here is him and his mom. 

This weekend has been so much fun. We have had a couple of our rms come visit us. One- Zackary Bishop, he’s been home almost 5 years! He came with his girlfriend Jen and his sister Becca. He was nice and took us to the ballgame! 

This is their normal... hahahahaha 

One of my most favorite things to do is ride the ferry. I love being out on the water. It was in the 60s and a little cloudy, so with the wind blowing, a little chilly. I like to stand out on the deck and just breathe it all in. (The Seattle skyline is in the background).

I’m so happy it’s a 3 day weekend! We’ve stayed up Way to late having fun and talking with our friends!

Love ya!

Sister Shoop

Sent from my iPhone

5.20.18

We got some new callings in our ward today! Brother Grubbs and the whole ym presidency was released and we got new ones all from new 6th ward people. Adam Cline ym President, Brother Morrison 1st Counselor, and Brother Chard 2nd. That should be a great presidency! I got a laurels advisor- Darlene Chambers and Tonya Richardson was released from Sunday School teaching.

I’m really excited for President Nelson’s face to face with the youth! He wrote them and letter and put out a short video for them to encourage them to come and gave them a challenge to read the Book of Mormon every day and pray for a purpose- a question to answered at the fireside. You cal just feel his love for the youth in the video! 

Here is his letter. I love it so much!

Dear Youth of the Church:  I am deeply impressed by your goodness and potential. As we prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Savior, I want you to know that you have a personal role to play!  To help you gain a vision of who you truly are and understand your role in the latter days, my wife, Wendy, and I will share a special message with you on Sunday, June 3.  We invite you to gather with your family and friends to watch the broadcast together.  Until then, I encourage you to prepare by reading from the Book of Mormon daily and pray that the Lord will reveal to you what He would have you personally do and become.  Sincerely,  Russell M. Nelson President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

And his signature! He has beautiful handwriting!

As school gets closer to ending ( but still a long ways off for us here in Wa- June 21), life gets crazier. We are trying to get all of Keagan’s dr appointments and everything done for him to submit his mission papers. He is getting really close to being able to submit them! So crazy!

This week Ray was able to go to Pennsylvania to visit his family. I’m glad he could go see his mom and aunt. He’s been a great help to them. His step dad passed away a couple of weeks ago and he already had his ticket for this time, it has been good for him to be able to help his mom with some things. 

Hazel hasn’t started totally dressing herself.. yet, but she has some strong opinions on what to wear. She insisted on having her leggings and shorts on! Hahahahaha 

5.13.18

This week was a really good and fun week, but also a little overwhelming. 

Wednesday night I got to go the David Archuleta concert. My friend Sandy texted me and asked if I wanted to go, she had one extra ticket. They are really into his music.. :). Her daughter Lauren made us custom t-shirts with his face on it. She did all the getting the image and whatever else she did to make it look so cute. We got really good seats and it was so amazing and awesome. Now I need to get his cd.

The only problem is.. I don’t do well with out enough sleep. And it really wasn’t the concerts fault, but I stayed up late talking to Ray and the next day I was not as prepared as well as I should of been and I almost had a melt down..
My special project that I had printed out for Mother’s Day and preschool That morning.. I put in a “special place” and uhm.. I never found where that special spot was. I still haven’t found them. So, I sent the pics to Walgreens to be printed.. again and called Ray, my hero, almost in tears and asked him to go pick them up for me pretty please before preschool was over so we could wrap them and send them to the moms. He’s so awesome and came to my rescue.. but wasn’t too happy. I don’t blame him.
I was in charge of mutual Thursday, too, and helping host a baby shower Saturday. But it all was good.

Luckily the weather has been beautiful this week! That is always cheerful!

Keagan had his North Thurston prom Saturday night. That is #2 of 3 for them this year. They wanted to go to Mormon prom and each of their own high school proms since it is their Senior year. This year his prom was at the children’s museum and he said that it was the best thing ever. They got to play on the toys there. Fun!

                                                                     At the museum

I was thinking about all the missionary phone/Skype calls today! How awesome! And thinking about how next year that will be me. So strange to think of!
Tonight my family came over, my mom and step dad Thom, my sis Cindy and her daughter Aurora, and my brother Adam and his wife Heather and my niece Anna. It was so fun being together and visiting and laughing. It hasn’t always been a good experience, so I was especially grateful for the great time we had all together! Sadly, I didn’t get any pics. We were all so busy enjoying each other’s company!

And Hazel! She is getting so big!

Love ya all!
Sis Shoop

5.6.18

Hello! I’m so glad spring is starting to come! We’ve had more sunny days than rain and it’s been a welcome change!

I’ve been working at Horizons elementary school a lot lately. I’ve been working MWF and doing preschool TT. This job at Horizons keeps extending and it has been good. I work in the PBIS room which stands for positive behavior intervention specialist. Basically all the kids that have problems get on a plan and have their behavior tracked, if they do well, then they get rewards with things like computer time and little trinkets. It helps the kids that have behavior issues do a little better. I also have to answer the walkie talkie- hand held radio for calls of kids misbehaving. It’s a little crazy sometimes and sometimes boring. I’m never sure which is better...

Most of the kids come from heart braking situations. One lives with his Nana and his mom abandoned him. He has no idea who his dad is. 

Makes me grateful for my life and that my kids had a good upbringing. 

For preschool this week, I took pics of the kids with the letters M O M and put them in a collage for their Mother’s Day gifts. They turned out so cute and I’m probably more excited about them than the kids! Ha!

In recently got the bookshelf plus ap from Deseret boom. I have been loving it. I would recommend it to anyone who loves reading or listening to books from Deseret Book. All my other books I listen to or read I can get from the library, but I never want to spend the money on Deseret books.. so many on are on the plus ap. It’s under $10 a month. I have recently been listening to a historical fiction book on the life of Peter the apostle. It has been really good putting thing into perspective for me and a timeline. I’ve gone back and read for the New Testament a few times to compare what is true/fiction. I’m kind of not wanting to to listen to it right now because I’m at the part where Jesus is going to be crusified. So sad just thinking about it, but I’m excited for what happens after! I’m grateful for the knowledge of my Savior dying for me and my sins can be forgiven. I’m grateful for good books that can help me understand this better, too. 

Turners are leaving a week from Monday for their mission. They’ve been gone a lot visiting family, so we didn’t get to hear a talk from them. 

Keagan has dentist and doctor appointments this week for mission paperwork. He was disappointed because we took him 6 months ago to the dentist they said he didn’t need his wisdom teeth pulled.. well now he does and has to see an oral surgeon because one is in strange. So hopefully that doesn’t push it back too much.. only a couple weeks until we can get him all the appointments he needs. 
He goes to another prom this weekend. His at North Thurston. They each wanted to go to their own school prom for their Senior year and Mormon prom.. so three proms for them this year. Wow!

Well.. have a good week!
Love ya!
Sis. Shoop

4.29.18

Ray got a new calling today, 2nd counselor in Elders quorum presidency. Seems a little strange to be in there again, but it will be a good calling and I’m excited for him. The new President is Brother Chambers that came over from 6th ward. He was in the bishopric there and a newer younger man, Bro. Nielsen. 

My lesson in Yw was, “Why was the first vision so important?” It’s interesting to me to think about because it is something that we talk about fairly often. And it’s so important that the missionaries memorize it. Just something to ponder about. We watched the movie. I had the 1977 version, too, but watched the newer one. It was interesting to see the similarities/differences. 

It was an eventful week. A friend’s son got his mission call. And another younger friend told me they are expecting their first baby. Such good news all around. I’m always happy to hear such great news!

Keagan got to go to Mormon Prom with his girlfriend Makayla. They went with a huge group. I think there was 16 people in their group. There were a few boys from our new ward. Keagan had such a great time. It was the first time he’s been able to be with such a nice group of kids and he was so happy. He told me this was the best date ever. 

The boys planned the whole thing and assigned parts out to everyone- dinner, rides to the dance, and pictures. 

They started at the Nisqually building for dinner and dessert. And some pictures. (I can’t wait to see them). And then off to Elma for the dance. Afterwards they went to someone’s house for Karaoke. I was glad for 1:00 church today! By the time we got Makayla home in Rainier, it was a little after 1 this morning when we got home. I’m not used to staying up that late!

This one cracks me up below!!! They almost look like an old married couple...








Part of their group. Some of the girls got ready together and so several were at this fancy house of one of the girls. 



And Ray trying to stay awake for Keagan. Hahahahaha 


Love you all! Have a great week

Sis Shoop
Sent from my iPhone

4.22.18

Keagan’s prayer tonight.. poor kid, we kept telling him different things to pray for. And that Makayla will still like you! Haha. He skipped that part.

My mom and step dad came to visit us tonight. It was a nice visit. We’re planning summer vacations and places to visit. I want them to take me to Forks because I lived there in Kindergarten and first grade. I want to know if my memories match the real thing. 

The sun has been out this week and will be out this week! 70s and 80s! So exciting!!!

We walked around the docks a little bit last night in downtown Olympia and it looked like a ferry out there!


Now I want to know more! Can I ride a ferry somewhere instead of driving? Wouldn’t that be awesome?!


And we got a new bed! It’s dreamy! I’ve slept good the last couple of nights since we got it. 

Sorry so short.. 
love you all
Sis shoop
Sent from my iPhone

4.15.18

Today is Hazel’s 2nd birthday! Man that went by quick! We took her to JCPenney to get her pics take while we were in Utah. She has the funnest personality. My favorite is how she thinks things are funny. She likes this video that is some kid saying something like I like beef. She sits and watches it over and over and .. and laughs every single time. I took a video of her dancing and watching herself in front of the mirror.. same thing. She laughed and wanted to watch it over and over.

I love all my new girls. It’s so fun to have more girls in yw! Our ward is so big now, too. We played a speed dating game Thursday. It was so fun. There was lots of noise.. laughing and talking. It was great!

Today we were able to go to a baptism. I love going to baptisms. The spirit is always so strong. Lux, Leilani’s daughter was baptized. Ray was able to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost. Brooklyn sang and it was beautiful! “Come unto Christ” (I think was the name). It really touched me, but of course with Brooklyn singing - even more. I just watched her thinking how much I love that woman and have loved watching her grow up and so grateful that her and Melissa had each other growing up. I couldn’t ask for better friends than my daughter has! Brooklyn and her other friends growing up with Melissa are amazing! One of my greatest joys is watching them still and all the amazing things they do!
My heart is full!


Love you all!
Have a good week!
Sis Shoop