February 25, 2008 by Melanee.

Thank you everyone for your donations to PanCAN and support to Marlene. We got close to our $2500 goal ($2465) and we appreciate everyone’s donation. Marlene was able to complete her half marathon and raise money to PanCAN. The experience was priceless and Marlene is better for it.
Last year’s marathon was her tipping point in being able to cope with her father’s illness and ultimate passing. This trip just confirmed that she is doing well. (Just by cutting her running time by 10 minutes and really enjoying the whole experience.) Thanks to her friend Cody who ran by her side during training and the half marathon.
Marlene is now training to work with children by helping them cope with the loss of a parent for her volunteer work that she will be doing at college.
If someone told me 5 years ago that we would be where we are in our lives I would not believe it. Never thought any of our family would be doing the things we do now.

(I took the picture of Marlene running at the 10-mile mark.(See below) As she passed by I told her to slow down so I could get a picture. She started doing the slow motion actions and everyone around me started to laugh as she came by. She is a character)

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February 23, 2008 by Marlene.

Mom’s been bugging me to put up pictures of Miami so I picked through some of the ones having to do with the race.
You still have 3 days to donate so if you’ve been waiting to contribute then now is the time to do it.
Enjoy the slideshow.

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February 18, 2008 by Ashley.

Mallory reminded me to post a picture of me pregnant because no one has seen me, so I thought it was about time since I’m starting to look pregnant… and not just fat. I also can show off my first maternity shirt that I finally broke down and bought. There is a picture below of me. I guess the maternity shirt did the trick because at church the last 2 weeks people actually asked if I was expecting (that can be a sensitive question to bring up to someone).

Speaking of church, Pat and I just got called to teach the CTR 8 class (7 going on 8 year olds). We were excited until we found out there were 13 in the class - yikes! And 10 of them are boys - very energetic boys. They are a lot of fun because they’re old enough to actually understand what we’re talking about and ask intelligent questions. But like I said before, they have a whole lot of energy. Pat and I have been working on classrooom management techniques because we think all they need is a solid routine and then things will go smoothly. It seems to be working even though it’s only our 3rd week. We still can improve though because I leave church every week exhausted.

As far as Pat goes, he pulled out the BBQ for the first time this year, which he was very excited for. He made BBQ pork, which turned out REALLY good!

As for me, I have recently starting substituting now that my teaching certificate got transferred from Utah to Colorado (finally). I usually work 1-2 days a week which is nice because it’s not too exhausting. With tutoring on top of that, that makes more than enough work for me.

Pat and I have also starting contemplating names for the baby. It’s actually kind of funny in that one our favorite names happened to be Pat’s Mom’s new dog’s name. And later when Pat was talking to his dad, it turns out they have ANOTHER dog named one of my favorite names. I might just use those names anyway… not sure yet though. Our top 5 though, are:
Lily (new dog)
Lydia
Daisy (old dog)
Olive (weird I know, but we like it)
Violet

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February 14, 2008 by Mallory.

So I have a very interesting and funny story about what my students told me this week. As most people know, February is black history month. What many of you also know is that my class is made up of 100% African American students. I read them a book about Martin Luther King, Jr. and I was telling them how not all white people hated black people back then. There were several white people who were on their side. One of my students then said, “I don’t like white people” to which another student replied “That means you don’t like Mrs. Fackrell!” Then he responded back, “Mrs. Fackrell isn’t white.” Then my students proceeded to ask me, “Mrs. Fackrell, are you black or white?” I didn’t really know how to respond, given the conversation that just went on, so I simply said, “I’ll leave that for you to decide”, which then almost unanimously they said, “Mrs. Fackrell is black.” So I’ve officially become accepted! It’s kinda exciting and funny at the same time. Anyway, just thought I’d share that little funny teacher moment! Until next time!

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February 7, 2008 by Melanee.

This word has been strongly placed in my mind for a while now since Marlene finished her marathon. But, this also relates to all my daughters as they live their lives now. With Kev’s passing it has changed our future decisions and life experiences, yet my girls all keep living their lives with lots of courage and strength.
Kev and I went through a lot of ups and downs raising our children. Kev wore his grey hair with pride. We blamed Kev’s gray patch on Leah. Then Kev’s peppered look on Ashley. Mallory didn’t give us trouble (she still have time to do that) Marlene gave me my grey hair. But we survived their teenage years and I am really enjoying who they have become.
Kev and I had to have the courage to buck the latest trends and “Keeping up with the Jones”. We made going to church very fashionable in thier lives. Now they have been taught the values and principles that they live today. It took lots of courage to be different in school and say no to alot of temptations. My girls had a lot of courage to stand up and live how we taught them to live.

My faith has given me lots of guidance in how I can raise my chldren:patience, following the spirit, seek good advice. But, our faith also gives the girls values to live by so it is not so hard to raise them.
My faith also gives me the courage to keep going even though there are moments when it is hard to. The comfort comes in very special moments of intense love and encouragement. The Lord knows my needs.
The courage to keep going through life and keep living, one day, one hour, one minute, or one moment in time.

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February 6, 2008 by Mallory.

Some of you have probably been watching the news and saw the crazy tornadoes in Memphis. Well, it’s true. Today (Tuesday), we got out of school at 12:30. Then we got home, ready to enjoy the rest of our day off, but no. We started hearing the crazy loud tornado warning alarm, so we went outside to look at the clouds and what they were doing. When we went out, we saw something forming not too far away, but it seemed to go away. There was someone living on the bottom floor that was with us, so we were looking at her TV at the same time as looking outside. Then at one point, it said, If you live in Bartlett (right near where we were), take cover now! So that’s what we did. A whole bunch of us went under the stairs in the hallway in our apartments, which is the safest place there. It was scary, but nothing severe happened right near us. Unfortunately, there were several people killed and many injured elsewhere, but luckily we are ok. They said that this was the worst tornado weather in Memphis in 30 years. Crazy! It got up to 79 degrees today, which was nice, but of course we knew something had to be wrong, and it was. But we are all ok and things are great. I’ve never been even near severe tornado weather before, so this was quite the experience for me! It was exciting, but luckily not too eventful. Besides all that, in general, things are going well. Until next time!

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