Grüße aus Deutschland

I know it has been awhile since I last posted on my blog, but I will use this time to share and reflect on upcoming events in my life.

Yes, I am in Germany, the pic above is where my sister, her husband and their family are living while stationed in Dusseldorf with the Air Force.  They are renting this older farm house which sits on about 100 acres of land occupied with horse stables, pastures, and indoor riding arena.  The owners live just across the driveway and take care of the place.  It gives my nephews and nieces a lot of room to play, including a lot of brick pathways for them to ride their bicycles.  It is pretty cool to see both houses and most of the driveway laid out in brick, in fact most of the town is also in abundance of brick.

I will be here for the next 6 weeks, but most of my time will be travelling to different countries. Having never been overseas before I have decided to take advantage of this opportunity and discover parts of Europe I have only ever read about.

My Blog will be updated each Sunday as I try to share my experiences with you,

Enjoy!

Wishing you an Eventful New Year

Happy Halloween

Once again, we held a Halloween Dance for the Mid-Singles in our area, we held our event at the local LDS Chapel and had over 300 attend. Not bad for a Dance held in a church gym. The 2 fro boys are cousin Trent and our friend Jim.

Uncle Cliff

Recently my sister decided that while her husband was deployed for 15 months in the Air Force, she would move her family (6 kids) to my mom's house in Idaho. I was able to spend a couple of weeks in at my moms around Christmas time to help her prepare for this huge change in her life. At the end of January my sister and her family all moved in from Lousianna. They had a moving company do all of the work, except it was hard for me to just watch, so I chipped in when it came to unloading the truck. My sister had decided to move only the things she needed into mom's house and the rest would go to storage. So using my uncle's truck and horse trailer, we hauled everything else to storage. We ended up having to move twice, because the first storage unit was too small for all of their extra stuff.

After the first week was over, I decided to stay another week and make sure they were all settled in (as much as could be). My sister and I dropped off her husband at the airport, and then decided to stop at Costco. That was a mistake, my sister had been talking to my mom about building a swing set in the newly landscaped backyard. Of course they had a swing set on display at Costco and my sister asked "would you be able to build that for us?" I thought for a minute and replied "If you want to get it now, I can start on it Monday, thinking she wasn't ready to buy it yet. So we ended up buying the swing set later that afternoon, and I thought to myself it should only take a day or two. When all was said and done, it took four and a half days to complete. The slide itself came in 30 pieces and took the last 6 hours to complete.

During the build, my nephew would be outside helping me, and my other nephews and nieces would watch from inside, anxiously waiting for it to be completed. Now I said earlier it was a mistake to stop at Costco, but after seeing all of my nephews and nieces enjoying their new play set, it was well worth my time to be "Uncle Cliff"

Happy Holidays!!

Wishing all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

This year has been a very enjoyable time of my life.

• I was able to spend a few months at my mom's landscaping her back yard, including a new automatic sprinkler system.

• During the summer I attended our 20 year class reunion, 14 of the 20 from our class were able to attend. It was nice to see everyone again and be able to spend time with their families.

• In August I hosted our first Irving reunion, we rented a cabin in Midway, UT. We spent time as a family at Temple Square, Hoogle Zoo, and of course on the lake.

Wanted to take a few minutes to express my gratitude to the things in my life that I have been blessed with.

• My Dad, Mom, and each of my brothers and sisters, including my 11 nephews and 6 nieces.

• All of my friends that have come in and out of my life over the last 30 years, especially those that have stayed in touch and continue to be a part of my life.

• My career that has allowed me to enjoy so many things in my life.

• Most importantly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I am so grateful for His gift to me, His Birth, Atonement, and Resurrection.

May each of us take time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas

P.S. I have had a few friends ask me to post my recent talk in Our Singles Ward, click on the pic to read