Campaigning in CO

This weekend I was able to travel to Grand Junction, Colorado to campaign for Obama with the BYU Students for Obama. It was a great weekend! We drove there Friday night and spent all day Saturday knocking on doors, canvassing neighborhoods to get a since of how people were planning on voting. I was able to get a number of people registered to vote who weren't and we got to talk about issues such as the economy and healthcare with those who were interested. I am very excited for the upcoming election. We drove back to Provo Saturday night. Back here in Provo everything is going well. This semester I'm taking Organic Chemistry, Molecular Biology (with a lab) and Physics (also with a lab). My fun classes are D&C and a shadowing internship that I'm doing at a local pediatrician's office - I spend 4 hours a week following the pediatrian around. I love getting to see all the babies come in for the 6 month and 1 year appointments. I just got a calling in my new ward - ward historian. Not super exciting - but I should be able to do it just fine. BYU's football team has had a stellar season so far and Blake and I are really enjoying going to the games! Susan - you have to let us know if any of the kids ever come up for games! That's about it for me here in Provo - I spend most of my time studying. This past week I took my OPI (oral proffiency interview) - it's the last thing I have to do to finish my spanish major. I think it went well, but I have to wait four to six weeks to find out my score. I'm looking forward to General Conference next weekend. We should try to post some of our thoughts and favorite talks here on the blog. I hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Sara

Hurrican Ike

I know that you all are probally concerned about us so I wanted to give you a quick update. They said on the tv that we had some hurricane force gusts, but mostly just a tropical storm. It is still raining and a little windy, but the storm is far enough past us that they have taken us off of tropical storm alert and flash flood alert. It was a little worrisome hearing the wind whistling outside, but there has not been any damage done to us or our home. We haven't even had a power outage. We are very greatful that we are out of the danger. They said on the news that this is the worst hurricane that has hit this area of Texas since 1961. We were also very greatful to be able to get two trees in our yard taken down yesterday before the storm hit. One was hollow on the inside and the other was split down the middle from lightning so they very well could have fallen and done some damage to our house if they were still there. Well, we love you all! Have a great day!

Here I am!!

OK, here I am, I finally got myself added. Life has been pretty crazy. School started last week, Aug. 25 for my kids. Whitney starts pre-school next Tuesday, and she cannot wait. She has been going stir crazy with all the kids being gone. I have been busy since we got home from Tennessee studying for some tests that are provisions on my teaching license, which passing them will also qualify me as a 'highly qualifed teacher', which I have to be to be hired. There is a part time kindergarten position that I am interested in and hope to start doing mid-September, early Oct. when the hiring freeze is lifted here. The tests I needed where the PPST (which I had taken while Scott and I were dating at BYU and did really well on, but couldn't find my scores, so had to retake) and the Praxis II. When I saw the practice test for the essay portion I had to take, I knew I was going to have to have a Priesthood blessing to pass. As it turned out, Scott's cousin Willie Waite gave me a blessing the Sunday before the test instead of the night before like I had planned. That week before the test ended up being a calm, productive week and I was able to find many beneficial things to study. Anyway, I did pass all five sections that I needed, and am so relieved. My scores were even 'great' scores. I am surprised at the number of people at the testing center for the Praxis who were there for the 3rd time!
Jessica is doing well again as 'libero', the defensive specialist on her volleyball team. Haydn is playing offense and defense on the jv football team and loving it. Jeremy is playing offense, defense, kick off, kick return, punt squad.......everything, so he is very excited. His first game is Saturday. He had a scrimmage two weeks ago, and his team looks really good too. Amy thought she was going to play soccer this year, but can actually play volleyball instead, so she is very excited about that. Nathan will be the lone soccer player and is excited about being the 'older' grade on the team. haha.
Well, it is late and I am tired, so I will stop for now, or I will just blab on and on. But, I made it on, so my goal for next time will be to get some pics on! : )

Kara needs to drive a tank now...

Well hello everyone!

I'm at work a little early this morning and decided to get some good old fashioned blogging done. First off, here is what Kara's car looked like after it got in a fight with a mustang. Like my dad said, we are so blessed that Kara and mom are okay. It really could have been a lot worse. We can laugh about it now, though. It was funny because we were moving that day and didn't have enough seats for all of the people that were helping. My brother-in-law, Logan, was on a motorcycle with Shawnee (I didn't like that very much, but oh well). He wanted Kara to ride on the back of the motorcycle with him. Kara refused though, saying that it would be more dangerous on the motorcycle.

We are happy to be finished with all of the wedding stuff. Thanks for all of the love and support. We had two outstanding receptions. We know that there was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that went into getting everything ready. Mostly sweat though, because it was really hot. This is such a great family and I can't wait for Shawnee to meet the rest of you. We had a wonderful time in Florida. We got there late on monday night (thank you tropical storm enrique), but it wasn't too bad. The hotel was very nice. We spent the entire day on Tuesday at the beach. We went to Clearwater beach first, but it was a little crowded, so we drove about an hour north to Honeymoon Island. We of course had to eat lunch at Honeymoon Cafe. It was really cool, then we took a ferry to Caladesi Island. That's where we spent the rest of the day. It was really beautiful. There was probably 30 or so people on the entire island with us, so it was easy to just sit and relax. We spent the next day at Busch Gardens in Tampa. We both love zoos and rollercoasters, so we were excited to go somewhere with both.

We're back home now. We are both just working hard, but also trying to squeeze time in for date nights and so forth. Last Friday we went to Guthrie, OK and had a "Drive-in" themed date night, which included a trip to our favorite drive-in, Sonic and then a movie at the Drive-in. We saw "The Dark Knight" for the second time. It was really fun. I've really been enjoying grilling as of late. I hope to be a grill master soon, but only time will tell. Shawnee and I have both talked about how excited we are for the Colorado trip. It's going to be so much fun. This is such a great idea! I hope we can hear from everyone soon!

We love you!

-James and Shawnee

One more thing . . .

I forgot to share something else with you. This week I finally got caught up with reading my newspapers. I had newspapers all the way back to August 1st that I hadn't read yet.

Anyway, when I read the Tulsa paper for August 2nd, I found an article entitled "Police to target red-light runners". The article went on to say that August 3-August 9 had been declared as The National Stop on Red Week. Kara's accident occurred on August 9.

We thought about sending a copy of the article to Lindsey -- that's the girl's name that ran the stop light and broad-sided Kara. But, I guess we won't.

A Celebration & A Slight Bump in the Road . . .

We began the month of August with James and Shawnee's wedding and receptions. They were married on Friday, August 1 at the OKC Temple and we then traveled to Stillwater for a reception there. Arrived home about 12:30 AM, got a few hours rest and hit the ground running to get ready for the McAlester reception on Saturday evening. It was a busy day, but everything was so nice -- the Cultural Hall at Church was beautifully decorated, the food was wonderful and a good time seemed to be had by one and all. Lots of friends and relatives joined us for the evening.

As parents, Kathy and I couldn't be prouder that Shawnee has joined our family. She seems perfect for James and they are so cute together. We can't wait for everyone to get to meet the new Mr. and Mrs. Scifres!

Yes, there's been a slight bump in the road in our life, but we are so blessed! Kara and Kathy's accident on Saturday, August 9 could have been so much worse. As most of you know, Kara has 2 fractures in her pelvis -- one in the front and one in the back, both on the left side and a fractured rib. Kathy just got tossed around and is sore, but she's pretty much fine now.



When I told Kara about the new blog -- she said maybe we could post a picture of her car on the blog. (James -- You've got the only picture of it on your cell phone!) The had to use the jaws of life to get her door off, so they could get Kara out of the car.



Anyway, she's doing so much better. Getting up and down is so much easier than it was when she came home from the hospital last Tuesday. We're sure grateful for the wide doorways in our house -- because we're able to take her in the wheelchair anywhere she needs to go in the house.



We're going to see an orthopedist (not sure if I spelled that correctly) here in McAlester on Monday afternoon. That's an important appointment -- because Kara will be out of pain pills by Monday night.

Well, that's about all for now. We appreciate everyone's concern and prayers for Kara and Kathy. We could feel everyone's love during the past week.

I like it! Well, we've had a great start to the new school year. Erin, Sam and Sarah started 3 weeks ago and are all loving their new teachers and classmates. Erin and Sarah have started soccer practices. Their first games will be this coming Saturday.

We had a new roof put on this past week. It went rather quickly, in about a day and a half, the workers had stripped the old roof, replaced a few damaged boards and put on the new shingles. We like the work they did. We have a new color, it's a dark evergreen color that is what they call architectural shingles. It has a nice textured/3-D look to it.

Last week was a great one for the McKee's in middle Tennessee. Mom/Grandma/Nana came home on Wednesday. She is doing wonderfully at home and loving the new digs. Thanks to Aunt Mona, Nana's room is very tidy and maneuverable. Last night we had a celebratory dinner. We wanted to celebrate mom coming home and show our thanks to Heavenly Father for the miracle that we witnessed.

On a sad note, our long time friend Jessie passed away last week. Jessie was our Black Lab mix of almost 16 years of age. This is a long time for a dog of her breed. She led a full life out here on the farm. A dog couldn't ask for a better life than to be able to freely roam around on a combined 30+ acres. She was truly the queen of Jake Branch Road. Jenny got her when she was just a few months old so Jessie pre-dates me. It was very difficult for Jenny and the kids. We buried her here on the farm.

We really enjoyed Aunt Mona's visit. I once again succeeded in not having my kids officially photographed by Aunt Mona :-). It honestly is not intentional.

Big time congrats to James and Shawnee. We can't wait to meet you next year in Colorado. On that note, Jenny's mom just got back from Colorado on a visit with her brothers and sisters. She brought back with her some brochures on things to do like white water rafting, train excursions, gold mining, etc. Start thinking about things like this that we can do.

We love you all. Have a wonderful August!

Shaun, Jenny, Erin, Sam and Sarah