Food Drive for MI Food Pantry

The top photo shows some of the food collected by our ward and the bottom photo is the food I collected. This was a stake service opportunity for Day of Remembrance on 9/11. The expectation was for us to leave flyers on doorknobs of 40 households. Time was limited since it was my third week of school. However, I felt it was important to doorbell and explain the project in person. I was only able to leave flyers at 20 doors. However, on Saturday I collected a trunk full of donations (see above picture) - 5 from people on our lane who already knew me, but 5 from people I spoke with but had never met before. I saved flyers to share if any of you are interested in the project for your area. I loved doing this because it shows LDS folks doing service to benefit the local community. Our food pantry here on MI received enough donations to stock their shelves for three months from our ward's contributions.

What up?

Hello everyone! The McKee's in Beechgrove are still kickin'. Some of them literally. Sarah is well into her soccer season. She has a wonderful time running around and scoring goals. School is going well for all three. Erin is in her first year of being home schooled. That seems to be going well with lots of opportunities to learn and grow. The reading bug has really bitten her. Erin has always loved to read, but recently she has really been filling knocking them down. She is currently on the second book ,Ice Fire, of a series written by Chris D'Lacey. She has also read the first book in the Pendragon series as well as a few other books. All of these over just the past 4 or 5 weeks.

Sam and Sarah are at Northfield, which is where Danny, Zach and Tim went. We didn't hold that against them. (Notice the intentional use of the vague pronoun.) Sam is really hitting his stride with school. While he isn't completely into it, his grades are as good as ever with all A's and B's. Sarah is also becoming an avid reader. She used to take the easy route with her reading assignments. She just started the Dead End series and seems to really enjoy it.

Jenny has a deep passion for Greek Mythology and is currently holding home-school sessions with Erin and another home-schooler once a week. I think she plans on doing this for about 2 months. They will be visiting the Parthenon in Nashville. Nashville is a sister city to Athens and has a full sized replica of the Parthenon.

Last month Jenny, Erin and I took a road trip to Washington, D.C. We had a wonderful time. I had never been there before. My favorite museum was the National Archives. They had several learning stations that gave you the feeling that you were doing research to discover some little known fact about various points in history. Seeing the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and other historical documents was incredible.

We also attended the Restoring Honor rally. (I know all of you socialist are deeply disappointed in us. ;-)) We left Beechgrove Friday evening around 5pm and drove through the night. We arrived in DC at 5am thinking we would have our pick of spots to sit. I ended up dropping Jenny and Erin off at the Lincoln Memorial at about 5:30am and they couldn't get any closer than about 100 yards from the stage. I parked at the Arlington National Cemetery and hiked back to where Jenny and Erin were seated. We stayed the night Saturday night, did more sight-seeing on Sunday and drove back that evening. (Another all-nighter for me.) It took me a few days to get back to a normal sleeping pattern.

Passey Family Update

August seemed to fly by! Our last month of summer before Will started back at BYU was really fun. We started the month with a visit to Seattle to stay with Mom and Dad and Blake. While there we were able to go to the temple with Mom, enjoy Pike Place market with Dad and introduce the whole family to one of our favorite new games - the bean game. Thanks for a wonderful relaxing weekend.

The rest of August was crazy - Will manages both of the Jamba Juices on campus and their busiest week of the year is education week. He was busy preparing, surviving and recovering from that most of the rest of the month! Add training new employees and making the final fall schedule and that pretty much sums it all up. I'm still working at Nexus Pain Care. It's been a little crazy there too as we adjust to everyone's fall schedules, but we're getting a new fellow this next week so that will be exciting. I've also started working 4 ten hour days so I can have Fridays off - which allows me to do stuff like write on the blog in the PJs at 9:00! (normally I'm at work by 7am)

Will and I are very excited about BYU football! First game is this Saturday against UW here in Provo - we'll be there! We're also exciting about BYU going independent and their 8 year deal with ESPN - that means we can continue to watch the cougars play as we leave UT for PA school.

Speaking of PA school I've got a number of interviews lined up at different schools. We'll keep you posted on where we end up! Love you all!

Hi everyone. Well, Aaron started the first grade last month. He's trying to get used to the rigors of not being in kindergarten anymore, but he enjoys it so far. Nathan is starting preschool with Becca and some other families in the ward. He told me all about it after his first day on Tuesday.

Last Friday Becca had an ultrasound and we found out that will be having another boy in February. A Texas Ranger to add to my California Forty-niners. I was hoping for another Texas Bluebonnet. I guess we'll get the boys out of the way while we're young.

Instructions to post: Go to blogspot.com and sign in with your email. If you forgot your pass word you can easily reset it. It should then give you the option to post on the blog.

Wild and Crazy Summer!

I can't believe that school is starting! Where did the summer go? I have to admit that it was a fun-filled summer at the Behnke house and we didn't let any moss grow under our feet. I attended a four day writer's workshop the week after school was out. Kara and Jan (Rodden) Conway flew in to help me make the move to a new classroom. We managed an afternoon of fun in the sun, but worked hard most of the time. We even got most of the boxes from last winter's (February & March) remodel moved back into the house. I attended a one day workshop in Tacoma, and Kara had a phone interview from Boise that day. Next summer Kara and I plan to do a workshop together!
The next stop found the Behnke Bunch in New York City. It was our first trip with Will. We enjoyed all the familiar tourist sites, visited several museums, saw some plays and took the ferry to Ellis Island (where we discovered the ship's manifest for Lance's grandmother and family who emigrated from Germany). We had pizza at Grimaldi's with Blake's friend Larson and his wife, ate dinner in little Italy, and enjoyed a visit to Magnolia's Bakery. You gotta love the food and the sites in NYC!
Lance and I actually spent a week at home before Blake came home from Provo for a busy three weeks before heading off to law school. We went to KS where Lance attended his 40th high school reunion and we enjoyed good times with family. Blake hadn't been to KS for quite a few years. Lance went from KS to Houston and Blake and I returned to Seattle. Sara and Will joined us for almost a week. We celebrated their 1st and our 28th anniversary at Daniel's Broiler where Sara and Will's reception was held last year. I enjoyed a trip with Sara and Will to visit his grandfather and Ann in Shelton and his Aunt Liz and Steve in Pouslbo.
Then we had a busy few days getting Blake ready to head to GW (George Washington) Law School in DC. Blake was very organized and even managed to get all his stuff in the five bags we checked! We had fun getting around his part of DC - locating IKEA, Costco, and the nearest Safeway to his new apt. We enjoyed putting things away in his kitchen even though Blake is still learning his own way around the cabinets and wondering where the heck did we put his dishes and utensils! The joys of meddling parents! All too soon (much to Blake's relief),we had to leave him in his new environment and head back to Seattle. These two Washingtons are too far apart!
When we got home on the 18th it was time to buckle down and get ready for the opening of school. The students come this Tuesday, Aug. 31. Lance headed back to Houston today for his first trip there in a month.
Lance and I did see a good movie on Saturday, Get Low. It stars Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Bill Murray (they are all getting older)! I hope you get to see it when it comes to your theater.
Have a great September. I hope to see more of you on the blog!
Love,
Ramona & Lance

The Long Awaited Post

Here is our opportunity to revive the blog. I'll be sending emails inviting everyone to view and or post on the blog once a month.

We've had a busy month with Nana and Papa Johanson visiting at the beginning of July. We spent the 4th of July watching fireworks at the George Bush Library. Nathan is really fun to watch fireworks with. He says ooh, aahh, and , my favorite, Ohh Yeah.

Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma West arrived on the 21st. We all went to a 24th of July Primary activity where Becca taught the kids Square Dancing. We also took a trip to the temple yesterday and Grandpa and the boys and I went to a Brazos Valley Bombers Baseball game.

We also have some exciting news. Becca is pregnant with our 4th, which we will be expecting at the beginning of February.

Reunion Pictures from Ramona and Blake

I missed Becca's call for pics, but here's a link to the reunion photos taken by Blake and me.

http://gallery.me.com/bookwoman98#100318

Just cut and paste the address and it should take you to the reunion album. Options at the bottom allow you to view the pictures in a grid, mosaic, carousel, or slideshow format. Also, note that there are three pages to the album.

I hope this works. It would have been better if I had met Becca's deadline, but things are a bit crazy here.

Mona