Turner Update

Last, but certainly not least, is the latest update on Turner, who had a very difficult transition to Utah.

I'm happy to report that Turner is doing AMAZING!!! It took a few months of tears, anger and anxiety; but he is now well-integrated into PC life and would not even want to move back. He does miss his AZ buddies; but has made many wonderful friends here, as well.

I'm also ecstatic to report that he is enjoying school for the first time in his life! He's in middle school this year and really enjoys going from class to class. In PC, the kids have “8” classes – 4 one day and 4 the next (alternating days). Both kids really like the alternating schedule. Turner also has a longer lunch than what he’s used to, which gives him more time to eat and hang out with his friends. Another big “win” for Turner is that all 6th grade students are presented with an Apple laptop computer that will remain with them for the next three years. He’s pretty stoked about that. We had to reign him in on usage, as he was obsessed with it...and not for school purposes, if you know what I mean. '-)

Turner has been playing soccer on a club team and has had a couple of tournaments. Regular season started in Sept; but he’s on the practice team and didn't participate in regular season games. There was only one open spot that another club kid got; so hopefully he’ll make it next year. He gets to practice with them, though, and participate in some tournaments. It’s actually kind of nice for us, as we have less to do. ‘-) He may opt for football next year, though...we'll see.

Now, we're all gearing up for ski season! The weather has been absolutely amazing here; but snow is eminent. November will likely be spotty and we'll have little to do outdoors. But, come December, we'll be on the slopes again...yippee!!! :)

P.S. Turner finally got his hair cut!

See pictures below...
1. Soccer team
2. Turner and best bud David (lives w/in walking distance
3. Turner and Eugene (neighbor who is a grade ahead)
4. Zack (neighbor and 1st friend), Liam and Turner
Note that Zack and Liam have older sisters who are Emily's age. We all live in Jeremy Ranch and are becoming great friends! :)

Emily Update

Em is doing fantastic! She has many wonderful friends and has integrated very well here. She has much more opportunity to “hang out” here than in AZ. With the high crime in AZ, I was very leery about letting her go places with friends. It is very different here, though. She’s been to concerts, walked all over around town, taken the free bus system, hung out at various parks/schools and has pretty much free reign to do just about anything…as long as it’s legal. ‘-)

She started lacrosse a few weeks ago for PC High. She’s never played before; but is enjoying it and adapting quickly with her soccer background. I can’t believe this is the first time in 10 years she hasn’t played soccer. She really wanted to something new, and is enjoying the process.

She is also in “Improv Club” and “Young Life.” Yet, she still makes time for dog sitting and babysitting. She made a lot of money over the summer…which funded her activities. Yeah!

She has a pretty tough workload in school this year, though. She’s taking AP Geography, Honors Biology and TWO math classes (Geometry and Algebra 2). She gave up an elective to take two math classes to free up a class in her senior year, so she can take a college class instead. We’re “trying” it out this semester to see how she can handle honors/AP classes. She’s struggling in Spanish, of all things. Funny.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos of Emily and her friends below. It's been difficult to get pictures of the "guys"...even the girls are a challenge.

1. Flanders, Gwen, Emily and Emma

2. Chelsey, Gwen, Emily, Clair and Flanders

3. Melissa and Emily

4. Emily and Claire

5. Melissa, Emily and Gwen

6. Emily and Maddie (neighbor and first friend)

Wine Tasting Party

Had our first wine tasting party here in Park City. What fun!!! We had 12 couples tasting and a neighbor drop by to join the festivities. Below are all the photos we took.

Home Upgrades

Many of you know we've encountered some issues with our new home and have had to fund several projects since we moved in. This summer, Tim and I have been busy with home improvements. We still have some winterization things to do, like heat tape and rain gutters for the roof; but all of our other projects are complete as follows:

• Resurfaced our deck
  
• Painted Em's room, Turner's room and the family room...I’m SO sick of painting!
  
• Installed a new back door and frame (was wood-rotted)
  
• Installed new flooring. Now we don't have to walk on particle board anymore!
  
• Re-landscaped the front yard so that we could more easily fit our trailer on the side of our house and removed quite a bit of grass for more ease of care taking.
  

But, we're not done for good. Next summer we have some more painting to do, a little more landscaping, re-carpeting, re-finishing stairs and, if we're lucky, re-flooring the upstairs. Oh, and we need a new fridge...hopefully it'll last another year. Ugh! But, we'll have a beautiful home ready for re-sale when we're done...not that we're going anywhere anytime soon. You'd have to drag us away kicking and screaming at this point. '-)

Below are several photos.

1. Our entry way (looking from the living room) with the stairs the left, front door to the right and office straight ahead. The wood flooring up to my office was refinished and we added wood to the office.
2. The hall, looking from the nook toward the front door, with a pantry on the left and living and formal dining on the right.
3. Looking at the entry way from my office into the living room. Note a bathroom is just to the left of my office.
4. If you look out my office to the right, this is the hallway you see. This view is looking from the family room toward the obvious bathroom, just outside my office. The hall flooring was refinished, while the flooring in the family room is new.
5. Looking from the hall into the family room area. You can see the new door we had put in.
6. Family room with new flooring and paint.
7. Another view of family room.
8. Looking from the family room into the nook and kitchen...yeah, it's small. Remarkably, though, we have more storage area than we did in our old house. There's just not much room to move around with more than one person in the kitchen at a time.

End of Summer Update

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog. We have been busy with this, that and the other…you know how it is. So, instead of writing one blog, I’m going to write several in succession. This way you can choose what sections you want to read. I’ll start this one with the general goings on in the Van Luven household.

We are fully integrated in PC now. All of us have friends to hang out with and feel very comfortable here. Everyone (including Turner) is very happy we moved here. It’s like a new beginning for all of us…more like an “awakening.” We just feel so blessed to have had everything fall into place so nicely.

Kids started school August 23^rd and things have settled back to normal. Both kids are really enjoying school. (More on this later.)

We’ve been focusing much of our extra time on preparing for winter. In purchasing a 15-year-old home, we have a long list of things to accomplish. Happy to say, though, that the list is dwindling.

Most recently, we re-landscaped part of our front yard, had a three-panel sliding back door installed, re-finished our deck, painted Em’s room, TJ’s room and the family room and are just finishing our flooring on the main level. We’ve been living on particle board in our family room because the carpet was pretty bad when we moved in. So, we pulled it out. We are having hard wood installed in the family room, informal dining room and my office. We are also having our existing wood flooring re-finished so that it will match our new flooring. It has been an arduous process; but will be worth it once it’s done. I have to say, though, I don’t ever want to do this again!

I’ll post pics of our remodeling adventure in another blog post.

Family and Friends Visit Park City

Had a great time with my family and friends this past week. My mom, dad, brother and good friend, Jim Martin stayed with us for a week. We walked around town a bit, hiked, biked, relaxed, played games, had several ping-pong matches, watched a few concerts, had great food and drinks, and had an all-around great time.

Free scrapbook design customized with Smilebox

We also celebrated Independence Day with the Wilsons. Tim and Jeannette Wilson were here with their boys, too. We got up early to get a good spot for the parade, then went to the city park for a picnic and concert. Tim stayed at the concert with the kids and I went back to our place with my family for a quick nap and a bite to eat. We had "Shabu Shabu," which is Japanese "pot-style" cuisine. It was quite delicious!

After dinner, we went to Tim and Jeannette Wilson's condo and watched Fireworks from the golf course. It was quite cold on the golf course and we were all snuggled in blankets. The fireworks were spectacular! And, they were followed by a personal set of fireworks that went off right above our heads...crazy!!! I've never seen them that close before and it was quite the experience. Earlier in the evening people were setting off fireworks all over the golf course. Turner had a few ground fireworks that he showed off, too. Personal fireworks are illegal in AZ; so it was cool to see people's personal displays here in PC.

You can check out our 4th of July celebrations below. Be sure to see Turner's pie eating contest!

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Trip to Cali

My youngest sister, Erika, graduated from Cal State Long Beach May 26th. My parents (Jim and Linda), my Grandma Martha (Jim's mom), my brother John and my other sister Erin all went to Cali to celebrate and have some fun!

I flew in Tuesday and the rest of my family drove and get there Tuesday night. The grad ceremony was Wednesday and we were up till like 2am celebrating.

We stayed in a house in San Clemente. It was a lovely little home with a nice back yard and ping-ping table. We played more ping-pong than I have in my entire life! And, I have a ping-pong table!

Spent some time on the beach, went to a Polynesian Festival, walked around town, ate out, ate in, had ice cream (yum), watched movies (saw "Blind Side" finally) and just had a fantastic time.

The only down side was that Tim and the kids had to stay home. The kids didn't get out of school until June 3rd and we didn't want to take them out of school not knowing what the consequences of that would be. I missed them; but had a fantastic time!

Click below to see the photos.

This scrapbooking design made with Smilebox

Update - May 3, 2010

We are all doing well, and have a few things to report.

~Rocky has adjusted well after Sheba’s death. He actually stopped running away. He just hangs out with us outside now, without darting off. It's rather bizarre, really, because he's been a runner since we got him almost five years ago. We think he feels more part of OUR “pack” now that Sheba is gone. Or, he may sense that something bad will happen if he leaves, since that's what happened to Sheba. In any case, we sure are glad that bad habit has been extinguished!

~Although the tragedy of Sheba's accident will be forever etched in our minds, we have all adjusted rather well and things seem to be back to a new state of "normal."

~Turner made a miraculous change for the better, too. He came back from spring vacation with a new lease on life her in Utah. The first week back was a little rough. But after that, everything seemed to change. He no longer tells me he wants to move back and has made some great friendships with a few boys here that he now plays with regularly. Thank the Lord!!! :)

~Em and I signed up with an agent to be "extras" for movies here in Utah. We're not intending on making a career out of this or anything. It's just an easy way to pick up some quick cash. Nevertheless, we're still attending acting classes in case we want to audition of any minor speaking parts. They're shooting for "John Carter of Mars" with Willem Defoe this weekend; but we'd have to drive to Lake Powell and they're not compensating for transportation for extras because they went over budget. Em and I would each get $300; but we'd also have to camp or pay to stay in a hotel. So, I think we might have to pass this one up. There are several other films coming up, though, including High School Musical 4, which Emily will have a chance to be in. Hopefully we'll have some exciting news to share later in the month. :)

~Tim's loving working from home and has adjusted well. He's still been traveling, though, which is not appealing. But, he'll be home for a couple of weeks before traveling again.

~Things are going okay with my business. I'm finding clients in the SLC area; but not in PC. I'm now redirecting my efforts toward my next book. No ideas about when I'll get it done, though, as it's MUCH larger than the last. I'm actually considering trying to find a publisher for this one.

Anyway, that's the scoop for now. We sure do miss our AZ friends and family and are feeling a little "cabin fever" with all the cold weather. But, we know the tides will change and are optimistic for our future here. Please drop us a note if you get a chance. We'd love to hear from you, too! :)

Love and Blessings,
Gina

SNOW!!!

I find it so fascinating that it can be warm and sunny one day and snowing like the dickens the next! Almost all our snow was melted and now everything is covered by a thick, white blanket. It hasn't stopped snowing all day and we have at least a foot of accumulation. In light of Tuesday's tragedy, the snow is a welcome diversion. I thought I'd share these beautiful (and funny) photos...


































Turner went out to measure the snow. He is in his boxers, my boots and his dad's jacket. Rocky went out to "play" with him. In his playfulness, Rocky jumped up on Turner...















knocked him over and began to lick him. The really funny thing was that Turner had his arms inside his jacket and couldn't move. He was laughing...I was laughing. It was hilarious!!!















The lighter photo on the left was taken from my office window (you can see the reflection). There is a beautiful blue hue saturating the air...so peaceful. It's like something from a movie. The darker photo was taken outside our front door, looking out at the snow falling. It's so beautiful! :)



I

Tragedy

We lost our beloved dog Sheba today. She was on the side yard with Turner, heard the UPS truck coming and darted out to "attack" it. She lunged at the truck and was struck. Turner, unfortunately, witnessed the accident. We all immediately ran out; but, it was too late. We think she died instantly...we hope so, anyway. It is such a tragedy and she will be dearly missed. We are all in shock and it will take time to heal our broken hearts.

We respectfully ask that you do NOT personally call us to express condolences. We are all in a very fragile state and just need time to heal. We loved her so very much.

We hope you enjoy the photos below of Sheba's life with us.

Love and Blessings,
Tim, Gina, Emily and Turner



The day we chose Sheba at the dog shelter. She was about 9 months old and very malnourished.

She was an Australian Cattle Dog and had beautiful markings. You'll see her beautiful eyes in some of the photos. One of her eyes had blond eye lashes and the other had black with this distinctive black liner around the eye. She looked Egyptian.





Rocky and Sheba with Emily and Turner, shortly after we got both of them (Rocky was rescued by some neighbors in the New Mexico mountains when he was about 4 months old).












Emily with Sheba and Rocky in 2008.

She loved to be with the kids. While they were at school, she would typically be in my office with me and Rocky.










Turner with Sheba in 2009.

She was a very sweet dog; but also protective. She didn't like anyone messing around with the kids.










Rocky and Sheba loved to play. The would wrestle around all the time. She was an alpha female; so both were always trying to see who the "top dog" was.











This last one was taken just yesterday. She would sit like a cat on the top of the fence. I'm still not sure how should could balance on only a couple of inches like that.

We have so many fond memories of her and will miss her so very much.

Good bye our furry little friend. We love you!