Christmas Letter 2014

In some ways this year has gone by very quickly and in some ways it has been very slow going.  Slow, because we wait to hear every week from our son serving on a mission in Tijuana Mexico and FAST because of the many activities that our family is involved in each and every day.

Coby has now been serving a mission for a year and a half.  He has spent most of his time in the city of Tijuana and only recently was he transferred outside of Tijuana to a little city on the coast of Mexico called Primo Tapia.  He has served as a trainer, financial secretary and senior companion.  His current area is a very small town with a very small branch.  He has grown and matured while serving the Lord and we anxiously await our chance to talk to him again this Christmas.  We are planning on picking him up from his mission in June so we are excited to see him again next year.

Andy has been very busy working on his tennis game.  He plays several times a week and attended a BYU Tennis camp last summer.  He is hoping to get into the finals this year in men’s doubles.  He has a great partner and I think they have a good shot at State.  Andy has also made the Jive performance choir at the Twin Falls High School.  He has also been elected to the student council as the treasurer and spends many hours helping the student council conduct activities and events.  Just a couple of weeks ago Andy completed his final merit badge to earn his Eagle Scout Rank.  If we were to be specific, we would tell you that he submitted his Eagle Scout paperwork only hours before his 18th birthday.  We are breathing a sigh of relief!

Savanna has hoped and dreamed of joining the Jive Performance Choir since she was a little girl.  During her tryout last spring she could not get the music to play on her phone as background music for her audition.  She just decided to sing it acapella.  She ran home devastated that she had missed her opportunity to be in Jive.  A few agonizing days later she found out that she had made callbacks even though her audition was a disaster.  Dancing is her forte so she passed that portion with flying colors and now enjoys singing and dancing with JIVE.  She is in heaven each time she is on stage.  So, Savanna and Andy have loved being in Jive together this year.  The down side to Jive is that she had to give up clogging.  We no longer have the pitter pat and clickity clack of her little feet in our house.

Katie has always wanted to try out for volleyball.  When she played little pickup games with the family, she always played well for her age.  So, this year, she tried out for the O’leary Middle School 7th grade volleyball team and made it.  At first, she had to learn a lot about the game but she picked it up very quickly.  By the end of the season she was one of the girls that got the most playing time.  She even was able to serve the ball with confidence.  Her team didn’t do so well but they all improved tremendously over the short season last fall.  Katie will be playing on a traveling team this winter to better her skills and be ready for next season.  She had to give up soccer for volleyball but I think she is pleased with her decision.

Deanna walked across the stage last spring at Northwest Nazarene College to receive her Masters Degree in Reading.  She insists that we continue calling her Master Mom.  Deanna is still teaching at Sawtooth Elementary as a Kindergarten teacher.  She really loves her job and the little 5 year olds that she teaches. She has looked at other grade levels but really loves where she is at and who she works with.  She comes home with the best stories about these little kindergartners that continue to make us laugh. Deanna is also serving in the Young Women’s program in our ward and loves goofing around with the young women and the young women leaders.  There are many nights when she just sits in the car with her other leaders and talks till her husband comes out and dragged her inside.  

Clint is still working at Integrated Technologies as a Technical Sales person.  He has done very well this year and has earned the trust of his employers.  Earlier this year he was promoted to Sales Manager and now manages 3 other sales people.  Integrated Technologies is growing and Clint sees many opportunities to grow in this company.  Clint continues to be busy with his calling on the high council. He works with another ward, so new members of our ward usually think that Deanna is either a single mom, has a less active husband, or they are a part member family. We use that to get the missionaries to come over more to help activate him, but they eventually figure it out and then come over just for fun!

We hope that this year has been full of many joys and blessings, as it has been for us! We are thankful each day for the blessing of our Savior and for His redeeming love.

Merry Christmas!

Clint, Deanna, Coby, Andy, Savanna, and Katie

Another Blog?

By boss at Integrated Technologies just got called on a mission to Cebu Philippines.  He is not serving a regular mission, he is serving as the Mission President.  So, with my vast blogging experience, I was asked to start a blog for their mission.  If you would like to check it out you can see it at cebumission.blogspot.com.

I know I have been neglecting this blog lately so I'll try to update it more often.

Clint

Rhonda Seamons Questions

My cousin Rhonda Seamons has been putting together some family history information and send me a couple of questions that she needed for the book.  I answered them to the best of my ability and so I decided to post the answers on my blog since I haven't done a post in a while.  here are the questions and answers.



What was the full name of your mission and the years that you were there?

I was called to serve in the Cali, Colombia mission in 1988 and served in that mission until the summer of 1989.  At that point in my mission the church evacuated all of the North American missionaries from Colombia.  I was then transferred to the Quito, Ecuador mission.  After arriving there I received the paperwork that I had been called to serve in the Quito Mission.  I served my second year in that mission until the summer of 1990.  So, I was called and served in two missions.  Cali Colombia and Quito Ecuador.

Have you written up a few sentences about your hobbies and/or your career?

I don't know if I really have any hobbies but I do have a few things I like to do.  For some reason I think of a hobby as making model airplanes or building a chest of drawers or something.  I guess my hobbies are Tennis and the Internet.  I love building websites.  I love updating my blogs.  I love how the internet works and brings information to people.  Somehow I have converted my love for the internet and computers and made a career out of it.  I still build websites for people, I fix computers for people, I sell computers and I help businesses become more efficient and more effective.  In a few short words I guess you could say I'm a computer geek.  What is very interesting is that in my patriarchal blessing which was given to me when I was a teenager, it states, "You shall become involved in administration.  You will understand the complexities of the world of business that you might be able to learn those things which will allow you to contribute to the success of men and women here upon the earth."  Now, how in the world would a patriarch know that some day I would be a computer geek and understand how computers, servers and networks would effect the business world.  In fact, on all of the computers and server systems I work on, I log in as "administrator".

I also like to play tennis.  I played tennis in High School but didn't really get into it very much.  I played on the High School Tennis Team but I never felt that I was very good.  Now, I have picked up tennis again and I play in a league.  Our team usually makes it to the district tournament in Boise.  I have also started volunteering as an assistant coach for the Twin Falls High School tennis team.  It has been fun to get into tennis again and I have found, that I'm not as bad as I thought I was.

Saving Mr. Banks

I went with my wife to a movie tonight. Saving Mr. Banks.  It is a story about Walt Disney trying to convince Mrs. Travers to use her books about Mary Poppins to create a movie.  I was expecting to see a lot of behind the scenes of the Movie Mary Poppins but was taken on a journey of a young girl dealing with her father that is an alcoholic.

Even though there was no shooting, no bombs, no excitement, I was drawn into the story and started to ponder and wonder and meditate over what was going on.  There was something there for me to understand so I kept my mind open for themes and similarities.

Here are some of the things that ran through my head.  Walt Disney was a genius and surrounded himself with amazing people.  It made me want to be a part of something bigger. What could that "bigger" thing be?  Work?  Family?  Service?  Maybe I still don't know but it made me think of how I could be a part of something bigger.

I thought about people's childhoods and how they could be happy, sad, trials, struggles. I thought of my childhood and how good it was.

I also thought about writing stories.  Mrs. Travers wrote a story about Mary Poppins that was very personal to her. She didn't want someone to take that memory, that personal character that she knew or created and have someone portray it as something silly or goofy.  What are my stories. What is very personal to me.  What story can I tell.  Is there anything in my life that is important to tell other people.

Why do I write this blog.  For some reason I keep coming back to that question. I don't know if I've answered it before.  Is it for me?  Is it for my kids to read?  Is it for my grand kids to read?  Is it for great great grand kids to read?  I don't know.  I've also thought that my kids would look up my blog when I'm dead and use it to find things to talk about at my funeral.  They see me everyday but they don't know what goes on inside my head and what I think about.  Maybe these things will give them a little insight into my life and what I am thinking about. Who knows, maybe they won't look this over at all.  How much do I really look over the writings of my ancestors.  Maybe I should be reading their stuff.

Anyway, it got me thinking so I decided to come home and write something on my blog.  I know, nothing exciting, but at least I wrote something.

2013 Year in Review

It seems that every year a television station or a reporter will do a news story about what happened in the past year.  I follow that same path by posting something at the beginning of each year, or at the end of the year depending on how much time I have.  So, now that I have some time on a Saturday at the beginning of the year, I'll review my posts, youtube vids, and blogs to give you the best of the best for the year.

Top YouTube videos of 2013

There is no question that my best YouTube video of the year is when I was able to get my family together for Family Home Evening and do a Harlem Shake Video.  We had a blast putting it together and each of the family members "went all in".  Unfortunately, I had to be the lone dancer at the beginning of the video which was a little embarrassing but I wanted to make sure everyone danced without reservation so it would be an epic vid for out family.  Make sure you turn up the resolution on the video so it doesn't look so blurry.







Ok, the second most epic video of 2013 probably should have been in first place but it didn't get as many Youtube hits as the first place video.  Second place goes to Coby's mission call.  I took a video of my son Coby opening his mission call and finding out he will be serving as an LDS Missionary in the Tijuana Mexico Mission.






Third place video goes to a video I shot while at the Idaho State Tennis Tournament.  Andy played well at this tournament and the men's team received a 4th place award which hasn't been done in a long long time.





Now for my blog posts of 2013.  I don't know why, but I haven't felt the impulse to write much this year.  I don't know if it is because I don't feel like anyone is reading it or that I have filled my time with other things.  In any case, I only posted 10 times in 2013 so there isn't much to choose from.  I looked on my Google Analytics page and found that our Harlem Shake Video blog post was the most popular so I chose another blog post to be the best.  That post was of my report on dropping off our son Coby to the MTC.

http://littleenoch.blogspot.com/2013/08/missionary.html

So, I think that is about it for 2013.  Hopefully 2014 will bring more blog posts and more YouTube videos.  Happy New Year.

Christmas Letter 2013

It is Christmas time again so I guess it is time to put together another Christmas letter to mail out
to our family and friends.  It is always a good way for me to rewind the year and focus on all of
the good things that happend to us.  This year has definately been filled with blessings,
celebrations, happiness and emotion.

At the beginning of this year, and after the announcement of the age change for missionaries,
Coby decided to come home from college and submit his mission papers.  He returned to his job
at Smiths and began saving up his money to serve a mission.  In February his papers were all
finished and he received his call.  He was called to serve an LDS Mission in the Tijuana Mexico
Mission.  Coby entered the MTC early July and has been serving in Tijuana proper for 4 months
now.  He just finished his 3 month training with his trainer and was called to train a new
missionary right after that.  Deanna and I have both felt a huge sense of Love, Pride, Hope and
Anxiousness as we send our first missionary out into the world.  Each letter we receive brings a
flood of emotions and we find ourselves wiping away tears as we read. We are so thrilled with
Coby's successes and we pray for him every day.  If you would like to read some of his letters,
you can view them on a blog we created.  cobymission.blogspot.com

Andy has really focused on his talent in tennis.  He attended a BYU tennis camp this summer
and learned a ton.  He finished in the top of his pod and feels that he has improved significantly.
Clint is a little nervous about playing him in singles so he has focused on feeding him tennis balls
instead of playing a match. Andy qualified for the State Tennis Tournament.  He played mens
singles and made it to the quarter final round before being defeated.  He has set a goal to make it
back to State next year and maybe even get to the semi­finals.  Andy also decided to try out for
Jive (a high school performance choir).  To our surprised, he made it.  He has performed with
this group 2 or 3 times now and feels like he has a group of friends surrounding him.  In January,
he will be performing in the Jive Showcase which will be dancing and singing.  He has been
working hard but really loves what he is doing.  Andy has also picked up the piano again, on his
own, without lessons and has memoriz ed some very hard pieces.  It is fun to hear the house
filled with music.  We have all memoriz ed his songs to and many of us will sing along in the
other room.

Savanna is really liking 9th grade.  We thought it would be rough being with the big high school
kids but she has taken everything in stride.  Savanna maintains a 4.0 grade point average and
receives praise from her teachers often.  Savanna also is in the top clogging group in her dance
studio.  She is learning all of the top moves and plans on competing in Nationals next spring.
She loves clogging and if she ever is standing still, her feet will start to tap and eventually she will
be in full clogging motion across the floor.  It is fun to hear all of the cool beats and rhythems she
can make up with her feet.  It is quite amaz ing.  Savanna is also singing in an all girls choir called
Bella Voche.  She enjoys singing and performs like a professional.  Her eyes light up and her
face expresses the feeling of the song.  She is fun to watch.Katie has decided to follow in her father and grandfathers footsteps to play the trumpet.  This year she signed up for Band and was chosen to be one of the trumpet players for the 6th grade beginning band.  She has literally started from scratch but has picked up the trumpet with ease and enjoys playing.  She had her first performance last week and did very well.  Katie has also decided to continue her interest in soccar.  This summer she played on a team that was really good and ended up being undefeated.  They tied one game but were not defeated.  Katie will be turning 12 in January and is very excited to begin her experiences in Young Womens.  Deanna is the Beehive advisor so I'm sure they will have many fun together next year.

Clint is still working for Integrated Technologies and has really settled in nicely to the Technical
Sales position.  He has worked hard this year and has been successful.  He is hopeing that next
year will be even better.  Clint has been re­living his mission since Coby was called to serve in
Mexico.  He has been sending Coby weekly letters sending him suggestions and advise on how
to prepare and deal with mission life.  Coby has responded several times that he could not figure
out how Dad knew so much about what he was experiencing.  Hopefully Clint's advise has
helped Coby overcome some of the difficulties and successes of the mission field. Memories of
the mission field have flooded back to Clint's memory and have added to his nostalgia of
participating in Coby's mission experiences.   Clint has also picked back up the tennis raquet. He
helped coach the Twin Falls High School Tennis Team last year and then decided to join a
league this summer.  He started at 3.5 rank and then was moved up toi 4.0 before the end of the
summer.  He went to Boise for the league tournament and bearly lost his doubles match.  He
has continued to play in other leagues and tournaments to try to keep up with Andy.

Deanna has been working very hard to finish her Masters Degree in Reading.  Many evenings,
nights and weekends have been spent in front of the computer writing papers, reading texts,
finishing projects.  This last week she completed her final paper and submitted it.  She has finally
completed all of the work and now qualifies to receive her Masters Degree. In the Spring, she will
walk across the stage at Northwest Naz arine College.  She is very excited about this
achievement and will be thilled to walk across the stage and receive her dimploma.  We are all
so proud of her.  She has worked very hard and her work has always been top notch.  In fact,
she has received straight A's from all of her classes over the last 2 and a half years.  After she
gets her degree, we have all agreed to begin calling her Master Mom.  I'm sure we will sallute or
bow for a few weeks after that event but it might wear off a little over time and she might become
just Mom again.  Deanna has also felt the sturrings of the spirit since she said goodby to her son
Coby when he entered the MTC.  When you ask her about her missionary, her emotions are at
the surface and her tears will be at the ready.  She is so proud of her son and his decision to
serve.  She writes him every week and she tears up in front of her kindergarden students when
reading his letters while still in her classroom on Monday mornings.  She send letters of love,
encouragement, excitement and council each time she writes and reads and re­-reads Coby's
letters each week.  She is no doubt a Missionary Mom.

Well, I think that covers everyone in our family for 2013.  I hope I didn't miss anything.  We have
felt the Lords love and we have received abundant blessings this year.  We pray for all of the
missionaries every day.  We pray for our friends and family that they may be safe and blessed.

We have felt the overwhelming love and support of The Lord and from friends and family as our
son has left on a mission.  We wish your family the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest
New Year.

Love,

The Carters
Clint, Deannna, Elder Carter, Andy, Savanna and Katie