Family Reunion

Hey everybody, I hope I'm not stepping out of line with this but I was getting a little anxious about the food at the reunion. I've talked to the Seestors and we hope this is alright with everyone especially our lovely hostess Faeth. Here are the assignments:
Saturday
Breakfast-Rasmussen's
Lunch-Debbie & family & Maureen
Dinner-DeAnn & family
Sunday
Brunch-Bonnie & family & Grandpa

Please buy and prepare for 25-30 people. Also if everyone would bring a snack/goodie to share with everyone. If there are any problems, please let me know.

I'm very excited to see everyone.

Hey everyone. Long story short I met an amazing girl from Spain last weekend and we have been going out basically every day since. She unfortunately finished her internship and flew home to Mallorca, Spain yesterday. I'm not sure who all gets my emails but there is more about the last week in my email. Good week. Amazing girl.

So we just wanted to post a little diddy. I am just wondering how everyone is doing and what everyone is up to? Also wanted to post some silly pictures of Sydney. She is getting so big and we can't wait to see everyone at the family reunion. Yes, mom I am coming, just a little melt down the day I called you. Gabe, as Erin said you are more than welcome to come visit us here in Houston. We would love to see you, but will soon enough at the reunion. Hope to see and hear from all of you soon. Love the Staples

A few more pics

Hey everybody. Just wanted to send some pics from the summer so far. The internship is going great. I love where I work and I get to do some awesome things. We go to super nice dinner parties and conferences with other government people from EU countries. During the day I write a lot of briefs in Czech and English. My Czech is struggling but getting better. Anyway the pics are from Brussels, Bruges, and Ostend and were taken last weekend and the weekend before. Hope you like them.

Temple

I hope this doesn't cause any problems, but Trevor and I will be changing our temple date. No, we didn't screw up. We would just like to have Tyler and Cade attend, so we will be waiting for them. Laurel, I know this will cause problems for you. I'm so sorry. :(. We are shooting for August. I will keep you updated. Once again, I am sorry for any problems this causes. We love you all.

Prayers for Gabriel!

Hi everybody. So my life is super crazy right now. We've just had some really serious structural damage at work. A beam has broken and the ceiling is caving in and it's going to have to be completely replaced. They told my boss that this could take up to 90 days. Which means she has to shut her business down while the construction is going on. Which means that as of Monday, Gabe is out of a job. I'm perfectly fine with it -- I had planned on leaving within the next few weeks, but it's still kind of crazy. I'm just not sure what to do right now with my life. I really could use lots of prayers! I miss you all. And who knows, maybe I'll just get on unemployment and then road trip it for awhile! hee-hee. Love you all -- hope that you are all well and happy.
Life is so crazy!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone-
I just wanted to send out a quick note about the Reunion. I know it is still a couple of months away but it seems like the time is just starting to fly by and I want to make sure everyone is all on the same page! I have a meeting that I have to be at on Friday morning the 27th so Scott and I will not be able to make it up there until about 2 or 3:00 on. Will others be arriving on Friday or should we expect most to arrive on Saturday? How do we typically plan for meals etc.? Also, do we have a average head count? Anyway, I know this email is totally vague, but I just wanted to get the planning ball rolling. Hope everyone is doing well and I can't wait to see everyone in June!
Love-
Faeth

Much more upbeat email from Tyler

Well family and friends the windows of heaven have been opened yet again. I was at church today and an American member came and sat by me. He asked if I had a place to stay. I told him I had a couple of possibilities I was going to look at tomorrow. He then told me he had a room I could stay in. I asked how much the rent was and he said nothing, or in other words FREE! I told him that I wanted to pay something for rent and he said I couldn't because the house is owned by the US embassy and he cannot rent it out. He is the second counselor in the bishopric and works at the US Embassy. I went out to look at the place this evening. Lets just say I am going to be living with the rich and famous for the summer. The neigborhood is super wealthy with huge houses and sweet cars. Their house is giant and really really nice. They have a tennis court in their back yard. My room is in the basement and they think it was originally for a maid. Seriously I hit the jackpot. I will have a private entrance to the basement, my own shower and bathroom and the washing machine is in the basement as well. The neighborhood is great and is surrounded by forest. It looks like there will be tons of places to run. I am blown away how it has all happenned. I almost didn't even make it to church because by metro and trams it took forever. The missionaries were supposed to meet me at the stop but had to get to church. So I got off the tram and said a prayer in my head that I would be able to find the church. I picked a direction and started going. Out of all the directions I happened to pick the exact street the church was on. I saw some people and told them I was looking for a church. They knew exactly where it was and told me how to get there. I just had to keep following the street and I would go right to it. It is an international ward so the language spoken is English. I was invited to eat dinner at a member's house with some other interns from Utah State and a couple other people who work in Brussels. The apartment was in the center of Brussels and was really nice. We had a great dinner and then Brett, the guy who invited me for dinner, drove me out to my new place to check it out and then to Josef's. Brett works for Toyota in Brussels. It has been a great day today! I start working tomorrow and I think it will be a long day because after work we have a dinner party/meeting at 7:30 pm with the Saxony region German representation. So it will be long but awesome!

Tyler

Here is Tyler's email from Brussels.

Wow fam today has been crazy. I have gone two full nights without sleeping so I hope this email makes sense. I got to Brussels and met Josef. We jumped on the metro out to my new neighborhood. When I got out of the subway station I thought there was a mistake and that it had dropped us off in Tehran instead of Brussels. Me and Josef were the only two non-muslims that I could see. There was a open market and people were yelling stuff. I got a feeling pretty quickly that maybe this was not the ideal place for me to come home to each night. Still, we met the landlady. The apartment was completely unfinished and under construction. The landlady spoke english but her husband only spoke French. He was not a nice man. After seeing the place in ruin, Josef recommended to me that I not take it and said I could stay at his place until we found something. Josef and I were able to talk in Czech so they could not understand us. I was worried that I was going to catch a right jab uppercut combo from the landlord when I told him I didn't want the place. In the end, he just gave me a dirty look and we left.
We ate lunch at a guy named Pavel Cernoch's apartment with his and Josef's family. Pavel works for the Czech Republic in the European Parliament and we instantly became friends. He invited me to come over to Parliament with him next week and eat lunch and he wants to show me around. We had some great political discussion at his place. After we left I was so tired I couldn't see straight. On our way back to Josef's we took his daughter to the hospital because she was sick. I was asleep in the car and they left me in there. However, it was locked and I was locked in. I finally realized the back windows were manual and I crawled out the window (I had to use the restroom). Now I am back at Josef's and am going to get some sleep. Josef is awesome and has a great family. I am looking forward to working this summer with him. I hope you are all great and I love you.

Tyler

p.s. I would upload Tyler's email from Brussels if I knew how to do that.