Shopping Spree

For my birthday my parents sent me money for some new boots. On Wednesday I went to Idaho Falls on a Shopping Spree. I was able to use the money they gave me and some gift card. I am really excited to wear my new cloths and new BOOTS!
Here is what I got:

The Spirit of Conference

I absolutely loved conference. I went into it with a prayer in my heart and I know that my prayers were answered. I enjoyed all of the talks and can’t wait for the Ensign to come out with them all in there. I loved the guidance that was shared and the spirit that was so strong. If any of you missed it, or even a session, I would encourage you to read it. It is amazing the prayers that are answered through the words of prophets and apostles.

Mission Reunion and Conference Weekend

This past weekend we went to Utah for Ben’s mission reunion and for conference.We stayed at his companion Moises’ house in Kery, Utah. (It is always interesting to stay there because everyone speaks Spanish and I don’t understand anything. However Moises has been working on his English, so I was able to talk to them all a little bit. Saturday afternoon we went to a church to set up the mission reunion, everyone came and ate and talked and then we all watched the afternoon session together. After the session (Ben’s 2nd Mission President) Presidente Ramos and his wife both spoke. It was so great to see all of Ben’s old mission friends (although a lot of them were way to young to remember Ben) and to see him so happy.


Ben with Elder Johnson
Ben was his trainer.





Moises, Presidente Ramos and Ben




After the reunion Ben, Moises, Pres Ramos and Brian (Sister Ramos’ nephew) were able to go together to the Priesthood session in the Conference Center. Although they were late and had no tickets they went anyway and were able to get seats on the bottom tear (really close to the front). While they were at that Silvia (Moises’ wife), Sister Ramos and I went to the ‘Ladies Night’ in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and got to look around and talk. It was so great to get to know both of them better.


Our Manly Barbeque-ers












Sunday we watched conference at Moises’ house with a WONDERFUL asado (barbeque) between sessions. Ben and Moises had a lot of fun being manly men and cooking all the meat.




Brea and Silvia



Silvia, Moises, Ben and Brea





On our way home from Utah we stopped in Layton for an hour to see Ben’s brother and his family. The kids are so cute and it was a crazy but fun stop.

Meet the Ben Newson Family in 2038

So we were talking the other day about how we have SUCH cute neices and nephews and about how cute our children are going to have to be- in order to get any grandparent attention (and mula $$-haha jk).
So I decided to morph our faces together to find out what our kids would look like.
Here are our results...


Chuck


Gertie


Ralph


Susie Q








All credit (good or bad) is to be given to makemebabies.com
...and NO this is NOT a hint that we are pregnant!!

Yearbook Yourself

Some of Brea’s friends showed us this new website where you can see yourself in a ‘yearbook’ in different eras. It was really funny and interesting to put our faces on different people. We decided that Ben looks good always and Brea just looks like her brothers…haha.


Brea 1954


Brea 1952


Brea 1978- Not the most attractive African American


Ben 1956


Ben 1976


Ben 1986- CREEPY Michael Jackson Hairdue





Here is the website… it was pretty fun.
http://yearbookyourself.com/

Phoneless and Frozen...?

On Monday we went to Idaho Falls to have dinner with Grandma Lewis. As we left we stopped by Winco (wonderful place) to get groceries and some odds and ends. Then as we were making our way back to Rexburg Ben realized that he had left his cell phone at Grandma’s House. We tried calling but she was in bed (with her hearing aid out) and so we couldn’t get a hold of her (to ask if we could come back to get it).
We got home pretty late so we just put the groceries (still in the bags) in the fridge and went to bed. The next morning we searched and searched for Brea’s phone but…we couldn’t find it anywhere. So both of us lost our phones in a 12 hour period.
Tuesday afternoon Brea was telling Laurette (sister in law-law) how weird it was that she lost her phone and couldn’t find it anywhere (the apartment isn’t THAT big). As she began telling the story she started taking the grocery bags out and actually putting the food away and…low and behold…there was her phone, in a grocery bag. Yes, Brea refrigerated her phone (nothing got broke)…but we figure now it is nice and fresh!!

More Yellowstone Pictures

Here are pictures that Glenn took while we were in Yellowstone. They are very good. And here is Glenn and Christy’s blog- http://www.christyandglenn.net/
If you go there and click on their picture link you can see them all- they are amazing pictures.

























Brea always wanted to see a Moose...but alas, no moose!


This is a picture of Brea realizing she had forgotten and missed Women's Conference.

Ballroom at the Middle School

I (Brea) needed two more dance classes for my Dance Cluster to graduate from BYU-Idaho. Instead of taking classes, I am doing a practicum and teaching ballroom dance lessons at the local Middle School. I am teaching the 5th-6th graders and I love it. I am just a Teacher's Assistant for now but I love to see the kids grow and develop.
This last week I have been teaching manners- such as asking a girl to dance, offering the girl your arm and not leaving her in the middle of the dance floor at the end of the song. It has been fun seeing and remembering the emotions of 5th grade (such as cooties and awkwardness) and to be able to relate and help the kids grow. I absolutely love it and hope that I can get this worked out to count for all of my credits- so I can teach for the rest of the semester.

Yellowstone National Park

We went to visit the Yellowstone National Park for Free! … It was National Land Day and all the National Parks were free to enter. We saw a ton of wildlife and a ton a beautiful trees and mountains. Hot sulfur springs were cool to look at, but after a little while they were a little bit stinky. We were also able to see Old Faithful (a famous geyser) and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (which was Brea’s favorite spot).
We went up with the Brownlee’s from our ward (Glenn and his wife Kristy) and it was a ton of fun. Glenn is an amateur photographer that knows his stuff; He took some really cool pictures. They both love the outdoors and told us some useful tips about animals and nature. Yellowstone was amazing!



















It was so amazing to be able to spend a day together in nature. It was a HUGE reminder of Heavenly Father’s love for us and the amazing creation of this earth.


Interesting Yellowstone Facts:
• Established in 1872, Yellowstone National Park is America's first national park.
• Yellowstone spreads across Wyoming , Montana, and Idaho. It is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
• There are over 400 waterfalls (over 15 ft tall) in Yellowstone National Park flowing year round.
• Yellowstone has over 300 active geysers
• Yellowstone is an active super volcano. (Only 30 exist in the world, the Yellowstone super volcano is the only one on land.)
• Yellowstone is the home of 3 threatened species (the bald eagle, grizzly bear, lynx) and 2 endangered species (whooping crane. gray wolf).
• There have been over 9,928,561 visitors since January of 2000

Dancing With the Stars

Dancing With the Stars has started a new season and Brea is very excited. She already has decided who is good and who is...not so good. She is enjoying watching the ballroom and it makes her so excited. (She even gets up and dances during commercials.)

Zucchini/Meatloaf Boats

Brea woke up this morning with an unusual surge of energy and cooking vigor (both very rare). She was excited to cook with all our new vegetables. She made two loafs of zucchini bread (Ben loves it) and zucchini/meatloaf boats for dinner. Brea is not usually a cook; however the food was great (she made so much we gave most of it away) and she is very proud of herself.
Thank you everyone for the wonderful veggie ideas and recipes.

Stewart Veggies

Brea has been going to a woman who does holistic healing from out of her home. Saturday, after another session, we walked with her and her husband back to look at their garden. They have been living in their home for 40+ years and have a beautiful home, yard and garden. They had so many vegetables and they just started picking and bagging TONS of them for us. They said they had to much so they probably gave us over $50.00 of free veggies. They gave us beans, red potatoes, cucumbers, beats, zucchini and squash. We are so grateful and thankful to the Stewarts for their hospitality. It is amazing how simply and unexpected prayers can be answered.

Medical Trials- Sep 7, 2008

During the night (before school started) we woke to a medical emergency... Brea had another seizure. As a brief history, she has been fighting some medical problems since this past January when she had her first seizure ever. Since then, she has been making improvements while attending school in both the Winter and Summer semesters.
Until last night, there have been no other seizures. We spent the week in and out of doctor’s appointments and tests. Unfortunately we missed the first week of school- however our teachers and professors have been so kind and understanding.

Thank you to all the prayers and warm wishes. We will keep you updated on Brea’s progress.

Something Old, Something New, Something BROKEN?, Something Blue

Well a lot has happened to us the past couple of days. We are back in Rexburg (after spending our 7 week break living with Ben’s parents in Colorado). It was weirdly comfortable and familiar to be back. We went to visit Grandma Lewis and she mentioned you and wishes you luck on your mission. She is such an amazing woman and such a great example of a steadfast righteous saint. We also found out that our ward was split up while we were gone and we have a brand new ward- that meets at 1 in the afternoon (ugg that is late). But we went to the ward today and it was great. I love knowing that when I walk into a church that I am going to be welcomed and loved no matter what. Testimony meeting was wonderful and I was able to feel the spirit so strongly.
So here is a funny story. We have an island counter in our kitchen and we got home and put our groceries on the counter and then I leaned on the counter. And all of a sudden the whole counter top fell off- it flipped forward- throwing me, all the food and our beautiful fruit bowl all over the floor. It was so crazy. I broke the counter top off…that doesn’t do great things for a self image (weight wise). Ben is going to try to fix it and get in screwed back on (before we tell the managers and get charged lots of money).
We both start our last semester of our Bachelors degree’s tomorrow. I am really excited but kind of anxious and nervous at the same time. But we are sure that this semester will go well and all will be fine.

Rockies vs Giants

We got to go to a Rockies game with our friends from college, Tyson and Joci Allen. I had never been to a Rockies game so everyone was very intent giving me the full ‘baseball experience.’ We ate tornados (cinnamon chiros), sunflower seeds (and spit the shells on the ground), and cheered with the best of them. The game went four extra innings but in the end the ROCKIES WON!!