A New Coat of Paint

It has been a long time since the main floor of our home and all the hallways and doors have been painted. We have done individual bedrooms from time to time and the kitchen and bathrooms have been remodeled within the last 10 years, but the main parts have not been painted since Emily was a toddler. She just turned 19!!! Needless to say, it was time to paint. We originally thought that we would have everything painted professionally. So we got several estimates, swallowed hard, and decided the bedrooms could wait (except our bedroom which was part of the original paint job) and that Emily and I would paint the trim and doors in all the rooms. It was a time consuming process, but we got it all done and then had the professionals come in and do the walls, complete with some repairs that needed doing to the drywall. The whole thing was quite the process, but in the end, it turned out beautifully. We are still deciding which things are coming back into the rooms and which are being "retired." It my take a while. Here are some of the during and after shots. Evan was the camera man.

The Dining Room

The Living Room

The Family Room

The Laundry Room

Our Head Painter, Mustafa, and his Dad

Great Job, Nate!!

We were very excited for Nate when he got into National Junior Honor Society. Unfortunately, it is tough to take good photos during the actual ceremony. He also did a great job at the end of the school year band concert. Here are a few photos of the two events.

Stake Prom 2010

May 8th was stake prom. This was Megan's first year going with a date. She went to the dance with a young man from our ward named Rob Calchera. As usual, trying to find a dress that is modest is always a challenge. This year we went to multiple stores and found nothing that Megan liked. We have pretty much given up on finding a dress with sleeves so now we just look for one that is long enough that we can put a little cardigan over. Well....nothing quite worked for Meg. We came home kind of dejected and Meg got on the computer. She started chatting online with a woman from a Chinese dress site about a dress she saw on line and the woman was telling us it would be here in four days. I told Meg that there was no way a dress could come from China in four days, but since the price was reasonable and we had about 10 days till the prom, we decided to go for it. Well, wouldn't you know it...four days later...a DHL truck pulls up and delivers this tiny little package. We opened it up, she tried it on, and it fit perfectly. THANK YOU CHINA!!!! I did have to hem it, but it was a small price (literally) to pay. Megan looked lovely for her prom.

Catch Up Time

Wow....it has been such a long time since I have posted. I guess that life just sometimes gets going so fast that we forget to take a minute and take a few notes. There have been some wonderful things happen in the last few months....here is a little bit about some of them.

While we were celebrating Easter here in New Jersey, Megan was visiting her sisters in Utah and having a wonderful time.....especially with baby Alan. She was also able to see some of her other friends from NJ and even went to some classes.

And Geoffrey was in Albania organizing a branch Easter party....

We also got the privilege of welcoming two special church guests in April and early May. Sister Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President, came for a training to NYC. It was a wonderful meeting with many of our local RS presidencies making the trip up to New York. She was so personable and shared such wonderful insights and principles. A wonderful day! This is a photo of Sister Beck with my secretary Dalila Miller.

Elder Geoffrey Holland visited the Cherry Hill Stake and gave a special fireside on Mother's day. We were delighted to be able to serve a meal to he and Sister Holland before the fireside. Both of the Hollands spoke to us and what a spirit in that meeting. We did not try to take a photo of the Hollands, but I did snap a few of some of the views from that day. Our kitchen crew was phenomenal!! We had such a wonderful time.

Happy Easter

It seemed a little different at the old Foulk homestead this Easter. Our Megan made a spring break trip to Utah to be with her sisters, which left just Nathan and Evan here for the Easter morning egg hunt. I gotta say.....not such great finders.

But they eventually found every last one of the 28 eggs we colored the day before.

For Easter dinner we were able to get together with Grandma Foulk , Aunt Tracey, Uncle Chuck, Kaci and Nikki. We had another egg hunt with plastic eggs at Grandmas house.

It was also Grandma's birthday on Easter so there was a lot to be thankful for. We traditionally go to Grandma's house to watch general conference which also fell on the same weekend, so that was the icing on the cake.

(Technically we had cool whip icing on grandma's cake....)

But all in all it was a wonderful uplifting weekend to celebrate all that life has to offer us....thanks to a Savior who was willing to make it all possible. Happy Easter!!!!

More Albania Missionary Adventures

I thought it was past time to give an update on our Elder Foulk in Albania. He continues to amaze and delight us with his letters. There really is nothing like having a missionary daughter or son serving from your family in the mission field.

During Geoffrey's time in Albania, he has had the opportunity to meet several church officials. Elder Christofferson of the Twelve Apostles visited in late May. Each missionary got to shake his hand and meet him.

When we last checked in with him, he was serving in the office in Tirana. He started out serving as the district secretary for three months and then another Elder came in to serve as secretary and he moved to the financial secretary desk with different responsibilities and served there for three months. While in the office, he had some amazing experiences. Here is an excerpt from one of his letters outlining his responsibilities as district secretary....

My official title is District Secretary. Personally, I think a better title would be “The guy that does everything the Financial Secretary doesn't do.” Among my duties are to manage district finances (reimbursing travel & phone expenses and distributing Localized Unit Budget Allowance), oversee missionary house rental contracts and closing agreements, managing our fleet, (maintenance, licensing, insurance, registration), placing supply orders for BOM’s/everything, organizing the temple trip to Frankfurt in September, being on the Albanian Steering Committee (explained later), starting up Public Affairs projects (i.e.. organizing the Elbasan Chapel Open House), and getting trained to do Audits (they say it’s a 6 hour training…. Awesome ;). So needless to say, I should find time to be pretty busy. In all my “down time,” I’m supposed to come up with “projects.” We’re trying to make a big media push here in Albania, because the Church’s image is pretty tarnished here. We hope to change that though.

These are some of the members who went on the temple trip to Frankfurt.

Someone came up with a Settlers of Catan game which made for a fun prep day activity.

Geoffrey loved working with President Neil while serving in the office. He worked, first, with Elder Turley and then with Elder Smedley. In addition to doing office work and doing regular missionary work, they also saw some beautiful places. I think the highlight trip while he was in the office was the trip that they took to Theth. It is a big national park there that is just amazingly beautiful. Here are some photos from that momentous trip.

As the pictures show...the journey was very eventful, to say the least.

While in the office, Geoffrey also went with a group from his district to see some amazing caves.

On the trip, he found this funny sign.

This is Geoffrey with Arten who he was able to baptize while serving in Tirana.

This is just one of the amazing photos that Geoffrey was able to take on New Year's Eve.

Just shortly after Christmas, Elder Foulk was transferred to Elbasan. This is one of the two cities in the country that has a chapel. Durres was the first and Elbason was dedicated at the time that Elder Christofferson was there. In addition to proselyting work, Geoffrey serves as the second counselor in the branch presidency in Elbasan. He started out with a companion named Elder Klein who he really got along great with.

But when Elder Turley, who he had served with first in the office, had to return home with a medical problem, Elder Klein was transferred out and Geoffrey began serving with a mini missionary named Zef.

He is 17 years old and Geoffrey actually helped teach him when he served in Durres. He has only been a member since October. What an adventure!! It has meant that Geoffrey has really only been able to speak Albanian for about two months since his companion is a native. But Geoffrey has loved serving with Zef and has really gotten even better with the language.

The following pictures were taken in the village of Berat. There are no missionaries there yet but the missionaries were able to travel there on a preparation day.

Keep up the good work, Elder Foulk. We love and miss you!!