Rebekah's Graduation Announcements

Hello Family,

I sent out my graduation announcements last month and I have heard that people have not received them! If you could let me know if you didn't get one i can re-send you one! Sorry for all the confusion!
Love
Rebekah

Hello Family,

We have had some trouble staying caught up on the family blog, so we are going to try to get you caught up on our year thus far. First of all in December Isaac moved home due to unsuccessful attempts at getting people to quit using drugs. (And he has been camped on the couch ever since.)
Shortly thereafter, Christmas came and Levi sent the family a beautiful puzzle, little did we know it turned out to the puzzle from... well this is a family blog so we will let you imagine. Those edge pieces that are usually the easiest would not go together, and once together, you could tell they weren't right, eventually, like any good family, we gave up and called it good enough. The puzzle floated around the dining room table for about 4 months, before being removed to the dining room floor.

Then the weather started to get nice for about a week, and the family decided it was time to get in shape for the upcoming Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic. All the boys intend to ride this year! That's right, all of them, Levi is training in Utah, Reuben is training in the Domican Republic, and even Adam has take up riding with the family. You know what they say... the family that rides together stays together. Well... sometimes the boys get a little anxious to get ahead, but we are learning to stay together as a group.

Once again the weather turned cold, but that is okay because we had Jordan's and Hannah's birthdays to celebrate. Hannah likes yellow a lot this year and was excited for her polka dot shoes. Jordan is excited about other things... All in all it was a good week of birthdays, and especially exciting because both Jordan and Hannah got their permits to drive this year. Yes, you heard right, we have two drivers in training so everytime someone walks out the door the first words you hear in Chorus are "Can I drive?"

After the birthday's we had a little more sunshine, and you know what that means... That's right... house cleaning and yard work. Mom finished the work on her curtains... Dad worked in the yard, and Jordan, well... you guessed it.... Just kidding he worked really hard too.

After the yard work things got busy... Rebekah and Hannah danced. Although due to the astounding expertise of their coach, both girls ended up quitting the team in order to pursue more valuable endeavors, such as seminary.

Jordan Pole Vaulted... As you can see he did well and had fun!






Rebekah turned 18! I surprised her at school by filling her car with balloons. She was pretty excited although the drive home may have been slightly dangerous. The most exciting part of her turning 18 was that she was able to vote for the first time. After her verbal onslaughts in her political science class, we think this was the high point of her entire year.
I also took Rebekah and her friends to the Beach for her big birthday, it sure must be rough to be 18.

After Rebekah's birthday things got really crazy for me as I put final touches on the Stake's Gold and Green Ball. It was a lot of fun, and Dave even came to show his support and dance.

Soon thereafter Rebekah Graduated! She was very excited to finally be done with all of her term papers, math homework, and Senior Projects. Rebekah was ecstatic that the forecast called for rain and that the ceremonies were being held outside. Dawning her rain boots, she prepared for the onslaught and the yellow ponchos to match.

Luckily it didn't rain and the whole family turned out for the festivities.

Most importantly or excitedly, at Grad night Rebekah won a very monumental raffle. She has been begging, stressing and working towards earning a laptop for college. That's right, Rebekah won a new laptop, and printer at Grad night, she woke us up at 6 in the morning upon arriving home with glee.

Finally, Dave and I have been training to ride 100 miles together and the day has come at last. We registered for the Strawberry ride in Lebanon, Oregon. We rode it with some of our friends from the ward, it was a lot of fun to spend the time with them, Jordan and Isaac even came. It was a beautiful, the hills about killed us in the beginning but Dave wouldn't let us walk... But an occasional nap in the grass wasn't off limits... Look closely, we are both there covering our eyes and trying to recover, this was only the half way point.
We were glad to be done after though, and enjoyed the Strawberry Shortcake at the finish line.

As you can see it has been a busy year so far, and we only have more fun and excitement to look forward to; Levi, Torrie, and Emma will be coming to visit in July just in time to see Reuben return from his mission, also in that same week the boys will be riding the Seattle to Portland, 200 miles in one day, I will let you know how many bodies we pick up along the road. We will also be going to the beach as a family that week, and then it's girls camps, EFY, Scout camps, Adventure Camps, and hopefully a week to myself if I can get Isaac and Reuben out of the house.

We have really enjoyed reading everyone's posts and hope to hear from everyone again soon.

Update:

Hey Everyone,
Recently we decided to create our own blog (mostly since it is the new hip thing to do, and we were feeling old). Anywho the address is http://indianspit.blogspot.com/. So to catchup with everything we have been up to check it out!

We Love You!

Love,
Levi, Torrie and Emma

New Job!

Well we made a decision! We have accepted an offer from Knolls Atomic Power Lab, operated by Lockheed Martin. I will be a nuclear reactor designer and no I cant tell you more, or I will have to kill you (possibly literally, since I have to get a top secret department of energy security clearance). Next August we will be moving to Schenectady New York. Schenectady is just north of Albany, the state capital. We will be roughly 2 1/2 hrs from New York city, Pilly, Boston and Montreal. We are really excited to live on the east coast, but at the same time sad to be so far away. As we prepare to move we will let everyone know more. We love you!
Love,
Levi, Torrie and Emma

Job Offers

Well,
we thought we would write a little to let everyone know how are job search is going. Since this summer I (Levi) have been traveling around the country talking to anyone who would listen to me. It has really paid off. We have received offers from:

Owens Corning (makers of Pink Panther isulation) in Ohio
Spirit Aero Systems (Makers of Boeing airplane fueselages) in Kansas
Vernier Moon technologies (they are sponsoring my research at BYU making a transmission) in Utah
Goodyear Tire (Designing tires) in Ohio
Lockheed Martin (Designing nuclear reactors for navy submarines) in Upstate New York

The first two offers we have turned down, mostly because of the work is not exactly what I want to do, and the other offers are alot more better. It has really come down to Lockheed and Goodyear. We have to decide by the end of the month, and have been spending a lot of time on our knees praying and in the temple. If anyone has any knowledge of these companies, or the areas that can help we would welcome the comments on the blog. We hope everyone is doing well, and feel truly blessed to have choices. We love you all and will let you know what we decide.

Love,
Levi, Torrie and Emma

Football Season

Well we decided to buy football tickets this year. It has been a lot of fun, but Emma has not been too impressed with the location of our seats. We Love you all!

Levi, Torrie and Emma

We have been really busy lately and have wanted to add a post for a while, but haven't gotten around to it. The same weekend that we had Emma's birthday party was my undergradute graduation. Both Torrie's and My parents came down to celebrate. Emma and I wore graduation gowns, which looked great until we were actually crossing the stage when Emma's hat fell off twice. By the end of the day she was definitely ready to go home for a nap.

The last few months my senior desgin project intensified. Often I would work on the project from 7 am to 1 am breifly taking a break to come home and help put Emma to bed. Torrie has done an amazing job taking care of us while I run around trying to keep all the various ships a float (work, school, the race car, and family time). The week of June 16th I traveled with the race car to the California speedway for a week to compete against 62 other teams. For only being a 2nd year team. We placed 4th in the design competition and 22nd overall (due to a battery problem that knocked us out of the final race). It has been a great experience and often people ask if I would do it again.... let's just say the jury is still out.

Emma has been growing fast. Not in the physical sense but in a personality and management sense. She has learned to micro manage well. She will follow Torrie and I around the house always at our feet. I think since I havent been around much Torrie has been teaching her ninja tactics, before I turn around she is all ready there~ very sneaky! She come down the hardest on us though when we do the laundry. Torrie and I can only fold so fast. If Emma doesn't approve (which is always the case) she will pull it out of the neatly folded pile and put it back on the floor. When Emma does find time to relax she has grown to love the pool. For some reason though she never stays in it too long. She is always climbing out and back in, I think it is that ninja training spreading to all aspects of her life.

We are excited for this summer to be over (ironic isn't it?) so that I can officially gradute. I will be starting my graduate work in engineering here at BYU in fall. We had the option of attending Virgina Tech or the University of Illinios (at top 5 engineering school), but decided that the relationships we have built here are too valuable. Besides the grandmas were calling me non stop to voice their opinions, and remind me how far away Emma would be (no concern for Emma's parent huh? interesting).

We hope all is going well for everyone else and would love to hear updates!

Love,

Levi, Torrie and the Sensei

Haupt girls dance

These are just a few pictures of rebekah and hannah in their (expensive) ballet costumes.

Isaac's Quarterly Update

Hello everyone,

I am writing as requested to let all of you know how I am doing and what I have been up to. I believe last time I wrote I was doing my internship at Camp Kostopulos in Recreation Therapy. This was a great experience and I had a lot of fun doing it. This is a picture of me helping with the Salsa dance program which I assisted to design and get going. It was a lot of fun, and I could even keep up with the participants in the program.

After my internship ended in December I spent a little time unemployed until I couldn't handle that anymore. At that point, I discovered even I am qualified to be a substitute teacher. I substituted in the Salt Lake City School District. I was able to substitute everything from Kindergarten to High School. I think I really enjoyed Middle School the most, and they tended to ask me to come back a lot. It was a lot of fun working with kids, and trying to keep them motivated despite the lack of a regular teacher. This was a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for some meaningful work on a short term basis.

I continued searching for work while substituting and found an incredible position at a methadone treatment center called Discovery House http://www.discoveryhouse.comeven/. I am a Substance Abuse Counselor there. This might take a little explaining. What we do is offer treatment for people who have opiate addictions; i.e. heroin, oxycontin, lortab, percoset, and other pain killers. We also vicariously work with addictions to cocaine, benzodiazepines, and various other drugs. Treatment consists of two components, a biological or medical treatment of methadone or suboxone to treat the biological symptoms of withdrawal. The second component is the psychological component and that is where I come in. I am a counselor to assist with the psychological aspect of addiction. A lot of the behavior associated with using drugs can be addressed through counseling, and it has been found to be very beneficial to recovery to pair medical treatment with psychological. It has been a great experience. I have learned quite a bit about what is involved in addiction and recovery. It can be frustrating but it is also a very rewarding experience. Oh, I should mention my hours are from 5:30 am to 2:00 pm daily.

This has allowed me to find time to take part in a variety of other activities. One of these was coaching soccer for an afterschool program at a local elementary school. This has been fun, although it did become slightly frustrating towards the end. The kids started out very motivated and excited. We planned to play for 4 weeks originally with two games each week. Our team was the last to sign up and so we had one less game than the other teams, but we convinced the director to extend our season for two weeks. We had a lot of participation the first few weeks, but by the end we had a very difficult time getting anyone to show up for practices or games. It was a great experience working with the kids and trying to teach them principles of teamwork, and sportsmanship. I am very proud of my team though. They were some of the most well behaved kids who played, and I would argue some of the most disciplined. I hope I was able to express to them the importance of having fun, as well as being able to play a fair and honest game.

After soccer, I would usually go for a ride, yes, that is right I am taking after my Dad and training to ride from Seattle to Portland with him this year. I have been trying to ride everyday, and have purchased a new bike to assist in the endeavor. If you would like to see some of my rides, here are a few urls: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/U-to-City-Creek-Loop , http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/42396 , http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/20th-to-U-loop. I have really been enjoying cycling this year, and will alternate days between my road bike and my mountain bike. I think I am in the best shape I have ever been.

I am sure many of you are wondering about my dating life, as many often do. Contrary to popular myth I have been dating quite a bit. I have done everything from baking cookies and taking them to my home teachies to attending Les Miserbles. It has been a lot of fun. Over the past few months I have been dating an incredible girl named Erica. She is like the beach. Beautiful, fun loving, and inspiring. Even on days that are bad and it is dark and stormy there is still nothing as incredible as being at the beach, and that is what it has been like with her. Unfortunately, she broke up with me last Saturday. She tells me she loves me and really cares me, but she says she is not in love with me. I am not exactly sure what this means, so if any of you have any insight into the secret world of girls, I might be happy to hear. We did have an incredible time though. We spent time mountain biking, long boarding, we went out on the town, and took time to serve others. It was really a wonderful relationship, and I don't regret a moment of it. One of our funnest dates was when we went to Sky High Party and Pizza. This is a restaraunt that has inflatable toys. We jousted, and rolled down the giant slide, raced through the obstacle course and boxed with giant gloves. In less than an hour we were both ready to collapse. After wearing ourselves out we went to "Meet the Robinsons" in 3D, a great movie by the way. It was fun to be able to be a kid with her, and I really hope I find someone a lot like her, who is also able to make me feel like I am at the beach all the time. I haven't quite given up on her yet, but I am trying to keep my options open at the same time.

Oh, I almost forgot to include that I do have a calling my ward, and am doing my best to serve faithfully. I have a great ward, with some great people in it. (Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of people I am really interested in dating.)

I think that is pretty much everything I have been up to over the past few months. I hope you are all doing well, and I look forward to reading about each of you on the blog over the next few weeks.

Isaac

Rebekah's Prom

Hi everyone! I had my Junior Prom last night and my mom said I should post some pictures on here to let everyone see. So here they are. I hope everyone has had a good weekend. Have a good week!

Love, Rebekah

thanksgiving in utah!!

this thanksgiving the Haupt family went up to utah and spent thanksgiving with the family! We had a great time! We went shooping saw movies, ate a lot of food,biked and visited a lot! We enjoyed spending time with those we can't spend a lot of time with because of the distance.But we enjoy your persence!! The only part we never enjoy isthe ride...long and BORING!! On the way home it was snowing in the pass and so it took another 3 hours to get home. But we survived!

-haupts

Camp Kostopulos

Hello everyone,

I just realized that no one really knows where I am doing my internship and so I thought I would provide a link. Camp Kostopulos

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well and look forward to reading some new posts from everyone.

Isaac

Our little bumble bee wanted to say hello. Happy Halloween!!Love,The Queen Bee, The Princess Bee, and the drone.

After being able to see so many members of my family this summer, the fall season has kept me pretty busy. Due to my schedule I have not had the opportunity to see as much of the family and thought I would post a quick update of what I have been up to. As most of you know I have been working towards finishing my master degree in recreation therapy. In pursuit of this I have been spending the vast majority of my time working as an intern at a location in Emigration Canyon known as Camp Kostopulos. Camp Kostopulos is a camp for individuals with disabilities. I work with individuals with many different disabilities both physical and mental. In the fall and winter we run community based recreation programs, helping to hope open up communities to our participants. It has been a very interesting experience and has allowed me to work with adults, teens and children with disabilities. I have enjoyed the opportunity to learn and work with this population.
As many of you also know, I have been doing my best to date. Even Melanie has helped out by setting me up on a blind date with one of her roommates this fall. So far, I have not met anyone that I have started a relationship with, but I have had the opportunity to meet many incredible girls. Last night I had a wonderful date when Jewell, one of my friends from BYU and I, attended La Traviata, an opera, at the Capitol Theater. It was a lot of fun, and we will see...
Other than that life is pretty much school and work. I am enjoying my classes at the University of Utah, and am anticipating applying to Doctoral programs in counseling psychology this winter, and hope to report I will be starting programs by next fall.
I have really enjoyed being around the family again and look forward to seeing everyone over the upcoming Holidays, hopefully my schedule will slow enough to allow this. I wish you all the best this fall season and hope to hear from everyone via the blog soon.

Isaac

Haupt Homestead

Haupt Homestead
Hello everyone, It has been a very busy summer at our house. The Dance festival in June was super, and the kids did great. Everyone had a great time and will remember this forever. My fingers were sore from sewing and my voice from yelling out dance steps but it was great fun. Hannah was really a great help to me with dance step and helping with equipment. She is a real leader. The girls listened to her and followed her and she reached out to those who didn't know others.
One week after dance festival we got Reuben off to his mission and took him to the mtc. The whole family was there and we got a great picture for Christmas. He is doing great minus some water problems or the lack of water at his apartment. He is writing on line so we can share his thoughts with all.
The week after that G/G Haupt came to visit and we had a great time with them visiting. David was so busy it was great to have Dad visit and keep him company. Cathy and I spent time getting me ready for girls camp and we took the girls out to the movies and that was fun. They also got to see David come in from his 206 bike ride. He made the best time ever, coming in around 8:00 and starting at 4:45 am.
After G/G haupt left the girls and I went to girls camp for 4 days/ I helped the girls make earrings, scrap books and pendants along with decorated flip flops. We had a great time and Rebekah got to be one of the junior leaders. She did a great job and liked to lead others in songs.
Two weeks after that David and I and 3 other couples took off for Victoria British Columbia. We had a great time riding our bikes up to Butchart gardens and around Friday harbor in Washington, and then around Orcas island. We decided to test our skills and biked up Mt. Constitution about 2400 ft up. It took about 1 1/2 hours to go up and only 30 minutes to come down, that included stopping so our brakes could cool down. We didn't think we could do it but we did. Besides riding I think I like riding the ferries the best it's really fun and relaxing.
The weeks before school started I painted the front rm with the help of David and the kids and we finished laying some cement pavers to extend our eating area in the back yard. Jordan took apart our old picnic bench and got new boards and sanded them and stained them and sanded the frame and repainted it as his family and self merit badge for scouts. Along with a few pots if looks great. We need to throw some barkdust on and it should be finished soon but David is going to install a couple of post lights and then it will be finished.
We also went to the coast on Labor day weekend and climbed this great big sand dune with the Aguair family and had a great time just 3 day before school started.
So that is what the Nancy/David family did this summer.
Last week Rebekah received her Young women's medallion and we had a great surprise party for her. The family was very supportive and Robert and family came along with Brad and his girls (others were sick) and Great G/G Emmett showed up along with about 50 members of our ward and several of Rebekah friends from the stake. There was plenty of food, all in value colors and we are still eating cake. We are so proud of her and are excited (really frightened) as now she can get her license to drive.

mission life is pretty good

WEll im made it to the dominican republic and its alittle crazy here. but im likeing it here. I have a companion who is a dominican and he is alittle dificult to understand sometimes. the dominican republic is way difrent then the states. but i like it, they have amzing jugo(juice)and good food. Im having agood time here and working hard. but if any one wants to know more talk to my parents or email me i might have time to respond.

Love,
Elder Haupt

The Mystery of Isaac

Hello everyone,

I am sure it has been discussed or at least wondered what it is that I continue going to school for. While it has been hard for me to express what it is exactly that I want to do I did see somethig this morning on Good Morning America that seemed to hit the nail on the head. I thought I would share the article with everyone so they too could have an idea of what I would like to accomplish. Hope to hear from everyone again soon. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=2383264&page=1


Isaac

Emma

Nanna mentioned that we should post some pictures of Emma, so here they are. She is 3 and 1/2 months old. We love you all and hope you are doing well.

Love,
Torrie, Levi and the Boss