Thursday, November 18, 2010

SKYPE, don't leave home without it!

SKYPE is an internet program that allows you to make free phone calls and free computer to computer calls anywhere in the world allowing you to see and hear your family any time you want.  Well not exactly any time you want.  If you happen to be on the otherside of the world from your family there is a 10 hour difference which means you seldom call when it is convenient to either you or your family.  None the less, it is the salvation of senior missionaries all over the world.  Where ever you are serving, if you can get an internet connection you can call home and see your family, share important events, be a part of homeevening, listen to the primary solo or the talk that someone is giving in church that day, see Michaela in her baptism dress before the big event and then talk to her after the baptism and hear how wonderful her day has been.  You might even get a play by play of the latest game right from the players own mouth. (Our favorite was "well we lost but I was awesome.")

SKYPE can make for interesting conversations and interesting views.  Like today we were "SKYPEing" Rick and Rain Robertson.  It was 8:00 PM for us and 5:30 AM for them in New Zealand.  We had a great conversation with Rick who was up and dressed with his missionary tag on but Rain was in the shower.  Well, we are looking right into their apartment and Rick finally said, "Gosh, I hope Rain doesn't come out of that shower with just a towel on."  We decided it was time to sign off before we caught Rain  . . ."

Got to love SKYPE. 

SKYPE also has a great feature in that you can take pictures of those you are speaking to, usually unknown to them.


General Conference, everyone stayed in their pjs this morning.






  They just finished watching Pay-per -View "Fight Night. Do you think they got a little worked up? (can't believe our kids pay to watch fighting.)


Sometimes you get the whole family




Something seems to be pretty funny but usually we don't know what it is.

Sammy has become a budding artist and we get to view all her creations.  She is growing up and someone else is growing also.  We have Lincoln's height on a chart at home so we can see how much he grows while we are gone but no one has to tell us he is piling on the inches.  We can see that for ourselves.

We spent 6 months looking at the top of grandma's head until Keith finally went and got her a new webcam and now we can see her - we usually catch her in her PJs - caught her in a good laugh this time

 Michaela got new glasses and she is looking mighty fine.  She said that she now could see real good and only had to take them off if she wanted to do her famous backflip which means they are probably off as much as they are on.  She is our acrobat.

Oops!  sometimes the video has it's problems.  Some times the Ormsby's look like they are swimming under water but that doesn't obscure the bed head look we get as they usually SKYPE Saturday morning so they can brag to us about the wonderful Saturday breakfast they are going to eat with fresh berries and ice cold, real milk.
Lala likes to talk - likes to tell everyone else when they can talk. Eric shows off his latest experiments (he is in to science) or gives us a close up of his lizard or frog or painted turtle. We even get to see the gaping mouth from where the latest tooth has fallen out.


Some things never seem to change.  Grandkids are pretty funny or at least they think they are pretty funny.
What?

Something is wrong with those Levers.



 Weird?  Crazy?  What ever they are always good for a belly laugh and usually at least two or three.  Makes our day when the Levers bring it on.

 Hyrum must have pulled his tooth, or won his soccer game, or just thinks he is cool.



Em can get a little animated at times.

 Jaron's just got into Cub Scouts. He has his uniform and his Wolf book. 

He already has the Cub Scout motto down perfectly.

Well, that's our family.  Got to love SKYPE.  It is what keeps us connected.  Don't leave home without it.

6 comments:

Anna said...

I love this post!

Christie said...

I see nothing wrong with us Lever's, however, I do wish you would give me a "head's up" when you take a web cam pic... :)

Angela said...

You're right...people don't know you're taking them as I was shocked to see myself in this little montage. I think we were dancing for some reason. Sorry we don't have a web cam- I thought we did when you left but i guess not. You have to just enjoy our occasional face shot at Matt's :).

Emma Barlow said...

Lama Lama Moose! Love it :)

LBJ said...

We agree that skype is a necessity. Our kids now have it so that they also get it on on their fancy phones too. It's the greatest. We love to talk with video, but now can also call whenever the times and stars line up. It's awesome! Makes them feel less than thousands of miles away. We even attended our daughter's wedding reception on skype.

LBJ said...

I love the new picture of the children and I think, like you, that they are Africa's greatest asset. That's a great picture that captures their hope and beauty. Thanks for sharing it.