September - 2010 Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

Jilina and I were able to visit Southern California and Utah for three weeks this month. It was so great to see everyone and get away from the heat and humidity. We were finally able to meet Hannah. I have to say that Jacob looks just like Adam and Uncle Gary and Hannah looks like Cassie and Aunt Carol. I don't think we need a paternity test for those two. We were busy visiting all the amusement parks, the beach, and family. Jilina asked me what we are doing living in NJ, and why don't we move here. All I could say was that I ask myself that same question every day. Utah was unseasonably cool and was so great to see all the family there. We enjoyed celebrating Jilina's 9th birthday and are now getting ready for school to start on the 7th. Happy birthdays to Grampa, Cassie and Jacob too! Missing you all already!

Love,
Kelly & Jilina

Happy Birthday Jilina!

Cute cousins, Mimi and Jilina

See Pic of the Month for another Picture!

August 2010 - Mercier Cesar & Kelly & Family

On the 3rd, Jilina and I are off to CA and then to Utah on the 12th. We are so excited! If any of you are in So Cal or Utah during those times let us know so we can see you! Love to all and happy rest of the summer!

Kelly

July 2010 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

Jilina and I will be in Southern California and Utah during the month of August. We are very excited to see family and get back to the west coast. We have been busy with travel softball and swimming lessons. We hope all are doing well and enjoying the summer!

Love,
The Merciers

February 2010 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

The Merciers have had a month of ups and downs. Jilina and Kelly started out the month still in Utah where we had a blast. Of course, soon after our return was the earthquake in Haiti. We slowly found out that Cesar's brothers and sisters were alive, although one lost her house. But we later learned that he lost four cousins, one being pregnant. It was very sad for him.

On Friday Kelly celebrated her 35th birthday. Her class threw her a surprise birthday which was really fun. Also, the school did a fundraiser to raise money to send to Cesar's family. It was really thoughtful.

We hope everyone is doing well!

Love,

The Merciers

January 2010 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

The Mercier family has had a good month. We had a bit of a storm pass through that dropped about a foot of snow overnight, but I am sure our Colorado family members are rolling their eyes about now. You probably got 5 feet to our 1 foot. We enjoyed a small Christmas with the four of us and then Jilina and I flew out to Tracy's on Christmas evening. We are here until January 4th and so excited to be around friends and family. Besides my Dad and Craig, we haven't seen the family for 2 1/2 years. We also get to celebrate Todd's, Craig's, and Brenton's birthdays out here.

Nothing new to report except for our trip out west. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and hope this new year brings many good things to you all.

Love,

The Merciers

December 2009 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

The Merciers have nothing much to report. We celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving with ourselves out here in NJ. I really missed having family around. Jilina was very sick the whole week, but she is better now. Jilina and I are coming out to Utah for Christmas break and we can't wait. I haven't seen anyone in 2 1/2 years (except my Dad and Craig last Christmas). If anyone is coming to Utah during that time we would love to see you! We hope you all enjoy the holidays!

Love,

The Merciers

October 2009 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

The Mercier family has been doing as well as anyone can if they live in New Jersey. I got a job at Jilina's school (where I had been subbing) as an aide in a 5th grade class. Believe it or not, it isn't easy to even get these positions because all aides are certified teachers out here just looking for teaching positions. It is sort of a foot in the door because many schools hire from within, either way, it is more money and steady work.

Jilina started 3rd grade and is doing well. Over the summer she grew 2 inches and is up to my chin already. She now has the same size shoe as me, an 8! Needless to say, her Daddy's genes are kicking in and she is going to be TALL. About a week ago her orthopedist diagnosed her with Severs Disease, where her Achilles tendon is a little short and can put pressure on the growth plate near your ankle. It is likened to Osgood Schlotters. Anyways, she is in a cast for 2 weeks and should be back to playing soccer soon. Her growth spurts are definitely causing growing pains.

Well, fall is here so at least it is the pretty time of year out here in the east. Still wish I were back west near family, friends, and NICE people.

Love,

The Mercier Family

Attached are a picture of Jilina and Cesar in the Bahamas, Jilina's first day of school, and Jilina and Clarence (our cat).

May 2009 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

Dear Family,

I was thinking that there really wasn't much for us to contribute to the newsletter this month as nothing has changed for us. But Cesar was able to give me some great news today that will allow us to share something good from New Jersey. Today he had his interview at immigration for naturalization. He passed and Cesar is now officially an American citizen. We are preparing to get an American passport for him in this next week. We are thinking we will get one for Jilina at the same time so that we can travel whenever.

Nothing else to report. We still wish we were back in CA and it wouldn't matter if it were east or west of I-5!

Love,

The Merciers

March 2009 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

Nothing new to report here. Cesar is still unemployed and I am still subbing. We did have a really fun trip to Washington, D.C. last week. It was great because everything is free, so we only had to pay for a hotel, food and gas. Having a Prius, that was nothing. We really enjoyed the Air and Space Smithsonian, Cesar was definitely in heaven. We hope all is well with the rest of you and miss you all!

Love,

The Merciers

January 2009 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

This month brought the end of student teaching for me. It was a welcomed relief to have my life back. I am now a certified teacher in NJ and looking for employment. The best part, there are almost no jobs. Our professors warned us that for every job there are usually 800 to 1000 applicants. I am not holding my breath for anything any time soon. It is a bit disappointing, but I am sure that if we move it won't be as bad.

We are enjoying the company of my Dad and Craig this week. Craig has never been to NY so it has been fun to take him to see the sights. We are enjoying our vacation and the time with family. We hope this new year brings some better times for us and for you all. We are still hoping to find something for Cesar with the new year and new budgets.

Happy Birthday to Craig, Todd and Brenton!

We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! We miss you all.

The Merciers

Jilina's Winter Concert

Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

Dear Family,

We have had a very difficult month. On Mom and Carol's birthday we found out that Cesar was laid off from his job. He worked for CIT, a financial institution. They have been hurt by the economy and have been laying people off by the hundreds over the past two months. Well, on the 22nd Cesar, along with 40 other people, was called in to a "meeting" and told their jobs were being outsourced to India. This is Cesar's 3rd job to be outsourced to India. When will our country figure out that we are sending too many good jobs overseas!!!!

I am student teaching until mid-December so I cannot even work. We are looking here in NJ, NY, and CA for jobs. We would be willing to move again only if it will take us home. If anyone sees anything that looks good please shoot us an email. Cesar is a systems engineer.

We are enjoying the beautiful fall that the East Coast brings. Halloween was absolutely a beautiful day and we really had fun. Jilina told us this year she "was NOT going to be a princess again." She was thrilled to be SpongeBob.

We hope all is well with the family and we hope Todd and Sarah had a wonderful blessing for Katelyn.

With love,

The Merciers

September 2008 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

Hello family!

It has been a busy month. I actually had a break from grad school but it is starting back up. I am student teaching this semester and I am excited to get going. Jilina just had her 7th birthday on Friday the 29th. It is crazy how time flies. We have just been busy getting the girls ready for school, etc. My Dad came to visit us in Jersey at the beginning of the month which got us to do a lot of touristy things we hadn't done yet. It was fun and good to see him. Besides seeing New York we visited Philadelphia. We had just finished watching the mini-series on HBO "John Adams" so it was really cool to be amongst so much history. Of course, we have been really excited about the election this year and have been trying to teach the girls a lot about how our system works. They are actually showing some interest for young people. I have been a teacher in RS but just got called to be the 12 and 13-year-old Sunday School teacher. It is such a difference. My patience is definitely being tried. Anyways, we miss you all and still wish we were back in CA. (However, with Gustav we are glad we are not in Houston!) Okay, well maybe more reasons than just Gustav. Well, take care and love to all.

The Merciers

July 2008 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

Dear Family,

We have been pretty busy here in Jersey. We didn't finish school until last Thursday so our summer will be short. I am in my last class before student teaching this coming fall in a 2nd grade class. I will then officially be a certified teacher. I get about 9 credits from this post Bacc program toward my masters so I will have 21 credits left after that. Unfortunately, here in Jersey there are very few teaching jobs so I will be looking for a long time. Oh well. When we move back to Cali I know I will find a job. (Yes, I am still hopeful that we will move back.) Jilina had her first dance recital and did a beautiful ballet routine to Sleeping Beauty. She loved it. There is not much to report here. We are disappointed not to be able to travel this summer because of my classes. However, next year we hope to be able to come home. We hope all is well with everyone and miss you all!

Love,

The Merciers

March 2008

We have had a good month overall busy with school, ballet and karate. We had our second snow day this month much to Jilina's thrill and the neighborhood came out to have a fun afternoon. The winter has actually been very mild with our snow melting away quickly. Kelly continues to enjoy graduate school and is keeping very busy. Jilina is now in her 2nd month of ballet and karate. She loves them and is doing great. Cesar loves that she is learning lots of self-defense for those dating years. Cesar is working hard and enjoying school also.
Murphy's Law came into affect this month with our house. We purchased the house in October and four months later Kelly is walking down to the basement to do laundry and sees the water heater is leaking. Thank goodness she was doing laundry that day! While we decided to go tankless or not we had no hot water for a week. That was loads of fun! The stupid water heater just couldn't have given out while the previous owners were here!!! Oh well, we are warm now.
We also got to have a fun visit with my best friend who I caught in high school. Jilina always loves watching her on TV as a coach for U of A. Jilina is excited (as is Kelly) to start softball next month.
We miss our family and beloved CA tons and would welcome any who would love to come for a visit.

With love,

The Mercier Family

January 2008

We have enjoyed the holidays despite being away from friends and family. We hope that by next year we will be able to have more friends to celebrate with and maybe family. It has been another eventful year with buying our house in New Jersey and going back to grad school. I am very excited for 2008 and all of the possibilities it will bring. Congratulations to Aaron and Mindy on the birth of their daughter. I hope that this newsletter will tell me what her name is. Also, congratulations to Alexis on her marriage this week. We wish you the best! And, of course, Happy Birthday to Todd, Craig and Brenton!

With love,

The Mercier Family

December 2007

Hello Everyone!

We hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful and that you enjoy the rest of the holiday season. Last month was eventful in the Mercier household once again. Cesar and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on October 10th, that's right, we had our 10th anniversary on 10/10. We thought this was pretty cool and wanted to do something really fun for our anniversary, like a cruise or something. Well, instead we did the only thing that we seem to do well - we moved again! What a way to celebrate, huh. But we are hoping this will be the last move for a long time. We are settling in and Jilina loves her new school. I am really enjoying going back to school for my Masters in Education. Well, we thought we should send out our new contact info:

24 Park Street
Roseland, NJ 07068
home 973-287-6869

Love,

The Merciers

November 2007

Hello Family!

It has been one crazy summer. We are very glad to say that we have finally moved into our house in NJ. We were in a hotel for 6 weeks and I was going crazy. We had a very difficult closing but it is finally done. We really like our new area. We are in a great little town on a quiet street with lots of other kids. We hope this will be the last address change for a long while. I started grad school on Sept. 1 and I am so glad I did. I love it! When I graduated from BYU 10 years ago I was sick of school, but I am really enjoying it now. I also plan to start substitute teaching in the next few weeks. So things are finally settling down and we are happy. Fall finally arrived this week in NJ and it is beautiful. It had been unseasonably warm until now. If anyone wants to visit the East Coast we would love to have you. However, to answer Emily's question from last month - I am forever a CA girl and would move back in a heartbeat. We miss it so much. After spending August there Jilina has now decided that she wants to live there too.

We hope all of you are doing okay despite all of the fires. I figured the only ones to be affected would really be Aaron and Cassie but it appeared to be east of you. We hope this was the case.

Have a great Thanksgiving! We love you!

The Merciers

Oh, and here is our new address:

24 Park St.
Roseland, NJ 07068

September 2007

Hello Family!

Boy, it has been a crazy summer! We just returned from Glendale where we got to relax from all the craziness. It was wonderful to be able to see family and visit Universal Studios, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, and Disneyland. We are exhausted but it was wonderful. I was able to see how much Alexis, Brenton, Mimi, and Jake have grown up!

We are currently living in a hotel as we wait for our closing date on our house at the end of the month. It is a long story but needless to say we just loving being stuck in one room together for a month. I know you are all jealous.

Tomorrow I start grad school and I am very excited! I finally decided to get my masters in education. Yes, we will have yet another school teacher in the family. I am in a Post Bacc Teaching Credential Program and then will continue through to a master's. I plan on subbing during the week and taking classes on Saturday.

We love you all and wish you the best!

The Mercier Family

June 2007

Hello family!
I am so glad to report that life has greatly improved in the last month. We have seen vast improvements with Ruthzar in school and home. Her English is definitely coming along and her grades went from C's and D's to A's and B's. We have talked a lot about the importance of education and appropriate behavior and she really is starting to understand it. She has started to also become a good influence on some of her friends. We are very proud of her progress. I think she just needed a proper home environment to be able to thrive. I was a bit depressed for a few months with the constant frustration and contention (I put on about 10 pounds) and now I am really so much happier (and trying to take off the 10 pounds!) She is very excited about going to Girls Camp and for our move.
When we moved out to NJ we didn't realize we were moving into the "hood". Or as they like to call it an "urban" area. Wow, it is quite the experience. We can't wait for our lease to be up and move into the nice suburbs. The schools will also be so much better. We are all soooo excited.
Jilina has done amazing in Kindergarten this year. They have a program here called PEAK (Primary Educators Acquiring Knowledge) which is part of the GATE program for Kindergarteners. Jilina was top of her regular class and her Peak class. They also had an invention convention and she got top honors for her invention (a fun family exercise game). Many people say she should try to market it-I guess she is following in her father's footsteps. She also received the award from her school for the student who showed the most pride and leadership for her school. It has been most fun to see her learn to read and write this year. I guess we are ending the school year on a high note!
We look forward to coming out to CA this summer (probably in August). The girls are very excited to go to Disneyland and Ruthzar is so excited to meet my family. She has seen pictures and now wants to get to know you.
I also wanted to say congrats to Aaron and Mindy on their "project create a life". We have been working on the same project for 2 years. I hope we have similar success.
With love,
Cesar, Kelly, Ruthzar & Jilina Mercier

May 2007

April was a strange month for weather out here, it snowed on Easter. I think that is a first for me. But we are finally having some beautiful weather, reminiscent of CA...ahhhh! Oh, how I miss it. Anyways, we were able to go to Canada during spring break. Cesar's 103 year old aunt passed away so we decided to go to the funeral in Ottowa, Ontario. We stayed in Montreal, Quebec for 2 days and then Ottowa for 2 days. They say that Canada is just like the U.S., well they are right. It was beautiful and fun. Montreal reminded me of Boston, San Francisco, London, and Miami all at the same time. Weird huh.

It was a very strange experience going to a Catholic funeral. Jilina was actually scared at times. Ruthzar, of course, that was all she knew. Of course we had to dress all in black but the scary part for Jilina was at the viewing and funeral where the women are screaming and wailing, flailing around, tearing their clothes. The men are there to aid the women through this. Cesar helped them through it but later said how he now sees funerals so differently because of the perspective the gospel gives us. It was almost comical to see them behaving in such a manner. Jilina remembered Grandma Woodward's funeral and sees how different it was. I explained to Ruthzar how a funeral with our family is different because we will be sad but people are usually calm and we know that we will see our family again and that they are now with Heavenly Father and they are happy. It is only us who are sad because we miss them. She really took to this and agreed with us.

The big meal after the funeral was great because it was a family reunion for Cesar. He was sooooo happy. It reminded me of how I felt at my high school reunion. It was so much fun to see people you haven't seen for sooo long. Anyways, all in all it was a great trip. And the best part- we only had to fill up our Toyota Prius once, on the drive back, and we must have driven about 14 hours before needing to. Oh, how we love our hybrid.

Anyways, we are looking forward to this summer when we can move to a new place in NJ and settle in. Don't forget, you can come see us and Emily all at the same time!

Love,
Cesar, Kelly, Ruthzar & Jilina Mercier