August 17, 2008

Dear Children,
Well, I thought my new windows were a magic air conditioning replacement of sorts until this week. The temperatures have stayed higher than normal with several days in over 100 degrees. I am sure the windows have helped but the night time temperatures are staying warm so I can’t do my regular morning tricks to keep the home cool most of the day. The forecast is for thunder showers and cooler temperatures this next week. I think I might be looking forward to that. Let me know if I am too quick to complain next week! Dad is also looking forward to starting some work in the cooler temperatures. He has been home a lot this week doing things with Adam so that timing worked out.
Adam has livened it up around here; we have done tons of activities. Aunt Lynn sent his Bear Cub Scout book so it has been like old times when we revolved a family activity around passing off scout requirements. He has done a ton of requirements while here; it has been fun. I told him when he goes back to having den meeting this fall he needs to be the helper on the activities that he has already passed off and enjoy repeating it since we covered so much!
I decided that I needed Adam to stay an extra night since it was his idea to make cupcakes for our neighbors, the Jorgensen family as I was planning the dinner I would make for them tomorrow night. I just couldn’t bear making them in the heat this afternoon so I told him I had to wait until the kitchen cooled down tonight. So, Aunt Lynn and Uncle Mickey agreed I could bring him home Monday morning.
Our biggest adventure was our camping trip to the new state park. I had called ahead and knew that one cabin was available on a first-come basis so we crossed our fingers that we could be the one although we took all our tents and gear as if we wouldn’t get it. Boy, were we LUCKY! They are beautiful little cabins; a lot like a Yurt but made of wood. They are a little bigger than a Yurt. The one we were able to get was on a hillside overlooking the coast range. It was gorgeous. And the best part was “no tent set up or take down” in the hot sun. It was hot.
The night we camped there we had a meteorite shower so that was fun to watch for bright lights trailing in the sky. I also never realized how many satellites are traveling in the heavens! After Adam and Adrianne fell asleep we heard two packs of coyotes howling and barking crazily to each other. It was so loud that I was ready to run into the cabin if it got any closer!
Our camping excursion was all about eating and biking. I am so glad that we bought Adam a bike to use while he was here. He loved having it up at the campsite. This picture shows him with a feather sticking out of his helmet! He is ALL BOY! There were so many bike trails that we all could use. There was even a great area of horse camps in this park so we biked up there and Adrianne drooled. That is a big dream of Adrianne’s to have a horse someday and do something like that with her horse. Some of the bike trails, or the trails that we tired to make into bike trails, were actually better horse trails. I like a wider trail so I can avoid deep holes and large rocks! Actually, I like pavement; I am not an adventurous mountain biker! Adam and Dad were able to get their fill of adventure biking together. I can see that Adam is going to be a good excuse for Dad playing out his wishes (like tractor pulls and monster truck shows)!
Thank goodness Adrianne kept asking for foil dinners while we planned our packing. I wanted to make it VERY simple so I had planned very basics like refrigerator biscuits, hot dogs and sausages (Adam’s requests). But we were all hungrier in the mountains. Adrianne didn’t pack her own foil dinner as planned since she was asleep when Adam and I packed the food (she stayed up most of the night finishing her final report for the summer term mentorship) so I threw in the ingredients so she could do it later. Luckily, she made one for each of us when we got up there and we ate EVERYTHING, foil dinners and all most all the things I brought!
There is nothing like pancakes on the cast iron griddle over the fire; and especially since Dad is the one making them! Every time we go camping Dad revives the dreams of building a fire pit in the back yard. We have been doing some planning for more yard projects but the house projects scream louder at us. We still have a two-toned exterior.
We went to another one of those outdoor concerts at Bridgeport Mall. Adrianne and Adam went with us. Adam came home with a blue mouth from the giant jawbreaker that he bought there. The musician was a rock violinist and Irish dancers who also all played the violin. It was great. Adrianne remarked that the central plaza (it’s an outdoor mall) looks like a plaza in Disneyland when you look up at the roof line architecture. I thought, as I looked up at the beautiful dark blue sky with wispy clouds and the Italian looking architecture, it looked EXACTLY like the inside malls in Las Vegas that are painted to “look like” you are walking down some outdoor Italian street!
We talked of going to the zoo with our resident zoo expert, Adrianne, but it was too hot for a trip to the zoo so Adam requested a trip to the Valley Ice Arena. He had great fun with Adrianne and Dad; he even passed off another Cub Scout requirement by going ice skating. Plus they escaped the heat; what a good idea when it is over 100 degrees! He learned to stop better on the ice (a scout requirement) but still kept his signature running into the wall with a half spin to stop! That is a piece of Haboji bread dripping with a slab of marionberry jam!
Adam looked forward all week to the Big Truck Day at Conestoga on Saturday. He and Dad rode their bikes to Conestoga after we spent the morning at the Honda dealership to look at Accords. I am still trying to decide between the Accord and the Camry and I was so disappointed to learn that the body change was just this year as I like the new style but didn’t want to have to buy a new car. They had a great time at the truck show with Adam participating in even more activities than at last year’s show. After the truck show we had a BBQ with Grandma Maldonado and then went to Uncle Wid's home to visit with Grandma Payne who is in town for a week.
With all the bike riding done this week, I think I should print this excerpt from a Church News Viewpoint article back in May called Preserved by Law:
"A father who, on a single day, taught two of his young sons the skill of bicycle riding had occasion again to marvel at a phenomenon that had amazed him since childhood: How is it that a vehicle with but two in-line wheels can be made to stay upright, even when kept in motion by a rider? After all, everyone knows that a bicycle left to stand on its own will immediately topple over.
He turned to the Internet and there learned that the answer has to do with "center of gravity." Thus, balancing a bicycle is like balancing a measuring stick upright on the end of the fingers, continually adjusting the center of gravity by moving the hand whenever the stick starts to topple.
Similarly, when the bike starts to tip, the rider changes the center of gravity by slightly steering the front wheel in the direction in which the bike is tipping. Instead of pulling the bike and rider down, gravity thus pulls them back upright. . . In teaching his subjects how to put off the "natural man" and become saints, king Benjamin said they must become "as a child, ... willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him" (Mosiah 3:19). We typically understand this to pertain to faithfulness in the midst of adversity. But it could also apply to unwavering obedience to God's commandments even when we don't fully understand their purpose. Like the father in the above incident who didn't always fully comprehend the natural law by which a bicycle is balanced but obeyed it anyway, we derive blessings by obeying the Lord, whether or not the purpose is immediately clear.
In training his boys, the father taught them what he had long known: that increased speed and confidence after starting out makes the bicycle far easier to balance and steer. Similarly, through practice in obeying the laws and commandments of God, our confidence in the Lord increases, obedience to Him becomes second nature, and complying with His laws ceases to be difficult.
At that stage, we arrive at the goal king Benjamin characterized as becoming "a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord" (verse 19). We grow to be like his listeners who, when asked if they believed his words, unitedly affirmed that the Spirit had wrought a mighty change in their hearts, such that they had "no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually" (Mosiah 5:2).
May that be our attainment as we cultivate the skill of continual obedience and are sanctified through the Atonement of our Lord."

I spoke in sacrament meeting today. Wow, I really dread speaking in public. I am glad that the topic was good and that it is over! My topic was Using the Book of Mormon so I used an analogy from my Primary days about packing a yummy lunch but never eating it, thus gaining the benefits from its contents, because the lunchbox is simply never opened. I found a great talk from the 1980 era by Elder Scott with some great quotes. The last one I used was, “It is not sufficient that the Book of Mormon be found in our homes; its principles must be captured in our minds and hearts. Through consistent reading, prayerful pondering, and conscientious application, its teachings will become an essential part of the fabric of our lives.”
Another story that I used in the talk was from an experience I had with Morty’s mission president:
"While Morty, one of our older sons, was on his mission he learned that his new mission president would also be from Portland. He asked us to try to meet him which we did. We loved President Hansen. A missionary mother has a great deal of love and gratitude for mission presidents.
What impressed me the most that day was a talk given by one of his sons who bore strong testimony of the answers to daily problems that we may receive from the scriptures. He said he learned this in his teenage years when his father came into his room at night to sit on his bed and discuss the day. As the son would share his struggles and questions, he saw his father reach over to the scriptures. Together they would find answers that would help him. I testify that we CAN find answers to our problems or even that the reading of scriptures daily may open our mind and heart to be more in tune to receive very individual help from the Holy Ghost."
I guess that you probably all know by now that Shawn and Aubrey’s updated due date is March 20th, Klaire’s birthday! I love you. Have a great week ahead. Love Mom

Kyre had another hearing on Friday to investigate further the charges of neglect (the mailbox incident back in June). I was hoping that Scott would call us to tell us how it went as he could hear the proceedings by phone and I couldn’t be there as Adam would have known something was going on if I left for that long. Aunt Lynn heard from Kyre (Kyre hasn’t returned my calls) and said that it didn’t go well but I didn’t understand what that meant as two more hearings have been set up and now, I understand that there is an additional recent charge.
Aunt Lynn is disappointed with how the system and others are working with Kyre and passed along the following quote that she has found hopeful, “The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you,” She thinks it was from Joseph Smith.