December 23, 2009

Dear Family,

We had such a fun and relaxing time when we dropped in at the John and Jeannena’s home on Monday night to take them their Christmas treat. Of course, we had to wait until after the Westhora annual delivery of the bread Christmas tree before we felt “comfortable” to leave our home! On Sunday at church, Katie had skipped right past any formal salutation when she saw Sister Westhora and just asked, “Have we missed your tree delivery already?” So this year, we knew they were coming; the very next night! And it is already eaten by the way.

We stayed at the Mitchell’s for over three hours and were amazed how the time flew by. We came home loaded with treats. Besides the regular box of grapefruit, we came home with John’s monster chocolate turtles, his huge chocolate chip cookies, frozen Alaskan wild salmon (for Adrianne) and a Kitchen Aid stand mixer (for Katie). He showed Katie his HUGE stand mixers (he now has two) and he just gave her his older one. She is so excited; Christmas came early for her. She is SO lucky. I hope we see the outcome of its use soon. She has a cupcake picked out for Christmas.

After a late night at the Mitchell’s home, the girls and I sleepily drove to Salem for a visit with Scott. Dad had visited him last Friday as I kept Adam busy and thinking that Dad was on work errands (he did do one work errand). He said he had a great visit with Scott. Scott was very excited to report that he had been able to talk with Kyre over one and half hours one day by calling her back three times. It costs him a lot to call Albany since it is a different exchange even though it is closer to Albany than Beaverton is to Salem! As much as we might try to meet his visiting family needs, Scott is most happy when he has good communication with Kyre.

At our visit on Tuesday we mostly reported on the weekend visit with the grandchildren. He also was able to get up to date on Katie and Adrianne’s lives. He asks some very detailed questions since he has the time to read the family news more carefully than most family members! I see everyone playing games and some day I would like to play a game with Scott. I should teach him our way of playing speed scrabble since his children love it so much, especially Alina. I believe I will get her the Bananagram game since it is a version of speed scrabble. I asked her if she gets our packages and it sounds like she gets many of them.

The girls and I have done some last minute shopping and preparing for the meals for Christmas with the boys this week. Nate got tickets through Zappos to the Las Vegas bowl so he took Morty. Dad and I enjoyed watching it in our warm home with the girls; it looked so cold and windy for Las Vegas! I was so glad that we won, no creamed our opponents; we get far too much negative razzing being true blue Cougar fans with some of our friends. And the funniest part is we never even put a thought into the schools from which they graduated. Utah who? Oregon who? Nate did warn Morty that if he was wearing University of Oregon clothing for the bowl game that he would not go with him! Good for Nate; I warned Morty that he was a guest of Nate’s and should respect his requests. I had a last minute Primary work party called to finalize the new teacher binders but announced that I could not come until after the game was over; one must set some priorities you know!

Today is our widow bread and chili day and then the next is Christmas Eve. It is so hard to believe it came so quickly. Nate arrives tomorrow and Morty on Thursday; we are looking forward to them coming and wish Aaron was also going to be here.

The last two weeks have been both busy and fun as we prepared for Christmas with the help of Adam. He is such a WILLING helper and loved crossing things off of the list posted each day on the kitchen door frame. Remember those days? He also was good at working on his own with his homework and reading each day. I just realized that I forgot to finish signing off his reading minutes so I hope he remembers them for Aunt Lynn’s signature; some days there were quite a few minutes.

Dad had a party with his Primary class and they worked on some Faith in God activities so Adam joined in. I started a fresh book for him so I could mark what he had done while here and what he could remember that he had not marked off recently. Dad and Adam worked a bit in his Webelos book also.

We had a very interesting and fun trip to the zoo this time. Dad learned that the keepers were giving Christmas present and treats to the Primates on Thursday morning so we went t watch them open their gifts. It was quite interesting and entertaining. Then we visited the Serengeti visit that opened late this summer. It was fantastic. Plus it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. The picture of the cheetah is real; he is that close to Adam. Adam is sitting in the driver’s seat of a jeep and the glass wall is the windshield (the cheetah is laying on the hood of the jeep engine.

Wendi arrived on Friday morning and went with Dad and Adam to pick up Kyre and the girls. They all returned in enough time to get settled and play a bit before we headed to the ward Christmas party. We had our picture taken with Santa, learned a game with bells and had a great meal. I had to leave for an airport run during the dinner to get Adrianne. She had all of Katie’s luggage, which was bulky storage totes since Katie is moving back here to take her last class online to graduate. Adrianne had to handle it all on this end because Katie accepted the offer to be bumped. That will really help to fund any needed flights with winter.

Katie didn’t get home until after 11:30 after flying through Los Angeles and San Jose to get home. She called from Los Angeles wishing she could stay the night there to run out to Titos Tacos! Adrianne had a Christmas party at the barn that she was trying to get to right after her flight so she did not want to be bumped. Of course, when Katie handed me the voucher she made some remark to Adrianne about being the favorite child to sacrifice her time and I was on the phone with Morty so he carried the moment even farther saying it was too bad that Katie had to go to that length to be the favorite child!

Saturday was full of Mickey waffles, games, making gingerbread houses, games, bike riding, games, jumping on the tramp, games, Zoolights and more games! I could not believe the crowds at Zoolights! We arrived 20 minutes after it opened and the zoo parking lot was full. I guess it was because the rain hadn’t started as forecasted and it was relatively warm for a winter night. But inside the zoo, we didn’t feel crowded; it was very pleasant. They have added lots of lights, which they may have added last year but we skipped going in the deep snow and frigid temperatures of last Christmas holiday!

Sunday morning was our early Christmas celebration with Scott and Kyre’s family. This is what we call our “grandparents weekend” with their family. Really though, as I think about it, what it ends up being is their family Christmas weekend with our home as the setting, as I realize that I get very little time to actually play and interact with my grandchildren as I facilitate their gathering. Plus, since this Christmas had to be more homemade, as children, they probably didn’t appreciate all the time and energy that went into making their gifts since they weren’t toys or gadgets. Oh well, this has caused me to realize and remember the years I used to try and make all my gifts as a young mother and I love that feeling of anticipating someone opening a gift into which I have put so much of myself. I hope to continue that in years to come even if I am not compelled by finances. I LOVE being so excited for someone to open a gift that I have spent hours preparing and hoping they will love. Scott and Kyre’s family were lucky to have Uncle Nate as their sibling in the Christmas family gift rotation. He is a fun uncle and got them some new family games to play when they get together at Kyre’s home. He was especially generous to Wendi since she is many miles away and gave her some kind of electronic device called a Flip (or something like that) that will allow her to upload, very simply, videos of herself to her Facebook so her brother, sisters and mom can all enjoy her college experiences by seeing them quickly on the computer!

I like that we were able to attend church together and have most of the grandchildren in our Primary. All the auxiliaries had a choir that sang in the Christmas program; they were beautiful. I had set my expectations very low as to them being involved with our Primary choir even though we went over the songs and some already knew them. I learned a long time ago that to survive the holidays as a mother you must learn to “expect what you are going to get”. It makes it easier to laugh and allow yourself to feel, but then shrug off the disappointed feelings of your efforts not being appreciated, when a child is in tears because they didn’t get what they wanted or any of the other hurts that can accompany the exhaustion of holiday preparations.

After church we had time to come home and have a wonderful family dinner and even play a couple of games before everyone had to say goodbye. It was a lovely ending to the weekend so that everyone had the opportunity to leave the grandparents house feeling content for the chance to experience the weekend. I didn’t travel down to Keizer, Albany or Sweet Home this time but Dad allowed me to stay home so I could turn my attentions to preparing for the week to come with Nate and Morty’s arrivals. What I really planned to do was download the weekend pictures and write the family news that evening but you can obviously realize that I didn’t get that done. I think I sat down and kept falling asleep!

My favorite moments of the holiday season are times when we have just finished a meal and the work is done so we can sit and relax and just talk. I LOVE doing nothing and relaxing with my children! I look forward to more meaningful holiday moments yet to come this season. I love you all and have a Merry Christmas to those who cannot join us. I will enjoy hearing your voices on Christmas when you call

Love, Mom

December 8, 2009

Dear Children,

As much as I enjoy traveling, it is always very nice to fall into my own bed at night (especially after being gone so long). I woke up refreshed after the first night in my bed; maybe it is a sign of getting older that I need my own bed! And maybe it is because we actually went to bed before midnight for the first time in several weeks. I was trying so hard to finish some Christmas projects before leaving for Thanksgiving that there were not enough hours in the day. I was happy that I met my goal but the hours were killing me. One night I was trying to get my California gifts done before Grandma Maldonado flew there early the next morning. Dad was picking her up at 6:00 am so I stayed up all night and finished one of the quilts at about 5:50; just in time! I never thought I would be working all night; it is always a surprise to me how I underestimate the time to finish something. I was very happy to finish several Christmas tree quilts and even happier to be able to see Heidi open her quilt and hang it as an early gift. I learned a lot while sewing them. I am really enjoying sewing and learning some new techniques.

When I am gone for more than a week, which isn’t very often, I feel like I have been away for so long and it is hard to get back into the swing of things. Especially for the fact hat it is the holidays and I came home on December 6^th to a home, “refrigerator warm”, as Dad put it, which was decorated for Thanksgiving. I always have my tree and Christmas up by then. I have restrained myself from getting any decorations out until Adam gets here so he can be part of our decorating. Once we have Adam here, I will go gang busters. Dad and I have also talked about buying our tree at a Christmas tree lot! I know; that is a shock to all of you and to my own “value system” almost. We are figuring that it is cheaper, easier and with getting it up so late, it doesn’t need to be as fresh.

Dad and I were surprised when we traveled on the Tuesday evening before Thanksgiving and the Portland airport was surprisingly quiet. We had used travel vouchers to fly on that evening and chose an earlier flight in hopes that we could get bumped to the later flight to help pay for any other travel in the next months. Oh well, when you plan for it, it doesn’t usually happen. That is just as well; it was great to get there when we did. Other the other hand, Las Vegas airport was surprisingly busy. Who goes to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving???

We had a fun time in Las Vegas. Shawn and Aubrey drove in shortly after we arrived and then Adrianne and Wendi drove in Wednesday afternoon. Katie was the last to arrive on Wednesday evening and she came with a bang. She had sent a text to everyone asking if they wanted to order Dog House Grill sandwiches from Fresno (her favorite thing besides Sprinkles brand cupcakes). She picked them up, with their famous BBQ sauce and all and brought almost a dozen tri-tip sandwiches on the plane with her! I missed getting a picture of that!

Aubrey is funny. She just can’t wait to give out her presents and open presents of course. We did an early Christmas with their family. I am glad that we saw the boys open their gift. Aubrey opened one of hers but Shawn is more of a purest and wanted to wait for Christmas Day. She had us open our gifts and also my birthday gift since they were leaving to head back to California after we left for Utah. I am going to love using my BYU tablecloth! I would have used it for game day in Orem but my birthday decorations took precedence.

On Thanksgiving I put the turkey in the oven and most of us drove to Red Rock for a hike while it cooked. The boys had done a great job of doing most of the shopping beforehand to stock their kitchen with all the special ingredients to make our family favorites. At Red Rock, Aubrey and Adrianne decided to make it a run so they went about 6 miles of rough mountain trails while we hike the trails and rocks. Gregory was fun on the trail just chattering the whole way (until I got the video camera out to capture it of course). He is a little mountain goat scampering up the rocks. Red Rocks is a very pretty area; it is nice to see that side of Las Vegas. Lots of people in Las Vegas had the same idea so there were lots of hikers.

Ideally, it would have been nice to duplicate last year’s Las Vegas Thanksgiving when Aaron took all the single siblings to Nine Steakhouse for their big family Thanksgiving buffet about which they have raved and raved, but Aaron felt it was too large of a group. It was nice though to fix most of the family favorites and have a good time at home. I think we even played some games; although, games were on the three TVs in the family room continually that day and the next!

On the evening of Thanksgiving we worked off our dinner by walking a big portion of the strip. All I cared about was to make sure I saw the fountains at the Bellagio. Wendi had never been on the strip so we hiked through several casinos until we realized how late it was getting. We couldn’t neglect the fact that the biggest shopping day of the year was about to begin! At midnight several of us girls did a Wal-Mart run since we heard from Heidi that they will honor most Friday specials (just not their door busters). Even though we were up very late with our preliminary run to Wal-Mart, Katie and I still got up fairly early to catch some early bird sales. We had a little shopping success but I didn’t have so much to buy this year since I am trying to make a lot of my gifts. It killed me to have to pay a sales tax though.

We crammed a lot into a little space of time in Las Vegas and that is with a lot of relaxing time in front of all the sports that they watch! With Greg and Bryson the only little ones there amongst all the single aunts and uncles, they were on stage most of the weekend. Greg got lots of encouragement from mostly Morty to unleash his showmanship. We did a lot of laughing! We had a ton of fun. The boys are great hostesses; we all had a comfortable bed except Aaron one night, who volunteered to sleep on the bean bag chair . . . ouch!

While together in Las Vegas, Aubrey got me to start thinking about the money making end of my new card business. She had a friend that wanted her to watch a program on the computer about another business and as we talked about that, I realized that I should look more seriously at my business since they say it has a great compensation plan. I just love the card service so much that I had never paid attention to the fact that it could be our answer to the lack of work in the construction field.

Dad has worked so hard all these years to build a good income and I have been a saver and then investor with our savings. We both felt very good about our “in house” pension plan that we were so careful to build. I don’t even look at our investment numbers anymore since they have become so low and with no work in sight in the near future, the future is a bit unsettling. Thank goodness for our three month emergency fund.

So, I have tried to learn more about the business side of my SendOutCards venture and it looks like a great possibility of which I should take advantage. I am trying to learn more right now but I know, come January, I will have more time. I received my first check of $120.00 for signing up my first distributor, Carol Stanger, so that was pretty good. I wasn’t even trying to sign her up but she said when she saw my belief in the service as we talked over lunch one day, she trusted my judgment and looked more seriously. That is a lot of pressure but I am confident that people will love the product. I know how much I do! If you do want to see about what I am speaking, you can go on my website at:

SendOutCards.com/cardsbylori

If you click on “Click here to send a free card” you will be led through a tutorial to enable a gift account from me that will allow you to try the system to send out a few greeting cards yourself. The easiest thing to do is send one of their stock greeting cards (they have over 15,000!) but be sure to add a personal message (that’s the most important part) by typing it into the computer. But, even more fun is to add a digital picture to the card (You might need help from me over the phone to do that the first time). You can add pictures both on the cover and inside the card. After you put in the address of the person, the company prints the card (a very high quality card), addresses it and stamps it with a regular postage stamp (not bulk mail stamps) and sends it in the regular mail! The system I bought has an entire data base that I store all my addresses with even a reminder system when someone’s birthday is close. The other day I received email notification that is was Aunt Carolyn’s anniversary so I sent them a card. Now, that will surprise our Bitter family card sender!

The frugal person that I am, the cards are also less expensive than most cards these days. I pay only .61 for most of my cards! So, besides all the benefits and ease of the system, it is a great value. The least expensive way to buy the program is to be a customer through a new product called the SOCBox which only costs only $49.00. Even with that price though, you get 10 cards free (and on that system cards are all $2.00 postage included) so in essence, the program is only $29.00 to use with any number of cards you wish to buy later!

Let me know if you want to know more about what I am doing and remember I am just learning. I know it has a lot of potential and I am both excited to use the system but also for its possibilities of a business now. We are starting to use the system to send out cards to Dad’s clients for various reasons to remind them that we are still in business. This week we will be sending them a card telling them tips on winter concrete care.

Aaron lent his car for the BYU weekend so we had two cars to all drive from Las Vegas to Utah. That saved a lot of airline dollars for all of us. Katie, Nate, Morty and I drove up early Saturday morning arriving just in time for all the birthday festivities that Heidi had organized. Everyone had a part so that was nice. We partied we a soup and chili lunch before the BYU-UofU game. Grandma Bitter gave Dad and I her seats on the 50 yard line. She spoils her number one son! Any time during the game when the Cougars looked like they might not win, I secretly made my birthday wish that their win would add to my perfect birthday celebration. They won in the overtime; pretty exciting!

Most of us were able to spend Sunday at the Brady’s home. Don’t you just love this toothless smile of Rebekah. She is posing by the sparkly magenta curtains that I made for her room. We went to their church since Bill was speaking. He did a great job; the entire sacrament meeting was excellent. The sister before him had a message about gratitude and said that remembrance is the seed of gratitude as we remember what the Lord has done for us. Bill added a layer to that talking a bit about tithing and how tithing is recognition of our gratitude and the knowledge that everything comes from the Lord. After church Heidi had made a great Crockpot meal that was perfect for the cold temperatures. It was fun to be there and especially to watch them be excited about the Christmas gift hat I made for them. Although, it was maybe even more fun to see how excited Rebekah and Jenna were to play with the large gift bag. They climbed in it and just made us laugh. I love being around my grandchildren and their innocence of enjoying even the little things in life.

Our biggest project of the week was making chocolates. Grandma Bitter devoted many days to our Christmas chocolate dipping project. Dad and I loved working alongside the master and she was so thrilled to have learned for Natalie how to melt her chocolate in her microwave! We brought home much more than anticipated as she would not allow us to leave any there for her to give away. It is a relief now that I am home and won’t have so much to do to make neighbor gifts. Now that Adam is here we will add a few different kind of cookies to the gift and we will be done; well, except for delivering them!

We stayed in Utah an extra week almost to go to several concerts on campus. It was great. The first one we saw was Kari’s orchestra; they are great. And, it was fun to see her walk on stage to applause as the concert mistress. She has a lot of poise. We also went to the BYU symphonic orchestra concert and the Folk Dancers performances. They were both wonderful.

On campus we had fun taking Grandma to see where Katie works and Adrianne works. Grandma enjoyed seeing Adrianne’s lab and asked her if she remembers to wash her hands after seeing all those specimens!!! We took a wheelchair to help Grandma get across campus but Adrianne thought she needed a turn! Grandma thought that Katie’s studio was quite interesting and then on Thursday, Katie called to alert us that she was going to be on the news so we watched it on Grandma’s TV. That was so much fun to watch her report on the Nutty Putty Caves closure. And she did it with a very sore mouth. She had to have two root canals in one week since her dentist didn’t do it correctly; she was in a ton of pain! The link to watch it is:

http://universe.byu.edu/node/4612

Last Friday Adrianne went up to BYU-Idaho for the David Archuleta Christmas concert with her roommates. It sounded like they had a great time. OK, here is a story that I hope I tell correctly. You know that Weight Watcher recipe that I have where you mix a spice cake mix with a can of pumpkin to make muffins? Well, Adrianne, and many of you (I personally don’t mix my chocolate with pumpkin), make cookies with that same recipe and add chocolate chips. She has made them at Kenna’s home while visiting there. Kenna’s mother’s friend tasted Adrianne’s cookies but she actually lives in Tennessee and knows one of the musicians that David records with. On one of his trips to Tennessee for recording, he stayed at that friend’s home and she made him the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. He likes then so the girls made a batch to deliver to him. They hoped that the connection would get him a back stage pass but it didn’t. They were able to meet up with the Tennessee musician person at the concert and delivered the cookies through that person. Isn’t that kind of a random story?

We woke up to snow the morning that Katie was going to take us to the airport. Unfortunately, she was bringing us more of her things to send home but she couldn’t make it to us so TJ was willing to take us. He has four wheel drive or something and TONS of icy road experience. Yes, Katie is coming home this next term to save money and hopefully start looking for a job. She only has one class left to graduate and she will do that online!

Since being home we have been playing catch up with emails and mail and church work. The stake center had no power on the evening of the First Presidency Christmas Broadcast so we invited the Blacks to come over to our home to watch it. That made it nice to have company. The setting and the music was beautiful and it was great to hear from each member of the presidency about the real joy of the season and the acts of love and kindness that we can do. I want to try and remember to unclutter my heart to allow Christmas in as we were taught!

I decided to ditch the RS Christmas dinner and go with Dad to watch Adam’s school music program and have a belated birthday celebration for Kyre. It was very good; Adam had a speaking part plus his songs. We picked up Klaire and Kyre so they could watch the program and then we ended the evening with cupcakes and a birthday present at Kyre’s home before we drove home with Adam.

Well, that is it for the last couple of weeks. I love you! Mom

November 24, 2009

Dear Children,
I am going to try and do this quickly as this evening we travel to Las Vegas. I don’t want to start my vacation behind on updates but I haven’t been successful getting much sleep with all that I wanted to accomplish before traveling so writing something that makes sense takes a great deal of effort these days.
Early last year I bought all the supplies for several homemade gifts that I wanted to make for the coming Christmas. My idea was to do them in the winter when there was less to do. My winter and spring free time was spent going through training disks to upgrade my skill on QuickBooks and Excel so I could get a job. The job that I thought I had disappeared when Ivan left on his mission. His office won’t respond and now I just learned that my friend who is an accountant (that they wanted to hire) that that they do not need her this winter so they must be much slower these days; makes sense.
Consequently, I had to cram all my winter projects into the fall which didn’t work too well. I look forward to a more reasonable schedule when Adam comes and we have an earlier bedtime routine! He comes two days after we return from Utah so he will be a huge help getting things ready for Christmas.
Dad has been a huge help to me these last couple of weeks during my Christmas gift-cram. He is turning into a great house husband: doing the laundry, helping fix the meals, etc. He also learned a couple of steps in one of our Christmas gifts which was very helpful. I know that he would rather be working but I could really enjoy getting used to his help if we just didn’t have the financial worry!
We received more pictures of Morty with Shaw and Aubrey’s boys. He was up there on Aubrey’s birthday to go to a Blazer-Warrior basketball game. Aubrey is a good sport. Morty was there on their anniversary for a sports game of some sort and then back on her birthday. They looked like they were having lots of fun. Morty is always good to send me pictures. Some times I have to look closely to figure out just what location he is for a particular games. He already has several Blazer games on his calendar so that is nice since it brings him north!
Adrianne was here since I last wrote; it was another whirlwind couple of days home. In fact, her plane was much delayed on Friday morning and as they finally announced that they would have to get a new plane after over an hour of wondering if they could take off, she sat there thinking, “There goes my 48 hours in Beaverton!” She was here for Paige’s wedding and to visit the cemetery for Mrs. Gueck. I had fun with her helping me with the flowers for Paige’s wedding and decorating the cupcakes. She had fun also I think especially since she could vivist with her old Laurel advisor, Angie Bleazard, who had some up form California to help with the flowers alos. It is a good thing that Carol had two helpers there (Eileen was in Atlanta since Stephanie had her baby). Carol was having some weird feeling with her heart so we convinced her to run over to her doctor’s office for a quick check. That quick check kept her away for the entire flower project. They had to put her to sleep to shock her heart back into regular rhythm! She was out for the day so it was nice to have extra hands there with Adrianne being so willing. I took a picture of Adrianne with the bridal bouquet since she liked it so much. It was a simple flower project thank goodness. This bouquet had freesia in it which is a beautiful and fun flower with which to work but it smells INCREDIBLE! I thought of Katie the whole time as I smelled that beautiful fragrance; she is the one who introduced me to freesia.
I had already volunteered to help with the cupcakes so my helping with the flowers only came about since Eileen had to go to Atlanta (so I was helping Carol). Besides, when I found out Angie was coming to help, I thought that would be fun to have a day with her.
On Saturday morning we were back at the church frosting the cupcakes. Thank goodness Grandma said she would help me also because the person assigned to take the flowers to the temple forgot so Adrianne had to stop helping me and run the flowers to someone else to take. Adrianne spent the afternoon with her friends from the barn and then returned for the reception later. And then early Sunday morning, Adrianne left to go back. It was the only flight she could find to use her award voucher so that she could even come out. I hope Paige was grateful!
Adrianne didn’t have any wiggle room in being away from school. She just added another interest to her life; horse therapy. Well, she probably has been interested in that before but now she has an avenue to learn it more. She volunteers at a horse barn I think in Springville with works with children, mostly those with the disorder called RAD, Reactive Attention Disorder. Mostly children who have been raised in their very early years by Meth parents or in other county’s orphanages have this disorder. Anyway, one of few therapies that seems to be working for this disorder is riding horses. One of the reasons that it helps is because of having to use both the left and right side of the brain simultaneously while riding. It is quite interesting. She has some websites to go to if you want to learn more.
Speaking of cupcakes, I made the most darling turkey cupcakes for my first SendOutCards party here. Here is a picture but it is blurry since someone had to email it to me and they don’t have the skills that Morty has (and neither do I). I am bringing supplies to make them on our trip hopefully. My first party was pretty scary since I never do anything like this but it was fun even so. It is a fun product that makes people happy (both the sender and receiver also). Sally Farb couldn’t come so we sent her a card with a picture of the turkey cupcake. We should have added a thought bubble to the turkey saying something silly (there is a whole history about cupcakes and Sally and I) since you can do things like that with the program.
Guess what! Dad got some of the Christmas lights up already. I drove into the driveway late Friday night and had such a thrill to see lights on our home. I love the lights that he does on the front; they are my favorite. He will do the rest with Adam; I think Adam will like that. I love Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays but sometimes I am so rushed with the preparation I miss feeling the excitement and joy (and the peace???). When I saw those lights, I felt it. I would love to concentrate on having that feeling more often.
Speaking of feeling; I heard a great talk in sacrament meeting last week from a new sister in our ward. She was reading from the scripture about us filling the measure of our creation and then she concentrated on the word fill, changing it is feel. I loved the thought; I do need to FEEL the measure (and joy) of the meaning of why I am here instead of just fill the purpose. Does that only make sense to me since I needed to hear that thought?
We are studying Mosiah in institute right now learning that the door to needed daily inspiration can be opened by reading the scriptures. I KNOW that but must be reminded of that often. He also used the scriptures about the admonition to Lehi’s family concerning dwindling in unbelief because they almost didn’t have the scriptures. My teacher warned us that even though we HAVE the scriptures, if we don’t read and use them, we risk swindling in unbelief. We also talked about taking on the name of Christ and honoring our own family names. Another thought fro that class was that the service that we give does not add any more value to us determined by the visibility of that service. And one last thought from that discussion was: the future is spotless, make the most of it with our choices. Wasn’t that a great institute class with all those different principles?
Hey, you know what? If there are any reasons to go out early morning shopping on Black Friday (there is just something thrilling about that whole strategy), I won’t need a coat nor umbrella nor mittens nor scarf. I will be in sunny Las Vegas! Maybe paying state taxes that day will be worth it! With extending our trip in Utah, we are missing Kyre’s birthday on December 4th. We may have to go do something with her after Adam is here. Adam will think that is fun; Klaire loves it when Adam is there to play.
Another bit of exciting news is the Spain trip opportunity that came up from Grandma and Nate. Nate emailed her a killer air flight to Madrid since they had talked many years of going this summer. There was a small window of time to make a decision. They both wanted us to go along, as we had hoped all along in the years of planning, until this kind of work year was upon us. We were just sick about the timing but Nate made a VERY generous gift offer and we decided that the value was too high not to go. And especially to be able to go with one of our children! It made us feel so good that he wanted us along. We made that decision with just hours to spare on the air flight deal and then like wild fire, the word spread to more of his siblings. I kept getting emails of flights arranged by each of them and was so surprised. We just need to find some kind of housing that will be reasonable (I have a few queries out to friends) and transportation to get us around the country since we will try and pack a lifetime dream trip into those days. We are leaving March 26 and returning April 6. I can’t believe it; I am so excited to go back. We all want to go to Miranda del Castanar, the town where Abuela was from but I hope also to get to the town where the Maldonado originated from that isn’t far from Miranda (but I couldn’t go when I was in Spain in college).
We had a very uplifting visit with Scott this week. He is so great at making the most of his surroundings. He finds every opportunity to serve and make his talents available. He has tremendous benefits where he works. They allow him to do special assignments for his branch president in the legal library and treat him with respect for the wonderful and capable person that he really is.
I love you and am so excited to share a bit of time here and there with all of you.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Love, Mom

November 10, 2009

Dear Children,

This week just flew by along with Katie’s TOO SHORT visit here over the weekend. We did pack a lot in her two days here. Dad, Katie and I crossed our fingers as we headed to bed, after returning from the airport, hoping that the morning would be dry (we had a VERY wet weekend). It worked! Saturday morning we left early to go to the Portland Saturday Market. It has been many, many years since we have been down there. It reminded me a lot of Eugene’s street market: lots of beads, handmade clothing, scarves and hats and tons of jewelry. We tested a cupcake booth; their specialty was sweet potato cupcakes. Katie thought her cupcakes were superior. Speaking of Katie’s cupcakes, we hoped to find some blackberries so Katie could try another new recipe but no fruits and vegetables were to be found. On the way home we stopped at Haggen and hit the food sample jackpot. They were having a special holiday foods tasting day. We were served a miniature turkey dinner with most of the trimmings.

Katie and I picked up Grandma and headed for a special event at Macy’s in the afternoon. I had read in the Oregonian just the day before that Clinton Kelly form the show “What Not To Wear” was doing a fashion show with models with whom he had done a clothing make over. We stood in line for over an hour only to get the privilege to be escorted to the standing room only section in the back. It was still fun and kind of a once-I-will-do-that sort of thing. Katie loves that show.

Katie made the cupcakes on Sunday morning to go along with Dad’s omelets while I fretted over last minute details with the Children’s Sacrament Meeting President. I have seen enough of them that I should just know; whatever happens, happens. The presentation went very well but way too fast. We just clipped along and ended 10 minutes early. Thank goodness the bishop advisor was ready with remarks, although I don’t like it when an adult speaks on the children’s one day. I was happy this time!

While we had Katie here, Shawn and Aubrey were hosting Morty and Nate in California. Aubrey was a good sport to share her anniversary weekend with her brother-in-laws. They were up for the Stanford versus University of Oregon game. I didn’t even know that Nate was there also until Morty sent me his pictures.

We called Morty with some very sad news this week. While Dad and I were at the temple for our annual stake day at the temple, we learned that Keith Hansen passed away. It was always so enjoyable to run into him at the temple. He was so energetic, always running to his next assignment. He died scuba diving in Hawaii. Oddly enough, before he left he told another temple worker, “If I had to die I would like to die scuba diving.” His funeral is this Friday. I don’t know if I will be able to squeeze it into my day. I will be helping with Paige Jensen’s wedding flowers and making 100 cupcakes for the reception. Adrianne will be here to help!

Like I said, Dad and I were in the temple on Thursday I guess commemorating Shawn and Aubrey’s sealing date! We also were able to catch up with Kyre. She rode up with several ward friends for a temple baptism session. She looked very happy. We are glad she called and said that she would be there.

And many of you know, Bill had eye surgery this week and he is slowly healing so that his eye sight will be back to normal. Heidi had fun with his belated Halloween costume of an eye patch, threatening that she was going to buy a parrot for his shoulder. Rebekah had big news the week before last. She lost her first tooth. We are anxious to see her toothless smile.

There is still no work here for Dad so he has been catching up on yard projects and right now, has the guest bathroom sink and toilet taken apart. He grumbles each day that he is forced to come in early from his yard jobs bemoaning the fact that it now gets dark so early.

I recently tried a new card service called Send Out Cards. It is headquartered in Salt Lake City and it is a multilevel business. But, I like the service so well that I decided to join. The fact that it is a multilevel marketing business also kind of makes me sick to my stomach but, if I do interest other people in the product along the way, maybe I can make some money to help us through the winter. I certainly wouldn’t have done this if I didn’t absolutely love the product and think it is a great value in the long run. My cards will cost less than $2.00 to create and have someone else address and mail them. I am thinking of possibilities of creating cards for Dad’s business since you can download your own pictures to make the cards. There are all different packages that you can buy. I bought the wholesale one that allows you to even download your own handwriting (well, of course not a complete cursive) and your signatures. I am really looking forward to creating my Christmas card this year and printing my family letter right inside the cards, using all sorts of color and letting that company print it, stuff the envelope, put on the stamp and mail them for me. Yes! Remember all those years that I would beg anyone to sit at the dining room table and get out the Christmas cards assembly line style??? I won’t miss that process; I am excited to simplify.

Speaking of simplifying, I REALLY need to this year. Dad and I just extended our Thanksgiving and Utah trip. While Katie was here, she mentioned that she had tickets to several of the BYU performing groups’ Christmas shows the weekend after we are leaving. She suggested we stay and we gave it serious thought. We have always said it would be fun to visit the first week in December to catch all those shows. So, luckily a Southwest Ding came up just at the right time and we made the plunge. Yikes! I won’t get my tree and everything up until the second week of December! My baking and neighbor gifts will be alter this year. And, I certainly won’t have my Christmas shopping done since I won’t be here the day before and day after Thanksgiving. Adam comes just two days after we return so I am going to put him to work. It will be fun to have a little helper; he is so creative anyway. But, we will be enjoying a lot of new Christmas traditions by going to all those BYU performances, making chocolates with Grandma, seeing the temple lights and so on. It is going to be a fun-filled time.

I will end with a thought that I heard as I was walking and listening to the Relief Society broadcast on my iPod (Thank you for that gift last year)! Sister Beck quoted Camilla Kimball as saying, “Never suppress a generous thought.”

I love you all. Love, Mom

November 1, 2009

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Dear Children,

Happy Halloween and Happy-Believe-It-Or-Not-November! Yesterday was a mixed weather day with enough dry skies and sunshine to completely clear away the rest of our vegetable garden. Any have any good recipes for green tomatoes? Last year I tried to hang the vines and let the green tomatoes ripen but I forgot about them mostly! This year I have bags of them waiting for a recipe of some sorts. Sammy’s absence was very noticeable as we worked in the garden on Saturday. Usually she is right behind me as I bend over in the dirt, barking so that I will through a rock to her. Dad and I cleaned up Sammy’s last vegetable garden; she always loved the fruits of our labor! Maybe that is why she lived so long; due to all the fruits and vegetable that she enjoyed! It began to rain as Dad and I finished our yard work and headed for the pool to stretch our muscles. But, then by the time for Trick or Treaters, it was dry again. Perfect!

We had a treat on Halloween. Grandma took us to P F Chang’s to take advantage of a Halloween discount coupon that she had and then we only ordered appetizers on their half price appetizer deal that is usually between 3:00 and 6:00 in the evening. They are always yummy.

It was fun to see the neighborhood children on Halloween. We had more children than in previous years. Ginny and Bill Larsen came with the Faulkner’s children. They asked about all of you. They enjoy their farm in Centralia, Washington.

Lastly, on Halloween evening, we received a text from Adrianne to wrap our arms in foil and go to Chipotle for a free burrito. We went online to learn if our Chipotle was running the same special and read that we could wear any costume for a free burrito on Halloween evening. I got my witch hat and one of your black graduation gowns and Dad grabbed tape and foil (good thing) and we got to Chipotle just before they closed. Sure enough, we got our free burrito (which we saved for dinner today since we were already full. . . perfect quick dinner after church for Fast Sunday). But, the cashier did ask where my foil was since we were supposed to be dressed like a burrito or taco salad at our restaurant. Thank goodness they were feeling generous. This is Adrianne’s picture of the dead beauty queens; her stake had a Halloween part and then, on Halloween, someone in her apartment complex had a party. She made Grandma Bitter’s recipe of Snicks for her Halloween candy that she was going to hand out. She wanted something special since Rebekah and Jenna would be coming to her place. That is a great treat!!!

With Halloween over (I am not usually sad about that; usually taking down Halloween decorations as I am passing out the candy) I can look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas; much better holidays in MY book. For Dad and me, we will be heading to Las Vegas on the Tuesday before turkey day. Our only plans so far in Las Vegas are to put the turkey in the oven and then go hiking at Red Rocks. I am also hoping that Morty wants to plan out some fun early morning Black Friday shopping. Wendi said she is thinking of getting down to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving also so we will have practically everyone there. Friday night we head to Utah and Saturday we will attend the BYU-University of Utah game. We have extended our stay in Utah so that we can take Grandma to Adrianne’s lab on Monday and then go to Katie’s news show that afternoon. Katie has a soccer game that night plus we asked Grandma if she will help us make some chocolates maybe on Monday but probably also Tuesday. If we can get in the bike ride we planned on our last visit (if the weather cooperates), we will do that and maybe even, if possible, go see Rebekah’s kindergarten. Last week we did some creative bookings with those $25.00 fares which caused us to have to spend a four hour lay over in Boise! It was going to be worth the double Southwest credit but then another fare deal arose this weekend so we opted to dump the extra credit and spend more time with the family in Utah. We will now fly out on Wednesday evening . . . three extra days now!

Grandma Maldonado will be in Antioch for Thanksgiving and Clovis for Christmas. She is requesting Christmas gift ideas as she needs to have her shopping done before she leaves for Thanksgiving. Send me some ideas also please! Here is my list so far:

Ping Pong Paddles and Balls

Digital Kitchen Scale, Aquatronic Style that has a zero out feature

Small Make Up Bag, like the size I have now (that is falling apart)

Olfa Rotary Blades, 45 mm regular blade

Knitting Needles (I don’t know any size; I just want to learn)

Wedgewood Nativity Scene Ornament (Bed Bath and Beyond $24.94)

Workout Pants with a pocket (I like the calf length)

Large (18” Reusable) Decorator Bag

Sport Socks with extra cushion

Kitchen Booster Chair (like the one that Heidi has loaned us)

With all the sad news I had to report last week, I have some good news about Barbara Block. She has been very ill since last Christmas with a debilitating disease attacking her nerves. Two weeks ago when she also died not being able to breathe (thinking the disease was starting to attack her heart and lungs) they discovered that she really had a slow growing tumor in her trachea blocking her air. In fact, they realized that is what caused the nerve problems back last December. They shrank the tumor and she is feeling so much better. I visited with her this week and she was so upbeat to know what has been causing her problems for the last eleven months even though she will probably not be able to regained the fine motor control in her hands and feet again. Aren’t life’s problems relative? She is so relieved to have cancer. And, tomorrow she learns if the cancer has spread her bones but she knows the treatment of chemotherapy is better than the last eleven months!

Robin Whitaker addressed perspective in her testimony today. She said she read a funny article that talked about life’s struggles and said, if we put a historical slant on our troubles, they wouldn’t seem so bad. For example, if we thought about one of our specific struggles and pictured us having to deal with it in while living in the 13^th century; it would be a LOT worse!!! But then she added, we are blessed with the gospel perspective that adds a wonderful perspective to our earthly struggles, which is so true!

Jared Green was here for the weekend and bore his testimony. It was great to see and hear from him. He bore strong testimony of the importance of finding happiness in the confines of the Gospel and gratitude for His plan of happiness. Because today was our practice for the Children’s Sacrament Meeting Presentation, I didn’t have a chance to stop and talk with him.

Shawn and Aubrey wedding anniversary is this week. They celebrated at a cabin in Truckee. I didn’t hear if it was snowy there yet.

Dad and I listened to the Young Adult Fireside tonight on BYU TV. If you had to miss it, it will be rebroadcast next Sunday, November 8 at 8am, 4:00 and 10:00pm. It was President Uchtdorf and of course, was excellent. He started by commenting that combining the titles to the two songs sung before he spoke: Praise to the Lord and Do What is Right would be a good daily motto by which to live. His talk covered several subjects of which he receives most from young adults, but mostly centered around our potential. He said that Shakespeare was wrong when he coined the phrase, “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Instead President Uchtdorf said he would rephrase it to say something like this, “Knowing that I am a child of God, what do I need to be and to do to live up to that potential?”

As always, he used some great analogies from his flying experience to use some stories. He described in DETAIL the glorious beauty that can be seen in certain types of thunder storms but said, no matter the alluring beauty, a pilot is taught to steer clear of them to survive. He strongly cautioned us to avoid the harmful storms in our lives. He said temptation wouldn’t be a temptation if it wasn’t made to seem beautiful, fun and enticing.

He also used some very endearing personal stories to talk about the question he receives often about finding the perfect soul mate. He reminded his audiences that there isn’t a “one and only” and that once you commit to a person, they become your soul mate by turning from looking to creating perfection together. It was a great talk with lots of personal comments and stories that made it very enjoyable. If you missed it, you should watch it next Sunday.

Dad and I saw Scott today. I have been worried about him; he seemed discouraged lately and rightly so. He has been trying to work on his post conviction relief and says he feels an overwhelming helplessness. He says it is much easier to help others work on their legal work instead of face the realities of his. He described his feelings well as he described how he feels during his races (his last for the season was this week; he got third place). His races are 18 laps but the mental struggle is hardest from the second to the 16^th lap. He feels like giving up and the only reason he doesn’t give up as he decides it is best when he must finish what he starts. He had a disappointing stark realization with his last test evaluations that, even after feeling good after his interviews, the evaluations came back with poor results as he faces the professional belief system that a person cannot make that kind of change in their life. We left after trying to help him realize that he may never be able to convince an outsider of his change but that what was most important is to know himself that he has changed and to continue to work on any little thing that those evaluators may point out. He works so hard to be and do good. His cell mate was transferred to a minimum prison so he has a new roommate, Chuck Potter. He is in the same cell and they both requested each other as their first pick. He is very excited to have a cell mate that is willing to prayer together every night.

Have a great week ahead! Love, Mom