April 19, 2009

Dear Children,

This is a great time to be alive! I have been able to take some sunny walks and the air is beginning to “smell” warm even. Today is beautiful. On my walk yesterday morning, I thought again, “I LOVE the new iPod that many of you gave to us” especially now that I learned how to download the general conference podcast. I have been able to go through the recent talks in the car and on my walks. It has been great. Yesterday, I accidentally touched a talk out of order (I am not used to the sensitivity of the screen yet) and was actually glad that I did. It was Elder Allan Packer where he expressed those same sentiments: that it is a great time to be alive as he talked of the importance of personal inspiration to navigate the times ahead.

It was a comfort to me to hear his words of explanation about personal inspiration as he described that it often comes later, after we get up from our prayers, as gentle thoughts about solutions to those prayer concerns or ideas we haven’t even thought about enter our mind. I had often felt discouraged about my seemingly “lack” of inspiration. Hearing that description validated just how I have felt that the Lord answers and guides me. I have found that when I follow through on those ideas, not questioning my ability, they really were for the best.

I was with Rosemary Green this week and she told me of an experience that her son, Jeremy, had while he still lived in Tennessee. He was trying to sell his car for $1,200.00 since his company had given him one. He had no calls on it until one man called and asked if he would sell it for less. When the man offered only $600.00 Jeremy surprisingly accepted. The man tried to figure out the bus route to Jeremy’s home when finally, Jeremy offered to deliver the car. He drove the car while his wife and all of his children drove his other car to give him a ride back. All the way over to the stranger’s home, Jeremy kept getting the idea that he should just give the car to the man. When they arrived, Jeremy’s wife motioned him over to the family car and said she kept getting the thought to give the car to the man. So they did and then learned that the man was ready to give up on his only good job since he had no car and the busses would take all his family time away from him. His mother told him to hold on one more week since she had prayed about him and told him that she felt not only would he find a car for only the $600.00 that he had but it would be given to him for no money at all this very weekend. The Green’s were inspired to be an answer to a faithful mother’s prayer.

I pray everyday for all of you: that you will be guided by the Spirit, be watched over and be happy. I know that the Lord watches over us by inspiring others to come to our aid or come into our lives. I hope that we can hear that direction in our lives so we can also be answers to faithful mothers’ prayers.

There were plenty of opportunities for service this week to follow the counsel from our prophet in general conference. It is a truth that serving others helps you forget your own struggles; it is very uplifting. I don’t always hear of service opportunities since we mostly attend the singles ward but, thankfully Morty was here last week so we attended Beaverton First Ward. Mary Newell was moving her six children to Kansas and Brother Radford passed away the evening before Easter so I could volunteer for a lot this week! I got Carol Stanger to help me on Tuesday at Mary’s home. I had been there before so I felt I was realistically prepared on what to expect. Their moving truck was arriving in two days and I learned that other people had been helping them for a couple of weeks. I was shocked to walk in and see so much undone especially since Cathy Crandall said Mary asked that only two or three sisters come to help. We could have used 20 sisters! I started packing toys and it took every ounce of strength within me not to organize the toys before packing but I was constrained by the lack of available time and Mary’s request to not throw out anything! I realized that I must adhere to Mary’s carefree attitude and stop worrying about how awful it would be for them at the other end of unpacking to find anything. I at least tried to put all the many puzzle pieces, game pieces and such in one box. It just makes me cringe to think of what it will be like for those children to set up in a new home with such chaos in those boxes as they look for something from home in their new surroundings. I had great conversations with several of the children as I included them in my packing; they were great helpers. Most are sad to leave town. We made a huge dent in the workload and I just had to realize that I left honoring the way she wanted something done; not my way but her way.

We also experienced a tragedy in the ward when Robert Radford passed away on the evening before Easter Sunday. His funeral was set for Saturday: I was glad that Dad and I were finally going to be in town for someone’s funeral. We have missed at least a couple of important funerals this past year (Georgia Harris and Isabel Higgs). I enjoyed helping with the set up and food for the family dinner afterwards. Tracie and Adam had tons of family come into town; it was a great gathering for them. They will need a lot of support; Adam is only 14 and Tracie just came home from the hospital after an extended stay due to kidney and heart problems..

Speaking of service, Bill designed a yard sign for the business and sent it to a sign company here. I picked it up late Friday and for fun placed it on the closest jobsite: our front fence! Tomorrow Dad will place them at his Summerlake pour and the Jorgensen’s back yard. We hope it will get our name out and increase our business right now. We have a couple more jobs lined up but, even so, Dad still wanted to take off on Wednesday and ski again. Each time he says it could be the “last good snow day”.

Boy was it good! It was probably the best ski day of the week. Much of the day it snowed very lightly so it stayed cold keeping the snow really nice through the morning and all afternoon; some of the day we were above the clouds so it was also sunny. I guess I may eat my words and say that I prefer skiing with goggles over skiing in heavy mushy snow. I think I should go more often to figure that out! Dad was skiing at a slower pace since he had a sore on his leg that would hurt every time he went over a bump; it helped me keep up with him. We debated the fact hat he should probably go to the doctor on Wednesday instead of ski. That was not much of a debate for him. Luckily, he saw the doctor the next morning and got it lanced so it can heal faster; it is a big hole now but not as ugly!

I had a job interview with Ivan Jones this week; after the 15^th of course. He still wasn’t ready with his spreadsheets of accounts receivables. It sounds like the job will be flexible so I can continue what I like best; visit my children and grandchildren! I hope I am successful. He realizes that this is not the best timing for their company to finally start actively trying to collect on past due accounts. It will be interesting and it is forcing me to get better at using Excel. I was actually kind of nervous to sit with him to get details about the job. I had read the day before, on the way home from skiing, a Church News article about job seeking and learned about making a “Me in 30 Seconds Statement”. I think everyone should do that! They are easy but they force you to think about the strengths you have that would be beneficial to your employer. I actually had something like that in my letters that I sent out without knowing it. Want to hear mine? It goes something like this:

“Over the past 30 years I have become especially effective in planning and implementing various tasks, events and schedules all at once. I am very competent at multi-tasking. However, I love the challenge to discover the most efficient and effective way to accomplish a task while maintaining a careful attention to detail.”

In my institute class we discussed the conference messages from the prophet. He had some repeating themes: Pray always, express love, to the temple often, get out of debt and give service. He also gave a stern warning about the internet and pornography warning us that it will destroy the spirit. Strongly his words were, “Cease now!” He also had messages of hope, telling us to be of good cheer and promised us that the future is as bright as our faith.

We also talked of family relationships in class and Brother Stark made a point to say that relationships are built, not born. He went on to say that they are built by serving one another, playing together and making good memories. Which reminds me of how anxious I am to see many of you this week for Nate’s graduation and Aaron’s birthday and then visiting Katie in St. Louis and taking a side trip to Nauvoo with Grandma that next week. It is very exciting to welcome one more graduate in the family. Excellent job, Nate!

We will also get to watch Adrianne at this new barn at which she has been taking jumping lessons. They are having a show and she may be jumping at about 10:00 am and then again at 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday. She was thrilled with the horse that she has been able to ride the last week. She feels like his canter is like a Tennessee Walker and he (or she) jumps great. She has three days of finals left and then starts looking for a job for the summer. She has her sights set on finding one in Las Vegas so she can live with the boys and have some of her school friends close by.

I learned today that Christie Christensen is leaving for a mission at the end of May. She is going to a Texas Mission. Maybe I told you that when I reported on the Christensen wedding that we attended a few weeks ago. But, if I knew before and told you, I had forgotten!

One last thing I wanted to share with you: When Dad and I went to the temple on Saturday evening, a woman sitting in front of me had earphones on to listen in a different language. I remembered using a set of those headphones when, several years ago, we accidentally went to a Spanish session. We wore headphones to hear the English. I propped my earphones so I could hear it mostly in Spanish (ONLY because I knew what was being said; not that I could understand that much Spanish anymore). I love the Spanish language but I feel sad for them that when the Savior is referred to as the Son of God that they miss out on that rich layering of the word son since in English it sounds the same as sun (but in Spanish they are two separate sounding words: hijo and sol). I love the imagery of thinking about Christ as being the center of our lives and also the sun being the center, both also giving us life and on and on. I love hearing the Spanish accent and especially enjoy hearing Gospel messages given with heavy Spanish accents like this past conference, or any other accent. It makes me listen more closely and I just love hearing the Lord’s message from the Lord’s children from all over the world.

To start Scott’s birthday week, we visited him this morning. I hope he gets some recognition; several of his friends know his birthday is Tuesday and Heidi is coming here so that she can be with him on his birthday. He is staying healthy and ran another 10K. He placed second in his age group. He talked about his love of learning and all the good books available to him since he works right next to the lending library. He says that the regular library receives beautiful picture books but does not lend them; he borrows them and gets to read them in the law library since he is there everyday. He is learning a new job starting on Monday. It is a promotion since he will take the place of the other returned missionary that works in the law library. Fraser is being transferred to a minimum prison (probably due to his sentence being only three or four years left). He will be the boss’s assistant. He enjoyed some of the pictures that I was able to print of his girls visit here. He said the campfire picture was very meaningful to his family since both Scott and kyre loved a campfire from their youth so they instilled that love in their children. Kyre’s love was toasting marshmallows in Molly Holt’s fireplace at her home in Korea. Scott’s family used to do that for a family home evening treat in their fireplace and then, of course, he built that fire pit in his backyard also.

Wow, this is long! I love you and am anxious to see you all soon and also celebrate our April birthdays (Scott 21, Aaron 27 and Katie 30) !!! Love, Mom

April 12, 2009

Dear Children,

HAPPY EASTER! We had a different Easter this year, more quiet than last year with an egg hunt including the neighborhood children, a visit from the grandchildren and the several March birthday celebrations since Easter landed in March last year. We had our Easter dinner this year on Saturday evening since Morty was visiting and his flight was this afternoon. We did enjoy a great Easter breakfast, at Morty’s request, and even a showing of chocolate eggs. Our Easter bunny outsmarted the retail world of See’s and picked up the highly sought after Mayfair eggs before they sold out, as is always the case each Easter. I am hording mine!

I hope that you all enjoyed the family fun of the holiday and also the gratitude for the reason that we celebrate, that we may all be resurrected and have the ability to live with God again if we will take advantage of the Atonement.

Shawn reported that Gregory was signed up for an egg hunt at a nearby park. Shawn and Aubrey “practiced” with Gregory at home beforehand so he would know what to do. Shawn said, “We weren’t going t send a slacker into the court!” Klaire went to an egg hunt at Adam’s school and, with her fireball personality, had an overflowing basket of eggs. Rebekah and Jenna’s Easter activity was cancelled due to a storm warning so they went down to Orem and colored eggs with Jenni Marchant and her children before they leave for California and then Viet Nam. They went to Uncle Jerry’s Easter Egg hunt in Alpine afterwards. Rebekah was most anxious about her Easter dress that she picked out at Costco this year. We hope to get some pictures.

Katie said the St Louis Easter Bunny left her an Easter Basket with lottery tickets in it; not the usual Easter Bunny to which we are accustomed! She started her day with stake conference. It was a satellite broadcasted meeting including many Midwestern states in which they heard from President Monson, Elder Oakes, Elder Snow and others. She joined the Underwood family for her Easter dinner. Adrianne was invited to Heidi and Bill’s for Easter dinner. This weekend Bill worked on a design for us to print our first yard sign so we can advertize our business while dad is working at a customer’s home. Bill says that he has other ideas to show us about which we are very excited to learn.

Also in Utah this weekend was Nate who planned to travel up there so he could train on Mt. Timpanogas with his friend Adam (a previous roommate from Portland) for a hike challenge that he wants to enter from his work. Their vendor, Jansport, sponsors an 8000 meter 24 hour challenge for all of their retailers. It is held in California on three separate peaks on the first Thursday of September. It is suppose to resemble the 40 mile hike up Mt. Everest. He plans to accomplish this goal and then get on a plane for Texas to be at BYU’s opening game against Oklahoma at the new Dallas Cowboy’s stadium. Morty asked us to go along to the BYU game. We would absolutely love to but, with business as slow as it has been, it would be irresponsible to add that extra to the already family travel commitments we have made. Unfortunately, if we feel more secure as it gets closer, it may be prohibitive to get tickets and a place to stay! Nate learned that it was not wise to hike Timp since the snow was so low for this time of year and the avalanche danger was relatively high. I appreciated knowing that he wasn’t going to hike it after all. He will have to do most of his training in Las Vegas.

It was fun to have Morty here. He helped me with my idea to Google the addresses onto a map of the single adults we are trying to visit. I hope I can remember what he showed me. He also helped me out with my iPod that I could have probably figured out by reading my “iPod for Dummies” book that Katie sent us for our anniversary. On Friday we had tamale pie at Grandma’s and then he went to the Blazer Laker game and loved all the action. He said it was VERY loud and crazy. On Saturday he searched the town for a Blazer playoff game shirt for Katie with no results. Now that G I Joe’s (Joe’s most recently) has been forced to liquidate, there is not a reliable local place to pick up Blazer merchandise except at the game. We had our Easter dinner and Morty went home with Grandma to hang out with her all evening and watch the Blazer game on a high definition TV. Dad and I went to the concert to which I have been looking forward since last fall, Ten Grands. It was the tickets that I gave Dad for Christmas. It was ten grand pianos on the same stage at the Schnitzer Concert Hall. It was SO good! Dad and I were so glad that we went.

Last Monday looked like our best chance to ski this week; we are trying to go once a week now. It was a typical spring ski day: lots of sun, skiing in sunglasses with just the shell coat layer unzipped and avoiding certain runs that the sun is hitting (as much as possible) so the snow was as firm as possible. The snow became very wet by mid afternoon since it was so unusually warm on the mountain. My skis felt VERY long that day as I tried to control them in the slush! Dad said the snow would make good snow cones. It was fun but also a lot of work.

Katie had a brush with snow the same day when she sat freezing at the opening day of the Cardinals baseball season in Busch Stadium. But it was worth every shiver to her to be there on opening day. Is there anyone in the entire city of St. Louis that loves the Cardinals more than Oregon-grown Katie? She is doubting how she ever stood living in a city without a major league baseball team!

Speaking of transplants, we had a nice visit with my cousin, Janice Maldonado and her daughter Taylor on Tuesday. They were in Portland and Eugene to check out the University of Oregon. Taylor is a senior at Head Royce private school in Oakland (where my high school friend, Mary Rodrigo Fahey teaches) and she is looking for a college. She wants to go into medicine so she liked the U of O biology department. I learned that even Jeff Concannon was one of Taylor’s basketball coaches at Head Royce. The thing I remember about Jeff was that he could peal an orange in one piece. Do you remember that Denise? The silly things that a high school boy does to impress the girls! The silly things that impressed us!!!

This week Dad is sharing his notes from the priesthood session of conference with me. I like the message from President Packer as he spoke specifically to the young men. He said, “A life of fun and games and expensive toys has come to an abrupt end. We move from a generation of ease and entertainment to a generation of hard work and responsibility. . . It will not hurt you to want something and not have it. There is a maturing and disciplining that will be good for you . . . Learn to work and to support.”

In my institute class we concentrated on messages about the Atonement and Easter, Elder Holland’s recent conference address being our focus. It was such an excellent talk; this was the perfect week to review it. Discussing Christ’s solitary journey to the Atonement, for OUR salvation, where He had to experience even divine withdrawal so He could know how we feel when we lose the Spirit, I realized that truly divine compassion is NEVER absent. We do not ever have to walk alone.

As we talked about the last week of Christ’s life and specially the betrayal by Judas to sell Christ for 30 pieces of silver, our teacher posed this question also, “Who will betray the Savior and His teachings for money?

On the way to pick up Morty on Thursday night, Dad and I attended another preparedness meeting. There was a great presentation on “old fashioned” preparedness ideas. It was quite a change from our other meetings. The presenter reminded us to have our out of state phone contact, which has always been Grandma in California. Although I realized that our out of state contact person moved to our state! I guess now that we are spread between four different states, we need to collectively decide on one out of state phone contact so we are all checking in with the same person. Let’s put our heads together. Too bad Morty doesn’t still have that easy phone number!

Dad and I hope that you all have a great holiday weekend and good luck with the week ahead. I love you. Love, Mom

Remember that Scott’s birthday is on April 21; he would love to hear from each one of you! So would Aaron on April 27 and Katie on April 30!!!!

April 5, 2009

Dear Children,

Wow, conference weekend was so good and we also had a turn in the weather here . . . sunny all day! The windows were open and it smelled like spring. Wait, it is spring and has been for a couple of weeks now (but you wouldn’t know it)! Dad skied in a blizzard on Thursday! He was so anxious to go up so I insisted he could go alone since I had class and I was committed to cleaning Grandma’s home that day since I was planning to ski on Friday with Dad (promised to be better weather). You know Dad, he was in seventh heaven on the mountain on Thursday even though the ski lift chairs were covered in ice and snow but you know what a blizzard gives you: fresh snow and that is what Dad LOVES.

This week Dad and I had planned to ski on Monday and Friday (Monday probably being the best weather day) but when I finally got to bed very late on Sunday I just couldn’t fathom the idea of getting up at 6:00 in the morning and skiing when I had so much Excel training yet to finish to give a report to Ivan Jones. He has been kind enough to try and figure out a job for me. He loaned me his training CD series (for Excel and Quickbooks) that he bought himself for training for their mission and wanted me to preview them since he hasn’t had a chance during tax season. Also Dad hadn’t finished some leads on some future jobs that he was bidding so we really both needed to be working instead of skiing on Monday.

Staying home paid off for both of us. Dad returned a bid on Monday and made such good contact with the owner that when he received lower bids he called Dad and they negotiated a compromise so he will have that Summerlake area job. It was from a Yellow Pages call (that means a whole new set of neighbor and friend possibilities; we just need to get a sign up as he works and we haven’t designed that yet). Studying all day on Monday and part of Tuesday gave me good feedback to report to Ivan so we talked about a job for which I will receive training after tax season: calling for accounts receivable. It is not the easiest thing to do but it is a possibility of an income nonetheless and the best part is that it sounds flexible so it shouldn’t interfere with my most important job of visiting with, playing with and helping my children and grandchildren.

We still skied on Friday so Dad went two days in a row. It was suppose to be nice weather on Friday but it snowed most of the day on the mountain. There was so much snow and Dad said it was like Snowbird powder so he was thrilled. For me, I did best after the powder started to get skied out in the middle of the runs while Dad stayed on the sides or in the trees.

On Tuesday night Dad, Grandma and I saw Wicked! It was a last minute idea. A couple of weeks ago I thought I heard a radio announcement saying there were last minute $25.00 tickets. I did some research on it and even wrote to the radio station to learn that two hours before each performance they were handing out the tickets for cash on a lottery basis. On Tuesday we showed up two and half hours early and put our names in the witches’ cauldron for a chance at luck. They were only giving away 20 tickets so they went fast and our names weren’t called. But, they offered everyone who had lost out to be able to purchase ANY leftover seat for $41.00 (great marketing strategy since there were at least 100 people there and most of them bought the $41.00 tickets; seats they probably wouldn’t have sold at the last minute). We decided to do it instead of try another night since it was the last week that they were in town. We were able to sit all together and be on orchestra level; they were great seats.

It was SO worth it. Wicked is so good and it was really fun to share it with Grandma and see someone else enjoying it so much. Plus, I saw lots of things I had missed before. I would see it again!

I have been continuing to fine tune our food storage and add new products, seeds and grain that contain protein and amino acids, even vitamin C, that will add to our protein variety since I am low on meat ideas in my food storage. This week I added a new very dark chocolate (very essential you know!) with lots of flavonoids and antioxidants plus chia, quinoa and canned heritage seeds (for gardening). Our preparedness group is pretty edgy, no run-of-the-mill wheat and milk orders but I do plan to skip the gun meeting! Today I put the quinoa in the turkey dressing and Dad put chia in the bread. We should feel so healthy! We had the Chandler’s and Grandma over since I cooked a turkey after conference. It is Brother Chandler’s birthday this week. Oh no! It is Aunt Carla’s birthday too; I forgot!

I didn’t take as many notes over conference weekend; I just mainly enjoyed trying to sit back and listen to hear what I need to hear for myself. I took notes to help me remember (writing helps things stick in my brain) and noted some things that spoke loudly to me. One of the main things I heard to improve my life was pointing my life toward the temple, attending the temple more often and taking advantage of the power of the temple. Having meaningful Family Home Evenings (our FHE have mostly been entertainment or home projects) could be improved in my life, serving more and having faith/hope for a better future. Some of my favorite quotes were:

• Neil L. Andersen’s “Become what your spouse thinks you already are!”
• President Uchtdorf’s “As we walk in the way of gospel discipleship, we can find joy.”
• Robert D. Hales’ three thoughts in his great message about provident living: “Live joyfully within our means.”, “We can’t afford it even though we need it.” and “We can afford it but we don’t need it.”
• Kevin Pearson’s, “Faith requires us to DO not just believe.”

After he said that we need to learn to get on with our lives, I loved how Steven E. Snow taught us how to prepare for change (It summarizes lots of the messages of the weekend):

1-Follow the prophet for counsel to weather the storms

2-Keep eternal perspective about trials

3-Have faith and hope (faith and doubt cannot exist together)

4-Be of good cheer: laughter can soften the bumps

Gratitude is one thought that I had over and over during the weekend messages. I am so grateful that I already have the gospel in my life and can expend my energies towards a list of doable steps to gain more peace and happiness and come closer to the Savior. I love you all and hope you have a great week ahead, energized from the hopeful messages of the weekend.

These were some of my favorite pictures from Heidi and Bill's family photo shoot this winter. Most of you already saw this since they sent the Costco photo file to everyone.

I love you! Love, Mom

My Institute Class Today April 2, 2009

Dear Children,
This is the first time that I have written directly on the blog; I hope that this works. I had such a great institute class that I wanted to write about it. I am sure that is was better due to the fact that I have been "conference cramming" right now to meet "my own" challenge to the family to read last October's conference this month. Brother Stark, my teacher, compared conference to the Liahona so we read from 1 Nephi 16:28 where we discussed that the Liahona (like the conference messages from our prophets) work to help us personally if we have faith, diligence and heed their counsel. So the question we would ask ourselves is, "We will follow the direction we receive?" We can ask, "What are they saying to ME?" President Hinckley had told us that we CAN be uplifted, we CAN find solutions to our problems and we CAN be thankful for what we hear.

We watched President Monson's message from last conference in which he talked about finding joy in the journey of life. It was so excellent to see it again. Quoting Joseph Smith, Brother Stark said happiness (not a big house or a big portfolio) is the object and design of our existence. President Monson suggested that we quit planning for that elusive future when we will have all the time to do whatever we want but have JOY in the JOURNEY. President Monson quoted the Musicman saying, "If we pile up enough tomorrows, you have a lot of empty todays." The prophet counseled us to MAKE THE MOST OF TODAY!

He said what is most important most often involves the people around us. And my favorite quote from his talk, "Never let a problem to be solved be more important than a person." He added that we should relish life as we live it and express gratitude for our blessings. So many great lessons in one talk!

Our teacher added, "Remember that having joy is different than having fun."

I am so looking forward to conference this weekend. I pray that all of you will hear messages that you will love and you will feel like you have been personally edified and helped. I love you all and send a wish of warm cinnamon rolls your way (Don't worry, I am not making them without you this year)!!! Love, Mom