June 26, 2009

Dear Children,

Today I am trying to get done all the things I have procrastinated (or haven’t gotten to) before leaving tomorrow for Utah. This computer REALLY needs to be looked at. I will take it in this afternoon, or evening, and hopefully be able to leave it while we are in Utah. So, since the computer will need repair, I am trying to backup my important files on a new external hard drive. I am on hold with their technical support right now! Grandma also needs her computer repaired. Dell has tried to repair it over the phone but told her also to back it up on an external hard drive before their next step. So, after I master this on my computer, I will head to Grandma’s to back her computer up this afternoon.

Realizing that I will be gone for over a week, I am in panic mode with prepping the garden for a week of no maintenance. It has grown so nicely but I have basically ignored it while Shawn’s family and Sunhee and Meeja were here (except for picking raspberries with Sunhee and Meeja). The weeds need some attention. By the size of my “to do” list today, I might just have to wait until I get back and the weeds are taller. Thankfully, I used Preen in two of the three sections so some of the garden still looks nice. Dad and I enjoyed my first harvest of Swiss chard last night and tonight I am going to pick our tiny first zucchini since they won’t be tiny when I return! When Dad planted the raspberries brought over from Ramona’s garden and I noticed how many bees that brought to my garden, I hoped that meant that I wouldn’t have problems with my zucchini getting pollinated anymore and it looks like that has proven true.

Since taking Sunhee and Meeja back Tuesday afternoon, both Dad and I have been scampering to get everything done to leave. Dad has had some work at the Harris home and a small J.C. Reeves (that is a bad word) remodel job. Dad’s front planter project here at the house won’t be finished being planted but the sprinklers are now all working full speed so some of the plants Dad and I already purchased can stay where they are. I am most excited about a polka dot grassy plant that was an impulse buy. I love it! The main thing that the project still needs is the trees, a plum tree and an evergreen dwarf of some sort.

Much of my time was spent catching up on my humanitarian project for Girl’s Camp. I had some great results with a work party with sergers that I had here yesterday so we could prepare all the raw edges of the fabrics so that doesn’t need to be done at camp. I lowered my goal to be 80 dresses instead of 100 since they took more fabric than planned and I need to work in a budget. That is still a great goal. The girls will also be making hair scrunchies to go with each dress. That part of the project can now sit until I get back.

Dad and I had planned to go to our first zoo concert on Wednesday night but with all that needed to be done, it was hard to relax and enjoy it. I did address all my postcard invitations to our singles group for the big July conference. Neither of us was enjoying the music though so we did end up leaving early. It was a type of reggae music which normally can be enjoyable (and the few times that they used their horns and brass it was excellentt). The group was called Sly and Robbie and the Taxi Gang. The zoo was packed; I have never seen so many dreadlocks in one place (and that is saying a lot for the Oregon outdoor concerts that we attend). We had to park on a street above the zoo on the way to Skyline Boulevard! It made for a nice hike to the concert.

When I returned Sunhee and Meeja, we played at Kyre’s before heading to Angie’s work. Klaire was so excited to show Grandma (she traveled with me) and the girls her room and “her” playground (they live next to a school). They have some great playground equipment; we could have stayed there all afternoon!

I am going backwards in my descriptions of the past week so let me go forward now so it will help my brain!

The great event of last week was the visit of Shawn and Aubrey and the boys. They arrived on Thursday and we went to the zoo directly form the airport. I thought we would stay a couple of hours and Gregory would get tired but NO. It was hard to keep up with his little legs discovering every corner of the zoo. He was excited about everything he saw; the train, eagles, otters, even lunchtime! He played with Shawn, Dad and I on the lawn as we ate our lunch and Aubrey fed Bryson. Shawn has already schooled Gregory on Shawn’s obsession for aerial jump photos. That kept him entertained for quiet some time. We do have a great zoo and he especially loved the Northwest exhibit where the otters kept swimming right at his level next to the window. Bryson was quiet and entertained the entire day; he is such a content baby. It was great conditions for a perfect zoo trip with mild weather and children that are excited to explore.

Gregory enjoyed playing in our backyard the rest of the evening until he dropped to sleep. He loves the outdoors. They had a big day of travel planned for Friday. They took the boys to Seattle for a night before going to Aubrey’s best friend’s reception in Moses Lake, Washington. They had a great time in Seattle and returned to Beaverton very late Saturday night (well, early Sunday morning). Shawn and Aubrey make the most of every minute!

Meanwhile, Dad and I worked more in the yard while they were away. Dad always likes to have the yard at its peak for a visit from the children or grandchildren. Friday was my day to water the Jones’s yard (while they have it up for sale). Dad met me over there and we pulled out a few bushes that Ramona said we could have. We tried to do some last minute planting in our yard before going to Sunhee’s softball game but got caught in a heavy summer downpour that absolutely drenched us so we had to completely shower and change before heading to Sweet Home. That delayed us terribly since it caused us to hit Friday weekend traffic.

We picked up Adam on the way and just made it to see Sunhee make a great hit well over the second and third baseman’s heads. She is an excellent player and her natural athletic ability shows in all sports that she attempts. After the game we loaded the girls’ bags into our car and headed for some food. Neither Adam nor we had time to stop to eat and sporting events seem to make a person hungry anyway. We stopped at the Taco Bell in Lebanon and I have never seen Adam, Sunhee and Meeja eat so much; they kept going back for more. We all had lots of laughs as we relaxed there. The girls are always fun to be around. Adam enjoyed seeing them and when we dropped off Adam in Jefferson, Meeja climbed back into her car seat, sighed and said, “My favorite part of the day was seeing my brother Adam.” All three got to hear Rebekah’s phone call after her dance recital. That was a perfect treat. Rebekah told them all about her itchy costume and her makeup that she was wearing!

We always seem to be returning from Sweet Home late at night. We played games in the car until we couldn’t see the cards. Sunhee decided to “play” on my phone and practiced her texting skills (she likes the predictive text feature on the phone). Several of you may have received texts form Sunhee during her stay. She asked who she could call as late as we were traveling so we tried to think who would be home and up late. I didn’t know that Morty was in Kansas City so we called him VERY late his time. He was a good sport to engage both girls in a fun conversation. She was instructed to call only Pacific Time Zone relatives!

It was still rainy in Beaverton most of Saturday so it turned our outside plans into mostly indoor game playing. Shawn had asked for Father’s Day cinnamon rolls so the girls helped me make those on Saturday so we wouldn’t have so much to do on Sunday. I didn’t want to have lots of cinnamon rolls in the house so we drove around to make some deliveries. We were all wishing we could have done that on our bikes. Later in the afternoon there was a break in the weather so we biked around to several parks to stop and play. It is amazing to me that Meeja can remember all the parks and their names that we have visited before. The girls enjoyed all the equipment at Hiteon School the most. Meeja is without fear on her bike so she had lots of crashed. Her lack of fear is why she is not “road ready” so Dad trailered her bike to each park and she just rode in the parks or at the school playground. We also celebrated the girls June birthdays while they were in Beaverton; we are lucky to be able to have them visit so close to their birthdays so we can see them open the gifts for which we are so excited to give to them.With all of our sleepyheads in the home, Dad couldn’t stay in bed long enough for the girls to get him breakfast in bed. We had Mickey waffles with strawberries for Breakfast but ate them all together at the table. We also attended Beaverton First ward which was nice. The girls loved sitting beside their cousins and especially since Gregory had great snacks! Jaime Jorgensen was one of the speakers. The topic was patriarchal blessings so she related it to a letter from home with advice (as if you were in a foreign land and felt isolated) that you would savor and read over and over again. The other speaker, as he was speaking about the role of the patriarch in the home, quoted a talk from the stake president where he said, “The things that we do for ourselves are often forgotten while the things we do for others become our legacy.”

I thought Gregory was especially funny when he followed the girls and I as I was taking them to Primary. As I took his hand so he didn’t get lost in the crowd, and walked into the Primary opening exercises room, he stiffened and said, “No sit!” He saw all the chairs and knew he did not want to sit down again! I explained to him that we were just helping the girls get to their classes and then we would go visit the toys and snacks in Nursery.

Our Father’s Day dinner was nice and dad received a watch that monitors his heart rate plus, from Shawn’s family; he received the “major award” coveted leg lamp (from The Christmas Story). We got some good laughs from that! The girls rode with us to take Shawn’s family to the airport. Their flight was completely booked so they were going to try to get bumped. Just in case they needed a place to stay, we decided to expend some time watching the planes land and take off. We found a great spot and the girls really enjoyed that.

Monday was spent back at the zoo, this time it was just the girls and I. We watched the time and made sure we caught a few of the shows, even timing the bird show right. I think my favorite part was listening to the zookeeper talk about the otters. They are the most expensive animals to feed in the zoo. I guess all the pounds of fresh fish are more expensive than the frozen bugs that the Sun Bears eat! I learned that otters have to eat so much because they so not have the layer of blubber that most in their environment do so they keep warm by eating.

After the zoo we invited Grandma to watch Enchanted; she hadn’t seen it yet. Later that afternoon the sounds of my backyard reminded me of when you all were growing up. I think we had the whole neighborhood and then some in the backyard. The girls loved it. I think we did everything hoped for this week except we will have to get out Dad’s fire bowl and roast marshmallows on the next visit.

Morty sent this picture of one of his many trips to the Kansas City Royals ballpark. They were playing the Cardinals of course. He was on television since he was right where Albert Pujols hit a home run!

Dad and I are anxious to see everyone in Utah but especially baby Ainsley! Heidi said that she is starting to get pudgy already. We cancelled our plane tickets and will be driving now. We will be there soon! Remember to be the person that God made you to be! I love you!

I meant to write earlier in the week (actually really earlier LAST week) when Morty tagged some pictures from one of Adrianne’s Face Book photo files called Christmas and Vegas. I wanted to say THANK YOU to Morty and Adrianne for preserving those memories and facilitating the opportunity for Dad and I to revisit that day (through those pictures) with this good measure of time between the wounds and the chance we have had since then, to repair some of that upheaval. That day in December started great with coming home from church when Jeremy Luman had just dropped off our surprise package of Nate and Morty! And then, everyone of you put all your efforts towards packing up all our gifts for Kyre and the children and helping to put together the Christmas meal we were taking down to Albany. It was a lot of work and Dad and I were especially worried that all would go well in the eyes of the Lane family since they held the keys to seeing our grandchildren more often. It was a pretty gut-wrenching day for Dad and I and yet, thank goodness, so many of you were here to put the jolly into the day.

Dad and I were grateful to look back at those pictures that we don’t even remember (some must not have been from our camera) of that day when we went to visit the grandchildren at Kyre’s place for the first time after all the months of not seeing them at all. Dad and I had the greatest time last week looking through those pictures, plus the funny labels and comments posted by some of you. They just made us laugh and laugh! It was so evident that the grandchildren were having pure joy as we were looking at their faces in those pictures as they interacted with their uncles and aunts. It looked like there had never been a separation at all! You all made it so fun; Dad and I could not have done that without you. The sad truth is that Dad and my memory of that event was not so happy due to the shroud of mistrust of us and the dark and heavy cloud that the Lane family held us under. Because we were so on edge, we had a hard time seeing all the happiness of that day right when it was happening. Thank you! I just loved the caption of the chair-slouch genetics and the fun memories of the snow bets on Christmas Day! You are the best! I love you, Mom

June 15, 2009

Dear Children,

Well here is some big news for our part of the world. Yesterday it was announced that our ward is being moved over to the Turquoise Loop building! That is a short walk from our home. Once we are released form the singles ward, we will be able to walk to church; isn’t that amazing! The building is not in our stake; it is in Beaverton West Stake but I think tow wards over there were combined into one which made room for another ward to meeting their building. Since four wards are in our building it makes good sense to utilize the Turquoise Loop building better. There will take some adjustment since so many in this ward have been here for years and years and years . . . Of course, it is such a smaller building but the time saved alone in locking it up after an activity is going to be wonderful!

We heard from Bill and Heidi on Sunday evening that the name, Ainsley Jaynann, is ALMOST finalized! Bill sent us new pictures last night. Jenna and Rebekah are very helpful big sisters. With Bill’s help, the girls made a cake to bring to the new baby when they came to visit her for the first time in the hospital. Heidi reports that she likes this “honeymoon” time as newborn tend to sleep so much. The third child is the critical number: two parents versus three children, two arms versus three children, and on and on!

Guess who we saw this week! As we were leaving the driveway with the trailer full of barbeques to set up the Young Single Adult BBQ before the boat dance on Friday night, a unknown car pulled into the driveway blocking our escape and out popped Brain Bybee! As I approached them, I didn’t recognize the girl that was with him. She gave me a hug and I thought to myself, “Why is Brian’s girlfriend hugging me; should I know her?” In moments I realized that it was Rachel Bybee! They both look so good and were off on an adventure (Bybee style) to revisit and explore the Northwest. They had been to Mt. Hood earlier that day and were planning on traveling to Crater Lake as well. They are both headed to England for school this year to get advanced degrees. Dad and I forgot to ask where but I am sure it is no don’t Cornell or some other prestigious school, knowing the Bybee’s excellence. Paving the way for future boarding school attendee-Ainsley, Bill!!!

It was so great to talk with them. Recently I have been communicating with Diane Bybee, learning of their move. They keep asking us to visit them in their new place in Germany. Visiting the Bybees in another country would be a fun adventure as you know that they have experienced all the exciting places to explore. Dad tried to convince them to attend the BBQ, and boat dance but they had plans. I am happy that you boys have taken the time to reconnect with Brian. I hear he will be traveling through Las Vegas.

Dad and I just attended the BBQ part of the big summer boat dance YSA event. It was a pretty day until we started to set up. It rained, even poured on us for part of the dinner. Luckily we were at a park (a concrete city park), right off the Max line in downtown eastside with a huge covered gazebo.

My last visit with Ramona Jones was on Friday afternoon. Their home is almost completely empty. They made some changes to the home to make it easier to sell. It was kind of sad to say goodbye. They may not come back to the ward boundaries when they return; that would be odd to not have them close. She was kind enough to have given us some CDs that she recorded of her piano music. What a wonderful gift. She has always been so generous with her talent. She gave us two CDs with hymns and one of her favorite show tunes. She put Malaguena at the end of her show tunes CD. I am glad she chose to add that one; it is my favorite. As she bemoaned the fact that the recordings have so many mistakes, I told her that all her students over the years should listen to her music and hear the great example of what she always taught: to keep playing even when you know you made a mistake.

Dad and I didn’t give up on going skiing this week until at the very last minute. We had so many yard projects that we wanted to finish before Shawn and Aubrey get here and a funeral that we felt we should attend. Gabe Darrah’s funeral was on Saturday morning. Actually both funerals for the boys that died in the car crash last Saturday night that I mentioned in my last letter were on Saturday. I didn’t know Gabe at all but enjoyed a friendship with Phil, his dad, mostly. He was my go-to guy for 11 year old scout camp several years in a row. He was very smart but very fun and down to earth. The scouts loved his plant identification classes. From the talk at the funeral, it sounds like Gabe was much like his dad.

The funeral was excellent; lots of music and only three main speakers. Robin Whitaker gave the eulogy; she did a fantastic job of mixing happy memories and quirky things about Gabe with gospel messages. At one point in her remarks she read from his journal and I thought of all the young adults that we have known who have passed away. I thought of how little things that they had done in their life had given their grieving family some measure of happiness. Robin read from Gabe’s journal from the day that his friend passed away a year ago. He wrote that Ross had died (I believe it was a drowning accident when he tried to save someone else) without being able to express his testimony. Gabe went on to say that “in case that same thing ever happens to me, I want to write my testimony right here.” He did so and, what was nice about the funeral remarks and the good news of the Gospel that was taught to that overflowing crowd of a good percentage of young people who are not members of the church (people standing even back at the stage end of the cultural hall), was that it came back frequently to “this is what Gabe believed also.” At the end of the service, the stake president (President Dalton) begged with the young people there to realize that they are not invincible, to be careful and set their lives right. The driver of the car was speeding.

I spent some time today with Rosemary Green. Gabe’s accident happened the very hour of Tiffani’s five years ago. That made Tiffani’s anniversary harder for her. Recently, I updated my iPod (I am trying to learn all about its functions). There is lots of music in my iTunes program from various times some of you have added to it in previous years. I have only a small portion of the files on my iPod. Last time, I noticed a song that was in iTunes from when Tiffani passed away. Rosemary had asked me to find the words to the song, The Dance by Garth Brooks so it could be played at the funeral. Katie did the work to search for me and that landed in the computer’s iTunes program. I heard that song as I walked today. Besides it always reminding me of Tiffani, it also has a great message about the sadness of losing someone being outweighed by the greater happiness of having had risked sadness while creating a relationship with someone.

This week has been one of revisiting the importance of relationships and especially family relationships. The fragile nature of life always brings you to the realization of what is really important in life. It would be my deepest desire that all my family do everything possible to leave every relationship in a place where there would be no regrets in the event of any tragedy. I mentioned this thought to someone this week, “It is better to be nice than to be right.” That is a hard one to live by, especially when being nice, over being right, often requires that you not react to someone who has hurt your feelings or you feel has wronged you. Let’s all try to be a little nicer . . . that sounds like a remnant message from President Hinckley!

Scott has been taking advantage of the time to be able to read lots of family history books. He says that he feels an overwhelming sense of gratitude to those who have gone before us. Reading their survival through tough trails helps him visualize hope for a happier tomorrow.

Dad and I are really looking forward to Shawn and Aubrey’s visit this weekend. I bet Bryson has changed a lot since seeing him in May. Plus, we are picking up Sunhee and Meeja after Sunhee’s softball game on Friday night. They will stay with us for a few days. It should be a fun time especially for them to be able to see Gregory and Bryson when Shawn and Aubrey return from their reception in Moses Lake. Hopefully, we will have the plants in that we wanted to add to our new planters in the front by the time everyone gets here. We are still sprucing up the back drive approach. Here is a picture of the new sign. I love it! The background, which you cannot see clearly, is a picture I took of stamped concrete slate. It looks great if I do say so myself!

I love you and I believe in you all! Love, Mom

June 7, 2009

Dear Children,

The yard has really taken shape this last week. The garden seeds all sprouted (there were years when they didn’t so you never know for sure) and my peonies have all bloomed. This bouquet is all from the garden. The calla lilies are just starting and the irises are just finished. The dining room smells, oh so nice with the flowers’ fragrance. I made the bouquet just as we were leaving to ski Monday morning; seemed quite odd to be arranging spring flowers and grabbing my bibs and gloves to ski in the next minute.

Dad was working for Wid this week and when Wid changed Monday’s plans at the last minute, it left Dad with an open day so it was obvious to know what to do. I am glad that I worked ahead to get everything done for our Family Home Evening group so I could take off at the last minute.

We played the general conference jeopardy game. I sure learn a lot from the general conference talks when I am re-listening to them to make the game. Remember all those games and projects your teachers used to force you to do and you wondered what on earth making a game had to do with the event that you were studying? Grandma came and it was quite competitive with the women out answering the men nine out of ten times. I had to make a final jeopardy question so that the men didn’t feel so deflated. They ended up winning in the end. I have a copy in my computer files if you want one for a game night.

Before FHE we skied most of the day in true spring ski conditions. Last Monday’s ski conditions were a trick to make us wish we were skiing every day that we had to stay down here and work; the snow was wonderful then! This Monday was pretty slushy fairly quickly. To get the best snow we stayed on Palmer most of the day and only the top part of Palmer. Thankfully, the midway lift of Palmer was open so we rarely went the full length. Dad took off way to the side of the mountain and enjoyed some better runs.

Tuesday was Sunhee’s eighth birthday. She excitedly told us of her eight year old hair style that she wore to school. She put in eight colored barrettes to look like eight candles. Wasn’t that acute idea? I think she is looking more like Alina as she grows up.

My Tuesday plans to get the computer backed up and into the shop since Firefox keeps crashing and the whole system has become SO slow, were derailed when I went into the sign shop to get an additional business sign that Bill had made for us. We believe that the signs have already helped us get more business. What is good about that is that the business stays in a small area (big help with gas money). So, with that success, we decided it would be good to take advantage of the high traffic of Brockman and Davies and post a sign on our back fence. Dad occasionally does small concrete work around the yard (like the garden wall addition and such lately) so we honestly could hang it. But then we decided to change the wording from “another quality job” just to “Driveways, patios, decorative concrete . . “ and then we could keep it hanging. The sign man had some ideas of some changes which made it necessary for me to go get some pictures for him. Bill has been telling us all along to put more color and pictures into our advertising! I LOVE the new signs; they are also slightly bigger so they can be read with the faster Brockman traffic. My project on Saturday was to clean up the drive approach at Brockman to look nice enough to hang the new sign. I will take a picture when it is up. Next thing to tackle, our name on the van and then . . . the website! We need to get our name out there to the home owners. Business has picked up but not at the pace necessary to carry us through the winter without builders.

We drove to Albany for Wendi’s graduation from South Albany High School. It was a very hot day in Portland but as we traveled down, we saw dark clouds and lightening in the horizon. It is a good thing that we have rain ponchos in the trunk at all times. The graduation ceremony was outside and was accompanied by thunder, lightening and a rainstorm!!! We pretty much all got soaked no matter our improvised protective covers. You can tell in the pictures! The weather didn’t dampen Wendi’s spirits. She is so happy to have accomplished this milestone. It was definitely a memorable graduation ceremony; it will be talked of for years.

Amazingly, we had the heater going in the car on the way home to dry off. Luckily we were able to drive Alina home on our way back. We had a delightful visit with her and learned about her school work, softball team and choir. I was surprised to learn that art was her favorite subject now since she has such keen math and reading skills. She is simply amazing. I just can’t get enough of being around that wonderful girl! She is beautiful inside and out.

Hey, I learned a fun little trick at my last institute class. I have always had a hard time remember the order of the three degrees of glory. Our teacher has a tie that has the sun, the moon and the stars on it. When he wore it to a high school class one of the students remarked that he liked his “sea turtle” tie. That puzzled Brother Stark until the young man explained that syllable sounds: ce-ter-tel as in celestial, terrestrial and telestial. In our last class we discussed Elder Cook’s conference message about Heavenly Father’s plan being big enough for all of His children. We discussed respecting other religions and beliefs, other members of the church with different commitment and activity levels and our own families. We also listened to parts of Elder Bednar’s CES talk on what is real. It is one of those classic talks. I am so grateful for continuing revelation and prophets and apostles from whom we may receive such timely advice and counsel. I like his comment when he quoted Elder Maxwell saying, “The youth of this generation have a greater capacity for obedience than any previous generation.” I also took note this time of the two questions that he asked us to ask ourselves:

1-Does the use of various technologies and media invite or impede the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost in your life?

2-Does the time you spend using various technologies and media enlarge or restrict your capacity to live, to love, and to serve in meaningful ways?

Dad and I helped the Chandler’s with a sealing assignment in the temple later that evening. It is wonderful to be reminded of that great blessing. What a great day I had!

We learned this morning that Phil and Gene Darrah’s son, Gage, was killed in a car crash late Saturday evening. He was eighteen. Do you remember Phil? He was our landscape guy turned pharmacist. Now he owns several pharmacies in the area. Kathleen Westhora’s father passed away on Tuesday so I helped with the funeral on Friday. I really love that family.

We had planned to go downtown to watch the Rose Festival parade on Saturday since it had been so much fun to watch the Starlight Parade but both Dad and I had lots we wanted to accomplish on Saturday. I had also signed us up for a landscaping class in the afternoon to give us ideas for the front yard when we re-do that concrete walkway.

Since I am still writing this letter in the wee hours of the morning of June 8, I can announce our newest granddaughter! We don’t have a name yet to tell you. Bill referred to her as Brady Girl 3.0! She was born at 1:24 AM, weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces and is 19.5 inches long. This is a VERY alert picture for those first few minutes. Heidi had been in labor Saturday night but it lessened for the early part of the day on Sunday until about 4:30. They called on their way to the hospital between 9:00 and 10:00 to be “checked”. I suggest that is the ultimate check! I am anxious to wake to even more details!

Dad and I enjoyed our visit with Scott today. He looked very good. He has nice coloring since he is trying to get out and exercise more in the yard. Tomorrow, Monday, he is incident free for 18 months which allows him to be able to move into block A which he has been anticipating. Although, in the last weeks, it has come to his attention that he needs to be extremely careful as to the choosing of a new cell mate. He said that he has always felt the Lord’s direction in choosing a cell mate and has not felt that reassurance this time so he will wait. This lead him to explain to us with emotion, that not a day goes by that he does not need the guidance of the Spirit, NOT A DAY, he emphasized.

I love you all. Have a great week ahead. Work to have the Spirit’s influence and listen to its guidance. Love, Mom