July 27, 2009

Dear Children,

Tomorrow is Grandma Maldonado’s birthday so Aunt Denise is visiting and we are heading to Depot Bay for a couple of days. It should be a nice break from the heat here. We are in the middle of a heat wave. It is suppose to be triple digits for the next few days. Now, don’t make fun; I know most of you have that kind of weather all the time in the summer months.

I have had a great couple of weeks since last I wrote. The weeks have gone by so quickly with making curtains for Rebekah’s bedroom, Katie’s visit and last minute preparing for Girls’ Camp.

I am so anxious to see Rebekah’s room with the finished curtains and see if she loves them as much as I do. Rebekah picked out the fabric and Heidi sent me a picture so I could purchase it here to make. The fabric was a fuchsia linen-like fabric with embroidery and sequins. They will look very glittery when hung. They are made with the same room darkening fabric as Heidi’s nursery room curtains.

I feel such a feeling of accomplishment when I sew something to completion; I love when I get a chance to sew, especially for my family. I realize why it gives me such a good feeling when, this week I was sewing beside a young girl and as she expressed how good it was making her feel, we talked about the whole creative capacity within us.

Katie made things extra fun while she visited and she was a huge help to my several projects. She is cupcake crazy you know. She bought herself a Martha Stewart Cupcake Cookbook and is experimenting with all sorts of homemade cupcake recipes. Dad and I were the recipients of three separate kinds: peanut butter, blue berry and zucchini. I think zucchini was my favorite. I loved that she used things from my garden for the recipes.

This picture, of the blueberry cupcakes, shows some of the jam (behind Katie) that Katie and I made that same day. Dad, Katie and I went to the berry fields off Scholls Ferry and thought we would get a few buckets of Marionberries or boysenberries. We started on Marion berries first but I wish I had picked the boysenberries first as they were perfectly huge and I like boysenberries more but they have previously been so hard to pick and find ripe ones. We picked over fifty pounds in less than two hours! Katie and I made tons of jam and froze several pie fillings for later. The freezer is sufficiently full of berry jam! In fact, on Saturday, Dad and I had to defrost the freezer since it struggles to freeze that much jam. Now everything is organized in the freezer also; I love that!

The weekend Katie was here was also the Young Single Adult conference. She helped us at the Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band Concert. One of their most popular songs is called Corn Dogs! We were selling merchandise like T-shirts and CDs. Katie also helped me with my camp set up on Monday. She and I traveled up to camp to take all our sewing machines and supplies. That was a huge help since I had to be ready for my first class early Wednesday morning and that is when I was driving up there.

Before Katie left to return to Utah, the “cupcake queen” herself made a great zucchini cupcake with cream cheese frosting. It was scrumptious. With all these cupcakes, we had plenty to share. Katie let me use many of them for treats for visiting teaching and sick friends.

Katie also got her hair done while she was visiting and convinced (or inspired) me to finally take the plunge and do the same. Yikes!

The morning after Katie left I was headed for camp. I had a great experience at camp working with the girls and leaders on the T-shirt dress project. We got 100 dresses done and I was very surprised to learn that so many girls loved trying to use the sewing machines. The dresses will be sent to Durban South Africa. They also made 106 scrunchies. I am sending those to the Humanitarian Department in Salt Lake.

I returned from camp on Thursday evening. Aunt Denise had arrived earlier that day to visit Grandma for a week so Dad and I have been doing fun things with them ever since. Grandma, Aunt Denise and I drove to Woodburn to visit my cousin Connie. Her two children Mike and Shayleen also live down there. I can’t believe that there are so many Maldonado cousins so close and I never see them. That night we returned and met Dad in Sherwood for an outdoor theater production of “The Music Man”. Virginia Holt’s dad, from Grandma’s ward, was in it. I noticed on the program that Lendie Bliss, Adrianne’s bassoon teacher, was in the orchestra. It was a perfect night for an outdoor performance with this arm weather.

On Saturday morning, I worked in the garden while Dad rode his bike to the recreation center on Walker to help with a triathlon. To commemorate Pioneer Day this week, all the stakes around here were assigned a service project in the community. Our stake was assigned to be the volunteers with the Party in the Park, which was a game day geared for families. Afterwards, we all went to Beaverton’s Saturday Market to find Grandma some plants for her porch.

Can you believe the corn in my garden? It is so tall and looks almost ready. On Sunday I took a batch of green beans to a pot luck at the Chandler’s home. They are really producing right now. I am anxious for Meeja and Sunhee’s visit starting this next weekend. They will enjoy picking the rest of our blueberries and hopefully the green beans. I remember what a great green bean picker Alina was! We are hoping that Adam will also visit this weekend; we haven’t heard back from him yet.

Erica Ellis married someone from Denver on Saturday so we went to that reception. It was decorated very nicely. Robert Cochrane married someone new in the singles ward (from Canada). Their reception was the same night. All their corsages were orchids so I went and helped Eileen Daniels and Carol Stanger put those together late Friday night (well, very early Saturday morning!) The North Dakota building was decorated so beautifully.

Reshea and Satan’s baby, Joseph Jack, was born on July 15. He was 7 lbs 4oz and 20” long. They will call him JJ. Katie had a chance to drive down there this weekend; she was very excited to be able to see the baby and lend a hand. Adrianne had driven down south to Los Angeles last week with Kenna and another friend. They bought tickets to the American Idol tour and got some deal to stay one night at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel; a taste of the good life! The rest of the time they stayed at Dave and Karla’s and had lots of fun the whole weekend.

It sounded like Shawn had a fun birthday. Aubrey planned some fun surprises; one of which was to get a pedicure with three or four of his guy friends. Shawn thought that was a great idea! They spent much of their day at the beach on Saturday.

I think that I keep forgetting to mention that we have a new stoplight at the bottom of our gate. They finally put in a stoplight at Brockman and Davies. It was getting nearly impossible to cross Brockman. The stoplight will make things easier and hopefully, reduce the accidents at our corner in the middle of the night now that it will be much more lit up.

I love you. Have a great week ahead and stay cool! Love, Mom