January 17, 2010

Dear Family,

I hope you had a great week; our week went by quickly. It has been raining a lot but the weather is rather mild for January. It reminds me more of spring. Dad still has no work although we did some follow up on two bids; both will probably result in work later in spring. For now, we just are holding on and trying to go through our emergency three month fund as slowly as possible. I did have some good luck with my card business though and it looks like I may get one more customer possibly this net week! Everyone has been very positive about it; I just need to get busier.

Katie went for a job interview this week but still has found nothing. I connected with a Southridge high school band contact for some possibilities for all of us to be used as testers for a phone company but they wont have spots until March; rats! To top off our job hunting disappointments, my oven broke today. I came in from church and turned on the oven for dinner and it started making terrible noises and shooting sparks for the back of the electronic panel, even flames and smoke and I shut it down. Double rats! Katie did some looking for used ovens on Craigslist; this is not a good time to have to replace a stove. It is good that the stovetop is gas; I can continue to use that even though I don’t have an oven. The Crandalls are in China for a year and we have their house key so Dad took our casserole over there to cook. I have the four missionaries this Tuesday and Nate is coming this weekend so I will have to think of only stove top meals.

We prepared for a Primary Saturday Activity this week and I was in charge of an obstacle course. I was pretty disappointed at what I came up with; I wanted something I thought looked more fun. But, it was the hit of the activity. The whole activity could have been an obstacle course and the children would have loved it. They kept trying to leave their other classes to go back to the obstacle course; not because I had a great course but because they just love that sort of thing. We will have to remember that in the future. Dad and I were exhausted afterwards trying to run a course that the three year olds could do successfully and the eleven year olds would think was fun. I am glad that I didn’t shower first; it kept me running! Katie was also supposed to be a helper but she was needed to keep her new Sunbeams happy at all the other classes. They already look up to her and trust her.

She delivered piggy cupcakes to all her Sunbeam’s homes today; she had a couple of them absent so that was really nice. She made them for Grandma to take to a friend last night and she had lots left. They turned out so cute.

Yesterday we tried to catch up to Uncle Jack and Aunt Judy who are staying at Jeff Hoagland’s home for about a week. They left right before we got to Jeff’s home to visit with them and we haven’t heard from them since. They were in Salem today getting released from their mission. Jack said on the phone that he keeps up with most of you on FaceBook. I must not be his friend since I never see anything from him.

Joel Farb received his mission call this week to Fukuoka, Japan. He leaves in April. He has been team teaching Primary with Dad so we need to find another team teacher for Dad, among many other callings. Our ward is just very tapped out with the callings to run the Spanish group and our regular ward callings. He suggested maybe he could work with Harrison Jensen next since he will be preparing to go on a mission this next year. Dad makes a good missionary prep teacher and if the young men will work hard at their Primary calling, it will really help them!

Speaking of Harrison, he gave a great talk on Agency in sacrament meeting; better than the adult speakers. He said the enemies of agency our addiction, debt and discouragement saying that those things “mess up” our judgment!

Alina and Gregory had their birthdays this week. We sent Alina the Bananagrams game since she loved learning speed scrabble while she was here in December. Gregory (and his Dad!) had lots of fun at Chuck E Cheese to celebrate his birthday. Shawn is in another insurance school that is being paid for by his company which is a great benefit.

Adrianne called after her Range Management class this week saying that she must be genetically predisposed to be in her major since they were studying the Sparks and Bennions in class!

Scott also had a good week. He got great news and paperwork done to be able to wear his wedding ring again. We mailed it to his chaplain immediately when he sent us the paperwork. He also got approval for Aunt Lynn to be on his list in less than a week’s time! She decided to be on his list since Kyre wants her to take her to the prison to visit Scott the first time. That is planned to be this Tuesday if all goes correctly. Kyre and Scott have been talking on the phone more lately which makes Scott happy. I hope the visit goes comfortably for Kyre; it means so much to Scott.

Dad and I were able to get to the ward temple night. More temple time makes a great start to a new year! I love you. Love, Mom

January 10, 2010

Dear Children,
The longer I wait to write after a big event, the harder it is to start. Writing to you has been on my list EVERYDAY this week to no avail obviously. My recap of our Christmas holiday may be fairly watered down as I also didn’t jot many things down as I usually do and I have a terrible memory. The big surprise of the holiday was that Aaron came home.
The restaurant didn’t schedule out Christmas far enough for Aaron to get decent-priced flights so he was going to come the first weekend after the New Year. Right before Christmas, when he learned that the manager didn’t give him the first weekend in January off, he decided to fill his shifts with someone else and find the cheapest tickets to Portland possible and go home for Christmas. He knocked on the door Christmas afternoon. Only Morty knew he was coming; Morty is a surprisingly good secret keeper!
Nate was the first brother to arrive on Wednesday before Christmas and then Morty on Thursday, Christmas Eve morning. We had a laid back Christmas Eve; no rush to get young children to bed. We had our traditional clam chowder dinner, reading of the Christmas story and then opened a present. It is always fun to see who is most excited to have their gift opened (meaning the gift they bought and are excited for someone else to open). That is a great part of Christmas.
Our Christmas morning was VERY laid back also. Katie and I were in the kitchen; myself getting breakfast ready and she was in charge of Christmas dinner, making Café Rio pork in a Crockpot. We didn’t even look in our stockings until after our traditional egg puff and cinnamon pull-apart breakfast. We were able to go slow opening gifts since there were less this year; it was great. We were all cleaned up relaxing or in the kitchen when Katie ran out of her room saying she saw Aaron walking up to the door. We were all shocked. Morty had left the house and gone to pick him up at the MAX station in Beaverton. What a fun surprise! And, it was great that he was able to stay until New Year’s Day.
We had a great Christmas dinner, made mostly by Katie and even her cupcakes for dessert. After dinner Morty and Katie headed to the Blazer game, a newish tradition that Morty has been keeping alive for the past few years. Nate wasn’t feeling well so they had two tickets to sell. They ended up going to the game for free off the money they made from those tickets. The Blazers played Denver, a tough opponent, but won. They had a lot of fun! Morty ended up going to three Blazer games while he was here. Because he went alone to one of them, he was able to get club level seats with all-you-can-eat food. He always finds a way to get an upgrade.
There were no “wagers” on a white Christmas this year but we had a surprise snow fall, a great one on the Tuesday after Christmas. It was the afternoon that we had planned to go with John Mitchell to see the Newsome’s barn (luxury mahogany suites for their horses!). Both Dad and Morty were watching the weather as a storm was coming in and it is a good thing that we cancelled the trip as it just dumped buckets of snow. It didn’t take long for Dad to fire up the tractor and make a snow mountain in the middle of our court. In fact, just about a day ago, there were still remnants of the snow mountain with the tiniest bit of snow left as a remembrance. The Jorgensen boys came down to ask if Morty could come out and play so he suited up and Katie, Adrianne and Morty went out to throw snowballs. Adrianne got more serious and carved out a curving slide on the mountain.
On New Year’s Eve, Katie flew to Provo to pack up her things and drive her car to Las Vegas. She spent the night there with Nate, who had gone back the Monday after Christmas, before they headed off to Los Angeles to meet up with Morty who flew straight there from Portland. They went to the Rose Bowl game to see the University of Oregon play Ohio State. After the game they drove up to Pismo Beach to meet up with Reshea and her family to spend the night.
Katie and her friend, Ty (the boys refer to him as Triple T since all three of his names begin with T) left the next morning to drive back up to Beaverton. They enjoyed a nice visit with Shawn, Aubrey and the boys for lunch in San Francisco. Morty and Nate stayed with the Greenes and flew out of Fresno on Sunday to go back to work. Katie made it back to Beaverton around 5 in the morning on Sunday. That was quite a travel triangle but as you recall from a year ago (Utah to St. Louis), I guess Katie is attracted to long road trips in the dead of winter! She had to get back to start teaching the Sunbeams, her new calling in the ward. Our new meeting time is 9:00 in the morning. I like that but it will take some time getting used to!
Katie is going to be a great Sunbeam teacher. Some of those children are hesitant to move away from their Nursery class but she has some connections with them all ready. She has a very cute class; Logan Jorgensen (Jaime Richardson’s son), Ella Westhora (Andy Westhora’s daughter) and Eli Mitchell (Jerem Mitchell’s daughter) to name a few you might know of.
We enjoyed having Ty as a visitor for two days. We went to Zoo Lights on the last night that it was opened. The parking lots had a surprising number of cars still but it was not crowded at all! On Monday, Katie and Ty drove out to Tillamook to go to the cheese factory and then came back to walk around Downtown Portland before dropping him off at the airport so he could get back to BYU. With Katie not going to the Single Ward while here, she is going to get tired of the parents as company!
Adrianne and Aaron left on New Year’s Day along with Morty, but at all different times. Actually, Morty was scheduled to go out the night before but got himself bumped and re routed where he really wanted to go, Burbank. He spent some time on the phone getting a quicker connection also so he arrived about the time that Nate and Katie arrived into Los Angeles for the Rose Bowl game. Another translation to these airport trips: we spent a lot of time at the airport! The day I took Morty when he was trying to get bumped, I decided not to drive back right then since the traffic was so backed up. Instead, I pulled into the cell phone waiting area and fell asleep. It was kind of cold so I went into the trunk knowing that there was some clothing that I was going to take back to the stores! Instead I found a Costco blanket that I was given as a freebie a couple of years ago and never used. I learned it was actually quite nice! That worked perfectly since I got a nap while Morty did his bump magic so he didn’t have to come back on the MAX.
In the middle of everyone coming and going, Grandma returned from her California trip on New Year’s Eve Day so she arrived to see part of the family for most of a day! That is another day that I just pulled over for a nap at the airport since Katie and Grandma’s flights were a couple of hours apart. We had a Christmas celebration with her when we returned. Aaron had made her sourdough pancakes. Miss Kitty was still here so she went home with Grandma also.
I am trying to get back into some sort of routine now. It still seems like vacation since Katie is home and I have the urge to watch a movie every night to keep the party going! We did go see a new movie with Grandma last week, the very day it opened (now how crazy is that for me!). It was Leap Year. I have restarted my institute class. We read Elder Oaks talk from October 2000, The Challenge to Become. I remember using that talk a lot in other talks; I really liked it. It is a great read for the new year. His thoughts that we don’t just learn about charity but we become charitable through successive acts goes along with the newest addition of the Three Fold Mission of the Church which I guess is now the Four Fold Mission of the Church: the newest one being to care for the poor and needy.
I hope you are enjoying the new year and the fresh starts that January brings to our minds and resolves. I love you. Love, Mom