February 28, 2010

Dear Children,

Through February we have had some amazingly spring-like weather, sounds and smells but now it is raining again to remind us that we are truly in Oregon. The birds were singing, sun was shining and the Daphne plants were all abloom giving off one of my favorite springtime fragrances. I lost my Daphne plant in the crazy winter weather last winter and have not replaced it as I was waiting until we finished our front yard renovation project that we started almost two years ago. It is going to look nice as we level off the front grass, add a pathway, finish planting the new planter boxes and add our long-planned stamped concrete entryway. It will be a beautiful compliment to our rock entry but it is on the back burner until the work picks up and is steady for some time. This warmer weather also puts a damper on a nice, long ski season like last year and our hopes to get those cheap late season tickets. Oh well, now that Dad is doing so many bids, we need to sit close to the work and dream of skiing NEXT year with a little more financial cushion.

The glimpses of spring like weather has caused homeowners to think about yard projects so Dad has been very busy with quite a few calls. We also have added some great new follow up patterns as we learn to stay in touch so our business name stays in everyone’s minds and it is working! I am anxious to get a presence on the web since we have had a surprising number of calls from Yellow Pages and I wouldn’t even think to look there if I were shopping for a contractor! Dad just finished his first job of the year. It took him longer to finish that job since he tried to do so much of the preparation and clean up himself to keep more of the profit since he has to bid jobs quite low to get them. He was very sore after his last pour, understandably! He continues to torture himself with the spin classes at 24 Hour Fitness; have you tried those???

This being the last week of the month, I finally got out visiting teaching and really enjoyed the wisdom of the message of “self reliance and the dangers of debt” since we have been living it this past while. This past year would have been devastating and much more stressful had we not followed the council of our church leaders to stay out of debt and put money away for emergencies all these years. I appreciate the way I was raised to work hard and live within my means. Even though the future was bleak, we had a measure of peace with our savings and preparedness.

We caught some BYU sports on TV this week. We watched BYU gymnastics to watch for Adrianne’s roommate, Jessica and her floor routine and also to watch for Adrianne in the crowd! This is a picture of her in the audience (from our TV set)! We watched BYU basketball and they just couldn’t hear us coach them to victory from our couch so they lost by a basket!

We have been watching a lot of Olympics this week. In fact, I was thinking that it will be nice to go to bed at a decent time this coming week. At the last minute Katie decided to go to Vancouver to catch up to the Olympic excitement. Her friend, Emma, is working for NBC up there and had a place to stay. Katie’s passport arrived last week so she took off! She only had a short time there but, true to Katie’s style, packed in a lot. She walked her shoes off and also reported having fun ice skating at Grouse Mountain starting at midnight! Her friend Kelly Maks had wondered how closely the border inspects a car since she wanted to go hide in Katie’s trunk since as she didn’t have a passport. Good thing they kept their senses and did not plan such shenanigans as Katie’s car was completely inspected; she said she was treated like a criminal going into Canada. What were they looking for that Katie would be bringing in: Mrs. Butterworth syrup??? She designed a darling postcard with her picture in front of the Olympic Torch and sent them from Canada using my SendOutCards so she only paid U.S. postage and they were delivered immediately. There are so many great features to this service; I just love it!

Grandma returned from Mexico this week with a bit of a tan. She said that she wished our family could go spend a vacation there. Her friends just liked sitting in the sun and talking; no swimming, exploring or playing games like we like to do. It sounds very relaxing to me. What adventurous things she did do, she did alone. This is a picture of her swim with the dolphins. She said that they were amazingly strong and their skin velvety.

I had another great institute class this week. While discussing Helaman 10-12, we talked about the word ponder. When was the last time you pondered over a scripture? My teacher quoted someone saying that we should read the scriptures each day, long enough to have an experience with the Spirit. Elder Maxwell said about pondering, “deep reflection cannot be achieved in the midst of distraction.” Distraction is such an issue these days, “we” need to learn to slow down!

This afternoon Dad and I watched another DVD that I borrowed from the library to “prepare” for our Spain trip. It was Vantage Point filmed in Salamanca. I thought I was going to watch a movie filed in Barcelona but when the first view came, I recognized the Plaza Major in Salamanca. The movie was quite interesting, a very intense movie (one of those that I could not do my planned project while watching!) coving only about 30 minutes in time. Be prepared to be riveted if you watch it. Speaking of Spain, I was very excited to finally find my cousins’ address in Madrid. It is over 30 years old but I am taking a chance to just write and send some pictures and see if anyone still lives there that is related.

Did I tell you that Dad is the new Webelos leader in our ward? He is also keeping his Primary class and is still an Eagle Scout project advisor so he will be busy. He helped with Goodwill/Good turn drop offs on Saturday. Yikes, we are involved in Cub Scouts again!!!

Well, have a great week ahead. I love you. Love, Mom

February 21, 2010

Dear Children,

We have had some fun surprises sent by Aubrey. They have a Flip camera now and have sent several video clips of Gregory and Bryson. What a fun treat new technology can bring! Katie has a darling Sunbeam that reminds me of Gregory each Sunday.

The day before Grandma went to Mexico, we all headed downtown for a theater performance of Legally Blond (inspired by Katie’s excitement of course). Katie has seen it in New York and Katie and I saw it at the Fox Theater in St. Louis last winter. I LOVE that old theater; it has a great atmosphere. We had the bargain seats at the top of the theater in Portland; they were still good enough seats. Live theater is so much fun. Dad noticed that he was one of the few men in the theater, at least the top balcony community!

Grandma is in Mexico with a high school friend for a week. She was pretty excited and this is a dry run for her to be out of the country before Spain in March!

Katie has sent you information about her graduation in April. We will probably drive to Utah for those dates, April 22 and 23. Grandma Maldonado is planning on coming with us and Morty and Aaron have already bought flights to come celebrate with Katie. Katie just told me that she will probably be driving to the Olympics tomorrow and staying with her friend for a few days. How fun is that? Her friend, Emma, is working for NBC and wants her to come up. How exciting! She would have probably gone earlier but she just received her passport this week. I wish I could go!

We have been watching lots of Olympics. I don’t know which is my favorite, summer or winter Olympics. I love them both. It has been especially fun to have visited the locations last March. Whistler is one of my all time favorite places to visit.

Jenna turned three this week on Thursday. Heidi made her a princess castle cake that Heidi herself said was amazing and worth all the time to create. We talked to (actually interrupted Olympic ice dancing at their home) Jenna right after they returned from their “progressive” birthday dinner by using several different gift cards that they had been saving. That sounds very ambitious with three little girls!

I enjoyed my institute class this week. We were studying Helaman but got stuck on Helaman 5; I love that chapter. I was reminded from the class to get rid of the clouds of darkness by praying UNTIL you have enough faith. My teacher also quoted the familiar thought from President Benson from back in the eighties, “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”

Dad and I had a great visit with Scott this afternoon. With our new church schedule and working in Primary, we have to try to leave church as quickly as possible, packing something to eat, to get to Salem as soon as possible. Sunday afternoons are the busiest visiting times so we may have to be on waiting lists some days. Today the sun was shining so we sat outside. That was great. Scott reported that he moved this week with his cell mate. They learned of a better cell coming available so they quickly did all the right moves, talked to the right people and got paper work done miraculously fast to make it happen. They are now on the bottom level which will be nice on hot summer days. Scott also has a better view of the outdoors from his bed. Another great feature is that this cell has a high ceiling so he can sit up on his bed, in fact stand on his bed without his head touching!

Dad spoke in sacrament meeting today. He did a good job; his topic was “being converted.” He also accepted a new calling, an additional calling to his Primary class. He will be the new Webelos leader. Throughout this coming year he will get all the boys in his Primary class in his Webelos group.

I totally indulged myself this evening by viewing the three hour epic tale of King Arthur, Camelot. I had my name on a waiting list to rent the old classic from the library. I only wanted the copy with Richard Harris standing at the beginning and ending with the beautiful Segovia castle in the background (my favorite castle in Spain)! I think it was filmed back in the sixties. I sang lots of those songs in seventh grade choir! I had planned to attend a fireside tonight but decided to shut out all my “shoulds” and just enjoy immersing myself in the show.

I will close with something I read or heard lately: Find joy in the hard times. Feel optimistic and excited with an abundance of gratitude. The future is bright for those who are obedient.

I love you all. Have a great week ahead. DO YOUR BEST! Love, Mom

February 15, 2010

Dear Children,

We had a fun visit with the Brady family last week. They were able to all come on this visit. They arrived Wednesday night and left on Sunday morning. We wished they could have stayed longer but it was very good to have them as long as we did. As much as we love when Heidi gets to come to Oregon, it adds so much to have all their family together here in our home. It was great to be able to see how Ainsley had grown; she is so sweet with such expressive eyes.

I think Bill was the biggest kid at the zoo on Saturday! Previously, he has only been to our zoo during Zoolights and he is so expressive in his excitement over a quality presentation that he really enjoyed our zoo! Pictures from the zoo are in their camera since I forgot mine but they took many. We had the added benefit from overhearing a tour guide in some of the areas that was taking a visiting group around. Interestingly (and something we have questioned before), the Northwest area where the eagles are kept is supposed to have a barrier designed such that the eagle cannot feed on the salmon in the stream below. But, we learned from the guide that since these two eagles are injured and don’t soar straight down as most eagle feed, they have learned to adapt to the barrier and have snatched up some of the salmon from the exhibit. We enjoyed the beavers also there and of course, the girls liked the John Deer tractor by the petting barn.

One of the polar bears gave them a good show as he did laps in the water right against the window and we were lucky enough to see all three loins in the new African exhibit. But we missed enjoying a fun cheetah experience that Adam was lucky enough to have in December and seeing the Sunbears (Adrianne said they were probably in their warm den)! When we left the zoo, at closing time, the otters had fallen asleep so we were able to see them still for the first time ever. They were sleeping on their backs, floating in the water right next to the window. I have never been so close to a still otter before; it was amazing.

Yes, Adrianne was also here this weekend. Unfortunately, she was here for very sad reasons. One of her dear friends from Cheveau Training Stables died a too early death. It was one of their horse owners who also was very involved at the shows, Stephanie, who also was Adrianne’s hairdresser. On the way to the funeral, Dad said that probably everyone there will have beautiful hair. I said that all of Stephanie’s clients will probably have dark roots since she hadn’t done hair since Christmas. It was a blessing that Adrianne was able to visit with her over the holidays. Adrianne is deeply saddened, of course, to lose another one of her beloved friends who have so much meaning in her life. It has been a lot of loss for Adrianne with Mrs. Gueck’s passing last year, then Sammy and now Stephanie. What I learned from the funeral was the importance of taking care of ourselves; not just putting on a happy face but working to be happy. It does take work to be happy with ourselves with the world constantly reminding us of the negative. Discouragement is a great tool of Satan. We have to constantly remind ourselves of our divine nature and goodness.

Tillamook chocolate peanut butter ice cream was Heidi’s suggestion to be waiting for Adrianne’s arrival after she was to return home from a night with others from the funeral! We teased Heidi for pulling the “Adrianne card” since it is one of Heidi’s favorites also, but Adrianne did love that comfort of home! It is funny how attached we can be to the delights of the Northwest or memories of childhood here!

Speaking of childhood, you need to take a look at Morty’s Facebook. He is adding a picture that I was able to include on his birthday card. It is a darling one from his fifth birthday. The poem on the inside said:

There once was a man named Morty,

Who was turning 32 not 40,

He sold trinkets galore,

Had five TV’s, not just four,

There once was a man named Morty!

There once was a man named Morty,

Whom everyone knew was quite sporty,

He traveled about,

Throwing streamers and shout,

There once was a man named Morty!

I was able to pull the picture straight from a negative with the machine that all of you bought me for Christmas. It makes digital images from negatives and slides. It is going to be cool to use someday when I can capture a huge amount of time. I am so glad that I was able to save all my negatives from your childhood by date so I will be able to digitize everything to preserve it on a disk. That will mean that all of you can have the pictures at your fingertips! I thought that going straight from the negative would make the colors as they were years ago but even on the negative there has been loss of color but that just adds to the nostalgia!

We actually celebrated Jenna’s third birthday (February 18) on Morty’s birthday on Saturday. She is very sweet. When asked periodically whose birthday it was, even though we were celebrating her day, she would first mention Morty’s name. We went to the zoo and had a steak dinner in her honor; steak being Jenna’s favorite food! She is her daddy’s girl; he calls her Little Bill. She opened her fishing game from us and a darling princess castle tent from Aunt Katie and Aunt Adrianne (which was a gift to all three girls). They will have so much fun with that. We all had a laugh when we realized that the princess castle could be storage for the girls’ “crap and corruption” a family quote from Bill that Rebekah leaked out. We learned that is his description of all the ribbons and little pieces of things that the girls love to save everywhere. Gosh, that isn’t even a word I use; it was hard to write Bill!!! Katie was the cupcake queen again. She made strawberry cupcakes and let Rebekah help her decorate them with frosting with real strawberries.

We also had a birthday celebration with Grandma Maldonado at Red Robin’s. Everyone really loved that and especially me so I didn’t have to spend any time in the kitchen on Thursday. The funniest moment came when Rebekah was sharing the ice cream sundae that they brought Jenna. When the waiter walked by Jenna spoke up assertively and ordered an extra ice cream for her sister who needed one! We were all so surprised by sweet, quiet Jenna!

Bill and Heidi’s family were lucky enough to be able to spend the day on Friday visiting with Scott and then to Albany to visit Kyre. Because Ainsley is still nursing, they took turns during the visiting sessions of the day. They were able to spend a good amount of time with Kyre and Klaire, talk on the phone with Sunhee and Meeja, and play with Adam for a bit before they traveled back to Beaverton that night. Rebekah came home with tons of bead projects that Kyre allowed her to make; she loved it.

Bill spent lots of hours with Dad and me explaining the process of branding Howard Bitter Construction and giving us lots to think about and do for our marketing. I think that I am most excited about all the website ideas; I am so anxious to put everyone of your ideas together finally on a web presence. We have a lot of work to do on this end but Bill is doing a ton of creative work back at his office. You know it is going to look slick with him having a hand in it! He also helped me realize the importance of keeping up our ideas of using our card business to continue customer relationships, which was validating from a professional’s point of view.

I wish we had more dry weather while the girls were here. They just LOVE playing in the backyard. Every time there was any kind of wait to go anywhere, they wanted to go play in the backyard. In most cases, it meant having to change again before leaving for their destination! It is nice to have a backyard that the grandchildren love. Rebekah was trying to convince her parents to stay more days so she could sleep in the soft grandchildren’s bed longer!

Katie made cupcakes a second time over the weekend. This time they were chocolate Valentine cupcakes with a ganache top and cream filing. They said “I love you” or “Valentine” on them. Adrianne carried some of them to her friends in Provo.

This afternoon I am at the doctor’s office with Grandma. She has been getting all her tests done and visits finished before leaving with some high school friends for Mexico this week. She leaves this Thursday and will be gone a week in Puerto Vallarta.

We are looking forward to some better weather this coming week and enjoying watching some Olympics. Seeing Whistler again makes us want to go back again. It is SO beautiful. I would like to visit Vancouver again; there are so many fun places to visit. Right now we are trying to prepare for our trip to Spain in March. There is much to do to organize seven people traveling around a foreign country where only one of us really knows the language well! I am most excited to visit Abuela’s little town again plus this time. We will have a car to go visit the little pueblo that the Maldonado family came from. We have a lot ahead of us.

Have a great week. Love, Mom

February 7, 2010

Dear Children,

OK, I am really going to try and do this! It is so hard for me to go back and catch you up on the doings here in Beaverton when I get so far behind but I think it is important for our family to know what is happening at home. I think it has been about three weeks since I have written. During this time, Nate has come and gone. Morty has come and gone, and I have been away two of the weekends, so there has been much going on here!

I think I will go backwards to help my memory. We were able to have an early birthday celebration with Morty since he was here this weekend. Grandma came over and we had a birthday dinner this afternoon. I know that Morty is not a cake and ice cream man but a pie man. So, last week I made him an apple pie and put it in the freezer since I was going to be away on Friday and Saturday while he was here. That was really hard for me to leave after he got here.

My flight didn’t come into Portland until after sacrament meeting so I missed seeing Jack and Judy Hoagland at our ward. Jeff’s step son, Quien, was baptized on Saturday so they were in town. But it was nice that Morty was able to see and visit with them.

Morty had tickets to two Blazer games this trip. On Thursday evening we all went to the San Antonio game since he couldn’t sell his extra tickets. He bought tickets the moment they were released so he was able to buy the cheapest. I kind of like them; they are on the very top row so there is no one behind us! He reminded me that I fell asleep during the last Blazer game that he took me so he would be watching me! I think I have been redeemed since he did admit that the games that I do go with him are always exciting, last minute wins! Maybe I bring the Blazers luck. It is fun to see Katie and Morty dance all around when the game gets really exciting! Morty also had tickets to the Blazer-Los Angeles Lakers game on Saturday and disappointed Katie by taking a different friend (a mystery friend at that)!

While Morty was here, I dashed down to a seminar for my card business in San Jose. I went with three other women. I thought it would be much more fun but I went tired and wishing I was back home since Morty had just arrived the day before! I learned a lot more about the business, which was really great, and tried to get a better feeling about network marketing. My mind has previously been filled with such deep rooted fears and negative feelings surrounding them (with mine and Joe’s involvement with Amway) that it is a real struggle for me when I get a glimpse of those memories. And yet, if I just didn’t have that hurtful remembrance, I see very logical and positive benefits from the business side of this company plus the product is just so fantastic and just keeps getting better the more I learn about it and use it. I feel like an “old dog” trying to learn new tricks as I try to get over that block.

Katie has worked on her resume and it looks like she has been able to send some out. She made some DVD’s to go with her resume. Dad has been working this past week. It is our first job of the year; pretty good! He has been using SendOutCards to stay in touch with his bids and we believe that has set him apart as we express genuine feelings of gratitude and interest in our client’s needs, which is helping customers understand what our business stands for instead of a monetary figure on a bid. It is a good thing that he has been working out at 24 Hour Fitness so he can still be in shape to do that hard work. He said the most noticeable weakness was his hand grip strength around the tools.

Nate came for a visit a couple of weekends ago. It was fun to have some alone time with him. His friend, Wendy, came up from Los Angeles on Friday. They were meeting in Portland for a concert but filled their days with doing Portland area things; running in Forest Park, driving to Tillamook, shopping in the Hawthorne district, visiting ethnic restaurants, and of course, getting Nate’s fix at Mongolian Grill. After they left, I realized I didn’t get a single picture of their visit! A couple of days after he got home to Las Vegas, he had Lasik surgery done to his eyes. It sounds so awful but he was at work the next day reading his computer screen.

Scott had his first visit with Kyre. He said it was hard but wonderful. He is also especially happy since he now has permission to wear his wedding ring. As soon a he was sent permission from the prison, he contacted us. I was just so relieved that I could quickly find it in all of his things that I have tried to organize and file in the last couple of years! I feel like my organization skills are faltering and that I am drowning in papers and things-to-do lists!

In between all of these visits, I went to the beach with my old Young Women’s group. We go to the beach in January every year and it is something that we all look so forward to. It is pure fun and laughs as we just relax and play together. The only one who has moved away from the area is Angie Bleazard so she flies up from Sacramento for the weekend each time. When her husband is done with his military duty (he had his schooling paid for at USC to become a Radiologist) they will move back to the Northwest to some property they have in Washington.

With being gone and having visitors, my institute class attendance has been spotty the last few weeks. A note I wrote down from one of my classes is this thought while reading from Moses 4: “The fruit of the tree was not a problem for Eve until Satan caused her to be focused on it.” To me, that has many layers. It reminded me of this past conference talk by President Boyd K. Packer when speaking about prayer and promptings, he said, “One of the adversary’s sharpest tools is to convince us that we are no longer worthy to pray. No matter who you are or what you may have done, you can always pray. The Prophet Joseph Smith promised that ‘all beings who have bodies have power over those who have not.’ When temptation comes, you can invent a delete key in your mind—perhaps the words from a favorite hymn. Your mind is in charge; your body is the instrument of your mind. When some unworthy thought pushes into your mind, replace it with your delete key. Worthy music is powerful and can help you control your thoughts.”

I look forward to a fun week with Heidi and Bill and the girls. They will be here from Wednesday to Sunday. We will be able to celebrate an early 3^rd birthday with Jenna on Morty’s actual birthday this week! Bill will sit down with Dad to help him with branding our business so our different marketing efforts will all say the most important things about us. I am anxious that this will help our direction to get a website done.

I hope that you all have something enjoyable planned for Valentine’s Day. Our stake has always had a huge and fancy dance with a big band that hundreds of people have attended but this year it is a sock hop; what a change! I heard from a mom of single adults that Valentine’s Day is renamed Singles Awareness Day. I hope some of you are not feeling that way! If so, just consider it a day of appreciation for all relationships that help us be who we are (and bring happiness), not just romantic relationships.

I heard this from a conference talk on my iPod this week as I was walking, “We are all in the process of becoming who we will be one day. Let’s all help each other become the best!”

I love you! Love, Mom