May 31, 2010

Dear Children,

Already so close to the month of June and I haven’t started most of my projects I planned for the spring. I will have to move faster this summer. I was very excited when Dad said that my seeds have sprouted. I was sure that all this rain would have drowned the poor babies! Our garden just needs a little sunshine and it will surely take off. I hope the warm weather comes around sometime in the summer months!

I have a lot to cover to close up the month of May: Last Sunday was a wonderful day. Even though we were all fasting for some difficult decisions, I felt uplifted with a delightful day: an excellent sacrament meeting on service plus a fun and challenging opportunity to teach a Spanish family about the Faith in God program and introduce one of their sons to our baptismal packet. I felt very happy that I was able to set up the appointment in Spanish since it was with vocabulary that I could choose. This family lives in downtown Portland, on the east side, so they are not really in our Spanish group boundaries. They are hard to catch so I made the appointment and I was there within an hour; just enough time to run home and frost some cupcakes to take.

The nine year old son did most of the translating since I had to use lots of words that weren’t familiar to explain the programs. But it was a fun challenge. I am just so relieved that I was able to set it up in person at church since it is so hard to speak Spanish over the phone (not able to speak Spanish without my hands!). I felt an extra blessing driving toward their home as I was trying to remember the word for workbook and it came to me after all these years. It makes me happy to get to know the Spanish sisters in our ward. Did I tell you I was taking a Spanish class with them?

Sunday night was a great close to the day; it was the last Encore fireside of the year. That fireside always gets to me. It is a familiar flood of memories of loving the times when you were all mostly under on roof here at home (or came home every summer at least!). Certain songs alway bring a tear as I reminisce and miss a “simpler” time. They sang, He Leadeth Me” and “Beautiful Savior”. This year they added a new song to their repertoire, “The Olive Tree” and it took me back to that richly spiritual time with many missionaries from our home coming and going and Heidi singing that song just after her mission.

Risa Whitaker had the strength to sing with the choir that evening which was awesome but not as inspiring as her testimony during the performance of her gratitude for everything the Savior had given her!!! Even with all the specialists and sending her lab work all over the country, they still cannot diagnose her cancer. A couple of weeks ago when her mother was franticly asking the doctors what they could do without knowing the origin of the cancer, the doctor kindly told Robin that there was no longer a rush to catch it “early” since it was already an advanced stage when they started testing her.

The word is just getting out since Risa didn’t want to feel odd or be treated “differently”. That is why I haven’t said anything. Adrianne read a remark from Railee on Facebook about fasting the prior Tuesday. I am glad that Adrianne called me about that as the Fast Sunday before I felt lousy about my fast so it gave me another chance! Risa had been in pain for a long time; they were treating it as if it was a pulled muscle in her abdomen. On Conference Sunday Robin decided it must be something more, so this struggle to learn what type of cancer it is has been going on just since the beginning of April. They figure that it is some kind of juvenile cancer.

Speaking of Adrianne, she went to a horse show for the therapy barn and showed Patriot, a horse, for whom she has been the only trainer. She was pleased with the results at the show and all the attention the horse received when other owners learned the horse was newly broken in. No wonder the owner of the barn loves her so much! Well, besides she is Adrianne. Adrianne will be home just a short time. She is staying a bit after Spring term to babysit for Blake’s sister’s children. She figured out that the income from that and being able to continue working at the Sun Bear lab would be better than trying to get a short term job here in Portland. She is also going back to Provo early to go to a Severson Family Reunion in Bear Lake!!! This will be her longest time in Utah through the summer. I am still debating on Education Week; Carol Stanger keeps asking me to commit and I just do not feel comfortable about it yet.

Dad and I had a great chapel session at the temple the last week. The temple president spoke; they have served as missionaries in Africa and were there when at least one temple was dedicated. They talked about the difference of a temple being built where just a few members had already gone through the temple. Just think about that first day that the temple was open with so few workers or helpers who have ever been endowed! It was of course full for quite a few days!

Katie came home from Reshea’s this week. She was there helping her carry around JJ and other chores since Reshea broke her knee. Those two have fun together; I am glad that they have that relationship. Katie can be a great helper. Katie came home to go to an interview with Southwest Airlines. Now, that is a job we would all cheer for her to get! We were all too excited about the prospects of the job benefits so I know that we all bugged her way too much about it afterwards while Nate was here. He does have good ideas about making an impression on an employer. Zappos is a sought after company so they go through lots of applicants.

Nate is launching something new with some kind of interfacing with FaceBook and Google together and it is too complicated for me since I am admittedly FaceBook challenged. What he does for Zappos sounds amazing and he spends such a huge amount getting Zappos in the right place on the internet. In the last six months it was about 4 or 5 million in just his apparel section alone.

Nate is very wise. I think he did not get enough lime light in our home growing up as he always amazes me with his smarts and wisdom (well I always knew how smart he was). But he is NOT just the little brother anymore; he is a powerhouse. He was here for the weekend. He went to his friend’s wedding in Texas and then was kind enough to join us for the holiday. That was a real treat. He also treated us to freshly butcher cut steak. He kind of rumpled his nose when he heard I bought steak for a barbeque because he knows just what he likes. And he is kind! He is polite to his mom and very kind to his grandma!!!

We ended his visit on Monday with a trip to the cemetery to put some of our beautiful peonies on Grandma and Grandpa Luman’s graves and go to one of Nate’s favorite spots, Mongolian Grill. Brothers beware tonight!

My last institute class for the season was this week. I am going to miss it over the summer. We studied some quotes form Harold B. Lee is which he taught that the brother of Jared came to the conclusion that before he is worthy to seek a blessing, he must keep the basic laws upon which the blessing he seeks are predicated. It reminded me of the importance of plugging away at doing the basics; such a simple and yet hard principle.

In Moroni 8:6 we read that Satan has no restraints when enough people quit striving to have the spirit. We discussed a list of ways to guard against that and I forget at this moment in conference who said these; was it Elder Holland?

1- Exercise more self control over marginal things

2- Replace lewd thought with hopeful images and joyful memories

3- Cultivate and be where the Lord is

4- Seek help and pray without ceasing

5- Separate self from temptation

Mainly I took from Sister Beck’s message in conference (that we discussed also in class) that we learn more from the scriptures the more we read them: duh! But, it is because we gain a familiarity and comfort with the Spirit. That is what we need! I am going to miss those weekly lectures. My goal is to read at least one conference talk a day. I have listened to them several times as exercising on our iTouch (thank you children again)!!!

Last weekend Adam and Dad went to Father’s and Sons down south. Dad always looks forward to that weekend. Of course, they are always the stalwarts of the group in good or poor weather. It rained a ton on their camping trip. Dad just folded up the last tent a couple of days ago; it had been drying out over the ping pong table downstairs! Adam as always, is the king salamander catcher of all the boys in the campsite. Sorry, no pictures though this year.

You are all aware of the continual need to pray for a good home for Meeja. Ron and Angie have decided that there home will not work for her. Thank you for keeping up on your prayers and pondering. Thank you for being aware of family and close friends who may be looking for a child. During these last weeks of being so consumed with worry about Meeja’s circumstances, Alina and Kyre had some rough times also so please keep them all in your prayers.

Now here is some goodness that Sunhee is spreading: I asked Angie what the girls needed for their birthdays and she said summer church dresses. Angie told me that Sunhee does not like to wear the tank-dresses that Angie buys her for church since “they don’t cover my shoulders”.

We love you all and especially we love your visits!!! Tomorrow Meeja is coming to spend some time with us. Love, Mom

May 10, 2010

Dear Children,

I am SO happy. I was able to get to the store, buy most of my plants and get back in time to be at the temple for Jim Floyd’s sealing on Saturday morning. Then after their open house in the afternoon, Dad worked with me to get all the plants in. I love having most of the garden done. I just have to get some carrot, pumpkin and bean seeds and find an Early Girl tomato plant. I tried a new one this year, Willamette, but I still have to have the old faithfuls!

Sister Floyd died last year and he met someone from Virginia. I think she looks a lot like Marie. Two of his girls were here; the children had a hard time with it being so soon and the fact that it was their first Mother’s Day weekend without Marie. Plus, Miriam is having a rough year as she also lost her husband. Well, he didn’t die; he just is addicted to video games and does not want to work or be married or have a family. For a time she was going to move into the empty Crandall’s home until they got back. That would have been nice for her since there are so many neighbors who she knows here.

So, we had garden-planting weather on Saturday but we are back to the rain today. I think everyone here is so ready for it to warm up. Is it unusually cold everywhere?

While Aubrey was still in Utah, she and Adrianne ran a half marathon, in the pouring rain! That was May Day in Utah!!! Adrianne is “training” for a half marathon here in Oregon on June 12. She is running it with Sharon DeFord.

That same day, Kyre moved to a new place in Albany. She is very excited about it now that she has a garage (which she wants to convert into a play room for big toys), her own washer and dryer and three bedrooms. That will be very nice since Adam is there every weekend and will be moving in after school is out. They are walking distance to his new school in the fall. She has the same phone number and her new address is: 968 22^nd # C Albany, Oregon 97322 We saw her place on that first Sunday and she had already done quite a bit of organizing.

While we were fighting the wet spring, Katie was enjoying the sun in Hawaii. She reported that they saw and did quite a bit all over the island with a vey low budget. All six of the friends were very happy to pack their lunches and cook meals in the condo to save money. They only ate one lunch out and that was on Katie’s birthday. Katie also fulfilled a dream and went skydiving on her birthday, in Hawaii no less.

They stayed at Aunt Denise’s home again on the way back and went to an A’s game with Greg, Bryson and Aubrey, San Francisco and even at the last minute, got $25.00 tickets for Wicked that night. How lucky is that!

These past two weeks, Grandma and I have started going to several of her follow up appointments. Since she lives alone and has suffered a stroke, the doctor said that they wanted to be extra careful and test her for many things. I think that is great; I wish we had Kaiser sometimes. All these tests would be costing us an arm and a leg. That has given me more waiting room time so I have tried to catch up on some of my reading.

I found a great article from the Church News about President Monson’s advice to Weber State graduates. It is great advice for all of us. His message was about the choice to be happy and finding joy. He talked about the importance of believing in ourselves, knowing that we CAN achieve what we believe we can do. He admonished us to have courage to live decently.

President Monson taught that we gain courage, strength and confidence by every experience in which we really stop and look fear in the face. He wants us to be able to say, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes my way.” His last challenge to us was to work toward a worthy goal.

I read his message the day after I had a business presentation to a room full of realtors. I worked hard to gain the opportunity but was scheduled at the end of the month so I knew I had weeks to prepare a 20 message in just the 10 minute time slot. Last Monday afternoon I learned that manager had made a mistake and had me on the agenda for the next day’s meeting! I spent the rest of the evening practicing talking fast and deleting much of what I usually would say. I was very nervous but excited for the challenge. I had Dad give me a blessing and that calmed my nerves. It went well. I wouldn’t say that I lived through horror but I did face a challenging situation and came away feeling stronger.

My institute class was on a similar topic as we discussed 4^th Nephi. Our main discussion was that we can’t find happiness but we must make our own happiness.

I had a great Mother’s Day because I was able to really relax and received calls from every one of my children!!! Dad made omelets for breakfast that were loaded with mushrooms and our sacrament meeting was fantastic. Jaime Jorgensen and Andrew Westhora spoke. The bishop called them the designated Mother’s day speakers when they both said that they had already spoken on Mother’s Day in the past. Andrew (Andy to all of you) had some great lines. He said that Dayle told him his topic should be “the sacrifices he made in his life to make his mother look successful”!!!

Grandma came for dinner and we invited the four missionaries so we had a full table.

Adrianne had an interesting Mother’s Day weekend. She and Blake drove from Utah to Sacrament for a Saturday wedding of one of Blake’s cousins and then onto Hughson, where he lives. They spent Mother’s Day there and then drove back to Provo through the night Sunday night. Ouch!

I love all of you and thank you for all the calls. Love, Mom