December 18, 2011

December 18, 2011 started October 9, 2011

Dear Children,

Getting back to my normal writing after the computer virus disabled being able to download photos into my computer has been overwhelming. I know that I need several hours to talk with Kodak and I just don’t have that. I am so behind in my family news though, I will go ahead and load a few photos through the lap top so I can get caught up. There is so much about which to write.

From October: After visiting Shawn and Aubrey in California, the next week we were in Utah to help Adrianne and Blake with their new place. They bought a townhouse in Pleasant Grove. Blake can walk to work from there and Adrianne takes the scooter since she also doesn’t work very far away. Although, soon after their move, Blake applied for and got a computer job that makes him happier. He does much of it at home but must commute two days a week to Spanish Fork. He was working both jobs right after their move.

Adrianne gets to breath a little barn air as right when you turn down their street; there is a stable with horses. Their home has a small backyard with a little planter box so they can have a garden. Most of the yard is concrete but Adrianne wants to leave some dirt in case they get “an old lazy dog” (I think that is what she called the dog). Behind their gate is a common grassy area with a huge play structure and picnic tables. We could have a fun family gathering there. On Sunday evening Heidi and Bill’s family came by for dessert and their three girls loved the play area.

Dad had to change his flight to come a day later than myself due to work (thank you Katie for being able to change easily at the last minute) but I still headed down on Thursday and spent Friday doing the preliminary work of painting their living room. I enlarged the project as I went along, painting more walls and even painting the base board; it had some areas that needed it badly. We were painting over a dark red wall. The new color looks like peanut shell with a creamy white trim. Blake’s sister, Amber, had given them leftover paint from their home so that was a big help to their budget.

The work progressed at a better speed after Adrianne and Blake got home and Dad arrived later that evening! We accomplished a lot over the weekend. Dad did some concrete crack repair in the back and worked to make their front porch step look nicer. Dad hates to see marks on concrete! We finished the living room and scrubbed all the marks off the wood floor in that room.

I got to do something I like; organize cupboards. They have a great pantry closet off of their kitchen that they hadn’t had a chance to organize yet. I hope that they can find everything now; they were at work on Monday when I did that before leaving for the airport! We stayed at Grandma Bitter’s place each night, not returning until after midnight most nights. We had Sunday dinner at their place with Grandma Bitter. It was her first visit there. After dinner Heidi’s family came. They had been on a drive through the canyon as Bill had just received his new company car. It is beautiful and looks very comfortable.

We were only home a few days until my college roommate, Andrea Osinchak, arrived for the weekend. Knowing that we were going to have a guest, Katie had worked while we were away to try and get most of her things and furniture more incorporated into the home. She moved her bed and most of her belongings into Adrianne’s old room since that is the largest bedroom. Most of her clothes are still in her old room. All of her kitchen items fill the grandchildren closet but it looks much more organized now!

Andrea lives in Delaware and is a professional genealogist so she was traveling for research and to visit clients. When we weren’t watching general conference, she was helping me get my genealogy organized so I wouldn’t be afraid to open it up. We also took her to a group of food carts in Portland so she saw that city culture! Bill will be jealous that we went to Potato Champion, the food card that makes poutine. We bought from several food carts and then sampled everyone’s choices. Through Andrea’s west coast travels, she was able to visit with all of our roommates 9living in Seattle, Boise, Salt Lake and Monticello, Utah) from when I lived in Brownstone in Provo in 1975! I hadn’t seen her since then.

As soon as Andrea left, we went to Judy and Jack Hoagland came from San Antonio to visit their Oregon and Washington children, thinking it would be their last time with them before their next mission. They were waiting for their papers while at our home but they arrived about a week later. They are going to the Russia Moscow Mission, leaving in February (so now they may have time for another visit). While they were away visiting Julie, we spent the day in Albany to celebrate Adam’s 12^th birthday and be at his church so Dad could be part of his ordination to the priesthood. We can’t believe how much he has grown up.

The weekend that Morty and Nate were here for both Oregon Duck and BYU-Oregon State game, Jack and Judy were on the coast with his brother so they all but missed seeing the boys (except during halftime of the BYU game). Right after the BYU game, Morty and Nate, along with Katie, headed to Eugene for the Duck game. Katie had a fun experience working in the BYU broadcasting trailer with a friend. It was great fun to have Adam and Alina with us at the game and it is always tons more fun of course, when BYU wins! It was a beautiful day for football.

After the boys left, Jack and Judy returned. That day I had planned to pull a Katie and go to lunch with friends in Salt Lake. Three of my roommates were getting together since Shannon Smurthwaite was in Salt Lake doing last minute wedding plans with her daughter and of course, Andrea was traveling through by then. But, those darn BYU fans leaving Portland Monday morning after the game, crowded into MY flight and I left the airport dejected and missing lunch with my friends. Oh well, it was fun trying. Plus, it was right during early morning commute heading back to Beaverton so I decided to go check out IKEA again for a TV stand. Yes we have a new TV. You won’t believe it since we are not big TV watchers. Now we have a BIG TV to watch a little bit of it! But did you know that on Monday morning IKEA serves free breakfast right at the opening of their store? It was eggs, potatoes and bacon; kind of fun! I even did some Christmas shopping at the Target there. It was better to stay busy at the airport instead of sit in traffic on the way home. Yeah, got some Christmas shopping done; that always makes me happy!

While Jack and Judy were here, the final games of the World Series started. Normally, I am not too interested in the World Series but Morty, Katie and Nate (and Aaron?) were so excited about the Cardinals playing in it that it was contagious and . . . we had a big TV now so why not watch it! They even got Gregory and Bryson (die hard Oakland fans) excited to watch the Cardinals in the final games. After one game, Morty immediately called Greg to share his excitement. My only warm memory of the World Series was when Nate started Kick and Chase Soccer and he called the pre-season tournament the “World Serious”. Dad and I did have fun following the games through the excitement of our children.

I had a stake meeting during the 6^th game and parked my car to go in with three Cardinals on base. I hated to leave the car so I was a poor example to my children and asked Morty if he would text me at the end of the innings to keep me up to date (I usually get after him for looking at his phone during church). That game went into extra innings so just as I was done, I could tell by the announcers’ joy that the Cardinals had won which meant that Morty, Katie and Nate would be sitting in Busch Stadium for the final game of the World Series; what a dream come true (regardless of the outcome). But, you all know the outcome and this is one of my favorite photos from the game.

At the end of October we were able to catch one of Sunhee’s volleyball games in a town called Mill City. It was an hour and a half away but the closest game of the season to us that we could attend. She is always fun to watch. She is darling for one thing and gives her all at whatever she is doing.

November was a blur since it went by so fast and flurry of travel and guests again. We started the month in Utah watching the Brady girls while Heidi and Bill were on a cruise. It was great fun to be in their home. Dad spent the first weekend with us. We were able to attend Shannon Smurthwaite’s daughter’s wedding reception while there. The girls spent a fun evening at Blake and Adrianne’s home while we were there and then we headed to Grandma Bitter’s home for a sleepover. The girls love going there. The girls and I even got to see Wendi one of the nights!

I have forgotten all the schedules and running around that a young mother squeezes in her day. I was exhausted but a great exhausted. I loved it. The girls love playing games and have a ton of energy but at bedtime, they have a wonderful routine and sleep well. I should have taken advantage of that time to sleep also but I made the “young mother” mistake of trying to get things done after the children are in bed! It even snowed a little while I was there. We were waiting for Ainsley to wake up from a nap to walk to the park but it started snowing on us!

I tried to leave on Sunday morning to get home for Primary assignments but my flight was full so I rented a car and went back to the Brady’s for one more night. I loved my last evening there when Heidi and Bill had more time to talk about their wonderful trip. As much as I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being with my grandchildren, as everyone knows, I love even more, quiet talk time with my children. Missing being able to get on my flight was such a bonus to have some quiet time with Heidi and Bill. I love my life and being able to travel around to be with family and, in some cases, helping out our children by babysitting or doing home fix ups.

Arriving home from Utah, we hit the ground running to prepare for the holidays. I came home to tons of SendOutCards commitments. I have so many more people on my team and retail customers new to the service that wanted help with their holiday card sending. Plus, I had three friends in charge of school bazaars to help with fundraising for activities so I said I would buy a table. Yikes! But it reminded me of all the years I helped with fundraising. Afterwards, I realized that I should have offered a letters from Santa service like I used to when I did bazaars years ago since I had the best service for that! Dad was also able to find the bike he had been waiting so long to buy. He is signed up for the Tour de Cure again this summer so now he will have a nicer ride!

Morty came in and out for Duck football games, even at the last minute over Thanksgiving. We were planning on having Shawn and Aubrey for Thanksgiving but just the week before that, Shawn’s boss and several co-workers were fired so he was asked to step up to be the interim boss. He obviously couldn’t leave the area as he had hoped but we are most pleased to know that his company trusted him with that responsibility in such a difficult circumstance.

Kyre, Alina, Adam and Klaire came on the train for Thanksgiving. That makes the trip extra fun. The smell of the train reminds me of my trips as a child to Grand Junction, Colorado to visit Grandma Helen. We played lots of games and ate lots of food. Alina got up with me at 3:30 a.m. to do Black Friday shopping. We were a great team; I would like to do that with her every year!

Grandma Maldonado was very sick that night so we had a few hours of break in shopping to take her to the hospital. I am sure the doctors though me insensitive when I dashed out while they were doing tests that were going to take an hour to get results. By then, we knew she wasn’t having a stroke. We learned her symptoms were from a kidney infection and I was able to bring her home.

Right after Thanksgiving, Dad and I packed and were off to Maui. It was Katie’s suggestion that we go watch BYU football in Honolulu when their schedule came out. We joked that we would go for the weekend! But the trip morphed into something bigger when Katie suggested that we go to Maui first before Oahu. We had three days in Maui and it was fabulous. We stayed at a World Mark, helping to keep costs to a minimum, plus is was a block from the beach! Each morning we went snorkeling in different places that were suggested and found some great spots. The wind would pick up in the afternoon so we would retreat to the pool and hot tub at our place. It was incredible. Dad and I were on the crater at sunrise one of the mornings and then on the last day, we all were up early for a boat tour with the Pacific Whale foundation. It took us snorkeling around sea turtles and over to a reef only accessible by boats. It was so much fun. Plus we saw hump back whales going out and coming back in to the harbor. I would love to go back during real whale season and see more.

We planned to leave on a late inter-island flight so we could have a full day in Maui. We went north to a restaurant suggested to me so we could be there during the sunset. It was gorgeous. A fun treat was finding a Santa on the beach sitting on his canoe!

Staying in Wakiki was definitely different than our quiet side of Maui but it was fun also. We found a condo on Craigslist there so I would want to wait and stay on Wakiki again only if we found a deal at one of those nice hotels that pamper you! Otherwise, we need to come back to Oahu to do a session at the temple and snorkel on Shark’s Cove. The swells were too big to snorkel on that side of the island since it was perfect surfing weather. When we stopped on that side of the island, we had fun watching some surfers right where they were going to have a surfing competition that weekend. BYU won their game and we were lucky enough to run into Jenn Jones Kim and her husband after the game. There were tons of BYU fans there. Pearl Harbor has updated their museums and displays even since I was there last. It is so nice. Since it was the week of the anniversary of the bombing, there were survivors there each day. Dad talked to one of the survivors about Captain Bennion’s ship. He said he was in the port and saw that particular ship and all the fires. As much as we enjoyed our visit to Pearl Harbor and seeing all the displays, it was a bit annoying to have the large groups of Japanese tourists push us aside in the middle of reading or listening to something. I know “they” didn’t bomb us but I would expect them to show a little respect to other tourists, especially there (just kind of ironic). We enjoyed our day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. That is the best bargain in Hawaii and the food was fantastic also. We did our own tour and we also took the tram to the temple’s visitor center from there. They do a great job there. Our temple is building a visitor’s center.

The day after we came home from Hawaii, we picked up Sunhee and Meeja for a long weekend. We kept them busy getting our home ready for Christmas and helping us create gifts and delivering them to our neighbors. In fact, as we drove back from Albany, we stopped at a tree lot. Dad and I had lost all chances of any time to go cut down our tree with it getting dark so early and being gone so much. We found a tree and started decorating it the first night that the girls were with us.

Friday was a pajama day! The girls stayed in their pajama all day helping me decorate and make carmel corn for the friends and neighbors. We followed Aubrey latest concoction with mini marshmellows, chocolate (I used red chocolate) and roasted almonds all added to her carmel corn recipe. It turned out yummy! We were going to deliver them that night but, so we didn’t have to get dressed, we went to Grandma Maldonado’s to play games instead!

It was nice that our ward Christmas party was while they visited; it was a breakfast. Sally Farb was in charge so there was a ton of food. And, Meeja and Sunhee got to sit on Santa’s lap. We delivered gifts in between the breakfast and going to Cinderella at Beaverton High that evening. The only gift not delivered is the Mitchell’s so we can visit them when some of you are here.

On Sunday the girls created some fun Christmas cards with their pictures of visiting with Santa and also with Cinderella. Both girls are very creative and knew just how they wanted each one to look. Dad taught Sunhee a another song on the piano; she is fast at memorizing! We worked in Sunhee’s Faith in God booklet; both girls have memorized lots of Articles of Faith. We had a nice sacrament meeting about obedience which was a good reminder to me to be willing to accept a calling that has sounded too overwhelming and totally out of my comfort zone, stake camp cook. My reaction was “Yuck, I do not like going girls’ camp and I know nothing about feeding an army of people.” I have to have faith. I liked what one of the speakers said, “What we become through our life is more important than what we accomplish.”

We left Primary a little early so we could stop in Albany for a dinner and early Christmas celebration at Kyre’s. Kyre had created a wonderful dinner for us. It was such a treat to not have to cook dinner. Adam and Alina had bought special gifts for Meeja and Sunhee so they were able to open them early and Kyre is not going with the children to the Lane family Christmas Eve so she was able to watch them open their gifts.

The next day we headed to Las Vegas! Morty had invited us to come to Lion King before it leaves Las Vegas at the end of December. We flew down in the afternoon and came back very early the next morning. It was a whirlwind trip but totally fun to do something like that with the boys. Nate treated us to dinner after the show at a Thai restaurant on Fremont Street over close to his place. Zappos has bought a lot of the property on the old strip there and are revitalized that part of Las Vegas in the next few year. We toured Nate’s condo which has a gorgeous view from both his room and the living area.

We had an enjoyable visit with Scott this morning. He is looking great. He has met his distance running goals for his run across America and now is running 15 mile runs in less than 2 hours. He is formulating his running goal for 2012 and he says it will have to do with running through ports of entry of our ancestors where he plans to ask for research from us as he hits a milestone. The prison was in lock down for a while after some gang rioting so he missed some of his holiday performances that come annually.

I know I have missed telling you about a lot probably but it is hard to reach back to all those weeks. My goal is to get this into the mail tonight but I can’t be up too late as I am getting a sore throat and can’t get sick this week! I look forward to the Christmas holidays with many of you. I hope you are having fun with the preparations of the season.

Heidi and Bill started a family tradition of donating preemie or newborn clothes to the Riverton Hospital on the day of Jack’s death and delivery, which was today. They said they had a wonderful day visiting the cemetery and the hospital. They were treated kindly at the hospital and, of course, the hospital was thrilled with their donations. Last year they celebrated Jack’s birthday with coconut cupcakes and have decided to continue that tradition also. Bill has an amazing arrangement with his company to have two weeks off for Christmas each year so that starts now.

I love you all! Love, Mom

September 19, 2011

Dear Children,

We just returned from California where we stayed at Shawn and Aubrey’s home while they ran a Ragnar relay race from San Francisco to Napa. They left early Friday morning, ran through the night and returned home Saturday just before dinner. They had a lot of fun with their team of twelve runners, mostly from their ward. They added costumes and decorated their two support vans with a Hillbilly theme so Shawn and Aubrey had fun with that! They met a couple from Seattle in their group and now want to run a Ragnar run up there next. That might mean we will see them on the way and have Greg and Bryson stay with us!!!

Meanwhile, we just played and played. Gregory and Bryson are bundles of energy and it was beautiful weather so we spent a lot of our time outdoors. They have a wonderful park not far from their home so we spent hours there both days. I love the smell of eucalyptus around the park and in town as it reminds me of growing up in the Bay Area. Between Dad’s gift to talk to strangers and Gregory’s love of talking to anyone, we met everyone at the park. We left the park each day with everyone calling Greg by his name! It is a good thing he is so personable as he is also very opinionated if someone shows up wearing a team T-shirt. Two twin boys showed up sporting Cal Bears shirts and the first thing he said to them was, “We are not a fan of Cal Bears. We like the Oregon Ducks!” I tried to explain to Greg that, although we have teams we love (and I myself am NOT a Duck fan; I think it rather embarrassing to come from a state where they are so caught up being a Duck or Beaver!), we don’t say anything to people who love another team. I don’t think that made a bit of sense to Greg.

Bryson and Greg were like the Energizer Bunny; they could have stayed at the park longer each day but on Friday, everyone of us finally agreed that it was time to leave for dinner. Earlier in the day we had all walked to the grocery store to buy ingredients for what they asked to have served for dinner, quesadillas; easy enough! It is so great that they live within walking distance of a Safeway. The boys were sufficiently exhausted so it was dinner, bath, special requested Bob the Builder and then bed. Dad and I were sufficiently exhausted also so we also picked out a movie from their shelves and watched one movie and followed them to bed!

On Saturday, from the moment we entered the park, Greg was on a mission to find a lizard and capture it. That he did, after much concentration, and he took it around introducing everyone at he park to “Endo”. After a while we convinced Greg to leave Endo’s seemingly lifeless body on the warm concrete to warm up and he finally perked up and started moving again only to be captured again and fall to his fate from the top of the slide.

It wasn’t long before Greg found and caught “Jeppi” who was without a tail and he sat by Greg (lifeless again) while we convinced him to eat his lunch. After a couple of drops, it was time to go home. Shawn and Aubrey had reported that they were back in town so we agreed to bring Jeppi home with us since we thought it would be nice for the parents to handle the release of Jeppi!

It was fun to spend the evening with Shawn and Aubrey and hear their stories of the race. It sounded like they were with a great and lively group of friends. The only thing that put a damper on the evening was sitting down to watch BYU get beat so badly by Utah. Grrrr! I was just very thankful that we did not fly to see that game. Katie, Morty and Nate all did and spent a lot of money for their tickets also. Morty told me all about their Utah trip. It sounds like they were able to do a lot and see lots of relatives. They stayed at Grandma Bitter’s home, ate at Bill and Heidi’s for Sunday dinner, met up with Adrianne and Blake on Saturday at Grandma’s and went to church at Dave and Karla’s ward since it was a later ward. Heather Pierson Bryce is also in that ward. They stood up Adrianne and Blake up for Sunday breakfast as they all slept in. I bet they missed something yummy knowing Blake and Adrianne.

We came home to a little mishap with our refrigerator somehow getting turned off. We must have twisted the dial to off inadvertently. There were several things we had to throw out but most things stayed cool enough. We did some quick clean up and headed to church after getting home from the airport.

I haven’t even been out to the garden to see what is going on there. Things are getting pretty busy with SendOutCards when I am in town and I don’t have much energy to keep up with the garden on those precious home days! I made a batch of pickle relish with all of our cucumbers last week. Thursday night, I am scheduled to fly to Utah to help Blake and Adrianne do some painting of their new place. They were so happy to finally sign papers on Tuesday and get the keys on Thursday; just in time to save another month of storage fees. Dad was going to come that night but, while we were in California, he learned that the job he needed to pour today, needed some changes. I wish he still had a crew that could have done the work on Friday without him there so he could have moved ahead as planned. He will instead come to Utah on Friday night now so we will have to work hard in a smaller amount of time.

I am sorry to tell you that Ammon Gustafson passed away on Saturday. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago and lived far longer than the doctors said he would. Their family moved in after many of you had already left home but I know that he was a favorite leader of Nate’s and as I look back in pictures, I see that he came back to the ward for Aaron’s homecoming after his mission.

Our fence no longer looks like a war zone. Dad was able to salvage enough boards scattered amongst the mess to put up a temporary fence that will look good for the next month or so until Dad has time to cut away the concrete wall in the areas where the metal clips were sheared or twisted off. We don’t want him working on that until the concrete bids and work for now are finished so it will probably be in November.

I am going to try and stay ahead of myself this time and kept the news short. Have a wonderful week ahead. It is beautiful here. I love you, Mom

September 10, 2011

Dear Family,

This is going to be a long one. With so many happenings in the last month; I have neglected to write. So, here it is: It is great to travel and see all of you and it is always good to be back home. August was a blur of excitement and travel, including Clovis to be with Carla and Scott for Laura’s baby shower, Orem with Grandma Bitter to see Adrianne graduate and play with Heidi’s family, Las Vegas with Morty, Aaron and Nate to attend our SendOutCards convention and then Sacramento to take Grandma Maldonado to the Patterson cousin reunion in Stockton.

The night before all this travel we took Grandma with us to see Les Miserables. It was her Mother’s Day present so we had been anticipating it for quite sometime. I had got our seats right when they went on sale to a group to which I belong so our seats were excellent I thought. We have seen Les Mis at different angles and this was a new one but we loved it.

Dad stayed home finishing up his work on the temple when Grandma Maldonado and I flew to Fresno the next morning. He said that he would have loved the opportunity to ride bikes with Uncle Scott while we were all busy getting things ready for the shower. Dad is still in the market for a new bike; we went looking again last week. Dad came home one day after a pour at the temple and said he felt like he had just ridden another 100 mile bike ride! Most of the time these days, he works with too few helpers.

It was fun to be in Clovis and help Aunt Carla with her final shower plans. She always has things so well organized. I love working in her kitchen. It is a perfect size and I love the work area in the center. The baby shower was at their clubhouse; it is beautiful there. That means, though, a lot of moving things back and forth but it was well worth it.

It was a gorgeous event and there was lots of family there to make it even better. Katie came in on Friday night. Denise, Sarah, Michelle and Asteria drove down and back on Saturday and even Aubrey, who had just had an emergency appendectomy two days earlier, drove down with Shawn and the boys! It was wonderful to see them even if it was for a short time. They are all so kind to make a huge effort to get to family events. Aubrey is doing much better now and back to running even 11 miles at a time to run with Shawn in the RAGNAR run from San Francisco to Napa on September 16 to 17. We are flying down to their home take care of the boys while they run.

After the work of the shower, I mostly relaxed the rest of the time in Clovis. Carla and I walked in the mornings and did some swimming. My doctor said I could do a little bit of laps so we also walked in the pool. We also spent an afternoon in the pool with lots of the grandchildren. Their community pool area is so luxurious; it feels like being at a resort. Speaking of resorts, I saw Scott and Erin’s home for the first time. They live there in Quail Lakes now; their back yard is the lake. They have a fishing dock just off their back porch! It is a beautiful place.

I decided to come home for a day in between each of my trips just to reorganize myself. Basically, that gave me enough time to do laundry, repack my suitcase, recycle junk mail and get rid of junk emails! The trip home from Fresno was unusually odd going through security. It is such a small and empty airport but it took a surprisingly huge time to get through security. I wondered what kind of terrorists hide out in the Yosemite area! I have never been so scrutinized and asked more questions of who I was with, who was I meeting . . . except when I traveled from Israel to Egypt when I was on BYU’s Study Abroad program over 30 years ago but that was to be expected between those nations.

Dad and I traveled to Utah together to be at Adrianne’s graduation. When we landed Adrianne called and asked if we wanted to meet them at their possible new home, a townhome in Pleasant Grove. We caught up with them and got a tour of the place. It has a small fenced-in yard that they want to garden in and then beyond the fence is a huge community playground with lots of picnic table and benches. It would be a fun gathering place. Adrianne and Blake have plans to repaint and fix it up a bit. Their plans are uncertain as to how long they will be in Utah but they would just like to keep it as a rental when they leave. As of this week, all financial papers, inspections and all that stuff is done so they are just waiting for the bank since it is a short sale. We hope it happens this week as we have ONE weekend that we could come and help, September 23 through the 26. That is what we are planning.

We had a great time in Utah and just especially loved the fact that Adrianne and Blake seemed excited to do things with us. They took off the two days we were there and just did what we did; it was a blast. We even hiked the Y at midnight one night. Good thing! It was hot while we were there and even at midnight, it was refreshing to walk through pockets of cool air. We were able to visit with Dave and Karla to see their new home one night and Adrianne and Blake tested out their hammock on their deck off their master bedroom. Wow! That is the home I would have picked. I thought that their home in Coto de Caza felt like a resort . . . this home feels like a European resort. It has a very Mediterranean feel to it which I happen to LOVE of course; it’s my roots! The four of us were able to go visit Bill’s work. It is quite impressive how they have realized what a valuable asset Bill is in this short space of time. He has an exciting announcement to tell the family about his work at Eli Kirk!

Heidi and Bill had two French girls staying with them for a week of International dance events in the Daybreak area. We traveled up Friday night after graduation with Blake and Adrianne and enjoyed the street party and dances right in Daybreak. They have such a wonderful community. We went back up to Heidi’s on Sunday after going to the Severson’s ward with Grandma Bitter, bringing all our leftovers from Adrianne’s graduation party. It was a great visit even though it wasn’t very long. We traveled that evening to take Grandma to the Horne Family Picnic in a park in Salt Lake. That was fun to see all those relatives also. When we finally get around to seeing those relatives, we wish we could make more connections with our grown cousins.

Adrianne’s graduation ceremonies were quite nice. I LOVED the fact that the crowds were so much smaller than in April. We even were able to get photos at the cougar! Heidi and the girls were able to come down for the convocation on Thursday. They all looked so cute. It is fun to be around their excitement. Cecil O Samuelson spoke on living in challenging times but reminded us that these times are of no surprise to the prophets of course. He told us to believe in the positive confidence of the prophets and D&C 64 where it tells us that all things come to pass in their own due time. He warned us to be wise, thoughtful and relentless and lean toward proper priorities and be of good cheer.

An alumni speaker admonished us to make a difference in the lives of others and to be a light to others with goodness and kind deeds. Craig Christensen taught that by small and simple things, great things come to pass. Telling us to take one day at a time, he told us that a journey of love begins with a single step and to take that step. He asked us to work on seeking to feel the spirit each day and work for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Finding ways to serve others was a theme in all the messages.

After preparing for the graduation dinner at Grandma Bitter’s on Saturday, Adrianne and I dashed up to the Bountiful Temple in between cooking and the party to catch a short glimpse of Kyrra Hathaway coming out of the temple. It was fun to see the whole Hathaway family. We were there for less than 10 minutes but it was worth it to show them that we cared. We dashed back home and finished preparing for our quests. Adrianne had planned a burrito bar which made for a pretty easy dinner for a large group. It turned out quite nice.

Dad and I decided to stay an extra day and spend Monday afternoon with Heidi and the girls before flying home late Monday night. Heidi took us to their lake where we used their community kayaks and took everyone out of the lake. It was so much fun.

Home for one day in Beaverton for doctor’s appointments and reorganizing, I headed to Las Vegas earlier than Dad for our SendOutCards convention meetings. He finished up some work and delayed his departure until Friday which was best for the concrete business. Even though we plan to replace our concrete income with SOC and have residual coming in for a possible mission, we must remember that rebuilding the concrete business is what started our interest in SendOutCards! I appreciate the messages and feelings I get when involved with the leadership of the company as they fit in so nicely with the Gospel.

We enjoyed especially the bonus of staying at Aaron’s home. We learned that Nate is moving out to an apartment closer to town so we will miss the casual fun evenings that included his humor in the mix on our subsequent visits. We hope he will be able to come over for those kinds of evenings when we visit Las Vegas. We saved a rental car fee by sharing Aaron’s car and taking him to work before our meetings since Bally Tech was close to where we needed to be. That was nice since the prices were kind of high there. We were able to do a little yard work and even spend a little time at the TV shop before leaving. I also was able to have lunch with my high school friend, Joy Concannon Burleson. The boys always are great hosts.

I had a little over a week at home before flying with Grandma Maldonado to Sacramento for a Patterson cousin reunion. But, I squeezed in a lot of work in those few days considering two days Grandma Maldonado and I spent in the emergency room over at the Sunnyside facility. She was having a lot of chest pain and couldn’t get a hold of me so luckily, she called Carol Stanger and Carol drove to the church where I was playing volleyball. Luckily, even after spending that night in the emergency room and then returning again the next day when the doctor called her to come back for even more hours of testing and waiting, they found nothing wrong and she is fine and traveled great to California.

The big news here in Beaverton Ward is that the Brandt family is moving to Colorado. They found a school that might help David with his autism and their other son who has slipped under the radar with so much attention on David the past eight years. I had a dinner party here for everyone that we have visit taught together for the past 18 years; hard to believe it has been that long!

Our plans to stay in Sacramento with BreeAnne had to change at the last minute Friday night so we were able to stay with Aunt Denise, which was fun. When we learned we would be there, Aubrey and the boys changed their plans and met us there for some swimming fun. They are so fun to be around. The cousin reunion in Stockton on Saturday was a big success. Grandma had brought lots of old ancestor photos and information and she had invited a cousin that had never been to a reunion before, Roxie. Roxie has more photos than anyone since Grandma Jamison lived with her family. Mom brought a scanner and we tried to scan all the old photos that people brought but learned later that some of the scans didn’t work. But, still, it generated a lot of interest in family history. I don’t know that side of the family very well since it seemed we always gathered with the Maldonado family while I was growing up in Hayward so it was good to get reacquainted. One of the cousins, Vicki Wynn, just visited Portland this weekend to visit her sister, Melody Bush, another cousin who worked for Grandma at House on the Hill. So, we had brunch with them Saturday at Grandma’s home.

I came home from California in time for Labor Day here. Dad and I went to the Street of Dreams in the morning and then the State Fair in Salem later that afternoon. The main reason to go to squeeze in the fair was a chance to see Kyre and the grandchildren. They were there to see a concert by Selena Gomez so Dad and I walked around looking at the exhibits until their concert was done. Then they went on rides. We have always avoided that part of the fair but it was fun to see them enjoy it. Aunt Lynn’s daughter in law brought them to the fair. Their family is so kind.

Morty is visiting this weekend for the Oregon game. He goes with a friend, Nicole Gable. This time they drove her doctor friend who purchases their tickets so they get better seats. They happen to be neighbors of Peter Jacobsen so Morty met him Saturday morning. Morty said that he is a hoot. Towards the end of the game, Morty and Nicole were able to go sit up in Peter Jacobsen’s suite on the 50 year line of Autzen Stadium! Good news for Morty since he had such a bad burn on his head.

We had a great visit with Scott where he reported all his summer sports accomplishments. He is still keeping track of his Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine trek and is farther than he expected with all of his elliptical training and 10K runs. He also joins in with “beach” volleyball (a little patch of sand in the yard) and now is on a soccer team. That is quite an accomplishment since many of the team players are mostly Hispanic. It is quite an honor to be chosen to be on a team and he is enjoying getting used to the game again after all these years. These things help to keep him active and busy. He learned from his Branch President that President Rheinwald, whom Scott has come to love, recently ran into President Child. Scott was so happy that his Branch President was able to have a conversation about him with his old priesthood leader especially since President Child who speaks so highly of Scott.

This weekend Adrianne was in the Yuba Lake Triathlon that her company sponsored and Nate hiked the 8,000 Meter Challenge to hike the three tallest peaks in California in 24 hours. We are waiting to hear news of those events. We know that Nate made it back; good thing since the news was broadcasting about the missing hiker in that race!

I will close with another thing that has occupied too much of our time for the last couple of weeks. While we were in Las Vegas, a drunk 18 year old slammed his daddy’s Lexus into our fence for two hundred feet until he hit his last tree and finally wrapped the car around it. He was “unharmed” but there was a tremendous amount of damage. On Sunday afternoon, when Katie called asking if we knew we had several large holes in the fence, we knew nothing! It will take lots of hours of clean up as glass and car parts were everywhere, even many feet into the grass so we are wondering how to go about getting every trace gone so we can again walk barefoot in our back yard. This picture is after much clean up. Dad built a temporary fence this weekend as we will have to wait until he has more time to repair the fence. The young man bent and even sheared off many of our metal posts that were embedded a foot into our concrete wall so the concrete wall in spots will need to be redone. Oh please, consider the ramifications of poor decisions!

Have a great week! Love, Mom

August 4, 2011

Dear Children,

The last couple of weeks have been filled with fun with the grandchildren. I drove down and picked up Alina, Adam and Klaire on a Thursday and they stayed until Sunday night. The fun thing was that Sunhee and Meeja came on Saturday so they had two days of playing together.

We lucked out on the weather for most of their visit. I took Alina, Adam and Klaire to the zoo on their first day here. We walked the zoo opposite of the way we normally walk which was nice since the crowds went the traditional way.

Wow, we were awaken during the night with an incredible lightening and thunder storm very early last Monday morning. We woke up to the house shaking with some of the thunder. The rain was even loud and as thought my hopes of picking boysenberries with Sunhee and Meeja were dashed, Dad was worried about his pour at the temple. Luckily, by morning the rains were done and we had a nice day for concrete and berry picking.

Dad’s work at the temple is not only labor intensive abut time sensitive. There are so many contractors working there that it is causing Dad delays. Two of the towers are being sandblasted and that cloud of gritty dust is falling everywhere. Even so, Dad has been persistent and been at the temple in the wee hours of the morning until late. Meeja kept asking him why he couldn’t stay home and play. Today was the last actual pour there and he came home saying that he felt he had just rode another 100 mile bike ride! I will be anxious to seethe finished product.

Sunhee and Meeja were good helpers picking Marion bad Boysenberries. We came home that day and made our jam. We also made a couple of pies. Sunhee wanted to learn how to make pie and she wrote it in her Faith in God booklet. She made a beautiful pie of her own after watching me make two. I suggested that she freeze it so she could cook it at home later but instead, she decided to give it to Grandma for her birthday. Sunhee was so excited to surprise Grandma.

As you may imagine, we did a ton of game playing while they were all here. We also played a lot of ping pong. Sunhee is getting quite good; I will have to work really hard to keep winning. The girls also loved playing in the yard. They attract lots of neighbor children so it was like old times here with a yard full of children. They put the sprinkler on the tramp and down the slide. They also were good to pick the blue berries and raspberries. We froze much of their pickings and made smoothies with them. We now have lots of zucchini and also the green beans will be ready while I am in California. Meeja remembered that Sunhee was in charge of Family Home Evening last visit so she kept asking if she could be “in charge” each night. She was in charge of Family Home Evening the last night that they were here. Sunhee was assigned the lesson and to teach us a song about FHE (both Faith n God goals) and Meeja was in charge of the campfire and roasting marshmallows.

I believe that the most fun day we had while Sunhee and Meeja were here was the day of Dad’s Tour de Cure. Thank you for all your donations to make his participation possible. His ride started at 6:30 in the morning from the Hillsboro Stadium. The girls and I headed out there about 8:00 and volunteered at the stadium until he came in (well, and played quite a bit also). Dad was so thrilled to be able to finish a 100 mile ride. It is quite a huge accomplishment.

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed to be gone for almost three weeks straight so I am coming home for a day in between California and Utah and then Utah and Las Vegas. It also allows me to do some follow up from a great event that I went to two Thursdays ago, the Portland Business Journal’s BizGrowth Expo. I met with several businesses who were interested in learning more about SendOutCards. Plus, a real bonus was that the keynote speaker, Harvey MacKay who wrote Swimming with the Sharks without Getting Eaten, told everyone in the audience that they should Goggle SendOutCards and start using it to stay connected with the clients and prospective clients. I like what one speaker said about treating your customers like fans. He reminded us that loyal fans protect a business. The speaker I am referring to was the owner of Keen Shoes. I really enjoyed him; he reminded me of Nate. We also heard from someone from Disney and learned their strategy to get repeat business. As most of the speakers gave tips on how to treat their customers and clients I just sat in awe of how SendOutCards teaches the same thing and is the tool to make that all much easier. It was a very positive day.

The girls and I had fun experimenting with a new cupcake idea I read about in Mandy Heaston’s blog: mini cupcakes in a push up tube. They are a cute little novelty and we also experimented with cupcakes mixed with ice cream in the tube. I was attracted to the idea at first to tell Alina about it. She is taking orders to make cupcakes to sell to raise money for her trip to Washington DC next year.

I had a great time with Gail Bowman over a long lunch today. It was so good to listen to her express her feelings over Michael’s death. One thing that was extra hard for her was that she was not allowed to see his body. He wasn’t found for about five days so his body was badly decomposed. They couldn’t even use fingerprints to do a positive ID on him.

The Brady family could still use us remembering them in your prayers. Jenna’s pneumonia was spreading to most everyone except Heidi. Bill is still quite sick. They have their niece form Canada staying about a month and then they are also hosting some French teenagers here for a dance event. I love you all! Love, Mom

July 17, 2011

Dear Children,

Wow, I have lots about which to write; I think it would be best to write chronologically to keep things straight. At the start of our last couple of weeks, our raspberries started coming on in our garden. They are yummy and I suspect I will need to do some serious picking this coming week since I have been gone so much. Our raspberries are from Ramona and Ivan’s yard before they sold their home to go on their mission. So, our plants haven’t been in our garden that long and they are already causing a raspberry jungle! Dad has really chopped them back this year and we still have lots of stalks. I hope they are still ripe when the grandchildren come at the end of this week. Luckily they started coming on just as I was adding fruit back into my diet; yes, what a way to start!

We were with Shawn and Aubrey over July 4th weekend. It was a blast. Aubrey says they have a heat wave every time we are there. We started with a couple of rounds of bumper bowling and then the A’s game the first full day that we were there. The A’s didn’t win but it was a perfect ballpark night. It was their fireworks night so we had two shows, the game and then great fireworks.

Shawn also treated us to a tour of his department at Bank of America. Security was so tight that we all had our own photo name tags, including Greg and Bryson. Our jaws dropped in amazement as Shawn escorted us into his office. He has a huge office with a picture window overlooking the town and rolling hills. True to Shawn, he has made his office an inviting place by stashing lots of snacks and treats and has a white board with a continuous game being played to lure people in to chat with him. He explained some of their new theories in working with defaulted loans and it sounds like they have got a good formula to help as many people as possible.

After church on Sunday the boys needed a nap and it was very hot in their rooms so Dad and I took them on a car ride to Antioch to let them sleep in air conditioning. It worked and we visited with Aunt Denise in front of her home until the boys woke up. We were worried about her since she had been in the hospital just before we arrived in California but she is doing better now. Early that evening as we were driving home I excitedly realized my headache that I had had continuously since the accident had left while we were visiting Denise. It felt so great to be free of that headache.

We did all the fun town things in Pleasant Hill on July 4^th starting with a 5K run. I trained to do it and knew I really shouldn’t as per doctor’s orders but with the headache having left, I thought it would be OK. I ran slowly but continuously for the entire event. That was my goal. Aubrey and Shawn lapped us of course and both made great times. Greg ran in the children’s run and looked like a natural. Dad was kind to stay with me even though I urged him to run ahead.

We stayed in town for the parade which Greg and Bryson gathered enough candy to be like Halloween in part because Greg ran up to the participants to make sure he got his due candy! He was so thrilled each time he added to his pile by his parents. We spent a couple of hours in the park with all the games like tug of war and even a cake eating contest. Aubrey, Dad and Michael (Aubrey’s brother) entered. Aubrey was doing quite well but couldn’t eat as fast as the man who wore swim goggles and put his whole face in the cake to vacuum it up. With her leftovers she had a planned to throw it into Shawn’s face but Shawn had too good of reflexes and she sprayed it all over a very old man. I thought that I had my camera on movie as it would have been interesting to see Aubrey’s horrified face as she realized what she had done. After much cleaning up and apologies it took a while before we could laugh about it!

Our ticket stubs at the A’s game gave us all free personal pan pizzas at Roundtable Pizza so that is what we had for our July 4^th barbeque. It was the perfect solution to sit in an air conditioned restaurant since it was in the high 90’s that day. We watched fireworks at Aubrey’s old high school baseball diamond. They had a live band playing!

We returned home early the next day and got ready for a visit from Randy and Julie. They came out with Craig and Pam and their two children for the STP, Seattle to Portland Bike event. They did it in one day though. About a quarter of the people don’t stop but come into the park across from the Lloyd Center. I was at a baby shower for Jaime Jorgensen at Lacey Blackett Amano’s home so we dashed afterwards to downtown to watch them come across the finish line. They were on their bikes for 11 hours (204 miles). We had a great visit with them that evening; they left for home the next morning.

Dad is wondering now if he could train well enough for that. His first century is in two Saturdays. The farthest he has gone to date is 82 miles but that included steep hills. The Tour de Cure doesn’t go into the peaks around here so he will be fine. It is getting pretty exciting and he has earned all his donations needed so far. Thank you all so much for your donations. Sunhee and Meeja will be here the day he rides and they will be helping me volunteer in the afternoon of the event.

We have all been very concerned about Jenna. She had not recovered from her pneumonia so they took her to the hospital on July Fourth for some treatments. We all thought that they would just keep her overnight but her hospital stay lasted nine days! After her condition worsened even after treatments and changing antibiotics three times, they transferred her to the Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake. She was in ICU for a day there and then started to respond. Finally, on Tuesday we were relieved that they allowed her to go home with oxygen. The Brady family received an OK from Jenna’s doctor to go to the Sabey Family Reunion in Idaho this weekend with Bill’s mom who is visiting from Utah. Thank you for all your calls and prayers on her behalf.

Many months ago Dad and I booked a trip to Depot Bay for this past week. We planned to take our bikes and bike up and down the coast from the WorldMark there. Because Dad won the bid for the temple and it is much work to be done in a small time frame, he could not go until the last night. Katie was kind enough to make a trade at work so she could go the first two nights. We also invited Grandma Maldonado and her friend Gwen Edmunds, who was visiting from California. They stayed the first two days so we played lots of games and sat in the hot tub. The weather was beautiful plus we saw whales several times. In fact, about an hour after they left, there was a whale in the cove just a short distance out for about an hour. I watched as it came out of the water and dove back in so I could see its fin. I noticed the fin first and thought it was a shark I was seeing.

Dad arrived at the coast late Thursday. It was just as well that he couldn’t come until then since I cannot ride my bike right now. Even so, we did a lot of fun things in the little time we had. I got to do what I like best, to watch the fishing boats come into the harbor at Depot Bay and see the men fillet all the fish. I remember doing that either at Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz as a child and there is just something I love about doing that. Some day I would like to try to go on one of those fishing trips. I would worry about getting sea sick since I can’t even hardly stand a mild Disneyland ride! We also stopped at a glass blowing studio and watched as they made glass floats. I would like to do that sometime (not make a knick-knacky float but a petty glass bowl). We ended out coast trip at a Friday night seafood buffet. We ate our fill of crab and shrimp; it was so yummy!

Our next trip will be to Utah for Adrianne’s graduation on August 9^th and 10^th. We thought we would try and do a quick trip to see Bill’s parents who are visiting from Canada but learned that his Dad doesn’t get into town until this Thursday and we have Adam, Alina and Klaire coming that night and then Sunhee and Meeja joining us on Saturday. We had thought if there was a rainy day, we might be able to steal away.

Right after Sunhee and Meeja leave at the beginning of August, I will go with Katie and Grandma to Laura Tobler Field’s baby shower in Clovis and then meet Dad in Utah for the graduation. From there we will go to Las Vegas for a SendOutCards convention. Dad is planning on going if work will allow. We have a busy August planned. I can’t believe that I keep saying already that I am pushing things into the fall since we are running out of summer! Nate sent me his itinerary for his Christmas visit . . .yikes! I am usually the first one to think about Christmas.

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