February 23, 2011

Dear Children,

We had a wonderful time in Utah. We planned the trip to accompany Adrianne to receive her endowment but we added extra time to help Grandma Bitter make the mints for the reception and attend the bridal shower that Heidi planned for her. Well, Grandma had already finished the entire mint making and even had them all wrapped for us. All we needed to do was to put the stickers on them. She would have done that also probably, but we had to special order the stickers from Arizona and they were being shipped to us.

We enjoyed our Sunday afternoon in Utah at Heidi and Bill’s new place. We went down to pick up Grandma first. She had not seen their home either. We were all in awe at the space they have now. The girls love their own space and their cute play area. Anisley has already learned to get down the stairs (their stairs were very steep in their town home). Heidi and Bill love their enclosed and quiet office space and beautiful kitchen. It is incredible. It was so enjoyable to help in the kitchen (except now I have to ask where everything is)!

Friday was Jenna’s birthday so we had an early family birthday celebration for her. Rebekah decorated the dining area and Jenna’s chair with hearts and Bill made a beautiful apple pie for her. Heidi and Bill made their famous lemon butterflied chicken. I remembered it from years ago when they made it at our home over the holidays.

Blake and Adriane also came up for the birthday dinner and celebration. We arrived first and even though the girls see Blake and Adrianne more often, as they opened the door when we arrived their first reaction was, “Where’s Blake and Adrianne?” Hello, how about being excited that we flew there from Oregon!!! But, I am so happy that the girls love and have a bond with their uncles and aunts really.

We had a low key Valentine’s Day. We had seen a special on BYU sweatshirts online and I do not think I had one any longer so we headed to the bookstore to pick one out. Well, we quickly learned that those specials are not available in the store but it was fun to be among the students and ESPECIALLY heart warming and fun for me to see the huge percentage of men in line at cash registers buying Valentine’s Day gifts. I loved to see all those students knowing it was important to show their gratitude for the sweethearts.

The most rewarding part of my Valentine’s Day was taking Adrianne to the Distribution Center to pick out her clothes for her temple trip the next day. How excited and happy I am that she has chosen to go through the temple. We had a incredible experience in the temple on Tuesday evening.

I am so happy Adrianne chose the Jordan River Temple. It was quite by accident but felt like no accident at all afterwards. She had wanted to go through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple since it was so close to Heidi and Bill’s place but it was closed for cleaning. So she asked for Jordan River since she was thinking it was the one she had gone through for an open house (really the Draper Temple).

From the moment we arrived at the temple with Adrianne and Blake, she was treated like royalty. The women in the temple were so kind and helpful. She was able to use their beautiful bride’s room to get ready and Sister Chamberlain spent a good amount of time with her in the instruction room before we went through a session. Right before we met with Sister Chamberlain, one of the female workers told us she was Janet Lee (Rex Lee’s widow) who is now married to the temple president. I am so glad that she told me that as I would have kept looking at her trying to remember why she was so familiar since her name did not match her face.

She is an amazing woman and her instructions were so perfect. Accompanying a child for the first time through the temple has to be one of the best privileges in my life. Plus, Sister Chamberlain’s message and advice were exactly what I needed to hear and so wonderful for Adrianne to hear. The thing I remember most was her advice to come back to the temple often take advantage of the wonderful spirit there and rest from the cares of the world, to relax and rejuvenate from the stresses of our fast paced world. She reminded us that the things of the temples were two things:

• From God and
• Ancient, in that they were not changed by the fads of the world.

She quoted President Monson when he admonished members to "come to the temple and place your burdens before the Lord and you'll be filled with a new spirit and confidence in the future. Trust in the Lord, and if you do He'll hold you and cradle you and lead you step by step along that pathway that leads to the celestial kingdom of God.” It was such an incredible quote that I came home and found when he said it at the San Diego Temple Dedication in May 1993. We felt lucky that so many family members were able to be there in the temple with Adrianne. Dad and I has a very enjoyable visit with Heidi and Bill at their home afterwards when we stopped to pick up things for the bridal shower which was to be held the next day. We talked mostly about baby Jack since visiting the temple is such a wonderful reminder of the eternities and the opportunity to see deceased family members again.

Our last day there on Wednesday was filled with lots of preparations for the shower that Heidi planned for Adrianne. It was held at Grandma Bitter’s and I think it is funny that it was held with the chance of a snow storm looming and again, the forecast here is the same with a snow storm and Adrianne’s shower here in Oregon that Grandma, Katie, Carla, and Denise have planned for her! The shower in Utah was so fun with all the preparation that Heidi did plus there were old Oregon friends there like Janet McManus and Heather Pierson Bryce. Plus, Wendi was able to be there since she is at BYU. Jenna and Rebekah were fun helpers at the shower also; they were so excited to be there.

We returned on Thursday morning with a sense of urgency to finalize all wedding plans and preparations for out of town guests’ arrivals. Today Morty, Blake and Adrianne arrive. Aunt Carla has been here since last Thursday also and she and Grandma have been a HUGE help to me every day. Yesterday, Carla was here most of the day helping me clean and organize the house but one of the most fun things she did for me last week was help me go through my closet and all my boxes of different sizes of clothes that I have saved for years. She could be the host of “What Not to Wear”; the three of us had some good laughs as I wanted to hang on to some familiar clothes and she instructed me that they were from a different era! Besides being such a big help to me, they have planned some fun things for the Oregon bridal shower that will be tomorrow when more of the family arrive. This morning they are all convening in the kitchen to finish the baking for the shower. Isn’t family the best!

I guess you all probably heard the wonderful news that Laura and Andrew are expecting a baby in September. This is such an answer to many prayers. It will be nice to see and congratulate them at the open house in Hughson.

Well, everyone pray that the snow storm isn’t as bad a predicted so everyone can travel safely to Oregon. Dad told me that Heidi and Bill have now planned to stay an extra day in Oregon and won’t leave now until Monday which is great news.

Sadly, Uncle Doug will not longer be coming for the weekend. Aunt Elaine’s mother passed away yesterday so the funeral will most likely be this Saturday. They would probably love to hear from all of you. Their address is: 272 North Ocean Avenue Cayucos, CA 93430.

Here is a quote from Elder Christofferson that I liked from some of my “catch up” Church News reading on the plane ride home. He was talking about living life well and getting through the challenges of our days: He said, “Take it one day at a time. The Spirit can guide us when to look ahead and when we should just deal with this one day, with this one moment. To deal with something very big, we may need to work at it in small, daily bites.”

I love you all and am excited to be altogether to celebrate with Adrianne and Blake.

I love you! Love, Mom

February 13, 2011

Dear Children,

We are in Utah again as was the case the last time I wrote (which was a while ago I admit)! This time Morty gave us the crazy notion to stop overnight in Las Vegas to celebrate his birthday. We feel so honored that he would suggest that to us. What a fun idea! And, all the while we realize what a huge privilege that we have through Katie to be able to fly and connect with all of you. We are so grateful.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORTY!!!

Today is Morty’s birthday; big 33. As we were joking last night as we were laughing about some Jimmer Fredette mania happening in Provo, he is Jimmer plus 1!He was kind enough to get up at 6:15 on his birthday to shuttle us to the airport. He provided great service even informing us of our gate number and its location from security with a few tricks to get around the crowds. We learned last night when he looked up our chances of getting on our standby flight this morning that had only 4 seats available for 16 standby passengers, that Sunday is a difficult day to get out of Las Vegas on standby. He rerouted through a flight first to Reno and then onto Salt Lake. The late night nonstop to Salt Lake was very open but then we would have missed Jena’s family birthday party (her birthday is this Friday).

We had a fun visit with the boys last night. They all have a unique sense of humor and keep us smiling. It was very refreshing to me to be there. Aaron picked us up a the airport and then we met Morty and Aaron at a beautiful new resort called M not far from their home. We went to dinner at a very tasty restaurant known for its home cooking style and huge servings. We all shared a few entrees and took a HEAVY take-out bag home afterwards. I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and the boys and Dad all enjoyed warm cake dripping with thick chocolate frosting at midnight as we sang happy birthday to Morty. We slept, not long enough, in their beautiful guest room. They have it fixed up so comfortably.

I don’t know where to start this letter as I really do not remember much about the last few weeks. Dad and I did travel to Utah in mid January to help Heidi with some of her packing. They were blessed to be able to find renters for their town home so that they could move into their friend’s home who will be on an eighteen month mission. For that period of time they will have more space and a yard! We are so thrilled for them and especially the girls to be able to play in their own yard. The new place is just down about a block from where they were. We are excited to see it.

We were hoping to get in on a family night deal at Sundance ski resort while we were there in January but they weather was not good enough; it was raining at the resort. We haven’t skied at all this year and our usual anniversary trip to Timberline will be replaced with celebrating our anniversary at the open house in Hughson. Maybe we can hope for some late snows this March like a couple of years ago, just as long as the weatherman gives us a beautiful last weekend in February!

We did more wedding planning in Utah in January and made some interactive TO-DO lists to alleviate some of the stress of one person remembering everything that must be done. Blake and Adrianne have made several documents that need to be watched closely, like the wedding budget, into Google documents so we can all view and update them. This has been very helpful. I heard someone refer to Adrianne’s sit down dinner reception as extravagant and I thought how little they knew about the power of careful and creative planning with a lot of leg work. I know that we have accomplished this wedding with a smaller budget than most of our friends have put on a reception at the church.

Most of our weeks since that earlier Utah trip have been focused around wedding details. Dad hasn’t had any concrete work so he has been able to help more than usual. I think that he has made more dinners in the past month than our entire married years; it has been very nice for me. Dad is starting to do more bids now so the spring is looking more positive. We don’t expect that the business will ever be the same again since the builders are just not as active anymore but we have received a good amount of referral business from previous customers for homeowner work by using our SendOutCards business to help market the concrete business. It is nice that we have that reference as we show other businesses the incredible tool that it can also be to business. Through the wedding planning, I have tried to stay as active as possible with SOC to keep the momentum going. I have a couple of distributors that have also made goals for their own that has boasted my business. I LOVE the fact that I can be working on the wedding part of the day and my business is still growing elsewhere!

Morty came for a Blazer weekend just shortly after we returned and we met one of his cute friends Abby. She is from Cannon Beach. She is also a fun game player and was very wiling to learn some new ones. He got in a couple of Blazer games and was gone again. While he was here, Dad and I went to a meeting in Seattle. We flew there in the morning and returned that afternoon; SO COOL! We rented a car and it cost us so much less to do it that way. Thank you Katie again.

My annual girl’s weekend with my previous Young Women group was at the end of January. It was so nice. We played tons of games, ate, walked on the beach, ate shopped, ate, talked and laughed, ate and just had wonderful time together. We all look forward to the break each year; it is rejuvenating. I didn’t completely put a halt to the wedding planning while there as I brought some things to brainstorm with them. It was at the beach that we designed our “bargain” centerpieces.

Our family had two big moves this month with Heidi and Bill’s move to 11491 Wexford Way with their city and zip code staying the same. Heidi also received a new calling in her ward Relief Society as the Second Counselor. That will keep the Brady family moving at a fast pace. Shawn and Aubrey’s family moved into the apartment complex that many of their friends live at 143 Virginia Hills #C keeping the same city and zip code also. They have been watching for an opening there in a particular spot and then Aubrey luckily heard it through visiting teaching before anyone else knew. She is going to fix it up so cute; she sent me one of her pictures. We are anxious to see it. We just might be able to on our way home from Adrianne’s open house if we don’t fly. We are planning on driving since we will have all the unopened gifts to take down for them to open the day after the open house. But, we would love to fly; it would be cheaper and easier of course. So, we are going to try and send some boxes of gifts home (pack them up right there after the reception) with some of the Severson’s returning to California. We can’t send any with Shawn and Aubrey since they are flying Alaska and have to pay for luggage.

Adrianne came home the first weekend of February for a special shower given by her good friend and mentor, Sharon Gueck, for all of her Cheveaux Training Stables family. They planned a very nice event for Adrianne and included some of the friends that she grew up with. After the shower her best friends of the group took her on an overnighter to a spa resort and treated her to a very relaxing time.

We have had a couple of days of nice weather this week, which gives us hope of a beautiful weather day next Saturday . . . hope, hope! One gorgeous day the sun was shinning and the birds were singing and it even smelled like spring was not too far off. When the sun is shinning, it makes even the grays and the browns look more beautiful. Dad was at the temple for a bid and the daffodils, heather and even early rhododendrons are in bloom. Yes! Oddly enough, Dad is working on a summertime bid, during the closure, for the bride’s door. The brides and grooms no longer exit from the main doors of the temple. They go out one of the lower doors so there is not so much congestion and they want to make that area where people now need to wait, more beautiful.

Lately, I have been catching up on my important reading by walking at the gym instead of outside. There is a book slot and I am happy to say that I think this is the first month that I have finished the whole Ensign in the very month that it was received. I know that sounds crazy since I should be able to accomplish that in any given month. So I hope to keep that going. I feel so lifted when I leave the gym after having just exercised AND read something uplifting. You all know me well enough to know that I do not LIKE exercising but like the feeling after the fact. Reading something uplifting while walking takes my mind off of what I am doing. It is great! Right now I am reading a book called The Single Voice by Kristin Oaks. It is SO good; I would suggest it to everyone. I felt odd buying it but my good friend, Jeannena, suggested it to me saying that her thoughts in the book are great suggestions for everyone.

My last institute class was so good. It seems that lately, as soon as I get close to arriving at class, I get a phone call that I need to take and it keeps me from attending. This week we discussed Elder Holland’s general conference message. We played a Mormon Messages video clip called, Good Things to Come, depicting a message from one of his talks awhile back (about the young family driving across country in a car that kept stopping and needing repairs in the same spot just outside of their departure city). It was very moving. I would suggest that to everyone also! His message was: Don’t quit; don’t give up. For those who love and follow the Lord, it will be alright. There are more good things to come.

Trust God and believe in His power to help you live fulfilled lives and return to Him. As I told my Primary children last week, it is absolutely amazing to think that we all have the Godhead rooting and pulling for us to live so that we may be happy and fulfilled and return to them.

I love you and am so happy that we will be together in a couple of weeks to celebrate and support Adrianne and Blake on their wonderful day.

Love, Mom