May 30, 2011

Dear Children,

Happy Memorial Day!

Last week was a great week. We finally started seeing some hopeful signs of spring. Waking up to the sound of birds singing makes the Primary song, “In the Leafy Treetops” go through my mind. Now that is a cheery way to start your morning! Plus, as the calendar flipped over to May and the Blue Lake Triathlon gets closer, I have taken my training outdoors to see if I could move my body into some more minutes of continuous jogging. I haven’t jogged for many years and had resigned myself to be a bit embarrassed to walk the run portion of the triathlon. But a couple weeks ago, as I was hearing some women talk about their half marathons, I was inspired to try and add some jogging to my walk as I looked over a training website called Walk to Run by Jeff Galloway.

I started adding some minutes of running and now am very pleased to be up to 15 minutes! Now that doesn’t sound like much to all you marathoners, but I hadn’t planned to run again so this is big for me. I like the feeling and it is much easier mentally for me to run longer intervals outdoors instead of on the treadmill. It is also easier in this beautiful weather we have enjoyed the last couple of days.

It is remarkable what a little sunshine will do. Amazingly, all of a sudden everyone’s yards have burst with color. It is funny how things look so much more colorful with the glow of the sun. As I was walking and observing all the beautiful colors and smells that are more radiant with the sunshine, it caused me think of how the same goes for our lives when centered on the Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Just as the flowers are more radiant by the sun’s glow, so are we made more capable by His influence. I love that in the English language, the words son and sun are homonyms, since there are so many layers to both of their meanings being intertwined.

With the better weather I have done a little digging and weeding in the yard. Gardening is so therapeutic. I had purchased some Gerber daisies at the Young Women’s auction several weeks ago and finally got them in the ground. I LOVE Gerber daisies; I should have bought more! After being in Utah two weekends ago and seeing all the gorgeous lilacs in bloom, I was happy to return and see more bloom on our lilac tree in the front yard. I bought that tree many years ago when Katie bought me a book about a lilac bush. We have transplanted it once so it has taken sometime to recover from that shock. Today we had Grandma Maldonado and Katie plus three of her friends over for dinner so Dad cut some of ht e branches for flowers on the dining room table. I always forget to bring fresh flowers into the house; Dad is good to remember that.

Dad spoke in sacrament meeting today on following our church leaders. He read some articles about what could be helpful to the bishop and said he wished someone would have given that talk when he was bishop!

Dad and I have stepped up our training for the triathlon this past week as it is getting so close. We even bought some wet suits this weekend since they were on sale and to rent them was almost as much. We want to practice with them this Saturday also so we would have had to rent them twice. We are committed now! Nate is going to be here that weekend and said he might do it with us; that would be fun! He can do it without all the training. The weather turned cold again so we did some biking inside at 24 Hour and then on Saturday rode out to Al’s and back. Thank goodness I can fit into someone’s old biking shorts as I am going to put those one before I get on the bike again. Speaking of marathons, Scott described his preparations and actual running of marathon mileage around the track. He is determined to stay healthy.

This has been a great few weeks of news for family employment!!! First Shawn got a great job at Bank of America. He interviewed for a particular job in their mortgage servicing and loan modification department and they offered him a position that was higher then the one for which he interviewed, a senior manager. We are so thrilled. We are so impressed that he and Aubrey have stayed so positive with such disappointing news at his last job just after their move. His job is in Concord so they can stay right where they are at. They have been blessed.

Adrianne also just found a full time job and is enjoying it. She will be working for Shelf Reliant in Pleasant Grove. It is the company that I bought my food storage rolling shelves from (actually I bought them from Costco but they are from her company). They also sell high quality freeze dried foods so she is going to get a family price list. Adrianne is the administrate assistant over the home party divisions, which is really growing. Becky Ludlow is a rep for the company so I have gone to a couple of her parties to support her. Now Adrianne and Blake are looking for an apartment close to that area since they both work off the same freeway exit.

Aaron had an interview for which he was very hopeful and he just learned that he got the job also! He will be writing code for a company called Valley Technology. We are so happy that everyone who has been trying to find employment has been successful.

I enjoyed my week in Las Vegas. I was there for Morty’s birthday present since he wanted to be in the Dominican Republic for a week. I sat at The TV Shop while Aaron was in class. Every time I saw legs walking past the store I would secretly hope they wouldn’t walk in since I knew so little about the TVs! I did do some cleaning, made some signs and helped Aaron with some SendOutCards campaigns for the store.

I was there for Aaron’s actual birthday and Nate splurged and bought dinner at a nice steakhouse for us. He invited to Katie to come down also so she got on a plane and came!!! It was quite fun and also delicious. In fact, Katie flew in and then walked from the airport to the boys’ store to meet up with us! I was able to meet up with my high school friend Joy Concannon Burleson this time in Las Vegas. She is a non church member that married an inactive Mormon but her three girls all joined the church which was interesting to talk about.

Nate spent the weekend in Utah for a friend’s college softball game (he knows the coach) but came home before I left since I changed my plans and flew directly to Phoenix for a SendOutCards Manager’s training meeting. Katie flew down to Las Vegas and we left from there since she said she would accompany me. We found a place in Scottsdale to stay. We were there only one night so while I went to my meeting, she went to the Diamondback’s game with Jeremy Luman and his wife. We did some touring around Scottsdale, spent some time warming our skin at the pool and even got two visits in at Sprinkle’s Cupcakes, one of Katie’s favorite places.

My meeting was so good. I really love the kind of people that are the leaders in this business. I had meetings most of this week also; it was very energizing. The VP over marketing was here in Portland this week. We had some great conversations. With the new announcements of the Retail Packages now having no upfront fee, I am really excited.

Dad and I were in Utah for some meetings also two weeks ago. We were able to spend that time at Grandma Bitter’s. I went down a day early so I could help Adrianne organize all her wedding thank you notes so she could get most of that job done before her new job started. She was able to do over half of them in mostly one day! I had forgotten what a big job that is! It was funny; on my way to the airport to go to Salt Lake, I realized that I had forgotten to arrange for my rental car through Southwest. I called Morty and asked if he was in front of a computer. He booked my car for me and then said, “Thank you for calling SouthWest. Is there anything else I can do for you?” Luckily we were able to have Sunday dinner so Dad and I could both see Heidi, Rebekah and Jenna (Bill stayed home with Anisley since she was sick). They really love to visit Grandma Bitter’s home. On the way home from church we also stopped at Natalie Robertson’s and saw her new baby, Dently Bruce. All her babies are so adorable. Jerry and some of his family also came for dinner. I hadn’t seen Chad in quite a while.

We had plans to visit Jack and Judy at their Denver home since they spent a week here at our home about a month ago but Dad’s business has really picked up so we needed to head back to Portland right after our Utah trip (and the standby status of the flights were not looking good). They were already successful in selling their home and they are in San Antonio this weekend looking for a place. Jenni and Rob have been transferred to San Antonio. Jack and Judy are planning another mission for this coming fall. It is fun hearing about their plans and hopefully, someday we can do the same. We need to regroup from the last couple of years of the construction disaster. We see more and more that things will never be the same. None of our builders are in the business anymore. Our goal to retire in 2016 is still hopeful if we can build our card business and stay as busy as possible in the good weather with homeowners with whom we have reconnected this past year.

Another trip I took was to Lake Tahoe last weekend. It was SO much fun. My youngest cousin, Alison, was getting remarried. Carla drove to Antioch and picked Denise and I up so we could all drive to Lake Tahoe together. I hadn’t been there since I was in a senior in high school. Our family used to vacation there a lot. I forgot how beautiful it was. I love Tahoe; I want to go back. We were lucky to get in a World Mark in Zephyr Cove. There was a beautiful camp ground just a short walk away and right next to the lake. We thought it would make a great family reunion spot for next summer possibly. It probably is fairly difficult to get a spot there in the summer???

I know that I am probably forgetting tons. It has been too long since I have written. I do know that Ainsley is now walking most of the time instead of her knee-walk and Alina received third place in her school district’s Spelling Bee.

I love you and have a great Memorial Day. I am beginning my day (after our bike ride) being trained to do Extraction work for Family History. That is a great Memorial Day activity (since it is too cold to garden outside!). Lots of love, Mom