June 19, 2011

Dear Children,

Happy Father’s Day! This will be a short note so I avoid getting behind this summer. We had a great day today. Dad had lots of calls; that always makes his day. We both had assignments in Primary today so it was nice to come home to relax a bit. It feels that I have been teaching Sharing Time forever; one more week left after stake conference this week. I made some bargains with some of my Primary assignments during May when I was gone a lot plus I am getting ready to tell them I am going to be gone a lot in August!

Dad wanted a BBQ for Father’s Day dinner so we had salmon but I also did some chicken for when Katie arrived. She had to work until much later in the day. She was going to make cupcakes until her shift got changed to the later one so I made Dad’s requests: cherry chip with chocolate. I scooped out the middle and topped them with a very dark chocolate ganache and then frosted the top. They were yummy! Grandma Maldonado came and joined us for dinner.

Thank you to everyone who donated money towards Dad’s Tour de Cure. He is very happy about it and excited to do his first 100 mile bike ride. It is supposed to be a very pretty route through the Hillsboro area and plus it is a great cause. After watching Mindy suffer with diabetes and then die from it eventually, that is one disease from which I want to stay away!

We started our Father’s Day by visiting with Scott. He was so happy that we came. The visiting room was very crowded which was good to see. He had fun relaying some “small world” experiences he had this past week. He ran into someone (from a part member home) to whom he had been a home teacher many years back and then another man, Matt Duskin, who kept looking closely at the cards I send to Scott with family pictures on them. He kept asking about Aaron, saying he thought he recognized him. Then it somehow came out that he went to school and dated both Kellianne Luman and Jaime Jorgensen (Richardson). He asked about Jeremy Luman and Janna Richardson. Isn’t that odd? Scott has had a lot of men ask him how we send cards created with our own photos and even old photos. They all say that they wish they could get cards like that, especially ones with old family photos so they can relive great memories. I didn’t realize what an impact they could have there.

Earlier this week Grandma, Katie and I went to the silliest movie. It was called Judy Moody and . . . (something about her summer)! I like children’s shows but I don’t think I need to see that one again! Speaking of children, Kyre participated in the Relay for Life walkathon in Albany again this year and Alina, Adam and Klaire did it with her. Alina walked the entire night! I forgot to ask again what award Alina got at her school assembly this past week. Summer vacation is officially here for everyone now. We got to speak with Meeja this week to wish her a happy birthday. She sounds excited to come here next week.

And speaking of vacation, Adrianne and Blake went to Bear Lake this weekend for his birthday. They said that they had a great time and one of the funny things they did was take all their loads of laundry that they had been saving up since the WorldMark has a washer and dryer in each unit and they don’t have to use up their quarters! Adrianne was pretty pleased that she made Blake an ice cream cake with Tillamook Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream!

Last thing: we have a little bird sitting on her nest nestled down in our hanging fuchsia plant in the front entryway. I hope she is still there when Alina, Sunhee and Meeja arrive this Thursday afternoon. They will stay until Sunday night or maybe even Tuesday depending on my flights to Las Vegas.

Have a great week! Love, Mom