December 3, 2012

 It is not really December 3 but I need to just send this without trying to update it!

Dear Children,

This fall we have done a lot of fun little trips.  The first weekend in October we had a great visit in Clovis with Aunt Carla and Uncle Scott.  They both went out of their way to make our stay extra nice with lots of great food and doing our favorite things.  We were able to enjoy their new patio to eat breakfast and dinner lazily outside in the warm sunshine.  The weather was so nice.  It was perfect for the Triathlon Sprint.  Carla and Scott did a great job of planning and mapping it out and then Scott and Dad ran it on Saturday morning.  We started in the dark so we would be done by the time the general conference session started.

I was the only one who took a wrong turn!  The sun was in my eyes and I didn’t see one of the signs but, once I realized I was headed in the wrong direction, I decided to just ride out 6 miles on the bike and then head back, making my own trail!  It worked out fine except for having to stop and phone in to tell them what I was doing.  I felt OK afterwards and surprisingly, my hip felt more of the affects than did my knee.  My doctor said I couldn’t run at all until after the MRI on my knee the following week so I was the pokey little puppy!  Carla is planning for another one next year at her place.  Swimming in a pool makes for a lot easier swim segment!

In the afternoon Dad and Scott went for a 30 mile ride and Carla and I visited with Laura and Andrew and also David came by.  Dyllan entertained us with her gibberish language.  We got to see Laura’s new home during the Sunday morning session of conference.  We had breakfast at their place.  Adrianne would like her place; she has beautiful gray granite counter tops and decorates with lots of gray tones.

I enjoyed the feeling of general conference this year; lots of basic living the gospel; serving others, power of prayer, loving others, following Christ.   I loved the prophet’s always emphasis on the positive as he admonished us to count our blessings.  I am trying to live more positively which shouldn’t be so hard in this wonderful life we live in!  There were some great talks on the Holy Ghost and living by the Spirit including Craig Christensen’s thoughts on living to be open to hear the Spirit and Quinton L. Cook’s teaching that being unkind to family or having impure thoughts hinders us from feeling.

I guess I just felt encouraged after conference.  As always, President Uchtdorf’s message on Regrets and Resolutions is so worth reading over and over again.  As he encouraged us to give our best personal self, his three points were:

• Spend more time with people I love.
• Live up to my potential.
• Let myself be happier.

            We had to leave during the afternoon session to get to the airport.  Getting home this time routed us through Seattle.  Lately, we have taken some different routes to get back to Portland; the last one being to fly from Salt Lake to Phoenix and then back home.  I have found it interesting that there seems to be so many people who live elsewhere but fly into Oregon to work each week.

Each time we were home this fall we had three days to work and then get ready to leave again.  At times, I had a hard time remembering what day it was, especially when you come home on Monday afternoons!  Dad had lots of work and bids as people started to panic wanting things done in their yard before the weather turns poor.  Now, the work has been very slow in coming.  Homeowners are already in their winter mode of thinking.

Being football season, Morty visited quite a bit to come for Oregon Duck games.  A couple of times he was able to double up and see the Blazers play while here in Portland.  He and Katie went to a crazy exciting game that was fun to hear him talk about.  While he visits, we see more sports that we can imagine; our TV gets used!

We had a second trip to Utah this fall to celebrate Grandma Bitter’s 50^th birthday.  There was a nice dinner and program at Dave and Karla’s ward building that Julie and Randy organized and then Jerry and Laurie put on a fun tail gaiting party before the Oregon State homecoming game.  But, I do not like to watch the Cougars lose so I won’t talk about that game!  I appreciate the family gathering for these events; that is the best part.

My business has grown a lot this fall.  Regularly, in October and November I hold several workshops for my customers to give them ideas for their holiday cards.  Now, that is funny since I do not have mine started!!!  Yikes!  I wanted to put a QR code of a song that Dad and I would sing about the year in the card.  Sunhee and Meeja even were helping me write it on one of our long rides but I tabled that idea.

I had several business presentations with some professional organizations this fall but my favorite ended up being the one that concerned me the most.  I was asked to be a speaker at an Entrepreneur Day for a select group of high school juniors and seniors.  The keynote speakers were two Oregon girls who went on Shark Tank with their Wild Squirrel Nut Butter.  That was fun to hear them speak.  After their presentation the students rotated to several other small business owners most of whom had created and funded their own start up businesses.  It was a real eye opener.  My assignment was to speak about the Network Marketing model.

Honestly, one of my reasons for accepting the assignment, besides it being a privilege to be asked, was that I knew if I spent time preparing and teaching about the positive benefits of Networking Marketing myself, I might be able to overcome some difficult feelings with which I struggled myself about the profession.  Which is exactly what happened and I attribute my business growth since then to the things I have learned and for which I have gained much confidence.

One ah-ha moment came as I was speaking to one of my groups.  I explained that I did not create the idea of my business but instead, found a business that I loved and paid a franchise fee to own my business with all of its financial backing.  I then explained all the support, tools, websites, etc that I received from the company upon paying that small fee.  They had just heard the tens of thousands of dollars that others had spent on having the same things that I have at my disposal.  When one young man was flabbergasted after he asked, “Just how much is that small franchise fee?” it finally dawned on me what I had and how lucky I was!

With not much pre-planning, I was able to travel down to be with Greg and Bryson asShawn and Aubrey were able to go to Monterrey for their anniversary.  That was so much fun to be there with the boys.  I love that part of my life.  It is exhausting fun!  They have such a nice group of friends living there and of course, even in November, it was warm enough to play outside with the neighbor friends.  Their common back yard is like a park where the moms gather and the children play.  I love smelling the eucalyptus trees in the Bay Area; it reminds me of my growing up years since we lived next to a canyon full of the trees.  You wouldn’t know that I grew up in the Bay Area the many times I got lost driving around this time.  The boys and I had a fun trip to Bethel Island to see where Aunt Denise is living.  It was very relaxing.

Wow, we had a Thanksgiving holiday filled with laughs with Nate and Morty home to entertain their nieces and nephew.  Kyre and the children were here from Wednesday to Saturday evening.  Alina is an easy target to poke at with her vast knowledge of Justin Bieber and her ability to turn most conversations around to be about him!  Morty stayed over the weekend to travel to the Duck game so he is relentless about the Duck-Beaver civil war.  I told Alina that she was very lucky that Dad was sacrificing being able to watch BYU’s football game while she had precedence over the large TV for the Duck Beaver game.  

Over Thanksgiving we went to the opening night of Zoolights, did some early baking for Christmas neighbor gifts played lots of games, Alina beat me at Ping Pong and even some Black Friday shopping. I was pretty disappointed that some of the stores were opening on Thanksgiving so I refused to go until midnight.  Alina and Adam helped and we got done what we needed then came home and slept until Penney’s early morning opening, shopped there and then we were done.  Morty, Nate and Katie took Adam and Alina to their first Blazer game at the Rose Garden.

On Saturday we took Kyre and the children and cut down our Christmas tree.  They helped me get out all the decorations so almost everything was decorated for Christmas before November was even over!  I love the years when we have an extra week in between Thanksgiving and Christmas! That evening Kyre and the children rode ho me on the train.

Late Saturday evening Katie joined us and we went to the Screen Door in Portland, a southern style restaurant, to celebrate my birthday.  Everything was very tasty.   Even more fun was I think I hooked Nate on the Ticket to Ride game when we returned late from dinner!  After Morty and Nate left on Sunday, we started getting ready for our next visitors and I think, as of tonight, we are ready!  Just a couple more beds to make, decorations to hang and some lighting outside and we are finished.

Before we know it, Christmas will be here.  Sunhee and Meeja come this week for our annual Christmas visit where they help me with Christmas baking and delivering neighbor and friend gifts.  Since the Brady family cannot come for Christmas now, Heidi is bringing William and Rebekah also this weekend, thanks to Katie.  It will be fun for them to go to our ward Christmas breakfast.  I am relieved that Heidi will be with us there since I will be in the kitchen and she can help Dad with the girls at the event.  We will end their visit with a trip to Sweet Home after a visit on Sunday at Kyre’s home.

As far as Christmas travels, it looks like, weather permitting, Shawn and Aubrey’s family will arrive the Friday before Christmas after Aaron and Morty come in earlier that week.  Nate will be coming from a trip to Tahoe so he will probably arrive just before Christmas.  To get the cousins together, we will go down to visit with Kyre and the children the Saturday or Sunday before Christmas.  We are trying to involve Sunhee and Meeja in that gathering also.

Our visits with Scott have been great.  He has a lot of energy and excitement for his fitness plans.  He ran a marathon on Thanksgiving and is planning one for Christmas!  His times are coming close to Boston Marathon qualifying times.  He does everything he can to stay healthy in mind, body and spirit against all odds there.

Grandma gave me my birthday book after she came home from California.  THANK YOU to all those who contributed!  That will be so wonderful to sit and reread all those kind words and nice acts of service that were dedicated to my birthday.  I love it!  Thank you for taking that time to not only do service but to write about it in the book!

I love you all!  Love, Mom

October 5, 2012

Dear Children,

Happy 13th Birthday Adam!!!

            We have had some fun travels since the last time I wrote.  We started by going to Las Vegas.  Months ago Nate suggested we come down to see Wicked at the new Smith Theater.  Nate has season tickets there for their Broadway series so he was able to buy extra tickets before they went on sale to the general public.  We scheduled it to coincide with Dad and Aaron’s Gran Fondo 122 mile bike ride in September.

            We arrived in time to eat dinner and then head to the theater.  We met Nate there as he had a company commitment right beforehand and he rode to the theater on his motorized bike (the kind that you pedal until you use the electric motor).  We had great seats and loved the performance.  It was especially fun to be there with two of our family members, Nate and Aaron, who had never seen Wicked.  I forgot to mention that Katie also went with us since she also arranged for a ticket months ago.  She came with us and then left early the next morning.

            Dad and I thought that we might be helping Morty with the clean up of his store but that is now all in the hands of the landlords.  So, we didn’t have any projects in Las Vegas; just to relax.  Aaron learned at the last minute that his registration for the event never went through so he did not ride but Uncle Jerry, Brian and Chad did all ride.

            Dad left VERY early for the ride which began at 5:00 am as they rode right down the strip with a police escort while it was still dark.  They left in waves of 250 riders with 2500 riders in total.  There were so many riders that Dad had nightmares the night afterwards about avoiding crashing into other bikers.  He enjoyed riding into the Lake Mead-Hoover Dam just at sunrise. This was Dad‘s longest ride ever so he did have some problems with his legs cramping but he still finished strong at about 200 of the 500 riders that finished the 122 miles.

            While he was cycling, I went to Joy Concannon Burleson’s home and had a nice visit with her.  I went to high school with her. She was never a member of the Church but married an inactive member and her three girls are all members of the church.  She told me that she is a better Mormon than her husband! Joy retired from being a PE teacher this summer since she is a new grandma now.

            At Sunday dinner at the boy’s home we enjoyed hearing about Nate’s trip to Israel and seeing photos he took.  Zappos sent him to meet with the person in charge of a company that they use in Tel Aviv.  Then, that businessman for Nate to do some traveling and sight seeing around the county.

            While we were away, Katie was in New York for a week.  She sent a photo of herself with the Smurfs thinking that Meeja would especially like it since she was crazy about the Smurf movie the last time she visited.

            Our other trip was to Utah for William’s baby blessing last weekend.  Dad has had lots of work so we arrived late Friday evening to be greeted by Heidi and all the children at the airport.  They are all so fun.  The girls all headed to bed as soon as we got home, we worked on Heidi to allow us to take something to help with the Sunday afternoon food and then headed to Pleasant Grove where Adrianne met us with a Mediterranean feast that she and Blake prepared.  Blake and Adrianne have been working had on their home.  They have new carpeting, all the rooms upstairs are freshly painted, a new chest freezer and dishwasher.  The guest bedroom is very inviting all fixed up with new colors and curtains.  I was able to grab sometime to hem up (or prepare them to be hemmed once Adrianne gets a sewing machine) the curtains to help with a little project.  The guest bed is cleverly on top of their water storage.  Both working for Shelf Reliance, they have done well getting their food storage. Dad tried to help Blake attach a new screen door but the store didn’t have the correct size to replace their existing frame.  That happened on Aaron’s home also; they should all be standard!

We, as always, combined this trip with several other fun things while there.  Dad has wanted to go to Snowbird’s Oktoberfest for years.  Snowbird is one of those places that makes Dad’s voice quiver!  We squeezed in a trip to Snowbird in between Adrianne making rolls and myself making brownies for Sunday’s gathering. We went with Adrianne and Blake and met the Brady family there after Bill came home from camping.  It was beautiful with the changing colors.  I would like to do that again.  We met up with the Young family and Grandma Biter for a few minutes.  All the Young grandchildren were having a blast together.

The day of William’s blessing was fantastic. One of my favorite parts was when I drove up to Salt Lake to pick up Katie at the airport since she was flying in for the afternoon to be at the Brady’s event.  The back seat of the car was filled with platters of brownies and rolls.  As Katie walked up to the car and looked in she said, “Uh, oh” and then seconds later Morty and Nate walked up to surprise me!  That was so fun!  One of Katie’s coworkers had switched their tickets for them so instead of returning from the University of Oregon game to Las Vegas, they flew into Salt Lake and then Katie gave them buddy passes to get home from Salt Lake.  Thank you Katie (and Nate and Morty also)!

There were lots of family members at the Brady’s sacrament meeting for the blessing.  After the blessing was testimony meeting.  I appreciated that Heidi bore her testimony about true happiness.  I also appreciated the testimony of one of the men in the Brady’s ward who is a temple worker.  He described an event that happened at the dedication of the Brigham City Temple just recently.  He talked about the session where one of the men giving the opening or closing prayer had been in prison for part of his life.  He said it was a great reminder of the power of repentance and the fact that everyone can change and be forgiven.

After their church meeting, we all gathered at one of their friend’s home who had offered their home for the dinner.  It was a wonderful gathering.  We got a chance to catch up with Wendi’s plans.  She hopes to travel to China with a group of students to teach English next year and then graduate after that.

Dad and I came home to another short week where it is hard to know what day it is (that happens to me when I travel home on a Monday).  We both have lots of work to fill each day and the weather is still cooperating with the concrete work so we must take advantage of these dry days.  We traveled to Albany to pick up Adam for the evening for his birthday.  We took him with us to Meeja’s soccer game.  You KNOW her energy level.  She runs just as far vertically and she does along the ground with her jumping and “hoppy”, happy run!  She was goalie for the last part of the game and saved a couple of goals from going in.  But, as little as she is, that big net looks like it was going to entangle her at times.  We enjoyed talking with Adam over dinner at his choice of restaurants, Izzy’s.  He is sure growing up.  Turning thirteen; can you believe it???

Now we are off to Clovis to spend General Conference weekend with the Aunt Carla and Uncle Scott.  Originally we were scheduled to be in the Lake Berryessa Triathlon but now we are doing our own triathlon in Quail Lakes with some of Carla’s friends.  That will be better for me anyway as I am still trying to heal my knee and hip problems.  I will just have to go much slower than I had hoped.  It should be fun.

We hope that you are all enjoying this warm fall weather and getting excited for upcoming holiday plans.  Have a great week!  Love, Mom

           

September 16, 2012

Dear Children,

            Well the big family news is this: The August flash floods in Las Vegas that delayed our flight out of Oakland when we visited Shawn’s family came back with a vengeance in September and destroyed Morty’s TV Shop!  If any of you have been on Facebook, he has posted photos.  This week, the flooding at UNLV came across Maryland Parkway and spilled over into all the downstairs businesses in Morty’s complex.  Morty could see it coming from seeing the force of the water when it hit the Pizza place on one end of the complex.  It gave him enough time to raise some of his merchandise to higher locations but the fire department was warning everyone to leave the building since their front walls are all glass and they expected the water to break the glass.  He has done lots of clean up, going back the next day to survey the damages.  He rented a U-Haul to take what he could salvage to a storage unit, and had a chance to talk with the landlord.  Since the owners are very anxious to get the wet sheetrock cleared, they offered the tenants their initial deposit if they removed everything from the stores.  Morty was leaving town for the weekend so he hired some people to finish where he left off.  He will have a lot of decisions to make this coming week.  We will be in Las Vegas on Thursday so it will be good to hear about it first hand.  I also look forward to hearing all about Nate’s trip to Israel and of course, cheer Dad and Aaron along on their long bike ride.

            Morty was here last weekend for a very quick trip.  He came in late Friday and left early Sunday morning but was in Eugene for a University of Oregon game all day Saturday.  Since Oregon State also had a game that afternoon, Morty and his friend took some back roads to go around Salem which saved them waiting on the freeway for hours as many experienced due to other freeway problems along that stretch.

            Dad has been so busy at work; too busy to stop and look for good, strong help.  I am kind of relieved that the last young man preparing to leave on his mission (that Dad hired all last year) is now gone on his mission.  I feel like some of those young men are a liability with little real benefit to the company.  But, this young man couldn’t get a job anywhere else and, anyone that is lucky enough to work for Dad learns many more lessons than just a strong work ethic example to prepare them for other things in life and especially a mission.  I would love to help Dad find some hard workers so he can be the planner and director a little more than the worker.

            SendOutCards is keeping me busy these days.  We had a nice gathering here of local distributors to hear of some changes the company made to the business side.  I love that they are ready with new tools, websites and helps so we can just keep working!  With holiday cards around the corner, the interest is even higher for the personal user.  The company added 80,000 new customers in July and August and sent over 2 million cards of gratitude with the emphasis on the 30 Days of Gratitude Challenge.

            Hey, Steven Bitter received his mission call to Uganda and will leave December 27.  That is a great time to leave!  He is going to school right now at BYU Idaho.  Speaking of BYU, I just hate to see the Cougars lose.  We watched the BYU-Utah game on fast mode last night but since it was so long, we finally caught up to real time.  Wendi celebrated her birthday this week.  Kyre tells us that she is working instead of going to school right now and plans to go to China next year with some organization.  We hope to learn more when we see her at William’s baby blessing in two weeks from now.

            I am still limping along trying to prepare for the Tobler Triathlon.  Last Saturday as I lifted my sunglasses to be able to read Dad’s odometer (I was riding his mountain bike since mine was not shifting well) to see if I had gone my 12 miles, I lost control of the bike and ran into the fence.  Besides getting an arm and hand full of slivers from the fence, when I finally landed on the ground, I came down hard and got my knee twisted in my handlebars.  After untangling myself, I said out loud even though no one was around, “Well, now my left hip doesn’t feel so bad!”  It is not funny.  I still have the biggest bruise and a knot on the inside of my right knee.  I have been trying some home remedies to get rid of the bruise but noting works on the knot and I keep icing it.  I have not been able to do my jog-walk which previous to my bike incident, I was very pleased to be up to 5 minutes jog-2 minutes walk progression.  My physical therapist bumped me up to that after she had me jog in front of her on my last visit.  Luckily, I can swim which helped me initially get most of the slivers out of my right side. 

So, Friday evening I decided to get back on the bike for just a short ride.  Not realizing that the derailer was bent in the crash, as I headed up a steep hill and moved to the lowest gear, my chain came off and I couldn’t stop myself from tipping backwards and fell back on my back side.  Ouch!  Now I am mad and discouraged but still hoping I am better to go to Clovis.  President Harris spoke in sacrament meeting about a nightmare that he had where he walked down a long hallway and opened a door which contained something very evil and scary behind it.  In his dream he did that three times even though he knew what was behind the door.  As he spoke I wondered if getting back on the bike a third time is as dumb as reopening a door over and over again when you know what bad thing is behind it!

            We are enjoying lots of vegetables from our garden.  I made up a huge batch of salsa yesterday and I predict it will be gone by the end of the day.  Our Swiss chard just keeps producing and even our apples taste yummy.  We have had Adrianne’s recipe for zucchini lasagna several times.  I just love her Thrive tomato powder every time I make that recipe.  I can’t wait to use it in my spaghetti sauce instead of buying those little cans of tomato paste!  Plus, I have a soup recipe that calls for two tablespoons of tomato paste; what do you do with the leftovers except forget it is in the fridge and grow mold! I am looking forward to using the powder for that recipe. 

We were able to visit Scott on the benches in the outdoor area this weekend.  We used to do that just to give Scott some outdoor time but he actually tries to get outside as much as possible after work on the weekends.  He has been invited to join in volleyball and soccer tournaments.  He also went to tryouts for the prison’s main soccer team.  He went for the experience since it would be very difficult to play on that team.  A couple of weeks ago, one fellow player asked him what country he was from since he didn’t play like a North American. That was a great compliment to Scott.

In tears Scott reported about a man that was attending the branch when Scott first arrived at OSP.  After being released, he asked to be able to go to church.  His parole officer said that he could go if someone accompanied him to meetings.  After a time, he asked if he could be baptized which the bishop agreed to but the stake present, a former district attorney, denied.  The mission president asked if he could interview the man requesting to be baptized and agreed that he was ready to be baptized.  After a year the bishop interviewed him for the priesthood.  Knowing how the district attorney, who tried his case years previously felt about him, the man was worried about his stake president interview.  He prayed for days prior and received an answer that he must not let his pride get in the way and continue in his path regardless of the outcome of the interview.  In the interview he was asked how he felt and he mentioned his thoughts about pride.  The stake president admitted that he also felt that way and apologized to him.  He chose the stake president to ordain him.

Scott was reading an old Ensign that had an article about writing autobiographies with some questions to answer to get started.  He spent some time in the last few weeks working on a ten page autobiography.  He said that reading the life history of Grandpa Bitter inspired him to want to do that.  He said reading Grandpa’s words allowed him to remember Grandpa’s voice.

I hope that you all had a great weekend.  It is supposed to stay warm here this week and then we head to Las Vegas . . . This was the weekend for Shawn and Aubrey’s Ragnar Relay where they ran from San Francisco to Sonoma County. I forget what they said the theme was this year.  Last year they dressed up as hillbillies and I did not recognize Shawn when I saw him!  We enjoyed staying with the boys last year at this time.  This last week, Katie was in New York attending tons of sporting events including a NASCAR race.

            Love you all,

                                    Mom

           

September 5, 2012

Dear Children,

I’m determined to not get so behind this fall in writing to everyone.  Lots of great things are happening in the family that I will try and keep you aware of.  Although, many of you communicate by FaceBook and know things way before I do!

Dad and I couldn’t resist Shawn’s suggestion to come down tow weeks ago to the Oakland A’s game that they would be at.  So on Wednesday we hopped on the earliest flight, since the later flights were looking too full, and flew to Oakland for a day.  How cool is that!  Luckily Katie was also flying out about the same time and she gathered our security documents for us since lines at the airport were SO long.  We also were able to walk through security with her and miss those lines as well.  Now that is service!

We were on the earliest flight but we were delayed due to mechanical problems and we kept coming back to the gate each time we pushed away.   We arrived in Oakland just in time to go to breakfast with Shawn, Aubrey and the boys and then head to the stadium for batting practice.  Due to having a night game the day before, they didn’t have a regular betting practice but Gregory and Bryson did hang out by the dug out in hopes of getting some signatures.  It reminded me of many years ago when you boys tried getting signatures.

Aubrey has the boys signed up in a children’s fan club and there are lots of games that the boys can play for prizes at the ballpark.  They left with banners, baseball cards and even plastic batting helmets! 

It is always fun to see the boys cheer the team on.  They are serious fans. The weather was perfect for a ball game and although we started in the two dollar seat section, we moved closer so our whole group could sit together.  Some of Shawn and Aubrey’s friends came to the game as well.  Plus, the A’s won and we even saw a home run.

After the game we went into Oakland to a cool bakery that serves one kind of pizza a day.  The flavor was a pesto recipe which Shawn and Aubrey said was kind of tame for some of the flavors that they have had there. We also went by Grandma Hawkins home (Aubrey’s grandma) since she hadn’t been feeling well.  Our grandchildren are sure lucky to have so many great grandmas in their lives.

Our flight home kept getting delayed and by the time we left from the gate, it was as late as the latest flight out for the day so our arrival home was a bit late for having left at 4:00 that morning.  We later learned that the flash flooding in Las Vegas was the reason for our delay.  I texted Aaron and he said that there was even debris floating in the roads over by the Las Vegas airport during the storms.

The day after Oakland, I drove to Albany to pick up Sunhee and Meeja.  We had a fun weekend with them.  They just love to come and play.  Sunhee can’t get enough of our new game, Ticket to Ride.  Maybe it is because she is so good at it!  Plus, she is a little organizer and she takes care of everyone’s scoring before they have had a chance to think about it.  Playing the game Sunday after dinner made us late to return to Albany.  Sunhee and I had played right after church and the game went so fast with two players that we didn’t calculate enough time when we added everyone else playing after dinner.

I had a Hillsboro Chamber meeting on Friday morning so I dropped the girls off at Grandma Maldonado’s and then returned with a prize that I won, a darling bucket filled with candy, pop and popcorn.  It was a perfect prize since Meeja told me she brought the Smurf movie for us to watch with her.  That afternoon we went to Grandma’s bowling alley, the one that we can walk to from her place.  I bowled for the first time in a long time and maybe it wasn’t the best decision as I can really feel it now.  Although, I am getting back to most of my regular routines.  I am happy that I  am now doing a jog-walk interval and each time I go back to the doctor, she expands it.  My goal is to finish the next triathlon in less time.

Since Dad had to get up very early for his Beaverton, Banks and Beyond Century ride, we had a fairly early evening on Friday, mostly just playing games after the girls were done playing on the trampoline.  Meeja woke up very early also so we had some nice quiet time planning out some achievements in her new Faith in God booklet.  She loves to secretly serve and surprise others to make them happy.  She was in charge of our morning service project that included cleaning out the old raspberry vines, chopping them up to go in the recycle bin and sweeping up afterwards so it would look great when Dad came home.  She liked giving Sunhee and I our jobs!  We accomplished a lot more than planned so we found ourselves rushing to be ready for the neighborhood block part at noon.

It was nice that our neighborhood gathering landed on the weekend that the girls were here.  They love playing with the neighbor girls and this time Sunhee made better friends with one of the twins, Nicole Duda. The neighbors are went in on renting a bouncy house so that kept them all entertained for hours.

Speaking of neighbors, the Jorgensen’s have grown out of their home and just this week purchased a home just off of Scholls Ferry in Jaime’s parent’s ward.  It will be so sad to see them go.  I will miss little Carter’s greeting as I drive into the cul-de-sac.  Whenever he is in the front yard, he is all smiles with a huge wave.  I am doubly disappointed about their move since an investor bought their home and there will be renters in that home from now on!

Sunhee wanted to map out and organize a bike ride after the neighborhood party but the girls were enjoying playing with neighbors in our yard after the party too much and the time got too late.  I think that Dad was a bit relieved not to get back on his bike after 100 miles earlier in the day.  This ride took him longer than the Utah Lake one.  But then, he was riding with the neighbor, Mike Faulkner, and Dad slows down and rides with people to make it an event instead of a race.  This was Mike’s first century.

We had also promised Meeja that Saturday night was movie night with the movie that she brought to share.  It was a cute little movie, more than I expected with the title of the Smurfs.  We didn’t get any ping pong games in on Friday or Saturday so I promised Sunhee we would get to that after church.

We can’t have Sunhee and Meeja for a whole weekend without having spaghetti at least once so that was our Sunday meal.  Although, having it at the end of the weekend didn’t allow Sunhee to have the leftovers for breakfast and lunch all weekend.  The girls are good to help with the meal and the clean up after meals.  Meeja read the recipe of Halboji bread on her own and made it herself, another goal in her Faith in God booklet.

Grandma Maldonado came for dinner and games afterwards and then we headed to Albany.  The girls were sleeping at their other grandma’s home on Sunday night.  We stopped at Kyre’s so everyone could see each other.  Adam and Alina showed us their new school clothes since they had gone school shopping that weekend.  I also was able to see the animated Beaver that dances and sings a Justin Bieber song that we sent for Alina’s eighth grade graduation.  It was very, very cute; I had just seen it online from the SendOutCards catalog and knew it was one Beiber thing that Alina did not have yet!  I guess grandma’s can sometimes indulge in their grandchildren crazy obsessions!

Everyone is back to school.  The Brady’s went back a lot earlier than anyone else.  They have a great charter school that Jenna and Rebekah attend.  With Jenna in the first grade, she and Rebekah are on the same schedule so they can walk back and forth from school which is helpful to Heidi.  Today was the first day for most children up here.  We are anxious to see the family again at the end of the month for William’s baby blessing on September 30. Dad wishes we could squeeze some extra time in for a run up to Snowbird for Oktoberfest. Wendi has said that she can be there also.  I imagine that William has changed quite a bit since July!

We will be in Utah again for Grandma Bitter’s birthday weekend, October 12-14.  Since one of my college roommates from the east is going to be there that same weekend, we are going to try and get many of the roommates together for lunch one of the days.  That will be fun.   Our next travels take us to Las Vegas for the bike ride hat Dad and Aaron are doing.  We will see Wicked that same weekend.  I just heard that Phantom is no longer in Las Vegas; I had always hoped to see it on that stage.  Oh well, we really have seen it enough.  Nate is home from Israel so I hope that we get some details and pictures of his trip.

Over General Conference weekend we will be in Clovis.  Dad and Uncle Scott are going to run a triathlon for Aunt Carla, myself and a few of the Tobler’s friends.  The swimming part will be very nice as it will be in their pool and then it will be fun to relax and enjoy the conference weekend.

Speaking of General Conference, DeLys Ostlund had an interesting insight on a scripture in Sunday School.  It is the part right after Nephi has prophecies about the murder of Seezoram.  In fact she had me read the last scriptures in Helaman 9 and then onto Helaman 1.  As I read Helaman 1:10 I thought, “This is weird that it describes everyone walking away from the prophet.”  And it came to pass that there arose a division among the people, insomuch that they divided hither and thither and went their ways, leaving Nephi alone, as he was standing in the midst of them.  DeLys gave it a modern day meaning by describing what happens in her home over general conference weekend how, as the prophets speak to us their inspired messages, we walk in and out of the room as if it is nothing to hear that revelation.  It is true; we need to be paying close attention and not taking advantage of such a great blessing.

Dad and I both worked on Labor Day until late afternoon.  We went on a bike ride during the dinner hour and we could smell everyone’s BBQ.  So, when we got home, Dad ran to the store for some hot dogs so we could have a quick BBQ in his fire bowl on the driveway.  We even roasted marshmallows.  We hope that you had a fun Labor Day weekend. 

Mark your calendars for next year.  As I said, I was too late to get an Oregon coast property for next summer so I went ahead and booked Running Y which is located in Klamath Falls.  It is by Crater Lake so that would be a great day trip or two.  We will have a 3 bedroom Chalet.  The problem is: it is August 28 to September 4.  Dad and I will stay the whole time down there and we suspect that whoever can come, will come as long as is able.  It goes over Labor Day weekend so hopefully that will help some of you.  I still wait-listed us for the month of July at the coast properties.  We will see if something else comes up in the next 6 months that isn't so close to school start for some of you and at the beginning of school for some.

We love you, Mom and Dad

August 19, 2012

August 19, 2012

Dear Children,

            Tonight we had a fun dinner, zucchini lasagna.  The most fun part about it was that it was a recipe from Adrianne from when we stayed at their home, plus I was able to use some of my Self Reliance products.  I love using the tomato powder instead of opening small cans of tomato paste from now on!  We all worked on the dish after church in Pleasant Grove and then I tried to make it from memory when we came home.  This time, I had her recipe and you would all be proud of me.  I opened my lap top in the kitchen and read the recipe from the lap top instead of paper!  Now that is something that I have seen Heidi and Adrianne do but not me; I have never done that!     

 We have had great visits with many of you this summer.  One of my favorite parts is the fun of learning new things as I watch you take care of your homes. It is so rewarding to watch all of you in your daily lives.  Our last visit to Utah was to help Heidi when William was two weeks old. What fun that was even though I arrived in Utah kind of exhausted from a week of cooking at Girls Camp but that is another story.

William is a doll baby.  The girls are so excited to have a baby brother to hold, kiss and cuddle.  He is going to have lots of mommies!  I left for Utah as soon as I could arrange to be there after arriving home from Washington and Dad followed at the end of the week.  This time we slept at Adrianne and Blake’s so we were a little closer to South Jordan since we would be driving back and forth each day.  Heidi and Bill are in their townhome now that the owner of their rental is back from her mission.  The townhome is just not big enough for guests. 

I had fun with the girls and doing some things to make Heidi’s days a bit easier, reminding her to drink lots of water and eat greens like a “cow” so she would have enough milk.  That is supposed to be funny but it is exactly what would go through my mind as I was tired and nursing babies. 

There is lots of do in a home with four children; you forget with time.  I didn’t even run the laundry but tried to help fold it. You wouldn’t believe how many vegetables go into Heidi’s spaghetti sauce!  That is another trick I learned! I followed her instructions one evening for dinner and then came home with Bill’s recipe for pulled pork with coleslaw and dill pickle sandwiches.  I know; that sounds interesting but it was yummy.  I have already tired it and it may end up on the menu for Girls Camp next year if I am the cook again.

We were able to spend one afternoon at Grandma Bitter’s which spread to the evening since it was so relaxing and enjoyable to visit with other relatives that came and went from her home.  Heidi’s girls love to visit Grandma’s home and could be happy spending hours upon hours there.  Dad needed to get to Provo to that day to rent his bike from BYU for the Ulcer Century the next day.

He did the ride faster than any of his other century rides saying that the trail had fewer hills than any Oregon ride.  Adrianne, Blake and I met up with him after the ride at Thanksgiving Point and just sat and talked with he and Uncle Jerry, who also rode in the Ulcer.  Dad is getting pretty good at these long rides.  He rode out to Hagg Lake yesterday and rode around a couple of times and needed up with an 80 mile ride for the morning.

On Sunday, Dave and Karla invited all of our family to their home for a barbecue.  It was very nice to be in their home. On Monday Heidi was able to take Rebecca school shopping while we stayed with Jenna, Ainsley and William.  We were too carefree about our return to the airport and almost missed our flight.  I don’t like cutting it that close.  I think there was only one seat left after us so that could have meant bad news for us arriving so late at the airport!

After we came home from Utah, Kyre, Alina, Amanda (Alina’s friend), Adam and Klaire cane to visit.  It was hot so the sprinkler was under the trampoline and we played a lot outside plus lots of game playing inside.  Alina was also determined to beat me at ping pong again but, she did not succeed this time!  She will needs to come back!  Conestoga was having their Big Truck day so Dad took Adam, Klaire and Kyre while Alina, Amanda and I went to the Cedar Mill Farmers Market to take a booth for one of my business organizations.  I was able to catch up with some of the weeds a little in my garden while watching the children play in the back yard.  We went ice skating and we also had a fire to roast marshmallows while they were here.

Before our trip to Utah, I had my big assignment to cook for Girls Camp at Camp Ensign up in Washington about 3 hours away, a new place to our stake.  I had a good crew of ladies and Adrianne gave up her week vacation at Shelf Reliant to help in the kitchen.  She came up the weekend before so we could pick berries and make jam.

Adrianne was an incredible help and I even came home knowing how to use the different blades of my Bosch!  She was good to think outside of the box for making the kitchen more efficient.  The camp photo was taken after she made cream cheese frosting with the Big Bertha mixer for two days of cinnamon rolls!

We went through a ton of food and so many sweets and desserts.  If I am in charge again next year I think I would like to cut down on the desserts.  We went through 900 fresh baked cookies alone!  When we served chicken Caesar salad for lunch, we cooked all of our 240 bread sticks thinking we would have leftovers for later in the week.  Not one bread stick left!

The weather was perfect and the camp was beautiful.  We had a lake so I tried to close the kitchen at least an hour each day so we could go swim.  There is something about swimming in a lake that just creeps me out so I need to practice for Lake Berryessa coming up in October.  I have this odd fear of not knowing what is under me when I swim!  It even makes me shorter of breath.

            It is hard to say we were exhausted Saturday afternoon after we returned home from camp when Dad came home not much after us after having ridden his bike for 100 miles for the Tour de Cure!  He rode it this time in six hours.  Last year was the year everyone remarked about his old bike so this year he was able to break his personal records with his new ride!

            Scott enjoyed a visit with Adrianne while she was here.  He loves any amount of visits with family.  And of course, he always loves it if you can drop him a note.  He likes hearing about what everyone is doing and he gets the Dad and Mom interpreted version if you don’t tell him directly!  He is continuing his running and now started playing with a volleyball team.

This week we welcome back Sunhee and Meeja and look forward to rematches of games that we play like the new one, Ticket to Ride.  Sunhee loves that one! Dad has another ride this Saturday to Stewart Stubbs Park and it is the neighbor party.  Then, Bryce Whisenant’s wedding reception is this Saturday.

It has been a fairly busy summer with SendOutCards.  I have done several outdoor events were I gather leads but my favorite part of the business is still sitting with one person at a time and showing them how to send a card.  It is always fun to watch their face as they realize the many features the service offers.

The concrete business has thankfully been very busy.  I keep hoping he can find stronger and better workers so the work can get done faster.  We are trying right now to figure out if we can squeeze in a day visit this week with Shawn and Aubrey and boys.  The plan would be to head down for an afternoon Oakland A’s game but Dad is worried about being gone right now for a day mid week.  There is another game we had planned to see at the beginning of September but we forgot the boys would be in school by then! Morty and Aaron were there this past weekend for a University of Oregon game. 

We will be in Utah two more times this fall.  William is being blessed on September 30 and Grandma Bitter’s birthday (and BYU vs. Oregon State) is on October 13.  On September 20 to the 23/24 we will be in Las Vegas to see Wicked and for Aaron and Dad to ride in a century there that is really 120 miles.

I love being in our ward on Sunday when DeLys Ostlund teaches Sunday School.  She had some great perspectives on Helaman and his warriors and the letters at the end of the book of Alma.  I walked out with a new resolve to be strong and stay true!

I completely forgot to mention our vacation at Aunt Carla's Boot Camp in Clovis.  We had a blast.  I look at it as total vacation: no schedules just relaxing and yet we had bike rides, swimming laps and walking around the lake in each day.  I was trying out Carla's older bike for Lake Berryessa.  They have a beautiful place just to relax and Aunt Denise joined us for a couple of days also.  On Sunday afternoon, we got a call from Katie asking what we were doing.  She also flew down and joined us saying that she didn’t have anything to cook for dinner that night!!! Relaxing by the pool; it was heavenly! We were there until July 4th afternoon so we got to see fireworks each evening up until the 4th since they have a waterpark right by their community.  We were also there the day Scott rode the Kaiser ride that is an excruciating long bike ride.  And then he did shorter ones with us ladies and then longer ones with Dad and friends the rest of the week!  Dad was in 7^th heaven to have such a great rider ride with him.  Besides the exercise, the social part of riding is fun to Dad.

            I blew it on trying to get a WorldMark Oregon Coast property for next summer.  I can put us on the wait list for several options.  The Black’s just came back from Running Y in Klamath Falls, Oregon.  Would anyone be interested in traveling there and making day trips to Crater Lake?  It is beautiful down there but 5 hours from here and not by a convenient airport. 

See you all soon.  I love you, Mom