Dear Family,
We are enjoying
a beautiful weekend here. The sun has
popped out a couple of times this spring, giving us HOPE for better weather to
come. Truly, I hear about Aubrey and
Adrianne planting their gardens, even having some blossoms on their plantings,
and the thought has NEVER crossed my mind.
Well, I can’t say never, because I have glanced at our garden area
longingly. Dad says that we have three
artichoke buds starting. Growing an
artichoke was Adriane’s idea last year and I just tried it. Since nothing happened with that plant I
thought I had done it wrong but maybe, it takes a year before you get the fruit. We will see!
Working in the garden is very therapeutic. I think it is because creating is such an
important part of our being.
Some quick news
items about Adrianne and Blake: Blake
broke his hand playing basketball at the church with friends. He has received second opinions on what to do
to make it heal correctly and is scheduled for surgery this Tuesday. Because of the bones that were injured, he
needs to have pins put in for six weeks and then they are removed; ouch! He could use some cheerful calls or notes. He is doing his programming work one handed.
On happier news
for the Severson family: Their ducks are laying! They go out in the little home they built for
ducks and retrieve an egg each morning from their layers. One of the ducks seemed concerned at first
that her eggs were leaving the nest so Adrianne put a plastic Easter egg in
there and the duck seemed content. That
kind of makes my Mother heart sad to think of the whole egg laying and “mother
ducks wondering where their eggs are going” process; I had never really given
that a second thought when eating an egg!
They had to sell two of their nosiest ducks to make a neighbor
happy. Gumbo and Taco Bill, their latest
two ducks that they purchased, are due for slaughter and barbecue. They are planning on doing that on Mother’s
Day, May 13 this year. That is nice of
them to wait to do the barbeque when we are able to be there. Oddly, eating a
pet duck just doesn’t have the same sadness that the whole “eggs being taken
from mothers” carries!
On Mother’s Day
weekend, we are in Utah
for Rebekah’s baptism. They have changed
her baptismal date to Saturday, May 12 at 2:00.
If you have the May 5th date on your calendar, be sure to
change that. We will be in Utah from Saturday
morning until Monday evening that weekend.
We look forward to being there for the baptism and, as you can imagine,
Rebekah is of course, excited to be baptized!!!
We spent a
fun-filled weekend with Shawn and Aubrey and the boys. We went last weekend while Aubrey had a large
assignment with the annual auction for Gregory’s preschool. We played with the boys so Aubrey could get
things done and helped her with some of the decorating. We had fun with batting practice, played
kickball, played UNO and a funny chicken-egg game and enjoyed a hike in the
hills with everyone. The boys were
excited for the hike that ends at a pond.
They went hunting for newts and frogs.
The warm air on the hike in the hills made the surrounding eucalyptus
trees fragrance more vibrant. The smell
of eucalyptus is a great childhood memory from the canyon by our Patricia Court
home.
We took Flat
Stanley with us so he went bike riding with Gregory. Gregory said that Flat Stanley must be
saying, “Wow, this is like a roller coaster ride!” so we put that thought
bubble on the postcard with the photo of Flat Stanley using our SendOutCards account. After I loaded the
photos, Gregory and Bryson wanted to see them on my computer. Flat Stanley
had gone to work with Dad last week and “helped” do some jack hammer work. When we sent that post card to Adam’s school
I wondered what 12 year olds would even recognized what a jack hammer was. Well, on my computer screen there was a tiny
thumbprint of Flat Stanley on the jack hammer and Gregory immediately saw that
and asked, “Is that Flat Stanley on a jack hammer?” My jaw must have dropped to the floor as I
was amazed a five year old even knew what one looked like!
We extended our
trip to stay all of Monday instead of going home in the morning s that we could
see Gregory and Bryson swim. We went to
the YMCA by their place. It has a great pool
and inviting hot tub! The most fun part
of swimming to me was watching Shawn and Aubrey play in the water. They know how to work hard and play
hard. It is a joy to see our married
children laughing together amid the sometimes overwhelming responsibilities
that they have. I hated to go home. We cut it close getting to our flight since
we waited until the last minute to leave.
We were very lucky that our luggage made it. When you are standby, there is no luggage
guarantee nor luggage delivery.
That same night
Morty was sitting in court side seats with Jeremy Luman at a Blazer versus Suns game
in Phoenix. He was on the TV for a bit. Seems like Morty has that knack! Hey, Dad and I might be on TV. I forgot to tell you last newsletter that we
got tickets to the Wheel of Fortune Portland taping. The shows that we watched will be aired next
Thursday and Friday, May 3rd and 4th. They scanned the audience a few times. We may show up on the Friday showing since
they moved us in between shows. It was
pretty fun and we have Wheel of Fortune light up button souvenirs to prove we
were there! I hope the world doesn’t
judge Oregon
by one of the VERY inadequate contestants.
I don’t remember which night he was on but it will be obvious. I mainly was interested in the ticket lottery
when my chiropractor said she had been chosen to try out to be a
contestant. That would have been so much
fun to see her on it. They said she
wasn’t loud enough.
I ran into Sonja
Morton the other evening. She said that
she was Heidi and Scott’s teacher at Cooper
Mountain School. I told her that I wouldn’t know her from that
long ago and as I looked closely at her, I realized that she was Shane Morton’s
mom. She said that he lives in the area
and is working for some non-profit in Portland
after his mortgage business quit doing so well!!!
Relief Society
was interesting this week especially since it was a general conference talk, A Time to Prepare, by Elder Ardern who is Jessica Chandler’s father-in-law form New Zealand! He suggested that we be as quick to kneel as
we are quick to text saying, “ I know our greatest happiness comes as we tune
in to the Lord (see Alma 37:37)
and to those things which bring a lasting reward, rather than mindlessly tuning
in to countless hours of status updates, Internet farming, and catapulting
angry birds at concrete walls. I urge each of us to take those things which rob
us of precious time and determine to be their master, rather than allowing them
through their addictive nature to be the master of us.” He also said that there is no substitute for
real friends who can give us hugs and look after our best interest as opposed
to cyber friends.
Speaking of real
friends and real hugs, an article in the April Ensign, Taking Time to Talk and Listen, brought me to tears as I realized the real expression of feelings that
our family neglected to develop in younger years. Oh, how I wish I could turn back the clock on
some things! As the article spoke of
personal communication and stated, “The adversary would love to bind our
tongues-anything to prevent us from expressing verbally the feelings of our
hearts face to face. He delights in
distance and distraction; he delights in noise; he delights in impersonal communication-anything
that would prevent us from the warmth of a voice and the personal feelings that
come from conversing eye to eye.” Oh how
I wish we all could communicate our feelings better!
We got to sit
outside in the sunshine for part of our visit with Scott on his birthday
Saturday afternoon. Plus, his old cellmate brought him over a chocolate milk
and pastry from the vending machines in the visitors’ room which was very kind. Scott said that his block had promised him a
burrito birthday party afterwards. They
have figured out a way to create a slow cook oven effect by filing a lined
garbage can with hottest water and submerging plastic wrapped foods in the
heat. The ingredients to the burritos
sounded rather unappealing but, you know Scott, he loves trying unusual foods;
but really, ramen in a burrito???
I hope that you
are experiencing some warmer days and fresh smells of spring as we have the
past couple of days.
I love you, Mom
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