November 10, 2014

Dear Children,

April 17^th, that is when I last wrote a family newsletter! Or, at least that is the last record I have of writing and saving a family update. I knew it had been awhile but didn't realize it had been that long. I will try and catch you up. This is going to either be VERY long or very vague!

 

May is a blur. We started with a visit from Adrianne. While here, we had a baby shower. Deciding to play one game, Adrianne came up with a clever one. We melted different candy bars (chocolate with nuts variety mostly) and put them in disposable diapers. The game was to guess the candy bar by smelling and even tasting with toothpicks. The game got quite a reaction! The following weekend there was a family baby shower in Utah which was perfect timing for me since I was there for the rest of the month of May!

One of my college roommates got married for the first time and held an open house in Utah at the beginning of May and then Dad and I had SendOutCards convention at the end of May so, without the benefit of flight privileges and the fact that I can do my business anywhere, I decided to make it an extended trip. Staying that amount of time allowed me to help Adrianne with some of her pre-Bennett projects which was fun. Why is it so much more fun tackling projects at someone else's home when I have the same needs at out home? I tackled lots of weeding and yard projects with their plan to simplify their large yard. Heidi had given her tons of William's clothes so we also organized them by size. With that and the many gifts that she received, Bennett will be a well dressed boy!

I was there for Mother’s Day so Heidi went all out for Mother’s Day dinner having her special day to relax the next week! Shawn’s family , Morty and Katie were all there as well and of course Blake and Adrianne.

I was able to stay a few days with Grandma Bitter and Natalie's family. Natalie has done so much with Grandma's garden that the only project left was weeding the rose garden. I think I still have scars from previous years of fighting those rose bushes but it was rewarding to find something I could do to help Grandma and Natalie.

Thanks to Nate's extra flight points that were about to expire and Katie's connections to make them work for me, I was able to fly for a short visit to Las Vegas during my Utah stay. I stayed with Aaron and Morty but spent a day with Katie to see her work and new place, help her with some moving in and catch up with Nate as well. I must admit that when we drove up to Aaron's home, I was impressed and RELIEVED that he re-landscaped his yard. It looked beautiful and it meant that I wouldn't be doing any weeding or trimming! My hands were already numb from overdoing the gardening in Utah, even though I do love doing it.

Dad drove to join me in Utah for the SendOutCards convention. It was a ton of fun and I loved the new day they added where we were able to have an interactive area to see the new announcements. I am learning the sharing platform called Sendcere where I can find cards that other creative people share and use them myself. The best part is that my customers, from all different industries, can also do that now so they don't have to be creative themselves. This is one more piece towards the newest announcement of our Global API plug in where any CRM will be able to send cards from SendOutCards without moving contacts. The implications are AMAZING so that they can not only track client contacts but now send a card right from the business's own system!!! I hope that you will all help us as you all know businesses who need to do better at relationship marketing (with the emphasis on relationships)! And . . . now I am also able to send cards from my phone!!! We keep getting better and better!

After our drive home, my main focus was ordering and buying the food for Girls Camp and creating my daily spreadsheet for our six volunteers. We were at a new camp so we had to get used to the kitchen. It was a good year; I had a great crew and the food turned out well. I also stayed the entire week to the surprise of all who knew Adrianne was due two days before camp was starting! 

Bennett Paul waited until Wednesday, June 25 to arrive weighing in at 9 pounds 5 ounces and 20.5 inches, the exact weight and length of Adrianne. Because he had to finally be delivered by Caesarian Section, she was in the hospital longer so I arrived the night before she came home from the hospital. Adrianne is a great little mom. It was fun to be of any help to her that I could and holding Bennett any chance I could.

Since Bennett came a lot later than we expected extending my stay close to the Fourth of July, Dad traded a Buddy Pass from Katie's friend, Jake, for a Seahawks jersey and came to Utah for the holiday. Katie and Aaron drove up from Las Vegas to see Bennett and be there f

or the Fourth as well. We were also able to meet up with the Brady family and join in with their July 4^th traditions.

The days sped past in between our Baby Bennett visit and then our July-August road trip. We were gone almost three weeks. Boy, I wish we could retire! We started with Shawn's family for his birthday. Dad joined Shawn and the boys at the race track in Sonoma. This year they looked crazy wearing swim goggles so they could get close to the exhaust and not have burning eyes and nose! After race day, Shawn and Aubrey left for their trip to Texas so we watched the boys for a couple of days and then left for Tahoe. I would love to have a family reunion in Tahoe; it is so beautiful there. We enjoyed floating in the lake, going on a boat tour and walking in town. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would love to have some family with us next time. 

After Tahoe we drove to the Brady's to be there in time for Heidi and Bill to go to a work retreat. We enjoyed playing at their community pool. On that same weekend, Dad rode the Hotter than Heck Century around Utah Lake with Uncle Jerry. The children and I met him at the finish line and Bennett and Adrianne came out as well to ring their cow bell! We stayed in Daybreak a couple more days after Heidi and Bill returned. On Sunday evening we had dinner and campfire at Bill's Big Man Camp in the American Fork Canyon. We went down to spend a few more days in Eagle Mountain with the Seversons. Grandma Maldonado and Morty came into town at that same time, we attended Dad's 50^th high school reunion in Orem and then drove home to Oregon to go back to work!

Since walking in Salt Lake City one day with sandals instead of sturdy shoes for the amount of walking and stair climbing that we ended up doing, I have not been able to get back to my exercising and regular pace with my right foot. After x-rays and other medical guesses, my last treatment was wearing a boot for six weeks. Didn't work. I am starting physical therapy this week and some chiropractic visits for the other problems caused by wearing the boot for six weeks! I have got to be able to step without pain again.

We had a fun visit in Sweet Home and then in Albany to visit the grandchildren. We look forward to their Thanksgiving visit and then Meeja and Sunhee's pre-Christmas visit in early December when they will help us create and deliver neighbor and friend gifts. Or, maybe we will wait and do that when Adrianne and Bennett arrive. At least Meeja and Sunhee will be able to see Bennett for a few minutes; we will pick them up from the airport before taking them home Sunday night.

We returned to Utah for Bennett's blessing the second week of September. It was a fast but great family weekend. We are getting used to driving again. Well, Dad still does most of the driving!

We have had some great visits with Scott. He has some huge goals to meet for his exercising mileage with quite a bit left to go before the new year. He enjoys his work in the Branch there and is staying healthy.

Finally, Dad's work has become busy probably since we had a beautiful fall. We hope to save enough in just these last weeks of work to get us through the winter! The hurricane in Cabo changed our plans to spend a week in Mexico but we had used expiring Worldmark points so we had to rebook something. I think it was a relief for Dad since he had just become busy with work. Grandma, Aunt Carla and I spent a few days in Indio enjoying the warmth and the lazy river there. It was a very relaxing vacation!

 

I am in full steam ahead for the holidays right now and have already had fun with two Holiday Card Workshops where my attendees just laugh at my enthusiasm and excitement for SendOutCards. I am thrilled to say that I already had my Christmas card done in October!!! 

I skimmed through describing our last few months so I could start fresh during these holidays. I am sorry if I missed telling something special about having fun with any of you. We have a lot of changes happening in our family. I hope that you are enjoying a beautiful fall season and are looking forward to the wonderful holidays ahead!

We love you, Mom and Dad

April 17, 2014

April 27. 2014

Dear Family,

I have no proof of this with photos but we received a surprise visit from Katie this week. It was so fun to see her and to be surprised. We got a call about 1:00 in the morning with a warning that we would hear her coming through the door. Good thing, since we had NO idea we would be getting a visitor!

It was fun to have the Katie spark in our home even for a short time. She even humored us with some fairly good answers as we quizzed her about what her work was like. She likes the creativity and variety of her job and seems busy. It is not all about glamorous, one of a kind sports trip as I had originally thought, just any travel surrounding sporting events.

We have had a few glimpses of the sun and so some people are thinking about doing concrete. Dad has done quite a few bids and started a couple of jobs. Whew! We need more interest in concrete to get on track again; he has spent tons of time doing bids. Thanks to Dad, we had our own tulip festival along the driveway. It was gorgeous while it lasted. I wish they would have lasted for more than just a few weeks. It has been so cool to have fresh tulips on the dining room table. I doubt they will last until our baby shower for Adrianne the first weekend of May when she visits. There were few tulips this week for Heidi’s visit for Scott's birthday week.

Scott looks forward to Heidi's visit during his birthday week as always. She got to go to two club dinners that happens every year at that time; real food from the outside for Scott. He was thrilled with his early birthday present from us, a photo book of his family during the last year. He studied it carefully and especially liked the photos that were blown up on each page. He cherishes any news about his family. One of the dinners that Heidi attended with Scott was the awards night for the athletes. Scott won Runner of the Year. It only makes sense; he is driven! There was an article about running at OSP in the Run Oregon Blog: runoregonblog.com

We had a quiet general conference weekend. The messages were uplifting and encouraging with great variety from: Elder Scott's message about the power and influence of a grandmother's testimony and love to President Uchtdorf's incredible message about gratitude. I am making an effort to be more grateful in my life and have found it is a better way to live than the way I used to be. His message to be grateful included gratitude for our difficult circumstances knowing the bright future that the Savior has provided for us. I loved his statement, “How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God there is rain?” I do appreciate hearing our prophets speak about hope and goodness for our world. It gives me a sense of peace after listening to general conference.

I liked the messages about sharing the good news of the gospel and the reminder in Elder Ballard's talk to make it clear that we are part of Christ's church by using our real name. He gave us a challenge to replace our fear with faith and invite one person a quarter to be taught by the missionaries. Each time we have the Sister missionaries over we get another personal challenge! I liked Sister Steven’s talk about God reaching out to us since his purpose is to bring us back to Him. That is really an incredible thought when you think about it: we have God in our corner! J  She said, “The gospel is not weight but wings to carry us.”  That message led well into Elder Bednar's analogy of the man whose four wheel drive was stuck in the snow so he decided, while he waited to be pulled out, he would cut the load of wood he planned to get. After loading the back of his truck, he realized that the weight of the wood gave him the traction needed to get back to his family. He said that happiness is not the absence of a load BUT reminded us not to haul around heavy and distracting things. Perseverance, faith, reaching out for God in our need, hope and prayer were themes through the conference. Heidi was able to take Rebekah to the conference center and enjoyed a nice mother-daughter day afterwards.

I enjoyed a very fun message on my phone from Gregory who excitedly told me that his homework assignment had a drawing of a lady name Lori who looked just like me and happened to also like to snorkel. He went on to tell me that he lost another tooth, bought Bazooka Bubble Gun with his Tooth Fairy money (adding that it was “Shawn’s” favorite gum) and was going to go on a submarine with his Cub Scout group and share his gum! I haven’t removed the message from my phone since it is so uplifting to listen over and over again. They also sent their holiday card which was an Opening Day to the Baseball Season card full of fun photos from their year. How about that; what fun! I took it to several business meetings I had that week to show that there is ALWAYS a day to celebrate so it is never too late to send a holiday card.

Alina had an unfortunate accident on the field so she had to sit the bench on the Varsity Softball Team so her knee could heal. She received clearance from the doctor to play this week so we should have seen her play in Woodburn but the constant rains this week cancelled our opportunity.

We did get to see Sunhee play volleyball at the Oregon Convention center. Wow; there were so many temporary courts filling the room! Sunhee IS the best volleyball player; no prejudice here! She is so fun to watch as she is focused and a natural athlete. Plus, she gives us hugs when we can get to her games! Heidi hit the jackpot this week getting to visit Scott several times, spending the night at Kyre’s so she could visit with Alina, Adam and Klaire, going to Georgia’s so she could have some playtime with Meeja and then ending her trip at Sunhee’s volleyball tournament before returning to the airport.

In between all of this, we had a quiet Easter weekend. Grandma came for dinner; we opted not to have ham since there were only three of us but had steak instead. We had a great church day. It was fun to see Andrew and Brittany Westhora’s twins at church. That same week Ryan Zhao had been baptized. As he stood at church and I looked at their family, I remembered when Bao told me after her third baby was born, their only girl, that if they had stayed in China, she would not have had the opportunity to have her little girl!

As a speaker described a vivid description of the area surrounding the empty tomb, I saw it clearly in my mind having had the privilege of being there before. I enjoyed the video that came out Easter weekend also, Because of Him.

Katie, Nate and Laura were together on Easter; that always warms a mother’s heart when her children get together away from home!

      Today, I opened an early Mother’s Day present from the Brady family. Heidi brought it with her this week and then, we realized that I will be in Utah for Mother’s Day. So I knew I had to open it early and I could use the pink bag today for a gift to a young ward mother with some bread soooo I justified opening it THIS early. But, it was a pretty appropriate day to celebrate an early Mother’s Day since it was Aaron’s birthday! Happy Birthday Aaron today! :)

Lot of love, Mom

March 30, 2014

March 30, 2014

Dear Children,

We have had a great weekend and even several good weeks. Today Railee Whitaker reported on her mission to the Salvador South Mission. It capped off two great days of great instruction from our meetings. It is always wonderful to hear from the returned missionaries but Railee had an especially simple message that compared the success principles of a mission to the same ones in life. The special musical number was especially beautiful since we have two darling sister missionaries who both obviously can really sing well!

Last night I had a gathering of friends over to watch the Women’s Broadcast instead of going to the church to watch it. It was fabulous meeting about covenants and again, the music was incredible. One of my favorite parts was when the Sister Wixom had the primary-aged girls stand up and start singing the song, Teach Me to Walk in the Light. We ate a potluck dinner while we watched the broadcast and then played games afterwards. Enough of the ladies went home so we could play Ticket to Ride; that is always fun! Jo Black brought her Expansion Pack over and I sure like playing with those larger cards.

This week was Spring Break in Oregon. It was kind of a bonus week for us to get things done here since we had planned to be in Utah. We decided shortly before, not to travel since Dad had his first job since Thanksgiving! But, not surprisingly, it rained much of the week so he

wasn't able to finish. It is quite a difference to travel around town during Spring Break with less traffic. I was able to work on some big projects that I had been procrastinating like our taxes and also a brochure I had to revamp for a business association for which I am their Membership Chairperson. Plus, Dad and I both worked on cleaning the house for my guests on Saturday evening. Dad did a thorough job of vacuuming since he used the shop-vac downstairs. I LOVE hearing someone else running a vacuum in my house. I was living my dream last year when I had someone coming once a month to clean until the concrete jobs stopped. It was hard to get back into the swing of cleaning again so it was wonderful having Dad help this weekend. He is all in favor of having the ladies over again after eating the leftovers from the evening today and I am all in favor if he will help me clean!!!

Even though it was raining this past week, we were able to catch a softball game of Alina's on the east side of town. She was in a two day tournament now that she is on the Varsity softball team. She is one of the young girls but certainly on the same level of the other players. She is at second base and made lots of the game plays. Because they were playing on an artificial playing field, the game kept going through much of the rain except for the big storms. We were pretty wet by the end but it was a ton of fun to see Alina play. She's the best!

March has lots of family birthdays. Dad's birthday weekend was just as he would want it. We went on a short bike ride and then he took off to ride his age by riding out to Hagg Lake. By the time he returned he had gone 75 miles in total; no, he is not that old! His request for a birthday cake was mint brownies. Now, if we lived close to BYU, I would have just purchased them but I got Carol Stanger's recipe. They weren't as pretty but VERY yummy. Thank goodness we took a meal to one of the young moms in the ward who had surgery that weekend so I could get rid of some of them!

We have had a few sun breaks, albeit short lived, so Dad has been working on lots of bids. We hope we get a percentage of those. We are happy for even the ones that say they are waiting until next year! I have been busy with SendOutCards, working on another monthly goal; I am energized by short term monthly goals. Two weeks ago I had my big event of the year, the Portland Women's EXPO. Next year I hope that I have enough team members that want to do it so I can spend my time talking with the other vendors; it is a very busy show. They are the ones who need my service even more to stay in touch with their leads in a more meaningful ways and stand out above their competition.

I cannot believe that April is around the corner. Yikes . . even more family birthdays!!! Have a great week ahead. I love you, Mom

March 7, 2014

March 7, 2014

Dear Children,

    There is so much to say about since the last time I wrote just before leaving for the cruise; all I can start with is, "Wow!" We thoroughly enjoyed our Panama Canal Cruise and what made is even more sweet was having so many family members along. I took reading

materials and lots of things to plan and do but never got around to them! There was never a dull moment: always someone to eat with, talk with, eat with, play games with, eat with, swim with and did I say eat with? Yes, a cruise is a buffet on the water but I also decided that is an Aspen Grove on the water. We love Aspen Grove and I especially loved the fact that I would play, relax and eat with my family but never step foot in a kitchen. Aubrey and I both commented how nice it was to walk away from a table full of dirty dishes and just dash off to the next entertainment! Frankly, I was exhausted at the end of each day from just playing! If it would have been a normal family gathering, I would have been completely exhausted with the pre-planning, keeping up with meals, and clean up. A cruise is the way to go!

It was a very memorable trip.  About a week into the trip I was thinking two weeks was going to be too long but at the end, I was sorry we were headed to Los Angeles to disembark. A Panama Cruise has been on my wish list for a long time so with much gratitude, I am glad that Grandma Maldonado planned this before the new canal would be in use in the next year or so. It was much more meaningful going through the canal that Grandpa Maldonado’s father, Jose Antonio, worked on. Without the Panama Canal, I am not sure the Maldonado family would have traveled as indentured servants to the United States.

Luckily, we all met in the boarding room at the Miami dock to we boarded together. Actually, what made that possible was a three hour delayed boarding time due to the gastro-intestinal illness that was on the ship before us. They had to do a more thorough cleaning and there were extra precautions throughout our trip. Aaron was fairly certain that he got food poisoning one night but they categorized every illness as the highly contagious one that was affecting other cruises so they quarantined him 24 hours to his room which was sad since he felt good but had to stay there and eat room service bland food.

Aaron was our entertainment specialist; he would look at the day’s schedule and suggest fun events for us to join. He knew most the crew by the end of the trip. Actually, our family was fairly noticeable since there were twelve of us and only one over the age of 70.  I believe the average age on the cruise was 70 year old.  Gregory and Bryson would go to the Children Activity Center and I think that there were only about eight other children aboard!

On board, we went to many shows, bingo, and goofy competitions.  We spent lots of time in the salt-water pools, hot tubs and slides.  We got plenty of sun on land and on the ship.  It was comfortably warm every day, except the last day heading into California.  Every day was a high temp of 82 to 95 . . . awesome!  Aboard the ship we usually had a table reserved to play card games when we didn’t want to be in the sun. There was

even a large table at a casual dining area overlooking musical entertainment where we played games while waiters brought us snacks and drinks; what a life! It was fun that we gathered together so often.

Morty was our gatherer, especially for the dining room options. He would look at the menu early in the day and figure out a time to eat our dinner, making the necessary arrangements or even going early to put our name onto the waitlist since we were such a large group. We ate both casually and formally; we found our favorite spots. But, the most fun was discovering things like soft serve ice cream and also crepe time while we played games.

The on-board seminars from Dr. Lund were excellent.  He is an authority on Book of Mormon lands and family relations.  We didn’t always attend due to fun family fun events at the same time.  Gregory and Bryson went to their Activity Center each day if only for a short time in the evening on our shore days. They always had fun crafts and activities for them. They probably went down the ship slides… maybe 500 plus times during the trip . . . endless energy.

On our first days at sea, we saw Cuba from a distance and landed in Columbia.  We did a little shopping, toured historical forts and sites, and played on the beach.  Dad braced the wave jumping as it was a rough at times, but fun in a warm ocean.  The beach there was crowded with locals.

The trek through the Panama Canal was a full day adventure and truly amazing.   From early morning we traveled through several locks, across the inland lake and then the other set of locks before sundown. It was amazing to witness the engineering that had been built in the late 1890’s to 1914.  No wonder so many people died during the construction; it is massive. It was interesting to have a Panama Canal guide on board telling the history while traveling through the locks. Our ship was pulled through the locks by two locomotives on tracks on the sides of our ship. There was only 36 inches of clearance! Towards the end of our trip through the canal, Katie and Aubrey knew some friends and family members were on the website of the Panama Canal webcam so they went and danced on the deck by one of the cameras. In one of Adrianne’s screen shots from her computer, it looks like she captured them! The most beautiful site at the end of the Canal was the LDS temple surrounded by lush greenery of Panama City.

Our next stop, Costa Rica, was beautiful and warm.  The entire family toured together on this day. We had great bargaining power with our size to get a good price from street vendors.  We made sugar cane juice, saw lots of fruit and went to a park where locals were picnicking on the beach. We fed monkeys that were hanging from trees.  They would come down to grab a piece of fruit when offered.  They were small black monkeys with white-topped heads and cute faces.

In Mexico, Puerto Chiapas was worth the entire trip.  Some of us went on Dr. Lund’s

trip to Tree of Life and Stella 5 Izapa stone site.   We were in the Land of Zarahemla, according to Dr. Lund and the research on the stones carvings would point to that possibility.  The Tree of Life, a real tree, was magnificent and surrounded by carved stones.  The Tree of Life stone was there and we could see some of detail as it has weathered.  The place is where Lehi, probably, gave his final blessing to his family.  It felt so good to be there.  Close by we saw a demo of how chocolate is made from cocoa beans; that was fun.  All the while we were just miles from the Guatemala border. It was this stop that Nate taxied to an airport for his flight home since he could not stay the entire trip.

Huatulco, wa-TOOL-co, was a perfect place; probably my favorite port.  It combined charm, sun, beach and the BEST snorkeling!  We took a cheap TAXI to a nearby beach, La

Entrega, where we swam and snorkeled.  I also loved that we were able to “rent” a table and umbrella all day for the price of having a drink and chips with guacamole! We found the “Bat Cave” where Aaron, the brave one, was first to swim into, through a narrow water passage.  We gathered our courage and followed him in after he didn’t die! J  Bats reside there during the rainy season.   The plentiful fish were described by Aaron as “walls of fish”.  Many of the interesting ship entertainers sat next to us at that beach.  Most of the family stayed at the beach that was right off the dock so we met up with them at the end. As we left port, we saw dolphins swimming along side of cruise ship; it was fascinating.

Puerto Vallarta was beautiful as well. We traveled to a jungle site with Shawn’s family on this day while Aaron and Morty accompanied Grandma on the Lund tour to another jungle site and hoped to see the beach that they traveled to as children with Joe but the tide was very high her so not much beach was in sight.

With our local driver we stopped at a Chicklet Tree and tasted gum, sticky sap.  We stayed most of the day on a property where two rivers join which was carved through solid granite formations.  Aubrey said she wanted to live in a place just like that.  We waded in river and were bitten by no-see-ums . . . we didn’t notice until blood specks appeared on our legs.   We jumped from high rocks into the cold river, led by Shawn, of course.  A local cliff-diver helped us across slippery rocks and polished granite.  Shawn, Aubrey and I slid down a granite chute in the river and plunged over a water-fall.  It was WAY beyond my comfort zone but I felt the moment was right to just do it and I am glad I did.  So, I have done my daring thing of my life.

The local man who was helping us actually starred as a diver in the film, Beverly Hills Chihuahua; the little boys knew the movie.  He did some dives off some very high rocks into a narrow river pool in between rocks.   It was hard to watch since he did one dive blind-folded.  We enjoyed a home-made lunch of chips, tortillas and guacamole . . . as we also did in Huatulco; the chips being the size of small tortillas.

Cabo San Lucas was another treasured stop.  Most of the group got a cheap van service and went to our favorite beach, Chileno.  Grandma didn’t think she could get onto the “tender” boats, since were anchored off-shore.  We were the first ones at the beach, except a group doing a photo-shoot.   The beach, with free Palapas to shade us, was beautiful.  The water was cooler than previous stops but there were SO many fish to see.   Everyone enjoyed some snorkel-time; I think we have some more snorkel converts in the family.  Shawn and Aaron ventured pretty far out.  Shawn showed us some of the fish they had been observing.  Shawn had even seen an octopus but we couldn’t see it in the rock crevice when we came.  Greg went with us to watch a Black Marlin being skinned and cleaned when we got back to the dock. 

We saw several whales from ship often in pairs as we left this port. The thing about a cruise is that you just get a taste of each port and you want to return. I certainly want to go back to Huatulco.

As soon as we arrived in Los Angeles, we scattered to our various flights. Instead of going home with Dad, I went to Salt Lake to be with the Brady family as Heidi was in Hawaii visiting one of her friends. Her friend, who had moved away from Utah was missing her girlfriends so her husband gave her a Christmas gift of two friends coming to spend a week with her! On Monday, Adrianne came up for a visit after work. She was able to stay for a cute family home evening lesson planned by Jenna. While Rebekah and Jenna were at school, William, Ainsley and I were able to travel down to Orem to visit Grandma on two of the afternoons; one being a very quick trip when Morty flew into town for a day!  I followed Heidi’s spreadsheet fairly well until Morty came into town and got everyone playing wildly. Maybe the homework and music lessons didn’t get completely done that day! I unfortunately didn’t get any photos while in Utah; we were too busy having fun!

I came back to a huge snow storm. I was supposed to travel to Seattle for a SendOutCards meeting but the snow conditions were too unpredictable for our return trip. So, we did what every snow bound person should do. We got in our car and traveled the empty freeway to the airport and flew to Oakland to go to my favorite Mexican restaurant, Los Compadres and then flew home that night. Not without a few hiccups though since the weather was causing problems in lots of places. It was well worth it since it was our last free flight.

Yes, our wings have been clipped. Katie accepted a new job with Fandeavor.com in Las Vegas. She packed her heavy things and drove her car to Las Vegas on the Monday after the cruise and returned to pack her apartment. Luckily, we were able to book our spontaneous Oakland flight through to Las Vegas so she put four large tubs on the plane with us when she dropped us off at the airport. We got off the flight in Oakland, her things went on and Aaron picked them up in Las Vegas. Smooth! This snowy photo is our footprints down our driveway (from the garage) after we were dropped off at the mailbox because the snow was so deep about 1:00 am after our delayed flight and thankfully, slightly delayed MAX trip to Beaverton.

We have been trying to get used to regular life since being home. We relaxed all that time on vacation and then felt like slugs during the snow storm (except I did clean out my cereal and pasta cupboards of old stuff; you will all be so happy to here!).  But our pace has picked up. It looks like there are a couple of jobs lined up for Howard Bitter Concrete and I won another customer gathering contest in February. Last weekend I had to speak at a meeting in Yakima, Washington about the January incentive that I won so I thought I should do it a second month in a row. It went well!

Weather was an issue traveling back from Yakima in the Gorge but luckily I made it back in time to meet dad at Kimberly Motto’s mom’s funeral. We saw people we haven’t seen for so long. It was a short service and a party with desserts and ice cream for everyone afterwards!  But, we just figured out that is where we caught our awful stomach flu bug. We have been so sick since Monday morning.  We rarely get sick and this has been so bad. Every day we think we will wake up and be better and we are shocked how long this is lasting. I tried to do a couple of things too early and was back feeling awful. We have slept so much and still, it has been hard to get back our energy. We of course had to cancel our dinner out for our wedding anniversary on Tuesday evening. Maybe we did our share of celebrating last month!

The Panama trip and the snow storms postponed our chance to celebrate Alina’s birthday so we went down two weekends ago. Since it fell right in between Alina and Klaire’s birthday, we celebrated both of them since we plan to be gone for part of Spring Break. We are trying to get to Utah to see Rebekah and Jenna in the Wizard of Oz and be there to celebrate some March birthdays in Utah. We are probably going to drive unless we can book a flight with points and try and get bumped. Oh how we will miss the SWALife website!!! If that all crumbles, I will be in Utah twice in May and then in June for Adrianne and Blake’s baby! Did you hear that they were flooded a third time? The second time was just after they paid to get their basement fixed from the first flood. Luckily, they hadn’t put in the carpet yet.

Scott will have a new roommate in the next little while. Someone in another cell is leaving and he is ready for a more positive change. His new roommate, Brian Baker, and his wife have a non-profit that sends Bibles to the prison when requested by an inmate. You can send Scott photos via an email service now. That would be fun for him: accesscorrections.com gives you more information.

So that basically catches us up for now. We love you, Mom and Dad

January 12, 2014

Dear Children,

With our lights already up before Thanksgiving, we were fully decorated for Christmas by the end of the Thanksgiving holiday. That always feels good and this year especially needful since it is a shorter time between the two holidays and we would be gone quite a bit before Christmas and in Las Vegas for Christmas. There is something about the Christmas lights being up that makes me thrilled!

Alina and Adam helped with the decoration boxes; many of which we didn't EVEN open. That was such a free feeling! We cut down a very small, almost Charlie Brown-ish looking tree. We went to a place closer to the house but hesitated to walk around too much since we had Kyre with us. She uses a walker for longer walks these days to keep herself steady. We got the home decorated in time to wake up on Sunday morning with presents under the tree for Kyre's family. We had an early Christmas celebration with them including pull-aparts for breakfast. We also celebrated Kyre's birthday three days early since they were here.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we played a LOT of games and with Morty, watched a LOT of football! Besides going to get our tree, we also went to Chuck E Cheese upon Adam and Klaire's request to play games. We planned a pizza night that did not include Chuck E Cheese pizza but instead made some when we got home.

We also created a lot of holiday treats for our neighbor and friend gifts once Sunhee and Meeja arrive to help with that project in two weeks. We had a huge bag of pretzels so we thought of just about every way to mix pretzels and chocolate! The grand children were very creative.

I already filled you in on our holiday travel plans in the last newsletter. We added to it a bit but took out flying to New York. Instead we added a few more doctor visits with Grandma’s fall and two funerals! I am the person in the ward in charge of the family funeral meals; we had two prior to the week that we were planning on flying to New York. It is just as well; Instead of New York, I went to lunch with Jeannena Mitchell and signed up and helped several more SendOutCards customers. New York will have to wait for a couple of months.

We LOVED our trip to Cabo del San Jose. It is the quieter city next to the one with the night life. We had an incredible view of the ocean and traveled via city bus each day. It was a fun and quite inexpensive get-away in the warm sun. Each day we made a breakfast of eggs scrambled with peppers and tomatoes in a fresh corn tortilla that we purchased at the local grocery store. We packed drinks and snacks and boarded the bus to a snorkeling adventure for the afternoon. In the evening we would make dinner with shrimp or chicken and those fresh tortillas again ending our day by soaking in the hot tub at the resort. One night we taxied into town and walked all over the art district, watching a local dance team perform on stage. One of the last days we ventured to Cabo San Lucas and walked the wharf to watch the fishing boats come in. Dad wanted to see a Marlin which he did get that opportunity. We also saw a shark. In Cabo San Lucas we took a boat ride and snorkeled for a very short time by the Land’s End, where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean. We had already walked all over in Cabo so we were returning back to our place in the dark. I want to go back to Cabo San Jose again!

After returning from our Mexico trip, Sunhee and Meeja came to visit for their annual early Christmas weekend with them. This time we were all decorated so they helped with our neighbor and friend gift project as usual. We always have tons of fun with them in the kitchen. I think Meeja was a little disappointed that we weren’t making caramel corn this year as she loves how good she is at using Aubrey’s recipe. They were here for our ward Christmas breakfast so they both got to sit on Santa’s lap.

 Before leaving for Christmas, I had the fun opportunity to help wrap hundreds of gifts for a Foster Families holiday party. I love wrapping gifts and this year, with our travels, most of my gifts had to be given in gift bags. I think I gained my love for wrapping gifts from my Grandma Helen when I used to go to her Colorado home at Thanksgiving while I attended BYU. I would wrap all her gifts while I was there. Come to think of it, I believe that I used to be the main gift wrapper at home also!

 The holiday party was planned by the DHS Child Welfare of Washington County so that the biological parents would be gathered with their children who are in foster care and have Christmas fun together in a fun environment. One of my business associations volunteered to make HUGE snowflakes for their decorations. Our photographer in the group volunteered her time to take photos of the children and their parents with Santa and even our hairdresser offered to cut and style hair for the photos!  It was a hugely successful event

where the department used more volunteers than ever before due to the planning of my friend who is in charge of foster family recruiting and retention. DHS is also a SendOutCards customer so they have quick and easy way to thank families who take care of the many emergency situations that arise!

            We watched flights closely to find the most open holiday flights to Las Vegas. Just before going, we planned a quick gift drop off in Oakland on the way. Aunt Denise met us at the airport, we went to lunch and then she took gifts back to Antioch for herself and for Shawn and Aubrey’s family. We got back on the plane and went to Las Vegas where Katie arrived shortly before us.

            We had a very fun visit in Las Vegas. Aaron arranged a comedy show for us, we played lots of games (Five Crowns being a new favorite) we walked around the Bellagio decorations and gardens and of course, stopped at the fountains (my idea), had big ice cream sundaes in Serendipity (Adrianne’s idea) and Nate took us out to lunch in the heart of the Downtown Project while giving us a tour of all their renovation ideas. We were there a whole week; it was very relaxing. Do you know what time we got up on Christmas morning? Not until 10:00!!! I was so happy to walk in and see the boys had gotten a real tree. It made their home look so comfy. It was actually probably from Oregon! There was one lone ornament, a 49er figure!

            On Monday, Aaron took Morty and Nicole (his Duck game friend) to the airport very early to go to the Oregon Duck bowl game, Adrianne, Dad and I loaded her car to travel back to Eagle Mountain but first we met Aaron for lunch. I guess I forgot to mention that Katie could stay in Las Vegas only a couple of days and Adrianne got off work to drive down the weekend after Christmas while Blake stayed and worked (and was sick after all).

            On the way to Adrianne’s home, we had hoped to stop and see Grandma Bitter but Adrianne had to pick up the cutest puppy for a friend who had to travel away on an emergency just after buying a Christmas Eve puppy and we were running late. So, unfortunately, we were in Utah and didn’t even get to see Grandma! But the Oregon, Oakland, Las Vegas, Eagle Mountain and then South Jordan and back to Oregon holiday trip got us seeing lots of family!

            Heidi and the girls came and picked us up the next morning so we could play for the day at their home and then fly out on New Years Eve but we were having so much fun playing with the girls that they convinced us to stay over and fly home the next day! Twist our arm! So we went with them to a friend’s home for a New Years Eve party. The girls were so excited to be staying up past midnight; even William and Ainsley made it for the fireworks at midnight! Although, the next morning when we walked into the airport and saw the security line, we wondered what we had done to think that we could fly standby on New Year’s Day. Luckily, we looked down and saw that our boarding passes had the Pre-TSA stamp so we sailed right past the line. Thank goodness!

            We were expecting wedding guests (ward friends who had family coming into town for a reception) to stay here at the house on the day we arrived but plans got changed so we just were lazy the day we came home. It felt SO good! Although, I did have to get busy the next morning to make a ton of sugar cookies with an S on them for their last name for that reception.

            Since being home in January we are trying to lose our holiday weight gain; boo hoo, so we can fit into our clothes for warm weather for the Panama Canal cruise. I can’t believe that it is around the corner! I am so excited.  This is like doing my family history work! SMILE! Jose Antonio, my grandfather, didn’t even know about the United States until he left his little village in the mountains of rural Spain to work on the Panama Canal.  While working on the canal, he heard that the United States was paved with streets of gold so upon returning home, he packed up himself and Feliciana, boarded a ship to be indentured servants in the pineapple fields of Hawaii, and then worked extra years to pay for passage to the San Francisco port. We will travel through the original canal on this cruise ship before they start using the new one under construction. Our family’s Panama Canal!

            Everyday has been busy while getting ready to be away for two weeks without much technology. I am working on a work incentive to add ten more customers before the end of January (for me until I leave on January 17) so I can just relax while away having met my goal! Dad has been able to spend more time getting things ready for the trip as there hasn’t been any work since Thanksgiving. We have got to get him retired so he can stop riding this rollercoaster!

            I hope that you all took the chance to watch Scott’s Christmas video. Aaron made it possible for us to share online. We love you and are excited for the coming trip. We wish you all could be with us! Love, Mom and Dad