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
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