April 9, 2012

Dear Children,

Happy Belated Easter!

Since the last family newsletter, Dad and I have been to Utah to see Rebekah in her school musical, ­­­The Music Man. Her real performance dates were while Scott and Kyre’s family planned to be here over Spring Break so we traveled to Utah to see her in a dress rehearsal (thank you to Katie’s benefits). It was so fun to see Rebekah on stage enjoying herself; the whole play was quite impressive. The students are all very talented and the set and costumes reminded me of Beaverton High Drama performances. I still find myself, almost a month later, hearing the Music Man songs in my head.

While in Utah we were able to visit with Bill’s family, his twin, Jen and her family had come to see the Brady family. While Dad, Bill and Ammer went to some property to shoot guns, Heidi, Jen and I had most of the children and went to tour the Salt Lake Temple area. We went through the Conference Center, the visitor’s center and the temple grounds.

Dad and I lucked out again to be in town for another Smurthwaite reception; their other daughter got married. Their reception was held fairly close to Heidi’ place so that was convenient on our way down to Grandma Bitter’s home for the night.

We went to church at Adrianne and Blake’s ward so I could go to her nursery class. They have it organized very well and on that day, the children were all delightful. The big advantage to being in Adrianne’s class is great snacks. She brings Thrive snacks so they get a well rounded lunch type snack besides the goldfish crackers provided by the Primary.

Sunday afternoon we had a big birthday celebration at Heidi and Bill’s home. We celebrated many of our March birthdays: Dad, Bill, Jen, Adrianne and Rebekah with a delicious chicken dinner and homemade banana cake. Anytime, they invite Adrianne to dinner, their only request is that she brings the rolls. I have seen her make them twice and she just whips them out like they are nothing. They are SO yummy.

We returned home on Tuesday morning in a bit of a panic as the security line was backed up in Salt Lake like I have never seen before. We had to make our plane since I was having a meeting and presentation for SendOutCards at our home that evening. After waiting about 45 minutes in line and seeing how far we still were away from getting to the gates, Dad asked a security person to let us go in the first class lane and that was the only way that we made it.

We had a simple birthday celebration with dinner and a few cupcakes on Dad’s actual birthday since we knew we would be celebrating it in larger fashion once the grand children got here. Grandma Maldonado came over to help with the celebration.

The next day we picked up Sunhee and Meeja for Spring Break and the party and game playing began!!! They also helped me get ready for the rest of the family to arrive and make Dad’s cherry-chocolaty birthday cake with lots of layers of cherry chip cake, chocolate cream and ganache. They brought their chore charts so we had fun thinking of things they could do for extra points. They even helped us plant primroses in between the games, jumping on the tramp and playing games.

The speed of activity and noise level rose on Monday when Kyre, Alina, Adam and Klaire arrived on the train in Portland. What fun that they take Amtrak up here for their vacation! That was the morning that I recorded a KUIK radio program with some of the leaders of the Hillsboro Chamber. They said that they will be sending me a copy of that recording. We listened on Monday night and it wasn’t too bad! Relief but I am ready to do it again with fewer butterflies in my stomach one of these days when the opportunity comes up again.

Our Family Home Evening was run by Meeja and Sunhee. Sunhee prepared a great lesson about the First Vision to pass off a Faith in God goal and they kept everyone on task throughout the week to do scripture reading so we could finish the Book of Mormon while they were still visiting here this time. That same night we celebrated Klaire and Dad’s birthdays.

Lots of games, food and fun filled the rest of our Spring Break. Adam did some scout work with Dad and only part of the family wanted to go to the zoo so Dad took them. A few of us got a 24 hour bug during the week so that slowed some thing down but still, we crammed a lot into the week. Alina left a VERY happy girl that she finally beat me at ping pong. I am going to have to practice!

General Conference weekend was wonderful. I was kind of tired so we didn’t do the whole conference morning breakfast, nor the big dinner that afternoon. One of my favorite phrases came from Jeffrey R. Holland, “It is not possible to travel beyond the reach of God’s love.”

Our Easter weekend was fairly quiet. In this picture you can see that it looks like we colored eggs in that bowl. We didn’t. Those eggs are the Chung’s chicken’s eggs that they brought us this week! We didn’t have any grandchildren here but I still made those cute deviled eggs that look like chicks. Plus, something really fun; Adam sent us a Flat Stanley. Have you heard of the books by Jeff Brown called Flat Stanley? Stanley is flattened by a bulletin board falling on him so he decides to enjoy traveling around the world by mailing himself to his friends. Adam created a Flat Stanley and mailed him to us. We are to take pictures, send postcards or letters with Flat Stanley pictured somewhere, tell a little about the place, send them to his school so they can map out where Adam’s Flat Stanley travels and then mail Flat Stanley to someone else. We weren’t going anywhere exotic so I organized an Easter Egg hunt. It was actually lots of fun to pose Flat Stanley finding eggs all over the yard. Flat Stanley is quite a climber! He even snooped out the egg with the dollar bill in Dad’s pocket! I just loaded the photos into my SendOutCards account and had a blast creating a three panel card of his adventure. If any of you get the Flat Stanley, be sure to take some photos, mail them to Adam’s school and then mail Flat Stanley on to a new adventure.

We look forward to a trip to Martinez this weekend. We had hoped to travel to Oakland for an A’s game but they are not in town this weekend. Instead we get to be in charge of Bryson and Gregory while Shawn and Aubrey are involved with annual fundraiser for the school, the auction. That sounds like more fun to me. We will leave here on Thursday and come back on Monday. Shawn completed the Oakland Marathon this year. We will have to learn more about that as we visit this weekend. We received a copy of an award that was given to Scott recently, Runner of the Year!

I love being in my ward when DeLys Ostlund is teaching Sunday School; she is one of the greatest teachers. We reviewed Jacob this week and the allegory of the Olive Trees. Instead of concentrating on the nouns, we discussed the verbs in those scriptures: prune, dig, even dung. Yes, dung. As she talked about the need to be dumped with dung for our own good, she read these words from Harold W Wood, “I saw a wheat field that appeared to be greener and taller than the others. Thinking about it for a while, I concluded that occasionally some loving farmer drives over the field with his tractor and pumps manure all over it. I thought, ‘My, it’s just like life. Here we are minding our business, growing our little hearts out. We’re really quite green, somewhat productive, and very sincere. When out of the blue, life deals us a dirty one, and we’re up to our eyebrows in manure.’

We, of course, conclude that life as we know it has just ended and will never be the same again. But one day, when the smell and the shock are gone, we find ourselves greener and more productive than we have ever been. Unfortunately, no matter how often we go through these growing experiences, we are never able to appreciate the sound of the tractor or the smell of the manure.” (The Smell of Manure, quote by Harold W. Wood).

I hope that you had a great Easter weekend and another wonderful week lies ahead. I love you, Mom

March 11, 2012

Dear Children,
I had the treat of visiting Long Beach, Washington twice in one week right after we took Sunhee home. Long Beach is about 2 ½ hours away, across the bridge from Astoria. So, it is a bit longer travel time but it is a cute little beach town. The WorldMark there is a newer one and quite nicely situated right on the beach. Did you know that you can drive on the beaches in Washington? Weird. Anyway, on this beach there are really great biking trails and then a cape and lighthouse close by for hiking. We should plan a family trip there someday. PLUS, the town has the best bakery!!!
I went up with Grandma Maldonado on Monday and Tuesday. We got lots of game playing and warmed ourselves in the hot tub as it was pretty cold and wet. It was hailing one of the days while I was out for a walk. Actually, I was walking to the bakery to get a Devil Dog, for which the bakery is famous. A Devil Dog it a tube shaped chocolate bar filled with a heavy cream like a custard cream. YUM! Walking to the bakery to get pastries helps you feel better about eating them! We had to take the long way home since a storm had come in and there would most likely be snow on the coast mountain pass. We traveled down the Gorge and then crossed over on Cornelius Pass. I haven’t been that way in a long time. It was a long, wet drive and I wondered why I was returning in two days if Dad and I could fly anywhere, like say maybe . . .WARM Palm Springs, to celebrate our anniversary!
I did a “week’s” worth of work (good thing I can do it anywhere; well, that’s a bad thing also sometimes) including medical appointments in the two days at home. I am trying to decide how to go forward with my back and hip injury since I seem to be at a stalemate and I am looking at summer outdoor adventures coming up with fewer abilities than last summer. I plan to change doctors for a fresh perspective; I hope that will help.
Thursday afternoon, Dad and I headed back to Long Beach. Because of the drive time, it isn’t our first choice of coast stays but was the only place available (without camping out on the website to catch a last minute cancellation). The trip was very relaxing and we had a great ocean view room. This time we hit a dry afternoon and took our bikes out. Dad took a longer bike ride to explore some extra areas, which I hope I can do next trip to Long Beach. I am just getting used to being back on my bike. I have special bars that allow me to sit straight for most of my ride. We also walked the entire town and into the next town on one of the days. We stopped at each restaurant to take a look at their menu so we could find the best place to go to celebrate our anniversary!
Dad got an idea from Adrianne and Blake when they were here at Christmas. They ordered their anniversary cake (small version of one of the layers of their wedding cake), shared it with us and took two slices home for their anniversary. So, he secretly ordered a Beaverton Bakery banana cake, our favorite, and quite possibly one of the flavors of the cakes at our wedding. That was a fun treat. That covered our dessert for the entire weekend except one Devil Dog (since we had to make a Cottage Bakery visit while in Long Beach!).
On Saturday night we went back to a restaurant that we went to years ago when Uncle Scott and Aunt Carla came to Oregon for Thanksgiving. We went to Long Beach them and Grandma. I don’t remember it being so good but it was and we will have to visit it again! It is called the 42nd Café. It is gourmet home cooking.
We tried to go to the Long Beach ward for church on Sunday morning but arrived to an empty parking lot. They had stake conference in another town. So, we went back and sat on our deck overlooking the ocean, ate a Devil Dog and had our own Sunday School lesson as we studied the Isaiah chapters together in the Book of Mormon. It was kind of nice! I loved what I learned from those chapters, which is repeated over and over again, “for all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” For all the mistakes we can make, the Lord is loving and ready and anxious to forgive us if we just ask and commit to improve!
At Aunt Karla’s suggestion, I checked out flight availability to Utah for Sarah Bitter’s baby shower on Saturday. It worked and so I went! Crazy! At the last minute I saw that there were seats left on Friday evening so I went down and was able to stay at the Brady’s. It was nice to chat with Bill on the way home from the airport and hear all the great things that he is directing to happen at Eli Kirk. I am so happy that they found him. The Brady’s are getting ready to have Bill’s sister and her family stay this coming week. So, I slept in a bed that they set up in Ainsley’s room. Heidi looks great and sounds like she is feeling much better. She always looks so cute when she is pregnant even though she suffers with some difficult side effects.
It was fun to be around the excitement of the girls. They have such cute and amazingly different personalities. I went to help Heidi with Bountiful Baskets at 6:30 Saturday morning. That is a ton of work! But, it is always fun to be somewhere where you hear everyone say how great the Brady family is as soon as they find out who I am. Jenna had a school friend’s birthday party so Heidi and I took Ainsley and Rebekah with us to the shower so they could play in the built in play house at Dave and Karla’s home (Aunt Karla’s invitation). Everyone had a great time and we met up with Adrianne there.
Of course the shower was beautiful and it was good to see Sarah. With them living in Texas, it will probably be few and far between to see Jon and Sarah. Karla and Kari had planned a fun game in which we all won candy, which we sorely needed! Dave was right in the mix doing much preparation and clean up, just like Dad would have been! Even though there are many years between them, they have many similarities, even which little heh . . . heh chuckle sounds the same.
Afterwards, so Heidi could concentrate on her Saturday afternoon toy room project, Adrianne and I took the girls to play at her playground and see the ducks. The girls enjoyed feeding Adrianne and Blake’s ducks some spinach and egg shells. Ainsley was enthralled with the baby ducks in the house, Taco Bill and Gumbo, (named purposely to remind them that they are future food) but not as crazy about the noisier ducks in the yard. She loved feeding them but stayed a distance away. The girls love the playground at the Severson’s home! It was an amazing day in Utah; the sun was shining and it was actually WARM!
Our time was too short but I had to catch my Saturday evening flight. I was hoping to be able to sit in my Relief Society for once. I have a new calling, Compassionate Service leader, and I need to get to know the sisters a bit better. In the coming months, I know I will be doing lots of calling to help a family in the ward who just had triplets almost three months premature. But, at the last minute I was in Sunbeams today. Oh well, best laid plans.
Anyway, when Adrianne took us back to the Brady’s and then me to the airport she talked of wanting to go family camping in June in Utah. Let us know what you think and when the best times would be. Dad and I will be in Las Vegas from at least June 6 to June 10 and I no longer have Girls Camp the last week in June since it was changed recently to July.
When I got home, I realized that I should be gone more often. Dad seems to get lots more done when I am away. He washed our sheets, mowed the lawn right before the rains started again, drove to visit Scott and then came right back to feed the missionaries! And I thought I did a lot in those 24 hours!
Scott is preparing for his last days before a marathon run for which he has been training. He didn’t think he was going to be able to do it since he had some injuries to his big toes. I think it is because of the poor shoes that he wears. Can you believe all the fancy equipment that people get to run marathons outside his walls and what he does with what he has? Well, he finally has agreed that he needs to buy real running shoes. Of course, they only sell them one choice of Nike shoes and they charge the prisoners a premium price so a good birthday present coming up for Scott would be a donation to his funds since he sends his library job money to Kyre. A donation to his commissary fund has to be done through the state of Oregon in a special way if you are interested. Wouldn’t it be nice if a company like Nike could donate shoes to local prisoners who are training for marathons or athletic events to encourage and reward them for trying to improve themselves!
This afternoon I took Anna Callais to see her triplets in the NICU. They will probably be there for another 8 weeks. I expected the girls to be much smaller since I knew they were all about 2 ½ pounds each. They are of course all connected to many tubes and monitors but are all gaining weight. It is a miracle what the medical world can do.
I am thankful for my health and the health of all my family. Have a wonderful week ahead. We are headed back to Utah either Friday evening or Saturday morning. We are going to see Rebekah’s Music Man dress rehearsal since her play is while Kyre and the children will be here PLUS we have four family birthdays to celebrate in Utah; now it is five since Jen, Bill’s twin, will be there also. And that is not counting Bryson and Klaire who also have a birthday in the next two weeks. Our March Madness!!!!
Love you all. Mom

February 26, 2012

Dear Children,

This newsletter started with three trips to the coast in one week and ends preparing to leave for two trips to the coast this next week. Grandma Maldonado and I are going up for a quick trip to Long Beach Monday and Tuesday. Then I will return to Long Beach with Dad on Thursday to celebrate our anniversary. Most often we have gone skiing at Timberline for our anniversary but that wasn’t even a choice for us this year.

At the end of January I went to the beach three times in one week. I always look forward to my annual weekend at the beach with my girlfriends with whom I served in a Young Women’s Board several years back. Our president, Angie Bleazard, moved to California so we try to make arrangements so that she can also be there. Last year she came up for Adrianne’s wedding and Jamie Jorgenson was very sick with her pregnancy so we didn’t have the entire group. Angie said she couldn’t come this year but then her husband surprised her with a plane ticket for Christmas. She kept it a secret from the rest of the group so it was fun to see the surprise on their faces when she walked into the condo as we were in the middle of a game.

We lucked out on the weather most of the days so it made for enjoyable walks on the beach until the last morning when the rain was sideways. Otherwise, we enjoyed a ton of game playing, talking and eating.

From that trip I came back to Beaverton for a couple of hours for Jaden Mitchell’s open house. He married a girl from Utah so they had an open house in Beaverton. It is always great to be in the Mitchell’s home. They had a sandwich bar with homemade breads that John had made and of course, they had lots of his chocolate desserts for which he is known. We saw lots of old friends there which was great but they all look so, well, OLD!

I drove Carol Stanger’s car back to the beach so that I could stay the last night with the girls and then we met Dad on Sunday in Lincoln City (her family was meeting her there also). Ramona Jones had offered Dad and I a week at Otter Crest so we took advantage of piggy backing it at the end of my YW weekend. Business is picking up for Dad so we didn’t really have a whole week to spend on the coast. Plus, Aunt Carla was coming to visit Grandma and we wanted to be back for that.

We drove to Otter Crest in a driving rain storm and then the weather cleared up for the rest of our visit. It was very mild so we took our long walks in pretty good weather. We ran into a couple that we met last year on one of our walks and visited with them for awhile in their newly opened art gallery right at Devil’s Punch Bowl. They lived up the street from the little girl that we came upon last year that had been mauled by a bull dog but they didn’t have much information about her since her family had moved from the home right after the accident.

We had lots of relax time at Otter Crest with no cell coverage and very little internet since it went out while we were there. We did lots of planning, making goals for the coming year, swimming and walking. We had dinner one evening with Ramona and Ivan. They now own completely their one unit at the top of the complex so they live there when they are not traveling or staying at Corina’s when Ivan needs to be in Beaverton for work. He is becoming more and more retired. They are finishing up some business deals before turning in their papers for another mission.

We came home in time for me to do laundry, attend to a couple of appointments and pack for the beach again. This time it was with Grandma and Aunt Carla at the WorldMark in Long Beach, Washington. I like the Long Beach area; it has a quaint little town and good walking and biking trails.

In January we enjoyed a basketball visit from Morty. He arrived late Saturday evening so he joined us at church and we were able to have everyone home for Sunday dinner including Katie and Grandma. I don’t even try to make sense of Katie’s schedule (well I do but it is not often possible) as she did some crazy traveling herself during January: Salt Lake, New York and Phoenix, that I know of. She was home to go to the Blazer game on the Monday night with Morty. They played Jimmer’s team again.

Morty came for a second basketball weekend in February. He actually was here twice since he came up for a very last minute trip having obtained great Blazer tickets for free for one night. It was close to his birthday so we were able to do an early birthday celebration for him here. Then on his real birthday, Nate and Aaron took him to dinner. The second time he came up he went to a couple of games and then there was lots of sports to watch on TV. I told him that I have never seen so many sports games in one weekend. It isn’t until Morty is here when I realize that my TV tells me when someone is calling my phone!

I have enjoyed hearing news of work successes and promotions from several in the family. Adrianne applied for a promotion to work in the Marketing Department at Shelf Reliance as the online Marketing Director. She says PR must run in the family. She started a couple of weeks ago and is now on salary with even more responsibilities. That company has given her lots of experience so far. She said that she earned employee of the month in January and that earned her a special parking spot and a massage at work! She and Blake are at the Wolf Creek WorldMark in Ogden, Utah celebrating their first anniversary this weekend.

I haven’t heard it from Nate but Grandma Maldonado tells me that he also received a promotion, much of the job he was already doing for quite sometime. But now, I guess he got the raise and the title to go with it. She said it had something to do with managing more people in his department at Zappos. We will have to hear more from Nate but I hear that he is in New York right now!

I also received a promotion with SendOutCards. I am a new Senior Manager as of the day after Valentine’s Day. That increases my percentages and coaching bonuses which is pretty exciting. Aaron is helping fine tune my Facebook Business Page, Cards by Lori Bitter, so the welcome page looks better. I appreciate all your individual help either for liking my FaceBook page or reading my blog, CardsbyLoriBitter.blogspot.com. In my blog. I include tips that any card sender could use, not just those using the SendOutCards service (even though it does make card sending so much easier)

We had Sunhee here this weekend. It was very fun and relaxing. She mainly wanted to play games the entire time. We figured that we played around 40 games with her including an afternoon at Grandma Maldonado’s home while I went to a baby shower. She is a delight. She loves to play, loves to work and is just plain lovable. She started learning a new song on the piano, Nephi’s Courage, and worked on a few more goals in her Faith in God booklet. She loves being challenged by a goal. Can you believe that she turns 11 this year and she will be preparing for Young Womens. What an exciting time in her life. We planned to finish up some more while she and Meeja are here for Spring Break. Kyre, Alina, Adam and Klaire will stay part of that week with us also. After bringing Sunhee back to Albany today so we didn’t have to drive to Sweet Home, we had dinner and visited with Kyre and the children.

I don’t think I have written since I challenged you all to read that great Ensign article of President Monson’s on keeping a positive attitude, believing in ourselves and having courage. I appreciated hearing from all of you that read it and about what you enjoyed most from the message. Thank you for sharing your feelings; I loved that. Dad and I did a drawing for Family Home Evening while at Otter Crest and Aubrey won the gift card for sending her thoughts on the article. Thank you! That was fun!

I love you and hope you have a great week ahead. Love, Mom

January 21, 2012

Dear Children

I should have set a New Year’s resolution to not get behind on my family news but I didn’t set any New Year goals at all yet! That’s terrible; Dad and I need to have a Family Home Evening about goals since I know, “A goal not written down is just a wish.” Remember the times we had you write your goals down and put them into an envelope to be opened the following year? I remembered one of you saying when you opened it a year later, “Those aren’t my goals; that is not my writing” since your penmanship had changed so drastically in one year!

We had a fun holiday break. I would say that we played games more this holiday than ever before. It seems if we weren’t doing something else, someone would say, "Let’s play a game” and we would. Everyone received a Monopoly Card game in their stocking and everyone enjoyed learning that game. It is way more fun than Monopoly and of cours3e, MUCH shorter! You can be winning in one moment and be wiped out the next. We first played the game at the Daniels one evening in the fall and I liked it so much I bought several when they were on sale on Black Friday!

Of the travelers, Morty came first. I think he does that so he has his pick of rooms! He slept in his favorite bed until the day before Blake and Adrianne arrived so we could change the sheets on a day other than Christmas since the Bladrianne came Christmas night. Aaron and Nate came on the morning of Christmas Eve so we promptly headed to the Mitchell’s home directly from the airport to take them their treat and make our annual home visit that we saved until more of the family was here to enjoy. Blake and Adrianne came in on the last flight Christmas night so they could spend Christmas with Blake’s family in Utah (all of his siblings live in Utah now). It was Shawn and Aubrey’s year in California and Heidi and Bill’s family went to Disneyland. Yes, their gift to the family was a surprise trip to Disneyland!

I always like our Christmas Eve dinner to be early in the evening so we can have our Christmas Eve program, open our traditional one gift and then have an earlier bedtime so Santa can come. Well, right before dinner someone suggested to watch a movie and we thought, “What the heck?” and we did. That was kind of different but fun. Dinner was delayed so much that I think Katie got there before we were completely done (she had to work late Christmas Eve so we didn’t expect her to be able to join us).

My favorite part of the holidays was on Christmas Eve when everyone had a part in the program and Nate chose to play a Christmas song on the violin. Well, I think he was quite surprised by how many songs he could remember. He played several and it was SO enjoyable to watch him. Another significant piece of the program was Katie’s choice to read an email that Heidi had just sent to everyone announcing that they are expecting a baby on July 31! Everyone was so happy to get that news. They told us that they want to be surprised if it is a boy or girl so they are not going to let the doctor tell them this time.

We had a relaxed Christmas morning, went to church and then had our traditional prime rib dinner. We left some of our presents under the tree until Adrianne and Blake arrived. Santa had left them some presents and we watched them open their gifts and received their gifts to family members at that time.

Having prime rib during the holidays allows us to have hash while Nate is home. We had an early hash dinner on Monday since some of the family was going to the Blazer game that night. We all went to the Blazer game on Tuesday night since Morty bought cheap tickets for us to go see Jimmer play. That was a fun adventure.

While Nate was home, he gave me some good advice and ideas for a Facebook page for my SendOutCards business and then Aaron took over helping me finalize it and got a blog for the business started for me. Plus, Aaron helped me clean up some of the email problems I have. I would love it if all of you would go “like” my Facebook page, Cards by Lori Bitter and then you will be aware of when I post something on my blog. My blog will be sharing ideas about sending greeting cards and how I use my SendOutCards service. I appreciate that my children help me stretch and learn some new technology. I have felt on overload a couple of times with what I am trying to learn. Aaron finished all the fixing of my email problems just the day before he had to leave, so there has been some possible “user errors” without him being here to tutor me. He had to walk me through disabling the sync of my lap top and computer saying that our computer just didn’t seem to have that capacity with the old technology in it. Old? It doesn’t seem old to me! At least my email is working again. My computer since doesn’t like my camera so the process of getting photos into my computer is very SLOW, going through my laptop firs and then emailing small batches over; yuck! I spent many, many hours finally getting all my photos into the computer for the last couple of months. Now I need to get them to the Costco website so the rest of you may enjoy them. I need some TV watching time to put prints into my albums to catch them up also. Yikes!

It was so wonderful that Aaron, Adrianne and Blake were able to stay long after Christmas. The after Christmas days always feel more relaxed. We played lots of games, finally got to the Rheinlander for dinner and even had cioppino: lots of holiday traditions. The best part about cioppino this year was that Adrianne made her yummy French bread to go with it! Plus, while the newlyweds were here, they ordered their anniversary cake form Beaverton Bakery and let us all have some (saving two slices to freeze for their anniversary). A yummy memory! On New Years Eve everyone but Aaron had left (and he went with friends to a dance) so we had some friends over to play games.

Before everyone left, Aaron, Adrianne and Blake were able to travel to Salem to see Scott. They had a nice visit. It meant a lot to Scott to be updated personally in their lives. Scott remembers every detail that his siblings tell him. While he was so busy raising his large family and trying to help Kyre so much, he had very little time to think or be with his brothers and sisters. Family is everything to him and since he no longer has the connection with Kyre and his children, he is completely interested in his younger siblings.

After everyone left, we put a bit of Christmas away and headed for Salt Lake for some training meetings from SendOutCards. It was a fantastic weekend. I am SO excited for the coming year as I work towards my next promotion. My goal is to be Senior Manager by March 7; I will be a Senior Manger by March 7!!! I love this company and of course, I am crazy about the product. We stayed in downtown Salt Lake and on the last day of training, it snowed and blanketed the tree lined streets. It was beautiful! Grandma Maldonado went to the training with us and she did a great job of staying up with us with her walking sticks (and Dad’s to-the-door chauffeur service) but after the weekend was over, he body was exhausted.

As wonderful as the SendOutCards weekend was, my favorite part of the weekend was being able to visit family afterwards. We stayed at Grandma Bitter’s home for two nights and on Sunday we went to Uncle Dave’s ward since it was his first Sunday conducting as the new bishop of the ward, Adrianne and Blake’s for lunch and for Grandma Maldonado to see their new home for the first time. It was our first peek at their new car and first introduction to the Severson’s ducks. They have built quite a set up. It was also fun to see how they use Thrive in their cooking.

Blake and Adrianne went with us to Heidi and Bill’s home for dinner. I was looking forward to going to the Brady’s home to hear the girls tell us all about their Disneyland trip. They had a cute picture from the Princess lunch they attended and amazing stories of the hours they spent in the parks. We had another incredible meal and the girls realized they had four grandparents there in their home for the first time so we took a picture and then traveled back to Orem to sleep.

This weekend was Gregory’s 5^th birthday on Saturday. He was so cute and animated (duh!) when we called to talk with him. As he described all the things that they had done that day, he said, “This is the best day ever” and then told us he was headed to Chuck E. Cheese to win some “cool prizes”!

We traveled down to see Alina on her 14^th birthday on Sunday in some snowy weather. We were lucky to only hit a couple of bad spots but as we traveled home, when we came to our own corner at Brockman and Davies, the roads turned icy and slippery. She liked the giant cookie and the amazing candle with fireworks. Weather-wise it was good that we planned to leave early in the evening so Alina had the evening left for plans with friends.

We had more storm warnings than storms in the last week; I am sure that the school children have been bitterly disappointed. I look forward to the snow mainly because life goes slower during the storms. The threat of snow was always more fun when there were children here hoping for canceled school. Now, Katie must drive to work irregardless of dangerous roads at 4:30 in the morning; real life!

After stake conference last Sunday, we had a wonderful visit with Scott. He has lots of plans to keep his mind and body busy. He has started another trek of crossing the States with his running and exercise but this time, he is visiting family history sites along the way, doing what research he can and asking that you all provide stories of ancestors in areas of the United States. He looks very good and probably is more fit than he has been since his high school soccer years. He still enjoys his work helping other inmates with their legal work and keeps plugging away at any hope for post conviction relief on his case even though his attorney continues to give his disappointing news. He is in the best spot he could be in the prison system and we are very thankful for that every day. He has many benefits other inmates do not.

Well, Morty comes tonight and stays through Wednesday morning. On Thursday, I go to my annual beach trip with my old Young Women Board friends. I come home earlier form that trip to go to Jaden Mitchell’s open house (he got married in Utah last weekend) and then go back to Otter Crest the next day with Dad for a few days at Ramona’s place. The day we come home, Aunt Cara comes for a week and I might get a beach stay during her visit also!

I hope you all had a chance to read the best article in the Ensign this month from President Monson called “Living the Abundant Life”. There were so many great thoughts about attitude, courage and believing in yourself. He teaches in a way that is so easy to understand and remember. It would make a great Family Home Evening discussion, besides all your home teachers are supposed to give a lesson to you from it! I love so many things about it but my favorite phrase is, “Courage is required to make an initial thrust toward one’s coveted goal., but even greater courage is called for when one stumbles and must make a second effort to achieve.” What was your favorite part? I included the link here so each of you could read this short article and send us an email telling us your favorite part of the article. Everyone that sends us back an email about the article by January 29th will be entered into a drawing for a gift certificate! How's that? Are you game? The married couples get two chances if they reply separately. Please don't reply to this post as it is on an email that I do not check; send to the regular bitterfam@gmail address. Thanks!

Have a great week ahead! We look forward to hearing from you! Much love, Mom

December 18, 2011

December 18, 2011 started October 9, 2011

Dear Children,

Getting back to my normal writing after the computer virus disabled being able to download photos into my computer has been overwhelming. I know that I need several hours to talk with Kodak and I just don’t have that. I am so behind in my family news though, I will go ahead and load a few photos through the lap top so I can get caught up. There is so much about which to write.

From October: After visiting Shawn and Aubrey in California, the next week we were in Utah to help Adrianne and Blake with their new place. They bought a townhouse in Pleasant Grove. Blake can walk to work from there and Adrianne takes the scooter since she also doesn’t work very far away. Although, soon after their move, Blake applied for and got a computer job that makes him happier. He does much of it at home but must commute two days a week to Spanish Fork. He was working both jobs right after their move.

Adrianne gets to breath a little barn air as right when you turn down their street; there is a stable with horses. Their home has a small backyard with a little planter box so they can have a garden. Most of the yard is concrete but Adrianne wants to leave some dirt in case they get “an old lazy dog” (I think that is what she called the dog). Behind their gate is a common grassy area with a huge play structure and picnic tables. We could have a fun family gathering there. On Sunday evening Heidi and Bill’s family came by for dessert and their three girls loved the play area.

Dad had to change his flight to come a day later than myself due to work (thank you Katie for being able to change easily at the last minute) but I still headed down on Thursday and spent Friday doing the preliminary work of painting their living room. I enlarged the project as I went along, painting more walls and even painting the base board; it had some areas that needed it badly. We were painting over a dark red wall. The new color looks like peanut shell with a creamy white trim. Blake’s sister, Amber, had given them leftover paint from their home so that was a big help to their budget.

The work progressed at a better speed after Adrianne and Blake got home and Dad arrived later that evening! We accomplished a lot over the weekend. Dad did some concrete crack repair in the back and worked to make their front porch step look nicer. Dad hates to see marks on concrete! We finished the living room and scrubbed all the marks off the wood floor in that room.

I got to do something I like; organize cupboards. They have a great pantry closet off of their kitchen that they hadn’t had a chance to organize yet. I hope that they can find everything now; they were at work on Monday when I did that before leaving for the airport! We stayed at Grandma Bitter’s place each night, not returning until after midnight most nights. We had Sunday dinner at their place with Grandma Bitter. It was her first visit there. After dinner Heidi’s family came. They had been on a drive through the canyon as Bill had just received his new company car. It is beautiful and looks very comfortable.

We were only home a few days until my college roommate, Andrea Osinchak, arrived for the weekend. Knowing that we were going to have a guest, Katie had worked while we were away to try and get most of her things and furniture more incorporated into the home. She moved her bed and most of her belongings into Adrianne’s old room since that is the largest bedroom. Most of her clothes are still in her old room. All of her kitchen items fill the grandchildren closet but it looks much more organized now!

Andrea lives in Delaware and is a professional genealogist so she was traveling for research and to visit clients. When we weren’t watching general conference, she was helping me get my genealogy organized so I wouldn’t be afraid to open it up. We also took her to a group of food carts in Portland so she saw that city culture! Bill will be jealous that we went to Potato Champion, the food card that makes poutine. We bought from several food carts and then sampled everyone’s choices. Through Andrea’s west coast travels, she was able to visit with all of our roommates 9living in Seattle, Boise, Salt Lake and Monticello, Utah) from when I lived in Brownstone in Provo in 1975! I hadn’t seen her since then.

As soon as Andrea left, we went to Judy and Jack Hoagland came from San Antonio to visit their Oregon and Washington children, thinking it would be their last time with them before their next mission. They were waiting for their papers while at our home but they arrived about a week later. They are going to the Russia Moscow Mission, leaving in February (so now they may have time for another visit). While they were away visiting Julie, we spent the day in Albany to celebrate Adam’s 12^th birthday and be at his church so Dad could be part of his ordination to the priesthood. We can’t believe how much he has grown up.

The weekend that Morty and Nate were here for both Oregon Duck and BYU-Oregon State game, Jack and Judy were on the coast with his brother so they all but missed seeing the boys (except during halftime of the BYU game). Right after the BYU game, Morty and Nate, along with Katie, headed to Eugene for the Duck game. Katie had a fun experience working in the BYU broadcasting trailer with a friend. It was great fun to have Adam and Alina with us at the game and it is always tons more fun of course, when BYU wins! It was a beautiful day for football.

After the boys left, Jack and Judy returned. That day I had planned to pull a Katie and go to lunch with friends in Salt Lake. Three of my roommates were getting together since Shannon Smurthwaite was in Salt Lake doing last minute wedding plans with her daughter and of course, Andrea was traveling through by then. But, those darn BYU fans leaving Portland Monday morning after the game, crowded into MY flight and I left the airport dejected and missing lunch with my friends. Oh well, it was fun trying. Plus, it was right during early morning commute heading back to Beaverton so I decided to go check out IKEA again for a TV stand. Yes we have a new TV. You won’t believe it since we are not big TV watchers. Now we have a BIG TV to watch a little bit of it! But did you know that on Monday morning IKEA serves free breakfast right at the opening of their store? It was eggs, potatoes and bacon; kind of fun! I even did some Christmas shopping at the Target there. It was better to stay busy at the airport instead of sit in traffic on the way home. Yeah, got some Christmas shopping done; that always makes me happy!

While Jack and Judy were here, the final games of the World Series started. Normally, I am not too interested in the World Series but Morty, Katie and Nate (and Aaron?) were so excited about the Cardinals playing in it that it was contagious and . . . we had a big TV now so why not watch it! They even got Gregory and Bryson (die hard Oakland fans) excited to watch the Cardinals in the final games. After one game, Morty immediately called Greg to share his excitement. My only warm memory of the World Series was when Nate started Kick and Chase Soccer and he called the pre-season tournament the “World Serious”. Dad and I did have fun following the games through the excitement of our children.

I had a stake meeting during the 6^th game and parked my car to go in with three Cardinals on base. I hated to leave the car so I was a poor example to my children and asked Morty if he would text me at the end of the innings to keep me up to date (I usually get after him for looking at his phone during church). That game went into extra innings so just as I was done, I could tell by the announcers’ joy that the Cardinals had won which meant that Morty, Katie and Nate would be sitting in Busch Stadium for the final game of the World Series; what a dream come true (regardless of the outcome). But, you all know the outcome and this is one of my favorite photos from the game.

At the end of October we were able to catch one of Sunhee’s volleyball games in a town called Mill City. It was an hour and a half away but the closest game of the season to us that we could attend. She is always fun to watch. She is darling for one thing and gives her all at whatever she is doing.

November was a blur since it went by so fast and flurry of travel and guests again. We started the month in Utah watching the Brady girls while Heidi and Bill were on a cruise. It was great fun to be in their home. Dad spent the first weekend with us. We were able to attend Shannon Smurthwaite’s daughter’s wedding reception while there. The girls spent a fun evening at Blake and Adrianne’s home while we were there and then we headed to Grandma Bitter’s home for a sleepover. The girls love going there. The girls and I even got to see Wendi one of the nights!

I have forgotten all the schedules and running around that a young mother squeezes in her day. I was exhausted but a great exhausted. I loved it. The girls love playing games and have a ton of energy but at bedtime, they have a wonderful routine and sleep well. I should have taken advantage of that time to sleep also but I made the “young mother” mistake of trying to get things done after the children are in bed! It even snowed a little while I was there. We were waiting for Ainsley to wake up from a nap to walk to the park but it started snowing on us!

I tried to leave on Sunday morning to get home for Primary assignments but my flight was full so I rented a car and went back to the Brady’s for one more night. I loved my last evening there when Heidi and Bill had more time to talk about their wonderful trip. As much as I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being with my grandchildren, as everyone knows, I love even more, quiet talk time with my children. Missing being able to get on my flight was such a bonus to have some quiet time with Heidi and Bill. I love my life and being able to travel around to be with family and, in some cases, helping out our children by babysitting or doing home fix ups.

Arriving home from Utah, we hit the ground running to prepare for the holidays. I came home to tons of SendOutCards commitments. I have so many more people on my team and retail customers new to the service that wanted help with their holiday card sending. Plus, I had three friends in charge of school bazaars to help with fundraising for activities so I said I would buy a table. Yikes! But it reminded me of all the years I helped with fundraising. Afterwards, I realized that I should have offered a letters from Santa service like I used to when I did bazaars years ago since I had the best service for that! Dad was also able to find the bike he had been waiting so long to buy. He is signed up for the Tour de Cure again this summer so now he will have a nicer ride!

Morty came in and out for Duck football games, even at the last minute over Thanksgiving. We were planning on having Shawn and Aubrey for Thanksgiving but just the week before that, Shawn’s boss and several co-workers were fired so he was asked to step up to be the interim boss. He obviously couldn’t leave the area as he had hoped but we are most pleased to know that his company trusted him with that responsibility in such a difficult circumstance.

Kyre, Alina, Adam and Klaire came on the train for Thanksgiving. That makes the trip extra fun. The smell of the train reminds me of my trips as a child to Grand Junction, Colorado to visit Grandma Helen. We played lots of games and ate lots of food. Alina got up with me at 3:30 a.m. to do Black Friday shopping. We were a great team; I would like to do that with her every year!

Grandma Maldonado was very sick that night so we had a few hours of break in shopping to take her to the hospital. I am sure the doctors though me insensitive when I dashed out while they were doing tests that were going to take an hour to get results. By then, we knew she wasn’t having a stroke. We learned her symptoms were from a kidney infection and I was able to bring her home.

Right after Thanksgiving, Dad and I packed and were off to Maui. It was Katie’s suggestion that we go watch BYU football in Honolulu when their schedule came out. We joked that we would go for the weekend! But the trip morphed into something bigger when Katie suggested that we go to Maui first before Oahu. We had three days in Maui and it was fabulous. We stayed at a World Mark, helping to keep costs to a minimum, plus is was a block from the beach! Each morning we went snorkeling in different places that were suggested and found some great spots. The wind would pick up in the afternoon so we would retreat to the pool and hot tub at our place. It was incredible. Dad and I were on the crater at sunrise one of the mornings and then on the last day, we all were up early for a boat tour with the Pacific Whale foundation. It took us snorkeling around sea turtles and over to a reef only accessible by boats. It was so much fun. Plus we saw hump back whales going out and coming back in to the harbor. I would love to go back during real whale season and see more.

We planned to leave on a late inter-island flight so we could have a full day in Maui. We went north to a restaurant suggested to me so we could be there during the sunset. It was gorgeous. A fun treat was finding a Santa on the beach sitting on his canoe!

Staying in Wakiki was definitely different than our quiet side of Maui but it was fun also. We found a condo on Craigslist there so I would want to wait and stay on Wakiki again only if we found a deal at one of those nice hotels that pamper you! Otherwise, we need to come back to Oahu to do a session at the temple and snorkel on Shark’s Cove. The swells were too big to snorkel on that side of the island since it was perfect surfing weather. When we stopped on that side of the island, we had fun watching some surfers right where they were going to have a surfing competition that weekend. BYU won their game and we were lucky enough to run into Jenn Jones Kim and her husband after the game. There were tons of BYU fans there. Pearl Harbor has updated their museums and displays even since I was there last. It is so nice. Since it was the week of the anniversary of the bombing, there were survivors there each day. Dad talked to one of the survivors about Captain Bennion’s ship. He said he was in the port and saw that particular ship and all the fires. As much as we enjoyed our visit to Pearl Harbor and seeing all the displays, it was a bit annoying to have the large groups of Japanese tourists push us aside in the middle of reading or listening to something. I know “they” didn’t bomb us but I would expect them to show a little respect to other tourists, especially there (just kind of ironic). We enjoyed our day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. That is the best bargain in Hawaii and the food was fantastic also. We did our own tour and we also took the tram to the temple’s visitor center from there. They do a great job there. Our temple is building a visitor’s center.

The day after we came home from Hawaii, we picked up Sunhee and Meeja for a long weekend. We kept them busy getting our home ready for Christmas and helping us create gifts and delivering them to our neighbors. In fact, as we drove back from Albany, we stopped at a tree lot. Dad and I had lost all chances of any time to go cut down our tree with it getting dark so early and being gone so much. We found a tree and started decorating it the first night that the girls were with us.

Friday was a pajama day! The girls stayed in their pajama all day helping me decorate and make carmel corn for the friends and neighbors. We followed Aubrey latest concoction with mini marshmellows, chocolate (I used red chocolate) and roasted almonds all added to her carmel corn recipe. It turned out yummy! We were going to deliver them that night but, so we didn’t have to get dressed, we went to Grandma Maldonado’s to play games instead!

It was nice that our ward Christmas party was while they visited; it was a breakfast. Sally Farb was in charge so there was a ton of food. And, Meeja and Sunhee got to sit on Santa’s lap. We delivered gifts in between the breakfast and going to Cinderella at Beaverton High that evening. The only gift not delivered is the Mitchell’s so we can visit them when some of you are here.

On Sunday the girls created some fun Christmas cards with their pictures of visiting with Santa and also with Cinderella. Both girls are very creative and knew just how they wanted each one to look. Dad taught Sunhee a another song on the piano; she is fast at memorizing! We worked in Sunhee’s Faith in God booklet; both girls have memorized lots of Articles of Faith. We had a nice sacrament meeting about obedience which was a good reminder to me to be willing to accept a calling that has sounded too overwhelming and totally out of my comfort zone, stake camp cook. My reaction was “Yuck, I do not like going girls’ camp and I know nothing about feeding an army of people.” I have to have faith. I liked what one of the speakers said, “What we become through our life is more important than what we accomplish.”

We left Primary a little early so we could stop in Albany for a dinner and early Christmas celebration at Kyre’s. Kyre had created a wonderful dinner for us. It was such a treat to not have to cook dinner. Adam and Alina had bought special gifts for Meeja and Sunhee so they were able to open them early and Kyre is not going with the children to the Lane family Christmas Eve so she was able to watch them open their gifts.

The next day we headed to Las Vegas! Morty had invited us to come to Lion King before it leaves Las Vegas at the end of December. We flew down in the afternoon and came back very early the next morning. It was a whirlwind trip but totally fun to do something like that with the boys. Nate treated us to dinner after the show at a Thai restaurant on Fremont Street over close to his place. Zappos has bought a lot of the property on the old strip there and are revitalized that part of Las Vegas in the next few year. We toured Nate’s condo which has a gorgeous view from both his room and the living area.

We had an enjoyable visit with Scott this morning. He is looking great. He has met his distance running goals for his run across America and now is running 15 mile runs in less than 2 hours. He is formulating his running goal for 2012 and he says it will have to do with running through ports of entry of our ancestors where he plans to ask for research from us as he hits a milestone. The prison was in lock down for a while after some gang rioting so he missed some of his holiday performances that come annually.

I know I have missed telling you about a lot probably but it is hard to reach back to all those weeks. My goal is to get this into the mail tonight but I can’t be up too late as I am getting a sore throat and can’t get sick this week! I look forward to the Christmas holidays with many of you. I hope you are having fun with the preparations of the season.

Heidi and Bill started a family tradition of donating preemie or newborn clothes to the Riverton Hospital on the day of Jack’s death and delivery, which was today. They said they had a wonderful day visiting the cemetery and the hospital. They were treated kindly at the hospital and, of course, the hospital was thrilled with their donations. Last year they celebrated Jack’s birthday with coconut cupcakes and have decided to continue that tradition also. Bill has an amazing arrangement with his company to have two weeks off for Christmas each year so that starts now.

I love you all! Love, Mom