June 30, 2010

Dear Children,

We spoke with Nate on his birthday Monday night. He was out to dinner with a friend. I forgot to ask him if they did anything special at work for him. This picuter is one of my favorite baby pictures of him. I have a big one and noticed a little drool coming out of his mouth and immediately thought of some of his shenanigans he does now with his “drool” with 26 years of experience behind him! I sent him a postcard of Nate’s drool 26 years ago and now!

Our Monday was a beautiful summer day here; we have enjoyed a little bit of summer warmth here and there. It sure makes you appreciate it. Plus, the sun has allowed Oregon strawberries to ripen finally. They aren’t as sweet as normal since there has been a lack of sun but they are big!

On Friday morning I took Katie to the MAX early so she could catch a flight to Oakland for a day of training, her first day as a Southwest employee! Afterwards, I headed to Jaquith Farm to pick a few berries as I am out of strawberry jam. I picked 22 pounds (I always get more than I plan) and made enough jam to last the year, strawberry that is. I need to pick Boysenberries and Marionberries when the time is right. I am not really a fan of strawberry jam but love the other berries.

On Saturday Dad and I rode our bikes over to Sherwood to Al’s Garden Shop. My basil finally died; the roots probably rotted with all the rain. So we packed up a basil plant in Dad’s bike bag. It was a nice ride. Dad rode ahead so he could get more exercise and then came back to ride at my pace. I liked that much better so I didn’t feel like I was slowing him down. He brought his road bike (the one Schwinn with the skinny tires). I wondered why since he didn’t need speed when he was riding with me. But this worked out well. It was even fun to see how far I could get before he would come riding back. It reminded me of some of the first times snow skiing with him when I feel in love with him by watching his “poetry in motion” as he skied so beautifully.

Adrianne was offered a job at the barn that she is volunteering. This time, it is with pay! She was asked to give riding lessons one day a week in the fall. She is going to have ONE BUSY FALL as she squeezes in some of her most difficult classes into her schedule to prepare for an August graduation. She still is working on the Sun Bear research job. I thought that would be done so long ago but it took so much work to prepare all the samples to be tested. I always thought research work would be fascinating but there is certainly a tedious side.

I don’t have many current pictures from this week so I will add an amazing one from last week. Morty sent it to me but I hadn’t saved it. I remember thinking that the people on the JumboTron looked a lot like Katie and Morty. But, when I saw a Happy Anniversary greeting next to it so I thought it was the couple to whom they were wishing a Happy Anniversary. Later, Katie told me it was really them on the JumboTron and Morty had amazingly captured a picture of it! Morty and Katie just have “a way” of getting on the TV screens!

Katie is testing out her new wings today. It is her day off and she is flying to Salt Lake to see her friend from high school, Lindsay, for the afternoon in the city. She works tomorrow so she must find an empty seat to get home tonight. It sounds like fun to me! This morning when she was up at 5:30 am I asked her if she was flying somewhere. When I learned she was headed to Salt Lake City I told her that I should have prepared Heidi’s birthday present for her to deliver! Now that would be a handy delivery service! But, Katie isn’t going to take any chances and venture far from the airport with such a small window of time. I have read that these “space available” seats can be kind of risky to plan on but it will be fun to see what it is like!

Today, June 30, is Heidi and Bill’s wedding anniversary. I am sure that they have something fun planned to do. I just got an email so here is our answer: Bill and Heidi must be in St. George with the family to celebrate their anniversary. Here is a picture of them at In-N-Out! It looks like it is warm there with all those red cheeks.

I love you and hope you are all enjoying the summer. I am. I just came home from picking up Sunhee and Meeja. They get to be here until next Tuesday! We have lots of fun adventures planned. They just helped me load my storage shelves with new canned goods we bought on the way home. They are great helpers. Now it is off to pick raspberries form our own plants. Dad and I have left the berries alone since we knew that the girls would have so much fun picking. They will get to pcik blue berries before they go home also! Love, Mom

June 20-21, 2010

Dear Children,

Happy Father’s Day! It doesn’t look like the day before summer’s official beginning since it is pretty drizzly here. I am glad that some of you are experiencing real summer weather. Most people in Oregon have had enough rain.

We sat out in a light sprinkle as we visited with Scott this afternoon. I made arrangements to swap Primary singing and sharing time so Dad and I could leave church a bit early to get to the prison as quickly as possible. I was concerned that it would be packed since it was Father’s Day. It was and they were hesitant to open up the outside benches since the weather didn’t look good. We were told if we went into a visit but it started raining, our visit would be over. We agreed to that just so we could at least get in. It was valuable to be there even though he called Dad at 7:00 this morning and they had a good chance to talk.

We were able to talk a lot about his children. It is very discouraging that he doesn’t have contact with them so this day is a hard one to face. Scott talked about his running. He ran in a race last Saturday and, since Adrianne was running a half marathon that very day, he convinced his running partner to just keep running until they had run a half marathon also.

Scott talked about the annual car and motorcycle show at the prison that was held on Saturday. He said that he had a picture taken of himself on the warden’s motorcycle. As he talked of the car show, I wondered if the Powells (I visit teach Karen Powell) ever were involved at all since they take their car to car shows. Today, just as I was leaving her home, I remarked that her shirt was cute. It had lots of stripes so she said she calls it her prison shirt and then said, “But they don’t really wear stripes, we were just there on Saturday.” They had friends that show their car so they took their vintage red California Special Mustang! She said it was very complicated to get through security so they probably wouldn’t show next year but maybe another time. I wonder if Scott saw their car.

Aunt Denise was here this past week so we had some fun dinners and played games some nights with her. I know that might be a surprise to you but Aunt Denise has, in the last couple of years, started to like playing games. She was even willing to learn a new one for herself, progressive rummy! We also went to the movies one day. Katie also joined us in some of the visits with Denise; they have a fun relationship. That makes me so happy that my children love to be around their aunts so much. Aunt Denise and Katie had quite a ball together when Katie and her friends stayed in Antioch in April before they headed to Hawaii. Aunt Denise was an amazing hostess and she just couldn’t say enough nice things about Katie and her friends. Since Aunt Denise was here for her birthday, Katie was able to treat her to Denise’s favorite cupcakes, red velvet, before Katie left for St. Louis.

Katie met up with Morty in St. Louis for some Cardinal games this weekend. It was Morty’s graduation gift to Katie. Is that so nice? Katie first stopped in Kansas City to see Joe, Carol and Mackenzie and it was while she was there that she learned she got the job with Southwest Airlines. She is so happy as she will be able to make money while at home and start paying off her college loans.

I don’t know if many of you know that Katie also had a broadcasting job offer. She was offered to be the director of a news station in Monterrey California just a week or so ago. It was a hard decision for her as she said that she liked the interviewer very much and I am sure that is an indicator of the working environment of a company. But, she very carefully weighed the decision and realized that the cost of living down there would not allow her to get out of debt. I think it was a very mature decision to realize that, in order to survive on her own with her first broadcasting job, she needed to first save up some money since there are strict contracts involved in accepting this sort of job. Plus, working for Southwest will be an incredibly interesting job, as jobs go, to get her out of debt!

With this new job, Katie learned that she won’t be able to be in the Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon this Saturday morning as that is the day she starts in Portland after a training day in Oakland. She has been training for that run for months. It was going to be fun to cheer her on in Seattle. I love that city.

Thank you for the Father’s Day calls; they mean so much to Dad. It was so cute to hear Jenna and Rebekah in their sweet tones to say Grandpa Bea-Ver-Ton. We had a delightful call from Nate that just reminds us of how fun he is to be around and how he makes us laugh. He talked of the Gospel Doctrine class he taught last week and then said, “I must have done a good job. Even people who wouldn’t want to date me gave me pretty good compliments.” I guess I don’t understand the singles ward protocol in that I didn’t realize that you only compliment people so they will notice you and ask you out!!! I remember when he was a freshman at BYU and was so excited to teach Sunday School since he thought it would be a “chick magnet.” Those probably weren’t his exact words.

Dad’s Father’s Day was made more memorable as he said that he wore one of Grandpa Bitter’s ties to have something of his father’s. And now, today is Grandpa Maldonado’s birthday (since I am STILL writing this letter into Monday). I am looking forward to Dad using my Father’s Day present to him since it is a guided bike tour of the Portland waterfront. That will be so cool! Grandma searched on line and found a place that sells packets of chocolate like hot chocolate from Spain!

Here is some family news: Grandma Bitter told us that Bryan and Allison Bitter in Las Vegas are expecting in December!

This weekend there were some exciting new changes with my SendOutCards business; they added a photo editor like Photoshop to the system. I am going to LOVE that feature! They also changed my web page and actually gave me two web pages to explain the wholesale/business side and the other explains the retail options of my business. Now, if a person just wants to use my system to send a few cards instead of paying a fee for the program, they can pay as they go. Of course, the 62 or 93 cent card they get with their own system is now $2.99 but that pays postage and they didn’t sign up for anything (just saved a trip to the store and mailbox). VERY COOL! I haven’t figured out HOW that works; I just now that is an option now. It is going to be very nice; I just haven’t had much chance to check it all out. Besides, they said more people have been on the site this weekend than on their biggest days during the holidays so it has been slow since they learned they needed to add bandwidths??? Another great addition is they are paying me more to train people to use the system . . . woohoo! It just keeps getting better! Check out my new webpage to see the new stuff at sendoutcards.com/cardsbylori.

Cross your fingers that summer will peak it head from behind the clouds and drizzle here! I love you! Love, Mom

June 14, 2010

Dear Children,

It is summer here! Or, at least it was this weekend. It was a good thing for all the Rose Festival celebrations over the weekend and also for Adrianne’s Helvetia Half Marathon. It was great to have her here for the weekend for that and for some visiting. She came in on Thursday and left last night just in time to pass Aunt Denise in the airport, who is here visiting Grandma Maldonado until her birthday(Denise’s) on the 17^th.

Adrianne had an excellent run. She had been sick earlier in the week so was a bit worried since she hadn’t been able to train for almost a week. But she and Sharon Gueck ran the half marathon in 2 hours and 17 minutes which is really good. You may be able to see form the picture that the run is in the country. Dad and I biked to about her 11 mile marker to get a picture of her. Then, in order to avoid the roads of the runners, we had to make a huge loop to get back to the end point at the Hillsboro Stadium but we didn’t get back in time to hear Adrianne’s name announced as she came in. She looks very happy in this picture but on Sunday, she could barely walk as her knees were hurting so badly. She wore her half marathon shirt from the Provo run that she and Aubrey were in. I am glad she did as it helped her stand out.

Speaking of Provo and BYU colors standing out, Adrianne had Dad open his Father’s day present early. It was wrapped in BYU paper and it was a BYU T-shirt. It is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of the BYU era in our lives with our last child graduating from there this next year. We had a quick Father’s Day gift opening in between Adrianne and Katie going to singles ward, having a quick dinner with Grandma here and then rushing to the airport before a Primary teacher meeting at our home last night. Adrianne also wanted to practice an ice cream cake that she was planning to make for Blake’s birthday this coming week, a German chocolate, four layered cake filled with chocolate chips, coconut, carmel, Score candy bar pieces, cool whip and two flavors of Tillamook ice cream. So, she made an ice cream cake for Miss Kitty’s birthday! It was yummy; too bad Miss Kitty didn’t get a piece!

Meeja was able to stay extra days here in Beaverton and with that extension, she saw Adrianne for a few hours. She went with me to the airport on Thursday morning to pick up Adrianne and to Portland to pick up Adrianne’s marathon packet and registration. We had time to kill before a hair cutting appointment so we went to lunch at Bridgeport. Then, Meeja and Adrianne kept them selves busy at Bridgeport waiting for me before we drove to meet Georgia so Meeja could return home. Meeja remembered going to Bridgeport to a concert last year where she spent lot of her listening time there playing on the slide and children’s playground. It was raining though so she couldn’t slide this time with Adrianne.

Katie was able to work with the singles ward on the Rose Festival floats for Family Home Evening this week. I have done that before and think it is fun. It is especially fun to watch the parade for “your” float after you have been a volunteer. I don’t think she got to the parade though. I am sure the parade was especially packed since the weather was so nice that day. Adrianne was at the barn Saturday afternoon while we spent the afternoon in the garden. I am excited to see what changes will be in the garden with some sunshine! It is also time to get out and get some strawberries for some jam.

On Friday afternoon, Katie and I were at a funeral for 13 year old Natalee Walton. I am not sure how many of the children of the Walton family were your ages; just the younger part of our family probably. They live in Summerlake Ward so they would have been Southridge students. She died of a rare form of cancer; it was diagnosed about this time last year. They still haven’t figured out exactly what Risa Whitaker’s cancer is but started her on a chemo for what it “might” be. They will know in a few weeks if this treatment has made any difference. There are certainly a lot of hardships going on right now. They released Robin as Relief Society president yesterday considering her efforts need to be turned toward Risa right now. Elaine Green is our new RS president and I think she will be great.

What a difference a week can make! Last week we walked into church through torrential down pour and this Sunday it was beautifully warm on a sunny Sunday morning. We had a great sacrament meeting this Sunday. It is always nice to walk into church and be excited for who is sitting on the stand. That is the way I felt when I saw Kathleen Westhora up there. The topic was the Atonement. Both she and Eric Motto had very good messages. Kathleen reminded us of the principle of the Atonement “covering” our repentant sins because of the Hebrew meaning of the word so that is my final thought for this update:

Take advantage of the Atonement through repentance so that Christ’s gift to us is not wasted and CAN cover our sins. I love you all! Love, Mom

June 6, 2010

Dear Children,

Even though we had buckets of rain today, Friday and Saturday have smelled more like summer. Of course, the those two days it did not rain so maybe that is an important factor! One of the smells of summer (for me) is the sun hitting the wood deck; the smell of warm wood. That is one of the first smells of the day for me since our sliding door is usually open and I wake up to that smell (on days when the sun is unobstructed by clouds in the morning).

The dry weather for a couple of days allowed for more outings with Meeja. She LOVES riding her bike while she is here. She graduated to Adrianne’s Lion King bike. Even though it is a larger bike, Meeja has better balance on it. It also tires her out faster! We took her and Eden to Hiteon where they played quite contently in two different parks there. Still, they were able to find mud and Eden came home muddier than her brothers who we met in the cul-de-sac just as they returned from the Fathers and Sons campout.

Friday night, Meeja and I were invited to the Whisenant’s home for a “Girls Night In” since all the dads and brothers were away for the campout. We had snacks and painted nails. Meeja’s toe nails are purple with a splash of glitter. But Meeja has an early bedtime (she sleeps a long time to recharge for the next day), so we left before the Enchanted movie started.

Even though there are times when it is apparent that Meeja is missing her siblings we all extended her trip a few more days. She will stay here until Wednesday or Thursday. It is fun getting lots of attention when you are the only one here but it doesn’t compare to having playmates your age whom you love. She didn’t even have her Aunt Katie here to tease and joke with for part of her visit. This will be a long time for a five year old to be away for the first time; we will have to see how this goes.

This picture is of Meeja’s very elaborate tea party set up. All the stuffed animals and dolls were set up just so and even the silverware was placed with care. I was very impressed. She asked for me to take a picture but then asked me to redo the pictures “so everyone’s eyes showed up in the picture!” Grandma Maldonado was on her way over that day to pick up Meeja to go shopping and dinner at Dairy Queen. On her OWN, Meeja thought to turn the whole tea party set up so Grandma could see it without walking downstairs!

Katie went on a quick trip to Oakland for her Southwest job possibility. They asked her to fly there on Friday morning to get fingerprinted for their background check and then fly back that afternoon. Well, true to form Katie style, she connected with Aubrey during the day and got her return flight changed so she could spend the night with them and go to a, you guessed it, BASEBALL GAME! She took BART into San Francisco while Aubrey and the boys were in appointments and then met their family back at the Oakland A’s stadium for the game. One quick trip to California to get fingerprinted at Southwest plus a sourdough sandwich on the Wharf and an In and Out Burger before the ball game!

Even though most of Meeja’s days here were wet ones, we squeezed in a trip to the zoo. It was wet but the rain had stopped for a few hours while we were there. Adrianne’ Sub Bears were both out so we captured a shot of Vivian and Jody behind Meeja (if you look really close)! The zoo is always a great visit but it felt like we were there with every school in the area. There were busses galore as everyone must have been on their end-of-the-school year fieldtrips.

We had an early birthday celebration on Sunday for Meeja. Meeja called it the “fake birthday”. The first night we were here, Meeja wanted to have spaghetti since she knew Sunhee was having spaghetti for her own birthday. When I asked what we should have for dinner for her birthday celebration, Meeja asked for spaghetti again! Meeja has had fun making Halboji bread a couple of times during this visit.

We had Primary CD’s playing all day today and it was fun to hear Meeja singing along. I remember the days when all of Scott and Kyre’s children would set up a “stage” and sing with amazing recall and clarity any chance they got.

Katie is back home and waiting to hear from Southwest. They told her it could take about two weeks for the back ground check. She is pretty excited about this opportunity.

We were supposed to see Sunhee play softball earlier this week, on Tuesday evening, but it was rained out. So, instead, we took Sunhee and Meeja to dinner to celebrate Sunhee’s birthday the night before her actual birthday. I remember some of those rainy springs where it felt like more ball games were cancelled than played.

I love you. Have a great week ahead. Adrianne comes for a marathon this weekend!

Love, Mom

May 31, 2010

Dear Children,

Already so close to the month of June and I haven’t started most of my projects I planned for the spring. I will have to move faster this summer. I was very excited when Dad said that my seeds have sprouted. I was sure that all this rain would have drowned the poor babies! Our garden just needs a little sunshine and it will surely take off. I hope the warm weather comes around sometime in the summer months!

I have a lot to cover to close up the month of May: Last Sunday was a wonderful day. Even though we were all fasting for some difficult decisions, I felt uplifted with a delightful day: an excellent sacrament meeting on service plus a fun and challenging opportunity to teach a Spanish family about the Faith in God program and introduce one of their sons to our baptismal packet. I felt very happy that I was able to set up the appointment in Spanish since it was with vocabulary that I could choose. This family lives in downtown Portland, on the east side, so they are not really in our Spanish group boundaries. They are hard to catch so I made the appointment and I was there within an hour; just enough time to run home and frost some cupcakes to take.

The nine year old son did most of the translating since I had to use lots of words that weren’t familiar to explain the programs. But it was a fun challenge. I am just so relieved that I was able to set it up in person at church since it is so hard to speak Spanish over the phone (not able to speak Spanish without my hands!). I felt an extra blessing driving toward their home as I was trying to remember the word for workbook and it came to me after all these years. It makes me happy to get to know the Spanish sisters in our ward. Did I tell you I was taking a Spanish class with them?

Sunday night was a great close to the day; it was the last Encore fireside of the year. That fireside always gets to me. It is a familiar flood of memories of loving the times when you were all mostly under on roof here at home (or came home every summer at least!). Certain songs alway bring a tear as I reminisce and miss a “simpler” time. They sang, He Leadeth Me” and “Beautiful Savior”. This year they added a new song to their repertoire, “The Olive Tree” and it took me back to that richly spiritual time with many missionaries from our home coming and going and Heidi singing that song just after her mission.

Risa Whitaker had the strength to sing with the choir that evening which was awesome but not as inspiring as her testimony during the performance of her gratitude for everything the Savior had given her!!! Even with all the specialists and sending her lab work all over the country, they still cannot diagnose her cancer. A couple of weeks ago when her mother was franticly asking the doctors what they could do without knowing the origin of the cancer, the doctor kindly told Robin that there was no longer a rush to catch it “early” since it was already an advanced stage when they started testing her.

The word is just getting out since Risa didn’t want to feel odd or be treated “differently”. That is why I haven’t said anything. Adrianne read a remark from Railee on Facebook about fasting the prior Tuesday. I am glad that Adrianne called me about that as the Fast Sunday before I felt lousy about my fast so it gave me another chance! Risa had been in pain for a long time; they were treating it as if it was a pulled muscle in her abdomen. On Conference Sunday Robin decided it must be something more, so this struggle to learn what type of cancer it is has been going on just since the beginning of April. They figure that it is some kind of juvenile cancer.

Speaking of Adrianne, she went to a horse show for the therapy barn and showed Patriot, a horse, for whom she has been the only trainer. She was pleased with the results at the show and all the attention the horse received when other owners learned the horse was newly broken in. No wonder the owner of the barn loves her so much! Well, besides she is Adrianne. Adrianne will be home just a short time. She is staying a bit after Spring term to babysit for Blake’s sister’s children. She figured out that the income from that and being able to continue working at the Sun Bear lab would be better than trying to get a short term job here in Portland. She is also going back to Provo early to go to a Severson Family Reunion in Bear Lake!!! This will be her longest time in Utah through the summer. I am still debating on Education Week; Carol Stanger keeps asking me to commit and I just do not feel comfortable about it yet.

Dad and I had a great chapel session at the temple the last week. The temple president spoke; they have served as missionaries in Africa and were there when at least one temple was dedicated. They talked about the difference of a temple being built where just a few members had already gone through the temple. Just think about that first day that the temple was open with so few workers or helpers who have ever been endowed! It was of course full for quite a few days!

Katie came home from Reshea’s this week. She was there helping her carry around JJ and other chores since Reshea broke her knee. Those two have fun together; I am glad that they have that relationship. Katie can be a great helper. Katie came home to go to an interview with Southwest Airlines. Now, that is a job we would all cheer for her to get! We were all too excited about the prospects of the job benefits so I know that we all bugged her way too much about it afterwards while Nate was here. He does have good ideas about making an impression on an employer. Zappos is a sought after company so they go through lots of applicants.

Nate is launching something new with some kind of interfacing with FaceBook and Google together and it is too complicated for me since I am admittedly FaceBook challenged. What he does for Zappos sounds amazing and he spends such a huge amount getting Zappos in the right place on the internet. In the last six months it was about 4 or 5 million in just his apparel section alone.

Nate is very wise. I think he did not get enough lime light in our home growing up as he always amazes me with his smarts and wisdom (well I always knew how smart he was). But he is NOT just the little brother anymore; he is a powerhouse. He was here for the weekend. He went to his friend’s wedding in Texas and then was kind enough to join us for the holiday. That was a real treat. He also treated us to freshly butcher cut steak. He kind of rumpled his nose when he heard I bought steak for a barbeque because he knows just what he likes. And he is kind! He is polite to his mom and very kind to his grandma!!!

We ended his visit on Monday with a trip to the cemetery to put some of our beautiful peonies on Grandma and Grandpa Luman’s graves and go to one of Nate’s favorite spots, Mongolian Grill. Brothers beware tonight!

My last institute class for the season was this week. I am going to miss it over the summer. We studied some quotes form Harold B. Lee is which he taught that the brother of Jared came to the conclusion that before he is worthy to seek a blessing, he must keep the basic laws upon which the blessing he seeks are predicated. It reminded me of the importance of plugging away at doing the basics; such a simple and yet hard principle.

In Moroni 8:6 we read that Satan has no restraints when enough people quit striving to have the spirit. We discussed a list of ways to guard against that and I forget at this moment in conference who said these; was it Elder Holland?

1- Exercise more self control over marginal things

2- Replace lewd thought with hopeful images and joyful memories

3- Cultivate and be where the Lord is

4- Seek help and pray without ceasing

5- Separate self from temptation

Mainly I took from Sister Beck’s message in conference (that we discussed also in class) that we learn more from the scriptures the more we read them: duh! But, it is because we gain a familiarity and comfort with the Spirit. That is what we need! I am going to miss those weekly lectures. My goal is to read at least one conference talk a day. I have listened to them several times as exercising on our iTouch (thank you children again)!!!

Last weekend Adam and Dad went to Father’s and Sons down south. Dad always looks forward to that weekend. Of course, they are always the stalwarts of the group in good or poor weather. It rained a ton on their camping trip. Dad just folded up the last tent a couple of days ago; it had been drying out over the ping pong table downstairs! Adam as always, is the king salamander catcher of all the boys in the campsite. Sorry, no pictures though this year.

You are all aware of the continual need to pray for a good home for Meeja. Ron and Angie have decided that there home will not work for her. Thank you for keeping up on your prayers and pondering. Thank you for being aware of family and close friends who may be looking for a child. During these last weeks of being so consumed with worry about Meeja’s circumstances, Alina and Kyre had some rough times also so please keep them all in your prayers.

Now here is some goodness that Sunhee is spreading: I asked Angie what the girls needed for their birthdays and she said summer church dresses. Angie told me that Sunhee does not like to wear the tank-dresses that Angie buys her for church since “they don’t cover my shoulders”.

We love you all and especially we love your visits!!! Tomorrow Meeja is coming to spend some time with us. Love, Mom

May 10, 2010

Dear Children,

I am SO happy. I was able to get to the store, buy most of my plants and get back in time to be at the temple for Jim Floyd’s sealing on Saturday morning. Then after their open house in the afternoon, Dad worked with me to get all the plants in. I love having most of the garden done. I just have to get some carrot, pumpkin and bean seeds and find an Early Girl tomato plant. I tried a new one this year, Willamette, but I still have to have the old faithfuls!

Sister Floyd died last year and he met someone from Virginia. I think she looks a lot like Marie. Two of his girls were here; the children had a hard time with it being so soon and the fact that it was their first Mother’s Day weekend without Marie. Plus, Miriam is having a rough year as she also lost her husband. Well, he didn’t die; he just is addicted to video games and does not want to work or be married or have a family. For a time she was going to move into the empty Crandall’s home until they got back. That would have been nice for her since there are so many neighbors who she knows here.

So, we had garden-planting weather on Saturday but we are back to the rain today. I think everyone here is so ready for it to warm up. Is it unusually cold everywhere?

While Aubrey was still in Utah, she and Adrianne ran a half marathon, in the pouring rain! That was May Day in Utah!!! Adrianne is “training” for a half marathon here in Oregon on June 12. She is running it with Sharon DeFord.

That same day, Kyre moved to a new place in Albany. She is very excited about it now that she has a garage (which she wants to convert into a play room for big toys), her own washer and dryer and three bedrooms. That will be very nice since Adam is there every weekend and will be moving in after school is out. They are walking distance to his new school in the fall. She has the same phone number and her new address is: 968 22^nd # C Albany, Oregon 97322 We saw her place on that first Sunday and she had already done quite a bit of organizing.

While we were fighting the wet spring, Katie was enjoying the sun in Hawaii. She reported that they saw and did quite a bit all over the island with a vey low budget. All six of the friends were very happy to pack their lunches and cook meals in the condo to save money. They only ate one lunch out and that was on Katie’s birthday. Katie also fulfilled a dream and went skydiving on her birthday, in Hawaii no less.

They stayed at Aunt Denise’s home again on the way back and went to an A’s game with Greg, Bryson and Aubrey, San Francisco and even at the last minute, got $25.00 tickets for Wicked that night. How lucky is that!

These past two weeks, Grandma and I have started going to several of her follow up appointments. Since she lives alone and has suffered a stroke, the doctor said that they wanted to be extra careful and test her for many things. I think that is great; I wish we had Kaiser sometimes. All these tests would be costing us an arm and a leg. That has given me more waiting room time so I have tried to catch up on some of my reading.

I found a great article from the Church News about President Monson’s advice to Weber State graduates. It is great advice for all of us. His message was about the choice to be happy and finding joy. He talked about the importance of believing in ourselves, knowing that we CAN achieve what we believe we can do. He admonished us to have courage to live decently.

President Monson taught that we gain courage, strength and confidence by every experience in which we really stop and look fear in the face. He wants us to be able to say, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes my way.” His last challenge to us was to work toward a worthy goal.

I read his message the day after I had a business presentation to a room full of realtors. I worked hard to gain the opportunity but was scheduled at the end of the month so I knew I had weeks to prepare a 20 message in just the 10 minute time slot. Last Monday afternoon I learned that manager had made a mistake and had me on the agenda for the next day’s meeting! I spent the rest of the evening practicing talking fast and deleting much of what I usually would say. I was very nervous but excited for the challenge. I had Dad give me a blessing and that calmed my nerves. It went well. I wouldn’t say that I lived through horror but I did face a challenging situation and came away feeling stronger.

My institute class was on a similar topic as we discussed 4^th Nephi. Our main discussion was that we can’t find happiness but we must make our own happiness.

I had a great Mother’s Day because I was able to really relax and received calls from every one of my children!!! Dad made omelets for breakfast that were loaded with mushrooms and our sacrament meeting was fantastic. Jaime Jorgensen and Andrew Westhora spoke. The bishop called them the designated Mother’s day speakers when they both said that they had already spoken on Mother’s Day in the past. Andrew (Andy to all of you) had some great lines. He said that Dayle told him his topic should be “the sacrifices he made in his life to make his mother look successful”!!!

Grandma came for dinner and we invited the four missionaries so we had a full table.

Adrianne had an interesting Mother’s Day weekend. She and Blake drove from Utah to Sacrament for a Saturday wedding of one of Blake’s cousins and then onto Hughson, where he lives. They spent Mother’s Day there and then drove back to Provo through the night Sunday night. Ouch!

I love all of you and thank you for all the calls. Love, Mom

April 30, 2010

Dear Children,

Another incredible trip is past and of course, I feel behind in writing about it and getting our photos organized. Mas vale tarde que nunca! Nevertheless, I wish to get my thoughts onto paper while they are still fresh. I usually get back from a trip and spin my wheels while I get back to speed but I have hit the Beaverton ground running since returning on Monday evening.

As you know, Grandma was hospitalized this past weekend while we were away. Thankfully she has a great ward who adores her and rallied around her. Friends went in and cleaned up after she was sick for an entire evening. A couple of sisters brought her some food and cleaned her refrigerator when she returned. One sister, Cathy (her new best friend!), even offered to sleep on the couch Sunday night, the first night that she came home from the hospital even though she has a newly adopted baby! She has three beautiful vases of flowers in her living room to brighten things up while she recuperates.

This was really a scare for Grandma and the rest of the family. She had a stroke in the cerebellar vermis area of the brain which controls speech, memory and vision but she has been very lucky to not feel too many side affects. She tires easily and still gets headaches when she is trying to remember something or concentrate on something. She also is very light sensitive so everything that could cause her headaches before is even more intensified.

We visited the doctor today and although they cannot really say exactly what caused the stroke, they think a small piece of plaque from some veins came loose and traveled to the brain until it got stuck in those skinny vessels and caused a blockage. It is very good that Grandma finally called 911 to get help from what she thought was a massive migraine all night. Her doctor has ordered lots of new tests to get to the bottom of the problem which we hope will all take place in the next couple of weeks since he would like her not to start driving until the tests are done.

Luckily, she may start exercising again since she still wants to work on getting her legs feeling better from the Spain trip. Her visiting teacher just signed up for the same gym so they will be able to go swimming together which is great news. She needs to be on a low cholesterol, low sodium diet so some of her favorite fast food treats and grocery store simple prepared meals will have to be spaced out. I told her that this will help her clean out her freezer and update her food storage. She feels fairly good so she will be getting stir crazy as she recuperates. Too bad all of you didn’t live closer as one of the internet articles she read said playing games was good therapy for this kind of stroke. And you know how she would love that! Maybe this will be a good reason for her to start a game night like she has wanted to before.

In between coming home from Spain and driving to Utah for Katie’s graduation and Aaron’s 30^th birthday celebrations, Heidi and Ainsley came to visit Scott for his birthday. It was so nice to be able to spend alone time with Ainsley while Heidi visited Scott on Sunday and Monday. She is such a doll baby with a delightful personality and easy temperament and those big eyes just capture your heart! It is too bad we were so busy playing with her that we forgot to take any pictures!

Ainsley loves the outdoors. One of the days that she was here I took her for a walk to the grocery store. She loved it so much that I kept her out longer as I spent some time outside weeding the front planter boxes and cutting tulips for a friend, Karen Powell, whose 91 year old mother passed away. Actually, I visit teach Karen but she has become a friend after visiting her for several years. Isn’t that wonderful about our church assignments? I would have never gotten to know Karen and her husband since they are never at church. Heidi was also away for part of Sunday so Dad and I got to take a baby to church. Dad busied her completely with the pictures in the miniature Children’s Songbook. She was enthralled looking at those pictures; can you believe that? She is just a doll! It was a very good sacrament meeting and one of my favorite quotes from one of the speakers was an Abraham Lincoln quote, “Most people are just as happy as they deice to be.” or something like that.

The day after Heidi and Ainsley left, Dad and I drove to Utah. Grandma was planning on coming but after a scare with her doctor wanting her to get an immediate CAT scan on her legs late Monday evening, she decided it was best to rest up from the affects of the Spain trip rather than make that big trip.

Most of the family gathered in Utah for the graduation ceremonies. We missed Nate and Scott’s family (Wendi left the morning after we got there so we only saw her for a short visit and to get some of her things to store at Grandma Bitter’s home over the summer). TJ and Kelly had just had their baby boy, Skyler, so we all landed at Aunt Julie’s home, which was perfect for our crowd. It was so nice of them to let us stay there. They were in Belize so the home was empty. I remember the days before leaving for Spain and having to leave tour home ready for a couple of families to stay in while we were gone; it makes more work. So, we are very grateful to Uncle Randy and Aunt Julie to be willing to do that on short notice.

Both graduation exercises were very good. I remember sitting in the big one in the Marriott Center on Thursday reflecting on Katie’s college years. Katie has always done things in a big way. I remember the day she opened her BYU acceptance letter and the first thing she screamed was, “I am going to Disney World!” We had a family reunion planned by Aunt Carolyn and if Katie had to go to summer session to get into BYU, she would have missed the trip. Since her acceptance was for the fall, she realized Disney World was a go! And “go” has been her mantra all throughout her years culminating with the amazing acceptance for her dream internship with the KSDK TV Station in St. Louis, one of her favorite cities during part of baseball season right next to Busch Stadium home of “her team” the Cardinals! Katie enjoys life in a big way.

2010 Outline for Sharing Time

After the Friday graduation ceremony, Dad and I traveled up to Daybreak to visit Rebekah’s Kindergarten class. She has a wonderful school with lots of fun and interactive areas in her own classroom. After she finished giving us a tour of her classroom, she rushed over to another part of the school and bravely auditioned in front of three teachers for a part in the school talent show. She had cute actions to a snowman medley.

The nieces and nephews all had a treat visiting the barn where Adrianne’s volunteers. She trains Fox Trotters to prepare them to be ridden by children with handicaps, mostly RAD syndrome and autism. Unlike all the years at Cheveaux Training Stables where novice riders rarely came close to even sitting on one of the horses, the owner surprisingly allowed each of the older grandchildren to have a turn riding one of the horses! They were so excited and so were we. They were having the time of their lives just feeding the horses earlier before we went into the barn.

Snow was predicted on our way into Utah so we experienced an unusual mix of weather there. On Saturday we had the wonderful chance to sit at a BYU baseball game in the warm sun just as if we had been enjoying beautiful spring weather the entire trip! Some of the family even got a sun burn there was so much sun that day. Shawn and Aubrey’s boys were treated to a personal visit from Cosmo!

There was lots of celebrating and fun and games over the weekend. It was just so wonderful to be able to gather so much of the family. On Sunday we attended Adrianne’s church, which was an excellent meeting, after Dad and I went with Grandma Bitter to her sacrament meeting. Afterwards we relaxed at Grandma’s and had a feast for Aaron’s birthday. I cannot believe he is 30 already! We were able to get in some good visiting time and back yard play time. The grandchildren are all so lucky that they have such fun and attentive uncles and aunts. We were also able to meet Adrianne’s boyfriend, Blake, over the weekend. He was a sport and went along to most all of the family events and played right along with us.

Most all of the travelers went home on Monday. Aaron and Morty flew home early that morning. We took them to the airport and then drove home from there. Shawn left the evening before to get an early start on his drive. He was driving alone since Aubrey and the boys were staying for her sister’s graduation the next weekend. Katie drove to the Bay Area with four of her friends to meet up with another friend and fly to Hawaii for the week. They stayed overnight at Aunt Denise’s home in Antioch and had a blast there. Aunt Denise had bought them all Antioch, California T-Shirt and they got a big kick out of that! Adrianne will stay in Utah for spring semester and hopefully be home for summer and get a short term job before going back to school.

Since we have been home, dad has had lots of work to catch up on and I have been trying to help Grandma Maldonado and also get things ready for the garden planting. It is that time of year . . hooray! Today is Katie’s birthday. . . woohoo! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!!

I love you! Love, Mom