September 20, 2010

Dear Children,

I will try and write just a quick update for the past week so I don’t get so behind again. It is hard to break away from a huge Christmas project I am trying to finish before I leave for Utah. I want to be able to clean up my mess so Katie doesn’t have to look at for over a week while I am away! The stark reality of it being October when I return is quite a jolt. Besides all the fun preparations for the holiday, wedding planning and the visits we have planned (and are trying to plan with Shawn and Aubrey!) in the next couple of months, this can be the busiest time for our card business since it has such a wonderful system for sending Christmas cards. We are both excited for the months ahead.

It wasn’t a very newsy week for us. We are both busy with our projects and we feel very blessed that the concrete jobs have picked up in the last couple of months. Our immediate goal is to be booked up through November and create awareness with all our previous clients that we are still going strong so we might get used during the winter. New construction used to carry us through the winter but that is a thing of the past for the time being in this area. We just have been so pleased to stay as busy as we have been. We hear it is supposed to be a very cold winter this year.

This week we were able to use some Groupon coupons that we have had for quite some time. For Mother’s day, Katie had given me a manicure-pedicure coupon and bought one for herself. This week we finally got our schedules together to make it happen. I haven’t had a manicure for years. I like having my nails painted; it will be a challenge to keep it looking nice.

On Saturday Dad and I went on a Portland Bike Tour. It was another Groupon purchase; it was Dad’s Father’s Day present. We had great fun. It was a two hour tour of the Portland waterfront; up and down both sides. I want to follow the same trail again soon, so I don’t forget all the turns that kept us on good biking roads. It would be something that would be fun to do on one of your visits here. We stopped in some spots and heard a little history of the areas.

Speaking of bikes, the past few weeks, Dad has been following the Vuelta a España, a three week bike race all over Spain. He has followed where they will be to be able to also watch for the countryside that we saw. The day I enjoyed most was watching them ride up a ski resort road that was steeper than Weir Road, unbelievable! There is a bike ride coming up in October that Dad would like to try and do. It is on the second weekend in October when we have the grandchildren. He could choose one of the shorter routes that go through the country roads around Hillsboro. I think it would be kind of fun for the grandchildren to be able to watch him go by in some of the areas.

We enjoyed our visit with Scott this week. He seemed understandably down saying he has hard a hard couple of weeks with Kyre’s divorce plans and some of her other decisions about the children. It was great to hear him talk about how his roommate is someone with whom he is most comfortable. He is someone he trusted when he went to OSP in the beginning. Steve is applying for vocational training that is available in Salem so that means he may be able to stay until his release date in 4 ½ years.

Well, not much news but just an update. We love you and pray for each one of you! Love Mom

September 13, 2010

Dear Children,

I finally just spent the day in my garden and it feels great. The garden has had a weird year; with our unusual weather, so we haven’t harvested much. In fact, when Dave and Karla visited they brought blueberries. I froze some of those since we didn’t get enough blueberries from our plants to freeze this year. Today will be the first batch of tomatoes that I am freezing also. It has been slim pickings. But, our raspberries are sure growing. I have the scars today to prove that I tried to prune the old to help the new shoots for next year.

My early morning was spent in Marilyn Shayegi’s yard. She has beautiful hydrangeas that start turning a lovely bronzed eggplant color that will look wonderful for decorating Adrianne’s reception if I can get them to dry well. I have the garage lined with buckets and vases on this second round of drying; I did some last week from another friend. I am trying to figure out some creative ideas for decorations and such that will keep the costs down. Adrianne and Blake have chosen a date which is Saturday, February 26. She hopes that they can be sealed around 1:00 and then have a dinner reception at Oaks Park Historical Dance Pavilion. Oaks Park will let us do our own food which keeps the price down; Dad and I are in the experimenting phase right now for developing a nice looking but economical dinner for the reception. We had a great chicken Alfredo dinner last night that could work in the budget. Now I am having a bit of heart failure over the thought of finding someone that can run the kitchen and get 150 dinners out at the same time and be hot!

Speaking of food, do any of you have Newport Bay Restaurant by you or is that just in Oregon? They had a special day this week that you could have their fish and chips dinner and “name your price”. It was crowded of course but quite fun and now I know I like their fish and chips. I usually don’t order fish and chips!

In Adrianne’s last year of college she has finally earned a Pell grant; yes! She was so thrilled to learn the news. I told her that I was so pleased that one of our children was able to qualify and she responded by thanking us for not having any money this past year so she could! She also earned a life science department scholarship this year so she has worked hard to help pay for college expenses this year. You know that she is rooming with Grandma this year since she and Blake did not want to get into a housing contract since they were planning on getting married. She is going to be able to learn even more great tips from Grandma. She already loves bread making and has inherited Grandma’s affinity for making things with chocolate. She and Blake have made several dinners there with Grandma and they made yummy apricot jam that we tasted last week.

All of you know the Brady’s good news from last week. They are having a BOY! Heidi looks great. We were there for three days the week before last. After our fun visit with Ben Sparks and Kay Lewis, we decided that we don’t see our cousins very much. When a Spendlove wedding invitation came, we decided to take advantage of Katie’s “travel service” and we flew to Utah from Thursday to Saturday morning. Everyone couldn’t believe that we were leaving before the game but we wanted to get back for Holly Payne’s wedding reception.

We got a real bonus since both Morty and Nate came into town for the game so we got some visiting time with them also. Nate had an interesting girl with him, Heidi Peters, but I guess they are not dating. She was cute and seemed nice, plus she laughed at Nate’s jokes! It was fun to get caught up on all of Nate’s excitement concerning his job possibilities. I told him that he must feel great to be in such demand for his skills. He interviewed with Omniture in Orem, Utah, an online marketing and web analytics company from a lead that Morty game him. He liked the career move for himself and was offered a lot more than he was making from Zappos. He loves Zappos though so he was having a hard time making the decision especially since Zappos offered a new assignment for him to work with FaceBook and go to London for a month or so! He was honest with Zappos that he had been looking elsewhere so they came back with a financial offer that made it too hard for him to leave. So, I guess we are all still able to buy shoes!!! Really though, it must be wonderful to be such a valued employee.

Aaron is working on his web design skills so that he can interview with Zappos. He would be great and would also have fun working with Zappos. His friends from here keep asking when he is moving back but with the housing market as it is, he will be in Las Vegas for awhile.

Aubrey reported that Shawn had another interview with Goldman Sacs. They like him and are trying to figure out where they can put him. I believe that means they would be moving to Utah, although I think that company is also in the Bay Area. Katie told me that she might be flying down to Oakland to see them this week. We are jealous; we have been trying to figure out a time to go there also.

Bill may also be looking at some job changes. The company that he has worked to build on his own is being looked at by his major competitor so Bill and Heidi have some hard decisions to make in the next little while. There are definitely some pros and cons to working for yourself. Bill ran his first half marathon; the Top of Utah in Logan. He looks good running across the finish line.

Speaking of work and working for ourselves, Dad has kept very busy the last month or so. It is great news; we hope we can keep this going for the next several months. Every indicator is that we are supposed to have a very cold, snowy winter.

We did another fair this Saturday with our SendOutCards business; this time it was just Dad and I. It was at Cook Park in Tigard. It was a celebration for the 41^st Brigade that just returned from their second tour of duty in Iraq. We offered a free souvenir with pictures of their family and the several pictures that we took from the parade. The day was beautiful for a parade and festival. You boys might be interested in the little fact that I borrowed the canopy that I used from Dan Lucas, son of Maurice Lucas! He looks just as tall as his dad but not a big.

Kyre told us that Alina is in the road show in their ward, can you believe that she is that old? Remember that I told you I was leaving the ping pong table down so Dad and I could practice so we could play the grandchildren? Well, it is still covered with scrapbook supplies and lots of photos. I am trying to finish catching up Grandma’s books to this year. She knows it will be her Christmas present from us. I have ten years to go! A lot has happened in those ten years.

I saw in the ward bulletin this Sunday that the Portland Temple will be on a one hour schedule instead of every 30 minutes during the week days. That is kind of sad to know that the sessions are small enough to fit on the hour. I get too busy to go to the temple if I don’t schedule it in. That is a great Back to School goal: I want to schedule in more temple attendance!

Now this picture was hard to get! I have wanted a picture of Katie with her uniform on since she started with the airline. She was at the front desk when we came home from Utah. We BARELY cooperated for this picture. And there was no one around so don’t feel sorry for Katie that she was being humiliated!

I love you! Love, Mom

August 22, 2010

August 15, 2010

Dear Children,

So much has happened since I last wrote; I do not wish this to be an epistle so I will briefly talk about the events of the past month. Biggest news in the family:

Adrianne is engaged!

Monday afternoon Blake Severson asked Adrianne to marry him over foil dinners in a park. He knows Adrianne! They were headed to his Severson Grandparent’s family reunion in Bear Lake for three nights so they made their engagement official at the family home evening that night in the lodge. If you want more details, you will have to ask Adrianne. Adrianne was very impressed with the lodging at Bear Lake for a reunion.

Adrianne is here this weekend so we are getting more details and making some preliminary plans. They are deciding between February 25 or the 26th which is surprising to some of the Severson family since they are from California and are worried the weather might be bad in Oregon. I guess coming from Oregon, February is a risk of ice, rain, snow or sun. No month is a guarantee of good weather so we treat every month the same, event planning-wise. What Adrianne does know for sure, and has talked of for years, is that she wants a sit down dinner reception. So, she knows that means she must invite fewer people. We are meeting with Eileen Daniels tomorrow to talk about possibilities. She is good at gathering information from brides-to-be and I want Adrianne to be able to give her a wish list and then make any necessary cuts later on depending on what matters most to her.

Going is reverse order, the next big event was having Alina stay in our home for the past few days. What a delight it was to have her cheery and totally sweet presence in our home. My eyes are watery as I write this as it made us SO happy and we have longed for this time with her. She used to be our fun buddy to spend the night years ago. When she was young and would call to come over, I would have to ask if she asked her parents first since she used to make her “own” arrangements! Now, she is a beautiful young woman.

With Alina, we played lots of games of course, trying not to let her “clean our clocks” so to speak. She brought a new game to us, Phase 10, and Dad really loves it since he won! She loves a challenge and we try to rise to it. We taught her ping pong and by the time she left, she was a challenge to beat at that also. She is also gifted in coordination besides table games. I remember when we took her skiing and as she learned so quickly, she exclaimed, “I am a natural!”

Alina and Adam are planning a garage sale to clean their play area of toys that are no longer being used. So, Alina’s responsibility, besides tagging and pricing, was to make signs. We spent a good portion of the day making quite a few signs. Alina claims to not be artistic but she is very creative and has darling penmanship. Alina said she likes being here alone since all attention was on her; every grandchild needs grandma and grandpa alone time! We adore all our grandchildren.

On the drive up here, Alina told me that she had just set up a FaceBook account before coming so she got the “Grandma Lecture” in the car about not saying anything on FaceBook that you wouldn’t say face to face to someone and that it is “better to be kind than to be right.” She asked me to help her put pictures from her visit on her FaceBook page, if you call it that. So now I am a little less FaceBook challenged since I had to learn how to do that. I love to learn new things. She searched for all her aunts and uncles and sent friend requests. You will have fun seeing the pictures of her; she is gorgeous of course.

She especially wanted to put up pictures of her at the Dew Tour with Aunt Katie. Since Katie worked for NBC at Salt Lake’s Dew Tour, even though she couldn’t get time off to work the event, they gave her an unlimited access pass to go see it. She got one for Alina also which put Alina about 10 feet away from the famous snowboarder, Shawn White. She said he was all sweaty.

Alina came right at a perfect time since it allowed her to spend a few hours with her before she headed to the barn to get ready for her horse camping adventure. They ended up camping on one of the horse owner’s property in Estacada which she said was absolutely beautiful. It was SO hot this weekend and it had a river on the property which was perfect!

On the only full day that Adrianne was here, she wanted to work on a Christmas Tree Quilt that she planned for a friend last December. I had never returned to the one I started for Grandma last Christmas! So, she got me started thinking about those again. I haven’t been able to stop working on them. There is something about sewing a creative piece that is so therapeutic to me. There are many things that I should be doing this week but loved the detour of sewing the tops of some quilts for future gifts.

It was sad to have Adrianne go back to Utah; we have so many things to do to prepare for her wedding. Plus, honestly, it is hard for Dad and I to see the baby of the family move on and get married!

Last Sunday all of church was dedicated to being a disciple of Christ and treating others kindly. We needed to teach that message in our Primary so I used an old visual I had made years ago and told the story of Zelmgid. It is a cute fable that teaches that we need to look for the good in others and be kind to those who are different. Sacrament meeting surprisingly had the same topic. Sister Shayegi was my favorite speaker. She talked about how living the gospel transforms us. Explaining that the Lord sees us a forever person and of course the best in all of us, she quoted President Uchtdorf saying, “Start where you are at to be a disciple of Christ.”

Before Alina’s visit, Adam came for five days. The Brady family was here for part of that time. Adam is a great family person; he loves being around his family. He enjoyed playing with his cousins and especially Uncle Bill. Bill gave him some pointers and taught his some ping pong strategy. By the time Adam left, he had improved so much. I am going to have to leave the Ping Pong table down to practice with Dad so we can be up to the challenge on the next grandchildren visits!

This next week, I will be leaving the table down as it will give Grandma Maldonado and I lots of space to work on her scrapbooks. For her birthday, I gave her five days devoted to catching up her scrapbooks that she and I (and Adrianne also) started the summer before their 50^th wedding anniversary. We got to the 1990’s so we have a ways to go!

August 22, 2010

OK, so it is no longer the 15^th, the day that I started this! I am devoting the entire rest of Sunday to finishing this, except for a short break to go see Brother Salter. Elizabeth passed away this week due to a stroke. She is the Ludlow grandma. I am sure any of your Ludlow friends would love getting a card for you. The Ludlow address is:

14456 SW Arabian Drive Beaverton, OR 97008

My plans this past week were to drive to Utah with Adrianne in her car and stay for Education Week. But, since she no longer was taking the car back to Utah (long story of her having to pay twice to get it fixed, replacing the engine in the end and it costing too much for her to keep any longer), I booked a flight to be able to get to a couple of days at Ed Week. But, I realize that I was just too behind and I wouldn’t be ready for the visit of Dave and Karla’s family if I left so I used the bonus days to sew this week!

Dave and Karla took their family to the coast for a family trip and stopped overnight here on Thursday before they headed to Idaho. It was great to see them. The first place their grown children headed . . . the trampoline! They stayed just long enough to teach us a new card game, Scum. They are the ones that taught us one of our favorite games, Canadian Salad. We have got to go visit them now since we didn’t have enough time for us to play another game that they wanted to teach us!

Dad really loves his biking. Uncle Scott gave him a real biking outfit of which he is very proud. He dreams of having a nice bike like the one that he rode on with Scott in Clovis. He was amazed at the wonderful ride he had there. He went on an early morning three hour ride yesterday and then rode with me to Al’s garden store to check out their crepe myrtle trees after he helped at Stephen Green’s eagle scout project. He got his exercise in!

The last time I wrote, was right before our trip to California. Katie was in Texas for a two-week training for Southwest Airlines in Texas. She sure enjoys her job and has had lots of fun taking advantage of her flying benefits (and so have I!). Adrianne had just arrived and rode with us to Clovis for our family reunion and Grandma’s 80^th birthday party. We left in time to land at the Sacramento airport to pick up Blake and travel to Hughson to his parents’ home. We had a nice visit there, staying the night and eating dinner at Blake’s favorite taco restaurant.

We loved being in Clovis. The Tobler’s place is like staying at an elegant resort with the warm weather, beautiful pool so close and the wonderful clubhouse there. We were all able to gather for snacks all day and dinner the first night since Aunt Carla reserved their clubhouse. On Saturday we returned to swim and then headed to Reshea’s home for the big party. She has an excellent home for entertaining a lot of guests. Aunt Denise planned some fun birthday games for the party and Nate was an excellent MC. I think everyone had a fun time. Aunt Carla even had pressured hoses for a fun obstacle course. Any water games are fun in Clovis with the heat!

Most of the family had to leave on Sunday but we still kept the game playing going at the Tobler’s, playing Pictionary and a fun game of fast charades (I can’t remember the name) and of course, more eating. Aunt Carla did a fabulous job of planned for and creating wonderful meals for everyone.

That afternoon we were also able to celebrate Shawn’s birthday, it is not often when we are with him on his birthday anymore! This was really a treat. With everything else going on, Aubrey tired to make him his favorite banana cake. She didn’t like the way it turned out so she made a repeat just about a week ago and sent me a picture from Martinez!

After everyone headed back to their homes, Aunt Denise and Carla, Grandma and I headed to a relaxing trip to Windsor for a few days. We planned lots of pool time but it was actually colder than expected. It was a huge change from the heat of the Central Valley!

As soon as I came home to Beaverton, I participated in a fair with a booth for SendOutCards as an experiment. It was a lot of work but a great experience; I met lot of nice people. The last evening I rushed home since Kay Lewis and Ben Sparks were coming for dinner on their way out of town; I think it is so cool that they travel so much together. Adrianne was a huge help by preparing the house and helping with the dinner for the visit. Dad made most of the dinner and we played games afterwards. We taught them Canadian Salad. I never realized how much Ben looks like Dad. We need to go to the 24th in Cokeville someday again.

The next day, Heidi and Bill’s family came to Oregon for the Payne family reunion on the coast and stayed here through the week. I think the girls favorite thing to do was play in the yard. It was quite a treat for them since Meeja and Sunhee came to spend one night and then Adam came for the weekend while they were here. Plus, they went and visited Kyre, Klaire and Alina. Adrianne and I took the girls berry picking one morning; they had big purple rings around their lips! We picked boysenberries and we purchased an extra flat this time to make the trip worth while.

The week that the Brady family was here, our cul-de-sac was the place for a huge fundraising garage sale (I mean HUGE) for Risa Whitaker. We used the Jorgenson, Duda, Whisenant and our driveways. They had been storing donations for a couple of weeks at a storage unit and unloaded it with a U-Haul truck. The grandchildren had fun time spending their dollar with all the many choices. Jenna dove into the sea of stuffed animals asking if she could keep each one. She looked so cute. The garage sale earned over $7000.00 for Risa’s expenses.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we also hosted an 80^th birthday party here in Beaverton for Grandma’s friends up here. We had an amazing turn out and oddly enough, so many people were from Hayward! My cousin Connie came with some of her family, the Shumate’s, Marge Wallace, Karen Miller, Gwen Edmunds, Elinor Bailey, and Nancy Welch were all from Hayward First ward. Most of them have moved somewhere in Oregon. Then three of Grandma’s high school friends even came! Plus, lots of her Summerlake ward friends came to the party. We lucked out on the weather; it wasn’t too hot, just perfect so we could use the deck. It was a great gathering.

Dad and I had a nice visit with last Sunday. Luckily, the missionaries were very accommodating, coming later than usual, when I realized that I have invited them on the day we planned to see Scott. Scott has had some great visits with our family and Payne families that have carried him through a most difficult hearing (over the phone for him) with Kyre this past week. Although things didn’t go as hoped, Scott did an EXCELLENT job of representing himself against all odds and laid some great foundation for his ongoing legal work for his post-conviction relief. It will take a few years but if anyone can do it, Scott can! He has worked hard on his case and is now a legal assistant in the law library and has found the strength to work on his own case after finding it just too discouraging for so long. Scott has been running alot outside in the prison yard and also on the exercise equipment inside. He is keeping track of his miles and is running a loop through the western states to visit all the relatives!!! Next he plans to run form Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine.

Whew! I may have forgotten something else but think that just about covers the last month. I need a nap now!

I love you and hope you are planning some good goals for the fall. Love, Mom

July 21, 2010

Dear Children,

One weekend of fun after another: tomorrow we leave for California and last weekend we had Blake Severson and Adrianne here visiting so we went to the coast. They arrived on Thursday evening just in time to visit with Grandma Maldonado before she left for Fresno. On Friday we headed to Gleneden beach. I like that place. It has beach access but you are still on a little cliff over looking the ocean and the pool and hot tub have a view of the ocean. I loved the tennis court also and it would be fun to use their huge open fireplace in the evening behind the recreation room. We should plan a gathering there. They only have four large units though. I am on a waiting list for one in January for my annual Young Women’s retreat. And, it is right next to Lincoln City so there is plenty of shopping and Mo’s close by!

Although it was windy some of the time, the sun was shinning and the weather was clear all the time. We put our feet in the ocean for just a second, walked along the beach, had a campfire on the beach, played tennis, Adrianne ran, played lots of games, ate lots of food (even BBQ linguisa) swam and sat in the hot tub, did a bit of outlet shopping and stopped at Tillamook on the drive home (well, we purposely drove out of the way to go to Tillamook. We packed a lot in a little bit of time.

Adrianne was anxious to show Blake the horse barn so they left for Sherwood shortly after we arrived home from the coast. They didn’t get far and her car broke down again. The same thing happened that she had just paid over 500 dollars to get fixed. She is so disappointed; she had to tow the car to a garage that night.

Blake and Adrianne helped me out by teaching the Sunbeams. They learned the night before that they would have both classes since the other teacher couldn’t find a substitute. They had their hands full since Sunbeams don’t warm up to new teachers so quickly. Adrianne invited several friends over and had a BBQ Sunday evening. They stayed and laughed forever! It was a good mix. Railee was invited but brought Reanna also since they came directly from the singles ward. It was good to see them both laughing. Risa and her family learned this week that the chemo treatment isn’t working which means that the doctors guessed wrong on the origin of the cancer. They knew it was a guess. The doctors gave the Whitakers the name of an organization that helps prepare a family for the last few weeks and months of life with a family member.

Blake wanted to meet Scott so they drove to Salem on Monday morning and had a good visit. Last week he had a great and very promising interview about the job for legal assistant so that is a light of good news for him. We haven’t told him everything about the newest turmoil over his children. Kyre involved the police again and kept Alina for almost a week infuriating her family. Wendi doesn’t let her be alone with Alina and reports (maybe exaggerates) any negative thing she can to the Lane family that is going on in Kyre’s home. It sounds like Adam is acting out terribly while Alina is there and Kyre does not know how to deal with him. I KNOW that he is more scared than angry. I am sure he has overheard other family members saying that Kyre won’t be able to handle more of the children and I bet he is afraid he will lose his home life again. He may have even heard the one Lane sister threaten to report Kyre until she gets all her children taken away if she continues to keep Alina. I am not sure that Adam is even getting Scott’s letters anymore now that he is at Kyre’s home. Kyre has told the judge that she wants no contact with Scott and wants him to have no contact with any of the children. It is all just more pain for Scott to endure. He would love to hear from any of you; even a short note would help. He loves to hear any of your good news or even normal day to day life details. It helps him escape for a moment into someone else’s happiness. Although he has been amazing to find some joy and fulfillment in the worst of circumstances that he finds himself in, he is paying a very lonely, long and difficult price everyday for his poor choices. Our love can help him through these lows. He will have lots of “fresh, new” visitors during the beginning of August with the Payne family reunion on the Oregon Coast.

As of this week, Alina is back with Janara and the Lane family has settled down. I asked if anyone (that Kyre trusts as she has been very cool to us lately) could convince her to get some counseling help for Adam so he can have some help sorting through his feelings. Aunt Lynn and Uncle Mickey have kept guardianship of Adam for this very reason (so Adam cannot be easily displaced again should there be problems with Kyre). Kyre is still talking with Aunt Lynn so she and Mickey have agreed to help Kyre understand that Adam may need some help. He is going to spend several days with us the week after we get back into town. It will be nice for him to get away from the drama. Although the distance we live from those grandchildren has been a hindrance sometimes through all the difficulties of the past three years, it has also been a huge blessing to the children and to us that our home is a safe haven for them to visit and get away when things are too much in the Albany area.

Angie evens reports that Meeja is getting along better after her weeks staying at our home. Not that we did anything differently with Meeja but I think it gave all parties a necessary breather. Every time we have the urge to step in and try and “fix” their lives (if that truly could even be done), we realize the tremendous value it is to have our home be neutral and a loving, restful place for them to come to where they know they are unconditionally loved and adored (and pampered as they should be at their grandparents!). You all can help the children with your regular notes and calls. Most of them remember their aunts and uncles with lots of fun memories.

Cal and Cathy Crandall came home from their year in China last week. We had a dinner at the Chandler’s home for family home evening on Monday. They have some interesting stories; I hope we get to hear more of them when we are home for a space of time.

Adrianne and I were all set to pick tons of boysenberries or Marion berries on Tuesday morning to make lots of jam. But, we were disappointed in the ripeness and taste of the berries. We spent some time trying to search out good berries and finally gave up. I made only two batches of jam. That is too much time and work spent for making so little results. There were lots of people picking but they are picking berries before they get a chance to really ripen. Hopefully most of the pickers will lose interest and there will be some more mature berries next week before Adrianne has to leave town. Heidi said that she and the girls wanted to go pick berries so there will most likely be berries at the end of the week for them to pick. We will have lots of blueberries. This next week is going to be a big week for our bushes; I hope the birds don’t get too many of them before we have a chance to come back and pick them. Everything is very late and with less sun this year, things just don’t taste the same.

When I looked at the three containers of jam that our efforts yielded, I thought of a quote that I just read this week from President Monson. He said, “Time is the raw material of life. Everyday unwraps itself like a gift, bring us opportunity to spin a fabric of health, pleasure and content and to evolve into something better than we are at its beginning. Success is the ratio of your accomplishments to your capacities.”

We have enjoyed some great summer weather this past week. Dad and I enjoyed a beautiful evening at an outdoor concert at Bridgeport. They are always so nice and they are easy to get to which is doubly nice.

We are off to celebrate grandma Maldonado’s birthday in Clovis and then Shawn’s birthday on Sunday!!! Remember to take advantage of your opportunities today! I love you. Love, Mom

July 14, 2010

Dear Children,

This is a normal week in our lives; saying goodbye to some of our visitors, preparing for more to come and guessing which state Katie is in! As of this week, Katie is in Dallas, Texas. Sunday started her two weeks of training at headquarters. But, just the day before she left for Dallas, Satruday she was in Seattle; she drove there with a friend, Keli Maks, and then drove back just in time to catch her plane to Texas.

Sunhee and Meeja went back to Sweet Home Last Tuesday. The neighborhood has been much more quiet with them gone. They ended their stay here with a family home evening around the fire bowl as we roasted marshmallows and Dad gave one of his lessons from Primary about building blocks of the gospel. Both girls were very motivated to memorize Articles of Faith since our ward gives out a Starburst for each one passed off; plus they get to write their names on the big white numbers in the Primary room. It is so fun, and such a great memory of their visit, to look down at the big numbers on the Primary closets and my own grandchildren’s signatures!

On their last day here, Katie, Grandma, myself and the girls went to see Toy Story. It was cute but had a few scary parts (I thought). Plus it was sad as the little boy was going off to college. It made me realize how our family was changing with our last child already a senior in college! It reminded me of the fact that, when your children start leaving for college, things can never be the same again.

Dad and I enjoyed a zoo concert after we hurried the missionaries out the door on Wednesday night. The day was a hot one so it was nice to sit outside on the lawns and listen to music. Neither of us really liked the music but it was just fun to be out.

Speaking of being out, Dad and I did a couple more bike rides this week and then Dad did his age in miles, 64, on the bike on Saturday. He went out to Hagg Lake and back. He watched a triathlon while there. And, speaking of watching, Spain won the World Cup! Woo hoo!!!

Adrianne is happy to be single and childless after watching Blake sister’s children while they were on a trip. She realized how exhausting it is. It sounded like they had a lot of fun going to Seven Peaks Water Park twice and another amusement type park in Lehi. She also went overboard in cooking and cleaning while she was there. I hope she has that drive in her while she visits here!

Adrianne and Blake are coming here tomorrow, Thursday. We will go to Lincoln City (Gleneden Beach) early Friday morning so Blake can see our coast and go to Tillamook of course. I guess that Blake will have to sleep in our guest room with the queen bed since we don’t have any twin extra long beds!

Heidi celebrated her birthday this week. It sounded like she did what all mom’s LOVE, getting treated to dinner out! This has always been one of my favorite pictures from Heidi’s childhood. Can you believe this picture? And we thought that Jenna was Lil’ Bill! Heidi sent dad a belated Father’s day slide show with a surprise ending: a picture of an ultrasound. They are having a baby; due January 19.

This weekend Dad and I were busy with some SendOutCards meetings; they were very good. I also was able to help with a wedding in the ward. The food for the Rilloraza wedding reception was all from the Philippines. It was fun to be taught by their native relatives. I copied one of their family recipes that was so tasty. Oh course, it is not low fat though! On Saturday we also went to Danielle Traynor’s wedding in Battleground Washington. It was good to see some old ward families that we hadn’t seen for a while. I don’t think that many of you knew Aaron and Stephanie Tobacco. He made the most amazing cake that looked like it was covered with a satiny ganache but it was really a thick, smooth butter cream frosting that both looked delicious and tasted that way (unlike ganache covered wedding cakes). We also had a chance to visit with the Uhls family and Johan and Alisa Knight. I just adore that couple!

My Auntie Carmen passed away this weekend. She has been very sick and I think she is very happy to be gone. Uncle Tommy died a little more than a year ago. That is the last of Grandma’s peers in the Maldonado family. I was wishing that my Southwest parent privileges was up and running so Katie, being in Texas, vigilantly watched out for me and I was cleared yesterday! Katie booked me on the morning and evening flight today so I can fly down and attend the funeral and family luncheon and be back home for my Thursday appointments and to prepare for Adrianne’s arrival. Isn’t that the coolest thing? This is so incredibly amazing. THANK YOU Katie!

The funeral was very nice. The priest spoke quite a bit about death being a beginning. He said that death means a butterfly to a caterpillar and it meant eternal life to God. My cousins Johnny, Alice and Johnny Maldonado were there at the funeral and Bud and Juanita Garrigan were there also. Most of the people there were Alga relatives. The luncheon afterwards was typical Maldonado style; lots of food and conversation.

Last night Dad remarked how we could fly down to go to an A’s game with Shawn and Aubrey some night now! I talked to Shawn and he had one all planned for us to go to; one with fireworks the first week in August but the Brady family, Adam and Adrianne will be coming and going that week here. We will just have to find another time; it sounds like fun.

I love you. Enjoy your week and be your very best; keep progressing forward! Love, Mom

July 4, 2010

Dear Children,

Happy 4^th of July! We are having a more quiet 4^th with a trip to walk around the temple, lots of games, a BBQ, roasting marshmallows on our campfire and neighborhood fireworks, most of which we have done earlier in the week. Sunhee and Meeja say we are having three days of fireworks since we saw a huge fireworks display at the St. Paul Rodeo on Friday night lit of some of our small fireworks after we roasted marshmallows last night and tonight we will light the rest of our fireworks and watch the neighbor in the cul-de-sac.

Sunhee and Meeja came to our home on Wednesday and we have been going full seam ahead ever since. The first thing that they wanted to do was pick raspberries. That night, after our barbeque and playing games with Grandma Maldonado, we enjoyed our fresh berries over ice cream. Our raspberry plants have done really well for being so young. Actually, they aren’t really young since they were transplanted from the Jones family yard before they left on their mission.

Our yard is weird this year because of so much rain and the lack of sun; everything will be late. If we get blessed with lots of sunny days, we will have great blueberries since many are so plump this year. By July 4^th we usually have lots more ripe blueberries although; Meeja has found some ripe blueberries. She is a big fruit eater.

The sun wasn’t out much on Thursday so it was a perfect day to go to the zoo. It was the first time Sunhee had seen the new African exhibit. They had fun with the African drums and Sunhee did well at racing the cheetah; one of the interactive exhibits that tests your running speed against the normal speed of a cheetah. We always send a picture of the Sun Bears to Adrianne when we visit the zoo but they weren’t out that day so no picture! The bird show was open so we ate our lunch (that the girls made) while waiting for that. It started raining just as we left. We had planned to stop at the Chandler’s and pick snow peas so we put up our hoods and still accomplished that. We had planned to use them in our stir fry; they were so good.

We spent most of the day on Friday at Grandma Maldonado’s home. While I cleaned her place and organized one of her closets, she kept the girls busy playing Racko and Uno. Plus the girls helped me with some smaller organizing projects to finish the closet. In the end, she treated them to Taco Bell for lunch.

That night we drove to St. Paul for the rodeo. The girls had fun picking out dinner from among all the greasy, salty, fat laden fair-type foods there at the rodeo! It was a grandchild’s dream. We drew the line to cotton candy; I hate that stuff. Maybe it is because I begged my parents for a cotton candy maker and we got it one Christmas. Every time we would use it, you would get a sugary sticky face and hair. If I remember it being a mess not worth the candy, I wonder what fond memories Grandma Maldonado has of it!

The rodeo was great, lots of variety. I think the girls enjoyed the most watching the clown on his motorcycle and the wild horse race where teams of three huge men tried to capture horses that weren’t saddle broken. They had to catch it, saddle it and then race it from one line to another. In some cases, all three would hang on and get drug all over! After a great rodeo, there was a huge firework display to patriotic music.

Saturday we spent the entire morning weeding and spreading a trailer load of bark dust. It looks great. Even Eden Whisenant was one of our workers since she wanted to “play” with the girls. We had an ice cream sandwich break just once for energy to finfish the job. We walked to the fireworks tent at Haggen to buy fireworks but after Sunhee and Meeja saw what little their money could buy, we decided to shop else (after buying Pop Its to defend themselves from all the little neighbor boys). It was sunny enough to put the sprinkler under the tramp on the slide so the girls got in some fun water time while Dad and I harvested out huge crop of garden weeds that the rain gave us.

The girls enjoyed Noble Whisenant’s baptism and picking up fireworks and pizza on the way home. After pizza, Sunhee made a beautiful teepee fire in Dad’s metal campfire and we roasted marshmallow and made s’mores with Grandma Maldonado. The girls shot off a couple of their fireworks.

The girls were excited when Aunt Katie was able to be at sacrament meeting with us. She also made some blueberry cupcakes for us so we decorated them with pink frosting so they were “red”, white, and blue! After church we went to walk the grounds of the temple. We filled the afternoon with games and another barbeque before the neighborhood fireworks where Sunhee wowed the crowd with her amazing jump rope skills with a glow jump rope! The girls lit off all the fireworks that they so carefully picked out and enjoyed all the other neighbor’s loot! Ken Chung and his fiancé, Diane, were up from California for the week. They are getting married next July 15 so they are busy picking out the place they will have their wedding and reception. His teaches English at Mt. Eden High School in Hayward!!!

We hope you enjoyed your Fourth of July weekend. The girls enjoyed calling all of their grandparents and great grandparents (for whom we had phone numbers). Grandparents love being remembered on holidays. I love you! Love, Mom

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