August 4, 2011

Dear Children,

The last couple of weeks have been filled with fun with the grandchildren. I drove down and picked up Alina, Adam and Klaire on a Thursday and they stayed until Sunday night. The fun thing was that Sunhee and Meeja came on Saturday so they had two days of playing together.

We lucked out on the weather for most of their visit. I took Alina, Adam and Klaire to the zoo on their first day here. We walked the zoo opposite of the way we normally walk which was nice since the crowds went the traditional way.

Wow, we were awaken during the night with an incredible lightening and thunder storm very early last Monday morning. We woke up to the house shaking with some of the thunder. The rain was even loud and as thought my hopes of picking boysenberries with Sunhee and Meeja were dashed, Dad was worried about his pour at the temple. Luckily, by morning the rains were done and we had a nice day for concrete and berry picking.

Dad’s work at the temple is not only labor intensive abut time sensitive. There are so many contractors working there that it is causing Dad delays. Two of the towers are being sandblasted and that cloud of gritty dust is falling everywhere. Even so, Dad has been persistent and been at the temple in the wee hours of the morning until late. Meeja kept asking him why he couldn’t stay home and play. Today was the last actual pour there and he came home saying that he felt he had just rode another 100 mile bike ride! I will be anxious to seethe finished product.

Sunhee and Meeja were good helpers picking Marion bad Boysenberries. We came home that day and made our jam. We also made a couple of pies. Sunhee wanted to learn how to make pie and she wrote it in her Faith in God booklet. She made a beautiful pie of her own after watching me make two. I suggested that she freeze it so she could cook it at home later but instead, she decided to give it to Grandma for her birthday. Sunhee was so excited to surprise Grandma.

As you may imagine, we did a ton of game playing while they were all here. We also played a lot of ping pong. Sunhee is getting quite good; I will have to work really hard to keep winning. The girls also loved playing in the yard. They attract lots of neighbor children so it was like old times here with a yard full of children. They put the sprinkler on the tramp and down the slide. They also were good to pick the blue berries and raspberries. We froze much of their pickings and made smoothies with them. We now have lots of zucchini and also the green beans will be ready while I am in California. Meeja remembered that Sunhee was in charge of Family Home Evening last visit so she kept asking if she could be “in charge” each night. She was in charge of Family Home Evening the last night that they were here. Sunhee was assigned the lesson and to teach us a song about FHE (both Faith n God goals) and Meeja was in charge of the campfire and roasting marshmallows.

I believe that the most fun day we had while Sunhee and Meeja were here was the day of Dad’s Tour de Cure. Thank you for all your donations to make his participation possible. His ride started at 6:30 in the morning from the Hillsboro Stadium. The girls and I headed out there about 8:00 and volunteered at the stadium until he came in (well, and played quite a bit also). Dad was so thrilled to be able to finish a 100 mile ride. It is quite a huge accomplishment.

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed to be gone for almost three weeks straight so I am coming home for a day in between California and Utah and then Utah and Las Vegas. It also allows me to do some follow up from a great event that I went to two Thursdays ago, the Portland Business Journal’s BizGrowth Expo. I met with several businesses who were interested in learning more about SendOutCards. Plus, a real bonus was that the keynote speaker, Harvey MacKay who wrote Swimming with the Sharks without Getting Eaten, told everyone in the audience that they should Goggle SendOutCards and start using it to stay connected with the clients and prospective clients. I like what one speaker said about treating your customers like fans. He reminded us that loyal fans protect a business. The speaker I am referring to was the owner of Keen Shoes. I really enjoyed him; he reminded me of Nate. We also heard from someone from Disney and learned their strategy to get repeat business. As most of the speakers gave tips on how to treat their customers and clients I just sat in awe of how SendOutCards teaches the same thing and is the tool to make that all much easier. It was a very positive day.

The girls and I had fun experimenting with a new cupcake idea I read about in Mandy Heaston’s blog: mini cupcakes in a push up tube. They are a cute little novelty and we also experimented with cupcakes mixed with ice cream in the tube. I was attracted to the idea at first to tell Alina about it. She is taking orders to make cupcakes to sell to raise money for her trip to Washington DC next year.

I had a great time with Gail Bowman over a long lunch today. It was so good to listen to her express her feelings over Michael’s death. One thing that was extra hard for her was that she was not allowed to see his body. He wasn’t found for about five days so his body was badly decomposed. They couldn’t even use fingerprints to do a positive ID on him.

The Brady family could still use us remembering them in your prayers. Jenna’s pneumonia was spreading to most everyone except Heidi. Bill is still quite sick. They have their niece form Canada staying about a month and then they are also hosting some French teenagers here for a dance event. I love you all! Love, Mom

July 17, 2011

Dear Children,

Wow, I have lots about which to write; I think it would be best to write chronologically to keep things straight. At the start of our last couple of weeks, our raspberries started coming on in our garden. They are yummy and I suspect I will need to do some serious picking this coming week since I have been gone so much. Our raspberries are from Ramona and Ivan’s yard before they sold their home to go on their mission. So, our plants haven’t been in our garden that long and they are already causing a raspberry jungle! Dad has really chopped them back this year and we still have lots of stalks. I hope they are still ripe when the grandchildren come at the end of this week. Luckily they started coming on just as I was adding fruit back into my diet; yes, what a way to start!

We were with Shawn and Aubrey over July 4th weekend. It was a blast. Aubrey says they have a heat wave every time we are there. We started with a couple of rounds of bumper bowling and then the A’s game the first full day that we were there. The A’s didn’t win but it was a perfect ballpark night. It was their fireworks night so we had two shows, the game and then great fireworks.

Shawn also treated us to a tour of his department at Bank of America. Security was so tight that we all had our own photo name tags, including Greg and Bryson. Our jaws dropped in amazement as Shawn escorted us into his office. He has a huge office with a picture window overlooking the town and rolling hills. True to Shawn, he has made his office an inviting place by stashing lots of snacks and treats and has a white board with a continuous game being played to lure people in to chat with him. He explained some of their new theories in working with defaulted loans and it sounds like they have got a good formula to help as many people as possible.

After church on Sunday the boys needed a nap and it was very hot in their rooms so Dad and I took them on a car ride to Antioch to let them sleep in air conditioning. It worked and we visited with Aunt Denise in front of her home until the boys woke up. We were worried about her since she had been in the hospital just before we arrived in California but she is doing better now. Early that evening as we were driving home I excitedly realized my headache that I had had continuously since the accident had left while we were visiting Denise. It felt so great to be free of that headache.

We did all the fun town things in Pleasant Hill on July 4^th starting with a 5K run. I trained to do it and knew I really shouldn’t as per doctor’s orders but with the headache having left, I thought it would be OK. I ran slowly but continuously for the entire event. That was my goal. Aubrey and Shawn lapped us of course and both made great times. Greg ran in the children’s run and looked like a natural. Dad was kind to stay with me even though I urged him to run ahead.

We stayed in town for the parade which Greg and Bryson gathered enough candy to be like Halloween in part because Greg ran up to the participants to make sure he got his due candy! He was so thrilled each time he added to his pile by his parents. We spent a couple of hours in the park with all the games like tug of war and even a cake eating contest. Aubrey, Dad and Michael (Aubrey’s brother) entered. Aubrey was doing quite well but couldn’t eat as fast as the man who wore swim goggles and put his whole face in the cake to vacuum it up. With her leftovers she had a planned to throw it into Shawn’s face but Shawn had too good of reflexes and she sprayed it all over a very old man. I thought that I had my camera on movie as it would have been interesting to see Aubrey’s horrified face as she realized what she had done. After much cleaning up and apologies it took a while before we could laugh about it!

Our ticket stubs at the A’s game gave us all free personal pan pizzas at Roundtable Pizza so that is what we had for our July 4^th barbeque. It was the perfect solution to sit in an air conditioned restaurant since it was in the high 90’s that day. We watched fireworks at Aubrey’s old high school baseball diamond. They had a live band playing!

We returned home early the next day and got ready for a visit from Randy and Julie. They came out with Craig and Pam and their two children for the STP, Seattle to Portland Bike event. They did it in one day though. About a quarter of the people don’t stop but come into the park across from the Lloyd Center. I was at a baby shower for Jaime Jorgensen at Lacey Blackett Amano’s home so we dashed afterwards to downtown to watch them come across the finish line. They were on their bikes for 11 hours (204 miles). We had a great visit with them that evening; they left for home the next morning.

Dad is wondering now if he could train well enough for that. His first century is in two Saturdays. The farthest he has gone to date is 82 miles but that included steep hills. The Tour de Cure doesn’t go into the peaks around here so he will be fine. It is getting pretty exciting and he has earned all his donations needed so far. Thank you all so much for your donations. Sunhee and Meeja will be here the day he rides and they will be helping me volunteer in the afternoon of the event.

We have all been very concerned about Jenna. She had not recovered from her pneumonia so they took her to the hospital on July Fourth for some treatments. We all thought that they would just keep her overnight but her hospital stay lasted nine days! After her condition worsened even after treatments and changing antibiotics three times, they transferred her to the Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake. She was in ICU for a day there and then started to respond. Finally, on Tuesday we were relieved that they allowed her to go home with oxygen. The Brady family received an OK from Jenna’s doctor to go to the Sabey Family Reunion in Idaho this weekend with Bill’s mom who is visiting from Utah. Thank you for all your calls and prayers on her behalf.

Many months ago Dad and I booked a trip to Depot Bay for this past week. We planned to take our bikes and bike up and down the coast from the WorldMark there. Because Dad won the bid for the temple and it is much work to be done in a small time frame, he could not go until the last night. Katie was kind enough to make a trade at work so she could go the first two nights. We also invited Grandma Maldonado and her friend Gwen Edmunds, who was visiting from California. They stayed the first two days so we played lots of games and sat in the hot tub. The weather was beautiful plus we saw whales several times. In fact, about an hour after they left, there was a whale in the cove just a short distance out for about an hour. I watched as it came out of the water and dove back in so I could see its fin. I noticed the fin first and thought it was a shark I was seeing.

Dad arrived at the coast late Thursday. It was just as well that he couldn’t come until then since I cannot ride my bike right now. Even so, we did a lot of fun things in the little time we had. I got to do what I like best, to watch the fishing boats come into the harbor at Depot Bay and see the men fillet all the fish. I remember doing that either at Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz as a child and there is just something I love about doing that. Some day I would like to try to go on one of those fishing trips. I would worry about getting sea sick since I can’t even hardly stand a mild Disneyland ride! We also stopped at a glass blowing studio and watched as they made glass floats. I would like to do that sometime (not make a knick-knacky float but a petty glass bowl). We ended out coast trip at a Friday night seafood buffet. We ate our fill of crab and shrimp; it was so yummy!

Our next trip will be to Utah for Adrianne’s graduation on August 9^th and 10^th. We thought we would try and do a quick trip to see Bill’s parents who are visiting from Canada but learned that his Dad doesn’t get into town until this Thursday and we have Adam, Alina and Klaire coming that night and then Sunhee and Meeja joining us on Saturday. We had thought if there was a rainy day, we might be able to steal away.

Right after Sunhee and Meeja leave at the beginning of August, I will go with Katie and Grandma to Laura Tobler Field’s baby shower in Clovis and then meet Dad in Utah for the graduation. From there we will go to Las Vegas for a SendOutCards convention. Dad is planning on going if work will allow. We have a busy August planned. I can’t believe that I keep saying already that I am pushing things into the fall since we are running out of summer! Nate sent me his itinerary for his Christmas visit . . .yikes! I am usually the first one to think about Christmas.

Have a great week ahead. I love you! Love, Mom

June 30, 2011

Dear Children,

We had an exciting visit with the girls this past week. On Thursday I drove down to pick up Meeja, Sunhee and Alina so we could go to the Portland theater performance of Mary Poppins. Katie, Grandma and Dad also joined us. We all loved it: our seats were great and the songs and performers were so enjoyable. I was actually surprised that none of the girls had ever seen the movie. We planned to watch it later in the visit but never had time to sit down in front of a whole movie.

We filled our time with lots of games of course, jumping on the tramp, riding bikes, doing some baking and learning lots of facts about Justin Bieber! Dad and I knew nothing about him but Alina educated us! She wrote a book filled with facts and pictures of him and continued that work each day while she was here. She got Sunhee hooked on the work also. What was really fun was that Nate came for a last minute trip so he and Katie had fun fueling the craziness over Justin Bieber.

Zappos was flying him to San Francisco so he came by way of Portland a few days early since Katie invited him to go to a special showing of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at one of the McMenimans in Portland (one of Nate’s all time favorite books as a child). He came in at midnight Friday night and instead of running through Forest Park as he planned the next morning, he was so kind to stay and play with the girls and give them lots of his fun attention, including jumping on the tramp (cracking the egg), biking with them and playing basketball. Of course he showed off his flips too! He had them laughing belly laughs; they were really encouraging his crazy humor!

We had an early birthday celebration with him on Saturday evening and he and Katie stayed to play games with us. The girls gave him a bag full of gummy candies, some of his favorites treats and we bought him an Oregon (scenes of Oregon) biking shirt that he was admiring at REI on his last visit. He is a hiker but we are trying to influence him to include biking in his outdoor adventures (Dad is trying to convince him to do a Las Vegas Century with him in 2012). Sunhee pulled the “need some time with my sister, Alina, card” most nights and kept terrible teenage hours including this particular night when three of Katie’s guy friends came over and stayed until very late playing games. For the birthday celebration, I made one of Nate’s favorite meals; hash and roasted vegetables was his request. Katie made fresh strawberry cupcakes for him with some of our twenty two pounds of Hoods that the girls and I picked on Friday morning.

We had perfect weather to pick strawberries and even ALMOST finished making our jam by the time we left that day to go bowling with Grandma. Grandma recently bought trekking poles so she met us at Big Al’s over by her condo and then we ended a full day at Red Robin to celebrate Meeja and Sunhee’s birthdays this month. The girls were a big help with the jam; they are very good to help.

Alina has stated to think of ideas in order to earn money for her Washington DC school trip next year. If any of you have great fundraising ideas, pass them along to her. She needs to earn about $200.00 a month. She has started making flyers to sell cupcakes in her area.

This weekend was our stake conference with lots of great messages. I liked the thought from Sister Dykes (our outgoing mission president’s wife) when she said, “If you feel distanced from the Lord, it isn’t He who has turned from you.” And then other powerful messages about prayer and how prayer REALLY works. Sometimes I forget the simple steps to improve my life and so this meeting had some good reminders.

It has been fun to help Grandma with her new SendOutCards business. She had been sharing my wholesale account all this time but then, when the company recently announced their new packages for retail customers and saw how easy it was for customers to start now, she realized all the referrals that she was giving me, could help her pay for all of her card sending! She is really excited and is a great learner. She practiced on Alina for the purpose of practice but also so Alina knew more about the service since the system we gave Kyre for her birthday last year was upgraded to all the bells and whistles with the new announcements. Now Alina can help her mom get used to using all the fun new features available to her.

We weren’t sure how long we were going to be able to keep the girls. Morty had asked if I would come down to Las Vegas to give him a couple of days reprieve from the store. Aaron has been camping through some tours of the Grand Canyon, Zion’s and other parks with a friend visiting from Australia and some other friends. We learned from Bill that Aaron was also in Provo also as they went to lunch. I called Morty on Saturday to see if he still felt that he really needed me (the girls were begging to stay through Tuesday). The flights returning on Wednesday night were also looking difficult, and I needed to be home for meetings on Thursday, so he said he would handle it alone. With the girls staying through Tuesday, we were able to combine taking them home with seeing Sunhee play softball Tuesday night in Albany!

Today I feel like I got hit by a Mac truck but what really happened is I was rear ended on Scholls Ferry by two cars last evening, one of which was a tank of an old car. My bumper must be strong as there isn’t much damage. The car that caused the accident looked like an accordion in the front. I am going to see if I feel good enough to do some running, at least getting out for a good walk.

As you can see, our entry way bird nest in the fuchsia basket is progressing quite nicely. Cathy Crandall came home from Yosemite and was able to identify the bird as a Junco. She sent us bird information that we studied during a Family Home Evening that Sunhee was in charge of for a Faith in God requirement. She shared some scriptures about the Holy Ghost. We learned from the bird book that the babies that just hatched will be out of the next in about 9 days!!!

This Friday we are crossing our fingers that our flights stay available to go visit Shawn and Aubrey and the boys over the July 4^th weekend. We are looking forward to that and know that the weekend will be filled with crazy busy fun! Aubrey talked us into (well, she didn’t have to talk us into it really) a 5K run on the morning of July Fourth but I know Aubrey is FAST and I have a slow shuffle. I hope that I am not the last one to finish this race! We hope you all have something fun planned for the holiday.

Today is Bill and Heidi’s 10^th wedding anniversary! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

I love you, Mom

June 19, 2011

Dear Children,

Happy Father’s Day! This will be a short note so I avoid getting behind this summer. We had a great day today. Dad had lots of calls; that always makes his day. We both had assignments in Primary today so it was nice to come home to relax a bit. It feels that I have been teaching Sharing Time forever; one more week left after stake conference this week. I made some bargains with some of my Primary assignments during May when I was gone a lot plus I am getting ready to tell them I am going to be gone a lot in August!

Dad wanted a BBQ for Father’s Day dinner so we had salmon but I also did some chicken for when Katie arrived. She had to work until much later in the day. She was going to make cupcakes until her shift got changed to the later one so I made Dad’s requests: cherry chip with chocolate. I scooped out the middle and topped them with a very dark chocolate ganache and then frosted the top. They were yummy! Grandma Maldonado came and joined us for dinner.

Thank you to everyone who donated money towards Dad’s Tour de Cure. He is very happy about it and excited to do his first 100 mile bike ride. It is supposed to be a very pretty route through the Hillsboro area and plus it is a great cause. After watching Mindy suffer with diabetes and then die from it eventually, that is one disease from which I want to stay away!

We started our Father’s Day by visiting with Scott. He was so happy that we came. The visiting room was very crowded which was good to see. He had fun relaying some “small world” experiences he had this past week. He ran into someone (from a part member home) to whom he had been a home teacher many years back and then another man, Matt Duskin, who kept looking closely at the cards I send to Scott with family pictures on them. He kept asking about Aaron, saying he thought he recognized him. Then it somehow came out that he went to school and dated both Kellianne Luman and Jaime Jorgensen (Richardson). He asked about Jeremy Luman and Janna Richardson. Isn’t that odd? Scott has had a lot of men ask him how we send cards created with our own photos and even old photos. They all say that they wish they could get cards like that, especially ones with old family photos so they can relive great memories. I didn’t realize what an impact they could have there.

Earlier this week Grandma, Katie and I went to the silliest movie. It was called Judy Moody and . . . (something about her summer)! I like children’s shows but I don’t think I need to see that one again! Speaking of children, Kyre participated in the Relay for Life walkathon in Albany again this year and Alina, Adam and Klaire did it with her. Alina walked the entire night! I forgot to ask again what award Alina got at her school assembly this past week. Summer vacation is officially here for everyone now. We got to speak with Meeja this week to wish her a happy birthday. She sounds excited to come here next week.

And speaking of vacation, Adrianne and Blake went to Bear Lake this weekend for his birthday. They said that they had a great time and one of the funny things they did was take all their loads of laundry that they had been saving up since the WorldMark has a washer and dryer in each unit and they don’t have to use up their quarters! Adrianne was pretty pleased that she made Blake an ice cream cake with Tillamook Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream!

Last thing: we have a little bird sitting on her nest nestled down in our hanging fuchsia plant in the front entryway. I hope she is still there when Alina, Sunhee and Meeja arrive this Thursday afternoon. They will stay until Sunday night or maybe even Tuesday depending on my flights to Las Vegas.

Have a great week! Love, Mom

June 13, 2011

Dear Children,

We did it! Our first triathlon! It is a great one with which to begin as all the paths are mostly flat; nothing difficult. I was wishing that we had been signed up for the half mile swim instead the quarter but, once I got into the water, I was relieved to only be going a quarter mile! It is VERY different swimming in a lake with in a pack of people going along the same route.

A fun extra to our event this weekend was that Nate joined us. He was in Seattle this week for some Zappos meeting with Amazon. Instead of going back to Las Vegas, he bought a ticket to fly down here, brought a wet suit and gear, signed up for the event and joined us! Although, Nate didn’t bother with the quarter mile swim, he went for the half mile all without any training!

The only mistake we made was going to Mongolian Grill late the night before. You probably remember how you kind of feel sick the morning after going there; well, our morning came VERY early since we needed to drive across town and get our transition area all set up before the race. We decided that next time it would be best to go to Mongolian Grill AFTER the event!

We had good triathlon weather, not too cold and not too warm. It was overcast most of the time with a few sunny moments; the sun breaks felt good as I was waiting for my swim start. Nate start was well before Dad and I started since he was in the macho group of twenty somethings doing the half mile swim. Dad’s group left a little before my group. Since I was in the last start group, it was going to be obvious all event that I was on the slow side (not being able to blend in with later starters . . . rats!)

Dad and I had a great time. Dad says the triathlon was 10 times more fun than he thought it would be. We enjoyed “the ride” the entire event which was evidenced by our transition times. They keep track of how long it takes you in between events; where you change gear. While most people around our numbers were in and out of the transition area in 3 to 4 minutes, one of our times was 15 minutes! We stopped and chatted with Nate during one and of course, I had my potty stops. How can you swim in cold water and not have to go to the bathroom the minute you get out??? Dad had fun looking at our statistics on the website Saturday evening. He placed first and I placed second in our divisions which was in direct correlation to the number of people in our divisions!!! Hey, it was our first and we had fun . . .and finished!

As we walked away from the event, Nate, Dad and I all were planning next year’s event and wondering who would be willing to join us. Blue Lake Park is a beautiful place with lots of picnic facilities. It would be a fun place to gather the family. The grandchildren would LOVE digging in the sand and all the grassy areas to run. There are BBQs all around. Who wants to come?

With a fat permanent marker, they write your name on the back of one leg and your participant number on the back of the other. As I was scrubbing my age off of one leg and starting on my number, I got the idea that I could use it in my Primary Sharing Time the next day. I was talking about the joy of keeping our baptismal covenants, to remember Jesus, to keep His commandments and to live like Him by helping others. As I started to scrub that number, I was reminded of what it represented and the planning and hard work to work to complete the goal of finishing a triathlon. It was so exciting to reach that goal; I felt so happy. I realized that the great sense of happiness was pale in comparison to the great sense of true happiness we all feel when we know we are doing out best to keep our covenants daily (and the rewards are much greater!).

Katie and Grandma joined us this weekend for some fun events with Nate. Katie and Nate went to a Timbers soccer game while Dad and I went to Megan Jensen’s reception. It is always great to see and talk with old church friends that we seem to never run into. Katie arranged for the day off on Sunday so Nate could go with her to the singles ward. She also stayed here Saturday night and got up to make German pancakes which Nate appreciated. We had a steak BBQ for Nate after church and played a few games before having to rush him to the airport. We were all sorry to see Nate go; he adds so much fun to everything.

Meeja turns seven this Thursday! Send her some well wishes. Everyone here in Oregon finishes school this week. Last week was Rebekah’s last day on school (on Ainsley’s birthday). Alina is getting an award as her school assembly this week. Adam had a fun campout at this weekend for Father’s and Sons. He went with a ward friend since Dad couldn’t take him this year. Klaire had a talk in Primary and she needed help so Adam went up and helped her through the talk. He is such a kind brother.

This is birthday week with Blake and Aunt Denise having birthdays also. Blake and Adrianne found a WorldMark room to rent for the weekend to have a little vacation for his birthday. They both were able to take off an extra day for a long weekend. I am anxious to hear how the property is at Bear Lake.

Well, have a great week ahead. I love you

June 5, 2011

Dear Children,

Wow, what a weekend we have had! Yesterday the temperatures were in the 80’s; it felt like real summer weather. It was so nice. Dad and I drove out to Blue Lake Park to scope it out for the triathlon next Saturday. We also wanted to test out our wet suits in open water and see what it was like to swim without poll lane lines! What a perfect day to test them out! Blue Lake Park is so nice: lots of walking trails, picnic tables, covered shelters, fountains and the lake. It was very crowded with lots of family and community gatherings.

Luckily, the clinic that we had wanted to take was still going on so we got come tips about putting on our wet suits from one of the wet suit manufacturer’s representatives. Good thing since the guy at the store told us to get our wet suits wet before putting them on and that is NOT the case! We swam quite a bit in the cold and kind of murky water. Although it took some getting used to, we came away knowing that we CAN DO IT! After pulling our wet suits off, we sat on the grassy bank and let the sun warm our skin. I love that feeling. The best part was just sitting there to relax. Dad and I both commented how good that felt and that we needed to schedule in “relax time” into our lives since it just won’t happen. Both of us seem to have endless work, well, everyone does actually. We just need to get better at replenishing ourselves.

We jogged-walked for some time afterwards to get the feeling of what it would be like to keep our swimming suits on for the other parts or the triathlon. Even when we came home, we got on our bikes to get the full experience. Now we know what to expect.

Even after all of that, when I got ready to do my Saturday evening errands, Dad decided to head downtown and join up with the Starlite Parade 5K! He did it; he actually added that to his day. There were over 4000 runners this years and probably many more spectators due to the beautiful weather that we were having.

Nate is coming for the weekend. He has meetings for Zappos and Amazon in Seattle so he will get here on Friday and do the triathlon with us. Well, he won’t be WITH us since he signed up for the longer swim. Katie is probably looking forward to a food cart companion with him in town! I did buy some Groupons for food carts about a month ago knowing I would have to wait a couple of months before tasting much of anything from a food cart.

It was fun to talk with Sunhee this week. She turned 10 years old! She was in the middle of a “Spa Birthday Party” at her home with a couple of her friends. She is so sweet. She sounded just as excited to talk with us even though she was playing with her friends; it makes us feel so good. For her birthday, she is coming up to Beaverton towards the end of June for a weekend to go see the theater performance of Mary Poppins. We are looking forward to that. Grandma Maldonado and Katie are coming along also. Sunhee is playing softball this spring so we will try and get to a game.

We were able to do some family sealings at the temple this week. I didn’t know I still had some of the cards in my temple bag. Some of the names were even Spanish names so they have been waiting a long time for me to get around to that sealing (I was pregnant with Morty when I started doing the temple work for those names)! A couple od the names were from the Patterson family side. I like doing the work when I can remember the great feeling I felt when I found a relative’s name in my research. I would like to get back to that someday. I did learn how to do indexing this week. It is pretty fun. One of the Whisenant boys in our ward is organizing that as an Eagle scout project.

On Memorial Day Heidi and Bill’s family took Grandma Bitter with them to visit Jack’s grave. The Payne family was there to visit Grandpa Payne’s gravesite so the Payne family invited them to gather afterwards for Thai food. The Payne families were kind enough to tell Heidi and Bill that they would like to help them get a headstone for Jack’s grave. Uncle Jerry was able to get Grandpa Bitter’s headstone inspiration corrected and took Grandma Bitter up there to see it. She said everything looked beautiful.

We are caretakers for Miss Kitty this week. Grandma Maldonado is in California visiting with Aunt Denise and her family. She was anxious to get down there to see Asteria Alice, Wiley and Michelle’s new baby born April 22. I was lucky enough to see her after I returned from Lake Tahoe. We arrive back in Antioch late from our trip to Tahoe for Allison’s wedding and I was leaving at four the next morning so I was so happy that Michelle and Wiley brought her over to Denise’s so we could see her. She is so darling and SO alert. She holds her head up like an older baby. She started rolling over when she was only three weeks old. She loves doing it and it doesn’t take much encouragement!

We visited with Scott this morning. He is feeling well and still working on his running although, it sounds like he is still recuperating from his marathon. He is a great example of doing what he is able with his limitations. He also decided after the Japan tsunami to start saving water in his cell, which he has been successful doing. He said that they have a sand volleyball pit so he has joined in with some of that.

I have been playing volleyball every Tuesday night after 9:00 with some other ladies in the ward. There are some great volleyball players in our ward; I am about the worse. I have the bruises each week to prove it. But this week, I have non so maybe my body s getting used to it! Alina’s volleyball went undefeated this season. It was the first time Alina had played with a volleyball team.

There has been lots of excitement with my SendOutCards business for the past couple of weeks. I have been very happy to be so busy since everyone loves the new Retail Subscription Package that has no upfront fee but allows use of all the bells and whistles of the entire website. It has been a fun couple of weeks!

Dad has been VERY busy with all the referrals we have been getting and especially with the sun starting to shine. He has been busy with lots of bids and probably everyone will be clamoring for their jobs to be done all at the same time; yikes!

Since I was gone on last minute trips so much in May, I bargained with the Primary presidency that I would do all of the May Sharing Times (for which I was in town) plus all of the June Sharing Times. Today, we talked about faith and repentance. The scripture for the month is the Fourth Article of Faith. Since we have stake conference at the end of the month I had to combine two of those principles in one day. That is a lot of doctrine! I talked about the Anti-Nephi-Lehies repenting of being idle, stealing and killing people. I showed the children the picture of them burying their swords as proof that they never wanted to kill again. So I gave each of the children a paper sword and had them write down on it something of which they could repent and promise to not do anymore. Then we buried our swords outside (hope they remember what they wrote down; HA!). I did that before when I was in Primary and the children seemed to understand the concept.

Good news: We got a little bit of our garden in this week. Woohoo! Have a great week ahead. Work hard but play hard also. I love you, Love, Mom

May 30, 2011

Dear Children,

Happy Memorial Day!

Last week was a great week. We finally started seeing some hopeful signs of spring. Waking up to the sound of birds singing makes the Primary song, “In the Leafy Treetops” go through my mind. Now that is a cheery way to start your morning! Plus, as the calendar flipped over to May and the Blue Lake Triathlon gets closer, I have taken my training outdoors to see if I could move my body into some more minutes of continuous jogging. I haven’t jogged for many years and had resigned myself to be a bit embarrassed to walk the run portion of the triathlon. But a couple weeks ago, as I was hearing some women talk about their half marathons, I was inspired to try and add some jogging to my walk as I looked over a training website called Walk to Run by Jeff Galloway.

I started adding some minutes of running and now am very pleased to be up to 15 minutes! Now that doesn’t sound like much to all you marathoners, but I hadn’t planned to run again so this is big for me. I like the feeling and it is much easier mentally for me to run longer intervals outdoors instead of on the treadmill. It is also easier in this beautiful weather we have enjoyed the last couple of days.

It is remarkable what a little sunshine will do. Amazingly, all of a sudden everyone’s yards have burst with color. It is funny how things look so much more colorful with the glow of the sun. As I was walking and observing all the beautiful colors and smells that are more radiant with the sunshine, it caused me think of how the same goes for our lives when centered on the Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Just as the flowers are more radiant by the sun’s glow, so are we made more capable by His influence. I love that in the English language, the words son and sun are homonyms, since there are so many layers to both of their meanings being intertwined.

With the better weather I have done a little digging and weeding in the yard. Gardening is so therapeutic. I had purchased some Gerber daisies at the Young Women’s auction several weeks ago and finally got them in the ground. I LOVE Gerber daisies; I should have bought more! After being in Utah two weekends ago and seeing all the gorgeous lilacs in bloom, I was happy to return and see more bloom on our lilac tree in the front yard. I bought that tree many years ago when Katie bought me a book about a lilac bush. We have transplanted it once so it has taken sometime to recover from that shock. Today we had Grandma Maldonado and Katie plus three of her friends over for dinner so Dad cut some of ht e branches for flowers on the dining room table. I always forget to bring fresh flowers into the house; Dad is good to remember that.

Dad spoke in sacrament meeting today on following our church leaders. He read some articles about what could be helpful to the bishop and said he wished someone would have given that talk when he was bishop!

Dad and I have stepped up our training for the triathlon this past week as it is getting so close. We even bought some wet suits this weekend since they were on sale and to rent them was almost as much. We want to practice with them this Saturday also so we would have had to rent them twice. We are committed now! Nate is going to be here that weekend and said he might do it with us; that would be fun! He can do it without all the training. The weather turned cold again so we did some biking inside at 24 Hour and then on Saturday rode out to Al’s and back. Thank goodness I can fit into someone’s old biking shorts as I am going to put those one before I get on the bike again. Speaking of marathons, Scott described his preparations and actual running of marathon mileage around the track. He is determined to stay healthy.

This has been a great few weeks of news for family employment!!! First Shawn got a great job at Bank of America. He interviewed for a particular job in their mortgage servicing and loan modification department and they offered him a position that was higher then the one for which he interviewed, a senior manager. We are so thrilled. We are so impressed that he and Aubrey have stayed so positive with such disappointing news at his last job just after their move. His job is in Concord so they can stay right where they are at. They have been blessed.

Adrianne also just found a full time job and is enjoying it. She will be working for Shelf Reliant in Pleasant Grove. It is the company that I bought my food storage rolling shelves from (actually I bought them from Costco but they are from her company). They also sell high quality freeze dried foods so she is going to get a family price list. Adrianne is the administrate assistant over the home party divisions, which is really growing. Becky Ludlow is a rep for the company so I have gone to a couple of her parties to support her. Now Adrianne and Blake are looking for an apartment close to that area since they both work off the same freeway exit.

Aaron had an interview for which he was very hopeful and he just learned that he got the job also! He will be writing code for a company called Valley Technology. We are so happy that everyone who has been trying to find employment has been successful.

I enjoyed my week in Las Vegas. I was there for Morty’s birthday present since he wanted to be in the Dominican Republic for a week. I sat at The TV Shop while Aaron was in class. Every time I saw legs walking past the store I would secretly hope they wouldn’t walk in since I knew so little about the TVs! I did do some cleaning, made some signs and helped Aaron with some SendOutCards campaigns for the store.

I was there for Aaron’s actual birthday and Nate splurged and bought dinner at a nice steakhouse for us. He invited to Katie to come down also so she got on a plane and came!!! It was quite fun and also delicious. In fact, Katie flew in and then walked from the airport to the boys’ store to meet up with us! I was able to meet up with my high school friend Joy Concannon Burleson this time in Las Vegas. She is a non church member that married an inactive Mormon but her three girls all joined the church which was interesting to talk about.

Nate spent the weekend in Utah for a friend’s college softball game (he knows the coach) but came home before I left since I changed my plans and flew directly to Phoenix for a SendOutCards Manager’s training meeting. Katie flew down to Las Vegas and we left from there since she said she would accompany me. We found a place in Scottsdale to stay. We were there only one night so while I went to my meeting, she went to the Diamondback’s game with Jeremy Luman and his wife. We did some touring around Scottsdale, spent some time warming our skin at the pool and even got two visits in at Sprinkle’s Cupcakes, one of Katie’s favorite places.

My meeting was so good. I really love the kind of people that are the leaders in this business. I had meetings most of this week also; it was very energizing. The VP over marketing was here in Portland this week. We had some great conversations. With the new announcements of the Retail Packages now having no upfront fee, I am really excited.

Dad and I were in Utah for some meetings also two weeks ago. We were able to spend that time at Grandma Bitter’s. I went down a day early so I could help Adrianne organize all her wedding thank you notes so she could get most of that job done before her new job started. She was able to do over half of them in mostly one day! I had forgotten what a big job that is! It was funny; on my way to the airport to go to Salt Lake, I realized that I had forgotten to arrange for my rental car through Southwest. I called Morty and asked if he was in front of a computer. He booked my car for me and then said, “Thank you for calling SouthWest. Is there anything else I can do for you?” Luckily we were able to have Sunday dinner so Dad and I could both see Heidi, Rebekah and Jenna (Bill stayed home with Anisley since she was sick). They really love to visit Grandma Bitter’s home. On the way home from church we also stopped at Natalie Robertson’s and saw her new baby, Dently Bruce. All her babies are so adorable. Jerry and some of his family also came for dinner. I hadn’t seen Chad in quite a while.

We had plans to visit Jack and Judy at their Denver home since they spent a week here at our home about a month ago but Dad’s business has really picked up so we needed to head back to Portland right after our Utah trip (and the standby status of the flights were not looking good). They were already successful in selling their home and they are in San Antonio this weekend looking for a place. Jenni and Rob have been transferred to San Antonio. Jack and Judy are planning another mission for this coming fall. It is fun hearing about their plans and hopefully, someday we can do the same. We need to regroup from the last couple of years of the construction disaster. We see more and more that things will never be the same. None of our builders are in the business anymore. Our goal to retire in 2016 is still hopeful if we can build our card business and stay as busy as possible in the good weather with homeowners with whom we have reconnected this past year.

Another trip I took was to Lake Tahoe last weekend. It was SO much fun. My youngest cousin, Alison, was getting remarried. Carla drove to Antioch and picked Denise and I up so we could all drive to Lake Tahoe together. I hadn’t been there since I was in a senior in high school. Our family used to vacation there a lot. I forgot how beautiful it was. I love Tahoe; I want to go back. We were lucky to get in a World Mark in Zephyr Cove. There was a beautiful camp ground just a short walk away and right next to the lake. We thought it would make a great family reunion spot for next summer possibly. It probably is fairly difficult to get a spot there in the summer???

I know that I am probably forgetting tons. It has been too long since I have written. I do know that Ainsley is now walking most of the time instead of her knee-walk and Alina received third place in her school district’s Spelling Bee.

I love you and have a great Memorial Day. I am beginning my day (after our bike ride) being trained to do Extraction work for Family History. That is a great Memorial Day activity (since it is too cold to garden outside!). Lots of love, Mom