September 19, 2011

Dear Children,

We just returned from California where we stayed at Shawn and Aubrey’s home while they ran a Ragnar relay race from San Francisco to Napa. They left early Friday morning, ran through the night and returned home Saturday just before dinner. They had a lot of fun with their team of twelve runners, mostly from their ward. They added costumes and decorated their two support vans with a Hillbilly theme so Shawn and Aubrey had fun with that! They met a couple from Seattle in their group and now want to run a Ragnar run up there next. That might mean we will see them on the way and have Greg and Bryson stay with us!!!

Meanwhile, we just played and played. Gregory and Bryson are bundles of energy and it was beautiful weather so we spent a lot of our time outdoors. They have a wonderful park not far from their home so we spent hours there both days. I love the smell of eucalyptus around the park and in town as it reminds me of growing up in the Bay Area. Between Dad’s gift to talk to strangers and Gregory’s love of talking to anyone, we met everyone at the park. We left the park each day with everyone calling Greg by his name! It is a good thing he is so personable as he is also very opinionated if someone shows up wearing a team T-shirt. Two twin boys showed up sporting Cal Bears shirts and the first thing he said to them was, “We are not a fan of Cal Bears. We like the Oregon Ducks!” I tried to explain to Greg that, although we have teams we love (and I myself am NOT a Duck fan; I think it rather embarrassing to come from a state where they are so caught up being a Duck or Beaver!), we don’t say anything to people who love another team. I don’t think that made a bit of sense to Greg.

Bryson and Greg were like the Energizer Bunny; they could have stayed at the park longer each day but on Friday, everyone of us finally agreed that it was time to leave for dinner. Earlier in the day we had all walked to the grocery store to buy ingredients for what they asked to have served for dinner, quesadillas; easy enough! It is so great that they live within walking distance of a Safeway. The boys were sufficiently exhausted so it was dinner, bath, special requested Bob the Builder and then bed. Dad and I were sufficiently exhausted also so we also picked out a movie from their shelves and watched one movie and followed them to bed!

On Saturday, from the moment we entered the park, Greg was on a mission to find a lizard and capture it. That he did, after much concentration, and he took it around introducing everyone at he park to “Endo”. After a while we convinced Greg to leave Endo’s seemingly lifeless body on the warm concrete to warm up and he finally perked up and started moving again only to be captured again and fall to his fate from the top of the slide.

It wasn’t long before Greg found and caught “Jeppi” who was without a tail and he sat by Greg (lifeless again) while we convinced him to eat his lunch. After a couple of drops, it was time to go home. Shawn and Aubrey had reported that they were back in town so we agreed to bring Jeppi home with us since we thought it would be nice for the parents to handle the release of Jeppi!

It was fun to spend the evening with Shawn and Aubrey and hear their stories of the race. It sounded like they were with a great and lively group of friends. The only thing that put a damper on the evening was sitting down to watch BYU get beat so badly by Utah. Grrrr! I was just very thankful that we did not fly to see that game. Katie, Morty and Nate all did and spent a lot of money for their tickets also. Morty told me all about their Utah trip. It sounds like they were able to do a lot and see lots of relatives. They stayed at Grandma Bitter’s home, ate at Bill and Heidi’s for Sunday dinner, met up with Adrianne and Blake on Saturday at Grandma’s and went to church at Dave and Karla’s ward since it was a later ward. Heather Pierson Bryce is also in that ward. They stood up Adrianne and Blake up for Sunday breakfast as they all slept in. I bet they missed something yummy knowing Blake and Adrianne.

We came home to a little mishap with our refrigerator somehow getting turned off. We must have twisted the dial to off inadvertently. There were several things we had to throw out but most things stayed cool enough. We did some quick clean up and headed to church after getting home from the airport.

I haven’t even been out to the garden to see what is going on there. Things are getting pretty busy with SendOutCards when I am in town and I don’t have much energy to keep up with the garden on those precious home days! I made a batch of pickle relish with all of our cucumbers last week. Thursday night, I am scheduled to fly to Utah to help Blake and Adrianne do some painting of their new place. They were so happy to finally sign papers on Tuesday and get the keys on Thursday; just in time to save another month of storage fees. Dad was going to come that night but, while we were in California, he learned that the job he needed to pour today, needed some changes. I wish he still had a crew that could have done the work on Friday without him there so he could have moved ahead as planned. He will instead come to Utah on Friday night now so we will have to work hard in a smaller amount of time.

I am sorry to tell you that Ammon Gustafson passed away on Saturday. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago and lived far longer than the doctors said he would. Their family moved in after many of you had already left home but I know that he was a favorite leader of Nate’s and as I look back in pictures, I see that he came back to the ward for Aaron’s homecoming after his mission.

Our fence no longer looks like a war zone. Dad was able to salvage enough boards scattered amongst the mess to put up a temporary fence that will look good for the next month or so until Dad has time to cut away the concrete wall in the areas where the metal clips were sheared or twisted off. We don’t want him working on that until the concrete bids and work for now are finished so it will probably be in November.

I am going to try and stay ahead of myself this time and kept the news short. Have a wonderful week ahead. It is beautiful here. I love you, Mom

September 10, 2011

Dear Family,

This is going to be a long one. With so many happenings in the last month; I have neglected to write. So, here it is: It is great to travel and see all of you and it is always good to be back home. August was a blur of excitement and travel, including Clovis to be with Carla and Scott for Laura’s baby shower, Orem with Grandma Bitter to see Adrianne graduate and play with Heidi’s family, Las Vegas with Morty, Aaron and Nate to attend our SendOutCards convention and then Sacramento to take Grandma Maldonado to the Patterson cousin reunion in Stockton.

The night before all this travel we took Grandma with us to see Les Miserables. It was her Mother’s Day present so we had been anticipating it for quite sometime. I had got our seats right when they went on sale to a group to which I belong so our seats were excellent I thought. We have seen Les Mis at different angles and this was a new one but we loved it.

Dad stayed home finishing up his work on the temple when Grandma Maldonado and I flew to Fresno the next morning. He said that he would have loved the opportunity to ride bikes with Uncle Scott while we were all busy getting things ready for the shower. Dad is still in the market for a new bike; we went looking again last week. Dad came home one day after a pour at the temple and said he felt like he had just ridden another 100 mile bike ride! Most of the time these days, he works with too few helpers.

It was fun to be in Clovis and help Aunt Carla with her final shower plans. She always has things so well organized. I love working in her kitchen. It is a perfect size and I love the work area in the center. The baby shower was at their clubhouse; it is beautiful there. That means, though, a lot of moving things back and forth but it was well worth it.

It was a gorgeous event and there was lots of family there to make it even better. Katie came in on Friday night. Denise, Sarah, Michelle and Asteria drove down and back on Saturday and even Aubrey, who had just had an emergency appendectomy two days earlier, drove down with Shawn and the boys! It was wonderful to see them even if it was for a short time. They are all so kind to make a huge effort to get to family events. Aubrey is doing much better now and back to running even 11 miles at a time to run with Shawn in the RAGNAR run from San Francisco to Napa on September 16 to 17. We are flying down to their home take care of the boys while they run.

After the work of the shower, I mostly relaxed the rest of the time in Clovis. Carla and I walked in the mornings and did some swimming. My doctor said I could do a little bit of laps so we also walked in the pool. We also spent an afternoon in the pool with lots of the grandchildren. Their community pool area is so luxurious; it feels like being at a resort. Speaking of resorts, I saw Scott and Erin’s home for the first time. They live there in Quail Lakes now; their back yard is the lake. They have a fishing dock just off their back porch! It is a beautiful place.

I decided to come home for a day in between each of my trips just to reorganize myself. Basically, that gave me enough time to do laundry, repack my suitcase, recycle junk mail and get rid of junk emails! The trip home from Fresno was unusually odd going through security. It is such a small and empty airport but it took a surprisingly huge time to get through security. I wondered what kind of terrorists hide out in the Yosemite area! I have never been so scrutinized and asked more questions of who I was with, who was I meeting . . . except when I traveled from Israel to Egypt when I was on BYU’s Study Abroad program over 30 years ago but that was to be expected between those nations.

Dad and I traveled to Utah together to be at Adrianne’s graduation. When we landed Adrianne called and asked if we wanted to meet them at their possible new home, a townhome in Pleasant Grove. We caught up with them and got a tour of the place. It has a small fenced-in yard that they want to garden in and then beyond the fence is a huge community playground with lots of picnic table and benches. It would be a fun gathering place. Adrianne and Blake have plans to repaint and fix it up a bit. Their plans are uncertain as to how long they will be in Utah but they would just like to keep it as a rental when they leave. As of this week, all financial papers, inspections and all that stuff is done so they are just waiting for the bank since it is a short sale. We hope it happens this week as we have ONE weekend that we could come and help, September 23 through the 26. That is what we are planning.

We had a great time in Utah and just especially loved the fact that Adrianne and Blake seemed excited to do things with us. They took off the two days we were there and just did what we did; it was a blast. We even hiked the Y at midnight one night. Good thing! It was hot while we were there and even at midnight, it was refreshing to walk through pockets of cool air. We were able to visit with Dave and Karla to see their new home one night and Adrianne and Blake tested out their hammock on their deck off their master bedroom. Wow! That is the home I would have picked. I thought that their home in Coto de Caza felt like a resort . . . this home feels like a European resort. It has a very Mediterranean feel to it which I happen to LOVE of course; it’s my roots! The four of us were able to go visit Bill’s work. It is quite impressive how they have realized what a valuable asset Bill is in this short space of time. He has an exciting announcement to tell the family about his work at Eli Kirk!

Heidi and Bill had two French girls staying with them for a week of International dance events in the Daybreak area. We traveled up Friday night after graduation with Blake and Adrianne and enjoyed the street party and dances right in Daybreak. They have such a wonderful community. We went back up to Heidi’s on Sunday after going to the Severson’s ward with Grandma Bitter, bringing all our leftovers from Adrianne’s graduation party. It was a great visit even though it wasn’t very long. We traveled that evening to take Grandma to the Horne Family Picnic in a park in Salt Lake. That was fun to see all those relatives also. When we finally get around to seeing those relatives, we wish we could make more connections with our grown cousins.

Adrianne’s graduation ceremonies were quite nice. I LOVED the fact that the crowds were so much smaller than in April. We even were able to get photos at the cougar! Heidi and the girls were able to come down for the convocation on Thursday. They all looked so cute. It is fun to be around their excitement. Cecil O Samuelson spoke on living in challenging times but reminded us that these times are of no surprise to the prophets of course. He told us to believe in the positive confidence of the prophets and D&C 64 where it tells us that all things come to pass in their own due time. He warned us to be wise, thoughtful and relentless and lean toward proper priorities and be of good cheer.

An alumni speaker admonished us to make a difference in the lives of others and to be a light to others with goodness and kind deeds. Craig Christensen taught that by small and simple things, great things come to pass. Telling us to take one day at a time, he told us that a journey of love begins with a single step and to take that step. He asked us to work on seeking to feel the spirit each day and work for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Finding ways to serve others was a theme in all the messages.

After preparing for the graduation dinner at Grandma Bitter’s on Saturday, Adrianne and I dashed up to the Bountiful Temple in between cooking and the party to catch a short glimpse of Kyrra Hathaway coming out of the temple. It was fun to see the whole Hathaway family. We were there for less than 10 minutes but it was worth it to show them that we cared. We dashed back home and finished preparing for our quests. Adrianne had planned a burrito bar which made for a pretty easy dinner for a large group. It turned out quite nice.

Dad and I decided to stay an extra day and spend Monday afternoon with Heidi and the girls before flying home late Monday night. Heidi took us to their lake where we used their community kayaks and took everyone out of the lake. It was so much fun.

Home for one day in Beaverton for doctor’s appointments and reorganizing, I headed to Las Vegas earlier than Dad for our SendOutCards convention meetings. He finished up some work and delayed his departure until Friday which was best for the concrete business. Even though we plan to replace our concrete income with SOC and have residual coming in for a possible mission, we must remember that rebuilding the concrete business is what started our interest in SendOutCards! I appreciate the messages and feelings I get when involved with the leadership of the company as they fit in so nicely with the Gospel.

We enjoyed especially the bonus of staying at Aaron’s home. We learned that Nate is moving out to an apartment closer to town so we will miss the casual fun evenings that included his humor in the mix on our subsequent visits. We hope he will be able to come over for those kinds of evenings when we visit Las Vegas. We saved a rental car fee by sharing Aaron’s car and taking him to work before our meetings since Bally Tech was close to where we needed to be. That was nice since the prices were kind of high there. We were able to do a little yard work and even spend a little time at the TV shop before leaving. I also was able to have lunch with my high school friend, Joy Concannon Burleson. The boys always are great hosts.

I had a little over a week at home before flying with Grandma Maldonado to Sacramento for a Patterson cousin reunion. But, I squeezed in a lot of work in those few days considering two days Grandma Maldonado and I spent in the emergency room over at the Sunnyside facility. She was having a lot of chest pain and couldn’t get a hold of me so luckily, she called Carol Stanger and Carol drove to the church where I was playing volleyball. Luckily, even after spending that night in the emergency room and then returning again the next day when the doctor called her to come back for even more hours of testing and waiting, they found nothing wrong and she is fine and traveled great to California.

The big news here in Beaverton Ward is that the Brandt family is moving to Colorado. They found a school that might help David with his autism and their other son who has slipped under the radar with so much attention on David the past eight years. I had a dinner party here for everyone that we have visit taught together for the past 18 years; hard to believe it has been that long!

Our plans to stay in Sacramento with BreeAnne had to change at the last minute Friday night so we were able to stay with Aunt Denise, which was fun. When we learned we would be there, Aubrey and the boys changed their plans and met us there for some swimming fun. They are so fun to be around. The cousin reunion in Stockton on Saturday was a big success. Grandma had brought lots of old ancestor photos and information and she had invited a cousin that had never been to a reunion before, Roxie. Roxie has more photos than anyone since Grandma Jamison lived with her family. Mom brought a scanner and we tried to scan all the old photos that people brought but learned later that some of the scans didn’t work. But, still, it generated a lot of interest in family history. I don’t know that side of the family very well since it seemed we always gathered with the Maldonado family while I was growing up in Hayward so it was good to get reacquainted. One of the cousins, Vicki Wynn, just visited Portland this weekend to visit her sister, Melody Bush, another cousin who worked for Grandma at House on the Hill. So, we had brunch with them Saturday at Grandma’s home.

I came home from California in time for Labor Day here. Dad and I went to the Street of Dreams in the morning and then the State Fair in Salem later that afternoon. The main reason to go to squeeze in the fair was a chance to see Kyre and the grandchildren. They were there to see a concert by Selena Gomez so Dad and I walked around looking at the exhibits until their concert was done. Then they went on rides. We have always avoided that part of the fair but it was fun to see them enjoy it. Aunt Lynn’s daughter in law brought them to the fair. Their family is so kind.

Morty is visiting this weekend for the Oregon game. He goes with a friend, Nicole Gable. This time they drove her doctor friend who purchases their tickets so they get better seats. They happen to be neighbors of Peter Jacobsen so Morty met him Saturday morning. Morty said that he is a hoot. Towards the end of the game, Morty and Nicole were able to go sit up in Peter Jacobsen’s suite on the 50 year line of Autzen Stadium! Good news for Morty since he had such a bad burn on his head.

We had a great visit with Scott where he reported all his summer sports accomplishments. He is still keeping track of his Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine trek and is farther than he expected with all of his elliptical training and 10K runs. He also joins in with “beach” volleyball (a little patch of sand in the yard) and now is on a soccer team. That is quite an accomplishment since many of the team players are mostly Hispanic. It is quite an honor to be chosen to be on a team and he is enjoying getting used to the game again after all these years. These things help to keep him active and busy. He learned from his Branch President that President Rheinwald, whom Scott has come to love, recently ran into President Child. Scott was so happy that his Branch President was able to have a conversation about him with his old priesthood leader especially since President Child who speaks so highly of Scott.

This weekend Adrianne was in the Yuba Lake Triathlon that her company sponsored and Nate hiked the 8,000 Meter Challenge to hike the three tallest peaks in California in 24 hours. We are waiting to hear news of those events. We know that Nate made it back; good thing since the news was broadcasting about the missing hiker in that race!

I will close with another thing that has occupied too much of our time for the last couple of weeks. While we were in Las Vegas, a drunk 18 year old slammed his daddy’s Lexus into our fence for two hundred feet until he hit his last tree and finally wrapped the car around it. He was “unharmed” but there was a tremendous amount of damage. On Sunday afternoon, when Katie called asking if we knew we had several large holes in the fence, we knew nothing! It will take lots of hours of clean up as glass and car parts were everywhere, even many feet into the grass so we are wondering how to go about getting every trace gone so we can again walk barefoot in our back yard. This picture is after much clean up. Dad built a temporary fence this weekend as we will have to wait until he has more time to repair the fence. The young man bent and even sheared off many of our metal posts that were embedded a foot into our concrete wall so the concrete wall in spots will need to be redone. Oh please, consider the ramifications of poor decisions!

Have a great week! Love, Mom

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