Fri., Oct. 3, 2014
Hi Kids,
Happy 6th birthday to Jenna!
Landon got his mission papers turned in last week, so hopefully he will hear maybe about a week from next Wed.??? With more missionaries leaving, it seems harder to predict when calls will come. We'll all be anxious to hear his news!
When we stopped one time at Chuck-a-rama downtown, after our mission, there was a couple that apparently were taking the sister missionaries out to dinner. Since I still had my missionary badge on, they talked a bit with us. One of the sister missionaries was from Holland and Dad had served in her town, so that was fun for them to talk a bit. They are missionaries in the Salt Lake City East Mission, so could end up in our stake at some point. Right now they were serving in the Avenues.
Janika's boyfriend Mitch, and a friend and Mitch's mom, are picking up Janika tomorrow at Snow and coming to S.L. for conference. I hope they have tickets to get in. The boys were going downtown to the Priesthood Session and then stay at a hotel. Janika and Mitch's mom (who is Jenna's kindergarten teacher--and Nikki's Caroline and Eliza's I think) are coming to our house and stay over. They were all going to the morning session Sunday. She is also in Wendy's ward.
The weather is supposed to be gorgeous for about 10 days or so, so that will be nice for Conference goers.
All our men and boys are welcome to come go with Dad Sat. night. I think Scott and Kellen are coming. Afterwards there will be fudge (with and without nuts), ice cream sundaes, and brownies (some gluten-free).
We are supposed to help clean the Church tomorrow morning--hard to get done before Conf. at 10. We had the following week, but someone asked to trade, as they were going out of town this weekend.
Chris and Kim and Aaron came to dinner last night. They had some CD sets due in our library system. I gave Chris a haircut. He helped with some computer stuff. Aaron tried to beat Grandpa at table tennis, but Grandpa ruled! Kim played some games with Aaron also.
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Sun. Oct. 5, 2014
Hi Kids,
Thanks for the produce Scott. Shane, thanks for the computer help. We were happy you both and Kellen came to Priesthood meeting with Dad. I found it on LDS.org last night. What struck me was how colorless it was without women's colorful clothing---all dark and white!
It ended up being Janika, her boyfriend Mitch, and Mitch's friend Alex (leaving on a mission to San Jose, Calif. the end of this month) who slept over here. Mitch's mom got a place downtown. They had breakfast and watched morning conference here. They had tickets to the afternoon session. They were easy and left a hostess gift and thank-you cards, which was sweet!
Conference was good--lots of needed talks.
Beautiful weather, so we went for a walk and delivered some goodies to the gal that did the swimming pool during our trip and to her elderly mom, my former VT partner.
Thanks for your letters Chris, Wendy, and Jen. We love hearing what your families are doing.
Courtney's birthday on Sat., Oct. 11th. Janelle will be 12 on Tues., Oct. 14th and Kellen will be 18 on Thurs., Oct. 16. Kim's b-day is Wed. Oct. 29 and Amy's is on Thursday, Oct. 30.
We have Ensign Club this Wed., so will do our mission on Thurs. this week.
Have a great week!
love, Mom
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October 10, 2014
Derek,
Sorry I didn't see your email the other day. When Dad unbolds them, I sometimes miss them in the queue and he never tells me about then.
We left at 9:45 a.m. to take Lorrie and go to a family funeral in Bountiful. We didn't get home until 3:30 and then left again at 5:15 to go with Merrill and Lorrie to a family wedding up in Oakley. Then we stopped at Merrill and Lorrie's and played games, then shopped at Sprouts to buy fruit and veggies, stopped to close up the pool and get mail--and finally got home and just finished our Ensign reading. So it has been a long day for us.
Guess who was at the wedding also--Debbie and Glade Curtis!
Then I just found your email and text and some from Chris. I just didn't hear the text notification in my purse.
Yes, we are fine. Yes, Sat. morning would be fine for you to visit us. We need a grandkid fix. We haven't seen any for awhile.
I'm sending this to all of you, so Chris will know why I didn't answer him either.
love, Mom
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Mon. Oct. 13, 2014
Hi Kids,
I went VT today and heard the rumor that we will be getting a new bishopric next month. Five years pass quickly!
Tonight was supposed to be Empty-Nesters at Joens, but no one could come but us! So she invited us to dinner and play games and teach her some Family History. But then she called a bit ago and has one of her migraines, so postponed it for another time. She called Sat. night, feeling "down". I was hoping we could interest her in the new easy F. H. tricks to give her something to do and help her feel needed and like she was accomplishing something.
Tomorrow night is "Terrific Tuesday" at RS, with dinner at 6. I didn't sign up for anything, but will go to eat and visit.
We lucked out on the church cleaning turn on conference weekend. When Dad called one of the other families Fri. night, they hadn't known about the switch and just couldn't reach the family that traded weeks with us. So the other two families had done it on Friday to not interfere with conference, so it was all done already!
D and D and girls came Sat. morning and we fixed a pancake breakfast. Then we took the girls for a walk while their parents played a bit of tennis.
We had a nice dinner at Chris and Kim's yesterday and then I taught Chris the fun new easy stuff on Family Tree on one computer. He reserved a bunch of names and added lots of sources to people's records. Dad helped Kim with her family's line on the other computer, adding some new people since she has many non-members, and reserving work to do for her uncle.
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For those of you interested in knowing more about your extended family and to help you count your blessings, I will tell you a little about my cousin Kathy Norman Laws---the funeral we went to Fri. was her husband's. He was 68. Kathy is the daughter of Rex's younger brother Rowland.
Kathy married Grant Laws, knowing he had some health issues. He has been bad for about 11 years. They didn't seem able to have any children.
Kathy was a Labor and Delivery Room nurse. A baby boy was born with a deformed hand and foot. His parents (or single mom?) didn't want him. So Kathy and Grant adopted him and named him Scott. As a child, Scott's deformed foot kept him from doing a lot of things, so the doctors amputated his foot and he had a prosthesis foot and could do many more things.
Then another baby boy was born with many problems and his parents (or single mom?) didn't want him. So Kathy and Grant adopted the baby and named him James. The doctors told them the baby would probably not live more than a year. He is now 38. He is only about half as tall as a normal person. His body and trunk wouldn't grow much and as his internal organs grew normally, he became more deformed. He can walk with a walker and is on oxygen and they don't expect him to last too much longer. He had an aide to help him the day of the funeral. He can talk in a high little voice.
Then after many years, Kathy did get pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl they named Erin. She was a Downs Syndrome baby and just lived a week.
Then LDS Family Services said that Kathy and Grant had been through so much, they deserved a healthy child, and they were able to adopt a baby girl they named Virginia.
Funny stories they told: Scott's young nieces and nephews went screaming to their parents, saying "Uncle Scott took off his foot!!"
Another time Scott was at a church meeting or someplace, sitting by some old ladies. He reached down and turned his foot around backwards---the ladies were horrified!
Rick will be arriving Thurs. evening with 5 kids and return home on Sunday. Alicia is coming Fri. afternoon with her kids to play with cousins. We'll have pizza, etc. Bring your kids to visit with cousins too if you want. The pool is still open through the weekend. Bring swim suits and tennis shoes.
We have our dental checkups Wed. morning and then will do our missionary shift. Dad will try to do his phone shift Thurs. since we will be busy with company Fri. and he got off last Fri. for the funeral. Tues. mornings we have about 3 hours of training meetings, so our phone is always tied up then too.
Dad is at the library, picking up the movie "The Fault in our Stars." Has anyone seen it? It is pretty recent--about teenagers with cancer falling in love. Hope it won't be too sad to watch.
Enjoy the sunshine!
love, Mom
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Tues. Oct. 21, 2014
Hi Kids,
When we were to dinner at Chris & Kim's a week ago, Seth told us that he and Kellen are teammates on the wrestling team at Corner Canyon High School! That will be nice for them to get better acquainted.
Rick and their 5 youngest arrived Thursday night and stayed until after Sacrament meeting on Sunday.
Janelle turned 12 last Tues. On Thursday Janika took Janelle, Jase, and Jared to do baptisms in the St. George Temple. Then Rick took Janelle and Jared to the Jordan River Temple on Fri. and to the S.L. Temple on Sat. I was impressed that Janelle was confident enough at her young age to go into the women's dressing room alone and not be afraid to ask for help as to where to go and what to do. Rick was able to do the baptisms at both temples. We had helped Janelle find family names during our Sept. visit to their home.
Fri. afternoon Alicia drove up with their 3 kids, Chris brought Camden and Cayson, and Jeni came with Landon, Keaton, Cooper, and Colton. We all went swimming. It was fun to have the pool to ourselves and play and visit. I wish we had gotten some photos of the 11 cousins. Then we gobbled 5 Papa Murphy's pizzas and jello. Jeni brought some fun activities as she is great to always do, and left them here for the kids to play with more.
We missed Scott and Amy's family and D and D's--I had sent everyone an invitation in a previous family letter. Then Adria and Rella slept over to play with their St. George cousins. The weather was perfect. Shane and Calder picked up their girls about noon and we fixed blueberry muffins for lunch. Gerilynn picked up Rick's kids and took them to lunch and the park.
The pool is being closed today--so Dad's 10 years of doing the pool ended last night. He has mixed feelings--relief--and yet he kind of enjoyed it also. It was nice to be able to control the pool times and temperature. We will miss that. And we didn't have to pay our monthly $75 for those 5 months each year. I'm sure he will substitute at times.
We went to dinner at Joen's last night. We then were trying to set up a group address for empty-nesters on her computer. It was a MAC and we had to call Derek twice, but Derek helped us accomplish it, even though he wasn't really familiar with "apple mail." We appreciated your help, Derek! I've been doing all the empty-nesters emails for her for years, but then everyone replies to me instead of her. And she always wants to send out more reminders to the group than I am comfortable with--I don't like to bother them so much. So now she can send them herself!
Shane and Alicia are coming to dinner tonight--waffles, OJ, eggs, etc.------a breakfast dinner. They are bringing some fish for our pond since their fish tank is leaking. He will help with some computer networking problems that have happened this morning.
We have enjoyed being with family this week. Wendy, how was your first week as Primary President?
We need to start winterizing the yard. It is always hard to pull out and cut off plants while they are still pretty, but then we end up doing it in 40 degree weather and planting bulbs in the cold, after a freeze. Jared worked with Dad for a couple hours to earn money. We could have used him for more work that is hard for Dad to do now, but they ran out of time.
Have a great week! Enjoy the sunshine!
We love you all,
Mom
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Tues. Oct. 28, 2014
Hi Kids,
We got our first freeze last night. We picked all of our green tomatoes yesterday. We are going out now to take out the cannas, etc. that got zapped. We had errands to run, so I hope it is not too cold to work now.
Sunday Scott, Kemery and Taylee came to dinner. Amy and McKenna went to St. George. So we had Amy's birthday dinner without her! It was nice to visit. Alyssa and Kellen had other plans. Kemery said she has a fun job at a cupcake bakery by the Draper Harmons, close to their home. We are glad all of our grandkids like their jobs.
Kim's birthday is tomorrow and Amy's on Thursday. Hope they both have great birthdays!
Last night Jen invited us over for a taco dinner and games. All 5 boys played with us.
Sunday we are invited to Chris and Kim's for a birthday dinner for me.
Amy called and invited us for Thanksgiving and we gladly accepted. So I'm giving you all the heads up that we are taken care of. Rick had mentioned it and they always welcome us there for Thanksgiving, but Dad didn't feel like making the long drive again that soon.
Chris and Kim mentioned that their family won't be here for Christmas, as they are going to California to spend Christmas with Kim's sister. Jen, are you sending out the Christmas gift list--if all of you still want to do it.
The Eskelsen's on Shenandoah (with all the decorations) have purchased 1,800 candy bars to give out! It's no fun to me with all the kids brought in from everywhere, that we don't even know.
We will go to a movie. Gardians of the Galaxy is only show at 9:15, so we'll probably go see "Meet the Mormons." It is nice that it is doing
so well!
love, Mom
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October 30, 2014
Any of you are welcome to join us for dinner tonight at 5:45 at Red Robin (by Scott's old work). D & D's family is coming and bringing our new phone (I assume you are coming to our house after to get it all up and running). Landon is coming (he's been working in our neck of the woods lately instead of Bountiful). Our treat (or is it trick or treat)!
Happy Birthday today, Amy! Your whole family can come. Or if you and Scott are "painting the town" alone, the kids can come without you. Wendy, we know it is a long way, but Rick drove to Salt Lake for an Interpreting test and back to St. George last Thursday, and dinner with family is more fun than a test! :-)
Alicia, that is sure too bad about the girls' piano teacher's daughter passing away unexpectedly and having to cancel their piano recital tonight. That is nice of you to switch it to your house the last minute. We know we are "plan B" if it didn't work out. You mentioned Rella was upset at the cancellation because her school teacher was going to come---that's dedication. I remember when one of Wendy's little girls invited her school teacher to her baptism and she came.
Our new phone number will be 801-209-5871. Thanks, Derek, for doing all the leg work.
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