Trip to Davenport, Nauvoo, and Chicago

. We have been planning this trip for a long time, but that didn't help us avoid some unexpected adventures along the way!Getting there was quite the trip! We picked up all the kids from their last day of school around 1:00 and made it on our flight to Denver just great! We bought a footlong subway sandwich in Lehi for each one of us and had half for lunch and half for dinner since there is no longer food on any flights. As we were waiting for our plane to leave from Denver to Chicago, we were informed that there was a malfunctioning part that they were trying to find a replacement for. One hour later (waiting inside the plane) we finally took off. When we got there, our bags took another whole hour to make it to baggage claim. Chris said the unions there are ridiculous and they were probably on their lunch break. Let me remind you that by this time it was midnight! We got to the car rental place only to stand behind a lady whose credit card wouldn’t work and it took the guy 45 minutes to even get to us. They were out of cars so they ended up upgrading our rental to a van which was good in the end since we were able to have Chris’ kids swap back and forth during all of our long drives. We were starving by then and so after getting directions as to where to get on the freeway to Iowa, we stopped and got cheeseburgers at Wendys. We then followed the car rental guy’s directions only to get lost in a very scary part of downtown Chicago. There we were at 1:30 in the morning driving who knows where when we notice a cop car behind us with his lights on. Yep, we were speeding even though we had no idea where we were or what the speed limit was. Brendan went on for a few blocks because we were on a busy highway and he was trying to find a safe place to pull over. Well, I guess that in Chicago you pull over no matter what immediately so the cop then called for back up because we were being difficult. We explained our LONG horrible day, but that didn’t stop him from giving us a $75.00 ticket. He was really nice about giving us directions though. So we finally get on our way and realized that the freeway (or should I say the toll-road) had a 45 mph speed limit! Are you kidding me!!! It did go as high as 55 mph in a few places, but since we had just gotten a ticket we didn’t dare go any faster! Chris’ house is 175 miles from Chicago! We finally made it to Chris and Cindy’s at 4:30 in the morning! As we plopped into bed, we heard birds chirping outside and could see the faintest hint of light coming through our windows.

Chris and Cindy were amazing to us. They brought up their old king size mattress and put it in Sierra’s room for us. All the girls slept together in Solei’s room, except we got the best little roommate and had Ella in with us in her crib. Jake and Jordan got the boys bunkbeds and the two little guys slept on the floor. They were great sports about it…except Taron got Jordan back by sneaking in his backpack and eating his entire pack of gum! We didn’t see any bad repercussions from it. Hopefully he’s ok. Their house is so beautiful. Just picture their Saratoga Springs house blown up and add a bedroom. Their neighborhood, I told Chris, is like driving into Osmond Lane! The houses are big and the yards are to die for. They have a rule of no fences allowed and it just makes all the yards seem huge! Plus they must have some kind of unwritten rule about keeping up their yards because EVERY SINGLE house had perfect lawns and beautifully landscaped yards! I’m so mad I didn’t get a picture of it. Cindy, you need to take one and send it to everyone so they know what I mean. I didn’t think our neighborhood was that bad, but now that I have Iowa in my head, our neighborhood yards make me cringe! The area is so great. They have every single kind of store, restaurant, and theater within a few blocks from their house. Once you get out of there though, it’s nothing but cornfields for hours in each direction.

We were blessed with nothing but perfect weather and non stop fun once we got there. Cindy’s email told you all about our trip to Dubuque, the museum, and the funny incident at the drive-inn.

“Brendan and Leslie are here now with their family, we have been having a blast. They got here late late Wednesday night (or more like early early Thursday morning). On Thursday, the first day we had with Brendan and Leslie’s family, we went
to Dubuque to the Mississippi River museum. They had some huge catfish (I thought they were sharks at first glance) and a riverboat you could walk through (with really steep stairs). The kids had fun in a movie theater that sprayed mist and flashed lightning when the storms came. We had slept in a little late so we didn’t have a ton of time at the museum but it was fun for everyone. After that we went out to eat at Pancheros, sort of like Cafe Rio but not as good. We thought we would stop at the drive-in theater on the way home, Pirates of the Caribbean was supposed to be playing and even though Brendan and Leslie
had seen it, they said it was good enough to watch again. When we got to the gate we were about to pay, but the cashier told us it was some credit union membership appreciation night and that we didn’t have to pay, even though we explained that we weren’t members. When we got in, there were free hot dogs, face painting, balloon animals, and a bounce house for the kids, so we felt like we had really gotten a great deal. Finally the previews started, and one seemed to go on a little too long and we realized it wasn’t a preview, but the movie Charlottes Web. I went to the concession stand to ask what happened to “Pirates” and they said it was the Credit Union’s night so they get to pick the movie... so (with two teenage boys who were not about to sit for two hours through a little kids movie), we decided to pack up and get home since we needed to get up early for Nauvoo anyways.

Friday, after stopping at Carthage for the tour of the jail, we went to Nauvoo. Brendan and Leslie took the boys to do baptisms in the temple while we went to “pioneer pastimes” with the younger ones. The girls dressed up in all the pioneer garb (I wish I had my camera) and Taron spent most of his
time in the log cabin drawing on the slates. Then we went on the tours through some of the homes and shops. We tried to get on a carriage ride but were too late. That evening we went to the “Sunset on the Mississippi” which was pretty much the grand finale to the day, it is such a fun show. My mom and I had gone the year before with the kids but I missed the very
end so I never understood what my kids were talking about when they were quoting the skit. I saw it this time and finally know what was so funny. “Whatcha doin?” “Makin’ eggs” “Can I have some?” “Why sure........” You really had to be there I guess. :)

The weather was perfect, a little overcast but not raining. Chris got a call on his phone that a tornado had hit Muscatine (about 20 minutes from our house) and destroyed a lot of houses and the storm had gone through our area also. We were a little bummed that we had missed all the excitement but glad that it hadn’t done any damage to our home while we were gone. On
the way home we drove through Muscatine and saw a car lot that had a bunch of new cars damaged and even one on top of another. There were some signs that were fallen or bent over also.

On Saturday we went to the air show for four hours to see the Thunderbirds. Taron got to sit in a real helicopter. I think most of the kids got a little bored of the whole thing though because it gets pretty old after a while. They did like the truck that races the airplane and spits fire out the back.

Today we went to church with everyone, Ella made Chris’s phone go off in the middle of sunday school and Sandi Naylor (she was teaching) said something about Ella knowing how to push our buttons and it only gets worse from here. Later, Brendan and Leslie made dinner for everyone, a yummy roast with all the fixin’s (I threw in some spinach salad cause I had been craving that). "

Nauvoo was amazing. I wish we would have taken more pictures. The cute missionary that took us through Carthage jail bore such a beautiful testimony at the end. Allison quietly told me that she couldn’t explain it exactly, but that she had felt the spirit really touch her. I guess I didn’t realize that all the missionary couples and young missionaries that serve in Nauvoo are mainly hosts at the temple, visitor’s center, and in all the little period homes/shops. The highlight for us was doing baptisms for the dead with Jordan and Jake. We were so blessed because they told us that a YM/YW group of 85 had just finished doing 850 names and a lady was schedule to come in 20 minutes to do 100 names. We were the only ones in there during that time. After we were done, one of the workers took us out a different way and showed the boys the spiral staircase that goes up 5 floors. He told them to look up and picture their journey to eternity and that they were taking their first steps toward the top by being there that day. It was so awesome. The “Sunset at the Mississippi” show at the end of the day was spectacular. All the missionaries did songs, dances, and skits. Everyone had a great day.

Cindy told you about the air show the next day. It was a bit long, but some parts were really fun. Allison was touched when the Thunderbirds flew in for the first time in the missing man formation to honor the fallen pilots. I did laundry that day and noticed a burnt smell coming from the washing machine. I told Chris and he said that he had turned the hot water heater on as hot as possible so that we would have plenty for all of us. I’m telling you they thought of everything to make us comfortable. Anyway, he went to check downstairs and noticed water was leaking from one of the pipes and that there were parts of the wood that looked scorched all along the water pipes! Yikes! After careful inspection by both Chris and Brendan they discovered that the leaking water was coming from the bathroom floor from when Sierra had forgotten to put the shower curtain inside the tub and had flooded the bathroom floor. The scorch marks were from the plumbers welding the pipes together, but the burnt washing machine smell was definitely from the overly hot water. They said they’ve had it forever and want a new one, but it never dies. Well, thank goodness (I guess) nothing happened to it. Let me just say that our garments have never been whiter though!!

Church was great and pretty quiet since there weren’t 100 nursery aged kids and 50 babies like we are used to around here. It was a little bit of a drive and I just count my blessings that we are able to walk to church if we want to. It was in a weird location because there were about 8 churches all in one block area of all different faiths. We enjoyed a home cooked meal which always tastes better when you’ve been eating out a lot. Caden was funny when we sat down at the table and he said, “Wow, is this Thanksgiving or something!” He even asked us to pass the “turkey” later on.

Brendan and Chris got up early on Monday morning and went golfing together. I’m glad they had that time to spend together. The rest of us slept in and then Cindy took us to the Children’s Museum gift shop so that Jake and Allison could get a Webkin. It’s a stuffed animal that comes with a code that allows you to play a game on-line with other Webkin owners. Her girls had a few already and we figured it would be fun for them to stay in touch and play together across the miles. Jake named his Caden and Caden named his new Webkin Jake. Those two became quite the little buddies on this trip! We went swimming at the YMCA later that day and had a blast. I got the cutest pictures of Taron and Ella at the pool. They closed it to the public for an hour soon after we got there so we all got out and the boys went to play basketball and the girls (yes, Solei, Sierra, and Allison) joined in at an Aerobics class full of women. It was hilarious. Then they all went swimming again when the pool opened back up. Cindy and I had left dinner in the oven which was great since we were starving when we got back. We had planned to go boating but the weather near the lake said it would be windy and possible thunderstorms, but we ended up having a great day.

Tuesday we all got up early to go to Adventureland which is an amusement park comparable to Lagoon and 2 ½ hours away. Chris came up with a great idea. Since everyone had someone to hang out with…except for Jordan… he called up his boss’ daughter (Courtney Richards) who just happens to be 16 and set her up with Jordan. His first blind date. We picked her up around 8am and it took about 3 to 5 minutes of our making small talk until they got comfortable with each other and didn’t stop talking the whole way. You all know Jordan, so that shouldn’t surprise you. She is originally from Draper and just moved out there when Chris did so they had a lot in common. It was so great to have here along for Jordan. They were on their own pretty much all day except they joined us for a few shows and we’d bump into them once in a while. She has the cutest personality and was a perfect match for Jordan. We all had a blast…except for when Sierra’s finger got pinched on one of the rides and it was bleeding really bad. The weather was perfect.

We packed up and left early on Wednesday morning. We wanted to see Chicago during the day since the kids would probably not go there again. The following is an excerpt of what we wrote to Chris and Cindy explaining the last day of our trip. "We spent a crazy day in Chicago. The weather was a little chilly and sprinkly, but not too bad. We ate at the Grand Lux Café and LOVED it! The desserts were especially fantastic! After that, we went to Navy Pier which was a $19.00 parking rip off and then we did a Family Fun House maze that ended up being a $42.00 rip off and it lasted about 5 minutes!!!! We couldn’t believe how dumb that was. We got some great pictures of the skyscrapers and got a nice hotel with a yummy sports grill restaurant that was perfect for a late dinner. The only bummer was that there weren’t any hotels in the area with an indoor pool.

We made our flight just fine this morning, but were delayed taking off because of heavy winds in Denver. We knew we had missed our connecting flight about half way through. But once we landed at 12:12 p.m. we checked the departure screen and our connection had also been delayed and was boarding and scheduled to leave at 12:16 p.m. Brendan couldn’t run with his knee so I took off down to the gate (about 200 yards away) and asked if we were too late to make it on the flight. They said that they were just about to close the doors so I yelled to Brendan and the kids who were coming as fast as possible down the hall. They held the doors for us and the plane took off about 2 minutes after we sat down!!! Unfortunately, our checked on bag was not as quick, but it was delivered to our house that night just as we were getting ready for bed.

We spent a great weekend together until Jake left on Saturday for Arizona to visit with Cameron. Jordan left on Monday at 5:45 a.m. to go to football camp until Saturday and Allison left at 7:15 a.m. for a week at Clear Creek camp. We are all alone and can I say that’s it’s not fun!! We miss them terribly especially at dinnertime when it’s just me and Brendan at our dinner table. We are sure that they are all having a great time though and can’t wait until we get all back together. We don’t have any plans for our empty nester week since Brendan has a lot of catching up to do at work and I have 4 bow orders to keep me super busy and tied down. We’ll celebrate next Monday when we are together again and maybe have dinner at Café Rio!"

Knee Surgery #5!

From: Brendan Smith Friday, April 13, 2007 8:30 AM
Just a few more bits of news; I bought a car yesterday. It’s a 2006 Chrysler Sebring with 22,000 miles on it and I got it for 11,500. I’ve been looking for the perfect car for a while and I’m excited about this deal. I was expecting to have to spend about $18,000 so I’m totally stoked, and it’s a great look and fun car too with a V6 and it gets about 32 MPG on the freeway.

The second bit of news is bad news. I have to have surgery on my knee again. It’s scheduled for May 2nd. The bone from the bone plugs is healing perfectly from my surgery last year but the cartilage is not doing so great. Plus the doctor thinks I may have a new injury on the other side of the knee with a small bone spur on my knee cap on that side that my have torn some cartilage there. Anyway, it should just be a scope this time and should heal fast. The arthritis looks good and the doc thinks that this one could help me avoid ever needing a knee replacement.

From: Leslie Smith Thursday, May 03, 2007 8:36 AM
Just thought I'd let you know how it went with Brendan's surgery yesterday. It lasted about 1 1/2 hours, but we were there a total of 6 because the anesthesia was just really rough on Brendan this time around. He was really sick so they would give him nausea medicine, which in turn would make his oxygen levels drop too much so it was a long cycle of this. By the time we were almost home, though, he was feeling pretty good and had a great evening. He was able to eat really well last night and just rested all evening. Here is the knee stats: His original ACL surgery looks great. Last year's bone plugs are not 100% healed, but the Dr. said they are looking pretty good. This time there were two new things wrong...which we honestly don't know how or when they happened. He had a small miniscus tear which they fixed and the left side of his knee was raw bone and they took a bunch of broken pieces of cartilage that were just floating around. The Dr. wanted to try to take one of those pieces and grow it in a lab to make more and graft it back on, but the area is just too big and the procedure won't work. The next best thing he could do was to drill holes in his knee 1 cm apart which will cause it to bleed, form blood clots, which will form scar tissue which he said is the next best thing to real cartilage. Matt Harpring from the Jazz had this done 3 years ago and he's playing basketball just fine now. It will take about 3 months to see if it's going to work or not. The only other option left is a total knee replacement which would make it not possible for him to run or jump anymore, but the Dr. really doesn't want to do that because Brendan's just too young for that. Pain wise, he's done ok on just Tylonel and had a decent night's sleep considering the huge noisy storm that kept us up for most of the night. He's not on crutches and he should be somewhat back to normal in 3-4 weeks...just in time for our trip to Iowa. Last time the next day was the worst so we'll see how today goes. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. By the way...Jordan will be getting his patriarchal blessing today...so exciting!!!!

From: Leslie Smith Tuesday, May 08, 2007 8:17 AM.
Brendan is back at work and doing REALLY good. His knee is less swollen now than before his surgery. He is really optimistic about everything and other than walking a little slower than normal, you would never know he just had surgery…no crutches…no limping (only going up and down stairs.) Plus you wouldn’t believe that his surgery hasn’t stopped his working out. He still lifts weights every morning and his is down to 200 lbs!!!! I hardly recognize him and I see him every day! He has lost 40 lbs. in 4 months! He looks amazing! I honestly don’t understand his willpower and determination. I’m so proud of him.

Prom 2007

After almost 7 months of being sixteen, Jordan has finally asked a girl out on a date…for Prom, nonetheless. He wasn’t going to go because these date dances are so out of control expensive, but I gave him some great ideas on a low budget. A few of his friends had the same concern so they are going all together and I know they’ll have a blast. We went to Costco and bought 2 dozen pink roses for 14.99 (the regular flower shops charge 54.99 for only one dozen roses). Then we rolled up this poem in a pink ribbon:
K o u r t n e y
Some roses are pink, some roses are white
I would be honored if you would join me
for a fun filled Prom night

We’ll spend the day playing out in the sun
Then get all dressed up for an evening of fine dining,
dancing, and fun

If your answer is yes to going with me,
A pink rose in your hair tomorrow I’ll see
If my offer, however, you must decline
Then your wearing a white one will be my sign.

Sincerely yours,
Jordan Smith

We purposely didn’t give her any white roses so that it would be hard to say no. Prom isn’t for another 5 ½ weeks, but Kourtney is such a cute girl and Jordan didn’t want to risk her already being asked. I remember last year at the 9th grade honors night, she got some award and I told Jordan, “Now that’s a cute girl.” Honor student, athletic, modest, and very naturally beautiful.

Then we went to the high school to deliver it because she was at softball practice. The team said that she wasn’t there, so we then drove to her house. Her mom said that she was at softball practice, but not at the high school because the JV team practices at Vet’s park. So we continued on and found the team practicing on a back field. Allison and a neighbor friend had come along and Jordan thought it would be cute to have them deliver the flowers. They walked over there and asked for Kourtney Blanc. Jordan and I hid in the car parked down the way a little bit. The whole team screamed, “Kourtney you got flowers!” She was playing catcher so she took off her head gear and ran over as the team surrounded her. Today as Jordan was going into his Spanish class he saw her across the hall…she smiled and pointed to her hair where she had a pink rose in her headband! He’s going with these top notch boys and I couldn’t be more excited.

New Calling/Missionary experience

Brendan got a new calling this past Sunday. He has been called as the 1st counselor in the Young Men’s presidency. He says that he will honestly miss being Gospel Doctrine teacher, but he’s excited to work with the boys in our ward. He is over the Teacher’s quorum and has an awesome scout leader to help him out. In fact, it’s kind of funny that the men in Young Men’s right now are pretty much all the husband’s of the women who were in Young Women’s with me a few years back. He’ll have Jake next summer and has just outstanding boys to work with right now. It’s going to be great.

We had the BEST YM/YW activity last week. The youth were each told to get a personal copy of the March New Era and read it cover to cover. It’s all on missionary work and mission preparation. They were given a “mission call” a few weeks ago with last week’s date, but the location to be announced later. They had to sign and return the letter. Then last week they met at the church…they were given engraved nametags and paired off with a companion (not necessarily the same age) and given a “mission,” which was a home of someone in our ward. For example, the two boys that came to our house were told that they would be going to a mission to New Zealand at the Smith home. They reviewed a lesson sheet and some scriptures that the YM and YW presidencies had prepared and headed off. They had a “traditional” dinner from that country at the member’s home and we discussed missionary work during dinner. Then, they gave us a lesson on missionary work, challenged us all to be better missionaries and bore their testimony’s about it. One of the boys that came to us will be going on his mission in August and it was so great to see how mature he is and what an incredible little missionary he is already. Then Brendan spent about a half hour sharing experiences and information about New Zealand so they could learn a little about it. It was so great. Everyone had so much fun and it was so great for so many members of the ward to be involved with the youth encouraging their preparing for missions. Jake even said that he hoped that they do this every year. He went to South Africa, but was a little disappointed when they served lasagna, but loved the experience. Jordan, unfortunately had a track meet and had to miss it. It really made a difference in everyone’s lives…including ours.

The Great Explainer

I got this wonderful email today from Jake's pre-algebra teacher. I'm so proud of my little Jakers!

So, during Math Enrichment today the students were going around the room doing problems in partners and Jake's partner was doing a problem wrong. Jake looked over and saw what he was doing wrong and TOTALLY explained it to him perfectly and his partner GOT IT!

I was really impressed. Jake is doing so awesome! I just had to let you know!

Keep up the good work with him and encouraging him!
Thanks for all you do!
April Duvall


From: Leslie Smith

To:April Duvall:
Thanks so much for the email. It’s not often that teachers take the time to send out a “good news” type message. Your math enrichment class has been the best thing that Jake has been involved in. Thank YOU for all you have done for him and for being (in Jake’s words) “a great explainer.” It’s good to hear that he really does get it.
Thanks!Leslie Smith

Non stop life

February 18 to 24, 2007

Today we went to church and Brendan taught a great lesson on the miracles of Christ in Gospel Doctrine. We came home and had lunch and then Brendan had to leave to catch a flight to Arizona for a business trip. He never goes out of town anymore, but he had to go down for part of the audit this year. He plans on having dinner with Jessica, Joel, and Cassie tomorrow night so that will be fun. Jordan and I went to the Eagle Court of Honor for Tanner Skousen, Harrison Hinz, and Jeff Pinckney tonight. They had a live Eagle come which was so cool. What a beautiful bird that is so close up! We hurried back home because it’s the 3rd Sunday which means dinner at Grandmas! Ed and Maria came over and my mom made her famous tacos which are everyone’s favorite.

Brendan and I left Friday morning to St. George for our annual tradition of attending the Parade of Homes. We usually go down with the Pedens and Campbells, but it was only Pedens this year. We picked up Debra and drove away during a huge snow storm. It took us about a half an hour just to get to the freeway. Thank goodness that Brendan was at the wheel. I always feel completely safe when he’s in control. We saw about 7-8 homes that day and had dinner at the Cracker Barrel. Richard had to work, so he joined us at the condo late that night after he drove all the way down by himself. We saw all the homes and especially loved the basement that was decorated like the Pirates of the Carribean. We fell in love with a master bedroom decorated in tans, browns, and aqua blue. We hope to do our room like that soon. We bought a painting at one of the homes with those colors in it to give us the needed inspiration. We went to see “Wild Hogs” together on Saturday night. It’s one of the funniest movies we’ve ever seen. We had dinner at Ruby River where we had great steak and the best baked sweet potatoes ever! I HAVE to make them at home. The kids had spent the weekend at Ed and Maria’s so we stopped by there to pick them up on the way home. The kids had so much fun. Ed was great and took Jordan track shoes shopping all day Saturday. Shoe shopping with Jordan is a nightmare so I was really grateful that he did that!

Monday I had Activity Days. We watched the mailbox and talked about being good friends and neighbors. I got caught up on all the recordkeeping for the girls.


Tuesday Brendan and I went to Jordan’s parent teacher conference. He has been blessed with the greatest teachers and we have been so happy with Lehi High School. His Debate teacher said that he wouldn’t be surprised if Jordan took State in Debate his Senior year. He also checked his Debate points and told us that he had lettered this year which doesn’t happen very often for Sophomores! We are so excited. I guess we will have to save up to buy him a letterman’s jacket and we’ll be adding track this spring and football to it next fall when he finally will play Varsity. His History teacher told us that Jordan scored the highest in all of his classes on their last test and that he wants him to take AP History next year. I think it will be great. Between his success in history and debate, he’s got a great start toward his law school goal. Even his science teacher had nice things to say and told us that he’s been doing a lot better in there. But of course we are going on 11 years of hearing, “He’s a great student except that he talks too much” from most of his teachers.” What else is new? We are just so proud that he’s so well rounded in academics and in athletics. He’s also really responsible with work and still wants to go to scouts each week that he can.

Wednesday the 28th was just crazy. I spent the morning finishing up bow orders and then I went up to Salt Lake to deliver two and inventory the Sandy store. I got back just in time to pick up Allison. We did homework and then I drove her to musical theatre and went straight to Jake’s Parent teacher conference. His math teacher is expecting her first baby and said that she wants to clone parts of Jake and put them in her baby. Everyone just loves his sweetness and his desire to please and his helpful and kind nature. Brendan picked up Allison on his way home from work since I was still at the Jr. High at 5:30. We had soup and sandwiches and then Brendan and Jake ran to the church to perform the “Haka” for our ward’s Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. I cleaned up the kitchen while they were gone and then we all went to Debbie’s new house to help move her in, but by the time we got there, they were all done. We felt so bad, but we just couldn’t get there one minute earlier.

Did we really do all this in one week?

BIRTHDAY/COLD/COOKIES/SCOUTS/VALENTINES/TAXES/

BASKETBALL/PIANO/MOVIES...

Sunday was Allison’s 11th birthday. With church starting at 11:00 it was a typical morning before church. I don’t know why I went because I woke up with a really bad cold and ended up asking Brendan to take me home halfway through Sunday School because I couldn’t open my eyes from them being so itchy and watery. I came home and rested for about an hour and then wrapped Allison’s presents. We got her a pink reading pillow (which she asked for at Christmas and I bought it then, but forgot to give it to her.) She also got a green spring shirt and matching flowery flip flops. Brendan grilled some awesome steaks for lunch. He always does them just right. Then we went to our monthly Howard family meeting which was great like always. It was really cute how ALL the grandkids sat quietly and listened to the lesson. I think it was the first time ever. Grandma Howard made yummy Valentine sugar cookies for Allison’s birthday that were gobbled up right away. I’m not sure what Allison was doing, but Sadie came up to us and said, “that birthday girl is crazy!” We had her friend's birthday party the Friday before. It was her very first slumber party! She invited Elizabeth, Savannah, Kimmy, and Jessi. We were going to go Ice Skating, but they close from 5:30 to 7:00 to clean the ice so we ended up going miniature golfing at Trafalga instead. It worked out better since it’s much closer and not as crazy. That was a lot of fun and then Allison picked Wendy’s to go to dinner. We then came back home and had homemade German Chocolate cake! It turned out perfect which was such a relief for me considering last week’s cake fiasco. The girls opened presents, played games, watched a movie, and talked and laughed well into the early hours of the morning! They woke up around 8 the next morning and we all had pancakes. Jordan and Jake left around 7:45 together for basketball. Elizabeth and Kimmy ended up staying and went with us to Jake’s game. They stayed until 5:00 that evening. They played “Killer” most of the time which is a game that if you are”it” you have to wink inconspicuously at the other players and if they get winked at they die right there on the spot. The point is to guess who the killer is before he/she winks at you. Jake had a friend over and there were kids all over the place.

I woke up REALLY sick on Monday, but life can’t stop because mom is sick. I had to have 7 girls over that afternoon for activity days. I ran to the store to get a few ingredients for cookies. I had to wear sunglasses because my eyes were a watery mess! I made sugar cookie dough in advance for the girls to just roll and cut out. Even though I had done some prep work, it was still a mess with flour everywhere, but they turned out really good and the girls had a great time decorating them with frosting and candies. We also made homemade Valentine cards for their parents or teachers. I got out all of my pink, white, and red scrapbook paper scraps, my punches, stickers, etc. and let them go at it. I should have made a nice example and had them copy it, but I was way too sick and so not up to it. They all got pretty creative on their own and it was probably better that they got to do whatever they wanted. I had quite a mess to clean up when they left just to have it all dirtied again because I had to make mint chocolate brownies for Allison. My mom was coming home later that afternoon after being in Guatemala for two weeks and so I invited Ed and Maria’s family for dessert to celebrate Allison’s birthday all together. Mint brownies are her favorite, but I was “sugared” out by then. I made the brownies, put dinner in the crock pot, cleaned up the kitchen, and went to bed. I felt bad to not be at the party, but I was dying by then. I laid in bed the rest of the evening and caught up on all my recorded shows. I think everyone had a good time even though I heard Ian say, “Where’s my Essie?” I love that little guy so much!

Jordan went to a board of review on Tuesday to get his first bronze palm. The scout chairman said that he is the first one in our ward to ever get one. He hasn’t really done much after earning his Eagle rank, but I guess he had everything done before and just had to wait out the waiting period. I’m glad he went and then he stayed and basketball with the other Young men.

Wednesday was Valentine’s day and what a fun day it was! I was finally feeling better so that was the best part for me. Brendan and I planned to meet at lunch since we knew dinner would be crazy and more expensive that night. I drove up and met him at an Italian restaurant near his work at Jordan’s Landing. It was so fun to see him in the middle of the day. After lunch he pulled out a little bag of surprises for me…a scrapbook magazine, the book “Sense and Sensibility,” a card, and a CD of romantic songs. He chose that CD because it has the song “Marry You Again” by Joshua Creek which has since become one of my all time favorites! I loved my surprise. We had agreed to just get each other new running shoes which we both needed, so I felt bad that I didn’t do anything extra. We went to Famous Footwear after lunch and got our new shoes. It was a total bummer to have to say goodbye, but we had a great time. That afternoon I took Allison to her musical theater class. My dad called and invited our whole family out to dinner for Valentine’s day. So after I picked up Allison he took us out to Tepanyaki. It was my first time at the new one here in Lehi. It was so fun. Our cook was hilarious. He threw 7 or 8 shrimp to Jordan to catch in his mouth. It was a great day!

I spent Thursday making bows pretty much all day. Brian and Lauren came over after dinner to have Brendan do their taxes. I love seeing them. We always seem to have a great time together. After the taxes were done, we watched Lost together. Then it was reading time and bed time for us all.

As I was getting ready to leave to drop off my bow order on Friday morning, Allison called me saying that she was sick and needed to come home. She had a headache and a stomache. I just have to wonder if she was really sick or just wanted to get out of doing her endurance test in PE because she was pretty much ok once she got home. I left her for about an hour while I went to South Jordan. I left her on the couch armed with the phone, a drink, the TV remote, and a throw up bowl. She was fine.

I got an email from Jordan’s Biology student teacher that afternoon telling me that Jordan had gotten out of hand during their lab and gotten in a water fight with a group of boys during class. The worst part was that he was asked to stay after class to discuss the problem and he had gotten angry and left! What do I do with this boy! He can be so great and do so much good, but every once in a while he messes up big. He can be so disrespectful and the worst part is that he doesn’t feel bad. I don’t know how to teach him empathy toward others. It’s always just about him. I know that teenagers are like that, but he needs to have remorse sometimes. I don’t want him to think that it’s ok to act like this especially with adults. Other people’s feelings matter too. It scares me to think of him acting like this with his future boss or with his wife! I hope that he learns his lesson this time and that I can help him see how wrong his actions really were. I can’t say that I can complain much though. So far, raising a teenager hasn’t been too bad and we have a lot of fun together for the most part. I know that I overreact to situations because he’s my oldest and I haven’t learned to “chill” yet. I’m really going to miss him terribly when he is gone from home in a few years.

Jake had such a great basketball game on Saturday morning. The team he played had 3 or 4 tall kids on it and Jake’s team is full of (as the coach has said) a bunch of midgets. They were down by 10, then it was tied, then they were up by 8, and then it was tied again. They ended up pulling away the last 2 minutes of the game and won by 7! Jake scored a 3 on their second basket of the game. He also scored one other time at the beginning of the second half. They all played their guts out. Allison had her Piano Festival that afternoon. The Boyd’s were there too for Michael and Rebecca. When it was all over John said, “Whew, I’m so glad that was over. That was a lot of stress in our family.” I just laughed and said, “It’s just a piano festival. We’ve been doing these forever with Jordan, then Jake, and now Allison. As long as they feel good about how they did it’s all that matters.” I had to remind myself that Michael and Rebecca are their oldest kids. Everything is such a bigger deal with your first. I need to remember that so that I don’t let Jordan’s “science lab antics” make my world come to a stop! Brendan worked on his Sunday School lesson that afternoon and then went grocery shopping for me and got a video. After dinner we all watched “The Illusionist.” We all liked it but it was a bit predictable and no where as good as “The Prestige.” All in all, I have to say we had a good week

Quiet is good

We’ve had such a nice break from our usual non-stop life! On Sunday we had no where to go and no one was coming over so we all put on our jammies right after church (at 2:00). We had our favorite Sunday meal of hot dogs with Brendan’s guacamole! The kids all gathered around the kitchen table and did their homework together. They hardly ever do that and we totally know that those days are soon to be gone so I had to take a picture. It may seem like a boring event to most, but it was a precious sight to me. Reminded me of the times when they used to spread out their Valentines cards for school and do them all together. Now only Allison does them still. We watched the Super Bowl together and laughed at most of the commercials. All the good ones were during the first half.

Jordan got called to ref 3 games Tuesday night so he couldn’t go to Young Men’s. Jake went and had a fun time. They played the game, Love Thy Neighbor, decorated Valentine cookies, and delivered a few to some families in the ward.

We hadn’t gone grocery shopping in over 1 week and so I went to Wal-Mart and Costco and spent a small fortune. I filled up the fridge, freezer, and pantry but it will all be gone in a few days. Nothing lasts long around here. I ended up cleaning out our pantry while putting away the groceries and threw away a large black garbage bag full of stuff that was either useless, expired, or empty. It’s made me smile all week as I open our organized pantry! I told Brendan that I really want to work as a professional organizer. Seeing a messy closet or pantry or even an entire messy room is such a fun prospect for me. I love that kind of challenge and I love seeing the final outcome. I have helped a few people in our ward each year when we do our service auction and I always volunteer my organizing services. It is so much fun when I have the time. Of course, I hate it when I’m too busy to really tackle that kind of project. It sure would beat making bows all day long, but it wouldn’t be as steady.

On Wednesday, Jordan again got called to fill in to referee the 9th grade boys teams. He has been getting a lot of more opportunities because he is so responsible about showing up on time and not messing around while on the job! It’s too bad that this great referee job is seasonal, but I’m glad that he’ll at least have a great reference to put down on his resume for the future.

I went to Allison’s parent teacher conference on Thursday. I had made it for 5:50 so that Brendan could come, but the auditors are coming next week and he had a ton of work and wasn’t able to make it. She’s doing much better and the teacher has been so good to work with her and make her be responsible. She’s reading above grade leve and the teacher said that our reading aloud each night is very evident at school. I peeked at her desk and I was so happy to see it clean!

I cleaned out our filing cabinets and shredded paperwork from this past year. Brendan finished up our tax return. We are getting $1900.00 back! We are using it to go on vacation this summer, hopefully to go to Iowa to visit Chris’ family and see some church history sights. Then we cleaned out the garage since it was the warmest day of the year so far at about 50 degrees. Winter makes such a mess in the garage with all the tracked in dirt and salt from the roads. The kids played outside most of the day too.

Jordan was supposed to be home at 1:00 but was asked to ref the Shoot Out at the Legacy Center until 4:00. He came home exhausted! Birthday tradition for our family is that the birthday person gets to choose anywhere they want to go together for dinner. Since her birthday was on a Sunday this year, Allison chose to go to Johnnie’s Ribs on Saturday. I don’t think she likes the food as much as the rest of us do, but she loves the scones for dessert. They gave us all a free one for her birthday and took a picture of our family to put on their picture wall! That night as I was putting her to bed I gave her a big hug and told her that 11 years ago she was just about to come out of my tummy and 11 years from now she might very well be a mommy herself! I can’t believe how fast time flies. Brendan and I used to be the teenagers not long ago, now we have a son that age and not too long from now we will be “grandma and grandpa.”

Everyday life is pretty great

I bought more paint on Monday morning and Brendan finished the living room when he got home from work. He also painted the entry way wall. We are so happy with how it turned out.


We celebrated my mom’s birthday on Sunday and I invited Ed’s family and my parents over for dinner. The roll dough didn’t rise and the soup I was attempting for the first time (from a neighbor who tried to remember the recipe) was turning out bad. Fortunately, the rolls finally rose after I rolled them out and made them into crescents and with Brendan’s help and a few extra ingredients, the soup turned out good after all. We played scum afterward while their little kids played with Jake and Allison. I think we made it through the game without my Dad cheating…at least we didn’t catch him this time.

On Monday I had Activity Days here at our house. It’s Allison’s last time in my group as she will be turning 11 soon and moving up to the next class. So sad. We read a conference talk on Faith and then did an obstacle course while being blindfolded so that the girls had to have faith in their friends to talk them through it correctly
Tuesday I got busy the minute the kids left for school. I put our living room back together and cleaned up our main level. I did about 6 loads of laundry (I don’t know how we generate so many dirty clothes around here.) I had to send samples of some new bow styles and colors to my stores and so that took most of the afternoon. I also spent some time emailing Allison’s teacher back and forth when I checked her grades on line and saw that she had 3 F’s! She had a ton of missing assignments and we had to come up with a plan to get Allison back on track. Her main problem is a messy desk where papers “disappear”, a mind that always seems to wander, and a little bit of a chatty mouth that makes friends with whomever she sits by. We spent most of the afternoon working on homework and decluttering her room. After two days of staying in from recess to clean out her desk and working extra hard at home, she has raised her grades to A’s and 1 C. It’s so funny that she has so much work and still struggles with her grades and the boys hardly ever do homework and pull off straight A’s. 5th and 6th grades are definitely the toughest, I think. I worked on bows that evening while the boys went to scouts.
I scrambled to finish up some bow orders on Wednesday morning, ran to the post office to send them off, stopped by the grocery store, dropped by my neighbors to finish up a project and made it back by 11:15 so I could be home when Maria dropped Ian off so that she and Ed could go skiing with Noah and Taya. Ian and I made Debbie’s cookies for the kids when they got back from school. So Yummy!! I love having him come over on Wednesdays. He’s such a funny and cute little two year old and we all love playing with him, especially now that he is starting to talk so good. Allison had a busy afternoon with more make up homework, piano, and then she was off to her Musical Theatre class. Thank goodness Maria got there for Ian just as I was leaving and she took Allison for me.

That night we went to a district wide Eagle Scout recognition dinner with Jordan. There were 82 boys in our area that received their Eagles this past year. Last year there were 86 but that was before the district was split. They were shocked at the high number as they were only expecting around 40 this past year. It could have been a one hour deal if the eating part didn’t drag on for over an hour. The last 20 minutes was awesome. A military officer spoke to them and then they called each boy up, handed them an Eagle poem, had them all line up on the stage for a picture and then a guy sang the coolest song entitled, “You’re an Eagle.” There were a lot of proud parents there! But unfortunately we forgot our camera. Brendan dropped me off at a neighbor’s on the way home for our monthly scrapbook night and I just about finished my Oprah trip book.

Thursday Jake came home from school with a huge smile on his face and a paper behind his back. He couldn’t wait to show me his math test that he got 104/100! He was so excited and so was I! He does well on his assignments, but has bombed every test so this is huge progress for him.
That night Allison had her piano recital. She has been working hard to memorize two songs for a piano festival in a few weeks and she did great! Brendan got the sheet music to James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” and “Goodbye my Lover.” Can’t wait till he learns them. We went to Cold Stone for a treat afterward.
Jake and Allison and I just started reading the2nd Leven Thumps book. It’s not exactly Harry Potter, but the kids love it and Jake needs a lot of practice reading, so we try to read about 10 pages a night. We take turns reading aloud which is great practice for them, but sometimes I lose patience with the storyline.
Brendan has been really busy at work and has had later than usual nights, but that hasn’t stopped him from working hard at SME Steel’s Biggest Loser contest. There are 7 people in it from his office and they each put in $50.00. He has lost 13 lbs. in one month and is currently in second place. He has stopped eating fast food at lunch completely and works out on our elliptical every morning and works out with weights 3 times a week at night. I don’t think that it matters whether or not he wins the money as long as he ends up with healthy habits and a better lifestyle. He makes me tired sometimes just seeing how hard he works at everything that he does. He’s the best!

I went to the Sandy Kid to Kid on Friday to pick up a check for my bows that supposedly had been put in the mail almost 3 weeks ago (so frustrating!) Anyway, I ended up staying there for two hours while the owner unloaded and confided in me her trials of being a single mom while trying to run a store which she is at all day 6 days a week. Her oldest is a 13 year old 7th grader and so that says it all. SO HARD! I offered a few words, but mostly just listened because she has no one to talk to at home and works pretty much by herself. I left feeling SO grateful for my life and for my kids and especially for Brendan. Brian and Lauren called and told us that “It’s going to be a boy!” We are all so excited! Little Jack is going to be so cute and we’re so happy to hear that all looked good.

First Job/Painting pains

Jordan doesn’t get to ever sleep in on Saturdays anymore since he got his first job refereeing Jr. Jazz basketball. He has to ref 5 games from 8am-1pm every week. He gets $12.00 for each game so it’s a great job for him right now. Once in a while he gets an extra shift during the week. It’s so nice that we don’t have to get up early to take him anymore since he can drive himself! Brendan and I got up on Saturday and realized that we had nothing on our calendar for the day so we decided to paint the living room. We have had the paint for over a month, but Brendan’s hands had never quite recovered enough from painting the family room and kitchen. He said that he was finally up to it. We opened up the paint and put a couple of strokes on the wall and cringed. It was a horrible bright gold color that looked nothing like the swatch. So we ran out to the paint store and spent an hour finding just the right color. We were in the middle of painting when Ed called to see if we wanted to join their family and go see a movie. We couldn’t stop painting then, but I drove Jake and Allison to the theater so they could have fun with them. We discovered that we needed more paint about a half hour AFTER the paint store closed, so we were totally bummed about leaving our living room half painted and a disaster until Monday. That night we went to Brandon Sehestedt’s Eagle Court of Honor. Kerri is amazing and she put together a great ceremony.

Just the boys

There was no school today so Jake and Jordan went skiing with Ed and Noah. He took them to Deer Valley. It was Jordan’s 4th time and Jake’s 2nd. Jake went once when he was 4 and it was such a nightmare for Brendan that we haven’t tried again since. Anyway, Ed said that Jordan did great from the beginning and it only took Jake one time down to get the hang of it. The had so much fun that they are saving up to buy their own skis and plan on going a lot more often. He took a few great pictures that I can’t wait to scrapbook! Allison and I had a girls only morning and then she invited Anna Olsen to come over and spend the rest of the day with us. She hadn’t played with her in over a year ever since they split the Elementary school, but they got back into their old selves immediately.

Fun filled December 2006!

Our Christmas season can be summed up in four words: Movies, games, late nights! That about covers it all. Of course it’s nice to be back into a routine and be productive again, but it would have been nice to have one more week together. I totally understand why Brendan has always said that it would be great to live on a farm and just work and play together as a family ALL day long every day. I miss having everyone around this morning. I couldn’t sleep last night so I got out a bedside notebook and started writing down all of the many thing that we did during the Christmas holiday this year. We did EVERY SINGLE thing together as a family and that is what was the most fun!

Dec. 2nd: Ward dinner and party

Dec. 4th: Allison’s choir performance at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Dec. 8th: Allison’s dance performance, Jake’s winter campout

Dec. 9th: Christmas party at the Loeffler’s. We won $50.00 (tied with Gledhills) at a Loeffler trivia game.

Dec. 12th: Jake’s National Honor Society induction ceremony. We couldn’t be prouder of our Jake! He worked so hard at school to earn his 4.0 and his citizenship grades of 5 outstandings was incredible.

Dec. 13th: Allison’s choir concert. It gets better and better every year. “If wise men still seek him” is still my favorite.

Dec. 15th: Had Noah, Taya, and Ian sleep over so Ed and Maria could celebrate her birthday together. I burnt dinner (a pot of ham and bean soup) and stunk up our house for days! Jordan went to the Moab Debate tournament for the weekend.

Dec. 16th: Dinner at Peden’s and then they treated us to “It’s a wonderful life” at Kingsbury Hall, by the Odyssey Dance theater.

Tues. 19th: Allison’s piano recital which was perfect. She did a duet with Sister Poulsen which was amazing! Then we went straight to the Loefflers to watch Miracle on 34th street in their awesome home theater. Then we all had a blast playing in their game room.

Thursday (Dec. 21st): Allison went sledding with Mandy and Kayli at the church and then that night Brendan, Jordan, and Jake had the Biggs over to watch the BYU game. It was all guys downstairs so Allison and I escaped up to my room and watched “The Grinch” and read together.

Dec. 22nd: Brendan came home early from work. Our neighbors, the Sehestedts, got a new TV so we got their old one (27”) for a great deal and Brendan hooked it up in our room. We also hung up some pictures that we’ve had for months but never got around to doing it. The boys got our old 20” TV for their playstation which was a huge upgrade from their 9” one. We then went to see “Eragon” which is based on Jordan’s latest favorite book and then we fought the crowds at Wal-mart while the kids bought presents for each other. It took forever but I was so happy to see how they each were really thoughtful of each other and picked out “just the right gift.” Jordan got Allison the High School Musical CD and Jake a Ginormous bag of Dum Dum suckers (his favorite). Jake bought Allison an electronic pet game and Jordan a case of Orbit gum that had something like 200 pieces of gum (perfect.) Allison bought Jordan a Rubik’s cube and Jake a personal gumball machine. It was a challenge to keep them from seeing what they had bought for each other and still trying to help them shop. We got home around 8:30 and had dinner at that time. Way to start off the season.

Dec 23rd: Brendan and I got up early (before the kids) with the intention of getting one more gift for them, but ended up coming home empty handed. We’ll try again next year so I can’t ruin the surprise now. We went and saw “We are Marshall” that afternoon. Then we stopped by McDonald’s for some cheeseburgers and headed up to Provo to see everyone at Grandma and Grandpa Howard’s. It was way fun seeing everyone again and we chatted till about 10:30. When we got home, Carlos and Julie were downstairs having just arrived from California so we stayed up even later visiting with them and their kids.

Dec. 24th: Carlos, Julie, and Gavin came to church with us. It was just Sacrament meeting and the choir did an amazing job. It was really beautiful. Jordan had been complaining that he didn’t want to go and that it was a waste since it was just going to be the choir singing and he had heard plenty of choirs singing. But after the meeting was almost over, I leaned over to him because the spirit was so strong and whispered, “this is why we come to church each week…to feel this spirit, to be uplifted, and to have a much needed rest from all the cares of the world.” He didn’t say much but smiled and I knew he understood. We got home and changed and headed straight to Ed’s house in Cedar Hills for Christmas Eve festivities. We had ham, potatoes, yams, salad, pumpkin pie, eggnog, and cranberry cheesecake! We did our traditional White Elephant game. The best ones were Jordan’s “Butthead” hat which was a pair of underwear attached to the visor part of the hat and Noah’s little box of nail polish. He was a great sport about it. We played (or at least tried to play) Christmas songs on our Bell chimes. The boys got a fierce game of the Incredibles going on X-box while the rest of us worked on an impossible Noah’s ark puzzle. We also sang Christmas carols around the piano while Brendan played. We opened presents from each other and played with them all until the little ones all had to go to bed. Our family stuck around to finish the puzzle which took us until 12:30 a.m. When we got home, we still had to put Christmas together for the next morning so it was a long night.

Dec. 25th: We all got up around 8:00 and had a great Christmas! The gift highlights were: Brendan and I got a 10.0 mega pixel digital camera! I got him a mini frig. for his office and the 2nd Pirates movie. He gave me some great pajamas so I can stop wearing his long sleeved t-shirts to bed. Jordan loved his I-home (which is an alarm clock/radio for his I-pod) and a few playstation games including his favorite “Guitar Hero”, Jake was in heaven with his much anticipated I-Pod, new basketball shoes and the Cars DVD, and Allison got a week’s worth of outfits including a new coat, a life size baby doll, and a few games. I had made a breakfast casserole the night before and it cooked while we opened presents. We had breakfast all together with my parents and Carlos’ family. I also made a yummy cranberry/orange pull apart bread loaf. After playing for a few hours, we got dressed and went to Brendan’s parents to wish them a Merry Christmas. It looked like it had been a long night there too and everyone was looking a little tired, but very happy. Jordan and Jake both got gift cards for I-tunes for their I-pods and Allison got a set of fake nails (which they didn’t know was on her list). She was so happy. Brendan and I got a quesadilla maker which we LOVE! We all went in together for gifts for them and Jessica bought them. Sharon got a new temple dress and perfume and Howard got an I-pod! I was wearing a new maroon sweat outfit and it was so funny when Debbie opened up a gift from her mother in law containing the exact same outfit! We had to take a twinner picture. We didn’t stay for long because the kids wanted to get back to play with their stuff. That night Ed and Maria and the kids came over for Mom’s famous tamales and to play with our new games. This is when the Stackers competition started in our family. Ed ended up with the night’s record of 5.87 seconds.

Dec. 26th: Brendan had to go back to work which was a total bummer. We had printed up some gift certificates for the kids for Christmas and so I took them to the mall to make good on them. Jordan got a few shirts at American Eagle, Jake got to pick out a baseball cap at Lids and of course picked a BYU one, and Allison got some thick headbands and accessories at Claire’s. That night we played our new 24 DVD game and started working on getting our time down with Jake’s Stackers game.

Dec. 27th: The kids stayed home watching Cars and playing Playstation while I spent a few hours getting some great deals at Old Navy and Target on clearance Christmas things. I got all our Christmas cards for next year and a huge box of ornaments for our 2nd tree that we plan on putting up in the living room next year.

Thurs. 28th: I took Jake and Allison to see Charlotte’s Web, but it was sold out so we saw “Night at the Museum” instead. It was so funny and I’m sad that Brendan and Jordan weren’t there to see it with us. That night everyone came over for Game night and pizza. It was loud and crazy and lots of fun. Brian and Lauren stayed until 1:00 a.m. chatting and Cassie got to spend the night with Allison which is always a treat. They play so good together and had a great time the next morning.

Fri. 29th: Jordan had spent way too many hours playing all of his new playstation games so I made him take Jake to the Legacy center after lunch and they played basketball for a few hours. Allison went to play with friends and so I spent a few quiet hours doing our New Year’s Eve cards. After dinner we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa Howard’s for Lynlee’s 1 year old birthday party. She is so beautiful and is so fun to watch wobbling around. We had cake and ice cream and homemade hot chocolate. It was another long night of talking on the couches and having tons of fun. Allison did say that she really missed Solei and Sierra because they were always the ones to think of the fun things to do cause they have the best imaginations.

Sat. 30th: We all slept in until 10:30…it felt wonderful! We cleaned up around the house a bit and met my parents for a late lunch at Café Rio and then went to see “Rocky Balboa.” Loved it!!!! We then went grocery shopping and that night Jordan went to our Stake’s “New Year’s Eve Eve Dance.” He ended up going to a friends house around 10:30 with a bunch of people without asking (first time he’s done that) and got home later than he was supposed to. So we had a little issue with him to resolve and I hope it is.

Sun. 31st: Barely woke up in time for church at 1:00, but we made it. Ed and his family came over here for dinner and we discussed our resolutions for the New Year. Brendan’s was to win the Biggest Loser contest at work by losing the most weight. I resolved to follow Brendan’s example and try to floss every night as well as read my scriptures nightly. Jordan wants to work on starting Varsity this year and we suggested that he work on preparing to receive his patriarchal blessing. Jake wants to save up to buy skis and learn to ski this year. Allison wants to not have any more missing assignments in school which is a great one. We then went to Ed’s house for dessert…a chocolate fountain. We dipped all sorts of fruit, cheesecake, brownies, ice cream balls, and pretzels. Brendan and Ed had a fierce competition of Stackers all night long. I think Brendan holds the current record at somewhere right under 5 seconds. We watched the countdown on TV and then watched the fireworks from their front room window since you can see the whole valley around the temple from there.

Monday January 1st: We all went and saw Pursuit of Happyness with the Bunker family and then went to their house to play a round of 24 and a few rounds of “Scum” (our new favorite card game.) It was a school night for all of us so we were home by 9:00 and in bed by 9:30. This was the first night since December 19th that Jake slept in his own room. He spent the whole Christmas break having a “sleepover” with Jordan which makes me so happy to see how much they bonded with each other.

We had so many great memories and it was a December that I don’t want to forget. Our kids are growing up so fast and we are trying to do as much as we can together because we know that it won’t be like this for much longer.

Missing Wallet/Lesson learned

A few weeks ago Jake came home from scouts with a bunch of friends. I didn’t feel good about letting him hang out in his room…I don't know why, but I just didn’t have a good feeling about them that night. Anyway, to back up just a bit, on Wednesday Jake was getting ready to go with a friend to the Lehi Varsity basketball game and went up to get his money for admission. He was up there for a long time so I went up to see what was taking so long. He was all upset because he couldn't find his wallet. He had over $100.00 in it and it was a sick feeling for us all. I helped search his room and the rest of the house. It was nowhere. I was a little upset with him for losing it and not being responsible and so he was not able to go to the game that night. Anyway, the next day I went through every inch of our house and still no wallet. My mom kept bugging me to call the school and see if anything had been turned in even though Jake swore he had never taken his wallet to school. Anyway, just to cover all the bases, I called and the principal said that a wallet had been turned in few weeks before with about $80.00 in it. He called Jake down to identify it but it wasn't his. About two hours later the principal called me back and said that he didn't have Jake's wallet, but he had most of his money! I guess that Jake had to explain to all of his friends why he had been called to the principals office and that got them all talking about his missing wallet. One of his friends suspected that a mutual friend had taken it. He asked him if he had taken it and the reply was, "maybe, maybe not." That was enough for him to report it to the principal's office and this other kid was called in immediately. He confessed that he had stolen Jake's wallet...from his room...that exact night they were all in there after scouts! He had $83.00 on him and he gave it to the principal who then gave it to Jake. His dad called us afterschool and asked to come over with his son to meet with Brendan and I and Jake. (The principal had left them a message earlier describing the whole thing.) Anyway, he returned Jake's wallet and they said they would go to his savings account and bring us the missing $18.00. The dad was in tears and assured us that they had not raised their son to be like this. It was so sad. I felt SO bad for the parents! What a horrible thing to have to deal with. We praised the boy for having the courage to come forth with the truth, but also let him know that Jake had spent the last three months earning that money by studying his butt off and getting a 4.0. We also said that Jake had been grounded from the game last night and it had really devastated him that a friend would do something like that to him. All in all, we're grateful that Jake got his money back and that we were not on the other end of this issue. We also gave a thank you card and a $10.00 reward to the kid who told the principal ($5.00 from us and $5.00 from Jake). I can't stop thinking about how hard it would be to deal with that as a parent. I'll think twice the next time I complain about Jordan or Allison getting in trouble for talking too much in class.

Football Summary 2006

Even though I posted all of this information, it was all written by Brendan. I had saved all of these emails that he sent to his family each week and so then I just copied them onto this post. I'm so glad that he did this since I couldn't possibly summarize a football game like he does. He coached Jordan for three years so it was a tough year to see "his boys" go on to high school and turn them over to other coaches. But it has also been a great time to be able to coach Jake's team and work with all of his friends.

Friday, August 18, 2006 9:39 AM

Well tonight is the big first game for Lehi. They are playing Timpanogos and Jordan will be suiting up for the game. He will only get playing time if they are way up or way down but that’s a real honor to get to suit up as a sophomore. Last year Lehi suited 2 sophomores for varsity and this year they are suiting 8, including Jordan.

Jordan made the newspaper for his performance in the purple/white game last week. They said it was nice to see the up and coming stars and they recognized Jordan for helping keep the purple team in the game by driving the ball down into field/goal range. That was cool to see Jordan’s name in black and white for football.

Jake has a scrimmage tonight from 6 to 8. Both boys were so excited last night that they were up goofing-off and making noise ‘till 11:15. I will miss the first part of Jordan’s game because of the scrimmage but I’ll be there as soon as I can.


Newspaper article on Jordan playing football
Thursday, August 17, 2006
DEAN VON MEMMOTT - SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
In the Lehi football team's annual Purple-White Scrimmage Saturday, the Whites prevailed 14-7 over the Purples.
Lehi coach Joe Hayes said the scrimmage "was an opportunity to see how our kids could play under game conditions."
The contest saw four Pioneers show what they could do at quarterback. Hayes said, "Derek Sergent will be our starting quarterback. It was nice to see what Chris Searle, Jordan Smith and Jon Benight could do as quarterbacks." Searle demonstrated in the scrimmage's first three minutes why he could be a candidate for quarterback later on in the season. At 9:21, he threw a 30-yard touchdown pass for the Purples.
Sargent made his quarterback debut right after the Purple touchdown. Sargent's handoffs to Smith, Ben Sunderland and Nick Nelson gave the Whites much yardage in the first quarter, but the Purple defense kept them from putting the ball into the end zone that period. The Purple defense's success against the Whites finally came to an end late in the second half. With two minutes remaining to the break, Sargent connected a 70-yard pass to Henrique Silva for a touchdown. A Jason Demke extra-point kick tied the game at seven. On a first-down play, Sunderland made an interception, but the turnover didn't enable the Whites to tack on an insurance touchdown before halftime. Riley Sullivan stopped Sargent at the Purple 30-yard line as the clock expired. Though Sargent secured a lot of yardage for the Whites in the third period, the Purple defense kept them from breaking the tie until 1:42, when the White quarterback passed nine yards to Silva for a touchdown.
In the fourth quarter, the White defense kept the Purple in check. Clint Ash kept nailing ball carriers for losses in yardage.
The closest the Purples came to scoring in the fourth quarter was when Smith guided them to the White 20, where the White defense compelled them to gamble on a goal attempt that failed. Though the score was close, Benight was given a chance to quarterback the White offense through much of the final quarter. Lehi will open the season Friday with a home stand against Timpanogos

Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 10:10 AM

Football is such a fun & busy time of year for us that we hardly have time to breathe but we love every minute of it.

Lehi lost 21 to 16 to Timpanogos Friday but it really was a great game, and it’s a preseason game as Timpanogos is 5A. Lehi was ahead 10 to 7 at the half but blew the game in the second half when the QB threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown and then threw another one that resulted in a touchdown. Lehi had the ball down by five points with about 2 minutes left but just couldn’t get it done. The best part was that Jordan got to suit up for the game, an honor VERY FEW SOPHOMORES get at Lehi. It was fun. Jake will have his first game on the 29 or 30th against Linden, the schedule is not final yet but I’ll let you know how it goes. Jordan’s next game is this Friday vs Snow Canyon in St. George at 4pm!!! That will be a hot one.

Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 1:45 PM

Well we had a very busy day yesterday with THREE football games for our two boys.

First was the JV game – Jordan got to play safety and did a very good job – he won 38 to 12.

Second was the Sophomore game – Jordan had a very good game completing about 15 passes for many yards, but he was sacked about 15 times and O-line had a HORRIBLE game – I didn’t get to see the whole game because of Jake’s game but they lost that one by about three touchdowns.

Jake’s game was AWESOME. The Defense was UNREAL – stopping the Lindon team to about 3 or 4 first downs the entire game. Jake got injured on the SECOND play of the game taking a vicious hit to the calf that really bruised his calf and hurt his knee. He fumbled as the hit came in and we lost the ball but he was just BARELY able to go back in when we got the ball back. He was a real WARRIOR and LEADER in the game. He would run for 11 yards full speed running over tacklers and then get up and LIMP back to the huddle looking like his leg was broken and then he would lead the offense, repositioning kids in the wrong formation, making sure everyone knew their assignments, and making plays when the plays were called wrong by the coach (that’s me – oops), or when they were just screwed up plays. He threw a few very good passes and WE WON 20-0 – a great start for the season. Everyone played hard and intelligently – it was awesome – and I’m very proud of my boys – especially Jake, what a trooper.

Well – on to the Varsity game tonight vs. Tooele – GO PIONEERS! (I never thought I’d be saying THAT 20 years ago).

Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 2:04 PM

Once again this past week was one of good and bad for football. Jordan’s sophomore team beat AF 7-0. If you will remember last year’s game with AF, we lost by one point in double overtime – so that was a great win. Jordan got to start at SS and QB for that game so he was EXHAUSTED after the game. He had some great runs a passes and led the team very well. The sophomore coach told him that this is the first time ANY team that he has coached has beaten an AF team – so that’s cool too. Way to go Jordan. Jordan didn’t get to play JV this week because the games were at the same time on opposite fields – but JV lost anyway. It was homecoming for Varsity so that was cool – but they lost by about 45 to 32 – something like that anyway and Jordan was faithfully on the sidelines as always. Jordan will play Orem this week – tough schedule.

Jakes game was a tough loss. He had some awesome passes and played tough on defense. He also played AF. They were a very BIG team but we hung in there till the refs took the game from us (that’s totally normal for AF games as almost all the refs in our league come from AF and hate the pioneers because we are rivals). I usually hate to completely blame a loss on the refs but this one really took the cake. There was no league rep at the game (A LEAGUE REQUIREMENT) so the refs thought it would be okay to CHEER FOR AF from the field. It got so bad at one point that I got an ‘unsportsmanlike conduct personal foul’ for telling the ref “great job coaching your kids ref” when he pointed and moved two players into the correct position for the play – and they were both moving prior to and during the snap – this after he called a ‘motion’ penalty on us because my kid went in motion after only being set for about ½ a second instead of a full second (that’s how he described it). Anyway, once I got the ‘unsportsmanlike’ penalty the refs had a little conference and decided not to give us a single call in our favor the rest of the game. They would just say what they saw, like: “that was pass interference” to our kids and then not call it or enforce it. At one point the kids didn’t even know if Offense or Defense was supposed to be on the field because of comments by the refs. IT WAS UNREAL. At the end of the game I had one mom – who had helped with the chains – come up to me in tears because of the things she heard from the refs. I immediately filed a complaint to the league – but nothing will happen. I’ve had problems with these same refs for years and no results. The problem is they have no accountability, they get to CHOOSE the games they ref, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. I don’t know how they sleep at night treating 7th graders that way. Needless to say we lost – but we hung in there and played hard

Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 9:06 AM

By game time yesterday Jordan was finally feeling great and it really showed on the field. It was a very rainy muddy game but it was a fun one. Lehi's defense was AWESOME with a couple kids getting over 5 sacks each (Jordan is play strong safety on defense and of course QB on offense). Anyway, Jordan had a great game on both sides of the ball and Lehi beat Orem 19-0. At the very end of the game Orem broke away on a 15 yard run and Jordan made a SWEET, shut-out saving tackle to get the ball back and run the clock out. It really wears him out playing both sides ALL GAME LONG - which he is not used to. He played a little safety in past years but seldom did he play the entire game that way, it was awesome - looking forward to Springville next week.

Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 2:41

Jordan had an awesome game last week vs. Springville. If you remember last year Springville was not much of a problem, it was the same this year as we won 35-6. Jordan scored a rushing touchdown, had about 7 tackles and a pick on defense, and an overall spectacular game passing etc. The JV team won their game 22-20 in a very hard fought game but Varsity lost 22-15 and is still completely defeated. They have no chance this week either. It doesn’t look good for the head coach as they haven’t won a game since the season opener last year and many parents etc. are fed up. We shall see. Jordan will have a BIG game this week vs. Timpview. Last year he lost by a touchdown in a hard fought game with Timpview running over 9 minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter to seal the deal. So far the sophomores are undefeated in region play and Timpview will be their toughest region game of the year. It should be all down hill from here.

Jake had a good individual game but the offensive line could not block and he was sacked repeatedly. He has bruises all up and down his arms to prove it. I just hope that I’m not accused of beating him. His team has now made it through the 3 toughest teams in his league (including 2 lone peak teams) and should have a bit easier time of it from here on out. Jake is a real trooper and continues to play with toughness and determination.

I know you all have loyalties to Timpview, but Family comes first right? Wish Jordan luck this week.
Love Brendan

Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 10:24 AM

This update is a bit early as we’ve had no games this week yet but I just wanted to let you know about Jordan. Jordan took a bit ‘LATE HIT’ in practice on Tuesday in a practice where he was not supposed to be hit AT ALL. He suffered a separated LEFT shoulder (thankfully not his throwing shoulder) and is in a lot of pain. It would have been much better if he just had a dislocation but it’s worse than that. The doctor said that he can still play football but he will have to play through the pain as it won’t heal for about two Months. He probably won’t be able to play defense. He will play PROVO today and they really need to win this game to be a top team in their division. Jordan will be playing at 6:00 pm Utah time so please pray for him so that he will still be able to perform to his best ability and not injure his shoulder any further. Thanks for all your support, Brendan

Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 12:27 PM

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayer for Jordan yesterday. It was a very tough fought game with Provo. Contrary to what I told you yesterday the coaches played Jordan on EVERY play except Kick-off and Kick-return. He had a very good game with one rushing touchdown and one passing touchdown. Unfortunately, on the PAT after their first touchdown the snap was high and went right to the kicker who tried to run it but failed. They were up by 20 to 7 at one point but Provo came back to with two LUCKY touchdowns to win the game 21-20 – a heartbreaking loss for my boys. Jordan played so well you couldn’t tell he was even hurt except for a few tackles where he couldn’t hit quite as hard as usual and just held on to wrestle the guy down. However, I’m afraid that he aggravated his injury somewhat possibly making the separation worse. He was very sore after the game but we won’t know how bad he is till the trainers and doctor look at him hopefully today.

Tonight he will be the back-up QB in the varsity game and will probably be holding. He has another game Tuesday because it’s UEA then another Varsity game Wednesday.

The most surprising thing of all is that, even with SO MUCH FOOTBALL, he has a 3.92 right now with only two A minuses and both of them are at 92%, he could possibly get a 4.0 again if he continues to work hard, and we’re not talking about easy classes either. He has English, Algebra II, Biology, History, Spanish I, Debate, PE, and Seminary.

Oh, and by the way, Jake has a 4.0 right now too.

Well, enough bragging about my kids, I just can’t help being proud of all they are accomplishing and who they are becoming. We are very blessed.

Thanks again for your support, your thoughts and your prayers. Love Brendan

Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 8:38 AM

Most of you already know because many of you were at the game this week – thanks again for your support. Jordan started JV and sophomore in a combined JV/Sophomore game this past week vs Park City. Park City only has a JV team so Lehi decided to play our JV team in the first half and our sophomore team in the second half. This game didn’t count as it’s UEA break and park city is a 3A school, it was a fun game though. Jordan was the ONLY player that played the ENTIRE game. He led Lehi to a touchdown on the first drive of the game to take a 7-0 lead into halftime with the JV team. Jordan had an okay game but you could tell that he was not himself due to his injury. He had some very good runs and threw a 50 yard touchdown pass in the 3rd quarter with the sophomore team to take the lead at 14-7. In the fourth quarter Park City blocked a punt and got the ball with very good field position. They scored after about three plays and went for the win with a successful two point conversion to take the lead 15-14 – what an aggressive call by park city with only 2 minutes left, you have to hand it to them for that. Lehi got the ball back and tried to make a drive out of it but Jordan threw a pick with about 30 seconds left and park city took a knee to win, but you half to remember they won it in the second half with their JV team against our sophomore, a very good showing for Lehi.

Jordan’s shoulder is still sore but he’s doing okay. He did not play defense this week and will not play it the rest of the year so that he can protect his shoulder. The coaches have asked him to start BOTH JV and sophomore next week VS Payson. The games are back-to-back at 3:30 and 6:00, and the JV wear a different uniform than the sophomores so Jordan will have about 5 minutes to change his pads from one uniform to the other – that will be the toughest part of it. Lehi should easily win both games and they will probably be the best games of the year. He’ll be tired but he can handle it if his shoulder can.

I won’t be able to see the Payson games because Jake has a game at the same time.

Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 10:17 AM

Jordan played his last Sophomore game last night vs. Payson and he won the game 41-8. What an awesome way to finish the season. Jordan threw the ball VERY WELL and had a touchdown pass for over 60 yards at one point. His quote to me was “I never even fell on my shoulder the whole game”. After the big win they celebrated on the field for a few minutes and did a tribute to the past coaches until Payson turned the light out on them so some of the parent brought their cars around and turned the light on for the celebration. Jordan said the bus ride home was ‘AWESOME AND CRAZY’. They are all ready to go and take state in two years.

Thanks for all your support this season.

She Lives!

My dear, sweet, loving, wonderful, amazing, grandma "Teta" passed away peacefully in our home on October 23, 2006 at 12:14 a.m. at the age of 85. The following is a re-cap of the events and feelings as best as I can put them down in words.

It has been a long and hard last two weeks. We had family start staying with us since October 17th and the last few left yesterday morning. It was absolutely wonderful being together with extended family from Guatemala, California and Florida through this time. It has just been exhausting though staying up late with all of them each night and still trying to have a semi normal life in the day with the kids, school, activities, and trying to plan a funeral. We haven’t had a routine for so long.

It was amazing how my grandma was able to hold on until all of her family that she loved was able to fly in and be by her side. I’m thankful that our Heavenly Father allowed her to stay and she was able to look into each of our eyes and say goodbye. She couldn’t talk at all the last week or so, but she was able to whisper these last words to me, "Cuida a tu mama," “take care of your mom” the day before she passed away.

Her breathing was very labored on Sunday afternoon and we knew she didn’t have much time. My brother, Carlos gave her a blessing on Sunday evening and blessed her to be able to go in peace and know that we would all be ok. Her breathing returned to normal before the blessing was even over. It was an amazingly spiritual experience. You could physically feel the burning of the spirit in her room. Carlos had to catch a plane back to California that night and it was really hard for him to say goodbye because he knew the next time he saw her would be at her funeral. Her breathing started slowing down right after midnight and my mom ran out to her family room where I was talking with my uncle and frantically told me to come. We both rushed in and found Teta breathing kind of like a fish out of water, lightly gasping for air, but without anything going in her lungs. I immediately called Brendan who was asleep upstairs to wake everybody up in the house and have them come down. We had people sleeping everywhere including the office and so he quickly ran around and knocked on all the doors. He said that he was awake and had actually just gotten out of bed a minute or so before I called and knew that something was happening. He says that he felt her presence for just a brief minute and knew she was gone. She took her last breath at 12:14 Monday morning just 4 hours after the blessing with ALL of us around her. My mom was blessed to keep a peace about her and a sharp mind. She was the one that thought to look at the clock to document her time of death. We immediately called Carlos in California and Ed, who had gone back home to be with his family in Cedar Hills (only 15 minutes)away. He quickly came back over which was so good because the minute the mortician's took away my grandma's body, my mom just lost it. I really think she had a nervous breakdown from all the stress and all the emotion. She fainted and it took a minute for her to come back. She was incosoleable. Ed gave her a blessing which was so beautiful. We were all up together until about 4:00 a.m. My mom spent a somewhat peaceful night after that. We were so blessed to have so much family supporting each other. Friends and neighbors brought food for the next few days which was so wonderful.

Teta looked absolutely beautiful at the funeral home when we saw her a few days later. I don’t know what the morticians did or how, but it was incredible. Her appearance had changed from bad to worse every single day the last 3-4 days and then almost every hour right before our eyes the last day. Cancer is a horrible way to die and I hope that I never have to witness anyone else that I love go through that. Her funeral was mostly in Spanish, but there were headsets with an English translation. All the great grandkids said one thing they loved about their grandma Teta. Of course Jordan went first as he’s the oldest and it broke my heart to see him come undone. It was the first time that he had let his emotions out and it was really hard. After all 8 of them said something they all sang Families Can Be Together Forever and I am a Child of God. It was so cute. Maria, Ed’s wife, was holding their youngest because he’s just two and had to join in on the song to help with the volume because my three kids had a hard time getting through it. My mom was very blessed to have the spirit with her and was able to stay really composed while she told a beautiful life story. Ed gave the best talk that I have ever heard and paid a beautiful tribute to my grandma. Brendan, Maria, and Carlos sang an arrangement of I Know that My Redeemer Lives – holy cow, it was breathtaking!!!! Carlos sang the second verse by himself in Spanish and changed the words a little bit for example, “She has gone, our mansion to prepare…” It was so beautiful!!!! My dad dedicated her grave at the Orem City Cemetary. We took lots of pictures and shared many special moments as a family.

I finally feel that she has left the earth and is resting from her cares in a beautiful place with her many loved ones that have gone on before her. I of course have known that all along, but I just felt uneasy the first few days after she died. I didn’t feel like she had “arrived” yet and I was nervous for her current state. It wasn’t until I went with my mom to the mortuary 4 days later to give the ok on how she was dressed and done up that I finally felt at peace. I felt absolutely no connection to the body in the coffin and knew that it was because she was no longer here. It was a much needed answer to my prayers. It’s hard to explain because I never questioned where she was going, but I just felt like it is a process and it took her a while to get through it. It’s still really weird to think that she is really gone and that she won’t be coming back for Christmas like she always did.

I want to explain how Teta got her name to my future family who may never know me. I am the oldest of her grandchildren (yes, she LOVED me and SPOILED me my whole life!) My mom tried to teach me how to say "Abuelita" which is an endearing way of saying grandma in spanish. Well, I wasn't quite two and apparently my speaking skills weren't quite there either. I tried and tried but all that came out was "Teta." Somehow it stuck and the rest of her grandchildren and great grandchildren came to know her as Teta. My brother Ed starting shortening and pluralizing everyone's names when he was a teenager. Our Momma and Daddy became Moms and Dads and Teta became known as Tates! Whatever name she had, it still was said with much love and respect. What a wonderful woman she was and what a legacy that she left behind for us! She was ALWAYS thinking of others and never herself. She lived her whole life in the service of her family and friends and even strangers. It was just about two years ago that she was here and she went out and weeded my whole yard a little at a time a little each day. She would often ask me if I wanted her to make dinner for us (which how do you turn down an offer like that.) She never had much, but always gave everything that she had. She was the first generation to accept the gospel in my family. She left her home country to come to the US, recently widowed and penniless, to give her kids and future grandkids a better life. She supported herself and her family by using her amazing sewing skills. She sewed many dresses for me. A few of my formals she made from a little sketch that I would make up and then do it perfectly without a pattern! In her later years she worked helping people with their children and their household chores. Sometimes for money, sometimes just to help them out. Whatever she made, she used to buy things for her family...never anything for herself. She loved us all so much and always praised us and told us how proud she was of us. She was our number one cheerleader, always standing on the sidelines of our lives supporting us, loving us, and doing whatever she could behind the scenes to make our lives better. I'm really going to miss that! I will always love her and will never take for granted all of my blessings that I have because of her life. It was a wonderful life, and we will miss her terribly, but I know that she lives on and I will hug her again someday!

Leslie's Grandma

Email sent from Brendan to all of his family
From: Brendan Smith
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 12:54 pm
This morning at 12:14am Leslie’s grandma passed away at our home. We are still working on the details for her funeral but it will probably be this Saturday. It was a bit traumatic for the kids but they are doing fine. We are a little worried about Angie. She cared for religiously for over a year with very little sleep and is utterly worn out. This has hit her very hard. Keep us in your prayers.

Love Brendan

Thankful for so much.

A little update on Teta's condition….things are going from bad to worse quickly. The tumor in her abdomen has grown at such a fast rate, that it actually broke through her skin and has started oozing out a little each day. She asks for drinks (cold ones) quite frequently which is very unusual for her. Not only does she usually not want anything to eat or drink, but room temperature is even too cold for her most of the time. The nurses are shocked that she is comfortable because they said that most patients in her condition are in a lot of pain so they have brought pain medication just in case it starts up in the middle of the night. A dry mouth, they said, is very common at her stage and is why she is asking for frequent drinks.

I am grateful for the knowledge that I have of an eternal plan for all of us and that I know that Teta will be in a better place soon and that I will be with her again where she will be whole and well and active. I am especially thankful for the gospel that she accepted so many years ago and that through her I was given the opportunity to have it my whole life. She sacrificed so much so that the rest of us could live in a land of promise and opportunity. All that I have I owe to her and I will always treasure her for that. I’m so glad that her memory will always keep us close as a fmily. .I know that our Heavenly Father lives and that He loves each one of us and that He sent us to help each other in this life and together return to Him. I am also thankful for these trials and experiences that force us to remember that there is so much more to life than our daily routines and hectic schedules. That family is what matters and that we are all in this together.

Cousin to Cousin

An e-mail I sent to my cousin Veronica in Florida...
Hi Vero!
I really hope it works out for you to come out. Too bad that your whole family can’t make it, but I know exactly how that is. The only way we were all able to go to Florida was that Brendan had three frequent flyer tickets he had accumulated through work. Anyway, about Teta…there are great nurses that come in 3 times a day to help move Teta from her bed to the living room so she can be more with the family. They also change her and bathe her every other day. Well, a few days ago, they discovered a large grapefruit size lump right above her stomach. It’s red and it hurts Teta a little bit. They said that it’s a large tumor that has come back and is growing quickly every day. They said that at the rate it is growing, it will soon go up into her esophagus and make it almost impossible for her to swallow anything. Just this past Saturday, she started complaining about chest pains when she swallows and her food/drink intake has slowed down to almost nothing. There is nothing they can do at this point. Teta’s sister Carmen is coming from Guatemala on Thursday and I think your parents are thinking of coming by the end of the month. I really hope that it’s not too late by then. I’m not sure if Tony will come or not. I really don’t think he can handle all of this – emotionally. I know that it’s important to say goodbye --- the nurses (and Brendan’s mom who just lost her own mother six months ago) all say that a person will hold on suffering until relationships are mended and/or goodbyes are said and they are given “permission” to pass on. It's going to be hard since her family lives Florida, California, and Guatemala. I just hope we can get together to honor her, especially since there aren’t very many of us. Well, you do what you can and pass the word on to your family. I’ll keep in touch as much as I can.
Love you,
Leslie

Slowly shutting down

It looks like Teta's body is slowly shutting down and she is losing abilities and functions almost daily. She is completely bedridden now and cannot get up at all. My mom has to feed her because there is no way she can hold a spoon or cup. She has a very hard time swallowing and is only drinking a few sips a day through a spoon. She can only speak a few words at a time in a very quiet whisper. She still recognizes all of us, but is alert and awake so infrequently, that I don’t know how much she really sees of us. Thank goodness, she is not in a lot of pain, and is able to rest comfortably most of the day.