Conference April 1, 2012

I hope you were able to watch this morning's session of General Conference.  There were some amazing talks.  Love, Mom, Grandma

Hobbs Update

Good news! Our follow up ultrasound came back NORMAL! We are so very grateful and we appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers.

Our Baby Girl

We found out a couple days ago that our baby (due June 24th) is a girl! We're super excited to have a little girl join our family and even out the boy/girl ratio. =) Unfortunately there was an abnormality that showed up on her ultrasound called "double bubble sign". It could be nothing but it could mean some serious trouble with her stomach and intestines that would require surgery right after she's born and could lead to other complications. We go back on the 22nd for another ultrasound to see what's going on. In the mean time please keep us and our baby girl in your thoughts and prayers.
(For more details, feel free to ask or visit my blog.)

The Blacks in 2011

This was actually 2010, but we don't get family photos that often.
Ben, Naomi, Joel, Cheryl, Lita
Caleb, Daniel

 Since I am a terrible blog writer, I will try to redeem myself by posting pictures of all of us.

Sam, Dave, Will, Jenni, and Ben

Richy, Kyra, Jordan
Mason (born May 2011) and Abigail

Justin, Maili, and baby Gabriel (born Dec 2011)

Leath-Dhia news....

Cool news - a few months ago Kari got an email out of the blue from a woman at Penguin Young Adult who had read her manuscript as part of the Amazon contest and liked it. They spoke for over an hour while we were at del Coronado, and the woman asked Kari if she'd be willing to write in some edits that she had in mind. Kari did, and they've been back and forth a few times discussing things. This woman turned out to be the CEO of Penguin Young Adult publishing (2nd largest YA label after Scholastic), and is doing her "last read" this week or early next. Kari's expecting a call thereafter to figure out if there will be next steps (translation: a contract to publish the book) or not. She's a bit nervous (this is an understatement).

Everyone keep your fingers, toes, and whatever else you can think of crossed for good luck!

Vacation time for us

Hi everybody,
Congratulations to Nick and Zaida and best wishes to a lovely couple.  Thanks, Susie, for sharing all this with us.  This week we made a trip that has long been on my wish list.  We spent 3 days and 2 nights at the Flying Arrow Resort near Wallowa Lake.  What a beautiful place.  We would have liked to stay longer but are hosting a barbecue for the Ward High Priest's group tomorrow night and a dinner for our retiree's group on Monday.  There were still a few things to prepare here at home.  We made good use of our brief time there.  We had a nice little cabin just a short distance from a stream called Bear Creek where the Kokanee were spawning.  I spent a lot of time listening to the music of the water and watching the Kokanee.  One evening I also saw a couple of water ouzels working the stream - I think they may have been eating some of the eggs the fish were laying.  On Wednesday we rode the tram to the top of Mt Howard (about 8100 ft. elev.) and walked some of the trails  (My walker makes a good off-road vehicle.)  We saw incredible views of the lake and the valley and of all the mountain ranges clear over to the Seven Devils on the other side of Hell's Canyon in Idaho.  We also saw jays, Clarks nutcrackers, bluebirds, ground squirrels and chipmunks.  That night, back at the cabin, eight mule deer came to graze on the lawn and stayed around the area for a couple of hours.  They are accustomed to people and didn't spook as we stood and watched them from about ten feet or so.  One young doe had a fawn that was very young, still spotted.  A late baby, I guess.  All the others already had dark winter coats.  Thursday we explored the town of Joseph, OR with all its interesting shops before we left for home.  It is only 2 1/2 hours from here to there.  The part of the road called Rattlesnake Grade was quite intense for me, especially going down, because of all the outside curves on very steep mountainsides.  The Wallowa mountains are called America's Alps and they are beautiful.  Last week we had a real treat when Katy and the kids visited us for a couple of days.  We hadn't seen them since last summer so enjoyed catching up a little.   We do enjoy it when any of you visit.  Remember, next year's Miller reunion will be somewhere in or near Moscow.  No details yet so any input will be appreciated as to what kind of party we should have.
Love to all,
Grandpa and Grandma

The Nick and Zaida Wedding Saga

It all began back in February with a simple question and an even more simple answer. Then Nick joined the army. He entered basic combat training (BCT) in April and spent the next 15 weeks at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia. Zaida and I flew there at the end of June at the completion of BCT when he had a family pass (3 days off). I'll take a little side trip to tell you about that:
It was a little scary for me to be the one in charge on this trip, as I have generally had Sharon with me to handle things. We flew into Atlanta, which is a HUGE airport. They have an underground train to get you from terminal to terminal because it's so big. We walked out of the airport building and I felt the humidity hit me like a wave. It was hard for me to breathe. We rode the elevated train to the car rental complex, where we got our car. It was a very nice car. We got our luggage loaded, and I got in, turned on the GPS after a little difficulty in finding a place to plug it in, and tried to familiarize myself with things. It seemed pretty straightforward, so we started driving. By the time we reached the bottom of the ramp from the parking garage, the RPMs of the engine were very high, and I was only going 15 or 20 mph! I was trying to figure out what to do, and ended up running a stop sign. Aaaaa! Zaida remembered a friend having something similar and we got it figured out. The car was an automatic, but could also be manually shifted for "high performance driving". I had to put it into a different "Drive" for it to do it automatically.
It is about 90 miles from Atlanta to Columbus.  The freeways are very beautiful, with dense tree growth on either side and in the middle, and yes, even magnolia trees.  After driving here, where all you might have is some dry grass or small trees and landscaping around an exit, I found it a little disorienting.  I never saw a city that we passed -- only trees and exit signs.  Not a bad thing, but different.  We did make it to our hotel in Columbus with only one wrong turnoff taken right at the beginning.

After getting settled in our hotel, Zaida and I drove a few blocks and across the Chattahoochee River to go eat at a KFC.  This put us in Alabama (the state line is the river).  On the way back, we went along the river walk, where we saw herons (click on the picture to see it better), a cardinal, ducks and mockingbirds, and lots of squirrels.  The Georgia side of the river is a brick and concrete walkway, backed by a factory and other businesses, but the Alabama side has a boardwalk with trees and other plants, so we went there.  Afterwards we stopped at the Piggly Wiggly store for some insect repellent.  (I've read a few books set in the south, and there always seems to be a Piggly Wiggly store in them, so I thought it would be fun to go in and check it out.  There were sure a lot of pickled pig parts for sale!)  That evening back at the hotel was tough for Zaida, having to wait until the next day before she could see Nick.

The following day was a little stressful.  We had a family orientation meeting at 9 a.m. on the army base.  We didn't want to be late, so I allowed 20 extra minutes to get there.  It was a good thing I did, because we had to enter through a specific security gate, and the sign for the exit had a different name than what the GPS said.  It was a number of miles before we came to a spot where we could turn around and go back.  We made it to our meeting with about 2 minutes to spare!  The soldiers were in their own meeting elsewhere.  The captain explained the rules to us and told us a little about other things coming up.  As soon as our meeting was over, Zaida jumped up and hurried out the door.  I had trouble keeping up with her!  The soldiers were all standing with their units, looking exactly the same.  We couldn't tell which one was Nick.  Zaida said, "Look for a white guy with glasses". (No contacts allowed in the army.)  Each group gave their unit "yell", and then were released to go to their families.  We still couldn't see Nick, and most of the soldiers were gone.  He had written in his last letter to meet him outside the building, but we assumed that he would just find us since we were all in the same area.  Just as we started outside, he came in,  without the glasses.  No wonder we couldn't find him, and he couldn't see us because things far away are just a blur for him.  There was a lot of hugging and kissing, and then I got a hug from him, too, and then we were off. 
Our first stop was the National Infantry Museum, which had some really great exhibits.  Then we drove to our hotel, stopping at Little Caesar's for pizza, and the Winn Dixie (just like in the book) for all the other things Nick had been craving for weeks:  ice cream, candy, cookies, and pop.  We were eating our "healthy" dinner back at the hotel when warning sirens started going off outside.  It was pouring rain, and the wind was whipping very large trees back and forth.  We thought it might be a tornado, and wondered if we should all pile in the bathtub.  Then a notice came across on the TV giving a warning for severe thunderstorms, so we didn't.  A while later, a different sound came on with an announcement that the emergency was over and we could return to our normal activities.  It would have been nice to have had an announcement with the initial siren so we would know what we were supposed to do.
We had made some plans for Saturday, but since Nick was only allowed to wear his dress uniform or his exercise clothes, and had to stay within the city area, we had to modify them somewhat.  We did some shopping at Ranger Joe's army supply store to find some lighter-weight boots for Nick's last "ruck march", a 12-mile march carrying all his gear.  Then we went next door to Ranger Joe's barber shop, where Zaida was shown what Nick might look like when he goes bald, and then Nick got the rest of his hair cut off.  They are not allowed to shave their heads, but it is about as close as you can get and still have hair.  Zaida wasn't very excited with the new look, so I guess it's good that he is required to wear his hat unless he's indoors.  Then we took him to the river walk, lounged around in the hotel pool, got Chinese food and then rented a couple of movies. 
On Sunday, we found the local ward, after reluctant directions from some ladies from a different church (they wanted us to come to theirs instead).  The meeting itself was a little different, with one of the adult speakers taking less time than the youth speaker, leaving a very large amount of time for the remaining speaker (who did admirably well).  The family next to me had quite a few children.  The father was helping with the sacrament, and the mom took her fussy baby out.  That left a little girl, 6 or 7 years old, to fight (quite violently) with her slightly older brother.  I was hesitant to get involved, but when she started biting, I quietly said something.  It didn't seem to make much difference, but fortunately, the father came and sat down soon after.  There was a pot-luck dinner afterwards, but we didn't stay for that.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the hotel, and then took Nick back to Fort Benning, where there were tearful goodbyes.  Zaida and I flew home on Monday.
(end of "side trip")
In July, Zaida decided that she wanted to go back to Georgia for Nick's "Turning Blue" ceremony and official graduation, so she made airline, hotel and car reservations.  It turned out to be a good thing, because he called a short time later to tell us that his home leave would be earlier than we had been told, and not last as long.   (i.e. He wouldn't be here for the wedding.)  This was a huge problem, since the invitations had been printed and money had been deposited for the reception center.  We started by making phone calls and sending e-mails to Nick's captain to try to adjust the timing, but never received any reply.  Nick and Zaida have an acquaintance who is a sergeant in the army, so Zaida called him for advice.  After checking into policies, he told her that their chances were better to get him home at the right time if they were already married by the time he graduated and before he reported for his Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) in Fort Campbell, KY, and was assigned to his new unit.  So when Zaida went back to Georgia at the end of July, they were married by the Justice of the Peace at the county court house on July 21.  It was a very unsatisfactory event.  The judge was joking around the whole time, and the cleaning lady, who had been asked in to video the wedding, ended up taking a video of herself making faces at the camera, with Nick and Zaida's voices in the background.  A funny story for their posterity years down the road, perhaps, but not a good thing for a young lady who has been planning a "story book" wedding most of her life.  They were able to spend an afternoon together, and then Zaida flew back here and Nick flew to Kentucky.
What followed was a horrible emotional roller coaster for Zaida.  We continued here with plans for the reception, and our bishop said he would do a new ceremony for them -- something that would be more meaningful.  Nick went through his "new soldier" processing, and then was finally assigned to his new unit on the Monday before the reception, which was scheduled for Friday.  Then Zaida called me in tears, telling me that she was going to cancel everything -- Nick had just called her and said that his drill sergeant denied him the leave.  I tried to calm her down, and we talked about just having it as a celebration party, with maybe a picture or cutout of Nick.  She reluctantly agreed to that, and we talked about what we needed to modify.  In the meantime, Nick was being persistent, and was appealing to higher authority.  We finally found out on Thursday that they would let him come on Friday, after 2 pm.  Arrangements were hurriedly made for a flight.  His plane would arrive on Friday night at 9 p.m.  We called guests who had been invited to the ceremony and told them it would follow, rather than precede, the reception. 
The next day went well.  We arrived at the beautiful reception center and had a nice dinner with our guests.  Sharon met people as they entered and explained the situation.  We enjoyed visiting, and there was dancing for those who have more energy than me.  :0)   Finally Jamie received a text from Nick that his plane had landed.  Zaida's dad (the fastest driver, she said) picked him up at the airport.  At the reception center, the guests were invited to go out into the garden while the staff rearranged the chairs , and then back inside to be seated for the ceremony.  Everyone was very patient.  I met Nick at the door at about 9:45 p.m., hugged him, pinned on his boutonniere and ushered him around to his place in the procession.  Music began and we walked up the aisle:  Zaida's parents, Sharon and I, the bishop and Nick, and then 7 bridesmaids dressed in red, each escorted by a groomsman in a black tuxedo with red vest and tie.  As Alex, one of the groomsman passed Nick to take his place in the line, Nick gave him a big hug.  Next, all eyes went to the top of the grand, curving staircase.  There stood Adelyn (Whitney's daughter), the flower girl, and Kayden (a special "little buddy", the son of Nick's friend), the ring bearer.  They started down the stairs and were doing fine until Adelyn realized everyone was watching her, and then she froze.  One of the photographers took her hand and led her down.  Then Zaida descended, beautiful in her white dress, dark hair, and red and white bouquet.  Her dad met her at the bottom of the stairs and escorted her to the front.  Zaida stood still, but I could see the excitement bouncing in her eyes, and I think it took a lot of control for her to not hug Nick right then.  The bishop had them take each other by the hand, and began by saying he had never attended a wedding where there was more anticipation.  He gave them some beautiful counsel, and then performed the ceremony and presented "Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Howell" to us.  Pictures followed, and then very quickly the cake cutting, first dance, bouquet throwing, etc.  They left together through a cloud of bubbles.  (I don't have any pictures yet to share.)  It turned out to be a truly beautiful and romantic wedding.
The next day we got together and opened gifts with them, and had a family picnic.  Nick flew back to Kentucky on Sunday, leaving Zaida here. 
Through this entire ordeal, we prayed for Nick and Zaida.  At a point early on, I was given a feeling of comfort and peace that everything would work out okay.  As we went through each development, people asked me if I was stressed, but I could honestly answer that I felt calm about things. 
The final hurdle was to get Nick back again for his relocation leave so that he could get his wife and their belongings to Kentucky.  I spoke with him after he completed his "travel class" on August 17, and he said he just had to wait for permission to come, but it might not be until September sometime.  Two days later, I was working at the computer and someone came in and put hands on my shoulders.  I assumed it was Alex, until I heard Nick say, "Hi, Mom".  He had arrived late the night before, and they thought it would be fun to surprise me.  :0)  

They spent the next week packing up, although we did take one day to do some "wedding" photos, since there wasn't much opportunity before.  We loaded their U-Haul truck with their car on a trailer in the back, and they left for Kentucky on August 26, finally TOGETHER to begin their life as a married couple, ready to take on the world.  Good luck, you two.  We love you! :0) 

Who can give other people access to this blog?

Some other people would like to be able to post as well - Nathan, for one. Anyone have the password so we can expand the access for posting and comments?

Note on something our family used to do (see blog title)

We were apparently not the first.
Zechariah 5:1.

Just saying....

Update from Woodinville Millers

These have been a hectic few months, which is a relative statement at our house of course. At the moment Kari and I are hiding from real life at the Hotel del Coronado - I have a conference here the coming week so we came a few days early. It's 120 year old hotel with a lot of history and a very slow pace that reminds me of a century ago - a really neat place to hang out actually. http://www.hoteldel.com/ Kari brought the kids here a few years ago and they still talk about it.
Kari's writing is going very, very well. For the second year in a row (with a new manuscript called Leath'dhia), Kari made the semifinals (final 25 out of 5,000) in the Amazon Breakthrough New Author contest. Thanks Dad for all the editing by the way. While she did not win, one of the judges was the CEO of Penguin books, and she has reached out to talk with Kari about potentially publishing the book. Additionally, an agent from Writer's House is pretty engaged and has spent quite a bit of time editing/suggesting changes, which is often done to see how an author is to work with. If either decide to sign Kari, she's almost sure to be published. If it's via Penguin, that's a big deal because it's one of the top three nameplates and likely to be a hardcover, headline release that often has a much better chance of commercial success. While we're not counting hatched eggs yet, I am very proud of my wife - she's worked very hard for years to develop her writing, between raising 7 (and occasionally 10, more on that later) kids, building our house (twice), and all the other things she does each day to keep our home 'running'. If she gets published I'll get signed copies for everyone!

Grace graduated from the International Community School last week and we're very proud of her. As they read off the graduates, their colleges (100% are going to higher education), their scholarships (two full rides to Stanford, one at Yale, one at Harvard, etc. --- and 4 of the 54 going to BYU), activities, hobbies, etc. it became very clear why this school is on the top 20 list of all the elite schools in the country. There was not one 'just average' or even 'pretty exceptional' kid on the list. Grace was admitted to Willamette with a nice scholarship, and also several good liberal arts colleges on the east coast, but has decided to attend BYU Provo and is very excited about it. She just returned from a couple of weeks in Ireland and London as her final focus week trip with the school, and as I reviewed her passport I realized that she's seen a lot more of the world than me in the past ten years. She has visas from Brazil (three weeks last summer on AYS to rebuild homes), Argentina, China, Nepal, Costa Rica, Mexico (3x), France/Japan (just the airports, really), Greece (I was jealous of her weeks there), London (2x), Ireland, and of course, Canada a few times just for grins.

We also had some new kids for awhile. Kari's sister who lives in our guest house and has been dependent on us for years got pregnant last year and gave birth to identical twin boys in December. Due to some psychological and past substance abuse problems, we were very concerned that she would not be able to care for them, and in late April things came to a head. Without going into detail, after several incidents (including an arrest) we were forced to intervene, and by mid May the boys (two 5 month old twins and 10 year old Michael) had become wards of the state and she'd lost her rights as a parent. The state placed them with us as temporary guardians. One of the twins had been injured, likely from shaking, so we were especially worried about him but he seems to have made a full recovery - though it is impossible to know until he's a little older. The MRI and skeletal scan was what finally caused the state to act, though it was a very tough choice for us to intervene in the time leading up to that as we knew where it would likely end up. Fortunately their mother agreed to place the twins up for adoption, and they've now become permanently adopted by other family members (Kari's siblings - Tonya and her husband, and Jim and his wife). It was sad to separate them, though after a lot of thought and prayer the family decided that this is what would give them best shot, and they will be raised knowing each other. We are still 10 year old Michael's guardians and likely will be for at least a year if not beyond, though now that the twin we had isn't with us everything's back to normal, as Michael frequently stayed at our house over the past five years anyway.
Our wonderful old dog Suki died on June 18. Most of you have met her over the years as we've had her since just after Elsa was born. She'd been doing fine aside from some 'old dog' issues, but in early June a boy from our ward was loading up quarter rounds of firewood onto a truck and was being very careless - he'd almost hit people and been warned about it. In any case, one of the very large pieces bounced back out of the truck and hit Suki, breaking her front leg and paw in 7 places. Initially she did really well with her cast and seemed to be healing, but after about two weeks she took a turn for the worse and her liver and spleen began to fail. I took her to the vet and they told me that she'd surely die sometime over the next week or we could euthanize her. I took her back home and she spent a few hours in front of the fire (picture below) and everyone came to visit her and say goodbye. Then, I took her into the vet again and I held her head in my lap while they administered the euthanasia. She was very sweet and licked the vet when they put in the IV, and looked at me with relief in a way as she went. It was very peaceful but broke my heart - you never know how much a pet becomes part of your family.

We are setting out for another Great American RV adventure - this time Kari has rented a 32 foot rig and will be driving it with all the kids down Highway 101 on the Washington, Oregon, and California coast. After the first week I'll be flying to LA on business and will meet them in Anaheim, and thereafter we'll go to Bryce Canyon for a few days, then drive (route TBD) up to Moscow to share the chaos with Mom and Dad and the nearby water park. We might camp a bit at our property there too...

That's the quick version of life in Woodinville. Thanks to everyone who's posted!

Love,
Dale

The Whitmans

Summer is off to a stunning start. I'm fairly certain Kai is still wearing the same pajamas he was wearing the day after the last day of school, and I'm surprised his eyeballs haven't fallen out of his face or his thumbs fallen out of their joints with all the video games he's been playing.
Leah turned 9 yesterday. Steve says that means I'm half-way to freedom, but I'm pretty sure Leah will be out of the house by 17 and Kai will linger well into his 30s. Leah had a great day, with cinnamon rolls made by mom (at 5:30 in the morning, after Steve went to work . . .which may explain why they were a little dry . . .because I couldn't quite remember if I was supposed to halve the recipe as it was, or if I had halved it when I wrote it down, so I just doubled everything. I think). But the kids and the mister thought they were great. Leah gets a party tonight at Papa's Pizza with a sleepover afterward . . .I am so very grateful that we now have a house I'm not ashamed to have her friends come over to or see.
It's interesting how things turn out, isn't it? I remember very clearly in one of my business classes during massage school stating that really, I wasn't all that interested in spa massage, or massage for relaxation. But the thing is, as I'm getting older, I'm having a harder time working 12 hour shifts, and those are the only shifts available at the Urgent Care. And the owner of Atlas/Urgent Care decided that massage would be an adjunct to the physical therapy instead of its own business, so I've been spending a lot of time doing a lot of injury recovery, MVAs, and deep tissue massage, which I love doing, but wrecks me after 5 in a row. I found myself kind of wishing for the no-brain relaxation and spa massages that I had spent so much time pooh-poohing in school. And then one day, a couple of weeks ago, I was perusing Craigslist, and found a help wanted ad for Bria Day Spa and Downtown Hair Lounge; I emailed the owner and was hired in less than 24 hours. It's an all organic, natural salon, no stinky chemicals, and the girls (and the location) are all a little bit punk. For some strange reason, I fit right in. So now I've got variety, woot! They actually do advertising and promotions, I only have to be there when I have a massage scheduled, they provide everything, etc etc and I may very well be able to leave the UC entirely within a couple of months as I get some established clients. It is amazing to me, how portable a profession massage therapy is. And how in demand massage therapists are. So now I'm a Spa Girl, in addition to being a paramedic and a medical massage therapist. :)
Summer is just now starting to hit Eugene. I think we've only had a couple of days above 75 degrees. It makes the time we have available to schedule getaways seem very short. :( We do have one backpacking trip planned for August; I'm looking forward to that. Maybe some camping here and there, and one trip to Moscow for at least the kids and I. Sorry to hear that none of you have traveling feet that might bring you around my part of the northwest .. .I do wish I had more time and could travel further. Next year, though. I can't wait to see you all again!

Howells - Spring 2011

Hello everyone. Now that I have a moment in my life, I thought I might write something to let you know what's been going on.

January - We supported Alex at many more swim meets. Nick asked Zaida to marry him, and joined the Army -- two big things for a mom to digest all at once. We did a lot of sheetrocking in our laundry room. I sang in a double trio of women for our stake's women's conference. ...And I did another funeral luncheon.

Zaida and Nick

February - Alex placed (which means he earned points for his team) in the Region swim meet. He was also hired by the Mosquito Abatement District, and will be working there this summer (on the "tree hole crew", which has a list of holey trees that they treat periodically throughout the summer. These trees retain water in their cavities, which provides a breeding ground for the Tree Hole Mosquito). We had a joint Family Home Evening at Paul and Liz Jones' new home, which is as wonderful and welcoming as its new owners. Nick and Zaida and I went up Big Cottonwood Canyon and took some engagement photos. They turned out quite well, even if I do say so myself. Alex got his braces off, and gets to wear his retainers for the rest of his life. :0) He then went to Junior Prom with a lovely young lady, and had a great time. Zaida has taken an interest in learning to make some of Nick's favorite foods, so we made chocolate pie together for him on Valentine's Day. I went to some seminars at the new Family History Center here in the south end of the valley and learned that using Google (the "more" options of books, documents, etc.) is a great way to find new info about your ancestors. Nick and Zaida spent 2 1/2 weeks in Peru meeting Zaida's extended family. We went to a potluck dinner where all the dishes had to be vegan and without oils. The host of the party (Jamie's father-in-law) is on this diet because of a recent heart attack, and wanted to help some of the rest of us in the ward be more healthy. Finding a main dish to prepare was challenging! Unfortunately, Sharon and I were the only people who attended, so we didn't get many recipe ideas.

March - Water polo season began, so we spent a lot of time driving to other cities for the matches. Since water polo is not a sanctioned high school sport, but is club-sponsored, there is no bus provided for the players, so our truck became a bus for some of the more distant matches.

We celebrated Jamie's birthday here, which renewed my desire to find a way to expand my dining facilities. Ten people just don't fit well around my kitchen table. I have an idea, but I am not sure getting rid of my bar is the best solution... any suggestions for expanding kitchen space on a tight budget?

We went out to dinner with the other members of the bishopric and their wives ($1 tamales at a little "tamaleria" nearby), and then did some shopping at the latino grocery store next to it. As we were all going back out to our cars, a van pulled to a stop in front of us, and a large Samoan man pointed at us and said, "I know you!" The bishop thought he meant him, and started walking over to the van, but the man said, "No, the lady!", and pointed to me. A little frightening at first, but when I went over, it turned out to be a volleyball player who had occasionally come to our weekly co-ed nights. It felt nice to be remembered. :0)

Walker (Jamie and Matthew's son) turned 1. We had a party for him, but he wasn't too sure about the whole cake-eating idea.

April - The month began in a rather difficult way. Another ward member passed away, this one a friend about my age. The funeral luncheon was for a very large group, so we were very busy trying to get everything set up for that. I went to the funeral, and then stopped at home to pick up the ham that had been cooking. It was about 1:15 pm. Nick told me then that his recruiting officer would be picking him up at 1:45 to go to MEPS (I think that stands for Military Entrance Processing Station). We had understood that it would be that evening, so I was planning to have time to say our good-byes then. I was in a quandary. I had a number of women waiting for me back at the church, with no clear instructions left for how things were supposed to be set up, etc., so I hugged Nick, told him I loved him, and went back to the church. We got things going, and then Sharon came and just said, "We're going gome." Hurray for an awesome husband! I was able to be there when Nick left, and then I went back to the church. I was a little teary-eyed, but I guess I fit right in because it was, after all, a funeral. I did okay till I told a friend what had happened, and she burst into tears, and then mine weren't so well-contained. It turned out that we were able to pick him up the next day, and go out to dinner together before taking him back to the hotel. He left left at 2 am. the following morning for Basic Combat Training at Fort Benning, GA.

Zaida and I decided we would commiserate by shopping for tuxedos for the wedding. That day was the beginning of a whole new issue. The truck began an intermittent shaking, which was quite alarming. We got out to check that there weren't any flat tires and, not finding anything, went on our way. The problem abated, but returned again the next day. Sharon and I took it to the Ford service place. They kept it several days, which meant I begged rides to work, and walked home (not that bad for me, I suppose). Three hundred dollars later, they still hadn't figured it out because they weren't able to get it to do it. The did, however, do a lot of diagnostics, replace a solenoid of some sort and change our oil. The day after we picked it up, it did it again! So I took it back in and they kept looking. They still didn't find anything, and I needed my vehicle back, so we went and got it again. The next day it did it on the way home from church. I happened to be driving past a friend with whom we had discussed this problem. He's really good with car-fixing stuff, and had been able to hear the noise that accompanied the shaking. We figured out that the park brake is sticking. I use it because I park on our steep driveway, so it's habit for me to use it whenever I park. I guess no one else used it, so that's why it didn't happen to anyone else. Problem solved! In the middle of all this truck trouble was Alex's birthday, which wasn't the most exciting day for him because I had been unable to go do any shopping.

Intertwined through all of this were preparations for our ward fundraiser. One of the events was an "open class" pinewood derby, meaning you don't have to be a Cub Scout to enter. Sharon, Alex and I each made one. Alex and I looked at his Need for Speed game, and Sharon checked out some Camero specs on the computer, and we designed our "perfect" cars. We spent Family Night cutting them out on the neighbor's band saw, and then sanded and filed and painted all through the week. The wheels went on late Friday night. On Saturday morning, we weighed in, and then the race was on! Everyone got to race in at least 4 heats, and then they announced the finalists, and I was one of them! My friend Jerri and I tied for 3rd place. They timed our cars separately, using the same track lane, and my car was .03 seconds faster than hers. Wahoo!!! (And to think that I was just hoping to have the best looking car.) It was a lot of fun. Sharon said I was silly because I got all excited like a little girl. Hey, that's what life is all about, right?

May - It has been an eventful month. Alex's water polo team participated in their State Tournament, taking 3rd place, which was a little disappointing for them, since they have consistently taken 1st for a number of years. I have also been "chauffeured" a lot by Alex, since he is trying to complete 40 hours of driving time in order to get his driver's license. He hadn't been too interested, since we told him he'd need to learn on the car with the manual transmission, but we are down to crunch time. His summer job requires him to have a valid driver's license. This driving can be stressful on occasion, but he is doing well.

Mother's Day was a big day for me. It began with Alex fixing me waffles for breakfast, and got even better when I got a phone call from Nick to wish me a happy day. I also talked to the girls, which was wonderful. :0) Then the bishop called me in to his office and just said, "It's time." The last few months as the Relief Sodiety president have been difficult for me. I felt like I had nothing left in me. So last month when I met with the bishop, I told him I had prayed that Heavenly Father would let him know very clearly when the right time was to release me. (He had previously said that I would ben in as long as he was -- it's been 6 years for him, and 4 1/2 years for me, and the Stake President recently told him to plan on serving for another year.) "It's time." are words that I'd thought about for awhile, but when they finally came, I responded with mixed emotions. Relief, but also concern as to whether I'd done all I was supposed to do, and sadness to leave behind people and relationships that have been developed with counselors as well as those I have served. The next week was very busy as I continued as RS President pro tempore , holding presidency meeting and visiting teaching interviews, and taking care of welfare needs, and I cleaned out and prepared things for the incoming president. The following Sunday I was released in Sacrament Meeting and the new presidency was sustained. It was a real boost for me as many people came to hug me and tell me that they loved me. :0) Even though this calling has been difficult, time-consuming, and spiritually demanding, I wouldn't trade the experience. It has required me to trust in the Lord many times, and my faith, which, at the beginning, was pretty puny, has grown immensely. He has carried me through times when things were overwhelmingl. He has prompted me in ways that have caused me to know that He knows each of us individually, and cares about what happens to us. And I know that when He says, "...whatsoever ye ask that is right,... ye shall receive", He keeps His word. I have come to love these nearly 200 women as my sisters, but in some ways as daughters, too, as I have felt the need to nurture them and help each one of them feel loved.

It has been a little strange the past few weeks, as I have thought of things that need to be done, or a new visiting teaching assignment, and then realize that it's not my stewardship anymore. I'm sure I'll adjust eventually...

Susie

News From the Euge

Hello, dear family.
A little story:
Once upon a time, a girl we'll call ma'am (that would be me) lived with her children in a small, dark hovel that got very cold in winter and had no natural light and only two tiny bedrooms. It was nice in the summer because it stayed so cool and the little family lived mostly outside, anyway, but in the winter it was miserable, especially as the kids got older. They really needed their own bedrooms, so ma'am started looking for a new place to live, but even with a new job (we'll go into that later) was frustrated with the cost of things.
The ma'am's mister had a childhood friend who had lost his job a few months before, and was given a nice severance package. The mister's friend was visiting Kauai with his brother, a yearly occurrence, when he decided to buy a dive shop. He called his girlfriend and said, "Janie, pack up the house, we're moving to Hawaii!" So Janie did. And she asked if we might like to rent the house until we decide to move to Bend.
So we did. And the ma'am and the mister and the two kids and the two cats and the not-so-many-anymore houseplants (plants don't do well in caves) moved to a lovely 3 bedroom plus bonus grown up room plus garage-slash-man-room and small art room-slash-girl garage plus nice yard with two big redwood trees, close to a lovely park and great schools. And they're all living very happily thus far, thank you very much.

About that new job:
After 4 years of working nights at the hospital, having promises made that weren't kept by management, fighting to keep our healthcare and retirement benefits, and trying to make a difference and improve patient care, which succeeded only in putting me in the sights of one of the most manipulative people I've ever met, which caused great consternation to my GI tract and my mental health, I decided to move on. I got a job as a paramedic at the urgent care run by the emergency physician's group I worked with in the ER. In addition, although it took me two years and a lot of help and support from the mister and Mom and Dad, I finally tested for and received my Massage Therapy license. And the best part is, the emergency physicians got me all set up in a room at the physical therapy office they own, and word is spreading fast. I work as a medic two days a week and a massage therapist two days a week, and I'm generally booked two weeks out. The medic job is half the pay I was receiving at the hospital, but I love it at the Urgent Care, and I feel so sad for Steve every time I send him off to work at the ER.

Leah's been growing her hair out for a couple of years now, but she likes swimming a lot, and doesn't so much like wearing a swim cap. When I told her it was time for a trim, there were many tears and much ranting. When we got to the salon, though, and they asked if she wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love, she asked me what that was, I told her, and she gave an unwavering "yes." So, instead of the few inches we were going to trim, Leah ended up with over 11 inches off. She's a lovely young lady, my girl is, with an incredible sense of right and wrong. She's developing an interest in sports . . .she just needs to decide which one she wants to play.

We don't see much of Kai anymore. We gave him a Nintendo DS for his birthday, and he spends a lot of time playing that, reading, and reveling in his boy grossness. Which, for Kai, isn't much. Ever since he got out of his toddler years, he's been my cautious and mostly fastidious one. He's excited because our new house is very close to a friend's he's known since EC Cares- Sofie, a little deaf girl he spends a lot of time at the park with, sitting on the swingset and signing. He's a little bit nervous about middle school next year, but since he and Sofie will be together, I think he'll be just fine.
We've made it up to the mountain a few times this year, and I've finally made some progress with snowboarding. I can link turns now, and I've hit Mt. Bachelor three times in a row without serious injury or broken bones. This is quite an accomplishment!

We have one more trip up there in a couple of weeks, and that will be it for the spring season. At the end of May, we're heading to Portland to watch a Portland Timbers game, courtesy of the mister's brother, and then we'll figure out some other stuff to do, just the mister and the ma'am.
I know we're planning another backpacking trip or two this summer, and the kids and I hope to make it over to Moscow to visit the folks. What are all your plans? Anybody want to meet up somewhere?

Mom at the Volcano...

Kari and the girls shopping

The Miller sons after a day in the sun...

Gedde discovers Grandpa's ears...

The underwater view at Cook's Inlet just south of Kona. This is where Mom and Dad went on the catamaran with us.

Hi family,
We promised to report on our wonderful vacation in Hawaii on the Big Island. Dale and Kari's family is fun to be with and we loved playing with Vigo and Gedde. Dale drove us around for most of a day to see the ranches up on the hills with incredible views of the ocean and beautiful surroundings. We spent another day with most of the family in Hawi, a funky little town with fun shops that is on the North tip of the island. Townspeople said the whales were in near there so we drove down to watch and did see a few spouts. Another day we drove up to the only active volcanic crater. It was not spewing lava right then but there was plenty of steam and smoke. We went to an old lava tube and most of our group went through it. This trip took us to the wet side of the island around Hilo. We were staying on the Kona side which is dry. The tops of the old volcanoes are over 13,000 ft elevation so you can have any climate you want if you drive a while. We spent some time on the beach near our condo and enjoyed seeing some sea turtles there and watching Dale and Kari and the older kids kayak in the bay. My favorite activity was the time we spent on a catamaran and looking at the coral and sea life beneath us. Most of the people on the boat went snorkeling but we didn't want to do that. They put us in inner tubes with a view box so we could see underwater without putting our faces in. Dale got a rope from the captain, tied it to my tube and towed me around. He didn't think I was moving myself fast enough. It was great fun. The weather was just the right temperature and we loved our time there. We were able to spend a few days with Cheryl's family before we came home. It had been a while since we had visited them so that was nice.
Back home in Moscow, the winter has been really reluctant to leave this year. All our flowers and trees are about a month behind. Whenever the sun shines, Dad gets out and works. I have done a few small things but he has done most of the spring cleanup. A lot of our fence posts have rotted off after 25 years so today he removed the fence between the backyard and the garden area. We still cannot fill the new raised garden beds because the soil we ordered is too wet to move so we are not even close to planting anything. I guess this year will give us some idea of how we will garden from now on. This morning Dad counted 12 bright goldfinches on our feeders. That was just the males. He has also taken over the chore of keeping the feeders full and the birdbaths clean and full. That has to be done everyday with the numbers we've had.
We hope to see the rest of you this summer sometime.
Love, Mom and Dad

www.amazon.com/abna

Here's a better link for the contest Kari's in - next announcement is April 26, then it's the final round to see who wins. After reading many other entries, I think she has a great shot, unless the judges actually prefer really dark and violent teenage characters who swear a lot for the young adult segment. Regardless, I'm very proud of her, since this is the second manuscript (completely different stories) that she's gotten into the semifinals in as many years (final 100 out of original 5,000 accepted for consideration).

If you want to read an excerpt of Kari's book, type "Leath'dhia" in the search field on Amazon, it can be downloaded for free.

http://http//www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011

This is the link to the contest that Kari is in - she's in the Young Adult Fiction category, and I'd be surprised if she didn't move to the quarter (final 250) and semifinals (final 50) again given how far last year's manuscript went.

http://http//g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/abna/2011/ABNA_Young_Adult_Fiction_Second_Round.pdf

This gives you a sense of the competition - remember, this list is AFTER 80% of the entries have already been cut. By the way, Kari is listed under Kari Edgren (that way, when she's all famous, I can still hang out and travel with her without her getting mobbed and such). ;-)

Message from the lame-O family

After Susie's nudge email I decided that I should probably post as it's been, uh... more than a year. I'll try to summarize late 2009 into early 2011 in short order.

We decided to expand our horizons a bit in late 2009 and after shopping around for a year or so bought a house on 40 acres just Northeast of Moscow, on a shoulder of Moscow mountain - picture of front yard to the left. We'll eventually build a new home about where our car is in the picture, though life hasn't cooperated exactly as we'd hoped thus far. We had a window of opportunity as the boys were entering high school, but will mostly likely wait for a few years now as they're both pretty involved and we'd hate to pull them out in their junior or senior years. Our Woodinville house also didn't sell given a pretty dismal RE market, since Washington has now started to catch up with the rest of the west coast's decline.

In late 2010, as part of the grand plan, we also listed our cabin for sale as long term we'd be moving out of the area, and it just sold this month. Sort of ripped a piece of my heart out as that was my escape from real life/emails/phone calls for the past decade, but we were using it less and less as a family given 'life' on the other side of the mountains. My trips there were increasingly just to maintain it and then dash back home for whatever kid, church, work, or other activities I'd miss otherwise. We'll likely get something in the way of a cabin again in the future, but it will probably be larger, on a body of water, and several hundred miles east of Seattle.

I was just released from the bishopric, also as part of splitting our ward, which had grown to almost 600 members and was becoming rather unwieldy. I already miss many of the blessings and personal revelation that seemed to come with the calling, but I do welcome the 20 or so extra hours that I seem to have each week. I also resigned from several boards (corporate and non-profit) to reclaim my time a bit. I was promoted at work, to Corporate Client Group Director in our region (still a Senior VP and Managing Partner of the Pacific Wealth Management Group), so work has been a bit busy to put it mildly. I generally enjoy the work, but do get tired of all the "HR drama" that working with large groups of people seems to invariably bring.

Kari has just finished her second novel. "Ruby", her first, was a semifinalist in last year's ABNA/Amazon new author's contest - basically, she was in the final 50 from an original field of 5000 novels submitted in her category. Her second, called "Leath'dhia", just got into the quarterfinals in this year's contest - the next two rounds are at the end of this month and then I believe final selection is in May. This is a much better book and we're all very proud of her for doing these - they are great to read and I'm confident she'll get published, as they are both much better than 95% of what does get published. I wish she was as confident as I am in her work.

Grace is about to graduate from the International Community School, where's she done very well and had some amazing experiences. She has travelled in the past five years on separate trips to China, Brazil, Greece, London, Mexico, Jamaica, and Costa Rica, with stops in Paris and Tokyo along the way - about half of those were trips with our family, but her passport has a lot more stamps than mine! She's leaving for ten days in Ireland for her senior trip later this spring. She's trying to figure out where to go to school now, applying for scholarships, etc. We're very proud of her since ICS is in the top 20 high schools (public or private) in the US and she has a very high GPA. She's admitted to BYU but is looking at a couple of places (yes, naturally she applied to Willamette).

Ethan is a sophomore at Eastside Catholic High School, and is doing well in school and especially in his favorite class - rock band. Seriously. He is really into drums and is getting quite good, having abandoned his natural talent at violin a few years back. He's also on the school lacrosse team, which involves wearing some nominal padding and whacking each other with big sticks and throwing a small hard rubber ball at each other. What's not to like about that?

Connor is also at EC and after playing football for a few years, discovered that everyone else had put 50 pounds on over the summer, when he didn't (though he's in incredible shape, he's just not 200+ pounds, which most of the JV lineman already are). So, he ran cross country last year which he enjoyed more since it involved running around in the forest and hanging out with girls more than crashing into each other on the defensive line and tackling smelly guys. He's a great student and both he and Ethan have been presidents of their quorums at church, which has kept them busy.

Elsa is into... well, everything. Currently, she is lead in her school's production of the musical "Beauty and the Beast". Opening night is Friday. She also spends every waking hour with Jalepeno, a very large Appaloosa stallion that we lease at a local barn. Actually, I'm not sure this picture is of Jalepeno, he's bigger and doesn't have the white on his nose. Hopefully she'll forgive me.

Caelen is a reading machine - he's currently about half way through everything that Orson Scott Card has ever written (that is seriously about 30 books), after doing the same with several other authors. He's a blast to hang around, since all the teenagers have better things to do than hang around with Dad. He's my pheasant hunting buddy (even Suki's given up, though that's due to arthritis and all sorts of maladies - she's getting a bit old to join us) and is still active in karate, as are the older boys who expect to earn their black belts this year after three years of work.

Vigo is a wonderful four year old who is a lot of fun to talk to as he spends a lot of time figuring the world out with detailed questions about nearly anything you can imagine, from internal combustion engines to what is the purpose of life on earth (literally, "Dad, why do I exist?"). He and Gedde generate a lot of trouble when left unsupervised. Gedde is either Vigo's best friend or mortal enemy, depending on the circumstance. For Christmas, Vigo asked in all seriousness if we could get a cage for Gedde, since whatever Vigo builds (legos, lincoln logs, blocks, forts, etc.), "Geddezilla" will almost surely destroy. They are both a lot of fun, and show us just how different each spirit is from the others.

I am sorry to fill so many pages - and that it's been so long. If anyone ever reads this anymore, let's see if we can get back with it!

Hope everyone is well!

dtm

Announcing...

For those of you who (like me) don't do Facebook, we are pleased to announce the engagement of Nick to Zaida (see young lady mentioned in previous post). Also, Nick has enlisted in the army. He will leave for basic training in April, and they will be married in early August, when he returns (tentatively August 5). A lot of big changes -- I'm trying to adjust. :0)