Mother's Day

What a wonderful Day!  Jessica made a yummy breakfast: waffles, pancake (yes only one with left over batter for Rachel), and fried eggs.  I got some great new metal spinners from Melissa and Jessica for the backyard. (It’s time to throw out the old ugly worn out ones).  Rachel gave me a nice little card book that she made. I got a nice phone call from Jennifer.  I also got a nice Hallmark from my husband.  Church was very nice.  Two nice talks on how great their moms are by 2 college girls home for the summer (my former Laurels), and 2 talks from some wise sr. men of our ward.  One is 100 years old!  Some great stuff.  The ward was also treated to a sweet song sung by the primary kids.  All the RS sisters were given a box with 3 chocolates in it hand delivered by the YM. YUM.  We came home from church to have the table all set and dinner almost ready- that is one advantage of having Jessica attend the singles ward.  She served us up some great curry.  The highlight of the day was to skype with Elder Kevin Leete.  We were all set up so we could see him on the TV, and Jennifer was logged in too and skyping to Melissa’s account- we had that laptop set up so Jennifer could watch and hear Kevin on the TV.  We all sat on the couch- with the laptop on the coffee table pushed out far enough so we all fit on the screen.  We waited patiently for Kevin to log in at 1. . .however we waited an hour- he appeared at 2.  We had a great time talking and seeing him.  All is good in missionland.  His testimony is strong.  He is working hard.  He is happy.  And we are proud.

One of our mother’s day traditions that I enjoy is to have a mother’s day concert where the kids all perform for me.  Well, earlier this week the kids said that no way was that happening this year.  I was bummed, but had accepted it.  Well, today in the kitchen while Melissa was making brownies- I mentioned that something was missing this year.  She said, “You mean your concert?”  And I said, ”yes”.  She then told me that she had prepared to sing something and that Jessica was going to accompany her.  That brought a smile to my face.  So later after dinner, we gathered in the living room for the little concert (little, cuz there was only going to be one number performed).  To my surprise, as Jessica started playing- I started to recognize the song and was so excited.  Melissa was singing the Knot Fairy!!  She was so cute and sounded wonderful (voice lessons are really paying off).  I was a little thrown off, when the accompaniment sounded different- Jessica had made a new arrangement.  I had to listen to it again to appreciate it and accept the fact that they had made it better.  A big thank you to my lovely daughters for sharing their talent with me.

 It was a very nice mother’s day.  I am very blessed.

From Mom to Kevin

Dear Kevin-

Wow, your mission chart is now half filled in!  Time is flying by. It is hard to believe that you have been in Brazil for a year now. It is so good to hear from you each week and of your hard and dedicated work.  Keep it up and you will continue to be blessed and find happiness in the Lord’s work. You must be a great missionary, if you were able to train your greenie well enough for him to be a trainer!!!!!!   Tell us about your new companion and area.

 This week Rachel had 3 lacrosse games.  Her team is doing very well- they are undefeated!  This is their last week with 2 more games- we’ll see if they can hold on to that title.

 The weather continues to be crazy here- raining, raining, and raining, then a sunny day. We are starting to wonder if they will ever be able to pour the cement where they ripped out our sidewalk.  We call it the moat now, because it is always filled up with water.

Me and Jessica have been working a little on building a structure in the back yard that Jennifer and I started when she was here out of the wood from the 4 trees we cut down in the front.  It is starting to look like something finally- and hopefully with the sun out this week we can finish it.  It is an arbor-gazebo type thing we are building on the cement.  We still have lots of tree branches stacked in the backyard- I’ll have to come up with some more projects to make with them or we will just have lots of firewood to burn this summer!

Rebecca came again for FHE on Monday- and the Elders came too.  Dad gave a nice lesson on one of the general conference talks, sent Rachel off to lacrosse practice, then played some liars dice.  Rebecca and Jessica looked up institute classes, and went to one on Tuesday night.  Jessica looked pretty excited to get out and do some socializing- she’s been home a couple weeks now and getting a little stir crazy.  She has been enjoying cooking and trying out new recipes.  I enjoy her cooking- and her cleaning up the kitchen!  She continues to apply for jobs, but hasn’t had any luck yet.  She has done some babysitting though.  Jessica went to Tanasborne Ward today.  Rebecca wasn’t able to- dinner schedule with her folks didn’t make it possible, but she met up with Jessica later for the CES fireside.  Jessica came home happy- had a good time at the singles ward, then dinner linger longer, then the fireside.  Things should pick up socially as the college students start coming home for the summer.

 The Relief Society had a birthday party on Thursday- They had a Jeopardy game, and I was the host.  It was fun.  They also had a cake decorating contest.  At home when trying to decide what cake to make I dug out all our old kid cake pans.  The girls voted for the Cookie Monster.  So I baked it, Jessica made a giant cookie for him to hold, and did most of the decorating.  It won the most creative.  When I was asked to tell about the cake I told them that I had bought the cake pan for your 1^st birthday.  And what a coincidence- it was your mission 1yr bday too!  So here is a picture of your cake:          

HaPpY 1 Year on your Mission!

We thought of you as we ate it.

  Well, Steven W. is now married.  We went to his reception at his parents’ house last night.  He looked good, and Kristi looked very happy.  We enjoyed the refreshments- cake pops (cakes rolled into balls, put on lolly pop sticks and dipped in chocolate). They are quite the rage here now.

Well, that is all I can think of for this week.    Keep up the great work; we continue to pray for your safety, and success. And have faith in you and your new assignment as Zone Leader. You’ll do great.

 Lots of Love,

MomJ

 PS.  Do you get to call home for Mother’s Day?

Letter from Father to Son

April 29, 2012

Kevin,

Jessica’s home from BYU. She is looking for a job, and learning to cook. Apparently her cooking skills last year weren’t enough for her, and she is on the hunt for new things to cook. I think mom and I are going to be putting on some weight in the next couple of months.  Melissa has also gotten the food bug, and has made 3 different kinds of brownies this week. They are taking pictures of their culinary creations so posterity will remember this summer forever.  

 This week was stake conference, Rebecca joined us for conference. She will be attending FHE a little more now that she is feeling better. She came last week, and we had a fire in the backyard. I had to go to bed but She and
Jessica stayed up at least till midnight burning logs.

 The message for priesthood leadership was “lead by example”. One talk told a story by Ghandi. A mother brought her son to Ghandi, and said that her son eats too much sugar, and wanted Ghandi to tell her son not to eat too much sugar. Ghandi said he couldn’t do that, and told her to come back in a few weeks. She came back in a few weeks, and Ghandi looked the child in the eye and told him not to eat too much sugar. The mother was surprised and asked Ghandi why he couldn’t do that a few weeks ago. Ghandi replied, I couldn’t tell your son not to eat sugar, because I was eating too much sugar. Over the last few weeks I have not eaten too much sugar and now I feel I can tell your son to do the same.  Lead by example in all you do.

Jennifer is back at BYU, and taking more art classes. Bookbinding seems to be her favorite class this semester.

Melissa had a violin recital. Keturah Bay played piano. It went well, they both did very well.

I sent  Jessica, Melissa and Rachel to a Coldplay concert last week. They had a good time. There were 2 warm up bands, so they didn’t get home till after 10:30.  I think it was a good experience for them. They had to go by themselves (Rachel was mortified at the thought that Mom and I might come). They had a good time.

 I went to a work retreat for a day at the Skamania Lodge out in the Columbia gorge. It was good, we had a patent think tank for the stuff I am working on. A Patent think tank is where you brainstorm good ideas that you might not normally think of in your daily work, and file patents on it.

Devin Santa is home! He looks good. I think He’s taller now than when he left. His mom and dad are really happy to see him.

 Rachel had a couple of Lacrosse games last week. Both home games at Westview. I think I froze both games, but we won both handily. Rachel played goalie for the entire game on the second game. She let 4 goals go by, but since the other team let 15, I think she did pretty well.

Mom had a birthday last week. I got her a mug, and some flowers and a balloon for her birthday, Jessica made her favorite carrot cake.

Good luck, work hard, teach lots of people and baptize….

Dad

A Heart from Rachel

Bday Cake- 24.5 Candles (half her age)

Melissa after Recital with Keturah her accompanist and friend.

June 8-14, 2011

Wed June 8 Me and my folks went to the Jr. Grand floral Parade.  It was in the Hollywood district- on the other side of the river near the residential area (where we parked) and old town stores (kind of like downtown Beaverton).  It was a long parade- mostly all middle school bands and various youth groups.  Unicycles, drill teams, cub scouts etc.  It was fun.  After Rachel marched by I followed to meet her at the end.  They took 3 busses to get there, but only had 2 to get them home so I gave her and 2 of her friends a ride home.

 

That evening for combined mutual activity the priests took us on a hike up to Pittock Mansion.  I was a driver so dropped my carload at the trail head then drove up the rest of the way.  We set up yogurt with toppings by the front lawn of the mansion for when they got there.  They had been sent up with maps on different trails in groups of 4.  Each group had a very heavy back pack to carry up.  Adults were stationed along the way to suggest other trails.   When all the groups reached the top they ate yogurt parfaits, enjoyed the view and Nathan and the Bishop lead a discussion of their journey up the trail.  The theme this month was Endure.  The bishop said the hike didn’t quite turn out how they had hoped- the guys with the backpack were being studdly and didn’t share the burden with their group.  Also everyone stuck to the trail on their map.  However they got some great discussions and thoughts shared.

Thursday June 9^th  was graduation day! It took us a long time to get there with bumper to bumper traffic.  We were to be there at 6:30- made it there after 7.  Melissa and the band took another route than we did , they left at 5 and got there as people were let in at 6:30.  The band sounded good- they were in the bleachers this year behind the podium in the corner.  The Chiles center was packed.  We sat in the bleachers  behind the graduates.  The choir sounded good.  The speeches were nice- the whole program seemed a lot shorter than last year, but the graduating class was huge and it took a while to read through all the names. It was a pretty mellow ceremony- only one beach ball came out and it was quickly confiscated. (Jessica said that her class was pretty boring). We took pictures and made it home with barely enough time for Jessica to open her cards and gifts.  She took a piece of her graduation chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting to eat in the car as I took her to the school to catch the bus at 10:30pm.  I picked her up the next morning at 5- she was tiered, but had a great time.  She won some smiley faced boxers and a camera.

Saturday, June 11, was the Grand Floral Parade.  We met up with Sis Walker at her usual spot to enjoy the festivities.  It was a cold day- but no rain.   Rachel brought her friend Serena- they had fun shopping at Pioneer place and drawing rainbow pony on the street. Grandma and pa now can boast that they have been to a rose parade in both California and Oregon.

 

After the parade, the band had a party at the Oak Hills rec center, and Rachel and Serena went swimming at the pool.  The clouds cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day.  Jessica and Melisa went to another grad party that evening.

Grandma and pa left here Monday morning- next stop for them at Uncle Jon’s, then off to Uncle Jim’s to meet up with some cousins visiting from Australia to tour the Disney studios and go to Yosemite. 

Things are calming down here now that the concerts, parades, and graduation is over and that company is all gone. Melissa has been doing finals.  Must not be too hard cuz I haven’t seen much studying going on around here. Jessica has been sleeping in and then spending time with Nate.  Today she, Lanea, and Chelsea kidnapped the guys  from the band room after finals and took them blindfolded to OMSI for the Narnia exhibit.  They are now upstairs playing Mario carts.  Brother Chin and Adam are now our Home teachers and visited this evening.  Melissa and Jessica have been spending her spare time preparing for girls camp.  Grandma helped when she was here painting.  Rachel has been exiled from the bonus room where all the camp secrets have been stockpiled and worked on.  Tomorrow is Rachel’s 8^th grade graduation party.  I will be going to help in the BINGO room with Mrs. Kennefick.

Kevin is a Missionary

Kevin has been called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been assigned to labor in the Brazil Londrina Mission for two years and will be teaching the gospel in the Portuguese language. I have set up a blog to post his letters and pictures. So to enjoy his mission right along with hime go to :  elderleete.blogspot.com

KOOZA

While Kevin, Jessica, and Melissa were off playing at Disneyland the rest of us decided to have some fun too! So I got us tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil's KOOZA. We thought we had an extra ticket when Jennifer's ride back to school decided to leave on Saturday (she was home for spring break), so Rachel invited Angela to come along. Then Jennifer's ride changed to Sunday so I quickly got on line to buy another ticket. Luckily there was one more ticket in our row 10 seats over so I bought it!I had seen the circus tent as I had driven over the Portland bridge, and thought it would be way cool to go so I am happy that we did. I was surprised that once in the tent, it was a lot smaller than it looked. I had bought the cheap seats, section 206, row R and was happy that we weren't all that far away. We only had to look around a pole now and then when the action was not downstage. The nice people sitting in our row all scooted over so Brian could sit with us! The acts were amazing and the live music was great. I liked the guys that walked inside the spinny hamster type wheels. The unicyclist was also great. The costumes were all unique and amazing. I bought a pin for my hat, Rachel and Angela bought a bracelet, and Jennifer and I oooed and awed at all the pretty masks and trinkets. It was a fun evening!

Winter Percussion 2010: POP

Jessica and Kevin both participated in Winter Percussion again this year. They practiced Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays 4-9pm and on Saturdays practiced some more or went to competitions. It kept them so busy that we hardly ever saw them- or ate together. But it has been such a great experience for them., and they loved it!

This year their show title was POP, themed around "pop culture". For their uniforms they headed to the Goodwill to find 80's clothes. They had a lot of fun dressing up.


Jessica played mallets in the Pit, and Kevin played bass drum #4.


It was a tough season - they competed in the Percussion Scholastic Open Division, but their hard work paid off- they won 1st place at the NWAPA Championship finals on April 3rd. It was a wonderful way for Kevin to finish off his Sr. year season. Great job kids- we are so very proud of you!!!!


Here they are set at the beginning of the show:



A good shot of the bass line. Looking good. . .Doing a little bit of Thriller. . .Jessica at work in the Pit.The Finish! During the Closing Ceremonies they acknowledged the seniors.

Here they present Westview High School with 1st place!A extremely happy group of kids!The bass line and their metals.The Girls of the group- (so much better than Jessica's Freshman year when there was only two of them.)Brother and Sister (Did we really look like that in the 80's?)Here is a look at Kevin's Eagle Project- doesn't it look great holding all that drum equipment?!

The end of another great Winter Percussion Season.

POP Championships

Here is the video Brian took of Kevin and Jessica performing POP at the Championships. On YouTube there are more views posted by others if you want a closer look.

NWPA

On November 7th Kevin, Jessica, and Melissa traveled with the Marching Band for their last competition of the marching season to Corvallis to compete in the OSU Marching Band Competition and Oregon State University. To my surprise after getting them all sent off, Brian says, "Let's Go!". I was in shock, because Brian rarely even wants to go to the local competitions. I guess after all these years with kids in band it is finally grown on him. So He and I packed up our coats and rain gear and headed off to Corvallis, Oregon. We got their just in time for lunch break- which was boring. But once the shows started again we enjoyed ourselves. It was fun to see all the different bands and the variety of shows and ability levels. It was a fun day. I'm glad that we went (even though it was freezing!) Our kids our great!

Yea Melophones! Yea Saxophones! Yea Tubas!Yea Percussion Rack!