My Family

My Family

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Ye Elders of Israel...

The COOLEST thing EVER happened to me last night. First, a little background to help this make sense...

When my son, Grant, left on his mission in February of 2007, he asked me if I would help him keep track of some of his high school buddies. Most of these boys I'd never met before, but I knew they were important to him. So, I started a monthly newsletter that eventually included 28 missionaries. It was called Ye Elders of Israel. Each month, I'd contact their parents, or other family members, and ask for an update and some pictures. Then, I'd gather everything together and make a newsletter, listing the missionaries alphabetically, with 3-4 pages of pictures at the end. Sometimes, the parents would email their missionaries to ask for a submission for the next newsletter, but most of the time, the parents would just type one up themselves. Then, one or two of the families would mail the newsletters out - they each took turns so it wouldn't be such a financial burden on me. This went on for about a year and a half. I had a great time, and came to think of each of these boys as "my" missionaries. Instead of one missionary son, I had 28! I loved reading about their adventures, and seeing pictures of them. It was nice meeting their parents as well. In fact, we had a big "family" get-together several months after Grant left with as many families as could attend. One of the dads was a photographer, and he snapped a picture of all of us. We sent the pictures to our sons. As a gift for the missionaries, I asked for each of their testimonies in English and in the language they were speaking on their missions. I gathered them together, and with the help of my friend Carol Rice (at Cherish Bound), I made a beautiful little book, complete with all of their testimonies, and about 20 testimonies from the girls they went to school with. Using this book, they were able to share not only their own testimonies, but the testimonies of their friends - around the world. I even sent a copy of the book to President Thomas S. Monson, who sent me a letter of thanks. Cool, stuff, huh? I consider myself the lucky one here - I gained 27 sons, and had a great time.

Then, in August of last year, 8 months before Grant came home, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and completed just two more newsletters... one for that whole summer, and one more by the end of the year. I've always felt that I dropped the ball in a really important game - I didn't finish what I started, and I wish I could have a do-over.

In November, the last one of these missionaries completed his mission and came home. And last night, much to my delighted surprise, my doorbell rang. Rick opened the door, and there stood several of "my" missionaries - or, rather, returned missionaries, some with wives and girlfriends. In disbelief, I walked to the door, and they broke out in song - "Ye Elders of Israel"! I stood there crying - you just can't imagine how wonderful it is to see all of them home safe and sound. Their voices were beautiful! We invited them in, and they presented me with a beautiful print of Christ, surrounded by children, and a book of notes that they wrote to me. Of course, I thanked them for the inspiration they have been to me. They sang another song - "We'll Bring the World His Truth" - the same song that my seminary students sang at Grant's baptism once upon a time. Then, I got a big hug from each one of them.

There is no way that anything better than that happened to anyone else last night!

Oh, and I promised Grant that I'd tell anyone who is reading this that he said "hi"!

Monday, December 28, 2009

As promised, here are the individual pics of my boys by Matt Clayton Photography.
Grant first, then Michael, Alex, and finally, Matthew.




What do you think?

Oh, and one last picture - this one is of Alex and his guitar (a brilliant picture - probably my favorite one).

Saturday, December 26, 2009

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!




My niece, Ellie, and my great-niece, Cambria, in the dress up princess costumes that grandma and grandpa (great) gave them!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

My New Gift From My Boys...

Matt Clayton (Matt Clayton Photography) took pictures of my boys last weekend. This is the one I picked of the group...

Left to right - Grant (22), Michael (19), Alex (15), and Matthew (12)
I'll put the individual boys' pics up as soon as I get them. I'm so excited. I loved Matt's work, and I've wanted to have him do a shoot of my boys for a long time. He actually offered, because he is working on a "brothers" project. Believe it or not, the pictures were shot in our garage! They were all freezing. Haha! Check out Matt's website and blog... www.mattclaytonphotography.com www.mattclaytonphotography.blogspot.com

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Christmas Just Makes Me Happy...



I wonder what it is? :-)

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Yesterday, my sweet grandmother, Georgina, passed away. She was such a wonderful woman. Here are just a few of my favorite pictures to celebrate her life...
























What a WONDERFUL life! Love you, Grandma.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Young Love... ah!

Thought I'd share some cute pictures of my sons and their girlfriends...

Michael and his girlfriend, Ashley Yoshikawa

Grant and his girlfriend, Alyx Clark

What cute couples, huh? Here are some more of Michael and Ashley(first), and Grant and Alyx(second) that I found on Facebook (yep, I have to go to Facebook to find out what my kids are doing!)

Michael and Ashley watching a Disney show with cousin, Ellie

Michael and Ashley in New York with their best friend, Garrett






Thursday, November 12, 2009

It's been a CRAZY week - I had surgery on Monday, and it wiped me out! I haven't done anything on this blog for a whole week. Last weekend I went with my husband, Rick, to Las Vegas. He rode his new bike, with some of his high school friends, on a 100 kilometer ride through the Valley of Fire. I drove one of the support vehicles. The ride was named Carma's Cin City Century. It was an interesting day. Saturday started out just fine - a big breakfast at Carma's house - lots of eggs, waffles, bagels, etc. Here is the group picture before we started...

Left to right - Rick, Lori, Jill, Carma, Phil, Shari and Jeff with their son and nephew, Rick, Torsten, and Angie.
I'm so impressed with these guys - they are in such great shape at 46 years of age. Seriously. Wow. Look how great the guys look - and the women are gorgeous! (Angie - far right - is NOT 46, she is much younger!)
Here is one of the vehicles, loaded up with bikes...

The most exciting thing that happened that day involved this truck. See all of those bikes in the back? They were covered up with blankets - to keep them from bumping into each other. Rick and I were in the Pilot - driving behind this truck - and noticed that the blankets were whipping around. We worried that one of them would fly out. Jeff, who was driving the truck, stopped and tucked the blankets back in, and took off again. All of a sudden, a semi truck passed Jeff's truck, and the updraft from the semi caught one of the blankets and sucked a bike right out of the truck! We watched as the bike went airborn - about 20 feet, and then came crashing down - bouncing on one wheel (that busted in half) and crashing to the ground. Thanks to Rick yelling "Holy Crap!" (NOT his real words - haha!), I slammed on my brakes and swerved, avoiding being hit by the bike. Rick jumped out of the car and picked the bike up before someone hit it. We threw it into the back of the truck and drove the 1/2 mile to the exit. We had no idea whose bike it was. Here's a picture of the bike - it's amazing, but the frame wasn't really hurt that much...

The bike was Lori's and we were actually able to make a call and borrow some wheels to put on the bike. She was able to ride - but it put us behind a couple of hours. It was around 12:00-12:30 when we finally got started. Here are a couple of pics of the riders getting ready and then Carma riding out in front...






The ride was good, the hills were tough, but they all did well. At about 43 miles, it got too dark to ride, so we called it a day - we then went to a place called Warm Springs, an LDS church camping area with the nicest pools. The riders got to swim and soak in the warm water. Everyone had a great time!






Thanks to Carma and Phil for putting the ride together.

Rick loves doing stuff like this, and I was so inspired by all of the bikers. Torsten asked me if I'd be riding next year - yeah. NO. But, maybe I'll be in better shape, thanks to the examples of everyone there. LOVE these guys!
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My Gorgeous Boys

My Gorgeous Boys