JORY, the champion of the world.

How lucky can a guy be to live his whole life around and as the super friend of many. That is right, his sisters all love him, any female that meets him, instantly takes a liking and all mere acquaintances say he is a great guy. An up and coming school teacher and UTA bus driver are his current bragging rights.

Twenty three years ago this Sunday, April 27th, he will celebrate his birthday. A Saturday’s child he spent only twelve hours in the hospital when he first arrived. He returned to the hospital for his next stay just over two months ago. Luck is his best friend as he takes adventurous trips, jumps over & off of decks/trampolines and such, dives from super heights and is able to come out pretty much unhurt or recovers quickly.

Optimistic he is and that helps move him into great opportunities. Happy is his middle name which helps attract friends both male and female. A great and dedicated missionary he was as he connected with the Chilean people and hated to leave at the end of his mission. Jory is loyal as he supports and helps friends he has been with since grade school. A good example he has been to others as they have waivered and needed a guide to follow. WE love you Jory, keep up the good work.

Mauri, A Beauty to Rival Any Model

This week Mauri will turn 32 years old. What a wonderful woman, wife, mother, daughter and sister, she is. Not one to complain she has endured major health issues, but found the best solution to be relieved of them. She is a dependable person making it to work daily, caring for Aaron,Brayle and Hunter, fulfilling her assignments with the scouts regularly and so on.
I call her my beautiful daughter, because she is. She took the best looking genes from both Dad and I then perfected her makeup, a snappy hairstyle and good taste in clothes to complete a picture of beauty to rival any model.

This centennial baby was born, Thursday, April 22, at 7am weighing 7 1/2lbs. The doctor was Dallas Van Wagoner and her attending nurse was Mary Fitzgerald, who was my visiting teacher at the time. Mauri was a beautiful baby that was content when fed, loved attention and slept a lot, unlike her older sister.

As a child she took a lot of beatings from Jennifer but found a way to be heard. Temper tantrums became a norm when she wanted her way and wasn’t about to budge. She suffered many a cut, scrape and trouncing to rise above it all with her competitive nature. She walked, talked and rode a bike sooner than big sis did.

After starting school it was discovered she had a hearing problem, which was corrected with surgery at the Salt Lake Surgical Center by getting tubes. We called her x-ray ears after she recovered, because of her excellent hearing. She quickly made many girlfriends at school. Due to the fact there were eight boys her age in Primary, she hadn’t had many. Being a bright child, Mauri did very well in school and it also tamed her of the tantrums. A model student she was given the highest award in sixth grade, the Hope of America Award received by one boy and girl.

She loved to play tennis and lettered in it. Sewing, swimming, phoning friends and making caramel brownies were things she liked to do. She was the first one to sign up for family jobs and always completed them. It frustrated her that other siblings wouldn’t follow through with theirs. As a teen her goals were to attend EFY, go to college, achieve her YW medallion and a have temple marriage. She accomplished them all.

Boyfriends came, went and were illusive until Mauri decided to take shop in school.
Here she found many willing to help her with the projects she worked on. One young man, Aaron, bested the others becoming her first real boyfriend. Many dances and fun dates were enjoyed together. He was willing to take the challenge and join the Church to proclaim his love and devotion. Now here we are thirteen years later with happy, tough and memorable experiences along the way. Hunting, family and reading are her hobbies now. What a wonderful person she is. Thanks for being you, Mauri.

I finally did it

Guess what I finally got this thing going. It's a time for firsts, I finally applied for that job at Tooele Jr. High School. The first time I tried it didn't work so I had to do it all over again.
The kids only have like 25 days left of school, can you believe it? It's still snowing out side it can't be time for school to be out. This is going to be short so hopefully it really works correctly. Make sure you all pray for me to get the new job it will save me alot of gas and time. Love you all and we'll talk later!

Happy Birthday to Mauri

Who is My Naomi?

This week is (or would have been) Grandma Genevieve’s 97th birthday, April 15. I couldn’t have asked for a better mother-in-law. Yes, sometimes (okay too many times) I complained about how she did this or that. For the most part she really was the one I looked up to and turned to for help. All I had to say was ‘Boy, I could sure use this or that’ and believe you me, it was done. None of my daughters or son-in-law can even hope for that kind of speed or dependability.
Did I appreciate the time she bought five dresses at the DI and overhauled them so Jennifer could have clothes to wear? No, I complained they looked like a fifty year old should wear them.

Did I thank her for tending, you those years I had the LiL Wooden Things shop in WVC. Or the time Dad & I went to Texas for a week while she nurtured you through the chicken pox. Not enough thanks for those days & nights I spent finding myself while she so unselfishly served with open arms to tend, feed, cloth, teach and love you.

How I loved this woman and looked up to her. Every Sunday when I do my RS President job, I put on the tan skirt she gave me (packaged from a mail order service, that I hated when I got it) but now use it faithfully, praying I can be as good of a president as she was.

I see her in Jennifer as she serves in her ward activities calling and doing community service. I find her in the drive that Mauri has to be dependable to her employer and never complain. Alicia has those organizational skills from her that I long to achieve. Breann doesn’t give up in the face of adversity with her nose to the grindstone. Jory is the great school teacher that she was as she earned and paid for every single son to serve the Lord. Dad is the most trusting, best worker and giving person that exists thanks to her.

This is why when I read the words of Ruth many years ago, she became my Naomi. ‘Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee. For wither thou goest I will go, and wither thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people and thy God, my God.’ Please know I loved her very much and will always treasure her gifts through you.

JOY...How to Make It Last

I am a cronic happy person. What a blessing to only be down one day per month or so. This lesson was given in RS this week and I wanted to share it with you. It is so easy to beat up on ourselves and take credit for the great things we do. Remember these eight ideas next time you are tempted to be down or belittle yourself. Because you are all great and wonderful adults and children of ours.
2Nephi 2:25 “Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have JOY.”

1 Share Positive Feelings: Sharing happy memories & experiences with others helps to prolong the joy.

2 Build Memories by Seizing the Moment: Take mental photographs of memorable moments that you can draw on later.

3 Compare Downward: Think how things could be or used to be worse. Comparing upward makes us feel deprived, comparing downward can heighten enjoyment.

4 Congratulate Yourself: Take pride in accomplishments. Acknowledge what you did do and congratulate yourself. Tell yourself & others what you did do right.

5 Fine-Tune Your Senses: Concentrate on stimuli that will heighten your enjoyment.

6 Say Thank You: D&C 7:19. Cultivate an “attitude of gratitude”. Saying “thank you” deepens our happiness by making us more aware of it.

7 Fake It..Till You Make It: Put on a happy face- even if you don’t feel like it—induces greater happiness.

8 Looking Forward To That Day: Alma 4:14. Retaining a remission of their sins being filled with great joy because of the resurrection and deliverance of Jesus Christ from death.

May these ideas help you to feel ‘Joy’ and make it last.

Hey so I am alive and kicking!!

Yes I am alive and I am sorry it has taken me so long to write on this thing but here I am. Yes it is almost one in the morning but this is the only time I think about doing things like this. I just got done with this ridiculous assignment that is do in the morning and I am very interested in seeing what is going to happen in class tomorrow. Everyone in my class is very frustrated with this teacher because she is very unclear with what she want then she wants it all done when we don't know what she wants. I will let her know how I feel and I'm sure the class will too. It should be fun. So I'm back to work and enjoying that there is a man from Mexico that I enjoy talking to in Spanish that rides mt bus. I am starting to see how much work I have this summer so that I can be ready to teach school but I am going to learn a lot and have fun cause that is what I do best. As you can tell one thing I need to learn is how not to write run on sentences ha ha. well that is all I have for now so I hope to hear from you all soon.

Sunday Morning at the Schmidt's

Nothing says Sunday morning at mom's house quite like Sour Cream Breakfast Cake. I made some for breakfast yesterday, and we enjoyed every last bite. It was yummy for breakfast before church, and it was still yummy for a snack after church while waiting for dinner to be ready. It took me back to the days before we all grew up and moved out--you know, getting home from church and snarfing down cold breakfast cake while waiting for dinner to be ready. Yum! Here is the recipe:

Sour Cream Breakfast Cake

Sift together:
2 c. flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Cream together:
1/2 c. margarine or butter
1 c. sugar

Then add, one at a time:
1 c. sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Put one third of the batter into a greased pan. Sprinkle heavily with cinnamon sugar mixture and nuts. Repeat twice and end with nut and cinnamon mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. For the cinnamon sugar mixture, I just used maybe 1/3 of a cup of sugar and dumped in cinnamon and stirred until it looked about right.

eve6

Jed and I went to an eve6 concert last night. Here's the CRAZY part: it was in Pocatello, ID! AND it was free! We had a good time there. We got to hear a lot of songs that we like from a group that we like. (PLUS no traveling anywhere far for it - great, huh?)

Breaks, Bills & Blessings

Little did we realize when Jory did his final layup at the UVU basketball game, because he had to try that dunk just one more time, that he would break a bone. The ER was just the beginning of his crash landing. Xrays showed a cyst resulting in a CT scan and biopsy for a better look.

Surgery came next to add bonding cement ($2600) and bionic bracket ($1300) to bone. This included an overnight stay with bigger bills ($25k) than we could bear. Fortunately, insurance cut our ‘out of pocket’ to 10%. We experienced the new state of art IMC ‘Intermountain Medical Center’ facilities. Dr. Steven Scott, one of two orthopedic specialists in shoulders, did the surgery and Dr. Sumsion the physical therapist.

Now 100 days later, Jory is back to work driving for UTA and looking forward to summer school as he prepares for an internship this fall. My favorite part of the hospital ordeal was the 24/7 Discovery Channel. On the negative side I hated running up & down seven flights of stairs to retrieve Jory’s cell phone charger when the elevators quit working.

There were blessings as we realized the giant humeral cyst could have eaten away the whole upper bone which was bound to break with any bump he encountered. It was better to happen when it did than on a trip, summertime or water skiing. What a relief he didn’t break his neck.

A E vs. I O U

After the refinance of the house, we decided with the money we saved before the new house payments kicked in, to get AIR. Yes, central air conditioning that is. Our little old swamp cooler has done a good job these last 20 years with only one new pump and numerous filters, belts and such. I was imagining how nice and cool it would be this summer with our energy efficient improvement when family visited. I could even check the box on the power bill to get a credit.

In marches IOU. Yes, that would be the IRS asking for our income tax payment. We annually estimate income owed on usual past taxes. We failed to include this change: Advantage earned income on Utah Valley College credits and dependant loss of Jory.
Oh, do we owe. Utah State even received a 10% bonus for our underestimating the tax. Lucky them, who got an extra $80 to help save the state.

When you visit, please bring fans, swimwear or cottons to keep cool. We have water & a wading pool as there will be no Air Expectations but a donation for IRS Owed USA will be appreciated.

Waterlogged!

So, I started on 6MP (for my ulcerative colitis) about three weeks ago. Over the weekend, I started to have some pain in my upper abdomen and a little nausea too. Jed determined that I either had pancreatitis (as a result of the medication) or that it was my gallbladder. Bloodwork showed yesterday that it was mild pancreatitis. Lucky me! I'm on a water-only diet now until things resolve enough for me to eat normal foods. Oh, how I'm craving mashed potatoes!

remember these?

After seeing lots of little girls with cute, curly hair, I decided to torture Sarah into some curly hair. I have been thinking of buying some sponge curlers for months. Every time I went to Target I would look at the sponge curlers, but they were like $10. I thought that was ridiculous and kept neglecting to purchase them. I had finally decided to make a special trip to Target just to buy the darn things when I happened to go into a beauty supply store like two blocks from our building. Bingo! Sponge curlers for $1.29 a pack! BARGAIN! I bought two packs. That night after Sarah had a bath, I got started rolling them into her hair. I honestly don't know how mom did it all those years ago. There were four of us to sponge curler up. At the end of the day. On Saturday. And then four (five when the little J came along) of us to put to bed. Frankly, I'm surprised we all lived to tell about it. About 45 minutes later after several threats that she must stay still or risk the wrath of me and at least 2 near stranglings, she was ready for bed. I had to have some chocolate to calm my nerves. It was then that I began to worry that she might find the sponge curlers uncomfortable to sleep in. Too bad! She was going to sleep in those darn things and have curly hair if I had to hold her down in the bed until she fell asleep. Fortunately, she fell right to sleep. The next morning she was darling. Adorable in fact. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. Silly me!

in beverage heaven

Last week, David took Sarah to see a movie. I figured this would be the perfect time to get a little grocery shopping done without Sarah tagging along, begging for things, and touching everything within her reach. I headed down to the local grocery store and got:

• one gallon of milk
• two cartons Tropicana orange juice
• one 2-liter of root beer
• a bag of carrots
• for a total of like $12.00

I walked home, put the groceries away, and sat down on the couch. Just then David and Sarah walked in with bags from the very same grocery store. Their purchases included:

• one gallon of milk
• two cartons Tropicana orange juice
• one 2-liter of cream soda
• three yogurts
• ice pops (similar to popsicles)
• for a total of like $14.00

Now, instead of $12.00 worth of beverages, we have $26.00 worth of the very same beverages and are in beverage heaven. I thought it was so funny that we bought nearly the exact same groceries. The grocery store is so small I'm surprised we didn't bump into one another there and discover we were doubling up on our purchases.

my day at the dentist

I spent the morning at the dentist getting three--yes, three--cavities filled. I've been putting it off since November and finally decided to just go and get it done before they turned into more serious problems. I talked a friend into watching the kids and walked the ten or so blocks to their new office. I must admit that it felt weird going somewhere alone. All. By. Myself. I kept looking around and feeling around for things as if I had forgotten something. I think I do take for granted having the stroller--and thus, necessities such as a water bottle, snacks, tissues, wipes, etc--with me. I felt a bit naked without it. As you can imagine, the dentist was loads of fun. It was a lovely hour-long episode of dry mouth, drilling, dentist smell, dentist noises, and numb face fun. At one point I wasn't sure my saliva would ever return and thought I might be doomed to dry mouth disaster forever. I think I will now be brushing my teeth more frequently and not planning any more visits to the dentist any time soon!

One Way to Washington

For Jacob’s 1 year birthday I booked 2 one way tickets to Washington to arrive 2 days apart. Then we drove Jennifer’s car home to sell here in SLC. Jenn & Mike stayed the night at the Red Lion in Spokane 100 miles away while I stayed home with the boys. This gave them time together, to shop and to pick Allan up when he arrived.

I’ll admit I was worried about spending 24 hours alone with three boys under five, but all went well except getting Jacob back to sleep in the wee hours without waking the others. Jacob began walking during our visit and we enjoyed going for rides, making drapes for Jenn’s living room and putting one more coat of mud on the master bath. While they were gone I mustered up the energy to wash walls, do laundry, sweep the patio and play with the boys. Noah’s speech has improved, Kade is a lot more trusting and baby Jacob with his full head of hair is a very happy little guy.
In the three years they have lived there, this is our first to drive the 650 miles. Leaving at 10 am we arrived home after 11pm. Allan blamed me for driving the 65 mph thru Oregon and I’ll insist it was the six potty breaks he needed. Nevertheless, we did stop in Boise to see the Temple, eat and do a little site seeing.

What a Difference 5 Minutes Makes

In my daily commute to work, it takes 20 minutes tops from leaving the house to unlocking the front door at work. Sometimes if I get all green lights (only a few times in 3yrs) I make it in 13 minutes. With all red lights and freeway traffic jams forcing everyone to take 1300 west then I am late. I start to gripe at other drivers, red lights and I speed if it looks like I won't make it or if I leave late.

Yesterday with the 4 inches of snow and the traffic reporting accidents all over the valley, I left early. It was a smooth ride and I didn't even notice what color the lights were. As I turned onto 4700 South about 1/2 mile from work, the west half of the sky was an icy cold blue. The east half of the sky was full of rain clouds breaking up and the sun was trying to find a spot to shine through. For just five minutes or less the whole valley became a beautiful sepia tone. WOW! I loved it!
Then driving down my little street to Data Chem a person was walking in a bright blue coat. He sure stood out just like those cool pictures, but I was living in it. There were 99 accidents in the SL Valley due to the storm, but not me. What a difference being early makes, because I wouldn't have noticed the beautiful surroundings at all if I had been late and grumpy.

The Subject IS

Choose a Subject: I think if we each select a title for a subject to choose from then it will give us an idea to start with. Alicia can list them on the side. Such as:
Tell a Tidbit: something about you that we don’t know, or that happened worth telling.
Let’s Hear it For: Tell a good deed done or seen or someone you want to talk about.
Going Green: Things you do to help save the environment. Alicia told about using mesh bags & not getting plastic bags. What do the rest of us do?
Here’s What’s Happening: Tell us what is going on in your life
As a Kid I: This may be a true confession or fun to learn some unknown thing.
On Your Soapbox: You just want someone to listen to you.
I guess this would go under "Labels for this post". These are just suggestions. How about we all add a few.
Also, let’s all commit to at least two posts per week. Choose a day you know you will do it and help get this blog to show we are not a bunch of silent partners. Thanks