Seminary Graduation

This week is full of milestones for the Brown kids. Tonight Kate graduated from Seminary. Graduation from Seminary is a significant achievement marking the culmination of four years of gospel study.

Sister Margaret Nadauld and President Stephen Nadauld were the keynote speakers. We have been blessed to have them in our ward for many years. Steve was especially close to the Nadaulds. He was their bishop, and was able to work closely with their younger boys developing strong relationships with them.

As always, they were fabulous speakers!

Memorial Day Suprise

Quinn and Meagan asked if we could visit Steve's grave after 12:00 p.m., because they were working on a surprise. No one could guess what they were up to. This is what they brought to the cemetery.


Quinn cut the U out of wood, and painted it. It was a pleasant surprise. I am sure Steve was smiling.

Our family keeps growing, and I am loving it! I have two fabulous son-in-laws, and six amazing children!

Recipe For Happy Kids

HOMEMADE OREO COOKIES

Cookie:
2 packages Devil's Food cake mix
1 1/4 cup margarine, softened
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients well. Drop by the spoonful on an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow to cool 1-2 minutes on cookie sheet prior to transferring to a cooling rack.

Filling:
3 1/2 - 5 cups powdered sugar (start with 3 1/2 and work up to get desired consistency)
8 oz. package cream cheese, softened at room temp
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup margarine, softened
Beat all ingredients together until smooth. Assemble!

Sunday dinners are enjoyed by all my children and their spouses. These cookies have been the requestd favorite dessert for the past two weeks (thanks for the recipe Suzie). I'll cook anything to make my children happy.

It is true that when your child gets married you don't loose a child, you gain one. My son-in-laws are so much fun to be around. I am blessed.

Scholarship Program 2011

Kate and Friends
Today was Bountiful High School's Scholarship Awards Program for 2011. I was so impressed with the number of outstanding students at Bountiful High. Many scholarships were given out to many students during the program. Congrats to all!

Kate received her scholarship to UVU that we were expecting. She also received a Leadership Scholarship to the University of Utah; and a high achievement and special accomplishment scholarship to Weber State; both of which we unaware of. Way to go Kate!

Whining

Memorial Day must be right around the corner. I always have some wacky emotions going on. Today, it is whining….. Yes the thing you tell your kids never to do, but I seem to do occasionally.

Last week I tackled the grueling job of defrosting the freezer in the garage. I put it off for as long as I could, but when the door wouldn’t shut due to all the frost I acquiesced.It only took two days, yep that’s right, two days to defrost. Even using the “defrosting machine” (borrowed from a friend), it took that long. The first day I was unhappily defrosting the freezer; Kate walked by and said, “Oh, dad used to hate that job.” I think I gave her a crusty look. This is just one example of my new job assignments that I don’t love.

Single parenting is another not-so-fun job. This week I also got to use many parenting skills. I was so frustrated with one child, I finally without thinking said, “Well, I’m just going to call your dad.” To which the child responded, “Hope that works out for you.”

Steve and I were a good team. We had each other’s back, and were able to split up at times to conquer all, or work together on other tasks. My appreciation of him seems to grow each day.

End of whining…..hopefully not to be continued!

The Planet Living Aquarium

The second graders' at Valley View took their last field trip to the Living Aquarium. I was one of the lucky moms to be picked to chaperon. It was a little sad thinking this is my last second grade field trip ever.

I had a great group of boys: Ben, Alex, David, Henry, and Shad. They were very well behaved, and easy to please.

There are three main exhibits at the aquarium: Discover Utah, Ocean Explorer, and Journey to South America. There was lots to see and do as we made our way through The Living Planet Aquarium. We were able to learn about some of the fascinating animals; feisty fish; and fascinating sea life in different parts of the world.

Our favorite exhibits were definitely the penguins, and the sting rays. The penguins put on quite a show for us as they pushed each other into the water and glided through the water. We were allowed to pet the sting rays. The boys' spent a lot of time slashing in the water with the rays. Most of the boys were completely soaked when we left.

Good times, and good memories of the second grade!

Water for Abrenya

Kate’s high school graduation dream is coming true. On June 22nd, she we will travel to Ghana, Africa, with the World Joy Foundation, to provide service to the African people. It will be a lot of hard work, but she is prepared. They will be painting schools that the foundation has built, assisting with a water well, and participating in many other service opportunities within the village. She couldn’t be more excited!

Gary Farnes, Executive Director of World Joy, made the hike on foot to the Village of Abrenya in October, 2010. He calls Abrenya the “Lost Village”. They are isolated and cut off from the rest of the villages, because there was no road into the village. Since October a dirt road has been built. Unfortunately, they still have no clean drinking water and disease runs rampant. Linda Hansen, Office Manager, for World Joy is championing a water well project for the Village of Abrenya. For $10,000, equipment and supplies can be brought to the village to drill a bore hole for fresh drinking water. As a result of Linda’s hard work, and with the help of generous donations around the community, Linda has raised $6000. Katelyn has been asked to help raise the remaining $4000.

Donations can be received one of these three ways:
1. A check donation sent to World Joy at 420 West 1500 South Suite 101, Bountiful, Utah,84010.
2. A credit card donation by calling Linda Hansen at 801-294-5581
3. Or at donate through Eventbrite @ http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1347393089/.

Spread the Word! Any donations are greatly appreciated! 100% of all donations made will go directly into helping improve the lives of these wonderful people of Ghana.

You can find out more at their website: http://www.worldjoyinc.org/.

The End Of The World

The daunting hour on May 21, has come and gone. The doomsday watch is over and we survived to tell about it.

The end of the world predictions by Harold Camping are all in vain. Along with his predictions were quotes such as this, “There's going to be big earthquakes that will make the one in Japan seem like a Sunday school picnic.”

I have purposefully not mentioned the doomsday reports to my children. Not only out of disbelief of such reports, but also no need to get the adrenalin pumping for no reason. I hadn’t given the prediction much thought, just a quick laugh here and there throughout the day.

I was at the temple during the hour of doom. I left Kate in charge. She LOVES to be in charge, and is pretty good at it. However, I had no idea what leaving her in charge during “doomsday” actually meant. My neighborhood spies happily recounted the doomsday happenings at my house.

Kate gathered Ben, Lizzy, and Bella (the dog), and herded them into the cul-de-sac located directly across the street from our house. She had secured our 72 hour emergency backpacks and sat in the cul-de-sac with the kids, the dog, and the backpack until the hour of doom had passed. I guess she believed Harold Camping’s prediction of the big earthquake prior to the end of the world. Kate had them all prepared for the “BIG quake”. They were safe, just in case, phew!

It has been stated that the biblical rapture happened today where God pulls the faithful into heaven. I hope that isn’t true. The hour of doom has come and gone, and we are still here. Maybe I’ll start a head count around the neighborhood. If I show up to church tomorrow, and a few of the "real faithful" are missing, I'm going to have to wonder.

Spoofed

The NBA Playoffs have dominated our weekly television watching. We are sad our Utah Jazz team didn’t make the playoffs, but that hasn’t put a damper on watching the playoffs.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Dallas Mavericks’ sweep the defending champions, the Los Angeles Lakers. I won’t get into my opinions about the Lakers, but it is nice to see them humbled a bit.

Derrick Rose, this season’s MVP, has been one of our favorite players to watch. Wow, what talent! Derrick Rose has done everything during the Bulls’ playoff run, just as he has all season.

Back in my day, Michael Jordan was the man for the Bulls’. He was my all time favorite player. We even named our first born after him. There has been great debate around our house whether Michael Jordan or Derrick Rose is the ultimate basketball player. Don’t give your opinion, cause I don’t want to hear it. I still love Michael Jordan, even if he is old, out-dated, and not playing anymore. He still remains a legend to me.

Ben has been obsessed with Derrick Rose. His second grade autobiography is on Derrick Rose. We wrote his autobiography without any help. Several weeks ago he approached me and said, “Mom, do you think I can get a Derrick Rose jersey for my birthday?” “Of course,” I replied. His birthday is in August, he has a few months to wait. This week he had a different approach. “Mom, I need a Derrick Rose jersey to wear as one of my props while giving my report at school.” I think I’ve been spoofed!

Luxurious Vacations

The 6th grade students are wrapping up their reports for the World’s Fair. Lizzy elected to report on Switzerland. Her reason for choosing Switzerland was because her mom has been their twice (nice reason, I know). As I was rummaging through old photos of past couples vacations I got a little weepy.

With Steve’s job, we were able to indulge in extravagant vacations as guests of TV stations, or radio stations. For about 18 years, we have enjoyed traveling the world. As I was looking through old photos, I was reminded of all these fabulous vacations. These are the ones I can remember:New Zealand, Hawaii (several times), Caribbean (several times), Australia, Fiji, Hong Kong, China, Turkey, Greek Cruise, Athens Greece, Costa Rica, Scotland, England, Paris, France, Switzerland, Geneva, Lake Como Italy, Portugal, Medeira, New York, Tahiti, Moorea, and Mexico.

Today as I listened to the students present their reports, I smiled when they talked about riding the donkey up the large hillside on the small Greek island of Santorini ; good memories. I kept thinking how blessed I was to be able to visit so many different places.

After the reports the teacher asked me why I had been so many places. It made me sad to explain what used to be. Not only do I miss these vacations, but more than the lavish vacations I miss the one I shared them with.

The Burglar

Saturday night I was home alone with Ben and Lizzy. It was getting kind of late, about 11ish, when we heard the landline telephone upstairs paging my room. We also heard quite a bit of ruckus coming from the same part of the house. We knew we were home alone, so of course our first thought was, BURGLAR in the house.

Ben and Lizzy immediately began to panic as the thought of someone in our house came to mind. I must say, I had the same thoughts, but being the great protector I am, I had to be brave. I told them not to worry as I gingerly, but confidently, made my way up the stairs.

As I approached my room, I found all the lights blaring. I quickly opened the door and found the perpetrator……my little furry friend….BELLA! The dog had rummage through the garbage, the hamper, jumped on my bed to drink out of the cup on my nightstand, only to hit the telephone buttons, and begin the frightful paging.

If you see a cute little dog in the KSL classified tomorrow, with the name Bella, well, I might know something about that.

Some Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

Ben was selected to try out for the Mueller Park Baseball Accelerated Team. They choose two baseball players from each rec team to try out for the accelerated team. Ben was fortunate to be picked for the team. They play double headers each Saturday against other accelerated teams throughout the valley. The rules are a little different than rec. Our team is adjusting to: stealing bases, and playing kid pitch. In rec we are still playing machine pitch.

Ben happens to be one of the pitchers. He is doing great, and is as cute as can be. I did get a lecture from him last Saturday about what I can and cannot do when he pitches. I was told: (1) no comments when he pitches balls; (2) I can cheer when he throws strikes; (3) I have to sit in my seat (not behind the catcher). You know what I have to say…..rules made by KIDS, are made to be broken.

Today I tried to sit in my seat, but I couldn't do it. It was noticeable by not only me, but other parents, that when I sat behind home plate cheering him on when he pitched, he pitched better. So much for those "rules".

Last night at Ben's rec game he hit a grand slam. He couldn't have been more happy. For those of you that know how emotionally difficult it was for him to even play last year, the progress has been amazing.

Baseball seems to be dominating our lives right now, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Between all the high school games, Ben’s rec games and accelerated games, we are busy, busy. It’s a fun busy!

Mom, I Love You More.....

This is the title of the book Ben wrote and illustrated for me for Mother's Day. Second graders, say the cutest things. I was very impressed with his illustrations skills. My portrait is mighty fine. I was touched that he loves me more than getting a Derek Jeter jersey. I know how much he loves jerseys; especially ones ofhis favorite baseball, basketball, or football player.

The kids spoiled me with a fabulous home cooked meal, and wonderful gifts. Steve chipped in a little for these great cushions for my patio furniture.

Better Late Than Never

Mike finally got his driver’s license a couple weeks ago. He is officially and (more importantly) legally driving. Hurray! No more driving him to and from sports practices, games, and friend’s houses. My life has become so much easier. He is anxious to get behind the wheel at every chance, which is great. He happily runs errands for me, which I love. Hopefully, the freshness will not wear off too soon.

Great Quote

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone." Audrey Hepburn

Happy Birthday Meagan!

Meagan turned 23 on April 29th. We are so glad to have her living close again! We sure missed her and Quinn while they were gone.
Quinn made Meagan ride the saddle at Texas roadhouse. I'm not sure how well she liked that. Overall, I think she had a great birthday, much thanks to her great husband Quinn. We were happy she let us celebrate this special day with her. Sure love her!