Garage cleanup & new driveway

In preparation to sell our house someday, we had the garage and driveway concrete totally taken out and redone as there were significant cracks throughout. It has been quite a job to pull everything out and store it under our deck porch, or in the house, but it looks great.

The Vance's and the Caudle's came one weekend to pull out all the heavy things out of the garage and then put them under our deck. The next weekend after the concrete was poured and dry, they came Labor Day Weekend to help haul it all back. We couldn't have down it without their help! It was a Tongan family that did the concrete work. We were happy to help out this good LDS family.

Family Updates

Fall has begun and I love to see the symphony of colors in this beautiful world as it changes to a new season. A few updates from our family. The big news this week, we are so happy that Dallin & Janelle found the ideal home for their family. After living in a studio apt with their family of 6 for six weeks, they were so excited when the house finally closed and were able to move in this week. They have sacrificed over the years living in very tiny apartments, but now they have more room and a lovely place of their own. Julia applied for a teaching position with VIP KID, and was accepted. She will be teaching English to Chinese children over Skype. Because of the time change, she’ll have to do many early morning hours, teaching children ages 4-12 years of age. This will be a great opportunity for her. She just finished her first week teaching 8 students. Emily was promoted to a HR position in the corporate office for Stonehenge Skilled Nursing Facility. She was offered the job as they said of all the different care centers she was the most accurate of the HR’s. She is working in an office with mostly men, twice plus her age, but this is a new challenge that she is enjoying. Bronson continues working for Intermountain Health Care where he interned this summer as software architect. He is able to work most days from home as he finishes his last year of his Masters program at BYU. Vivi has started working at the Elementary School where their children attend. She works as the cashier in the cafeteria and she’s having lots of fun associating with the teachers and students there. Ondalynn continues to serve well as the YW’s Pres. in her ward. She now has two daughters in YW’s, too, which she loves and she is well loved by all the girls. Seth & Tiffany’s family are loving living in Eugene and they are making great improvements on their 100-year-old home. Gary Johns is taking an online class through BYU, that his company is paying for, which will broaden his abilities in his field of mechanical engineering. Bryan has been interviewing for a fellowship to follow after he finishes his Residency. Meredith keeps everything running at home, along with being in the last 4 weeks of her pregnancy. Crismon Jr. is in to his last year of his Master’s Program in Chinese Literature. Danielle is taking an advanced course in Suzuki training in Denver. She held a violin camp this summer with all of her 25 students. It was 46 hours of teaching in six days capped by a final recital at the end.

Fall Highlights

In September we celebrated Julia's 12th birthday Kaeley's 6th birthday and Brett's birthday.

Two weeks after returning from October Conf. it was our Stake Conf. Crismon was extremely busy preparing for the conference, along with his 3 talks. We didn’t have a visiting authority this time. Our prayers were answered, and there was a rich outpouring of the spirit in our meetings that weekend. The next day was a beautiful fall day and Crismon and I took a break and drove to a new park that has opened in Gresham. We ate our lunch there and enjoyed a lazy day of driving around seeing the beautiful fall colors. A much needed break after Stake Conference.

The following Friday, Uncle Norman flew to Portland to stay with us until Tues. afternoon. He was a joy to have. We enjoyed the many interesting stories he had to share. We spent time on Family Search, attending a temple session, driving to see some of the sights in downtown Portland, and the Gorge, enjoying the BYU Ballroom Dancers perform, and taking walks on the trail, etc. Many of his mannerisms reminded me of Grandma Lewis, so it was fun to be reminded of her.

Other events this month included attending Sydney's orchestra concert, Primary Programs, the Lion King production in Eugene where Addison had a lead part as Talome, and Preston participated in the other parts. They both did so well, and it was great fun to see it. We arrived early enough in the afternoon to drive directly to the University to hear Seth in a presentation about "Fake News." He is on the know of this new media news and he was very professional in his presentation. Emily & Bronson hosted the Lewis’ in the BYU area for a gathering that Myreel & Larry planned on the 29th with dinner and visiting. Crismon participated in community service projects and many of the ward's service projects in the stake. I have been very busy trying to organize our family letters. Crismon loves the apples in the fall, and we worked together making lots of applesauce in our Instant Pot. We enjoy staying busy with our temple service, and other responsibilities. Life is grand! The Gospel’s true!

 

Summer Highlights

This month we had the amazing experience of witnessing the Total Solar Eclipse. We were fortunate to live so close to the path of totality. Warnings for weeks were out about the biggest traffic congestion ever in this area. The morning of the eclipse, the roads didn’t look too bad, so we ventured out, heading to Silverton by some back roads through Estacada. We passed many people along the way, preparing to see the eclipse in many parking lots and open fields. Gratefully, we were able to find a good spot to pull over and watch the incredible heavenly phenomenon, as the moon took bites out of the sun until it was completely covered. It was amazing to feel the temperature drop and have everything go dark, a metallic kind of dark, but not completely dark. Cheers from people off in the distance could be heard. For nearly two minutes we could feel this eerie kind of stillness and calm, and see a bright ring around the darken sun. An absolutely amazing event in our lives. It seemed so unreal to have it start getting light so quickly, the traffic and noise began again, and then to face the traffic going home, but it was definitely worth it! What I loved the most was that our country was unified that day in the wonder of this glorious world and we were all focused on the heavens together.

Other events of the month included hosting Seth & Tiffany’s family, and some of Tiffany’s family as they gathered for their Gee Family reunion for several days. We love this good Gee family. We were happy they could borrow one of our cars for several weeks. We enjoyed picking Corwin and Lynette up at the airport and going to dinner for our last time to visit with them before they left on their mission. Hunter & Courtney stayed with us one evening on their way to Eugene. We’ve had several sleep-overs with grandchildren and spending some fun time with our Caudle family. We took them one afternoon to a water park and had so much fun with them. Crismon also helped out in mnay service projects in the area. Life is great!

Crismon picked blueberries with Ondalynn's children. I was so happy to get my freezer full again with yummy blueberries for my smoothie all year long. Crismon has also done a lot of community service.

Jackson (15), stayed with us for a couple of weeks as he had an internship with Brett Caudle’s Tech Academy. Jackson has studied coding on his own. It was quite amazing to hear how well he did. They nicknamed him “The Dr.” as he was able to solve problems with their website that others couldn’t. It was a very successful experience for him. All our family is doing well, busy doing good things for which we are so grateful.