All Good Things Must Come to An End!

As some of you have heard and some who have not, I was laid off from my job on Monday. Although I was very sad about this, I have to look on the bright side. I had a wonderful 2 years working for the Meservy's and helping bring income into our home. I loved seeing Jill everyday and LOVED being with Julia! Those are the 2 things I will miss the most about my job. The money was nice also, but hopefully I can get that somewhere else, but Jill and Julia cannot be replaced! Thanks Jill and Rich for hiring me and giving me 2 good years of employment and for also being great bosses! Thanks Jill for being my friend and confidant! Thanks for all the laughter and tears we shed together and for being such a great friend. Thanks for sharing your daughter with me and for letting me be in her life! I truely love her as my own and will miss her everyday that I am not there. So don't be surprised if one day I just show up on your door step and ask if Julia can play!

As for what happens now! Well, I do get a small stipend from City Council and I filed for unemployment. So I am hoping between those 2 I can make atleast 50% of what I was making. For the other 50% I am going to be working with my friend Kim. Many of you know her, she owns her own silk screening business and has been my friend since I was 2 years old. I have brought her many customers over the years and she has now offered for me to work with her. So I think next week we will get together and make a game plan and go forward! So if any of you need shirts or know of anyone who needs shirts, just let me know! I am now your silk screening specialist.J/K! But seriously we are looking for new customers so let me know if you or anyone you know is interested in shirts or anything else that can be silk screened! The best thing about working with Kim will be my freedom. I will be able to come and go as I please as long as our work is done as promised to our customers.

A new chapter in my life and I am actually really excited. It is amazing how when one door closes another one opens! So I am going to be a stay at home mom, kind of! It has been very nice this week to be at home with the boys and do things with them. We went to the movies, went swimming, hung out with the Belew's and have cleaned the house! Next week I will be able to help at Andrew's band camp and get the boys ready for school to start.

Helping Hands

Because I am not busy enough, last November I was called to serve on our Stake Public Affairs Committee. Many of you may not know what that is so I will tell you. It is a group of people that is committed to promoting the church through non prosoliting activities. We do what is called bridge building. Having people know who we are through the community and that we are part of the church, but not preaching to them.

So one of the first assignments I got on the committee was Mormon Helping Hands. April 25 was helping hands day throughout California. All of the Stake in California were suppose to particiate in Helping Hands that day. So since I am on the City Council in Adelanto and have an easier time getting things aproved, I chose to have our activity their. The land around our grocery store is undeveloped and was very dirty. Lots of empty grocery bags, pizza boxes and tons of grocery store ads. So I decided we would clean up this area.Here is our group before going to the spot. We had approximately 40 helpers that day. Here is our area before we picked up the trash. Disgusting!! After we were done we had filled 95 trash bages and collected about 1400 pounds of trash. It was a hard day, cold and windy, but definently worth it. So thanks to all those who participated, you did a wonderful job!!!!

EaStEr!!

Easter this year was so nice! We went to church in the morning and then had the Belew's over for lunch/dinner and an easter eggg hunt. We had mexican food which was delicious and the kids had their egg hung. It was relaxing and fun all in one and appreciate the Belew's for sharing the day with us. Here are all the kids after their egg hunt! A lot of candy was found and consumed that night! Here is a picture of our family! I was telling Jenni that we don't have very many pictures of us as a family and how pathetic that was. So she was kind enough to take one of us. Of course after all was said and done she empathized with me and said she can see why we don't have many pictures because of how goofy and annoying my family can be trying to take their photo! Thanks for hanging in there Jenni!!

No Excuses!!

Ok, so no excuses! Just a slacker! So much has been going on since March when I last posted. So I will have several posts to follow. First and foremost we had the honor and priviledge of attending the Belew's endowment and sealing in San Diego over Easter vacation. Since the kids were out of school we went as a family. We arrived in San Diego Monday afternoon and came home Wednesday. So here is some of the things we did while in San Diego. So of course we forgot things at home and had to find a target. There was one just down the freeway from our hotel so we went. This is what I found when we got inside, it was two stories! I had never seen that before and thought it was way cool until I got upstairs, couldn't find what I needed, went back downstairs to only remember I needed something else upstairs! Augh, but it was fun anyways!
After shopping at Target we were ready for dinner so we drove around the mall to see what resturants they had there. And low and behold we find an On the Border. We were so excited! Ours closed down around the holidays and we were so sad. I ordered the exact same thing I always do and it was delicious! So sad ours is gone but happy I got to eat there again. While we were in San Diego the weather wasn't all that warm so we had to find other things to do than go to the beach. So we went to the children's museum in Balboa Park. The kids had a blast looking at everything and touching everything! This is Ryan and Brandon rubbing their hands on this chicken wire thing that made your hands feel very silky. It was kind of weird and cool all at the same time! This is a design Andrew made in the sand. This platform was spinning around and you could put the sand on it and then make designs. It was very cool and I now use this as my screen saver on my cell phone!

I don't have any pictures of the Belew's at the temple but it was awesome! I am so glad they invited us and am so proud of them! I am happy to know that they will now be an eternal family after 13 years of marriage! Thanks Belew's for the great excuse for a mini vacation and a awesome trip to the temple!!

Honor Band

Both Andrew and Ryan made it to the San Bernardino County Honor Band this year. Ryan was nominated by his band teacher Mr. D and Andrew had to audition and he made it. So after 3 long rehearsals, the performance was Saturday night. Both bands were amazing! I cannot believe how quickly these kids can pick up this music.

This is Ryan with his director Mr. Doug Kruse. He works at Barstow High School and has had a life long career in music education. He did such an excellent job with the kids and commented on how wonderful they were to work with!

Here is Andrew with his director Dr. John Lee Whitener. He is the Director of the innovative Master of Arts in Teaching Music program at USC. He trains all public school pre-service music teachers. He is very distinguished in his music career and just praised the Junior High band for their excellence in music.

This is the boys band director Mr. Dingeldein, Mr. D! What an awesome man he is. Andrew and Ryan absolutely love him! They have learned so much in such a short amount of time! What a privilege it is to say that he is my kids band teacher. Riverside Prep hit the jackpot with Mr. D! Such an enjoyable evening we had listening to our kids play in these Honor Bands! They worked so hard and we are so proud of them. Ryan went to school an hour early every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 3 weeks to prepare for honor band. What an awesome job he did!

"The past is our heritage, the present is our responsibility and the future is our challenge."

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a NAACP breakfast. I did not know what to expect so I went with an open mind. After listening to a gentlemen sing the National Anthem and another song I could have left. He was absolutely amazing! I could have listened to him all day. But the guest speaker was a lady, Dr. Mildred Dalton Hampton-Henry who gave an absolutely eloquent talk. She spoke of her life as a child growing up in the south. And how when her parents wanted to move "into town" so that their children could go to a better school, the Realtor told them they just wouldn't be happy living there if she could even find them a home. Her parents did move them "into town" and they did receive a proper education. She explained that during that time in the south, the black children were perceived as stupid, because they did not know as much as the white kids. The black kids were not stupid, they just got four months less of schooling each year than the white kids because they would have to take 2 months off in the spring to plant cotton and 2 months off in the fall to pick the cotton. So by moving "into town", they did not have to take these months off of school. She told us how her mother went to back to school to become a school teacher. And that all of her siblings had graduated from college and 3 of the 4 of them had received Ph D's. From the four siblings they had something like 24 children. Now all 24 children have finished or are attending college. How many of us can say that about our family's? My brother is the only one in my immediate family that has finished college. What an inspiration her mother must have been to her and her siblings. What an inspiration Dr. Mildred Dalton Hampton-Henry is to me. But what struck me the most as she spoke was this. She said that "the past is our heritage, the present is our responsibility and the future is our challenge." Just think of that for a moment. It truly moved me! What she said had an impact on my life and how I perceive life. When someone asks me why I ran for City Council, this is what I would like to tell them. Because the present is our responsibility and do we want to leave our future in the hands of politicians who do not have our best interest at heart or do not think it is "their responsibility?" It is our responsibility and it is my turn to take responsibility and act on it! I know I cannot change the world, I don't even know if I can change Adelanto. But I definitely want to give it a shot. I cannot sit behind and whine and complain about things and do nothing to try and change it. So I pray that I may learn from my heritage, live up to my responsibility and face future challenges head on!

NASCAR!

So last Saturday we had the opportunity to go to NASCAR! We were up in a skybox from Burrtec Disposal. They had all the food and beverages you could possibly consume. My kids thought that was great! Food on demand! We are not really into NASCAR, but since the tickets were free, we went. We had a great time and look forward to hopefully going back soon. My kids are happy that one of the perks from being on City Council they got to participate in! Thanks BURRTEC for such a great afternoon!

Ryan's band concert

Tuesday night was finally Ryan's band concert. Because of the snow in December, it had to be rescheduled. He did such a great job!

We told him if he sticks with the trumpet, we will buy him a new one sometime next year. So I think he just might stick it out. He really is pretty good for not practicing much except at school! Thanks RP for sticking with the band program! So many districts have already or are in the process of doing away with their fine arts program. We are so lucky to be at the school we are at and that their emphasis is academics and music!

Angels Baseball Clinic

So a couple of weeks ago Suzanne Carter invited my boys to a free clinic down at Quakes stadium. I guess the Angels were hosting it for kids ages 6-13 for FREE! So I asked my boys who was going to play ball this year and Ryan said he was and that he wanted to go. It didn't hurt that Dustin was going also.

Ryan listening to the pitching coach. This guy pitched a no hitter in 1970 and his only strike out was Reggie Jackson. Amazing! What a treat for Ryan to receive instruction from him.

Getting ready to throw his pitch.

Always proud to display his name on the back of his jersey! He was excited to get to wear his All-Star uniform from last season. He was just one of a handful of kids that had on an All-Star uniform!

Can you believe the intensity in his face! Amazing that he is only 10!




Just a couple of pics of Dustin. Look at that same intensity on his face! Guess it's just what you do when your 10!!!!!!

Had to put one in of Trenton. He did so good for only being 6!

Thanks Suzanne for the invite and for a great day! We had a blast! Maybe me more than the boys because we went shopping during the clinic! Thanks again!

Honor Roll

So for like the millionth time Andrew made the honor roll. But no matter how many times he makes it, we are always very proud of him! I guess the way RP does honor roll has changed this year for the elementary kids. So neither Ryan or Brandon made it, but both had excellent report cards! Andrew has been on the honor roll every semester of junior high so far. Only one semester to go and I think he'll make it. ha ha ha! He actually would have had straight A's if he had spoken a little more spanish and a little less english in his spanish class. His spanish teacher says that he has a gift for languages. Who knew. He has never spoken spanish at home, but I guess these 2 years of it have really benefited him. Maybe he'll serve a spanish speaking mission! We are so proud of all of our kids! Keep up the good work.

Better late than never

Our Christmas this year was great. On Christmas Eve we had the Belew's, the Elder's and Bobby Nevel over. We enjoyed a delicious Prime Rib dinner together and then we asked the Elder's to read us the story of the birth of our Savior out of Luke.

All the kids sat so quietly and listened to the Elders talk.

After the scripture story we gave the Elders a small Christmas gift of socks, a tie and some candy. (Sorry no picture)

On Christmas day we went to my mom and dad's and opened presents and had dinner.

My brother and his wife bought the boys a rip stick. They were so excited and couldn't wait to get home and try it. They have all spent many hours learning to ride the rip stick and surprisingly enough, I do not think anyone has gotten injured to date. Thank heavens! That was my biggest concern about this gift, but the boys have truly enjoyed it! Thanks Uncle Ben and Aunt Joanna!

Brandon's Birthday

When our kids turn 8, their birthday party is their baptism party. So everyone spoiled Brandon for his birthday this year!


My brother bought him this nerf dart game for the Wii. Brandon could not wait to get home and play it.


Brandon was so excited to finally have his OWN set of scriptures. He wanted his full name on them. He was very lucky, one more letter in his name and it would not have fit! He now proudly every Sunday grabs his scriptures as we head off for church.

Brandon's Baptism

On January 3rd, my baby was baptized. Can you believe it, he is already 8! My last child to ever be baptized. Now we will prepare for Ryan and Brandon to get the Aaronic Priesthood. Where did the time go.

Brandon was lucky enough to share his baptism day with his friend Kassidy! How lucky was he! It was such a lovely evening to have just our Ward at the stake baptism. So many of our ward family came to support Brandon and Kassidy and we are so greatful for that. My family only consisted of about 12 people, including us, so it was nice to have both the Gleasons family, which was about 25-30 people and then our ward family! Thanks for always being so supportive of the members of our ward!

After the baptism we had a dinner and dance. All of our friends and family came and ate, danced and enjoyed one anothers company. The food was delicious, thanks to all those who brought something, and the dancing was great fun!

The pictures of us dancing didn't come out very good, but I couldn't resist posting at least one!

Thanks Joel for such a wonderful evening! It would not have been the same without you and your awesome DJ skills. Everyone was commenting about how you knew exactly the right song to play at the right time! Thanks again!

Brandon we are so proud of you for making the decision to be baptized! You have grown into such a little man. Thanks to all of the primary for helping getting him ready to be baptized.