Eyrealm

From Bourbon Street to Main Street

2012-02-05T21:58:00.001-08:00

What a city! We’ve been to New Orleans about four times in the last six and a half years including just a few weeks after Katrina devastated the area. Remembering the unimaginable damage that we saw then, it was pure joy to see the indomitable spirit of the New Orleanians when we returned last week. With the excitement of little children, they are preparing for their biggest event of the year on February 21st….Mardi Gras.

What we never would have guessed about this wild and wacky celebration is that the residents of New Orleans have traditionally been faithful Catholics ….which is why Mardi Gras always comes the week before lent when supposedly everyone is expected to give up the wild life and go without things that they want for the next several weeks until Easter. They feel the need to celebrate as much as possible while they can! We could feel the excitement in the air!

Every time we’ve been there it’s been just a day in, a speech at night and back out the next morning. But this time we had a whole day to do our own kind of reveling in this really fun city! We visited the amazing Cafe du Monde started in 1862 which is open 24/7, 365 days a year. It’s mostly a huge tent which seats about 200 is always crammed with people even though it only offers french doughnuts called beignets buried in a mountain of powdered sugar as well as coffee or hot chocolate.

Across the street was Jackson Square where General Andrew Jackson is immortalized in a beautiful bronze statue with a beautiful cathedral for a backdrop.

The French also sent a sent a beautiful statue of Joan of Arc:

Nearby is the place where the Louisiana Purchase was signed in 1803. It was bought for $15 million dollars which is 3 cents an acre and about the same price as nice house in The Colony at Park City. The US could only come up with $3 million, borrowed $12 million from England and then because of the war of 1812, never paid it back.

Royal Street was amazing. Street musicians and entertainers abounded. The shops were delightful with everything imaginable.

I even saw a funeral procession accompanied by six police cars. About a hundred people were marching behind a woman with a black umbrella followed by a mournful band, just like in the movies. Pretty much everyone in the group looked like drug addicts. There were tatoos and dreadlocks and lots of black and sad faces. I didn’t dare take pictures but there were so many police cars that before I saw the procession, I thought the president must be in one of the shops on the street!

We took a mule ride through the French Quarter and on to an old cemetery where a voodoo queen was supposed to be buried when she’s not out haunting the streets.

We even saw the future tomb of Nicholas Cage. For some reason he is emotionally attached to this cemetery just outside the French Quarter and has arranged for a pretty strange resting place:

Te each his own!

We spoke to a group of terrific Entrepreneurs on Thursday evening and again with a smaller group the next morning on marriage relationships. They were so bright and fun to be with!

We had the privilege of staying at the stellar Ritz Carlton. How lucky are we?

The food was simply TDF (to die for).

Seafood Gumbo, beef sliders and a delicious Po Boy Sandwich kept us rolling our eyes and smacking our lips!

We had SO much fun!

After a hairy flight which connected through the monster snow storm in Denver (600 flights had been cancelled there that day) we arrived home safely though many hours late. The next day we were headed for Castle Dale, a mining community about three hours away from SLC. for another speech. There couldn’t be a more stark contrast in audiences. From successful fabulously wealthy entrepreneurs in New Orleans to a wonderful salt-of-the-earth audience full of terrific people who were also concerned about their relationships sponsored by the USU extension agents in Emery County was about about as different as any two places could be. Our dinner at Taco time was less than scrumptious and our cute Bed and Breakfast on Main Street wasn’t quite the Ritz but it was delightful! Our ride home this morning through Utah’s San Raphel Swell was spectacular!

How lucky are we?

Back to the Caribe Hilton

2012-01-30T22:15:00.001-08:00

About thirty eight years ago (gasp) Dad/Richard and I took our first real weekend vacation. We had been married for four years and even though we were having fun it was also a keep-your-nose-to-the grindstone grueling life in the trenches. With the abundance of having two pre-schoolers and Dad being gone sometimes four days a week which was hard on both of us, we were pretty strung out.

Straight out of the Harvard Business School Richard accepted a job and helped to found a premier political consulting firm in Washington D.C. called Bailey, Deardourff and Eyre. While he was off with the candidates running for Senate, Congress and Governorships, I was into the life of exploding diapers, permanent black magic marker all over the walls and kids who wouldn’t stay in bed at night.

All that said to set the stage for the euphoria I felt when we were 30,000 miles above the earth flying to Puerto Rico without the kids. Richard was running a re-election campaign for Carlos Romero Barcelo who was the major of San Juan (he won and later ran for Governor with Richard’s firm and won again).

Checking into the Caribe Hilton was a like walking into heaven. There were lots of firsts: A divine vine-ripened pineapple in our room, a virgin pina colada and authentic Caribbean black bean soup, complete with the traditional toppings which included sour cream, fresh onions, rice and hard boiled eggs.

It was a dreamy weekend which included two whole nights of uninterrupted sleep, white sand beaches and brilliant aqua water washing up on the shore. It was like finding an oasis after months of walking across the Gobi Desert without food or water.

In addition I got to meet some of the people Richard had been working with at a town meeting that night which was scheduled for 7:00. Nobody showed up until 8:30 which apparently was the norm. No apologies. A lovely party at the Barcelo home the next night opened my eyes to a new world, even though I could hardly understand a word that was said.

I smile when I think about that weekend. Was it really that good? Or was I just desperate. Whatever it was, it always brings back great memories. SO there we were in Puerto Rico where we picked up the cruise and we just couldn’t resist. We checked in for a day and night at the good ol’ Caribe Hilton. The main building looked just about exactly as it did all those years ago. But urban sprawl had set in and there were enormous extensions out every direction.

Luckily the beach and the water don’t age. It is exactly as we remembered it!

We immediately found the maitre di and at the restaurant and told him about our memories of black bean soup. At first he said they didn’t have black bean soup on the menu for the day but when Dad/Rick pleaded our case, he called the kitchen and persuaded the chef to make some soup just for us. In an hour and a half the delectable soup was sitting before us, almost exactly as we remembered it….sans the egg. Mmmmm. Yum!

The fabulous pina collates were to die for! The real deal!

Even though we had to giggle at ourselves about the innocence of our youth (we’ve seen a lot of great hotels since then) it was kind of like finding the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow after all those years. Great memories!

P.S. With almost no Internet service on the ship, these posts pile up. Being without a computer for a week is a great learning experience!

Crusin’

2012-01-30T06:42:00.001-08:00

We were invited about six months ago to join a group of terrific people who wanted us to provide some new ideas for their parenting whilst cruising through the French West Indies and the British West Indies in the Caribbean. We figured we could probably manage that! I must admit that we gave it a couple of second thoughts after the horrible cruise ship accident last week in Italy. We wanted to meet the Captain before we left!

We weren’t the only speakers who showed up aboard the Silver Cloud. We were fascinated by what world-renowned economist Dr. George Friedman had to say and were delighted to meet former President Vicente Fox who told us about what is really happening in Mexico. In addition we were joined by Alex Castellanos, a Cuban immigrant who regularly appears on CNN as a political consultant.

In addition we heard speeches from Major Dan Rooney who has flown incredible missions over Iraq as an F16 pilot. He admitted that he hated war and he and his wife have now started a foundation for the families of those who served in the war and lost life and limb! A devout Christian, his stories were amazing as well as inspiring!

Michael Tchong, a social media expert caught us up with the latest trends and assured us that 69% of 2-5 year olds know how to navigate sophisticated computer games/iPads and iPhones but only 11% know how to tie their shoelaces (which begs the fact that most kids’ shoes have velcro). Dr. Miles Varn from Harvard taught us about “Why We Get Fat” and Jeauqeau Cousteau’s grandson was there to tell attendees about the importance of saving the seas.

We did two one-hour sessions and had so much fun with our audiences. A couple of mornings Dad/Rick and I were assigned to a breakfast table in the dining room for private discussions with about six people at our table. I was amused with this sign to designate our table. I love it when people call me Jane Eyre but I’ve rarely seen it in print!

The Islands were gorgeous and we had a chance to spend some time on the beach with our new friends.

This little landing strip in St. Barts for prop lanes bringing in tourists, food and supplies was amazing. That was the total length of it! Yikes!

At Prickly Pear we took a ride on a gorgeous big sailing yacht.

There was beauty all around!

On Anguilla Dad got to go horse-back riding on the beach. His cute little nag was not exactly Lady or Duffy! But he saw some great views as they ambled along the beach. See him up there with the white hat?

Our accommodations were “very nice” even though it felt twice as big as it was because of the full-length mirrors. The food was “to die for!”

Pretty Heavenly!

What a Difference a Month Makes!

2012-01-29T20:50:00.001-08:00

Think of our delight as we had a chance to travel through NYC on our way to Puerto Rico to see our adorable new grand daughter after one month of life and lots of creamy milk from her mom who is a champion nurser. We only had about 36 hours there so we made the most of it. What an angel! When you talk to her directly she acts as though she knows exactly what you are saying. Just can’t answer back quite yet. What a delightful child!

She has learned to smile!

Loves to put her mouth in the shape of an O….

And is even occasionally giving her parents up to 5 hours of sleep at night.

Tal may be just a titch sleep deprived but is such an adorable Daddy!

Her first outing to church was pretty cold and a bit disorienting but she survived all the attention like a champ. Could there be a cuter little dumpling?

The sad part is that we may not see her again until July. If she continues at the rate she is growing by then she’ll be about she’ll weigh about 26 pounds and about three feet tall. She is growing like a weed!

Since we got to see handsome Bennett a month after he was born too, this just keeps everything fair! Are we lucky or what?

Moving Out after 36 Years

2012-01-20T10:54:00.001-08:00

We’ve been wadding through a houseful of memories!

Although we’ve turned our family home of 35 years over to a renter the past 18 months, we have kept the office there and have picked up our mail there. Our renter moved out on January 1st and we’ve been moving out too to get it ready to sell or re-rent. Since our renter was a single guy who wanted room for his bikes (go figure?), he allowed us to leave things in the closets of specified bedrooms. Now it was time to clear all that out! I can’t believe how much stuff we have collected over the years. Besides all our beloved books and files (not so beloved) to sort through there was an endless supply of left-over high school mementoes, college memories, humanitarian trip paraphernalia, several wedding dresses including mine and left-over wedding gifts that kids couldn’t take as they moved across the country or across the world, not to mention our vast international instrument collection.

The “chucking” was time consuming and sometimes painful, but it felt so good once it was “out of sight”. The garage and balcony are stuffed with things that will be going to the DI and tags are posted on other stuff to be going to our place at Bear Lake.

Luckily Eli was home for a few days to see the process and go through some his “stuff”.

Amongst the “junk” of course we found multiple treasures that had long been forgotten. Below is a poster that Eli’s Sunday School teacher made for the class when he was about 4. I vividly remember that little red plaid coat and cute Taylor in the middle. Neither of us could remember this cute boy on the right. (Eli these pics are taken with my new point and shoot….much better. Thanks for the help!)

Look at those non-existent front teeth, knocked out in an toy truck accident! Awwwh! Is he cute enough?

The remaining pictures will only be of interest to our children but I am posting them here for a bit of family history! AND to prepare Charity who hyperventilating about letting this home of her heart go!

FYI, desk marked for DI, log bed made by Jonah marked for Kolob!

You gotta love the Cloud Room!

Crazy plant!

Thousands of batches of cookies, pizza parties and truckloads of macaroni and cheese have been consumed in this kitchen!

And this one is the real tear jerker for all of Eyrealm. SO many wonderful things happened around this table…. from myriads of family meetings to the question games, one-minute speeches, Jerusalem Suppers, pictures for TV shows and magazines, birthday parties as well as arguments and debates. No family member can look at this picture without a flood of memories! And now, I, who don’t really get attached to things, am getting emotional so I’m going to stop.

Life goes on. Memories are held dear. The thrill of life continues! And I must say that this house might look even better without us in it. Nine kids can produce an unimaginable amount of “stuff”!

Sorry about this Charity! Stop crying ASAP and go back to work!

A Significant Move!

2012-01-13T13:37:00.001-08:00

For the past 18 months Charity has gloried in living in her favorite city in the world: San Francisco. She left a year ago last August thinking that she could easily get a job and start a career. Well, not so easy! She did find FOUR really nice jobs and thoroughly enjoyed the flexibility and fun of doing a variety of interesting things but we were all overjoyed when she landed a real job albeit in Palo Alto!

She started work on January 4th. Since it required buying a new car, attending a new ward, having new roommates and brand new work associates with an actual office, I flew out on Friday to help her move. She couldn’t actually move into her room until Sunday because of a strange situation with a roommate being evicted and some crazy stuff surrounding that. The details are too complicated to post but call her for details if you’re interested.

The bottom line is that we had a free Saturday and we had a ball exploring her old life in San Francisco….Charity style (cram as much as you can into every day).

I can’t tell you how impressed I was with her work at Batter Bakery! Two women who have become entrepreneurs have opened their own business in the heart of San Francisco. One does the baking (McKay Badger works there as a baker and got her the job) and the other does gourmet food which can be bought over the counter or delivered to your home.

On the weekends they do a brunch that is to die for! This is what we had: cornbread waffles with blood oranges and apples, exotic fruit syrup and pomegranate berries with crème fresh. Also a poached egg in polenta with maple beans and kale. We were swooning with the deliciousness! We met both of the owners and were so impressed with their cooking abilities and their business sense. Charity manned a downtown kiosk with the baked goodies which is a tiny little glass house towered over by a crowd of skyscrapers in downtown San Francisco. Pretty cool job! In fact Charity has decided that when she retires, she wants to be an entrepreneur and do something like this.

Since it was Saturday we went to the Ferry building which was a stunning display of every kind of food imaginable! She has spent a lot of time there picking up food for the bakery. The weather was simply spectacular and we loved seeing all the stuff in the outdoor markets…as well as the indoor ones.

Such a fun place! And look at that blue sky!

Next it was on to the tower, museum and the botanical gardens at Golden Gate Park:

I loved this hanging display of charred wood from a church burned down in Mississippi in the 1960s and this totally different display of glass fruit that is just fun!

On to the incredible arboretum:

After that little bit of heaven, we headed for what Charity considers heaven….the beach with the Golden Gate bridge in the background:

There’s always a bride on the beach!

And a sunset!

Dinner was fab! Charity truly lives in the food capital of the world!

I got a chance to meet the lovely woman from England for whom she has been working as a nanny and who was also nice enough to give her a great deal on the car she has been driving their kids around in for the past 18 months. She has moved to Suburbia! She’s not entirely happy about that but she’s adjusting.

She now lives in this house of diversity with a Navajo roommate, one of Korean descent and a darling black girl! There are two Caucasians too. One is an airline stewardess and one is an accountant and also the self-proclaimed social chairman of the house (and many in the ward). Good news! Funnily she used to live in Charity’s San Francisco house.

She’s working at Innosight which is the Educational Think Tank based on Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn’s book called Disrupting Class as well as others. She is working with Michael there, Clayton’s daughter Anne and two friends from the past all of whom she is excited to learn from! It is truly a privilege to be a part of this stellar group!

The office looks out on a courtyard of beautiful trees but I’m not sure how much she can see from her desk which is behind the wall of bookcases below. The office wasn’t open so we took pictures from outside.

In the window, among other things:

After church (which was really fun to see as the chapel literally packed with outstanding singles from ages 26-31) we found a little park in Charity’s new territory with some beautiful outdoor spaces. Even though it doesn’t quite the same as the parks in San Fran, it’s someplace to go to get out of the world!

On Sunday night we drove to Fremont to visit Chris, Aaron, Adam, Kimberley, their youngest adorable Rachel. I haven’t seen Aaron for about 4 years and couldn’t believe how tall and handsome he has become. What a great guy! Adam and Kimberley are pondering on their next move with some offers, one of which is in Cedar City. We’d LOVE to have them in Utah!

Charity whisked me to the airport on Monday morning but wow, did I learn a lot about Charity’s world, which is a pretty spectacular one! We’re about to see her bloom where she’s planted!

Home to a Party House!

2012-01-11T11:06:00.001-08:00

It was great to get home on the 30th and find our house full of people we love! Noah and Kristi and their darling kids came from California partly for a big alumni basketball tournament at East High which his team won. They also had a chance to see lots of old friends and to be with family. Saren and Jared were here (and they had been at their house in Ogden as well) and their little tribe and cute Charity who had spent Christmas with them was in residence to keep the spark in the whole celebration.

It was Jared’s birthday on the 31st so Saren provided a beautiful birthday breakfast and then we all went bowling (Jared’s birthday tradition).

The crowd thinned a little on New Year’s Eve but we had so much fun New Year’s Eve with Charity as well as Noah and Kristi and McKay. After the little kids went to bed and McKay was allowed to stay up until midnight for the first time, we made had some time to make our lists of the biggest blessings of 2011 and look forward to some resolutions for 2012. McKay was particularly delightful as he read his “list” to us!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Then January 1st, I taught my last Gospel Doctrine lesson at church. Dad and I are going to be teaching a class for all the new young couples who have moved into our ward which is about 14 couples with young kids. We’re so happy to have these new families!

Then to bring in the New Year Charity had a grand reunion for about half of the people that she knew and loved in Jerusalem. She left for Jerusalem exactly five years ago and it was SO great to meet so many stellar people that she studied with. Some are married, some have children and many are still single. Noah and I helped her make Falafel until we could see them when we closed our eyes. Great event!

Dani prepared a wonderful slide show of their time that they spent together.

I think the guy on the right really personifies how they all felt about being back together again!

THEN on January 2nd, which was the actual day off work for the New Year since New Year’s Day was on Sunday, we had our annual Eyre/Carver party. That means that my only darling sister comes with as many of her seven kids and their kids as she can gather and we celebrate together.

Last year we had a fun sleigh riding party since our house had an avalanche of snow. This year….just a skiff! Luckily we have an awesome tubing place near our home and the adventuresome ones headed for the groomed tubing slopes.

Lenna is also an amazing accompanist, as was our dear mother. Grandma Hazel would be so proud! We had a chance to play some music together (she on the piano and I on the violin) which doesn’t happen very often these days. We got people singing too and it was a rare privilege!

The really awful camera work below is mine (Eli taught me how to do better since then), the good ones were taken by Lenna). Better something than nothing right?

Noah and Kristi were set to drive all the way home to CA early in the morning that day but they decided to wait a few hours so they could be there for the party. We were so happy but I don’t know how happy they were when they arrived home in San Diego at 1 a.m. with a car full of sleeping kids.

What a great way to start the new year!

Fun in the Big Apple

2012-01-05T21:30:00.001-08:00

Life has been whizzing by so fast that there hasn’t been a minute to blog! I didn’t take my computer, only my iPad and even though Eli helped me figure out a blog APP, it doesn’t work off line so I was stuck on the plane. So much to catch up on!

Even though I had a ball zipping around the streets of NYC with my little shopping cart to keep the new baby and family fed and cared for, after the first week when mom, dad and baby were doing well, we did manage to have some time to see the wonders of this magnificent city!

Eli, who came down on Christmas Day from DC because Julie was working, went with me to the magnificent Met, which was having a special exhibit on the world of Islam. My current passion to learn more about that culture was well-fed at this exhibit. Just being there is always such an electric experience. Even though thousands of other people had the same idea, it was delightful to soak it all in with Eli and his wonderful camera….his eye!

The rugs were to die for, the art was splendid and the beautiful arches made us homesick!

We also had a ball with Eli on the Staten Island Ferry:

NOTE THE NEW WORLD TRADE CENTER GOING UP ON THE LEFT. It’s the tall building with the black on the top fourth of the building and a fork on the top. There are fountains on the footprint of the two original building that seem to be dropping into an abyss. Tal thought that the vapor rising from the falling water was symbolic of the new trade center rising.

It’s always a pleasure to see the Statue of Liberty. We wanted to go to Ellis Island but everyone had the same idea. The line for the ferry was about half a mile long.

That ride was pretty fun! Eli taught me a little about how to use my new phone camera, but I’ve got a long way to go!

Our next adventure was looking at apartments in a beautiful new building that you can almost see in the picture before last. Although it is a hard to see from this angle, It reminded me of Gaudi’s cathedral in Barcelona with it’s wavy lines. Almost like a melting ice cream cone!

The apartments were rentals only. The cheapest one bedroom was $7000 a month and the penthouse around $40,000 a month. With Eli’s love of architecture and modern spaces and spectacular views, he was pretty much in heaven!

The world trade center up close and personal:

Thanks to Dad/Rick we also managed to squeeze in some pretty incredible shows and concerts during our long visit. This was the entrance to Porgy and Bess, which we had never seen. It was truly and amazing story of the tragedies of real life. Great acting and music! Believe it or not, Dad called Grandma to tell her that we were going to see it since it has some of her favorite songs. She sang every word of all the songs he could remember with him on the phone. Even though she may not have remembered that she was talking to her son, she could remember all the words of those “memorable” songs!

We also managed to see the stage play of War Horse at Lincoln Center. It was one of the most amazing things we have ever seen. The horses were huge puppets operated by three men. Two underneath the horse and another who worked the head. Dad had just read the book, so a couple of nights later Tal and Eli joined us for the new movie with the same name. (That Rick is such a party animal!) Both exceptionally well-done! A testimony of the futility and senselessness of World War I. We highly recommend it if you’re looking for a good movie!

Dad and I also had the great pleasure of hearing the Messiah at Carnegie Hall. After singing or playing in the orchestra for that grand piece of music for many years as I grew up, it was such a joy to hear it at such a magnificent building at this time of year! Pictures are on Dad’s phone and somehow didn’t transfer to the Cloud.

On January 27th Julie finished her work duty and joined us and then on January 28th Saydi and Jeff along with the kids drove down from Boston and we partied on! What fun we had opening the presents Dad had shopped for at FAO Schwartz in his spare time while I was with the new baby and parents. He LOVES those FAO Schwartz stuffed animals and so did the kids and their parents.

Accepting for the REAL baby:

The Perfect Peter just looked on….

Julie and Eli’s someday-in-the-future baby got a baby elephant since Grandfather is sure he/she will be a Republican but I didn’t catch a picture. I think Julie thought it was more fun to play with a much better little toy!

That night we rented the same limo that had brought the baby home from the hospital for a family spin around the big apple. We had SO much fun with the kids’ delight and the dancing (as much as you can dance from a seat) to the music. The kids loved the lights inside and out!

There were moments when Hazel was a bit confused (above) and Peter got a little drunk (below). A GREAT time was had by all!

We gathered at Gordon’s place. He is selling it, so aside from two beds and and a stuffed dog and seal, there was not a stick of furniture. We are so very grateful to Saydi and Jeff for coming all that way for such a short time. Especially because they are leaving for London for six months in less than two week. More on that later. We were so grateful for the chance to have some fun and some in-depth discussions on the floor before we said good-bye! What an adventure are about to plunge into!

Could there have been a more fun Christmas? The best gift of course was our darling new baby but all the trimmings were pretty exciting too! Hooray for new parents AND for the chance to be in NYC with our family at Christmastime!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T21:44:00.001-08:00

Well, now I've lost the memory card for my camera. Last night we went to a beautiful live nativity at an Episcopal Church that was gorgeous and the pictures are on the card. Oh well it will show up somewhere.

We had a perfectly lovely Christmas today with church first where we met some fascinating people and had fun singing Christmas carols with the congregation.

Then it was home to Eggs Benedict at Tal and Anita's apartment. We saved some for Eli who arrived from DC on the bus about 2:30 and then enjoyed opening some gifts.

Now we are at a beautiful apartment lent to us for the week by some very kind friends who are in Utah for the holidays. We had a nice Christmas dinner here tonight and luckily Eli was here to be the photographer of the "stars of the day".

. What a delight to see all the kids and grand kids via google plus or Skype. What a world! What a great Christmas!

Baby Mania in NYC

2011-12-22T20:55:00.000-08:00

This is just way too much fun! Dad put this adorable little cherub on his lap and caught some great expressions complete with hand actions!

San Diego Baby

2011-12-22T19:17:00.001-08:00

We couldn't be more blessed to have new grand babies on each of the coasts of the USA!

Because I didn't bring my heavy computer I went through myriads of methods to find a way to post blogs on my iPad. Finally....success! At last I can post some pictures of our darling San Diego baby! Dad/Rick loves his name...Bennett Richard Eyre.

As mentioned in an earlier post, petite Kristi is positively a heroine as she delivered a 9lbs 8oz.baby with an arm above his head. Yikes, this kid is coming to save the day!

In addition we had fabulous fun with "the other kids". We got to see their Thanksgiving Tree directly across from the Christmas tree in their living room.

McKay showed off his awesome Gingerbread Man, Lyla and I made tie-die cupcakes and Cubby wasn't too sure about that new baby.

And grandfather had fun in the mornings with the kids so Noah and Kristi could get a little extra sleep.

We couldn't have had more fun! What a family! Happy birthday today Kristi!

Okay, here goes. I'm going to post this. Pictures may be all mixed up but I'll take what I can get.

It's beginning to look a lot like......

2011-12-21T13:08:00.001-08:00

BABY'S FIRST CHRISTMAS!

First visit to the Dr.

2011-12-21T13:02:00.001-08:00

This is the cutest little girl you would ever want to meet! She is so alert and seems so comfortable in her skin!

GRAND babies

2011-12-18T07:40:00.000-08:00

We are about the luckiest grandparents in the world to have two new Grandbabies within 18 days of each other on opposite coasts of the USA AND to be able to visit both of them within days!

Bennett Richard Eyre was born in San Diego on November 28th and popped into the world at 9 pounds 8 ounces with one arm above his head, aka Superman (and he probably will be saving the world someday)! He is absolutely adorable and we had three fun filled days with that cute family! McKay kept us laughing, Lyla kept us running and Cubby kept us delighted! And what a joy it was to see little Bennett talk to the angels in his sleep...as all babies do, but these angels were really special. Lots of smiles and rapid eye moment!

Kristi and Noah were magnificent troopers as always and we wondered how in the world they were going to survive with that little mob and all it entails. But they will....with flying colors!

Sadly I left my computer home and the blog APP on my Ipad crashed so I'm now writing with a different program from Anita's computer in NYC....our next stop!

On December 15, which was their baby's due date we had been praying that little girl would wait for us because she was due that day and we didn't arrive until about 11 p.m. that night. The next morning when I got out of the shower (we were staying with a neighbor's house who had left for the holidays), Dad/Rick came in from a run and was reading a text from his Iphone about 9:30 a.m. which said "Pushing"! I about jumped out of my skin! They had sent an email at 2:43 a.m. saying that they thought labor had started and that they would be heading to the hospital in a couple of hours. We hadn't checked email yet so we were astounded and over the moon excited. She was born just after 10 o'clock. Talk about SWISS PRECISION! It couldn't have been better timing! We grabbed a cab to the hospital and by the time we arrived this is what she looked like:

She weighed in at 8 pounds 7 ounces which is huge for a first baby! Anita had gone with a completely natural child birth at the birthing center and according to the doula, was incredibly amazing! She'll probably be sending the details so I'll leave it at that. A very hard labor but SO good to see that darling little girl safely into the world! We came just in time to see her making her first "footprint"!

the parents survived that day and night at the hospital with flying colors and we had some precious time to talk. Look at this New Mom walking out of the hospital this morningl! In Utah they wouldn't let us out in anything less than a wheelchair!

Dad/Rick had the fun idea to pick them up first class. When in New York..... We all liked the car and our nice driver Max who, in accordance to Tal's directions didn't go over 10 miles per hour all the way home...and missed every bump and pothole that was humanly possible!

We got The happy parents as comfortable as we could, although I'm sure it was a LONG way home for Anita after only about 27 hours after giving birth!

We were the proud guardians of the sleeping baby!

TIME TO CELEBRATE!

Home at last to their amazing new apartment. Couldn't be a more perfect place to bring home a new baby! !

Anita was pretty happy to hit the bed after all that commotion and to bring this little girl home!

Welcome to the world sweet baby! You look pretty happy to be here! We couldn't be more delighted to have you join your extraordinary parents New York City! "Heaven lies about us in our infancy." (William Wordsworth)

Children for Children Concert on Steroids!

2011-12-07T23:51:00.001-08:00

Many years ago, we decided that it was time for our children who mostly resided in a “bubble” of prosperity and well-being, to start thinking more about “giving” at Christmas instead of thinking so much about “getting”.

Somehow we came up with the idea of having a “Children for Children Concert”. Every Christmas after that our children invited their friends in the neighborhood and from school to come up with some kind of “talent” to perform for an audience who were mostly parents and grandparents. After the concert the adults were encouraged to pay for the concert by contributing what they could to a humanitarian project.

Our first concert when our kids were small helped earned enough money to build a simple cinderblock school in Bolivia. It was always fun to hear the kids perform….everything from a six-year old performing a simple piano Christmas song, to siblings actually singing together without fighting (although I imagine it could have taken some squabbles during practice time). One child would show her art and another might recite a poem. The point was for the children to take the time to be able to perform well so that they could raise some money for a good cause. It was so much fun for the kids to feel the kids’ urgency to do their best so they could earn money for children who urgently needed something that they often took for granted.

As the years have passed, several of our kids have included a concert in their Christmas traditions. They have, in fact taken a good idea and made it better! The Shumway kids in Boston have had so much fun including their friends in raising money for good causes, This year they sent three websites of wonderful humanitarian groups that needed help and encouraged the parents to look at the sites with their kids and have the kids vote on which one they wanted to help with their funds from the concert. Mabuhay Deseret Foundation won. This is an amazing organization that provides free surgeries for kids with cleft pallets and cataracts among other things that would otherwise leave them maimed for life. Last year the Pothier kids and their friends had a terrific concert. Their house was filled to capacity for the Children for Children Concert to raise money for The Foundation Fighting Blindness that helps so much with research for their little Lucy’s sight issues.

This year our Loosli family took this idea to new high as the lovely old church a block away from their house had just been converted to a community center which meant that they could invite a crowd a lot bigger than their living room would hold!

The caretakers opened their doors with open arms for this good cause and almost 200 people filled the pews in a beautiful chapel for the event. It was spectacular!

Saren introduced their fifth annual concert by explaining “the cause” which was to support orphans in Bulgaria where she served as a missionary many years ago. She has since gone back to Bulgaria with Deborah Dushku who helped start an organization called One Heart Bulgaria that has been supporting orphanages there for about ten years. The last time Saren went back, she was 7 1/2 months pregnant with her twins. She showed a three minute video of the beautiful children in the orphanages that she saw there. The heart-wrenching video was accompanied by a recording of Kurt Bestor singing “The Prayer of the Children. As always, a tear jerker! See the video on Saren’s blog post: http://looslifamily.blogspot.com/2011/12/children-for-children-concert.html

On with the show! Saren and Jared’s oldest son, Ashton ran the program and did a fabulous job of announcing the numbers and letting the next family know when they were “on deck”!

These siblings did a terrific job of singing, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer!” Lots of laughs!

Teenagers even got involved including a remarkable young man who announced that he was half Bulgarian and proceeded to skillfully play a difficult classical piece on portable keyboard. These four girls were adorable! (Notice Ashton getting ready to announce the next number there at the right.)

After about twenty short numbers, all the kids participated in a nativity scene to die for!

This is Joseph (Isaac) making sure that every shepherd got a chance to see the Baby Jesus:

What an amazing group of children who, with the support of their generous parents will really make a difference in the support of little orphans in Bulgaria at this magical time of year!

Afterward this box was placed in the large room for refreshments downstairs (filled with cookies and treats supplied by the parents) where the the audience could contribute.

THE KIDS MADE just over $1600! It will be matched by the Eyrealm Foundation so altogether they will contribute $3200 to One Heart Bulgaria! It takes about $1500 dollars to sponsor an orphanage for a year which includes being able to feed the kids fruit and vegetables instead of just gruel three times a day! Among other things, it also provides educational materials for the kids and heat and electricity for the school. One remote orphanage that has never had a sponsor will be the recipient of half of the money and the other half will go to another needy orphanage!

Kudos to Saren who was the power behind the kids to get this organized (although I did receive two emails from Ashton giving me instructions and directions). In additions to hundreds of details, she somehow either costumed, or had kids bring their own costumes, for literally a mob of kids! What a joy to see this “new age” Children for Children Concert on Steroids. And how lovely it was not to be in charge!

Gold Prize Winners

2011-11-30T14:36:00.001-08:00

This week we finally managed to make connections (after several tries from both sides) with the amazing couple who won the gold prize for the give-away that we sponsored during The Entitlement Trap pre-sales era. The prize was dinner with us at a fun Park City restaurant. I think we were actually the winners! We had so much fun getting to know this extraordinary couple.

On January 3rd Sarah and Gabe Granata are moving with their four little children ages seven to about 18 months to China! Unlike others in their company, they will be living smack dab in the middle of a Chinese high-rise community surrounded by only Chinese speaking friends and neighbors which is only a few minutes from his office rather than 90 minutes each way if they were to live near other Americans.

They are debating whether to just throw their kids into Chinese schools with the help of a Chinese tudor after school OR to home school them for the rest of the year and then throw them in when they start again next fall. Dad/Rick’s suggestion of course, was to throw them in and let them swim. My feeling would be to get them acclimated for a few months and then sent them off to a Chinese school in the next school year. I think we weren’t too much help on that one. You might ask why not put the kids in a private school? The problem is the tuition: $22,000-30,000 per child.

They are excited about their adventure!

Two and a half hours simply flew by as we were amazed at this couple’s courage and stamina. Go Gabe and Sarah!

For our kids, I had to take a picture of their dad’s outfit for the evening. He prides himself on “interesting” outfits! Mountain man jacket, new linen pants from Tommy Bahama and clunky snow books. Oh how I love this crazy guy!

Feast

2011-11-24T22:45:00.001-08:00

(Dad says that my new phone takes better pictures than my little point and shoot. I must beg to differ. sorry about the blur and pretty bad lighting…which of course is the fault of the camera :))

It was over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we went. We spent Thanksgiving in Logan with Grandma Ruthie, who is uncomfortable with travel and whose kitchen is way too small for a Thanksgiving dinner for 22 people. SO we had a lovely feast at a restaurant in Logan called Hamilton’s. It was fun to first relax at Grandma’s house with Chris and Hedy, then Rawlin and Karen along with Patrick and Elizabeth and two of her friends from her choir. Next came Saren and Jared and their little crew as well as Howie who Kevan retrieved from Bear Lake. Sheri and Lynn met us at the restaurant and we ate like kings!

It was a perfectly lovely day! After the Loosli kids showed their prolific “thankful lists” to Grandfather, they sang songs from their Joy School days for Grandma…..

And she sang every word with them…

And then claimed that she didn’t recognize those songs. Sweet Grandma!

It was so great to be with our dear brothers and sisters-in-law!

Patrick donated his tree to Grandma’s living room and Grandma enjoyed watching the decorating.

Dinner was spectacular as they come even though we missed the smells as the feast cooks. But it was kind of nice to trade the smells for a nice dinner that you didn’t have to shop for, cook and clean up after.

Eliza and I took a little trip to the dessert buffet. Divine!

Lovely fire and atmosphere…

Kevan and his new friend Toa from China (who Kevan claims is the best ski student he’s ever had).

A great time was had by all!

Of course, Thanksgiving isn’t complete without a movie. This year…Arthur Christmas in 3D, which everyone thought was terrific!

And of course, Grandfather couldn’t resist kidnapping the kids for some Ben and Jerry’s at our cute little hotel room.

Thanksgiving was a feast of gratitude for the plethora of blessings including our dear friends and relatives gathered in Logan.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

2011-11-23T21:58:00.001-08:00

In case you haven’t received it, below is our annual Thanksgiving “Card” which is always a poem composed by our thoughtful dad and a few pictures to keep you updated.

Family and Friends,
It's hard to believe, but this is the 40th year that we have sent a Thanksgiving Poem, Picture, and Update to friends and family.
And every year there is more to be thankful for!
The poems tend to evolve and almost write themselves. This year it turned to the season of Autumn (a season of our lives.)
We hope you feel our love as well as our thanks. Attached is the poem/update and three pictures.
Eyres

THE RICHNESS OF AUTUMN (thanksgiving 2011)

Juxtaposition of cool air in my nostrils and hot sun on my back
Slanting, revealing light, deeper shadows, flaming foliage
Surprising snow skiff or frost some mornings
Autumn, always the favorite season
And now the season of our lives
Our axis tilts slowly, and stretches our mortal year across nine seasons
A long, growing spring through school and mission and marriage
An early summer of new babies and politics and another mission
A midsummer with full-bloom cacophony of conceived children and books
The lush late summer’s Eyrealm missions and marriages
Indian summer of central three-campus kingdom and orbiting satellites
And now full autumn, rich and boundless
Then fall, more as a mellow invitation than a lowering threat
Followed by early winter’s renewed energy and new snow
And finally the reflective soft silence and reward of deep winter

We love the sixth season because it is now, the last third of the second third
Late enough for perspective but early enough for energy
We wait to see if country or church will be turned by our friends
Bright leaves, some flying in the wind and some still on the tree
I am the eyre or seer into the eyes of our nine noble ones
Family members 40 and 41 set to enter this estate as grandchildren 22 and 23
We float on new volumes and audiences to the domains of daughters and sons
Wrapped in each other’s oneness, flying far and then homing again and again
To the warmth of three campuses that become physical legacy
Fresh books on entitlement and spiritual solutions
A little early snow from a surgery shoulder and a bungled back previews winter and
Enhances returning equine and athletic appreciation

Abundance abounds and giving lags receiving so we get constantly and gratefully more behind
(Only our ever-indebted liabilities can balance His ever-given assets)
Our thanks-giving forms in the mould of our inability ever to repay

Next to Him, it is you we thank
Friends and family who see our hearts and know our love
This Thanksgiving of 2011

Richard and Linda (the north lake, the central mountains or the south desert)
Saren and Jared + 5 (Ogden), Shawni and Dave +5 and Josh (Phoenix),
Saydi and Jeff +4 (Boston), Jonah and Aja +4 (Maui), Tal and Anita +1* (NYC)
Noah and Kristi +4* (San Diego), Eli and Julie (D.C.) and Charity (San Francisco)
*new one arriving any day

WE GIVE THANKS!

Fun with our Lovable and Eccentric Dad

2011-11-17T10:51:00.001-08:00

I have to admit that it’s pretty darn fun living with Dad…most days! I was quite mad at him a few days ago (you don’t want to know the details) but I got over it.

Now that we’re empty nesters it’s so easy to come and go as we please. No offense to you kids while you were home. That was fun too, but this is different fun!

Last week we got to speak to an auditorium full of wonderful MBA students and their wives at BYU. They were a lively group with lots of great questions. These are the “leftovers” after everybody else left. Why are there no dads there? They were picking up their kids from the sixty-kid nursery manned by a single’s ward held in the next building! This was an organizational feat accomplished by the cute mom in the purple on the right!

We also went to the symphony to hear Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony, some great stuff by Wagner and absolutely the most astounding 22 minute percussionist accompanied by the symphony that you can possibly imagine! I would have died to have you all there!

We’ve never been so close to the chandeliers!

For the first time since our temporary move downtown we heard a fabulous performance of Music and The Spoken Word on Sunday morning. Dad was embarrassed to have his picture taken with his hero Mac Wilberg with his back turned to us, but it proves that we were there!

Just a reminder to those who know and love him…Dad is just a bit on the eccentric side. He has recently decided that he just can’t get enough Cauliflower!

And he never pays much attention to where he is running!

He changes his mind at least 12 times a day and has new ideas pouring out of his head like water over Niagara Falls but he sure is fun to live with!

Extraordinary FHE!

2011-11-14T08:47:00.001-08:00

We miss not having our kids around for those raucous Family Meetings! With kids spread all over the country with their families it seemed impossible to get everyone together on the same night any time soon! BUT with a new program on Google + we just have to say…”Bless the Internet”…and Josh who somehow knows how to do every new thing on the Internet and Eli who set it up for us! Although Josh, the Pothiers and I were all at the same house, six other screens popped up in three different time zones to include everybody in the family (with the exception of Charity who was working and on the phone listening in part time).

With Jonah and Aja having just moved to Hawaii and with some of the cousins not having seen each other since July, it was general jubilation when we all saw each other on the screen. The pregnant moms (due the same week in December) did a cyber tummy bump, kids did talents, everyone made pertinent announcements and we had a tour of Jonah and Aja’s new rental house. Actually a grand time was had by all! The reception wasn’t stellar but here are a few shots of what we saw from Arizona:

Family in Boston

Family in DC

Family in San Diego

Family in Ogden

Family in Hawaii

Oops, they moved too fast to get the tummy bump. This is the only shot I got from our family in NY!

So sorry to miss seeing Charity, but so goes the work world! We lOVE you Charity!
Dad and I were over the moon! It was wild and chaotic because every time someone talked, the screen would change to their family but if was fun and funny! And once a month….this is heaven!

After all that the Pothiers had their own little FHE activity with the creation of the annual Thanksgiving Tree. Are they Thankful enough or what?

During this season of gratitude, I’m so grateful for our incredible families spread all over creation and all the good their are doing in their own homes with their own families. Prayers are answered!

“Dad Gum Gover’ment”

2011-11-12T11:50:00.001-08:00

For those of you who have seen Big River those words will sound familiar. I don’t dare repeat the rest of the words of the song, but if you know them repeat them in your minds and you’ll know how Josh, along with Dad and I and a lot of kids and parents at his school felt last week.

Every teacher in AZ (we assume that’s not just in charter schools) has to renew some weird government certificate every SIX YEARS that has something to do with fingerprinting (?), to prove that he isn’t a criminal and that he has followed requirements. I really don’t understand it but it’s a must. Suddenly it was discovered “Mr. Eyre’s “ certificate had expired. Without any warning and with no grace period or reminder that the expiration date was coming up (after six years without a word), he was suddenly not allowed to be in his classroom until the renewed certificate arrived at the school…in 2 to 6 WEEKS!!!

We were all devasted! After only missing one day in the ten years he has taught school, Josh had just missed a week with his class because of his trip to Ethiopia (the trip was planned to happen during fall break but the school had changed the their fall break dates because of construction issues). Anyway, he had spent literally a hundred hours preparing lessons plans for the substitute teacher before he left.

Now he was faced with sitting at a desk with a computer in an empty room with one other teacher with the same issue, doing random paperwork for the school and meeting with the substitute teacher every day after school to try to get her through the next day… for possibly six weeks…while he waited for the certificate to arrive. The kids were upset and were missing out on the continuity of their education for possibly an extended period. Many of the parents were beside themselves with indignation and the administration was wringing their hands, which were neatly tied behind their backs by that “dad-gum gover’ment”! After multitudes of calls to every agency and person he could find that had anything to do with expediting the process, Josh was completely frustrated and unable to reach anyone who could understand the urgency.

Shawni took Grace and Claire out of school during their lunch time while I was there and we went to the school to see how Josh was faring. It was so fun to see the kids run over to “Mr. Eyre” in the lunch room while we were there, showing their absolute love and admiration for their terrific teacher, especially now that he couldn’t be with them in the classroom.

Finally, the day after we visited the school, Josh found a hero! A kind guy on the other end of the phone finally understood what was going on (with the help of a desperate and insistent parent) and said that he would do his best to get his application through quickly. The next day he called to say that he had Josh’s application in his hand and thought he could have the process finished in 15 minutes. Halleluiah!!! He faxed the completed “government paper” to the school and they allowed Mr. Eyre to go back into the classroom that afternoon. Phew!

Now that there is a happy ending we have to say that the wait-list for kids whose parents want their children in Josh’s class at the school is extensive! Parents really appreciate the wonderful education and TLC that Mr. Eyre provides. We’re so delighted that Josh’s passion is teaching. He claims that his days fly by because he is doing something he loves! The difference he has made in the lives of many children will live on. How I love and appreciate my favorite elementary school teachers, even now!

In addition the new school buildings at the American Leadership Academy (based on Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits) are spectacular. They’ve been working all summer on the new campus and here is a glimpse of what has happened!

Note the new Gilbert Temple going up in the background is almost in the school’s back yard!

There are two huge new buildings like this with a third going up on the left where Josh’s classroom will be next year.

I guess all’s well that ends well, but sadly, this solidifies our vision of the government setting inflexible regulations with no sense of urgency or the least bit of allowance in the case of an honest mistake. Ah, such is life!

At Home With The Pothiers

2011-11-10T15:00:00.001-08:00

Being in the Pothier home is like being in a whilrwind! It took me back to the old days when every minute is crammed to overflowing with piano lessons, dance lessons, sports practices, endless projects and young men and young women activities. There is just never a dull moment.

There are so many things to smile about….

A sign on the girl’s bedroom door:

Scripture reminders on the chalkboard at the top of the stairs….

And reams of paper filled up daily by Lucy who copiously copies words endlessly with undying concentration from the Ipad….

Can you believe alligator and astronaut??? That girl sounds things out and is beginning to read!

There are also lots of reminders of what is important in the Pothier house….

Like THANKSGIVING

AND THE TEMPLE (photograph on canvas by Shawni)

PIANO LESSONS

Elle has taken up bouncing her volleyball so that Grace can stay exactly on the beat while she practices.

And kids coming and going to dance lessons, tennis lessons and soccer games. Phone calls and continual texting by Shawni to organize the coming Young Women activity, completing and sending off a blog post for Time Out for Women and squeezing in her own blog post for the day (71toes.blogspot.com).

There are also reminders on the walls of how quickly time flies as these two first babies are now teenagers!

And important snapshots of moments in the Pothier history that they want to remember!

After school “snacks” abound. This is Max’s first stack of Eggos and sausages…the second comes immediately afterward.

Home wouldn’t be home in a house full of little kids without teeth falling out. Claire lost TWO (top and bottom) in one day! They have been hanging by a thread and literally fell out all at within minutes of each other!

And there always a way to cram in a visit to Josh’s school (more on that later) and to make a quick stop at Costco and In and Out as well as the sale at Old Navy.

That’s about a tenth of what happens in a day at the Pothier Home. Yup, it’s a whirlwind but it was so fun to get caught up in the storm for a few days!

Super-Sabbath

2011-11-10T13:48:00.001-08:00

Luckily Shawni had Saturday night after TOFW to prepare for the culmination a week of amazing activity that she had the 34 young women in her ward participate in. The Sunday before each young woman was presented with a large envelope that contained seven smaller envelopes which were to be opened one at a time each day that week. Each had a message from one of their leaders about a facet of their lives as an adored daughter of God. Here is Elle with her envelope (and a mouth full of braces)!

Then on Sunday all the young women and their parents and leaders met to hear the young women talk about their week and to hear ways that it had strengthened their testimonies. What a spiritual feast that was!

After midnight (folowing making a hundred calls Saturday evening to make sure everything was in place) Shawni was still working on the slide show with beautiful music (Three Dresses) that showed every young woman as a baby, many on their baptism days and several of the parents on their wedding day. About 12:50 a.m. I asked Shawni if she thought it was worth it. She just smiled. And guess what? It was worth every minute of time and effort that everyone put in to make it work. The meeting and following dinner at the bishop’s house with all the young women and their families and their leaders (about 200 people) was extraordinary!

Among the 34 young women in her ward, 22 are beehives (12-13 year olds) who all look up the older girls with adoration and admiration!

The parents are absolutely terrific!

And the stake president says he is going to learn all 780 names of the young women in his stake!

The leaders all brought soup and salad or dessert and since it was fast Sunday, everyone enjoyed every morsel.

After a great big “Whew that was hard but worth it” sigh of relief we went home for the rest of our Sabbath day which was actually just beginning.

We had a terrific FHE with that fabulous family.

Gallant Grace conducted and Magnificent Max played for the hymn and gave the lesson.

I would have given anything if I had recorded Lucy’s testimony. It was priceless…starting with “I’m thankful for my squinkies” (her new teeny “people”). That girl’s vocabulary is amazing. She is SO engaged and excited about everything. Earlier in the day when she had her “peeps” all lined up on the floor and they stretched out about 10 feet, she looked back at them and said, “That is outstanding!”

Just before dark we walked down to the park where the older kids had fun with a “street” volleyball game while Lucy and I watched. Then Lucy and I took off for the cute playground.

Perfect Sabbath Day!

Last TOFW in Phoenix

2011-11-08T10:56:00.001-08:00

It’s been a fun ride to be with the Time Out for Women organization the past couple of years, but alas, you need to produce a new product for Deseret Book in order to keep going and Shawni and I haven’t exactly had time to write another book this year! Time to go on. Still we’ll take what we can get and meeting such amazing people with incredible talent has been a stellar experience! Nice to do our finale in Shawni’s home town and be with 2700 stalward women and 400 terrific girls (who had their separate meeting).

This one was in downtown Phoenix which is a pretty awesome place! It was fun for Shawni not to have to pack a bag!

The girl on the left and the mom with the adorable baby (Mercy River) are sitting by Matt Baldwin, who wrote a great book this year and is a therapist. He also happens to be my sister Lenna’s home teacher. Small world!

Our hero Cindy Packard who started Care for Life with her husband in Mozambique (where Tal and Anita spent part of their honeymoon and who are now on the board) was there with her good friend Mary Ellen Edmunds who gave a wonderful talk.

One of the most fun things about TOFW is that they are starting to do Time Out for Girls for girls 12 and older. How great was that to have Elle (right) and her friend McKenna be able to be in the same building with us? They sneaked out to hear our talk and were so excited and just plain cute!

And just to add the icing on the cake, all of Shawni’s sisters-in-law and her cousin came to support her.

So many beautiful women, young and old were there for a day away from the hassles of life.

Here is a darling grandma (center) with all her adorable daughters and daughters in law! BIG family!

Here are some of our favorite “Time Out” people including Hilary Weeks (right) with her velvet voice and clever presentations, Matt Baldwin (Lenna’s home teacher), darling Kris Belcher, who lost one eye to cancer at 7 months and the other several years ago. Her tribulations are beyond belief but what a woman! She could be a stand up comic in Las Vegas without blinking an eye (oops, excuse the pun). She is able to laugh at herself and keep us laughing too, even though her circumstances are so tragic! She has never seen her four year old since he was an infant.

We got a chance to meet her dog Nadine this time. Even though she looks like a panther in the picture (dont’ know what all that shine is) she is a perfect companion for Kris!

Ah, life has it’s eras and this has been a great one!

Wonder Woman

2011-11-07T08:32:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday night our darling semi-adopted Bulgarian daughter Eva Koleva Timothy came to Utah for a whirlwind trip! Who knew in 1994 when she arrived at our home as a cute little teen-ager from Bulgaria that she would be coming back 17 years later as a world-renowned photographer?

Eva lived with us for several years and adding considerable sunshine to the lives of the Eyre family. She studied at BYUI (Ricks College at the time) and got her degree in Communications at The University of Utah.

To make a long story short, she married our dear friend’s son and Adam and Eva and had a magical wedding in a gorgeous garden! After their first child was born they took off for Oxford University where her husband was accepted in the MBA program. As we hugged her goodbye she showed me her little Kodak point and shoot camera and said she was off to take a photography class so she could be a photographer some day. I wished her luck with a wink and a nod and off they went.

This week she came back to BYU where a 30-piece exhibition of her book Lost in Learning:The Art of Discovery hangs outside the auditorium of the Harold B. Lee Library on the BYU campus until January 30th. There she did a lecture on her life growing up under communism and the amazing things that can happen when you think outside the box! Saren found Eva while serving her mission in Bulgaria and we are forever grateful for what she has added to our lives!

The wonderful women responsible for her getting Eva to BYU:

Earlier that morning she mesmerized a hundred middle school students at The McGillis School with her story and photography. Their questions were stellar! Below is the staff and representatives of the University of Utah who invited her to “make their day”!

After a lunch with beloved friends who served as missionaries and friends at Tucano’s in Provo and the BYU presentation at 3 o’clock, we dashed to the Leonardo Museum in SLC where she presented her story and beautiful photography again to the Humanities Department from which she graduated at the U of U. It was a delight for everyone present! Sorry I forgot to take pictures.

Today her work has been exhibited internationally and is included in the collections of The The Smithsonian National Museum of American History, The Library of Congress (Permanent Collection), The British Library, Green Templeton College (Oxford University), The George Eastman House Library and The Victoria Albert Museum (National Art Library).

Eva believes that the art’s purpose is to empower us in looking beyond the dulling distractions and to focus on our noblest aspirations in life.

In her debut monograph, Lost in Learning: The Art of Discovery, Eva has woven this worldview of learning, history and art into a creation which urges us each to pursue our life’s dreams with greater passion.

Eva’s life personifies her beliefs and core values and most especially permeates the life of her family. A home-schooler extraordinaire, she and Adam may be raising the next Einstein or modern-day Di Vinci with her ability to embrace freedom in all its forms!

As she boarded a red-eye that night to re-join her children in New England the next morning, I reflected on the fact that being with Eva truly is a combination of magic and pure joy! To see her inspiring short video click here or get more information and see some of her photos click here.

Fun Birthday Tradition

2011-11-01T09:01:00.001-07:00

When you start a tradition watch out….if it catches on…it may last for generations! Dad/Rick’s birthday is one of our best. Jumping in the leaves! This year it was especially fun to be with a bunch of little kids and even better because those little kids were our extraordinary grandchildren!

We are so glad that the Looslis moved to Ogden! Since Charity left, we’ve been pretty void of kids on Dad’s birthday until they joined us in our neck of the woods! A week ago last Sunday I got to see the annual….no matter where you live… Primary Program! And this year we even got to celebrate Dad/Rick’s birthday with the leaf-jumping ceremony in the pretty park about a block from where the Loosli’s live!

This year the kids (and their dad) had to scrounge a little for leaves and even pull a few down from the trees since they haven’t quite fallen off yet, so it turned into a jumping-over-Grandfather-almost-buried-in-the-leaves party. Here’s what I mean:

Isaac getting a run at it, Ashton thinking about it and Eliza dreaming about it:

And Ashton…carefully stepping over…though he would have like to have stepped on…

Then the leaves started to fly:

And a grand time was had by all!

While Ma and Pa looked on:

Blowing out the candles on the traditional Grandma Ruthie’s rendition of Boston Cream Pie or what was left of it after it traveled from SL to OG with that slippery pudding in between is always an event:

The cake was followed by the pumpkin carving and the handmade gift cards from the kids which was SO fun!

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One of my gifts this year was a beautiful painting called Autumn Reflections which had been displayed at the gorgeous Eccles House/Museum with is about 4 doors down on Saren’s street. It reminded me of dad!

Then off we went to the the best shushi place in Utah just a few blocks from Loosli’s house for Dad’s favorite birthday meal.

The finale’ was hearing the King Singers at Symphony Hall with Saren and Jared. What a birthday!

Halloween was pretty uneventful besides a doctor’s appointment (I’m doing much better and we were glad that she wasn’t wearing a Dracula costume as she gave me a shot) and some really cute neighborhood kids knocking at our door.

Ah, now that it’s November, it’s snowing like crazy outside this morning. We went back to beautiful fall for a couple of weeks after our last snow storm and now I’m bracing for the inevitable eight months of winter! Luckily we’re going to St. George in a couple of weeks to thaw out. I have to keep reminding myself of how much I love the seasons….it’s just that some are longer than others!

You Never Know What a New Week Brings!

2011-10-30T16:32:00.001-07:00

Last week I took a fun trip through the Church Museum of Art in Salt Lake City with three of my dear friends, one of whom, Bobbi Snow, is a docent there. The quilt exhibit there right now is breathtaking and the fabulous art of LaConte Stewart is a feast for the eyes!

Then it was off to Time Out for Women. I met Shawni and the rest of the fun people we were presenting with in Richmond, VA where we had a stellar experience rejoicing in the gospel!

Our darling friends who moved to Southern Virginia University a couple of years ago, Annelle Doxey and her daughter Rachel Hall were our guests. It was so fun to see them again. The “Virginia Mother of the Year” (center) also joined us!

Shawni was mobbed with friends from her old ward in Fairfax, Virginia and her fans from her blog (71toes.blogspot.com).

We loved being back in historic Richmond where we had visited once before on our annual MFME (Mothers and Future Mothers of Eyrealm) trip.

Dad/Rick and I “passed in the morning.” He gave me a quick hug at the airport before he dashed off to catch a plane 3 gates down to NYC where he did a show on The Entitlement Trap with Glenn Beck. They called on Friday to have him do a show on Monday and it aired on Wednesday. If you’d like to see an 8 minute clip from the 20 minute interview click HERE.

Included this week also was a great movie that we would highly recommend: We had read the book and thought the movie was even better! That was squeezed in amongst the World Series. First things first!

On my way back from SL to Park City the other night at about 9:30, just as I rounded the corner by the mailbox hut, I was startled to see two “teen-aged” moose enjoying munching on the leaves of a large bush. I was about six feet away from them, rolled my window down, took several flash pictures (couldn’t think of how to put my camera on the nighttime setting for anything…sorry Eli, but you’ll get idea) and even talked to them for a while but they just ignored me and happily ate away!

The other one was around the bush to the left.

I was genuinely excited to meet them! What a lot of fun a week brings!

Fun Radio Show…Join us on October 25

2011-10-24T09:17:00.001-07:00

I’ll be doing a radio show with Johnny Tan tomorrow morning (October 25th) on The Entitlement Trap. It will be from 9-10 Mountain Time and they’d love to have any of you call in who would be interested in asking a question or making a comment.

The number to call is 347-327-9995. This guy has written a book called My Mama’s Kitchen and is a real champion for Mothers! He says he’s had 9 wonderful women who have impacted his life and he is really interested in the power of moms (sound familiar)?

Hope to hear from some of you!

Our Own Eva Koleva Timothy coming to Utah!

2011-10-23T23:16:00.001-07:00

Great Kids Make Great Communities

2011-10-15T09:40:00.001-07:00

Put a great Judge, a fabulous organizer, seven hundred and fifty parents and community workers who love kids together at the Grand Wayne Conference Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana and you have a terrific force for the good of children and youth!

Judge Charlie Pratt, who is revered and inspired by everyone who knows him has been running an annual Conference on Youth for parents and community workers in Fort Wayne for 22 years! His passion is helping kids in difficult situations and their counselors, supporters and parents to succeed. This year the conference was called "Great Kids Make Great Communities".

We became more and more impressed with Judge Pratt as he gave a thoughtful speech about entitlement as he introduced us and offered a beautiful prayer at the beginning of the conference and again at lunch thanking and asking for help from a higher power for their success. He was so humble and unassuming...the last thing he would want is for anyone to think he was important. He helped cleaned up the board room after the event and was the last one out. He even helped me look for my phone, which I lost at lunch (and is gone forever. Shucks!)

The event included three keynote speakers of whom we were delighted to be one (well actually two) and several workshops. Ideas from The Entitlement Trap were fun to present to a very receptive audience.

As we sat at book signings during the day we were blown away by the stories of the good people who stopped by: so many parents who had fostered countless kids and adopted the ones who fit into their family and a cute young dad who said his life turned around when, as a 16 year-old African American juvenile, he was told by a police officer that within ten years he thought he would probably be in prison. In actual fact, in ten years he had taken that man's job! His name tag said "Detective" which comes after much training as a police officer.

The other keynote speakers were amazing! Clay Roberts told us how to make a difference in the lives of young people and had us reminisce about who had made a difference in our life as a youth. It was very compelling!

The last speaker, Tricia Downing, was an amazing woman in a wheelchair who walked us through her life, first as a first class bicyclist, and then after being hit by a car on her way home from a long ride (shades of Jonah), was told that she would never walk again. The story of her journey of recovery which included never saying "I can't" was incredible! After many years of unbelievable will and effort she participated in the Iron Man race in Hawaii (she swam backwards and used two different kinds of bikes operated with her arms in the other two events). I guess I'll just go ahead and quit whining about the pain and numbness in my leg!

One of the highlights of the day was having our niece Brittani and her husband Aaron and their darling little Joy School girl Sera join us for lunch! They have just moved to Fort Wayne, which we discovered just before we left. They were able to meet the Judge and some of the other speakers and we were so grateful to have a few minutes to catch up!

With thanks to Megan Kelly, the incredible organizer of the event, we learned so much about the "salt of the earth" that day, both from the conference participants and the Mitchells!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

As Predicted…. But Not Ready!

2011-10-07T10:11:00.001-07:00

I want SUMMER back! Give me that luscious warm sun on the balcony to read a book by! (Check out the ice on that “rain drain”)

After all our TLC, this is what our poor little flowers get for giving us three months of color and light!

Shucks! I’m just going to remember that I LOVE winter….for three weeks! Nine months? We’re going to have to look at joining Jonah and Aja in Hawaii!

BCRANK (Beaver Creek Ranch at Narnia Canyon)

2011-10-06T08:50:00.001-07:00

Time to take a break from the minutia of launching a new book, which feels very much like having a new baby, take a deep breath and enjoy the wonders of nature!

On Monday as we listened to the weather and heard the inevitable was coming….SNOW!

We’ve had my kind of autumn at BCRANK. Hot air, cool breezes, then a cool snap and sudden brilliant reds, oranges and yellows. Summer is glorious in our neck of the woods. Also short. Autumn is nothing short of spectacular…and even shorter. So I put on my five-finger walking shoes and took the “long walk” (five minutes) to our little slice of heaven, a series of beaver dams that keep us mystified thinking about these incredibly industrious nocturnal animals. We’ve never seen even one beaver in all the years we’ve been here, but their insatiable need to build, build, build, have created a wonderland in our backyard. In addition we have fields of cattails and a little old structure we have nicknamed “The Pony Express Station”, having no idea if that was really what it was. Romantic thought though.

There’s nothing like ‘a walk in the woods’ to revive your soul and gird up your loins for a winter that lasts about nine months. So here we go:

Here is the evidence of the “night shift” of the beavers:

The path leads to the glories of autumn.

A path to “ye old pony express station” from years gone by:

Someone has found a place of rest!

Home again….bracing for the S word!

Pain and Pleasure in Boston/Newburyport

2011-09-29T22:21:00.001-07:00

This week we have been in Boston with Saydi and Jeff and their darling family as well as Eva and Adam and their adorable kids. One of the reasons for coming was Dad/Rick’s 40th reunion at the Harvard Business School which sounded so fun!

Just before we left, the little pinch in my hip that had bothering me through all the wildness of last week….a book club dinner party for 24, TOFW, a TV show, tons of radio shows to launch the book and on and on turned against me and morphed into major sciatica pain. Even though my back doesn’t hurt one bit, there is a lot of pain in my hip with shooting pains down my leg. Plus a little catch that feels kind of like someone slammed my finger in the door and then takes off down the road without noticing. Yikes! I have downed more pain pill this week than I have in my entire life put together!

As fate would have it, Dad/Rick also developed a nasty case of gout in both toes, even though the Internet says that’s not possible. He now has shooting pains running like lighting running around in both feet. Just when you want to look young and vibrant for the 40 year reunion at the Harvard Business School, we somehow fit right in with the “old guys”.

Needless to say we are going to be happy to be at the clinic in the morning to get some help from cortisone and whatever it takes to make things better. After we catch our breath with the pain we just have to stop and laugh. It’s so ridiculous that we both became what looks like a ninety year old couple hobbling along the best we can!

Saydi was the kindest, most attentive nursemaid ever and she and Jeff gave up their wonderful bed for us and slept on the air mattress in the “guest room” downstairs. How kind and helpful was that? We are forever grateful!

The Shumways house is always so warm and welcoming. I love the beautiful soft colors, the way the light comes in the windows and the engaging conversations that are always there!

The Shumway kitchen is always bursting with gourmet food too. We had some terrific meals, including this breakfast with a whole wheat pancake recipe from Shawni. I’m the one who accidently poured all that syrup on the plate. Silly Grammie!

Their garden is bursting with beautiful flowers, veggies and fruits! Emmeline kept bringing us raspberries and strawberries and Hazel and Charlie enjoyed sharing their crops which included potatoes and squash. I regret not taking more pictures but sadly I was thinking more about pain than the panorama of garden vegetables. Going down those back stairs seemed impossible!

We did find a few hours to drive to the beautifully picturesque village of Newburyport where Adam and Eva live! We had so much fun sharing their creative lifestyle and hearing about their exciting adventures! Eva home-schools the kids and they are far beyond their peers not only in academics but in creativity. They are truly amazing! As you might guess their house is full of love and crammed with imaginative projects!

The Shumway kids fit right in with their own creativity!

Here is her oldest (8) who created this sign himself and made $17 in one afternoon.

Also an avid reader, he is just finishing this book which is the 19th of similar size in a series that he loves.

So many fun things to see in their beautiful home. This woman’s photography is beyond spectacular! She has an exhibit on her last book Lost in Learning at a local art shop and is bringing the exhibit out to BYU and the U of U in November where she will be speaking about the process of creating this amazing book of photography and the written word.

What a family! (Shucks, should have turned off the flash!)

Adam and Eva had just returned from a BIF Conference where she presented a fifteen minute speech about her life. Wow, do we wish we had heard that. This is one remarkable woman! I think this is the first time she and Adam have ever left the kids and they missed them dearly.

One of the kids’ jobs is to feed the animals at a nearby farm once a week. It was a delight to see how much all the kids loved the animals. What an idyllic childhood these kids are living….including the Shumways!

Such a beautiful spot on earth:

This little cluster of kids are instant friends whenever they see each other. We’re so glad that Saydi lives so close and can enjoy the beach in the summer (and the winter) and this beautiful place for children to play!

Sadly you can’t see Hazel very well but we suddenly realized that we had kids who were 8,7,6,5,4, and almost 3! What an adorable bunch….

Plus adorable little Peter who was as good a solid block of gold and has the cutest expressions ever! What a guy!

We are forever grateful that Saren found Eva in Bulgaria and brought her home to us! And we are even more grateful to her courageous and wonderful parents who lent her to us for few years, not knowing at the time whether or not they would ever see her again! Who would have ever imagined when Adam and Eva got married that they do all they have done, be all they would be along with her parents who live in an apartment in their house.

Heavenly Father is in the details!

Nothing like a farm to get you in touch with the earth. FUN!

Time Out for Women….Logan

2011-09-18T19:36:00.001-07:00

What fun we had this weekend with our friends from Time Out for Women…henceforth known as TOFW! This isn’t the entire “cast” but we are so privileged to be on the same program at Utah State University with “Mercy River”, Emily Freeman, and Michael Wilcox!

Also our amazing friend Mariama Kolon who we learn from every time we hear her extraordinary story and her supportive friends who wear the most incredible clothing! Sweet Christiana on the left along with her husband and son from Ghana were Noah and Kristi’s dear friends at BYU. when they were in school together. They came to our home for Thanksgiving one year so it was a fun reunion. Such terrific people!

We met old and new friends and so many who have supported Dad and I through the years. Below is a mom (second from the right) with her daughters and daughters-in-law, there together enjoying their mom’s Christmas gift to them…tickets to TOFW.

Our supportive sister-in-law Karen came to be with us along with sensational Saren who missed our talk because she got stuck in the Logan Marathon traffic but enjoyed the rest of the day with us!

What could be more fun than going back to my alma mater and presenting a talk with our darling Shawni on the very stage where, as a music major I participated in countless concerts in orchestra and concert choir performances while I lived there for four years. Never in a million years 40 years ago, could I have “thought up” this dream!

Deliberate Couples Produce Great Families

2011-09-12T10:30:00.001-07:00

Isn't it ironic that in order to drive a motorcycle, or operate a car you have to go through a long process of reading instructions, practicing and training, but to learn how to "drive" a marriage or to "operate" children there is basically no training and certainly no instruction manual? Sure we can find help from counselors...at a huge cost when a marriage is in crisis or a child is out of control but why wait for that to happen? Spending the time to think about goals for our marriage relationships and to organize some specific, measurable family systems that will make it much less likely that we will need those counselors later is a crucial need!
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Last weekend, in order to help with that problem, PowerofMoms.com held their first ever Retreat for couples. The Power of Moms has held many wonderful Retreats just for moms but as they get ready to launch a companion website - "The Power of Families" - it was exciting to see them get going on working with dads AND moms who want to be Proactive Partners and Deliberate Parents! An outstanding group of 80 parents arranged for grandparents, friends, neighbors and good samaritans to take their kids to soccer and baseball games, music lessons and choir practices so that they could feel the power of a lot of deliberate couples in the same room, figuring out how they can do their most important job as spouse and parent better!

The founders of Power of Moms, Saren Loosli (our daughter) and April Perry, along with their husbands Jared (who created their beautiful website with his magnificent mind educated at MIT) and Eric (a Harvard Business School graduate with ideas pouring out of his head) along with a little help from the Eyres had fun presenting ways to empower families.

On Friday night, attendees were given specific methods to get our to-do lists and goals, dreams and ideas in order through a program created by April called Mind Organization (based on David Allen's international best-seller, Getting Things Done). It was thought-provoking and freeing. Instead of feeling burdened by sometimes literally hundreds of projects, emails, calls and demands, April taught us how to feel the freedom of knowing what to do with all the opportunities, emails and papers that fly at us daily and how to prioritize in order to relieve the stress.

On Saturday, parents had the chance to discuss how to create better Partnerships in Parenting and were introduced to ways to set up Family Systems that work: A Family Legal System (laws and discipline), a Family Economy (so crucial in today's society filled with kids who feel entitled to have what they want right now without having to work for it) and how to create a Family Culture that helps kids feel pride in being part of something that is bigger than themselves and something that will last, even when they have left home.

It was an exhilarating weekend, not only for the attendees but also for Richard and I as we rubbed shoulders with so many good parents who are raising the next generation with power and purpose!

Eric and April presenting their ideas with Saren taking pictures in the background:

Saren, April and Tiffany Sowby, the event organizer:

Two generations of deliberate parents! Megan Stewart and husband Wes came with Megan's parents Bryce and Mary Croxford who still have young children of their own.

True and Horrifying Confessions!

2011-09-05T22:15:00.001-07:00

It was July 28th and Rick and I were on our way back to Bear Lake. We had an appointment with the “shoulder doctor” and the Dr.’s office was on the way. We however, were stopped in our tracks when the Dr. said he had looked at the MRI and discovered that one muscle in the rotator cuff had completely torn through and another one had been torn off the bone many years ago.

He then gave us the cheerful news that after surgery Poor Richard would need to be in a brace/sling for 6 weeks without moving his shoulder, then another six weeks doing intense physical therapy and then it would be another two months after that before he would be able to swing a tennis racket. Immediately we decided that the journey to recovery needed to start right away. We went straight back home and prepared for surgery the next morning. Even though there were still several families at the lake, many had gone home and those who were left offered to help clean and clear things out for the renters who were arriving on the weekend.

Fast forward to day before yesterday. We had fun with Saren and Jared and their “five in five years.” We drove to Ogden and took the kids to Cars 2 and then we had a yummy dinner at the fabulous Sonora Grill with Saren and Jared. Early the next morning Dad went to Logan to help Grandma and Sheri and I went to church with the Looslis. Dad came back to pick me up and visit for a while. Just as we got up to leave Jared said, “Wait Silas and Oliver have something to tell you.” “Okay,” smiled Dad, “let’s hear it.”

“Well I think you better sit down for this one,” Jared said and we sat down. Oliver then spilled the beans about what happened with details also pouring out of Silas like water out of a spout.

You see that tractor in the background there in the picture below that the grandkids have been told a hundred times not to get on because it’s dangerous and not ours, it’s our neighbor’s?

Well our darling twins Oliver and Silas got on the tractor to play. Their cousin McKay was playing on our sailboat behind the tractor which was attached by a trailer hitch. There is nothing in this world that Silas and Oliver love more than mechanical things and how they work. Apparently Silas began pulling knobs and and fiddling with switches for all he was worth when the tractor suddenly STARTED! The worst news is that it was IN GEAR and they had no idea in their wildest dreams how to stop it! They were pouring out details so fast they we’re still not sure we have all of them but this is the gist of what happened next:

With two six year olds (we’re not absolutely sure whether they were filled with glee or terror…probably both) at the wheel and a five year old hanging on to the sailboat mast (we’re pretty sure in terror) they made a pretty interesting trip around the sandy area where the tractor sat. They did admit to crushing a bucket and bumping in to one of the jet skiis (which luckily was already defunct).

That said, they somehow managed to miss all the these fences (below) and the pavilion (above). They also managed to miss the lake and missed hitting any bumps or large clumps of sagebrush that might have thrown them off when we can only imagine the worst that could happen. They finally headed for a hill of sand that was too steep for the little tractor and after spinning it’s wheels for a while, it clicked a few times and stopped.

Now that a month has passed, I managed to avoid fainting but I have to admit feeling pretty weak in the knees by the time the whole story spilled out. I could imagine them driving into the kitchen of the pavilion and getting clonked on the head with debris or hitting the hot tub or driving away into the wild blue yonder of the lake. The possibilities are endless!

Of course there were lessons learned….they had gone down there without telling their parents who were preparing dinner and didn’t even know they were gone. They were sure that they would never play on the tractor again AND they knew how good it felt to tell us the truth and get it off their consciences (we hadn’t seen each other since that day until then).

McKay was the first one to tell his parents (I think just before prayers that night) and the twins, we think, were in quite a lot of trouble when the news was out! Oliver said that he was telling Silas not to fiddle with the controls. Silas admitted that he was the one who actually started the tractor and was very repentant! Luckily Jared (who grew up driving tractors himself when he was only a few years older than these guys) was able to start the tractor and get it back to its original place without any harm done other than near heart-attacks experienced by parents, grand parents, aunts and uncles.

Once we recovered from the original shock and now that we know that everybody’s okay, you just can’t help but look at these three musketeers and laugh. What a great story this will be for the rest of their lives! Left to right: McKay (5), Oliver and Silas (6)

Still we’re just glad that it wasn’t this tractor! The next time you go to the farm in Ashton Saren and Jared, maybe you better double check that you know exactly where the keys are to this big guy!

Winners!

2011-09-02T17:44:00.001-07:00

Our fun give-away is over and the winners are below. Thanks to all of you who participated by pre-ordering The Entitlement Trap and getting the free download of the honesty adventure in the Alexander’s Amazing Adventures series. We think your kids will love it!

We so appreciate all our friends who look in at Eyrealm and support us through all these crazy book adventures! “Selling” is not my thing so your support is treasured. One last thought: even though the give-away is over, The Entitlement Trap can still be purchased on Amazon HERE for $11.44 instead of $18 if you order before it debuts on September 6th.

Congratulations to our winners!

Premium Prize Winner
Julie Oliphant

Gold Prize Winner
Sarah Granata

Silver Prize Winners
Teri Ross
Amy Bjorkman
Barbara Christiansen
Larissa Call
Melanie Burgess Easthope
Angie Pegram
Lori Gertsch
Emily Rubino

Final Day

2011-08-31T07:37:00.001-07:00

Although you can continue to order The Entitlement Trap until the book is released on September 6th, tomorrow (Wednesday, August 31st) is the last day for pre-orders for the give-away prizes. We look forward to handing out the prizes! In case you still want to pre-order which automatically puts you in the running for prizes take a look HERE. Winners will be announced at Eyrealm (as well as many others sites) on Thursday September 1st! The pre-orders have been terrific and Penguin is pleased as punch. The big online stores aren’t giving us numbers so it will remain to be seen if the book will debut on the best seller list. We’re crossing our fingers but not holding our breath!

Thanks SO much to all of you who have supported the premise of this book and have pre-ordered! This cause to stem the tide of kids’ feelings of entitlement is rolling forth!

Gripping, Thoughtful and Funny Posts from NEAD

2011-08-24T17:13:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful response from our bloggers/website, facebook and twitter friends on Monday for National Entitlement Awareness Day! Thanks to everyone who participated and please know that it’s not too late to post on your blog, facebook, website, LinkedIn, Google+ or twitter accounts. The giant giveaway HERE goes until September 1st so if you feel the inclination to share by sending that link to your friends, please DO!

There were so many outstanding posts that we thought we’d share just a few with you! Maybe the most poignant was from Chrysula Winegar who linked to the an amazing site below. A great tool for helping our kids realize how blessed they are and stir feelings of entitlement is to see this great photo essay at the NYTimes showing children around the world and where they sleep. Our daughter Saren showed this to her kids and felt that they learned so much by looking at these photos. She said the pictures prompted some great discussions. You will see everything from a little boy who lives in a makeshift shack on top of a garbage dump to a pageant-queen 4-year-old with her decked-out princess bedroom. Check it out here: Where Children Sleep. Thanks Chrysula!

Our daughter Saydi’s Shumway’s contribution was hilarious! Just take a look at this post called Seriously Pottery Barn? The picture is so ridiculous that is will make you laugh and the commentary is even funnier!

Our friend Rachel Denning whom we met in India last summer while working full-time with her family in India at Rising Star Outreach.org did a terrific post called 4 Surefire Signs Your Kids are Stuck in the Entitlment Trap HERE.

Another outstanding post by Whitney Johnson points out that we want to do everything for our kids when what they really need is parents who make them do things for themselves! See if we don’t all fall into this trap HERE. Both Whitney and Macy Robison who did a wonderful post HERE are hosting their own giveaways just to move things along. Thanks you two!

Literally hundreds of moms (and some dads) posted on Monday for which we are so very grateful! We won’t know our numbers until the release date of the book on September 6th but we do know that our publishers at Penguin are thrilled with the pre-sales thanks to you!

GIANT Give-Away for The Entitlement Trap

2011-08-21T23:03:00.001-07:00

Today, August 22nd is National Entitlement Awareness Day. We are grateful for the POWER of amazing bloggers all across the country who are all blogging today about the great need to stem the tide of kids’ attitudes of entitlement in our families and introducing our new book called THE ENTITLEMENT TRAP How to Save Your Child with a New Family System of Choosing, Earning and Ownership. It will be published the first week of September but we want everyone to know that by pre-ordering at Amazon, B&N or BooksAMillion.com BEFORE it is published the book it will be 33% off….about $12 instead of $18 when purchased after it is released.

A large majority of parents say entitlement issues like, “I want what I want right now because all my friends have it and I really need it” is the biggest problem facing our families today so this has become our cause. When our daughter Shawni asked the readers of her blog for examples of entitlement issues with their kids she got an absolute avalanche of stories that pretty much proved our theory that it is a huge problem gripping our families.

If we can get enough pre-orders we have a shot at opening on the NY Times best seller list on the day the book debuts which will help immensely to get this book in the hands of many more parents! To speed sales we are having a Giant Give-Away starting today and going until September 1st. Everyone who orders is a winner. To get details for pre-ordering and the other give-away items click HERE which is more complete than the one you see on the side.

Any of you friends out there checking in at this Eyrealm blog who have blogs, facebook pages, twitter accounts or email lists who would be willing to share this message, we would be SO grateful! Anyone who posts and sends us the link and their mailing address will receive a free book. If you are reading this after August 22nd but before Sept.1st please spread the word.

This isn’t just a book about teaching kids how to handle money wisely but also to teach them to make good choices and decisions and to feel that they have “equity in their families.” Thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who feel you can join the cause and pass the word.

P.S. Please don’t view this as a “sell” but as a “cause”. I’m horrible at sales but not so bad at causes especially when it comes to families!

Oh my goodness!

2011-08-19T14:20:00.001-07:00

I just realized that I haven’t posted for three weeks! Four reasons:

1. Taking care of an “invalid” takes a lot of time! Dad/Rick tore a ligament right through on his rotator cuff in his shoulder playing basketball and has had surgery. Seven little holes are healing well on his shoulder but progress is slow. He’s given up all hope for basketball or tennis at least for 5 months. Shucks!

2. The minute the last child left the first week of August we have both put our heads down, doing our best to work on pre-sales of our new book (The Entitlement Trap). Bless the Internet! Without our kids' and grandson Ashton’s help online we’d never be able to pull this off.

3. We’ve been speaking at Education Week in Provo. Last presentations were today. So fun! So many great people!

4. I sent both my cameras to England with Charity (long dramatic story). She left me hers but I can’t remember to find it!

POOR RICHARD!

Smiling on the way into surgery:

NOT SO HAPPY and totally “drugged out” right after surgery.

Watch for a post on Monday which is National Entitlement Awareness Day and a giant give-away. I’ve never even thought of doing a giveaway on this blog because I thought that I was just sort of writing to the family. BUT on google analytics it seems that there are “a few” others who are peeking in. Check in on Monday. If you are a blogger yourself we’d love your help!

Grammie Camp #3

2011-07-26T07:19:00.001-07:00

With a day in between to recover I was excited have the older kids for Grammie Camp. Groups 1 and 2 are between 10 and 14 and they are so much fun. Their lives start getting complicated as they get older. Our oldest grandson Max had just returned from EFY at BYU and Elle had spent the week at tennis camp, also at BYU. I have been combining groups 1 and 2 through the years so this year, we had a little talk about sibling and cousin rivalry before we started as by this time last year, after being together for a whole month there were some small issues but they were great to follow the rules: no crying, not teasing, no whining, no sibling rivalry at Grammie Camp. We had a ball!

Group 1 is Max (14), Ashton (11) and Elle (almost 13).

Group 2 is Aniston (almost 10), Isaac (10) and Grace (10)

The plan was to go to Minetonka Cave, a famous cave in Bear Lake County with a guide who knows all the stalactites and stalagmites like they are his children (knowledge from a previous visit five years earlier). After we climbed the steep uphill road for five miles through spectacular scenery, we found that their was a 90 minute wait. We turned around and decided to go to the Bloomington Cemetery and then find the famous Paris Ice Cave which none of us had ever seen instead.

Once again we scavenged for the graves of our ancestors. This group remembered a lot of what they had learned last year and loved seeing the creek where Grampa Jacobson was baptized about a hundred and two years ago. They love/hate the story of the cousin who many years ago was wrestling with a friend who accidently broke our cousin’s neck and he died.

On to the Paris Ice Caves. A wild place that isn’t very big but sports ice all year round. The kids loved it as our warm flip flops and tennis shoes instantly froze to the ice.

I don’t know how much you can see in the picture below because we were in the shadows and I took this picture with my Iphone 3 but Ashton who was the “king of the hill” scaling the cliff (see above) dropped his flip flop in a hole and it promptly froze there. They are trying to dig it out (below). We thought that it was a gonner but Max, with his long arm managed to rescue it. It was quite a dramatic moment!

From there it was on to a three-year tradition of going to see our favorite melodrama at the Pickleville Playhouse in Garden City. Some of the kids had the DVD memorized from last year and Grace even used one of the vignettes to win an election for treasurer at her elementary school. This year it was called “Who Shot Juanito Bandidto” and we all laughed our heads off, cheered, booed and loved it!

And then it was home to the traditional flour game. By midnight the kids were all pretty punchy but it’s always fun!

Because Aniston was leaving, Grandfather picked up the “sensational six” the next morning at 7 a.m. for a trek to “Single Tree” on the mountain behind the Lighthouse to participate in a new tradition started last year….Grandfather’s Secrets. Details coming in a future post.

They loaded in the truck and had a wild and wonderful , even magical adventure.

Sadly we kissed Aniston good-bye as her family left us. We’ll have fond memories of this fun reunion and the great job Jonah and Aja (Aniston’s parents) have done to make it so fun and memorable for everyone…here’s a final glimpse of cute Group 2 with their flag complete with badges of honor!

Grammie Camp is over for another year!

Grammie Camp #2

2011-07-25T00:31:00.001-07:00

The next group of Grammie Campers (see previous post for details) was five little boys! They are hysterical to listen to. Oliver, Silas, McKay and Charlie are just such a great mix. We ended up driving to Logan about 90 minutes away to pick up our fifth little Grammie Camper, Camden, who is a bit older, and the natural leader. His parents had car trouble getting him back to Bear Lake so we met them in Logan to pick him up. I would give anything for a recording of the hilarious conversations that took place on those two 90 minute rides. Camden called roll every time we got back into the car and made sure that everyone was “seat belted”.

As luck would have it, our darling 88 year old Grandma lives in Logan so we met Camden’s family there and had fun with Grandma’s puzzles and taking pictures with her. Grandma got to meet Camden’s baby sister Poem for the first time (as you can see they were pretty taken with each other). Grandma Ruthie has dementia and is sadly getting a little foggier every day! These pictures will be priceless in years to come.

Next stop….the USU Creamery where we enjoyed some great ice cream.

From there it was back to Bear Lake and a great conversation about Family History. Swedish fish were prizes for anyone who could answer questions about their ancestors and I was amazed at how much they remembered from last year when treats were in the mix. We stopped at the historical marker where Grampa Roy gave Grandma Hazel a ring and asked her to marry him on the shores of Bear Lake just outside of Fish Haven.

And then it was back to the cemetery in Bloomington where the boys had a wild romp finding Grandpa Roy’s grave. Camden’s middle name was Roy so he was the most excited to be there:

The “weed drill” was next and that was very entertaining! Most of the boys are five and six and couldn’t really count to three hundred so things were a little more complicated. Some “miraculously” made it to their goal of 250 in no time at all! In the end they helped Camden who was the only one who really could count to finish his goal of 400 weeds.

They all loved those really big ones because they were “fivers” (worth 5 cents)!

Just before going to the Dollar Store we stopped at the Arctic Circle where they couldn’t be happier to play at playland and enjoy a little “junk food”!

The most popular purchase at the dollar store for these little guys were these handcuffs. We soon learned that not everything (in fact very few things) at the dollar store were actually a dollar. These babies cost 250 weeds but they thought they were totally worth every weed! Their uses seem endless!

Sleeping at The Lighthouse with this crazy crew is always interesting and so fun once they quit bouncing off the walls!

Sorry Silas, you were in the bathroom!

At bedtime, Grandfather came and told them his famous “Old Ephraim” Story. Even though teenagers have been known to be scared by this story which was presented with “over the top” gusto, by grandfather, when we asked the boys afterward if they were scared, Silas said, “Actually I thought it was kind of funny.”

Even these little guys know the Grammie Camp song and the first part of the scripture (Heleman 5:12) which we reviewed in the morning after a pancake breakfast. The finale was a squirt gun fight. Needless to say…everybody won!

Could anything be more fun than spending a day with this crew without their parents? They kept me rolling with laughter. I sure love these little guys!

Grammie Camp #1

2011-07-24T22:56:00.001-07:00

Our official reunion with everyone together lasts from Wednesday at dinner to Sunday afternoon. Even though husbands start departing for work after that and people are coming and going in order to keep up with their work lives, the fun just goes on for me! After a day of recovery and a night out with just the moms for dinner, I get to start the one-on-one time with my extraordinary grandchildren. They are divided into groups and we call our time together “Grammie Camp.” This year we had three different groups, all held according to who was here when.

The first group consists of three little girls who adore each other (most of the time) and who love learning…about everything! We usually start Grammie Camp after lunch one day and finish after breakfast the next day.

We try to do something a little different each year but there are a few things that are dyed-in-the- wool traditions. Because my parents were both farmers, one thing we learned well when we were home was how to work! In my efforts to carry on this tradition, the kids actually have fun doing what they call “picking weeds”. Every weed they pull is worth one penny and the money they earn will be spent later that afternoon at the dollar store in Montpelier.

These girls made a goal of “picking” 300 weeds and they worked their little hearts out! Here they are with their gloves on…ready to work:

It wasn’t so fun when they got into the prickles, but they persevered and reached their goal. Pretty magnificent weeds huh? (Secret… I watered them before we started so they were pretty easy to “pick”).

Here they are with their proud purchases from the dollar store after all their hard work:

These three are also pretty amazing artists! We had them go pick a bouquet of flowers and then use pointillism to paint their pictures with watercolors and Q-tips. They came up with some really creative paintings!

Here are the finished products without Claire’s who had already taken it home by the time I thought to take pictures. Shawni send me a picture and I’ll insert it.

Another traditional thing we do at Grammie Camp is to hear Ancestor stories and then visit some of their graves. Many of my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins are buried in the Bloomington Cemetery, just across the lake. It’s so fun to have a scavenger hunt for graves in the cemetery. At my mother, Hazel Jacobson’s grave these cute kids rejoice in finding their GREAT grandmother. On the left is Claire Hazel, in the middle is Hazel Jane and on the right Eliza Sage. Plenty of Hazels to go around to remember this extraordinary woman! She must be so proud of these kids! Looks as though they’re pretty proud of her too!

This year we found this T-shirt which was appropriate since two of these little girls’ mothers went to Wellesley College and the other practically lived at Wellesley with

Of course dancing and a talent show is always part of these girls’ Grammie Camp. There’s a Grammie Camp song that these girls know word perfect and a the first part of my favorite scripture which is Heleman 5:12. Every word they got perfect was worth a gummy bear and they have that thing flat!

We found this old T-shirt this year that made me smile because two of the mothers of these girls went to Wellesley College and the other mom practically lived with her sister there while she attended Boston University. She even named her oldest daughter Wellesley!

In the morning we cooked waffles and bacon under the direction of Hazel (sorry…blurry, but these kids just can’t quit moving…and neither can I) and a grand time was had by all!

I LOVE getting my grandchildren all to myself in small groups. I learn so much about their personalities and their abilities to interact with their cousins. It’s pure joy! Group 4 coming next!

Baby Blessing

2011-07-24T17:33:00.001-07:00

There’s nothing quite like a baby blessing at Bear lake. I love the excitement in the air, the aunts, uncles and cousins all anticipating an once-in-a-lifetime event…at least for that particular baby. This year on the last day and the last hour of our “official” reunion our good son Jonah Jacobson Eyre pronounce a blessing on his darling baby girl: Poem Therese Eyre.

The cousins, aunts and uncles were as excited as the parents!

This year the blessing was given on the deck of the Lighthouse. Can you imagine the power that was present as all these wonderful men joined in the blessing of this little baby?

The short guy on the end is our beloved Dr. Wolff who lives in Montpelier and has bailed us all out more times than we can count with almost every imaginable malady. Everyone calls from all acrtoss the country whenever there is a health emergency. They all have their own doctors but trust Cub’s wisdom more! We all LOVE “CUB”!

This little girl is going to have an incredible life. Her Dad, Jonah, reminded us that the book of Jonah is a poem. Perfect name for a child whose family is also a poem. A pretty amazing poem at that!

Reunion Mania!

2011-07-19T13:50:00.001-07:00

Well, the time has finally arrived again when (luckily this year) all 39 of us gathered together at our beloved Bear lake (with two new babies "on the way” who will join us next year). With three of our families on the West Coast and three on the East Coast, two in Phoenix and one in Ogden and even though they do somehow manage to see each other quite a bit during the year, we’re never really ALL together except for four days in July. Little cousins who were two last year and now three (or almost) and getting to know each other!

Glad they have their life jackets on in that kiddie pool…but they’re going to need it when they get to the lake behind them. It’s FULL!

Parents are slathering on Suntan Lotion

And enough sand castles were built that if they were lined up, they could reach all the way to China:

And bunnies show up again to eat the flowers in my flower gardens!

And the eclectic collection of shoes outside the front door is back:

Kids fill up the hot tub after a cold dip in the lake…

“Ye Ol’ Montero” is put back together again (by our in-house mechanic Jonah) and kids LOVE covering it like flies on rancid meat….

This year the worst happened….after 15 years of running like a top, the boat wouldn’t work! Even after paying a guy in Logan a hefty amount to get it going, it still didn’t work. Once again our mechanic Jonah along with his very knowledgeable assistants Jeff and Jared, somehow after many hours of trying, failing and trying again, got it going! Take a look at these kids’ faces when they thought they weren’t going to be able to waterski/wakeboard this year:

The biggest cheer of the reunion occurred when it actually started!

THE BONFIRE

This year, the reunion was planned and organized by Jonah and Aja. What great ideas they came up with along with following the traditions of previous years. The first night of the reunion we had a big bonfire where we listened to everyone’s favorite songs of the year (including the kids) on a CD. Jonah and Aja had begged, pleaded and threatened people to send their songs and we loved listening to the CD together and guessing whose song was whose! Those CDs are played in all our cars during the year and even though dad and I can’t keep track of them, every kid know who sent which song.

THE TEAMS AND FLAGS

Our fearless organizers also had the kids organized in teams each with a team flag. They got special badges for fulfilling certain requirements. Little kids were coming up to me in droves asking what they could do to help! It sure helped at mealtime with washing dishes and emptying that forever-full dishwasher!

THE TALENT SHOW

…including pole-climbing

And during a fun skit, Nurse Julie and her husband Eli taught us all how to do the Heimlich Manuever

THE TENNIS TOURNAMENT

Every year we have a tennis tournament and with 18 adults entered, we have to be pretty serious about playing those matches! These are the semi-finalist: Eli and Julie and Shawni and Dave:

And the other semi-finalist: Noah and Kristi and the Magnificent Granddaughter Elle who was on her way to BYU Tennis Camp

And the winners were:

Grandfather and Elle! As Elle kisses her trophy, hope you can read the caption:

OTHER EXCITING EVENTS….

included McKay learning the Grandfather trick of taking his thumb off:

Wild and crazy dancing with a Wii game…

REVERSE CHARADES

A spectacular double rainbow framing the Lighthouse….

PICTURE TAKING AT SUNSET

AND PICTURES ON SUNDAY MORNING ON THE DAY SOME HAD TO LEAVE

And the individual pictures of the Shumways, Pothiers and Jonah and Aja’s family and Tal and Anita will be showing up in future posts. Somebody else has them in their cameras.

What a grand time we had celebrating together. It was wild chaos at mealtimes and crazy fun at the beach. There were forever-messes to clean up, lots of kid-fights to quell, games until midnight and mellow talks one-on-one and in groups.

One of our most important items of business is an Eyrealm meeting where we figure out humanitarian projects that we can support each year with money from The Eyrealm Foundation. Our children are all members of the board and Saren, our oldest is the Chariman of the Board. Many of those projects are ones that our children are intimately involved with. It always brings forth great ideas to give back!

Thanks to Jonah and Aja for a fabulous reunion! How very blessed we are!

Birthdays!

2011-07-12T12:48:00.001-07:00

Wow, do we ever celebrate birthdays here at Eyrealm! Our adorable Lyla (Noah and Kristi’s) just turned three as they arrived for a wedding and a reunion. What a girl she is! There is no doubt in your mind that she knows what she wants. What a great attribute for life! Look at her concentrate on getting that third finger up after doing two for a whole year:

Great things are going to come from this little girl!

There’s nothing like the birthday of our nation to help you remember how lucky we are to be Americans. So many men and women gave so much to bring us the freedom that we enjoy. We love to remember and to celebrate! This year we were once again at the lake anticipating our reunion. Here are a few shots that will help those of us in Eyrealm remember this moment in time!

If you want some serious inspiration through fine art and music see this fabulous website by our prize-winning photographer and almost daughter Eva Koleva Timothy and her extraordinary husband Adam who is playing the piano for these spectacular photographs. They are working on a new book soon to be released with some of the elements here.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

2011-06-27T08:09:00.001-07:00

We have had so much fun the past couple of weeks!

We did another segment on Mormon Times with Kathy Aiken…

Our dear friends and neighbors (former bishop and stake president) are leaving for a mission to Johannesburg South Africa and our neighborhood gave them a royal send-off….

Father’s Day was celebrated with this adorable Loosli family who showed up with grand cards and messages and even a cute wind sock for the GRAND father! (Isaac seems to be especially delighted?)

Charity came home (for a few hours until she left again). First stop….The Dodo!

The reunion is rumbling! Noah and Kristi showed up with their little crew a few days early for a wedding. We LOVED having them with us at church yesterday. For some reason these kids ADORE their grandfather!

We had several speeches over the weekend, including one in my hometown of Montpelier, Idaho at the historic Tabernacle there…where I graduated from high school, performed as “the Fiddler” at Fiddler on the Roof and have so many memories of Stake Conferences there.

It was truly a joy to see so many dear friends and relatives! Shirley and Neil Harris were there as well as Shirley’s mom Marlene who is my first cousin….long history with these talented people!

And our lifelong friends Cub and Bonnie Wolff and Bernard and Vicki Sparks were there to support us, although they already know everything there is to know about parenting! They are terrific!

Now we’re at Bear Lake where we are working little tails off for the second time this week to get everything (four houses and eight flower beds, boats and cars among other things) ready for the reunion. People will flood in this week and by July 6th all 39 of us will be together at our favorite spot on earth! The excitement builds!

Green and Blue

2011-06-15T18:55:00.001-07:00

Life is good! Busy. Complicated. But Good!

It’s finally spring where we live. It’s so heavenly to walk out the door and not cringe with cold or step in the mud! So fabulous to see GREEN again…plus sunshine AND they’ve finally fixed the road! For those of you have driven our development road in the past few months, this will mean a lot!

The waterfall is ready to go!

The path to the horse barn is finished. It is pure heaven to look out the windows in every direction!

This week we had the opportunity to take sweet Grandma and valiant Sheri to Bear Lake. They were a little BLUE because it’s hard for either of them to be away from home, but we stopped at the creamery for Aggie Ice Cream and had dinner at Cafe Sabor in Garden City so that softened the blow.

At the top of the Bear Lake overlook driving from Logan to Bear lake, they have recently placed a tribute to Grandma Ruthie’s oldest sister Mae Swenson who is a world renowed poet! The marker has a a poem that May wrote from that very spot. The sun was so strong that it was impossible to snap a picture of the poem straight on. I hope you can read this. It’s delightful!

It was so fascinating that the gorgeous BLUE lake and brilliant BLUE sky looked exactly as Mae described it in the poem as we stood there reading it at the overlook.

Here’s the Olive-sided Flycatcher referred to in the poem which is also on the marker.

May Swenson:

After an eventful night at Bear Lake, I rushed back to be with Saren and April at their fun Power of Moms retreat at a beautiful home in Centerville. These mothers were anything but GREEN! They were bright, deliberate mothers who know how to make family life exciting and to stay centered while they’re at it. They came with gaggles of great ideas and everybody left inspired! These are a few who stayed to the very end. Sorry to whomever I cut off on the right. Darn!

Speaking of dynamic people, I had the fun chance to say good bye to a dear friend who is going to serve our church in Chili for the next 1-5 years. Here are about half of the dozen or so who gathered to say farewell. They are some of the most amazing women on earth and have been true BLUE friends for more years than we wanted to count! Aren’t they beautiful?

Life is truly good…most days!

Surprised by SVU, Homeless in VA, and Happy with Eli in DC

2011-06-06T22:06:00.001-07:00

We started our weekend with the excitement of being somewhere we have never been before: a beautiful little town called Buena Vista with Southern Virginia University nestled in its arms. Though there are only about 750 students, it is indeed a University with all the advantages of small classrooms, excellent one-on-one time with professors and the joys of being a big fish in a little pond. The property is beautiful complete with a grand old mansion that was originally built to house a women's college.

We were there for a Family Conference that is directed by the incredible co-founder of SVU, Kathleen Knight, who has been doing family conferences for the past 15 years. She gathers people who are professionals in their field to present ideas at a weekend conference to help create stronger families through powerful music, inspiring art and the spoken word. She does a terrific job!

The artwork this year was a display of 30 stunning paintings that portray the magic of the seemingly mundane life of a mother. Leslie Graff, the artist, uses dress shoes to remind mothers that what they are doing is more important and even more glamorous than they may realize. When we consider what moms produce with all their daily and never ending acts of service we can see that the job of a mother can be downright heavenly even though some days it seems like the exact opposite.

(Saren, Leslie was at the POM retreat in NH). These are just pictures of paintings but you'll get the idea. I think they are truly extraordinary!

Speaking of art, I was totally surprised to find my darling friend Dixie Schoenhals Stoddard there. Her husband is on the SVU Board of Directors and has been a very generous benefactor. She has also been my art teacher and a whole gallery of her art is displayed at the university. It was truly a joy to see her!

It really felt like home when we also saw the wonderful Scott and Annell Doxey family including their oldest daughter Rachel who lives next door with two adorable children. Sadly they moved from our neighborhood last year as Scott accepted a job with the SVU administration. It was great fun to see their newly reverted "old home" there.

They are also hosting a high school exchange student from Indonesia this year. We loved talking with her, learning that kids in Java (where she lives and where many of the furnishings in our Balinese house are from), go to school from 6 am to 4 am from Monday through Saturday. Amazing! She also prays exactly on time five times a day and she fasted during Ramadan from sunrise to sunset during the entire month of August which has about 18 hours of daylight!!! She made me remember why I loved the Muslim families we have met on our travels. That is true devotion as well as quite incredible.

From there we got in our little rental car and in about 3 hours we were at Eli and Julie's house on Capitol Hill! Julie was in CA celebrating her parents' return from their mission in Brazil? Eli stayed for work but will joining her tomorrow.

As we drove into the DC area it seemed a bit strange not to have our little home in McLean after owing it for almost forty years, even though we haven't lived there for many years. After one moment of mourning I realized how good it feels to unload! Eli led us to a fab Thai restaurant in Georgetown and then on to the newly created park near their house, right on the river. It gives "park" a whole new meaning!

The next morning while Dad got some sun therapy on the roof, Eli and covered the National Gallery including the East wing. Too much to tell about all I loved but many of you will recognize Eli's favorite place on the mall:

That night we journeyed once again to the Temple Visitor's Center where Eli made an enormous contribution to our speech. It's always so fun to bask in the spirit there and even more fun to have Eli to add the substance and the pizzazz.

What an interesting ward Eli and Julie have! There couldn't be wider diversity combined with more depth in one ward! We LOVED it!

Today Dad and I walked down the mall and dashed into museums between phone calls trying to help Charity work out her accident details. We are SO grateful that she is okay! More details on that in the next post.

We are flying across the country and back to the real...crazy and exciting world! The question is..... will be snow at Park City?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Chicken Obituary, Ponyo RIP

2011-06-02T21:42:00.001-07:00

Our daughter-in-law Aja is not only brilliant but also clever and forever entertaining. And she LOVES animals, particularly "designer chickens"! At our family reunion last summer our favorite (and only) pet was the beloved Ponyo hauled all the way from the Olympic Penninsula in Washington to Bear Lake, Idaho in a station wagon already stuffed with five bodies and a summer's worth of "stuff". Ponyo was included in the family picture (see above)and was always fun to have around especially because Aja could always tell us what Ponyo was thinking. Here are Aja's thoughts at her passing and even though there is so much more to know about this chicken!s life we think the most entertaining obituary you've ever read, here you go:

We are very sad to announce the passing away of dear little Ponyo the chicken. She died on the morning of June 1st of natural causes incident to being a chicken.

Although she was only of average age for a chicken, Ponyo lived a very full life and was the better for her many joys and heartbreaks. She was born at McMurrray Hatchery, Iowa, on November 15th, 2009. She arrived at the Eyre Cottage in Sequim, WA four days later with 25 "siblings". Ponyo was adopted by Aniston as her chicken, and for this reason was actually quite shy of humans for her first eight months, despite having lived in the Eyres' house through the winter.

When tragedy struck on night of July 11th, 2010, Ponyo's life changed forever as she was the sole survivor of what has been termed, "Chicken Armageddon", Ponyo rose to her new role as the family pet. Although devastated by the loss of her twin sister Tina and her true love C Head, Ponyo quickly warmed up to the humans, often walking up to her family and wanting to be picked up and carried around.

When the family left for a 2000+ mile road trip, Ponyo came along. She rode in a laundry basket in the back of the station wagon, waiting to poop until the family stopped at rest stops. Ponyo visited seven states, met an Apostle, and even made it into Success Magazine and Deseret News. Towards the end of the road trip, she took to riding on the head rests so she could watch the road.

Ponyo's fame and her mourning for C Head meant a cold welcome for the new rooster Mr. Mouth who was picked up in Boise. Two more banty hens were picked up as well and when the family arrived home in July, Ponyo still liked the humans better.

It wasn't until new chicks were born and bought in October that Ponyo learned to love again. After many months, she gave into Beetlejuice's rooster advances. The two married in April and their first chick was hatched yesterday, May 31st, through a surrogate mother. Ponyo only saw the chick once before her untimely, but peaceful death.

While Ponyo did not make it into any more print media after her Success Magazine appearance, she did touch fame once more when she won the 116th Sequim Irrigation Parade Kiddie's Parade Best Dressed Pet competition. She beat out a fabulous daschund and bike riding cat to take 1st Place.

Ponyo is survived by her human family, her adopted sisters Ponyo Junior and Ponyo Protege, and by her child Ponyojuice.

She will be buried under the rose bush.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you abstain from eating chicken for a week. Eggs are okay.

Goodbye Ponyo! We love you!

Blizzard!

2011-05-30T07:27:00.001-07:00

What you can’t tell from these pictures is that on this Memorial Day, May 30, we woke up to a true blizzard! The wind is howling and the snow is swirling and it sounds like a snow storm in the Yukon on January 15th.

There are even ice cycles hanging from the lounge chair!

As much as we will miss not walking among the graves of our loved ones in the cemeteries today which we haven’t missed for many years, we’re so glad we’re not there. Bear Lake and Logan can only be worse! Ah for a little sunshine!

New Beginnings

2011-05-29T19:21:00.001-07:00

Our last high school graduation was many years ago so it was fun to be back at a high school graduation that was more like my own rural town graduation than our kids’ graduation from East High School. On Friday cute grand-nephew Adam Mann, graduated from North Summit High School.

It was great to see this family together again! One of our niece Trina’s darling daughters lives too far away to be there but her other four great kids were a sight to behold!

We were excited to see that Maxine’s cute baby is named Ashton, just like our terrific grandson who was named after where his father was born.

I don’t know how we missed getting Bobbi’s wife in this picture but their adorable little three year old has the cutest dimples you would ever want to see!

Beautiful Mom, Trina and her husband Mike and son Eddie were there to celebrate. This mom has been through a lot in her life and always comes out smiling!

Also beaming was Trina’s amazing sister Mandi and her husband Bret and their kids. Adam lived with them for a while since they live just a few houses from the high school while Trina and Mike were living in Texas.

With graduations as plentiful as the rain/snow this time of year, as soon as we start to feel sort of melancholy about the end of a once-in-a lifetime experience, we also realize that it’s really just the brand new beginning of the next great adventure!

One More Fun Retreat for Mothers at Our Home

2011-05-25T17:25:00.001-07:00

On May 20th and 21st another one hundred deliberate mothers gathered at our home to “sharpen their saws”. What fun we had thinking, planning and being inspired to be better at the world’s most important career… Motherhood! The event was planned and organized by our sensational Saren Loosli and her terrific co-founder April Perry through the incredible outreach of the Internet and their website at PowerofMoms.com.

On Friday about fifty mothers gathered for the afternoon to be instructed by the “guru of organization” and co-founder April. She did a session called Mind Organization for Moms which was soaked in like sunshine after a long, cold and dark winter. She is amazing in her abilities to teach Mothers to organize their papers, they computer files and their homes in order to survive the inevitable.

On Saturday all 100 mothers fit pretty nicely into the great room where Saren and April directed a program filled with great ideas…many of which came from the astute mothers in the audience.

Saren allowed Dad/Richard and I to be part of the training on creating family systems and she did an amazing job of keeping her parents on task and of organizing and making things run smoothly as well as presenting great ideas herself. She’s quite a woman as many of you know (no prejudice intended)!

Among the Saturday morning presenters was wonderful DeAnne Flynn, well-known author and speaker on Motherhood…..

As well as the delightful and inspiring Utah Young Mother of the Year, Emi Dalton Edgley. Find Emi in the upper right of the collage below which is a compilation of our wonderful day together!

An outstanding presentation was also given by one of the Power of Moms anchors, amazing Allyson Reynolds (below right). Each presented a stimulating and moving message for these mothers seeking career training! That cute girl to the left, our baby Charity was the outstanding event coordinator as well as talking about the sometimes wacky parenting ideas she grew up with. It’s so fun to see these book-end daughters working together.

During the lunch breaks the moms divided into eight groups and talked about their major mothering concerns in two different sessions:

At one point in the training a wild cowboy alias “Tex” came galloping up on his horse and his giant ten gallon hat. The audience watched as he dismounted, tied the horse to the stone planter in the front of the house and ran into the great room to teach the group about the importance of serendipity in their lives. It was a fun surprise and an indelible image. Thanks to Emi who saved my flowers in the planter from being an afternoon snack for Duffy the horse until I got there to rescue the flowers! I was so surprised that I forgot the camera. Shucks!

Saren and April calculated from registration forms that the 100 mothers there represented 493 children. Babes in arms (and car seats) won’t remember being there that day but very possibly what their mothers learned will be with them as they grow up for a very long time.

Warm congratulations to Saren and April! After spending about 30 hours a week for the past two years, this idea whose time has come is really taking off! Ah the Power of Moms!

The New and the Old

2011-05-19T13:18:00.001-07:00

This week Christian James Spencer was born by C section and was lifted out into the world at a spanking 8 lb. 4 oz. He is absolutely adorable! How those Spencers manage to get those adorable little noses is beyond me.

Oops, sorry little guy. I didn't mean to use a flash!

It was a bit of a scary delivery with temporarily losing his heartbeat and then having to put him on oxygen for a while and then Lindsay feeling as though this might be the end for a fleeting moment. BUT everything turned out great and here he is!

Something else new is that one of the finest families in our ward, the McDonald family with six kids, are moving to a new location. We are so sad to lose them but just think of the lucky neighbors who get them next! My amazing visiting teaching companion Heidi Shipp and I along with her darling son Matthew were there on Monday to help them move.

Another new beginning is happening to Sara McConkie, a dear friend of Charity's from study abroad in Jerusalem and adventures in India who is getting married this weekend. An extraordinary bachelorette party was held at our house. It was a pretty awesome sendoff for one amazing young woman!

Note

Note the 5th snow storm this week on May 19th!

You might think that 80 sounds old, but we attended a birthday party last night at the JSMB for one of the most amazing women who has ever walked the earth....and I mean she has walked almost every corner of the earth! The interesting thing was that she just didn't seem old...at all!
Just to give you a little insight to her fame both within the church and worldwide, six apostles of our church came to the party and if you asked how many ambassadors of the countries of the world she has been well acquainted with the answer would be in the hundreds! What a privilege it was to have known her when we lived in D.C

Here is Beverly Campbell in the flesh! (I'm so glad about that name tag!)

Even for Beverly this is a new beginning. As Elder Ballard said in his tribute to her, "Welcome to the eighties!"

Fun Weekend

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Shawni and I had so much fun for a day and a half in Oklahoma City this weekend where we spoke together at Time Out for Women. On Friday night there were delightful talks by Virginia Pearce, and Emily Watts and we were electrified with the music of darling Macy Robison who has a spectacular voice and an accompanist to match…the multi-talented Whitney Johnson. Together they touched the hearts of everyone in the audience as Macy sang and talked about her multitude of life-experiences.
Luckily she brought her adorable new baby so Shawni got her “baby fix” although I’m not too sure the baby was too excited about it!

Macy was purely an inspiration and we are looking for ways to get her involved in some Power of Moms retreats.

Shawni was immediately recognized by a cute self-proclaimed 71 toes "blog stocker" and many other young moms who have been following her blog.

Hilary Weeks is absolutely a genius at capturing the hearts of women at all stages of life. In addition to clever ways to say things, she can sing the right words and play her incredible original compositions on the piano at the same time. How can that be?

We also had the pleasure of hearing Michael Wilcox who has recently lost his wife and is always such an inspiration!

We have done almost every TOFW with the amazing woman below. This is Mariama Kallon who faced unspeakable terror at the hands of the rebels in Sierra Leone during the war. After seeing her parents killed and her sisters legs chopped off, she somehow escaped and found the Mormon religion which she says was her salvation. She ended up as a missionary on Temple Square in Salt Lake City and has become a beacon of faith and hope for thousands. Her contagious giggle mixed with her gripping stories of belief and strength propels us into a world of wonder whenever we hear her.

This was our first “Time Out” this year and they don’t do them in the summer. We look forward to honing our talk a little and being in Richmond, VA in September, Logan, UT in October and Phoenix, AZ in November.

We regretted missing Wendy Ulrich and Mary Ellen Edmunds but I had told the event organizers that I had to be home in time to give a SS lesson at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning and Shawni needed to be home too so we dashed off to the airport early.

When we got there I realized that our flight was arriving in SL in time to get to our darling Eliza’s Dance Concert at Kingsbury Hall which I was feeling so sad to miss.

I arrived just as the curtain went up and was treated to a most elegant Virginia Tanner dance recital. Eliza was certainly the star amongst about 200 little children who each had their moment of fame with their own little dance troop. I was SO happy to be there…along with Grandfather and the Loosli clan.

Very honestly….Charity would have been as proud as Saren! This girl has the moves!!!

One Heart Bulgaria

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On Saturday I had the opportunity to be one of the speakers at a lovely Mother's Day Charity Brunch at Noah's in Linton. What a privilege it was to be be in the same room with people who have done so much for so many!

About 18 years ago these two valiant women Deborah Dushku Gardner and our good daughter Saren, served together as missionary companions in Bulgaria.

After spending time in the orphanages once a week for 18 months cuddling orphans and being horrified with the conditions under which they were living they decided that something must be done for help these beautiful children. Glyn Barker (below), a missionary at about the same time was heart-broken at the conditions she found in the orphanages and started sending supplies to twin boys in one of the orphanages after returning home.

From there she and Deborah realized in order to get the help they needed to rescue these children they would need to organize a foundation. Glyn, Deborah, Saren and others have been back many time to assess needs and figure out how to raise more funds. On one trip both Saren and Deborah were pregnant (Saren 7 months pregnant with twins) and they were delighted to see what had been done with the help of the foundation (broken windows that had allowed snow to fall on sleeping children and been replaced and crumbling plaster on walls had been repaired) but were still aghast at how much there was yet to be done.

To make a long story short this has evolved into a fabulous foundation called One Heart Bulgaria that now serves 27 orphanages and about 2500 orphan children in Bulgaria. Many other people with a love for these orphans began to get involved. Several interns are sent over every summer to work in the orphanages.

The highlight of the program on Saturday for me was hearing from an amazing young man named Yenko who had been adopted at age seven by the amazing woman below from one of those orphanages. What an inspiration it was to hear him speak at age 20 about what his parents have done for him. Watching the love between this mother and very special child was a bona fide tear jerker!

More help is needed to help these gorgeous children. To see how you can get involved go to http://oneheart-bg.org/
These adorable children range from happy and healthy to being in great physical need. For a terrific 3 minute video of Deborah which includes footage of the orphanage on You Tube click here.

A special thanks goes to Quinn Curtis who organized a wonderful morning complete with a delicious brunch and an electric atmosphere of the importance of motherhood for those of us who were present. To see more about Quinn and her dedication to mothers go to quinn@revolutionmotherhood.com.