Catch Up on 2011 Highlights

Ok I'm on a blogging roll tonight, so I decided I should dive in and do a blog that hits some of the highlights of 2011.  This was a good year for our family, especially considering how difficult the previous one had been.  At the point that I was at, everything was looking up, because I had been pretty low as 2010 came to a close.  I hoped for a promising Spring. It was time to make the final, daunting push to finish my Bachelor's degree at BYU by the end of Summer.

My original deadline to finish the program had been set for April of 2011, and it quickly became clear to me that I wouldn't be able to complete all of the requirements necessary to meet it.  The BGS department administrators did a rare thing, and extended my deadline to August of 2011after I wrote a letter to ask for it.  With great relief I sat down with Mr. Smith and asked him to help me map out the next six months, so I could succeed.  It was not without great sacrifice on the part of my children and their dad that I eventually finished.  My parents kindly allowed me to crash at their home each weekend. During those times away I worked feverishly at my final classes, each one a great growing experience for me.

Here are some of my amazing professors who helped me to grow and learn SO much!

From Left to Right, going Clockwise: Allison Corey, Jeff Larson, Jennifer Walker,

George Ryskamp, Alan Hawkins, and Bill Duncan. Bottom: Jennifer Julian

 

In April of 2011, I had an unhappy encounter with a painful illness that I had never experienced before, and hope to never experience again.  My body had some kind of infection, but instead of fighting the bug and healing up like normal, it just went berserk and started attacking itself.  I was in bed for two weeks straight, and had no idea exactly what the condition was.  My joints were swollen up and constantly painful, and I had a fever with no cold or other indications to point to what it might be.  I went to the urgent care and then to the ER shortly after, because I could tell something was wrong.  The doctors on call couldn't figure it out, so they took my blood, did a battery of other tests, and then sent me home.  They put me on a steroid, and set me up with a specialist who knew about rheumatism.  In the end, it took a couple of weeks of antibiotics, steroids, an anti-inflammatory, and lots of bed rest for me to start feeling better.  But it took a couple of months to get back to normal strength.  The diagnosis was reactive rheumatoid arthritis.  

Michael and the kids deserve a medal for holding it together while I was sick.  They were very patient and good to me.  Here is a picture taken with Godfrey, a man Michael baptized in Uganda.  This was taken in the winter, just a few months before I got sick. 

After losing even two more weeks of precious study time in the Spring, I went into overdrive.  Thanks to Jennifer Walker's very quick feedback on assignments, I was able to fly through the first of my last two classes, much work being completed and turned in by internet.  My last course before the capstone was the writing a personal history course.  Unfortunately it had to be done almost entirely by snail mail, because that professor did not make herself available by internet, or even by phone.  I was left with just a week or two to complete the Capstone course, which thankfully was not too difficult.  I am happy to say that my professor over the capstone reported to me that my student portfolio with my writing samples was the best he'd ever seen in his time so far in that position.  

Through the Spring and Summer, I spent many hours researching and studying the life of my maternal grandma, Geneva Ricks.  I wrote a fifty-page biography of her life, and felt very close to her as the process went on.  I finished the work reluctantly, because it had been so much fun getting to know her better.  I came away understanding  my Mom, her family, and myself much better too, because these people gave me a portion of my roots.  Mom is a lot like her mom!  Grandma Geneva was a beautiful, patient, exceptional woman.  Incidentally both she and her father, Ernest Ricks suffered from lifelong rheumatism.  Perhaps my illness was meant partly to acquaint me with a portion of the trials she nobly endured throughout her life.  

Here is a picture of Grandma Geneva Ricks Stevens, with her husband Ira Stevens and the entire family. My mom is the oldest child, this taken circa 1962.  She is the beautiful brunette.

At long last, I was a university graduate, and I felt great gratitude to God for helping me accomplish it.  Soon after finishing my course work, our family took a long overdue trip. This was our first vacation as a group to my old stomping grounds in the San Francisco Bay Area.  My sister Geneva and I had arranged to go out at the same time.  And while we were out there we also organized a reunion for all of our friends who had been young adults in the San Jose East Stake (comparable to a Catholic diocese) at the same time as us, and wanted to get together.  We got to see many of our old friends, and only wished there were more time to visit with each one individually.  Here are some of the pictures we took of our vacation:

Michael and Baby Blues at the hotel in Milpitas, CA

The kids and I at Sandy Wool Lake, in East San Jose, CA

 

At the YSA Reunion for San Jose East Stake

At Seabright Beach, one of our favorites to visit when we were kids

At the Markley Home, visiting with cousins

Here are some pictures on the day of Commencement.  I chose not to walk the next day, so we did all of our celebrating and picture taking on the first day of graduation events.  We went to a luncheon where we got a chance to meet with other BGS graduates and all of the faculty advisers and administrators.  Cosmo the Cougar mascot was present, and unfortunately scared our Big B. to death.  He was four at the time, and couldn't even finish his cookie after Cosmo came up to greet him from behind.  Big B. would not let go of me  or his dad until we were safely away from the building!  Poor kiddo, possibly scarred him for life....

 

Here are a few other random photos from the Spring and Summer of 2011:

Visiting the "Up" house, built to look just like the house in the recent Disney movie by the same name.

I had my 20th High School Reunion at the end of July, 2011.  Technically I left Pleasant Grove High School as a sophomore, and then graduated from Independence High School in San Jose.  However, I have many close friends from Pleasant Grove whom I cherish, and Stephanie pictured here with me is one of them!  A beautiful gem of a woman.  It was a very fun evening. I'm so glad I overcame my anxiety and went.  

Big B. enjoying the cake at his cousin's 8th birthday party.

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Smith in Baytown, TX in November of 2011, and enjoyed it immensely.  Here is Baby Blues on Grandpa's lap, and then a picture of most of the Smith grandkids and great grandkids, at MeMa's house:  

The conclusion of our year was full of happy events, the most important being that our daughter Sparkle turned eight, and chose to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The first picture here is at her birthday party, where she received a long-anticipated first guitar.  The second is a picture of our whole brood, just before she got baptized in East Millcreek at our church building down the street.

Finally, at Christmas, Michael's bosses always throw a lovely Christmas party with amazing food, at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City.  These are the pictures we took on that night, where we enjoyed ourselves excessively.  

East end of Salt Lake Temple and Reflection Pond

We hope your 2011 was a great year too.  

LONG time no blog...

There are many reasons for a person to neglect a blog. In my case, neglecting the blog was much preferable to neglecting my husband and children. In fact, the year 2010 has absolutely no representation whatsoever on this site or many others. There are lots of good reasons for that.  Suffice it to say, we discovered that some of our children had been abused. Our hearts and their innocence seemed broken beyond repair, and that would be the year we worked to put us all back together. It was the toughest time of my life, even to this point.  It was the hardest time in my husband and children's lives as well. Perhaps at a future season, I will share the hard-earned wisdom that was to be gained during this chapter.  I would like to add some pictures related that time in this blog. This is mainly for my own benefit, as few others are likely to be interested in the news from two almost three years ago. Here are some of the highlights.

 

Early in that year, we were sad to learn that Michael's sweet grandpa, PaPa Halford died.  This was soon after the New Year's arrival.  We love him dearly and know that he is in a better place now.  MeMa moves forward without her companion of more than half a century, but her pace has slowed.  I'm sure she spends much of her waking hours missing him.  These are two pictures of PaPa in 2007, with Big B, then our youngest.
 

 

 

Not long after PaPa died, we were blessed to have Freckles baptized.  He was so happy to be a new member of the church, and all of us enjoyed the family visiting on that day of celebration.  Here is a small picture of us in front of the font.  Thanks to Uncle Steve for taking the only picture we have of that special day.

 

 

During the early months of 2010, I was in great need of comfort, and I was blessed with a beautiful dream, in which my sweet Grandma Geneva visited me. I found myself back in California at the Saratoga Institute of Religion for the LDS church, near the college where I earned my AS degree. In this lovely place, I lived out some of the happiest years of my young adult life. Always waiting there to love and greet me were two of the great mentors in my life, Carl and Carol Nielson. In this particular instance, I was walking into Brother Nielson's office, anticipating one of our chats about whatever was going on.

But instead of Brother Nielson sitting in the chair, I was surprised to find my sweet Grandma. It had been many years since I'd seen her, because she died when I was fifteen. And here she was, with open arms to greet me, as she had always done in life. She said something like: "I'm sorry that it has to be you living here instead of someone else." I took that to mean that she felt compassion for me in my present circumstances, and wanted me to know that she loved me. I found myself sitting on her lap, and being held in her warm embrace. The dream continued on, but she was gone. I thank the Lord that I was allowed to see her again for this short moment, even if it was precipitated by the sorrow in my life at the time. I love you Grandma Geneva!

 

This is a picture of Dash and Freckles playing in the cemetery on the day we buried Grandpa Ira in early 2009, right next to Grandma Geneva.  It is situated across from the Manti temple, a place where they enjoyed retirement, and worked together as ordinance workers for a number of years.

I made the first quilt of my life in May of 2010, and I'm quite proud of it. It was made with love, and I felt some healing and peace come into my heart, as I put it all together and gave it away.  Thanks goes to my sister Susan, for helping me work out the details of cutting and piecing everything together.

 

 

One bright highlight of 2010 was the trip that Michal and I took to Alaska. The whole affair was a gift to us from his employers, as a celebration of Michael's ten-year anniversary with the Modellers. We are ever thankful for that beautiful window of respite, and for my family members who kept our children during that week. It was badly needed.  Thank you as well to the Brazells who made it possible.

 

 

As the year came to a close, we were happy to put it behind us.  But I can honestly say I would not change it, because we were compelled to grow tremendously during that time. We know that the Lord was with us throughout all of it, day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute.  If we ever doubted his love or existence before, we could not do so again.  We have too much evidence to the contrary. 

 

 

 

It was about summer of 2011 that life began to feel normal again.  This is one of my favorite pictures from that time.  Next post, I will try to fill in some gaps for 2011.