Just a note to think on, the holiday season approaches quickly, and some of us are wondering what if anything is going to happen. If you want to host Thanksgiving, for example, we would all like to know what's going on, etc. And if this is disjointed, I apologize. Now on to the news.
ELDER AND SISTER NIELSON
To all the most wonderful people in the world!
Welcome to the family to Tabetha Claire! Don't you all just wonder what sweet little personality we will watch unfold there? I'm sure she has talents and gifts to give to each of us as we get to know her. I'm so thankful for another choice spirit that was brave enough to come and join our family!
September went by mighty fast! And I have already sent you all of our news which is pretty slim pickin's anyway. That's why with the newsletter I try to share a thought of some kind. I try to focus on what message I would like to give to my family. This month I had two thoughts! One is my testimony of General Conference. I know that you have that too. But I hope that you are not only planning on watching it, but preparing to watch it. I hope you're praying that you will be able to be in tune and get the messages you need in your lives. And I hope you take some extra time with scripture study and singing hymns and sharing testimony and just getting your minds focused on things of the Spirit. This year it will mean something special to me because I know that you will be watching too and we will be sharing an experience!
The other message is one of love and gratitude to you. I love to hear when you reach out to each other, even in the most simple ways. I think that is one of the greatest ways you can show a mother that you love her- - - by loving her children! Even when I hear, "So-and-so called me today", I am so thrilled. You can bless each other's lives more than you imagine by staying close and serving and helping each other. I am so thankful you are doing that! I think I have the best children in the world, and that includes my in-law children that are just as dear to me. Your children will learn to serve each other too by your great example of what families are and what families mean. I know that our family isn't perfect at that, but as you work to improve it you will bless the lives of your posterity too.
I pray for you all constantly, mostly that you can come to know the Lord better and be strengthened in your faith. I don't want to have any empty seats in heaven, not one!
I love each one of you clear down to Katy's little baby boy that's on the way!
Mom
BENGES
I just got back from the priesthood session of conference with Andrew. (Isaac and Gideon are, unfortunately, both at work.) I am so very grateful for prophets, apostles and other faithful men and women who teach us.
When Moses led the children of Israel, a simple way was provided to heal the people when they were afflicted by poisonous serpents. Today, Ol' Scratch has unleashed hatred, apathy, apostasy, violence, jealousy, infidelity and numerous other poisons. The antidotes may not be quite as easy as looking at a serpent on a pole, but if we look to God we can rid ourselves of these noxious poisons.
Our news is still dominated by musicals. Gideon is working hard for the high school production of "Joseph." A younger, local troupe is also performing "Joseph", and Miriam has landed a spot as one of the narrators for it, and Andrew will be one of the brothers. Rachel, Lucy and Joshua are all part of the cast. It is "Joseph" almost 24/7 around here.
From the "kids-are-so-cute department", last Sunday, I was watched Esther sing along with the family the sacrament hymn, to the best of her ability. At the end of the hymn, Esther yelled "Yayyyyyy!" and clapped her hands. She seemed perplexed when everyone immediately shushed her. Don't we always cheer after we do a good job singing?
You are all invited to Rachel's baptism November 8th at noon, in the church building across the street from us (2375 E 3225 N, Layton). It will be neat to have her baptized on her birthday--maybe she can remember the date that way.
We love you! Take care and God speed!
NIELSONS, C
Well, this was quite a momentous month for us. As you read last month on the newsletter, Bryony had gotten a new job at a company called Lashbrook Designs as a personal assistant, which was great news. So a few weeks back she came home and told me they were thinking of changing web developers because they weren't happy with the company doing their site. So I got on their site and took a look at it. At first I thought it was beyond me, but that night I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep for several hours thinking about it. I came up with all these ideas about how I could handle it and thought over and over to myself, "You can totally do this!", and the like.
Well, when I woke up the next day I didn't feel as confident, but I thought maybe it was inspiration or something so I decided to give it a shot. I figured I didn't stand a chance getting the job with my resume. Whereas my resume is pretty solid on the design, product/process management, and QA side of things, I have no direct experience on there for actual web development. All my web dev work has been personal. So I figured if I was going to have a shot I needed to build a demo. So I took about 3 days and built their website from scratch. In those 3 days I was able to put together about 80% of what their website was (which had, apparently, been in development since Nov).
I had the idea to approach it like a vendor meeting with a company to drum up business rather than approach it like a typical job application. So I had Bryony set an appointment with the boss. He immediately asked for samples of my work, which I sent him, but the work I've done is not the same style of website, and I knew it wouldn't sell me (which is why I was building the demo). After looking at my samples (as I had guessed) he wasn't interested in meeting with me, but Bryony was able to tell him about the demo I was working on and how impressed she was with it, and so he told her to go ahead and set the meeting. I then found out I was meeting with all the heads of the different departments in a larger meeting (which is what I had wanted) rather than just the boss. So I decided to put together a PowerPoint presentation as well where I talked through the development process, and explained why the previous web developers had failed (No management, design, or QA -- three things I had in spades).
The meeting went very well. They sent me and Bry out of the room afterwards for about 10 minutes and then the boss-man brought me into his office and offered me the work. We discussed cost and what type of position it would be, etc., and ultimately settled on fulltime salaried position. I had been under the longstanding impression that if I made the move to try and be a developer (something I've been wanting for many years) that I would have to take a significant pay cut because of my lack of direct resume experience and/or no direct education in computer programming. But I impressed enough with my meeting and demo that I was able to get the same rate I have been making (actually, I asked for a slight increase -- which is about the same as what I think I could go get a QA job for at any point). This is still entry level pay for a developer, but it's more than I could have hoped for. On top of that, he specifically said that he expected we would renegotiate salary for a significant increase in 6mo to a year!
On top of that, I'm still working from home, which I love because I can be so much more productive. This all happened on Thur the week before last. He basically wanted me to start immediately, so I began working the next day. So I just finished two weeks. The new site is almost fully developed (at the level of the previous one, but working better and better design) now and we plan on releasing it next week to replace the old one. Then we'll work on improvements, other features, etc., etc. There's a whole list of wants that we can put on the todo list, and I should have plenty to keep me busy for a long, long time. Speaking of busy, I've been working 12 hour days for the last two weeks, plus some on Saturdays. This hasn't bothered me, as I'm at home, but I do expect things will slow down some once we get the basic website in place next week. He was quite urgent to replace the old, broken site as quickly as possible.
On top of that, my position ultimately entails more than just programming. My official title is Head of Web Development. Right now, that's just me...but if the department expands or anything, I'll be doing the expansion, etc., and so there's some real possibility for growth.
So...more good news on that as well...I called my old boss and told him the deal, and he said he wanted to just keep me on for now. He expects at some point that will change...maybe part-time at nights, but we're just maintaining the status quo for the moment (I don't know how long that will last), which means I'm double paid for the time being. So, financially, we're crazy blessed for the moment. My hope is that the second (original) job can last through until I can get a salary increase in the current job. So now we just need to be ultra wise with the blessings we have, and not start spending like we're rich, but use the money (as long as it lasts) for fertility treatments and paying off debt. It's a bit of a challenge to not loosen up our spending like we're *whoohoo* rich all of a sudden, and keep living like we have no extra income and put it all towards the aforementioned. But I think we can do it. I feel that is the reason the Lord has blessed us so much and I want to use it wisely and according to His will.
Bry is still liking her job and we're pressing forward happy and crazy busy. She has to ask me questions sometimes about how to do something on the computer, but that has been happening less and less as she figures out what she's doing and what the job entails. She gets along well with everyone there and is slowly getting to know everyone's names (there are about 70 employees on site) and loves introducing me around and talking about how awesome I am. (Bry wrote that part...I have no say in how awesome I am or am not.)
This last week we celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary! WOW!
Anyhow, that's about it. Needless to say, I haven't written much in the way of the Ask Gramps posts this time around. Here's one: http://askgramps.org/29669/polyandry-celestial-kingdom
Charles (and Bryony)
JOHNSONS
Dear Family People,
Hello, from the Johnsons. I can't believe that it has been another month already, and still no big news happening here--which is probably something to be really grateful for.
So, small happenings: Bethany had her 18th birthday. That hasn't technically changed anything about any of our lives--except that Bethany has a new Perry T-shirt that she will probably wear everyday until her next birthday. It is a pretty good way to get a new T-shirt every year, because by the time her birthday comes around we are all so anxious to see her in something new. She has been getting lots of mail from colleges all around the country--including Harvard. We are all pretty much in shock that Bethany is really growing up whether she wants to or not, whether she acts like it or not, whether any of us can believe it or not, it's happening.
Our ward had the primary program on Sunday. Camilla was several inches taller than anyone else in the program. She will be really happy to move into Young Women's in December. McKaylee, Maxwell, and Sadie were also cute did well on their parts. Sadie gave us the giggles by singing so loud that she was turning red in the face. She is also growing up. I was realizing this year that it won't be very many years before we won't have any children little enough to entertain us by picking their nose through the primary program. That will be really boring. But then, by the time the sacrament was over Mike and I were so glad to send the kids up front because we were so tired of trying to keep Maxwell and Sadie from kicking each other. I'm assuming they will grow out of that, too.
Hmmm. What else? We were shocked at Parent Teacher Conference to find that Bethany had all A's. Maxwell is also doing better in school this year. Not that he has done poorly in the past. But the norm last year and the year before was to have at least one tantrum a day about having to go to school at all, and then having to do homework when you get home! What a cruel world we live in! But now he goes to school happily, and only cries about homework once or twice a week.
I am loving the solitude of school hours. One of the things I love about it is how much better I like seeing the kids when I have had a nice break from them, so the whole day is more enjoyable. I don't get nearly as much done as I would like to, but I suppose that is better than being bored.
That is all.
Love you all!
The Johnsons
HARDMANS
The news from the Hardmans is that we crashed our Jeep and smashed it all to bits. No one was hurt more than a bit of whiplash and some bruises--it has also caused subsequent anxiety for certain of our numbers. We still haven't heard what insurance is going to do with it. I'm trying to not to stress too much about that.
Charlie broke up with her boyfriend, then got back together with him, all in about a week. I told her never to make life decisions during PMS. Everyone needs to learn that important lesson--because at that point, it is not the Holy Ghost guiding you at all. Charlie is also working at my dentist office during the day learning dental assisting since she could not return to college this fall due to lack of funds.
Besides that, we are doing are best to keep Jacob's grades up, which is always a struggle, and requires a full family effort. He is also working at Sonic, and does a full singing and dance routine while he makes hamburgers and hotdogs for unknowing customers.
Abby and Sarah and beautiful and perfect because they have not fully morphed into teenagers yet, though Abby definitely has her days. In fact, we have decided she has adolescent onset ADD due to her general spaciness in all areas of her life.
And that is all--
Love all around
ooxxoo
NIELSONS, J
Tabetha Claire Nielson was born on Sep 16th at 8:00 A.M. 8 pounds 4 ounces, 21 inches long.
For those of you who didn't hear, her birthday was pretty exciting. Liz and I had timed some sporadic and relatively weak contractions the previous night and finally decided to go to bed.
Liz said that when she woke up in the morning, they were a little stronger, but still pretty irregular. She still worried about getting turned away from the hospital from showing up too early, so she agreed to go in once we finished scripture reading and got the kids sent off to school.
On about her final sentence in scripture reading, her water broke, so we all knew the day had arrived, and the kids and I got pretty excited.
We drove straight to the hospital, and got signed in by about 7:15-7:20, at which point the put us in a "triage" room where they said a nurse would come and verify that Liz (who had shown no signs of laboring to the staff) was indeed in labor.
Here we sat for 20-30 minutes as Liz's labor intensified, that is, she closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing. They had previously told us that she needed to be on an I.V. at least four hours before delivery and according to our previous experiences, we were already closer than that.
So I went and spoke to the staff and tried to communicate some sense of urgency, but they only rolled their eyes and said "Sir, Yes. We are aware that Elizabeth Nielson is here." In their defense, Liz wasn't screaming or putting on any sort of a dramatic show, and we figured they see a lot of paranoid dads, plus, they were right in the middle of a shift change.
None of this made us feel any more at ease as we waited, but finally at 7:38, according to Liz's memory, a nurse came in and checked her, and found that she was already at a 6+.
As she struggled to hide the panic in her voice, she marched out of the room, and in a moment returned with a wheel chair to move Liz to finally move us into the delivery room.
Liz went into the bathroom as I began to unpacking a few knickknacks from our bags.
A moment later, Liz called me in to inform me that in the last minutes the contractions had become stacked and intense to the point that she couldn't move.
There was no one in the room. I presume the nurse had gone to inform the other staff to get ready? Liz expressed concern over the absence of anyone there that might have skills in delivering a baby. I made a feeble attempt to reassure her. I probably should have said something like "we're in a hospital, I'm sure there's a doctor around here somewhere." to Liz it probably sounded more like "I'm pretty sure your mom watched a soap opera with a delivery in it once."
After a heaven sent jolt of guidance, for which I am still grateful, I thought to ask her Mom to call a nurse.
The nurse came in and together, we managed to get Liz over to the bed. This took some effort. I don't mean to compare my troubles to Liz's, but I regret to report that I felt enough of my own, that it nearly made me forget to be sympathetic. The only way I can explain it is by recalling to memory a those action figures that I played with as a kid that had some stiff wires inside their joints. The nice thing about these action figures, was they held their shape well, but trying to get them into the right position, or walk them naturally across the floor was quite the challenge. That's about how it was trying to get Liz to the bed. Her limbs wouldn't move on their own, but with enough force, they could be positioned, and once in place they, they stayed put, stiff as a board.
With this as the process, we finally arrived at the bed and by the time we did, the baby had already crowned.
This part is a whirl of almost cartoon-like memories. I doctors and nurses running in and out of the room, crashing into each other, fumbling with their pans and equipment. I remember the nurse yelling at the other staff to hurry, and holding her hands out under Liz as though to catch the baby like a football. I remember the other doctors yelling things like "Wait, don't push!", and Liz saying something like "I'm not pushing, but my body sure is."
After getting a shoulder stuck for only a minute or two, Tabetha was there, and as quickly as the Mayhem began, it was done.
I'm happy to report that both her and Liz are doing wonderfully well. We're all getting sufficient sleep, and the girls still see the baby as a privilege. That is, they're all generally willing to get their homework and chores done for a chance at holding her.
She's been an awesome blessing, and we love her dearly. We'll be announcing the date, time and location of her blessing some time in the upcoming weeks.
NIELSONS, S
We're pregnant again, due in February. We took one last trip to Disneyland before Sam's silver pass expired. Everybody is enjoying Fall! And not much else to report.
HUNTS
Ella now says "No Way!", to almost anything. I don't know who taughther that. She used to say "No thank you," very politely. Sad. Ellaalso likes to crawl into grandmas bed like a little Goldilocks withher cute blonde hair that curls at the end. She is so cute, and also ahandful and won't let me write this. So if it's confusing then youknow Ella is having fun.
Gwen made a crystal garden at school and because she was walking withit so carefully, it took her fifteen minutes just to make it to thefront of the school. She is also super good and fun to do things withnow that she's older.
Abe is still super awesome and amazing. Jane spent a whole day working on rain gutters and felt very handy. She's also been reading like crazy.
FROYDS
We continue to prepare for the baby, and since it will take time to do Christmas as well. I am also going to start doing Linaya's Halloween costume. She once again wants to be a knight, thank goodness for shiny metallic duct tape. It makes a costume for her very cheap.
Linaya lost her first tooth and is well on her way to losing her second. She's still loving school, and is actually doing better academically than I expected, of course that's because she still see's homework as a fun game. I'm sure that won't continue.
I was recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes, so one more thing to struggle with during my pregnancy here. The good news is I'm officially into the third trimester so it's not much longer, and yet still forever.
Sandin is still working out his diagnosis and medications. He's got appointments with doctors and psychiatrists, etc. and we hope he'll be doing better soon.
On a personal note: Thank you to everyone who has pitched in and will pitch in to get our apartment ready for the baby. It's been a huge stress on my mind, and the response from our wonderful family has moved me to tears on more than one occasion (and no it's not pregnancy hormones, at least not completely). And thank you for those who are still planning to help. It's easy to get overwhelmed by all that I can't seem to do, and I'm grateful for the support system we have.
ADAMSES
Michael travelled a lot. And he got an opportunity to use his coaching in his new position! He glowed around here for a few days. He also feels like a big boy because he rides the train to work now! It makes him feel like a more normal person because he can work on the train and so he gets to sleep a little longer.
Pamela.....existed. And finished up 5 seasons of Merlin in two weeks.
Evelyn has been eating us out of house and home. Seriously, I think she'd give the teenage boys a run for their money...if they had any money. She eats a humongous meal and 5 minutes later is begging for more food. I think she must be wanting sugar, so I tell her she can only have things she doesn't love like string cheese or greek yogurt. AND SHE EATS THEM AND BEGS FOR MORE! Weird. Her teacher put her on an advanced spelling list, and she was bringing home what I thought were super-difficult words for First graders like "which" and "their". I was feeling overwhelmed by what people expect now from first graders and feeling proud that Evelyn was pulling off scores like 60 or 70%. Then her teacher decided to let me know she was on an advanced list and wanted to ask me if she should keep her on it. I asked her to put her on the normal list. So now she's doing words like "pig" and "will." It's awesome! No more spelling stress!
Penny keeps eating wheat and looks like a leper-dog.
Oh yeah, and I DID do something productive! I created a new blog about Voice lessons, kind of explaining the method I use and how it helps. I've enjoyed it, but I'm not sure that anyone else would read it. In case you're interested, or if you want to read it and tell me it's boring as mud, the website is www.songoftheheart1.blogspot.com
RECIPE OF THE MONTH
As the weather turns, it makes me crave soups. I have several favorites, tomato spinach, black bean (thanks Marilyn), clam chowder. But unfortunately due to my new dietary restrictions I can't combined with Sandin's, we can't enjoy many of our usual soups. Luckily last winter I stumbled upon a new recipe that has everything I need and the edits I made to it make it mouthwatering. Many of you might recognize it from a favorite restaurant, but I have (as usual) tweaked it. If you want it more like the restaurant version it is available online, otherwise here it is:
Zuppa Toscana
1 lb. sage sausage
3-4 red or yellow potatoes, sliced thin
1 sweet onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch kale, washed and chopped, with stem removed
2 cans chicken broth
1 qt. water
1 pt. whipping cream
Brown sausage in pot with onion and garlic. Add chicken broth and water and stir. Add potatoes and bring to boil. Cook on medium heat until potatoes are tender. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer 10 minutes on low. Add kale and cook for additional 5 minutes. Add cream and heat then serve.
For those who aren't sure about the changes I must at least insist that you follow the instructions regarding the kale. I've found that if you follow most recipes you add it at the end and barely heat it at all. This leaves the kale a little bitter. On the other hand, if you cook the kale for a few minutes it becomes buttery and delicious. Try it and see.
