We are in our last few (4) days in our Page home. It is hard to believe this is really it! A lot has happened over the past 20 years while living in Page. We married off 5 children and added 20 grandchildren and retired. We couldn't be happier with the additions to our family. Each person has brought something special to the family.
Last weekend to went to Salt Lake, not to move, but we did take a truckload with us, but to attend an El Monte Ward reunion. In the El Monte ward was a core of youth during high school and each of us has kept in touch with parts of the group, so Lee, who lives in California, wanted to get all of us together at once. He and Carol come to SL every year to visit Carol's sister Jean and the girls' mother. There were 6 girls, 5 of us the same age and Carol 1 year younger. The 4 boys were one year older than us. Two of the girls weren't in attendance, Elizabeth on a mission in England and Don-Etta whom all of us have lost contact with her. Each come with spouses, except Susan, who didn't marry. We also had Susan's mother and Jean and Carol's mom. We started about 3:30 and ended at 10. The ground rules for the formal part was to share what we had done, nothing about kids, grandkids, etc. We got to ask questions of each person as we rememeber special incidences or share something about the person. We were in stitches all evening. It was interesting how our lives had influenced each other lives. The amazing thing was that all of the 8 of us who were there had at least a BA with at least 1 PhD, Susan. I think almost, if not all, of the spouses had at least a BA as well, with at least one PhD. We had all gone into fields related to teaching. Susan is the 0-3 sped person for Utah, me a sped director, a spouse a school psych, several teachers, other administators. We did have an attorney but he gave that up and is now in a related field. He also taught at BYU. All are still married to the same spouse and are active in the church. Don-Etta had a AA and we are all pretty sure she is still inactive after her divorce over 30 years ago. Elizabeth and Brian were both teachers. Those are some incredible statistics.
The common bond for us is the church. Our friendships are still aligned similarily to the way they were in high school. Believe it or not, dad had a great time, too as did the other spouses.
We still aren't sure who is really buying our house. We have another interested party, actually the first couple to look at it in March. They are coming back for a 3rd look tomorrow.
We owe a huge amount of thanks to John for the use of his horse trailer and then the family coming over and moving the last of the big things to SL. Kim has been awesome with her assistance with the basement. The rest of her family has been involved as well. We finally got the electrical finished last weekend. Now we have to tackle 9 doors and 14 door trims and molding around all the rooms. Oh, yes, and the entire bathroom. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come help. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can put in those mission papers. The Martins helped tons getting the Page house ready to sell. Dad was soliciting help at the El Monte reunion, since many of them had done renovations, etc.
Page will always remain an important part of our lives. We aren't sure why we are leaving, but it will come clear one of these days.
Love,
Mom

end of a era

We are in our last few (4) days in our Page home. It is hard to believe this is really it! A lot has happened over the past 20 years while living in Page. We married off 5 children and added 20 grandchildren and retired. We couldn't be happier with the additions to our family. Each person has brought something special to the family.
Last weekend to went to Salt Lake, not to move, but we did take a truckload with us, but to attend an El Monte Ward reunion. In the El Monte ward was a core of youth during high school and each of us has kept in touch with parts of the group, so Lee, who lives in California, wanted to get all of us together at once. He and Carol come to SL every year to visit Carol's sister Jean and the girls' mother. There were 6 girls, 5 of us the same age and Carol 1 year younger. The 4 boys were one year older than us. Two of the girls weren't in attendance, Elizabeth on a mission in England and Don-Etta whom all of us have lost contact with her. Each come with spouses, except Susan, who didn't marry. We also had Susan's mother and Jean and Carol's mom. We started about 3:30 and ended at 10. The ground rules for the formal part was to share what we had done, nothing about kids, grandkids, etc. We got to ask questions of each person as we rememeber special incidences or share something about the person. We were in stitches all evening. It was interesting how our lives had influenced each other lives. The amazing thing was that all of the 8 of us who were there had at least a BA with at least 1 PhD, Susan. I think almost, if not all, of the spouses had at least a BA as well, with at least one PhD. We had all gone into fields related to teaching. Susan is the 0-3 sped person for Utah, me a sped director, a spouse a school psych, several teachers, other administators. We did have an attorney but he gave that up and is now in a related field. He also taught at BYU. All are still married to the same spouse and are active in the church. Don-Etta had a AA and we are all pretty sure she is still inactive after her divorce over 30 years ago. Elizabeth and Brian were both teachers. Those are some incredible statistics.
The common bond for us is the church. Our friendships are still aligned similarily to the way they were in high school. Believe it or not, dad had a great time, too as did the other spouses.
We still aren't sure who is really buying our house. We have another interested party, actually the first couple to look at it in March. They are coming back for a 3rd look tomorrow.
We owe a huge amount of thanks to John for the use of his horse trailer and then the family coming over and moving the last of the big things to SL. Kim has been awesome with her assistance with the basement. The rest of her family has been involved as well. We finally got the electrical finished last weekend. Now we have to tackle 9 doors and 14 door trims and molding around all the rooms. Oh, yes, and the entire bathroom. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come help. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can put in those mission papers. The Martins helped tons getting the Page house ready to sell. Dad was soliciting help at the El Monte reunion, since many of them had done renovations, etc.
Page will always remain an important part of our lives. We aren't sure why we are leaving, but it will come clear one of these days.
Love,
Mom

Gettin' Around

The Gilleland crew had a lovely tour of the southwest this last weekend. As everyone knows, G & G Ross are moving to Utah as they are in the midst of retiring. We hooked up to our trailer Thursday afternoon and made the drive to Page where that evening we loaded up many of the last belongings to move to SLC. We then spent the night in Page and the kids had a ball hangin' with the Martins!
After spending our last night at the Ross home, we took off Sat. morning to head North. Gabe and Seth rode with G&G which was nice since our truck is getting tight as our kids have gotten older. We made it to SLC and arrived at G&G's new house. A car full of enourmous teenagers pulled in behind us and it took a minute to realize it was actually Kim and her kids! They are huge!! Needless to say, with all the Hannay muscle helping, we had the trailer unloaded in no time flat.
As usual, the Hannays were fabulous hosts and we had a lot of fun wrecking their home. We even got to swim at Steve's parent's pool. Our kids had so much fun and worked on their video game skills probably too much. I don't think Elise let poor Lauren out of her sight. The only thing that would have made the day better would have been to have Brad's crew around (we heard they were in Vegas).
After going to Sac Mtg in G&G's new ward (coincidentally the Hannay's ward too) we headed home to Durango Sunday afternoon. We had to be home for Gabe and Seth's football camp which started Monday, or we'd have been tempted to stay and wear out our welcome.
We enjoyed seeing everyone and are excited for G&G to start a new chapter in their lives. their home is really nice and Kim has done an amazing job on their basement. I am thinking of hiring her to do a few home improvement projects I have in mind since she is such a great contractor! Who knew?! We are looking forward to the reunion and hope to see you all there!

Save the Date

Hello Rosses! As the reunion rapidly approaches and our summer seems to be melting away, we have been reviewing our calendar and wanted to extend an invitation to everyone. Corbin will be passing the eight year milestone in July and we hope that some of you will be able to come to his baptism. As of now, we are planning to do it on July 21st which is his actual birthday. This is a Saturday as luck would have it, so hopefully those of you who are close enough might swing it. We realize mom and dad will be long gone by this time, but we will make whatever arrangements necessary to house those of you who might come. We may even be able to play on the lake if that interests anyone (we will shamelessly do whatever it takes to lure you here). One last bit of info., we are leaving next week for a trip to Indiana to visit Tim and Anne. We don't plan to be back until the 30th or even the 1st. This means that any reunion questions need to be addressed before we depart. We are so looking forward to seeing everyone. Love you all!

Braggin' on Deb

I taught a class to school teachers this past week and I gave them a CD with video clips I made of some of the tasks we learned to do together. When I was showing them how to do graphics in Word, I used the photos of the Barbosa photo and threw in the little tidbit that my sister had designed the trophy. Man, I felt famous. :) And now there are a bunch of school teachers running around that know how famous my sister is too.

Happy Birthday Jebb!

T-shirts for the Brad Ross Family

Hey, Nicole! We are SO SO excited about the family reunion. Here are our T-shirt sizes:

Bradley XXL
Keryn L
Ezra 4T
Mercy 3T (if possible. Naturally, 4T or whatever will work just great too)
Gideon 12 months (but I doubt that will work, so whatever size is smallest would be great)

And I'll get back to you on the stirfry food order and stuff--I haven't worked out the numbers. Do we know how many adults and adult-type eaters we'll have? And how many kiddos?

Party in the Pines Feedback

Hi campers! You should have received by this time a mailing with all the details for the family reunion. Please return the form that was included ASAP. If you prefer, feel free to post your answers here on the blog. The thing I need the quickest is the t-shirt sizes so we can get those ordered. We are down to less than a month. We are getting excited to see all of you.

Too many of Jack

Jack wanted to share this picture that he made. More to come.

Sky King

Drake and I thought you might like to meet the next Sky King. We had the opportunity to take a ride in Doug Gardner's airplane and I got these photos. Drake loved it and is looking forward the the next time. We got the ride in exchange for a favor I did for Page Steel recently. If you want to know what that favor was, call Page Steel 928 645-3166, after hours and listen to the message. Now the problem is that Corbin wants to get a ride too. We'll see.

Dad

Gideon says...

...Happy Wednesday, everybody!

BEE Careful

Hey, Debbie, that is the coolest thing ever! I really like your design, and even though I've never heard of Barbosa before now he's my favorite player because he won "your" award.

On another subject: One great thing about traveling is how it broadens your horizons--you can learn so many things when you step out of your home comfort zone and seek adventures in new places. Or, you know, when you and your three small children accompany your husband to a conference in Missoula, MT. For instance, I learned that Missoula has one of the fastest merry-go-rounds in the country, that children can be just as happy in a little neighborhood park with one slide and gravel as in an elaborate dragon-guarded two story wooden castle, that I have the cutest kids in the world (oops, I already knew that!), and that honey bees get really mad when the semi truck hauling their hives leaves a rest area.

Want to see some pictures? And an explanation of that last bit about the honey bees? I wrote about it on our scrapbook blog.

p.s.

the link brad put in his blog is for the 6th man award, which barbosa also received. however, i had nothing to do with the design of that trophy. :)

the mr. hustle award

my goodness. so impatient! mom has been hounding me to post this stuff but i've been so dang busy with school and graduation and everything related. to bring you all up to speed, the company i work for, fry fabrications, was asked to design the trophy for the mr. hustle award. this award is given to one suns player each year by dan majerle (former suns player, whose number was 9-hence the shape of the trophy). so, since i am the designer at fry fabrications, i designed the trophy.

this is the computer model that i generated for the design:













this is a photo of the completed trophy, taken in the office:





and here is a picture of barbosa getting the award:



it was pretty exciting to think that something i designed is sitting in barbosa's house somewhere. so anyway. that's the story with all of that. here's the link to the site if you want to read the article: http://www.nba.com/suns/playoffs/barbosa_hustle_award.html

Barbosa's Award

Okay, the word on the street is that I'm famous. Apparently, my sister designed the trophy that was given to somebody Barbosa of the Phoenix Suns. C'mon, Deb. Fess up. We want photo verification of said trophy. I found this article which has a photograph, but Mom doesn't think that is the trophy you designed. Clear up the mystery and give us a link, oh great designer!

Happy Mothers' Day to all you Moms! We love you!

Quilt Market

I had the great experience of being a vendor at International Quilt Market last weekend. It was an exhausting but rewarding adventure. People from all over the country purchased my patterns for their quilt shops. I even had orders from Canada, Spain, Australia, and the UK! Three of my best friends helped me work in my booth, as well as stitch up samples! I couldn't have pulled it off without their help, as well as the help I received from Nicole and Mom (the stitching maniac). Lauren also pitched in at the booth. Steve & Ty helped to build and set up/take down my booth. All in all it was a great success!

Questions and Answers

I also enjoyed the post about the church manuals. In the last year, I have been in YW with a sister who has very negative opinions about the manuals. She felt they were too contrived and/or unbelievable in the anecdotes they gave (at least in the young women books). I have to agree with dad that we have been blessed to have these wonderful lessons to teach the gospel. It was interesting to read a bit about their development, and to be reminded that there are real people behind their production that have a very real and genuine desire to help the church and the work go forward.

In response to the breakfast question, never fear. The Martin family will be in charge of most meals that are not assigned to the other families. We want to eat the majority of our meals as a big group. That said, there may be a morning or two that will be families on their own, presumably cold cereal and the like. However, we are planning to have some hot breakfasts as well. There will also be a rotating assignment detail for various duties around camp such as trash and dishes. One of those duties will also be kitchen assistants. This means that at some point, your family may be asked to help in some way with food prep. The meals will be planned and the shopping taken care of, but you might be peeling potatoes or stirring a pot for example. I am hoping to mail out a preliminary itinerary (including meals) as well as a supply list of suggested items to bring. I hope this will help you to know how to prepare, and what to ask for if you need assistance. Thanks dad for the question; if anyone else has some, this is a great format as well as the best time to ask them, with plenty of lead time. It's getting closer Rosses; we can't wait!

Thank You!

Brad,

Thank you sooo much for the interesting post on Church manuals. I have often wondered who or how they were created and what sort of care was taken to be sure they are correct. As one who has had many calling to teach using those manuals, I can testify that they are not only inspired but also inspirational.

I must say that I was impressed with the high level of care that is put into each lesson. I have also often used old manuals to help create talks. They are an excellent source... well organized with losts of supplemental quotes and information.

Mom and I are getting excited to see you all at the family reunion. Nicole, I notice that breakfast is not yet assigned. Who will be doing those, or are we all on our own for breakfast?

Love, Dad

Appreciating the Church Manuals

I wanted to share a special experience we had recently. In our last ward, Keryn became good friends with a sister who served for a few years on the curriculum writing committee of the Church. I'd asked this sister to let us come over for a Family Home Evening and hear about the experience. She immediately consented, but it had been a long time and we just hadn't gotten around to it. A couple of weeks ago we finally got together. (It only took us two and a half years!) She shared with us a few of the experiences that she had in working on a couple of projects she was involved with.

She got to work on improving the footnotes for foreign language editions of the Bible. She also got to work on some of the Priesthood/RS manuals that we use, including the current one for Spencer W. Kimball. The project to create these manuals of Teachings of the Presidents of the Church was President Hinckley's idea and it had two goals. The primary goal was to create a library of books that the Saints could have in their homes with the teachings of the gospel. The secondary goal was to create manuals that could be used for the Relief Society and Priesthood lessons.

We told this sister how meaningful lesson 2, "Tragedy or Destiny," from the Spencer W. Kimball manual was to us when we first read it in December, around the time Gideon was born. She told us a little about the person who put that lesson together. Most of the topics were assigned to curriculum writers, but this sister had specially requested to get to work on that lesson. Her attention and sensitivity to the subject certainly came through for us.

I was surprised to learn how many drafts most of the lessons went through. It appears that many of the lessons went through multiple drafts. For some particularly difficult lessons, the committee arranged for a room in the Salt Lake temple where they met to discuss and work over the material.

Each lesson is worked over by a committee of church members who serve on a curriculum committee as their church calling (as opposed to it being their employment.) The work of the curriculum committees are overseen by a member of the Seventy who must approve everything that goes out of the committee. The lessons must also be approved by the correlation department of the church. After the editing and correlation departments of the church approve the lessons, they are approved by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12.

Approval at each step is far from automatic. The lessons are continually bounced back to the curriculum committee for further refinement. This sister said it was really weird to get a draft of something she had prepared come back with hand written notes from several apostles.

Knowing all the work that goes into these lessons, she said it was difficult to watch people make so little use of the lesson manuals sometimes. After our talk, I'm particularly looking forward to lesson 10 about dealing with the Adversary (Fortifying Ourselves against Evil Influences) and lesson 22 about the 1978 revelation that lifted the ban on blacks having the priesthood (Revelation: “A Continuous Melody and a Thunderous Appeal”).

Bunk Beds

I guess that means you are planning to keep our horse trailer? ;)

We have a winner

I'm pleased to announce that Michelle has won the bunkbeds. She was the first to lay claim. I'm extra pleased because this means she will have to come to Page to get them. This means we will get an extra visit from the shelleyg clan. Life don't get no better than extra visits from my family.

Love, Dad

Serious Texas BBQ

I spoke to Michelle, they are going to bring some meat from Serious Texas BBQ for their meal assignment. I wanted to post the info here for all of you to see. (-; We're still waiting on a menu from the Skip Ross family and the Hannay family. Thanks! So far, we have a yummy variety.

free beds

Now hear this!

Mom and I have decided to get rid of our bunk beds (no room in the new house). So, if you want them, let us know. First request gets them. Also, I'll deliver if it's on the way to South Jordan from Page. I guess that narrows it down to Nicole, Brad, and Kim. Skip, Michelle, and Deb will have to pick up. (Skip, you'll have to want them really bad!)

Love, Dad

Our choice for a meal

Howdy all,

Mom and Dad (even though I haven't cleared this with Mom) would like to do a Dutch Oven chicken and potato thing. You can put us down for which ever meal you like. Let us know so we can be ready. And we have all the equipment to make it happen.

Love ya,

Dad

Family Reunion Food

Nicole, I'm so excited about the family reunion! You can put the Brad Ross family down for any dinner (or even any lunch, really)--we want to make a yummy stir-fry and fried rice meal. What do you all think of that? And we have a dutch oven, too, if you need us to bring it. I think we have everything we need for our little family, camping-wise.

And I have to share a cute picture I snapped of Ezra the other night. Isn't he getting big?

Camp Plans

Since posts have been a little sparse lately, I am hoping you are all still out there at least checking in periodically. I suppose your response will tell the tale. As Theo and I are nearing the end of school, we are getting more serious about our family reunion planning. The dates remain the same, July 3rd (Tue. we expect this as the travel, arrive, set-up day, no big happenings) through July 7th (Sat.). One of the first things we need all of you to sign up for is a meal at some point in the reunion. Your family will be in charge of one meal to feed the entire group. You are welcome to lug the food with you from wherever you are coming, or there is the option of getting food in Cedar City which is a 30 min. drive. We will be going there at the first of the reunion to get supplies, and can arrange to include you in our shopping. The reason I want you to all sign up is so we don't have duplicate meals. We will need people to identify the day and the main dish you will prepare. Here are the slots that need fillin...
Wednesday Dinner
Thursday Lunch
Thursday Dinner
Friday Lunch
Friday Dinner
Saturday Lunch
We will be setting up a "kitchen" at the campsight that will have at least (perhaps more) a three burner large camp stove. It's pretty much like cooking on a gas stove at home. We also will be bringing at least two large dutch ovens and various cooking utensils. You are welcome to use any of our cooking stuff that we bring, and if you make requests ahead of time, we will make sure you are provided any cooking stuff you are lacking. Help us to help you!
We also want to reiterate the offer for camping gear. This includes whatever you need, tents, sleeping bags, lanterns, whatever....Just give us some notice if you will need it, so we can gather it! We have lots of resources, we just need to know what to tap! If you want to post on the blog, fine; if you prefer to email us, fine: nicoleandtheo@cableone.net. The phone still works too 928-645-9731! We are really looking forward to getting our plans firmed up. I'll be looking for your responses!!! Love you everyone!

Great Job Bowen!

Every year Page has an event called Page Attacks Trash in which all of the community goes out to clean up garbage around town. For your efforts you get a free t-shirt and lunch, not to mention the civic pride that goes along with a better looking community. All of the Martins participated along with Drake's scout troop. In conjunction with this event, the elementary schools sponsor an art contest. Bowen's drawing was chosen as the first place winner among all of the kindergartners in Page! Here he is with his t-shirt in front of the Townhouse where they dispalyed all of the winners' art for the whole city to see. Way to go Bowen!

Ballet Recital

Elise got to participate in her first dance recital on Saturday. She did a great job and really like the fact that she got to wear tons of makeup as the recital was at the Fort Lewis College concert hall. Her next recital is the Sat before Mother's day and she will be doing her tap & jazz. We have extra tickets if anyone can come! :)

I love the photos!

I'm afraid I'm going to have to call Child Protective Services on the Virgina Rosses. Claire just doesn't look like she is truly happy.

I got a bit of a chuckle seeing a bunch of high adventure/high energy pictures of many of the cousins juxtaposed to the serene Easter photo of the Gilleland kids. Not something you see every day. :)

I added all the calendar events I had on my personal calendar to the calendar on this site, but I know that not everything was there, particularly for the younger kids. I added Rex and Claire. If you want to click the Google icon at the bottom of the calendar, you can get a full page view of it and you can see if the events are on there that should be. If we need to add something, please let me know! You can send me an email, or leave a comment on this post if you prefer.