Nickell's Furniture

When we got married all of our furniture was given to us. My parents bought a bed for us, and all of our living room furniture was stuff Aaron's family was handing down to us. Aaron's Grandma even bought a refridgerator for us! The only thing we didn't have was our kitchen table. So we went to the local trusty IKEA, and purchased our kitchen table!

From Jeny

Happy Birthday Lori, Dad, David, Kate, Amy, and Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! I sure am glad you two got hitched! I love you all!!!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

On the 28th of this month Mom and Dad celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary! We are obviously all very happy you two got married! Happy anniversary!

I Still have a brain!!

Though it may not seem like it, I still have a brain. It has just been temporarily out of order. We are wishing a happy birthday to the following:

May 26Th--Dad (68) and David hope your day was great! We love you!

May 27Th--Lori and Kate (8) we love you and hope you guys had a great day! Kate we are so excited for you to get baptized this weekend!

It Finally Happened!!!!!!!!

Spencer graduated today! Yay! All the pictures I took of him show him with closed eyes, so this will have to do until I get something better. I took several with a real camera, too. I also wanted to post the picture of Mark the GIANT! He looks huge next to Shannon! Thanks, Holly, for coming to his graduation. It really meant a lot to us.


He got a digital camera that is way better than ours and has been playing with it a bit. This is what he decided to do with it so far.

Holly's Furniture

I am pretty sure that the first piece of furniture that I bought was a dining table and chairs (the display model at Wal-mart--it was the cheapest). Matt and I got it soon after we got married. Prior to that I always lived in student housing and was provided with a dresser, a bed, and a desk, so I just used a box for my nightstand and crates or something for bookshelves. I was lucky to never have to buy anything. The dining table that we got was very small, so when we moved and inherited a bigger one from Matt's uncle we got rid of it, but kept the chairs.

Teresa's Furniture

The first piece of furniture I bought with my own money was Derek's crib. My mom and dad got me a cute bassinet, but he grew really fast. I was getting paid to watch Nico during the day. I was so excited to put the crib together and put all the new bedding in it. He looked adorable crawling all over the place!

Mindy's Furniture

The very first piece of furniture I remember buying was my water bedheadboard, when I was 12, I think. Mom and Dad paid $99 for the bed andI paid $50 for the headboard. When I was about to get married I bought adining table and chairs from Nancy Oleksy for $50. It served us verywell. We just replaced that dining set this year, and sold it at ouryard sale last week for $50. The first new real furniture we bought as acouple (I mean other than a TV cart) was our living room set that webought 2 years ago. I still love it.

Question of the Week

What was the first piece of furniture you bought?

Dad's Jobs

My work experience began early. I started by selling newspapers, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, on the streets of Fairbanks, Alaska, when I was 8-9 years old. I would sell 50 papers a night at 10 cents each. Of that, I got to keep 5 cents plus tips. It was not unusual for me to have $70-$80 in the bank at any one time.

My next job experience was helping my Mom when I was in the 7th grade to keep the Brockbank Junior High in Magna, Utah, clean and paper free. It was a job held in my Dad's name while he was actually a PhD student at the U of U. But, Mom and I did the work. It was my particular job to empty all the wastebaskets throughout the school and to then help Mom by moving chairs in the classrooms while she swept. That was a lot of work. In the summer, though, I got to ride the sit-down lawn mower and mow the front lawn. That was fun!

In High School, my first job was stripping asbestos insulation off of pipes in the Mullan High school shop, and then painting the pipes with aluminum paint. Obviously, we didn't know then what a risk it was to breathe asbestos. That was just a short summer job. Then, I worked as a grocery delivery boy for the Economy Grocery in Mullan, Idaho. During school, I worked Tuesday nights and Saturdays, and in the summer I worked five days a week. It was a great job and I formed some life-long friends while there. Art Rizzonelli was my boss, and he was like a second father to me. I love that crew. I corresponded with Avriel Henickman every Christmas after we left Mullan in 1958 until she died last year. I miss her.

After we moved to Springville, my first job was delivering Fuller Brush products for the guy who was the salesman. That was a rotten job. He was a less than honest guy to work for, and it became my job to deliver the products and collect the money. Of course, the people he sold to were usually in the very low economic brackets, and those people often had second thoughts about what they had ordered, and I would make a trip to their home for nothing. That job was short-lived.

For a very brief and unproductive time, I sold gas water heaters for my bishop in Springville. Never sold a one.

For two summers I worked highway construction for the Sumsion Construction Co. The first summer I was a flag man and a slope raker (that was a really bummer job). The second summer I drove a dump truck and managed to wreck one of the trucks with a big bucket loader in the back, just barely avoiding going over a cliff in central Utah. That happened on the only Sunday that we had agreed to work, and I realized that it was a double mistake.

My next adventure in employment was working as a stock boy and a bagger at Carson's Market, a grocery store that was on the NW corner of 9th east and 9th north in Provo. Something else is in there now. Lee Carson was a miserable man to work for, and I felt he treated most of us very shabbily. I didn't mind leaving there, at all.

I then went to work for the Utah State Hospital. This was after my mission. I worked as a Psychiatric aide, administering medications, both orally and by injection, and generally "baby sitting" the patients. It was a very instructive period of my life. One of my co-workers on ward 5 was Gerald Lund (The Work and the Glory). We knew him as Jerry. He and his wife, Lynn, and Norman Loback and his wife (Norm was from the 10th ward in Springville), and my wife and I went a couple of group dates. Jerry, Norm and I all worked on Ward 5, which was the maximum security ward of the hospital. After a couple of years on the wards, I became the security guard, and drove around the grounds in a white panel truck. Our truck was tied in with the city police, and we were known as "Car 70". There must be a TV series in there somewhere.

After graduating from BYU, I became a Management Intern with the Naval Air Systems Command in Washington, D.C. Our offices were located in the Main Navy building just north of the reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Those office buildings were torn down a long time ago, during the Lyndon Johnson administration, and the Viet Nam War Memorial wall is in that spot, now. It was there with the Navy that I began my career in Contract Administration.

Three years later, goaded mostly by the struggles we had in getting to Utah for Uncle Robbie's funeral, I looked for and found a job closer to "home". It was as a contract administrator for Dalmo Victor Co. in Belmont, CA. I worked there for four years, then moved just down the street a ways and worked for Litton Electron Tube Co. I was there for three years.

Then, we moved to West Jordan and I went to work for Montek. I was there for five years.

We then, in Jan. 1981, moved to Colorado Springs where I got a job with Ford Aerospace Corporation. The highlight of this time was that we were allowed to lease any Ford/Lincoln/Mercury vehicle of our choice and the least included insurance for our teenage drivers. What a boon! Ford sold their aerospace business to a company called Loral in 1990. Lease cars were gone, but so were several of our teen drivers (Lori, Kristi, Jeny, Amy, David, and Mindy). Loral merged with Lockheed Martin in 1996, and there I remained until I retired in January of 2005.

Lots of jobs. Lots of moving. Lots of neat and some not-so-neat people in all of those experiences. Obviously, any of the above paragraphs could be expanded into pages and pages.

God has been very good to us. Our needs have been more than met. We have struggled through some difficult financial times, but have come out the other end successfully, and I attribute that entirely to a loving Father in Heaven. Looking back, the blessings that we received are far easier to see than when they were happening.

Grandpa/Dad Lauritzen

Kristi's First Grandbaby!

My mom has been waiting for this for who knows how long.

Holly's Jobs

I have had so many jobs in my life, this may take a while! I think Heidi and Mindy both forgot to mention that we all had the opportunity in middle school to serve lunch to our classmates in order to receive a free lunch ourselves. I don't have any idea how we got into that, but it was a pretty good deal. We got to leave class 5 minutes earlier than everyone else so that we could go get ready, and the way I remember it, all of our classmates were jealous and didn't make fun of us even though we had to wear funny paper hats. I also worked with Heidi one summer delivering flyers. I got a blister on my thumb from tearing the duct tape. I worked a little bit at the LDS bookstore before I was 16. Then when I turned 16 I went to K-Mart and applied for a job since David Abbott worked there (I always wanted to be around him). I started as a cashier, but worked in the deli, garden shop, sporting goods, jewelry, and the service desk. Unlike Heidi, I thought that was a really good job. We did work with some horrible people, but our employer was very good with working around our schedules, so I kept the job for more than 2 years. During my second semester of college I got very lucky and got a job as the "campus medic." I got paid to carry a radio and drive students with sprained ankles and broken noses to the hospital. After my first year of college I worked at K-Mart and at a lumber yard. My job at the lumber yard was to verify that the loads leaving the yard had all the right lumber. I also got to learn how to drive a fork lift! K-Mart started keeping me up at the service desk, and during my Christmas break it was a nightmare, so I asked for a raise. They refused, so I gave my notice and stuck with the lumber yard. I honestly don't remember when I started working at Dennys, but it was around that time. I worked the night shift as a waitress, serving mostly drunk cadets. That was interesting. I think I worked there for a year or two. My last year at Ricks I also had a very part-time job as a lab assistant for the intermediate EMT class. When I graduated, I did a 4 month internship with AMR in Colorado Springs, but couldn't get a job with them (though, admittedly, I didn't try very hard. The pay was terrible and the other paramedics were horrible people.) After a lot of searching, I found a job verifying insurance claims with the Principle Financial Group. I worked there until I went on a mission, and when I got home I got a job as a Unit Clerk in the NICU at Memorial Hospital. That was a great experience! I got to use my Spanish a lot, and that is what drove me to BYU to get a degree in Spanish Translation. While at BYU I was VERY fortunate to get a job as a Unit Clerk in Mother/Baby at the Utah Valley Hospital. I only worked one night a week, so it was perfect for a student, and the pay and benefits were quite good. I worked there for almost 5 years. On the side, I did some freelance interpreting for two companies, interpreting at the local hospitals for everything from car accidents to rape victims. That was also a really good experience. Now I have my favorite job of all, being a wife and mom. Other than having to watch "the Sound of Music" everyday (at least it's not Barney), it is the perfect job!

Prom and a Funeral

Hi everyone.

I finally got my scanner set up so I can send some pictures, so here is Spencer's prom picture, and a few extras.

We will hopefully have fun Graduation pictures next week. I guess I should explain the fish to you all. Tara got this beta (named Prince Winthrop) for her birthday over two years ago. Spencer gave her a little decorative sign to go in the fishbowl that reads 'Dead Sea' and we all expected the fish to live about a month. Soon after she acquired this fish we noticed that it's fins were diminishing - not shredding but just shrinking away. When she went to USU last fall I expected to never see this silly fish again, because it was pretty much finless, but the darn thing lived until last night. Winthrop is finally back to his full finned self in some beautiful river in the sky. As you may know, my children are a bit . . . creative and decided to invite friends over for his funeral. Here are some pics of the proceedings.

I Didn't Forget

Yesterday was Amy's Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday AMY!!! Our internet wasn't working yesterday. So we didn't forget, we were prevented from saying happy birthday! Hope your day was wonderful!

Payne Family Blog

Payne saw the family site and decided we couldn't let every other family have a blog and not have one ourselves !!

tpaynefamily.blogspot.com

Amy

Amy's Jobs

My first jobs were, of course, babysitting like everyone else. But I was a terrible babysitter! I always ate whatever I could find, to the point where someone put notes on all the food she didn't want me to eat. I usually spent most of the time on the phone and ignored the kids. When I lived in Heyburn with Kristi I got a job cleaning a lady's house. I also worked for a time in the mall with Jeny selling styrene airplanes. Right out of High School I worked at Lane Bryant - I got a good discount and first look at all the clothes. Then I decided to be a nanny and that was a total bomb. I did it for all the wrong reasons and only lasted 5 days. But it was my first trip to the east coast. When I got home I got a job at the dry-cleaners across from the mall and was there about a month before I started working as a waitress at Shoney's. The money was good but I hated the job and the uniform. I went from there to Mr. Steak and then to college in Rexburg. While going to school I worked for a marketing research company on the phones. We did't sell things, just conducted surveys. Sometimes it was fun but hard to go to school and work full-time. After my 1 semester of college I came home and started at The Margarita. I loved working there, whether in the kitchen or the dining room or up front. That's where I picked up a lot of my cooking ideas and recipes. The job after that was Hobby Lobby. I worked in the frame shop and learned a lot. Didn't really like my boss but I loved the artistic aspect of it and I still keep in touch with some of my coworkers. When I left there I worked at BMC lumber as a receptionist for a few months until they started laying people off. Then I had Alex and stayed home for a while until we moved to Maryland. I found a job that I could do at night, an answering service, so that Alex would never have to be left with a babsitter. I also did a 3-month internship with the Baltimore Opera and then went back to the answering service where I stayed working nights until Emma was born. That's where I met 2 very close friends, Denise and Vicki. I have had a few static singing jobs since then and some in-home daycare, which I hate, but mostly staying at home and taking care of house and kids and husband is more hours than I ever thought I would work, but at least it's a job I love! And no uniform!

Gay Marriage--California

I just signed a petition supporting an emergency suspension ofCalifornia's outrageous court ruling that sanctioned homosexualmarriage. Same-sex marriage licenses will be issued by June 15 atthe latest. We have very little time to stop this ruling. Please gohere to sign:

http://www.libertyaction.org/290/petition.asp?PID=16595991&NID=1

Barry Lauritzen

From Dad

We had an exceptional Stake Conference this weekend. Elder Jeffrey Holland was here along with an Elder Godoy, a newly-called member of the First Quorum of Seventy, and a native of Brazil.

Elder Holland gave a great sermon on Saturday night at the adult meeting, and I hope that you will read the summary that I present below.

Elder Holland began by saying that we hear a lot about faith and charity, but very little about hope. That caught my attention, because I have stated the exact same words several times in my Bishopric responsibilities. Elder Holland spoke on Hope, and stressed that all of us are going to undergo or have already undergone trials of a very stressful nature. And, trials will come more than once. Those may be trials of pain or illness, of discouragement/disappointment, or of loss. He encouraged us to understand that we cannot hope to become Gods unless we have experienced the longsuffering and compassion that characterizes the Gods. Trials are essential to help us to understand. He jokingly told us that we would be “stupid” (he later repented of using that term) to jump out of the boat just because we did not like the ride. After all, the boat is where we can be most safe. (Obviously, the boat he refers to is the Church.) When we are in pain, or feel a deep sense of loss or discouragement, it is foolish to work at convincing ourselves that God does not love us. [Kind of like Mel Gibson in “Signs”.] Only fools blame God. Why should we think that we are any more entitled to a trial-free life than any of the prophets in the scriptures or the Savior himself? We should be grateful for trials, because we learn more from those tests than in any other way, if we will.

He encouraged us to “stand still and be patient, because you will be happy again!”. He emphasized that the happiness or joy for which we hope may not come for days, months, or years, and maybe not at all in this life. But, we need to be more far-sighted and realize that we shouted for joy when this plan was presented to us. The end result WILL be worth our patient endurance.

I think most of you know this, but it is worth being reminded again and again.

I love you all. Thanks again for the special Mother's Day that you gave to Mom.

Dad

Mom's Jobs

I started babysitting when I was 12. We only got 25 cents an hour and had to clean the house, iron, bathe the kids, and all. It was way too much to do for a 12 year old. When I was 16 I started working at JB's big boy. Worked there until I was graduated from high school. Then I went to California to spend some time away from home. I worked downtown San Francisco at American Arbitration Assn for 6 weeks. Then at Firestone for the last 6 weeks. When we were married, I worked at Orem State bank for a year. And did a lot of sewing, and babysitting for people.and made Christmas ornaments for several years. We sold them at Pioneer Handicraft or what ever it is called.

I never had a new piece of material to sew on until I got married. I always I had several older girl cousins that I got things from. I didn't have new clothes till I married but it wasn't that important to me. They were always clean and pressed. There were a few snobby girls who looked down their noses at me, one of them was Cheryl Clark who is now Cheryl Lant the General Board Primary President. She was Cheryl then and is "Ch" eryl now. They owned Clarks for Him.

I'm so very thankful I didn't have to leave home to work after I had kids, although the money would have been nice and maybe the new clothes would have been worth it to some of the kids. I guess that was really a trauma for them. Sorry.

New Blog

Hello everyone. I just wanted to let everyone know my sister April has a blog now too. I don't know if it'll take off because she is so busy all the time, but I can keep my fingers crossed. If you wanna see what she's up to and see how my dad's doing, check it out

http://ddld.blogspot.com/

Teresa

Heidi's Jobs

I was like Mindy and found a job I could legally do before the age of 16 (I think we were all desperate to buy new clothes rather than the yard sale goods). I worked for two months the summer before I turned 16 delivering flyers door to door for family who painted house numbers on the curb. We went to deliver at 6:00 in the morning tearing duct tape for the next two hours to attach the flyers to anything that duct tape wouldn't ruin (which isn't much). My hands smelled like duct tape all summer. My next job was unfortunately at Kmart working in apparel. I HATED that job!! I vowed then never to work with customers again. The only good part of the job was sneaking into the shoe stock room to talk with Dave Abbott. If he was on shift, neither one of us got much work done. We had fun. I worked at Kmart until I graduated from high school, then went back to it after a semester at college. After a year of college, I stayed at Kmart part-time and added some hours in a floral shop to my day. Sister Laub fired me after only a few weeks saying she wanted someone with more experience. I finally quit Kmart and went to work for a house cleaning company. This was hard work, but if the people weren't home when we cleaned, I enjoyed it. The tips were pretty good. After college I worked at an industrial sewing factory making backpacks. This was my favorite job. I love the speed and power of an industrial machine and really enjoyed seeing my product at the local REI store. When Ashley was born I decided to work at home doing some sewing, so I posted business cards at the local fabric stores and was called that week by "Buckle" to do alterations. I told the guy I wanted to work from home, but he said I could bring Ashley with me, so I worked there for two years. Cutting into my first pair of $140 Tommy Hilfiger jeans was very scary. It was a pretty good job. Now I am a full-time mom and it is not always rewarding, but it's got it's moments of joy.

Mindy's Jobs

The first jobs I had were baby sitting jobs, of course. I had several families who called me regularly. As a young teenager I worked for a cleaning service with David and Kathy and Angie Southard. That was cool because I wasn't 16 yet and I thought it was great to be getting a regular paycheck before I was old enough to work anywhere else. Then I worked at Sizzler. That was a long drive. The only Sizzler then was way down by the Citadel. I worked the salad bar. That was ok. Then I got a job at So-Fro Fabrics in the mall. I really liked that job. Everyone else who worked there was really short. The boss told me one day that she hired me because I was tall, so I could get things down from the top shelves. She was joking, kind of. The store was right across from Walgreens, so I could go across and get a little snack on my break. And the mall was close enough to home that I could walk to work, so that came in handy a few times. I didn't work at all the year I was at Ricks. After that I worked in the fabric department of Hobby Lobby. I didn't like that as much. For a short time before and after I got married I was the office manager for a tiny radio station in Rexburg. Then we moved to Pocatello and I worked a few months at the Jo-Ann fabric store before I got a job with an orthodontist as an assistant. That was very
interesting work. It was gross sometimes, but didn't bother me. I think I could be a hygienist some day if I ever go back to school. Anyway, that job lasted about a year and a half before I had Dylan and couldn't stand to work away from him any more. Then I started baby sitting at home. I hated that. Baby sitting before having your own kids is so different from baby sitting after you have kids. But it allowed me to stay home with my own, so I kept doing it for almost 2 years. Then I did nothing but be a mom and wife for several years. After Jason lost his job in 2001, right before 9-11, and couldn't find another job right away, I started sewing alterations and have been doing that ever since. I've learned a lot and it's a perfect job for me to have right now. I think I've been lucky that I never had to work at a fast food place.

Question of the Week...

Tell about all of the places you've worked.

Nickell's Answer to a Prayer

Most of you know how long we were trying for a baby and praying for a baby. He is our answer to many many prayers!!!

Brown Update

We had a wonderful visit with Mom and Dad last weekend. I was so excited that so many of us were able to go.

Tricia talked me into listing the house sooner, so we're almost ready now and it will be on the market this week. We had a yard sale yesterday.The trailer park owners are very strict. They won't allow any yard toys except a swing set and a sand box with a cover. No swimming pool. Even bikes have to be stored in a shed when not in use. So we sold almost all of our outside toys and a bunch of furniture. We'll have another sale after the baptism. There are a few things we need to keep until then,like the extra bed and a couch or two. We've packed up and moved lots of things into a storage unit. Last night we moved all the furniture out of the living room and I cleaned and "refreshed" the wood floor. I need to get another bottle and do a second coat tomorrow, but it looks better. I have the girls' room and our room ready to show. What a lot of work. I don't know how we moved before. The boys' room is my project for tomorrow, along with finishing the floor.

Dylan has his first big band concert this week. They bring all the 6th graders in the district together for one big concert. Dylan is the only French horn player in beginning band. He also gets to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for the first time on Friday. He doesn't show it, but he's excited.

Jason will begin training his replacement at work tomorrow. That's along process, so it's good that he's starting now.

-Mindy

Mindy's Answer to a Prayer

I agree with Heidi. This is a very personal question. I'm not screening them, just pulling them out. My most memorably obvious answers to prayer have been about money. That's always been a big concern to me for some reason, even as a child. There was a time early in our marriage when I lost my job and Jason was working at a car wash because that was all he could find. It wasn't working. We prayed and continued to pay tithing,and one day a check showed up from Dad. He didn't know how much we needed, just that we needed, and it was enough to get us through. The other big time was when Jason was more or less unemployed, and we were getting behind on the bills, and Christmas was right around the corner.We prayed that some work would come along or there would be another way for us to make ends meet and have a good Christmas for our kids. We got a package from Jeny the same week. She'd initiated a collection in our behalf, to which all of my brothers and sisters, parents, and Grandma Lauritzen contributed. It was unbelievable. Makes me cry now to think about it. Another time I can think of wasn't about money. I'd been praying about something serious and not getting an answer. I was getting discouraged that prayer didn't work after all and that Heavenly Father didn't really care about me. Depression was setting in to the point that I wasn't functioning and my family was suffering. I was at a real low when Dad called out of the blue for no apparent reason, just to tell me he loved me and was thinking about me, and felt he needed to call me.That may seem insignificant, but at the time it meant the world to me, and it was enough to keep me going.

Mother's Day

I just had the best Mothers Day in the history of the world (as Robert would say). I still can't believe it. I had hallucinations in the hospital a year ago and I actually thought it was another one. David and Tricia just came over to visit Saturday night and in walked six of my kids. I knew some of them could never afford it so I knew it wasn't true. What fun! We had just a great time laughing and reminising playing games and singing Then Saturday night Jeny and Amy and I think Mindy went to get some lettuce and were gone so long. I couldn't imagine that they couldn't find any. And they walked in with Matt. I didn't even notice at first, then it dawned on me that he wasn't here before, too. I loved that they all went to church with me. It was so neat to introduce them all. No one even knew I had kids. They couldn't believe it either. Everyone was so jealous at the temple too. Fun. I want to thank you all for coming. I absolutely loved it. David made us dinner on Sunday. Carne asada-my favorite. It is so good and pico. Amy made margarita dressing for the lettuce they found. It was delicious, Vodka Chicken, And one that isn't in the cookbook. It's a chicken one with asparagus and a tomato and cheese with a sauce on top. All the cooking and cleaning were all done for me. Wow what a treat. It was awesome.

-Mom

Holly's Answer to a Prayer

One experience that sticks out in my mind is my first day in the mission field. We were all taken to a local church for the transfer meeting to meet our trainers (our first companions), and as we sat in that meeting learning about all of the things that would be expected of us, I began to have the worst panic attack of my life. I suddenly couldn't fathom waking up at 6:30 every day for the next year and a half and having to talk to total strangers in a language that I didn't yet know. Talking to strangers in English was hard enough for me! I VERY nearly stood up to ask if I could be sent home. I prayed as hard as ever, and our new companions were brought in the room. I found out that I was going to be with two companions, and for some reason that was exactly what I needed. My nerves instantly calmed and I felt very certain that I was right where I was supposed to be. I was only with them for 8 weeks, but those two companions kept me in the mission field and I still keep in contact with both of them.

Heidi's Answer to A Prayer

Answers to my prayers? Wow. That's a really personal question. I can write things like that in my journal, but having it published for everyone to read is a whole new thing. Suffice it to say that I feel very blessed and have prayers answered every day. I can tell a story about Ashley, though. We were driving back to Blacksburg from the Raleigh airport two summers ago and it was raining harder than I ever remember it raining in my life. It was almost dark outside and the rain on the windshield made visibility impossible. We couldn't afford to stop anywhere for the night, so we just kept pushing through hoping it would let up. In the west, a rain storm like like would never last for more than a few minutes, but here in the east you can never tell. The van had hydroplaned a few times making all of us were very nervous. Then it seemed that in a matter of seconds the rain just stopped and the skies cleared. As soon as that happened Ashley told us that she said a prayer and asked for the rain to stop, so that's why it stopped. She still remembers this and shares the experience regularly in church and with friends.

Amy's Answer to a Prayer

When we were living in Maryland we lived in a townhouse so our next-door neighbor was literally right next door. He was a single chain-smoker - he even smoked when he mowed the lawn! When he put his house up for sale I was very glad and began to pray every night that we aould get some good neighbors with kids that my kids could play with. And within a few weeks we found out that our new neighbirs were an LDS family with a boy Joshua's age and a girl Emma's age. What a blessing it was to have them as neighbors and now good friends. We miss them terribly!

Jose!

Jose left for Iraq yesterday! Good luck Jose! See you in 6 months!

The Lauritzens....

Dayna in Oliver
Austin wins the Pinewood Derby
Courtney in her band uniform.

My Boys!!

I'm glad my mom has been here. I have been too tired to take pictures. These are a few of my favorites from yesterday. In the top two Aaron is trying to mimic Kade's facial expressions! I love them!

Surprise Grandma!

Everyone went to visit Mom for Mother's Day. Here are a few pictures from the surprise!

Cousins

We're back!

So I finally am awake enough to continue posting!!

Kade is here!

Kade was born on May 12, 2008 at 9:17 pm. He weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20" long.

On the elevator on the way up.

Check out my cool jump suit.
Kade's first picture.
Our first family picture.
Nickell stayed up all night holding Kade.

Monday's Journal Jar Question!

Describe a time when you have prayed and received an answer to your prayers...as a child,...youth,...adult.

Kylee went to Prom...

Kylee went to Mormon Prom on Friday night. All I know is that her dates name was Hunter. She was supposed to give me more info, but hasn't. Oh and she had fun.

We're Ready!

Here is a picture of his bedroom. We're pretty much ready. Aaron is still working on the car and airplane models, I will send pictures when those are finished. Hopefully they get finished this weekend! Everything else is pretty much ready. You can see in this picture most of my recent sewing projects, there are a few blankets and a baby carrier as well, but the pillows and curtains I did last week. It was fun! I haven't sewn in forever, so it took me a second to get back into it, but then once I did it was like riding a bike! I have never made curtains before so I am pretty proud of those. But yeah. I just wish he was here! We also got the fish tank all set up. Hopefully this will be a soothing thing for him. Plus it's fun to have! Don't worry Tere, you aren't being "stalker-ish". I can't stop looking at it either!

J.D. Update

In the marching group, J.D. is the tallest one with the ropes on his shoulder - he was calling cadence for the Veteran's Day parade with his Air Force Junior ROTC wing. This was just days before they lost their Chief Master Sergeant Kenny Savage in a horrible car crash. He also was one of J.D.'s close friends. It's been very hard on all of these kids, but especially so for the senior staff who worked closely with Kenny. J.D. planned quite a few events to memorialize Kenny [a half-mast ceremony at school, color guard for both funerals - here and in Amarillo, and T-shirts for the kids (and adults, too) to wear with Kenny's picture and name "In Loving Memory" with the "Chief's Crede" on the back] they even had name tags engraved "Savage" and they all wore them to their last few competitions, at which they did very well. Hard to believe he's so grown up now.

Lori

Best Product Ever!!

I had to share about this wonderful stuff that kills ants. A couple weeks ago, I found a couple of rogue ants scurrying around my living room. My dad told me about this wonderful stuff he found at Lowes. I put a couple drops on paper in the corner or the room. The next day the paper was covered in ants. I had no idea there were so many ants hanging around my house!!! It stayed covered in ants for almost 2 days. About 4 days later, they were all gone. I have not seen a single ant in my entire house since then. I am so happy, because ants are a real problem for most around here. My dad says he usually has to put it out once or twice a year, but he never sees ants anywhere. My favorite part is that you never use the whole bottle and I cost me a grand total of $3. A LOT cheaper than Raid and lasts a lot longer. I just think its the greatest thing ever because I don't care for ants or cockroaches and if they get in my house I have a fit. I recommend this as an A++ if you come to find an ant in your house. You'd be surprised whats hiding where you can't see. I was!

New Blog!

We have a blog now. Can't someone come up with a prettier name for it, like e-journal or something? Blog. Yuck. Anyway, it's http://jhparkinsonfamily.blogspot.com/.

-Heidi

Lori's a Nut Too!

I thought high school was a lot of fun (Mrs. Kronke aside)! I attended three different high schools. Bingham High in South Jordan for Freshman and half of Sophmore year. There I had released time seminary, was part of the debate team and the all-important-to-my-life Minerettes. I also started my first job at Godfather's Pizza at the end of my Frosh year. (Yes, in the old days they let you work at age 14!) Boys were always part of the mix, much to my parents' dismay - and much to mine were the endless diapers (not disposable, mind you), cereal bottles, dinner time battles, "please watch [insert name]", and tag-along siblings. Then we moved to Colorado and I went to Air Academy High and spent my senior year at Rampart as part of the first graduated class of that school. It was at Air Academy that I got into choir and drama - and, continued the boy fixation! It was also when we started early morning seminary. Then at Rampart I added National Honor Society president and Spanish Club president all the while continuing with singing, plays, work and seriously dating Dave Rodriguez. This was also when Dad began teaching seminary - not my first choice as an embarrassed teenager and lover of sleep. With Dad as the teacher I HAD to go because I couldn't use the excuse of no ride, and I, of course, had to have clothes, hair and make-up just so...getting up at 4:15 am was a must and Kristi wasn't having any of it so we fought because I always got up first and took all the hot water. Also, we had to have our assigned chores done and have family breakfast and prayer (ew-w-w-w, cracked wheat cereal with plumped up crock pot raisins!!)

In short, there was no typical day. Every day was different according to which meeting, date, service project (usually babysitting for free), babysitting job or work schedule I was on. Life was a blur all in the hopes of growing up quickly. Now, I can't for the life of me figure out for what, exactly, I was in such a hurry!!

-Lori

High School for Dad

Perhaps my high school experience is best remembered by quoting my mother sometime in my junior year. She said, "Do you have to always be a joiner? You join everything!".

Perhaps I did. I played on the football team my freshman year until I ruined my left knee "driving" against a tackling dummy. I played basketball all four years. I was the baseball team manager, and got involved some in track and field throwing a softball and the shot put. I was in the band playing the sousaphone for the first three years, and in the school chorus all four years. I was in every play that the school produced (2 per year) all four years, and was involved as freshman class president and student body president my senior year.

Sounds really impressive until you realize that there were only 149 kids in my four year school, and only 25 in my graduating class. I know that none of you can even begin to understand what that is like. For instance, I knew EVERY kid in my school. Some more than I wanted to.

It helped, too, that my father was the school superintendent.

Another reality was that I was the only LDS kid in my school until I was a senior and my sister was a freshman. So, there was no seminary -- early morning or otherwise.

My day typically started at 8:00 walking -- literally -- across the street from my house to the high school. One of the perks for the school super.

Classes were always with a group that I knew, and with teachers well known to us all. A function of our small size. After school there was basketball practice or play practice or something.

I was also involved in things like Boy's State and dramatic reading competitions.

I have to admit that my high school years were very fun years. They were not without the challenges that every teen has to meet -- part of growing up. And, the preferred colors for being "cool" were pink and grey.

But, we didn't even know what drugs were. My classmates were into drinking, only. If we won a basketball game, they drank to celebrate. If we lost, they drank to drown their sorrows. I was a challenge to them in that regard. One of my classmates threatened to hold me down, force a funnel into my mouth, and pour beer down me until I drowned. That was going to occur on graduation night, but he became far too emotional that night to even remember his threat.

Life is always what me make of it, isn't it?

High School for Holly

I must be weird, because I really enjoyed high school! Funny thing is, my day sounds exactly like Heidi's, except I never really tried to get any boys to notice me (with the exception of David Abbott). Mindy drove us to seminary (usually seeing through the smallest spot she could scrape through the ice on the windshield) until I got my license, then I drove every day. I was usually the secretary, so I sat in the front and took roll like a good nerd. We were always about 20 minutes early to school, so we talked to our friends in the hall. I didn't have tons of friends, but the ones I did have were very good. (By the way, I never cared about the way I looked, so I never got up early to set my hair or anything). I liked all of my classes except for math. During lunch and breaks I was always in the choir room hanging out with my friends again. After school was just like Heidi said, with chips and salsa, the Brady Bunch, sleep, dinner, and play practices. I went to bed after watching the 10:00 news with Mom and Dad, then did it all again the next day.
-Holly

High School For Jeny

What a horrible thing for a journal entry. I don't know many people who enjoyed high school - but Dad probably did. He's weird that way. I hated it. I was in the first class to go all 4 years to Rampart High. We had early morning seminary with Dad as my teacher. I won't say anything more about that, except that I'm glad his hair is thinning so it doesn't stick out in the back when he wakes up anymore. (but I really do love you, Dad!) I had all sorts of "fun" in high school with crazy "cholas" (spansih gang wanna-be gals) threatening me to ultra nutty gay musical people genuflecting on the ground in front of me between classes. I reallly did try to be as unnoticible as possible unless I was trying out for a play, but with all the weirdos in Colorado Springs it wasn't always possible. I was one of the weird-music-and-art people. I had very nerdy friends, I guess that's because I was very nerdy. I never rode the bus because that was not at all cool (even us nerds knew that). I got a ride from whomever I could to get to school from seminary and walked home through the - what would you call it? desert gully? - to get home. Once in a while I could bumm a ride from a friend, and we would always hit the bump on Briargate as fast as we could so the car would go flying for a minute. Very fun! I believe they have flattened the bump some since then. Too bad. Jazzercise comes to mind once I got home, then eat whatever I could find and go to bed because I was so dang tired all the time. Music was very important, too - Michael Jackson (Thriller years), Wham, Howard Jones, Prince, Madonna, Lionel Richie. Ah, I lived during the golden years of music!

-Jeny

Just Because she's cute

High School For Nickell

Um I went to two high schools. Both were completely different, which resulted in my typical days being completely different. In Provo I loved, loved, LOVED high school! I thought those were the best days of my life! I had lots of friends. The classes themselves were boring, but I had my friends in all my classes, so it turned out to be fun anyway! I played tennis, and just had fun. And then there was California. I did not enjoy one second of high school there. I made a decision to get out of there as soon as possible. I went from release time for seminary in Utah, to 5:50 am seminary in California. (I barely graduated seminary) And with the seminary teachers, I went from teachers that were there because that's what they wanted to do, it wasn't a calling, they wanted to do it, and they were all amazing, to teachers that were there because it was their calling, and they weren't so good. Falling asleep in seminary in California was not uncommon for me!!! Tennis in California was fun, but not my coach. She was a beast, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't like boys. To make it worse, her last name was Lords. Coach Lords. Luckily I met Aaron half way through my junior year. So after school my time was pretty much occupied by spending time with him. Then senior year I only stayed half a year, I got out of there as soon as possible. Then moved to Utah to get my "on my own experience" before Aaron and I got married! That was a fun semester mostly because I wasn't in school. But it was pretty miserable being in a different state than Aaron! Then I returned home to walk in graduation. And that was it!

High School For Teresa

Each year of high school was a little different, so I'll do each year separately
Freshman year my best friend Sabrina and I were joined at the hip. We did everything and nothing together. I don't remember us doing a whole lot, mostly just being dorks on our street. I got my permit that year and drove everywhere. Freshman year was also when dad was in Korea and mom got pregnant with Nico.
Sophmore year I got my licence and I got to start dating, so I forgot where my home was pretty much. I was always out driving around with my friends or with Aaron (he was the boyfriend). I didn't really have a care in the world. The thing I can remember the clearest is mom sending Sabrina and me to HEB in the middle of the night to get shrimp.
Junior and Senior year were pretty much the same. I hated school (we moved to Colorado and I didn't get along with most people), loved ROTC and loved sleeping in, even though I always missed a few minutes of first period. Erika was my best friend. She lived down the street from me. We went everywhere together. She had a Camaro so we usually took her car everywhere. I'm not going to lie, we caused ALOT of ruckus. I think those last 2 years of my schooling are the reason my dad has grey hair. :) Aside from being a troublemaker, i was very active in JROTC. I loved it. I was a flight commander and always doing something with the color guard. We raised alot of money for the corp. When Erika and I got bored, we were hanging out at ROTC.
I was pretty much the laziest teenager alive (well aside from JD, he is definitely more lazy than I was).
Just like Heidi, I would never want to go back. I love having kids and being a mom much more than any day in high school.

-Teresa

He's a Senior!

Well we already knew that, but I took Spencer's senior pictures last week. I don't have any in my portfolio, so Spencer was my model! It was fun, for me. I don't think he enjoyed it much. But that's ok. Now he has senior pictures. Anyway here were a few of my favorites....
-Nickell

High School For Mom

Try as I might, I can't remember high school very well. I guess I blocked it out. We lived a ways from it so I had to take a bus. But I don't even remember that. We had released time at Provo High so I didn't have to get up at an awful time. I usually took it 1st period because it was a good way to start the day. I even went back into my scrapbook to refresh my memory and I really don't remember much. I know we had practice for Seminairs at lunch time and after school it was either to to work at JB's or study. I loved to read so I did a lot of that. I was quite shy so I didn't go out with friends much first 1 1/2years. After my seminary teacher made me try out for an assembly so I started to do more activities.

On another note...
I've been planting today some plants that don't matter if they freeze again. I hope. It's so nice out there but we are supposed to have rain later so it's getting cloudy. The birds are singing. I love this time of year. Dad even mowed the lawn today. It's looks so much better. Keep writing everyone. It's so much fun to read about everyone and see the pictures.

Mom

High School For Heidi

Wow. A typical day in high school, huh? Why would anyone want to bring back those memories? In finishing my personal history I had to relive all four years and it actually gave me nightmares, most of which involved a play director known by all of us. My typical day sounds a LOT like Mindy's. I got up at 4:45 every morning because I did care what I looked like. Seminary, a day of sleeping through classes and desperately (I'm not ashamed to admit) trying to get the attention of ANY guy in between classes. I went home, had chips and salsa and took a nap while watching, you guessed it, "The Brady Bunch". I don't remember doing a lot of homework. I tried to get out of it any chance I got. Play practice was the highlight of the day, though looking back I honestly don't know why. Life is soooo good now. Whoever said high school was the best years of your life (was it Zack Morris?) was so wrong!! I'm very glad to be done with that and where I am now.

-Heidi

Happy Birthdays!

Happy 16th birthday to Kylee and Happy 44th Birthday to Mark! Hope you guys have a great day!