And we took a breath...

before the reunions began.

On the 16th, we gathered together in a nearby park  for an extended family Hall reunion.  This is Gary's dad's siblings and families.  This is the first one organized in over 30 years as far as anyone could remember.  We have had a few deaths of siblings in the past year and we decided at one of the funerals that we should get together for a reunion. We said we would help.  It turned out to be a beautiful day and we had a good turn out.  We ate, talked, and we shot rockets, a big hit with the great grandchildren generation (and some of the not so young generation--think Gary and his cousins).  One of Gary's cousins reported on some family history projects which started a disagreement between the three remaining siblings about an old family story about Grandpa Jick Hall (Gary's grandpa).  It was interesting to watch and I am sure would happen in many families.  As childhood stories are told and retold to different chidlren, things are remembered differently over the years.  I guess that is why we all should be writing journals. I didn't brng my camera so I took lots on Gary's mom's camera.

From start to finish the reunion took 4 hours on a Saturday.  Most people live within 2 hours or so which makes a Saturday doable...unlike the following weekend............when the Gibersons gathered.

First we had a mini-Giberson reunion when on the 16th, my brother, Rick, and sister-in-law and their children stopped over for the night as they were on the way to a reunion for her side of the family.  They attended that reunion for four days, drove to the Grand Canyon over night last Thursday and then made it to the Giberson reunion in Mesa on Friday for three days and then back to Dallas.  That is a lot of driving and "reunioning" for 11 days.

As part of the Giberson reunion included a Pinewood Derby, Saturday evening became pinewood derby construction zone.  We worked on ours and they built their six as well. It was quite a production.  I made my first very own Pinewood Derby car.  I know that it is a weird thing to want to do but I always had wanted to make one.  Probably some repressed envy from when my brothers made theirs years ago................. Using a pocket knife (the old fashion way), I carved the hood and made a replica of our old green station wagon packed for a trip.  Pictures will be posted later. 

One more item off the bucket list---pinewood derby car   check.  :)

Monday through Wednesday was spent finishing preparing for the Giberson Reunion.  We hold a reunion every three years a tradition which started sometimes in the early '90s as our families grew larger and the spaces between us was greater.  This year it was held in Mesa, AZ where my sister Valerie and yes, it was hot.  Read more in the reunion posts.

Special Olympics

There was no rest for Jena as the day after the conference was the last day of the Summer games for Special Olympics.  She had missed her running events during the Youth Conference, but we were able to head down to Herriman, UT (about an hour away) for the softball throw.  She enjoyed the time with her friends but it was a long afternoon for just three softball throws.  She got a silver, had lots of fun, and got a bit sunburned.  Life is good.

On to the next summer sports which for Jena is golf.  She has never done golf before but for the past three years (since she read that there was golf on the web site) she has asked about it.  Who taught that child to read?  It started the Monday after the Summer games.  She likes it so far.  AN it is only about 5 minutes from our house which is a bonus for us.

Swimming and basketball will start at the end of July so for the month of August she will be doing three sports.  Fitness is a good thing for all of us.

Youth Conference

Some times this blog seems like a reporting of Jena's life.  I apologize to my other kids from time to time as their lives were documented in emails to my family and before that old fashion letters to my parents, no pictures included (or very rarely).  Times have changed.  Digital cameras and blogs make keeping in touch with my family so much easier.  I don't have pictures of my young adult children working and living their lives alrhough they do keep some things posted on their facebook pages--the even more modern way to "keep in touch".

Back to Jena:  The first Thursday and Friday after school was out she attended our Stake Youth Conference which was a stay at home one (which means that they sleep at their own houses).  They spent two days between service projects, workshops, swimming, speakers, eating, and going to Boondocks.  She loved it. 

On Thursday night after the first day packed with events, we asked Jena what she liked best.  She said, "The speaker named Mike but I can't remember his other name.  I think it started with an F".  She remembered he had talked about attitude and the Holy Ghost.  It bugged her that she couldn't remember his last name.  I found out his name later and it did start with a F.  He was a motivational speaker.  Her young women leader told me that Jena was always very attentive during the speakers and workshops but she clearly loved that speaker.  Right after that session was completed she hopped up and went up to him to shake his hand and say thank you. Her leaders were very impressed and I heard that someone took a picture.  Hopefully we can post a picture later.  

She liked the Friday speakers as well.  And she beat her foursome in bowling on Friday afternoon....She surprised a few people with her skills.  A successful two days for her.  We are so grateful to everyone who made the conference great for her.

The FLASH Block Party

For those reading this blog a hundred years from now, in 2011-2012 flash dances or choirs, etc, referred to events which just seem to happen out of nowhere.  Playing off of that theme, we decided to plan a flash block party for our neighborhood. I did ask few people in the neighborhood to bring some treats and water and to help in other ways, but they were told not to tell their families.  About 30 minutes before it was to start, we took flyers around the neighborhood and told them that the party was starting in 30 minutes in one of the cul de sacs.  It was set to last about 45 minutes but many people stayed for a couple of hours.  We had music for dancing (for the kids), basketball for the teenagers,  and talking and food for everyone.  We had lots of people and it was great.

We decided as a neighborhood that we wanted to get together twice a year including one BBQ.  That is now set for September. We had all spent time talking about how we needed to have party.  Life just kept being busy.  Our flash party worked for us.

We were able to block off the end of the cul de sac which was nice.  Of course, it was the hottest day of the year in our area up to that time. Good thing we had lots of water. 

Top picture is Gary starting the bunny hop.  I forgot to tell Gary that we were planning to play dancing music.  I thought I had it all handled since I still had the music on my computer from the Ward Christmas Party where we had a dance as well.  However, as we pulled it up, I realized that 90% of the music was (of course) Christmas music.  Not really the best "mood" music for dancing in the streets in 93 degree weather.  That left us with four songs which Gary played until he was sick of them.  Then he told the kids the computer was too hot and turned it off.  The younger kids were ready to dance the same four songs all night long.

9th Grade Celebratons

The fun times just kept coming for Jena at the end of May.  On back to back to back days, she went to the 9th grade party after school, 9th grade Lagoon Day, and "Last day of school--yearbook signing".

Here are some pictures:

                                                                   9th GRADE PARTY

The power of peers---Jena does not really like these blow-up bounce toys,
but her friends invted her to join them in th fun so she did it a couple of times.

They set up a big slide on the grass and I asked Jena if she was going to run down it.
Her answer was an definate no.  About 15 minutes later, I saw her again and she was wet.
She had gone down the side 3 times.  I asked her to do it again so that I could get a picture.  It took some convincing but she did.  Hence the following picture...........

Here is Jena.  As soon as she got to the slide with her shoes off, one of the kids spraying the slide called down to the rest of kids spraying, "It's Jena.  Don't spray her.  She doesn't like to be sprayed."  Quickly they all turned their hoses away from her body and just barely sprayed her feet as she "inched" and I meaned "inched" down the slide.  She knows I was laughing so hard I could hardly take the picture.  That's our Jena, doing the best but doing it her way.  Love her.

Two firehoses shooting into the soccer field for about 15 minutes..
9th grade parties have updated since my day.

This is as close as Jena and Meggan went to the powerful hoses.

The next day was Lagoon Day.  Jena and her friend, Meggan and I spent the day enjoying the rides.  At least they did.  Our second ride was the Tilt-O-Whirl.  Now I remembered watching it and thinking I know that I don't like that ride, but it didn't look bad and Jena wanted to go on it.  So off we went.............I did fine for the first two spins but it was down hill for me after that.  It took a couple of hours for my stomach to return to normal.  Fortunately Meggan and Jena weren't big adventurers either and they found plenty to do while I watched and took a few pictures.

Meggan going alone on the Spider.
Not Jena's style, I guess.

The Octopus!!!!  Big smiles.

The big news is that Jena rode on the "White Rollercoaster" and said she liked it.  She did seem a bit happy that the line was too long to ride it again, so I am not sure that it was her favorite thing.  She is getting braver.

We ended up the day with a visit for dipping dots from Aunt Vonette.  Gary's sister has spent the last four or five years working the "School Days" at Lagoon which is actually quite a hard job to get as the demand for the jobs is high.  You work about 10 days in May and get some seasons passes in addition to pay.  Vonette likes it as do her kids and grandkids.  A fun day!!

It is hard to believe that Jena is finished with Legcy Junior High.  It has been a great school for her and we will always be thankful for her teachers, staff, and peer tutors there.

The Garden Stool

If you have lived in Hong Kong, you will know about garden stools--ceramic stools which can be found in gardens and yards throughout the countryside.  When I lived there, everyone of the expats , it seemed, was buying one.  For that reason alone, I didn't.....

And as soon as we moved to Texas, I regreted it.  Since then I have wanted one--not from Pier 1 or the internet, but one that I picked in Hong Kong, from Hong Kong (although made in China, of course.)  However when I had gone back, it never seemed the right time to find one and spent the amount of money for it and to ship back.  You can't really carry it on as hand luggage.

During my visit in March and with the help of my good friends, I bought one and had it shipped to Syracuse.  It finally arrived in May.  It is perfect and I love looking out my kitchen window and seeing it on the deck.  It brings sweet memories of Hong Kong and friends!

Ben was the first one to try it out.

Another view on the deck

Once again, I try to be a gardener!!!!

Busy Month of May for Jena

With the awards ceremony and the torch run done, life just got busier for Jena through the last half of the month.  We made a couple of trips to Primary's to work on her braces.  On the top of that, she was busy practicing her final production for musical theatre-- "An Evening with Glee".  It was a collection of musical production numbers over a broad range of music types.  It was a fun three evenings for her.

Big production number with singing and dancing.  She loved it.

Small musical group singing "Over the Rainbow"

I should have taken a picture of her shoes.  The teacher told them to wear red, black and silver and the more "bling" the better.  I you know Jena she is very conservative in her dress and she almost always wear tennis shoes except to Church.  However for this night, she chose a pair of black and silver canvas shoes which are black and silver striped.  Lots of bling!!!  She likes them and now has two pairs of shoes which she would wear to school.

Fun Times......

Jena was a ninth grader so she had lots of fun things involved with finishing up at Legacy Junior High.  In addition, she had special activities with her functional skills classroom as well.  She went to a dance, attend an all-day Art festival, had a field day, a ninth grade party, a picnic, and a Lagoon day!  All in about 3 weeks.  I realized it was getting out of hand when I ran into her seminary teacher and he told me that Jena missed four days of seminary in a row.  He said that the functional skills classroom seemed to be keeping her instead of sending her for seminary.  He said for example the students reported that Jena was with functional skills shooting rockets instead of being in class.  I had to admit it was Gary and I doing the rockets as part of their field day--oops!  I guess we didn't watch the planning of things.  Jena was one happy kid in May!!!

Because of missing her foods class for something fun, she had to make homemade chicken nuggets at home and take a picture to turn into her teacher.
She was happy to do it and they turned out good.

This is Jena with her functional skills teacher, Lyndi Brooks.  She has been an awesome teacher for Jena for the past three years and been a big part of what made Legacy Junior High a great experience for Jena.  It hasn't been perfect but close enough.  Jena loves her and will really miss her when she moves on to Clearfield High School.

At the end of the year picnic

Torch Run 2012

Each year thepolice departments in Utah do  torch run for the Special Olympics.  Here is Jena on the edge of the van with some friends.  It was a beautiful day to skip school and support agreat cause.

The Lead Car on the Torch Run

School children would come out to "high five"  and cheer Jena and the other athletics with Special Olympics!!

It was a beautiful day and we had fun even though she and I ended up in different cars for the entire day.  We are getting a collection of "Torch Run" shirts from year to year.

Ben

Because I centered the blog so much on pictures and events, sometimes I neglect to mention some of the day to day things that are happening on the home front.  I realize that when I get an email and people are asking about Ben, especially.  So I thought I would give an update, status report on Ben.

Since mid-April,  Ben has been on nine different medications for his schizophrenia, some more than once.  For some reason, his body has had difficult tolerating anti-psychotics.  We have had a number of scary moments with weird reactions.  Some would occur on the first day, others after a few days--there seems to be no good reasons for these changes.  Asthma attacks, frozen muscles, pain, and other symptoms just kept happening.  Now we are back to the medication he was taking in early April.  This medication causes him to gain weight and other negative things to his body but at least he can tolerate it.  It has been almost 2 weeks now so it has been a bit more calm around here.  He still feels miserable but no weird reactions.

We did have a bit of excitement last Friday.  I had just started out with a list of errands with Jena in the early afternoon.  As we got in the car after our first stop, I thought to check my phone and noticed I had missed two calls from a restricted number and I had a message.  It was from Ben's doctor and he informed me that one of Ben's recent labs had come back with a high level of sodium and I needed to take him to the ER immediately---not the kind of message you ever want to receive.  Luckily at that moment I got a call from the doctor who was anxious to talk to me about the result.  He felt it might be an error but that we had to check it immediately.

I headed home, got Ben, picked Gary up at the bowling alley and we went to the ER and spent the afternoon with Ben getting pricked and tested.  All turned out fine and the ER and our doctor think it was lab error (but of course our insurance is the one who pays for it.) as the blood work on Friday was within normal limits.  The ER doctor said that it would be very unlikely that it was so high and corrected itself in 2 days.  We were happy with that and glad to head home after 3 hours.

Ben is hanging in with all that is happening and keeps hoping to find some way to manage his illness without medications.  Despite his (and our) concerns about the medication, he still takes them which allows some of his illness to be calmed down.  I can't imagine how he manages to cope day to day with this terrible illness.  He spends his days at home, mostly on the computer or watching TV.  From time to time, he will go outside for the mail or to walk the dogs.  I pray often for researchers to be inspired in seeking new and improved ways to treat it.  In the meanwhile, we are grateful for our understand of the purpose of life and where we are going afterwards......what do people do without that knowledge.

Birth Mothers

While Jena was receiving her award, I was attending our "Birth mother Appreciation Dnner" which was put on by LDS Family Services.  We had a good dinner and it was great to see many old friends and to visit and laugh together.  I was the concluding speaker.  My talk was "odd" to me because in stead of talking directly about birth parents, I shared instead about my life as a mother of children who were adopted.  I called it"Reflections of a birth mother" and gave some of the many experiences related to raising our children and teaching them about adoption.  Afterwards many people asked me if they could have a copy of the ending.  I forwarded them that, but decided to also post it here.  In the future I also might enhance it for an article related to adoption. (whe I have tme for such things!).  But for now, I wanted it here for my children, for my friends with adoption connections and for the four unique women who made decisions which blessed my live so much.

"If I could speak to our children’s birth parents, I would say:

“You were never forgotten”.  We prayed for you.  We spoke of you and answered our children’s questions as best we could about you.  We taught our children to love and be grateful for you and for your sacrifice as we love and are grateful for you as well.  On birthdays, we remembered you as we shared their stories of their beginnings.  Each time someone says how--------fill in the blank------beautiful, bright, nice, talented, amazing that one of our children was, we have accepted that compliment for ourselves and also in behalf of you.

Despite what anyone in the world may have thought or have done or said to make you feel “less than” because of the decision you made.  Know that on our end we have stood and continue to stand as witnesses of your great love and amazing sacrifice.  We have honored you in private conversations and in newspaper interviews, we have supported others as a family and professional in your remembrance, we have tried to make the world a better more understanding place for you.

Each one of you no matter your circumstance held a child in your arms and made a decision that you believed was right and best for that child at that time and then you let the child go and started the process that placed them in our arms.  Are we perfect parents? No, but we are perfectly connected to these children we share.  We see your reflection in them, we love them and  we love you.  And you are remembered!"

As I mentioned, my talk was different than the one that I originally thought I would give.  A sweet tender mercy occured when the woman began to sing the closing song.  It too was a song about "reflections" and perfectly connected with the things which I had expressd.  I did not know even the title of the closing song.  It was an amazing moment.  I had an overwhelming feeling that I ha given the right talk for at least one person to hear.  And of course, I cried.  Did I mention that life is good?

Area Spring Games and into May with Jena

The end of April saw Jena and I heading up to Logan for the annual Special Olympic Track Meet.  The past two years it had snowed on us so I packed well for the weather...which meant of course that it was beautiful weather--blue skies, sunshine, and white puffy clouds.  Gary missed it because work had a computer crashed right before we left.Jena did well wth a silver and bronze in her races and a gold in the softball throw.  The great thing is she is getting better and faster each year.

On the way home, we stopped at the Brigham City Temple for a couple of pictures.  It is still under construction.  If you look closely you can see the green fence to keep people off the property.  It is a very beautiful building in downtown Brigham City.

 Part of the "busyness" of May included the annual "Silver Wolves" Awards ceremony.  We had gotten an invitation as Jena's grades are high as she works and is graded on her work and effort in her classes and she wants to do well.  I had decided to not bother with it this year as I had a speaking engagement that same night.  Luckly her theater teacher emailed me a few days earlier and informed me that the teachers had decided to name her as the "Theater Department Student of the Year".  It was a secret from Jena until she read it in the program before the meeting started. (picture above)  Here is Jena standing in front with other department students of the year.

Gary taped the little speech the musical director read about Jena.  He talked about her smile and willingness to work hard and to practice and always keep a good attitude in class and on the stage.  It was great and Jena was very happy about it, even though all she got was a certificate.  We were so proud of her.  I was sorry that I missed it.

Busy Month

At the end of April, I sat down to update our family calendar from my day planner.  When I opened up my planner to what I thought was May" I couldn't believe how packed the days were already.  My mental to do list was rapidly disappearing.....then I realized that I had accidently opened to "March"  which had been a busy month.  When I turned to May it was much more open and inviting which is how you should feel at the beginning of each month.

Rest assured, May filled up like days and months always do.  Appointments, meetings, assignments, more doctor appointments, and all the tasks of being a woman, wife, and mother.  As crazy as my life can be, I certainly grateful to live in a place which allows me freedom to do what I want to do.  I don't have to carry my water from a stream or shield my children from bullets of the enemy.  Life is really good in spite of the difficulties we encounter along the way.

I can't find my camera...

...which is my excuse for being so far behind in posting for the blog.  I use the camera pictures to jog my memory of what we have been up to in the past few (and more than a few weeks,)  I know we have done a few things lately.  I will try to catch up.

As usual, I will post them a separate posts in order of occurance.  So start with this post and read up he liist.

Happy reading!