Summer 2023

 Summer is nearing an end. We had two quite eventful, family reunions, and we are approaching a hiking trip this weekend and a trip to Bend next weekend. That pretty much sums up our summer. They fly by it seems. Our first reunion was at Bear Lake with Paul‘s extended family the Rallison‘s. The Rallison‘s have been doing reunions for 40 years as a tradition. They are pros at reunions. There were over 100 people in one location celebrating together. Five day event consisted of a day activity every day, afternoon, crafts and cooking and an evening dinner and program each day. We did fun things like; a hot wings challenge, minute-to-win-it games, weaving a tapestry, making jewelry, skits, family stories, slide shows, birdwatching, hikes, and late night games, pool time,  pickle ball, campfires, talking and hot tubbing.  Uncle Ben came up with something called Rallison bucks and printed fake money to give out to all of the adults which was to be distributed throughout the week to the children for interacting, helping, being present, and any other thing that could be rewarded. The cash could be used to buy gifts at the Rallison store each morning. The kids loved this and worked hard to get Rallison cash.  With over 100 high functioning, confident, capable people contributing and participating, the event was pretty amazing. 

I really enjoyed getting to know some of Paul’s, very talented, cousins and talking to his aunts and uncles.  He has a cousin who is a Buddhist, who I enjoyed talking to. Another cousin is a seamstress and makes her own patterns is a pretty phenomenal designer and graphic artist.  James Rallison is the writer of “the odd ones out”.  My kids are a huge fan of his work. I loved talking to Gaylynn Ribeira, who is creating a museum quality, art, show exhibition about technology, and how it effects our lives these days. Her work is really incredible and I was really inspired listening to her talk about what it means to her. 

Eirik at 14

 We have lived in our new house on Rosmeont Road for 3 months. We have done 8 months of online school with three months of summer in between. It's been 11 months since we first started to quarantine. during those 11 months, our seclusion has varied from strict to more open, but it has been 11 months since any of us have been in a crowd of people or at a party. It's been 11 months since we traveled anywhere except the beach house and the cabin.  We cancelled 3 family vacations and got used to being at home all the time. 

Eirik is now 14. He was so excited to design his new room in the new house. He had big plans. He wanted a new bed, which I tease him about incessantly because he always wants a new bed. He's always reinventing his sleeping situation whether its a softer bed, higher bed, a hammock, a loft, a larger bed, a swinging bed, a bed outside, an air mattress, a new under quilt for a hammock, hammock with a mattress inside,  platform bed, bed on the floor, a variety of sleeping bags with different temperatures and lets not even discuss the pillows. I like to tease him, but he's pretty serious about it. The last bed we bought him is a queen with 4 large drawers under for storage. He disliked the drawers because they were too big and hard to organize and wanted a sectional that pulls out into a bed for his new room. I drug my feet. I knew it wouldn't be comfortable enough to be long lasting. He was not happy, but I made him keep his old bed. His new room didn't have a closet, so we bought a wardrobe from Ikea. I also bought him a new coffee table, 2 cubbie pieces, a bookshelf and 3 floating shelves and spent a week getting it all set up. Now he has tons  storage. We painted his walls a deep blue / gray.  He put strip LED lights along the baseboard of his room and he talked me into having a TV in his room. He has a fish tank and a hamster and a google home. He has a big glass pitcher of water that he keeps icy and since he does school in his room, now I never see him. He's become incredibly independent. He comes to see me when he wants his back popped or to get a hug. I'm so glad he needs something from me. He can't wait to drive. He turns 15 in less than two months and hes studying for his drivers test. He practices his guitar and loves anime shows.  He has a few really close friends. He has a wicked sense of humor. He is a witty and funny as they come. He makes  knives in the garage and likes his electric bike.  He took a film class this semester and made a funny short film with his cousin Jake. For Halloween Eirik and Jake dressed up as Shibuto from Naruto. They wear their Naruto rings all the time and Eirik has lots of finger signs he likes to do. He asked for rings and a handheld vacuum for his room for Christmas. I had "ninja warrior, samarai" inscribed inside his ring I bought him. It's from the song I wrote for him when he was little.  I bought him a big set of grownup soaps and a razer to shave his upper lip. He likes to count his calories and drink a gallon of water every day. He has a fitbit and likes to count his steps. He has a workout plan he's trying to keep to. He hangs out with Eli Dykstra, Henry, Neil, Bruce, Luke, Everett and Paxton. He had a girlfriend for a few weeks named Lola, but it fizzled just before Christmas. Eirik claimed they wanted different things, but would not tell me more.  He has excelled at school. He gets straight A's. He's missed being in school with all the other kids for his whole Freshman year.  I wonder if it's not a great blessing in disguise. I have only been thinking about all the things he's missing out on like band, choir, walking in the halls, lunch with friends, meeting girls, and working out in the weight room. There is so much socially that he hasn't been able to do. I'm trying to see what might be positive about hybrid school. My sister suggested that maybe it's better that they are missing all the negative aspects of middle and high school. Maybe. At 14, I was crazy about going to stake dances every month. Eirik has never been to a dance.  Eirik missed Philmont, a 14 day adventure hike in AZ that was supposed to happen last year and because of Covid, he quit scouts. He also decided that he's no good at sports. I'm still so proud of him for playing football and baseball for so many years. His team took state two years ago. I wish he would still play. His friends are still playing. He just thinks that if he can't be on the A team, he can't play. His new years resolution is to be more tough. We talked about tough meaning resilient, disciplined, and courageous as opposed to hard-hearted. I hope for this year he will have opportunities to be a leader. I hope he will develop his guitar skills, (I need to find him a good teacher.) I hope he will learn to drive and continue to build these great friendships he has. I hope he will stay away from girls and work on being kind to his siblings. Maybe I can help him find his first job. I want to take him camping and to Yellowstone and when he's 16, I want to take him to Europe. He loves Hawaii and has only been once. I really want my kids to see the Caribbean, or Hawaii again. And we should go to Disneyland again before Eirik is too old to enjoy it with the younger kids.  I hope this year we will travel much more. 

I'm excited to announce that this year's mural is completed!

 
 











Read on for the full story.

Gateway Center 2019 Art Donation

In 2016 my good friend, Kaaren Pixton came to me to ask me to collaborate on a public art piece that we could donate to a local shelter.  Kaaren loves serving in her church and she loves collaborative projects that include a lot of people.

Kaaren  found a shelter for domestic abuse victims that wanted to work with us on an outdoor installation that could be used as a privacy screen. Together we designed these mural walls.

The shelter loved it and they even blogged about us.

https://bradleyangle.org/a-gift-of-love/

To Kaaren’s delight, we were able to involve over 70 women in the painting of these pieces. Each block of wood was painted by a different person or group of women. We loved how that adds to the meaning of a piece given to women in need.

 

 

 

In 2017 we made these underwater Coral reef scenes with “beautiful fishes and other inhabitants of that world.” (Kaaren’s words) The creatures were all created by women of the LDS faith that gathered to share their time and skills.

(Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the shelter they went to.)

 

 

In 2018, we made two meadow scenes and a butterfly collage.  We hung the collage in a stairwell at the Raphael house. When we first visited the establishment, I was confused when we walked in. I was not sure if we had entered the right place and did not know where to go. I knew at once, that we needed to give them something for their entry that would ward off that feeling of discomfort and unknown and give a sense of belonging and place. These flower murals and butterfly mobile do just that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The butterflies were so fun to make for the mobile that we helped dozens of girls make them at girls camp. They were installed at the New avenues for youth

 

 

 

 

Kaaren grew up going to a boarding school in England. From her stories it was largely void of beauty and art. As we were visiting the Raffael house, and explaining to the program director why we wanted to do this project, Kaaren recounted a story from her boarding school days she had not remembered until that very moment. As a young girl she had gone to the infirmary and as she sat there suffering, she looked up and saw hung up high in the lofted room, a large painting of a beautiful flower. She learned that it had been donated by a local artist. It filled her little heart with love and hope. A seed was planted in her heart that day. That little seed has grown into bursting abundance.

Karen has worked as an artist in residence for schools all over the Portland area helping children make art. She has created between 110 and 120 public art installations. I have been so blessed to have had the privilege to learn from her create with her! 

Kaaren’s work doesn’t end here in Portland. Her collage and murals have landed a spot all the way in Kenya, Africa, where she continues to help children both here and on the other side of the world experience the joy and wonder of creating something beautiful. 

  In 2018, Kaaren, Shanon and Melody turn the art from Magale students into a mural for River Grove Elementary in Kenya, Africa. 

Two worlds bridged through Art 

    For our 2019 Mural, Kaaren and I went together to the Gateway Center and chose a location to place the artwork  and began brainstorming ideas for the subject matter. Five days later, before Kaaren and I had a chance to reconvene,  Kaaren suffered a stroke.

I designed this piece of artwork in her honor. Kaaren is unfailingly optimistic and she never ceases to find the beauty in every situation. Karen had hard times in her childhood, and not always an easy life, but when you hear her speak of her life, it  is with delight and joy. Her quick laugh always reminds you to be in the present and to be full of love. She often says, “love is the answer, what is the question”. Karen and I had discussed making some sort of beautiful vista with a foreground with lots of flowers of some kind. I wanted to make this painting a portrait of her, to honor her, but since the stroke she has lost the ability to stand and  it was a lot easier to get her beautiful daughter Courtney out in her gorgeous yard for a photo shoot for photo reference. Courtney has brain cancer. She faces an unknown future of pain and undeserved suffering. And now she faces it without her mother’s help. It suddenly seemed right to celebrate Courtney, her beautiful life, her beautiful hair, and Karen, and unknown futures, and positive attitudes all in one painting. And then my dear friend Missy Mcconkie suggested a poem to be used in conjunction with the painting.

 This is a picture of the Gateway Center

And here is the final piece. It was lovingly created by over 70 women. Each woman at the event painted a quilt square for the border and a piece of patterned paper to be cut into the pieces of the dress. Shanon Edwards, Sierra Able, Jennianne Workman and Bonnie Traylor Talbot all donated many hours of cutting, gluing and painting to help this come together. Thank you all!

 

 

 

Juni age 3 Teig age 6

Mom: "Juni, what makes you happy?" 
Juni: "So much wands and sunshine and dance!!"

Dad: "Who is your favorite princess?"
Juni: "umm.. MOMMY!"

"Dis is my story but I don't want a read it to you cause it have a bad words. Once upon a time there was a poopy pat! Gross, but I wike it, cause it funny and gross, OH YA!"
Dec 20, 16

Juni: "It not scary! I just waf!" (laugh)  

Mom: "What do you want to be when you grow up?
Juni: "Teig".
Mom:"You want to be Teig when  you grow up?"
Juni: "Yes, because he so nice to me."
Dad: "When you grow up you want to be a dermatologist. Say it, der-ma-tol-o-gist"
Juni: "der-ma-tol-o-gist!"

Juni: "My body is telling me to say bad words that are funny."

"Hanguber"

"Monsters turning into monsters, like dis. I am a giant. Roar!!?.. I didn't slap them. I hurt the monsters, they eat chickens and it was the most horribelist dream of all time. I'm going to kill you so much a nd they are not going to die." I wike everyseeng.  Out of my clothes, I change into costumes and not clothes. I wike swimsuits everyday. Dad gets dressed in the morning in swimsuits in the winter time.  Roxy is giving me a hug."


Teig- Age 6

Teig is finding his voice. He has to be strong and loud and aggersive to be heard and to stand out with three older boys and an attention grabbing little sister. He's developed some anger in partnership with his voice. What I am learning is that he has learned to really scream! His tantrums sometimes are epic. He is learning some skills to help.  It is a phase. I hate to see him so upset.
He is very detail oriented. He likes things to be done in order, with reason and logic. He likes to have enough time because he hates to be rushed.

He loves to wear jeans and minecraft t-shirts with a turquoise sports hoody everyday. His favorite colors are turquoise, green and blue.  His backpack and tennis shoes are these colors and he gets comfortable with one one outfit and wants to wear it everyday.  He enjoys consistency and predictability. He likes me to wake him up with plenty of time for school.  He wants to be early for things.  He loves being in Kindergarten.  He is really good at math and is reading now. His favorite way to spend his time is playing minecraft. He is quite an expert and can make amazing buildings and temples. They are almost always turquoise, "diamond" and gray and sometimes green. 

He loves skiing. He likes to say that he goes 25 miles an hour.  On the chair lift he asked Paul, "am I adopted?" Paul said, "no, we are so much alike. Of course you're not adopted." Teig said, "oh, ya, I like treats and you like treats, you must be my dad." 

full disclosure

Teig: "Mom, Juni bit me!"
Juni: "na, uh, I tried to bite you but I couldn't"

New President and Riots

Donald Trump won. It amazes me. I am floored that our country could nominate and elect someone like him.  I could talk a lot about this, but this is not the forum.

 

Paul and I were downtown at the Blazers basketball game on Friday night. At the end of the game reports came from the PA that I-5 and I-84 were closed due to the third night of demonstrations. That was our way home, so we took our time in the parking garage looking for alternatives. I said, "Let's go dancing!" We started looking for a place to go dancing and I turned the radio to a new station.  The radio announced that downtown Portland was a war zone!  There were bombs going off and I could hear all the screaming behind the announcer.  We found a route and came straight home.  It would have been fun to go dancing, but not tonight!  We still had a great time together. The Blazers won by 1 in overtime.

My parents have been here for 13 days working on a remodel they are doing in Willsonville. I helped with the finishes for about a week.  They left this morning.  My mom and I got to go to Value Village together and I sneaked her away to look at pinterest and art ideas a couple of times, but most of the time, she was busy working with my dad. They watched the kids so we could go to the game. I got to talk to my dad about the drama with his siblings that occurred when his Mom died.  It's really sad that they don't communicate better and that there is so much pain in their relationships. They really needed their Dad not to die so young. I wish he lived longer. 

Jeanette sang in church today with a group of 5 women. It was beautiful.  Eirik gave a talk on being reverent and having respect for Heavenly Father. It was very good. 

Paul taught my dad some cords on the guitar yesterday.  I loved watching this!

Lllllotion

Sometimes on slow Saturdays, all the kids take baths and then we have spa day. I lay out towels, turn on the heater, light candles and we do massages, nails and listen to soft music.  It's been a long time since we had a spa day and Juni was getting out of the bath this week.  She said, "you rub my back." She laid down on the towel and waited.  I laughed and got out some lotion.  She said, "Llllllotion!" She is working on learning to say her L's and overemphasizes them in the cutest way.  When I started rubbing her back, she said, "what is this?" I said, "It's a massage." She said, "Oh massaaaage. I wike massaaaaaaaaaaages." Then she said, "slllllowlllly,  slllllowlllly."  It was so cute, I had to write it down.

"You look like a bully in that haircut."

"You look like a bully in that haircut." Joren screamed at Eirik in response to something Eirik had done.  There were tears.  I found Joren in his room ashamed and sad. He cried on my shoulder and then said he was going to make it right. I watched him go next door and through tears, tell Eirik he was sorry and that he really doesn't look like a bully.  They hugged. 
My boys love each other and are old enough to have learned to apologize and make their relationship strong on their own.  Today Joren had a rough day at church.  He was hungry and tired and wanted to go home. It was all he could do to hold it together until the end.  I was in charge of sharing time. I took them into the sacrament room for the lesson. They all sat down and Eirik's row filled up really fast. Joren was the last into the room.  He looked around at all the hundreds of open spots and then climbed over people and squeezed into the nonexistant space next to Eirik.  Eirik was happy to make "room" for him. It made my heart happy.

Roller Skating

We went to Oaks park to go skating as a family when Eirik's school teacher invited his whole class to skate.  We were ALL surprised to find out how much we loved it. Juni was adorabe in her little strap on skates and effervescent attitude. Nothing got her down. Teig was like a constant ball of motion.  There was no stopping him, even the 5000 falls which seemed to be part of the whirl of forward momentum.  And Joren found a groove and took off on his own all night long.  He went around and around and around with pure determination.  Eirik and Jake and Jeanette all had a great time too. There were calls to go back the next night and the next and the next, but we settled on a week later.  The night agreed to came and the adults were not as excited to go since Halloween was the next night and we had to leave a party at the school early to go skating.  It seemed like too much.  Despair was in the air.  Joren said, "I want skating to be my life! I love skating. I want to go three times a week!"  Teig was so mad! He said, "If I could, I would run away and go skating right now." I took just Teig and Joren and the three of us had a great time. The third weekend, we took my mom and dad.  The Westovers met us there.  If we can get Eirik more on board, we will have a family activity we all love.

Biz Town

Today Eirik and Jake went to Biz Town, a warehouse downtown setup inside like a little town where each student is given a job in the town and they spend the day interacting withing their job titles, earning money, buying things and learning how commerce works.  Each student was given the chance to apply for three jobs of their choice and then interview for them. Eirik was given the job of meteorologist, but what he really wanted to be was the TV Host.  He thought being the meteorologist was fine, and he enjoyed it, but he was able to get the TV Host to agree to let him fill in for her while she was on break. He came home bragging that he got the most screen time of anyone there.  He admitted that he may, or may not, have bribed the representatives of the different businesses that were responsible to come for interviews, to all come while the TV host was on break for so that he would get to do the most interviews.  My friend Tiffany went to Biz Town as a volunteer and I saw her after school.  She said that all the parents were talking about Eirik and how talented he is. She said, "Eirik said he wants to be a dermatologist, but he would be great on TV!"  I told her that he is always volunteering to give talks in primary whenever anyone is absent.  Talent and confidence oozing from this kid!  

A prophet at six

Teig and I were discussing his part for the primary program that's coming up. His part talks about prophets. I asked him what do you think of prophet? He replied "I believe in prophets because I am one. I  I'm starting to become one."

3/25/16

"Bacon pack pack in case you want a snack." Eirik Yosemite 

"I not want a bunny in my hutah. Cause I not like it.  

In de trees. And climb and climb like this, like a fox."

You're adorable. "No I not!"

"I yike haw gaws and yike meat and cheese anymore. I just yike food. Taberries, buberries, eggs and ham and meat and meat aaaand meat and haw gaws."

"You're argumentative." "No I not!"