Category: Friends Page 1 of 5

Our friend, Jill McDonald, sent us a couple of pictures that must have been taken around 1998 or 1999. Both of Jill and Lyle’s sons were very good with our kids, always paying attention to them when they were little. This is Mark, reading to both Kelly and Christian.

It really was kind of an amazing time because this was just about the time that Kelly learned how to really read on her own, but before she could read well enough to entertain Christian (which she did a ton, once she got the hang of it). We read and read and read a lot and they never got tired of it. It was nice to have these guys who were gentle and kind to the kids, talking to them seriously and answering endless questions (mostly from Christian) and showing them toys and just making it fun and interesting for them–something that did not always happen. We are grateful for those times.

A good number of years ago–I am estimating about eight or nine years, our little family went to Denny’s in Arizona with our wonderful friends, Al and Michele Rizo and their family to have dinner. We had done that quite a few times over the years, but that might have been one of the last times before we lost Al to cancer. We miss him a lot. Michele found a picture of the event that she sent to Lorena a couple of days ago. I thought it was way to good to not put up here. Kelly is her usual magnificent self and Christian lent me the chain necklace his Grandpa Lauro had given him long enough for this picture.

Troy sneaked away from the AGU conference long enough to get coffee with Kelly. He absolutely qualifies as an uncle in the best sense of the word. I cannot wait to see how it went with them. I am sure it was great.

The plans for the house we hope to construct, God willing, came three weeks late, but very nicely the arrived the morning of my birthday. We love the plans. We are not going to do much celebrating today, but have plans for our Pad Thai cooking class on Friday, a big family blowout (not unlike those of Grandpa Milo) on Saturday with lots of meat (Cordero a la Griega, chuleton, Mexican hot dogs, etc.), and a visit to Aló Café early, maybe Sunday afternoon. We heard from both of the kids and lots of friends so it has been a very nice day so far!

Lorena and I are thankful for our fathers. From our view, they had out-sized impacts on the world in which they lived as manifested by how much they are missed now that they are gone. They were flawed like anyone else, but we are especially grateful for their attitudes and understanding of Jesus Christ and our responsibility toward Him and Him alone. We believe those qualities of our fathers equipped us to handle the challenges and disappointments we have encountered of late in our own times and places in a way that does not allow the bad, even evil that plagues our world to rob us of our joy. Thank you Grandpa Lauro and Grandpa Milo.

Lorena and I flew to Oregon to get together with all my siblings to celebrate my older brother, Doug’s, 70th birthday. We met together at a resort at Depoe Bay, Oregon. I am very, very grateful for my siblings. They hosted me at the hotel and at my sister Julia’s house when we returned to Portland. We spent the whole time eating and talking about psychology and God. Of course, we are coming from different places on stuff, but are in agreement on more than that on which we disagree. Most of all, we talked and listened to each other in good will. We have decided to get together like this every year or two. I hope we can do the next one in our house Texas or Mexico.

One of the nicest parts of our Thanksgiving celebration this year was putting up the Christmas tree. Then, several times during the weekend, all the “kids” sat around in the living room and made ornaments to hang on it. It all brought back great memories of my childhood and decorating the tree with Grandpa Milo, Grandma Sarah, and all the siblings. I hope we get to do this again next year with the same crew and maybe some additions.

This might have been the best Thanksgiving ever. At the very least it compares favorably to when we invited all my siblings and their families, my folks, our cousins, Tim and David Mecum, and Uncle Warren Bone to our place for several years when we lived in Albany. There were not as many people here, but we did have a dozen–way up from the last two or three years. Ralph and Olivia were a stellar addition to our crew which included Kelly, Christian, and Grandma Conchita, and Rigo and his family. After Thanksgiving we had a couple of days just with the kids. That was absolutely stellar. We are hoping everyone returns next year an more. We grew last years event which was nine people so we are going in the right direction. It was sad to see Kelly and Christian head to the airport just now, but we are scheduled to see them again in Omaha on December 14 and then again at Christmas time. We are working at reducing the time between when we see each other as much as possible.