Out of Small and Simple Things....

Family Christmas Greetings 2011

2011-12-23T00:53:00.000-08:00

Some Autumn events.....

2010-10-24T19:17:00.001-07:00

"I Know My Savior Lives"

Today we had our Camarillo 2nd ward Primary Sacrament Program where Hans participated in his very last Primary Program! He and Audrey, Addie and Isaac had speaking parts and sang the beautiful messages of the gospel, as well. Kirsten, our ward Primary President, shared her testimony at the beginning of the program and started it off with a beautiful, sweet spirit as she expressed her love for the Savior and for these precious children. We enjoyed the meeting so much and felt the Savior's love.

Then, John and I and Hans went to Camarillo 5th ward's program to feel more of that same, sweet spirit as Ditte and Jeremy participated as primary leaders and pianist in their ward and Cozette, Atalie and Wyatt all sang and had speaking parts. We had tears of joy in our eyes many times today as we thought about how much the church has done for our family and now to know that our grandchildren are being blessed with the same teachings and growing opportunities to draw near to their Savior and strive to keep his commandments. We know our grandchildren in Tehachapi, San Francisco and New Hampshire are participating in their primary programs this fall, as well. How I wish we could be there for all of them! I am so thankful to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend a special devotional at the Los Angeles Temple with John. He has been an ordinance worker for a number of years now. Every year, they invite all the ordinance workers to a devotional they hold in the Solemn Assembly room on the 3rd floor of the temple. This room is as long as a football field...huge! The Southern California Mormon Choir sang quite a few numbers and it was so beautiful. Our special speaker was Elder Russell M. Nelson, of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was a lovely experience to spend a Sunday afternoon in the temple.

A Saturday morning walk to one of our favorite Camarillo spots.

A boy and his dog.

Hans and his skateboard

We recently took Hans and a couple of our granddaughters to the newly remodeled Los Angeles Temple Visitors Center. It is a fantastic place to visit and we had a lovely evening together, ending with a stroll around the temple grounds, singing "I love to the see the Temple" at the front doors of the temple for Gramps and eating matzaball soup at one of Gramps' favorite delis nearby.

Atalie, Hans and Cozette

I love to the see the temple, I'm going there someday.....

Father and son Saturday morning project, building Gretel a dog house to keep her out of the rain. (We've had quite the rain already this fall and more to come.)

Hans playing "keeper" at one of his soccer games this fall.

Hans ready to go to his first day of middle school this fall. He is a 6th grader at the University Charter Middle School

Steffen and Emily on September 1st after he officially asked her to marry him and gave her the ring he designed and had made just for her. We had the privilege of going sailing with them and her family that day out to Santa Cruz Island where the event occurred. It was a wonderful day.

I have no greater joy than this....

2010-08-17T12:02:00.000-07:00

I have been extremely busy the last month with details surrounding Mette's and Brent's wedding in the Los Angeles Temple, Friday August 6, 2010. There are many things I could and would like to write about so we can remember these special times in the future. For now, until things settle a little more, I will post this family photo that Brent's dad, Joe Griffith, took of our family as Mette and Brent came out of the temple. More photos will come later and more details. For now, this photo says a thousand words....most of all, it expresses the joy in my heart for this precious family of mine and how blessed I felt that day to have them all gathered at the temple to celebrate Mette's and Brent's Temple Marriage. "I have no greater joy than this....to hear that my children walk in truth". John and I rejoiced as we looked at 8 of our 9 children in that sealing room that morning with all their spouses, to witness another eternal family being made. There just isn't anything happier or worth striving for in this life.

Our Summer Vacation July 5th-July 12th, 2010

2010-07-21T22:25:00.001-07:00

Our summer vacation this year was different in that John and I only had one child with us! For years we have vacationed with lots of children and sometimes grandchildren, but this year we only had Hans with us and although we missed and thought about all our family and wished we could share many parts of it with them, it was a very lovely vacation.

We headed toward Utah on Monday, July 5th after our 4th of July breakfast and celebration at the church. Since we got a mid day start, we stopped over in St. George at a Marriott Courtyard for the night. It was nice for a change to divide that long drive in half.

As soon as we got into our hotel, Hans wanted to try out the pools...they had an outdoor and indoor one.

Ahhhh...the advantages to being an "only child"...a queen sized bed all to himself!

The next evening we arrived in Rexburg and Steffen made dinner for us in his and Brent's apartment. It was delicious. Here's Hans, John, Mette, Brent, Emily and Steffen.

Steffen found out from their apartment manager that we could park right behind his apartment on the street without any problem from the city. We rented this RV in Draper, UT to save on mileage and it sure was convenient to have our own home on wheels!

The next couple of days we spent going all over campus, watching Mette rehearse in the Kirkham Building during her modern dance class.

Mette's modern dance class. It was fun to watch for over an hour.

Mette took us on a little tour of the gardens and the campus between her classes. The gardens are incredible this time of year...lots of student projects and such a lovely place to wander.

Our walk took us up the hill toward the Rexburg Temple which is right next to the campus.

Rexburg Temple.

The view of the campus from the temple.

The entrance to the campus gardens. I wished I had taken more pictures of this area. It was absolutely beautiful. We were trying to come back down to meet Steffen in the MC building for lunch.

The religion building and chapels where Steffen and Mette's wards meet on Sunday for their church meetings. Beautiful architecture.

That night we attended a concert where Steffen played the bassoon with the BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra. They performed Beethoven's 7th Symphony. It was so wonderful to enjoy this inspiring music and to especially enjoy one of our children performing with them.

BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra

After the performance.

It is is about 9:30 pm after the performance. We ate dinner around 10:00 pm or later each night we were with the kids because they are so busy with their activities and classes!

The 2nd day in Rexburg, while waiting for Steffen and Mette to attend their classes in the morning, we drove down the road 15 minutes to this little lake in Rigby. It was perfect for Hans for a couple of hours.

We came back in the afternoon to sit in on a rehearsal of this chamber music piece. Loved it!

Hans following along with the music over Steffen's shoulder.

That evening we first attended a piano recital that Steffen's girlfriend, Emily Thompson, was part of. We got to meet her parents and family that evening and they even cooked us a delicious dinner at Emily's apartment after the recital and after Steffen's Jazz Combo performed as well.
We ate dinner well after 10 PM each night we were with the kids....Young Adult hours...ughhh!

Steffen playing the tenor sax during his Jazz Combo Performance.

Next day we got in the RV and after a short visit with a dear friend from Camarillo, Steve Broughton who now lives in Rexburg, we headed to Jackson, Wyoming and north to the Grand Teton National Park. Oh what beautiful scenery we enjoyed!

Lots of whitewater rafting groups going down the Snake River. We followed and crossed the Snake River so many times on this trip!

Hans reading and reading up on his bunk bed in the RV. He finished "Eragon" in 3 days after we bought it for him in the BYU bookstore. We had to keep telling him to look out the window at the scenery!

Rain and thunderstorm came on suddenly in Jackson, WY and then it left just as quickly. It was actually a fun part of the adventure.We parked here in a grocery store parking lot to fix lunch before we went in to stock up on some groceries. Sure was convenient to travel in the RV. I loved it!

What a luxury to be able to have a stove and refrigerator and bathroom and bed and roof over our heads as we traveled along. I could really get into this RV'ing thing!

View of the the Grand Tetons!

Beautiful wildflowers all over the place.

We camped overnight next to Jackson Lake at Coulter Bay State Park Campground. I wished we had had more time to stay here longer. This was one of my favorite nights of the week. So peaceful and beautiful.

Our campground at Coulter Bay State Park in the Grand Tetons.

Hans practiced and practiced learning to make the perfect roasted marshmallows! Here's the best ones of the night for our s'mores. The three of us also sat around the fire and sang campfire songs for awhile and looked into the fire and the trees (and swat the mosquitos....always some opposition). The sun sets quite late each night because we are so far north.

Mmmmmm smore's in the great outdoors!

Ahhhhhhh!

Hiking around the woods to the lake to skip rocks. Small and Simple pleasures.

Self-timer photgraphy...there was no one around but us....not bad, huh?

The dump, the dump, the dump...dad's favorite part of using an RV! It wasn't so bad though.

Yellowstone National Park

Mud Volcano in Yellowstone

Our first siting of Bison....up close and very personal! What a huge beast!

These trees are all fallen because after an earthquake, the ground heated up to over 200 degrees here and "fried" the roots of all these trees so they died. They call this "Cooking Hill".

Elk

We stopped here to hike down toward the bottom of Yellowstone Lower Falls. Well worth the hike.

Going back up the stairs we came down!

Ta-Dah! We made it back up to the top!

The last step of 328 steps! John and Hans counted them!

This is the view of the Lower Falls from what they call "Artist's Point". Amazing and beautiful colors in the stone. They call this the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Park.

Then on to Old Faithful. We waited for about an hour. They can predict the eruption within 10 minutes either way. It erupts about every 90 minutes day and night and lasts about 3 minutes.

Waiting....and waiting.....

Thar' she blows!

After going back to Rexburg late Saturday night so we could attend church meetings at 9:00 am with our kids, Steffen and Mette, on campus, we said our good-byes and drove 3 hours south-west to Rupert, ID to visit John's sister, Ida and her husband, Boyd Chugg. They let us park in their driveway overnight and fed us a delicious roast Sunday dinner. We enjoyed their gardens, their home and the nice drive out to see their cattle and farm. Boyd was good enough to saddle up his horse and let Hans have a ride. At one point, Hans let the horse get to galloping a little too fast and we had a bit more thrill than we expected, but all was well. Thank you Boyd and Ida!

John and Ida visiting.

Boyd giving Hans a lesson about driving the 4x4.

We woke up at 6am Monday July 12th, drove south to Draper, Ut where we dropped off the RV and got our car again. We called our nieces, Julie and Terri to say hi and asked if we could drop in on them....they gathered at Terri's and Jay's new home and treated us to a delicious lunch before we had to say good-bye and get going on the rest of our 11 hour drive home that day to Camarillo. Thank you for your hospitality, Terri and Julie!

Terri's family has a tradition of walking or running to the corner to wave good-bye to their visitors....here they are saying good-bye to us.

We drove all day and evening and arrived safe and sound and tired back in our driveway in Camarillo a little after midnight! It was a wonderful week and we feel so thankful to have been able to see where our college kids attend school, see and hear some of their talents, enjoy beautiful places and sights, visit some friends and family and enjoy a nice time with each other.

We are grateful!

Dancing with the Stars, Camarillo 2nd Ward Party

2010-03-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

On Friday, February 19th, Camarillo 2nd ward Activities Committee, being led by Wendy Speakman, organized a "Dancing with the Stars" night for the adults in our ward. John and I got to participate as one of the couples to dance in front of the "judges". It was set up a lot like the TV show of the same name.

I was very nervous because I am not comfortable dancing with all eyes on us...I prefer to blend in with a crowd on the dance floor, but here we are doing our best swing moves, and we had a lot of fun doing it! (I just wish we were in better shape and didn't get so out of breathe!)

Thank you to the Activities Committee and the "generosity" of the judges for making it a very memorable evening for us. We laughed and enjoyed ourselves so much after our number was over. The other couples were so much fun!

The Ah Sue's won 1st place for the night doing a routine called, "Dance Evolution". It was so funny to see Frank's "moves"! They did snippets of several styles of dances.

Nikki Waller and her dad performed a lovely waltz and won 2nd place. Her dad was on the BYU Ballroom Dance team years ago and led her across the floor so beautifully!

Everyone got a prize for "best of something" and we felt surprised to get 3rd overall! Not bad for two "old" grandparents!

Debi and John being introduced by Master of Ceremony, Rex Henderson

Swingin' to "Rock Around the Clock Tonight"

One of our favorite moves...

Still Swingin'

Doing our best at the "Swing"

All the dancers we competed with this night:

Frank and Linda AhSue, Ken and Mardene Hansen, Sara and Chris Galante, Bro. Zimmerman (Nikki Waller's dad), and Mike Waller, Debi and John Lassen, Laura and Tom Penrose, Craig and Heidi Nebekker

Sui Wishart, John, Debi, Ron Speakman, Eric Daily

Here we are getting 3rd Place and posing with our judges!
(Thank you for being "kind" with your comments, Judges!)

Welcoming our new little grand daughter, Elina Jane Kent

2010-02-24T20:49:00.000-08:00

http://kkjjkent.blogspot.com/2010/02/elina-jane-kent.html Gramma and Gramps getting their first chance to hold our new little Elina Jane Kent at the Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo

Born Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 10:08 AM

Weighed 7lbs 7oz and measured 21 inches

Lot's of black hair and very PINK!
Elina with her daddy Jonathan, big brother Isaac and happy, but tired mommy, Kirsten

Daddy Jonathan bringing Elina home from the hospital

Big sisters, Audrey and Adalyn get to meet their little sister

Elina Jane

Welcome Home Banner from Elina's siblings and Uncle Hans

The kids watching for the car to drive up the street to meet their new little sister

Waiting and waiting and waiting......She is worth waiting for!

Big sisters Audrey, Adalyn, big brother Isaac and Uncle Hans

Happy Valentine's Day 2010

2010-02-14T21:37:00.000-08:00

Dad ordered this flower arrangement from Ditte....beautiful job again, Deetz! For those of you who celebrated in other places, Happy Valentines' Day from our home! We enjoyed a homemade lasagna dinner. Ditte made homemade french bread in the shape of a heart, Else made a salad and dad cut up fresh strawberries from the fields of Camarillo to go with our angel food cake and whipped cream. I even made sugar cookies for the kids to frost and decorate, and I don't do sugar cookies usually!

Friday, dad and I went to California Adventure and Disneyland for our "Valentine's Day" date. We started out our evening by eating at our favorite Downtown Disney restaurant, Naples Pizzeria.The two of us had such a nice evening together. We enjoyed the Muppet Theatre attraction that we've never been to before. (We love the Muppets and miss those good weekly Muppet TV shows.)We even went on Screamin' roller coaster together and enjoyed Soarin' over California before we went into Disneyland to watch the Fireworks show on Main Street. We ended the evening by going to the newly restored "Great Moment's with Mr. Lincoln" theatre on his 201st birthday. It was very patriotic. Proud to be Americans and of being reminded once again of heroes such as Abraham Lincoln.

We've had a nice weekend. Hope you have too, wherever you are celebrating it!

We are waiting for our new little granddaughter to be born any time now....Kirsten has had labor pains off and on for several days. Excitement to come!

We love you all!
x0x0x0x0x0x0x
mom and dad/gramma and gramps

Cub Scouts and Pinewood Derby

2010-02-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

We just came through Pinewood Derby time once again! Hans had a successful experience as he got to go with our Pack to Chuck Stevenson's wood shop to trace, cut out and sand with the other boys, his own car.

We had a lot of fun with the whole experience. He drew his design and wanted the back end to be higher. He wanted the weights on the back to help "push" it down the track faster. He chose gold color and painted it himself and added BSA 2010 100 Years of Boys Scout stickers to decorate it .

He did really well and had all 2nd place and 1 first place wins. John was relieved it did as well as it did. There was a little glitch in the computer program Jonathan was using to keep track of the derby and Hans was honored to be in 2nd place overall for the whole night. But, even after he was told that another boy actually got 2nd place, he was okay with it and said he just had fun. We were most proud of him for that attitude.

I remember when we found out Hans was a boy and when he was born, John said, "oh, great....more pinewood derby cars !" Well....we've arrived....Hans just finished his last pinewood derby car since he's been in Cub Scouts 3 years now and will move onto Boy Scouts next year.

Sweetheart.......it came and went so fast, didn't it????

Now we can relax and enjoy our "grandson's" pinewood derby cars and let their dads and moms do all the worrying! Can't wait to attend Pinewood Derby's for Wyatt, Isaac, Luke, Charlie, Leif, and Scotty's races!

We love the Boys Scouts of America! Happy 100th Birthday this week on February 8th, 2010!

Family Photos from Christmas 2009

2010-01-07T15:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve Photo

Newly returned missionary son, Steffen, Mette, Hans, John and I
Mette received things needed as she goes away to college

We enjoyed getting Beatles Rockband from Santa this year!

Lots of fun for the whole family

Enjoying John's birthday gift on a beautiful day after Christmas
Hans and Grace on this ride

Happy New Year in 2010

2010-01-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

Beautiful sunset walk with the family on Leo Carillo Beach on New Years Day 2010

saying good-bye to 2009 and welcoming in the New Year!

Hans getting picked for Jedi Training in Tomorrowland...one beaming little boy!

Hans on Main Street Disneyland

Some of the gang moving through California Adventure

Some of the wonderful "goofy" children in my life! Heading for Screamin and Toy Story Rides

Me, Else, Jeremy, Ditte, Cristin, Kirsten and Isaac

(Jeremy was able to take the day off work...the rest of us missed our husbands who were hard at work supporting us)

Some of our grandchildren (front row) Charlotte, Audrey, Scotty, Cozette, Issac,

Wyatt, Charlie, Luke, Addy, Atalie

and up top, our son, Hans!

Wow...I haven't been posting to my blog for months and it is because of several things. I got behind and then didn't know how to take time to fill in, mostly!

From the end of November through now I have enjoyed preparing for my son Steffen to come home from his mission on December 18th, helping with my sister in laws wedding, enjoying Thanksgiving and many get togethers in December and having children and grandchildren visiting our home. It's been a full couple of months.

So, now the New Year is here. Today Hans went back to school, John is working at the stores to support us, bless his heart, and Steffen and Mette left for BYU Idaho Saturday morning. We said good-bye to Christian and Emily and their family Saturday morning, also, as they had come down from San Francisco and stayed for 2 weeks. We have had a lot going on around here and now it is quiet in our house. I won't like it for very long, but for today, it is nice :-)

Yesterday, to end it all, I went to Disneyland and California Adventure with some of the family again to use our Annual Passes for the last time from 2009. It was sad to think the passes are expired now, but many trips and memories were made all throughout last year.

Here's just a few pictures for now and then I better get busy taking down Christmas decorations and cleaning the house!

Happy New Year!

The joys of little boys and their toys.....

2009-09-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Grandson, Isaac Kent, playing with trains
Isaac playing before he goes off to preschool

While Luke and Charlie came to visit us, we were introduced to Geotrax by Fisher Price Toy company. Luke has such a love of trains and these Geotrax are perfect for little ones ages 2-7 years old. He talked non stop about his Geotrax set at home, so gramma had to go to the local store and get a couple of sets and set them up in our family room.

Luke and Charlie have gone home now, but Isaac came to stay a couple days and nights with us while his mommy and daddy went to Utah this weekend. Now he is enjoying the Geotrax train set, too. Yesterday, cousin Wyatt and a friend, David Martin came for lunch with Isaac and they played with the trains. Uncle Hans enjoys them, too, and has set up some great layouts. He and Isaac have fun playing tag with their two remote control trains

Thanks Luke, for teaching us about Geotrax. We enjoy them now, too, but we miss you!

Our lives are full of little boys.....

2009-09-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

The best part of Luke and Charlie coming to stay with us for 15 days has been that Uncle Hans has learned what it's like to be a "big brother". That is a good thing!

Luke and Charlie soaking off the dirt and food from the day
sign of little boys at play

Charlie putting on his hat

Luke getting to "play" with cousin Wyatt

cousin time

Charlie and Luke come to cheer Uncle Hans on at his soccer game!

Yogurt lovers Charlie and Luke

We are coming to the end of our 15 days of taking care of our grandsons, Luke (3) and Charlie (16mo) while their parents, Erik and Cristin, have traveled in Tonga and New Zealand.

We've had some good times, some sweet times, some happy times and a few frustrating times, if truth be told. This "gramma" is getting a little tired and looking forward to being "off full time duty", but I wouldn't have traded this opportunity for anything.

We are going down to LAX tomorrow afternoon to pick up mom and dad! Prepare yourself, Erik and Cristin....enjoy your last moments of your "me time" !

Love you!

mom/gramma lassen/Debi

To add to the adventure of taking care of two little grandsons....

2009-09-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

Our Washing Machine Died this weekend, adding to the adventure

I'm thankful for Craislist where I found a 1 year old Maytag to replace it for a fraction of the cost of a new one!

I did 4-5 loads of laundry today after John installed the replacement! Back in business...especially nice with all the dirty, messy clothes little boys generate in a day!

Labor Day and officially ending of our summer!

2009-09-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hans and John going down the slide today on a boogie board

We had a Labor Day Barbeque/Swim Party and Family Home Evening at Peter and Gayle Lassen's home
Luke going down all by himself

Gramps Lassen and Charlie

Sunday dinner at the children's table

Gramps taking Charlie on a walk today

I have not taken the time to post on my blog since June! Summer has been very full and I hope to add more about that later.

Today we enjoyed our last official day of summer with the Labor Day Holiday. School and soccer practice, Cub Scouts and piano lessons started for Hans 2 weeks ago though, so we are in full swing for the coming school year.

Our Mette is packing up her room and preparing to leave our home for the next 3 months to travel to Europe and stay with her Aunt Anna Lassen Flanagan in Frankfurt, Germany. She is planning to travel to Denmark and stay with family and friends there as well as travel to other countries that she can arrange to visit. Our family is changing once again. After Mette gets home in December, in time for Steffen, our missionary son's return from Washington D.C. South Mission, she and Steffen will probably leave for college at the turn of the New Year. We will miss Mette so very much as she has never been away from home for so long! We are so excited for her, though, and know this is her season to leave the "nest" and grow on her own.

John and I are at present, taking care of two of our grandsons for 15 days. Our eldest son, Erik and his wife, Cristin had the opportunity to travel to Tonga and New Zealand and asked us months ago if we would take care of Luke (3) and Charlie (16 months), which we are happy to be able to do.

Here's some cute pictures of the boys from today. I've been e-mailing Cristin and Erik every day and adding photos to go with our emails so they know their children are doing well here in Camarillo with gramma and gramps Lassen.

At times it is very tiring, but we have never really been out of the mode of taking care of children since we first had our eldest, Kirsten 33 years ago! We just celebrated our 34th anniversary last week on September 2nd.

Mette, our eighth child, turned 20 years old in August and our youngest, Hans, turned 10 years old in July and so we are still raising a son while we have moved into the era of being grandparents to 14 grandchildren. I hope I can keep up my energy so I can enjoy children all of our lives. John and I still serve in the nursery in our ward each Sunday for 2 hours. We have 10 little toddlers to teach and love each Sunday, so this keeps us in practice, too.

I won't paint a perfect picture here....there are times with all these little ones in our lives that it gets very stressful and exhausting, but children are really amazing. I try to remember how the Savior would love them and it helps me a lot.

I'm so thankful for a wonderful husband that enjoys little ones, too! Happy 34th Anniversary Sweetheart!

Talk given by Hans Lassen in Primary, June 28, 2009

2009-07-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 28, 2009 Primary Talk by Hans Lassen
Our Theme this year in Primary is about strengthening families.

There are many things we do to strengthen ourselves and our families.

One of these is to try to pray and read our scriptures every day. We do this in our family. Just the other night, I wasn’t feeling well and couldn't’t go to sleep. I had faith that if my dad could give me a blessing, I would feel better and be able to sleep. My daddy is our Stake Patriarch and he gives lots of blessings in our home to other people when they come for their Patriarchal Blessings, but I know that all of our dads that hold the Priesthood can give blessings to their children any time we need them to. So, my daddy gave me a blessing and I was able to fall asleep and the next morning I felt all better again.

Another thing we do to strengthen our family is to work together.

Our Heavenly Father put us here on this earth to learn to work. This life wasn’t meant to be all about playing all the time. As members of a family and members of His church, there is lots of work to do and we must learn to be hard workers.

Pres. Hinckley said this about Work:
“Nothing happens in this Church unless you work. It is like a wheelbarrow. It doesn’t move until you get ahold of the two handles and push. Hard work moves the work of the Lord forward, and if you have learned to work with real integrity it will bless your lives forever. I mean that with all my heart. It will bless your lives forever” (missionary meeting, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 6 Aug. 1998).

Pres. Hinckley also said this:
Most of us are inherently lazy. We would rather play than work. A little play and a little loafing are good. But it is work that spells the difference in the life of a man or woman. It is work that provides the food we eat, the clothing we wear, the homes in which we live. We cannot deny the need for work with skilled hands and educated minds if we are to grow and prosper individually and collectively.

Our Prophet today, Pres. Monson said this:
Let each of us cultivate a willingness to work. President J. Reuben Clark, many years ago a counselor in the First Presidency, said: “I believe that we are here to work, and I believe there is no escape from it. I think that we cannot get that thought into our souls and into our beings too soon. Work we must, if we shall succeed or if we shall advance. There is no other way.”

Yesterday, my own family had a big job we needed to get done in our backyard. We had 3 big bougainvillea bushes that needed to be cut down because they were taking over our yard. My dad asked me to come out and help. My mom and dad worked with me. We put gloves on and used cutting tools and we worked for a couple hours together until the bushes were cut all the way down. My job was to clip the long, thorny branches into smaller pieces so they could fit in the trash cans. It wasn’t fun work. I got poked in the hand and in the arms a lot. I had to wear safety goggles to protect my eyes from getting scratched or poked by the thorns. Even though the work was hard, and I didn’t really want to do it, I stayed out there and helped my parents finish the job. We talked a lot while we worked and my dad showed me that it was probably a plant like this that was made into the crown of thorns that the Roman Soldiers pressed onto our Savior’s head. After we finished our work for the day, we went swimming together and that was a lot of fun.
I know that even though work and chores are not my favorite thing to do right now, our Heavenly Father and the prophets have told us it is a good thing to learn. I need to be a hard worker to do well in school. I will need to grow up and be a hard worker to earn a good living for my future family. I will need to be a hard worker to be a good missionary and to serve in the Lord’s church. Missionaries learn to work hard and serve other people. They give up 2 years of their life of things they want to be doing and work for the Lord. Missionaries who do this receive a lot of blessings from the Lord.
Being a good worker brings much happiness and satisfaction and I am thankful to be part of a family which is teaching me about work.
One of our great hymns in the church is about work. We sing it a lot in our morning family scripture time:
“The world has need of willing men, Who wear the workers’ seal,
Come help the good work move along,
Put your shoulder to the wheel.
Then work and watch and fight and pray
With all your might and zeal,
Push every worthy work along,
Put your shoulder to the wheel…
Put your shoulder to the wheel push along,
Do your duty with a heart full of song, We all have work; let no one shirk, Put your shoulder to the wheel.”

I pray that we will appreciate being in families and the things that we learn help to strengthen us and help us to return to our Heavenly Father some day.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Visit from some dear friends, Ray and Joanne Linford

2009-07-01T15:21:00.000-07:00

Photo taken by Hans in our front yard

This past Friday night, I was waiting for John to get home from work and fixing a light dinner for us when I got a phone call from Joanne and Ray Linford. They were passing through Camarillo, after visiting one of their sons in Southern California, heading back up to Utah. They wondered if they could come by and say hi and of course we were excited to see them.

They came over and were so kind to sit down to dinner with John and I and Hans. I felt bad it wasn't much of a dinner, but they were so gracious. At least we had some delicious fresh strawberries to serve them for dessert! We had such a nice time with them and so many memories of things we've enjoyed about them raced through our minds. We enjoyed hearing many good stories from Ray and could have enjoyed them all night if they could have stayed longer.

We talked over the time they let us use their swimming pool to have our son, Christian, baptized there. It was during a draught, like we are having again in California, and so the baptismal font wasn't being filled as often. We scheduled the use of their home and pool for the special occasion and the morning of the baptism, Ray's dear father passed away there at their home. Despite the emotions of that, they told us to come on ahead and hold Christian's baptism there that evening, which we gratefully did.

We remember the many gatherings we enjoyed at their home when Ray was serving as Bishop of Camarillo 2nd ward. After Know Your Religions, we would get together for homemade soups and bread there. Joanne was always so kind to open their swimming pool up for anyone in the ward to come on Wednesdays for a free swim! Our children loved that and we took advantage of that so many times. We especially enjoyed seeing the tiles at the bottom of their pool that were designed with the covers of favorite children's literature books! So fun!

One favorite story Ray loves to tell is when they were fairly new to the (then) Ventura Stake. He was serving on the High Council and would come to speak now and then in the Ventura 3rd ward. He would see a single sister with lots of children sitting alone in church near the front of the chapel and kept wondering if she was married to a non member, or if her husband had died, or what? He later came to find out that this sister was the Bishops' wife! I was the eldest of all those children and it was my mother he was talking about! Fun stories like that only endear us to the Linford's more.

In 1996, John and I went over to the Holy Land as part of a BYU Travel Abroad trip and we got to visit them several times as they were serving there at the BYU Jerusalem Center. Our eldest daughter, Kirsten was there as a student at the BYU Center for 5 months at the time and she grew especially close to them. That was one of the highlights of our lives to be there at the Jerusalem Center and it made it even nicer because they were all there, too. They were still serving there when our son Erik went to the Jerusalem Center to attend the next year before his mission to South Korea. They had sadly gone back home when Ditte went to attend there the next year, though.

We love Ray and Joanne and have appreciated their good examples to us and their influence for many years. We love their wonderful children and the posterity they have.We miss them as they have been serving mission after mission and have moved from Camarillo to live in Utah between those missions. They let us know they have turned their papers in once again to serve yet another fulltime mission...we'll have to see where they are headed this time!

Love you, Ray and Joanne! We are so thankful and honored you stopped by!

Father's Day Weekend

2009-06-26T13:32:00.001-07:00

Beginning of our Family Bike Ride near Ventura Pier

Rest stop overlooking Emma Wood State BeachJohn riding along beautiful coastline toward Ventura

Bike Riding break to watch the Kite surfers at the Point
Breakfast in bed tradition

John visiting on the phone with kids from out of town with Kirsten and Scotty looking on

Charlotte and her mommy, Else

Isaac, Wyatt and Uncle Hans watching the croquet game

Ditte, Tyson, Jeremy, Mette, Haans, Jonathan playing croquet

Atalie and Addie

Audrey and Cozette

Mette and Haans "eyeing" this great shot Jonathan is setting up for!

You can hardly see John back there....he is surrounded by love!
Happy Father's Day! June 2009

Our Father's Day Weekend was full of family time and John..... several times..... got a lump in his throat and would say to me, "I sure feel blessed!" We spent part of our Saturday with our kids and grandkids that could join us, on a bicycle ride from the Ventura Pier, north along surfers point and fairgrounds up to Emma Wood State Beach. It was such a lovely outing. The little kids were great at not giving up and trying so hard to peddle up some of those hills on the bike path going toward the ridge over Emma Wood where we paused for a snack and water break.

Sunday morning Mette, Hans and I enjoyed fixing John breakfast in bed...our long standing tradition!

And then, after our church meetings, some of the kids and grandkids again gathered at our home for a nice dinner, game of croquet and just hanging out together.

John got to talk on the phone or by skyping with Trine and Larry and family in Utah, Erik and Cristin and family in Tehachapi and Christian and Emily and family in San Francisco. He got a very nice card from Steffen on his mission in the DC area, too.

All in all....it was a nice weekend and we are so thankful as a family for our wonderful "dad", "gramps", "sweetheart" and "patriarch" of our family.

Monday night after Father's Day, John and Hans and I took a drive in our convertible for Family Night to watch the sun set at Pt. Mugu rock along the Pacific Coast Highway. We listened to some of our favorite soundtracks from John Williams....Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman and others....as we drove with the wind in our hair. Nice ending to a good weekend!

Waves near Pt. Mugu Rock

Sunset
Hans and John watching sun go down Southern California style!

Working in the yard....

2009-06-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Springtime is a wonderful time to work in the yard and to get the whole family involved (when you can)! The last two Saturdays, John and I worked a good part of the days trying to clean up weeds, fix the fountain, trim bushes and plant some flowers.
This last Saturday, a palm tree needed to be removed that has grown too big for our little backyard and was also blocking a sprinkler head so some of the lawn was not getting watered.

So....John started digging around the roots with a shovel and pick. I took a few shovel fulls of mud and dirt out myself. He was working so hard at the ball of tightly grown roots that he had to stop now and then to get his breath. Then..... he called for reinforcements.....our "little" but strong Mette came out to help and Hans did his share of what he could do, too.

After more digging and back breaking pushing and shoving, John tied a big yellow towing strap with a cinching devise to an apricot tree across from this palm tree. When he cinched it tight,we all grabbed onto the strap and pulled it sideways, toward and away from our bodies to get the most leverage and after a few attempts, cinched it again and repeated the process until roots finally gave way and the thing really moved. My husband is soooo smart!

The next challenge was to get the heavy, mud filled root ball out of the hole onto our little red wagon, which we finally managed to do but broke a wheel in the attempt. Time to get a big, hefty yard wagon anyway!

The Palm Tree now has a new home at Kirsten's and Jonathan house and has much more room to grow there!

I love family yard days.....it reminds me of working in the yard with my dad and mom when I was growing up. We did that a lot and I'm so grateful I learned to work hard. I would much rather work pulling weeds for hours than be in the house all day, but when I spend all day outside, I come inside and and see all the mess that didn't get cleaned up in there and I get a little grumpy! Oh well...I'll take these family yard work days when I can get them!

Hans and his new upcoming summer hobby

2009-06-11T17:21:00.001-07:00

Hans picked out this board because it had a "sword" in the design....of course!

Camarillo Parks and Recreation has a skateboard park that reopened today after it had been shut down for a few months for improvements. I noticed that the district was offering skateboarding lessons for kids Hans' age, so I signed him up and got him some equipment and we are ready for a summer of a new outdoor hobby!

So...... today at 4:00pm, they were having a grand re-opening party at the skate park and Hans wanted to go. He took his board and his safety gear in his backpack and we drove over there to check it out....

it was interesting....

The skaters who used to normally hang out there for free and without many rules or regulations for the park, were pretty upset. The district, for liability purposes, now has everyone under 18, fill out a waiver with parents signatures and you must wear at least a helmet to skate or bike inside the park. (Hans has elbow, wrist and knee pads, too, which are required for taking the classes).

I walked up to the sign-in table with this little 9 year old boy of mine, noticing that there aren't very many attending this "party". Hans is all ready to try his first day at the skate park with his new stuff and there are cookies and drinks and it was supposed to be a nice grand opening party....music and all. Just before we arrived, however, we found out that some of the skaters had cut the electrical wires for the music and started boycotting the park and yelling at anyone coming up to the table to not support these new rules. It was a little uncomfortable, I have to tell you!

So, Hans still wanted to try it out and he and one other older teenager who had his helmet on, enjoyed this brand new skate park all by themselves for about 15 minutes with about 30 skaters hanging on the outside bars of the fence, taunting them and making fun. After a few minutes, about 3 young men over 18 years, took turns using someones helmet and came in to check out the changes to the park. They seemed to really like it.

I am sitting in one of the chairs watching all of this and all of a sudden, about 15-20 or so of those skaters decide to "storm" the gate and push past about 6 adults who were set up to guard against this. They rode freely in the park for just a few minutes to get it out of their system, while the district employees made phone calls for backup.

I had Hans come sit down by me until the "revolution" was over and these skaters left before the police arrived. Then Hans went back to what he was doing, practicing dropping down into the bowls and trying to skate up some ramps. He and the one teenager just had a great time for about an hour. The older boy(who had one whole side of his face covered in a wine-stain birthmark and was obviously acquainted with being made fun of ) even showed Hans some tips and encouraged him as he got over some of his fears of dropping down some steep places. I was so grateful for his kindness. Hans fell down a few times, brushed himself off and tried again. You should have seen the smile on his face when he tipped the skateboard over the ledge and dropped down without falling! It was worth it all.

I talked with the district people about what was going on and they said they really expected some rebellion but they didn't know how bad it would be so they were somewhat prepared, but they are hoping that all these kids will get over it, except the changes and rules and put a helmet on and adhere to the new things set up for the good of everyone. There are new hours for skaters and bikers separately, there are days and hours set up for 12 and under only as well as 18 and older only...things like that. Once they have their parents (if they are under 18) sign the paperwork, they are able to buy an annual pass with their photo on it to the park for $20.00 a year or pay $5.00 each use....the pass is such a deal, but they were protesting that too, of course, since they have had it free all these years.

Another dad came with his 10 year old son while I was watching Hans and he said he never liked the influence there before for his children with all the cussing and the smoking, etc. He was hopeful, with these changes, it will be a fun place for all kids who want to enjoy the sport but not have to deal with those negative things.

Just as it was time to leave to come home...the boys outside the fence, started throwing handfuls of hotdogs and liters of soda bottles filled with barbecue sauce and ketchup over the fence into the park. Hans picked up some of the hotdogs and threw them back over !!! The district employees went and gathered the items and put them in the trash and just laughed at the immaturity of these youth. As we walked back to our car Hans said, "mom, I promise you I will never be mean like those boys when I get older." (I've put it in writing for all of you to see).

I'm sure the majority of those boys were nice boys....I told Hans that it only takes a few to be a bad influence on others. I think it was a good learning experience for him. He's so excited to go back again soon and especially to attend his first lesson next Tuesday night at that park!

I'm hoping I've done a good thing as a mother in exposing him to this activity....we'll see!

Where Did the Month of May go????

2009-06-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

On May 5th, John and I flew to Copenhagen Denmark, traveled by train with our Eurorail Passes south to Frankfurt, Germany and down through Bavaria to Southern Germany where we toured medieval towns such as Rothenburg and into Schwangau where we toured the famous castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. We next crossed the border into Austria where we visited Salzburg and Vienna...two very beautiful, historical cities that we enjoyed very much. Then we turned around and went north again to visit his sister, Anna and take a cruise on the Rhine River for a day before traveling by train again up through Denmark. We visited his cousin Freddie and his family in Aalborg, the city where he was born. Freddie took us north to his summerhouse in Skagen for a night and then we went south again to Odense, Denmark where we visited several days with our dear friends, Finn and Inge Kreiberg. We ended our trip by going back to Copenhagen and enjoyed attending the temple there with Finn and Inge before we flew home again on May 21st.

(I only have 950 pictures to share, so be grateful I'm only putting up a few here on the blog!)

I had to get my photo with the famous "Little Mermaid" We enjoyed a sightseeing tour of Copenhagen the first day we arrived.

Happy husband on the train as we traveled into his beloved Denmark

Day Cruise north on the Rhine River with Anna

Anna met us twice at the Frankfurt Train Station, showed us how to use the Frankfurt subway system, fed us delicious meals, gave as a nice place to sleep, shower and do some laundry. We loved our visit with her and we were so glad she got off work one day to go on the Rhine River Cruise with us just an hour train ride from Frankfurt.

City of Aalborg, where John was born and where his parents heard the missionaries and the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ over 60 years ago!

John's cousin, Freddie Larsen and his sweet wife, Jette

They had their whole family gathered for a delicious and fun family dinner the night we arrived in Aalborg. We enjoyed staying with them and meeting their children Kristina and Morton again with their families. Kristina even gave birth to her 2nd baby daughter while we were there!

Freddie, Kristina and baby Marie born in Aalborg Hospital

Bicyling through Skagen with John's cousin Freddie. He treated us to a barbeque and a lovely nights stay in their summerhouse on Skagen.
Then, onto Odense...

Finn and Inge Kreiberg's home in Odense

(notice the Red '67 Mustang in the carport? Finn bought it from us a couple years ago and had it shipped over and he started it right up for us....he seems to enjoy it!)

Finn, Inge and John in front of Odense Ward Building where he served as a missionary for 6 months and had the opportunity of meeting the Kreiberg family and teaching them the gospel 40 years ago. They had him and his companions over for dinner once a week while he was there. We enjoyed getting to spend some time with their children and grandchildren, too, and it brought such joy to our hearts to be with this great family and to have the privilage of knowing and loving them.

Finn showed us the inside cover of a Book of Mormon John had written his testimony in and given them those many years ago.
They are talented gardeners and have a beautiful garden that we loved sitting and relaxing in!

They also took us to visit some beautiful sites around their area, including an Old Town and also Vladamirs Slot (castle).

Our first view of the Copenhagen Temple dedicated in 2004

We enjoyed attending the temple with Finn and Inge, the night before we came home and stayed in the temple apartments across the street with them.

Mette picked us up from LAX airport and our sweet family was waiting for us when we arrived home with a nice dinner prepared for two weary travelers, banner on the garage door and lots of hugs and kisses! We loved going but we also love coming home! There's truly no place like Home!

The day after we came home from Europe, before the jet lag was out of our systems, all our children and grandchildren began arriving and all my siblings on the Beecroft side gathered for the Memorial Day Weekend for our first Carl and Rita Beecroft Family Reunion since both my parents passed away. We attended my niece, Rebecca Beecroft's baptism in Ventura, went to the beach, played games, sang songs, ate meals together, witnessed Christian bless their new son, Leif in our Camarillo 2nd ward, ran in the 29th annual Beecroft 5K Run on Monday morning, went to the beach again, swam at Peter and Gayle's pool (all 76 or so of us), and on Tuesday, many of us went to Disneyland all day. It was a wonderful reunion!!! Let's do it again in a couple years!
My sisters...Julie, Lisa, Pam, Jackie, myself and baby brother, Jon!

Thank you, Peter and Gayle for letting all of us come swim in your pool!

John and Debi Lassen clan....all but our missionary, Steffen....at the Beecroft 5K run

Gramma Debi pushing Luke and Charlie in the Run

Gramps pushing Leif and Grace in the run
We were so happy to have finished the race!

All 14 of our grandchildren were here for the reunion ....here are the 5 born this last year,

Charlie, Leif, Charlotte, Kayla and Scotty

Then...............

after the dust settled from all that.......

I chaperoned a field trip that all the 4th and 5th graders at Hans' school got to take on Friday, May 29th. We boarded a bus at the school at 4:30 am, got on a Southwest flight in Burbank and flew to Sacramento, CA. We toured the Capitol building, drove an hour up the American Fork River to pan for gold at Sutter's Mill and eat lunch, drove back to Sacramento to tour Sutter's Fort before going back to the airport and flying home to Burbank. We arrived home at 9:30 pm very, very tired but had a great day!

Gabriel Martin and Hans panning for gold near Sutter's Mill on the South Fork of the American River

Hans and Gabe getting on the airplane...with over 100 other 4th and 5th graders! Have you ever gone through airport security with 100 children??? Fun!!!

We ended the month with John doing a dutch oven demonstration most of Saturday, May 30th for a Stake Emergency Preparedness Fair and then attending a Piano Recital for Hans and other students of Marty Florence, held in the beautiful home of the Trouts here in Camarillo.

That is where our month of May went....in a "nutshell"

Bring on June and hopefully some lazy days of summer!!!

Catching up with March and April

2009-04-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a whole month it seems....time flies by. Since my last post I have been to Mesa and back with Hans to attend my nephew, Dustin's wedding. Hans and I left early on a Thursday morning and met up with Ditte and family at a Marriott Hotel early in the afternoon where we stayed in Mesa. We let the kids swim a little before getting ready to go to the wedding and reception at the "Wright House".

It was so much fun seeing all of my siblings together at once and many of their children and spouses! I had such a great time dancing with my baby brother, Jon and Hans got to dance with his Arizona cousins.

Driving across the desert was quite beautiful as there were lots of yellow and purple flowers blooming this time of year. I will always have a special place in my heart for my home state of Arizona!

Before Hans and I drove home Friday afternoon, we stopped with Ditte and her children at the Center Street Cemetary in Mesa to visit my parents' and my brother and sister's graves there. It's still strange to look down at my mom and dad's headstone and realize they are both gone. I feel like they are still with us, just on a mission or one of their trips together...which in a sense, that is true!

When I got home late Friday night, John was just coming home from an all day sailing trip out to Santa Cruz Island again with our son, Erik and some friends. They had a good time. We enjoyed a weekend of family in town and spent Saturday enjoying walks near the Ventura Pier together.

Jonathan, Haans, Erik, Kirsten, Tyson, Hans

Jonathan, Erik and John watching the surfers at C Street Point

New mommy Else, and Gramps John swinging

For Spring Break, John and I, Mette and Hans, drove up to Utah to attend General Conference and we had tickets for the Sunday morning session in the Conference Center. We enjoyed being there so much and it was Hans' first time actually attending conference in person since he is old enough now.

We stayed with Trine and Larry's family in Provo and enjoyed being with them a few days, including a day of skiing at Brighton. We had a GREAT day of spring skiing there. It was absolutely a beautiful day.

This past Sunday, we enjoyed Easter and had 40 at our house for dinner this year. We had a fun Easter Egg Hunt in our front yard, too.

Cristin with Charlie....cousin Jacob Lassen

Cousins, Isaac Kent, Kalob Lassen, Wyatt Wager and Luke Lassen

Four fulltime missionaries we enjoyed having over for Easter Dinner

Hans loaded up after the Egg Hunt
Else with Charlotte on her first Easter

Auntie Doris, Bedstemor and Bedstefar participating in the Easter Egg Hunt

Auntie Mette holding little Scotty Wager....his first Easter, too.

Uncle Tyson Endecott holding his niece and our newest grandchild, Charlotte

Erik with his two boys, Charlie and Luke

Kandra Lassen with Brendon, Cristin Lassen with Charlie and Ditte Wager with Scotty

We have had some lovely family times. We miss Christian and his family up in San Francisco and Trine and her family in Utah, and Steffen on his mission, but are grateful whenever we get together.

Springtime Photos

2009-03-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

John leaving for his weekly drive down to the temple where he serves as a coordinator for the Tuesday Evening Shift

He loves to drive with the wind in his hair....nice way to get rid of stress
Riding bikes from Hans' school to home in the afternoon

Allen Jenkins

John...working together at Camp Willett on a service project

repairing a damaged outhouse for the Scouts

Hans went along as a helper

Welcome to our 14th grandbaby, Charlotte Oda Endecott, born March 12, 2009!

2009-03-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

Else during labor...still gave us a smile!

Where am I?
Gramma Debi loves baby feet

Sweet family time

Gramma captured her first little "pout"

My latest joy was to be present to welcome into this world our granddaughter, Charlotte Oda Endecott, born to Else and Haans last Thursday, March 12, 2009.

I was so blessed to be with them through some of Else' labor at their home Wednesday, met them at their birth center in Ventura at 2:00 AM Thursday the 12th and then when Else's progression came to a standstill at 6 cm Thursday morning around 7:30 am, she needed to go to the hospital across the street, Ventura Medical Center, where she was able to get the help they could give her so she would progress again until delivering that night at 8:31 PM !

She did an amazing job and Haans was such a loving support through it all.......it was very emotional and joyful for us as we were able to hold her little fingers and look into her sweet newborn eyes and ponder on where she just came from....if we could only imagine!

She already has her daddy "wrapped" around her little finger!
Haans has his "pink" little baby girl! All is well and we are so happy she has arrived safe and healthy. Her mommy and daddy are just loving her to pieces.

Gramps Lassen gets to meet Charlotte for the 2nd time as we visit the next night, too.

Gramma Debi enjoying 1 day old Charlotte
Uncle Hans loves another sweet niece

Else and Haans and Charlotte enjoying each other....2nd night at the hospital

Gramma Debi drives up to San Francisco to meet baby Leif Christian Lassen

2009-03-05T16:12:00.000-08:00

Monday morning, I drove up to San Francisco to spend 3 days with Emily, Christian and baby Leif. I loved meeting our new little grandson and enjoyed spending a little time with Emily while Christian was at Dental school during the day.

Wednesday, I took Emily and Leif to the Oakland Airport, where I was allowed to escort them all the way through security and even onto the plane itself to get them settled for the flight. They were flying up to be with Emily's parents, Mike and Kitye Robbins, who had been with them the last 3 weeks and then drove their little 3 year old, Gracie, up to Utah with them. They will be up there until Christian gets through his finals in the next couple weeks for this term and then fly back

I'm so glad I was able to make this quick trip and enjoyed being gramma to Leif and hopefully a support to mommy, Em.

Sweet baby boy

Baby Leif Christian Lassen at 2 weeks

Daddy Christian and new son, Leif

Who is this "hairy" man???

Christian began growing his facial hair when Leif was due and he hasn't had time to get a haircut, just trim the beard a bit!

Had to take one of these pictures...he does cry, but mostly when he needs mommy to feed him.

Christian doing homework assignment in their dining room

View from Emily and Christian's dining and living room. Such a beautiful place to live in the Presidio, near the Golden Gate Bridge! San Francisco is such a beautiful city.

Celebrating Leif's 2 week birthday at Cheesecake Factory with mommy Emily, Daddy Christian and Gramma Debi

Isn't he cute? Gramma Debi couldn't get enough kisses

Leif waiting patiently for a little trip out of the house. He seems to have a very calm, patient personality. What blessed parents he has!

Missing big sister, Gracie!

Haan's Birthday

2009-03-05T15:52:00.001-08:00

Our son in law, Haans Endecott had his birthday last Thursday. He wanted to celebrate all weekend...so Friday night we went with Else and him, Mette and Tyson (Haan's brother) and some wonderful friends, Becky and Tyler Garrett and their children to Golf 'n Stuff in Ventura. We had such a good time.
Sunday we enjoyed having Ditte and Jeremy's family and Kirsten and Jonathan's family join us for dinner and continued to celebrate his birthday with cake and ice cream! We love you Haans!

Birthday boy, Haans! #29

Hans, Wyatt and Isaac enjoyed "dressing up" for the celebration.

Tea Time

2009-03-05T15:17:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I was invited to a Tea Party (herbal tea) party at Sherida Belcher's home. I felt so lucky to have been the recipient of Sherida's talents of preparing delicious food and her beautiful china and table settings and the company of such good people.
Thank you, Sherida, for the treat! Mmmmm.....

Gwen Morris (Sherida's mom)

Linda Foster

Katherine and Doris

Our beautiful hostess, Sherida!

Weekend Activities

2009-02-24T11:46:00.001-08:00

This past weekend we enjoyed celebrating Cristin's birthday at our home. Erik, Cristin and their boys came from Tehachapi to enjoy 2 days at Disneyland and California Adventure before coming to our home Friday night and Saturday and Sunday.

Also on Saturday morning, we were able to be with Else at her Baby Shower. The women that gave her this shower were generous, as well as so many who came and gave her beautiful little baby girl clothes.

She had her last day of working as our manager of Camarillo Lassen's Store on Friday.

Erik and Cristin with Luke looking on! Erik and Cristin
Serving up Cake and Ice cream

Rance Peterson, John and Jonathan

Mette, Kirsten and Tyson

Ditte, Scotty and Haans and Else

Hans enjoying his video games

Some of our grandchildren watching a movie on Gramma's and Gramps Bed!

Else wth Mette handing her many presents!

Shower held at Janice Northrups' house (on the left)

Some of the employees and friends and family of Camarillo Lassen's Store on Else's last day of work held a small going away party in the back room

New Grandson.... announcing... Leif Christian Lassen!

2009-02-19T10:45:00.000-08:00

Mommy Emily with Leif

Leif (pronounced Lafe...not Leef) Christian Lassen
good Viking Name!

Daddy Christian with new little son, Leif

On Tuesday, February 17th, 2009, Emily gave birth to Leif Christian Lassen. We had been praying fervently for them and all went so well it sounds. Leif was born at 7:47 PM in San Francisco, CA where his daddy is attending Dental School at University of Pacific (UOP) Dental School for the next couple of years.

He weighed in at 8lbs. 8 oz. and measured 20.5 inches. Such a nice healthy weight for a Lassen baby! His daddy says he has big hands and big feet....hmmmm that seems familiar, too!

Grandma and Grandpa Robbins were there for the birth and are taking care of big sister, Gracie.

We sure look forward to a trip soon up to San Francisco and to hold and love this new little grandson. Every baby is such a gift from God!

Valentines' Weekend and Kayla's Blessing Day

2009-02-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, John and I flew up to Utah to spend Valentines' Weekend with Trine and Larry, Leyna and Kayla, in Provo.

Sunday was Kayla's blessing day and she was a little angel. She looked beautiful in her first white dress. Her daddy, Larry, gave her such a tender, sweet Priesthood Blessing in their home ward. We felt blessed to be there for this special day.

We enjoyed a nice family dinner afterward in their ward building where we had homemade soups, salads, homemade rolls and desserts.

Cousins Terri, Julie and Daniel were all there with their families, as well as cousin Andrew Lassen who was also able to attend. Larry's family, Lynne and Larry Sr. and his sisters, his grandpa Dick, some good friends in their ward, as well as a missionary companion were there. We had a nice time visiting and taking pictures at the dinner.

We went out to dinner Friday night to Tepanyaki Restaurant in Provo and enjoyed a fun evening together there. Saturday, on Valentines Day, Trine "heart attacked" the house and around where dad and I slept and served us crepes for breakfast. Then we went to BYU campus and exercised for a little while in the Smith Field House by walking and running on their indoor track. dad pushed the girls in their double stroller. That evening we enjoyed Trine's homemade pizza and some chocolate fondue while the four of us played a "Newlywed/Oldywed game". The newlyweds won by a couple points. That was fun to play in their living room together.

We flew home last night after the dinner for Kayla's blessing and got home by 11:30 pm. What a luxury to fly instead of drive. We were so glad we could make the trip...even though it was a short one.

Thank you Krueger Family for a memorable Valentines's Weekend and thank you Ditte and Kirsten for watching Hans so we could go!

Early Valentine's Day Flowers

2009-02-12T17:33:00.000-08:00

John and I are flying to Utah on a 6:50 AM flight tomorrow morning so we can attend our grand baby Kayla's baby blessing in Provo on Sunday. We are lucky to be able to fly so we can spend a little time with Trine and Larry and their girls before coming home Sunday night.

So, we will be spending Valentine's Day in Utah.

Kirsten and Ditte started a little flower business years ago, out of their garage's and last Valentines' Day they began taking orders from friends and family so they could order flowers and arrange them in bouquets and have ready for the special day.

Mine came today since we'll be out of town. They are beautiful, Kirsten and Ditte!

And, thank you sweetheart, for ordering them from them. I feel so loved!

Happy Valentines' Day everyone! I love you!

Quick Trip to Disneyland/California Adventure

2009-02-12T09:57:00.000-08:00

With our new annual passes, we are finding that we can run down to Disneyland, even if it is for a few hours.

Last Friday, my sister Lisa and her family were spending a few days on a vacation trip from Mesa, Arizona. Kirsten and Isaac and I went down to spend a little time with them before leaving at 1:30 pm to be back to pick up kids from school. It was a rainy day, but we still enjoyed it so much.

We are looking forward to going again and again this year when we can fit it in.

Tender Mercies.......

2009-02-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging lately on my own blog. January has been a month of trying to catch up and keep up a very fast pace as we head into the New Year. I still hope to post about some of the things we did for the holidays and this month.

But for now, let me post about a tender mercy we just experienced yesterday. I am feeling so much gratitude to our Heavenly Father and must take this occasion to write about it.

Saturday mornings, Mette drives down to Van Nuys to be part of a Ballroom Dance Class and Team. She loves going, but yesterday morning she was extra tired and got up a little late. She almost decided not to go at all, but she went anyway.

John and I and Hans said good-bye and I kissed her about 7:30 as she left. We then got ready and went to the Stake Center to take our assignment of cleaning the building starting at 8:00 am. I accidentally grabbed John's cellphone (which was turned off) and put it in my pocket to keep it with me as I went about cleaning. John need to call one of the members of his cleaning team and when I handed him the cellphone, I realized it was his, not mine. Mine was still at home. Anyway, about 10:00, a message finally got through to him from Mette that she had been in car accident, shortly after 8:00 am in Van Nuys at the intersection of Balboa and Burbank. As she got off the freeway there was a traffic light which she stopped at and then when she went again, she didn't notice another traffic light within about 50 feet. As she went across the white lines, she looked up and discovered it was a red light! Too late! A car coming from her passenger side ran into her front right wheel and fender area very hard, causing her to spin and be shoved sideways, facing the oncoming cars who were waiting at the red light. She crashed head on into one of them, braking the axle on that car, at the same time hitting two other cars on her drivers side. Her airbags both deployed, hitting her hard in the face, especially her upper lip. She looked over the airbags in the faces of people getting out of their cars and coming toward her, knowing that she had caused all this. She couldn't get out right away.

Fortunately, no one else seemed to be hurt, that in itself is a HUGE blessing, but her car was totaled and the car that hit her was totaled and the car with the broken axle was towed away, also.

Most everyone was nice to her and comforting her. The firemen took her vitals and asked her questions to see if she knew where she was and what day it was, etc. The tow truck driver, who John and I met later in the day when we drove down to the yard to see the car and sign a release to our insurance company, took us out to see the car. He told us he had tried to comfort her and give her some water to drink. He sees lots of wrecks every day, some really bad ones, and he said he never leaves the house without asking God to help him come back safe that night. I told him, yes, we ask for safety every day in our prayers as well, and this day with hearts full and tears streaming, we knelt in a prayer of gratitude for watching over Mette and keeping her from being hurt badly.

We are so thankful Mette was able to reach Ditte, who called Jeremy and he left work and went down to help Mette and drive her home. Thank you SOOO much, Jeremy. We felt so terrible we couldn't be reached....no one remembered where we were at the church cleaning...even Mette with all she went through, had forgotten that was where we were, so thank you again, Jeremy.

Here's the pictures of the car as we saw it in the Police Storage Yard in Van Nuys.....Poor little red Mitsubishi....it's done for!

But, as for Mette, her lip has gone down to almost normal and she is sore especially her shoulders and neck and her chest aches, probably from the impact of the seat belts and the airbags. But she is doing fine. We have been recipients this weekend of tender mercies that we can see clearly. I think many times we have them in our life, but we don't recognize them......not this time! When I woke this morning, the thought came clearly to me that my parents, grandma and grandpa Beecroft, were probably being guardian angles again. I know they watch over their children and grandchildren here on earth.

Don't ever leave home without kissing your loved ones and telling them you love them and praying for safety that day!

Too busy living life to blog about it!

2009-01-20T22:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted most of December and January! Life has been so full and busy that I haven't given myself permission to sit down to blog about it.

Hoping to do it soon!
Love, Debi

Happy New Year

2009-01-09T13:20:00.001-08:00

January 2009

We decided to start out the New Year of 2009 by writing a New Years Letter to you to let you know that we are thinking of you and to thank you for letting us hear from you recently during Christmas time. We love staying in touch with friends and family and hope we can always remain close through this wonderful tradition.
Last year, 2008, was a full and learning year for John and me. John served my family and learned what it means to be the Executor of a Trust and Estate as he fulfilled that assignment well for my mom and dad, who have both now passed away. There were ups and downs with grieving for them and taking care of all the paper work, filing taxes, distributing their belongings and selling their house in Mesa, Arizona, but with the wonderful support and help of my siblings, we made it through a challenging process. He was a tremendous support to me, as I not only lost my mother December 2008, but by February, I had lost my last my paternal grandpa and my maternal grandma and a special Uncle and Great Aunt. Attending so many funerals at the end of last year and beginning of this year caused much reflection and appreciation for our Heavenly Father’s plan for us and for eternal families. Our testimony of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ in these latter-days has only been strengthened and renewed. We are grateful for the Temples where we can go to seal families together forever. We know He loves each one of us, His children, and that He sent His son to teach us how to live and love and serve each other, and we know because of Jesus Christ, we can all live again.
John and I had changes come to us in our service in the church. After his serving for over 5 years on the High Council, and me serving the Young Women of our Stake, we were both released this summer. I was able to still participate in our Youth Conference and Stake Girls Camp before the changes came. We love the youth and still get to enjoy them, but in a different way. John was called and ordained to the office of Patriarch. His first comment when the call came was, “I’m not old enough!” to which he was told by our Stake President that you have to be at least 55 and John was 57, so that wasn’t a valid excuse J. He humbly accepted the call and has moved forward in faith. I am privileged to serve as his transcriber, to type up the blessings, and we enjoy the sweet Spirit in our home more than ever before. It is such an honor of having the recipients of these blessings come into our home, and to recognize what wonderful people are in our midst.
In November we were also called into the Bishops office and asked to serve as the Nursery leaders in our ward primary. (I think mostly because our oldest daughter, Kirsten is the Primary President…she knew that this has been John’s dream calling since we can remember!) So, we enjoy serving every Sunday together in the Nursery with the little ones 18 months to 3 years. It takes a lot of energy but we hope we can keep up. He enjoys getting on the floor to play cars and trucks with the boys and he is great at the play doh table! Often, he gives two Patriarchal Blessings before or after church, so our lives are full of good things. John also loves the opportunity of serving as a coordinator for the ordinance workers in the Los Angeles Temple every Tuesday afternoon/evening. He still works full days and many hours to keep our two stores running, but is grateful to be able to leave them when he needs to for church or family.
We were very actively involved in campaigning for Proposition 8 here in California this past election season, despite much opposition. From our experiences of standing on street corners, phone calling, putting flyers on doors and donating money to a cause we feel very strongly about, we gained a greater appreciation for the blessing it is to live in this choice country where we can stand up for the morals and our belief in traditional marriage and family and then go to the polls to freely vote for those beliefs.
Our own family is growing and multiplying very fast. We now have 6 of our 9 children married and they are all having children of their own. By March of this year, we will have 14 grandchildren. Our three unmarried children are Steffen (starting his 2nd year of serving as a fulltime missionary in Washington DC South Mission), Mette, our 19 year old daughter, who just finished her Esthetician Program and earned her California State License to practice in that field. She is attending Ventura College this coming semester and works part time. She has aspirations of attending BYU in the future, but for now we love having her here with us and enjoy the beautiful person, inside and out, that she has become. Hans, as I mentioned, is in 4th grade and keeps us young at heart. He is an active little guy, involved in Cub Scouts, (this month he and his dad are working on his pinewood derby car) sports, music lessons and of course, video games!
We were blessed to enjoy all of our children, their spouses and children (except Steffen, of course) during the holidays at one time or another and we ate many meals together, played games, enjoyed outings such as sailing, motorcycle dirt bike riding, walks on the beach, jigsaw puzzles, watching movies and other activities together during the last 2 weeks of December. It wasn’t uncommon to have 25 or more at our home at once. All the grandchildren are younger than our Hans, who is now 9 years old, so you can imagine the “energy” in our house! I wish at times like this we had a bigger home, but I’m grateful they want to be here with each other. We are rich with family, if in no other way! Yesterday was our last big fling this holiday season, with those who could, going to Disneyland together. We had to laugh at one point when John and I stayed off the “Indiana Jones” ride to take care of the little ones who couldn’t go on the ride. Else stayed behind with us since she is 7 months pregnant. You should have seen the looks Else got as she was pushing a double stroller with two little ones, I followed with a 3 year old and John had a double stroller with 2 little ones. We looked so funny maneuvering through people to keep all these little guys happy…it was a picture!
We have had some wonderful times this past year and also many growing times, as well. We look forward with hope for the New Year and all it will bring. We have hopes of celebrating John’s parent’s 95th and 90th birthdays, as well as their 70th anniversary during one big celebration this year. We’re grateful to have them here in Camarillo with us still for as long as the Lord permits!

Happy New Year and lots of love to each of you!

John and Debi, Mette and Hans Lassen

Steffen’s address is: Elder Steffen Lassen
Washington DC South Mission
5242 Lyngate Ct.
Burke, VA 22015-2234
(Until he comes home Dec. 19, 2009)

Annual Trip to Christmas Tree Farm to cut our tree....

2008-12-10T11:55:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to a very beautiful video called

Joy to everyone!

http://joytoeveryone.com/

Hope you'll visit it and feel the joy of Christmas this season!

Here's some photos from the beginning of our Christmas Season this year....

Hans knew right away this wasn't the real Santa, but put up with it anyway for a picture!

John waiting patiently for Hans to come from petting the farm animals to cut our tree!
Hans couldn't get enough of petting the chickens and goats at the farm
(we are true city slickers!)

Wow...only one child to push in the wheelbarrow....we used to have 8 of them!

1991 With Trine, Mette and Steffen in the longgggg red wheelbarrows!

1993 Picture when we had the first 8 children all together still

Kirsten, Erik, Ditte, Else, Christian, Trine, Steffen and Mette(No Hans yet!)

Hans and his dad getting the job done in 2008

Two trees...one for our store and one for home

Oh...who is this we see coming after we got our trees? I know these cute children!
The tradition continues on for another generation...
Jeremy pushing Cozette, Atalie and Wyatt

Ditte is behind them with little Scotty

Hans loves riding this little horse at the tree farm

(we can afford to spend money on 1 pony ride...couldn't have done that with 8 of them!)

Later in the day...our newest band member, Hans, playing with his school band

he of course chose an instrument requiring long arms!

He'll grow....that I know from experience.

Hans putting on Steffen's ornaments for him since he is away on his mission.
(we miss him) Elder Steffen Lassen received Christmas Package from Young Women in our ward
Recent picture of Steffen and Elder Baldwin in D.C.

Sunday Activities at the Krueger Home

2008-11-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

Mommy Trine and Daddy Larry

Gramps taking a Sunday nap
(he got a head cold the day we drove up to Utah...he's having to stay away from the baby)

Sunday afternoon

Sunday afternoon with Kayla, Trine and big sister, Leyna

Gramps bouncing Leyna on the air mattress this morning

Gracie and mommy Emily came to visit last night to see new baby Kayla

Posting from Trine and Larry's House in Provo, UT

2008-11-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

Leyna and Uncle Hans this morning

Gramma and baby Kayla Mae

Baby Kayla Mae Krueger
Born November 12, 2008
4:53 PM
Orem, UT
7lb. 4oz 18 1/2 inches

New Granddaughter Born Today!

2008-11-12T17:39:00.000-08:00

Trine called me this morning from Provo and said she had been having contractions for about an hour... 5 minutes apart. We talked about it and since John and I and Hans were planning on leaving for Provo to be with them this Friday afternoon, I asked her to call me in an hour or so.

She did and was still having them and they were coming more regular and a little harder.

Okay!

We stayed in touch back and forth through the day and when I tried to call her around 3:00 our time their phones didn't answer...I began to think they were busy having the baby and sure enough, she called when the baby was an hour old and said, "mom...I did it!...she's here!"

Yeah, Trine and Larry! Their 2nd little daughter has arrived, safe and healthy and Trine had a much better experience with the birth than her first. She had to push for 4 HOURS with Leyna...I was there for that experience....I can testify she went through an incredible pushing ordeal. This baby girl was facing the correct way and came after 3 or 4 pushes!

She weighs 7lbs 4 oz and is 18 1/2 inches with curly light hair! Can't wait to see and hold her! They aren't sure on her name at time of this posting so that will come later. We were sad to miss the birth experience since they are so far away, but we are so thankful all went well.

We are rushing around trying to change plans here and there so we can leave for Provo early in the morning to go up and be with them and lend support. John will fly back home next Tuesday and Hans and I will be staying with them until November 25th and then we'll drive home to be back in time for Thanksgiving.

I'll hopefully have some pictures of our 12th little grandchild to share soon.

Happy Veterans Day!

2008-11-11T11:34:00.001-08:00

This morning Hans woke up, said his prayers and thanked Heavenly Father for all our Veterans who have served our country and then helped his dad put out our flag in front of the house.

We are trying to remember that today is not just a day off of school.....it's Veterans' Day....a day of patriotism and gratitude to all those who have helped and are helping to keep our country free.

Here's a picture of one of those special Veterans we remember today.....

John Lassen while serving in the Army during the Vietnam War

He was stationed in Germany during his 2 years of Service in the Military

Our Family Home Evening with the whole Stake!!!

2008-11-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

Wendy and Ron Speakman

John and Ron

Stephan and Marnie and family

Candace, Tyler, Lizette, Diane Barton and Else

Kristy Hunter with some of her boys

Mette and Kevin Hager

Kirsten and kids

Our Stake President asked us to bring our families out to stand on streets all over the Stake tonight for 1 1/2 hours. It was wonderful. Camarillo 1st and 2nd and some from the Young Adult ward stood along Carmen next to Constitution Park. Ditte and her family were out in Mission Oaks area with Cam 3rd, 5th and 6th wards. The kids enjoyed chasing around with each other and it was like a party; balloons and glow stick necklaces and all thanks to Wendy Speakman! Lots of positive honks from cars. There was some opposition, but not too much.
Tomorrow night this election will be over....hmmmm what will we do with our extra time????

YES on 8!!!

YouTube Interview asking about Same Sex Marriage

2008-10-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

Think, people, THINK! Proposition helps us Draw the Line!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DofQsB0f1lM

Other Great Sign Wavers!

2008-10-31T08:52:00.001-07:00

We are in good company as we have stood together to wave signs about Prop 8.

Sign Waving is an ancient practice and with the particular sign waver above,there was a great outpouring of support of the people. Hearts were changed for the cause of families, country and God.

(thanks to the talents of my son-in-law, Jonathan Kent, we can visually liken this story of Captian Moroni to what we are going through today).

African-American Pastors are offended that Same Sex Marriage being called their Civil Right!

2008-10-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dRkHYD-RBcw

I Can Do Hard Things...even Wave Prop 8 Signs at our School!

2008-10-30T09:09:00.001-07:00

Well, we had another morning of it.... Hans and John and I started out at the corner of Carmen and Daily for 1/2 hour with a big group of Yes on 8 supporters again and then I went to the school to join Marita who was given the assignment to get a group at some schools.......it is a LOT easier to wave at intersections in a big group. As just the two of us stood there...(she is my hero in this, by the way)........across from the school, we had a lot more personal confrontation. My heart was racing but I kept thinking about those who have gone before us and stood up for the right, despite the opposition.

One young mother that I like, and we see each other at school all the time, came up to us and said, "I respectfully, totally, disagree with you...I'm going to go get my NO on 8 sign." We thanked her for being kind and respectful and said it was great that we live in a country where we are free to speak out for what we believe."
She then got a group of about 4 young mothers and their NO on 8 signs and yelled and cheered across the street from us. Pretty soon, though, after Jonathan and then Ditte with her stroller and little ones saw us, they held up signs with us and we had a couple other women join us, too.Another woman with her granddaughter stopped and talked with us and told us we were promoting ill will and hatred and we calmly told her otherwise. My "favorite" argument from this lady was that if we don't allow homosexuals to get married, they are living in sin and adultery!!!!! Marita and I at the same time said, "they are still living in sin, even if they call it marriage." This woman (and she was a nice woman and probably a very good person) felt God made them that way and they just can't stop or change their lifestyle. I used the argument that we are all given things we must overcome in this life whether it is drug, alcohol, smoking or overeating tendencies, or how about tendencies toward dealing with pornography, gambling etc. We still work at overcoming those things because it is better for us and for society.......we are happier when we don't give into those tendencies. Marita told her that God made her skin brown but he does not make us homosexual. It is different!
It was interesting to talk with someone face to face there on the street corner and I was grateful to have stayed calm and kind and still be able to disagree. We didn't change each others opinions on the subject, but I hope that our being there may have helped someone vote yes on 8 that otherwise wasn't sure which way to vote.
I know without a doubt I am supporting what the Lord wants me to support and that is all that matters. Again, I do not hate anyone and I know God loves all his children, but he gives us commandments to protect us and help us be the happiest we can. I KNOW that the ideal family for a child is to have both a mother and a father. Because of death or divorce that isn't always possible, but a homosexual union is a choice and it should not be called the sacred name "marriage".

I can do hard things, as long as I am on the Lords' side, and I proved it to myself this morning!

Early Morning Sign Wavers in support of Prop 8

2008-10-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

John, Hans, Haans and I out early this morning with friends on several corners to greet people on their way to work and school! Lots of support and thumbs up and honks of encouragement here in Camarillo....there are a few confused people who wave other things at us....even had an empty carton of cigarettes thrown at us, but we smile and wish them a good day anyway.

For those who feel we aren't very many....watch this YouTube Video taken along Pacific Coast Highway last Saturday in Orange County...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlDacmjDP8s

ABC News Coverage of the Camarillo Rally for Prop 8

2008-10-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a link of video coverage of the rally we attended Sunday in favor of Proposition 8.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=6471646

I'm glad the "Barot" guy didn't get any attention on this clip.

Yes on Prop 8-Protect Marriage

2008-10-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

I don't know who photo shopped this picture of Samuel the Lamanite, but I thought it was great for this cause we are supporting right now!

We are going strong here in Camarillo with support for Proposition 8 to Protect Marriage. Sunday our family joined hundreds of other people at a rally at a nearby Baptist Church where a bus for Prop 8 was stopping by at noon on its way down through the whole state.

It was patriotic and uplifting. We unfortunately had a guy posing to do a documentary on this issue make his way to the pulpit and he kind of left a bad feeling with us at the end. He posed as a German (his accent was so strong and phony) and they finally had to turn off the microphone on him as we were leaving the rally. He came across in favor of Prop 8 but he was making fun and tried to change the mood to "anti-gay" instead of "pro-marriage". I was glad when the microphone was turned off.

But, for the most part, it was such a wonderful feeling being part of this cause with so many other people who understand that we don't hate the people who choose alternative lifestyles, but we love family and traditional marriage.

This morning we got up at 5:45 am and joined one group of many groups throughout town, on the corner of Carmen and Daily from 7:00 am-8:00 am with big banners and signs and waved and smiled at people as they were on their way to work and school. Hans enjoyed it too, but was cold. Tomorrow and Thursday we'll dress a little warmer!

Before we left home we read our scriptures and sang the hymn, "Who's on the Lords Side, Who?" What an appropriate hymn for such a cause as this. When people who don't understand this isn't about intolerance or bigotry, give us obscene gestures and yell unkind things, it only makes me realize more whose side we are on.

October Getaway Trip

2008-10-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Ever since our first child (Kirsten) graduated from high school, we decided to take our graduates on a little 3-4 day getaway trip for some special one on one time. I took our girls and John took the boys.

Well, Mette graduated in June 2007 and with so many things going on in our lives since then, especially last fall and winter with my mother's illness and passing and other relatives passing away and funerals to attend, we just never got her trip scheduled.

Then she began her Esthestician School program and that has kept her busy since early summer this year.

She just finished her 600-hour program this past Tuesday and she has a little window of time before she takes her State Boards Test for her license on October 29th, so the other evening I got online and looked to see what we could find to go do together next week. We discovered that the 4 day Cruise from Long Beach to Catalina Island to Ensenada and back to Long Beach was really inexpensive right now. So.....we are heading off for a 4 day getaway cruise Monday, October 20-24th.

Hans' school is off next week, also, for a Fall Break and Trine and Larry are letting him "fly" up to Utah and take care of him for me while I go off with Mette. (thank you!)

Hans is excited to be a big boy and fly all by himself. He did ask me the other morning, "what happens if Trine forgets to come pick me up?" I reassured him that I won't leave the airport until I see his plane in the air and I will be on the cell phone with Trine when it's supposed to land and she can let him say hi to me when she gets him from the flight attendant.

LAX......................................................................................................................................SLC

Mette and I will get off the ship on Friday morning in Long Beach pick up Hans at LAX and be home by noon!

Should be a fun Fall Break. And John can just enjoy a quiet, peaceful house all to himself when he's home and not have to worry about having a place for Hans to be when he works at the temple Tuesday night or on his Wednesday car night with Allen!

Hope it all works out for real like it has on paper! We'll let you know when we get back.

Proposition 8 in Plain English

2008-10-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zbpDe_QhS0&feature=related

A recent blunder of mine

2008-10-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Since I use my blog as one way to journal, I had to put this blunder in for my own record, because I am already laughing at my stupidity!
Last week, I was boiling some hard boiled eggs and I thought I would be efficient with my time. I put the eggs on to boil, proceeded to get ready to go be of service to a friend by helping her pack some things at her old house for their recent move. You guessed it! I left the house with the eggs on the stove for about 2 hours.
I returned, opened the door and immediately the smell that hit me brought to my remembrance of the boiling eggs!
I turned into the kitchen just in time to see one more of the eggs explode and pop all over the stove as well as join the others in pieces on the floor. Oh what a lovely, smelly mess. The house was full of smoke. I turned off the stove, opened the windows and cranked up our air purifier and the house fans. Then I returned to the mess on the stove. I decided the best thing to help decrease the smell was to take the pan outside and dump out the remaining stuck eggs into the trashcan. After I did that, I "thought" (not a good choice of words...I definitely wasn't thinking!) I should leave the pan outside to cool down.......I didn't even realize that the pan could melt the lid of the recycling trashcan!!! When I returned later to get the pan to begin trying to clean it, this is what I found....

it had melted slowly into the lid and now it's STUCK there.
John just laughed at me when he saw it and he thinks we should leave it in the lid as a nice ornament to the trash can.

No way! I want it out so that anyone who passes by our house on Mondays doesn't learn what a "smart" woman lives here!

I know one person who can have empathy with me, my daughter-in-law, Em. Last May she had a similar experience with the stove and a melted pan:-} At least she didn't compound her mistake by melting the trash can lid, too!

72-Hour Emergency Kit

2008-10-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight for Family Home Evening we took out our 72-Hour Emergency Kits and replaced all the food, water and perishable medicines and batteries. We've been doing 72-Hour kits with our family for probably 25 years. It's a lot easier now that we are down to 4 kits instead of 10!

Mette wanted to make an extra kit for her car, so she did that tonight. We also have a plastic trash can on wheels that has more water, first aid supplies, food and toiletries. In case of needing to suddenly leave our home (Earthquakes for example) we hopefully would have time to grab these back packs and this rolling trash can and either walk or put them in our cars.

We try to update these emergency kits every 6 months (at General Conference time, for example). This way the food and supplies don't go rancid or bad and when we take them out from the previous 6 months, we can still use them in lunches or for snacks. If we wait too long, we have to toss the food in the trash. Tonight we tried out some beef jerky that was too old and a few other things that hadn't been rotated in time. Last of all, we put a notecard with the backpacks and the rolling 72-hour kit, stating the date we updated everthing.

If anyone wants a good resource of ideas to put in your kits, here's a link 72-Hour Emergency Kit. It sure feels good to do this....the first time is the hardest, but the next time you don't have to rotate as many things, such as toilet paper, plastic ware and plates, can openers, pocket knife, radios, emergency candles and lighters,duct tape, soaps and other non-perishable items.

One new thing we added this time was metal sierra cups (John's idea) and cans of sterno. That way we could heat those microwavable meals in the sierra cup with the sterno underneath. I think this is a good idea.

I hope all you who read this will make it a priority soon to get your kits made.

I love my Yoga classes.....

2008-10-06T15:48:00.001-07:00

Warrior II Pose

Last year on my birthday, I asked John for Yoga Classes at the Camarillo Yoga Center here in Camarillo. (it's the gift that keeps on giving). I have begun my 2nd year now and I have to say, I think I have found something really, really good for me and that I hope to stick to for the rest of my life. I have a long way to go in becoming more flexible. I attend 1 1/2 hour class, 3 times a week and I feel so happy after I go.

Today we had a really good yoga session, but it also included one of the hardest poses for me...Pigeon. My yoga instructor calls out the poses and when she tells us to do this one she says, "this one is for you, Debi, because I know how much you love it!"

There are lots of variations to Pigeon, but this is a basic one. I truly have to breath through this pose and try to relax the rest of my body because it is very difficult for me. Once in the pose, we remain there for several minutes and I sure sweat during this one! I told her the other day it is like being in labor for me...it takes all my relaxing and breathing skills to stay in pigeon for 5 minutes each side!

I feel I am getting stronger each week and I enjoy the nice women I meet in my classes. A huge bonus is that my achy lower back from my ruptured lumbar disc surgery 7 years ago, is getting looser and looser. That is a huge benefit. Yoga is definitely strength training and weight bearing. You bear you own body weight as you hold different poses and that isn't easy!

Anyway...I can't take my own camera to the studio so I thought I would post a few poses I do regularly during our routine. The King Pigeon pose I can't even imagine at this point, but if I keep this up...who know in years to come!

Down Dog Pose

Triangle Pose

Pigeon

King Pigeon....maybe in 20 years for me!

Happy Birthday Scott Johannes Wager .....

2008-09-26T08:39:00.001-07:00

We had a great evening last night......September 25th, 2008

Hi family and friends,

I am so happy to post the news this morning that we spent the evening last night with Ditte and Jeremy at the Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo, where Ditte labored and delivered their new little son, Scott (Scotty) Johannes Wager!

I know Ditte and Jeremy will want to tell you more about it, but all went so well. Ditte uses the Lamaze method of relaxing and breathing to go through labor and it worked well for her once again. She was ready to push at about 11:15....had one push and out came his head, another push and out came his shoulders and body. I had one of the best views of my new grandson as I was holding up one of her legs and Jeremy the other.

The Labor and Delivery Room she was in became kind of party, but she invited us to be there....Ditte and Jeremy, myself, then Nana Nancy Wager, then Mette and Tyson came, then Haans and Else came. Haans video taped the birth for them as they had asked. With the doctor and nurses, it was a full room. Like I said...it was a birthday party for Scotty!

Scott Johannes Wager was born at 11:17 pm at Pleasant Valley Hospital and weighed in at 9 lbs. 15 oz . Two ounces bigger than his big brother, Wyatt!

As I came home to share the pictures and videos with John (he stayed home with Hans and Cozette, Atalie and Wyatt), we hugged each other...I said, "congratulations gramps" and he said..."our 11th grandchild! " It never ceases to be a miracle and a wonderful event to see a birth...it is just amazing that one moment they aren't there and the next, we have a new member of our family! We feel so very, very blessed that all is well with Ditte and the baby.

This morning we woke up the kids to get ready for school and I told them if they got ready quickly I would show them the pictures and videos on the computer of their new baby brother and Hans' new nephew. They were so excited! We had breakfast and gramps took them to school (Hans and Cozette and Atalie and Kirsten's two girls, Audrey and Addie all go to the same school.)

Wyatt is here with me today and I look forward to visiting Ditte and Jeremy and Scotty at the hospital a little later.

Welcome to our family, Scotty!

Play Day at Gramma Debi's House

2008-09-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

Today I'm watching three cute little boys...Isaac, Wyatt and David Martin. They just so happen to all be dressed in RED shirts today,too......hmmm power color! Of course they are finding all of Hans' weapons.... his swords, guns and light sabers. They are playing nicely together and I enjoy having them. Kirsten and Jonathan are on a trip to Utah for a few days, so Isaac is staying with us until then. David's mommy, Marita, has a class to attend this morning and Wyatt's mommy, Ditte, is getting her hair done and pedicure before her new baby is born next week.
Here's some pictures of the boys dancing to a Disney TV show, playing with some lazer tag guns (they really like those) and painting the sidewalk with water. They are so much fun!

Field Trip to the Getty Museum Today

2008-09-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

I sure must love my children! For over 25 years I have been going on field trips with them. So today I did one of those "small and simple things" and once again I rode on one of two school buses full of 85 4th and 5th grade students to go with Hans to the J. Paul Getty Museum, http://www.getty.edu/.

It was a fun day and we really enjoyed ourselves. I'm ready to go back again for another visit. Next time, though, I'll go in my car. It is a bit exhausting to be on a warm bus with lots of noisy, excited elementary kids as we drive on the 101 to the 405 Freeways.

But truly, it wasn't that bad and I'm glad I could spend the day with Hans. It was a wonderful place to explore.

Soccer Season

2008-09-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

Soccer Season is in full swing here in Camarillo! Last Saturday John and I went to Freedom Park and I think more than 1/2 of the Camarillo population is out there for part of the day each Saturday. It's a fun place to be.

We went to watch Cozette (#5) play on her "Pink Lemonade Team" (soccer banners have come a LONG way from the days of homemade felt banners). Then we watched Hans (#8) play with his "Royal Flush Team". Atalie is playing this year also, so we'll have to watch one of her games soon.

You can count on us being out at Freedom Park every Saturday through November!

33rd Anniversary Celebrated in San Francisco

2008-09-09T21:12:00.001-07:00

Julia Pfeiffer Burns Waterfall, near Big Sur on Highway 1

View of Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach, just below Christian's apartment in Presidio

Christian's Dental School for the next 3 years

View of Bridge from Christian's Apartment

Evening Cable Car Ride

On September 2nd, John and I celebrated our 33rd Wedding Anniversary. We decided to drive up along Highway 1 to San Francisco and visit our son, Christian, who is living in the Presidio Apartments of San Francisco and attends Dental School at University of Pacific. He rides his bike from his apartment, near the Golden Gate Bridge, 4 1/2 miles to his campus both ways.

We enjoyed staying with him, visiting his Dental School and seeing some sites of San Francisco. We even drove up to visit the Muir Redwoods one afternoon and walked 2 miles through the trees. We rode a cable car from Girahdelli Square at Fisherman's Warf up through the city one evening after a nice seafood dinner. We enjoyed walks on Baker Beach and up the Great Highway along Ocean Beach. Christian fed the missionaries one evening while we were there and he fixed Aebleskivers, which we all enjoyed.

We had a nice time for our first visit and hope to return again soon.

Christian came home with us for Cozette's baptism Saturday evening and then he caught the train and bus from Camarillo station back up to San Francisco on Sunday. It was a really quick trip but it was nice to be together.

Jeremy and Cozette on her baptism Day, September 6, 2008
Jeremy, Ditte, Cozette, Atalie and Wyatt on Cozette's Baptism Day

Labor Day Fun

2008-09-09T20:41:00.001-07:00

John and Tyler making "tidal waves" in the pool for the kids.

Haans and Wyatt going down slide

Debi and Hans going down slide

Cozette, Lizzy, Peter, Bedstemor and Mette

Bedstefar and Bedstemor, Doris and Peter

On Monday, September 1st, Labor Day, we worked around the house all morning and then went up to Peter and Gayle Lassen's home for swimming, bar-b-que and to celebrate August and September Family birthdays. Then we enjoyed a family home evening lesson inside given by Haans and Else. They taught about building our lives on a "firm foundation"...upon the "rock" or our Savior. To demonstrate this concept for the children, they told the story of the "three little pigs" and how the "big bad wolf" is like the devils' shafts in the whirlwind. If we build our foundations on the Savior, the devil can have no power over us to drag us down to the gulf of misery and endless woe! Good lesson, Else and Haans!

Hollywood Bowl with John Williams Conducting

2008-08-31T19:56:00.000-07:00

This past Friday night, John and I went on a date to the Hollywood Bowl to enjoy John Williams conducting the LA Philharmonic Orchestra. We went last year to this same concert and really enjoyed ourselves.

We love John Williams' music.....the list of music he has written is huge! (read the list.....)

http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/music/artist_detail.cfm?id=2769&back=%252Ftix%252Fperformance%255Fdetail%252Ecfm%253Fid%253D2673%253B%253B

Along with performing many of his compositions, they played video footage on the huge screens from movies such as Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman,etc. etc.

This year, John Williams included a special celebration of the great MGM movie musicals, hosted by legendary director Stanley Donen (Royal Wedding, Singin’ in the Rain, Anchors Aweigh). This was such a fun part of the evening, as Mr. Donen spoke at the microphone and they showed movie clips of Fred Astaire doing that one number where it looks like he dances on the ceiling and walls of a room...Mr. Donen described how this was accomplished. He also came up with the dance numbers from Seven Brides and Seven Brothers "Barn Dance" and the "Singing in the Rain" number with Gene Kelly, among other famous MGM movies. It was such good entertainment and the audience gave Mr. Donen a standing ovation.

In the second half of the concert, when John Williams began leading the orchestra to the Star Wars Theme, hundreds of people in the audience turned on their light sabers and began waving them in the dark to the music. That was just so much fun. The crowd roared with approval when the "Darth Vader" Theme began and the Hollywood Bowl was lit in bright red lights. Such fun!

The concert mistress performed the solo violin piece of the theme from one of my favorite movies, "Sabrina". Incredibly beautiful music!

We enjoyed eating a Lasagna Dinner there at the bowl and had such a nice evening together. The weather was perfect and comfortable for an evening under the stars. I would highly recommend this for a special date.

Next year, when this same concert comes again, we are hoping to get group tickets and take as many of the family and friends that want to go together and enjoy a fun evening...light sabers and all!

Camp Whittier, Camarillo Stake Girls Camp 2008

2008-08-27T21:36:00.001-07:00

I spent a few days last week at our Stake Girls Camp. We held our camp above Santa Barbara, across from Lake Cachuma along Highway 154 at a place called "Camp Whittier".

It was the nicest camp facility we've enjoyed for years. We enjoyed the beautiful oak tree setting, wild deer and turkeys and woodpeckers; a clean dining hall equipped with "Chef Fabio"...a real chef who loves working at Camp Whittier each summer. Our meals were delicious and not your normal "camp" food!

Chef Fabio

We had a nice pool, craft lodge, comfortable cabins and bathrooms with flush toilets and showers.

We even had a 60 foot climbing wall with a zip line the girls got to enjoy.

It was such a successful Girls Camp experience and so much thanks and appreciation goes to our Stake Camp Director, Corinne Barlow and her committee. They did a fantastic job of organizing and providing such a memorable camp experience for our Camarillo Stake Young Women and leaders. The girls were able to certify but also experienced many spiritual moments throughout the days and nights.

I've been serving in my calling for 5 years now and so this may be my last Girls Camp in my present calling as Stake Young Women's President. I'm so grateful it was such a wonderful camp!

I'll have many sweet memories of it and of the great young women and leaders in our Stake!

Nice clean refreshing pool

Gathering around the campfire ring

Morning and Evening Flag Ceremonies
I enjoyed being in a picture with my Camarillo 2nd Ward Girls and Leaders

Their president, and my dear friend, Nancy Jenkins, helped the girls make matching PJ's and I got a pair, too!

Stake Camp Director, Corrine Barlow and myself

Lake Cachuma where we stopped to eat our lunch after our hike My sweet nieces Bethany and Lizzy Lassen were with me at camp...Lizzy unfortunately suffered with a fever most of the time, but still was such a trooper and kept trying to enjoy her 1st year at girls camp.

Bethany was such a fun 4th year and had such a happy attitude...she even led us at the campfires in our new song that Trine taught us at our Carpenteria Camping Trip... "Let me hear your Funky Chicken"! So fun!

Our rock wall and zip line we enjoyed at the camp

This was not only a great physically fun activity but a self confidence booster for many young women. The girls were great at encouraging and cheering for each other all day long!

Nice Staff facilities at one end of the Lodge. I enjoyed my bunk and my roommates, Sherida and Ami

Lodge we got to use for many uses.

Bedstefar and Bedstemor making Medistopolse

2008-08-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

Bedstefar "Hot Dogs" in the making.......... Filling the casings with the homemade pork mixture
Yards and yards of delicious pork sausage
John and his mom
Quality Check...they cooked some of it to see how it tastes...mmmmmm!
Bedstemor rinsing out the sausage casings before stuffing them.

Cute 8-month pregnant Ditte helping in the Deli

Our "morning sick" store manager, Else (she's about 13 weeks pregnant and we got a forced smile out of her here. )

Hi family,

Yesterday John asked Bedstemor and Bedstefar to help him make 113 pounds of Danish Sausage, aka "bedstefar hotdogs" or Medistopolse.

Ditte was working the deli helping out and she called me to come down and take some pictures for posterity! So I did! Here they are...so enjoy!

Special Friend goes to the Oakland Temple...

2008-08-19T11:58:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, a special friend of our families' and of our son, Steffen, went through the Oakland Temple in preparation for her upcoming mission to Vancouver, Canada Mission. Stephanie Doung (in the picture above in the grey skirt/purple blouse), lived with us for a few weeks earlier this summer and roomed with Mette. She moved back home with her family in Union City, near Oakland, CA for the final days before her mission.

A neat coincidence was that our son, Christian, decided to attend the temple that day and just happened to look over and see Stephanie there! We thought that was really special that a member of our family could be with her on her first trip to the temple. (this picture was from Christian's camera). It is extra special that it was Christian that was able to be there with her because he also served his mission in the Vancouver Canada Mission.

Stephanie leaves for the Provo, MTC next week and we wish her well as she goes forth in faith to serve the Lord fulltime and teach others about His restored church on the earth in these last days.

Hans begins 4th Grade Today....a little nervous....

2008-08-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

John and I went with Hans to school this morning.

Here he is following Ditte and her children up to the crosswalk.
Here is Hans with one of his 3 teachers, Mrs. Castellanos. While he is in her classroom, he will only hear and speak Spanish. Hans is almost bilingual now after attending the dual language program since kindergarten!

Isaac and Wyatt playing at the school....a couple more years and they will be joining their sisters and Hans here at University Preparation School

Mette's 19th Birthday

2008-08-18T22:47:00.001-07:00

August 12, 2008

Happy 19th Birthday, Mette!

We love you!

Lassen's Camp at Carpenteria once again!

2008-08-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

Luke wearing Great-Grandpa Beecroft's hat

Wyatt,Luke,Joseph,Lizette,Leyna,Anna and Issac

(We had 2 more 2 year olds a couple times...Kalob and Grace)

Waiting at the Carpenteria Train Station for Ride up to Santa Barbara

On August 2nd-August 9th, we set up a group camp at Carpenteria State Beach Campground, along with about 55 others of Hilmar and Oda Lassen's posterity! We've been keeping this tradition for over 20 years now and it's a lot of fun to gather with family who live near and far, pitch our tents, fix our meals outdoors together and enjoy the beaches and ocean of one of our favorite places.

John's sister, Doris, keeps us organized each year and makes the reservations back in January and she organizes who is cooking what meals and who is in charge of campfire programs each night and desserts.

This year, John and I really enjoyed that we had so many of our own children and grandchildren coming back to camp together. We are so proud of our married children with little ones, that they made the effort and put up with the challenges of camping with toddlers and babies, just as we have done for 32 years!

Kirsten and Jonathan with Audrey, Addie and Isaac; Erik and Cristin and their two year old Luke and 3 month old, Charlie, Ditte and Jeremy with Cozette, Atalie and Wyatt; Else (who has morning sickness)and Haans; Trine and Larry and Leyna from Utah; Mette and Hans all camped for the week. Christian couldn't come because he had just started Dental School in San Francisco, but his wife Emily and their little daughter Grace, came for 2 days before they had to leave and drive back up to Utah. Of course, Steffen is on his mission and couldn't be with us this year....missed you, Steffen!

We enjoyed John's parents being with us off and on when they could, Birthe and Bob came from Ohio, Ida came from Idaho, her 3 girls, Nancy, Terri and Julie and familes were there with us from Utah, Doris had her nice travel trailor again this year to stay near us, John and I had a tent all week and John came most evenings and all day Friday and Saturday; Peter and Gayle and their family came and Jimmy and Susan's family came and fixed a wonderful dutch oven Sunday dinner for us. Candace and Tyler and Lizette pitched a tent and stayed all week, too, and Benjamin and his wife, Alex had a tent they stayed in when they could come from work.

One day, we walked to the Carpenteria Train station, just a few yards from our campground, and all rode the train up to Santa Barbara. The kids really enjoyed that. We spent the morning doing different things in Santa Barbara before returning on the train in the afternoon.

Another morning, we drove up early to the Danish town of Solvang, 1 1/2 hours north where we enjoyed having hot chocolate, hard rolls and Danish Havarti cheese at the Danish Mill Bakery. They shut down the restaurant part just for us for an hour. We indulged in our favorite pastries and chocolates up there before returning to camp.

The campfires and firesides each night were always well attended and help to bring our family closer to each other and to the Lord as we have a spiritual message and sing songs of the gospel but also fun campfire songs. The children LOVE "an Austrian went yodeling" and "Princess Pat" which have to be sung every night!

It was a successful, lovely week and we were especially blessed with beautiful, sunny weather. I even played in the ocean a couple times with my grandchildren, so you have to know the water and sun were just right!

We had 7 tw0-year olds in camp almost the whole week together. That had to be a first! It was a memorable week and hopefully everyone will come back again next summer.

Cub Scout Day Camp with Hans!

2008-08-01T15:12:00.001-07:00

This week from Monday through Friday was our Districts' Cub Scout Day Camp. We hold it every summer out at Pt.Mugu Navy Base, about 20 minutes from Camarillo. I was a den leader this week for Hans' group of boys and I worked 3 full days, sharing the assignment with two other leaders...Keiko Chun and Bruce Boulter. We enjoyed our 12 4th and 5th grade boys in our group.
The theme was Cub Scout Olympics, in honor of the Summer Olympics coming up. Our boys chose the country of Chile for our den. They made a flag the first day, chose their nickname which is "Red Hot Chile Peppers" and had a chant they said where ever we went.

We also had a special treat, as we were on part of the Navy Base, the Top Gun pilots contacted the scout leaders and told them they were training this week on the base and would do fly overs for the boys if they would jump and and wave as they would go over. They even tipped there wings back and forth as they flew over us to wave hello.

The boys were kept very, very busy doing six 50 minute activity sessions a day with a lunch break and quiet time in the middle of the day. They got to make crafts, made kites that they flew and flew, played dodgeball, soccer, kickball, ultimate frisbee, learned Chinese games like checkers and jumprope, woodworking, marshmallow guns, rigatta boats, fired BBGuns and enjoyed Archery, did a cooking session and even had a swimming session 2 hours long at the Pt. Mugu Pool. Our den was in charge of the opening flag ceremony and opening prayer one morning. Hans gave a nice prayer in front of all the boys.

I had a lot of fun, but when I got home each day at 5:00 pm, I was dead tired...ready to shower and fall asleep!

So, Hans is finishing up his final day today and we will be off for a week of camping at Carpenteria starting tomorrow!

Whatever happened to "those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer" they used to sing about when I was a kid! Summer isn't so lazy anymore!

Fireing a BB Gun...every little boys DREAM!

Getting to use tools and wood to create a functional camping stool
Hans and his buddy Gabriel Martin

Top Gun Pilots waving hello to the boys!
Eating lunch while sitting on their wooden seats they made.

Birthday Girl, July 29th

2008-08-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

Monday night, John pulled as much family together as possible, to come over to our home for a birthday dinner for me. Thank you to all who remembered me and gave of your love. I was kind of emotional as I watched all the children run and play and enjoy being at "gramma's and gramp's" house, so when you all sang the Happy Birthday Song tears of joy came to my eyes.

My actual birthday was on Tuesday, but Monday was a better night to get together. Thank you for the delicious steak dinner with all the trimmings!

Love to you all from this 52 year old birthday girl!

A "Wii" Birthday for Hans' 9th

2008-07-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

The night before Hans' birthday, he got a ride on a motorcyle.

(Peter, a young adult from Cam 4th ward stopped by with Bonnie Harrison and he gave Hans a big thrill )

Hans turned 9 years old yesterday on July 25th. It's hard to believe it has been that long since this little guy came into our lives. I reminded him of his memorable birth, being born at home when I realised in the early hours of the morning that I had waited too long to go to the hospital. I had John help me back to my bed after I had tried to make it to the front door. He came minutes later and Kirsten and Else got to be my midwives. Else called Dr. Swanson after Hans was born, Kirsten got my shoestrings from my tennis shoes to tie off the cord and John took care of cutting the cord and getting Hans warmed up and crying to get him nice and pink. It was quite and exciting entrance into the world for him and for all of us. Big brother, Erik, was coming home from his mission in Korea 3 days later and Kirsten had just come home from her mission 3 weeks before! It was a busy time to be having another baby...especially when Kirsten and Jonathan got engaged a couple days after his birth and we had a wedding to plan. What can I say...our lives are never dull!

To celebrate his birthday yesterday, Mette and Tyson decorated his room the night before (after he had fallen asleep...he's a very deep sleeper once he is out). Mette also wrote him signs all over his mirror and the bathroom mirror. He was nicely surprised when Mette woke him up at 7:00 am before she had to leave for school. Here's some pictures of what he did on his birthday...from early morning to bedtime! He got a Wii Video System (actually it's for the whole family of course). I took him to Lazerstar with some friends for a couple hours. Then he played Wii for the afternoon with his friends, Ethan and Drew Hunter. We had pizza and more Wii with the family in the evening until Mette came home from work and we had cake and candles and sang the Happy Birthday Song. Today he is out sailing with his dad to Santa Cruz Island with other friends and familiy. It's his first time to actually go out sailing that far and long and he was looking forward to it the whole week. One day he watched "Sinbad" and held his toy sailboat in his lap to help prepare him for his big sailing adventure today.

Happy Birthday dear Hans!