Still growing up

I thought the older you get the easier it is to say good-bye to your family and head home?! And be happy when you get there.

Love and miss you all in Aberdeen!

It's OFFICIAL!

Happy for Garrett and Saryn. The date is set for April 29, 2010 in the Denver Temple.

Full of Thanks

We kicked off Thanksgiving with a Missouri tradition...Christmas in the Air on Thanksgiving Eve. It's a great 20 minute fireworks display over a very large lake in Lees Summit.

But it's not the 20 minutes of fireworks that draws us. It's not the two hour wait, fighting for a parking spot, the chilly air, and dealing with traffic on the way home.

No, it's the warmth of friendship and love of family time and friends that carry us there. It's BBQ-ing in the dark, eating food you cannot see, and laughing around the fire pit at life's quirks.

How grateful our hearts are for good friends. After a rather long week, I received a package from my friends in North Dakota. Great timing. In it was a a BEAUTIFUL Thanksgiving table runner. I was touched that they thought of me, spent hours quilting with little ones under foot for ME.

These Missouri Hendricksons express gratitude for wonderful friends, near and FAR. And how we love family, health, the gospel, our Savior. The list grows and grows.

We are FULL of Thanks.

What....PINK?!

Raising four boys and one husband (not really, Todd, you're great), I do know BLUE. But pink?! I admit to being uncomfortable when shopping for baby gifts for friends that are expecting girls. I get very overwhelmed with all the selections, styles; they're all so cute, cute, cute.

But I'll have to get over it because Brandon and Julie are expecting and it's PINK! Haven't heard much about "gender" tests, but they (B & J) claim 90% accuracy. And according to the test they took, it's a girl. Due early June.

I have a feeling I'll overcome my "pink" weakness...eventually!

A Builder, My Mom

I just had four days of undivided attention from my mom. Am I lucky or what?! She visited us here for the first time and we enjoyed talking, sight-seeing church history sites, driving through old historic neighborhoods, Union Station, and much more. We even had a chance to have lunch with her first cousin, Dave (below) who lives in the area and whom she hadn't seen in years.


I sure appreciate her and all she's done throughout her life as a daughter of God, wife and mother. Pres. Hinckley said it best, "You [mothers] are the real builders of the nation wherever you live, for you have created homes of strength and peace and security. These become the very sinew of any nation.”

With 9 children, 53 grandchildren, and ten and 3/4 great-grandchildren and growing (hope I counted that right), I'm sure she didn't realize the "nation" she was creating as she went to bed tired every night after long days of raising 9 kids.

Love you Mom!

Pain is Temporary; Pride is Forever

Oh, contraire! This morning as Todd and I, as well as our friend, Valerie, ran the Kansas City 1/2 Marathon someone was holding a poster with the above statement...

I submit they have it backwards....

First, at our age, pain is NOT temporary....it lingers and lingers, days, weeks, months, and yes, even years. And pride being forever...thank goodness our memories at our age are dimming. We will, within a few days, forget our times.

So you see, it's backwards. Just knowing we accomplished it is enough. Hilly, difficult, but all were happy with their times.

Parents Week(end)

Another crazy-idea-Todd and Becky-have: we drove like maniacs across country to spend a weekend with our three sons at BYU during Parent's Week. When we will have three sons there at the same time again?

Lucky for us, we had some friends who are just as senile that have two daughters attending BYU, so we had company. Good friends make the miles go by so much faster!

Landspeed record broken...and we didn't even have to use the adult diapers that Ken so graciously gave to us: 15 1/2 hours, with 17 of those minutes actually stopped (gas, food, restroom).

We had a GREAT time with the boys and wished we could have stayed another 48 hours. In pictures, here's what the weekend entailed:

Matt's ultimate frisbee game: (with friend, Brandon) They won--undefeated and ranked....
Garrett's concert by j.wride for family and close friends. Outstanding.
Julie was swamped preparing for the first home football game, but we were able to grab her for dinner one night (Brandon had to work, sorry Brandon) ....
Checking out Matt's wheels:
5K-- They did awesome! Brandon even won a $10 bookstore gift card.
Filling Old Mother Hubbard's cupboards:
And the big finale--the football game. We felt a little guilty enjoying all the concessions Julie had for us knowing that she was busy working and would be until the wee-hours of the morning.And at the mid-night hour---haircuts for all three boys.

Whew! An awesome weekend....too short, but it's a good thing WE'RE HEADING OUT AGAIN FOR HOMECOMING NEXT WEEKEND! No land-speed records this time, we're flyin (in an airplane, not a car).

MAKIN' MUSIC

Garrett would love to sit around all day makin' music..... however, life's responsibilities get in the way.

His band released their first CD. It's being picked up and sold by Best Buy.

He's a pretty talented young man...congrats on a great accomplishment, Garrett!

PS. Go to http://www.myspace.com/jwridemusic to get a little sample of their music

Blessed

In an effort to broaden my reading horizons, I decided to check out our ward's book club. I picked up this month's book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" a few weeks ago and couldn't put it down until I finished. Wow. Did it make me think and appreciate my blessings and my freedoms!

I am ignorant about life beyond the US border and what people in other countries struggle through daily. What a pampered girl I am. I now appreciate more the simple things in life through new eyes.

Highly highly recommend it.

Memory Bears

With all my extra time lately, I've been finishing up projects....inspired by you, Shay.

Grandma Hendrickson passed away two years ago. Grandpa let me have some of her clothes. I decided to make Memory Bears out of them, and attach a poem, like Laura did for all the Allred grandkids, but for the Hendrickson grandkids. While she had to make 54, I only had to make 20....a big difference. So you'd think the quality would be top notch, but it isn't.

I hope they enjoy them. When I give them to them. That might take me another two years.

Watermelon Wonders

Primary visits require a captivating treat....these watermelon cookies fit the bill.

Twenty-Five

I remember feeling so awkward telling people we were newlyweds.....how fast twenty-five years flies! I am so LUCKY to be married to my best friend. xoxo!

Missing Family

We got back from my family reunion just yesterday. It was great to be together. Really, truly was. I missed them as I was saying good-bye, as we drove the 6 hours home, and today as I reflect.

It was held here....
Broom Tree Resort near beautiful Irene, SD (Broom Tree Resort & Conf. Center). The Allreds have really moved up in the world !

One sister was in charge of the Family History segment and did a GREAT job. So fun. She created an "Authors" card came (wish I'd taken a picture) with each of us 9 kids and mom and Dad having their own cards/books and you had to collect all four books. Very creative. And this game...GUESS WHO? Various boards so all 54 cousins could get on a board.


And she made food for us to sample from our great-grandma, grandma, etc. I learned collard greens aren't as nasty tasting as authentic Johnny-cake. Who would have thought?! The Treacle was delish..
There was the talent/skit portion...We never lack for talent, but after 25 years it's getting difficult to come up with new material.One of my FAVORITE parts: CRAFT time for the girls and women. My sister in charge of this had us make scrabble necklaces and these cute boxes.
The necklaces are soooo cute and easy. Click here for the how-to link.

My sisters who organized it did a fantastic job of scheduling in free time for games, getting reacquainted, swimming, etc. We even did a service project for a few hours.

And the grand finale...THE MARSHMALLOW FIGHT. My sister, Kathleen, is a relentless competitor in the fight and is usually the last man standing.The "older" siblings tossed a few and then did this...

What a wonderful 4 days! I'm grateful for my family. Thanks for your wonderful examples and friendship. Love you all!

Painful moments

We've had our share of unfortunate events lately. Nothing out of the ordinary for everyone, but one of which happened while Todd and Nathan were driving the truck on the priest/teacher canoe trip in southern Missouri.

To quote my husband, "Three deer were FROLICKING (yes, he really did say that) at the side of the road and one of them turned and ran right at us." Apparently the deer thought she could high jump over the truck. She missed by about 2 feet.

And they were only 20 miles from their destination.. Good news was no one was hurt. It could have been worse if the air bags had deployed. It made it home but not before overheating.

Another painful moment in the Hendrickson Household: Three Sundays ago Todd noticed, after a full day of Primary, Sunday dinner, Youth Conference meetings in a town 35 miles away, that my diamond had fallen out of my wedding ring. Sad.

To make a lllloooonnngggg story short, I could not get it off. The humidity has made my fingers swell.

I was resigned to keep it on until winter, but thanks to a friend, Katy Glenn, it made it off my finger. It was a painful process and included several people.

But MUCHO THANKS to Katy who made me instantly happy using her dental floss trick.


She was so concerned about hurting me, so funny. Forever in debt to Katy Glenn!

And no, I never did find the diamond. Until Katy got it off, the diamond was replaced by cookie dough or whatever I was baking in the kitchen.

Bummer. Oh well. This too shall pass.

Sixteen--SWEEEEEET!!!

Yep, my baby's 16 today. Happy Birthday, Nathan!

I have a feeling I will be chauffeured instead of doing the chauffeuring from here on out.

He had to waited an extra year to get his license because we moved, so today was the long-awaited, drive-us-crazy-with-a-daily-countdown-for-a-year, big day.

And he did it....(sorry, Nathan, not the best picture)Watch out---not only because he can drive but because he can also date.

Love ya, Nate!

He's 18!

Happy Birthday, Matt! Where DID the time go?

I did talk to him several times on the phone, but wanted send additional wishes for a fabulous day.

We are grateful for the spice and humor Matt adds to our family. We would be plain vanilla without him.

Here's to 100 more birthdays for Matt! Love you!

Celebrating the 4th

Oh how we love visitors! We just said good-bye to Bryan and Telindalee King & Fam, who gave us the pleasure of their company for the last several days. A stop at church sites, late nights talking, buying 232 hotdogs, good food (hot dogs excluded), lots of laughter, great company and a cute haircut! That's what makes memories.

Our Provo boys ran the 5K and 10K this morning and called with their results. Both were excited and happy. Garrett has to work all day (overtime) so he couldn't run. We realized that it was 22 years ago today that we ran our FIRST race EVER together, the Provo Freedom Festival 10K. My how time flies when you're having fun. Don't laugh, but here we are in our younger years standing in our quad at Wymount Terrace after the race...
You laughed. How could you not! Notice Todd's rolled down socks! And how skinny we were, sigh. (For those who care, our time was 47:16.)

We wish all of you a happy fourth of July and trust you are spending time surrounded by friends, family, and those you love. What a great country we live in. Let's keep it that way by doing our part to advance His work.

Now off to our own little 10K....just the two of us....crossing the finish line together.

We say Good-bye, You say Hello

It's time....Matt, Nate and I took a loaded truck of Matt's possessions (Todd was still in Philly and flew into SLC later to join us) and hit the freeway headin' west...destination Provo, Utah. Matt's summer term began last Monday. We wanted to get him there so he (we) could attend New Freshman Orientation. Apologies, Brandon, for using this pic...it was the better of the two.

Matt surprised himself and us as he continually attended more and more activities with his "Y" group from NFO . Both dances...can you believe that? The result has been a very happy Matt having a blast at BYU with his new found friends. Oh, yes, he's keeping up with his Econ class and B of M and slowly improving his tennis skills.

One of the friends he met is a gal from Arizona who asked if she could go for a run w/Matt and his new friend, Brandon. They chuckled to themselves and said she could. Imagine their surprise when she not only kept up with them, but set the pace at a darn good clip. Later they learned she's at BYU to run cross country and track. Humble pie, Matt.

Brandon and Julie were also in the midst of moving from Wymount to a basement apartment in South Provo, so when we weren't moving Matt in or attending a session of NFO, we were helping B & J. Which we were happy to do. It made for a busy but eventful weekend.

Brandon arranged for us to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. We took a quick break and headed north to our old neighborhood, which we could hardly recognize. We were in awe by the beauty of this sacred edifice. And to go together as a family was wonderful. The chocolate chip cookies in the hospitality tent were a delicious bonus. (Garrett left before we took the pic)

Garrett's band (J. Wride) was playing on Saturday night. What a bunch of talented kids. We were happy they had a gig while we were in town so we could hear them live. Garrett has some wonderful friends. We also were able to hang with Kent (nephew) and Janea and Paul (niece & hubby).



Father's Day B & J hosted a dinner (delicious) for all of us. And Julie's German brownies lasted about, ummm, 20 minutes before they were all gone.

I find myself missing my father more and more as different challenges come and go in my life. I often wonder what his counsel would be in those situations. He was a spiritual father, one that I wish I would have listened to more closely and absorbed his wisdom while he was yet with us.

But here's to our father Todd, who makes us smile and laugh while guiding and encouraging us along the way! Thanks for your great example. We Love you! (B & J gave him a fun remote controlled helicopter that was a hit).
That inevitable moment came too soon when we had to say goodbye to three children and a daughter-in-law. We miss Matt TONS at home, but are so glad he's happy and adjusting well to a new chapter in his life. And of course, we always miss the other kids as well. We're counting down the days until we're together again.

Phun in Philadelphia

Todd's graduate school of banking requires a once a year 10 day school at the Univ. of Pennsylvania.

He wanted us to come along the first year but we declined (Florida or Philly--it was a no-brainer). We couldn't tell him "no" twice. Here's a picture (right) of him at the U of Penn during his lunch break.

Overall impression of Philly: kinda dirty, lots of homeless people (sad) and too much brotherly love. Looking beyond those things, we were able to see many historial site and museums. They had an awesome running trail that went for miles next to the Schuykill River.

Independence Hall, Constitution Hall... The history was fascinating and made us reflect on their integrity and character. We wonder what they would think of our country today...

There's the famous Liberty Bell, which they "tap" on July 4th...just tap, no ringing. Yes, Liberty S., we did think of you as we admired that bell.

We also rode out to Valley Forge....on bikes. It ended up being longer and warmer than we anticipated. I assumed that the when the trail said "Valley Forge National Park" that it would dump us right into the historial site. But it was another 2 miles over to the park. That said, you can guess that it was not a hit with the boys. They were rather grumpy about the whole ordeal so when we arrived at Valley Forge, the visitor's center was all they would tolerate as there was no further biking required. There was a 9 mile loop with the famous National Arch that I would have liked to have seen. Another time. Two ice cream treats each to them get them back on their bikes for the 24 mile ride home.









The rain the Seamons brought with them to KC followed us to Philadelphia, so the bike trail was rather muddy and sprayed mud all down our backs.

In an effort to save money we chose not to rent a car and walk everywhere. The walking was plentiful and balanced out all our eating out. Sunday we walked around 3 miles to church and back. It was humid and a little warm...really, I had Matt's best interest in mind as I was preparing him for all the walking he would do next week at BYU.

It was Flag Festival at Besty's Ross's home Saturday so the boys and I walked over. We were all intrigued by this little monkey:

Monopoly has a Reading Railroad (pronouced by the locals "red-ing")...no doubt this is the original. It's an actual market inside where people sell produce, wares and goods. And delicious food and chocolates.









And who can pass up the chance to run up the steps of the Museum of Art that Rocky made famous? Not us. Here's Matt after making it up the steps:

And Nate:

Phun at the ball park on our final night in Philly . We did take the subway for the first time, although once we got there I could see easily the skyline of downtown Philly. I didn't mention that perhaps we could have walked there...just a thought. I think they would have shot me had I said it out loud. Enjoyed the infamous Philly cheese steak and all agreed the the KC Royals Stadium can't be beat.

And that wrapped up our Philly trip. One I-pod touch temporarily lost, as well as a cell phone left in the taxi as we rode back to the airport for KC but all was retrieved in the end.