April 2008 - Hyrum (& Jenna)

Well so much to say and so little time. That has kind of been the theme of my life as of late...crazy. It is funny though that through the craziness life right now is soooo wonderful. I am so happy and feel like I have been very blessed. As you all know Jenna and I are officially engaged, and it has been a lot of fun to show off the bling to everyone. She spoke the on mothers day and was particular about brushing the hair out of her face during her talk with her left hand...I wonder why?

Seriously though it is so great and I keep thinking about how much better love is than I ever imagined. We are constantly doing wedding stuff and though it is stressful at times, it is fun to have it on our minds every second. I want to thank you all again for the help with the movie it worked out perfect. You will all have to see it someday.

Oh a bit of a different note, I feel like I really haven't told anyone about my job amidst the wedding stuff so just to let you all know, here is a little about what I do. Though I am an intern, my new title is project engineer...sounds official huh? Without using too much construction jargon, I am afraid I can't fully explain what I actually do, however I basically do all the little tasks so that the big guys have time to tell stories and talk bad about the Sub contractors. We are working on a 37 million dollar project which is a prison actually. It creates problems because it is a state job, but it sure makes the meetings fun to be at with all the craziness. I work with a nice guy named Joe, who though smokes and drinks, really has a good heart, and I have already given him the first two lessons. My next thing will be inviting him to church. I would make an awesome member and from what I know his wife would as well.

Well it is way past my bedtime, though it is only 8:47...it is just that I am up at 4:30 so it makes for a long day. Anyhow I love you all and I hope all is well. I miss you all, and miss seeing you all but I know this is where I am supposed to be and I am getting some awesome experience so i guess it is the price to pay.

Thanks again, and love you all,
HYRUM PITT

April 2008 - Miriam & Jordan

It seems like such a long month for some reason. I bet everyone is happy like I am that Mom is feeling better. That was such a scare for Mary and I who were there when the ambulance came it was quite the scare. I don’t’ know what we would all do with out her. We love you mom.

Well we want to congrats Hyrum and Jenna. We are so excited for you and hope that all the planning goes well. I love weddings. And I did talk to Elder Pitt last week along with a few others of you and it was fun to hear his voice again. He sounded definitely up beat and happy which is good. Good luck to Isaac in his soccer, now that the year is winding down. I still can’t believe you went to prom, little Isaac growing up.

Well an update on us for the month is. Jack breaking his arm which you all know about. He got his second cast on (pink like Preston) and he is feeling better. For all you moms out there who have gone through it, I’m sorry its seriously horrible watching your kid in so much pain. I’m just praying we don’t have another one anytime soon. We also had an accident with our septic tank backing up and yep you guessed it, flooding some of the basement. It smells good down there. We caught it pretty quick so I’m hoping we will be ok. The roto rooter man said it was too many wet wipes down the pipes. Got to love what kids stick down the toilet. On a brighter note, Alicia and my dance recital is next week and we are looking forward to it. The girls have 3 dances they will be performing and hopefully all goes well.

And that about wraps up the month for us we hope you all have a wonderful rest of the school year, because summer is almost here. Hooray

The Browns

April 2008 - Mary

Yo family,

As I'm sure you'll all agree, this month has been, well...a month to remember. Or a month to forget, depending on how you want to look at it. Broken arms, broken eyes, potential heart attacks, Jenny's mom in the hospital and Colleen's scare (and miracle!), stupid ambulance and fire truck drivers (why on earth do you send a fire truck when all you need is an ambulance? Oh wait, TWO ambulances because the first one doesn't have the right stuff for the IV. And hey, next time why don't we park up by the house instead of at the bottom of the driveway by the mailbox so that you have to walk all the way up the hill while our mom is going into shock?) Wow, that's all I have to say. But with the bad always comes some good: like Mom telling Jason to watch out for the jelly beans in his boots; mom jumping up in the middle of the night to go see if someone is at the door. And don't be embarrassed mom, because it was the ambien talking, not you and it provided MUCH needed comedy relief.

On the more serious side though, with technology and a loving family it was amazing to see news travel so quickly throughout the eleven children, their spouses and children, and feel the prayers and support almost instantly. I personally want to thank all of you for giving me such comfort and support when I was basically losing it. Well, I've already lost it, but you know what I mean. :) I felt it such a privilege and honor to help mom through this time because it made me feel like it was giving back just a smidgen of what she has given all of us everyday throughout our lives. There is no way we could ever repay you mom, for all that you have done for us, and being able to help you in this small way was an honor. And, I want you all to know that hanging out with mom on such a continual basis was awesome! Though we cried more than we had in a while, we also laughed...a LOT. The Lord really does bless us in good times and in bad. I'm grateful for such wonderful friends and family, and was reminded that we never need to feel truly alone.

Congratulations to Hyrum and Jenna. We are looking forward to getting a new member of the family next month. And Jenna, you fit right in with the name Jennifer (well, and Johnson!) and with the best birthday out of all 365 days (July 17th :) I'll tell Grandpa to be sure and bring his branding iron with him to the wedding.

Well, life keeps trudgin' along. I was going to say that hopefully next month will be a little less crazy than this past month but with the wedding...well maybe in July. :)
Love you all so much and thank you again for all your support and love. Sure couldn't make it through this life without you.

Love Always,
Mary

April 2008 - Ardith & Aaron

So, surviving the month of May will be one of my biggest successes. We've been trying to do a lot to keep us busy and getting the children out of the house before we get stuck in doors when the baby comes. It's been fun, with a trip to the fire station, to the Casey Jones train museum, and strawberry picking, but I feel like as soon as the summer is over than I can start getting back on top of things!

Aaron just finished another pediatric rotation at a wonderful hospital which we will be sad to see go. Moving on to his general surgery rotation where all of a sudden working with adults again after 12 weeks will be daunting, but not impossible. After that he's onto the wonderful world of trauma! Those will be four weeks that couldn't go by faster. Oh well.

The girls did great in their dance recital. Kenna actually performed, and was all smiles and did beautifully. We were all very surprised and happy for her. Alli knew all of the steps and seeing her little chubby legs tap was a highlight. They did a great job. Matthew is still me little boy who makes the greatest noises and imitations, and is all boy! Until the girls practice ballet then he's right a long with them. He makes me happy. Anyway, we appreciate everyone’s thoughts and prays and hopefully baby will come soon than later and we can begin our family of 6. We'll keep you all posted and hope that all is going well for all of you!

Love, The Ketchers

April 2008 - Travis & Alicia

Time goes by faster and faster each month. We are sorry for the lateness of this entry. April came and went and we enjoyed having General Conference. It sure is nice to have multiple mediums to be able to turn back to that counsel and listen, read or watch conference and the messages from our leaders.

We are sorry to hear about the many trials that have been occurring in the family. Thankfully we have had a pretty low key April without many incidents occurring in our own family. This gives us opportunities to strengthen others and serve in word, action and prayer.

Very true some of Mom’s experiences as that hospital were a little to real for some things Alicia has regularly experienced, by way of procedures and tests. Mom we are glad you are recovering and how we love you.

The kids have truly loved seeing Grandpa’s resort unfold. Marshall loves all the chickens and wants to see them often. The kids love the play set and love the large swings and slide. Kids have still been busy with soccer, dance and end of the year school.

As a family we have been working on manners (again) and have enjoyed watching the children try to make it a habit as to the importance of having good manners in all different situations. We gave them two weeks to practice and record the times they showed good manners. As a reward we went as a family up to Park City and stayed overnight and played lots.

One of the rewards was having dinner at Park city at a nice restaurant. The kids were a little uncomfortable at first because it was so quiet and non their normal level of restaurant. They had real glass cups to which we were hopeful that we would have no accidents, but it was a great experience to let them have that chance to practice what they really had been working on. To our surprise it worked out to be a great experience. It gave us the chance to talk about why there are two forks, why a large spoon, about eating slowly, looking at the server to order, to say thank you when food came and how tipping worked and why it occurs (in the U.S.)

Life sure is busy as all can attest. We enjoy quiet time together as husband and wife to replenish the relationship. Happy Birthday to all those many birthday’s in April. Weather is getting so beautiful, we are loving the spring time. Wish all great blessings. To Hyrum, great wedding planning and to Ardi that this baby will come soon.

Love,

The Johnsons

April 2008 - Jason & Jenny

Dear Family,
We are so excited for the upcoming wedding and for Jenna to join our family (why not add another Jen)?! It has been fun to get to know her a little bit better and to see Hyrum so in love! What a fun time of life.

This month has been full of a lot of events, some painful and others quite miraculous. We felt so bad to see Mom Pitt suffering with her eye infection and to watch the whole process of recovery. She is one tough lady! It was quite humorous, however, to talk to her while she was drugged up and on Ambian! She told Jason that "sometimes life gets hard and we just need to put on her boots, even when they're full of jelly beans and start walking!" Classic.

My mom has also been in the hospital these past three weeks. She went in for a huge back surgery--they put two long metal rods and 16 screws in her back. It has been a really hard recovery, and she has experienced many set backs (infection, pain, falls, etc.) We are all trying to exercise our faith and hope for the best, but it is so hard to see my mom in such a tragic state. The most difficult part is to see how it has affected her emotionally. She is so depressed and negative--partly because of the heavy narcotics that she is on and partly because she hasn't seen any progress. She is usually so upbeat, affirming and a real fighter, and it has been so sad to see her spirits low and her will to get better diminish. My family would appreciate any prayers in her behalf.

My sister Catherine is pregnant with her 6th baby, but she has a blood disease that she got when she had a blood transfusion with an earlier baby. So now her blood is fighting against her baby within. She has to start getting blood transfusions through the umbilical cord, beginning this week. She is so scared because she is only 25 weeks and the procedure often induces labor. She will probably have to have about 5 transfusions. So pray for her too!

If that's not enough, my other sister Colleen learned last Monday that she has an aneurysm on the main artery of her brain. She was told that it is a "walking time bomb" and that if it were to rupture, she would be killed immediately. It was some pretty rough news. She has 6 kids and her baby is not even 2. So she spent the next few days looking at options, talking to doctors, and getting some tests done. The conclusion was that she had to have brain surgery within the week. The next day, her husband felt inspired to give her a blessing and to use anointed healing oil. That day she went in for an angiogram and the results were amazing. The brain surgeon came in with her husband (who is a physician) and they told her that the aneurism had moved! It moved 1/2 cm down under the dura layer of her skull and was in a safe, contained area! She was worried that it would perhaps move again, but the brain surgeon said, "Aneurysms don't move. This is miraculous." We feel so blessed and amazed at God's sweet act of mercy. This whole event has put life into perspective so quickly. All Colleen could say to me when she first learned that she had an aneurysm was: "All I want to do is raise my kids. That's all I want." I wish we could live each day with the correct perspective.

So, needless to say, this month has been pretty emotional. But we have seen the Lord's hand many times and feel His love. Jason is so sweet--I think he knew that I needed a break and so he surprised me and we flew down to San Diego for the weekend. We basically just hung out in the sun and relaxed. I love little trips with just the two of us--it is so good for our marriage! We love you all and hope to see you all soon.

Love, Jenny, Jason, Prest, Maddy, Kate and Tess