Merry Christmas

We're in Salt Lake City having Christmas at Susan and Chris's and sleeping at Jackie's apartment (her roommates went home for Christmas). We came down Wednesday. We're having a good time. Right now the babies are asleep (except for Hattie) and we're playing Wii. Here are some pics.

Merry Christmas from the May household

This year we've become either creative or lazy (probably the latter) and decided to post our Christmas newsletter here at our Blog. If this is your first time to our blog don't expect much, since neither Dedie or I (Russ) are regular bloggers. Most recently Dedie has posted her thoughts on Facebook and I haven't had many thoughts to post. But we would like to hear from you so if you came here to take a peek please post a comment to say hi. Thanks. (scroll below to see news & pics)
Russ & Dedie

Christmas 2009 Newsletter

Dedie & I are still in Pasco Washington where I spend my work time working with Early Morning Seminary teachers. This is our twentieth year here. Hard to believe. Dedie teaches in the Relief Society and I'm the Bishop of our ward. Our children are scattered all over the place (see below). We're grateful for this time of the year, even though it is busy, because our thoughts turn so easily to the Savior. He certainly is the reason for the season.

Here are a few photos to let you know how our family is doing and some of what we've been up to in 2009.

Dedie (Grandma May) made Christmas dresses for her eight granddaughters. Here are some of those girls in their dresses.



Sophia, Sariah, Sabrina & Savana with "Bear" Devlin Bosted.



Cajsa Morse



Hattie with Susan & Gus Petersen


Kylie & Rylin (Florida Mays)

Here are a couple of pictures of the families of our children.

Naomi & Dan live in Selah where Dan is the chief bean counter for the Yakima Juice Company. It's owned by the Yakima Indian Nation so I guess he isn't actually a "chief." Their big news of the year was the addition of a son to their family of four girls.



Devlin was born November 21.


Katie & Bill live at the Airforce base near Grand Forks North Dakota. Their baby boy is still on the way (January due date).


Bill flies KC135 (tanker) refuiling planes. Here's one in action.


Katie & Bill went to Spain last spring for Bill's ten year mission reunion.



Susan & Chris are in Salt Lake City. Chris graduated from the University of Utah in May. Susan had a boy to join their daughter Hattie.





Matthew & Nicole live in Fort Lauderdale Florida. Matthew works in construction--he has a window installation company. They had a baby girl in May.


They are big Gator fans.



Joseph & Kimberly live in Omaha Nebraska where Joey is attending law school. Their son Clark will be getting a baby brother in April.



Maybe you noticed that all our married children have had or will have babies within about a year of each other. That will bring our total to fifteen grandchildren. Digital cameras, the internet and computers have expanded the ability of Grandmothers to share pictures of their grandchildren. Here are some of Grandma's grandchildren enjoying lemonaide with her in Salt Lake City last summer.



Jackie, our youngest, is also in Salt Lake City. She's between school experiences and is currently working. Here she is with her "friend" in their Halloween outfits.



We're grateful for our children and for what they are doing in their lives. We wish you and yours a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Here are a few more miscellaneous pics.

Dedie relaxing in the pool.


Russ discovers his nose is bigger than Joseph's death mask.


Russ's 40th class reunion was in July in Deer Park Washington.


Dedie traveled a lot this summer. She was in Salt Lake City during April & part of May to help Susan recover from complications with the healing of her C-section. She went to North Dakota in May to watch Bill & Katie's kids for one of their two weeks in Spain (the other grandparents spelled her the second week). Then she drove to Utah with Naomi & her kids then flew back out to North Dakota to drive to Utah with Katie (Bill was in Oklahoma for training). Katie planned to drive to Utah for a get together with her sisters but didn't want to drive alone. Dedie, Katie, and her kids stopped off to see Joey and Kimberly in Omaha where they visited the Omaha zoo. Soon after she & Katie got to Utah she drove back to Washington with Naomi and her kids. Then Dedie and I went to Florida for Matthew & Nicole's baby blessing the first of July. In July I had my 40th class reunion in Deer Park Washington and a youth retreat with the youth in our ward at Ensign Ranch in the Cascade mountains of Washington. Then in August we drove to Utah to see Joey, Kimberly and Clark. Joey had worked in the Intellectual Properties division of the Church during the summer and we wanted to see them before they went back to Nebraska for his second year of law school. Then we drove to North Dakota in November for Katie & Bill's son Charlie's baptism and for Thanksgiving. And we're driving to Salt Lake City for Christmas to be with Susan & Chris's family and Jackie and Matthew and Nicole and their kids who are flying out from Florida. It's been a good year.

Here are Katie and her kids and Joey & Clark at the Omaha zoo.

They leave us :( :)

We will no longer the sweet sounds of this little guy when he is eating. umm, umm, umm he says when you feed him. He also lays on the floor and makes the cutest sounds. He is such a happy baby.

This little girl loves to watch Mary Poppins. We no longer hear her sing Hurry Nanny, which she does so wonderfully. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, has become her other best favorite movie. She is Truly and wears Truly dresses. She is so darling walking around and playing the part of Truly. Next she fell in love with Mr. Incrediable. She watched it a couple of times a day.

These are the tail lights as they left us. We are sad to see them go but it is going to be nice to be on our schedule again as it will be for them to be in their own home and be a family once again. Vacations are fun but all good things must end. I will miss Susan and her wee ones. We have had a wonderful time together.

Summer has been busy

I have been every where this year. I have been to Fort Lauderdale, Salt Lake City, Grand Forks, Salt Lake City, Pasco, then back to Salt Lake City, Fargo, Omaha, Evanston WY, Salt Lake City, Pasco, Ensign Ranch WA, Pasco, Seattle, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle, Bellingham WA, Pasco, Ensign Ranch WA, Deer Park WA, Chewelah WA, and back home to Pasco. It has been a busy summer.

Calvin, Charlie and Cajsa May 2009


Sariah, Sabrina, Sophia and Savannah
on our way to Salt Lake City June 14th 2009


Calvin, Cajsa, Charlie, Clark and Joey
at the Zoo in Omaha NE June 17th 2009


At the "Neighborhood Market enjoying my favorite drink "Thelma's Lemonade" Charlie, Clark (stroller), Hattie, Calvin, Sophia, Sariah, Sabrina, Cajsa is missing she had a sewing date with Aunt Susie and couldn't come. June 19th 2009


Joey, Clark and Kimmie
Temple Square June 19th 2009


Kimmie and Clark, Clark enjoying the water on Temple Square June 19th 2009


In Florida I cute to kiss on this cute little face Rylin


and this cute little face Kylie.


Matthew and Nicole with Rylin and Kylie.


Youth Leadership Camp at Ensign Ranch


Russ's 40th year class reunion.


Hummingbirds at Sharon and Geno's haven in Chewelah.

It has been a delightful summer and I have loved and enjoyed all of my travels. Summer is not over though and we still have one more trip to Salt Lake City. But first I am going to have knee surgery next week. Ugh!

A new project

This past year I have taught a Monday morning Adult Religion Class. It's been fun. I thought to begin with that if a dozen people came we could have a nice little class and maybe learn something together. But I guess it met a need and we started out with a pretty good crowd and it grew until we had about fifty come every week. We studied the Gospels together. We went through each of them systematically from beginning to end. Last week was our last class. Adults are more expressive than youth usually are and I received a couple of kind notes of thanks in the mail and one interesting comment after our last class. Brother Ulbricht, the dad of one of Dan's High School buddies, said he took a class once from Henry Eyring, the scientist, who suggested that they should consider writing a book sometime during their life to put to paper some of their important thoughts and ideas. Brother Ulbricht suggested that I should consider doing that myself. I thought afterwards, well that goes along with Joey's moniker that I was the best writer in the Church (said tongue in cheek in case you didn't get that part). But, interestingly enough it coincided with some thoughts and feelings I've had lately. And I hope this isn't misunderstood. I've become forgetful lately (more than normal -- see cell phone experience below). And I've begun to wonder if I'll exit life locked in the Alzheimer strait jacket that Dad had to deal with. So I've felt I should write and share some things that are close to my heart. I've felt for years that I didn't do a very good job of sharing gospel/scripture insights with my own children (although we were pretty regular with scripture reading). So I decided to start making new entries in the Insights and Discoveries link (see upper left of this blog)and to find time to be a more regular contributor to this "newsy" blog.

I've been a fairly regular journal writer but who's ever going to read those entries?? I've appreciated keeping up with my kids through their blogs. I hope they're also preserving that information with some kind of a written journal version. I was impressed with President Eyring's talk in the October 2007 Conference titled "O Remember, Remember." I'm just a little slow at responding to his suggestion.

So this Looonngg explanation is to invite you to look under Insights and Discoveries every now and then to see what the Old Man has to say. When Joey was on his mission I was inspired by something that was written in Elder Maxwell's biography -- that he had written his son Cory on his mission more than once a week so I wrote regular weekly epistles to Joey. Mostly they were what I was currently studying and thinking about. It was something kind of special we shared together. I thought I should do the same for all my children so here goes.

Dad

Our little angel Sophia

Mom's on her way to Utah with Naomi and her girls then on her way to North Dakota to help Katie drive to Utah. She'll be gone all week(another story). Friday afternoon/evening I helped her get ready by helping her in the basement with some spring cleaning she's been working on. I helped her wash walls in our room then she washed windows while I vacuumed leaves and junk out of the bottom of the window wells ("junk" included enough spider webs and spiders that I put the vacuum outside afterwards just in case--you never know when an irate spider might decide to climb out of the vacuum hose and come looking for you). And I vacuumed under our bed. When we were done we made a Winco/Walmart run.

Saturday morning I went to our Stake Youth Conference at Teancum Timbers. I looked all over for my cell phone but couldn't find it so I went without. In the evening when I returned I looked some more but couldn't find the phone anywhere. We called Walmart and I drove out to Winco to see if maybe I'd left it out there. On the way I prayed, "Heavenly Father, please help me find my cell phone." Shows you how far I've descended into the current age--imagine, praying to find a cell phone. It wasn't at Winco. When I got home Naomi's kids were all in bed and Naomi and Mom sat on the couch wearing funny grins. It seems that Naomi had laid down with Sophia who asked where Papa went? "He went to see if he could find his cell phone." Sophia: "I know where his cell phone is." Naomi: "You do?" Sophia: "It's under their bed." Naomi: "Are you sure." Sophia: "Yea, I'm sure. I saw it there." Naomi: "Go get it and take it to Grandma."

Thanks Sophia for being the little angel who answered my prayer.

Best Lemonade in Town

Thelma's Lemonade is the best icy lemonade around. You find it on the corner of State and 1st right across the street from the church office building. I went several times this spring while in Salt Lake taking care of Susan before they started selling it again. (Evidently they shut down the machine in the winter.)


It is cold and it makes you pucker. As you can see by the look that Hattie is giving us. If you are not careful when guzzling this you will get one of those brain freezes. It is so good

"Oh Grandma I love my Pinks"

One day when Hattie and I went to Temple Square she threw her arms out wide and said to me "Oh Grandma I love my pinks". She was refering to all of the pink tulips on Temple Sqaure. I must agree with her I love them and they were absolutely beautiful.

Happy Fathers Day

Write a short message to your Dad or brother or friend or what ever he may be to you.
This good man is my wonderful husband, friend and lover. He is all that I had hoped for as a young woman in wondering what kind of man I would marry. He is a great Dad to our children and even greater Grandpa to our grand children. He always wants to do what is right and is wonderful Bishop in our ward.

A new car for Jackie

Jackie's car is on it's last leg--or so she tells me. So I asked Miguel to see what he could find. He's got a couple of possibilities that he's going to fix up. I'll send a picture later. But in the midst of it mom said that I was looking at a car that needed some paint on the hood of the car. Jackie interpreted that to mean something else and asked me, "Dad, you're not going to get me a car that has a hood that is a different color are you?" Here's a picture of what she was picturing in her mind. "No, Jackie, I'll try to do better than that."
Dad

fun with the grandkids

I guess this event gets double billing because Naomi also "reported" it on her blog.
Mom & I went to Yakima on a day it snowed and I built a snowman with the girls. We couldn't find any rocks for the eyes so I went in the house to see what I could find and improvised--smashed pop cans. And I think I've invented a new way to do snowman eyes. I'll probably use pop cans from now on.