22 January 2017

 Hello everyone!

   Let's see...another week has flown by. On Tuesday, Bonnie Moon, from our Ward, gave the devotional address at BYUI. Her husband, Brandon, used to be our Bishop; she has her doctorate in Mathematics; they have four children; her mother is from Idaho and her father from Chili. It was a wonderful talk; if you have a way to listen to it, I think you'll really enjoy it. Especially if you know her, which some of you do.

   Today in Sacrament meeting, Dad spoke about politics and religion! He did an amazing job. He used the 12th Article of Faith, Doctrine and Covenants section 134 and a talk by Elder Hales, but also told some personal and professional stories which had everyone's attention. I was super proud of him and it was sweet to be sitting next to Grandma and see how proud she was of her oldest boy. :)

   This week at work is my busiest week; I am in charge of two big meetings which are held on the 3rd Wednesday and the 3rd Thursday of each month. Care Transitions was Wednesday; it is a lunch meeting hosted by our hospital. We invite representatives from area Skilled Nursing Facilities (rehab centers), Home Health and Hospice companies and Durable Medical Equipment companies (oxygen, wheelchairs, etc...). We had 44 people in attendance and it went really well.

   Our Patient and Family Advisory Council meeting is a dinner meeting (occasionally a luncheon), and it went really well also. Not near the attendance, but it's a smaller group and is meant to be that way for discussions. It's only been going a few months, but I think we're really beginning to make a difference for the hospital and the community. We've got a really great group of former patients/family members and hospital staff.

   Yesterday we had  a moose in the yard for most of the day. I called Dad and he said just to keep him away from the apple tree. When he started on that, I went out the back door and banged a pole against the fence and yelled at him. He would run away and as soon as I went back in the house he would come right back. I finally gave up. I did get some good pictures of him though. Then Grandma and I went to Idaho Falls and did some shopping; we had lunch at Panda Express. She especially enjoyed looking through the fabric store. On the way home we stopped in Rigby to see Aunt Venae and Uncle Brett. They were just moving into their new house. It is at 275 N State Street, just a block north of the Rigby Broulim's. In fact, it was owned by the original Broulim's family. It's an older home with a lot of nice architecture and character. It has a nice fenced yard and the pine tree in the back is the tallest one in Rigby. Spencer and his wife and little girl will be renting the basement from them.

   The same day, Gran, Jocie and Janie went to Billy Christensen's funeral. He and his wife, Sharon, have been friend's of Gran's and Granddad's for years. They are Riley's wife, Shelley's grandparents, on her mother's side. They said it was a really good funeral, but lasted over 2 hours.

   Aimee, thank you for your email and the pictures. It was cool scrolling through the website and spotting Noah playing basketball! Nice that Steve is making money shoveling snow! And Aimee, I hope your leg gets feeling better soon so you can get back to what you like doing.

   Ben, please keep us posted on your work and travel plans. I heard through Dad that Okinawa wasn't quite ready for you and your guys when you had planned to go.

   Sam, we'd love to hear about your birthday and Brad's visit.

   Kevin, we'd love to hear how your new job is going!

   Dixie, please fill us in on your new house, Ward and Melanie's school.

 Love to each one of you. Mom/Johanna/Nana

Hi everybody,

Mom, thanks for all the news!!  Wish we had been there for Dad's talk.  I've been showing the pictures of the moose to people here.  Everyone is very impressed.  

Lynsey and I went to my work holiday party last night.  It was downtown Denver at a dueling piano bar called Howl at the Moon.  It was nice to be out together, and see most of my coworkers.  We have about 65 employees and I only see 5 or 10 of them regularly since I work from home.  Most of the musicians were quite good, but the volume was too loud to have conversations. 

Lynsey and myself have both had some bad luck with our van since my last email.... Our ward had a youth ice skating activity and I drove a bunch of kids in our van.  Joseph came with me so he could skate also.  Anyway, I had a conference call before heading to the church and the van was low on fuel but I didn't want to keep people waiting so I didn't stop.  I had taken the fuel needle very low before and thought I would be OK.  We made it to the skating rink and back to the church no problem.  I dropped off one kid at the church and then started dropping kids at their houses.  The first one was not far from the church and I knew a gas station I could visit right after...  Well you guessed it, I ran out of gas leaving that neighborhood and had to have Lynsey come to my rescue with a gas can.  The boys I had with me thought it was a great adventure and didn't mind at all.  We continued on and the young men had an opportunity to serve one of the boys Mom's in the ward by helping to unload some remodeling materials from her car when we dropped off her son.  We all made it home safely, just a little later than planned.  

Joseph and Lynsey had their own adventure this past Sunday.  It was our ward conference, and I went to the church early to practice with the choir for singing in sacrament meeting.  I was sitting in our usual area of the chapel waiting for the meeting to start when Joseph came in several paces ahead of Lynsey.  He came right over to me and said "Mom crashed the car!" I could tell from Lynsey's face that something was wrong.  Lynsey said I needed to come outside with her to see what happened.  Lynsey is a very good driver, and has made it all these years without ever being the driver in a car accident.  This one barely qualifies as an accident anyway.  As she was parking the front bumper of our van rubbed the tire and fender of the car in the next parking spot.  No real damage to the other vehicle, and not much more to ours.  We didn't know who the vehicle belonged to so we left a note on the window and went back in to sacrament meeting.  After sacrament we went out to see if they had been out yet.  They hadn't and as we went back into the next meeting we spoke to our friends the Bezzants and asked them if they new the vehicle.  When I told John what it was he got a funny look on his face and said he thought President Jones (our stake president) drove that kind of car.  Well of course President Jones was one of the speakers for the combined meeting that was just starting.  So Lynsey had plenty of time to stress about it during the lesson.  After the meeting I found President Jones and told him the good news.  He was of course very understanding, and laughed about the whole thing.  As we walked back into the building after I showed him the damage he said he was glad it was his car that was hit rather than an investigator or new convert.  We (as I'm sure you all do) have a wonderful stake president and are very blessed to have him. 

In other news Joseph and his friend Kyle used their free ski/snowboard lesson this week for snowboarding since I'm their ski instructor.  They had a fun time, but both said they prefer skiing.  Joseph did say he'd like to try it again if I would try it also.  So I'm going to give snowboarding a shot next time we go up.  Have to try new things right?

So those are the big stories for this week. Mom you're correct my travel plans have been pushed back.  I would have left today on the original plan.  It's looking like the week of Feb 20th will be the new target.  I'll let you all know how that plays out.

Lynsey and I started looking for Josephs baby book today after he said he didn't remember ever seeing it.  We don't recall where we put it just yet, but have come across lot's of fun memories in the process of looking.  I sent some to Mom today and will let her share them, but I also found a folded piece of paper that I took a picture of and will attach.  Aimee I'm hoping you remember it.  

Love you all!

Ben, Lynsey, Joseph

Hey everyone!

 

Hope all is well. We actually kept most of us home from church today because Alida was throwing up this morning from 3-5am, and since all three girls are sleeping in the same room now, we decided it would be best for them to miss church. So, I went to my regular early morning Bishopric and Ward council meetings, stayed for Sacrament and then finished handing out/mailing 2016 tax statements during 2^nd hour, then I went home. Once I arrived home – the girls were all outside getting some fresh air and sunshine, so I heated up some super delicious white (a winter dish Natalie has perfected!) chicken chili for lunch. I finished the bowl I heated up, and decided I wanted a little more, which turned out to be a bad idea – the bowl was so hot I dropped the darn thing on the floor and white chicken chili was everywhere! Not cool. L I cleaned up and began opening the dishwasher that was waiting to be installed. We put the girls in front of a movie while Natalie helped me install the new dishwasher so it went pretty smooth – minimal distractions, ya know? Anyway, after dinner tonight, we were all cleaning up and I was thinking whatever Alida had this morning was out of the house as it had been about 12 hours since she had been sick – when Alida started acting funny again. And then, all of a sudden, from the height of being held in her mama’s arms – Alida threw up all over the kitchen floor – it was surprisingly similar to my white chicken chili that only a few hours earlier was all over the floor! Sounds like good times, huh – haha!

 

We are really doing well otherwise – today has just been a little crazy! Yesterday I was able to be a chaperone for a birthday party Maddie was invited to that was held at the amusement park in the Mall of America (MOA). It was exciting for the 8 kids that were invited, but a little stressful for the three adults that were tasked with keeping track of  all those 5 and 6 year olds in what is an extremely busy area. Everyone had fun and made it home safely, which is all that matters.  

 

Bradley’s trip out here a couple weeks ago was super fun. We actually spent a lot of time on the ice rink that is near the house playing hockey, improving our skating skills, and just enjoying being outside on the ice. Brad and I also ran the Bishop’s storehouse truck and got to attend an exhibit they had at the MOA that was all about the show, Myth Busters. They mostly had past experiments on display but they also had a few interactive displays that were a lot of fun, and they even had a live demonstration that tried to demonstrate whether or not a human can dodge a paint ball being shot at them, which was pretty cool. They determined the average distance a human can actually dodge a paint ball being shot at them is approximately 140 yards. Seeing volunteers from the audience trying to dodge a paint ball that was shot only 40-50 yards away was just funny – they had no chance! By the way- each volunteer was given full riot gear before they were shot.

 

Another recipe that Natalie is in the process of perfecting is homemade yogurt and Greek yogurt. All the girls are big yogurt eaters, so Natalie believed she can make it cheaper and most likely more healthy than what we buy at the store. I had some raspberry flavored yogurt she made last night that was very tasty! I believe she is working on orange and strawberry flavors tonight/tomorrow.

 

Like usual, Maddie has been doing super well in school, but is also getting into crafting and learning to sow on Nat’s sowing machine. Maddie is convinced it’s her own machine by now, but I’m not sure that’s true….haha.

 

Macy is loving super hero’s more than ever these days – she is also embracing her new smile by telling just about everyone she meets how she lost two of her front teeth. We’re glad to see it’s not really bothering her too much – it was kind of a hard thing to see happen as a parent.

 

While Alida is slowly starting to show some signs that she might actually be interested in speaking the English language, she is far enough behind that we have signed her up for a speech therapist that will come to the house for the first time this week to conduct an evaluation and I suppose put together some type of a game plan to get her back on track. Otherwise, Alida is doing really well developmentally – she is super coordinated and reads people and situations very well. She’s just about as sweet as a little girl can be – we regularly just adore how good-hearted she is toward everyone. And, just this weekend, Alida is starting to potty-train – she is doing fabulous!

 

I don’t typically say much in these emails about work, but there are a few things happening that I figure are worth mentioning. First, we have been awarded the service business for 25% of the Target stores in the country, which mostly includes locations in markets such as Cleveland, Memphis, St Louis, Detroit, Chicago, SLC, and of course – Minneapolis, which is the home of Corporate Target. Anyway, my branch has been given responsibility of every Target store in Minnesota and North Dakota, which is 78 facilities. To put that into perspective, our current largest customer on the service side of the business is Wal-Mart, which has 58 facilities in our territory. So, it goes without saying that our service business is going to see some abrupt growth in 2017! However, being part of a corporate team, we have always operated very lean – meaning we don’t have excess manpower hanging around – we have always had just the right amount of manpower in the field to ensure we deliver a strong operating margin. Anyway, I found out about this Target account business between Christmas and New Year’s, and right away I knew we needed to hire 2-3 more service techs, which had to be experienced. This was a VERY stressful time. Unfortunately, Auto door tech’s aren’t as common as plumbers, carpenters, or electricians, so I went straight to recruiting tech’s from my competitors – I had no choice! The go live date for the Target business is happening this week, and I’m pleased to report that two journeyman tech’s (that are currently employed with one of our primary competitors, Record) have submitted their signed contracts for employment and are in the pre-employment screening process now. My fingers will remained crossed until they are both wearing Stanley uniforms and driving black and yellow vans! The next step is to close a service deal with two (Record’s biggest customers) local grocery chains, Lund’s - 28 facilities, and Cashwise – 32 facilities, who both previously used Stanley but have been lured away by Record over the past 5-6 years. I’m not counting my eggs before they hatch, but it should be a slam dunk – seeing that Record won’t have any service tech’s on the road once these two are officially onboard with Stanley, because they are their only two – I’ve hired two other Record tech’s over the past two years! Once these two other techs come onboard, Record will only have one sales person and one installation tech in the MN/ND market – nothing like driving a competitor outa town! Haha!  And second, the Tools side of our business is growing significantly thru acquisition – they recently announced they have reached an agreement with Sears to buy the Craftsman brand for about 900 million – chump change, right? Haha. I look forward to knowing the quality will be put back in one of the best tool brands in America, Craftsman, as they also plan to build a new plant in Tennessee to manufacture the majority of the Craftsman line, which has primarily been outsourced to China over the years under the sinking ship of Sears.

 

That’s enough shop talk – sorry if I’ve bored you all.  In other news, I was super excited to hear that Rudy Ruettiger was baptized a member of the Church last weekend! If you haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen it in a while – I recommend you watch the movie, Rudy. It’s been one of my favorites since I was in high school. It always gave me that little bit of motivation to keep pushing, especially when things got tough, which was often when I wasn’t living the gospel. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865671699/Famous-Notre-Dame-football-walk-on-joins-LDS-Church.html

 

 

On another, and more upsetting note – I learned this week that Heidi Williams (from Elmwood Lane) has been diagnosed with MS. I’m not sure where she is living these days, or what her married name is, but it was sad to hear. Maybe some of you have already heard.

 

Wow – this email is crazy long! If you are reading this sentence, way to go – you made it to the end! Nice job! Haha. I will put a few pics below. Love you guys – hope you are all happy and healthy!

Sam