2009 Year in Summary

Wow, you actually came to the blog! What a friend! I know it's easier to sit somewhere comfy and read a newsletter, but I just didn't have it in me this year (besides this is funner) I know you could read through all my blog entries and get caught up, but who has time for that? So here is a quick update on everyone this year:

Chuck is loving being a grandpa! He gets all goofy with his "Hey buddy" and funny noices. You can always tell when Charlie comes over - we hear it all through the house. He's been crazy busy at work with lots of research and development in the anti-terrorist barrier industry. It's been exciting, but scary as we try to develop something unique and keep our business open at the same time. He didn't have to travel as much this year as in the past, but did have a job in Utah this month and froze his tooshi off (why not in the summer??) Chuck is Sunday School teacher to the 17 year old class, and is always watching sports! (he says this really is the most wonderful time of year; football, basketball & baseball)

And I, yes, I have

gained weight this year, as you can tell by Chuck's face. I've got my 30 year class reunion next year though, so time to get fit again. (why is it harder the older you get?) I've been working in the office part time, and love being with the good people who work for us there. I also love being a grandma. If someone would have told me I'd be volunteering to babysit after all the years I did daycare & foster care I'd have never believed them. At church I'm still with the Beehives (12-13 year old young women class) They are a great bunch of girls.

C.J. has applied again for dental school and awaits word on if he'll be starting Aug 2010. He's still selling shoes at Nordstroms and will let you know when the good sales are, so go visit him!

Steph is a busy a little mama chasing Charlie around all day. She's so good to take him to the park and out to his other grandma's place to visit the goats. She is also the most organized and wonderful secretary in RS (that's what I keep hearing) CJ still works with the priest age boys. And Charlie is just having fun exploring the world. He is always on the go and figuring things out. They live here in Mesa in the Dolphin house.

Paul & Skye are having a baby!!!! HE's due mid April, and Skye is so cute barely starting to show. Paul is working 2 jobs now, one for APX Alarm and Thrive doing websites and helping people sell. Skye is now officially helping people to be more beautiful! She's doing tanning & eyelashes! (just in time, as her mother in law needs it!) They are teaching 5 year old in Primary and always have a funny story to share about what they say and do. They are still living in Cedar Hills in a basement apartment with the most incredible view of the valley below, including the Tipanogas Temple. They are starting plans for building a house this year . . . yes, in Utah. It's a great place to visit, so see them if you're up that way. We love doing that!

Jerry has been trying different fields of work this year after things slowed down working with dad. He tried landscaping and is now in sales at a call center selling construction tools. He tried out his lines over the phone with his dad, and all Chuck could say was "No! I hang up on guys like you all the time!" We are amazed though, he can take the rejection and is making sales everyday. He also has an sweet new girlfriend, Jessica Frey. She grew up in Switzerland and then moved to Oklahoma where a friend set them up on a blind date. She's been gone for 4 months back to Switzerland, but will get home this month, so he's always on skype (computer) talking to her. He has also been taking care of her little yorkie, Bella. She's part of the family now. Jerry's moved back into Mesa (1st part of the year was in Casa Grande) now he's between the yard trailer & home - we don't know where he really lives, but we like him around.

Brandee has ventured out this year and lived for 3 1/2 months in Mukilteo, WA with Nikki & Shaun (Jenni's sister) She loves helping her with Jayden & Gavin. She got a job at Red

Robin, but did not last long as the perky hostess there (can't you just see her? "Thank you for coming today!") She found a better suited job at the cutest little coffee shop next to an adorable little bookshop over looking the ferry going to Whidby Island. It is SO her! However the little AZ girl was freezing her tooshi off and wanted to come home (not to mention missing you know who; pictured right) She has decided now to give Canada a try, living with her Naito cousins. Not that it's any warmer, but at least she's not coming home before her northern adventures are over. Thanks to Nikki & Shaun for having her and being her springboard into being out on her own (well almost).

Kyle is sexy, single and sixteen (that's the summary he came up with for this) He is at Mesa High this year and loving leaving the junior high scene behind. He tried something new when a friend talked him into being on the swim team. He made some good friends there and just had the goal to not finish in last place - he accomplished that! (needless to say to say

he won't be doing that next year) His real talents are in drama. He's been in some little one acts and attended Thespian conference this year, and hopes to try out for the spring play. He's studying for his learners permit, and is hoping to get it over Christmas break. He finally feels motivation to get that and his Eagle project done, since dating just isn't the same when mom has to drive you. He will be doing his Eagle project in January, painting a house in a low income area of Mesa. If any of you feel inclined to help, we'll let you know the details!

Jenni is a big 9th grader now and has had quite the year so far. She tried out for volleyball, but so did 40 other girls (many of which played club) So when she didn't make it, she gave cross country a try. A little too hot in August, so she went for Badminton at Mesa High. She had to start at the bottom of the totum pole, but did pretty good in her exhibition games. For fall she tried out for basketball, but they were, of course looking for taller girls. Wish the coaches could have seen how aggressive she can be and let her try driving that ball under and around the tall girls! Anyway, so no sports this winter. She's looking forward to track in a month or so. She has decided to try out for cheer at Mesa High, but I'll believe it when I see it. She is also "considering" going out for dive (we've heard gymnasts make really good divers) so stay tuned to see what she ends up doing. Her biggest exciting news is that she got her braces off this past month!! She'd have such a beautiful smile if she weren't always popping her retainer in and out!

That's us! Hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. If you have a blog, leave me your address, or send an invitation if it's private. I LOVE BLOGGING in all my spare time (haha).

One more Brown family!

I can't leave out our newest family members! This is Nikki & Shaun, our other adopted kids. (sorry I couldn't get the picture bigger) For those who don't know our story, Jenni has an older sister who we have felt is a part of our family for 4 years now. She married Shaun Brown, making her officially a Brown! So here is their update; They live in Mukilteo, WA (just north of Seattle). We met them here living just a mile away from us (Did God have a hand in that or what??!!!) They moved up north when Shaun got transfered with Boeing. He's such a great daddy (even to our Brandee lately) Nikki looked for work in computers (her specialty area) but with the economy could not find a job. Instead she is quite the entrepreneur and just started a photography company. She got the equipment and put a little studio in her basement and is taking pictures and getting paid for it! (All those millions of pictures of her babies, that was for practice time!) She's pretty good. Jaydon is 3 years old now, and bright as a button, and little Gavin turned 1 this summer. They are 2 more of our sweet grandbaby boys!

Does this look like me?

This week I fought City Hall and won! I only won on a technicality however and not for the reason I should have won. I got "flashed" by a van right by Mesa High during the summer going 49 in a 45 mph speed zone. The sign said 35 mph on school days, I knew it wasn't a school day, so I went at a prudent & reasonable speed, and within what I thought was the speed limit. I was shocked when it took my picture. I wanted to fight it, so when it came I even had Chuck return it with knowing me as the driver (I know lots of friends have said how unwise that was) Anyway I got this great attny/judge friend of mine who helped me make my case. I had all sorts of questions to ask the officer in court. Funny, I watched 4 other cases and no one questioned the officer. I felt like a real lawyer doing my cross examination. Of course the officer had proof that summer school was in session, but I just fired question after question about why were there not any indicators to those of us driving by! I had my proof of when the last day of school was, along with pictures of the speed limit signs and blinking lights at Brimhall (which he said they did not have!) So I'm giving my statement and pulling all of these facts together and the dear, sweet judge interupts me and says "Mrs. Brown, how much longer are you going to be? We only had 15 min for your case, and I've got to let some other cases go now. Please sit at the back of the courtroom and we'll hear the rest of your case in a little bit". Man! Talk about anti-climatic! I sat back there and thought of how she was going to forget all my info, and how many cases she still found the defendant "responsible", so I really got nervous. However when I finally got back up and apologized for taking so long, she was so gracious and said "no apologies necessary, I want you to have all the time you need". So I wrapped it up real quick, the officer gave his one more schpeel, then the judge said "after hearing all of the evidence I'm not even going to judge on whether you were speeding or not. This (as she held up the photo above) is a terrible picture, and you cannot identify anyone from it. Defendant is not responsible". !!! It was pretty fun, but nerve wracking, to say the least. I just sure hope that the city will put up blinking lights around Mesa High now WHEN school is in!

Badminton!

Fun week at Badminton. MHS vs MVHS! Jenni & Cassady were rivals! MHS actually won! (which is a rare thing in sports against those guys) It was fun to watch with Curt & Alison!

It was especially funny to watch Uncle Curt go crazy watching girls play any sport. "They just don't think like a guy!" He'd say over & over again!

Wedding Bell Blues

Yes, I'm talking about Jim & Pam! We've been looking forward to this wedding ever since they flirted on the first season of The Office. What a huge disappointment it was! There were moments; when Jim swept her off to Plan C (Niagra Falls) and the cute dancing all the office staff did up the isle, but for the most part it was the trashiest episode ever! Doesn't Hollywood know what real romance is anymore?
Jill had a Wedding party and I brought over the bubbly (sparkling cider) She did the wedding cupcakes and we all watched together.

I think I should write some of these episodes! I can think of real romance! This happened with the last episode of Cheers years ago. I wrote my own ending after that disappointing one. Shelly Long would have come back with a little mini Sam (some little actor with perfect hair) and he'd have gotten his baby he wanted so bad!
. . . Why don't these writers call me?

It is FALL in some places!

We just got back from New York & Ohio. Those are amazing places and yes, it is FALL there! The leaves were beginning to change, although it was still quite green. We went for a business meeting in Buffalo, but when that was over we went to Ohio and saw the Kirtland Temple. Although our church does not own it, the relationship between the Community of Christ church and the LDS church was amazing. Truly unified in their Christianity.

We stayed at this cool Bed & Breakfast - the Homestead House











We also went to Palmyra and did a session at the temple and walked in the Sacred Grove. It's incredible to realize what happened there, and to ponder the significance.
I loved how the missionaries would tell you about the sites, but then apply it to their lives and ask how you could apply it to yours. At church there it was cool to hear them say the opening prayer and thank Heavenly Father for the Autumn weather. Then we left for home and arrived in the 100 degrees here. Yah, we'll be thanking Him too, in about another month.

Charlie Brown can rock & roll

A tearful goodbye; another one leaves the nest!

Bye Bye Aunt Brandee

Jerry, the tough one who didn't cry

The best to our Brambo

It's hard to say goodbye

even siblings who rival cry

2 sisters in Seattle

I'll miss your kiss!

Our last look as we drive away. Hours later after we stopped crying we were reading the Ensign aloud and read Pres. Eyrings tearful goodbye to his father as he left the nest . . . yah, the crying all started again!

Birthday Party in Seattle!

We had the best time taking the whole family up for Gavin's first birthday. It was a trial at times; driving long hours, CJ & fam getting bumped from flights, and blow outs in the RV, but all in all the fun stuff made up for the troubles. We used a friends huge luxury RV, and went first to Paul & Skye's to bring his car back to him, then drove up through Couer de Lane, ID, which was so beautiful (slept in the Walmart parking lot), then up to Vancouver to see John & Chawna for a day, then to Nikki & Shaun's for the big birthday celebration. We were also there to deliver Brandee, who is going to either be a "Nanny for Nikki" or she'll get a job & go to school there. She's so excited to get out of this heat! On the way home we went back to see Paul & Skye (slept in the church's parking lot & woke to girls camp gathering just outside the RV) Then drove to Las Vegas to see our good friend Teresa Staples, then on to home. A great big thanks to Brittney & Kyle for taking good care of our house, pets & plants!

EM Excitement!

The box (unfinished)

The boys
The barrier

So what is EM? It stands for ElectroMagnetic and are we excited about it? On July 16 we had our demonstration to show some big wigs this new system our company has been working on. (the picture above is not the big wigs, it's our boys, seeing what dad's been up to) The meeting went better than we could have hoped, and the jobs are beginning to line up. This is such a blessing in this economy when so many in the construction industry are out of work. We have had so many people helping to get this together; a great freind who let us use their warehouse and nice offices to facilitate; a couple of amazing engineers who have worked for next to nothing for many hours; office staff who put so much together; and my sweet hubby who never sleeps (seriously I wake up in the middle of the night and he's not snoring, he's thinking) - he eats and breaths thoughts of EM! He's pretty amazing! And thanks to God on high for helping this come together!

Girl's Fun Time

It is really starting to hit us that Brandee is moving out soon. We'd better enjoy every minute that we can. We were having fun one night playing Skip Bo & Ligretto, in between Jenny making this yummy strawberry cake, listening to music and playing with the dog, when it suddenly hit me that we were all girls, right down to the dog! This house has in the past, been mostly MALE, and here we were, no guys around and having an unplanned girls night! It was so COOL! The next day we even went out and took a bunch of pictures of the girls in the front yard. And let me tell you, they were the "models", striking poses all over the place (see facebook, I'll post more there). It was hilarious Brandee put her leg out and said "Jenny touch my leg", meaning to sit on the bricks too, and make their feet meet. Well Jenny being so obedient strikes a pose and puts her hand on Brandee's leg in such "Vanna White" style. It was so funny! We laughed and laughed! I love these girls!

Independence Day 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4S10D6SdCs
It's been a fun & relaxing day! I love the 4th of July! I get all my cheesy decorations out and have my side of the family over and swim and eat! It's one of the few days I actually play in our pool. We had a mean game of volleyball going! My nephew, Matt Platt, must have just gone to see the Transformers movie, cuz he was playing like a transformer, it was hilarious! Brookie & Heather spent the night and we had a blast doing Karaoke, making "cottage cheese" shakes, and playing Lagretto (cards). Wow does she have a set of singing pipes! Be watching for her on American Idol in a few years! I included this youtube video so you'd know that we did also think about our great nation today. Celine Dion has an amazing voice (almost as good as Brookie's) & the pictures are great. I am so thankful for those who founded our country; their courage and strength and inspiration. God Bless America!

Transformer seen here with baby transformer

From 1 to 90

June 6 Charlie turns 1 year old (seen here with his sweet mama)

And on July 3 Grandpa Breinholt turns 90!

(seen here with his 2 favorite daughters)

Grammy & Papa to the rescue

Not that we did all that much, but both Chuck and I have gone back to Washington to help out Nikki & Shaun in their move. They renovated a house and recently moved in. It's amazing the work Shaun did for 4 months everyday after a full days work at Boeing. He basically gutted the inside and made this house so beautiful. Nikki in the meantime has been raising two beautiful boys, Jayon & Gavin. She's the best mom! They don't have any family there, and since they are our other adopted kids (even named Brown!) we had to come help.

The Storm is Here!

This is a cool picture I found, and it reminds me of the monsoons that have now hit Arizona! Wow, I haven't blogged in 2 months! So much has happened in the past 2 months, not all bad, but just enough to show me that the storm certainly is here. (I refer to President Hinkley when he said a storm is coming) In the past 2 months we have seen &/or lived through a friend who went a little crazy and committed a horrible crime being killed in the process; a young friend who tried to committ suicide; loved ones who are deceived into thinking temporal things are more important than they are; another loved one who had to appear in court; friends dealing with stress & hard times in their family or from losing a job; a nation which is heading towards socialism & greater debt faster than we could have imagined. It's unbelievable! It seems like it has been one thing after the other, but we are holding on and having FAITH that this all leads to a loving Heavenly Father and His plan for us to learn from these experiences. We will weather this STORM with God's help!

May - the Birthday Month

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Chuckie, Paul & Jerry!
Oops! How could I forget my sweet daughter in law, Stephanie too!

(we got this family picture taken in May, so there are more of us than the birthday peeps)

Charlie Crawls!

YAY! He did it! And does it all over the place now!

Five Generations!

We had Grandpa Breinholt over for dinner, then Grandma Brown stopped by, then low and behold C.J. & Steph & Charlie came! I was thrilled especially when Stephanie suggested we take a 5 generation picture. This is quite a feat, all five generations together! That is rare and we are blessed to have them all here on earth at one time! (We sure love and miss those on the other side too) Note that sweetest little baby smile! He knows this is a special moment!

Office Staff

Okay, I promised pictures of the office guys, so here they are! Danny Sutton, Operations manager (left) and Stephanie Simmons, "everything else" operator (right). We had a hard time coming up with that name. She does everything from computer drafting, web designing, general organizing, to icy beverage runs. Josie (below pictured at girls camp) is our part time secretary, and comic relief. She keeps us in stitches (and sometime when I have an hour I will list her and Steph's quirks - they have some doosies)

Speaking of girls camp, I believe I fired Josie after she wouldn't go to sleep. Danny can affirm this, as he was our priesthood there and could hear me from the other room yelling at 3 a.m. She keeps showing up at work however - and we're so glad. She's actually had a little leave of absence and we're glad she's back. I still need to get a picture of Brenda on here. She won't let us take a picture, and she actually works for Curt, but she is such a part of the family down there, so I'll keep trying. Chuck is pictured here at my old desk. When he was working out of town I was in this office, but now that he's back and I share a desk with Josie. I don't mind, until I hear Chuck snoring in the other room (heehee, it's actually only happened once or twice, after a night when he can't sleep cuz he's thinking about things at work) He's one hard worker and I'm so glad we have this big job at Sky Harbor so he'll be in town for a while. If anyone is wondering about Korea, it is still a possibility, but we have no more details than that.

These guys are the best and we couldn't have CB or K12 without them! (I'll work on getting our field staff next, so stay tuned)