Mom is 87 today

Today is my Mom's 87th birthday. We went swimminmg this morning as usual then made a birthday lunch date. Sara & Jacob were visiting so so they joined Sonnet, Mom and I at Marie Callenders. Mom you are remakable - I love you.

MY Mother's Day

We had a wonderful Sacrament meeting today. Hailey started off citing three attributes of Motherhood she saw in her mother and aspired to herself. She is a beautiful young woman. Next, Rick Mayberry spoke. His assigned topic was Elder Nelsons talk from last November conference on Celestial Marriage. He shared wonderful insights and tender sentiments. Following his talk the primary children came forward to sing a couple songs. You just can't go wrong when the primary children sing. They were angelic. The closing speaker was Tim Hansen. Himself a father of young children, he compared living the gospel to a three-year-old’s approach to life. It was at times humorous yet so very thought provoking. I loved every minute of the meeting.

All in all the whole day has been delightful. Beginning with breakfast in bed, home made Mother’s day cards, phone calls from far away kids, being spiritually fed at church, a few moments with my cute Cheyenne, lovely dinner with family, enjoyable visit to my friends the Pritchett’s, Some quiet time to catch up on the computer - wow it has been a heavenly Mother’s Day for me.

Audrey Ruth Parks

At the break of day Kevin & Tiffany headed out for the hospital. She was to be induced at 5:00am.



I dropped off Anna & Jared at a friend’s house at 8:00 then drove to the hospital. It was a lovely ride. Instead of taking the freeway, I drove a country back road. The Curious George CD was playing a nice mellow beat. There are several quaint townships and burgs along the road. Many old houses full of charm. Between communities are large stretches if rolling pastures complete with railed fences corralling grazing livestock. It was breathtaking. Arriving at the hospital I found Tiffany and Kevin just comfortably lounging hoping to get things going.



It turned out they had not been given a room or started her on pitocin until close to 8:00. Around 9:30 the nurse asked Tiff her pain level on a scale of 1-10 and she said 7. I said, “7! But you are so calm and quiet.” She said, “I just go inside myself”. She is amazing. Now it is almost 4 hours and an epidural later. We wait…...…at 2:00 the doctor came in to recommend Tiffany go cesarean. Tiffany wanted to have what is called a V-Back which is a vaginal delivery following a cesarean birth. Her Doc was willing to work with her as long as conditions stayed in the favorable range, ie: baby size is not too large and her body begins to open up on its own first. At her appointment on Wednesday he told her she was showing signs of labor so he would be happy to induce to see if she could make it happen. They scheduled it for this morning. Today, with the pitocin, she dilated to 5 then all progress seemed to halt. The Dr. turned up her pit drip a couple times but did not want to place too much strain on a previously incised uterus. They discussed it and in the end she had a cesarean. Kevin & I were dressed and ready to accompany her within minutes.



Having had three cesarean births myself, I was fascinated to observe. I was under general anesthesia with mine and never saw a thing. It was amazing. Little Audrey Ruth Parks is beautiful.



I left the hospital to pick up the kids. After dinner we went to see their Mom, Dad & baby sister. Of course we had to stop at the store to get flowers and balloons. The flowers had a card and Anna said we should write, “Happy Birthday”, so that is what we did. In my prayer earlier today I asked heaven to smile upon us. What blessings we have received wrapped up in this little bundle of pure joy. Humble….Grateful…. Smiled upon.

Carpet in the Cultural Hall

Baby Girl? Not yet, although we did have a Parks in the hospital. Tiffany & I got a call around 10:20pm informing us that Kevin was on his way to the hospital. Yep, you guessed it, while playing church basketball his foot stopped but his body, more in particular his knee, kept going. I understand it is not an unusual injury for carpet play. So, Kevin got home from the ER around 4:15 this morning. He is a mess. Diagnosis: dislocated kneecap, perhaps totally severed Patella tendon. Crazy. Tiffany made an appointment with an orthopedic for next Tuesday but for now he is in a brace and on crutches. In any case he will not be as active during delivery as he might have been. Poor guy, he feels so bad. The plan is to have Tiffany & Kevin report to the hospital tomorrow at 5:00am to be induced. I will drop off the kids at 8:00am at a friend’s house then head over to the hospital. Oh, did I mention, their house has three flights of stairs – yea, let the fun begin.

Road Trip

Tiffany & Kevin have been looking at vans for a few months. When we were out with them at Thanksgiving they were shopping around and test driving vans. Well who would have thought they would find the one they wanted 1199 miles away. Yep, the world is an internet shopping mall. Luckily the van they purchased through an ebay connection was located in Missouri about 45 minutes away from Thad. He drove over to test drive it and even perform a little reconnaissance on the seller just to check out legitimacy.

It turned out to be a superb vehicle. The pressing detail became how to get it across the country to Baltimore. After exploring transport services the kids determined it would cost the same or less to fly Stephen & I out to Kansas City, rent a car for us to drive up to Springfield, drive the van to them and fly us home, as it would be to hire it done.

What a break for us! We had already scheduled days off from work to go up to the Tahoe cabin for the annual Presidents Day visit with the cousins. Simply changing the geography of the vacation was no problem. I called Cousin Betsy to tell her we would be ditching them in favor of kids and grandkids. Sonnet and Sara however, stayed on track and had a great time in Tahoe.



Meanwhile Stephen & I armed with books on CD, headed out for Missouri. We picked up the car as smooth as silk and drove on to Thad & Angela’s for a day and a half stay with them. How fabulous to see the kids in their home. What a beautiful family they are. We played games, visited and went out for a fun evening. For dinner we ate at the ‘Fish Shack’ which is anything but a shack. It is the Bass-Pro restaurant situated right on the lake. After dinner we walked around Branson Landing then visited a place called ‘Andy’s’ for ice cream. Alexis was very proud to give the daily password at the order window. It seems there is a daily password and anyone that mentions it gets free ice cream. That’s right. We all got free ice cream – super. Actually, it is not called ice cream it is called custard because it is mostly egg with only a little dairy. It is the smoothest, creamiest ice cream type dessert I have ever eaten. Fabulous!

We said our goodbyes early and were out the door and on the road by 6:30 Saturday morning.

The night before we left I packed a cooler for the car. We planned to keep the stops down to gas, bathroom and stretches. That is of course, unless I see something or some shop I can’t pass up. Stephen is the best travel companion for me. Although he is cognizant of road conditions, weather and destination timelines; he is very accommodating to a spur-of-the-moment whim. I am very spoiled. We pulled off the highway for the night at Quality Inn. Upon check in we had the option of a regular room or, for only $20 dollars more, a huge room with Jacuzzi. There are some things in life that are no-brainers. We had a wonderful soak in a hot Jacuzzi. The King size bed was about two-thirds too big as we sleep pretty cuddled up, but we felt awfully pampered. In the morning we realized there was not a church in the area so we just got on the road and read from the Ensign and ate from our car stash. We pulled into Reisterstown about 4:00 PM.

The Park’s were ecstatic to see and explore their new van. It is very fancy so it will take some time to discover all the bells and whistles.



Stephen & I sure had fun with the kids. T&K showed us a new game they recently learned that just happened to be almost the replica of Canasta. We had a fun time with that even though the girls got soundly whipped. Because Presidents Day was a school holiday we were able to play with the kids in the morning then meet up with Kevin at Inner Harbor for some play time at Port Discovery and a dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

All too soon it was time to catch a plane back home. It sure was a windfall trip. We thank Kevin for thinking of us and making the arrangements. Family is the gift that keeps on giving.

Blake, Sara & Jacob come for a visit

Most of you know Blake has applied and been accepted to Officers Candidate School in the Army. He leaves Monday February 2 and heads off to Boot camp at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Following 9 weeks there, he goes for an additional 12 weeks at Fort Benning, Georgia for OCS. January 16, Blake and Sara were so kind as to come for an extended visit. We had the kids with us and enjoyed just being together. Jacob was, of course, the best entertainment. We all took turns holding and fussing over him. All enjoyed games, talking and laughing. They went back to Fresno on Monday, January 26 to spend a week at home together before the long separation. Sunday night Blake asked his Dad to give him a blessing. I will long remember the beautiful spirit that decended on the house. The counsel was personal and the blessings profound. What a treasure we have in priesthood authority restored. We called Blake tonight to say farewell. It will be back to only writing letters - reminicent of his mission days. He asked Sara to come and visit us twice a month. Stephen said that sounded great and that she should plan to stay for two weeks each visit. LOL. We will be anxious to hear of Blake's experiences in the coming months.

Happy New Year!

December seems like a blur. I know I loved every minute of it. Looking back it feels like I landed back in LA from our visit with Tiffany greeted by one continuous motion of activity until this very Monday.

The Walkie Talkie Christmas party started the season’s festivities. This is our picture - cheerleader style.
The nativity festival, the First Presidency broadcast and hours spent on our stake Christmas program were packed into precious few days. A program at work I was in charge of as well as a report deadline were all part of the frenzy. Mix in visits with Blake, Sara & Jacob every chance we could find, a road trip to Utah and family gatherings to the calendar and it starts to get hairy.

Stephen & I celebrated New Years Eve with a nice dinner at Outback followed by two movies back to back. That was fun. We finished up the whirl with a wonderful trip to Fresno for Jacob’s blessing. It was a memorable weekend I will treasure. We had such a nice time with the kids and Sara’s folks the Termeer’s.

When we woke up Monday morning it was almost refreshing to get back to a schedule. The Walkie-Talkies have resumed our routine and Stephen, Sonnet & I have abandoned holiday treat eating for another season. Back to normal – normal is good.

Thanksgiving in Maryland

Stephen & I are having a wonderful time in Baltimore with Tiffany, Kevin, Jared and Anna. We all had a nice surprise when Uncle Mike called to say he was in the area and would be able to drop in. The kids live next to a shopping center so Mike just parked his simi-truck in the parking lot and stayed with us for two days.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast complete with after dinner full-stomach agony.




Of course we headed outside to play some Turkeyday football. Anna was more interested in bug hunting than football.





Saturday we went to the Washington DC temple. How beautiful.



Stephen & I had a wonderful time with the kids in the visitors center while Tiff & Kevin took in a session.






For dinner we headed to the Olive Garden. This is the same Olive Garden where we ate November 12, 1999, the night Kevin asked Tiffany to marry him. Kevin had arranged the whole thing unbeknownst to Tiffany. I (Susan) was out visiting Tiffany at SVU when Kevin called Stephen to tell him of his intentions. Kevin told me and a few friends of his plans to propose and told us what bench on the DC temple grounds he would lead Tiffany to. We were to hide in the bushes and pop out at the appropriate moment. Luckily she said ‘Yes’ or this would have been a very depressing, not to mention embarrassing night. When we saw her throw her arms around him we knew she whole heartedly agreed. Following the congratulations, the entire group made our way to Olive Garden to continue the celebration.

Mostly this week, we have been playing and enjoying one another’s company.









Today after church we put up the Christmas tree. The kids hung all their ornaments including the newest ones from Great Grandma Mahoney. This is way more fun than I will have back home putting up our tree for an empty house. I’m sure Sonnet will come and help us.










I forgot to mention Sonnet & I went to see Wicked the week before we came east. It was soooo fabulous! Excellent seats - we sat in the 5th row! We had a great time.

Jacob Aden Dunn, November 10, 2008

Sunday morning Stephen was in meetings when a call came in from Blake's phone. Usually he ignores phone calls during meetings, but we have been on Baby watch for a week now and hoping for this call. He found me in choir and said Sara called to say she & Blake were on their way to the hospital.

We excused ourselves amidst hearty congratulations, and set out for Fresno. What a wonderful day we had with the kids at the hospital. Sara was in labor and doing well but quickly decided to take the offered epidural. ‘I’m a wimp when it come to pain”, she freely admitted. With the drugs flowing, she was able to sleep and rest up for the hard work yet to come. Debbie & David Termeer arrived and the four of us visited in the cafeteria for some time while the kids slept. Things started happening late in the evening and we thought Jacob might be born that night. We were reminded that babies come when they are ready and not before. It was not until early on the 10th that Sara began pushing.

The first baby I saw delivered was Tiffany’s son Jared. I was overcome at the sight. What an awe-inspiring event it is to witness. Jacob’s birth was no less breathtaking. My heart swells toward these young mothers as I witness their labor. How beautiful it is to see that little face for the first time, then a shoulder followed by a perfectly miniature body. I was so grateful to be there. Love and congratulations to our darling Blake and Sara.