houseboat

Dear Family,
We usually spend two different weeks a year at Lake Powell, sometimes three. It takes 5-6 hours to get there and we share a houseboat with 6 other families. This is the first time I have been without Caleb and we missed him. We wanted him to not feel bad so this letter is telling everyone the things that went wrong. Things always go wrong, we just laugh and still have fun.
Our air conditioner isn't working in our suburban so we left an hour earlier at 3:30AM to beat the heat. We thought we had some extra people coming and were going to have to put people in the back but someone decided to drive themselves and we had room to breath. We had one night of bad rain and wind. We saw it coming and decided to sleep inside the houseboat instead of on top so we hauled most of the sleeping pads inside and slept sardine style. Lauren, her husband Derrald, his brother Han and Lauren's pre-missionary (going to the Netherlands) friend Ashley decided to sleep on top in the storm and felt prepared. They attached a blue tarp to the 2 foot high wall around the houseboat and put a lawn chair in the middle. They started out fine but the rain came and went several times and each time it stopped they removed the tarp getting them wetter when they rolled it back on themselves. They ended the evening using the blue tarp as a blanket and just sleeping under the wet sheet. We heard the water come off the tarp several times when a huge bucket sized clumps of water came off the top occasionally. They finally decided it was time to awaken us at 6 AM so Lauren and Ashley came and climbed into our sardine bed with us. They were freezing, of course the girls were on the ends. They laughed and laughed about it and took VERY long naps that morning. We had a couple of nights of wind but we were able to sleep on top.

The ski boat broke down with a day and a half to go. We usually have "white trash" moments at Lake Powell and this was a classic. The boat was having problems and we slowly took the group of 15 across the lake to go on a hike. Two more were on the wave runner. Something snapped and we were no longer able to use the motor. Kay had to get on the wave runner and pull the boat made for 7 across the lake with 16 people on it. We looked like refugees. As we neared our camp we came by an island and a bunch of us decided we need to have a Cuban moment and jump off. Since the boat was being towed slowly, about 10 of us took floating noodles, jumped off and swam to the island pretending we were making a boarder run to get to America. We always seem to have fun.

The wave runner pulled the 5 man water weenie and water skiers. We played games. "scum" and "five crowns" card games were favorites along with a dice game that kept getting rowdy. I am sure people around us thought we were drinking (Mormons don't drink alcohol), we were very rowdy yelling and screaming and carrying on.

We had 4 copies of the popular book series Twilight. This was the 4Th book in a series that just came out. I couldn't stand them but others were avid readers. We missed Caleb but wanted him to know it wasn't the perfect trip. Love, Janae

Caleb goes into the Mission Training Center

We put Caleb into the MTC today. At 7:30 AM we met with the Stake President where he set him apart as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints and gave him a priesthood blessing. This is where Caleb Anderson turned into Elder Anderson.

Lauren, Derrald, Janell, Kay and I went around the room and said nice things about him. We came home and Kay gave Caleb a fathers blessing, and we had our last lunch at Los Hermanos in Provo.

We put him into the MTC where he will spend the next 12 weeks learning Korean. He received his name tag and we went to a large auditorium, sang Called to Serve, listened to the MTC President and wife speak and watched the same video that was there for Christina and Jamon when I put them in. Caleb said his good-byes and was the first of the missionaries to break away from their families and go through the doors with the sign "missionaries only". I was teary but I know if he chose not to go, I would be upset and mad. This is a rite of passage.

Janell BD/ Caleb

July 26th, 2008

Dear Family,Janell turned 17! I had her go on a treasure hunt following clues to her present.

We are fast approaching Caleb's entrance into the MTC (Missionary Training
Center) July 30Th. He speaks in church July 27Th at 11AM (Krispy Kreme
church 1100 S. 400 W in Orem- treats at our house 2:30 and on) He will
stay at the MTC and learn Korean, then will fly to Korea in October. Caleb
has been from a long line of missionaries...seven generations. It is what is expected. Missionaries pay their own way on their mission and for some
families it is a great sacrifice.

When he was about 5, I was putting together a fun package for my sister
Christina who was serving a mission in Guatemala. I had Jellie bellies in
it and other fun things we didn't buy for ourselves. Caleb was watching
and thinking and said..... "Mom, if I go on a mission, will you send me
packages like this?" I said I would and right there and then the
decision was made "I'm going" he said as determined as ever.

I have seen many boys go on missions. They go out boys and come home men.
My dad was a mission president... Father to 100+ boys. Those missionaries love
my dad. He will ever be a part of his missionaries lives.

Missionaries are allowed to write home once a week and call home on Mothers
day and Christmas. I will have his letters on a blog.
missionsite.net/anderson
it just has his picture on it right now.
Missionaries have strict rules... no dating, Stay with your companion at all
times, Get up early, go to bed early, study, study, study. Teach the gospel
of Jesus Christ and teach English.

They will have many experiences. Some good and some bad, they are better
for them. They come home and start dating again. This time they get to
choose their companion. Returned missionaries make excellent husbands.

We went on vacation to Lake Powell last week. We have been to Lake Powell
several times a year for all of his life. He had his cousin Landon, cousin
Ryan and friend Travis with him.

My thoughts watching them were: Who in the world would think that teenage boys
could have so much fun without drugs or alcohol? These boys don't do
those things and never have. They are good boys. They had fun snorkeling,
riding in the paddle boat, diving with rocks to weigh themselves down, skiing,
shooting carp with a BB gun and just having fun. (See the picture below) It has been a pleasure to
be Caleb's mom. He has been obedient, kind and a peacemaker. Lately he
has even taken the roll of my fashion police when my shirt is tucked in.

His mission president is the famous Ken Jennings's father (record winner
of Jeopardy). President Jennings went on a mission to Korea in the 1950's
and it changed his life, he went to school after his mission and took his family
back to Korea for 14 years where Ken Jr. was raised with no TV. His dream was
to go back as a Sr Missionary and he was asked to do just that. I met him and
feel really good about him, being my son's dad for the next 2 years.
Janae

Janell/ Brazil/MIley Cirus

Janell is home from Brazil without a scratch on her! She had a fabulous time seeing another country up close and personal. When they announced the pilot at the beginning of the flight to Atlanta, Janell squealed "I know the pilot!" Today,I saw our friend, her pilot to Atlanta. who said he saw her walking down the aisle of his plane when she was de-planing, He looked for us and almost thought he was mistaken. She said hello and he hugged her. The guy behind her said "she DID know the pilot!" Kevyn pulled her aside and looked at her connecting flight, said she didn't have much time, gave her instructions and she went to go find her plane. He had to finish his business but went over to her international flight boarding gate to check on her. He saw she was second in line, said Hi again, took her phone number down, called us and left a message on my machine. What service.

In Rio she had a 7 hour layover and thank goodness for her Star-gate SG-I on DVD's she hardly noticed the time. Seeing she was American and alone, people would ask her if she needed help, she always answered "yes" even if it was to say "am I in the right place?"
I asked if she saw any blonde's and she replied "not any real ones" People stared at her because of her blond hair. Janell wanted to say "hi, what's your name" and shake their hands when people stared.

The City and State were: Aracaju,Sergipe, Brazil, the smallest state in Brazil.

Janell said the family she visited lived on the 12Th floor of an apartment building in a 2 story apartment with 4 bedrooms. Very elegant, with a private pool off their apartment. It was winter so there wasn't any water in it. Ana was the only one to speak English in the family but Janell managed to speak with everyone through Ana, who said her English greatly improved. Ana's English speaking friends enjoyed practicing with Janell too. They went shopping, to the beach with mom and grandma, to the grandpa's farm, had a birthday party for Janell (early) and played lots of games. Janell was staying up late and waking up at 11 AM their time. This means no jet-lag.

Ana is planning her 15Th birthday party and wowed Janell with the parties she has been to. Willie Wonka where everything was chocolate including the invitation. They spend more money on the 15Th birthday than the wedding.

Janell called me on her way home from Atlanta to tell me she never received a boarding pass for her last leg and her paper ticket for that leg was gone. The lady in Sao Paulo took it out. I copied her ticket, passport etc so she did have that. She just needed them to reissue her boarding pass and no problems.

Janell, her cousin Kallie and I went to the 4Th of July Mliey Cirus concert. It was a part of the "Stadium of Fire" Celebration in the BYU outdoor football stadium. I had a singe ticket and two tickets together. I took the single and managed to be around fun people. I took a stadium seat (greatest decision of the day) and it was cloudy so the show was pleasant. My favorite part was when a plane was announced overhead that dropped 6 G-I Joe dolls from way high up. These G-I Joe dolls magically turned into men, maneuvering their rectangular parachutes into flips etc and made it into the stadium magically, just when we thought they were not going to make it because of the wind. The Blue Man group performed and then Miley Cirus. During the Miley part my mind went back to when I was in High School.

Jayne (my best friend) and I went to a Beach Boys Concert in NYC- Was it Madison Square Garden? Her mother Helen was worried, wouldn't let Jayne go alone,and got a ticket also (smart mom). She escorted us to the concert and sat in her seat next to us reading a book. We were jumping up and down with the crowd, screaming, singing and yelling. Why didn't I think of bringing a book to this concert? This concert didn't have the marijuana smell- the Beach boys concert was my first time smelling marijuana.

The two couples, college age, behind me sat there, no clapping or response. I turned around and said "boys, I know you know these songs... sing with her" They laughed. I had never heard any of the songs either but the little 9 year olds around me sure did. Love, Janae

I forgot to mention Janell and I went to Logan for a week just before she went to Brazil. She went to EFY (Especially for youth camp) Area Program at Utah State University Institute, and I visited with sister-in-laws and Kay's parents. Janell went with 4 cousins and one cousin friend. These girls were all between the ages of 14-18. We stayed at Kay's mom's house in the large family room on 4 blow up air mattresses etc. The camp went from 9AM-9PM Monday-Friday. We had so many girls I drove some of them there. The institute parking was almost a mile away up hill so we figured if Amber and I drove there, parked her car at the parking lot, I could drive them up the hill and they could walk down the hill when it was done and squish in Amber's car to get home.

My sister in laws were there too. It was one big giant slumber party with 3 adults, 6 young women, 3 pre teen girls and grandpa and grandma. Grandpa was the lone man. While they were at camp the rest of us went to two movies, the senior center (a tradition) and a fun park. Ben and Winnifred do a lot of volunteer work at the Senior center and the Tabernacle. One day the non camp goers all went to the center to help put together commodities and one day we had lunch there. At the fun park the little girls roller skated while four moms played a game. Leah and I played Laser tag with the pre teen girls. 3 girls vs. 2 moms. It was quite fun and I got a work out. At home We had our scrap books out to work on a bit. It was nice to be with the family and the teen girls had a great time bonding and hanging out.

We drove Winnifred and Ben a little batty, who wouldn't with all the females invading their basement? They were good sports and we really appreciate them.

Caleb's mission countdown is less than a month. A guy from his school went into the MTC (Mission Training Center) today, last night his stake President called him with a reassignment. Instead of going to Russia, he was assigned to California, Spanish speaking!

I was at sistermissionarymall.com store last week. The store has missionary clothing and modest clothing, I stop in there regularly because my friend owns it and I like it. It was pretty dead there with three clerks and a few patrons. I found what I wanted and stood at the counter to check out. One clerk asked the young woman when she was going into the MTC. She said "July 30". I butted in (I know you are surprised because I am so shy) and said "so is my son" I asked where she was going and she said Korea Pusan so I said "so is my son" small world. Then the clerk said her brother in law is going there in September! Small, small world.

July 1, 2008

Dear Family, Tomorrow is Lauren’s 22^nd Birthday

Janell has been in Brazil all week visiting Ana, her friend from our Antarctica Cruise. Janell’s letter s have gotten shorter and shorter. Her last one was two sentences:

“Today, Ana and I went to the beach again. Then we meet one of Ana's friends and we went to find a turtle that I could buy but at that time there wasn't a band so the stores did not open so went home,”

I did figure out how to chat online with her one day for over an hour but haven’t remembered my password since. Old age.

I guess I will be filled in when she returns late Thursday night.

I took 6 cub scouts to Bridal veil falls where we walked on the paved walking trail picking up garbage. Each boy had a grocery bag and disposable gloves on the way up and their trail mix on the way down. They each had to bring 1 cup of something to add to a bowl to make the shared trail mix. It seems the M&M’s were the highlight and the rest went the way of all disgusting looking mixtures, in their home garbage cans. The highlight was using the 3 GPS’s. They liked sprinting, seeing how fast they were running for 20 seconds. I was very impressed with their sprints of 11 miles per hour. They ended the trip by wading in the shallow pools at the base of the waterfall and we went home. My threat kept the group together. “If I can’t see you, you will have to hold my hand for 5 minutes” brilliant success.

When Caleb was here he put a fender and collapsible baskets on my bike. I had to promise to ride it so I took my maiden voyage today. I dropped off cub scout books to my scouts and dropped a package to UPS. It was fun. I kept thinking of the witch on the “Wizard of OZ” riding her bike and hoping I didn’t look too much like her. Da-dum da dum da da dum. Love, Janae

Sunday May 25th

Dear Family,

I went to Omaha to visit Kay and go through the Winter Quarters Temple with Caleb for the first time. It was a great 3 1/2 day visit, Lauren came in from North Carolina. Lauren slept at Rachael's and we spent our days with Rachael and her kids. I bought them a combined birthday gift- a climbing dome from Costco. It took 21/2 of us 1 hour and 59 minutes to put it together. The reason for the 1/2 is at the end there were only tools for 2 people to tighten all the bolts.

Having Kay there is a great way to visit the grand-kids. I sleep at Kay's and go to Rachael's in the late morning/ early afternoon. We play and then I leave to go back to Kay's. Rachael's family can have their time together and Rachael doesn't have to feel like her life is on hold for company.

Caleb's mission: Caleb has been practicing his Korean sounds. A dear friend of ours in Orem, that used to be in our ward but was moved out because of a boundry change. Kyoung Suk Lee had us over twice for Korean lessons. She is studying English and is here for 6 more months of her year and a half. She brought her 10 and 12 year old children to have the experience, her husband visits from Korea occasionally.

We brought a recorder and recorded ALL the sounds on a chart that looked like a times table chart only bigger. She made us some wonderful Korean food. I discovered I like kimchee. She had Kimchee in the making, finished up some and sent us home with it. It is hot, but not the Mexican hot where you sweat and need to fill your mouth with something else, it is a refreshing hot taste. She also fed us curry which was not a hot curry. She and Caleb couldn't figure something out with her computer so they called her Korean friend who is from Busan! We had him go through the sounds on the recorder to say the sounds in the Busan accent and a male voice. He smiled the whole time- this is like asking us to say lots of preschool stuff on a tape recorder, funny. Both times we walked out of the apartment Caleb said "that was so cool!"

We went to one of 2 Korean restaurants while in Omaha. We knew it was authentic by it's name "Korean Food Restaurant." It had a real Korean name for the local Koreans to understand but us Americans like the American name. The food was great.

Kay's project (100 unit vacant apartment buildings) is going well, I guess. He hired guys to put on siding and it looks like a miracle happened. They look great. He has had to turn potential renters away. He turned away a white woman. After hearing her music blaring from her car, he refused to rent to her. Picky, Picky, picky. One lady wrote on her application "I am not afraid to call the police" music to Kay's ears. This project is basically empty but used to be one of the worst projects in town and everyone knows it. It may take some time to let people know he means business. Caleb has been working on getting security cameras in place

There are 3 bedrooms in Kay's Omaha apartment. Our nephew Ben Lusk and his missionary companion Ryan each have a room and Kay has the larger room. Kay has a California-king sized bed (he found) in his room taking up most of the space. The question was where to put Caleb. Kay came up with a "horizontal bunk bed" idea. I know, I didn't get it either. Kay put a 1X8 board down the middle of the bed over the bottom sheet. He screwed it in so when I come, Caleb gets kicked out to the living room (which sounds OK but it is a shop area.) When I am not there they share a room and a bed. They have different top sheets and blankets.

Janell auditioned for the school dance company and didn't make the final cut. After tears and calling Brittanny, who didn't make it her Jr. year but did her Sr. year, Janell thinks life will go on. She was invited to participate in the Utah Ambassadors of Music's 2009 European Tour next year playing her flute and auditioned and made it into the highest band at the school. Life is not sooo bad. Love, Janae