Heber J Grant Scholarship Night

While Eric was Young Men's President Victor Pachco found a program at BYU-I to help under kids who are converts, first generation going to college, from single parent families, or low income families pay for school. Since this applied to a large percent of the kids in our ward Eric did some research and contacted BYU-I. He talked them into come down and doing a fireside to highlight the program. About 150+ attended the fireside from Stakes all over the LA area.
Since then Monte Harrick and Brian Kelley have been working with the kids in the La Crescent Stake to get them up to BYU-I or LDS Business College. They planned a trip up to visit the schools and go to Conference. A bus load of South Pas families came along too. The whole Lopez family and Ilene, Jessica & their mom Elva Aranda were the ones who came.
The group in total was over 40 people! Most of them had never left CA or seen snow. It was a crazy spring day and the Lopez almost slide off the road due to the snow. We even had a hard time in the Infinite getting up the hill to Aspen Grove.
Welcome to Utah! We meet them up at Aspen Grove and had a little devotional. I know that education will change these kids lives and it so exciting to see them get excited about going to college.
What a great experience. Now lets hope none of them were scared off by the weather.
Brittany Fors, me, Ilene

The Lopez family

Ps. I was freezing even with 2 shirts, a fleece and my heavy coat and I have been here all winter.

The Aquarium & Dying Easter Eggs

The Penguins have been coming to the Aquarium for a long time. First we thought it was going to be in February,and then they just said March. The first week of March when we went we found out it wasn't going to be until March 26th. Gretta was pretty sad. All of the waiting finally paid off and we were able to go and see the penguins. We arrived at 11:08. The Aquarium opens at 11:00 and needless to say it was already more crowded then any weekday I we have ever been there. I think the Penguins will help bring in a lot more money for the Aquarium.
We headed straight there. I didn't catch what kind they were, but they were super active in the water swimming all around. The kids thought it was really cool and so did I. I forgot to take a picture of them, but here are Gretta, Eliza and our friend Megan and Emily sizing up to the penguin on the wall.

After a fun trip to the Aquarium Megan & Emily came over to help us dye Easter eggs. The girls sure had a fun time.

Gretta showing off her eggs.

This is a random picture Gretta took of me.

Then I took this one of her. I think it was past her bedtime, but isn't she cute!

The places I have lived the past few years.

324 North 750 East
The first place I lived after moving to Provo from Ricks College was "The Colony". The first semester my roommate was my sister, Anna. Then she went to Jerusalem and her best friend, Natalie Ward, came home from Jerusalem, so they switched places. We sure had fun at The Colony. It was a fun ward. Plus when you walked home you could see who was home in the ward, so a lot of hanging out happened. This also happens to be the furthest away from campus that I lived. My Bishop was Bishop Brown. He was great. He would bring his Motor home to the Colony and park it on the street to conduct tithing settlement, so we wouldn't have to walk all the way to campus. This is the ward I left for my mission from.

Then after my mission I moved to "Condo Row". The first year right after my mission I lived in #22 with Jolie & Maggie Chan and Wami. Then I moved upstairs to #36 and lived with Kendra Buese, Valarie Auger, and Malinda Lynch.
I enjoyed living in Condo row. I meet a lot of great friends and had a wonderful ward. I started dinner group while at Condo Row. I have many great memories of my different dinner groups. Scott Smith, Andrew Eaton, Dave Harper, Shaughn Sparks, and my roommates always had a great time.

Then I moved to the Meringue house. I drove past it everyday to get to Condo Row and thought it was so cute. I just happened that a friend of Anna's from Jerusalem lived there, and I had to drop something off to her once. Once I saw the inside I was really hooked. As luck would have it a spot opened up and I moved in May 2003. I had great roommates, Sarah Stewart, Sarah Becker, Leanne, Amy Todd and Mary Rasband. We had a really fun summer. Then something happened that would change my life for ever...

320 North 700 East
Eric came back from a summer in Hawaii and home and moved back into the brown house two doors down. The rest is history.

Our first married apartment was Roberta Linn #307. It was a tiny one bedroom apartment. We went to the Married Student Ward, so everyone who lived by us was in our ward. It was fun and we made some great couple friends. The Erickson's happen to live in our ward again in Provo right now.

Then we moved to South Pasadena where we lived for 4 years.
1719 Fremont Ave #302

Now we are here. This cute house also close to BYU. We haven't branched out much. We still live south of campus, and are making great memories.

March 27, 2010

We started out the morning by participating in the Operation Smiles walk. Eric pushed Gretta & Eliza in the stroller and came in first in the 1 mile walk. Yeah Eric! Gretta loves to go fast in the stroller, so she thought it was cool too. It was a beautiful cold spring morning in Utah, but it felt good to be outside and supporting such a great cause.

Then we went to lunch at In-n-Out. Always a fan favorite. We had to eat outside because there weren't any table inside already at 11:45am. Luckily we had coats and the sun was out.

In the afternoon Gretta found the camera and took pictures for her farm animals.

Us

Herself and her own art work.

Then she had a picnic in the back yard.

Eric helped her climb the tree.

Then they came in and woke me up from my nap.
What cute alarm clocks.
It was a fun family day!

March 26, 2010

Friday the MBASA sponsored an Easter Party and Easter Egg Hunt. The weather didn't agree and instead of doing it outside they had to bring the party inside. At noon it was snowing in Provo. I had to work, so Eric was kind enough to take the girls. They had a great time. Gretta was actually really excited to see the Easter Bunny, and Eliza was really scared. The both enjoyed the Easter Candy.
Thanks Eric for taking them!

Some for our friends... The Folwer's and the Russell's.

The kids getting ready to go.

Showing off there basket full of eggs.

Later that evening MBA program sponsored Fake Break at the Marriott School...

They served hot dogs, chips and cookies for dinner. Then there were a lot of activities for the kids. A carnival with lots of different games and a bounce house. The kids had a great time.

This is Gretta's friend Megan. Notice the night theme must have been butterflies. Both Gretta, Megan, Eliza and Emily, Megan's sister, all had butterflies on their shirts.
Another fun filled day in Provo!

4th Ear tube for the Left Ear

Today Gretta got her 4th ear tube or PE tube in her left ear drum. I thought 3rd time might be the charm, but I guess not. She had her first set of tubes when they fixed her cleft palate in Dec 2006. Then in Dec 2007 she got another set. Dec of 2007 she got one in the left ear. The right ear drum was perforated (has a hole in it) which is like having a tube in some ways, and in other ways worse.
She got this one because she has so much negative pressure in the left ear they were worried it would cause permanent damage to her left ear drum. Last time we check the pressure was negative 290 (-290). It should be 0. The right ear drum still has a large perforation, or I should say it is pretty much gone. They looked in it with a camera/microscope and the pictures was of the bones of the middle ear. Not so great. You only get one shot to fix it right, so it will have to wait until she is 10 or so.
Gretta tends to be a fast extruder. Which means the tubes only seem to last 6 months or so. Sometimes they last up to 18 months and other times years. So we will see how long this one stays in place. Hopefully long enough to get it done next time with better insurance.

Gretta was really scared this morning and really didn't want to go. We left the house at 6:15am and she threw a huge fit. She even cried the whole time she was in the waiting room. Everyone felt really bad for her. Then once we got back to the area to change she started to act a lot happier, and was nice to the nurse. She liked the gown and the cool hat. They even had a nice toy room to play in before she went back to surgery.
The other good news in that one of my good friends from NP school works for Dr. Parson's so he treated us nicely.
Also, the CRNA, Kevin, happened to have worked with me at Orem Community Hospital when I worked there. Plus he is a Mayo graduate, so I knew she was in good hands.
The whole "surgery" part only took about 15 minutes from start to recovery. She woke up happy and we left by 7:45 am
Tonight she told me she was sorry she was so scared and that next time she will know it won't hurt. That was before we had to put the ear drops in. She HATES ear drops. Oh well only 3 more days to go.
Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers!

Showing off her cool gown.

Waiting in the surgery playroom.

Singing time

Part of the kids bedtime routine is to sing a Primary song, read scriptures and say prayer. Well the girls have really gotten into the singing songs lately. They both like to take a turn leading, and sometimes even singing a solo. Gretta actually has learned quite a few songs at Primary she can sing by herself. Eliza just sings loud sounds. I wish I could figure out how to upload a video, so you could hear how cute they are. It is quite entertaining, and does a good job of delaying bedtime.