Hearing

I have the sort of voice that must be difficult to hear for those who are hearing impaired. I know from living with Leonard that he only gets about half of what I say and then he fills in with what he thinks I said. Later he will say: "But you said. . ." He gets quite upset with me when I say I did NOT say that. Some words sound like others to him. So he puts them in and then makes up what he needs to to make it all fit. It can be upsetting but I am learning to say: "I don't know what you heard but that is not the case." Usually he will then say: "Oh, well, it doesn't matter." The only problem is that sometimes it does. He can hear me yelling which is upsetting to the rest of you, his children, but at times speaking very loudly at him is the only thing to be done. The ear doctor said his problem is common to deaf people. Some words sound much like others and, if you can't hear the consonant, then you put one in that makes the word mean something. The brain, if it goes without the ears hearing for a period of time, forgets how to interpret the sound. Consonants are the worst. The sad thing about all of this is that, at times, Dad looks like he is confused when he would not look that way or be unclear about a response  if he heard what was said. I usually jump in and tell him what was really said (more loudly) and then the other person will start talking louder. Both the speaker and my husband then seem to understand that what my husband answered had nothing to do with what was asked.

Another Pulled Pork for Temple Party for Ann Carter

Five-Star Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
"Pork simmered in root beer makes all the difference. Topped with your favorite BBQ sauce, it's sure to bring rave reviews."
Reviews (2,232)
Yield 25 servings
Ingredients
6 pounds pork tenderloin
3 (12 fluid ounce) cans or bottles root beer
3 (18 ounce) bottles your favorite barbecue sauce
25 hamburger buns, split and lightly toasted
Directions
Place the pork tenderloin in a slow cooker; pour the root beer over the meat. Cover and cook on low until well cooked and the pork shreds easily, 6 to 7 hours. Note: the actual length of time may vary according to individual slow cooker. Drain well. Shred cooked pork. Stir in barbecue sauce. Serve over hamburger buns.

Lots of Concern

Myrna wrote: Dad told me to fast for you because your doctor in Boston called and said that you may have leukemia. What made the doctor there concerned after all these months? Have you checked with your primary care physician in Texas? Is there need for more concern? Please let us know what is happening.

Melanie wrote: I don't know anything about that. If my doctor called, no one told me. Did he mean Nanci? Did Howard call him and not tell me? I have been with Siovhan and haven't talked to my Massachusetts doctors since February. Mel

Myrna wrote: Dad must not have heard right. He said he talked to you and no one else. He was not thinking of Nanci.

Melanie wrote: I haven't talked to Dad in over a week. He called my cell phone while I was helping Siovhan move, and when he couldn't get me he called the house phone and talked to Braden. I don't know what he was thinking. 

I know when we talked while I was there, we talked about my cancer scare from last year with the ovarian cyst surgery. I told him that I go in every three months to be checked and monitored, but I am doing well. 

Not sure what he heard. He told me that my voice is one of those voices that he only can hear half of the words that I say, even with his hearing aid in. I wasn't surprised by that. It was that way at the nursing home...many of the residents there loved me because they could only hear half of what I said. :)

Love you.
Mel

Siovhan Move

Myrna wrote: Is Siovhan all settled now? I hope she found her ward, a good grocery store and knows her way around. It takes time to really snuggle in and feel comfortable.

Melanie wrote: We did attend her ward. Her Bishop and Relief Society President are fabulous. It was a tough move. We did all the packing and her former Bishop and Home Teacher came by to help us load the furniture. I had all the boxes and things in the truck all ready. When we got to Beaverton (Portland suburb), the Bishop had told Howard to have us there by noon...he told the EQ President we would be there at 11. The EQ President showed up and didn't see us. He waited for twenty minutes. We drove in at 11:30. We just missed each other. I had to hire two Latin/Americans to help us haul the furniture into Siovhan's apartment. We did the rest of the work. Unfortunately, that meant that I had less time to help her put things away. 

We got most of the stuff done, she has three boxes of books and all her clothes to sort out. I had to glue and nail her dresser together, her Bishop broke the top off. Therefore, she couldn't put her belongings away until the glue dried. 

She is now trying to adapt to being awake when the world is asleep and vice versa. I have been more worried about that and the effects on her health than I have been about any other thing. I just remember how hard that was for dear Kirsten.

Love, 

Mel

Trip to Columbus Airport

Kirsten to Myrna:

Ready for takeoff!

Thanks for purchasing EarlyBird Check-In for your Columbus trip! Conveniently print your boarding pass with your pre-assigned boarding position anytime within 24 hours of departure. We'll see you onboard!
Upcoming Trip: 08/06/12 - Columbus

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Date
Myrna Trauntvein
Depart Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) on Southwest Airlines at 10:50 AM
Arrive in Baltimore, MD (BWI) at 5:00 PM
#132
Mon Aug 6
Travel Time
6 h 35 m
(1 stop, includes 1 plane change)
Myrna Trauntvein
Change planes to Southwest Airlines in Baltimore, MD (BWI) at 6:05 PM
Arrive in Columbus, OH (CMH) at 7:25 PM
#791
Price: $10.00 per person, one-way
Total Cost: $10.00
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Upcoming Trip: 08/06/12 - Columbus

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Passenger
Leonard Trauntvein
Depart Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) on Southwest Airlines at 10:50 AM
Arrive in Baltimore, MD (BWI) at 5:00 PM
#132
Mon Aug 6
Travel Time
6 h 35 m
(1 stop, includes 1 plane change)
Leonard Trauntvein
Change planes to Southwest Airlines in Baltimore, MD (BWI) at 6:05 PM
Arrive in Columbus, OH (CMH) at 7:25 PM
#791
Price: $10.00 per person, one-way
Total Cost: $10.00
Cost and Payment Summary

Payment Information
Cardholder: Kirsten Waite
Payment Type: RAPID_REWARDS_VISA
Account # XXXXXXXXXXXX-3596
Payment Amount: $10.00

Todd wrote: Well I'll be there to get you from the airport. Have a safe trip.

Myrna wrote: Thank you. We love you. Did you hear that Brandon is now the first counselor in the ward bishopric?

Brandon's New Calling

Just to let you know, Brandon was just called as 1st Counselor in the bishopric in our newly organized 12th ward in the stake.  In fact, we have two new wards and all the other wards were rearranged because of the over-abundance of members when the Church dissolved the BYU married student wards.  Which means, all the wards will have very few youth in them to accommodate the new members.  I have had kids crying since the meeting at 6:00 p.m.  Kyle will only have 5 YM in our new ward, and Megan will have 15 YW.  But the leaders will work on creatively combining the youth for mutual and scouts.  Rachel's best friend on the corner is in a different ward, so she is really sad, too. 

 

We went to Brandon's setting apart at 8:30 p.m. by the stake presidency, and there were so many people there because all but one of the twelve bishoprics needed to be revamped.  They were setting up different wards in different rooms and then rotating through all of them to set the men apart.  The stake president was so kind to my family at the setting apart and said in front of everyone in the room that he knew of no better family in the entire church than the Howard family.  That was quite an undeserved compliment, but it did make my kids feel a lot better about the need for them to step up to the plate in this new ward and be good leaders.  Because I am a stake leader I still have my calling for now, which is probably good because I will have a lot of new YW presidents to train in the coming weeks.

 

Love you all,

AnnMarie

So glad to hear from you!‏

Thank you for the snail mail and for the email. That was quite a treat. Two pieces of correspondence in the same week.  ¡Qué bien!

In the a.m., we are flying to Ohio to be with Michael and family. He is going to the temple on Tuesday to receive his endowments. He has asked Gramps to be his escort because the friend that he helped convert and baptize is also going on a mission. He will be receiving his endowments the same day on the same session and Todd will be his guide. I pray that all goes well. Trust me, I have made certain that he has his temple recommend. 

It is so wonderful that my two missionary grandsons will be in California on missions at the same time. I was talking to a 10-year old boy who was visiting our ward today. He said that there are a lot of hispanics that live within the boundaries of his ward. Those are the ones who speak English, of course, but there are a couple of hispanic wards that meet in the chapel. He said that the area is full of apartments and they are fairly inexpensive--$700 per month, furnished-- and that is why there are so many hispanics in the area. Your work is cut out for you. I am certain that Heavenly Father is sending them here to the U.S. to hear the gospel in fulfillment of the promise of the Book of Mormon.

It certainly seemed different in our ward this morning with a new bishop at the podium. He has decided not to have the youth continue with the tradition of offering one of the Articles of Faith when they receive any promotion (Primary to YW or Priesthood) or any advancements. Part of that tradition was that the youth could then call on any of the bishopric to present an Article of Faith. The new bishop's second counselor had said that he was so shy that just taking a turn at the podium without having to worry about whether one of the youth would call on him was strain enough. We will see what happens. Some of the youth would like the tradition to continue.

We fasted for Uncle Eric, Uncle Todd, Uncle David, Nanci, your mom and our missionaries (you and Michael). It was quite a long list. It is a good thing that I have you all on the prayer roll at the temple. I am not certain what your mom's planned line of study is. I just know that she is happy about going back to school. Auntie Bree is also going back to school in a couple of weeks. She wants to be an RN. I suppose she has spent enough time in hospitals that she thinks she can help others as she has been helped.

Erin loved going to girl's camp with Auntie AnnMarie and Megan. The Howards bought her a new triple combination with her name on it. She was very thrilled and has been reading faithfully. Donovin is going to Scouts with a good LDS friend. That is a great thing. He is also going to church with him. He even has his parent's permission. I keep fasting and praying that Heavenly Father will help them all to want to be part of his church. Caydin will only remember that Grammy makes him sit on her lap when he gets loud and noisy. Being in Junior Primary with him is quite an adventure. We have a mentally disabled boy in Primary who just wanders around and does not do anything he is asked to do but, at least, he likes being there. He stands up and leads the music sort of getting in the way of the called music leader. He wants to talk from the podium and has to be moved away quite often. He wanders in and out of the room and tries to play the piano. Then the little three and four year olds (there are 10 boys and one girl) think they should do the same thing. I made Caydin stop doing the wandering thing and sit on my lap. The joy of having a mean Grammy.

Our next-door neighbor just had a baby boy. They now have three children--two girls and a boy. Rachel's little playmate is the oldest of their girls.

Julie has been at the Jones family reunion this past week. She will be back on Monday. Kirsten was in Utah for the Waite family reunion. We went to the play at Sundance with the Waites, all of them. It was fun. Of course, we had Matthew, Rachel, Donovin and Caydin here for the four days of camp. We took them swimming (the new splash pad opened) for two afternoons, took them camping overnight, had a video and popcorn night (we promised them a move at the theater but they didn't want to see any of them), went to the candy store and went for hikes and 4-wheeling. I hope they had fun. I think we wore them out. Wait, I wore me out.

We will continue to pray for your success. We do love you.

About School Start

Myrna wrote to AnnMarie:

1. When does your school start? Do you have someone to watch the two youngest next week?

2. I promised Ben a plate of Brownies or chocolate chip cookies but I cannot get them there for a week. Could you send him some goodies from you? I will take over when I get back. I am sorry that I just have not been very good at getting that done. I am certain that he does not need Brownies but I know he wants them.

AnnMarie wrote: School starts on August 21.  I forgot to get a babysitter, I'll work on it.

I will take Ben a plate of treats tomorrow.

Myrna wrote: What about Kimberly? I talked with Julie and Julie says that she will be happy to do it. Your kids could even stay overnight and she would make it fun for them.

AnnMarie wrote: I'll work on it tomorrow.  Wednesday is also her workday.  It will work out.

Myrna wrote: Julie will be back tomorrow. She would likely come over here and watch them if you needed her. I do feel sorry about it. I love my Howard kids. They are so good to me.

Going to Todd's

Your Columbus trip is just a few days away! You don't need this email to check in, but feel free to print it out and keep it on hand for your trip. Happy travels and thanks for choosing Southwest. I already checked you in through Southwest Airlines EarlyBird Confirmation. Kirsten



Aug 6
132
Depart Salt Lake City (SLC) at 10:50 AM
Arrive in Baltimore (BWI) at 05:00 PM

791
Depart Baltimore (BWI) at 06:05 PM
Arrive in Columbus (CMH) at 07:25 PM

Todd wrote: Well I'll be there to get you from the airport. Have a safe trip. 

Long Distance Worrying

To AnnMarie from Myrna:

1. When does your school start? Do you have someone to watch the two youngest next week?

2. I promised Ben a plate of Brownies or chocolate chip cookies but I cannot get them there for a week. Could you send him some goodies from you? I will take over when I get back. I am sorry that I just have not been very good at getting that done. I am certain that he does not need Brownies but I know he wants them.


AnnMarie wrote: School starts on August 21.  I forgot to get a babysitter, I'll work on it.
I will take Ben a plate of treats tomorrow.

Myrna wrote: What about Kimberly? Julie says that she will be happy to do it. Your kids could even stay overnight and she would make it fun for them.

AnnMarie wrote: I'll work on it tomorrow.  Wednesday is also her workday.  It will work out.