Fridays for Ryan

I love my little brother Ryan. There are lots of things about Ryan that are amazing. One is that he is a great father. He adores his little girls and he is so cute when he takes them to Disneyland to play. I have always loved how he spends his day off from work playing with his girls.

Another thing that Ryan has always been my example of is truly making other people feel important. For years, when Ryan was in High School I saw him interact with his friends. He always had so many people around him because he knows how to make others feel warm and welcome. He brought out the light in my little sister every time he was around. He is amazing!

For my service to Ryan, I wanted to "play with my kids" better. Especially Cole. Cole LOVES it when you spend time on him, making him feel special. He thrives on being the center of the action, the focus of a conversation. He has really been struggling with "self worth" and happiness this year. So my goal for my gift of service for Ryan was to be a friend to my child like Ryan is with Brooklyn.

I explained my concerns and ideas with Cole's teacher and asked if I could come in to her class on a weekly basis, and help with anything she needed. She was delighted. I go in every Friday morning for an hour. I read to the students, I grade all the homework, and I do interactive activities with the kids. But mostly, I get to help Cole feel special. I try to look out for the students who might need extra love or attention that day also. It has been a really neat experience. I have gotten to know lots of the special kids in Cole's class, and I have been able to help Cole get to feel important.

The other extra effort I really wanted to make on Ryan's behalf was the awesome interactive computer scavenger hunt experience at Disney World. #1 Disney... Totally Ryan! #2 Computer... Totally Ryan!! #3 Spending time making my son feel like he is number 1... Totally Ryan!!! So on our last day at Disney World, I spent 4 hours with just Cole and I playing the Agent P Adventure Game. It was Cole's favorite part of the trip and I must say, it was my favorite part also. What a great experience it was. I totally kept thinking, "Man, Ryan would totally LOVE this! I REALLY wish he was here."

Ryan, you are wonderful and I love you. I want to be like you in so many ways. You have a determination so see things through that is such an example to me. I am really proud of you little brother!

Sorry, my pictures on on my camera that I can't find. I will update it as soon as I find Cole and my cute pictures!

Let Your Light Shine...



 

...or put up some Christmas lights for someone to shine for you!!!  This year I had the unique opportunity to do some direct service my recipient.  With Ed being really busy with all his recent Pei Wei jobs I knew that he would not want to or wouldn't have time to put up the Christmas lights on the house or the Christmas tree.  I knew if I was that busy I would really appreciate this service.  So I worked with Kriss to purchase some new Christmas lights for the outside as we were unable to find the old ones.  I had to conquer a little bit of fear of heights as I climbed to the tippy top of the roof and leaned over the edge to put up some of the lights higher up.  I put up the Lights outside and when they got their Christmas Tree I helped dress it with garland and lights. Marry Christmas Ed!

 

 

 

 

The Gates house was one of the first to have their lights up and boy do they look great!

 



A Gift of the Heart...

No literally I gave some blood... from my heart! Well... It came out my arm but it was in my heart at some point! Many of you may know that I used to donate plasma twice a week to earn a little extra cash on the side. What you may not know is that I have never given blood. When I heard that Amy always liked to give blood I knew it was the perfect gift.

When I decided this is what I wanted to do I had just missed the stake blood drive so I looked up the local Red Cross blood donation location (hey that rhymed). I drove to Lake Forrest, walked in, signed up, passed the screening with flying colors and pumped out that blood. I'm glad I was able to do this to provide much needed blood for those in need and I wouldn't have done it if it weren't for Amy.

Me in the screening room taking the test!

Random Story: When you give blood or plasma they usually give you something to squeeze in your hand. It is usually squishy or something like that. Well they didn't have anymore for me so they gave me a roll of tape saying, "Sorry this is all we have." I said "I don't mind if you don't care if your tape is ruined by end." So I squoze (yes, I know squoze is not a word but it's more fun) that tape to death. At the end they had to throw it away. :)

Look at all that BLOOD!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AMY!!!

Election lapel pin from Ryan

Here is a photo of the AWESOME pin Ryan earned, and gave to me, from serving as a poll worker during the election.

Thanks Ryan! It is a great addition to my collection of political pins.

Location : Address not available

Here's One for Chuck... and the Nation!

When I found out I received Chuck’s name I was delighted. I knew exactly what I was going to do. I know that Chuck loves politics and people who know me know that I can't stand it. I figured this would be a great way to serve Chuck by participating in my community, not only by voting in the 2010 General Election, but by researching the candidates and propositions for myself.

Voting for Dummies???

Then one Sunday during priesthood opening exercises, one of the members announced that they were looking for volunteers. My ears immediately stopped listening because: one, I am just so tired on Sundays, and two, these volunteer activities usually happen on the weekends when I am working or sleeping. Then I heard that this particular activity was going to be on a Tuesday (one of my days off). I forced myself to listen and I heard that the Church was looking for members to volunteer to be Poll Workers in the upcoming General Election. At that moment, I realized that I was going to be a Poll Worker for my service this year.

I got the information that I needed to be a poll worker and signed up online. I performed the required 45 minute online training and the 45 minute hands-on training at the local registrar’s office. After filling out a few more things online, I was all set to work as a polling clerk at the Irvine Civic Center (City Hall) on Tuesday, November 2nd 2010. I had NO idea what I was getting myself into.

Welcome to City Hall!

My Poll Worker Experience

I arrived promptly at City Hall at 6:00am with Poll Worker Handbook in hand. Ed, my elderly poll inspector, was there starting to get set up. I helped him get the supplies out of his car and bring them into the polling room. At this point there was only Ed, a Chinese woman named Fanny and myself. There were a total of 4 other workers that showed up at some point during the day. You’ve probably heard of the movie Grumpy Old Men. Well, I caught the live show that morning. We started to help Ed get everything unpacked when a semi-elderly man named Frank came into the room who announced himself as the Area Lead. He was very intent on talking to Ed alone and invited him into the hallway when Ed replied, “NO, I don’t want to talk to you! I’ve worked at this polling place before and this isn’t how I want it set up and I’m in charge here!” Apparently these guys had talked to each other before and it didn’t go well. After several attempts to get Ed to talk to him in the hall Frank warned him that if he didn’t cooperate that he would be sent home. Since Ed wouldn’t comply, Frank exclaimed, “Ed… You’re FIRED!” Ed replied, “GOOD, You’re doing me a favor!” and took off. All of a sudden, we were left without an Inspector!

aka: Irvine Civic Center

There was another man named Frank (yeah I know it’s confusing) who was the assistant to the other Frank. He was there to help us get everything set up in the little time that we had before the Polls opened as well as fill in as our inspector until we could get a new one. I was glad that I could remember a lot of my training because I was going to have to use it, A LOT. We got everything set up and there were about 10 people in line when the polls opened and no one knew how to do their job. I started teaching everyone how to do their job while Frank worked the electronic machine and we were on our way.

Right off the bat we started to have some complicated situations. The first few voters were not on the list and were complaining to us that they should be because they were on the list 2 years ago. We ended up figuring out that the precincts had been redrawn and a lot of the people that were on the list two years ago were now at a different polling place. There were a lot of complications like this throughout the day.

The Polling Place (I'm helping the guy in the red shirt)

Frank needed to leave to check on some other polling places just as our new inspector arrived. After Frank was gone I started to ask the new “inspector” some questions about different procedures and such and she kind of just gave me a blank stare. That’s when I realized that I would pretty much be taking over as inspector. For about the first 3-4 hours our inspector just handed out “I voted” stickers. I continued to help everyone with their jobs while explaining to voters why their names weren’t on the list and helping them find out where to go or how to fill out a provisional voter envelope. During the slow periods I scrambled to read the handbook to find out how to run the place.

"VOTING THAT WAY!!"

Throughout the day the workers would take their lunch break and the inspector would take over for them while they were gone. I found out at one point that she was processing voters incorrectly and had to teach her, "The Inspector", how to do her job. Part of the job of inspector included checking all of the machines to make sure they weren’t tampered with. I was the clerk in charge of double checking the machines. I notice that she forgot one and called her over to check it when she tripped over the power cord connected to the polling machines, and everything went dead! We had to restart everything! And all the people in the booths were saying things like, “Hey, what happened!” “Oh no, is all my stuff gone?!” “Am I going to have to start all over?” It was crazy! Luckily assistant lead Frank was there to help us out of that Jam, but we had to pull everyone off the machines and it was a mess. We duct taped down the cords so that it wouldn’t happen again.

Me helping this gentleman fine his precinct and polling place.

We got through the rest of the day without any more major incidents but it got really busy from about 6:00pm until 8:00pm when the polls closed. When it was busy I would walk through the check-in line and ask to see if anyone had any questions so that I could find the people that needed to fill out paper work or go to another polling place. After the polls closed we had to clean everything up in a very organized manor and count all of the ballots before packaging them back up. We put away all of the e-booths and cardboard booths, counted all of the extra ballots, and did some accounting of ballots and stuff like that. This process took about 2 hours after which the inspector and I had to escort the ballots to the collection site. I finally arrived home at about 10:45pm.

I am very thankful for the spirit of service which helped me through the day. I was able to step outside my comfort zone and talk to everyone coming to vote so that I could help them to have a good experience.

Chuck, I’ve sent you a commemorative pin (shown below) that I received for being a poll worker for the Orange County Statewide General Election as a memento of this service. Wear it proud!

Merry Christmas Chuck

Merry Christmas Ryan Love Hock

This year I did service in honor of Ryan. I was excited to receive Ryan as my service recipient because he and I have grown quite close over the years starting with when we spent a lot of time together while we were finishing school in Utah.
I was also a little stressed about having Ryan because he had done such a great service project for Lani last year, and because his list of suggestions included go on a young men's camp out, chaperon a youth dance, or do service at someone's house. I felt like the volunteering at a youth camp out was a bit of a cop out because I had already done that this last year as part of my calling, and didn't feel like that was going to be enough of a challenge. I liked the idea of doing some work around my parents house but I had already planned to do some things around their house as part of my rent for living with them. I finally came up with a plan for how I could help my parents around the house that was not just part of what I had already planned to do.

I decided for my service project I was going to completely clean and organize my parents attic and garage. I knew this was a major project because my parents garage and attic has 30 years worth of accumulated treasures, but I thought if I put in some serious time that I would be able to get it cleaned and organized by Christmas.

After spending some time out there on my own, and after discovering some real gems like this classy wolf jacket and those awesome glasses (see below), I realized that this project was going to require about the same number of man hours as an Eagle Scout project. The problem was that I couldn't, as much as I wanted to, just throw EVERYthing away. I tried and found it was not "helping" in my mom's opinion. I decided that in order to complete the service by Christmas, without being kicked out of my current residence, a more realistic goal was to build shelves for my parents attic to store loose items that don't stack well, like sleeping bags and camping gear. I also wanted to make a dent in the garage and take some of the things that I knew my parents wanted to get rid of to D.I. I called my friend Josh to see if we could use his truck to make a D.I. run and then head up to Home Depot to buy some lumber for the shelves.

We then used my Dad's table saw and cut the lumber down to size and began assembling. Some of the assembling needed to be done in the attic because the shelves were too big to fit through the small attic door opening. What a treat on the back!I am proud to say the shelves are done and have made a big difference. My mom was grateful each milestone we made and each path that was cleared (above top left- mom and I dancing to celebrate that we COULD... IN THE now cleaner garage). I am still planning on helping them finish cleaning/organizing their garage and hopefully we will finish before the end of January.
I really enjoyed this project, I thought about Ryan a lot while working on it, and I also thought about what tough work Ed, Wayne, and Bill do daily as I was cutting lumber and working with my hands. It made me feel like I was one of the contractors of the family!

Merry Christmas Ryan! You are a great brother-in-law and friend. I love you a lot.

Merry Christmas Ryan!

I have loved this new Christmas tradition. It has made for a very Christ-centered season where I have been focused on showing my love for y'all through serving others rather than fighting crowds at the mall.

Ashley and I were really anxious to see who we would get. We had developed some great lists of service ideas for many of you. But, I must admit, Ryan was not one of them. Unfortunately, Ryan's list was only somewhat helpful at first, but then once I got in the spirit we did great!

His first suggestion wasn't going to work out here. Stake Dances are very rare here (none coming soon) and the YM don't go camping in December, so those two were out.

But, I began to realize I had already been helping him in a way that was related to his job-finding request. I had just recently tried to help Ryan get a job doing IT for a law group in Raleigh by e-mailing my contact with them who is a senior partner. Then when he got the offer from his new job, I called and helped coach him on how to negotiate a good offer. Even though those were great, it was clearly not enough. Sadly, I was too involved with my own job and didn't know of any jobs right off to tell my ward employment specialist.

Ryan's third suggestion to volunteer to help somebody with their home needs was right up my alley. I got an e-mail one day from a lady in the ward saying I was her home teacher (note: I had not been given a home teaching assignment from our Elder's Quorum yet) and wondering if I could help her move a fridge a few hours later. I quickly replied that I would love to and planned to finish up at work early enough to stop there on my way home.

Then, a few weeks later, one of our close friends in the ward (and our hometeacher) called to see if I could help him move his new treadmill into his house. This may sound small, but it was probably the most difficult of anything I did for Ryan's gift of service. It had been raining all day (wettest November in Richmond history) and the family had to tear up their yard to fix their septic tank. Sure enough, the treadmill would only fit through the lower door that required walking through 25 feet of mud partially covered by a few pieces of plywood while it was raining. The company was supposed to deliver it inside the house, but it was quite clear why the delivery man told the wife it would be an easy move with 2 people. It was a hefty job lifting a 500-pound box off a pallet, through the mud, and into the house. At one point, I slipped and fell with the box on top of my legs. As I laid in a huge puddle with a 500-pound box pushing my legs into the mud, I looked up at the clouds, smiled, and thought "Merry Christmas Ryan." Even so, it was a fun one to do because I was helping the man who had helped me move two huge pianos for an entire afternoon just a month earlier.

I still felt like I had not done enough for Ryan. When I sat and thought, "What would Ryan want?" I knew that part of what makes Ryan such a wonderful addition to our family is how much he has always put others before himself. Even when he was a teenager, we knew that about Ryan. Char may love "Ashley woo-hoo!", but Ryan is my woo-hoo in-law simply for the wonderful man (even when he was a 15 year old) he has always been to my baby sister. So, I decided Ryan would probably appreciate me helping out by doing some of the things requested by the rest of you.

This made sense to both Ashley and I, since we were already trying to help each other out with their person. So, during this Christmas of service, we found ourselves saying, "This one's for _______" every time we went out of my way to do something nice.

In the spirit of Bill: Every time I went through a busy door way, I was sure to stay there an extra moment and try to help two more people than I normally would have. A few times, Ashley seemed to realize what I was doing and smiled in support.

In the spirit of Wayne and Hock: We made an extra effort to offer on three different occasions to feed the missionaries or go to appointments with them in the name of Wayne and Hock. (At first, I thought this was one of Ryan's suggestions too.) Although they haven't taken us up on our three different offers yet, they say they will very soon. I also went out of my way to be more bold in sharing our beliefs. My boss, who is a wonderful example of Christian living, and I had some great discussions about our beliefs. I invited him to join our family at the Miracle of Christmas (an awesome live nativity) at the Metro Richmond Zoo (owned by an LDS family in our stake). My boss and his wife have annual passes to the Zoo and planned to go anyway, but it was fun to do it together and share our common beliefs in the Lord.

In the spirit of Char (actually Savvy): I found myself going out of my way to be extra kind and helpful to every African-American mother I saw. When they clearly had their hands full with difficult young kids, I was especially proud to help cheer their kids up or help them in any way.

In the spirit of Dad, Mom, and Amy: We made sure that we were the last ones to leave the Ward Christmas Party after helping put away tables and chairs, then mop and vacuum the floors. (This is a cheating one because we already do this since we have had activities callings before.)

In the spirit of Mitzi and Tiffany: I went to Disneyland! Just kidding. The mother of one of our close couple friends is really stressed with the Christmas season combined with some difficult financial circumstances. When Mit and Tiffany wrote that they wanted us to offer to watch a mother's kids so she could do something by herself, I thought of this woman who has been so kind to help us. Ashley and I talked about it and made it a priority to watch her kids so she could have alone time. Ashley ended up doing the work, but I kept pushing her to offer to help in any way possible.

In the spirit of Lani and Amy: Last week, when we were out in the historic snow storm, we came upon a woman stuck in a car spinning her tires. Without thinking, I stopped the car, told Ashley to follow me, and set out to push the woman's car up the hill to the next exit. As I pushed her nearly 1/2 mile up a snowy hill, I smiled thinking that hopefully somebody would do the same for my sisters if they were stuck in the snow (Ashley accidentally jumped the gun and blogged about this one already).

I am sure that all of you had similar experiences during this season of service. We all had ideas for each other and went ahead and did them even though Carrie didn't draw that particular name out for you. So Ryan, even though we only did a couple things directly in your name, we actually did it all with you in mind, because you do so much for our family.

The season of service has made this Christmas a very spiritual time in our family. After Thanksgiving, we began reading the New Testament to the girls to get prepared for Christmas. We have acted out the story of the birth of Christ too many times to count, with Ashley's five nativity sets, then in person with Nana's costumes, and then watched it live at the Metro Richmond Zoo. This season of service has made this Christmas so focused on Christ, that when we went to see Santa on Christmas Eve day, we realized we had never discussed with Lucy who Santa is and what he does. That was when I knew this season of service was the best Christmas gift ever!

Merry Dancing Toes Christmas to Lani!

Lani had mentioned that she often times would visit the senior center across from the church on Lake Dr. to dance with the elderly. Tiffany accompanied me as I went to the Senior Center to serve in a several ways, a few of which were unknown to us before we got there.

As soon as we showed up they flocked to us to see our adorable baby. She was really cute with them and every face brightened up when they saw her. Even people who couldn't speak English very good or at all wanted to come see her and talk to us.

The live senior band was playing and the dance floor was hoppin. I was so far out of my comfort zone that it took me a little while to ask someone to dance. I started talking to a lady next to me and she was very nice so I asked her to dance. She said that her husband that had passed away didn't really like to dance so she didn't really know how. I told her that I didn't really know how either so let's just go have some fun shuffling our feet around. I finally convinced her so we headed out to the middle of the dance floor. While we were dancing I asked her if she came out to those dances often. She responded in the affirmative but also mentioned that she had never actually danced and that this was her first time. I continued to ask those that were left on the side when most of the men had already chosen a partner. It ended up being very fun and I even got a little rumba lesson.

Through out the dance one lady came over to us several times to see our little girl and talk to us. she also gave us some delicious wafers. After talking to her for a little while she mentioned that she was from Brazil! I started to talk to her in Portuguese (of course) and she was blown away. She was so excited to talk to me. We talked about my time in Brazil, Brazilian music and Brazilian food. This led us to exchanging phone numbers so that she can invite us over for a Brazilian meal. She was such a nice lady and this was a wonderful encounter.

I am so excited that we were able to do these acts of service not only to serve each other but it really brought out the true meaning of Christmas. Merry Christmas Lani!!!

They just couldn't resist this cute little face. (I am talking about Brooklyn's just in case you were wondering.)

And she said she couldn't dance.

My Brazilian Friend!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com