To Mitzi, from your big brother!

It has been a joy giving service this year to my little sister and East Coast buddy!

My season of service for Mitzi went through three phases. After we received our assignments, I went out of my way to do a couple of items with Mitzi in mind. In November and early December, I got really busy with work, traveling, and illness, and I slacked in my service for Mitzi. But in mid-December I re-energized my efforts, prayed about opportunities to serve Mitzi, and got to work on some inspired thoughts.

1) Let's go fly a kite:

As I first thought about ideas for serving on behalf of Mitzi, I thought of some dear friends of ours that have three kids (a boy then 2 girls), just like Mitzi. I thought it might be nice to do something to give the mom a break one day.

One Saturday, our family finished some morning errands and while Ashley went home to give Charly a nap, I decided to take Lucy and Leland to go fly our kites. But first, I called to see if the father of the family wanted to join us in order to give the mother a couple of hours to herself. But the father was out with his son, volunteering at an Eagle Scout project (cool huh?), so I asked if I could take her two girls (identical ages with Leland and Lucy).

We spent 2 1/2 hours flying kites, chasing the ice cream man down the street, making a HUGE mess of ice cream, and watching a girls soccer game at the park. The mother was very grateful for the time alone to clean her house because her mother-in-law was coming to visit that next week.

2) Visit to NC:

The second thing I did in Mitzi's name isn't really a "service" per se, but rather something I did for myself and Mitzi. A few women in our ward were planning a trip from Richmond to go to the Raleigh temple and back on one Saturday. Ashley asked if I could watch the girls so she could go. After thinking about it for a day, I decided I would rather go along and see my sister!

You see, I have begun to feel poorly about how often I go out of my way to spend time with my East Coast sister. I feel like I need to make the effort to go see her for no other reason than just to visit (instead of as my hotel to stay in before I fly out of RDU to some other destination). She has done it a few times for us, and used to do it all the time for our other sisters when she lived out west.

So, I used some of my saved time to take a half day off of work and we drove down on Friday afternoon. We spent two nights together and had lots of fun. I love spending time with you Mitzi!

During the visit, Mitzi made some observations about my behavior, including a habit I had developed for complaining and my tone of voice when talking to my wife (among other things). At first, I was inclined to allow myself to be put off by her comments, but on the way home, I talked to my wife and said, "I want to try to work on these things, because I know that Mitzi is mentioning these things out of love for me and for you (Ashley)." So, over the past month, I have made it a priority to be more positive and try to talk more kindly to my wife. I still have a LONG way to go, but I know of a few instances where it has really helped.

3) Scarves to homeless:

This past week, as I thought and prayed about serving on behalf of Mitzi, I became inspired to do something small to help homeless people stay warm in the cold weather. I have no idea how this relates to Mitzi, but whenever I would try to think about serving Mitzi, I felt this was something I should do. Maybe it is because we were California-raised, so the cold hits us hard.

As I was packing up our car to drive to North Carolina, I felt the inspiration again and decided I could not ignore it anymore. So, even though we were supposed to be getting on the road soon, I went in and asked Ashley to help me go through our huge container of scarves, hats, and gloves that we have accumulated over the years. (You have no idea how often warm-weather friends and family love to give scarves and hats to their cold weather family and friends).

We split the huge stash in half, put it in a bag, and took a half hour out of our trip to go into downtown Richmond to visit the "warming shelter" the city had set up. I took Leland and Lucy in with me and we delivered a bunch of scarves, two pairs of gloves, and a few hats. This was a great chance to talk to the girls about helping those who are much less fortunate then ourselves.

4) Garden boxes:

Two years ago (I think?), Mitzi started gardening and has done a great job with her raised, square-foot garden. Her successes inspired Ashley and I to try our hand at growing some herbs and vegetables.

I was inspired by a sub-irrigated garden container we saw at the farmer's market, but determined that I could create my own with some enhancements. I built three large containers and we had a very prosperous harvest this year of basil (3 types), bell peppers (2 types), chives and oregano. (Our tomatoes and zucchini were not so successful.)

I will post more specifics on my container gardens later with pictures, but they are quite similar to these (Example 1 | Example 2 | Example 3) and here is a quick peek:

Mitzi suggested that her secret service Santa plant a garden (or make the goal to do so in the spring) as part of this season of service. Well that wouldn't be anything new for us because Mitzi already inspired us last year.

However, last week, when I was at Lowe's for a Build and Grow, I saw a bunch of sturdy containers on a great sale, so I bought 10 of them to develop into sub-irrigated garden containers and give to our friends who might enjoy gardening, but can't go full out planting in their yards. I will keep you updated on my progress as I make them and give them out to friends in the next two months.

CONTEST FOR RICHMONDERS: If you have read this far you deserve a reward! So, if you live in the Richmond area, post a comment saying you want one, and you have won yourself a free sub-irrigated garden container perfect for planting herbs or a couple tomato or pepper plants!

SEMI-CONTEST FOR RALEIGH(IANS?): If you are a friend of Mitzi's living in Raleigh, post a comment and we will see what we can do to make some for y'all (but you may have to cover the cost of materials).

5) Visit on Christmas Day:

My final thing is another that is not really a "service" for Mitzi, but rather following-up on my goal to spend more time with my East Coast sister.

Ashley and I had planned on heading back to Richmond on Christmas night (Saturday night), but at the last minute decided we would stay an extra night at Ashley's father's house. When we told him, he said that he regrettably had made plans to go out of town to visit friends since his youngest daughter would be staying with her mother for Christmas night.

Ashley turned and said, "We could go ahead and go home like we planned originally, or we could go see Mitzi." I was grateful for another perfect non-reason to go see my sister.

To Hock From Ashley

Last year Hock did a great job choosing a service for me. I was excited to have him this year. A few things came to mind over the few months that I knew I would be serving Hock for Christmas.

We stopped by the Little League Museum on our way to New York in November, but since it was closed, we could not go inside. What service could I really do there anyway? But, I still wanted to take a picture, so Hock knew I was thinking about him.

Little League Baseball Museum - Williamsport, PA

I cheered for the San Francisco Giants (and even wore a Giants hat) during the World Series. I was so excited for the Hocks when they won.

Yelling at the Giants for not catching a fly ball.

I chose to really serve in 2 ways for him.

1) I signed up to be a merit badge counselor for cooking (and 2 other things I can't remember) and I had Chuck sign up, too. I actually thought this would be a great way to serve Michael even before he sent out his list with this as a suggestion. They haven't needed us yet, but I will let you know when they do.

2) I have fed and served the missionaries more often. I am trying to have them over for dinner at least once a month (we used to only feed them about once every 4 months) and have done so the last 2 months. Serving in YW, I rarely get a chance to look at the meal calendar for the missionaries, so I try to offer to feed them dinner whenever I can. On the 2 occasions these last 2 months, it was with less than 24 hours notice that they were at our house eating dinner.

Last week, the sisters missionaries needed a ride home from a P-day activity 20 miles away. They did not want to have to use their miles in order to go, so I packed up my girls and picked them up and brought them home. Since they did not have a dinner appointment that night, I dropped them off at their house at 5:45pm, ran to the grocery store, then they were at our house eating dinner at 6:45pm.

Me, Sis. Jacob, and Sis. Davis

I love the spirit that the missionaries bring into our home. It's wonderful for my girls to see those sisters serving the Lord.

Michael, thanks for being a wonderful example of service to the scouts and to the missionaries. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Bill! Love Tiff

As I opened the email from Carrie this year, and read that I had Bill, I thought to myself, "Oh no, what am I going to do for this man who is constantly serving?!?!" I really had no idea what do. I felt like I could basically do anything helping another person because Bill is always serving others everywhere. When we read mom's post about the babies in Africa going home in blankets and pillow cases, I thought of little baby Brighto, baby Cole, and baby Savannah going home in a towel and a tiny pillow case. I know that if Bill could (which he did), he would do anything to give those 3 wonderful kids a warm, soft blanket to come home in. I know that if he could, he would give every child coming home from that hospital in Africa a blanket!!! So I knew right then, that is how I would be serving my brother! I also served him in 3 different ways. Each way is something that Bill has done over and over again for other people.

1) Serving in the Church and in my Stake
2) Serving the young children in Africa
3) Serving and helping others by teaching them new skills

1) Serving those in Africa by serving in the Stake- I quickly got on my computer and typed up an email to our Relief Society President asking her if there was any money in the budget this year, and time, to quickly put together a humanitarian project within the Stake. After talking and emailing back and forth over a couple of weeks, we have decided that this next year, I will be planning and carrying out a Humanitarian Stake Relief Society Night where we will be making more blankets to send over to Africa.

2) Serving those over in Africa- Over Thanksgiving weekend (and the same day that all the people in Utah were doing their blankets at Aunt Jimae's house), I shopped, bought, cut, ironed, and sewed 10 blankets!

Here we are shopping for the fabric. Brooklyn was a big help also!

Ironing and sewing (thanks mom for the use of your wonderful sewing machine! It is getting a lot of great use!)
Here are the helpers. Uncle Hock (after cutting his fabric) gave them very festive headpieces.... Utah Ute fabric (in honor of the Utes' win that afternoon).

3) Helping others- Hock and I were side by side throughout the entire process of this project. He did an AWESOME job making 5 blankets for the African children! I helped him know how much to cut at the store, taught him how to cut his blankets, how to iron the corners double over, and what to do for the sewing. He did already know a little bit since he took Sewing in high school. He got an award from that class... ask him sometime about it! :)

We had a great time together creating and sewing these beautiful and wonderful blankets. We felt very proud of our work and very happy to be giving these children something they will probably cherish with them forever. Bill, Merry Christmas. You are always a wonderful example to me of serving others. Thank you for always being there for my little family, my whole family, and for anyone else who needs a helping hand. You are an amazing man! Love you big brother!

Love Tiff

MERRY CHRISTMAS (Sort of Canadian Style)!!!

Dear Mike.... I tried to think of what I could do for such a brilliant guy and it ended up being one of our favorite service projects of the mission.


We went to visit a library out in a village about 40 minutes out of town.
The library proprietor was a professor.
After he retired he decided he wanted to help the members of his home village have the opportunity to learn.
He and his wife moved back to the village and built this little library and school. We visited with them and he gave us a little tour. The library itself is one room filled with shelves and stacks of all kinds of books.
Many are text books, but many are a collection of wonderful books.
Most all of them are in French, but there are a few in English. He also has 5 pads of cement with a "roof" covering, which act as classrooms, where he teaches school.
Even the outhouse was cool.
The grounds around it are beautiful and spotlessly clean. It was amazing!

We asked if we could return for a service project in 4 weeks, and asked what we could do to help. He said that all the books needed dusting... thousands and thousands of books. The purpose was to separate each book and wipe off the dust... and the moisture which would shorten the life of the books. We also offered to paint the posts of the "classrooms". He asked if we could donate some mice poisoning, because there are some mice who have moved in and are eating the books!

I explained to him that we had a Canadian son-in-law that loves reading and learning. I told him we would like to do the project and dedicated it you.

On the day of the project, after we arrived, they fed us a beautiful African meal,
and the we went to work.

You would have been proud of the elders... but mostly proud of this wonderful couple who have dedicated their lives to the love of reading and learning. We are proud of you and your search for knowledge. Thanks for being such a wonderful husband and Dad. I was proud to wear this shirt.

Love, "Other Mother"-Kriss

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