Ryan’s Eagle Scout Project–Part III

Once the Donation Dinner Event was over our house was LOADED full of bags and boxes.  Anything that was sorted and labeled was in the garage, the toys were in the ‘fridge room’: a storage room with an extra fridge in it, and the bags and boxes of clothes yet to be sorted were in the other storage room chest high and bulging out the door so that you couldn’t even walk in.  It was a bit overwhelming.  Ryan took down all the posters quickly and earlier than he had planned because he already had more than we were going to be able to fit.

More sorting… Megan and Emily were happy to be in charge of the shoes.  They paired them all up and we decided together which ones were good enough to send and boxed them by general sizes and labeled them.

Two Sorting Parties… One night Brother Clemens, a friend in the ward who Chris and Ryan home teach, volunteered to come help sort clothes with us for an evening.  The next night Ryan invited his friends (and Katie’s) over again for a Pizza/Sorting Clothes Party.  Those friends are so good to come help out… especially the ones who had done 10+ hours of soccer practice that week and were so tired they could barely stand.  Thanks guys!!  My friend, Yvonne, came too, despite her busy schedule and it was so much help!!  My friend Megan, took Emily, Megan, Luke and Matt to her house so we wouldn’t have any distractions and for a much needed play date for our kids and hers.    A great night for everyone.

Toys and Sports Equipment: I really can’t believe I don’t have any toy sorting pictures.  Katie’s entire room/the downstairs family room area was COVERED with toys and it stayed like that for a couple weeks.  We spent a LOT of time sorting toys – which all the kids were interested in.  Matt and Luke loved to be down there exploring in the toys and would ‘try out’ different toys every day.  Matt found two identical toys one day and said, “Mom, one for the orphanage and one for me!”   Another day we overheard one of the kids say, “Those orphans are so lucky” because of some great Lego sets.   Because we had so many donations, we really were able to take just the best.  There were a lot of great toys.  We had the ages of each of the kids at the group homes and carefully divided the toys into appropriate piles.

Since our landlords are selling our house when we move, the real estate agent’s first visit urged one last ‘get it all done’ toy sorting/cleaning day.   All the kids worked really hard all Saturday long and finished just in time for our entire house to be photographed by the agent.  It was actually really nice to have a deadline. 

Packing Up the Night Before we Leave…  I also didn’t take a picture of the bags and boxes in the garage chest deep but here they are as they grouped the bags by girl/boy and size so they could load the vans by specific group home. 

We spent a good amount of time thinking about how we’d get all of this stuff to Budapest.  Chris looked at renting a truck or a trailer but we just didn’t have enough money for it.  At the Taco Dinner Donation Event, friends the Petersons and the Nelsons approached us about wanting to help drive donations to Hungary with us.  It worked out perfectly.  We packed three vans tight with car carriers on top – and still didn’t fit it all.  The rest will be making it’s way down to the same organization in late April when Patricia and volunteers will be making a trip up to speak here in Heidelberg and then take things back.  It’s great the way it all worked out.

Ryan’s Eagle Scout Project–Part II

Taco Dinner:  Part of Ryan’s Project was to plan and organize a Fundraising Event.  He decided on a Taco Dinner held at the Church building and invited friends from our community and past soccer teams, members of our ward and other friends throughout the stake.  It was such a great night.

The night before, Ryan, Chris and I purchased all the food for the event. 

Saturday at 4:00 we headed to the church with Taco supplies in tow.  The scout troop and leaders, at Ryan’s request, met Ryan at 4:30 and got their instructions – some assigned to food prep, others setting up tables and some getting the donation tables set up and labeled.  He had emailed leaders and friends to come early as well to support the ‘set up’.  It was great to see him leading the others and taking charge and just this event itself was a monumental project to get organized.

Table set up and bringing supplies in…

Food Prep:  I was in the kitchen with willing helpers and dear friends, Megan and Danielle and several scouts. My friend, Yvonne and I had previously browned almost all of the meat.  We did a few more pounds there, and cut lettuce, tomatoes and made guacamole.  (Ryan thought he’d come in and pose for a picture but he really wasn’t doing any cutting – just overseeing.  Katie was on CAMERA duty and took all of the pictures for the night.)   With so much help, we had everything cut and cooked and in crockpots to stay warm by 5:40.  

The menu: taco meat, shredded chicken, hard and soft tortilla shells, rice, tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, olives and chips.  Our good friend, Julia, offered to make 13 DOZEN gourmet cupcakes for the event.  Very thoughtful… and so delicious.

Sorting: Because all of the setup and food was done early, Ryan got the scouts to start sorting some of the donated clothing.  They worked on it for a half hour and got a lot of stuff sorted, bagged and labeled.  It was so helpful.

Donations:  After Ryan welcomed those who had already arrived Ryan and Mark sat outside the door to receive donations.  He earned almost $800 that night which ended up being closer to $500 after all the food was reimbursed. I think there were 97 people who RSVP'd and a few more than that showed up.

After everyone had started eating and before the entertainment, Ryan stood up and talked about the organization that he was benefiting and his plan for the rest of his project… a speech that he had prepared ahead of time.   Then he thanked everyone and introduced the entertainment…

The Entertainment:  Ryan asked our friend, Brother Clark, who we knew from Georgia to help with entertainment.  Brother Clark was also his scout leader and the one who helped him complete his FIRST CLASS before moving to Germany.    He brought all his guitars, sound systems, speakers and a handful of talented teens from the Heidelberg and Ramstein area – including our friend, Lissie, to play guitar and sing.  It was so much fun!  Ryan knows them all from Stake events and dances and I know a lot of these girls from being in the Stake Young Women’s and it was great to see them again. 

Easter Candy:  One request from our contact in Budapest is that we bring Easter candy for the kids.  We had lots of Candy donations and a couple of Ryan’s friends helped him bag the candies into little Ziploc bags to be handed out to each of the kids at the group homes.

It was a fun event and went really well.  We had to take two cars and have others help drive all the donations to our house.  Chris said that the whole way home Ryan kept saying, “Dad, that was awesome.  I think it went really well but I think people really had fun too.  That was so awesome.”    Fun to see an event come off ok…. (and be over.)

Ryan’s Eagle Scout Project–Part 1

Preface: Last Christmas a gal in our ward was part of a group that collected shoebox sized containers full of little treasures for Hungarian orphans.  She didn’t say a lot about it but announced through an email that anyone wanting to help by donating a container could.  I wanted to… but somehow I missed the opportunity and regretted it.  It had me thinking, though, and after the Christmas break I asked her about how it went, anxious to hear all about it.  She had taken her three kids – the oldest being 10 and they participated by handing each child their own box of treasures.   Because there was a child unaccounted for her oldest ran to their van to find him anything he could… a soccer ball.  As a family we looked at the pictures she had taken of their experience and immediately though that it would be a great experience for us as well.  We thought about it a lot during the year.  In December Ryan started to think about what his Eagle Project would be and this immediately came to mind.

Project Proposal: In the beginning of January Ryan googled and found the name of an organization in Budapest that helps several different orphanages and group homes throughout the area.  Ryan sent an email to the contact person and she emailed us back quickly and seemed excited about his email, especially since it was from a youth who was anxious to help.  Several emails back and forth between Patricia and Ryan, and a LOT of Eagle Scout Project Paperwork, and his plan was taking form… a Toy, Sports Equipment and Clothing Drive for Orphan kids in Budapest.  Getting the plan written up and approved took most of the month.  It really is amazing how much work was involved, but Ryan knew what had to be done, and was happy to work on each step.

Poster Party: The night after his project proposal was approved Ryan organized a POSTER PARTY.  He typed all the information on the computer and we formatted and printed everything out so he and his friends could paste them all together.  I think they made 14 posters.

Thanks to Tate, Katie, Mark, (Ryan), Amanda, Abi, Ashlene, and Alexander who are always up for a party, even when it involves a little work!

Poster/Box Set Up: Next on the To-Do List was getting the posters out in the community. He headed to the commissary several times to pick up boxes for each location.   That weekend he talked to the Bishop of the Ramstein Building and the Wiesbaden Church building to have  boxes set up in the foyer and placed them there while at the Seminary Super Saturday.  During the next several days he met with the managers of the following places and placed out his boxes.  Several of the locations helped him by volunteering to get bigger boxes and the PX locations actually took his poster and made a larger more professional one for their locations. 

• Ramstein LDS Building Foyer
• Weisbaden LDS Building Foyer
• Heidelberg LDS Building Foyer
• Commissary (Grocery Store)
• Bowling Alley
• Shoppette
• Post Office
• Main Store at the PX
• Clothing Store at the PX,
• Thrift Store.

Pick Ups:  Within about six days of getting his project approved and just a day or two of the boxes being placed, Ryan started seeing bags of clothes and toys in the boxes, and then the emails for requested ‘pickups’ start to roll in.

For the entire month of February Ryan left for Seminary at 6:20, went to Seminary, went to school, and was either picked up by Chris to do a few pick ups or came home on the bus and left for pick ups as soon as Dad got home and before Basketball Practice.  After practice or school he brought in mountains of bags and boxes and then sat at the computer to check email and respond to those who had requested pick ups for sometime in the next week.  He couldn’t believe how much time all the emailing took.  He managed to get his homework done but the kid didn’t have a spare minute after his scouting was done.   

Somewhere in the middle of February his High School Soccer team started conditioning practices and then try outs – and at some point his basketball games and practices ended but for awhile they overlapped.  Ryan made the JV team and practices started everyday after school until 5:30.   After a couple weeks of this Ryan said to me… “Mom, my life is made up of 5 S’s – Seminary, School, Soccer, Scouting and Sleep.”   So true.

Bringing in the donations 4 or 5 times a week…

Sorting and Organizing:  Patricia had asked that the clothing be sorted into group… Infant Girl, 1-3 Girl, 4-6 Girl etc…  Plus we needed to go through things and see if they had any stains or were too worn.  Sorting through things took a ton of time but the whole family helped.  A couple of different Saturday afternoons and week day nights we sorted clothing and started to go through toys – making a mess of Katie’s room downstairs. 

This week’s random life details…

• Last week's Bishop Discussion went well.  Ryan said to Chris afterward... "I'm glad you're the Bishop, Dad, because I get to hear all these great stories."  His discussion was about missions and he told the story about how he didn't want to take his soccer jersey off after winning the state championship because he didn't want the feeling to go away and then talked about another uniform he wore... his mission suit and tag and how that was even harder to take off at the end of his two years. And how coming off a mission was a way better feeling than winning any state championship.  It's a story/talk that I've heard multiple times throughout the years given to several different ward youth groups -- but Ryan hadn't heard it.  It makes me so grateful to have callings that give us the opportunity to share stories and feelings with our own  kids -- and especially to be focused on our youth.

• We had Terra Nova testing for the kids all last week.  Standardized testing grading the schools and teachers, really, but my kids were anxious to go to bed early and eat healthy breakfasts and they had no homework for the week as well which was such a nice break.

• On Tuesday, Megan and I went to her '8 is Great' meeting for all the primary kids getting baptized this year.   Her birthday is in 17 days or something and it's creeping up on us fast.  She went to her first Activity Days Activity last week... they've asked her to start coming to help plan a primary party and she is THRILLED to finally be joining the 'big girls'.  On the same night the YW and YM had their talent show combined activity.  Katie, Ashlenne and Mercedes sang a Taylor Swift song together and it was good.  Ryan played his ZELDA piece on the piano.  It's a fun group of youth.  Katie's school friend, Mercedes has been coming to Young Women activities for the last four weeks and now her older sister is coming along too.   They are loving it and their mom is so excited about it as well.  She's a dance instructor on base and knows lots of the LDS girls and has commented to me that 'all you guys are such great people'...    I wish we had more time here!

• I left for Paris on Thursday morning and had such a great time.  My girlfriends and I had all been to Paris several times before so it was just a very relaxed trip.  We joked about the fact that we only spent about 8 minutes planning this trip.  Heidi drove us right into town and we checked in at the French Servicemen Hotel and were ready to head out at 3:00.  We went to the Paris Opera House (never been) which was really gorgeous and inspired the writing of the Phantom of the Opera.  Then on to the Orsay Museum, which I had never been to either.  Lots of Impressionist art... Monet and Renoir.  Beautiful.    We found a cafe and ate dinner.  I had quiche Lorraine.  We sat there for 2 hours and then headed back to the hotel.  From our hotel room we could see the top of the Eiffel Tower sparkle but Melissa asked the manager if we could see it from a higher window and he gave us the key to a room on the 6th floor, which was so fun.  Friday we slept in,  saw the St. Augustine Cathedral right by our hotel, spotted a poodle, grabbed our bakery items for breakfast -- I had a chocolate du pain with almond spread inside that was quite possibly the best pastry I've ever tasted.  I had several.  Then off to the Sacred Heart Cathedral and Montmartre area up on the hill... truly Paris.  I'd been there a couple times before but some of the gals hadn't.  We wandered through the art market, made some art purchases and then ate lunch at a little cafe and stayed for an hour.  Then off to L'Orangerie Museum with more Monet Water lily paintings.   (Had never been)  Then we went over to peak at the Eiffel Tower before heading over to the Rue Cler... remember that pastry shop there, Dan, Sarah, Scott Elisha??  I got the raspberry tart -- delicious.  The gals loved it.  We ate dinner kitty corner from that pastry shop and sat for two hours enjoying our meal.  Then back to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle at night and then back to the hotel.  Saturday we went to the Shakespeare Book Company across from the Notre Dame Cathedral and it was really neat.   I'd seen it from the outside but never been inside -- but since I was with a bunch of book lovers we had to spend awhile and it was great.  Then we toured the Saint Chappelle.  I'd seen that one before -- and then headed back to the hotel to head home.  Heidi drove us right into the MIDDLE of Paris around the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs E'lysse .  She's a bold driver... it was so much fun.

• While I was gone Chris was on call for 48 hours and had to spend most of it at the hospital including the nights since his work computer wasn't working at home.  He's counting the days he has to be on call.  So Katie ended up doing most of the work around the house and with the kids. 

• Ryan got to dress for the Varsity game and the Varsity players did so well that by half time the Junior Varsity players were playing the rest of the game.  They won 11 - 0 against Ansbach.  Wish I could have been there.  He is a busy boy going straight to practice after school and getting home at 5:50... Tuesdays he heads straight to YM and Wednesdays he heads straight to piano lessons.  He's so TIRED and definitely hasn't been getting enough sleep -- partially because he's been working on his third quarter Honors Lit and World History project -- it's a board game and it's awesome.  His friend at school said, "If Ryan doesn't get 100 on his project then we're all going on strike."  Nice to check that off the list.

• Today is our final day to get ready for the Budapest trip tomorrow.  We're getting art project stuff organized still, have a few more things to buy at the commissary.  (Patricia requested peanut butter, root beer and smores stuff since it's stuff you can't find in Europe).  Everything will be loaded into the vans tonight and we'll see how much of it really fits.   It's going to be crazy.  

Colorado Springs

Finally… we have word of where we are going…   Ft. Carson, COLORADO SPRINGS.

I can’t quite put into words how excited we are.   REALLY excited is all I can say.

In some respects I’d say it’s been a long year.  It was 14 months ago that Chris and I started to get REALLY serious about our future plans.  We pulled out the Family Timeline, made a couple dozen spreadsheets… looked for jobs all over the place -- in the army and out,  weighed army benefits and army retirement pay to lower-than-ever salaries outside the army, marveled at what a rough market it is these days and talked to our Radiologist friends ahead of us who were battling the same questions.  Because of the economy we started looking at ‘staying in the Army’ with more seriousness than we ever had before.  The Army’s been good to us.  Great, actually.  As we talked about this ‘new’ option we wondered if given the chance to live in Colorado Springs, we might actually enjoy staying in.   We did our research about Colorado.  Great schools.  Great neighborhoods.  Great shopping.  In the WEST.  Lots of sunshine.  And about a hundred testimonials of people in the armed forces and out who have loved it there.   Then we prayed and prayed some more all the while talking to our kids about pros and cons and questions and uncertainties.   

Two months later (exactly a year ago) Chris drafted an email to the command saying that we’d consider staying in the army if given the chance to work at Fort Carson.  He emailed back rather quickly saying that we were ‘penciled in’.  And that was that.   We reminded ourselves that one uses a pencil so that it can be easily erased… so while we were genuinely excited, we were a little hesitant as well.  It is the Army, after all.

At the end of the summer we were notified that the commander in charge of Radiology moves was changing.  We resent the previous emails but weren’t sure if they held the same understanding now.   At the same time we heard rumors that Ft. Carson would be impossible to get AND realized that we had missed all deadlines for Radiology fellowships – which for some reason, are 24 months out.   Chris really has had no desire to do a fellowship (another more specialized year of training) so we hadn’t really researched it… but looking at the job market outside the army, the need for specialized training seemed inevitable.  { One reason we weren’t thrilled about this is that it would give us three more consecutive moves.  A move this summer for one more year of Army payback.  Then a move to wherever we would do a fellowship.  Then a move to wherever we’d get a job and ‘settle down’.  That would put Ryan in 4 different high schools – one for each year.  Not exactly easy for any of us. }  We did some looking at fellowships but consigned ourselves to the fact that if we got out of the army we’d look for what jobs were offered without needing fellowships or that we’d apply for fellowships later.  Really we figured we’d put off all decisions until later and continued to worry… a lot.

In November we heard more rumors of not getting Colorado Springs.  Chris spend the next while getting in contact with Col. Yoest from Madigan in Ft. Lewis, Washington who he had worked with previously.  He told Chris that he’d love to have him work there and would put in Chris’ name as his request.    We then put our prayers and action towards Washington hoping to be in the West and close to family unsure if they even had slots open. 

The command sent us an email that seemed to warn all of us that we wouldn't be getting what we wanted.  They choose 9 Radiologists to be in a non-Radiology command spot, and because of that, it's taking away some of our options.  It was hard to come by information so we were left to wait and try to dream up scenarios until we got so frustrated with the ‘not knowing’ that we could hardly stand it.  Every day we thought we’d find out.

After quite a few weeks, Chris' commander over placing Army Radiologists sent out an email saying that Colorado was indeed NOT an option, didn't mention anything about Washington, and then listed 6 priority fills including Columbus, Georgia.  After researching them all, (you know it was in depth if you know Chris) we came to the conclusion that Georgia was the best.  January was a pretty unsettling month.  I usually love January's but this year it was with filled with anxiety, uncertainty and some serious grumpiness.     There are some good things that we love about Georgia but it's just too far away.  There are some not great things about Washington but it's closer.  We felt like we should try for Washington (still unsure if there was a position) and tried to be filled with resolve, determining that we'd press forward with optimism and that things would be ok.   Our attempts at researching the area, finding rentals and exploring school options made me seriously depressed but I figured I was getting a little dramatic and that we just needed to press forward with a decision that felt the 'most' right and we'd feel the real 'yes' answer later. 

Just a couple of day after that, (February 4th) we got an email from Colonel Wirt... "Chris. Good news. I think I will be able to get you into Carson (Colorado Springs). I have increased their projected fills and have you penciled in as of now. More to follow this week if anything changes."  Chris called home and read me the email over the phone and I just sat there in shock.  Both of us were in shock.    When we talked to my parents later that day my Dad told me that he had put our names in the temple on Friday.  Then when we talked to Chris' parents they told us they had put our names in the temple on Friday separately not knowing that each other had done it.    We felt extremely blessed.

For the next several weeks we waited for orders.  Without official orders (and sometimes even with official orders) nothing is certain.  On March 8th we got another email verifying our move to Colorado Springs.  We are feeling very blessed, so grateful and really excited!

Questions for Luke

I tucked Luke in last night, sat on his bed and asked him questions for 15 minutes…. something I used to do with Ryan and Katie ALL the time but haven’t done a lot with the little boys.  They usually get a tuck and a tickle – which sometimes leads to a whole lot of tickles because they both love it, – but beyond that I am ANXIOUS to get them ‘put away for the night’ so I can have some time with my main man.   

Matthew was downstairs so it was just Luke and I and he smiled and giggled all the way through the questions.   Half way through he said, “Mom, we’re having such a good time, aren’t we?”    We really were.  I’ve got to do that with all of my kids more.

When you are in school like the big kids, what are you going to be the best at… reading books, spelling words, doing math questions, figuring out where places are on a map, doing games and sports at recess, learning about science?

Luke: all of them.   … except the map thing

What sport do you want to play when you are Ryan’s age: Soccer, Basketball, Football or Baseball?

Luke: Football

Where do you think you’ll go on your mission… Canada, Mexico, the United States, Europe, China, India, Australia…

Luke: What was the second one you said?

Mexico?

Luke: Yep, that’s where I’m going to go.

When you grow up and get ready to get married…

Luke starts smiling and giggling.

Luke, why are you smiling?

Luke: Because it’s funny when they kiss and stuff.

When you grow up and get ready to get married, how will you ask the girl to marry you?

Luke: I will say… “Hi, I’m a hairy man!!!” wiggling his whole body around and being silly.

But then she’ll run away.  What if you really like her and you want to marry her?

Luke: Oh, I will have a card all about marrying me and then she will want to marry me and then I’ll have it behind my back and then give it to her.

When you and your wife have your first baby do you wish the baby will be a boy or a girl?

Luke: I want the girl to be older because I want to see the little girl baby first because girl babies are so cute to me.

What do you think is the scariest or hardest part of being a Dad?

Luke: To find a son when he gets lost and the son forgot to stay in one place.

Time is going by so fast.

4 days until Paris.

3 days in Paris.

4 days at home.

4 days in Budapest.

9 days until Starbucks get here.

2 days of Heidelberg sight-seeing.

9 days of French Riviera spring break vacation

2 days at home

9 days of Colorado Springs house hunting.

…and then 7 weeks till we leave Germany.

Austin Collie and Peyton Manning

Annie emailed during the day to say that she just heard Austin Collie and Peyton Manning were going to be in K-town that evening.  I called Chris and of course we were going.  Chris is a huge Austin Collie fan so he was pretty excited.  We all donned our BYU gear and headed to the Ramstein Air Force base an hour away to meet up with our friends, the Tintels – also huge fans.   We waited in a LONG line but ate and chatted to pass the time.  At the front they hurried groups of 15 people past them so fast and said ‘no photos, no signatures’.   Even still Chris was able to quickly hand Austin a BYU football to sign.    When Peyton Manning saw us coming he said, “Look Austin – it’s a BYU crowd for ya.”  When Chris asked Peyton if he was going to get Austin to come and play with him he said, “I’m working on it!”   AFTER we got through the line THEN we decided to take a few pictures.   Fun night – we don’t have many opportunities to get all dressed up in our BYU gear these days with the games in the middle of the night.