Sevark Central

Step 1 in preparation for his mission...Jonah got his wisdom teeth today!  He did great but didn't realize he had been put under and had them taken out so fast!  And other than thinking the Doctors office stole his iPhone until he realized it some how got into his pocket, he really didn't do too much of anything funny, but was back on his phone within minutes of getting in the car. :-)  He took it easy the rest of the day, but didn't let them get him down too long which is good since he has work tomorrow night on Christmas eve!  Good job Jonah!

Lexine does a great job teaching piano and is sure good at it.  Her students love her and they're sure getting good!  This evening she held her annual Christmas recital at our house, so it was full of parents and students, but it was a quick one -- in and out within an hour.  You're amazing babe...I sure love you!

Our family is not so large counting those living at home any more, and its going to get significantly smaller this next year.  We used to be able to to fill all the roles at Feed My Starving Children, but now we have to borrow others to fill our crew!  But we still made the most of it and had a great time with Garrett, Maizey and Jonah!  It was a fun evening packaging food meals to send to the Philipines!  Good job guys!

Another awesome year enjoying Thanksgiving with the Clarks!  We missed having Noah & Caleb with us, but it was a awesome getting to video conference with them while we saw all that side of the family and visited with them.  All the usually Thanksgiving dishes and desserts, but Dave's Hemstreet's gravy win's my first choice award year after year if you ask me!  ;-) Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween is a whole lot more fun with little ones...Sadie was a princess this year and James was the Gecko from the movie Tangled.  They had a lot of fun watching all the Trick-o-Treaters come by, but they liked eating Grandma's candy eating more!  :-) It was a fun evening...now tomorrow morning we've got to get up super early to head to Shanghai China!  Happy Halloween! 

Well we finished family pictures, then drove right up to the cabin for a quick last stay at the cabin before it is shut up for the winter.  It was sure cold up there, but was still a nice time to have Grandma Glasgow with us.  We stopped at Taco Bell on the way up, then enjoyed Lexine's breakfast burritos and sandwiches for lunch, then were on our way back home.  The kids being older are either too busy or want to spend with their friends rather than come with Mom & Dad to the cabin.  But we made the best of it...I suspect next summer it will start being much more fun with grandkids who will start to enjoy it!  Unless there are more on the way preventing their mom's from bringing them up!  ;-)

Family pictures this evening...it took us a little bit to find a place since the place we had planned was not longer free to park.  But it all worked out great and the grandkids loved playing in the dirt -- at least James did, Sadie is a little princess and doesn't like getting her hands dirty.  :-) We missed having Noah and Caleb with us, but would rather have them out serving their missions in Spokane Washington and Trujillo Peru. It was a lot of fun -- I sure like sharing this life with all these great kids!  Sure love you all...

I can't believe its been 24 years tomorrow since Cindy and I welcomed Porter into our family!  I remember the joyful, loving motherly look Cindy gave each of our kids right after they were born and placed in her arms.  Porter was a little bit of a surprise since we were not able to tell from the ultrasound if he was a boy or a girl!  But he's been a great son, brother and example to us all!  Its also his first birthday being married and I'm sure Amy spoiled him well with her great baking abilities -- I'm surprised the two of them are still as skinny as they are!  This year once again Porter wanted to go to Tia Rosa's for his birthday dinner, so we went the evening before his big day -- he loves the chips & Salsa as well as his steak dinner!  It was a nice visit & dinner for Lexine and I with them. So many great things going on for Porter right now...he's in high demand from multiple employers, he's finishing up his final year at ASU and he was just called as his ward clerk!  Good job Porter...we're sure proud of you!  I hope this was a wonderful birthday for you!

Bentley's birthday was actually earlier in the week and we had all planned to go out to dinner, but Sadie wasn't in the mood that evening, so Bentley chose to breakfast at the Olive Mill on Memorial Day instead.  Lexine and I hadn't been there before, so we were looking forward to trying it out!  It was a nice breakfast with great food and a nice time to visit -- it was particularly quiet since it was a holiday and we were there around 9am.  I got the Potatoes, Eggs and Bacon plate and didn't realize Sadie is quite the Bacon-eater and ate most of mine!  It was an awesome morning together with our kids & grandkids.  Happy late birthday Bentley -- you're a wonderful daughter and excellent wife & mother!  We hope it's been a great birthday week for you...

This evening we spent with the Porter side of the family celebrating Grandpa Porter's 80th birthday!  It was a wonderful evening of great mexican food, visiting, hearing about his life and watching him open his presents & blow out his candles!  Its hard to believe I've know him for 32 of those years and have seen the great example of a father that he's been.  Cindy sure loved her parents and was always thinking of them...perhaps that's why she got 4 wonderful kids who always loved and respected her so much.  Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa Porter...we sure love you!

Garrett has enjoyed the past several weeks of summer, but started back at school today!  He's got 17 credit hours, so he's cranking through the classes making progress at his degree!  I was privileged to give him a back-to-school blessing yesterday afternoon as well.  He works almost 20 hours each week at USbank as a teller there as well...so he's busy, but always manages to find time to spend with Bailey and even his niece Sadie who sometimes loves to climb on top of him to watch a show.  Good job buddy...have a great semester! 

Amy received a new calling at church as the Primary Pianist, so she needed a piano to start practicing!  So she and Porter set out looking on Craigslist and anywhere to see what they could find.  As optimism and faith would have it, they found someone willing to give away one for free to anyone who would put good use to it -- and come pick it up!  :-) So they called to see if Garrett, Jonah and us could come help them get it for family night.  It was a heavy one!  But with the help of the original owner to load it and with Porter's Elder's quorum president to help us unload it, we all made it happen!  It looks great and will be a wonderful blessing to them for years to come since they are both musically inclined -- which I suspect their kids will be as well.  Way to make things happen!  ;-)

Bentley & Cal bought their first home recently and we all jumped in to help them move in!  Its going to be a wonderful house, much closer than they have been and a great location nearby the school where Sadie and probably many more of their kids will attend.  Congratulation guys!  Only 30 years of payments left!  :-)

BYU-Idaho goes year round with 4 semesters per year, which Maizey has been on the Winter/Summer schedule, so we got to welcome her home today for about 6 months before she starts back up again!  She drove all by herself from Provo to home -- with us watching her progress closely on our phones!  She stopped by Bentley & Cal's place on the way back -- mostly to see Sadie than them I think ;-) -- then we got to see her around 7pm this evening.  It's wonderful to have her back home again, although next year she says she's going to go the full year to finish -- sounds like a wonderful goal to me!  Welcome home Maizey!

Spring has sprung, Fall has fell, now its Summer and its hotter than anything!  :-) But that also means its once again time for School to start and Jonah is bringing up the tail of our family as he starts his Senior Year at Queen Creek High School -- Whoohoo!  Hard to believe where the time has gone and that in another year he too could be out in the mission field -- three of our young men all out at the same time.  Jonah is a little nervous going back since he hung around Caleb and all his senior friends who are now gone, but he had a talent for making new ones fast, so I'm sure he'll have plenty soon enough.  ;-)  Make this your best year yet Jonah...go class of 2020!

With all the chaos that goes along with a large family and busy job, Lexine and I finally took a moment on this holiday weekend to visit the cemetery and the graves of Cindy & Rod to remember my 28th anniversary with Cindy, and today marks the 12th anniversary of Rod passing away.  We were lucky because we got to the cemetery just as they were closing the gates, so it was a quick but nice visit to honor and remember them. 

We had the privilege of going to dinner with Cal & Bentley and Sadie this evening at Texas Roadhouse to Celebrate the upcoming birthday of this fine son-in-law, great husband and father we've been blessed to add into our family.  It was a nice evening to visit and Cal was even a good sport when the waiters came to sing to him and wanted him to sit on "the saddle" -- which he let Sadie do! :-) We hope you have a wonderful birthday in couple days! 

Lexine's eye started hurting the week we went on our cruise for Caleb leaving, but she thought not much about it until it started hurting more and more and becoming hard to see out of it.  So she started taking prednisone as she did once before when this happened, but when nothing changed, she figured she better get to an eye doctor.  Usually we could go see Uncle Kirk Reed for this, but he was out of town for the week, so we saw our old friend and ward member Darren Elg who is Kirk's partner.  He looked at it and saw that she had canker sore like legions on the cornea of her eye which looked like they had left scaring which was why everything was blurry out of it.  He prescribed some thing for her to take and is sending her to Mayo for further consultation.  He said not many years ago people would just slowly go blind from things like this, but now they have anti-viral medicines to help stop and prevent further damage.  Getting old is fun -- soon I think with all the health issues Lexine and I have had, hopefully the parts of each other which are healthy will make up one functional person! :-) I guess that's what marriage is all about... ;-)

After saying our goodbyes yesterday, we all just wanted to know that Caleb made it there safely and how the trip went.  We received this nice little note from Caleb this morning...sounds like he's off to a great start of his mission and enjoying it!

This morning we awoke quite early, 4:00am to be exact, so we could leave to the airport by 4:30am.  The day was finally here for Caleb to leave on his two year mission!  We hadn't expected to be up this early until the day before.  Originally Caleb was supposed to fly out at 10:20am, but when I questioned the Missionary Travel Dept about what he does if he missed his Peru flight with only 40 min between flights, they promptly changed his flight to this earlier one.  So we were up early and before you knew it we were at the airport getting him checked in and then for a short wait for friends and family who wanted to see him off.  We all talked and visited until about 6:15am when it was time to start saying goodbyes.  Lots of hugs and pictures, then we waved him off -- he gave us a salute and I gave him a thumbs up!  It was funny because it was a Tuesday, he was the only missionary leaving and was all by himself...then as he walked into security, wouldn't you know it, about 20 missionaries going home from one of the Arizona missions all walked up right behind him.  We could see him happy and talking with them as he made his way through security...and then he was off.  Confident and happy...excited for this big two year adventure that he's seen so many of his brothers and sisters already do!  We're love you and are going to miss you...especially all your friends over all the time!  But we'll see you again in two year -- it will go by quick!