Reunion Pictures from Ramona and Blake

I missed Becca's call for pics, but here's a link to the reunion photos taken by Blake and me.

http://gallery.me.com/bookwoman98#100318

Just cut and paste the address and it should take you to the reunion album. Options at the bottom allow you to view the pictures in a grid, mosaic, carousel, or slideshow format. Also, note that there are three pages to the album.

I hope this works. It would have been better if I had met Becca's deadline, but things are a bit crazy here.

Mona

Scifres Reunion

Click here to view these pictures larger

Post Reunion

Does anyone use this anymore. I'm thinking no since no one has posted about our reunion. Well, regardless our family had a wonderful time and enjoyed seeing everyone there. I know we are sold on AmericInn. Hopefully our kids weren't too disruptive.

Everything was great, thank you Karl and Kathy for all your hard work in putting things together for us. One quick note about our availability for the next reunion. I was mistaken, our kids will no longer be on a year 'round schedule. This year, for example, they start around Aug. 13th. That gives us a bigger time window to use.

I'm grateful that my 3 children were able to meet and spend time with their cousins and other family. To this day I cherish the memories I have when I was younger of time spent with family. It was a great anchor for me and motivated me to be a better person. (Picture of kids was taken at Epcot this past June.)

Update on the Texas Johansons

Hi everyone! I hope all is well for everyone! Congratulations Sara on your engagement! We wish that we could come for your wedding, but being in grad school we do not have the time off. We hope you have a beautiful day and we will be thinking of you!
We have had a lot of fun things happening this past month, but I don't really have time to write them all down again so please visit our blog at http://beccamikey2002.blogspot.com for lots of fun pictures and an update on us.
WE love you all!
Love,
Becca, Michael, Aaron, Nathan and Rachelle

It's official!!

As I'm sure most of you already know, I'm getting married this summer! But it became official this Saturday when Will asked me to marry him. We went up to Kaysville to spend conference weekend with his family. After the afternoon session on Saturday we went for a walk - he took me to a beautiful area near his house that is part of the Utah botanical gardens. We sat and talked for quite awhile and then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes! (suprise suprise) He's pretty sneaky - I guess he showed my mom the ring on Friday night while she was visiting - I had no idea. He's an amazing man and I'm excited for all of you to meet him. Save the date - we're getting married in the Seattle temple on August 8th! This is a picture of the two of us in his parent's backyard. I know I'm squinting - we were facing the sun. Oh well.

Ramona with Kirby Larson, author of Hattie Big Sky

On Saturday March 7, Lance and I attended Literary Lions, a gala for the King County Library System. They have Northwest authors who rotate among the tables for the salad, main course and dessert portions of the meal. When I saw the list of authors, I wanted to have the author of Hattie Big Sky (2007 Newbery Honor book) visit our table. Since there were approximately 30 authors, I knew there was a slim chance that she would visit our table. Imagine my surprise when I looked across the table and saw that she was our visiting author for the first course of the evening! It was fun to visit with her and talk about historical fiction, genre focus for the 2nd trimester in my classroom.

We Grow 'Em Big in Oklahoma . . .

Last weekend, James was home for the weekend. Shawnee went to Memphis with her Mom to see her sister. So, James said he wanted to come home for the weekend, so we could spoil him like we do Kara (It sounds like Kara's been talking). Anyway, we had a great weekend with him and enjoyed getting to "spoil" him -- although he's not nearly as easy to spoil as Kara. When we tried to buy him things, unlike his Sister, he'd say no he didn't need it or whatever.

So for lunch on Saturday we took him to Roseanna's Italian Restaurant. After a little coaxing from his Mom and I, he ordered Lamb Fries. This one was so big that he took a picture of it with his cell phone. So, I thought I'd share the photo with you.

Yep, we grow our bulls really big in Oklahoma!!!

Happy February everyone!

Well, Kara's told you all about my recent honor. I thought I'd share this closeup of my award with you. It does look really nice on my desk at work.

Needless to say, it was an exciting evening. I was really perplexed when James, Shawnee, and Kara showed up at the Chamber Banquet. They told me some story about being in Tulsa and just deciding to run on down to McAlester and see us.

Of course, after the evening was over, I was so glad that they could be here and share in this event.

I have lots of really nice compliments since that evening, but one of the best occurred last Monday evening. Kathy and I went to the Boys & Girls Club to see Devin Chin play basketball. (Devin is the chinese boy that our friends Buddy and Jeneice are raising. He's 6 years old) When we got to the game, it had already started, so we sat down and began watching the game. Well, as soon as Devin saw us, he ran over to the edge of the court, pointed at me and said, "Man of the Year". I told everyone that he really made my day.

Kara mentioned the video that I recorded. It was used to announce that I was the winner. I'm getting a copy of it, so I'll share with all of you at the Reunion. You know, kind of like home movies.

It's been a busy month (as they all are -- it seems.) Kathy and I are already looking forward to Spring Break in just two weeks. Maybe I can get caught up on some of my paperwork. Well, it's getting late and I want to get this posted before midnight, so I can have it submitted in the month of February. We love you all and hope everyone is doing ok. Have a great March!

Hey! This is Kara! We had such an exciting thing happen a couple weeks ago and I thought I'd share it on the blog.

About a month ago, I got a text message from my mom and she said to hurry and call her because she had some exciting news about dad she wanted to tell me. As soon as I got out of class, because my curiousity was killing me, I gave her a call. She told me that Dad had been selected as McAlester's Man of the Year. It's too bad I didn't wait to call her when I got to my car, because my immediate reaction was bursting into tears. I was so, so proud of him and couldn't wait to be part of the surprise. (She went on to tell me that he wasn't going to know until the banquet so I had to keep it a secret for a little while.)

James, Shawnee and I drove down the day of the banquet to surprise Dad, then watch him be surprised again when he received the honor. When we got to the banquet, we were quickly met at the door by people hurrying us along and hiding us and telling us that he could not see us just yet. So we hid out in the hallway for about 45 minutes. When we walked into the banquet as Mom and Dad were sitting down the look on my Dad's face when he saw his three kids was priceless. (And a little teary-eyed.) I thought, uh-oh, wait until he finds out he's been selected as Man of the Year.

The Banquet was the McAlester Chamber of Commerce banquet. They gave out four awards that night. Each award was announced by showing a video of the winner talking a little about themselves, what they are involved in, and why they love McAlester. When Dad saw the second video, he knew something was up because he had been interviewed and asked the same questions. He was excited and his video was great! He started it off by talking about Mom and his kiddos. Then he talked about all the different things he's involved in in McAlester. Then he talked about his pride and love for McAlester-and boy does he love it!

It was a fantastic evening! James, Shawnee, and I are so glad we were able to drive down for a short little trip and be part of Dad's special evening. I knew my dad was Man of the Year, without him getting a beautiful plaque to remind us. When we got in the car, I said "Wow, Dad, you were involved in so much last year -and you took really good care of your injured daughter on top of everything else!" See, I already knew he was Man of the Year. But it was awesome that he was recognized for all of the time and service he gives to our community!

I guess while I'm here I can talk a little bit about myself. I'm doing great! I'm really busy with school but I remind myself how nice it is to be busy in contrast with life last semester. I have had a fun year so far. I'm taking a Children's Literacy class and I tutor a student once a week in reading for that. I'm also taking a primary math class - I am learning about teaching mathematics to the primary grades. I'm also taking a visual art class. Besides learning about teaching art to children, we have a lab once a week where we actually are learning drawing and how to paint with watercolors and more. It's a great place to relax and let some of my creativity come out. I enjoy that class. My favorite class is my Middle Level class- we observe a classroom in a middle school once a week. I am really enjoying this class because I am wanting to teach middle school. Ask me again at the end of the semester! I went to the middle school dance for extra credit a couple weeks ago, and a fight almost broke out on my watch. Yikes! I'm also taking a geometry class. If all continues to work as planned-I know life does not always agree with plans-I will graduate May of next year with my degree in Elementary Education. I am so excited about the coming year and finishing my college career.

In between school, work, and church I try to save time to have a little fun, play a few board games, or see a movie every now and then. I work in the Interlibrary Services office at the OSU library. I have worked here for two years. This semester at work we decided to have a weight loss challenge. I joined-hoping to have some good motivation to work off a few extra pounds as a result of my accident last semester. My school newspaper ended up doing a story about our weight loss challenge and my picture, along with three coworkers, made the front page. Talk about putting myself out there! I never thought I would make the front page of the paper- and especially not for wanting to lose weight! But it's been fun. A few early mornings a week at the gym, some sessions with a trainer, and eating better is already showing some results! I feel better too. Even though I have been healed for four months now, I have still felt very weak and old-lady like for the past few months. Working out has changed everything and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again.

Looking forward to spring break in a couple weeks and some warmer weather to start creeping its way into Oklahoma! Hope all is well with you all! I'm also counting down the days to the reunion!

Love you all!
Kara

Good day everyone. Welcome Aunt Jan, it was good to read your blog. The Beechgrovians are doing well. We took our first out of town trip in about 6 years last week. We went to Oxford Mississippi to visit some friends, the Lifferths. It was about a 6 hour trip. About 100 miles were spent on the Natchez Trace. It is a beautiful drive. For the first time in my life I really took the time to enjoy the drive. I think it is a symptom of getting older. I'll have to see the doctor about that. Of course that visit will be my first visit to a doctor in about 6 years. But I digress... In Oxford we visited Henry David Thoreau's home, took a tour of the Ole Miss campus, and hiked around a beautiful lake.

Other McKee news; Sarah was baptized two weeks ago. We had a very nice meeting for her. Papa spoke on the Holy Ghost and Grandma (Jenny's mom) spoke on baptism.

Sam is playing his first season of basketball with the YMCA league. He loves it. He is doing great at school.

Erin has been working hard to save up money for her 6th grade trip to Fall Creek Falls. They have a 3 day trip planned the end of May. The next week we are going to Disneyland. She is doing extra cleaning around the house to save up. Erin has many talents. One of these days, I'm going to post a book that she wrote. She did pictures and all. Her latest work has been a comic strip type story. She uses pictures to depict a conversation two girls are having.

Jenny is doing great. My work is as busy as it's ever been. Ever since the beginning of the year I have been busier than at any other time. We are in the beginning stages of being purchased by another company. I don't foresee any layoffs for me or my teams as a result. If anything, I think things will be better.

Until next time...

I think most of you heard about our Logandale Chapel burning down. It's a total loss and was a very sad day in the valley. It was the first LDS building here. We had 3 units meeting there, and have been reassigned to 3 different buildings. We have been assigned to the stake center. After Sacrament meeting, then the first hour of primary our first week there, we were going to leave to go to a cousins homecoming report at another building. When I found Whitney, she said, "Mommy, where's Daddy? I can't find him." She seems to think he should still be in the building since that is the last place she saw his body. So it will be interesting to meet in that building for awhile.

Some of you have seen this pic of my first denim rag quilt. For those of you who haven't, this is a project I've been working on for the kids since summer. This one is Jessica's. Haydn's is almost done. His is not a rag quilt, but will just be a tied quilt. He is VERY excited to have me finish it, so I've been working on it today. The cool thing about all of the quilts is all of the denim is from Scott's jeans. I've been saving his jeans since we got married! The kids knew I was going to make a quilt from his jeans, and saw me cutting and sewing. I had to be sneaky so they wouldn't figure it out. Christmas Eve, after we opened our pajamas, I had a box wrapped and marked 'girls' and one 'boys'. Inside was what I had so far of Jessica's and Haydn's, both about half completed. I told them everyone, including me, is going to have our very own quilt. The other side is flannel with blue and gold (Moapa Valley High School colors), pirate (MVHS mascot) designs, and BYU designs. I figured the back should be some of Scott's favorite things. I also cut up one of his referee shirts and everyone will have a square of that in their quilt.

Anyway, I have had alot of fun. Last fall, some girls in our ward started a quilting class. I made matching quilts for Amy and Whitney. I have never done anything like that before, and I had sooo much fun. It also made me think alot of Grandma while I was doing it.

As far as our news, alot of the same. Jessica's and Jeremy's basketball games keep me running. I haven't gone to alot of Jeremy's away games. The coach pretty much plays the 8th graders, and will put Jeremy and the other 7th graders in if we are either winning or losing by alot. So I haven't gotten to see him play very much. He is kind of frustrated to just sit, he's never had to do that before! Now he is seeing why Haydn and I told him last year that his concussion keeping him from trying out for the team was a blessing in a way. Jessica's doing well in her ball games. League tournament is this week, Thursday and Saturday in Vegas. If they do well, I think 1st or 2nd, they will go to the state tournament. Currently, they are 3rd in the league, and will play the 2nd place team, Boulder City. We beat them 2 weeks ago, so hope for a repeat of that. Haydn is enjoying his drivers license and can't wait until March 21st when the girl he likes turns 16. I enjoy him having his license, he is a big help with errands and things. Amy and Nathan have opted to not do any sports at all this year. I was a bit surprised when Nathan said no to baseball this year. We'll see if he misses it. I know being the smallest/shortest, esp in basketball wasn't fun last year. They are both great students in school. Whitney is just Whitney. She keeps me on my toes. She has enjoyed the quilts, too, clipping the thread for me! She 'quit' preschool, so just wants to constantly have someone over to play. She doesn't understand why mom sometimes would just like to have a break! I have done a little subbing here and there. I have had all the kids except for Nathan now. Well, I did have Nathan for music one day, for 45 minutes, so that doesn't count! I had Haydn a few weeks ago. He texted me the class before, and said all his friends were excited to have me as the sub! Yes, that made me feel really good! When I came out the door to go to the bathroom, Jessica was standing there waiting for me! She wasn't even upset or embarrassed when I had her class. They both come by my classroom to say hi when I am at the high school. Haydn will come to whatever school I am at and visit me. That has been fun.

Sorry this is getting long. Guess I am just making up for not contributing all those other months! But my goal was to get a picture on the next time, so I kept procrastinating. Now I know it is easy! Love you all...............Susan and the kids

It's official! An Oklahoma Reunion!

It's official. This will be the site for the 2009 Scifres Family Reunion for the 4th of July weekend The AmericInn of McAlester. I have reserved rooms for July 3-5 -- that's Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. It's the hotel where James worked before he moved to Stillwater. Go their website at www.americinn.com for more info.

We were able to get a rate of $89.90 per night. With taxes, the room for the three nights will be about $300. They have a great breakfast each morning that is free and a super indoor pool and jacuzzi. We think you'll be really pleased with the accomodations.

Of course, we'll have more details later. But, we hope you'll begin now to get excited about being together for three great days in Big Mac.

Our January has been fairly uneventful. We did enjoy a weekend in Stillwater in order to celebrate James' birthday. James and Shawnee cooked dinner for us. Kara made the birthday cake and I brought the ice cream. After dinner, we played Whoonuu. It's a great game and we enjoyed it so much that we went out and bought our own.

The last weekend of the month brought an icestorm to McAlester and much of the eastern half of the state. We were lucky that we missed the bullett -- Muskogee and Tahlequah and the area to the northeast of that part of the state took the brunt of the storm. We did get enough ice that our schools were out on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Kathy and I stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday and finally ventured out on Thursday afternoon. School was back in session by Friday and it's pretty much only a memory today as almost everything has now melted.

Well, that's all for right now. Hope everyone is doing great and looking forward to a great February. It's one of my faviorite months, because it includes my favorite holiday -- Valentine's Day. We love you all!

The Senior Okies -- Kathy and Karl

California Dreaming

This past weekend my friends and I piled into my car for a long road trip in search of warmer weather. (Provo's a bit icy this time of year and we were ready for a change). Aunt Kay was kind enough to take in five BYU students for three nights. We drove to Riverside on Friday night. Saturday we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of waffles with Aunt Kay, Uncle Ben, Katie and Wesley. We then took off for a day at the beach at Santa Monica Pier. It was lovely weather - warm enough to for the boys to swim in the ocean. Sunday we enjoyed going to church with Aunt Kay and better than that she feed us a lovely meal of chicken and rice, waldorf salad, rolls, green beans with almond slivers. YUM!!! We finished out the night with a game of Disney Scene It and watching Stardust. Monday we woke up early so we could get a little more beach time before heading back to the frozen tundra. It was a delightful trip and I'm so grateful for Aunt Kay opening her home to us. Thanks again! It was so much fun to be together.

Greetings to my "Udder Family"

It is my honor as Mona's 'udder sister', to have been invited to join the Scifres Scoop! I was stumped at first to come up with a name you would all recognize. Throughout our 40+ years of friendship, I have had several endearing names; Spaz, Aunt Jan, Udder Daughter, and others I care not to recall. But the one that will probably stick with me until Mona & Karl have no more memory would be "Janba". I'm sure the story would be a long, funny one, as to how we came up with this particular moniker. The short version is that a Bill Cosby character named Mushmouth was very hard to understand. But once you learned to put 'ba' at the end of each word, or even mixed in the middle of long words, it was pretty fun to speak in 'Mush-ba Mouth-ba'.

I have spent most of the past week in McAlester, tending to my mom. She fell 3 times on Thursday, had to have stitches in her hand and her face, and spent a few days in the hospital. However, she is home with me in Tulsa until she gets mended. I will keep an eye on her to see if it was really too much blood pressure medicine, or if she is just a "Spaz" like her daughter!!! It is time for her to go to assisted living, but it is going to be a very hard process, as is expected. If nothing more noteworthy happens before my next post, I'll tell you about the day she kept falling, and was helped by a man walking his dog.

To those of you "Senior Okies" - I ran into Dr. Thurman Schuller when I was 'home'. He was at Walgreen, walking down the aisle toward me. I wasn't sure it was him, so I said, "Dr. Schuller?" He turned with a smile and we had a very sweet exchange. He is 94 years old!!! Bet there are very few 54 year olds who can say they visited with their own pediatrician!

Hope you all have a wonderful 2009.

Love ya'll,
Jan Rodden Conway

Texas Trippin'

Howdy Y'all,
We had a wonderful time visiting Michael and family. Rachelle is such a beauty, and so soft as her brother Aaron was always saying. She looked so cute in her dress I made for the blessing. We had a nice time that day, with Becca's folks and also her cousin Adam, his wife and daughter who now live in Houston. It's nice that they have some family that close.

We had a nice time on Wednesday, for Michael's birthday, we went to Gattitown in College Station. It is a pizza buffet place with a large arcade area for the entertainment of little and big kids(including Michael). Then we went back to the house for homemade German Chocolate Cake and Bluebell ice cream!!! We bought Michael Disney's Scene It game, and the boys love playing it. Aaron is pretty sharp on it. Michael also received a new Barbeque Grill from Becca's folks, so on Saturday he insisted on grilling. The only problem was it was very windy and only in the low 50's(Friday had been about 80 degrees) so it was a real sight to see him out there barbequing in his coat with his hood up. It was very good though.

It was a really good visit and I enjoyed the drive to Austin yesterday since it was dark when we arrived in Austin and I couldn't see any of the scenery going to Bryan.
Kay and Ben

Our new addition