Last Blog Entry for 2010

It's a quiet New Year's Eve at the Behnke household.  No kids here this year.  Lance just got back this afternoon from a quick trip to KS for Jean Wyrill's funeral (Uncle Johnny's wife).   Uncle Johnny was Dorothy's brother.  He's still trying to get over a cold and exhausted from a plane trip on Wednesday, the funeral on Thursday, and a flight home today.
We had a great Christmas season.  Everyone arrived home on Saturday, Dec. 18.  Since I had school until Friday, Dec. 17th, the first thing Sara and Will did was help me decorate the house and put up the tree.  Then we could say, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  On Sunday we enjoyed our spectacular ward Christmas program and the chance to "munch and mingle" with ward members following Sacrament meeting.
On Tuesday evening we had a game night with the Larkins, our current mission president and his family,  (Allie, in 5th grade and Levi, in 8th grade).  Lance met us at the Picasso exhibit at the SAM (Seattle Art Museum) on Wednesday.  Sara had friends stop by for cookies and hot chocolate on Christmas Eve morning.  We enjoyed a lovely meal on Christmas Eve. 
On Christmas Day we had brunch with the Ormes and the missionaries.  Then we scurried off to an afternoon movie, one of our favorite Christmas traditions.  We saw The King's Speech and thoroughly enjoyed learning a bit more about this historical time period. 
The 27th arrived much too soon and it was time for Sara and Will to head back to Provo.  We enjoyed having Blake home for a few more days.  He and I did some Christmas returns.  I joined a friend from school to see the new Harry Potter movie and Lance, Blake, and I saw True Grit.  Blake got the great job of helping the family clean the church on Tuesday night.  Wednesday night Blake's friends Jon, Meghan and baby Emory stopped by for a visit and we ordered Thai food.  Blake and I watched Where the Wild Things Are before he left last night (Thursday) on the red eye back to D.C.  It was easier saying goodbye because I'll see him in February on my quick midwinter break trip to D.C.
On Sunday after Christmas the Behnke Boys (or should I say men? . . .  I like boys because of the alliteration with Behnke), grilled hamburgers for dinner and had baked beans and assorted side dishes.  I'm attaching a great photo of the three of them attired in kitchen aprons - a delightful sight!
I'm off to bed, having officially greeted the New Year on D.C. time when I received a text from Blake shortly after nine!
Happy New Year to all of you!  I hope to see you more often on the blog in 2011!
Love,

Behnke Boys and Burgers

Ramona and family

Fun Holiday Pictures!

Check out our pictures from our camping trip in October, Halloween, Thanksgiving at Uncle Karl's house, and pictures with Santa! Here is the URL that you can copy and paste into your browser:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=189606&id=1160254415&l=e3b47ca2f7

Quick Visit

Will and I were able to enjoy a quick visit from Mom last weekend. I picked her up from the airport Friday night and we enjoyed a fun night just us girls at a hotel in downtown SLC. Saturday morning we went to the Festival of Trees and shopped a Dillards (a must for Mom). In the afternoon Will met up with us for lunch and to go see Tangled - Disney's newest movie - it was fun. We ended the night with a visit to Temple Square to see the lights. It was beautiful and not too cold. All the pictures we took are on Mom's camera. We also managed to find my good friend Sloane, who's serving on Temple Square right now. Sunday, Mom came to church with us. I'm the primary president right now (we have 3 kids in primary) so she got to come to primary! Then we enjoyed a restful Sunday afternoon before getting Mom back to the airport. It was a quick trip, but fun. We're looking forward to being in Seattle next weekend!

An Okie Thanksgiving

We had fun time in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. The kids loved Kara. It was a nice break for Becca. Dinner was nice with Aunt Kathy, Uncle Karl, Kara, and Kara's Ganny.Uncle Karl taught us how to play moon, Grandpa's favorite game. Uncle Karl tried to shoot the moon, but Becca spoiled his plans. Karl won anyway with a little help from Aaron. I hope your Thanksgiving was as fun as ours.

Hunter Family

I've actually been meaning to post since the end of August, but I needed Wesley's help to get onto the blog, since it's through his email, and I could never remember to do it when he was home.

Most of you have proabaly already heard our news, but if you haven't, we're expecting our first baby at the end of March. We're very excited.

At the end of August we went to Idaho for Wesley's sister's wedding. She was married in the Idaho Falls temple, and we had a great time visiting with family while we were there. We flew into Salt Lake, and rented a car to drive up to Pocatello, where Wesley's parents live, but before that we spent a few days in Utah and visited with some friends and went to Temple Square.

A week after we got back, a grad student from Wesley's lab at UCR came out to visit us for a long weekend. We took him site-seeing in D.C. and it was fun to have him here.

That's about all going on here. for now

More Sayings from Daddy!

Yesterday when I was in the staff room, I looked at a colleague and stated,
"Another day, another dollar!"
This was definitely one of Dad's favorites.

And right on the heels of that one, out popped,
"Just a fit, just a fit, dollar two ninety-eight!"
I wonder what the origin of that saying is.

Just when I think we've used up all the quotes, along come some more I had totally forgotten!

Robert's Ramblings or Shaun's Stammerings

You pick the title.

Among the many memories:

1. I was lucky enough to go to the steak restaurant in front of the Benjamin Franklin store with Grandma and Grandpa. I ordered a salad with my meal and Grandpa said that "salad was for rabbits."
2. I was out just a couple of weekends ago trying to get my Troy-Bilt Horse tiller started. It wouldn't start and I was just thinking how I could use Grandpa's help.
3. I remember as a kid always being completely mesmerized by Grandpa's multiple tool sheds and work areas. It was an adventure to weave around the small buildings and look at the "ancient" tools.

Quick update on the family. Erin' artwork is once again available for purchase. She submits a Christmas themed piece of art once a year for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to be used for their fundraising efforts. You can take a look at http://www.vanderbiltchildrens.org/holidayproject. They have Christmas cards and even a cookie tin. The cookie tin is a little pricey especially with the shipping costs.

Our other quick bit of news is that Sarah has broken her hand. She injured her hand about a month ago during a soccer game. We thought it was a jammed finger, taped it for a few days and all was well. She was playing goalie during the last quarter of their last game of the season this past Saturday and as she dropped to get the soccer ball one of the girls from the opposing team kicked at the ball. Sarah's already hurt hand was between the other players charging foot and the ball. She has a fracture around her knuckles close to her growth plate. (I'm sure Jenny has a more official, fancy term for it.) So she will need to see an orthopedic surgeon to possibly have surgery. For now, she has a pretty pink cast.

Some More Favorite Ellis Sayings!

I was taking care of Hadley tonight . . . and remembered -
"What fer? Cat fur to make kitten britches!"

And how did I forget?
"You've been drinking muddy water!"
Anytime you stood between Dad and the TV.

I had another one in mind, but now I've forgotten it!

KARL'S MISC TEN

MEMORIES & QUOTES . . .

1. "What do you mean what kind of homemade ice cream are we going to have? There's only one kind -- banana." Tom asked the question and of course, Dad answered it. I believe this was said before this picture was taken. We had our ice cream down in Granny's front yard at 313 West Tyler -- just down the street from us.

2. "That's stealing!" said Dad when he saw me trying to peel a stamp off an envelope that hadn't been cancelled by the post office. He went on to say, "That stamp has already served it's purpose." Just one example of his honesty and integrity.

3. I don't remember Dad singing very much, but sometimes he'd sing on trips in the car. I'm sure he sang other songs, but the only one I can remember is the one about Casey Jones, the train engineer. Anyone else remember other songs that he sang?

4. "You're just throwing away your college education!" This is what Dad told me when I told him I was quitting teaching and going to work for Zale's Jewelry. However, he loved it when Zale's transferred me to McAlester as store manager. In fact, I think he even changed his mind about me throwing away my college education.

5. "My fingers are itching to stir up some dominoes. Want to come over and play some Moon?" He loved to play 3-handed Moon -- a domino game that could be played by 3 or 4 people.

6. "You've got it bad, don't you?" said Dad. -- When I told him on my afternoon off from Zale's that I was going up to Longtown to mow Kathy's yard. (This was the same son who always used the excuse that he couldn't mow because his hay fever was acting up, when Dad would mention mowing his yard when I lived at home.) Of course, this was while Kathy and I were dating (during our long courtship).

7. "What did you do to your hair?" asked Dad. -- Well I'd gotten a permanent and obviously, he didn't like it. In fact, he said that if I did that to my hair again, he'd dye his hair pink. I told him that he might ought to get him some pink dye, because I just might do it again!

Here's two more quotes that Ramona didn't have on her list . . .

8. "Cute as a speckled pup under a red wagon"

9. "I've had bigger scratches than that on my eyeball."

10. I asked Kathy if she had any memories of Dad. She said, "I liked him, but I didn't really get to know him that well. But I think I would have been his pet." She's probably right and she definitely would have been his favorite daughter-in-law.

10 Memories of Ellis Scifres (My Udder Fadder) 10/10/'10

1. His growly, gravely voice. I was afraid of that man for a long time.

2. Hearing that gravely voice turn to laughter when he’d tell the CORNIEST JOKES!

3. Wearing blue coveralls. My own dad wore them as soon as he retired. Must have been the retirement dress code for USNAD.

4. He was always working on something around the house or in the yard. Hammer, drill, wrench, shovel, or some kind of tool in skillful hands.

5. That old two-toned car of his -was it white and blue or green? The trunk opened up wide and flat and his garden tiller fit right inside.

6. He was the last man to till my Granny’s garden.

7. While Mona was in Hong Kong, I’d sometimes get to see BOTH sets of my ‘parents’ on weekends. I’d stop in McAlester on Sunday evenings on my way back to Tulsa. Many times I’d be urged to spend the night. They’d tell me Mona’s bed was ready for me, and it would be nice to have ‘their girl’ in the house again. He’d always tell me it was just as far back to Tulsa in the daylight as it was in the dark. And they’d get me up in plenty of time to make it back to work on time. Those visits did us all a world of good.

8. He’d always see that I had CORRECT CHANGE for the toll booth.

9. While Mona was on her mission, he called me one day LONG DISTANCE. He said if I’d go to the Fairgrounds and pick up 3 tickets, he’d pay my way to see the Ice Capades. We had a BLAST!!!

10. December 22, 1979 (wasn’t it?) Tulsa International Airport-walking down the concourse with my best friend and her parents, anxious to do 18 months worth of catching up. Can’t you just imagine the miles of smiles?

Udder Daughter,
Jan Rodden (Conway)

Top Ten

Will and I decided to go with Top Ten reasons we're excited about Portland. Just this week we made our final decision about where we're headed next year for PA school. Oregon Health Sciences in Portland won. Here's why we're excited:

1. Close to family - just a three hour drive for Mom to come visit! And only two hours up to Will's Grandpa.
   
2. Rain! I'm very excited to be headed back to the green Northwest. (Will is going to miss the snow, but I promised him we can come back and visit it)
   
3. OHSU - when I interviewed I loved the program and am so excited about getting started in June.
   
4. Powells - one of my favorite used bookstores
   
5. Public Transportation - between the MAX(the rail system), the streetcar and buses we hope to continue getting around with just one car.
   
6. A real job for Will - we're not sure with who, or what he will be doing - but we excited about it! ....we have dreams of Nike....but we'll see
7. Being able to visit the Oregon Coast - beautiful!
   
8. A new apartment - we've made a washer and a dryer a priority - we can do without a dishwasher, but I'm so excited to be able to throw my laundry in when I leave the house in the morning.
9. No sales tax in Oregon - feel free to come visit and go shopping!
   
10. Voodoo Donuts! We haven't been but we've heard it's quite the adventure - we're planning a quick trip down to Portland in December and this is on our list.
    

Nathan's 10 favorite things

1.Watch "Fetch with Ruff Ruffman"
2.Play with cousins
3.Play games with pretend Jeremy
4.Play with friends at preschool and primary
5.Have friends over to play
6.Eat Pizza
7.Do lots of projects
8.Go to the Temple
9.Go to Jack in the Box(AKA Jack's Place)
10.Go to Oklahoma

Aaron's 10 Favorite things to do

1.Play basketball
2.Play Wii
3.Play Frisbee
4.Play tag
5.Watch movies
6.Watch "Fetch with Ruff Ruffman"
7.Read Magic Tree House books
8.Play T-ball
9.Play with cousins
10.Play games on the Smart board at school

10 places that remind me of Grandpa

1.Disneyland
2.The Queen Mary
3.Luxemburg
4.McAlester
5.March Air Force Base
(Formerly Known as March Field)
6.Ada
8.Germany
9.Statue of Liberty
10.The back Family Room at Grandma's house

"10's"

1. 1953 Christmas-New Mexico to see Dad's brothers(my first trip over a state line)

2. 1963 Camping trip to Robber's Cave.(only one I ever went on)

3. 1966 New Mexico and Carlsbad Caverns also Devil's Den (near Tishimingo, OK)

4. 1973 My first trip to California and seeing an ocean.

5. 1973 Dad pulled a trailer to BYU to move me home after graduation.

6. 1977 Ben I went to Hawaii.

7. Dad's trip to see us by car stopping off at the Grand Canyon and London Bridge.

8. 1982 Washington DC (for Mona's wedding)

9. 1984 Went to Yellowstone National Park

10. 1989 To Tennesse for Susan's Wedding. Seeing Great Smoky Mountains with Mom and my family (best part Cades'Cove)

10/10/10 - A Day Dad Would Love!

Daddy loved numbers and I think he would be excited by 10/10/10.

So in honor of him, here's my list of favorite sayings quoted by Dad & remembered by me:

1. Sharp as a tack and twice as flat headed!

2. I kicked the bottom out of the cradle laughing when I heard that one.

3. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

4. When you're out of bananas, you're out of groceries!

5. If I had a swing like that, I'd paint it red and put it in my backyard!

6. I like red, I don't care what color it is!

7. Can't never did anything.

8. My dogs are barking!

9. Those cookies had a moreish taste!

10. You find time to do the things you want to do!

Now your challenge is to post any list of ten in honor of a day Dad would love. It could be your favorite foods, books, movies, TV shows, colors, scriptures, stories, songs, recipes, days, memories, or places. Let's see how many posts we can get on the blog for 10/10/10. Even the little kids could contribute!

Food Drive for MI Food Pantry

The top photo shows some of the food collected by our ward and the bottom photo is the food I collected. This was a stake service opportunity for Day of Remembrance on 9/11. The expectation was for us to leave flyers on doorknobs of 40 households. Time was limited since it was my third week of school. However, I felt it was important to doorbell and explain the project in person. I was only able to leave flyers at 20 doors. However, on Saturday I collected a trunk full of donations (see above picture) - 5 from people on our lane who already knew me, but 5 from people I spoke with but had never met before. I saved flyers to share if any of you are interested in the project for your area. I loved doing this because it shows LDS folks doing service to benefit the local community. Our food pantry here on MI received enough donations to stock their shelves for three months from our ward's contributions.

What up?

Hello everyone! The McKee's in Beechgrove are still kickin'. Some of them literally. Sarah is well into her soccer season. She has a wonderful time running around and scoring goals. School is going well for all three. Erin is in her first year of being home schooled. That seems to be going well with lots of opportunities to learn and grow. The reading bug has really bitten her. Erin has always loved to read, but recently she has really been filling knocking them down. She is currently on the second book ,Ice Fire, of a series written by Chris D'Lacey. She has also read the first book in the Pendragon series as well as a few other books. All of these over just the past 4 or 5 weeks.

Sam and Sarah are at Northfield, which is where Danny, Zach and Tim went. We didn't hold that against them. (Notice the intentional use of the vague pronoun.) Sam is really hitting his stride with school. While he isn't completely into it, his grades are as good as ever with all A's and B's. Sarah is also becoming an avid reader. She used to take the easy route with her reading assignments. She just started the Dead End series and seems to really enjoy it.

Jenny has a deep passion for Greek Mythology and is currently holding home-school sessions with Erin and another home-schooler once a week. I think she plans on doing this for about 2 months. They will be visiting the Parthenon in Nashville. Nashville is a sister city to Athens and has a full sized replica of the Parthenon.

Last month Jenny, Erin and I took a road trip to Washington, D.C. We had a wonderful time. I had never been there before. My favorite museum was the National Archives. They had several learning stations that gave you the feeling that you were doing research to discover some little known fact about various points in history. Seeing the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and other historical documents was incredible.

We also attended the Restoring Honor rally. (I know all of you socialist are deeply disappointed in us. ;-)) We left Beechgrove Friday evening around 5pm and drove through the night. We arrived in DC at 5am thinking we would have our pick of spots to sit. I ended up dropping Jenny and Erin off at the Lincoln Memorial at about 5:30am and they couldn't get any closer than about 100 yards from the stage. I parked at the Arlington National Cemetery and hiked back to where Jenny and Erin were seated. We stayed the night Saturday night, did more sight-seeing on Sunday and drove back that evening. (Another all-nighter for me.) It took me a few days to get back to a normal sleeping pattern.

Passey Family Update

August seemed to fly by! Our last month of summer before Will started back at BYU was really fun. We started the month with a visit to Seattle to stay with Mom and Dad and Blake. While there we were able to go to the temple with Mom, enjoy Pike Place market with Dad and introduce the whole family to one of our favorite new games - the bean game. Thanks for a wonderful relaxing weekend.

The rest of August was crazy - Will manages both of the Jamba Juices on campus and their busiest week of the year is education week. He was busy preparing, surviving and recovering from that most of the rest of the month! Add training new employees and making the final fall schedule and that pretty much sums it all up. I'm still working at Nexus Pain Care. It's been a little crazy there too as we adjust to everyone's fall schedules, but we're getting a new fellow this next week so that will be exciting. I've also started working 4 ten hour days so I can have Fridays off - which allows me to do stuff like write on the blog in the PJs at 9:00! (normally I'm at work by 7am)

Will and I are very excited about BYU football! First game is this Saturday against UW here in Provo - we'll be there! We're also exciting about BYU going independent and their 8 year deal with ESPN - that means we can continue to watch the cougars play as we leave UT for PA school.

Speaking of PA school I've got a number of interviews lined up at different schools. We'll keep you posted on where we end up! Love you all!

Hi everyone. Well, Aaron started the first grade last month. He's trying to get used to the rigors of not being in kindergarten anymore, but he enjoys it so far. Nathan is starting preschool with Becca and some other families in the ward. He told me all about it after his first day on Tuesday.

Last Friday Becca had an ultrasound and we found out that will be having another boy in February. A Texas Ranger to add to my California Forty-niners. I was hoping for another Texas Bluebonnet. I guess we'll get the boys out of the way while we're young.

Instructions to post: Go to blogspot.com and sign in with your email. If you forgot your pass word you can easily reset it. It should then give you the option to post on the blog.

Wild and Crazy Summer!

I can't believe that school is starting! Where did the summer go? I have to admit that it was a fun-filled summer at the Behnke house and we didn't let any moss grow under our feet. I attended a four day writer's workshop the week after school was out. Kara and Jan (Rodden) Conway flew in to help me make the move to a new classroom. We managed an afternoon of fun in the sun, but worked hard most of the time. We even got most of the boxes from last winter's (February & March) remodel moved back into the house. I attended a one day workshop in Tacoma, and Kara had a phone interview from Boise that day. Next summer Kara and I plan to do a workshop together!
The next stop found the Behnke Bunch in New York City. It was our first trip with Will. We enjoyed all the familiar tourist sites, visited several museums, saw some plays and took the ferry to Ellis Island (where we discovered the ship's manifest for Lance's grandmother and family who emigrated from Germany). We had pizza at Grimaldi's with Blake's friend Larson and his wife, ate dinner in little Italy, and enjoyed a visit to Magnolia's Bakery. You gotta love the food and the sites in NYC!
Lance and I actually spent a week at home before Blake came home from Provo for a busy three weeks before heading off to law school. We went to KS where Lance attended his 40th high school reunion and we enjoyed good times with family. Blake hadn't been to KS for quite a few years. Lance went from KS to Houston and Blake and I returned to Seattle. Sara and Will joined us for almost a week. We celebrated their 1st and our 28th anniversary at Daniel's Broiler where Sara and Will's reception was held last year. I enjoyed a trip with Sara and Will to visit his grandfather and Ann in Shelton and his Aunt Liz and Steve in Pouslbo.
Then we had a busy few days getting Blake ready to head to GW (George Washington) Law School in DC. Blake was very organized and even managed to get all his stuff in the five bags we checked! We had fun getting around his part of DC - locating IKEA, Costco, and the nearest Safeway to his new apt. We enjoyed putting things away in his kitchen even though Blake is still learning his own way around the cabinets and wondering where the heck did we put his dishes and utensils! The joys of meddling parents! All too soon (much to Blake's relief),we had to leave him in his new environment and head back to Seattle. These two Washingtons are too far apart!
When we got home on the 18th it was time to buckle down and get ready for the opening of school. The students come this Tuesday, Aug. 31. Lance headed back to Houston today for his first trip there in a month.
Lance and I did see a good movie on Saturday, Get Low. It stars Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Bill Murray (they are all getting older)! I hope you get to see it when it comes to your theater.
Have a great September. I hope to see more of you on the blog!
Love,
Ramona & Lance

The Long Awaited Post

Here is our opportunity to revive the blog. I'll be sending emails inviting everyone to view and or post on the blog once a month.

We've had a busy month with Nana and Papa Johanson visiting at the beginning of July. We spent the 4th of July watching fireworks at the George Bush Library. Nathan is really fun to watch fireworks with. He says ooh, aahh, and , my favorite, Ohh Yeah.

Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma West arrived on the 21st. We all went to a 24th of July Primary activity where Becca taught the kids Square Dancing. We also took a trip to the temple yesterday and Grandpa and the boys and I went to a Brazos Valley Bombers Baseball game.

We also have some exciting news. Becca is pregnant with our 4th, which we will be expecting at the beginning of February.