Kelly Lewis

I wanted to introduce you to someone I am finally getting to meet. This is my biological grandfather, Kelly Lewis. Kelly died in 1997 so I never met him in this life, but last month I made contact with his widow, Catherine, and his younger sister, Ethel. Both have been very generous with their time in fielding my questions. These pictures were supplied by Catherine. Picture number one is a picture of Catherine and Kelly before he died.Picture 3 is a picture of a younger Kelly Lewis. Kelly served in World War II as a Paratrooper in the Pacific Theater. Catherine told me later in his career Kelly jumped from an aircraft and his chutes didn't open. He blew out both knees when he landed. He was told he would never walk again, but he did. Kelly was an avid bowler. I have a score card supplied to me which apparently was one of his best ever, I'm guessing that since it is lamented. He scored 624 in three games on FEB 1, 1972.
I am so grateful I was able to write a letter to Catherine and make contact with her. We are the lost family they had no idea existed. Kelly and my grandmother were divorced when my father was two years old. They have not heard from our family since as my grandmother was very hurt by what happened. I am in the process of writing a family history for them to catch them up on what this lost branch has been up to.

Youth Conference

We had a great time at Youth Conference and are glad we ended up helping with it. Originally we said "No" because it was a 3 day time commitment and we didn't know what we'd do with Benjamin during it, but they had asked 33 couples, and before us only 4 had agreed to do it. They were hoping to have 8-10 couples. Ryan ended up working three 11 hour days and 7 hours on Friday morning while the kids were at Habitat for Humanity and Ryan's mom also took off from work. We couldn't have done it without her. I was definitely having Benjamin withdrawal after being away from him for 28 hours straight (Friday afternoon to Saturday evening... not to mention all day/evening Thursday). It was his first sleepover and he had a great time. He is definitely one well adjusted kid because I seemed to miss him a lot more than he did me!

We were the "Mission President and Wife" for the Kyiv, Ukraine mission. We had a great group of kids. Their spirituality and strength was inspiring to me. All of our kids seemed to have a great time and we were the only mission where everyone (including me) bore their testimonies. I can't tell if it's just because I'm pregnant or I was really touched by the spirit because I got choked up a lot. The Stake Young Women's Presidency gave us a great surprise at the end of the conference by framing the above 8x10 photo in a mat with all the kids' signatures.
This was Monday evening at the Kanesville Tabernacle. Our group was passing out lemonade before the "Come Home to Kanesville" Performance.

This was our skit. We taught the kids the song "Called to Serve" in Russian. Two of the kids acted like missionaries "contacting" Ukrainians.
Ryan was dressed up like the Ukrainian Neo. It would have been cool to have coordinated the kids in the audience throwing globe beach balls at him (they were the center pieces) like bullets in "The Matrix" (We own the edited version).

This is Friday evening. Ryan is playing "Stick Pull" with the Dominican Republic "Mission President".

As you can see, Ryan is flying through the air.

The kids were getting restless! Ryan filmed them and an unnamed adult taking a handcart through the drive-thru at Taco Bell. Ryan would have been the one in the handcart except I'm much more reserved than I used to be and way more reserved than he is. I.e. I convinced him it would be a bad idea. The manager at Taco Bell wasn't amused and said that because the handcart didn't have a motor they were considered pedestrians... No motor, no drive-thru service. The video is posted on Youtube.com and has been viewed 225+ times in the last 5 days.

Day Out with Thomas

While Ryan and I were at Youth Conference last Saturday, Ryan's mom took Benjamin to "Day Out with Thomas" in Fremont, NE. Diane, if I get any of these descriptions wrong, please correct me.

Benjamin looks pretty excited to see Thomas.

He picked a window seat for his 30 minute train ride. Benjamin is holding Max and Monty the Dump Trucks. Thanks Gram!!!!
Here he is playing with Max and Monty in the gravel.Benjamin said "Hi Thomas!" every time he came around the track, but he wouldn't say "Hi!" to James.
Benjamin had a great day with Thomas and is still talking about it.

6 Years of Marital Bliss

This picture is really funny to me. We really have been married a long time that we could pose for a photo and I not know what Ryan is doing behind me and have the exact same look on my face. Craziness.

We've had a really good anniversary today, but have been busier than busy (or as Ryan would say "Busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest"... We have been married a LONG time to be quoting him like that).

As far as our busy day goes, we are "Mission President and Wife" for youth conference next week and had a logistics meeting this morning. Then it was Greek cuisine for lunch. I would have preferred a nice restaurant and not "King Kong's", but time didn't allow. The Post Office was next to continue adding to Ryan's "Ebay commercial empire".

It was only 1200 at this point and we headed to a sealing session at the temple, which I like to do as a tradition on our anniversary, but this year is the 1st one in the last four years we've been able to get to... Ryan was in Afghanistan last year, we were in San Antonio without a babysitter and a 6 week old baby the year before, and Ryan was at Army OBC the year before that. It's good to be together this year. Hopefully, our odds will get better and we'll be co-located more often than we're apart because right now we're at 50/50.

After the temple we went to the church bookstore and Ryan bought some really... ummm... bad isn't the right word... just not my kind of LDS music (or "Not Your Mother's LDS Music" to be exact) as his anniversary gift. We're so romantic (slight sarcasm); we didn't even give each other anniversary cards (or surprise gifts). This gets even more romantic (slightly more sarcasm)... we then went to Wal-mart for my gift: A new pillow with more loft than my old one. I am so enamored with it that I wish I could have tried it out right when we got home, but alas, there was no time for a nap.

After Wal-mart, we went to Michaels to use a 40% off coupon for a Thomas the Train Set for Benjamin for Christmas. It's hard to get anything past him because he's so observant so it's best to run errands like that when he's not around. (He was really upset last week at Target when Red the Fire Engine didn't make it onto the belt at check out).

We went to Gram and Gramp's to pick up "the spud" and he was asleep taking a nap. I must be too loud because he woke up within minutes of our arrival after only a 1.5 hour nap instead of the normal 3. We then rushed to the commissary to buy a $50 gallon of milk, rushed home to unload groceries, and then rushed to a church barbecue. We wanted to take our anniversary photo at the temple, but forgot about it until we got home, so the barbecue was it and thus the photo in this post. Wow, I'm sleepy and should go read scriptures with Ryan and Benjamin so I can call it a night (and test out my new pillow :)!!!

Ryan's Business Trip

I'm not sure when Ryan will get around to posting this, so I'm taking the liberty. This is Ryan at the San Diego Temple. I wish I could have been there with him, but I'm sure he was saying the same thing when I was at the Tokyo, Hawaii, and Albuquerque Temples. He says he wished he would have taken more picutres at the conference, but I'm just glad he remembered his promise to take this one.

Baby Lewis #2

I had my first Dr's appointment today for the new baby. Benjamin was such a good boy and sat in a chair looking a books the whole time. He did say "Mommy, all done!" repeatedly most of the time because he doesn't like Dr's much (His 2 year appointment was rough... lots of tears). Maybe after the next 6 months of seeing mommy get poked and prodded he'll be more okay with them.

I knew the Dr. from church which was a little awkward, but I figured it was no worse than not knowing the Dr. at all. There is something to be said about it not being a first pregnancy. It all seems very routine. I wasn't planning to have an ultrasound, but the Dr. couldn't find the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler. The baby was moving around a LOT. He/She (I typed "It" at first, but "It" seems wrong :) measured accurately for me being 11 weeks along and due 5 Feb 2009. We are so blessed!

Birds of a Feather... Do Crazy Things the Same Way?!

Ryan's out of town this week at a conference in San Diego, CA so in commemoration of him Benjamin and I took "I want to be just like Daddy" photos. Enjoy!

4th of July 2008!

Benjamin had a big day on the 4th of July. To start the day, we went swimming at Uncle Kendall's apartment complex and had a picnic lunch with him. It was Ryan's 1st time swimming with Benjamin and he didn't realize that an inflatable floaty thing is not a life preserver. Within minutes of being in the pool, Ryan had left Benjamin unaccompanied on the floaty bug and Benjamin promptly flipped backwards and got waterlogged. Ryan spent the rest of the time in the pool trying to convince him that the bug was okay.

We rushed home to get a nap in and then headed to Roseblatt Stadium for a barbecue hosted by STRATCOM. Benjamin tried to eat a piece of watermelon rind and all before Ryan stopped him. A school bus unloaded some people who came to see the game and Benjamin wanted to go see the bus. Ryan asked the driver if she minded them walking through the bus. Benjamin loved sitting on the bus and looking around. Benjamin also seems to really like girls. He followed a 6 year old around for a WHILE!!! She would sit down on the curb, he'd sit down RIGHT next to her, she'd move away a few feet, he'd get up and plop right down next to her, and so it went on and on.
Benjamin was also wowing the 20 month old daughter of Glen, a guy Ryan works with. He also spent some time entertained by 2 teenage girls at the top of the stands who were dancing for him and filming him on their phone.
Amazingly, Benjamin sat through all 9 innings of the baseball game. We had some books and a few toys, but were really blessed that there were 3 open seats next to us and he didn't have to sit in our laps the entire game. The Royals lost 2-4, but it was a fun game.
The fireworks didn't start for 1.5 hours after the game and were delayed even longer b/c of someone parked in the fallout zone. Benjamin got a little manic, but I bribed him to stay seated with a package of Smarties candy. He was intrigued by the fireworks, but got a little tired by the end. We really should have taken ear plugs because between the blaring music and the exploding fireworks, it was really loud. I spent most of the time covering Benjamin's ears.

I had read a news article about how to set up a camera to shoot fireworks displays and it seems to have worked. Ryan took photos of the display. He has a really steady arm b/c the shutter speed was set at 10 seconds at first then lowered to 5 seconds. The photos are amazingly clear for not having anywhere to set the tripod.

We didn't get to the car until 2330ish and then had to wait a while to get driving so it was a really late night for us. Benjamin did fall asleep in the car and slept in until 0730 this morning. He was even happy when he woke up this morning, so there wasn't too much damage from the late night.