Still Learning

We hope you are each enjoying the fall. We have pretty much caught up on our outside work: raspberries pruned, garden tilled, hoses up, leaves picked up for the first three times-we probably have two more to go weather willing and sprinkles drained.

We worked in the temple twice this week it has been a good week.

Today we made the first batch of soup-14 pints and 7 quarts. My role was pealing the vegetables.

Snake River lost to South Fremont 31-28. Snake was on the 11 yard line with eleven seconds and got sacked.

We are thinking about going to Pocatello tonight and watch Poky and Jerome and Blackfoot and Hillcrest.

Mom's been busy all day this will her a chance to work on her knitting.

Monday we are going to the Majestic Theatre in Pocatello with our home evening group for a dinner and show. The show is Thoroughly Modern Millie or something like that.

We love you all and looking forward to thanksgiving.

Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma

My Heart is okay

I went to see the cardiologist today. He stated that he felt all the test that were taken that my heart is okay. He said that I was having premature heartbeats and that it was normal occurance and that most people will have 20-50 of them out of 1,000 heart beats a day. He told me to be liberal in my salt intake to see if it would help with my dizziness. He stated that he bet that I thought I would never hear a doctor tell me to increase my salt. He wants me to try that for a month and see how it is helping. If I don't see a lot of change then he will put me on a hormone that will tell my body to retain more salt. I discussed with him how tired and worn out I have felt and that I have no energy. He decided to draw blood and test me for mono. I will know the results in a day or two. Just what I don't need with this busy time with work but I would rather have that then have something wrong with my heart.

Thanks to all of you for fasting and praying on my behalf. The Lord has heard our prayers and I don't have anything seriously wrong with my heart.

We are looking forward to Halloween. Emmalynn is going to be a witch and Daniel is going to be a Ninja.

We are looking more forward to seeing all of you at Thanksgiving. Yeah a stress free day of no cooking for a lot of family. Thanks mom & dad and the Golden Corral for taking care of the cooking for us. I am truly blessed and honored to have all of you as family!

We love you
the Packard's

Hello Family....

Good Morning Everyone! Just got on to check my quilted bear numbers and saw 2 new posts. I love reading about what's going on in everyone's lives...it's a great way to keep in touch. I haven't posted in so long so I thought I'd give you an update.
Shawn is super busy. They gave him more stores to manage because of cutbacks. That stinks...but he did get Hawaii so that smells good!!!! I'm sure we'll be checking on that twice a year and he'll need his executive assistant (me) to help him do that.
I'm up to my ears in wax. I've been making tarts like crazy. I have people complaining that they want bears and candles....so I'm trying to catch up on those today. Tis the season.....I guess I can expect it. I'm glad you liked your tarts Michele. I know fall is your favorite. As of today I have lost a total of 80.2 pounds. Can you believe it? I've got 10 more to go and then I'll be at my goal weight. I thought 90 pounds sounded impossible when I started out and now I can see an end in sight. I guess it's like anything else that seems impossible. If we just tackle it one bite (no pun intended)at a time then it's manageable. I sure hate the weight thing....it's been such a struggle my whole life. Yuck!
Kayden (and Kyler) have their last football game today in Spanish Fork. Shawn is excited it's on a Monday so he can go. He's only been able to see 2 games because they are usually on Wednesday. It's raining outside so we'll hope for a little sun by the time the game starts today.
Makenzie is loving school. She "sugared" (a form of waxing) my eyebrows and my lip last night. Hurts like the dickens but it's sooooo much better than tweezing. She's learning hair cutting right now. She's on the floor a lot more and is having several people come back and request her. That's always fun.
Chase, Steph and the boys are doing great. We are having our first ever "Monster Ball and sleep over on Halloween. We are really excited. We've got a scary menu planned and fun games and movies....a little trick-or-treating....and new p.j.'s and scary books for bedtime. I love Halloween. It's my fav.
Hope everyone is doing well. We are excited to spend time with all of you at Thanksgiving. That will for sure be a "free" (no calorie counting) day....or few days for the Jorgensens. Woohoo! Love you all........

California and Boise Trip

Dear Family,

We are still working on becoming computer literate and accessing the family blog. We went with our friends the Dixon's and stayed in their daughters time share at the Newport Beach Marriott condominiums. The weather was in the low 70s. We took a boat tour around the harbour and saw how the wealthy live. The little battery powered boat we toured the harbour in was about 5 feet wide and 23 feet long. It looked like a big row boat. It cost the owner 465 dollars a month to dock it in the bay. You can imagine the price to park of the big 65' to 100+' yachts I understand they cost over a thousand dollars a month to park. Never the less the ships were beautiful.

We enjoyed watching Brille play soccer. They lost 1 to 2 but it was a good game. Brielle was very agressive and had several good kicks and a couple of intimidations. We then went to the Mongolian Grill for supper. It has been a nice week. In Bryan's ward today they put a a new Bishropric. The Bishop is 70 years old. It was interesting has he opened his remarks. He said my wife was suprized but I wasn't. The spirit had been working with him for several weeks. I new then he was the one the Lord had chosen.

Have a nice week. We are looking forward to homecoming and listening to Josalyn's choir sing at the BYU Homecoming spectacular.

We love you all!

Mom and Dad; Granma and Grandpa

New Changes, New Blood! OOOOh spooky

I'm going to beat Bryan at blogging tonight while he is at a youth fireside. We got our new Bishopric today. Gary Oviatt Bp. Lyle Bair 1st Coun. Sheldon Larson 2nd Coun. Steve Browne Sec. It will be a great bishopric. New blood, new ideas, new leadership. We sure have had fun with Grandpa and Grandma here this weekend. They were a great help on Saturday as we started cleaning out the garden. WOW WERE THEY EVER A GREAT HELP!!! I think I would like a postage stamp size yard and garden next year. (Dad says to invest in a gallon or two of roundup) grin)
Kaitlyn had a good time in Portland at a Marching Band Competition this weekend. Brielle also had a great soccer game. She is learning a lot and gaining confidence every game. She went head to head with one girl running toward a loose ball and when the other girl saw the determined face of Brielle, she backed off and kind of ducked just in case her 'kick' came straight toward her body.

Laree we sure appreciated the opportunity to fast for you today. Charlie was explaining a diagram of the heart and his diagnosis to all of us. We hope that all the tests and reports come back in your favor. Keep us updated.

Chase we were so sorry to hear about your dog. It made me cry just to hear Mom tell us the story of Little Shawn. Really does it get much sadder than that? A little boy trying to dig up his dead puppy.... oh my gosh kleenex please!!!

Robyn, We were surprised to hear that you are teaching full time. WOW my admiration for you just jumped ten notches!!! You must be one exhausted lady at the end of your day!!! What lucky kids to get you as a permanent sub!!! Brielle loves her teacher (and so do I) and I know REALLY great teachers are rare.

Karen I love all the melters you gave me. It really gets me in the "fall mood". I know you must be busier than ever right now in preparation for the holidays. And speaking of Fall... My prayers have been answered, the frost killed all the squash and tomatoes in my garden YAH HOO! (I still am picking a bowl of rasberries every now again tho.) We're excited to see everyone again. Thanksgiving will be FUN!!

We sure love having Charlie and Chelsea and Macy with us. Karen, I'm now understanding a little more about the "joy of being a grandma". There is no greater fun that hearing "Gramma, where are you, I want to go to the park". Love being a Grandma!! (And I guess a Grandpa's job is just to spoil 'em)

Hope all is happy in your home. In our Relief Society lesson today, we were talking about the joy of having an eternal family and someone stated.. Eternity starts today. How true that is. Families can be our greatest joys thats for sure. (with a little worry thrown in. grin)

Love you all
Michele, Bryan and gang

Hello Family

I am teaching mom how to blog. We should be seeing more posts from her in the future. :-)

Pocatello Packard update

We have had a interesting month. Everything that could break down before Gary left for hunting did. His truck and camper gave him fits this fall but all is well now. It is amazing that a $4.00 part get have him stranded on a hill in Salmon during a major snow storm.

Emmalynn and I built a snowman on October 5. It was about 2 feet high. I was glad when it melted because I am not ready for winter yet. Emmalynn had a field trip to a pumpkin patch. Daniel went with her. We had a lot of fun going through the corn maze and answering question to help us get through. They then made a bird feeder. They then got to go feed a horse which Daniel thought was the greatest thing ever. He loves "neigh neighs" (that is what he calls horses). They then got to go out into a field a pick a pumpkin. We are waiting tell a little closer to Halloween before we carve them for our front porch.

I have had to wear a king heart monitor for the last week. When I had a dizzy spell or light headedness I had to press the record button and it would go back and record what my heart was doing during the spells. I have had these spells for about 3 months and my doctor is running tests on my heart until they figure out what is going on with it because I have a sporadic pulse. Hopefully by next week when I go into the doctor the cardiologist will have given him a report on the reading that the heart monitor did. I guess I have taken for granted how important your heart is in keeping you feeling well. I will be glad to find out what is wrong and hope that it isn't anything serious.

I was sorry to hear about your dog Chase. I am glad you are feeling better Kyler and that the swine flu wasn't as serious for you as it has been for others.

We hope all of you are doing well and we are looking foward to seeing you for Thanksgiving.

We Love You!
The Packard's

Hello from the Meridian Mechams

Yes, I have been a little quiet since the cruise. I have been very busy with work and everything else. I really enjoyed attending conference this week. It was a great recharging experience. I so love listening to the leaders of the church. I realized that we must do more to help Diane and John. We need to make a stronger effort to keep in contact with them and to share our family successes. I had many strong impressions during this conference. Elder Holland's talk was simply amazing. I want to be able to bear testimony like that. Boy do I have a lot of work to do and things to change but I think it is worth the effort.

Brielle is enjoying soccer. Her team doesn't win but she is learning and having fun. She loves being an Aunt to Macy. Kaitlyn is very busy this fall with Marching Band and student council and mutual and school activities. She is doing great.

It is so fun to have Charlie, Chelsea and Macy in our home. We enjoy good times together. We enjoy working and playing together. I can hear Macy in singing right now as her parents are wanting her to go to bed. It is funny in a way to see your children go through what they put us through. :-) Charlie and I are playing basketball and racquetball together. We are having a lot of fun. The racquetball tally is Bryan 13 and Charlie 10 so I am still hanging with the youth but I don't know for how much longer as Charlie is getting better every time I play him. It is also fun getting motivated to start playing basketball again. I am enjoying it very much. Not to brag, but it is still fun when I hear the other team say "you cannot let him shoot." I still leave the gym only after making a three point shot. I jokingly say that this is what I want on my grave stone that "my last shot was a made three pointer." :-)

We are getting a new Bishop in a couple weeks. Our bishop was called to the new Stake Presidency. We have heard that the new Bishop has been called and are very excited about that.

We are happy with our current callings and enjoy the association with such great leaders and youth. I love teaching the 14 and 15 year old young men. This is the greatest age. I love their excitement for life and their transition from boys to young men. We all earned our varsity letter and I even earned the triathlon pin with the boys. It was fun running in the two mini triathlons. It is fun to see young men achieve their goals.

We cooked scones the other night at the football game and made the softball team about $185. We sold over 250 scones. They want us to do it for homecoming too. We haven't decided yet if it is worth the hassle. I will have to check the weather.

We had our first frost which ended our gardening for the year. We might get a few more raspberries and apples, carrots, potatoes and onions but not much else. I have to start my pepper relish on Monday night so the peppers don't go to waste.

I love all of you very much. I am grateful to be part of such a great family. I hope and pray that we will be those members who comit to living the gospel principles so that we may gain eternal life together. We have and are truly blessed to have such a legacy as we do and to have parents who show us by example the meaning of enduring to the end. Mom and Dad, I love you. We love you. Thanks for all you do and for the time you spend in the service of our family and the church. We have been truly blessed because of your diligence and perseverance.

Well, I am still working on getting the weight off that I gained on the cruise. Boy is that a workout in and of itself.

Hopefully, I will soon be able to report that I have done it. :-)

I love you!

Bryan