First and last day of elementary school

August 2, 2007

June 1, 2023

I helped with elementary school field day today. Sara will be finished with elementary school in two days. As I walked out of the school for the last time as a parent volunteer in elementary school, I didn't know whether to jump for joy or cry tears of sadness. For the last 16 years I have helped with class parties, field days, reading and math, taught Meet the Masters art classes, chaperoned field trips, made copies, decorated bulletin boards, graded papers, etc. It has been a joy to be a part of our kids classes. 

I will miss the innocence that comes with elementary school. I will miss the handmade crafts on Christmas and Mother's Day. I will miss visiting the classrooms and getting to know the kids in each class. 

Time is flying and there's nothing I can do to stop it. I'm grateful for the memories. I'm also grateful for the many teachers that have influenced our lives. Onward and upward!

Letter from mom- week 40

Hi Ben,

I was so spoiled to get to talk to you two days in a row this week. It was so fun to be able to talk to you on my birthday and great to talk to you again on p-day. I so much look forward to your calls and it’s always so sad when we have to hang up. 

We had a good week. Dad and I attended the closing assembly at Bingham where Mary presented the yearbook to the Student Body President. Luke was inaugurated as the new Sophomore class secretary. We are so happy for both of them for their accomplishments.

Mary and Luke were both working hard this week to finish up the school year academically. Mary finished up a huge language arts project and Luke had a bunch of tests.  This last week of school will hopefully be easy now that they’ve finished up the hard stuff.

Luke was pinned and received a certificate for his track season so that’s cool. 

We had a family BBQ/party to celebrate my 48th birthday. It was fun to get everyone together. I feel so blessed to be able to celebrate another year of life. Dad gave me a beautiful pearl necklace from all of you and I love it. 

We have had a good memorial day weekend so far. We went on a hike yesterday to the top of Ensign peak overlooking the Salt Lake Valley. It was so pretty. We visited the family graves at the Salt Lake and Wasatch Lawn cemetery, and then today after church we visited the cemetery in Sandy. I love visiting the graves and remembering our loved ones. We are blessed with a rich heritage. Also yesterday we visited Loretta and met her new puppy Henry. He is an awesome dog! You will love him. He didn’t pass bear hunting school because he’s too nice, so he lives with Loretta now. 

Tomorrow we hope to go on another hike if the weather cooperates. 

Chloe Shoell had her farewell today. She did a great job and she will be a great missionary in North Carolina. Maddie Simpson was at our ward and I was able to chat with her. It always makes me smile to see your friends. Such good people!

Love you so much! Have a great week. You are always in our thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Mom

Letter from mom- week 39

Hi sweetie,

We had a good week. Dad’s work kept us busy. Dad flew to Houston for meetings on Monday and Tuesday. Then, the Savage leadership Forum was in downtown Salt Lake from Wednesday to Friday evening. Remember when we went to Nashville for these meetings last year? Well, every other year the meetings are held in Salt Lake. Next year our meetings will be in Chicago. I’ve never been to Chicago so I’m really looking forward to that. That will be just a few weeks before you come home! I almost can’t wait but at the same time I can wait because I know you are happy and doing well as a missionary.

Our keynote speaker for the leadership forum was Duncan Wardle. He was an imagineer for Disney for over 20 years. He worked on movies like Toy Story and Monsters Inc. He talked to us about being creative and playful. He talked about nurturing ideas with “yes, and…” rather than “no, because…” His talk was inspirational and fun. I left the meeting wanting to do more and have more fun doing it.

As part of our leadership forum, we did a service project for our military people. We wrote letters and created care packages. It was touching to think of lifting spirits and helping people who are doing so much to protect our freedom.

We had a special occasion yesterday when we were able to have a zoom call with many of our friends from the High Wycombe ward in London. They celebrated the 50th anniversary of the High Wycombe ward. Dad and I recorded a message for their video and we enjoyed being able to connect with our dear friends again during their celebration. Honestly there is a special place in our hearts for the people in the High Wycombe ward. They are such good people. From the moment we entered that building in 2008 with 4 young children, we felt loved and part of the family. Dad and I commented that each of them have a special place in the kingdom of God because of their humility and goodness. It’s never easy to live the gospel but sometimes it’s especially difficult in Europe but those faithful members keep the faith and strive to be like the Savior. I will forever treasure their friendship and their examples to me. They asked all about you. It was a pleasure to tell them how much you are enjoying serving in Barcelona. They send their love.

I connected with Sister Ritter on Facebook. She has wonderful things to say about you.
Keep up the great work!
We love you so much,
Love,
Mom

Cool picture I took of a snowfall measurement on the side of a hotel downtown. Can you believe we had 700” of snow?!

Letter from mom- week 38

Hi Ben,

Thank you for the sweet Mothers Day wishes in yesterdays email and also this morning. I am so grateful to be your mom. You and your siblings bring so much joy to my life. I am grateful that the Lord blessed me with each of you. Mom (a.k.a. momma Stepan) is a title that I treasure.

Michael came from Provo this morning and we all had breakfast together before church. We miss you like crazy but at the same time we are so grateful for your service and we know that you are right where you should be serving the Lord. We are having grandpa and grandma Orton over for dinner after church.

This has been a good week. Mary had her first Ballroom meeting and she is really excited about being on the team. It’s a great group of kids. Her dance 3 Spring concert was awesome. She choreographed a dance to Lany’s Last time and it was selected to be performed at the concert. She announced her dance and dedicated it to Dad and me. We were both in tears. It was very sweet.

Luke had his SBO new/old dinner. He will be Sophomore Secretary next year. I’m excited for him. It’s a great group of kids and he will be great.

Dad’s knee is bothering him. He broke his left leg ice skating as a teenager and it never healed right. Now he’s having trouble with that leg. We’re hoping to get him to the doctor so he can get some relief from the pain. He has to travel to Houston this week for work and we are praying that his leg won’t be too painful for him.

I loved the pictures of your baptism last night. What a sweet lady. I hope it was a wonderful occasion for all of you.

I love you with all of my heart. Thank you for being you.
Have a great week.
Love,
Mom

Letter from mom- week 37

Hi sweetie,

Sorry this is so long. I wanted to document some of the miracles we experienced and I thought you might like to hear about it.

We experienced a tender miracle last night when we found out that Mary made Ballroom at Bingham next year! There were around 50 girls that tried out and they only took 16 girls so we feel really fortunate that Mary has this opportunity to be part of that team next year. We are grateful for so many little miracles along the way. Mary attended the Ballroom concert a couple of weeks ago and during the concert she felt prompted to try out for Ballroom (prior to that she was only going to try out for Dance Co). Her first choice was dance company so she was devastated on Friday when she didn’t make call backs for dance co auditions. She found out at 6:00am that she didn’t make callbacks, and she had to go take her AP US history test at 7:00am. Following the AP test, Mary was supposed to go to the auditorium while they adjusted the lighting for her Dance 3 performance (she choreographed a dance that was chosen for the dance 3 performance coming up this week). However, she asked a friend to do the lighting for her and Mary chose to go to Chick-fil-A with friends. Dad and I weren’t happy when we found out about it so I took her back to the school where she had to apologize to her dance 3 instructor for not being there for lighting. Dad came home from work early that day and Dad and I had a talk with Mary about having a spirit of gratitude even when things don’t go our way. Sure she was disappointed about not being called back for dance co. However, her dance was chosen to be in the dance 3 performance and she had a responsibility to do the lighting for that dance. We talked to her about picking herself up from this disappointment and using the time and energy she would’ve spent on dance co callbacks to practice for ballroom auditions instead. We suggested that maybe this was a blessing in disguise because if they weren’t going to pick her for dance co then at least she knew now and could focus on ballroom auditions. Mary took this to heart and picked herself up immediately. She made some phone calls and found a partner that would practice the complicated ballroom combinations at the stake center with her that evening. I sat and watched them practice and I was both broken hearted and so grateful. I knew how hard Mary had worked for dance co. She spent 2 years in dance 3 and took additional dance workshops and it’s hard to be turned away after that (especially knowing that she is more capable in some moves than others on the team currently). Last week in Come Follow Me we studied the Prodigal son. The applications to Mary’s situation were so powerful. This week we are studying the laborer who receives the same wage for working all day in the heat of the day as the laborer who only works for 1 hour. It is not a coincidence that we are re-learning those lessons now. As I watched Mary practice for ballroom with a partner, I was also so grateful. Grateful that despite her disappointments with student body officer elections and dance co, she was willing to try something else. The next morning was a tender miracle when Mary was able to talk with you and Michael on the way to ballroom auditions. Part of the reason why she didn’t do well in her dance co auditions is because she got too nervous feeling like this was her last opportunity for her senior year. Dad and I had talked to her about just having fun with her audition and if she wasn’t picked it wasn’t the end of the world. You and Michael encouraged her in that regard and Michael’s sweet prayer helped to comfort her too. She was able to have fun and smile and relax which made all the difference. When I picked her up from her ballroom audition, her countenance was completely opposite from how it was 2 days before after her dance co audition. She felt confident and had a good time. It was still hard to wait until that evening for the results. It is hard to describe how we all felt when Mary saw her name on the ballroom list. This was her first big win after lots of disappointments and lot of lessons learned. It was even sweeter than we ever thought it could be. We are so excited for her. I’m amazed at how she was guided even right down to her schedule for next year. She had left 8th period open for dance co but her 5th period was seminary which made it easy to switch to Ballroom. We’re grateful it wasn’t a class that would’ve been difficult to switch like Math of Personal Finance or something. Anyway, this whole thing is a reminder that the Lord cares about little things that He knows are important to us. It doesn’t always go the way we want it to but it all works out in the end if we are faithful, keep trying, and stay close to the spirit.

Luke had a busy week with his last track meet and his last band concert. Luke took 5th place in one of his races. He killed it! His band concert was also awesome. I’m sad he won’t be playing the trumpet next year but he assures me he will continue to play at home.

Sara had a 6th grade school play too (Midsummers Nights dream). It was so awesome. She did great!

The blossoms are so beautiful right now! Spring has finally sprung and we are enjoying it! I’ll include a few pictures.

In other news, we booked a cruise for August 2024 when you get home!!!! We are so excited!

Thanks again for your words of wisdom to your sister yesterday before her audition. It meant the world to both of us.

Love you so much,
Mom