Another month...no job news... (The Morgan/Bentley Colorado dwellers)

Since it's now been almost a year and a half, I'm sure no one is waiting up at night, but in case you are wondering, Steve still has no news on the job front. Intel's Board of Directors are supposed to be making a decision about this site at the end of May, so we think we might know something at that point. But, I personally am not counting on it.

Elijah made it into 8th grade jazz band. He was so cute acting like it was no big deal while trying to wipe the happy, happy grin off his face.

Israel's terror for the month was being forced to put on lotion/chapstick/hydrocortisone creme after letting his skin get so dry he had patches of excema (sp?) everywhere. Who knew lotion could be so frightening??!! There was WAY too much crying.

Levi is LOVING getting to go play soccer on a Parks and Rec team. My first son to think sports are not of the devil.

Cecelia is ready to go to kindergarten, like yesterday. And she's a creative little monster. It's so cute, since she didn't get any creativity from her mom.

Francesca. 3% for weight. 60% for height and head. Too bad the only thing she wants to eat is spaghetti sauce. Anything dipped in spaghetti sauce...and the occasional grape.

Well. I think that's enough. I'll try to get a video next time of Elijah singing "There are Bunnies in my Soul Today" to himself while wandering around downstairs. (Okay, I'm not really getting a vid of it, but it IS funny.)

Love,

Steve, Rachel, Elijah, Israel, Levi, Cecelia, and Francesca

Gma. worries

I saw a spot on the TV this morning about bullying in schools, and it made me concerned about my darling grandchildren who head out the doors of your homes into an uncertain world each day. The good news is that there is a web site to help parents prepare their children for what they may encounter. You may want to check it out. it is: don'tbullymykids.com Keep up your excellent work within the walls of your homes founding them with the scriptures, FHE and prayer. We pray for them and you.

Dave Says It's Really Big

...The Great Wall of China, that is. And he would know since he actually walked on it! Dave is flying home as we speak from an (almost) week long business trip to Beijing and took some really cool photos. If you want to see them you can go to his picasa web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/bentled and look at the Beijing pics. My personal favorite is the one where looks like he's being axed by a....is that guy a Mongol? Hmmm.

The surreal thing is that since Beijing is 12 hours ahead of us his flight arrives an hour before it departs. Which means that Dave is time traveling...or in the Northwest Airlines Twilight Zone. do-dee-do-do do-dee-do-do (Twilight Zone Music)

We love you guys.....

DKJMJ

FHE

I don't know about you guys, but we don't usually make our kids watch the Saturday sessions of General Conference (excepting priesthood for Elijah, of course). So, we were sad when they announced the solemn assembly and our kids missed it because we didn't even have a chance to go get them from all over the house and explain what was going on and have them participate. So...for family home evening we downloaded the video of the Saturday morning session of conference and for our lesson talked about what the solemn assembly was and how we were going to have a chance to sustain the prophet. Then we watched the video and stood at the appropriate times and sustained our new prophet and the rest of the general authorities. It was a really sweet moment watching our kids stand up and raise their right hands to the square to sustain our leaders, and I think it was good for them to see their mom and dad stand up, in our quorum or group and also sutain our leaders.

I thought I'd share because it was a short FHE lesson (only took about 10 minutes total) (we like short) but I can't think of a more powerful lesson we could have given on following the modern prophet. If you didn't have a chance to participate in the solemn assembly with your kids, I would highly recommend this as a FHE activity/lesson.

Unemployed but Happy

Dear Bentleys,
We are happy to report that Charlie took the plunge and quit his job last week. He has been working hard this week to set up his new company:Segway Funding. We both feel really calm, which is a huge blessing. I've been busy this week writing grants for our elementary school PTA. Hopefully we'll be able to get funding for a p.e. teacher and science field trips for each grade. Our ward split last week so we have big changes ahead. Luckily we get to keep our bishop who we love but we are loosing almost all of the young families who are our friends. Two weeks ago it was Will's first fast Sunday since he was baptized. He was starving to death and as the Sacrament began. I recommended that he pray and ask Heavenly Father for help. He closed his eyes and began praying. I likewise began to pray that the Lord would help him to gain a testimony of the fast. When the Sacrament tray came there was a whole unbroken piece of bread. Will eagerly grabbed it and enjoyed it one small piece at a time. Will and I both saw it as a tender mercy from the Lord to give him the strength to keep the commandments. Will said, "Now I know that if the Lord asks me to do something He will help me to do it." What a simple but beautiful reminder of the Lord's love in even the small things. Love, Kathy

find the crocs & G & G too

Dear Grandchildren,
Do you remember the song, "Oh a Maid Set Sail"? Get your parents to sing it to you and see if you can find the crocodiles hiding in these pictures. We love you, G&G

Hello from the Colorado Thompson Bentleys

Hey Everyone! This may be a little tricky for Rick, so you will have to settle for me until he figures it out. Cora made it into the Young Author's Tea at her school. She was one of two kids from her class nominated to attend a special tea and listen to a local author talk about writing. She felt really honored and is published now. Linc is talking a lot as some of you heard first hand while we were in Utah. He is really into cutting things with scissors too like our cell phone power cords and blinds. And, he is loving turning the hot water heater off - showers have been a little cold around here. Brig has been sickly this year and just got over another cold this week. And Lydia is talking a lot and had the same cold as Brig. Lincoln clearly is looking smarter on this diet!
Life is quiet and uneventful. Rick will be working a lot of moonlighting jobs within the next two months. I keep telling him I don't care about the money - I just want to keep all the stuff. (Name that movie!) Steve and Rachel and family spent the day with us today watching conference. We love having them around ... we wouldn't mind a few more people moving out here.
It was great to see you all and can't wait to reconnect in July.
Lots of love! Rick, Marisa, Cora, Linc, Brig, Lyds and Clyde

Dear fellow bloggers,

As it may be for some of you (read: "the boys"), giving birth to my monthly blog article does not come easy for me. Like bearing my testimony at fast meeting, I just can't think of anything very interesting or different to say. I find myself trying to become invisible, hoping your devoted Mother will forget that I have not yet contributed anything this month. But alas, the woman never forgets such things, and she must have inherited from her Mother a natural gift for motivating shirkers (from the German word "schurke" meaning scoundrel) to do their duty, "ahora mismo, no mañana." I told her my mind was as blank as it was the first time I tried to call a girl for a date and that I had nothing to say, so she suggested the following:

Right after I was called, the Temple Department told me to choose two counselors, one to be the Temple Recorder and the other to be the Temple Engineer. When I told them I didn't know anyone in Tampico, let alone anyone qualified for these two positions, they had me call the Temple President for recommendations. He advised me to keep both of his current counselors because they both had a good retirement and no one else was as qualified as they were (He was right) but the Temple Department sent me back to him to get two or three names of alternative candidates. He gave me three names, but said each one had problems: one worked five days a week as an insurance agent, one liked to sleep in and had little money for buses, and one had been released from a stake presidency because he was difficult to work with. After two General Authorities investigated for themselves, I was allowed to keep the old counselors for 3-6 months until I could find replacements, but President Mickelsen instructed me to visit other wards or stake conferences in our temple district every week until we found the right people. I've been doing that for over five months now, but the longer I looked the more I realized that the best candidates were probably already temple workers.

It has not been an easy decision. Ideally, there would be two candidates who would stand out from the rest in terms of their health, age, dependability, free time available, ability to serve as the recorder or the engineer, having a strong wife (to be Mom's assistant), sweet personality, and other factors. But each candidate had shortcomings and it was hard to balance their pro's and con's fairly because a lot of my information was incomplete or it came from people with obvious biases. Chosing the engineer was the hardest because I went back and forth between two very different people for a long time, first favoring one and then the other. It seemed as though the only feeling I was getting consistently was confusion. Fortunately, there was really no absolute deadline so I just took my time and continued to gather more information. One of the things I did was to interview the candidates themselves, without telling them specifically that I was considering them.

I had been thinking and praying about this more intensely for the last several weeks and had begun to feel somewhat positive about someone who was not recommended by the previous temple president (probably because he works most days as a contractor), but last week I took it a step further. After going on an endowment session I decided to remain in the celestial room a little longer to see if the Lord would give me a more definite feeling. This time, rather than trying again to compare this man logically with the other leading candidate for Temple engineer, I just told the Lord that I felt comfortable with the idea of working with this man but I wanted to do what He wanted me to do. I told Him I had tentatively decided to choose this man but if the Lord wanted me to choose the other candidate I needed to feel something that would change my decision. Almost immediately I felt relief and a warm feeling about the man I had chosen. I felt reassured that if he were called he would be able find the time to devote to his calling. I also felt good about other concerns I had had about him earlier. Mom also feels good about this choice.

This was not as life-changing or dramatic as some of my other spiritual experiences I have told you about in the past, but it is one that I will remember because it taught me once again how essential it is to rely on the Lord for guidance rather than to try to depend completely on my own reasoning and logic when I make decisions like this.

Abuelito

Shhhhh! Mary's Got a Secret

Now this story need to start at the beginning... maybe not the beginning, we'll jump ahead. You may know how much trouble our green Passat has caused over the years. Well, it reached it's pinnacle last weekend. Zach didn't have patients on Thurs/Fri so we decided to go on a trip to Moab/Arches Natl. Park to bike and hike. 10 miles outside of Green River, the infamous Passat began to buck on the freeway... NOT A GOOD SIGN. This just got worse until we couldn't accellerate without it getting more severe. Everytime our car has a problem my stomach drops and my heart jumps to my throat and I think "what now!" This was no different. We are on the side of the freeway (see photo) and LUCKILY we had cell phone service to call AAA to tow us. BEST THING WE EVER DID! AAA ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE IS MY BEST FRIEND! Do you know that in the last 3 years we have used AAA to tow our car... 6 times! This was the last straw! We waited for 2 1/2 hours for the truck and then it was 2 hours to get us to Grand Junction where there was 1 place that works on VW's. We luckily have Krehl and Amy there (the ones we went to Hawaii with) and stayed with them all weekend while the Passat was being fixed. So much for our vacation plans. But we still went hiking and biking and got to do it with them which was great.

Needless to say, I had had it with the Passat and it was decided no matter what we were selling it! We have spent the last 7 days since it broke down going to dealerships, researching and discussing what we should get. Finally it's been decided. Zach went skiing with his family today and I went to look at a Grand Caravan we found online last night for a great price. Well, I bought it and he doesn't even know yet. That's right, Zach is skiing and has no idea I purchaced a minivan. I took it over to Charlie for his stamp of approval though. We got a great deal and had discussed everything beforehand so I know it's fine but I am really enjoying the knowledge that I went and did this with Kaitlyn today by myself. It's a lovely dark blue and when I called to tell Dad, he was REALLY proud of my color choice so I decided that it must be a good decision.

If it's an interesting story, I'll have Zach blog his reaction to the purchace. He'll find out about it tonight when we're all together at Sharon's for dinner. I'm loving it.

Here are some pictures of me landing on Bald Mountain above a town called Hood River, OR on the north side of Mount Hood. This mountain is only about 4,000 ft. elevation so most of you are reading this higher than I got on my flight, but it really was a nice flight. My instructor got out and took the picture. I'm almost done with my training. I will hopefully be done by July so I'll be a full fledged, fully certificated helicopter pilot by then. It's really fun and I really like it. Rachel and Josie are doing really good, other than the fact that mom sent her a psycho doll from Mexico for Easter. Maybe I'll send a picture of it next time. (Don't worry mom, Josie loves it. I'm just a little wary of the little beast). Enjoy conference everybody. Love Dan and Rachel and Josie and Kee

The Gehring 5

I was just reading everyone's entries, when I looked at the top of the page and saw all the buttons all of you say are always there to edit the blog. I decided I couldn't wait until Matt got home to write. It was too exciting to do this the easy way. In other words, instead of Matt's eloquent words, you once again get to read my everyday text ;)

Our family is doing very well. Peter is not quite walking, but has advanced to standing by himself, crawling down stairs head first (which he hasn't fallen yet) and eating our plants. He now has 6 teeth and has started biting off the top of his bottles - good thing I am no longer nursing. Eliza is talking so much. She wants to make sure you know she is two everytime Sam tells someone he is four. She loves pink and is so excited her cousin just gave her a ton of pink clothes. She also knows almost as many letters as Sam and continues to sing daily. Sam is loving the Spiderman bike he got for his birthday and has even done the entire loop on family walks. He is signed up for a soccer team that will start the end of this month. Matt will probably be the coach as he got succored in when he went to sign his life away I mean sign-up (He had to sign three waivers one saying he would be a nice parent and one of the others said his child might experience emotional and physical trauma. Are we sure we are ready for this?).

Sharon and Matt have been working in the yard. Some of you have seen what we started, but the rest will have to wait until July when you come. The Moores thought we were putting in such an effort they brought us chocolates to make us feel better. I really enjoy being in the yard, which is good as I will primarily be in charge of caring for Matt's grandparent's yard as well as this one.

Matt's two projects up at Hill Airforce Base will finish in May so he is pushing forward, but is still allowing me to attend Women's Conference with my friends May 1 & 2. Thanks to everyone who will help me with my kids.

We have had fun seeing people this past month and even had a great visit with the Lander cousins as their oldest grandson, Brian leaves on his mission today and we attended his "non-farewell." They still have cabins available if anyone would like to join us in Wyoming for fun. As of now, Matt and I are the only ones.

Love you all,

Matt, Sharon, Sam, Eliza, and Peter

You've seen the pic, now hear the tale

I posted some pics a few days ago, so you've all gotten to see our little ones who seem to be growing like weeds these days.

Our big news is that Steve is getting so old he is walking around with a cane. Poor guy. Something "bad" happened to his hip about a month and a half ago, and then it just kept getting worse until he couldn't get out of bed a few times. Finally he went to a doc, who was absolutely no help, and then a chiropractor, who might be helping some, but it's hard to tell. Steve started out by using his old crutches, and then finally broke down and let me buy him a cane this week. We hope he is on the mend, but wouldn't be all that surprised if his right leg just fell off one day.

Rachel is messing around with stuff like reading, indian meditation, story writing, reading, and preparing gospel doctine lessons. (Steve assures everyone that he wasn't the one who slated me for this calling...but as far as I know, I haven't driven anyone away from the church yet.)

Israel was asked for words to describe his mom during Cub Scouts. His answers: dictator and thief. I think the dictator part is self-explanatory, but the thief? So...I told them two weeks ago that I was putting their allowance in cups as small change, then taking some away whenever their rooms weren't clean or they weren't ready for school on time, etc. He decided that this meant that I was stealing his money and then he wouldn't be able to pay all his tithing, so I was really stealing from the Lord, too. *eyeroll*

Cecelia turned 5 and was so excited we all thought she might burst. Levi started soccer. Elijah now has his own palm pilot. (Steve's old one, we aren't really buying him stuff like palm pilots.) Francesca is trying very hard to fall down the stair, but we haven't let her yet.

And that's it. Love you,

Steve-Rach-Eli-Is-Levi-Cece-Ches

Mom & Grandmama

APRIL BENTLEY BULLETIN BLOG
Happy Birthday two dear one year olds: April 14th Josinette's
April 23rd Francesca's

Saturday it was our turn to open the temple at 6:00 a.m. When we arrived about 5:45 we found President and Hna. Treto already there, as well as two of our faithful temple workers. Our 7:00 session was filled with local people. By the 8:30 session the buses had arrived from Victoria and Vales and we had to set up all the folding chairs we had to squeeze everyone in. The baptistery was overflowing with eager youth. I was especially touched by two of the young people. A sweet girl in a wheel chair and a blind boy who were there with their friends to serve in the House of the Lord.

There was a beautiful bride and groom, and a family who had come to be sealed. The family had an interesting story. While they were getting their paper work taken care of I greeted the couple, Hno. Y Hna Cruz, who had come with them as their “acompanantes” (I can’t remember the word we use in English). I asked them if they were relatives. “No, we are their Home and Visiting Teachers.” I learned that the family had been inactive members of the Church for many years, but they continued have contact with the Church through the Cruz.’ Visits. As the family returned to activity the bishop called the Cruz’ to teach them the Temple Preparation Classes, and now they were accompanying them to the temple. What a testimony of the power of Home and Visiting teaching. The couple’s 13 year old son and 9 year old daughter were also there to be sealed to their parents. The girl had a lovely dress her mother had made for the occasion. Hna. Esparza called me to look at it as there was a very, very pale cast of pink in the shimmer of the skirt material. I was reminded of my experience Thursday night. Another family had come to be sealed with a 15 year old girl who had saved her money to buy a lovely white dress for the occasion. It had short sleeves and came just below her knees and Pres. Treto had told her she could not wear it. When I learned of the situation, this sweet girl was nearly in tears. I visited with her and offered her one of our dresses with long sleeves and skirt, but she wanted to wear her dress. Fortunately, I had just had three darling bolero jackets made for our brides. With one of these, and long white stockings she was covered from head to toe in white and tears were replaced with smiles, and a happy memory of her first temple experience. Kathy Barnes Walker’s words rang in my mind, “Better a broken rule than a broken heart.” (Kathy is Pres. Hinckley’s daughter and the Matron at the Salt Lake Temple), Our 9 year old got to wear her dress too.

Our young bride and groom were radiant. He was a returned missionary and all of his family were there. In fact, it was a day of double rejoicing for his parents as his younger brother was entering the temple for the first time before leaving this next week for his mission in Tuxla Guiterez. The bride’s family are not members of the Church, but the groom’s mother accompanied her, and the obvious love between them reminded me of Ruth and Naomi.

When I was giving the name for our 10:00 session a sister broke down and began to cry. I hugged her and told her that after the session if she wished to talk to me I’d be available. Two hours later she found me and through her tears she told me that her x-missionary husband who she had been sealed to and was the father of their two young children, had been excommunicated last Sunday and had abandoned the family. What can you say to someone whose heart is broken? I just listened and cried with her. Another woman asked me what last name she should use in the name booth, her maiden name or the name of her husband, the father of her children, who had just divorced her. Such heartaches.

The Esparza’s son and daughter in law with their darling 9 month old baby came to pick up their parents and I got to hold little David. It felt so good to hug this sweet baby and think about our five little ones born last year. I’m so grateful for our web cam and Vonage phone that keeps us in close contact with the family.

This being the last Saturday of the month Pres. and Hna. Moss were going to come at the 2:30 session with the missionaries who were ending their missions. Carol had spoken with me earlier and we had made arrangements for her to come in the morning to be baptized and do the initiatory work for the mother of one of her missionaries who had died just a year earlier while he was serving in the mission field. What a privilege and blessing it was for me to officiate in English with the assistance of Hna. Perez sealing in Spanish, as this mother received her preparatory ordinances. Carol then took this mother’s name (Silvia Romero Acosta) through the session in the afternoon. As they were leaving she introduced me to the son, dear Elder Aguilar. There was no doubt in any of our minds that his mother was in attendance and had accepted the work done on her behalf.

Bro. and Sister Rollins from Layton had come to pick up their son as he ended his mission. Sister Batt (she and her husband serve in the mission office) told me of the touching scene when Elder Rawlings saw his parents for the first time on the temple steps. They ran to each other and embraced and he exclaimed “You came, you really came!” That was a “heart camera” moment. Although it was our turn to leave the temple early we had stayed so that we could be there to take these three American women through the veil in English.

When we finally turned off the lights and locked the doors of the temple we had been there for 12 hours. It sounds like a long time, but the hours always fly past when we are serving the Lord in His house