Memo from Mom: October

Hey there amazing family!

 

I am so very blessed to have each of you in my life!  You are the best part of every day, and I am grateful for your influence.

 

Recently there has been a commercial on TV that I have really loved.  I think it's for insurance or something like that - but you've probably seen it.  There is a man in a restaurant who looks out the window and sees a woman sitting on the subway.  Time goes by in his mind at high speed and he sees the future with marriage and a child who goes on to become the president.  He drops everything and runs like crazy to catch the subway and sit next to this woman so he won't miss his chance with her.

 

As much as we would love it, we can't see the future.  We can't see what will happen next year or even in five minutes.  What we can do is run like crazy and influence our future.  If you could see what's ahead and know what it's like to have a spouse and children and love them more than life itself, your life might change right now.  Maybe you would put a bit more effort into your studies.  Maybe you would try harder to make the most of the free time you have.  Maybe you would study the scriptures with more depth, and live the gospel with greater determination.  Maybe you would go to the temple more often.  The future children who are born into your homes may not be the leaders of our country, but maybe they will.  Maybe they will be influential in ways we can't even imagine right now, and you will need to be prepared to teach them at just the right time.  When each of you were born, it was easy to love you, but Dad and I felt a huge responsibility to care for you and teach you in just the right way.  We continue to try to say just the right things and help where we can, but there are definitely things I wish I had done better when I was younger so that I would have been more prepared when you came to our family.  

 

Actually, we don't just improve ourselves for our children.  We also work to be ready for what the Lord has in store for us, and for what we choose to do with our future.  There is so much more choice available for one who makes the most of each day.  Each of you is talented, strong, capable, young, and filled with testimony.  There is nothing holding you back except you. 

 

Think now about what the remarkable possibilities are.  Your potential is endless!  You are children of God, and thus, Gods in embryo.  That is who you will be raising.  May you prepare for the responsibility.

 

Love you forever!

Mom

Another Ben Moment

Hello dear family,

I believe that over the years you have all become accustomed to what we might term "Ben moments". If this term confuses you, I might associate it with other words like microwave, directions, emergency brake, etc. I recognize that I am not the only one in the family having these unique moments (recall Matt's interpretation of Napalm and Mom's late night show), but they are quite funny when they happen. So, here is another.

Anne's visit was great this weekend. We had a wonderful time together and it was hard to take her to the airport at the end of the visit. It was hard to say good-bye and I wondered how long our farewell would be once we got to the airport... it was thirty seconds. We left for the airport two-and-a-half hours early. We got stuck in traffic on the freeway as everyone was apparently going to an NFL game. I began to worry that we would get there too late. We kept going and I worried also about the gas light that had been on since we had been in traffic. Well, we cleared the traffic with an hour and fifteen minutes before Anne's flight and were back on our way when my car stopped accelerating and starting coasting... We got off at the next exit on the momentum from the freeway and Anne used the GPS to find the nearest gas station... one mile away. We kept coasting until we got within 0.5 miles of the gas station. I got out, put the car in neutral, and asked Anne to take the wheel while I pushed. After pushing the car ten feet up a hill, I realized it would not work. So we put on the emergency brake and I sprinted toward the gas station with my thumb out to possibly get a ride. After covering half the distance, a car pulled over and a nice man offered me a ride to the gas station. He took me back to my car as close as he could (it was on an exit) and wished me luck. I sprinted back to the car where Anne was ready with the gas tank open. We filled it, got in, and were back on the way and we arrived thirty minutes before her flight was supposed to leave.

I know Dad will appreciate hearing that there were two cars that passed me before Craig pulled-over. Craig was a nice black man with glasses and a stutter. He offered to take me and Anne all the way to the airport but when I declined, he dropped me as close to my car as possible, wishing he could do more. He was a good Samaritan for me and Anne yesterday.

So I suppose the moral of the story is that we should fill our gas tanks on Saturday night. And we should always be willing to help someone who forgot this simple concept.

Much love to you all,

Benson

Memo from Mom - August

Hey there incredibles!

Here I am again to offer some advice - and believe me, it's only that - offered and not shoved at you.  Thus the email and not the lecture, okay?  I have been accused from time to time of directing my comments at certain family members, and although I have hoped for some to listen extra carefully, I am not actually pointing fingers.  Okay, so here we go.

I've been thinking this week about some of the things that make life easier - the practical things.  Thus, here is a short list of helpful hints from Mom.  Some of them you will already know and others you may not know.  I just hope that you will find them helpful.  Go ahead and laugh - that's what I'm here for, right?

• Clean out your drawers and closet and give things to the DI or Goodwill.  Others have needs that you can meet, and there are always a few things in our closets that we don't use.
• Clean one or two windows every time you get a chance - there's nothing like looking through a clean window to give you a fresh outlook on the world.
• Always run cold water while you run the garbage disposal.  While we're on the subject, you can sharpen your disposal blades by running egg shells or ice through the disposal.  The fastest way to clog the drain is to run carrot peelings or potato peelings through the disposal.  Don't take the chance of running celery ends through - sometimes they just get stuck.  To deodorize it, you can run a half lemon through the disposal.
• Dishwashers do need to be cleaned.  I learned this myself recently!  Dishwasher cleaner is sold alongside the DW detergent and is run through without the dishes when the washer gets mucky at the bottom.
• Clean the microwave without any cleaner, as the residue will make the food taste different.  Use a microwavable cup of water with lemon juice.  Put it in the microwave, heat until steamy, then carefully remove container and wipe clean with a soft cloth.
• Put things away as you go when you cook, as you watch movies, as you do a project, etc.  It makes the mess nonexistent, and no one has to clean up after you.  Imagine that!
• Recycle!  Not only will it help the environment, but it will help you feel better about yourself.
• Be a partner with others - in conversation, in cooking, in cleaning, in projects, in all parts of life.  Life is full of give and take.  Don't be the only talker - listen more; don't be the only one in the kitchen - make it a party and invite others to help.  You know what I'm saying.  I'm sure you also know I'm not the best example of this!  I'm learning...

Okay, so these aren't related to each other or anything, but I hope they might be somehow helpful to you.  We'll add to them as time goes on.  I'm just grateful to have children who continue to teach me in so many ways.  You set such wonderful examples of service and friendship, generosity and love.  I'm so grateful for your strong testimonies and the love you show to immediate and extended family.  You make my life worthwhile!  Thanks for being there, guys.

I love you forever!

Mom 

GPS

Hello Dear family,

I just wanted to add onto this blog. I think it would be a bad thing to just leave it alone. Perhaps I can add some fun stories to the lot here. I think it's time that I come clean with you all. I have a problem with directions. I know you all claim to have known this for a long time, but I have just recently come to terms with it. Recently, Stuart and Amy went on a trip to Puerto Rico. I asked if they would like me to take them to and from the airport. They agreed that that would be great. As I got into the car with them that Saturday morning, I had a thought cross my mind, maybe I should get my GPS and bring it with me (I was driving their car). I mentioned this thought to Stuart and Amy and Amy looked at me incredulously and said, "you can't just come back the same way? We're going to the airport!" I don't know how you'd all feel, but I felt stupid and said, "Oh of course I know... I was just kidding... I like hearing the voice..." In my stomach, however, I had a bad feeling welling up. That bad feeling turned out to be predictive as I attempted to return to their home from the airport. I ended up driving out to a toll bridge (why must I pay for my mistakes like this?). This toll bridge was not in Maryland. So I turned around, paid again, and almost went back all the way to the airport before I realized that I had missed a turn-off again! At this time, I decided to wake-up my dear Anne from her Saturday morning snooze and beg her help on Google maps. With her help, I made it back. The adventure would usually stop there, but I walked into Stuart and Amy's home and the security system started beeping, prompting me to enter the code that Stuart had left me. I didn't think to look at the paper because I remembered it well. Apparently I didn't remember all of it because the house alarm started shrieking and I started panicking. It was so loud that the neighbors knew that the Hagen's home had been infiltrated. I finally got the thing shut off and received a call from the security company. They asked for the password... and I didn't know what to say, so I gave them the code. They thanked me and sent the police. Let's just say that I was on the edge for the rest of the day. My GPS rode with me back to the airport the following week. We are sticking together from now on. As for the rest of you, if you need me to go somewhere, please tell me the state, city, and address. Me and my lady will get there.

Love you guys,

Benson

Memo From Mom: May 2010

Hello Wonderful Family!
 

As I kneel by my bed each morning and night, one thing that I consistently pray for - not in vain, but in faith - is that we will be unified as a family.  What I mean by this is that we will support one another.  Recently I was asked by Kelly Jacobson to participate in her Relief Society lesson and tell about how having family home evening and family prayer over the years has helped our family, and what rewards we are reaping from it now.  As I thought about that, one of the greatest rewards that came to mind was our closeness as a family.  I'm so grateful that we love each other and care about each other!  I'm grateful that we pray for each other and think about each other, and I hope that we know each other and realize when we truly need each other.

There are always times when we are in crisis mode or when we just need someone to talk to - and a friend is not to be found.  Family should always be there for one another, and I hope we are.  I hope you know that Dad and I pray that we are those parents for you - the ones who are easy to talk to and share with, and that you can easily go to for counsel.  I also hope you feel that ease with one another.  It seems that way to me, and I am so grateful for those blessings of family prayer and family home evening.  The other things that I mentioned that I have noticed are a familiarity and love for the scriptures, strong testimonies, comfort in discussing the gospel (I never had this at home!  It is an amazing blessing.), and peace in our home. 

Thank you for helping us to have success with our family home evenings over the years.  Thanks for participating in family prayer and scriptures when we had them.  It was hard sometimes, but thanks for trying.  There were some complaints over the years, but look how far we have come!  I'm so grateful to all of you for being so strong and committed.  You lead exemplary lives and I love watching you.

I LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER!

Mom

Pound it.

You might be wondering what an awesome guy like Matt is doing with such a strange girl like me...well, I'll tell you a secret: I won him over with two little words. Perhaps the words coming to your mind right now are "dinosaur," "even," "ever," or "totally." Although those words have their rotation in my lingo, "pound it" is my magic phrase. The first night I met Matt I thought to myself two things as he walked past me: "Wow, he has nice hair." and "If only I could date someone like that." Really deep, eh? I guess it was meant to be because he sat right by me and we started up a delightful conversation about how big his muscles were. :) (we really didn't talk about his muscles, but it seemed appropriate to put that in here) At the end of the night I was still a little flustered about why an awesome guy like Matt would talk to me and I didn't really know how to end the conversation so I just said, "pound it." Matt gave me the "who are you, you weirdo look" similar to:


At this point, I thought I totally blew it and left in a jiffy. I couldn't believe he called me after I left such a weird impression. Lucky for me, I soon found out that Matt is just as weird as I am. Yay!

The End. Even.

Bless the Bahamas!!!

Oh, dear family, should you ever have the chance to go to the Bahamas, please, please go!  Go for me!  Go for the humanity of it all!  Let me explain a little of why this place was blissful and heavenly.

The water was so blue, so calm, so clear.  The people so kind, warm, so friendly. The food, not so great, but edible.

Here are a few picture highlights for you:

Disney Magic

We went with high expectations to Mickey’s fun land. Aaron and I had a wonderful idea that we would tackle any and all Disney mascots we ran into. That didn’t happen. We ended up ghosting each other instead. Heather used my camera to take a picture showing everyone ghosting each other. Mom’s hair is all that is seen of her because she really got into it.

Mom wasn’t feeling great that day and Aaron pulled a face to make her feel better. I didn’t think Mom had passed that look on to any of us.

Meanwhile, Aaron was decidedly the coolest guy to ride the Winnie the Pooh ride that day. Look at this awesome chain he borrowed as he waited. He got so excited about his return to the Hundred Acre Woods that he had a hunger from some of Pooh’s honey. Later he got sick. Yep, I think that was some poison honey. With a bear named Pooh, you might doubt his food is sanitary.

So the day was a success. We survived the Haunted Mansion only to be held up at the end of the day by Jack Sparrow. All in all, pretty awesome for us all.

Buying Horses in Victorville

This is my story:

Dear family,

What a fun trip we had together! As I write this, I am aware that most of the family is still enjoying vacation time. Perhaps Aaron and Matt are doing hundreds of sit-ups in an effort to out-do one another. I can just hear them wincing, then screaming in pain... oh the competitive nature in our family hurts. I believe we all got this competitive nature from our dear parents. Yes, that same mellow couple who were described by Stu as "Ward and June Cleaver". They still show it every once in a while. For the most part, however, they enjoy life very calmly. I enjoyed many hours with Mom and Dad on the road this past week. We began with typical Hammond timing. Our scheduled departure from home was 9am. We finally left at 11:30am. We stopped by Sam's Club on the way out to pick-up a new member of the family: the Garmin GPS system. We figured out that it can speak in Dutch, Spanish, American English, British English, and Australian English. There were many other languages that we didn't try that were probably very interesting as well. Dutch was Dad's idea. This was a good idea until we realized we understood it about as well as he did, "they said something about a turn". Spanish was fun for a moment but still left our fearless driver in confusion. Next we turned to Emily the British woman. I have always fancied girls with British accents, but Emily had a temper which would not do with people as lost as us. She was notably dismayed when we made a wrong turn and so we switched to our Australian gentleman, Lee. Lee was an instant favorite for Mom who mentioned he was like Hugh Jackman (while Dad thought he was more like Crocodile Dundee). So we all continued along the road with Lee. We set Las Vegas as the destination and continued along. When we arrived in Las Vegas, we found that Lee was leading us to the strip. Dad grew very conflicted because he wanted to follow Lee, but he didn't want to end up in the strip! So he finally drove the opposite direction Lee had told him and Lee sounded dejected as he said, "recalculating". This happened a few more times, but the best was just before we stopped for dinner. Dad decided that there were not really any good options for food so he went down this street towards the Wendy's restaurant. Yes, we went to Las Vegas and stopped for dinner at Wendy's...scrapbook moment. So just before he pulled in at Wendy's, Lee wanted him to turn right on a street to continue on to California. Dad started slowing down as if he was about to turn, then resisted and continued on to Wendy's. We were proud that he had been firm with Lee. So the destination that night was Victorville. Yes, it is a real place, yes, people know about it...in fact, there was an IHOP and a Denny's! We stayed that night in the Day's Inn Motel. It was a nice place where we got a deal! We settled down for the night and Mom and I were almost asleep when Aaron called...every phone we had. Apparently Zoe was lonely...that's why he called...at 11pm. So since he had called all our phones, Dad determined that they should be turned off so they wouldn't disturb us as we slept. So he turned mine off. Then he couldn't find Mom's phone so he turned my phone back on and used it as a flashlight to find and dismantle Mom's phone. The best part of this story was seeing Dad's satisfaction at his clever move. The close association with the phones hadn't helped him notice that the time zone was different, however, and he proceeded to get up at "6:40am". It was really 5:40am and he went out to the car to get something and then locked the car...twice so that it honked waking us up...at 5:40am. We had a good laugh and went back to sleep. When we finally left and went to breakfast at Denny's, I asked Dad to try some new lingo to make the trip interesting. I told him that the missionaries in my MTC district from Wyoming would say, "I'm going to see a man about a horse" when they excused themselves to use the restroom. I told Dad he should try it, to which he responded..."I'm going to go use the restroom." I was dismayed. Dad returned a few minutes later and said, "I just bought some horses". It was a good start to the day. We all got along well with Lee and soon picked up Heather, continued on to the beach house, and relaxed. More to come later...

Well that's the news from the Potomac River, where all the women are working, all the men are good dressers, and all the kids are in daycare.

Memo from Mom

Hello amazing family!

When Dad and I were listening to Liz Broadbent Walker speak in sacrament meeting recently, she mentioned some sage wisdom from her grandmother that we both enjoyed so much that I want to pass it on to you:  We did our very best as parents with what we had.  Please don't criticize us for our mistakes.  Take what we gave you, keep what you like and change what you don't like.

I guess as parents, especially when we started as young as we did, we need some kind of disclaimer!  It's tough to make the right decisions, especially when you're dealing with someone's life.  We were inexperienced, as are all beginning parents, and sweet Heather had the privilege of being our "experimental model".  We must have done all right, because she is fully functional in society, and completely wonderful.  Each of you is very different, so of course, we know it's not some secret formula we used that made you into model citizens, but the common thread that we are most proud of is that we love each of you very deeply and always have - no matter what - and we have always prioritized the gospel with complete honesty.  You all have wonderful testimonies.  When we had our Christmas Eve testimony meeting, Dad and I couldn't stop talking about how perfect it made the holiday.  You gave us the greatest gift by sharing your testimonies with us.  That deep witness is the most meaningful of all.  We could not ask for more amazing children - all five of you are our greatest blessings.  Know of our gratitude for making our lives so very blessed and so very happy!  (That's why I just can't stop smiling!)

"The world says seeing is believing.  Testimony is believing, then seeing."  May you see many great things ahead!

Love you forever and ever,

Mom