Chanllenge for the rest of the Hyde Family

I have decided to re-join Toastmasters. I am a member of Highriser Toastmasters Club #1171. We meet every thursday evening at 7 pm for just one hour at the Bridgeland Community Hall in Bridgeland. Before I left Toastmasters in 2005 I had obtained my Competent Toastmasters Award by giving a total of ten speeches in my club. Then a certain man in my life took up my time on Thursday evenings, I am talking about my wonderful husband, Ardell. I felt that our courting needed more time than my Toastmasters Club did, so I dropped out of the club. Now I have decided to get back into it, because I enjoyed doing the speeches so much. The fellowship of the club members were such a nice ring of friends and fellow toastmasters who were striving for the same goals as myself. We have a small club of 7 to 9 members and are always looking for new members in our club. This year is going to be an exciting one, as the INTERNATIONAL convention is being held in Calgary, so to be able to volunteer for roles at the convention in August will be a lifetime opportunity. If any of the family --- and mainly Allen Ackroyd -- would like to compete with me at getting our ATM Bronze it would be most rewarding for yourself and your goals to speak with proper grammar, and not be nervous infront of an audience and speak with no ums or awes. If anyone of you would care to join our club on Thursday evenings ---- hint, hint --- Allen, please do so. For anyone else in the family that lives in Calgary, it would be most rewarding for you as well. Fees are only $50 for six months - a steal of a deal.
Allen and I competed together to get our Competent Toastmasters Award and I don't know when Allen got his, but my certificate hangs in my office wall and I got it on December 3, 2003. I think Allen beat me to that one. If any of the family would like to join us, I could mentor you along in your path to success. I would enjoy doing so. Just let me know. I think you all know my email address or phone number. Give me a call.

Shirley Wilson

I've been thinking alot lately about the blessing of children and babies in our lives. Our Heavenly Father sends these little children to us for a short time. Sometimes their time with us is so short, we are left to wonder. We have been blessed to have a tiny baby this last month. Heidi received a 4 lb baby boy, who was in the hospital for his 1st week, went home with Heidi for less than 24 hrs, then back to the hospital for about 10 days. He is home now and thriving. He is up to 5.9 lbs. and doing really well.

We have another baby in the Boyer family that is still struggling. Tate is Barb Baker's son from Cardston. Here's their story.....

Dear Family,
As some of you may know Tate and Loralie have been in the hospital for the past 3mths with their little Taelan. She was born in Oct. with hydrophilic(which is water on the brain), a bi lateral cleft palate, and a Cyst on her brain. Taelan spent her first mth in the hospital, had a shunt put in and did ok with it for two mths. But during that time Loralie would make a trip up to Calgary(they live in Leth) once a week to have her fitted and have her appliance built up so they operate on her lip. One of those trips they saw the neurosurgeon and Taelan shunt had failed so they did an operation, taking her internal shunt to have it externalized. She has had 10 operations to this day, tried to have her shunt replaced a few times but has an infection and her fluid can't reabsorb back into the body. So her shunt is still externalized, meaning she has to lie in bed to be levelled off to have the fluid drain and can only be held 4hrs a day, an hour at a time. They have been in the hospital now for the past 3mths. Taelan just had a surgery this past wed for her lip and that went really well. They did a good job. But now the doctors are saying that her infection is still growing, the antibiotics that she has been on for the past few weeks are not working and they are thinking that the cyst has something to do with it. They want to do another operation this week to remove the cyst. We don't know if that will be the best idea. We would like to have a family fast for her this sunday, the 27th. (To keep in mind that the doctors will be able to find what is wrong and she will be able to recover and they can all go back home:))As well, during this fast we would like us to fast for Sara's mom and keep Jeff and Sara's family in your prayers. For those of you in Calgary,I know both families could use our support, we are all busy, that I do know too, but nothing is more important then families.
Love you all,
The Baker Family

Please keep these babies in your prayers. It's so incredible to watch the struggles and challenges of these tiny spirits and their families. They teach me so many things. I have little to complain about. I love my family so much. We are truly blessed with so much.

Love, Colleen

Busy Week in the Hyde Family

This is a busy week for celebrations in the Hyde family. Happy Birthday to Pierce. What can we say about Pierce?? For a little baby that needed some special TLC after he was born, he has grown into a mighty fine big boy. I know he loves to eat his vegetables and he loves learning from books. He is a very intelligent child and you can see how he thrives on his discoveries in life. Pierce has the cutest smile when he looks at you and kinda turn his head and smiles. It is so cute. He has lots to do to keep up with his big sister. I admire how the two of them get along so well. As their mom tells us they fight when they are together, but when they are apart they are lonely. It is good for them to be apart for their one on one with Mom, but they love each other too. Have a Happy Birthday on Thursday Pierce, and next year you get to go to school for the whole day and spend time with all the kids at school.

Happy Anniversay to Gaylene and Duane. Hope your day goes well. The two of you have a lovely little family. Taylor is growing into a gorgeous young woman. She sure had fun working at Papa's hotel for the spring break. I watched her in the restaurant and she was very helpful to the staff and the patrons there. Jordan did a fine job working with the maids too. He could make the beds, clean bathrooms and vaccuum rooms just like the maids could. I was told he was a good go for this and go for that too, saving the girls lots of steps in their daily tasks. Sidney got to stay home with mom and have a really good one on one week with MOM. Gaylene has turned into a lovely Mom and wife for Duane. I admire you both for your dedication to your family. You children all adore you for being their for them. Your love and respect for your children is being returned to you I am sure.

Happy Birthday to Beth too. What a charm Beth is in the family. She too lives for her two girls. Hayley and Ava will be basket ball players for sure. Hayley is already a good cheerleader and loves to attend the basketball games with Mom and Dad. Both Hayley and Ava are growing so fast. Beth is a very supportive wife for Ryan, and following him all over the globe for his work in the summer and his ball games in the winter. Colleen is so proud of their little family.

It is indeed a joy to have Pierce, Gaylene and Duane and Beth in the Hyde family. We love you all so have a wonderful day. It is yours to enjoy and celebrate.

Auntie Shirley

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMERON

Hope your day goes just the way you would like it to go. It is your day. Spend it wisely.

What can we say about Cameron? He is the best husband for Nickee and he must have patience with such a big family. We know you spend lots of time with your family, and we can all tell how much the kids love their DAD. We don't see much of Cameron when he does come home to Canada. He is usually off to a camp with the boys in Scouts or whatever. He does spend lots of time at soccer games watching Loren and Ashley play their team sports. He shows all his children good example by being supportive to them in their endeavors. Your family picture shows that, the rest of all your aunts and uncles are aging, but then your family is growing up and moving on. Enjoy them all while you can. It won't be long before your will be empty nesters like the rest of us, and you can enjoy peace and quiet then too. We love you Cameron for just being the best dad in all the land. Hope your day an enjoyable one. Heck you must be at least 30 by now, right???

Auntie Shirley

Puppet Show Saturday Evening

For any of you who like to laugh at my parents, we're going to do that on Saturday.

Well, not directly, of course. Our ward is having a talent show and Jill and Peirce are going to do a puppet show. The story is: The Rat. I'm sure a few of you are familiar with it. :0)

Should be fun!

Dawn

Olympic Dreams

Last month there was a bit in the school newsletter that said in April they would be having an athlete come speak to the students. They needed someone to volunteer to drive the person from their hotel, to the school, on to the next school they were speaking at, and then back to the hotel. I was instantly interested - but I didn't think I stood a chance since I hadn't got around to reading the newsletter for a week or 10 days after it had been out. Surprisingly enough though no one else had jumped at the chance - so I got the job! I was especially interested in doing this because Jill has a goal to go to the Olympics as a swimmer - so to hang out with someone that had done that seemed like a great opportunity.

On Thursday night I went to a meeting where they gave us all the supplies we needed (posters for the schools, tattoos for the kids, and money for lunch). The athlete I was supposed to drive around wasn't there - but I got to meet a number of others. Jeff Payne (skeleton racer) was there as were a number of 'athletics' athletes and water polo players. It was fun.

I was a little nervous about the prospect of hanging around with this person all day. I worried that maybe I'd have to spend the day with someone that was quite full of himself. That sure wasn't the case though. The athlete that we were assigned to was Jaret Llewellyn. He's a PanAmerican athlete that has tons of medals and awards and world championship titles for waterskiing and wakeboarding. He was just terrific! Very down to earth and very easy to talk to. He had lots of good advise for Jill and told some great stories. Jaret is from Innisfail (how does a guy from Innisfail become a professional water skiier?!) and now lives in Florida.

Here's a video about him:

In between the two presentations we went for lunch with him and had plenty of time to talk about training and diet and discipline and mental toughness. It was really very inspiring!

Jaret Llewellyn at the second school doing his presentation.

Jill and Jaret

At the end of the day Jaret gave Jill a poster and autographed it. He signed it to 'the future super star'. She was more than thrilled!

What a great day!

Our Trip to Salt Lake

Some of you are aware that Gayle and I went to SLC last week end for a Danish Missionary Reunion as well as to Conference and to check out the statue of Henry Eastman Day that is in City Park in Draper, Utah. It was dedicated at a huge Day Family Reunion in 2002. It was a thrill to go and see it, both because if it my great great grandfather and because the artist is a friend of ours. Dennis Smith is the sculptor and he served in Denmark at the same time Gayle did.

We took Jill and Jordan with us and they are great travellers. Everyone commented on what great kids they were and how well behaved they were. We could do nothing but agree. Somebody at the Conference Centre asked me if they were twins. They waited in line with me for 1 1/2 hours to get into the Conference Centre, then we waited another 1 1/2 hours before the session started and the session was two hours long. That was a phenomenal amount of time for two ten year olds to spend waiting and sitting and yet they were soooo good. They were thrilled also to see the statue in the park and realize that it was their great great great great grandfather and his wives and that he was the second person to build a house in Draper. We also went to city hall and asked for address of the house he built in the hopes that we could get a photo. They gave us the address and we drove to it only to find out that it is a Joann's Fabrics store now. The kids thought it was quite appropriate for my ancestor's house to be replaced with a fabric store.

In this photo, Jill is checking out the artist's signature. That's right it is Dennis Smith. Some of you may recognize him as the artist that does all the church statues such as the ones in Nauvoo and many at the temples all over the world.

This is the information monument that is in front of the statue. It shows his three wives and if you can enlarge the photo, you can read the information about Henry Eastman Day. We are the descendants of his first wife, Leah Rawlins Day. We found out that Henry was not a member of the church until after he arrived in Salt Lake City. He followed Leah here when she came across the plains with her family. He joined the church after he got there. He had much to do with the church before he came to Utah though. He knew Joseph Smith, and had altercations with those who would destroy the prophet. It is interesting reading.

very good. Very interesting reading.....

love Marvelle