10 Years Ago

10 years ago I learned what a terrorist was.

10 years ago I learned what the Twin Towers were.

10 years ago I woke up earlier than normal, got ready for school, had some time to kill so I decided to go into my mom's bedroom to watch some cartoons. I turned on the TV and saw the Twin Towers. I turned to my mom and told her that a building was on fire. When I turned back to the TV, I saw the second plane crash into the South Tower. I will never forget that image. I didn't understand what exactly was going on, but I was afraid. I turned back to look at my mom and she had a blank expression on her face and then she said "Ripsy is there." Ripsy is my older sister. She is from Armenia and she came to live with my family as an exchanged student when I was 6. She is exactly what I wanted in a big sister, especially when she helped me with my math homework. Ripsy is smart, she graduated from BYU and from Harvard. She then went on to work for a big company in New York City, and her office was blocks away from the Twin Towers.

10 years ago I got on the bus and went to school. I was in 8th grade, and I had just rearranged my schedule so that my first class of the morning I was an Office Aid for the Main Office and my job was answering phones, and it was my very first day doing it. The more phone calls I received from frantic parents asking me if our school had a bomb shelter, the more I realized the seriousness of the situation.

10 years ago while working in the Main Office I had to go to the library to give a message to one of the teachers there. I walked in and saw one of my teachers, Mr. Chilcoat, standing in front of the big screen TV, with his hand over his mouth and his eyes closed. Students sat around and watched and nobody said a word. I stood near the TV and watched as the first tower fell. I choked back the tears, ran back to the office, called my mom and asked her if she had heard from Ripsy. She hadn't.

10 years ago I got home from school and my mom was waiting in the kitchen for everyone. Ripsy had told someone that she was safe and word got to us, but we still hadn't talked to her. Several days later she called.

10 years ago Rispy was at work when she heard a loud crash. The alarms went off and then a voice came on over the speakers and said it was a false alarm and they didn't need to evacuate. Later she heard another crash, and looked outside to see airplane parts, building parts, and debris fly by her window. The alarm went off again, and this time they were told to evacuate. Ripsy walked outside with two of her coworkers and started walking away from the towers. When the towers fell, they ran. The three of them ran together but the debris was catching up. Ahead of them was a very tall man that pulled them into an alley as they were swallowed up by the debris and covered them with his coat. After the debris settled, Rispy had to walk several miles home.

10 years ago I learned what it meant to be proud to be an American. I had sung all the Patriotic songs before, but now I understood. And I learned that no matter what happens in life, evil won't win.

I've Lost It

I've lost my blogging groove. I used to blog way more than I do now and honestly I don't think anyone (besides my mom) cares. I still "need" to blog about the rest of our Arizona trip, but Rick took 2000 pictures at Lake Powell and sort of gave up after that. I've been putting off writing this blog because normally I know how I'm going to word it or what clever things I'm going to say, but most importantly how I'm going to arrange the pictures.

I've got nothing.

So I guess that you readers (I can say confidently that I know people read my blog because I have a blog tracker, but I don't know who, and I don't know why) will have to put up with my not clever (I think that saying I was clever before is a bit of a stretch, what I mean is 2 times since I've had this blog I've laughed at something I've written) blog. Deal with it.

So after Lake Powell we went to Phoenix to visit my brother. It was hot (huge understatement) but fun. After Phoenix we went to Tucson to look at where we would possibly live if Rick goes back to the Railroad. Tucson actually reminded me a lot of Provo. I didn't expect to see mountains there. The best part of Tucson was this:

My beloved Sonoran Hotdogs. We stopped to eat at El Guero Canelo where we had a bacon-wrapped hotdog feast. I recently had some intense cravings for a Sonoran dog so we tried to make them ourselves.

I was pleased with how they turned out. Now I can die (of heart failure) happy.

After Tucson we headed to the Brimhall Ranch for the reunion. There were a ton of people there - all relatives. Rick's job was taking the family picture. When he asked the guy in charge how many people to expect the guy said "somewhere between 500 and 1000 people". Seriously. They had to take 2 cameras and take the pictures and then photoshop the 2 pictures together. Rick is a photography magician.

While we were at the ranch we slept outside on the deck. The following picture will describe exactly how I feel about having slept in a tent for Lake Powell and on the deck at the Ranch.

And even though I hate camping I decided to be a trooper about it and have a great attitude so I only cried twice and I only whined about bugs and dirt for 3 of the 10 days. I'm making huge improvements.

The absolute best part of the trip was this:

My Father-in-Law, with a BBgun in his hands, shooting at the 15+ bats that had gathered in the corner. Some bats flew away, some got hit and landed on the ground. The 5 bats that landed on the ground were then swept up and thrown in the garbage. You can't make this stuff up.

Lake Powell 2010

We went to Lake Powell.

And it was really beautiful there.

This was our houseboat. Mom and Dad Brimhall got the bed, everyone else slept either on top or in a tent. Rick and I camped out in a tent and I fell asleep every night to a beautiful view.

The kids played on the beach or in the water literally from the time the sun came up until bedtime. They swam, they hiked.

And the girls turned into mermaids.

We all took turns jumping off the houseboat doing tricks.

JJ was doing all sorts of flips.

Jake is quite the stuntman.

This kid could spin almost 5 times before hitting the water.

My Brother-in-Law Mark, showing us how it's done.

Katelyn doing twists.

Can you tell that Ishel is a cheerleader?

Rick and I had the best tricks.

Rick's trick was plugging his nose every time he went in the water.

My trick was not drowning.

Because I wore a life jacket at all times.

We decided to make things a little more dangerous by jumping off cliffs. Although these "cliffs" were about 10 feet tall, and the houseboat was about 15 feet tall. Somehow jumping off the cliffs was way scarier.

Von Logan was brave and jumped off the high part.

From left to right - Me, Rick, Sarah. What you can't see is me slipping on my shoe and bellyflopping. Felt good.

Next up was tubing and wake boarding.

For a second there we thought we would lose Matt.

But in the end it was JJ who ate it.

Rick went with 2 of his nieces, thinking that Mark (the captain) would take it slow. He was wrong. Poor Ishel and Miranda heard Uncle Ricky say a lot of swear words on that tube.

Jaime got like 5 feet of air.

Miranda is a wakeboarding pro. She makes it look easy.

My proudest moment at the lake was catching a catfish. This was the 2nd fish I've ever caught in my life. I'm basically an outdoorsman now.

Coming soon - Phoenix, Tucson, The Ranch, and learning what my in laws almost named my husband. Stay tuned.

Mama

I asked my mom what she wanted for Mother's Day this year and she said "write a blog post about me." How selfish, like Mother's Day is ALL about her. Just because she gave birth to me and my 3 siblings and then did everything she could to get my sister Ripsy to be a part of our family. Just because she did an awesome job raising us. Just because she is the first Female Chaplain in the history of the LDS church who knows everything about every religion possible and would teach us about other religions for Family Home Evening. Just because she was a working mom who saved lives of troubled teenagers and still managed to keep a clean house and have a warm meal ready every evening. Just because of those things she thinks she gets a whole blog post dedicated to her, when I could easily write about other things such as how interesting Dr. Phil is going to be this month or how cold my house is? Well, fine. Have it your way, Mom.

TOP 10 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY MOM

1. Anytime I have a question about cleaning, cooking, or anything else in life, she has an answer for me.

2. She has a bright blue suit that has yellow school buses on it. It makes me smile every time I'm at work and from across campus I can spot "the magic school bus" outfit.

3. She laughs at my misfortune, which then makes me laugh about it, which makes me realize I'm being over dramatic about something. Like one time when I was in High School and in the midst of boy drama (I don't even remember what it was) I said "Mom, do you think I'm ever going to get married?" She looked me right in the eye, patted my back, and said with complete sympathy "No, Honey." We laughed for 5 minutes.

4. "Jodi, when I die, I want to have a closed casket. Seriously, there is nothing beautiful about looking at a dead body. Just keep the casket closed. Unless I've lost like 50 pounds and I look really good. If I look the best I've ever looked then yeah have it be an open casket, otherwise keep it shut." And "At my funeral, I don't want you guys to tell sob stories and talk about how much you miss me, that's not fun, I want you guys to get up there and talk about all the embarrassing things I've done in life. I want people to be crying tears of laughter. I've already started writing down all my embarrassing stories that you can talk about."

5. My mom is honest. She has no problem telling me "That color of brown looks hideous on you. You look good in black, red, blue, purple, dark brown, and pink. Don't ever wear gold, yellow, brown, or green, those are colors that look good on Jensenne." And one time when I was first experimenting with eyeliner I wore it just on my bottom eyelid and when I came out of the bathroom she looked at me and said "...why does your face look upside down?"

6. She buys me clothes. For no reason.

7. She always has been and always will be a "cheerleader mom" even if it's with things that are not that cool. For example: my blog. She loves it. I'm not even really sure why. But she can't just leave it at "I like your blog", she is my number 1 reader, number 1 commenter, and she talks about my blog on facebook, and probably to strangers standing in line at Maceys. It's almost embarrassing.

8. She has horrible luck when it comes to looking normal in public. One time she ran errands all day and then went to work. At the end of her work day someone told her her fly was down. And it had been all day. Another time she was in her office using one of THESE exercise bands and she got it completely tangled in her super curly hair and the campus safety officer had to come help her get it out. Another time she was in in Nauvoo and she walked around everywhere with her dressed tucked into her pantyhose. When she said she is writing a list of embarrassing stories for us tell at her funeral, she wasn't kidding.

9. She is the ultimate example of patience and unconditional love and she isn't afraid to show her true feelings.

10. She is, without a doubt, the biggest smart ass I've ever met. It makes my life way funnier.

Love you Mama

Family Pictures

Are they the cutest cousins ever or what?

Jay was throwing snowballs at Bailey.

Amber, Bailey, and Jay.

We had to wear scarves for some of the pictures and Jensenne wasn't super happy about it. This is her way of retaliating.

Ryan has the cutest smile I've ever seen.

Hot.

Up until a few years ago my dad was the least photogenic and most angry looking person in our family. I guess this picture is proof that miracles happen.

Love those blue eyes!

The whole team. Notice Jensenne, my long legged little big sister.

High five to Lacey and Jake for taking the family picture. High five to Rick for taking the individual family pictures. And for being cute. High five to me for not posting the worst picture ever taken of me and Jensenne. Maybe someday I'll post it so that you can all have a good laugh and know what we would look like as fat Asians.

Ode To My Parents

Earlier this week it was my Dad's birthday, and my Mom's birthday was a few months ago but she was out of town so I couldn't properly acknowledge it. I don't tell my parents nearly enough how awesome I think they are. Here goes.

MY MOM

My mom has more friends than Mother Teresa. Seriously. She is the most likeable person ever. Probably even more likeable than Santa Clause. When I was in high school she was friends with all of my friends. My friends (and teachers) would always ask me how my mom was. I always thought that was the weirdest thing ever, because really, how often to a bunch of teenagers get together and one of them says "Hey, how is your mom?" and another chimes in with "Yeah, how is she? Your mom is so cool." The answer is not that often. Although I thought it was weird then, looking back that actually is really neat. When I have kids I want to be the cool mom that everybody asks about.

My mom has worked with At-Risk-Youth for 20 years. She is the first LDS Female Chaplain in the world. Can you say that about your mom?

My mom is really funny. I love it when she swears. She never does it out of anger, she does it jokingly, and it's the funniest thing ever.

My mom is really pretty. And I love it when people tell me I look like her.

My mom is the biggest spaz ever. She always has stories about her zipper being down for 16 hours or her dress being tucked into her underwear while she walks around Maceys. It's classic. The best part is that she just laughs about it. I'm definitely not that secure with myself. If I walked around Nauvoo with my dress tucked into my panty hose and I was basically mooning everyone around me I definitely would have shot myself already. I told my mom once that when I think of her I think of Superwoman - saving the world one troubled teen at a time, but also having her cape caught in her zipper and toilet paper stuck to her shoe. That's the perfect way to describe my mom.

My mom always pushed me to do things I didn't want to do but that would benefit me. Like going to girls camp every year. I'm not even going to pretend I liked girls camp, but I went every year, and I always learned something.

Every job I've ever had I got because of my mom. She either knew someone or knew of a job she thought I'd be good at. She is also the reason I am in school right now to become a Medical Assistant. Picking a major is something I struggled with, but my mom told me about this MA program and voila, here I am, loving work and loving school.

My mom frequently told us either through a Family Home Evening lesson, by bearing her Testimony, or by a simple prayer how she felt about the Church and what her beliefs were. But the most important thing about that is that she never had to tell us, we already knew because of her example and the way she lived her life.

MY DAD

My dad is really funny, but not on purpose. He just does things that makes me laugh. Like coming into FroYo when I worked there and sampling every flavor 4 times and then after 20 minutes of struggling with what flavor to pick he would settle with a small vanilla. He always does stuff like that and my family always laughs about it. You know how people say that if you are a girl you marry someone like your father or if you're a boy you marry someone like your mother? I never thought that was true until last week when Rick and I went to the movies and he spent 10 minutes deciding on a popcorn size. He had the worker show him the size of the small bag and the medium bag, then he had her open up both of the bags so he could look inside and see how much popcorn they would hold, and then he looked at both bags for a good 3 minutes going through an internal battle. He finally settled for a medium sized popcorn, and I thought his dilema was over until the worker said "Do you want regular popcorn or kettle corn?" and the struggle began again. I am glad that Rick is like that just like my dad is so that our kids will someday tell stories about how their Dad has no problem deciding on big things in life like a mission or getting married, but put a medium size drink and a large size drink in front of him and he just cannot commit.

My dad is a hard worker and will do anything for his family. My mom recently told me a story of when they were first married. My dad worked for a construction company and every morning before work he would throw up. She didn't know why he was sick every morning until he finally told her that his boss knew he was Mormon, and since my dad was a member his boss wouldn't let my dad take a break from working out in the heat all day to get a drink of water. My dad could have easily told his boss that he wasn't mormon so that his boss would not harass him, but my dad is an honest man.

My dad will tell you a joke or a funny story 3 times. At first he will forget the punch line, and so he'll stop, try to remember it, laugh to himself about it and then finally tell it. Then we will all laugh but he will laugh harder than anyone, and he will proceed to tell the joke or story again, laugh again, and then say "oh man, that just was so funny when (insert joke or story here for a 3rd time)."

My dad has a beautiful collection of what I like to call Huxtable Sweaters. You've seen the Cosby show, right? So you remember that Dr. Huxtable always looked like this.

The best thing about these Huxtable Sweaters that my dad collects is that it made for beautiful Christmas pictures.

My dad is not a man of many words, but he is a man of great example. I can always count on him if I ever need anything.

I love my parents.

An Adoption Story

There are 9 kids in Rick's family. He is the youngest boy and he has one sibling who is younger than him. Of the 9 kids, 6 were home grown, and 3 were adopted. Rick's birthday is coming up soon and its been making me think a lot about his adoption. When Rick and I went out to Arizona for the Brimhall Family Reunion I had his mom tell me his adoption story. In honor of Rick's upcoming birthday I'd like to share this story with all of you. Yes, all three of you.

Marc, Rick, and Marci are the 3 adopted children in the family. Marc and Rick are both Native American. Marc is Hopi and Rick is Ute. Rick's parents had always wanted to adopt a Native American baby and they were so thrilled when they finally got Marc, especially because this was during a time that adopting Native American babies was a very difficult thing to do because of Tribal laws. Some families had adopted Native American babies and had had them for years and the tribes were taking them back. Well, a few years later Rick's parents were at church and people were coming up to them and saying "We heard you are adopting another Native American baby! That is so great!" To which his parents responded "...What?". Rick's older sisters Alicia and Christina had been telling everyone that their parents were going to adopt another Native American baby and that they were so excited about it. When they all got home from church that day Rick's mom said to his sisters "I would love to adopt another Native American baby, but there are laws against it right now. Why are you telling everyone we are getting another Indian baby?" To which they replied "Mom, we prayed about it, and we are going to adopt another Native American baby."

A few months later they get a phone call from a school counselor who works at a school for Native Americans in Brigham City. This school counselor had a young girl named Angie in her office. Angie was pregnant and she wanted to give her baby up for adoption. She refused to give the name of the Father to anyone, so the state could not help her and her tribe could not help her. If she could not find a way to give this baby up for adoption she was going to have the baby and then move back home on the reservation in Duchesne. The school counselor knew a family in Provo who had been able to adopt a Native American. She gave them a call. Later that night Rick's parents held a family meeting. They explained that there was a young girl who needed to give her baby up for adoption. Alicia and Christina screamed with joy and yelled "We told you so!" Rick's oldest brother Von Logan didn't know how he felt about it so the family decided that they would pray about it all week and the following Sunday they would call the school counselor with their answer. 3 days later Von Logan came up to his mom and said "Mom, I prayed about it. The answer is yes.".

Angie came and lived with the Brimhall's for 6 months. During these 6 months she became a part of the family. She attended church, family home evening, family dinner, family everything with them. On September 24, 1982 Alicia and Christina came home from school to find that Angie was gone and their mom was gone. That meant that Angie had the baby! They couldn't wait to see their new baby sister (they were certain Rick was going to be a girl). Moments later their mom called them from the hospital and told them Angie had the baby. Their first question was "is it a girl!?" They were disappointed to hear that they had another brother, but Rick's mom said "Once you see him and see how cute he is you will change your mind." And she was right, they fell in love with Ricky the moment they laid eyes on him and even though he was a boy that didn't stop them from dressing him up like a girl.

Angie went back to school and worked hard to get caught back up with her credits. A year later she called Rick's parents and said she was going to graduate from High School and she wanted them to be there. She also told them that she was graduating from Seminary and she would like them to be there for that as well. While they were at her Seminary Graduation she gave them a big surprise. Not only was she graduating from Seminary, she was the main speaker, and she had been head of the Seminary Counsel that year. During her speech she spoke of the Brimhall family. She then stopped and said "I would like to ask Brother Brimhall if he would baptize me on Saturday." Rick's Dad stood up then and there and said "Yes!"

Rick's Dad baptized Angie the following Saturday. After graduation Angie got a scholarship to BYU. She lived in Provo for a year and she would come over for family dinners and to take pictures of Ricky. For years to follow she would continue to keep in touch with Rick's parents, and Rick's mom would send her pictures of him. Rick met Angie when he was 19 right before he left on his mission. He has told me that right when he saw her he instantly loved her. She was the woman that gave him life and gave him to his wonderful family. Rick still keeps in touch with Angie and back in June we went to go visit her and we were able to meet Rick's 4 biological siblings, along with his grandma and many relatives.

Up until I asked Rick's mom to tell me the story of his adoption, Rick had not known the whole story himself. After I told him I asked him questions like "How come you never asked? Have you always known you were adopted? When did you understand what adoption really was? How come you haven't asked Angie who your Dad is?" His answer was simple.

"I've always known I was adopted. I don't look anything like my family, but that doesn't mean I'm different. My biological Dad is only a sperm donor to me. Richard Brimhall is my real Dad. He gave me my name and he taught me everything I know. I am a Brimhall."

The Brimhall Boys

Jaime, Timo, Marc, Rick 2, Rick 1, Burr, Von Logan

The Whole Team

Jaime, Von Logan, Burr, Timo, Marc, Rick, Rick, LaPriel, Alicia, Christina, Marci

My Mom

First Female LDS Chaplain Helps Troubled Teens

Karen Tapahe

---

“Okay, what’s your dragon?” asked Tami Harris as she approached a teenager who was having a tough day.

Harris is the Chaplain at Heritage Schools, Inc., and she was referring to a book she recently read to the students about a dragon that gets bigger as it is ignored. The teen knew exactly what she is talking about and started telling Chaplain Tami about his “dragon,” or problem, that he needed to deal with.

“I’ve always loved teenagers and I remember what a painful experience it is to be a teen,” said Harris.

Her ability to connect with teens has led to everyday miracles on Heritage’s campus. As a nonprofit residential treatment center for adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders, Heritage provides a setting for helping through spirituality.

Growing up as the child of a military chaplain, Harris had a desire for a spiritual career that started when she was young. Attending various religious services and activities on the military base gave her valuable interfaith experiences and led her to strive for more. “I had always wanted to be a seminary teacher and was so sad that only men could be seminary teachers at that time,” she explained.

In 1988, her father, Crozier Fitzgerald, had asked her to help him in his work as chaplain at another treatment center as his cancer weakened him. Two days later, he passed away and Harris found herself formally beginning her career as a chaplain, the first female chaplain in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tami became Heritage’s first professional chaplain.

Once a part time position, the chaplain’s job has grown during Tami’s service. Twenty different religions are represented with the students at Heritage, and it is Tami’s responsibility to work with the clergy in the community to attend to the students’ spiritual needs.

“As the 2009 president of the Utah Valley Ministerial Association, I am able to network with my colleagues to provide a number of services on campus for our students,” she said. Ecclesiastical leaders from several different religions regularly hold services or provide religious/spiritual study on campus, and Harris conducts a weekly interfaith worship service.

In addition to conducting interfaith services, she participates in meetings about the progress and specific needs of the youth, brings in inspirational speakers, meets with each of the 160 students regularly, and has established a sexual abstinence program for the youth.

And Harris continues to make history. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in human services, she went on to complete her Clinical Pastoral Education. Tami is now a Board Certified Associate Pastoral Counselor and Clinical Chaplain, the first residential treatment center chaplain in Utah to have earned those certifications.

The youth at Heritage come from all over the country and from a wide variety of backgrounds and problems. Attending church services usually begins as a chance for something different to do, and often ends in opening doors to faith, hope, and spirituality.

Harris’s guidance in helping the youth get past the anger and loss in their lives is evident from the comments they leave behind in the Worship Center’s goodbye journal:

“Tami is great and has one of the biggest hearts. She makes the services fun. She knows teenagers like us have a hard time sitting and being quiet while being lectured.”

“I didn’t really think I was worthy to go to church, but through talking to Tami and others, I slowly started coming back.”

So how does Harris feel about her job? “I just feel like everything fell into place for me to be here and I can’t imagine myself doing anything else,” said Harris. “These kids are my heroes because of all they’ve been through and they still have hope.”

Brimhall Reunion

Rick and I headed out to Pinedale, Arizona a few weeks ago for the Brimhall Family Reunion. Here are some pictures of Team Brimhall's trip. This first picture is the view for most of the ride there. Cacti. Lots and lots of cacti.

The humming bird feeder. They get a lot of humming birds.

This is where we ate. This was the B5 reunion (Rick's dad has 4 sisters, so together there are 5 siblings and the siblings and their families were at this reunion) and they had posters like this all over the ranch.

They have this ampi-theatre where they did a talent show. We also had church in this area on Sunday, that was a very cool experience.

Me and my niece, Katelyn. We are standing on the porch of Rick's parent's house (also known as "The Ranch". I had heard about the Ranch ever since I met Marci and I never quite understood what it was. It is a lot of land that Rick's Great-Grandpa purchased and every family has a plot that has a house on it.)

Before we left Rick told me "whenever we go to the ranch we always work." And he was right. Here he is hanging drywall.

This is probably the best part about the Ranch. Ricky as a senior in high school. Beautiful. Haha.

Our niece Mikaela. She is a cutie for sure.

Here is a good picture of the work they are doing on the Ranch. They are extending the roof to cover the huge wrap-around porch. Here is Rick on the porch in the area that a bunch of the kids slept in.

Our nieces Ishel (left) and Hayley (right). I was able to meet Ishel and her little brother JJ for the first time at the ranch. There are still some nieces that I have yet to meet.

We are proud to be Brimhalls!