The Reyes Family Blog: 2016

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Branden Keanu Reyes

9 weeks ago yesterday (Halloween) we had an unexpected death in the family. Our sweet, sweet nephew Branden Keanu Reyes died of an AVM, a brain bleed from a genetic malformation (tangle) of the blood vessels in the brain. It wasn't discovered earlier, and the first indication was fatal. He was 7 years old. He went golfing that morning and had a good time with his brother and dad (I am assuming the company he was with). He came home and started to complain of a headache. His dad, a pediatrician, gave him Motrin. He later complained of it hurting REALLY BADLY. He passed out and was unresponsive in his daddy's arms. CPR was performed but to no avail. He had a brain bleed and was declared brain dead later at the hospital. He was kept alive so that he could donate his organs. 3 days later that procedure was performed. His funeral was that Saturday, September 3, 2016.

No one saw it coming, not even his dad. It is so hard to accept. We don't know why these things happen. I was at a funeral of a 5 year old who died of cancer on the brain stem, and I remember the stake president saying that when one dies so young like that it is because they don't need to be trialed, that they are special spirits.

Branden was special. He had determination, focused concentration, imagination, sunshine, and initiative. I remember how when he was born how he kept his mommy up a lot. He didn't sleep too much through the night. I felt bad for her, but he outgrew it. We didn't go up there as often as we used to so I didn't have as much exposure to him as I did with his older brother, Ethan. I remember him being such a busy body, so active, so happy and so happy go lucky like. He would be silly and dangle his arms in a carefree way like, "Hey, here I am being silly, what are you going to do about it?" It was very cute. He was very happy and always busy doing something. It could be playing a video game, building legos, trains, or riding his little car in the house. He had an infectious smile in all his busyness and silliness. But I loved his dangly disposition when he was waiting for you to respond. He was here for Jaren's graduation party. I was busy with the party details but when it was cleanup time and I was a little more social, Branden was spotlighted. Paul was so proud of him and his initiative. Branden would help clean up. I remember him trying to carry, rather drag, the big garbage bag, with a big smile. He did a few things to help. Paul would point it out. He was very proud. Mama would add to the conversation about how he did the same type of help at his own initiative at home in the kitchen and also with cleaning the floor. Branden would also watch Ethan play golf and took it on himself and was so focused and very good at it. He made his parents proud. He also took piano lessons and could play very well too. Carina talked about him at the funeral and the cute story I remember most was when Jordan was babysitting Branden and his brothers. She decided to do that experiment where you put a marshmallow in front of the child and tell them if they don't eat it they will get another marshmallow when the adult comes back. She recorded him for 10 minutes. He was never tempted. He found a book and read the whole 10 minutes he was alone.

Life is unpredictable. You never know what to expect the next minute, hour, day or year. It can change in an instant. Life is precious and we need to hug and love our loved ones as best we can. Enjoy their company. We will miss Branden.

I love this picture because it shows his happy go lucky disposition along with his dangly arms and even his knees bent back and his sillyness smile, pure joy and happiness.

I love this picture (which I didn't take) because of the pure love and happiness exhibited.

Friday, September 23, 2016

Trek 2016

This year's spring break was all about TREK! (yes, this is really late) Ryan and Melanie both went on trek this year. They each had to find an ancestor that they would like to be or rather share at a given moment (which I don't think that moment ever really came).

Ryan chose to be his 3rd great grandfather, Snellon Marion Johnson Sr.

Snellon Marion Johnson was born October 27, 1827 in Hillsboro,

Jasper, Georgia, USA and died June 10, 1900 in Lonetree, Unita,

Wyoming. He was buried in Robertson, Unita, Wyoming.

Melanie was her 3rd great grandmother, Mary Ann Ford. She was born in 1827 in Cuckfield, Sussex, England and died in 1920 in Morgan, Utah

We knew we had ancestors from Texas and how cool would it be to learn about them, right? Snellon Marion Johnson moved here when he was 9 but they moved back and forth from Texas and Georgia/Alabama. In Texas his family didn't always go to the same place, they moved around a bit there too. But for the birth of 2 of his siblings they were in San Augustine, TX. I didn't read this till after Ryan left for Trek, but a fascinating coincidence is that San Augustine is really close to Sabine National Forest, where Ryan and Melanie were for Trek! How cool is that? But unfortunately Ryan didn't know that when he left. I found that out through his mother's life history, not Snellon's.

This is a side note from Snellon, but he had a sister that married James Allison York, son of John York of Querro (now spelled Cuero) , TX, who was a rich land owner. So I Googled Querro, Tx and looked at all the streets in it looking for a Johnson anywhere. I didn't find a street named Johnson but if you look southwest of Cuero, you'll find a Yorktown, I'm sure named after the York family. I have lived in Texas for 23 years and never knew we had a connection to Texas until my mom brought it up at our family reunion a few years ago and I decided to study it for Trek. I, of course, looked up the streets in Yorktown, looking for a Johnson family named street but I didn't find any. It does say that they bought a piece of land near Corpus Christi and San Antonio Rd, wherever that is. There is no intersection of that now. But anyway, we have a connection to Texas! Now I have to visit Yorktown, which does have a history museum. Jaren has been there, and Cuero, for business. It's so cool!

The Johnson's met the missionaries in Milan, TX and made the trek to Missouri to cross the plains to SLC.

Melanie's ancestor, Mary Ann Ford, was taught the Gospel in England and came to America to cross the plains and settled in Utah. I love and treasure her story. There is way more to her story than that but for this post that is the gist of it,

Here is a picture of Ryan and Melanie at the beginning of Trek:

Monday, September 19, 2016

YW lesson/uplifting language/Holy Ghost

Teaching is not my thing, at least not church lessons. I really struggle with it. Saturday night I received a text that the Mia Maid advisor wasn't going to make it to church on Sunday. That meant I had to teach. It was probably a good thing that I was given so little notice so that I wouldn't stress over it all day but then I was caught off guard and really struggle planning these lessons.

I read the lesson that night and I gathered my thoughts Sunday morning. Fortunately it was an easier topic or else I would have stayed up all night planning what I was going to say. The lesson was on "How do the things I say affect me and those around me?"

Our lesson times are so short it seems (did I actually say that? because I'm usually so nervous, the shorter the better, right?) We had talked about 1st impressions, how we associate with others in all different walks of life, how swearing is wrong, gossiping is wrong. We talked about President Holland's talk, "The Tongue of Angels," about how women have angelic voices from God but they can turn that beautiful voice into an abrasive, gossipy, backbiting or catty voice. We also talked about how while Nephi was in the ship tied up and Laman and Lemuel were beating and mocking him, how he probably would rather they hit him that mock him.

While I had someone reading something I received this clear message in my head that said, "focus on the uplifting words". I am pretty sure that was the Holy Ghost speaking to me. So I did. I shifted the discussion to how we can smile, give compliments, defend someone, be uplifting. How when we read the scriptures, and do the things we are supposed to do, and because we also have the gift of the Holy Ghost that we can use that gift to help us say things that need to be said, like the voice of an angel. I don't know what I was supposed to say, I only had about 5 minutes left to say anything, but that is what I taught.

I hope that whoever needed to hear those words about speaking uplifting words heard what they needed to hear. I can't say that I often, or ever, hear the Holy Ghost while I teach. I so struggle with teaching and knowing if I am listening to the spirit. But I definitely had a clear voice in my head Sunday telling me to talk about uplifting language.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Individual Worth, Olympics

Because of the Summer Olympics in Brazil this year, this week for Young Women we did some "Olympic" activities . All of the challenges we did were individual sports. No team sports. All the ideas for the activities I got off the internet. I only had 2 girls show up this night and the final score ended up being a tie. No winners or losers. But I did notice that when one went first the 2nd person would win because they saw what didn't work with the 1st person. I mention that because it was an example how we can learn from others. Afterwards we talked about how everyone is individual and we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Our personalities are different, we need to treat everyone as if they are just as important as the next person. We discussed an article I found about how to be irresistible but really it was an article about treating everyone with respect, making everyone feel important.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2015/08/31/11-secrets-of-irresistible-people/#13127d215af3

Then the girls were encouraged to do a goal for Individual Worth, we didn't have time to do it at church that night.

https://www.lds.org/young-women/personal-progress/individual-worth?lang=eng

Monday, June 27, 2016

Want to blog again, starting with Seth's Mission to Vancouver, Washington

Melanie was reading through the blog and I sat down next to her reminiscing. There are so many details about life that I forgot about and it was so fun to read about them. Like Moriah refusing to wear knee pads for volleyball and Melanie being soooo excited to lose her teeth and all the details about that event. Even just remembering the feelings I felt at events I participated it like canning and Independence Day celebrations, feelings not mentioned in the post but remembered while viewing the blog.

Anyway, I hope to blog and remember how important it is to journal life.

There is so much to catch up on. Like the last post mentioned that Seth was leaving for his mission in 2 weeks. Well, he is home now. He spent 4 months in the Tongan/Samoan ward and at one time doubling in another ward. He loved how he enjoyed the benefits of the Tongan ward because their boundaries extended beyond normal ward boundaries, therefore he was able to see more of Portland. I so enjoyed Mondays and anticipating his letter{email}. These days missionaries have mini i-pads and so he could send an email and my phone would beep and I would read it and could respond immediately. It was almost like texting. If he had time or a need he could respond back quickly. The Monday before Christmas I asked him to please tell me how Skyping on Christmas Day would work. He never really responded with an answer. So I was kind of left in the dark but he had my Skype name. Later that night I got an email indicating that he had hurt himself and that it was probably bad. But no details were given. I got a text later that night from a member telling me that he was on their couch on pain meds after having seen a doctor. The next day, Tuesday, I got a phone call from his Mission president asking me about insurance so he could get an MRI and x-ray. I never heard back that day so I was left in the dark. Wednesday at about 11:00 am I received a phone call from his mission president telling me that he was coming home that day at about 6 or 7 that evening. We were unprepared and still didn't really know what was wrong with him. We were told they thought it was a torn Achilles but it needed to be evaluated by a orthopedic surgeon. We hurriedly made a room for him to come home to. It was much more involved than it sounds. His room kind of turned into a "basement," the "I don't know where to put this right now so I'll put it in this room" room. So we had to clean the room out first. We also didn't realized we needed to take 2 cars to the airport so getting that all sorted delayed us in picking him up from the airport. We were late. Poor Seth. If he was expecting a big "Hello, Welcome Home" he didn't get it. He was sitting by the baggage claim and was cranky when we got there. He also didn't know that he was leaving that day and was told as the mission president was on his way to pick him up, so he had to hurriedly pack up. He bought a pair of crutches, so he had that to board the plane with. We tried to reserve a wheelchair pick up upon landing but we didn't have the details needed. We think the mission president requested one but maybe he got the name wrong. Because when Seth got off the plane, he was the last person off, because of his crutches/injury. There was someone there with a wheelchair and asked for Seth's name. The name the employeed had didn't match Seth's name. It was obviously meant for him, he was the last person off the plane and in crutches. But the employee walked away instead of offering to help. So Seth was left to make it to baggage claim by himself on crutches. It was an ordeal. Crutches hurt your armpits and are exhausting. Not to mention that he was still in pain. He had to take breaks. He would go a ways and then stop and lean against the wall. One of these times while taking a break and observant couple noticed him and asked him if he needed help. They flagged down one of the golf carts for him to ride. What nice people. I am sure Seth greatly appreciated it. Once in baggage claim we weren't there so he had to wait. I can see why he was grumpy. We did get 1 picture though, and went home.
The plus in all this is that he was home 2 days before Christmas which meant he was home for Christmas!!!! Who knew that when I was all worried about the Skyping details that it wouldn't matter, that he would be home for Christmas anyway. I didn't know, but it happened.

He eventually had surgery on his Achilles the first Monday in January, January 4, 2016.

He was injured playing basketball in the church on p-day. It happened in the final minutes of being able to play ball. He had the ball, and he passed it. He went to take a step after passing the ball and he just fell. He didn't know why he fell, He just knew that he fell and wondered why he hit the ground. He did hear the tendon break, though. But he said it felt like someone threw a baseball at his ankle really hard and couldn't figure out how, who or why someone would do that. Plus there was no ball. Everyone else was still playing basketball until they realized he was down. The stake president was a doctor and took a look at Seth. He suspected an achilles tear but wouldn't know unless the MRI & x-ray were done. After looking at that he knew enough to know Seth needed to go home.