I took a walk down memory lane last week.
John just moved into a new office and since he was having a training meeting for all of his managers in the Southeast, he wanted the office in tip-top shape. One of the things he does in each office is hang pictures of all the company meetings that have been held since he started working for Varsity Contractors in 1992. These company meetings were held yearly in the past, but have been held every two years most recently.
Since service is one of Varsity's core values, at every company meeting we do a service project to benefit the community where we are holding the meeting. These service projects are always my favorite part of the meeting.
As I was hanging these pictures, dating all the way back to 1992, I could see a large part of our family's history unfolding right before my eyes.
Homestead Utah, 1992 (top):
(Please excuse the quality of these pictures. I was contending with the office lighting when I took them, and since I'm not anywhere near fancy at editing pictures, what you see is what you get).
This was John's first company meeting with Varsity. The service project was to clean the Heber Creeper train, which is a tourist attraction in Homestead. He had a great meeting.
Park City, Utah, 1993 (bottom): This was the first company meeting I attended. Wives of managers at the District Manager level and up (John had just been promoted to District Manager) are strongly encouraged to attend. At this company meeting I was pregnant with Parker. For the service project we cleaned and painted this really old church. The people who worked at the church were so grateful for the service we provided. It was quite touching.
Pocatello, Idaho, 1994:
For this company meeting we built a log fence for a scout camp located outside of McCammon, Idaho. Parker was a baby at this meeting and was hanging out with my parents, who lived in Pocatello, while we did the service project, so he's not in the picture. During one of the activities I noticed that a young woman, who worked for one of our vendors who was attending the meeting, kept looking at Parker and me. After awhile she came over and asked if she could hold him. I said "yes," and she tearfully proceeded to tell me that her little girl, who was about Parker's age, had just died of SIDS. I let her hold Parker as long as she wanted to and we cried together.
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1996:
At this company meeting I was six weeks away from having Kailen and was Gi-Nor-Mous. So ginormous that my doctor was afraid they wouldn't let me on the plane to travel from Georgia to Salt Lake City, so he wrote me a letter stating that it was okay for me to fly.
The service project at this company meeting was to clean, paint and do other construction-type odds and ends at a youth ranch. The wives of the President and Vice President were so worried that I'd go into labor if I helped with the service project that they took me shopping in Jackson Hole instead. I think that I was their excuse to go shopping, but that's okay. I appreciated the sentinment and was happy to oblige. They were worried about me, though, and kept making sure I was okay, and kept making sure that I had regular opportunities to sit down for a bit. It was kind of cute.
One night during the meeting they took us out to a place where the male elk bugle to the females. The driver of our van was not really conscious of all the bumps in the road and John and I were really quite concerned that that would put me into labor. But it didn't and all was well.
St. George, Utah, 2000:
This company meeting was held during the time I was training for my marathon, so I got to do a 10 mile run one morning through some breathtaking red rock country. It was awesome!
The service project for this meeting was to do work for some low income housing in the area. The families who lived in these homes were so appreciative of us and it really made me feel even more grateful for the opportunity I had to serve those who are having a hard time in life.
This company meeting celebrated Varsity's 50th anniversary. John and I are not in this company meeting picture because we were driving back to Pocatello from Provo, Utah, when this picture was being taken. We had just taken Zach to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) where he would spend the first 8 weeks of his two-year mission to Greece learning Greek. It was quite the emotional, hard, but also awesome day. As we drove away from the MTC, even though I knew we would miss him, I also knew that I wouldn't want him to be anyplace else. And I also knew wholeheartedly that the Lord would take good care of him during the next two years as he served His children in Greece.
Thanks for joining me on my walk. :o)
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