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Jennifer Bowen (Johnston)
Hosted by: Jeff Litster
Susannah Gledhill (Derbenwick) is blessing us with her presence during her exodus from Cow Town to Washington D.C. Tuesday is the day she's available to hook up with us for lunch, so we're planning it for then this month. Sorry for the late notice; but we hope everyone can still make it.
We'll meet outside as it's not a place that takes reservations… you go through the line and sit down with your food. We'll wait til around 12:45 for people, then go in… latecomers will need to find us when they get in.
Even though we're not making a reservation, please let us know if you're coming so we'll know who to expect.
We found out on Friday we had been chosen to be parents. Not many of you knew until you read this email. It has been a CRAZY few days. We found out tonight that it is a girl. We are thankful for all of you and the prayers on our behalf.
Camden was born on 10 April 2007.
6 lbs 7 oz
19 inches
To see more pictures go to http://www.jeredandbrena.com/camden.html
Jered Plouzek
http://www.jeredandbrena.com
Attention Party People -- that's an APB!
We finally have a firm date. The next pride lunch will be held on Thursday, April 19th at 11:30am. We will be meeting at The Lion House Pantry Restaurant. I'm still not sure of the price or reservations, but should have that info today. The menu changes daily and the menu for the 19th is:
| Soup: | Minestrone |
| Entree: |
Mediterranean Chicken Roast Beef Catfish |
| Salad: | Cobb |
| Dessert: | If's, And's, and Nuts Cookies |
The menu can also be found at: http://www.diningattemplesquare.com/pantry_menu.html
Parking for the Lion House Restaurant is located at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building parking terrace and is validated (3 hours) at the restaurant.
Please RSVP by Tuesday April 17th so I can get a count for the reservations. If you have any questions or need directions to the JSMB parking terrace, please let me know.
Hope to see you all there!
-Jarin
For all PRIDEsters that attended Jordan High, the Jordan Alumni Association and the Centennial Committee are throwing a 100-year reunion that all are invited to attend.
This will be a great event not only for PRIDEsters that attended Jordan High but for all of PRIDEsters. It's a chance to see your friends from Jordan from all the years you were on the Utah's PRIDE team!
The events will be held 06 July and 07 July. Tickets are $10 and are good for both days of the event. Children under eight are free; but only invited to the Saturday event.
The Friday, 06 July event will be held at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. The Saturday, 07 July event will be held at the South Towne Expo Center.
Ticket purchasing options and other Centennial information can be found at the Jordan Alumni Association site.
Ok, so I'm nearly two months late posting about this; but I had to share cause it's too cool...
Chris Coleman (Williams) married Tom Williams, brother of Becky, Kristen and Peter Williams of PRIDE fame. Chris' sister Paige has a blog and she posted an entry telling about the Williams family being on Fox news for their homemade Luge run that is a tradiition every winter for their family.
Read the article on Paige's blog and be sure to watch the video clip! Too much fun - glad someone gets to have some fun in the snow; all I got to do this winter was drive-in it and shovel it. :)
Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, Jared Wright returns from the depths of Missouri, wiping the soot from his knees to stand upright again in Zion!
Much like his pioneer ancestors, Wad and his family are making a hasty retreat from MO (however, unlike said ancestors, the Wrights have a mini-van, a trailer, iPods, and a travel DVD player).
Alas, this return with be but short and sweet (bittersweet?), as they will quickly head south for sunny Arizona.
In honor of the brief visit of Jared and Deanna (who was also a PRIDEster, whose maiden name is Deanna Pitts), we'd like to do an extra lunch in-between our monthly lunches for all who would like to visit them.
29 January 2007
11:30am
The Pie Pizzeria
in downtown Salt Lake (by the U of U) .. and I recommended we carpool
(and/or ride Trax if it goes up there...)
21 Februrary 2007
11:30am
PF Changs
(Menu)
174 West 300 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
If you haven't eaten at PF Changs before, you'll love their lettuce wraps. I could eat those for a whole meal (and just might...)
They serve their dishes family style, so for all interested, we can order separate dishes (and/or doubles on ones everyone really likes) and then everyone can get a little of everything so you can get a really good sample of a lot of what PF Changs has to offer.
The place is always packed at lunchtime, so if you're interested in coming... please let us know ASAP, so we can have a head-count. I'm going to call in a reservation the day before.
Today was a spicy good time. Food came out on time. I would recommend this restaurant to all of my friends (even those that don't join us regularly).
We had a great time. Thanks Viet for setting it up and recommending such a tasty place.
Attending were: Jered Plouzek, Viet Le, Jeff Litster, Jon Best (who we will sadly miss having in Utah with us... ya beach bum!) and Jarin Blackham.
Chris Bunderson, since you weren't able to come today (and we missed you) we've linked you as the good/bad luck charm; because the food wasn't late today, but it also wasn't free. :) It was quite tasty though and I'd also recommend the East-West Connection.
I don't recommend you get the East-West Steamboat unless you're ready to share it with someone else and be prepared to take some home with you (they're not kidding when they say "Steamboat"; though I'd like to see it float on water...)
We're starting to get a lot of people in our e-mail list, but only a few are responding. I don't know if we're to assume our emails are ending up in the SPAM box, but if they aren't, please respond to an email and let us know you're there! We'd love to have you come join the fun.
For those not in our email list... please so we can get you included. All are welcome!
East-West Connection
10 January 2007 (Wednesday)
12:00pm
AUTHENTIC VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT
1400 FOOTHILL DR.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84108
All are welcome... please let us know if you can make it... if we have enough people, we'll need to make a reservation, or at least let them know what's going to hit them!
Well, we missed those who didn't come, but we had some great conversation anyway, and Mary's niece was a hoot :) We ended up getting free meals because they were so slow (50 minutes for a few sandwiches? geeez...).
Chris, check your credit card - they should have refunded you.
Viet suggested that we start doing these more regularly - like the second wednesday of every month or something - so that people can work it into their schedule. Is there a time of the month that works better for anyone?
Thanks,
Jon
Please if you're interested in coming to the PRIDE lunches... and if you know of others that are interested, please let them know and have them get in touch with us also!
We're probably going to skip December since it's such a busy month for everyone, but look for us in January. I will post the details of the January lunch here so it will be easier for people to pass around.
We've done several lunches over the last 6 months, including: Red Iguana, Skybox (Gateway), McGrath's Fish House (Gateway) and Dodo's Cafe (Gateway). These lunches are a fantastic way for us to keep in touch and they're open invitation for all; we just need to know how many are coming, because we've had some pretty large groups at some of them and we need to let the restaurant know ahead of time when we have a large group.
Please contact us as soon as possible so we can keep you in the loop for the lunches. Also update your contact information in the Contact List so we can know how to get hold of you.
Mary P. has a personal blog available for you all to go check out.
It's all about her adventures in life and school out in the Eastern United States. Enjoy!
We went all crazy and scheduled a "monthly" PRIDEster lunch in which six people were slated to go.
Three of us made it, including Jered Plouzek, Chris Bunderson and Jeff "That One Late Guy" Litster.
We went for a casual lunch at McGrath's Fish House at the Gateway in Downtown Salt Lake City. After ordering our food from a waiter-in-training and reminiscing for (I'm not kidding) an hour, said waiter comes out to report that "The cooks aren't on their game today; and let's just say they burned the [enter your favorite 4-letter expletive here that starts with S] out of it."
The waiter then proceeds to ask Chris if he'd like to make Jered and I wait for our entrees whilst he waited for his. Being the polite man Chris is, he allowed us to dine.
A few laughs and several minutes later, Chris' shark arrived at the scene. A few bites into the cold gamey meat and poor Chris was doomed to starve that day.
He asked the waiter to just take it back and that he'd go without food since he had to get back to work like the rest of us. After an apology and removal of the second "Jaws" to meet his demise, the manager approached our table and kindly apologized; offering good tidings, free clam chowder and dessert and a gift-certificate for free appetizers to entice a return trip.
Moral of the story? Join us next month so you too can participate in the mayhem adventures of PRIDE lunches. If you're interested in joining us for some fun downtown for the afternoon - email me (you'll find it on the Contact List) and we'll notify you when the November lunch will be.
If you don't remember your login, sign up for a new account and I'll delete the old one. I haven't got password retrieval built into the system yet.
Jon Best has a personal site with photos and a blog over on Windows Live™ Spaces, or whatever Microsoft is deciding to call it now...
How the crap can someone trademark the word "Live"?! That's a load; but I guess when you own the world, you get to make the rules. *cackle!*
Anyway, go check out Jon's site to see what he's been up to. It's a nice looking site and you can find out how he's getting out of the "insurance won't give me the good rates because I'm too thin" load of crap that's even more stupid than Microsoft trademarking the word "Live." Enjoy!
Blake Hale happened upon the site and noticed I was going to record the songs from the tape for download here. He contacted me and let me know he'd already done the work and has since provided me with MP3 and WAV versions of the songs.
Download the mp3's here. If you want the WAV's you'll have to contact me and I'll have to burn you a CD. I don't have a file-server with a fast enough internet connection to push them down at any decent speed.
Thanks, Blake, for making these available for us! Go download and enjoy!
Jarin Blackham has graciously offered to let me borrow his tape deck to hook up to my computer and record the "Final Curtain" tape.
When finished, I'll post the MP3 files for all to download.
When I attended Donna's retirement party with Jarin Blackham, we had a great opportunity to catch up with Donna as well as her PRIDEster children who came to celebrate the momentous occasion with her.
She looked at me and said, "It's time for a reunion." And who am I to argue with the captain of the Enterprise? Oh wait, wrong movie...
Anyway, we didn't get to talk in too much detail, but she has some great ideas about how to handle future reunions, including breaking them up into three-year blocks. I'm not sure if she wants a big one first for everyone; though it certainly could be appropriate before we start the three-year block ones.
If you're interested, please contact me (You'll find my email/instant messenger names in our Contact List. We'll need people responsible for contacting for each year (We have old contact lists as well as our current database available to assist you in contacting your PRIDester teammates.)
I'm not sure when or where it will be just yet - I need to contact Donna so I can have a more detailed conversation with her about it, but regardless of if it's this year or next, the sooner we start planning, the better.
I'm looking forward to it. I luckily have the privilege of keeping in touch with many PRIDE friends through e-mail and instant messenger on a daily basis; but there are many I haven't seen in years. So spread the word and contact me if you'd like to be involved on the planning/contacting committees and we'll get the ball rolling again!
... More details coming - stay tuned ...
From "The Utah Special Educator" - April 2006, page 74
Thanks to Mary P for the information!
Christine Timothy joins the USOE staff as the Education Specialist for Severe Disabilities, Vision Impairments, and Hearing Impairments. She has thirty-four years of experience with these populations as a special educator and Speech Language Pathologist. Chris has taught elementary, middle, and high school resource, andhas been extensively involved with the severe and cluster programs at each level. She retired from the Jordan School District, where she was a Technical Assistant, Teacher Specialist, and Transition Specialist. We are excited to have this talented and outstanding educator join the USOE!
Donna Newbold, fearless Utah's PRIDE leader from 1990-1996
has officially announced here retirement from Jordan School District.
A retirement party in Donna's honor will be held at Bingham High on
15 May 2006.
Some PRIDEsters wished to express some thoughts of appreciation for Donna...
The best way to make a positive impact on our world is to teach and work with children and you exemplify this beautifully. You helped provide so much joy to my life and I am sure everyone who had the experience of being a member of PRIDE feels the same way. Congratulations on your retirement, now it's time for some well-deserved R&R!
Donna,
Thanks so much for all your hard work and dedication to the PRIDE teams! I know the program certainly made a difference for me in high school and hopefully we all made a difference to the kids we performed for. Whenever I hear the PRIDE songs come on the radio I remember our good experiences and I feel like getting up and dancing! Thanks again and good luck with whatever still lies in store.
-Corey Christiansen
(Gold Team '96)
PRIDE was definitely the highlight of my high school years, and Donna, you were such a fantastic leader. You made PRIDE not only a successful program, but a place where we, the participants, could blossom. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication.
Donna,
I just wanted to tell you how much you've meant to me over the years, not only as a leader, but as a friend.
I had the joy of starting Utah's PRIDE the same year you did. You quickly made us comfortable having you as our leader through a wonderful retreat, workshops and rehearsals.
Through your several years of service, you touched the lives of hundreds of PRIDEsters; and helped us in-turn, to touch the lives of the children we performed for and worked with in workshops.
Your dedication and compassion had far more reaching effects than you probably know. You are a great example of going the extra mile. I know of several times you helped others secretly above and beyond the call of duty; never once asking for credit or something in return.
The Utah's PRIDE team and all who were a part of it were blessed to have you as a part of their lives. Thank you for the countless hours you devoted to the cause and making PRIDE some of our most memorable times in high school.
I personally have enjoyed our friendship over the years, not only through PRIDE, but reunions and other visits. You're truly an inspiration.
Thank you so much for blessing my life and the life of all PRIDEsters. We love you!!!
Donna,
Unfortunately, my middle school teacher's retirement party is the same day as yours-- or I would have been speeding over to Bingham this afternoon.
Donna is amazing! Not only did she make a great impact on me about how to work with children and teenagers, but she has continued to make an impact even as the years have gone by. I remember my first year of teaching in Jordan District-- she came and visited my class--just because she was passing through and saw my picture on the "teacher board". I am grateful for all that PRIDE gave me--and there would be no PRIDE without Donna.
On another note--Chris Timothy--PRIDE's fearless musical coach for years--and final director for it's "Last Curtain" retired from Jordan School District this winter--and is now working at the Utah State Office of Education. Congratulations to both Donna and Chris!
Mary P.