I Loved the Gifts!

Per is the best! He went to Germany yesterday (Valentine's Day) but ordered a gift for me, to be delivered that day. He got me the biggest, best tasting chocolate covered strawberries from Shari's Berries. Yes, they're all gone. And yes, I enjoyed them immensely. (I'm glad Andrew helped me eat them, because I couldn't have done it by myself!) Best husband award goes to Per!

Per's 2014 Valentine's Day gift to me - chocolate covered strawberries!!

Andrew gave me a very sweet card, and so did his girlfriend, Schelly. I have the best family!

Our 2013 Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

Our Christmas Cards didn’t get sent, we promise! They’re sitting in their boxes on our office floor. Nevertheless, we wanted to share with you a synopsis of our 2013 year and most importantly recognize the reason we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ.

Bryan and Kimbra worked hard this year to pay off their college student loans. They successfully made their last payment in November and kudos to them for their diligence to stick with their plan. They have a short-haired grey and white striped cat named Reggie that they dearly love. (He looks a lot like our former cat, Summer, which doesn’t surprise us because Summer was Bryan’s cat too.) They also have a little Chihuahua dog named Jamal that is very cute and full of energy. They live in Orem, Utah and are settling in to married life.

Andrew has been working on his film “Symirroretry” this entire year. It’s been a challenge, that he’s accomplished, to work around other people’s schedules. This film has meant two trips to California as well a trip to Philadelphia. It’s an ambitious project that we look forward to seeing this year. Andrew has many plans and dreams that will hopefully come to pass the way he wants.

Per added a 21 year notch to his work belt by working for CEM Corporation all that time. This year his traveling took him to Russia and Australia – two places he’s never been. He also worked in India, China, Japan, Germany, New Zealand, and Canada; as well as several states in the US. He’s a pro at traveling and acclimating himself to many time zones. His work takes up a lot of his time, but in-between traveling he also finds time to work on his hobbies, take care of the yard, fix things around the house, and do stuff for Jade.

Jade spends a lot of her time writing, whether it’s by adding to her blog, journaling, or making poetry. She’s written her blog for 5 years and wrote several poems and haikus this year. She keeps busy by doing what she can which includes the above, spending time with friends, and bossing people around. Her church service in 2013 included writing to missionaries for a few months - who were serving from her ward, creating a bulletin to be seen almost every week in Sacrament Meeting, and being a Visiting Teacher.

We visited our family and friends in Sweden in July and had a fabulous time. The best thing was that our entire family went (thanks to Per’s travel points). We saw many wonderful people, ate great food, and made memories that we’ll never forget.

We love you and look forward to a great 2014!

Love,
The Lovgrens

Bryan and Kimbra in Sweden

Bryan and Kimbra in Utah

Reggie

Jamal

Fluffy

Fluffy's Favorite Spot at Christmastime

Andrew in Kansas

Andrew in Sweden

Peter & Kerstin, and the Lovgrens in Sweden

The Lovgren Family in Sweden
(Nils, Andrew, Per, Jade, Bryan, Erica, Ann-Sofie
Monika, Tore,
Kimbra, Sandra, Nils, Torsten)

The Lovgren Family in America
(Andrew, Bryan, Jade, Per, Kimbra)

The New Bedroom

I'm converting my office back to a bedroom so that Bryan and Kimbra will have a place to sleep when they come to our house in May. Two of our bedrooms are no longer bedrooms - one is a laundry room and one is an office. I don't want to say to them "Thanks for visiting, here's your bed" and point to the couch, therefore the change!

Most of the stuff in the office will be boxed up and put in storage while the things I use will be put in a box and stored in my room (the temporary office.)

After they leave, I will put my office things back in the office but it may remain a bedroom.

Up To Date

Here's the letter we sent with our Christmas cards in 2011:

Dear Family and Friends,

This year has been full of adventure for us.

Bryan is a senior at BYU and will graduate in April with a degree in Advertising. After graduating he wants to move to a big city (LA, Chicago, or NY) to do an internship. Then off to a job where he hopes to use his degree. He started dating his girlfriend, Kimbra, in June and they have been inseparable since then! They met at a water park when a friend said to Bryan that he didn’t think Bryan dared talk to her. I’m sure they are both glad that he did!

On April 26, 2012 we will add another person to our family when Bryan marries Kimbra in Utah. (We’ll  have an open house in Kansas so everyone can say congratulations and meet her.) Her name is Kimbra Robinson and she’s from Heber, UT. She is attending BYU and will graduate at the same time as Bryan with a degree in Human Development. She is a BYU Cheerleader and loves the girls on her cheer team. I met her in July in Utah and thought she was super nice. If truth be told, I loved her the minute we met. I never thought I’d feel that way about anyone else but I did. I never thought about having daughters but when my sons marry I will have two daughters-in-law! Yay – me! Okay, back to Kimbra. She is visiting our family in Kansas starting December 28th and I’m really excited.

Andrew graduates this year too – from High School. He wants to get a degree in filming. He loves editing movies and one day wants to become a director. He is doing well in school and is in the filming program (called e-comm) at his high school (Olathe Northwest.) He went to see his favorite band (M83) perform in Houston and said it’s the best birthday he ever had. Per gave him a free ticket to travel down there and he and two friends stayed at his friends’ mom’s house in Houston.

Per still works for CEM (19 years now) and teaches technicians all over the world to work on CEM’s instruments. His title is Worldwide Technical Manager. He’s been to Germany, India, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Singapore, New Zealand, China, and Japan this year alone. Some of the trips have been for two weeks and some for one week. He’s taken 31 trips, been gone 153 days, traveled 154,316 miles, visited 44 cities and 9 countries this year. He’s traveled a total of almost six months and I’m grateful he has a job. Regardless of the time, I miss him whenever he’s gone.

Can you believe it’s been three years since I was diagnosed with MS?!! I am having fun writing my thoughts on my blog and online journal. I put a story on my blog to see if anyone would read it and to my happiness many people did. I don’t know where my writing will lead but am having fun doing it. I haven’t worked since 2008 and find myself remembering skills I used to have – as if I’d forget! I walk more slowly now and people don’t understand some things I say. I use a cane and my hands seem unsure – especially the right one. I am taking a medicine that the doctor said would stop my disease from progressing. I don’t focus on my current situation but on the things I CAN do. I’m glad for the opportunity to write.

We are happy to have you in our lives! We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
The Lovgrens

Bryan & Kimbra

An Update

I did really good at creating this page but I'm not good at keeping it updated. So many things have happened in our family that I'll catch you up:

Bryan got engaged to Kimbra Robinson on December 9, 2011. They plan to marry in the Salt Lake temple on April 26, 2012. He graduates from BYU with a degree in Advertising on April 21st. Kimbra's birthday is April 22nd. She goes to the temple for the first time on April 23rd. They marry on Thursday the 24th. Wow, what a week!-It will indeed be a busy time for them. Kimbra is from Heber, UT. She is a BYU cheerleader and will also graduate from BYU in April with a degree in Human Development. She is super nice and perfect for Bryan.

Andrew has been creating several movies that he has put on his channel (Unanimous Films) on YouTube. He created an engagement video for Bryan that was really well done. He went to Houston with two friends in November 2011 and attended a concert by his favorite band (M83.) He is making a documentary about skateboarding (the thing he loves to do) that will be released later this year. He graduates from high school in May and hopes to take filming and editing at college.

Per went to Brazil in January 2012 for a week and is getting used to traveling all over the world (although I don't think either one of us will ever get used to his jet lag.) He loves to work with electronics and has an ongoing project of making an electronic part do something when a button is pushed and a computer program sends the part a signal. It's complicated to me, but fun to him. It's for a flight simulator program that he really enjoys. He loves flying airplanes. It's expensive to really learn how to fly, so playing a simulation game is the next best thing for him.

Jade is focusing on writing.

Per's Travels

Per travels for a living. It's been that way since we first married. I'm used to him being gone during the week but I enjoy it when he's home. He's worked for the same company, CEM Corporation, for nineteen years. For many years he was gone Monday thru Friday. Sometimes he went to more than one state in a day.

Now he works Tuesday thru Thursday and is often home on Monday and Friday. I admit, I like it more when he's home than when he's gone. For the last three years he has traveled all over the world. The first year he just went to China (Beijing.) The second year Europe, Dubai, China (another place), South Korea, Vietnam and Japan. This year so far he's gone to Brazil, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.

Each time he comes home he has jet lag. It usually goes away in a day or two and he's back to his normal routine. This last trip to New Zealand and Singapore was for two weeks. It took him a bit longer to recover from that trip.

The mantle above our fireplace holds memorabilia he's gotten from his travels as well as from people that he's trained at CEM who are from other countries. I look forward to see what he brings home as well as to taste the candy from foreign lands.

He's more adventurous than I am in tasting foreign food. He says "I'll try it but don't expect me to finish it if I don't like it." I'd say "No, thank you." The most creative foods come from Asia. He's eaten larve, fried quail egg, and black garlic. The most interesting thing he's eaten so far was from Singapore. It was a black egg. He said it was like jelly and they poured some kind of jelly sauce over it. He ate half of it but wouldn't eat the rest. He felt bad to decline their delicacy but he just couldn't take one more bite.

My Dad

Lani Called me yesterday and told me the news I was dreading. My dad passed away. He was in a hospital in Houston then got transferred to Beaumont (his home town) then was rushed back to Houston where he died in his sleep early Saturday morning. He had too many complications and they just couldn't save him. He was 69 years old.

He and I talked on the phone several times in the last few months. He called me often from his hospital bed and told me he loved me. We became friends and I think in some way me having a disability was a comfort to him because we understood each other. He was very positive and his attitude rubbed off on me. He said "every day that I wake up is a good day" and I appreciated hearing that because I felt pretty down and he made me feel up. I felt like compared to what he was dealing with (being in the hospital, couldn't talk very well, paralyzed on half of his body) I didn't have much to complain about. Actually, I felt pretty normal when I talked to him. He said my strength inspired him which I never understood because he seemed a lot stronger than me. He dealt with his disability for 17 years and I wondered if he ever had a hard time at first. He said he had always been positive and didn't know any other way to be. That was uplifting to hear and made me want to look on the bright side.

Dusty took care of him and I thank her for that. She is feisty and I imagine wouldn't tolerate any wallowing which I think was good for my dad. I think that helped shape his attitude and helped him to look at his life realistically and focus on what he could do not what he couldn't.

I want to perpetuate the attitude he showed me. And in doing so I think I will honor his memory.

I imagine it must be hard for other people, namely Dusty (wife) Pua (sister) Maryanne (aunt) Lani (she was close to him) and Kenneth (he wanted to know him better).

My family is supportive to me and I appreciate that. Per said he'd give me a ticket to attend the funeral and is there for whatever else I need. Thanks honey, that means a lot that you're there for me.

My Trip to Utah

I went to Utah for two weeks in June to see and stay with my sisters. I stayed one week with Lani and one week with Maile. Andrew also went to visit Bryan. I couldn't have gone without Andrew's help on the plane and in the airport (thank you Andrew!) I also stayed with mom for two days and saw Ken, which was nice.

Jade and Mom at Mom's house

Bryan surprised Andrew with a trip to Cali the day after we got there. Andrew had no idea until Bryan couldn't take it anymore and spilled the beans. He told Andrew he had a confession...he was tired and they were going to stay the night in Las Vegas and go to Cali the next day. Andrew just kept saying "are you serious?" and Bryan said it was "sweet."

Andrew and Bryan

I told my sisters they didn't have to entertain me, I just wanted to blend into their lives. I had a lot of fun talking to them and "blending" :) The first week, I went to church and had lunch with my uncle and aunt Carl and Leonette Clark. He isn't really my uncle, he's mom's first cousin, and my first cousin once removed, but my siblings and I have always called him uncle Carl, so that's what he is to me. I had a really great time visiting and getting to know them.

Aunt Leonette and Uncle Carl Clark

One of the highlights of my trip was the day Lani got a slip 'n slide for her little girls who are 6 and 3. The first time they tried it, they ran, jumped, and...stuck, no sliding! It was so funny! They finally got the hang of it and had a blast getting wet. I'm so bummed I didn't take any pictures, I was too busy watching I guess!

Sophie McCann

Claire and Lani McCann

Another favorite highlight was when Maile took me for a ride up American Fork Canyon. We drove up to Tibble Fork Lake with the windows down. (It's a man-made lake that is really a dam.) People were having a good time picnicking, fishing and playing in the water.

The things I loved about this ride were: 1) talking to Maile, 2) the quaint, two-lane road, 3) driving right next to the river-I love to hear and see it,  4) people barbecuing, and 5) the air smelled good!

I've never stayed with Maile before and really enjoyed getting to know her. I discovered that we are a lot a like!

Maile Chu

This will probably be my last trip out to Utah unless I feel better the next time but I'm glad I got to spend some time with my family. Now it's their turn to come and see me in Kansas!

The Lovgren Family in Sweden

Tore, Monika, Ann-Sofie (Ahlqvist), Nils Lovgren

This is Per's family: Tore, Monika, Ann-Sofie, and Nils. They all live in Sweden, and we live here, 3,000 miles away in the U.S, in Kansas. I like to visit them in Sweden, but we only go every couple of years because it's expensive.

I wish we were going to see them this year. We haven't been to Sweden since 2008 when we picked Bryan up from his mission in France. I can't believe it's already been two years since we've seen them. Per went to Sweden for a few days last year when he went to Europe on a business trip but I haven't seen them for a couple of years.

I wish I could get to know them better but it's hard to do because we don't speak the same language. Even so, we are still family and I miss them. I miss the smell of Sweden and the smell of their home. I miss Monika's yummy food and Nils playing golf outside with my guys. I miss sleeping there and waking up to the sound of the wind rustling through the trees and the birds chirping. Most of all, I miss the four of them.

I hope we take a trip there soon. Until then, at least I have pictures and memories.

Dear Uber-dude

Per always has a way to make me laugh. We say a prayer before every meal and sometimes he says 'Dear Uber-dude'. It makes us laugh then he says a 'nice' prayer. Thanks, honey, for your sense of humor. I don't think God minds.

Merry Christmas 2009

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I love my boys

Andrew Lovgren and Summer

I just have to say how great Andrew is. He is growing up so fast (will be 16 in Nov). My baby will be gone before you know it.

He has loved skateboarding since he was about 5 and has been an artist since he was 3. He's been playing the trumpet since 5th grade and is so musical. Now he's teaching himself songs on the piano. I'm really proud of him. He is awesome at rockband, I don't know how he makes his fingers move so quickly, and he has such good rhythm on the drums, it's amazing how he can play the bass with his foot when it has a totally different beat than the rest of the drums.

He's been making movies lately with his friends and uploading them on youtube under the name Unanimous Films. Now he'll be going to Olathe NW High School this year and doing a 21st Century eComm program that will teach him about film making and editing. The other day when I picked him up at the skatepark he said "why am I always the filmer? I want to skate, but noone films as good as me." I think this program is going to be right up his alley.

Of course Andrew wants to be a pro-skater first and we do what we can to support him. That means new skateboards when the current ones crack or break, new shoes when the old ones wear out from skating and rubbing against the grip tape, and taking him all around town to different skate parks. I hope his dream will payoff one day and he will get to do what he loves for the rest of his life.

Bryan Lovgren

What can I say about Bryan? I always told him he was "the greatest son a mom could ever have" and I still mean it. He's 23 now and I'm learning how to have an adult child. It's kinda cool actually. He's lived in France for two years, Hawaii for 8 months, and now he's going to BYU in Provo, Utah. Quite the world traveler.

I'm really proud of how hard Bryan works in school and how he tries hard to stay temple worthy and morally clean. It can be hard for a guy after he comes home from his mission and a lot of guys have fallen off the moral bandwagon, but I admire Bryan and his diligence to do what is right. I know he will be blessed for it one day.

As you can see Bryan loves surfing. Actually, he loves any sport or physical activity (he got that from Per, certainly not from me!) He was a really great football player until he tore the ACL in his knee and ended his football playing career. He is also good at playing guitar and writing songs. His poetry is very well written, and he is very tender hearted. He cares a lot about people and is a loyal friend. He loves his family very much and our family wouldn't be the same without him.

Per Lovgren

Per is my true love, my soul mate and my friend. I feel good when he's around and I like it when he's home. He's been working for CEM for 17 years and they finally appreciate him and the knowledge he has. I think they are just plain lucky to have him.

Per loves to be outside. He likes to work on the yard, or the cars and especially likes to work with his hands. His dream would be to have a workshop where he could do all the projects he has in his head. He loves electronics and you know it when you come over to our house. He built a home theater system in our basement, wired our house for networking and now we have WiFi (go figure). He'll say "who's been touching the sound?" when we watch a movie downstairs and fix the 5 point surround sound that sounds fine to me.

You may not know that Per is a really good cook. He has baked since we've been married starting with homemade scones (with butter and cheese-jam for me) and just about a month ago he taught himself how to make french bread. We have a Swedish dinner tradition at our home every Christmas where Per makes Swedish food including salt curing a ham for 3 weeks. We have the same dinner every year on Christmas eve.

Per says some funny things. He's also the smartest person I know. He has a morality that is unflinching and he's the rock of our family. One of the things that makes him great is that he loves his family very much. I always thought of him as a golden retriever. A trusty friend who stays by your side. A protector. My best friend.

I was just thinking about my family today and wanted to share how much I love them.