The Cramer Family

One of my biggest fears is that my children will be “jerks”. You know the type, the people who think that the world owes them something or that the rules of society somehow don’t apply to them.

For example, the other day I was standing in line to pick up our salad from Cafe Rio and the guy in front of me approached the counter and said “Oh, I wasn’t able to call in my order ’cause your lines where busy, so can I just tell you what I want?”. He must have thought he found a clever way to beat the 20-30 min wait in line that “everyone else” had to go through. I’m glad the person at the counter told him that they only accepted call in orders. But he was a classic “jerk”.

I don’t want Owen and Braeden to think that the world owes them anything. I think everyone has their own moments of entitlement, but in all, I hope that I can teach them to be gracious and respectful of others. Because when it comes right down to it, people who think they deserve something for nothing are really showing their lack of respect for others. (On a side note, have you ever noticed that people who say “I’ll respect you if you respect me” are usually do not deserve respect themselves and/or do a lot of stupid things that would make you lose respect. Whenever I hear the phrase my initial placement of the individual on my totem pole of respect is dropped a few notches).

It seems this lack of respect has made it’s way to BYU. I’ve never had so many inconsiderate and rude people in my classes. Class time was continuealy being wasted on questions that could easily have been answered in the reading, but the student just couldn’t be bothered to do the assignment. I was definately not a perfect reader of assignments, but when I didn’t do the reading, you could be sure that I didin’t waste the classes time with a question.

Anyway, that’s my rant for today. I’m so glad that my boys have such a wonderful and gracious (and hot) mother who will teach them the importance of being wonderful and gracious (hotness shouldn’t be important, although I’m not complaining about my situation).

You know it’s funny, now that I’m out of school, I don’t have any time. At least not for stupid things. Instead I have lots of times for the things that matter. Like giving the boys baths, going to the Fire Station, and watching makeovers on TV with my wife. I love my family and I am so glad that I have more time to spend with them

Grandma Owen passed away. Her obituary was published in the paper today.

“Together Again”
I am writing this 14 January 2001. I read the obituaries in the paper and some are SO LONG and others don’t give the genealogical information that I feel someone might be looking for. So, after thinking about my age, health, etc., I decided to write what I want in my obituary when the time comes. I was born 21 January 1919 in Holden, Utah and given the name Glenda Lenore Thornblad. I was the oldest of three children born to Hazel Annie Stephenson and Wilford Torgny Thornblad. My two brothers were Marvin Wilford (Betty) Thornblad and Warren Bruce (Beverly) Thornblad. I married Donald Fillmore Owen 23 December 1941 in Oakland, California. We were blessed with five children; Gary Wilford (Joanne), William Henry (Barbara), Nancy Ann (Lawrence) Lords, Irene Elaine (Randy) Lytle and Robert Donald (Carma). These five children have given us 23 grandchildren, who have given us 35 great grandchildren. I was preceded in death by my husband, Donald and my younger brother Warren. I have been a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On 13 April 2004 I left this world peacefully to join my husband and will be buried with him at the Ft. Douglas Cemetery. (Glenda’s family feels a need to add that she will be remembered for her special love for animals and young children. Her friends span all ages and species.) Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Tuesday April 20, 2004 in the Bountiful 39th Ward Chapel, 1500 S. 600 E. Friends may call Monday April 19 from 6-8 p.m. at Lindquist’s Bountiful Mortuary, 727 N. 400 E. and Tuesday 9:45-10:45 a.m. at the church prior to service. e-mail condolences to lbm@lindquistmortuary.com
Published in the Deseret News from 4/18/2004 - 4/19/2004.

There is nothing worse than having your child sick. When I get sick, I understand what is going on with me. I realize why I hurt, and I know things that I can do to make myself feel better. Being sick isn’t fun, but at least I know what to do about it.

The next worst thing is having your spouse sick. When Tammy is sick I can do things to help her and make it easier for her, but in the end she has to figure it out herself. But Tammy is also an adult who is able to comprehend what is going on and what she needs to do to get better.

Now for the repetition. There is nothing worse than having your child sick. Braeden has had a fever the last few days which has kept him(and consequently, us) up at night. We’ve been doing the holding, comforting and medicating, but that’s about all we can do. I don’t think he knows what is going on. He can’t determine if it’s going to end, and he isn’t sure what needs to be done to feel better. Poor kid. So chalk that up to another not so joyous joy of parenting. Watching your kids be sick and having nothing to do but provide sippy cups of juice and a bed to sleep sideways in and kick dad to the very edge so he fitfully sleeps the entire night imagining that he is going to fall off at any second.

What is it about that little orange fish that just makes Braeden go crazy? I don’t know the answer either, but man! that boy loves the fish! We are thinking of getting the boys a fish tank for their birthday. The Deloreys have a really nice one that is small but really fun. That is definately going to be a fun thing for the boys to have.

I’ve made it through three of the tests so far this week, but that means I still have one more tomorrow. It’s tough with the weather getting nicer because there is always a little scale in your mind balancing sitting in a stuffy class and being outside in the sun . I’m going to fix my front tire on my bike and start biking to work/school. That should be a lot of fun and good for me.

Owen has just discovered that when he jumps on the dog she make a really fun “WHOOOOSH”ing sound. Who’d have know eh?

Greetings family,

We?ve had a good but very busy week. I had 3 tests in as many days so I was busy studying for all of them. I?ve got one more on Tuesday, and then Midterms are done. We moved the computer out of the bedroom and downstairs into a little armoire we got at Office Max. It?s nice because I can work on his projects till late, but still be at home. The boys also love surfing to http://www.playhousedisney.com to have Daddy play games and music for them.

Tammy is looking marvelous! She was turning heads when we went out on Valentines Day with her new coat, scarf, necklace and haircut. She is keeping up with the boys and is definitely their favorite. I babysat them when she went to Enrichment the other night. Everything was going great?until she left. Then there was much weeping and wailing as the boys threw themselves at the door yelling ?Mama?MAAMAAAAMMAAMAMAMAMAMAM?..? I was able to calm them down but they were very glad to see her when she came home.

Cute story from the boys for the week, while I was babysitting we were all sitting on the couch together, Braeden had a big pile of toys on his lap and noticed that Owen didn?t have anything. He selected a plane from his pile, said ?Here brother? and gave him the airplane. Owen was very gracious and gave a good ?Thank You? (words in quote should be read in a cute, baby sounding voice). It?s the small moments like this that make you forget Owen pulling on Braeden’s shirt just to annoy him, or Braeden finally getting fed up and clobbering Owen. Oh yes, it?s the little moments of sharing that we treasure.

Mike & Liz, it?s good to hear from you guys. We here that Ben and Mom have sent you a care package. What else do you still want/need? And give us some ideas from Liz too.

We love you all and have a great week and a Happy Prez day!

Love Dan and Tammy and Owen and Braeden

We’ve got some more pictures of the boys for you to look at. There are some from Christmas and then about 11 of them in the bath. Thank goodness for Sam’s Club and their option for scanning you developed pictures. What a time saver!

I’m currently working on a Crossing the Desert problem that is pretty tricky. Hopefully I’ll have it by the end of the day, if not, well … that’s why there are weekends right

Scott sent his weekly letter from Germany. You can read it in the News page as well as seeing the Latest Pictures from his mission

Greetings all you Owens,

It’s been really nice hearing from all of you, especially Mike & Liz in Balad. We are glad that you are doing well, keep sending those letters. And to Ben & Krystal, how was Ben’s Trip? Dan works with someone who served in Guatamala, so every time he tells a story Dan thinks of Ben. And finally to Chris & Erin, what’s new with you guys?

We’ve had a good new year so far. We are both on diets (probably the first time you’ve heard of someone picking that as a resolution right?) So far it’s going really well. But the biggest news is we took away Owen’s noni (aka pacifier). It went a lot better than we thought it would. We were expecting him to be just horrible about it (no sleep, crying all the time etc..) but he just skipped a nap and then slept through the night with hardly any problems.

Dan’s really busy so far this semester. Typical day is getting up at 6:30, coming home at 6 for a couple hours, then back to the lab until midnight. And while there may not be a PHD attached to the diploma, he does graduate in April.

Love and miss you all, keep sending those letters

Tammy, Dan, Braeden & Owen

We are taking Owen off of his Noni this weekend. It was getting to the point where it was affecting his teeth, so we decided to get rid of it. Poor kid. We decided to start Saturday Morning. He didn’t take a nap that day, instead he spent the time saying “Noni, noni” over and over and looking around the house for it. Very sad, but it turned out to be a good thing, because by the time it was bedtime, Owen was exhausted. Yesterday was pretty good too, he took his nap great, but then had a really hard time going to sleep. Hopefully today will get even better and he’ll be able to sleep tonight.