meet Jeanette Browning

Jeanette was born and raised just outside of Los Angeles CA.   When she was 9 years old, missionaries introduced, taught and baptized her and her family.  Jeannette says that she was a "wallflower" and knew of a "Jock" from a neighboring school name Joe.  It wasn't until after Joes mission, attending institute activities that they officially  met.  Joe and Jeannette dated and were married within a year, now married for 38 years. Jeannette is now retired, after working for the same dentist for over 30 years, she says that her co worker became like family to her.
     After retirement, Joe and Jeanette both decided to move to Utah to be closer to children and grandchildren, beside everything seem to be in favor of the move.  Jeanette enjoys living in Kaysville, loves her home and has a full, happy life.  She just misses her coworker back in CA,  which give her more reason to travel and visit CA.  Jeanette enjoys traveling, cruises, crafts, cooking, baking and helping out her children any way she can.  She keeps herself busy by having grandkids over for sleepovers, dinners, attending grandkids sports, helping her daughter-in-law with laundry to cooking for 170 single adults ( ages 26+).  Jeanette and Joe enjoy and are busy with being able to help their son, who runs an LDS dating website (called LDS meet).  Starting this summer 3 different Lake Powell boat trips will be offered that Jeanette and Joe will always be the much loved cooks.  Between her traveling, visiting friends, cooking for the singles, and spending time with family. Jeannette is a very busy, happy lady and someone fun to get to know.       

Elizabeth Lasson

To say that Elizabeth was born and raised in Kaysville is an understatement. Both of her parents grew up in Kaysville (they were high school sweethearts), and she grew up in the ward her dad grew up in. She is also the 3^rd generation of her family to graduate from Davis High and work on the D-Book staff (yearbook). Her roots are deep here in K-town, so much so that her first child is named Davis after her ancestor Daniel C. Davis whom Davis County is named after. She loves living here and being close to her family, all of whom live in Kaysville.

 

Elizabeth grew up near the location of the new library. She was always very studious and disciplined. While in high school she was part of the yearbook staff (as stated above) and part of the National Honors Society. Grades were very important to her. In fact all the way through school, up until she finished her graduate degree, she never received a lower grade than an A- (except for B's in Jr. High art and PE!)

 

Elizabeth also played the piano. She started when she was about 7. When she was 16 years old, her ward released their organist. There was not another organist in the ward to be had, but Elizabeth had gone to a 2 hour class on how to play the organ sponsored through the stake. With that limited training, and at her father's suggestion (he was the ward clerk), the bishop called her to be the ward organist. Elizabeth was shocked to say the least. She really didn't know how to play, but her parents had taught her to never say no to a calling, so she said yes.

She said her mother was a such a blessing to her during that time. She would take Elizabeth over to the church every week for several hours and stay with her while she practiced and taught herself how to play the organ. She still plays to this day and actually has a lovely organ in her front room. In fact, in one of her last wards, she was able to give lessons to a girl who really wanted to learn to play and she loved it.

 

All of Elizabeth's studying during high school really paid off. She was accepted into the BYU accounting program with a full-ride scholarship. The BYU accounting program was extremely competitive. They have a very intense graduate program that allows students to graduate with their graduate degree in 5 years. Due to Elizabeth's hard work in high school, she was able to have all of her schooling paid for except for the last year. And with her Master's degree, she was able to get her CPA license.

 

Elizabeth loved college. She met Russ in a very large economics class Freshman year, but they never really hung out outside of class. When Russ came home from his mission, he returned to BYU and ended up living in the same complex as Elizabeth (but in a different ward). She happened to be serving as the ward prayer coordinator with Russ's best friend from high school. Russ came over to his friend's house and Elizabeth was there working on her calling. Elizabeth (who went by "Liz" until she graduated from college) even opened the door to have Russ say, « Hi, Its's Liz right? » How akward she felt not remembering that she'd ever met him.

 

From that point on, whenever she saw him, she made a big deal about saying, « Hi RUSS. » She piqued his interest and after having been home about a year, he decided he would ask her out. By this time however, she wasn't in the same ward as his friend, so he had to work hard to find her number. After making several phone calls, he did call and ask her out. They spent their first date with a group, in a tent the boys had set up in their living room, watching the movie Rudy. Every year on the anniversary of that date, they re-enact the same date. Now they include their kids it! What a great family tradition.

 

Elizabeth and Russ started dating in January 2002 and were married in July, right after she graduated. They then put off Russ's final year of film school and moved to California where Elizabeth went to work for a large firm in California. The ward in California was so glad to have them. During that year, they served in 8 different callings. Their callings included, stake publicity committee, primary teachers, writing and directing the ward road show, pianist for the choir and primary and activities committee.

 

After a year the Lassons came home so Russ could finish his last year of film school at BYU. During that time they moved to Draper. After graduating Russ landed a job in Provo and they built a home in Lehi. They loved living in Lehi and lived there for 8 years. Elizabeth said she never really cared about moving back to Davis County, but Russ felt drawn to come live up here and Elizabeth was commuting up here about once a week to spend time with her family.

Finally, they decided to make a big jump and rent their Lehi home while they house sat in Cottonwood Heights for Russ's parents who were serving a mission. During that time, they started researching where they would like to move in Davis County. They realized the best schools in the district were in Kaysville, so they started looking at houses to build in the city.

 

They put money on a few different lots before they actually found Woodside. So after prayer and visiting the temple, they felt sure this was where they were supposed to be. They put the money down and the rest is history.

 

Elizabeth and Russ have two beautiful children, a boy named Davis and a darling daughter named Callie, named after Russ's grandmother. In her spare time Elizabeth loves to cook and bake. She also loves playing with her children. She works a few hours per night preparing taxes during tax season. The most recent hobby she has added is doing family history. She still loves music. She is serving as the nursery music leader and loves singing each week with the adorable kids in nursery!

 

What a great addition Elizabeth brings with so many talents. We are lucky for the contribution she brings to our ward.

 

Meet Sarah Adams

   

  Sarah had a full childhood being raised with a brother, sister and a wide range of outdoor activities.  Days were filled with riding horses, shearing sheep, playing on their ranch, attending rodeos to surfing, spending time at their beach house or perfecting her game of golf.  In junior and senior high school, because golf wasn't a huge sport for girls (yet), Sarah was on the men's golf team and competed in tournaments all over.  

     Sarah grew up in the small town of Clovis, CA, later moved to Fresno, where she attended Fresno State University.  While playing golf for Fresno State, Sarah was recruited and received a full ride scholarship to Weber State University.  While on a blind date, she met her husband John.  Now married 13 years, Sarah and John have 3 cute children: Steven (age 10), Stacy (age 9) and Katie (age 6).  Even though Sarah misses the ocean, she loves raising her children in Kaysville, where we have a little bit of country and some city living too.

     Life is busy for Sarah (running kids around, attending soccer games and playing golf).  One of their family's favorite things to do is riding horses and spending time at John's family ranch in Heber (something Sarah and John had in common growing up).  Now that Katie is in full day school (1st grade), Sarah is considering teaching golf lessons again.

     If you have a chance to meet Sarah, she's a fun person to get to know.

Mindianne Toomb

 

 

Mindianne Toomb was born in Salt Lake City. She is the oldest of four children. All of the children in her family were spaced four or five years apart, so that left her with many responsibilities in helping her mother. In fact, when she was babysitting age her mother told the women in the ward to not ask her to babysit, that Mindianne was her babysitter. She said being the oldest helped her grow up fast and learn to take on responsibility. It really helped her become the person she is today.

 

After her father completed his OBGYN residency in California, the family moved up to Bountiful into the Val Verda area. She lived in the same house with her parents until she was off to college.

Mindianne attended Woods Cross High School and was in the band. One aspect of the band she really enjoyed was being part of a group and having fun with friends she made in that group. She said they took very fun trips and competed against schools in California, Seattle, and Canada, and really made great memories doing so.

 

She played the clarinet in Jr. High, High School, and at the University of Utah.  She also played the saxophone in the Jazz Band in the 9^th grade. Mindianne's favorite thing about being in band was playing the music and the way it felt to play beautiful pieces of music. She just loves music and she also plays the piano.

 

After graduating from high school, Mindianne moved up to the dorms and went to the U of U on scholarship to play in the marching band. This was a great experience to be in the marching band and play in front of hundreds of fans. The Utah Marching band was able to perform in the half time show at a San Diego Chargers game, which was a once in a lifetime experience.  She also played with the Pep band at the WAC tournament in Las Vegas when the basketball team competed there. She said she feels like she was very fortunate because she didn't live at home and commute to school. A friend from High School and she both moved into the dorms their first year and their second year they moved to a duplex in Sugar House where they lived for the next three years. This gave her a real going off to college experience. She was living on her own, making choices, making new friends and growing up.

 

One funny story she shared with me was after she moved out, a friend of hers wanted her to come work with her at Aerosoles in Trolley Square. She thought that sounded fun so she got the job and decided she would ride the bus to work. She thought for sure she could handle the bus. Well, she got on the bus, but the ride seemed to be taking a bit longer than anticipated and the landscape was looking a bit unfamiliar. She realized she wasn't downtown and pretty soon, no one was left on the bus but her and little 5^th grade boy. She tentatively asked the bus driver if he was going to turn around soon and go back. He told her, no this was his last run of the day and he would be going home so she asked him to drop her off at a nearby Baskin Robbins. It just so happened that Baskin Robins was located on 23^rd East and Murray Holladay Road (in Holladay about 20 minutes from downtown).

This was before cell phones, but her mom had always told her to keep some change in her backpack in case she needed to make an emergency phone call. So once at the Baskin Robbins, she called her manager who came and picked her up, laughing the whole way. She went on to enjoy successful employment for their company.  She quickly learned how the bus system worked after that. ;)

 

Mindianne's dream was to become a nurse but the competition at the U was intense and frustrating at times because of the competition amongst the students. After her second year at the “U,” she took a break from school and went to work for her dad as his medical assistant. She loved this job and worked for him for seven years.

 

Mindianne met her husband Zack at a University of Utah football game through a mutual friend. (Go Utes!!) It was the following March and after a trip to Oceanside, California, before they started dating.

After dating about a year, they were married and moved back to the ward Mindianne lived in, in Bountiful. While living there they fixed up the house and then sold it, and then bought another house down the street in the same ward. They lived in that neighborhood for 11 years before moving to Kaysville.

 

The decision to move to Kaysville was a very difficult one for Mindianne.  She loved where they were living, but there weren’t a lot of children for her girls to play with.  She knew that Heavenly Father would help her and Zack see where they needed to be and would be led there.  They put their house up for sale, had an offer two days later, and started looking for homes.  They made their way to Kaysville and while visiting the model home one night, met the Butterfields.  Meeting Reini was one of the deciding factors in why they chose to move here.  Reini’s nursing background deals with similar medical issues that their oldest daughter has.  Mindianne felt at peace after meeting her and knew this is where they should be. They moved in and have loved being here. 

 

Mindianne was recently released as the Primary President, a calling she dearly loved. She loved being with the kids, but is also excited for the opportunity to attend Relief Society again. She may have thought she was moving here for support but Mindianne is one of the most positive and supportive people I have ever met. What a joy she is.

Meet Michelle Allen

Michelle grew up in Layton, Utah and is one of 7 children.  One thing that Michelle really loved from her childhood was spending time with her large family, attending BYU football games, and participating in outdoor activities like camping, fishing, hiking, boating, and skiing.  Her family is very close and they frequently get together for family parties, game nights, holidays, and to watch sports.  Basically, they find any excuse to get together.

Michelle lives on Equestrian Parkway with her husband, Dave, and three of their four children.  Their children range in age from 15 to 25 years old.  Michelle is a licensed clinical mental health counselor and owns a private practice located in Station Park. Her goal is to add equine assisted psychotherapy into her practice in the future.  She is not a horse whisperer, if that's what you were thinking.  Equine assisted psychotherapy uses horses as a teaching tool to help clients with mental health and developmental concerns.  When Michelle isn't working, she enjoys spending time with her family, camping, hiking, reading, photography, traveling, and gardening.

One thing that has been so fun for Michellle and her family was to host an exchange student from Germany, Vivi.  Michelle is very excited to get to travel to visit Vivi and her family, in Germany next year.

If you haven't had the chance to meet Michelle yet, stop by the library on Sundays and say, "Hi."   

Nancy Park

 

Nancy grew up in Pleasant Grove Utah in Utah County. She lived in the same home the whole time she was growing up.

She said her upbringing was very simple.  She went to school, worked on her dad's 10 acre hobby farm, and played outside. When her work was done, she would go outside and play until her mother called her in for dinner.

Her parents taught her to value of work. It was very important to her dad. Her dad loved to work and if they went on vacation it was to go fishing. Otherwise, they were busy with the farm. On their farm they had horses, cows, chickens and fruit trees. In the summer she would pick fruit for her family and they would sell it at a fruit stand.

Nancy is the 4 th of 5 children. Her older siblings are much older than her and she is 11 years older than her baby brother. Basically she was raised as an only child. She spent a lot of time with her mom. They took care of all the work for the inside of the house. Her mom also taught her how to sew do crafts and helped her with her schooling.

After graduating from Pleasant Grove high school, Nancy went up to Ricks College for 2 years graduating with a degree in general studies. She then came back to Pleasant Grove and began working at the Bank of Pleasant Grove. At first she just answered the phones, but after a year they promoted her to secretary to the bank president.

Although she liked working at the bank, after 2 ½ years she decided she needed to work somewhere that she could have more of a social life. So she took a job as secretary in the dean's office of the School of  Management at BYU. She liked it and enjoyed being around more people her own age. She also started attending a BYU student ward. 

While attending the student ward she was called to be the appointment secretary for the bishop. However, the current executive secretary to the bishop wasn't really doing his calling so she started doing it too which included attending all the bishopric meetings.

About this time the bishop had a neighbor who was young adult age. He approached Wayne Park about accepting a calling in the singles ward as a ward clerk. It was at Wayne's first bishopric meeting that Wayne and Nancy met. They met in January, were engaged in March and married in June. The bishop joked that it was the first time the ward clerk and executive secretary of a ward ever got married.

Nancy and Wayne lived in the area for another year while Wayne finished his masters degree in Agricultural Economics. They had their first baby, Renae, while at BYU. From there the family moved to Illinois so Wayne could work on his PhD at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. They lived in the middle of Illinois farm country.  After 5 years, Wayne still had not completed his dissertation and they were out of money. Wayne wanted to quit, but Nancy insisted he finish his degree. So they came back to Orem and lived with Wayne's parents while he finished his dissertation long distance.  Their second child, Curtis, was born in Illinois.

 Wayne then accepted a post-doctoral position working for the USDA on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville and lived there for 2 1/2 years.  They became University of Florida Gator fans and still are to this day.  It was here that their daughter, Corinne, was born.  When she was a week old they once again packed up and moved.  This time they drove across the country to Kennewick, Washington.  In fact, Corinne was blessed en route in Orem so they could have family participate in her blessing.

Wayne and Nancy lived in Kenewick for 19 years and this became their home.  They never thought they would come back to Utah but after their youngest graduated from high school there was a desire to move back to be closer to family.  Wayne asked for a transfer to SLC thinking that maybe in a few years it would happen but were surprised to be making  preparations to move within about six months.

While Wayne was down here looking for a house, he found our neighborhood and wanted to move Nancy here because of the fabulous view of the mountains. Their whole married life, except while living in Orem, they hadn't had mountains to look at and they missed them. They also liked Kaysville because it was so close to their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.  They have three children and three granddaughters with the youngest granddaughter born just two weeks ago.

Nancy says her favorite thing about living in our ward is the neighborhood. She says she knows more about her neighbors here than she did with her neighbors in the 19 years in Washington. Nancy is kind and generous. We are lucky to have her.

Angie Lines

 

Angie was born in Salt Lake City and grew up in West Jordan, Utah. When her parents were 6, they divorced and when she was 9, her mother remarried. She grew up in a yours, mine and ours family where she was the oldest of 7 children.

Dance was a big part of Angie’s life growing up. She danced from the time she was three until she was 18. She did just about every kind of dance: ballet, jazz, modern, hip hop, tap and even a little ballroom. She says she loved different things about each dance genre so she can't pick a favorite.

Angie attended college at SUU. After her freshman year, her dad got a job in Yuma, Arizona. Angie was the oldest and the only child out of the house, her mother didn't want her to stay in Utah alone. She talked Angie into coming down to Yuma and trying it out down there for one semester. Angie agreed to go, convinced that she would be returning to Utah after the semester was over.

In October 1999 Angie went with a Young Single Adult group to San Diego to attend a Young Adult Conference. One of the activities was a service project picking up trash in Old Town San Diego. While picking up trash she met a very impressive young man named Brian Lines who was also from Yuma. They dated for nine months until Brian left for his mission in Chile.

After Brian went on his mission, Angie decided to attend BYU Hawaii. She enjoyed attending school with students from all over the world, and said it was a great cultural education. Angie did date while Brian was on his mission, but they wrote each other every week for the entire 2 years Brian was gone. She knew after he came home she needed to go back to Arizona and see if things would work out between them. Brian came home June 1^st,  2002 and they were engaged by the end of July. They were married in November in the San Diego temple where they had first met three years prior. As Brian and Angie have had the opportunity to work with the youth, they have told them the story of how they met picking up trash and reminded the youth that great blessings come with service.

During their first year of marriage, they lived in Yuma, Arizona and Angie worked for the Community College GED program. She worked with many different people who for one reason or another dropped out of high school and never got their diploma. She was able to help them prepare to take the GED, work on job skills, and many other things that would help them to become self-reliant. Angie says this job was incredibly rewarding and heart breaking at the same time. She loves how it opened her eyes to others people's struggles and gave her understanding of why people end up in these situations.

After a year of marriage and having their first child Garrett, the Lines moved to Tucson where both Brian and Angie finished their bachelor’s degrees at the University of Arizona. Angie graduated with a degree in journalism and a minor in English. While in Tucson, Angie was a copy editor and a feature writer for a local newspaper.

Three days after their second child, Addison was born the Lines drove across the country for Brian to begin his graduate studies at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Angie says she loved everything about Ohio. She says she always loved the four seasons and in Ohio, they were amplified. She says she had no idea what fall was until she saw the beauty of it there. She also loved how there were so many places to go visit so close to them and many outdoor activities they could do.

After graduating from OSU, Brian began a fellowship in Dallas Texas, so they picked up moved again just weeks after having their third child, Drew. Even though they were sad to leave Ohio, they were excited for this fellowship, not only was it with a great mentor, but they felt guided towards Texas. Angie had always been up for an adventure, but she was surprised when she never really loved Texas. While living there, Angie was offered an opportunity to do some writing for a hospital CEO. Soon after she started he urged her to start up her own company and the hospital contracted with her to do their writing, public relations and outreach. She also wrote speeches for executives, some of which were presented on the senate floor during the debate over health care reform.

During their fourth year in Texas Brian was offered an associateship with the HCA company. They had three flagship hospitals Brian could pick from, and the Lines chose to come back west. They had been away from family for 8 years and wanted their children to know where they came from. However, Brian’s CEO intervened making it so they couldn't leave Texas. When Angie got the news, she said she laid down on a friend's couch and cried. Brian was working 15 hour days, and the job came with a difficult lifestyle for a family. Yet, Angie felt like they were still supposed to stay in Texas.

She embraced their new situation. They bought a house, had their 4^th child, Cole and Angie scaled back on writing and began teaching dance in her own studio. Within 18 months into the job, Brian was offered a job in Bountiful, Utah with Lakeview hospital. It would take Brian’s career in a different direction than they had been on, but the Lines felt like they needed to choose their family first. They sold their home and moved to Utah. They love this neighborhood and were drawn to it. They even knew their house was the right house to buy as soon as they stepped on the porch. Angie would love to stay in Utah forever. She loves the people, the mountains, and the work family life balance that Brian’s job now has.

Last year Angie came to understand why they were supposed to be in Texas for those 5 years. While living there, they came into contact with an amazing craniofacial surgeon and the hospital Brian worked at was the craniofacial capital of the world. At the time their daughter Addison had a cleft palate that hadn’t been sealed properly. This surgeon was top in the field and he was able to fix Addison’s problems. Interestingly enough, after moving back to Utah the Lines 5^th child Hallie was also born with a cleft pallet. The Lines have flown back to Dallas for Hallie’s surgeries and each surgery has been a tremendous success. Angie not only values the close relationship they share with their surgeon, but through this experience she came to understand how much Heavenly Father loves his children. Even though her daughters were sent to earth with some challenges, Brian and Angie know they were guided to the hospital and the doctor that would ensure their daughters would live a normal life.

We are so grateful to have Angie in our relief society. What a wealth of experience and wisdom she brings with her!