He's Coming Home

We received Steven's travel plans in the mail today. He arrives home on Tuesday, July 1st at 2:29 in the afternoon on Skywest/Delta Airlines.

Along with the official itinerary from the mission office came a letter from the Mission President. It encourages us to help him stay focused on missionary work up to the end of his mission, it gives us options for booking travel for our family if we want to escort him home, and it asks us to have someone at the airport to meet him.

Oh, please. Do they really have to tell us to meet him at the airport after telling us for the last two years to stay away? Believe me--we will be there. Even Brent's non-member secretary at work knew what he was calling about when he told her he needed July 1st off. We will be there! My concern is that they have enough security there on July 1st so that we don't rush the doors and go chase him down. We will be there!

Store-bought Sunshine

My adventure for the day yesterday was to head to WalMart to pick up a new movie for Becca to watch to keep both of us sane. As I walked in they had a display with some gorgeous begonias. I decided I needed the lift.

In the late afternoon, the doorbell rang and Country Floral was there with a delivery. Seems someone knew I needed a lift. Thanks for the sunshine!

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!

I have lived here for nearly 15 years. One of the things that I have thumbed my nose at others about is that our winters are so mild here. Well this winter has been an additional reminder that I am not in charge.

We have had storm after storm after storm. I realize that there are many of you that are less than compassionate in this matter. Sure you get your multiple feet of snow every winter and you just suffer through. For the most part, you have chosen to be where you are. I have chosen to live here and one of the reasons I am here is because we can have winter and enjoy the snow in the mountains but we don't have to shovel it or drive in it. If it does snow, it usually has melted before the day ends.

WE ARE NOT EQUIPPED TO HANDLE THIS KIND OF WEATHER.

Firstly, people have no clue how to drive in this stuff. They are either insanely nonchalant or they freak out and morph into turtles. Secondly, when there are only a few snowplows to cover the entire valley, there is a good chance you won't ever get where you need to on cleared roads. Thirdly, the road crew budgets for the entire winter were used weeks ago.

I remember laughing as a teen in Idaho Falls when I would hear that some town had been shut down because of a few inches of snow. After having lived in Seattle and in Nampa, I have repented. The other day there were 5 cars stuck at the bottom of an underpass because they couldn't get up either side because of the slick roads. We have had heartbreaking deaths this week due to road conditions. Daniel came home late last night from a high school basketball game pretty shaken. He had passed an SUV flipped over on its side but the one that really affected him was on the freeway. He had been crawling along at 20 mph as had the rest of the traffic. As he got off the freeway at our exit, police officers directed him to take an outside route under the underpass. Hanging over the top of the freeway ready to fall to the roadway below was a car that had gone over the guardrail and was "resting" on a small concrete outcropping. Daniel saw the driver of the car standing off to the side and realized how lucky he was to be alive. How he made it out of that situation is a miracle.

Okay---I'm finished whining. Just let it end, please.

Man of God

I had one of those experiences that stays with you for life last night when I heard that President Hinckley had passed away. My initial feeling was one of such grief and loss that it hurt to the core. That feeling was followed just as quickly by one of gratitude.

How blessed I have been to have known such a man of God, a Prophet of God. I don't know him personally but I feel as if I have lost a friend. Through the years it has seemed as he has spoken to me as I have heard his counsel and have felt the spirit confirm to me that he was speaking the truth.

I will miss him. The memory of his sweet, simple, optimistic attitude will stay with me.

Throughout the day I have wondered on what is happening in the spirit world today. The world has lost a mighty man of God but Heaven has reclaimed one of its own.

Sister by another Mother

One of the difficult realizations when a hysterectomy was needed was that Becca would be the lone girl in our family. I worried most that being the youngest she would have no way to learn how to be a mom. Gratefully, my best friend, JeNeale decided to help the situation and have a little one for Becca to practice on.



We have watched Jensen grow and love her like she is one of our family. She turned 5 this past week. My how the time has flown. It seems like just yesterday that her mom called me from the hospital to let me know that she had arrived. I am not partial in any way, but I think she is pretty great.

We got to babysit her tonight for a few hours while the rest of her family was at mutual. Becca made her a peanut butter sandwich for dinner and then entertained Jensen for over an hour "coloring" pictures at the computer for every member of both families. Becca neatly wrote each individual's name for Jensen to follow so that she could address each picture to the person she had designed it for. They put them into envelopes and Jensen wrote everyone's name on them ready for personal delivery.

As I watched them together, I realized that my prayers had been answered. Becca will be a terrific mom. Thanks Jensen for letting her practice on you all these years. Happy Birthday!

LOBSTAH!!!

So this year Rick got our name for Christmas. He called ahead to verify that sending us live crustaceans would indeed be a gift and not torture. We waited anxiously for the FedEx guy to ring the doorbell and sure enough our little friends from the ocean survived their trip all the way to our house. We almost felt guilty looking at them longingly as they squirmed about in their chilled, moist, styrofoam habitat.



We each took a turn carefully extricating our own little friend from the box. The first few were hanging on to the others for dear life but guess what --- we are bigger and happened to be hungry. We read the instructions carefully and placed them head first into boiling water.



Ben was brave and went first and didn't seem to be bothered by the final step in the process, ripping the claws and tail apart from the body.





What a sacrifice those little guys made to make our Christmas merry! They were so sweet dipped in butter. We will never look at lobster quite the same way again. That was the tastiest lobster I have ever had. WOW! What a fun treat and a memory that will last forever. LOBSTAH!

Thanks Rick.





p.s. Becca loved her pot stickers.

How long has it been?

Becca has been begging me to help her get a blog up and running. As I was looking through all of the options, I decided that I was very bored with my site, hence the change. Stay posted--there may even be a new post sometime soon.