Small slice of Spring.......

Welcome Home Elder Evans

We drove up to Hamer, Idaho yesterday to attend Elder Sam Evans homecoming. The roads weren't the best, but the company was !! There was much laughter and storytelling, and a little bit of "white knuckles" on the HS handle (haha Dave). Elder Evans looked great. Tan, not too skinny, and best of all, he let missionary hungry moms give him hugs. Next best thing, until 6 more months, right?

Do you need a bucket filler today?

This beautiful story was written by a doctor who worked in Central Africa.

One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in
spite of all we could do, she died, leaving us with a tiny, premature
baby and a crying two-year-old daughter.

We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive; as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator). We also had no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst (rubber perishes easily in tropical climates). "And it is our last hot water bottle!" she exclaimed. As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.

"All right," I said, "put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm."

The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.

During prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. 'Please, God' she prayed, 'Send us a hot water bottle today. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon.'

While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added, 'And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she'll know You really love her?' As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say 'Amen'? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything; the Bible says so. But there are limits, aren't there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever, received a parcel from home. Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? After all I lived on the equator!

Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses' training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there on the porch was a large 22-pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly-colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas - that would make a batch of buns for the weekend.

Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the..... could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out. Yes, a brand new, rubber hot water bottle. I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could.


Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, 'If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too! 'Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully-dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted!

Looking up at me, she asked, 'Can I go over with you and give this dolly to that little girl, so she'll know that Jesus really loves her?' 'Of course,' I replied!

That parcel had been on the way for five whole months, packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child - five months before, in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it 'that afternoon'.

'Before they call, I will answer.' (Isaiah 65:24)

At the BIG TOY

Wait a minute - I thought it was BIG toy for LITTLE kids...........

We've decided Tagg is a daredevil

CJ was trying to show off on the hanging bars, and hurt her arm :)

Treyson is all boy, but he is pretty cautious on the slides

Grandpa is showing us how it's done

I want to be JUST likeGrandpa

As you can see, Tagg has NO fear of heights

or slides.......his smile was a mile wide

Let's do it again !!

Biking with the Rich's

Grandpa - let's go for a bike ride !

Rog got a new bike to help strengthen his knee

We took a little jaunt on the River Parkway

Mom & Dad (in front) with Tagg in the trailer and Treyson pumping his little legs so hard. Grandpa and Grandma were in the back

Tagg was fine as long as he could see us. Looks like he's in jail, huh?

Early Spring at the Property

Zac helped Dad get the pump ready to go

Treyson decided to climb a tree

He is way too brave for his own good

Grandma D. doesn't need to help - look ma, no hands !!

Back up he goes again !

Dad worked with the FSA, and had some work done on the creek bank to prevent erosion (hopefully)

Wilkinson's placed a bunch of rip rap

It sure has changed the look of things

This is where the "platform" used to be. It's gone now.
Also, the zipline. Remember how that big tree used to grow out from the right side, and the zipline was attached to it? They cut that tree off.
No more picture like this (see below)

I'm famous :)

So, have you heard about this great new cookbook?
Last year, the word was sent out through the missionary mom website, that recipes were wanted. Deanna asked that we submit a recipe that our family loved, and to include a little background info. She also promised us a FREE BOOK if our recipe was included !

Well, we had just gotten Landon off on his mission, and I had been making this chicken noodle soup like crazy. I sent it off really quick, and then promptly forgot about it. About 2-3 months ago I saw the advertisement for the book, it was finally ready for publication. The thought crossed my mind - my recipe must not have been chosen :(

Surprise Surprise - I get home a week or two ago, and in the mail was a package from Covenant Communications........ I couldn't imagine WHAT it could be. When I opened it, I just about FLIPPED. I haven't been that excited in a LONG time. I would have done cartwheels if I still could. I skimmed through the book like a crazy woman - there it was !!

I think what I was most excited about, was that Landon was mentioned. Wondering who the dad was in the story??? Our own Dr. Jess of course :)

Two Peas in a Pod

I love these guys. One is my husband, and the other is my brother-in-law. Roger and Layne are almost exactly one year apart. LuAnn came home from the hospital with Layne on Rog's 1st birthday. Roger started bawling, wanting mom to hold him, and LuAnn sat down and started bawling too. That makes me smile, just thinking about it.

Layne and Rog were very very close growing up. They did everything together. Milked cows at Saxton's, rode bikes to Morgan, played little league football........

swam in the creek, hauled hay, had BB gun fights, wrestled, sheet-rocked......

The years have passed, and they are (and will be) 1/2 a century old. (Yikes !!) They have grown up, married, each had 4 kids, still live in Morgan, and now they are grandpas.


Something funny has happened over these last few years. They are starting to be mistaken for each other ! I could give you examples right and left, but that would take more time than you would want to read about. The other night at Keysto and Kaley's wedding it happened again, so I decided to take a picture.....close up.......

Yup - I think they are brothers :)
Hair....... Glasses......... Goats......... Button up shirts........ Wranglers......
Quiet...... hard working....... don't like your pics taken :)
The only reason you don't have your ball caps on, is because you are in a church and you are respectful as always.

You guy's aren't getting older, you're getting better !! Love ya !

Seat Belts

Do you wear your seat belt? I'm pretty good when I'm on the freeway, but here in Morgan, I tend to forget. My excuse? It's a pain to reach behind me (in Lando's little two door). That's stupid, huh? And I know that most accidents happen right near home (mine did). I was driving down to Peterson this morning, and thought, "I should buckle up", and then I remembered a dream I had last night. Have you ever done that? Forgotten a dream TOTALLY, and then something "triggers" it, and you remember during the next day? Well in my dream last night, I was in an accident (slow motion) and I was thinking......."I'm not buckled up - I'm going to die !!", and I was struggling to get buckled up, and everything was in slow motion.

What I really wish is that all vehicles MADE you buckle up. Right now, Roger's work vehicle BEEPS when he's not buckled, but if he gets up to 20MPH, he can unbuckle, and it "fools" the car. So automatic as clockwork, he gets in, buckles up, accelerates to 20 MPH, and unbuckles. Stupid, huh? Zac doesn't wear his seatbelt much either. I wish he would.

Nowadays, my kids are EXCELLENT about having their babies and kids buckled up in car seats. I'm SO GLAD this is the way it is now. When my kids were younger, it wasn't such a big deal (to my everlasting regret), and when I was a baby, it was basically unheard of.

I remember a funny story about my dad. He was a little boy, and was in the backseat, and Grandma and Grandpa Dickson were driving back from Morgan, somewhere along Highway 66, and they went around a corner, and dad was leaning against the door, and hit the handle, the door opened, and he fell out. Grandma screamed, "Reed, you've killed our boy!" I've heard the story so many times, I can remember EXACTLY what she said :) Well, they stopped the car, and ran back, and there was my dad. He was okay, probably bruised up, but unhurt enough to say.........."Daddy, you #@*%$, you threw me out of the car!"

Another time when I was a little girl about 8-9 years old, we used to get milk from Grandpa Dickson's farm. He milked cows, and we had a big glass jug, and used to fill it up from the big milk tank at his barn. One night mom drove up to get some milk, and me and Erika (6-7 years old), and Mark (2-3 years old) were in the car. She ran in the milk house really quick, leaving her front car door open, car running, and the gear in PARK. We were parked on a hill, and Erika was in the back seat, and Mark and I were in the front, and Mark accidentally hit the gear shift. The car started rolling down the hill backward, with the door open, and Mark in the driver's seat. It was so scary !! We were all screaming, and I remember Erika asking me if she should jump out and run for help. My mom was running down the hill after the car, I can only imagine she must have been frantic. To this day, I don't know why Mark didn't fall out the open door, because it was on the downhill side. I'm sure he was being looked out for by Heavenly Father. I think we finally hit a tree and stopped. With all of the screaming, Grandpa and Grandma and everyone at their house ran out to see what was wrong. We were all crying, and it was SO SCARY.

Anyway, after this long rambling post :) The message is.............. Wear your seatbelt !

Bucket Filler

I scanned this little picture I have on my fridge. It helps me to remember to be a "Bucket Filler". Every person has a "bucket", and when we interact with ANY person, we are either FILLING their bucket, or REMOVING from their bucket.

In our homes, the family we interact with and LOVE so much, mean the MOST to us. This is the place where we should always feel safe and loved, and where we KNOW our buckets will be filled.

I know that I'm going to try harder to fill buckets, how about you?

Green Day

Yesterday we were invited over to Zac and CJ's for dinner. We had green water, green butter to go on rolls, and green Tater Tot casserole. The boys and CJ were dressed in green, green tablecloth, green shamrock painted on Treyson's face. I got pinched, because I didn't have any green on me ! Treyson told me the leprechauns were going to get me. Thanks to CJ for going all out, and making it a fun day for everyone :)

Our girls

Click on picture to enlarge

Camalama - we love you :)

The Phoenix Zoo is pretty neat.

Kanga and "Cama ROO"

Last time we went to the zoo, Cam was running in her flip-flops and crashed.
I think Manda has a hard time getting her in anything OTHER than flip flops.

Camryn will soon be 5 years old - time has sure flown.
She is such a sweetheart. We miss them :(

Create