Reflecting

Recently, I read the whole blog called Cling To Courage, written by Mari, who lost her husband to pulmonary embolism in 2014. I had found her blog shortly after her husband, Charles, passed away and read the current posts. For some reason last fall, I felt that I needed to reread those posts and as I read, I felt like I should back-read her whole blog to get a better sense of her story.

As I reread her posts outlining Charles' last day, I was filled with gratitude that my story with pulmonary embolism turned out so differently. I am thankful to still be here on this earth to raise my children and see them move on with their own lives. I did not experience the horrible pain she described him having. In fact, I felt sort of silly going in to the doctor because I was sure they would tell me it was gas, to go home and take some antacid. I remember thinking as they drove me in the ambulance to the airport for the flight to Provo, that I just didn't feel bad enough to be in a life and death situation. I am thankful, after reading her story, that I was spared that pain.

As I have reflected on my experience compared to Charles' experience I came to one conclusion. I was told by my doctor after finishing up my regimen of Warfarin or Coumadin, that I should take a baby aspirin every day to help keep my blood a bit thinner. I bought one bottle and took most of it before deciding, (consciously?), that I didn't need it. But I have felt impressed that I need to begin doing that again. So I've bought another bottle of baby aspirin and I've been very diligent to take one every day.

You never know when your time is at an end. But I want to try to do what I can to live as healthily as possible while I'm still here. I know that if Heavenly Father wants to call me home, a baby aspirin a day is no obstacle for Him, but I will do what I can to prevent another clot or embolism from happening. It's just not worth the risk, when a small daily dose can help keep my blood thin. I have also been told that if I ever have another clot or embolism that I will be put on Coumadin for life. I DO NOT want that. Baby aspirin is now my friend.

Good Things:
Sunshine
Heaters that work
Children who love and care for their siblings

Ford & Shiala are sealed

We headed to Provo on  the 14th of Aug to prepare for Ford and Shiala's temple sealing. It was a day we had been hoping for for quite a while and we were thrilled it was here. There is just nothing like being in the temple with your children, and being there when they make those sacred promises, covenants and commitments. 

Shiala and I had been making preparations for a while, including making the table decorations on the cheap and deciding on a menu and getting it ordered and ready to go. Then the time came and we just hoped we had taken care of everything we needed to take care of.

They had chosen to go to the temple for their endowments prior to the sealing. So that event took place here in Monticello on Aug 11. What a special day. A day that we thought at one point could be years in coming, so we were so happy when the it didn't take years to reach that point. 

Shiala, Ford, Kassie and Curtis-Monticello Temple

For the sealing we got to the SLC Temple, along with a zillion other people (**Including the Piano Guys, who were in the marriage waiting room the same time we were!) on Saturday morning. Finally our group was called and we went up to the sealing room. It was awesome to see Ford and Shiala come in dressed in their temple clothing. The sealer spoke to them for a bit and then sweet Kami was brought in. The ladies in the children's room had done a good job of dressing her up and taking care of her. She was so cute, smiling and saying hi to everyone. She was being very friendly and had all of us smiling and chuckling. However, when they sat her on the altar she instinctively knew that it was a sacred moment and she became quiet and actually laid her little head down on top of her parents' clasped hands. Such a sweet tender moment. 

One other tender mercy was that Shiala's mom was able to get a recommend and be there for it. She thought for a time that she wouldn't be able to be there, and it was a hard thing for Shiala, but she had decided she was going to go ahead anyway. So when we learned that she was going to be there, it made things just that much more special. Shiala's friend, Bronwyn and her husband were there, as well as Shiala's brother, Bryan and his wife, Heidi, and a couple of aunts and uncles. And she thought she'd have no one there. 

We went to the east side of the temple to take a few pictures on the steps, but I didn't get one. We didn't take many because there were other newlyweds waiting. Then we headed back to Orem to get the reception/dinner ready to go.

Shiala wanted to have a little reception/dinner after the sealing since they hadn't had a reception when they were married. We didn't have much of a budget, but tried to find inexpensive ways to give her what she was longing for. She wanted decor in shades of lavender and silver/gray. Live flowers are so expensive, so we opted for these pomander balls that we made, using a flower punch, styrofoam balls and pearl headed pins. We got the glass candlestick holders at Dollar Tree. We also bought a bolt of lavender tulle off amazon, as well as some silver tulle. We asked Nicole if we could use her pewter serving pieces and she helped us find an arch which we decorated with silk wisteria that we ordered off Amazon. What would we do without Amazon?!?  We ordered all the food from BYU Food to Go. It was so nice to not have to prepare all the food, just pick it up and eat it. I think it all turned out very nice, but not overly fancy.  I hope Shiala was happy with it. It was nice for them to have a place to be greeted and congratulated by their family and friends.

Pomander balls we made
lots of time spent punching out flowers and pinning them on

some of my crazy boys at the SLC Temple.
I did not get any other pictures at the temple, sadly.

Isabelle made a cute chalkboard sign for the reception.

Wisteria arch

We had the reception at Nicole's ward building
What would we do without Nicole for party advice and help?!?

Food table on the left,  ice cream sundae dessert table

 We are so thankful for the love and support of all who made the time to be there for Ford and Shiala. Family and friends are so good to us and we are so blessed.

Ford, Kami, Shiala, Stacy, Stewart

Kami, Ford, Shiala, Grandma B

Ford, Kami, Shiala, Kassie, Grandma B, Curtis(already changed and ready to clean up the building)

Candy (Shiala's mom), Shiala and me

Lindsey, Jordan, Emerson, Shiala, Kami, Ford

Ford, Shiala, Montana, Katie (Montana's girlfriend)

Nate, Emma, Ford, Shiala

Noah, Nicole, Nash, Isabelle, Kyle, Josie, Eli, Ford, Shiala

Grandpa Welch, Kami, Ford, Shiala, Grandma Welch

Curtis, Kassie, Ford, Shiala, Kami, Grandma and Grandpa Welch

Sadie, Charlie, Emerson, James, Ford, Soren, Shiala, Hannah, Kami

Winter Wonderland

The weekend before Thanksgiving we were gifted with a glorious, wet, snowstorm. It started out as a foggy, rainy, sleety storm but it ended up dumping almost a foot of the wettest snow I've ever seen.
If you stepped in it, a pool of water formed around your foot. If you tried to shovel it, you were trying to move water with a shovel. And it was H E A V Y!
Around town, many trees paid a heavy price, losing branches and some even gave up the ghost. Part of town lost electricity when a tree took down a power line.
It was reported that at Camp Jackson on the Mountain there were 2 feet of snow and in that was 4 inches of water. The newspaper reported that after that one storm Monticello was at 324% of normal for the water year. Granted the water year had just begun in October. But it's a good beginning.

What a glorious scene...

The mountain in hiding...

I love it when a storm comes softly and gently enough to 'frost' the trees and houses. I love looking out my front windows onto a Winter Wonderland.

Check out the snow on the top of all the signs and rails. Unusual to see that in windy Monticello.

The Bluff Co-op Dedication

I snuck away for a few hours to attend the dedication of the new Visitor Center at the Bluff Fort, on Saturday, Oct 12. It was a perfect day weather wise. And the program was wonderful as well. It was so  nice to be able to sit and listen and not be chasing little boys everywhere.

My mom was honored for being the first director of the fort's visitor center, and then another year of it after her cancer tx. She was given a nicely framed print of 'The Last Wagon Down'. She really has given so much time and energy to the Fort. It has been a mission to her and she has touched so many people's lives during the years she has been there. 

We heard music from two groups, and words from Bob McPherson, the president of the Bluff Branch and a college teacher.  An official declaration from the Utah governor's office was read by Derek Miller, the governor's chief of staff. A talk was given by Bishop Keith McMullin of the Presiding bishopric of the LDS church. Finally, words and the Dedicatory Prayer were given by Elder Marcus B Nash of the Seventy.

Everything was lovely and the program was well planned and executed. 

I am still amazed to look at the Fort today and think where it was even 10 short years ago.  The things that have been accomplished there are nothing short of a miracle. The story of the Hole In The Rock pioneers is every bit as awe-inspiring as any other pioneer story and thanks to these stalwart people the story will not be forgotten but is being spread around the world!

I am thankful to be related to such dedicated and devoted people, both the original pioneers and those who are working so hard to preserve their story.They've all got that good old 'stickety-tuity'

One year ago...

As I take my little yellow baby aspirin tonight I think about the events of one year ago and I'm thankful.

That I'm still here.
That I still have the opportunity to mother my children...
That I still have time to build my marriage...

That I have no complications or lingering effects...

That I don't have to take Coumadin anymore...

That I see the value and purpose of my life more clearly...

Life is precious. Don't waste it and your time on things of little worth. When your time seems limited I can promise you that  nothing matters more than your relationships.

With your children...

With your parents and siblings...

With your spouse...

With Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ...

I find that I'm still easily distracted by the world. I have to work hard to refocus. Often!

But I think I treasure more than ever before the people I love and the Gospel of my Savior. That was the blessed lesson that came from the craziest 10 days of my life.

Our new grade school...

One thing we did pretty consistently over the summer is check out the progress on our new elementary school. It is scheduled to be completed by next year and ready for kids on the first day of school, August 2014!

When we moved here I was excited thinking that some of my children would go to the same schools I went to when I was growing up here. In a small town things don't often change much.

But the old school had lots of maintenance issues and it was so costly to keep fixing things that the district decided to replace it with a brand spanking new one! It's being built on the same property but its set back off the road further so it's actually being built behind the old school. The kids and community can watch the building of it every day. We are excited to have a new, modern school with all the bells and whistles.

Good things:

B Fridays, no one has to be to school early...

Watching my kids participate in their respective sports...

Mission farewells for my nephews and nieces...

Garden-summer 2013

Last year we started our garden by cutting down two trees and building the boxes for the raised beds. This year we wanted to get them going, but it was soooo hard to find compost or decent dirt that we could afford. We ended up spending more than we wanted and not getting quite what we wanted and by the time we got it the season for planting was pretty well past. We decided to just plant anyway to see how things would grow. We have been happily surprised to find that things grew well and that we were able to grow lots of things that we wanted to. We plan to build more boxes and someday the entire back yard will be a garden that will supply us with lots of our food. We have purchased a 'bender' for electrical conduit which you use to make hoops. The hoops and ag-fabric are used to make mini greenhouses or hoop--houses. This allows us to extend the growing season on both ends, being able to plant earlier and harvest longer. We will work on hoops during the winter and hopefully will have them available to use early next spring. When you live at 7000 ft you need some way to extend the growing season, it's pretty short. We also planted four trees this year, two apple-one Golden Delicious, and one Honeycrisp, one pear, and one plum. The plum tree did not survive, but the other three are doing well. We are excited to some day eat an apple off our own tree.

Good Things:
Harvesting all the greens today...
Evening thunderstorm...
Jordan and Lindsey are coming to visit next week!!

Our current garden beds-L to R
Strawberries/Green beans, Onions/Pumpkin, nothing, Lettuce/Spinach/Tomatoes/GreenPeppers/Chard, Raspberries

I LOVE strawberries. In all my married life, I've never grown any. I've planted them a couple of time but never gotten them to grow. We planted 10 plants this year, lost one, and finally we have lovely sweet red-all-the-way-through berries!!

Green peppers are quite prolific this year. We counted 14 peppers on one plant today. 

Lots of green tomatoes. All the rain is making it hard to stress the plants so that the tomatoes will turn red.

We feel very blessed to have been able to get this much to grow this year and are excited to think about the possibilities of the future. There is something so satisfying about growing some of your own food!

Answered prayers....

We are always in a drought in SE Utah, it seems. In my memories it seems as if we always had to be careful with our water usage. I remember being baptized in orange well water in 1975. I remember people putting bricks in their toilet tanks to use less water. I remember being allowed to use one square of toilet paper and not flushing until 3-5 people had used the toilet. I remember that praying for 'moisture' has always been encouraged and done.

This year has been no exception. We have had a very dry year, unfortunately for the farmers. But in early to mid July the monsoons started rolling in every afternoon. We have had fairly good amounts of 'moisture'. But on Saturday and again today our prayers for 'moisture' were answered in astonishing ways. We have had significant amounts of rainfall and because we've had good rains previously the ground is saturated so today we got some pretty good runoff.

Today the water poured down Pinyon drive, across Abajo Dr and down our driveway. Most of it went to the SW, across the driveway, washing it out in places, creating gullies and then flowed off the west end. But some of it went down through the chicken coop and south through the ponderosas and off the hill. And some of it was diverted to the north end of our house, flooding flower beds and the doorstep on the NE side of the house.

I ventured out to snap some pictures and the mud about took me down.

The kids of course had to get out and dance and play in it, since its such a rare  occurrence here. We feel so thankful!

Good Things:

A house to keep me dry...

The smell of rain...

A loving Father who hears and answers our prayers...

A river runs through it......

Its creating a Grand Canyon beneath 'Fred'

Carving washes in the driveway and creating gravel bars in my flower beds

It started to go into the garage! Thankfully the rain stopped about then.

Flood plain in the back yard. 

Our chickens have a sweet set up, including a pool!

the whole back yard was soggy and shimmering

SE corner of the back yard, another swimming hole.

waterfalls in the wood piles

We've never had flood irrigation before

I think there are plants under all that water...

Horseshoe falls in the driveway...

Where it all came from....down Pinyon and into our yard.

Too bad it didn't wash away all the junk in the yard.

And away it goes...

James and Charles

Cambria, James, Charles and Hannah