Boots, Cows, and Haircuts

This past week I set a goal that was a little less demanding, so the fridge received some cleaning care on Friday. I could see that the week was coming to a close and made myself stay home and get it done and I'm glad I did. Adam and I went to the temple Saturday morning and had Kylie stay the night Friday so she could watch the kids while we were gone. On the way home from the temple I saw a closing sale of a long time St. George western wear place and had Adam drop me off there while he had to go retrieve some materials for a job. He met me in the store later when he was done and we picked out some boots for him, the boys, and myself. While getting loaded to head out to the flat for the rest of the day/evening I had Adam take a laundry basket full of food for the pigs. He asked me if I was moving out to the flat and I told him, "Where do you think all the space in the fridge came from?" I'm glad we have pigs to throw our old rotten food to. I feel like we are being frugal somehow.

Since more time is being spent with the cows at the farm then the increase need for boots for the boys has become more and more apparent as each time we come home from there they have their tennis shoes stiff, wet, and covered in maneur. I am tired of trying to clean them and have them decent for when we go somewhere other than by the cows and other animals. Since the pricing on these boots were great then I bought 3 pairs for Tyson (for different sizes down the road), 1 for Lincoln, 1 for Adam, and 1 for myself. It looks like I'll be taking the smallest of Tyson's pairs and exchanging it for a smaller pair for Lincoln as the ones he ended up with seem a little big and he walks around like a Ronald McDonald look alike (just the shoes :) By the end of the day Adam was very happy with us stopping to get the boots earlier, especially his, since he walked around in maneur, muck, water, and whatever else the rest of the afternoon/evening working on the corrals. Tyson stayed outside with his dad the whole day and didn't come in once to complain that his feet were wet and cold and it was easy for him to take the boots off when he did. One very noteable story is that last night after all the corral work was done and Wynn, Stuart, Adam and Josh were talking about their cows before they called it a day, Tyson yelled to them and said, "Hey, go close that gate!" They looked back and sure enough they had left the gate open. Wynn told us later that Tyson had saved him and Jared a lot of work during the night as he could just see all the cows getting out and wandering around and them having to round them up. Good Job Tyson! He gets the paying attention to detail from me obviously :) After Phyllis fed us dinner (yummy homemade rolls and cinnamon rolls included), Adam had to head back over to St. George to remove our dump trailer from the driveway of a job, so I tried my hand at giving both the boys haircuts and baths so that when he came back to pick us up the boys would be ready for bed. I gave Adam a haircut after we got home, so here's the pictures I couldn't resist taking this morning.

We Finally Got Away

This week I set my goal to clean out the office since I had managed to finish filing the company and personal papers, so the office was ready for some attention. Now I must confess that even though the office is cleaned out that most everything of what was cleaned out is sitting out in the hallway still, even after a week. Getting it out there is as far as I got, but it is progress and my strategy is that with it out there it will be in my way making me to have to put it away elsewhere. Don't you just love how I manipulate myself :) Monday night we cracked/shelled pecan nuts out at the flat for Family Home Evening. On Thursday the boys and I went with Adam, his dad, and Mark to the auction in Cedar City. Adam remembers going there once as a kid. He's been feeling the need to get some cows mostly for our boys as they grow up. He spent most of the auction just learning how it all works and the procedure of bidding. Right when he felt like he was ready to bid on some they were done, however they announced that there was a trailer en route with a few more, so we stuck around and ended up with four older cows. It was a good experience and Tyson and Lincoln enjoyed seeing all the cows come through the ring. After eating lunch there at the Market Grill, we headed out to load our cows and as I came around the corner of the walkway there was a white bum showing. Tyson took gma Stout's lecture to heart on it being okay for him to pee outside and that is just what he was doing. I kicked dirt over it and continued on. I took this picture of Lincoln last week when he was obsessed with these two basketballs and wanted to take them to bed with him, so that was a picture moment when I went to check on him. I did end up moving the top one away since it was right in front of his mouth and it made me nervous about blocking his breathing in the night. Friday Adam and I went with Stuart & Heidi, Kelby & Kathy Iverson, and Brandon & Susan Iverson on a trip to Ruby's Inn at Bryce Canyon for a Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Convention. We made arrangements with Phyllis and Susie to watch the two boys and yes this was our first time since Tyson was born, leaving them over night somewhere. Glad we were finally able to do that since Tyson will be turning 4 in June. It was strange to have a night of sleep without any interruptions since that is very rare in our home (my boys do not sleep well, especially Tyson). We started the trip off Friday having Susie drop us off at Stu's and then Susie took the kids out to the flat while she went to work out. They stayed out there all day and then Susie took them home with her that night and had Tyson sleep in bed with them and Lincoln slept in a pack n play. She said it went fine and then they went back to the flat Saturday morning until we got home that afternoon. It was a great convention we attended. We got to know a few more people and we felt like it was nice to be with a large group of people that mostly have the same values as us and want a good way of life for their kids. The speaker was Trent Loos who is a sixth generation United States farmer with a passion for the rural lifestyle. He uses his laptop computer with the internet to record, produce and send his radio programs from wherever his travels take him. His radio listening audience of 4 million and can be heard on more than 100 stations across the country http://www.loostales.com/ . We all thoroughly enjoyed listening to him speak as I gathered from the discussion about how those who support the agricultural lifestyle need to engage with those who don't on a level of educating them as to what agriculture provides for them, not conversations of who is right and who is wrong. I came away having a greater appreciation for the opportunities in my life I had while growing up and and right now to have agriculture be a part of it. I truly feel that my siblings and I had instilled in us the desire of good hard work, discipline, and a very enjoyable lifestyle. Now I find this lifestyle continuing to provide those same opportunities for me and my boys. Whenever we gather as family we have great memories to share from the farm life and it makes those gatherings so enjoyable. The experiences Adam and I have gained and my boys are and will gain are priceless.

What do you Harvest in January?

This past week I set my goal to file my personal papers, so that I could rotate those out for this new year. I did manage to get that done, so it feels good once again. Amidst all of that we spent quite a few days helping Wynn and Phyllis gather and hull pecan nuts from under their trees. It is quite the process and you feel a little more productive in food storage since around here this is about the only thing you can harvest during the January winter month. Gathering nuts was our Family Home Evening activity and then I brought out some makings for taco soup for dinner that night and then we had a good gospel centered discussion around the table afterwards with Stuart and Heidi as well. On Friday night a group of us went to Texas Roadhouse for our date. Wynn & Phyllis and Daniel and Susie had gift cards from Christmas that they wanted to use and then Caleb & Stephanie, Ben & Tia, and Aunt RomaAnn came as well. I had planned for Adam and I to go look for some mirrors for our bathrooms afterwards, however we didn't feel much like checking it out and Tyson called a few times wanting us to come home and we couldn't resist that plea so we went out to the flat to pick him up. Saturday morning we made it to an early morning session at the temple and then ran our errands that we didn't do last night. Today I taught the CTR 5 class at church and boy were they a challenge. I was really wiped out after church. We ended up staying home the rest of the evening since Adam had a Stake Priesthood Meeting at 6 p.m. and I was so exhausted. These pictures I took this last year and since I wasn't the best at blogging towards the latter part of the year then I wanted to have some pictures since I didn't take any this past week. The boys just love it when their dad reads to them and they really appreciated it this last week with Adam being home from his work trip the week before. I found Tyson sitting on one of my couches posing like this and couldn't resist snapping a pic of it.

A Week of Fun, Glad it is Done

This last week was fun as Tarek, Vaughn, and George wrapped up their visit from last weekend. Tyson and Lincoln had a great time with them. Tarek took them to get ice cream which was a big hit and then when he left he gave money to Daniel to take them for ice cream again which Tyson was sure to remind Daniel to do. Apparently when Daniel took them it was after Addie had gone to bed and I was at Webelos, however Tyson did not like it that Addie was missing out and scolded Daniel for having them get ice cream without her. We played basketball a few times while they were here, went to Ben's wedding reception, and made sure to watch the BSU/TCU bowl game on Monday night for Family Home Evening. After the game we went home and Adam slept for a couple hours before he had to get up at 12:30 and head to Kansas for a job he was doing there. He was gone all week and just got back this morning at 10 a.m. after driving all through the night. We are so very happy he is back and missed him very much. I made sure to take Tyson and Lincoln out of the house to break up the day mostly the latter part of it as the evening is when they struggle with their dad not being around. Thursday I went to Heidi's and started working on Vaughn's quilt that MaryJane needed finished for him. I didn't get a whole lot done but mostly went there for the boys to play with the twins and their bunnies. My goal this week (since my plan this year is to accomplish a project off my list each week of the year) was to get the filing done for the company so it worked out great with Adam being gone. After the boys would go to bed I would spend the time in the office until after midnight each night. I managed to get done everything I set out to do so that feels good. On Tuesday morning after Susie, Daniel, and I made a big breakfast for the boys before they headed home, Susie took some pictures of Lincoln in the same outfit that we took of Tyson around the same age and they turned out cute. I'm excited to get them printed up and hung on my walls (a project for another week :) Yesterday I took the boys to go help g-ma Stout collect pecans and watch the guy shake the trees with his tractor. We managed to get quite a few boxes from the shaking onto the tarps and then we cleaned around one tree and headed back to the flat to sort through and hull them. On the way home Tyson rode with Josh in the back of g-pa's truck and I snapped this picture of them at the stop sign while following behind them. Tyson just adores Josh. We spent the rest of the day at the flat helping g-ma which was nice to take my mind off of Adam being gone, since we usually spend Saturdays together as a family getting things done. This week was very productive, however I'm glad it is over so that Adam could be home safe with us again.

He Did It!

Adam passed the trade portion of his test yesterday morning. It has been quite a bit of money to get to that point since he had taken it once before and missed it by five. He was a little frustrated with the test because the area he missed the most was roofing components and since he has been roofing most of his life you would think he would pass with flying colors, however when the questions on the test have to do with built up roofing (which is an out of date way to roof) and was before Adam's time then he could be considered a rookie. Anyways paying for a test he failed, another one he missed, studying, and then the test yesterday, that all racks up to quite a bit of money. Adam returned at 5 am Friday morning from spending the week in Arizona (10 hrs away) finishing up an LDS church re-roofing job. At around 8:45 am I drove him to Salt Lake, while he slept, so he could spend a couple of hours studying for the test ($250 just to study). It was a very cold day so I wrapped up in a blanket in the car and worked on business stuff on his laptop while I waited and for as long as I could take the cold and then walked to the front of the building and found a 'Ross' department store and greatly appreciated having some shopping time for once to kill time. I think that is the type of situation that causes me to like shopping (since generally I avoid it if I can). My sister Lillie watched the kids until 1:45 and then dropped them off at my mother-in-law's on her way to work. Phyllis watched them until Lillie got off work and then she brought them home. After Adam's test we hopped back in the car and drove straight home. Probably the quickest 8 hour trip I have ever had. Yesterday morning Lillie watched the kids again while I went with Adam to his test (sat out in the truck, for Taylor a pickup :) and kept turning on the heated seat to stay warm since diesel trucks don't idle giving you heat to stay comfortable. After his victory test we went to the temple and did sealings. A perfect way to end a very nervous and stressful week.

A funny thing that happened on Thursday morning was when I came out of my bathroom and found my clean pile of clothes strategically shoved up against the bottom of my bedroom door. After asking why they were there Tyson said, "I locked Santa Claus out, so he can't come in." He's back on his, "Santa Claus scary" kick. I mentioned it last year, while attending a family Christmas party at Adam's Aunt Angelyn's a very jolly, jingling, ho hoing Santa came bounding down the stairs and terrified Tyson. Everyone in the room was laughing at the scene of this 2 year old crying out in fear of this jolly character. Ever since then he is scared in his room because, "Santa Claus will get me" or he cries very worried and scared if I've locked him out of my bathroom and him and Lincoln are left alone in my room, he'll go and lock themselves in my bedroom to protect them from Santa. If he only knew. The other picture is just a random one I took of the boys before Thanksgiving after realizing that I don't have too many pictures with Lincoln in them.

When You Put Others First

I definitely have some backdating posts to do to catch up on some events that are worth documenting, however I always want to start with the most current and then do some back logging when the guilt becomes too much to put aside. This picture was taken back in April, but I haven't had a chance to post any for a while and really love these three boys in my life and couldn't resist.

This post is actually being driven from the Sunday School class I was in while visiting my inlaws' ward today for my sister-in-law Crystel's farewell (she's leaving for the Los Angeles spanish speaking Visitor's Center Mission). Toward the end of the class, which the lesson was on family history and temple work, Stuart shared a recent story that involved Wynn and his cows. A comment was made about how it was hoped that Wynn wrote in his journal about what happened as it would be a great testimony for his grand-children about doing temple work and the blessings that come. I thought that I didn't know if Wynn kept a journal and another comment was made about how sometimes people do not or cannot keep a record of their life, however if we have the opportunity to write things down for others we should. I committed myself right then that I was going to sit down this evening and document for Wynn but especially for his posterity this faith promoting incident that occurred last week.

Wynn and Phyllis usually attend the temple on Thursdays, however if you are the owner of cows then they don't always work into your schedule, except for Wynn this time. He had gone up to Smiths Mesa the day before and left some hay in the corral for the cows as the land up there was quite dead and dry. He hadn't seen the cows for most of the summer and fall and was starting to think that he might of lost them for good. On Thursday he was quite tempted to head back up to Smiths to see if he got lucky having any show up and possibly corral them. He decided against it and him and Phyllis headed to the temple. Friday morning Wynn, Adam, Tyson, and Lincoln bundled up and went up to Smiths to check on the status of the cows and to their amazement and wonder found all of the cows, including 3 calves that were born during their stay up there, all in the corral with the gate shut and locked. Prudencio (sp?), the name of the guy Wynn did the temple work for the day before is who came to his mind. He just knew that because he put doing the work of the Lord first, particularly Prudencio's work, then some help was kicked back his way. Wynn walked away that day with one less day of having to cuss the cows out (actually I could be wrong because they went up to check on the cows obviously not knowing what they were going to find because they had to come down and get the horse trailer and go back up and get them, so I don't know how herding them into the trailer went. All Tyson could talk about when he got home and at dinner was how, "we got the cows in the trailer and dad said, 'we got em Tyse, we got em'" Adam thought it was funny the things that Tyson retains in his memory from the experience. All Tyson could do was just repeat to me over and over what happened and what Adam said.

A quote was shared from a classmember today that went very much along with Wynn's experience. Elder David B. Haight quoted John A Widtsoe who wrote : “I believe that the busy person on the farm, in the shop, in the office, or in the household, who has his worries and troubles, can solve his problems better and more quickly in the house of the Lord than anywhere else. If he will … [do] the temple work for himself and for his dead, he will confer a mighty blessing upon those who have gone before, and … a blessing will come to him, for at the most unexpected moments, in or out of the temple will come to him, as a revelation, the solution of the problems that vex his life. That is the gift that comes to those who enter the temple properly.” (“Temples and Work Therein,” Ensign, Nov 1990, 61) I had to chuckle as Wynn's cows quite often are "problems that vex his life".

"Grandpa Won't Help Grandma"

I don't have a picture to post with this yet, but I did want to document some pretty funny phrases that Tyson shared in observation of a few things. First, I watched my neighbor's boy, Tate, this morning until 2:30 this afternoon and spent most of that time at the Flat as I had arranged with my mother-in-law to help her clean out and defrost her deep freezer on the deck. She needed to do it, but needed some support and push to do it and after she was so kind to pretty much end up bottling a bunch of peaches for me two days ago while I had my phone strapped to my ear all day and wasn't much help, I felt like putting a good part of the day aside devoted to very worthy cause. She unplugged the freezer last night so it would thaw out and everything worked out great except for........the blasted cows! Be glad I don't use my father-in-law's words to describe them :) Anyways Phyllis (MIL) said she needed to go help Wynn get the cows in and so I continued to work to put the somewhat frozen items back neatly in the freezer when Tyson came up to me and said, "Mom, grandma's trying to get the cows and grandpa's not helping her. We need to go help her." I assured him that grandpa was probably getting something or finishing something up before going to get the cows. I yelled out to Phyllis to see if I needed to locate a 4 wheeler to help round them up as it didn't look from the deckside view that it was going very well. There was one 4 wheeler that was a possibility but I could not find the key so I headed out to see what I could do to help. We were running around and trying to circle them together and as Phyllis and I had a majority of them cornered, Wynn was tromping off into the field cussing away at the stray cow. I thought that cow better hope that Wynn doesn't catch him or he'll have wished he had stayed on the other side of the fence. Wynn got that cow back over by us by way of chucking rocks and dirt clods at them. We closed in on them and managed to get all but one in. The same dumb cow that Wynn had cussed out headed would not go in and managed to get by our cornering and took off across the road into the watermelon patch. Phyllis was saying to leave him, that he's not worth it, but I volunteered to run out into the patch through the high weeds and steer him around towards the fence line. I chucked a few dirt clods at him as well and we managed to get him in and head back to our reloading of the freezer task. As the last cow went in Tyson said, "Good Job!" I looked back and with his beat red face, and hands loaded with dirt clods he had a look of satisfaction and 'We showed those cows who's boss' expression on his face. At one point in the confusion of gathering the cows up Tyson was standing with a cow on either side of him as he had focused at yelling at the one in front of him and not paying attention to what was behind him and an instant look of fright and terror came over him as he noticed the position he was in. Grandma Phyllis yelled for him and after registering in his mind that he could run to her, he quickly did. He's growing up so fast and quite the helper to grandpa on the farm. He wandered down to the shop to help grandpa with the bailer without telling me where he had gone and he just always wants to be helping grandpa out with whatever farm tasks and chores he has to do, no matter how hot it is outside. After Tate went home I told Tyson I needed to go to the restroom and after getting sidetracked on a few things and then heading to my bathroom I found him at my toilet. I told him that I needed to use the toilet and he needed to go to his bathroom to go potty. He quickly informed me that, "Daddy said I could use this bathroom and that you need to share." I said that is fine, but right now I will use my bathroom and if he wanted to wait he could use it after me, otherwise go to his bathroom down the hall. It was a little bit of a shock to have him pull the sharing bit on me with my toilet, which I don't like to share.