Time Flies

Can't believe that it's been so long since I changed this blog. The holidays are gone, and it's almost Valentines Day. I guess that not having anything to say just means that my life is somewhat boring. Go to work, come home, fix meals, feed chickens, clean house, do laundry, go to church. Well, this is exactly what it's suppose to be, I think. I read Glenn Beck's book yesterday, The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life. I truly believe that each of us is where we are because that is exactly where Heavenly Father wants us to be at this time. Everyday choices will change, and the people that come into our lives will change, and we may be lead to move from point A to point B, but we are where we are, because that is where we are suppose to be. Heavenly Father lives, He loves us, He will help us if we ask, and He wants us to be happy. I am so grateful to be here in Idaho, I have a great job, a great husband, a fabulous family, the cutest grandkids in the world, and The Savior of the world to help me make the necessary changes to get back to Heavenly Father. I am truly blessed.

It's been a while since I posted anything on here, nobody seems to miss it, but I did go through all of the blogs that are on the Park Family blog, and it was fun to catch up with my nieces, nephews, and kids!
Since I last posted, we have had a couple of "events". The pictrues are pretty self explanatory, but it's just a few of the things we have been up to.
Parades, Rodeo's, Anna's Birthday at the State Fair w/ Funnel cake and three candles. Canning, canning, canning. HazMat training in Vegas.

Okay, I've had it!!!

It is suppose to be summer in Idaho. (it is June, right???) Cool nights, warm days, and an occasional windy gust, and semi-arid climate. Floating the canal, running in the sprinkler, fishing, parades, rodeos???? Some of which are most enjoyable without a winter coat. We had snow on Easter, we had snow on April 25th for our all hands meeting in Rexburg, where they bussed us all from the INL site to the Hart Auditorium for a safety meeting. In 4 inches of snow. We had frost this morning, and frankly, I'm pretty tired of this! The first picture is this morning's frost on my car..... the second is Easter. Somebody that knows alot more than me, should explain to me about global warming. I'm just not buying it. Last weekend Jim and I took Brett to the Jefferson Stampede Parade, and begged the "Cream "O Weber" people to help us heat up the chocolate milk they were passing out. It was too cold to sit and watch the parade without a coat and blanket over us. However, contrary to what this may sound like, I cannot believe how green it is, how close the mountains seem on a clear day, and how thankful I am to be near family. Now..... where's my coat?

What we have been up to!

A fun run at the elementary school, fishing with our grandkids, Jonathan's pinning to be come an RN (real nurse), Kody's baseball practice, a trip to the Garden of the Gods with David's family.

It was really loose!!

Two weeks ago the kids were here for dinner, Sarah could hardly eat because her very first tooth to come out, was so loose she was afraid to bite anything.
So we fixed her up with some dental floss, and she yanked it out all by herself.
She was so brave!!

Card Lady

My next door cubicle neighbor owns a business called Snake River Outfitters, and she and her husband sell fly fishing equipment, and do fishing trips. I made a Christmas card, and she really liked it, and contracted with me to make some fishing theme cards. Well it just so happens that I have a fishing stamp set, and so I made some cards for her to send from her business. She thinks that I am the most talented person in the world because I can borrow an idea and make it into my own creation. Well anyway, I have been making cards to put on her website, to sell.
Here is a sample of the ones that I made the past few weeks.
I hope they sell, because it has been really fun making them.

Christmas Slippers

About Thanksgiving, I decided that I wanted to make slippers for our Grandkids.
I called my friend Kathy and she told me how she makes them, and I got a refresher course from my Mom, and started knitting. I started with red, green and white for Anna, Of course, green and yellow for Brett, green and blue for William, a pink/yellow/purple/ for Sarah, and then I started purple ones for Danica, and black and grey for Kaiser. On Christmas Eve, I had to beg forgiveness from Keaton, because I didn't have his done. He picked out green and black for his, and on Sunday the 3rd of January, I finished them. I still owe Kody a pair, and I want some, because mine have holes in them, and I told Carrie I would make a pair for her, however, since I can't even hardly hold a book because my arms ache so bad from all the knitting I did over the past several weeks, that may have to wait a day or two. Next year I vow to start earlier on what I want to do for Christmas, just in case I decide to do something stupid again.

It's all about Family!

Last Saturday, we dragged all of the kids and grandkids to get family pictures taken. Despite the complaining, and the crazyness, they turned out pretty good.
We had a great Christmas, and a fun time with everyone here over the New Year.
David and Jon are now both in Colorado, Carrie and Kaye Lynn are both in Idaho.

This weekend Kaye Lynn and Jerimie went down to Utah to see Jerimie's cousin play in the BYU Women's Volleyball game against Colorado State University.
We got to keep the kids for the entire weekend. They went to a craft fair with us, and then we went shopping, Lowes, Walmart, lunch at Craigo's, Fred Meyer, Winco, and then home. We fed the animals, and then we made "Gingerbread Houses" out of graham crackers, and lots of frosting and candy. We had such fun!! The best part of course was the part about eating them. Anyway, this is mostly the reason that I'm glad we live here now. Time with grandkids cannot be deducted from a persons life, even if diet pepsi bombs go off in your kitchen! (Brett dropped a can of DP, and it exploded all over the kitchen, thank goodness for vinyl floors, and washable cupboards/walls/ceiling/stove/fridge/garbage cans.) Yes we love being able to be grandma and grandpa.

I haven't posted in a while, and as I look at other blogs, I have about decided that it might be better to just keep up with others blogs, and just let mine die.

Jim and I have been so busy with butchering turkeys, and canning everything that we got in our garden, that I almost don't know if I'll be able to stop. We killed the last of our turkeys that we are going to eat, yesterday. We have one that we are going to keep until spring at least. She is not a bronze like the others were, and she is so pretty that Jim can't bare to kill her. She is much smaller than the others that we have in the freezer. We also have 6 chickens that we are anxiously awaiting eggs from. We hope to not have to buy eggs over the winter. I bottled 9 pints of turkey yesterday, and 9 pints of carrots, and I did 6 pints of marinara sauce on Friday. I still have lots of tomatoes, a 5 gallon bucket about half full of carrots, and I want to do a few bottles of pumpkin. When all was said and done, we picked 32 pumpkins. What do you do with 32 pumpkins?? Well you give them to grand kids, and neighbors, and to the kids that helped us pick huckleberries.

This is a picture of "Dolly", she is kind of grey and smaller than the other turkeys.

We have decided that we are going to stay in this house until at least spring. We want to get a little more of a down payment in the bank before we decide to buy a house. That, and neither of us want to move in the middle of winter. That just does not sound like fun at all.

I am trying to get used to the almost 2 hour bus ride both ways to get to and from work, and I have done a fair amount of reading. I read three books last week. They have still not found enough work for me to do, that I'm trained to do, so I have a lot of what my boss refers to as "down time". They don't seem to care if I read, but they do not want to find me sleeping. Do you know how hard it is to read when your tired, and not fall asleep. I usually sleep on the ride to work in the morning, but it's still light when we leave work, so I read then.

We had a dinner here at our house on Friday with all of my sisters and brother and spouses. I made pizza, and they brought the salad, and bread and dessert. We called it a birthday party, because three of us have birthday's in October. We picked a day in December to all go to the Temple. Have I mentioned how thankful I am that Brett started praying a couple of years ago that "Grandpa Jim would find a job in Idaho, and he and Grandma could move closer". I am so grateful to be closer to family. I am also most grateful that prayers are answered. Sometimes I just have to stop and look at the mountains, or the sunset, or some of my Grand kids, and remember where all these blessings come from.

It's been a while, but we are still here. It's been a busy few weeks.

We have picked apples, corn, zuchinni, beans, beets, and starting this week, even some tomatoes. We have about 20 good sized pumpkins, just starting to turn orange, lots of butternut squash, and carrotts and onions still getting bigger. Since Jim went back to work full time, I started working for NPS, through Northwind, for CWI out at the site. I'm entering freight invoices for payment, and will soon start learning the shipping part of the job. Right now there has not been very much to keep me busy, so I have been reading alot. Three Stansfield books in a week, starting on a Skousan book today, and have three more checked out from the library.

The picture in the middle is our huckelberry outing, with a kid that Jim works with, and his two boys and wife. We went up above Heise, and picked almost all day and brought home about 1/3 of a gallon of berries. It was sure dusty, but the berrys are really good.

The same week that I started work, our house closed in Illinois. It was a good week. We are so glad to have that sold, and we will start looking for a place as soon as the garden freezes, and I can stop putting things in bottles and freezer bags. The kids helped pick apples last weekend, and there are lots more to pick. Even in spite of how many apples they ate!!

Up and Down then Up Again

This picture is of the sunset near the Menan Butte, I just love being here.

Roller Coaster Rides are suppose to be fun, and I suppose at the amusement park they are, but the house selling roller coaster is getting a little tiresome. First it was the radon, and the long distance contract to have that fixed, then the earnest money threats with our agent. We had a closing date set for yesterday, but it got pushed out. The guy buying the house didn't request funds from his 401K soon enough, and they couldn't process the request in time for the closing. So we moved it to next Wed., and that was okay. We jumped through hoops to get our power of attorney to the law firm that is handeling our closing, ( I had to drive to Victor, meet Jim, and get documents notorized, then spent $26 to send it next day air.) Then we found out that the other guys attorney will not be in town next week, so we have moved the closing to Monday the 24th. We would have had plenty of time to spend $3 and have the paperwork to them.

I will be very happy when this ride is over.

On the bright side, I got a job!!! I am going to be working for CWI at the site. They had a shipping receiving position available, and saw my resume. They interviewed me on Tuesday morning, and offered me the job on Tuesday afternoon. The only problem with that was I had gotten an offer from another company that morning. Three months looking for work, and then I get two offers in one day. ( I think Heavenly Father must have a sense of humor. )

Anyway, this job with CWI is the same schedule as Jim is working, (4/10's) with friday's off. More money, and I'm pretty sure that I can do the job and help make a difference and save the company money. I'ts almost exactly what I have been doing with Reichhold for the past 10 years. So as bad as the house sale is, this has made it a lot easier to deal with. Can't wait to get started, and be even busier than I have been the last little while.

Beans, Beans, Beans

I'm kind of stuck in a rut.
The last post was about peas, and now it's all about beans.
Christine called and asked if I wanted to come pick her beans, and Kaye Lynn and I both said yes!! We put up 17 quarts, and 19 pints yesterday, and then I did another 8 pints this morning.





Can't remember the last time I had shelves full of home grown veggies, and jam. And, I can't figure out why it has such a satisfying feeling about it. Maybe it's the Brigham Young saying etched into my mind. "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." and the Scout motto "be prepared", but I just really have enjoyed getting some bottles full, and the knowledge that I'm doing something to be prepared.
However, just because it's been a busy summer with all of the canning and freezing, and the picking of zuchinni, we have found time to have some fun. Smores with Brett, Sarah, Will and Anna, on Sunday evening, and then swimming in Rigby lake today. I don't think I am ever going to get tired of saying this, "I love being here"

Anna and chocolate, Sarah, Anna, WilliamBrett learning to float,

We celebrated my parents 60th anniversary last Saturday, and had such a good time.

Almost everyone that lives in the area was there, and the food was good and plentiful. The weather was very nice, a little on the warm side, and just enough of a breeze to keep us all from overheating. Eva made a very nice frame with all of the names of children, grandchildren, and great-crandchildren. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad, may you have many more years together. Charles had a rocket to shoot in the air, and that was a big hit for the kids.

Peas, peas, peas

Yesterday I was asked the question, what do you miss about Illinois, and what do you like best about being here? My response was, "I miss my friends in Illinois, Kathy, Sue, Denita, JoAnn, Cindy, Michelle.... but I love being here. I like the cool nights, the quiet, the number of stars you can see in the night sky, the sunsets, and I love being closer to kids and grandkids, my sisters, and brother, and my parents."

My sister Christine has been sharing their abundant garden crops with us, and we have strawberry jam in the freezer, broccoli, cauliflower, and peas, peas, peas.

Monday night we picked two of the four rows of peas, and ended up with 15 quarts of peas to share. Do you have any idea how many peas in the pod that takes. It's a lot!!

Our flock of chickens and turkeys is growing, and our garden has produced the first zuchinni, and lettuce, spinach, chard, and beans will be ready soon. I love being here, and I'm so thankful for many blessings. Not the least of these is that we have a new contract on our house in Illinois, and it's suppose to close on August 12th. We will be so glad when that is sold, so we can plant some deeper roots here in the Gem State.

Happily Ever After

Just a couple of pictures of Carrie's wedding. I don't think that I'm allowed to say what a nice wedding it was, but it was what they wanted.

They are very happy!