An Exciting Time

Yesterday after Himbeere got off work (he works third shift) he had some breakfast and then jumped in his truck to go visit his girlfriend.  She lives several miles away and part of the trip involves a long, straight stretch of dirt road.  Long enough to lull an already sleepy boy off to sleep.  So Himberre fell a sleep at the wheel.

He said later he felt a bump and opened his eyes to a small cloud of snow in front of him, snow he had knocked into the air. Then he saw trees rushing at him and thought, "Uh oh.  This isn't going to end well."

So on he plows, into the snow at the side of the road.  And then the truck came to a stop.  He said he sorta just sat there, with a white-knuckle death grip on the steering wheel for about two minutes.  Then he began to realize his hands were beginning to get sore.  So he let go. Then he just sat there a few minutes, taking stock and deciding he wasn't hurt.

Then he called his mother.  That made her feel good, not that he was in a tight spot, but that he called her first.  It took some doing and several other phone calls but they finally got the truck out of the snow and back on the road.  He ended up getting towed back to a heated shop because the serpentine belt had been shredded and was all wrapped around a bunch of other stuff on and around the engine.  That plus the engine compartment, in addition to the engine, was now all stuffed with snow.  So they towed it to a heated shop, dug the belt out and replaced it and then left the truck there a while so the now could melt out.  Then he came home and slept for several hours.

As his big sister said, "God loves you, Himbeere. He took good care of you this morning!"  Amen to that.

Life

They say that life is mostly the same, old boring routine punctuated here and there with highs and lows.  We've had both this last week.  But the best part of the week began Wednesday when Heidlebeere and her kids showed up on our door step!

It is so nice to have them here. They drove out and it only took them two days. Sure feels good to get out of the car after all that.  Brombeere commented the other day how nice it is to have the sound of little kids laughing, playing and having fun - so nice to have them around.  Took them a little bit to warm up.  One of the draw backs to not living closer.  But once they did it has sure been fun.

 

They were here Wednesday night and then drove over to see Blaubeere for a bit.  Then they came back.  Last night we made shish kabobs for dinner - everybody helped.  Some by actually helping, some by staying out of the way. They were good.  We did them in the oven and that turned out to be real easy.

 

I have long maintained that Himbeere is like a cactus; sometimes prickly on the outside but soft as butter on the inside.  Its times like this that I think that is really true.  He may never admit it, but he likes having his nieces and nephews around.

A Family Affair

We recently had occasion to go visit Moosebeere and his family.  They'd had a baby a few months ago, our eighth grandchild, and we wanted to go visit them. Couldn't let this kid get too old before we came to visit. So we hopped on an airplane and make the trek to where they live. 

This trip provided a lot of contrast from our climate to the climate where Mooseberre recently moved.  When we left our house there was two feet of snow in the yard and it was below zero. We spent most of the day on airplanes and when we landed it was over 70. You know all those people who like to take a vacation to a warm place during the coldest part of winter? We'd never done that but this trip brought to mind some reasons why someone might do such a thing.

The actual occasion of this trip was to participate in the blessing of this new baby. That was very nice. We saw some interesting landscape on the way to the church. A small stream with a narrow bridge over it we had to cross.  Some cactus. A very different landscape from what we left at home.

Some interesting things were going on at Moosebeere's church.  They had only recently been made a ward, having been divided off from a different ward.  So during the business portion of the meeting, in addition to the blessing of the baby, there were quite a few sustainings as they worked on staffing this new ward.  I thought that was interesting, anyway.

The blessing was very nice. Plenty of family made it there for the occasion, mostly from the other side of the family. But that's alright. Afterward we all went back to the house for lunch and visiting.  Its a good thing Moosebeere has a fairly large house because all the company filled it right up. Lots of little cousins and cousins once removed running around. No kid pictures, though. Moosebeere has asked that no pictures of the kids be posted online. I think the sounds that families makes when a lot of them get together is a very sweet sound. And so it was that Sunday. It was a very good time.

But like all too many such times, it was too soon at an end and it was time for us to head back to the cold and home.  The weather was a bit merciful, I guess.  The temperature at our house had warmed up a little and at Moosebeere's it had cooled off a fair amount so that there was only 15 degrees difference between the two locations. That helped make coming home a little easier.  I've often wondered how people do it when coming home from that kind of trip.

As we said when we left, "This was fun. We'll have to do this again." So now the trick will be to not let it get to be too long before we do that again.  It was a good time. I'm really glad we went.

Snow Again!

 The other day it snowed again.  I asked Himbeere if he'd clear the driveway and he jumped right up and got to it!  I was impressed! It is such a help when he or the other kids are willing to help like that because I can't do it myself.  So he was out there, in the cold, working away and it hit me - he was wearing shorts.  Sixteen degrees and he's wearing shorts to clear the driveway. He's a bit crazy. Good thing it was one of the warmer days we had during January.

From the Scriptures

 

I was reading in the scriptures about the dedication of the temple that King Solomon built in ancient Israel.  After the construction, which included the best materials the people had, the Lord appeared to Solomon to accept the house they had built for him.  The dedication of that temple was somewhat Pentecostal, with some of the same miraculous manifestations that accompanied other great outpourings of the spirit that are recorded in the scriptures. And Solomon worshiped at the temple and the Lord appeared to him.  Among other things, the Lord said, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place." (2 Chronicles 7:14, 15). When I read that it made me think of similar promises the Lord has made to his people, about the blessings in the land that accompany righteousness, how the Lord will bless those in their promised lands that keep his commandments as long as they keep his commandments.  But I also noticed the promise to hear the prayers and see the needs of his people who attend and worship in the Lord’s temples.  How blessed we are today to have temples.  And how blessed we are to have temples so close, so much more accessible than they were for so long.  It was a reminder of how anxious the Lord is to extend his blessing to us, how much he does to help us keep his commandments.  We really live in a marvelous age.

Let it Snow!

The other day it started snowing.  They had been predicting a few inches but when it finally got here it just snowed and snowed. Snow is wonderful stuff - it looks great while its falling and it looks great once its done falling and you've done all the clean-up.  But doing the shoveling can get to be quite a chore.

This particular storm ended up dropping quite a bit.  If fact, for our area it came real close to breaking a long time record. As it was, it beat records going back over one hundred years.  It came real close to breaking the all time record for a single day's snow fall.  We got just over nine inches within a 24 hour period.

 Having a snow blower makes cleaning it up a whole lot easier.

Now all we need is for the city to quit coming by and turning it back into our drive-way.  They have a rule about not throwing the snow into the street.  Why can't that work both ways?

Give Said the Little Stream

Because of my calling I sit on the stand at church.  We have been instructed to be in our place, ready to go, five minutes before church starts. Unless its my turn to conduct, I’m usually seated 10 and even 15 minutes early every week. As a result, I usually get to watch as most people come into the chapel, find a seat and sit down. I have to admit that this is an interesting procession. Families and individuals both. Today, as I was watching, I saw my favorite person come into the chapel. That was nice in and of itself. 

Have you ever watched a little trickle of water work its way down a row of some kind of vegetable or flowers in a garden? It works its way here and there, finding its way around the row, to each plant growing along the way. The water doesn’t follow a straight course down the row. Rather, it moves this way and that, from this side to that side, pausing here, waiting there, passing this, moving around that as it works its way to the end of the row. That’s what I thought of as I watched her come into the room, stopping to talk to this person, greeting that person, moving further and further into the chapel. She sat by this person for a minute to talk, then moved some where else to speak to that person a minute, moving into the room. Each time bringing a smile to someone’s face.  Countenances would light up. Hugs here. A pat on the shoulder there. She sat by one person, gave her a hug and leaned her head on her shoulder a minute. She makes me smile. So like a little trickle of water, bringing refreshment wherever she goes. Like the little stream, “do as the streams and blossoms do; for God and others live.” 

Always giving. This is the wonderful person I am blessed to get to share forever with.

Sunday Thoughts

When I was growing up we used to go help my grandpa who had lived on a farm all his life.  My Dad was raised on that farm and we would go help all the time, whenever it was needed.  So in the spring we would go up to help with the sheep.  That would be shearing time and my grandpa would hire in a couple of people to shear his sheep.  My job would be to tie the fleeces into bundles and throw them on a nearby wagon.  I was to gather all the loose wool into the center of the bundle and tie it, making sure it was as clean as possible.

When all the sheep were sheared it was time to get the wool ready to take to market.  We took the wagon to another part of the barnyard, over by the milk shed.  Up high on the side of the milk shed, at the roof line, was a hoop, like a basketball hoop but without a basketball net hanging from it.  Like a basketball hoop only bigger around.  Then they would take a very large burlap bag and fasten it to the hoop by the mouth of the bag so the bag was then hanging from the hoop.  The bag was about eight or ten feet long and the hoop was high enough up the side of the barn that it didn’t touch the ground. 

The first time we did this, after getting the bag all fastened to the hoop, my uncle turned to me and told me to climb up on the barn and lower myself into the bag.  This was my uncle who was a great one for playing jokes and kidding around.  Actually I had a couple of uncles like that.  Anyway, he was one of them so it took him and everyone else there a little while to convince me that I really should do it and that it would be okay.  Even at my best it would have been quite a challenge to get myself back out of a 10 foot bag that was hanging like that, so that there was nothing solid touching the bag.

So there I was, down in the bag and everyone else had the job of taking all the bundles of wool I had tied and tossing them into the bag, like shooting basketball.  I would tamp the bundles into the bottom of the bag, getting it as tight and full as I could, gradually filling the bag until getting out was no problem at all.  The end result was a big bag of tightly packed wool that we would then take to market and sell.

There have been times in my life when I’ve felt I was in situations like those bags, where I had to trust others to help me get out.  Not always the easiest thing to do.  Getting out was still work, in the case of stuffing those bags with wool it was very dirty, smelly work because every fleece was oily and dirty and I had to catch them as they came into the bag above me, pull them down past me, push them below my feet and then tamp them tight so the bag would fill until I could get out.  It was tight work, working in a cramped, confined space, without a lot a fresh air. So here we are, trusting the Lord and those who do his work, to help us get out of situations we keep finding ourselves in.  And at the end of the day we’ve worked hard and are tired and dirty.  But we’re out.  Deliverance.

“But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.”  (I Nephi 1:20)

That Great American Past-Time

Its been quite hot and humid for the last while. That means we hide in the house in the air conditioning as much as possible. Then yesterday early in the day a storm came through, rained on everything and brought some much cooler air behind it.  Since there was a baseball tournament going on here in town we decided to get out in the cooler air and take in a game. We had no idea when who was playing or who anyone was playing so we decided to just take our chances and show up at one of the bigger fields in the area.

So as it turned out we got to see about a game and a half, including the home team.  The home team was the second game so we got to see it all.  Pretty good, eh?  So we got there around 7:00 and two teams from out of the area were battling it out.  Actually, one was beating the other quite badly, though they were not shutting them out.  That game ended ten to three.

We got to see lots of action and these teams were at a level that a lot of the playing was pretty good.

Lots of pitching.  Didn't see any batters get hit. I guess that was good.  Did see a pitcher get hit once.  Another near miss.

Lots of balls.

A good number of strikes.

I thought the umps were pretty good.  Personally, I like to watch the umps as  much as anything else in the game.  A dramatic ump can be real fun to watch.

Lots of style in the pitchers.  They each have their own little "dance" they do to get the ball to the plate.  I find it amazing their arms don't just fall off by the end of the time they're pitching.  I guess they do get pretty sore and beat up.  There was one that kept losing his balance at the end of his pitch and a couple of times nearly fell down.

Saw some hits, they are the exciting parts of the game - how far will the runner get? Saw plenty of good plays out at the bases.

Saw some good plays at first base.

And quite a few home runs.  In the end, the home team did skunk the team they played seven to zero. At the last play of the game the ump mercifully called a catch at first out and ended the game.  But you know how umps are; they're blind.  It looked safe to me. 

It was a good time. The tournament is going all weekend.  We will probably go back tonight and take in another game.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Four years ago we sent Stachelbeere off on a mission to the Marshal Islands.  Two years we didn't see him.  Then he came home and within just a few weeks he took off to go to school out west. Those few weeks went by so quickly it seemed like he was just barely here and then suddenly he was gone again. Then the school year ended and instead of coming home for the summer he stayed with his brother and got a job for the summer out west. Can't say that I blame him, summer jobs at the time were pretty hard to come by here where we live. So he rode his bike every day and worked, saving money for school.  Then summer was over and he was back in school.  Even though he transferred to a different school, or at least a different campus of the same school, it wasn't around here so he was back in school and off again. This time so far away that he wasn't able to come home for any of the holidays. So when summer came this year we decided we needed to have the boy come home for a visit.  And he cooperated and came home. It was so good to see him.

So while he was here we played and those of his siblings that were close enough came to visit.  We went out to the lake a couple of times. He got to get reacquainted with the oldest of his nephews.

Got to meet one that was born while he was in the Marshal Islands that he really hadn't seen much at all before heading off to school.

And got to meet some that he had never met before, they were born while he was off to school.

And we got to celebrate his birthday while he was here. He took a bit of ribbing when he managed to blow out all the candles on his birthday cake (cheese cake, actually). That meant no girlfriends, or so the tradition goes. Maybe the shirt he got was appropriate even if less than helpful.

All too soon it was time to go back to school. He's finishing a semester and then working again so we're not sure when the next time we'll get to see him will be. But it was such a good visit. He has matured so much in these last four years while he's been away. He's a totally different person than when he graduated from high school five years ago.  Still quiet and reserved but much more able to see what needs to be done and step up and do it.  As parents its our job to worry about all our kids, and we do.  But seeing the change in him over these last few years we worry a lot less about him, or at least about different things. That will probably always be the case for all the kids.

And then, all too soon, we were at the airport dropping him off for the long flight back to school. 

Next time we must make sure we don't wait four years before we see him again.