PART 2 OF AUGUST 11TH POST

I mentioned yesterday in the post that Lake Josepheus near the Scout Bradley campground, is pretty. Here are pictures of that lake. It's at the end of the road, about 17-18 miles off of the main road. It has a few picnic tables and even a restroom there. That was a very unexpected area for those items. The lake is not one for motors, but a very pleasant spot to enjoy the beauty that Heavenly Father created. Someone was fishing when we got there. I don't know if they had any luck.

Our Primary Presidency was basically in charge of the Ward

Pioneer Celebration. It was the Primary Activity Day, but we

included the whole ward. We had a booth where everyone dressed up for family pictures. The secretary of the Presidency is pregnant. Since we are responsible of young children, 2 of of pretended to be holding a baby in the Presidency picture. In the picture of the other couple and us, I was a little disappointed with the outcome. Just a second before the gal took the picture, someone said don't smile because we were holding the frying pans. I quit smiling. I realize that no one else heard the instructions. It would have been better if all were "on board" with the same instructions.

Other things that we did for the Pioneer Celebration: Homemade butter-shaking baby food jars until finished, Hand cranked homemade ice cream, Water melon seed spitting contest, A game of team work -walking on long boards together as a team. It looked kind of hard. There was of course the stick pull game that Joseph Smith always did.

These are cousins in our Primary doing the walking team game. I didn't get a great picture of them in action. Some of the participants had 3 or 4 team members walking the game at the same time. That looked difficult.

Well, things are or not much different with Rick. He's always depressed, sleeps much of the time. That's his way of "checking out" of life. He continues to go to his counselor and doctor. One piece of possible good news for Rick: A few weeks ago, I noticed on our Caller ID that the L.D.S. Church Missions had called. I wondered then what that was about. Well this last Sunday, the Bishop called Rick into his office. The people that are running the L.D.S. Employment office in our area are actually called on a mission to do this. They are from our ward. They want Rick to help them. The Bishop said that it would be about 10 hours a week. It is an official mission. The Bishop has to send in the papers to the church headquarters and wait for the official call to come. We're not sure exactly what he will be doing. However, I'm excited about this. It will give him purpose to get out of bed or to get up and do something. Maybe, he won't feel so hopeless and useless. I can't convince him to make the effort. This will force him to make the effort.

I'm still trying to learn the Spanish Initiatory at the Temple. The Anointing part is the hard part. I just can't figure out how to say a few of the words. However, I almost have the hard part memorized. I just have one more phrase on this section. The rest will be fairly easy. (When I got so busy with moving Mom, my priorities got rearranged. My heart wasn't into learning it as much as it was a little earlier.) I've gone as a patron in the Spanish Booth more than once. I really like that, because it helps me to hear the words being pronounced. The Shift Coordinator that works on the Spanish Shift says that after I finish work, I can work on her shift 0occasionally in the Spanish Initiatory Booth. That means I would only work the one hour. That would be fun!

A few weeks before the maintenance time of the Temple in June, I subbed on my shift as the Initiatory Coordinator. That is what I was trained to do in the Boise Temple. Officially in July, I started being the Initiatory Coordinator-trading off every other month. I really like that, but I miss officiating in Initiatory because that is where I get my "Spiritual Shot in the Arm" for the week. I glad that I get to trade off.

I will be going back to work for the harvest season any day now. I know not until after Friday, but it could be any day after that. That will mean working 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day,
the seventh day of the week I'm at the Temple. I should finish work sometime in October. Life will be very busy for awhile. I'm grateful that this year, we started later than some years. I needed the extra time to get everything in order with mom and getting her Medicaid going. I still haven't figured out what to do with everything that is in our kitchen, but it's starting to appear that it's getting closer to being done.
This Saturday if I'm not working, the Relief Society is going rafting near Hagerman and Bliss. I've done it with Grant once. It's not a real exciting float-part of it is fun. I'm hoping to get to go. Other years when the Relief Society goes, I'm always working. It was scheduled for last Thursday evening, but got postponed due to a funeral in the ward.

Well, don't expect to hear from me for awhile. Life is busy.

A GENERAL CATCH UP OF LIFE FOR THE LAST FEW MONTHS.

Just in today's paper, I noticed that the 99 year old lady that I talked about in the last post died at the age of 100 on the 8th of August. She accomplished what she needed to do here on earth.

Well, since my Birthday back in April, life has been very busy. That is when it was decided that Mom/Grandma would move into a Nursing Home. Rick & I (mostly me) spent many hours, and hard labor emptying out her house and getting it ready to sell. The Relief Society presidency and one friend helped clean the house. Without the help of the one friend, I don't know how I would have accomplished all that was needed to do. I must also give credit to Heather and Stephanie. They spent 3 days cleaning the house while we were camping. For the record, the closing date is supposed to be on Rick's birthday-the 21st. We are supposed to be getting what the realtor listed it for. I know that Heavenly Father had a "hand" in that.

In fact, I know that He has had a "hand" in helping with many things this summer. Just yesterday, Grant called and said that he finally got word that he will also get paid to take care of Terry. For awhile, it looked like Grant would only get paid for taking care of Jerry. That would not have been enough money for them to get by. I'm not sure when that money will start-hopefully September. Thanks Heavenly Father for always watching over us in life's trials.

Mom is adjusting to living at the care center. She's one of the most popular residents there. Everyone acts like they really like her. She is getting stronger. Two times ago when I was there, I actually saw her stand up by herself. Granted, she didn't get up very fast or very gracefully, but she stood up. Then, she just stood there for 3-4 minutes, occasionally petting her dog on the table but not really holding onto anything. The therapist was standing beside her, in case she needed help. The therapist kind of had to help her set back down. (Mom is now using an electric wheelchair. That makes life seem more normal.) After Mom had a chance to rest, she stood back up 2 more times. These times, the therapist had to help her a little more than the first time and more the last time also. It brought tears to my eyes to see her doing that good.Besides all the moving stuff going on, June is always the month that Heather's kids play baseball. Heather was the assistant coach for "Bekha" and Jacob's team. Tyler is old enough that he is on his own separate team. He has potential to be very good. He was named the most valuable player many times thru out the season. A new one for each game. He got 3 home runs in one of the tournament games. He is a pretty good picture. I honestly believe I like him playing at first base best. Several times either when he was pitching or on first place, he was responsible for a double play. Way to go Tyler ! ! !

I'm going to post a few pictures.

Jacob playing ball.
He doesn't have the attention span that is really needed for this game yet. But, he enjoys life.

"Bekha" batting and coming home. Looking mighty excited that she came home safe. (Heather in the background in the Capri's.)

Tyler getting ready to "whop" it. Usually when he hit his home runs, "BONKA" wasn't able to be there. Tyler tries so hard to make 'BONKA" proud of him.

One of the many great pitches. Tyler pitched several "stike outs".

We went camping during June for almost one week. We hadn't been camping for almost 4 years. We almost had forgotten how. The last time, we went, I decided that we needed an easier trailer for us to get on. During the time that we hadn't been camping, Rick had remodeled our trailer. It was much easier to load and unload the bikes. We also now have 4-wheelers now instead of motorcycles. The older you get, the more you have to find easier ways of life. Rick did take his motorcycle with the intention of him riding that an "Mady" and I driving the 4-wheelers. While we were traveling, his motorcycle tipped over and got oil where it wasn't supposed to be. The engine seized up and he couldn't use it. So, "Mady" ended up being Rick's (BONKA) driver. She hadn't really driven much at all before this trip. She drove over 50 miles in one day and she did great. Another day, she drove around 40 miles. She got my new 4-wheeler (not really new, but newer for us) instead of using Rick's. Mine is easier to shift gears and also is 4-wheel drive. Rick's is only 2-wheel drive. The steering on the 4-wheel drive is easier. So, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to drive mine and see how I liked it. We had just gotten it a few weeks before we went.

We went up to Beaver Creek campground by the Scout camp-Scout Bradley near Stanley. We drove up the main road quite a ways to Josepheus Lake. We thought we had been there before. I guess not, because this was worth the drive. This was much prettier than anything we had remembered. It was sort of 2 lakes really one, but divided with a man made bridge of sorts. "Mady" and I walked across the bridge to the other side. Rick stayed by the 4-wheelers and took our pictures.

"Mady" and me walking across

the so-called bridge. There were some fallen logs laid across the water with a man made railing of smaller logs sort of nailed up.

I wanted to post a few more pictures, but it got late. Maybe I'll post a few more tomorrow -or not- that goes with this post.