ANSWERS ABOUT RICK'S STURGEON FISHING.

Question: Where does Rick go sturgeon fishing...it is something I would LOVE to do! Plus is it always that good of fishing??!
Answer: It's down near Hagerman and it's always that way. Rick says the river just comes alive when they put the bait in.
Question: So does he have to use a boat or do they fish from the shore? Do you need special bait or fishing poles?
Answer: They fish from the shore. His brother has a larger pole-stronger and heavier line.. His brother's roommate just uses a regular pole and line. It takes about twice as long to bring the fish in with this equipment (about an hour). He says it's more fun with the lighter weight equipment, because they feel the "pull" more. The stronger equipment brings them in much sooner (about 1/2 hour), but you don't feel the "pull" so much. Rick just bought an "ugly stick" fishing pole. The sore said if he's not happy with that, he can take it back and get the larger pole that his brother has. The store employee said that his son caught a 5 foot sturgeon with an "ugly stick" last year. (Walmart has them for $29.96 right now. The larger pole-Berkley- sells for $27.99. That's what the price is right now. His brother bought his a few weeks ago and paid about $10.00 more than these quoted prices.)
They use smaller fish-(boughten at sport stores or Grocery-gas-type stores) as the bait.
I honestly don't know where exactly that they go. I just know it's near Hagerman. Rick checked with the fish & Game and asked if they could give us an estimate of how much they weigh. The closest answer we got was for a fish that was larger than Rick's 5 footer. From what they told us, we're guessing that his weighed around 100 pounds.

NEW DESIGN FOR BLOG.

Many thanks to Lyndsay for her talents. I always love her backgrounds and asked her if she could design a new background for me. I just gave her some ideas of what I thought I wanted. I think she did a great job. I love it (with 1 tiny request).
Lyndsay, Would it be possible to put a picture of both of my dogs on the signature instead of just one of the dogs? (I'll send another picture if you need it.)
The picture of the dogs that is on the bottom of the page, doesn't really show up. I guess my screen isn't big enough. So, the 2 dogs by the signature would be terrific.
THANKS AGAIN LYNDSAY for making my blog actually showing my personality on the background. It's great.

ANOTHER UPDATE ON RICK (and STURGEON FISHING)

WEll, I need to update what is going on with Rick. The medications are being regulated. He does not seem "drunk" with medication anymore. He isn't falling down anymore. He isn't slurring his speech andymore. Things are still not great. (They probably never will be. They haven't been for so long.) During the last 2 weeks, he's had at least 5 episodes of almost having a panic attack. Some of the time, he has taken a pill for it and some of the time he just gets past it. The Dr. is still trying to regulate the medications a little better. He went to church yesterday for the first time since the last hospital visit in February. He even drove the car. That's the first time he's driven since then.

For the last 3 weeks, he has gone sturgeon fishing with his brother and dad. He's had a blast doing this. This last Saturday, he caught the biggest one. It was a 1/2 inch smaller than 5 feet long. On the sturgeon pole, it takes about 1/2 hour to bring the fish in. On a regular pole, it took his dad about an hour to bring the fish in-because they are so strong that the pole or line would break if they were brought in any faster. Sturgeon are protected, so it's catch and release by law, but they still had fun with these "monster-sized" fish. His dad brought one in at the same time he got his in. I'm going to add that picture and maybe more.

Look at how ugly these fish are. They look like pre-historic monsters. (I don't think you actually can see how ugly they are on the pictures. On the pictures at home, I enlarged them and you could see their ugly snouts a lot better.)

Rick and his Dad (and his brother's roommate).

FUNERAL-NOT OF OUR FAITH

I attended a funeral on Friday of a close family friend. I was grateful that I was able to go because I was the only family member there. Our family needed to be represented. I’m thankful that our faith gives funeral services that are more personal than theirs. I felt sorry for the family that they didn’t share good memories of her. This is the 2nd funeral that I’ve attended of this faith. This particular service was a tiny bit more personal than the first one that I attended, but not much.
This is basically the funeral: Someone reads the obituary word for word. Then the preacher gets up and begins his sermon. It is a word for word generic message that has nothing to do with the person that has passed on. The preacher reads one sentence, then the congregation recites (reads) the next sentence. The message has to do with Christ. This goes on for awhile. Then, the congregation sings a song with -no chorister. This format goes on for awhile, changing back & forth from the preacher and congregation readings to more songs. Finally, there’s a small message that slightly mentions the deceased, saying something like: “They know that the deceased knows where they are at now and are much happier”. Now the format goes back to what I’ve already mentioned. There’s a few places where the preacher asks the congregation to stand and pray-word for word. There’s a few more places where the preacher asks the congregation to answer him. Something like: “Live Forever More-Amen”.
I know our faith has funerals that are known to be rather long. However, I still feel the more personal funerals are better.

LIFE

Update on Rick: He visited with both his local doctors -medical and pyschiatrist- on Monday. Both of them said he was truly overdosed with medications. They took him off of 3 of the new 4 medications. I looked at the sheets that talk about drug side effects that Portneuf Medical Center sent home. It said: If you're taking this pill, do not take the other. Another med. sheet said the same thing. Portneuf Medical Center had Rick taking all 3 of those pills together. No wonder he was overdosed and basically "drunk". Today is the first tiime that he's fallen down since Monday morning. Yesterday is the first time that I dared leave him home alone. His folks have been "babysitting" him. His brother took him fishing today. I hope he does o.k.
His medical doctor wants him to have a Cat Scan test on Monday-checking out his brain just in case. The reason: She told him to walk one direction and he walked a different direction than she said. He's disoriented. His speech is still slurred, but not as bad. His blood pressure is slightly lower than normal. That would affect his speech and thinking ability. I'm thinking the dosage of the blood pressure medicine should be smaller. This medicine also helps with his "shaking".

Two nights ago, I looked out into our pasture. It was almost dark. I looked at our calves-making sure all 5 were there. I counted a 6th head. It wasn't a calf. At first, we couldn't tell what it was. It looked sort of like a sheep, but also a goat. It's a goat, but not the typical goat. It's a young goat. It's spotted brown and white. One of our calves is spotted brown and white. I think this goat thought our calf was it's mother. None of our neighbors have goats. We don't know where it came from. It followed Rick to the house yesterday when he fed the calves. The goat followed like a little puppy does. Since we don't have any idea where it came from, we told Rick's niece and her husband that they couold have it. They came and got it lastnight. They have other goats. They said if anyone comes looking for it, they could pick it up at their house. If no one comes looking for it, we at least know it will be taken care of.
A few years ago, someone just left their cat at our house also. We know it was a pet, because it has a collar on. None of our cats have collars, because they are too wild to catch and they live outside. I guess, because we live on an acerage, other people think it's o.k. to just drop their animals off at our place.
Mom wasn't feeling very well this week. I called on Tuesday. She said that she hadn't felt good all week. I asked if the twins had taken her to the doctor. They were taking her to the hospital in Jerome that night. They called later and said that she had an infection. The doctors sent her home with a prescription. I haven't had a chance to visit her this week. (I've been busy with Rick and subbing at the Temple.) I'm going to visit her today.
Life is busy-like always.
Love to all.
Diane

BLOG BOOK

I got my blog book about a week ago. I only printed up 2008 posts. It really wasn't worth my money-because it's a very thin book. Next time, I hope to have more entries. Besides the fact that it's a very thin book, I really think it turned out nice. (I do wish it would have printed the pictures in the same place as the names-like I had on the actual blog.) I like the cover. It's professional looking. I will use this again.

I'm going to add a few pictures.

Front Cover--------Back Cover------------Internal pages-----------------

PICTURES AND CATCHING UP..

Heather's youngest turned 7 years old in mid-February. They had a roller skating party.








Heather's kids: Tyler, "Bekha" & Jacob Price
Jacob wasn't the best skater, but he tried all of the faster contests. Tyler was extremely good. "Bekha" appeared to be better than what I used to be, but not as good as Tyler.






Cousins enjoying each other. Arianna Rodriguez (Stephanie's daughter) and Tyler Price












Stephanie's kids:
Traci Otto & "Mady" Rodriguez-----------Jacob, Kari, & "Kenna" Otto


Traci has lost some extra pounds and is
looking mighty good on the skating floor.
She is also a very good skater.








I took pictures of Heather & Chad skating. Those
pictures didn't turn out very good. That's too bad. Heather
said they don't have a picture of Chad skating at all.









This is "Mady" and Mom (Stephanie). Look at how great
Stephanie is looking. She has lost quite a lot of weight in the last 6 months. I'm darn proud of her! ! !
"Mady" has a bandage on her arm. A few weeks earlier, she accidentally burned it. She laid her arm on the flat surface of
a hair straightener. Stephanie rushed her to the emergency
room. The Dr. said it was good that she went. It was about 6 inches long and about 1-2 inches wide. Thankfully, I don't think she's going to have a very bad scar.
A little more catching up:
Stephanie's youngest has been sick for a couple of weeks. She's doing better now. Heather's youngest had bronchitus last week, but went to school today.
Heather hired Stephanie to be one of her waitresses. (Heather is the main waitress and does the hiring and firing of a small cafe.) Stephanie started today-March 9th. I asked Heather how she liked it. Heather told me to ask Stephanie. I don't know if that's good or not. I hope so.
Update on Rick:
Today seems better, not great, but better. I've made several phone calls to Dr.s. Rick is meeting with his main Dr. in the morning and also with his psychiartrist in the afternoon. His main Dr. also felt like he was overdosed with medications. So far, he's only fell down once today. He's also gone to the bathroom a few times by himself. However, he can't get our of the furniture by himself yet. He doesn't have much balance. He's a little more aware of things.

WOMEN AT THE WELL RELIEF SOCIETY PRESENTATION.

Yesterday, our Relief Society had the annual Stake Meeting. They presented the program: "Women at the Well'. I've seen it before where I enjoyed it better than yesterday. However, some miracles still happened.
(1) A lady in our ward that hasn't been active in the church until recently, actually prayed for either Sister Meiers or Sister Todd to be there, so she wouldn't feel so alone. Rick's mom went with me. I asked her where she wanted to set. She said she didn't care, so I went on up to the front. As we passed this particular sister, we waved. She smiled. Then later, Rick's mom said we were setting too close for her preference. We got up and moved. We set beside this particular sister. That is when she said that before she came inside the building, she said a little prayer and specifically asked if Sister Todd could be there to help her feel more at ease. She said that when she saw us come in, her heart jumped for joy- but then was let down when we walked on past her. She thought to herself, well, I never actually prayed that they would set beside me. They did come, I should have prayed more specifically. Background on this sister: Rick & his home teaching companion went to her house about a year ago, looking for someone totally different. Apparently, the someone different used to live at this house. The new family had lived in Buhl for 2 years and this was the first contact the church had with them. She started coming back to church just before Christmas-sporadically. When I got put in the Primary Presidency, we needed some extra teachers. I said that I thought she would be good helping in the Nursery. When I mentioned her name, no one else even knew who she was. She is one of our regular Nursery teachers now and she loves it. It had to be the spirit that prompted me to set by her -as an answer to her humble prayer.
(2) The Stake Presidency representative challenged each of us to write in our journals about how we felt the spirit today. Since I didn't enjoy this presentation nearly as well as the first time that I'd seen it, I didn't think that I would actually feel the Spirit. Towards the end of the program a sister is singing a song. It was either: "Day Of Tears" or "Greater Love". She sang both songs, so I'm not sure which one it was. I do know that she was feeling with the Spirit as she sang. I could see it on her face and hear it in her voice. She was singing about if she had been there when Christ was put upon the cross, would she have taken his place? As she sang those words, I felt the Spirit thru her. I mouthed "Thank You" to her. Afterwards, I told her how much I appreciated her Spirit. She asked if I was the one that had mouthed "Thank You" to her.

Rick & I were both given blessings today. I really appreciated the gentleman giving the blessing. He actually paused and let the Spirit help him with these blessings-instead of just giving the normal words. Rick has always said something along the lines "of why does he have to go thru this depression? Whey does he have to have diabetes?" Well, the blessings today said that these trials are for our benefit-that they are Spiritual trials. That's right. I said Spiritual Trials. I've always said that it's how we handle our situations in life that determines what blessings we get. These blessings only solidifies what I already knew in my heart anyhow. Rick's blessing told him that he should have more faith, knowing and believing that people really do care for him. Mine also said that I should continue to write my testimony of these blessings in journals - so that my loved ones will someday benefit from my strong testimony.
I guess that's why my journal/blog is more spiritual related than everyday life. I want my kids and grandkids to have the same eternal blessings that we have. I want my etended families to be with each of us in the Celestial Kingdom.

Update on Rick: Yesterday, things were slightly better. Today, is more like Thursday and Friday. His mood is fine when he's awake. He's still falls asleep in mid whatever he's doing. His thinking ability is not there. He still has no balance. I had to help him get dressed this morning because he couldn't think what he was supposed to do and didn't have the balance to stand by himself.

ANOTHER UPDATE ON RICK.

Well, Rick came home on Wednesday. His mood is better.
However, now we have a different problem. He's so doped up with medications, that he's basically "drunk". He has no equilibrium or balance. He falls all of the time. He falls asleep in mid- sentence. He falls asleep with food in motion to his mouth. He's non-responsive to the phone ringing right beside him. He's non-responsive to me shaking his hand and telling him to wake up. We've called the hospital. They said he was fine when they released him. (Not true. He did not have balance then. He had to hang on to me as we walked out to the car, so he wouldn't fall down. All of the way home, he basically was a zombie. That's what he's been ever since I brought him home.) He's supposed to see a new counselor on the 16th. His psychiatrist is only available a few days a week. So, he's not much help. I wish we could find a happy meduim with Rick. It's nice not having him depressed to the point that he's "over the edge", but I would like to have a companion also.
I'm calling some doctors on Monday.

TESTIMONY OF TITHING

I just wanted to share my testimony of tithing. I know that Heavenly Father blesses us for being FAITHFUL in paying our tithing. I know that he blesses us according to our needs. We always have sufficient to get by. I know that if we didn't pay a full tithing, life would be much harder to get by financially. I also know that the test of faith in paying tithing, brings added blessings.
Let me share with you a thought that was e-mailed to me today from L.D.S. Daily Gems: "The obedient payment of tithing fortifies our faith, and that faith sustains us through the trials, tribulations, and sorrows in our life's journey."