What's DAD doing home. . . in the middle of the day!?!

Tuesday - College class, homework, piano lessons, getting last minute things ready for my two piano recitals tonight, working on the piano competition stuff, work on dinner, haul hay for the horses, talk with my parents. . .

Yeah, that's about the size of my days in general, except for the piano recital stuff!  So, I'm driving home from my college class, talking on the phone with my parents.  I get to the corner at our house and notice a car in the driveway.  Not just any car, but MY HUSBAND'S.  I said to my parents, the instant I saw his car, "Rod's home from school...he's NEVER home from school.  I've got to go!"  And promptly hung up the phone.  I ran in the house and it was silent.  I called out thinking I would hear Rod's voice, but there was nothing.  I went through every room, ending in our bedroom; then I heard him in the bathroom.  He was sitting on a stool, hunkered over the bathroom sink.  I instantly thought of MORNING SICKNESS!!

I asked if he was feeling sick, and he surprised me when he said he wasn't.  He then gave the details of how he was eating lunch and started to feel spasms in his throat.  He got a drink of water and it came spewing out of his mouth.  And it got worse after that.  Even trying to swallow his saliva made it spasm worse and come out.  That's when he decided it wouldn't be too cool to stay at school and teach.

(I could just see it:  "Today, students, we're going to discuss the esophagus and what happens when it's not functioning correctly...")

Anyway, we took him to the doctor (where Nat works, of course!)  He gave Dad a nitroglycerin pill to put under his tongue.  The doc said it would only take about 5 minutes...it took 20...but it DID work.  Will we waited though, Dad got THE WORST case of hiccups...LOUD and jolting.  I must not be a very good wife, because it was VERY hard to not bust up laughing right out loud.  I tried really hard, as I rubbed Dad's back, but after a few minutes, with his head still down he quietly said, "I can feel you shaking..."  That's all it took, and I let out a loud guffaw!  It really was quite funny.  Dad got laughing too, in his funny "hold it in" laugh, and it actually stopped the hiccups!!

After a while, Nat (yeah, she just told her job she was going with her dad!) Dad, and I went to the hospital.  Nat stayed with Dad while I ran home to get things ready for the piano recitals (which was rather hectic...enough said!)

The scope and biopsy went well.  We'll know in a week what that shows, and then Nat and Dad came to the piano recitals.  Hans and Amelia came and saved the day with the video camera!  (They found a clever way to attach it to the tripod even though the regular attachment piece was missing!!)

I played Autumn Leaves at both recitals and only messed up the second time I played.  Lots of other thoughts kept racing through my head...I'll have to work on FOCUSING more.

All in all, it was a memorable day, and I'm VERY happy that Dad is doing well!!

RJ Comes To Town. . .

I LOVE seeing Natalee so happy!  

And I REALLY like RJ's "new look."  
Yes, this is the same guy as the hairy football dude. . . 

(He looks rather happy, too!) 

Swiss Days 2011

We sure had a BUSY, but fun, weekend!  It was Piano Evaluations, Swiss Days, Honors Recital, the Relief Society Broadcast, and BYU Football, all in the same two days!!  Choices, choices!!

On Friday evening (after an afternoon of horse washing!), Dad and I, Nat, and Hans and Amelia went down to Swiss Days where we enjoyed some good Navajo Tacos, looked at booths, and listened to the really good Swiss yodeler entertainment.  Nice evening together!!

Nat and I enjoyed sharing the horses with the other girls joining us in the parade.  There was a lot of work to be done washing all the Pine Valley dirt off the horses on Friday and getting them pretty for the parade.  Harrison came and helped saddle Zoro, also helping out with some other stuff too!

There were a lot of people watching the parade.  The horses did VERY well in spite of the mountain men shooting off their guns frequently, kids darting out to grab candy, and lots of distractions all around them.  And our riders did an excellent job, too!!

Natalee and Mom,
Megan Amundsen, Alex Tucker,
Madi Yates, Sydnee Yates,
Whitnee Wittwer,
(Isaiah Nielsen on back of Natalee), Brock Yates and Johnny Moncrief
(as our Pooper Scoopers!)

CHANGE . . .

CHANGE in BELIEFS 

will always PRECEDE 

CHANGE in BEHAVIOR!!

O-U-C-H!!

Yeah, this weekend wasn't one of BYU's better weekends!  And Dallin thought he was going to have a blast at the game...not so much!  At least the rest of the weekend was fun!!  Dad, Nat and I drove up Friday after Nat got off work, and we spent the night at the Mapleton Bartons.  Had leisure Saturday morning since Dal was tied up with rugby practice until 10:00.  When he was moving a bit after he had showered, we went out to lunch and he showed us just a little of the work out they had this morning.  MAN, OH MAN!!  Maybe Nat and I should try it...wow!

After lunch, we left Dallin in Provo and we drove up north...stopped in Riverton for a short visit with Anna and Bridger, then went with Linda to get a BUNCH of really good potatoes...like 100 lbs worth, just for us.  I think I'm going to bottle some!  Then we headed over to Brandon's and Tannya's...

(I didn't get ANY pictures with Tannya in them!!  Sorry Tann!)  

We had fun playing with Nikki, watching her, just talking and visiting on the lawn in their yard.  Then we had a barbecue and ate some really good hamburgers and corn on the cob.

Nikki was dressed in her UTE colors, so we went over to Ellisons and watched the BYU v. Utah slaughter!  UGH!!  I think the Cougars must be feeling rather horrible about that game!  We sure did!!  

Oh well.  At least the SCHRAMS and the HOOPES are happy!

Sunday, Dad and I went to a 9:00 Sacrament Meeting. After returning for breakfast, we said our goodbye's to the South Weber Hunts and headed to Salt Lake City.  We stopped in for a short hello to Kristy, looked at her house, and then picked up Dad's car.  Nat drove it home, via Ephraim and Dad and I enjoyed our drive home together, especially since we stopped at Dan's and Janet's and got a sandwich and chips for our drive home!!  (Thanks, Janet!)  Another "quick trip up north!"  

We're grateful for such a good family!  We love you all!

i

Sheesh, RJ!!

Soooo, this is ONE way to make an impression!  If this is a celebration for dating one month, I can hardly wait to see how you top this!!!  Actually, one good bunch of flowers a year goes a long way!  (But this sure puts the other men in our family at a distinct disadvantage. . . the women might start complaining . . . or coveting!!)
Good job, RJ!!

From RJ

FHE. . . it does a body good!

So, what do we do when it's been a rough kinda day, and things feel kinda lousy?  We get the horses, pay $5.79 for one bag of marshmallows and two candy bars at the gas station, and go up Snow Canyon for a Family Home Evening campout!  It was great!!  There had been tons of rain yesterday, so no dust; river marks all down the canyon where it's usually just sand; and Kodiak was SO fun to have along.  She had a blast kicking up her heels in all of that sand!

Nat and I rode up to Three Ponds and made a small campfire.  Only took two matches and a bunch of dried twigs.  We cooked hot dogs, (only a little sand got in them from our sticks...), took pictures, laughed, cried, talked, roasted marshmallows, made s'mores, ATE the s'mores, and enjoyed the incredible beauties of Snow Canyon.

From FHE

It was rather dusky by the time we headed back to the horses...and an incredible full moon came up as we started to ride out.  It was SO bright we were casting shadows on the dirt and hills.

From FHE

Nat tried standing on Silver...in the almost dark...but Silver kept moving and Nat ended up bailing off of her!  Wish I could have gotten it in action!!

From FHE So, once again, another beautiful and memorable ride!

A Day Trip To Ephraim...

So, what happens when there's no one left at home playing high school football, or rugby?!?!  We have to drive ALL THE WAY TO EPHRAIM, to watch RJ play at Snow College!!  Yup, Dad and I did a day trip, leaving at 8:15 this morning and getting home about 6:30 p.m. It was fun to be there with Nat and watch RJ.

From RJ

On the way home, Dad and I stopped by Palisade State Park...I camped there with my family when I was TEN YEARS OLD!  And it's a whole lot prettier now than I remember it back then.  We should all go camping there next summer!!

From RJ

Kodiak's First Ride...

Nat and I took Silver, Kodiak and Red Star out to Anasazi Ridge for Kodiak's first ride.  She's about one week shy of three months old (she was foaled on June 16th, 2011).  She did GREAT!  At the corrals she loaded herself into the trailer (just hopped right in!  The first two times we have loaded Kodi before, we've basically picked her up and put her in because she wasn't too thrilled with the idea of loading...).  She did great going over the equestrian step-over for the first time.  Simply looked at it and then jumped over.  (We had to "help" Stormy the first couple of times she went over.)  Kodiak runs beautifully.  She is going to be as smooth-riding as her mom.  AMAZING to watch!  Now, if Kodi could just learn to not always cut off her mom.  Nat would ride with her boot pushing on Kodi's side to keep her from pushing into Silverado.  It was a great ride!  Thanks, Nat!!

Boys and Men

"All boys grow up to be men;

But not all boys grow up to be men of God"

(the same holds true for women...)

I hope we all work on it!!

DECISIONS. . .

What kind of choices do we make?  Are they inline with what we KNOW?

Great Weekend!

So, Kristy and Dallin were down for a couple of days...and it was a lot of fun. RJ was here, too, at least for Sunday! Hooray!!

Sunday dinner was lots of fun with the "lower half" of the family. Missed the "upper half!" who missed a good laugh at Nat's and RJ's expense. Just ask Nat sometime about what constitutes a good seatbelt... Her reaction was better than the story!! I'm surprised that jello wasn't spurted out of a bunch of mouths we were all laughing so hard!

From Labor Day Weekend

After dinner we had "music time" with everyone enjoying singing Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and playing violin stuff, too.
After all of the fun, and loading up on homemade bread and biscuits, Dal and Kristy headed back up north, and RJ had to head back to Ephraim.
Today Nat, Mil, Hans, Dad and I went to Pine Valley for the afternoon. It was an incredible day! We took 5 horses out and really enjoyed being together, even when Brown Jug tripped, went down on his front legs and pitched Hans forward. Hans handled it beautifully as he quickly scrambled (army crawled) off his horse before the horse got back up on his feet (hooves). He gets the "Amazing Rider" award for the day!!

Brown Jug cut himself a few different places on his legs but wasn't too worse for the wear. Nat was riding Misty bareback, but after the fall, she transferred Hans' saddle to Misty, Hans rode Misty back, and Nat finished riding Brown Jug bareback because he was kinda shaking after his fall.

From Labor Day Weekend

When we were all done we loaded up 5 of the horses to bring home to be shod, AND to wean Stormy off of Red Star. At least Stormy will be with Zoro and Morning Star in Pine Valley. (Hope she does well!) Then Nat takes Sheldon's 4 horses back to Pine Valley tomorrow. Thank goodness there's been plenty of feed up there for the horses. Free feed is a GOOD thing!!
Thanks for a fun weekend "lower half of the family!!"
Love,
Mom

(the video of Nat is kinda fun...even if it's a bit scriggily!! Don't know what happened in the transfer, cuz it was great on the camera!!)

BYU RUGBY . . . All the way!!

So, just to make it official. . . Dallin is OFFICIALLY on the BYU Rugby Team.  They had walk-on tryouts this week, and Dallin did well. . . at least it sounds like he did since he was on the official team roster.  We think Dal looks pretty good in BYU Blue, and we're excited to travel to rugby games. . . AGAIN!!  ^_^

From Labor Day Weekend

Presence . . .

One of the things I LOVE about my husband is the support he gives me.  For instance, when we have "work parties" in the community garden, he asks me what I'd like him to do.  We talk about what needs to be done, what he'd like to do...and then he does it.  Even though the garden isn't HIS project, he supports me in it and I love having his presence there.  It means a lot to me!

Dad has always given me his "presence" which has been MUCH more meaningful than any "presents" he could have purchased and surprised me with.  Sometimes I think about the presents or presence we give each other:  our spouses, our children, our friends, and our neighbors

Do we substitute "things" for time?  Do we associate "stuff" with success?  Do our relationships crave more attention and time?

Sometimes it's easier to just buy something and appease or satisfy for the moment.  However, in the long run, things that can be bought will never hold a candle to the relationships that are developed and nurtured through time, sacrifice and giving of ourselves.

Be careful that you don't get tricked into substituting "presents" for your presence!!

Love,
Mom

P.S.  Today in church I was thinking a bit more about this...and was reminded about the greatest gift given to us all...by our Savior, Jesus Christ.  He gave His LIFE for each of us...it was a gift, freely given, but it required ALL of Him.  He gave us this gift so that we could live eternally in His Presence.  I hope we don't ever forget!!