Back in the USA, Hooray!

Jen and Will arrived safely in the USA today! We're so happy to have them stay with us for awhile. Unfortunately their luggage hasn't caught up with them yet so she has something to look forward to.

Goodbye Escape!

This morning on our way to take Steve to the airport, we got into a car wreck just a couple of blocks from home. Another car turned in front of us at the Winchester/1300 W. intersection. All of the sudden he was just there. The airbag knocked him out and he had a toddler in the back seat who was frightened for a minute but seemed to be fine. We are a little sore and a bit rattled but we are okay. The other driver drifted in and out of consciousness so they took him away in an ambulance. After they left, I noticed a prescription bottle in his console. I notified the police because it was hydrocodone. We don't know if they tested him for drugs or not. He spoke very little English but he did have insurance so that was good. We hope that he is okay. There wasn't any blood and or broken bones that we could see. We weren't going very fast. After taking statements from both of us, the police decided not to cite him. We know we had a green light. He said he had a green arrow.
Luckily for us, Taylor's friend, Trevor, arrived with the pickup within about 20 minutes of the crash. I was scheduled to drop him off at the airport this a.m. too. After they towed the car, then we drove him to the airport. Steve missed his flight so he is rescheduled for tomorrow. It was comforting to have him around today.
This afternoon we went over to the rental and painted a wall and did a bit of other touchup. Later Steve showed the place to two prospects while I did a walk through with some buyers. He came home to an interesting supper of Dutch pancake puffs (poffertjes) with strawberries and whipped cream. He said I didn't need to bother to make them again. The buckwheat flour made them interesting and I'm sure super healthy. Maybe? I kind of liked them so I would be happy to make them for some of you if you are interested. What's not to like about strawberries and whipped cream?

We feel very grateful that things weren't worse today. We felt that we were protected and assisted by divine assistance. We are blessed.

Let's Celebrate Anniversaries, Birthdays, Easter and more...

Let's start with Hilary and Adam's 11th anniversay. While they were celebrating, their kids, Britton, Jenna and Korinne were having fun with Grandpa and Grandma P. A couple of hours later they were joined by 6 of the cousins from Idaho. The cousins colored Easter eggs, decorated bags for the upcoming egg hunt, played dress up, ran around the neighborhood because it wasn't raining for a few hours, read stories and celebrated Quinn's 2nd birthday. Hooray! What fun we all had.

Quinn loves balls and was rewarded with a couple of them as birthday gifts.

Quinn was pretty tired after a long ride from Idaho so not all of his birthday moments were happy. He loves strawberries but he wasn't sure about all the white stuff all around them.The girls loved playing with Grandma June's jewelry and several of them wore some of her clip on earrings at various times throughout the weekend. Elsie chose the pink pearls.

The girls enjoyed decorating Easter bags. Here Jenna and Anna have fun making theirs.

The boys preferred eating a hearty breakfast of cinnamon burst French toast, eggs, bacon and juice.

Shortly after breakfast we headed south for another birthday celebration, Easter egg hunt and barbecue lunch. This was an opportunity for grandchildren and great grandchildren to honor Grandpa Great K for reaching his 97th birthday earlier this month. He was in good spirits and enjoyed being surround by his posterity. We wrapped him in an electric blanket for part of his stay at Kelley's "Party Barn". It was a chilly day but we were so grateful that the rain waited until after the egg hunt.

There were lots of babies around. Here are a few with their Mommas, grandmas and greatgrandma.

Steve was asked to be the chief chef. He did a splendid job with the hamburgers and hot dogs.

Nine of our grandchildren and Heather gather around Grandpa K to wish him happy birthday and say goodbye after a fun event.

It's Been Awhile...

Since we had our paint brushes and tools out for an indoor project. Our Thatcher rental has been occupied for the past two years. Well the tenants moved out last weekend so we knew where we would be on Saturday. Steve was busy replacing a broken light fixture and removing squiggly light bulbs. The house wasn't in too rough of shape but the yard is a mess. I cleaned up the front beds and planted a few flowers. We were lucky the landscapers came by so Steve had them mow and trim the back yard but it's still rough.We've done some patching and touch up painting. One patch led to a wall which led to a room, etc. You know how it goes. We'll have most of the main rooms repainted this week. We're not doing the bedrooms.

Steve got good use out of his birthday gift the super duper multimaster tool. Next week we plan to restain the deck. While he's gone this week, I'll work on repainting some scratched doors and frames. There will be no return of the pet deposit.

Hilary, Adam and the kids drove to town on Sat. afternoon. They delivered our lawn mower and trimmer and stocked up at Costco. Here we take a pizza break with them on the deck.

Korinne and Jenna try out the swing set in the backyard. I think they brought the sunshine with them and that was the best part of the day. Steve's a little sore today. I think that we aren't used to projects. We need to get in shape.

We've had several prospective tenants come by and take a look. They ask for applications, but we haven't had any of them returned to us yet. Hopefully we will rent it soon to a super, duper "tidy tenant" who loves the house and wants to stay for a year or two.

Hooray For 97!

My Dad has seen a lot of changes in his 97 years of living. Yesterday he reached that milestone after a rather rough week. I'm so glad that he not only reached it but did so with a smile. Some of his children and spouses were able to gather around him at the end of the day to reminisce and share some Chinese takeout and Ann's homemade coconut cream pie. He remembered the details of our stories which was amazing to all of us! He was so happy to leave the hospital after a couple of challenging days and get back home to his favorite blue chair.

Here Dad is sledding with his brother, Jay, while his mother, Annie, supervises. Below he poses with his younger siblings, Coral and Jay in Ora, ID, the place of his birth.

Here he and Ann sit in their blue chairs and enjoy the stories everyone shared. They are looking forward to the little videos that family members have prepared. Grandchild, Kenzie, stops by with her family Will, Taylor and Kate the morning after the big celebration. This was a tender scene so I couldn't resist.

Jackie wasn't able to join us but she brought another smile to his face with her phone call and birthday wishes.

The staff at the hospital crowded into his room to sing Happy Birthday and give him a gift basket. They also added a specially decorated piece of cake to his lunch tray.

He was happy for the surprise song and visit, but he was even happier to say "goodbye" and go home.

April Fool's Who?

April Fools is actually a special day for me. This year it was the 27th anniversary of my baby's birthday. Hope you had a great birthday, Taylor! Thanks for calling us. It was great to talk with you on your birthday. You have a wonderful family and we are excited for your new arrival this summer. You are the luckiest and most blessed April fool I know. I love you! Mom

P.S. I miss those cute little dark curls you used to have!

Relax It's Conference Weekend, Right?

Steve and I thought we would take advantage of the conference weekend to drive north and visit with Heather and Aaron's family and see how our house survived the heavy winter storms. Heather said that most of the snow was gone and it was probably too soon to rake the yard, but we could clean out the flower beds and tackle the rodents.

We drove by the house on our way to Heather's and quickly figured out that we were in for a weekend of hard labor. The snow plows had ripped up a lot of grass and sprinklers and scattered beds of gravel in huge swaths onto the grass. The voles had built an entire colony of underground tunnels all throughout the yard. With over an acre of landscaped property that included hundreds of tunnels. It looked like a disaster area. We were pretty disheartened. I had brought pansies to plant but that seemed like the least of our concerns.

Thankfully Friday was a warm, sunny day so we went to work on Friday afternoon with Heather and the kids to help us. We cleaned out the flower beds and started planting pansies. We startled a few rodents and Steve went in for the kill. I'm sure we didn't dent the population, but they knew things were changing.I'm glad that the weather was so nice on Friday. The kids enjoyed being outside. Elsie and Anna stand on the last patch of snow in the yard. Everyone helped a little with the flowers.

Saturday, we headed back to work before conference and then again between the sessions. It was a little colder and the wind was blowing furiously. The kids mostly stayed in the house except for Brinley, Jantzen and Tanner. After we finished the flowers, Jantzen and I joined Steve, Heather, Tanner and Aaron on gravel duty. We removed a lot of hacked up sod and used the backs of the rakes to pull the gravel into piles. Then Steve would scoop it with a flat shovel and put it back on the driveway. We worked hard against the wind to get tons of gravel off the grass.

We were all happy to retreat to Heather's when it was time for conference to start. Tanner had put together packets for each of the 4 older kids so everyone was really good to watch all of the sessions of conference. That was really neat. We were impressed by Tanner's efforts and all of the kids' willingness to answer the questions and solve the puzzles, etc.

Thankfully our hard work made a big improvement in the way the yard looks. Steve put some tasty morsels down the vole holes and we're hopeful that the grass will come back strong as the weather improves.

We loved hearing our prophet and the general authorities give us counsel. There were so many great thoughts conveyed. One of my favorites was this one by Pres. Uchtdorf "By becoming the answer to someone's prayer, we often find the answer to our own."

We loved visiting our kids and grandkids and we have to confess that the physical and spiritual exercise was good for us. We appreciated all of the help. As we drove home, the temperature continued to get colder. By evening we felt like we had arrived back in the midst of winter because

we came home to this with temperatures in the low 30's. What happened to spring?