The Cool Down

That's what I feel like November is - the Cool Down after Soccer Season.  We're glad to have it here!  Not that we're not busy.  But I think a change is as good as a rest.  The Fall leaves have been beautiful.

Bruce and Joseph went elk hunting at the first of the week.  They took six llamas and hiked in.  As they were hiking, they took a wrong turn, and started going down the wrong canyon.  It was disastrous.  The vegetation was really thick, and there was no trail.  Besides, it was snowy, so they couldn't find the trail anyway.  By the time they figured out they were in the wrong canyon they were "deep in the heart o' Texas", so to speak.  So they said a prayer, and headed for a ridge to get a look at where they could go.  They ended up camping on that ridge. One of the things Joseph commented on was the silence at certain times of the day.  When there wasn't even a hint of a breeze, and the birds weren't singing, it was so silent that it was almost noise in itself.  He also said that being in the mountains felt like being in the Temple.  They didn't even see a bull elk, let alone get a shot at one.  Bummer.  They got home Wednesday night, and I was glad to see them.  One funny thing on Bruce:  Joseph said that one night Bruce said, "Joseph, if you get cold you can come and snuggle with me."  Joseph said, "I think I'm good Dad."  When do boys get to old to want to snuggle?

With Bruce gone, my adventures on Monday were compounded.  Monday morning at 5:30 am, I got up to read my scriptures.  I wanted to listen to a Conference talk, so I opened up my laptop.  On the screen, I saw that one of the kids had gotten me a Sub job (substitute teaching) for that day.  I had until 6:00 am to cancel the job or not.  I thought of all the things I had to do that day, and on the other hand, all the reasons I needed to go and earn an extra $70 to help out.  It was a dead even between the pro and con.  Finally, I decided to stay home, and prayed - asking Heavenly Father to confirm that decision, which He did.  Only later would I know just how good of a decision it was.

After getting the kids on the bus, I didn't go exercise because Jesse ended up being sick and staying home from school. (The first reason it was good I stayed home).  As I started checking my email, I glanced out and saw Buttercup (our dairy cow) on her side.  I wondered if something was wrong, but then I dismissed it thinking that she was just tired from having calved the day before.  Bad choice!  About an hour and a half later, I looked out and saw her still laying on her side.  Oh-oh.  I high-tailed it out to the field and found her head all twisted around, groaning, and looking awful.  Oh, man.  I'm not really an animal person, and although I care about our animals, I'm not too attached to any of them.  Except for Buttercup.  I guess it's the milking and taking care of her, but I really do care for Buttercup.  I called Lane, our friend who also has a dairy cow, and asked for the name of a vet.  The vet said he could come out in about two hours.

So then I had to figure out how to keep her alive until the vet got there.  Of course I took oils out there - Geranium, Frankincense, and Peppermint.  I tried giving her grain and water, but she wouldn't having anything to do with that.  I got Jesse out there to help me get her head around, and it took us awhile to figure that out.  I brought out a calf bottle and milked Buttercup and fed it to the calf.  He was mooing, and putting his nose up against her face. 

At long last the vet came and diagnosed her with hypo-calcemia (spelling?), also known as "milk fever".  It is a condition where the regulatory mechanism for blood-calcium levels is malfunctioning, and the body sends all the calcium to the milk instead of keeping it in the blood.  I have a new respect for calcium!  The vet gave her an IV of a calcium-magnesium solution.  But she didn't respond, she just stayed the same.  He then gave her a calcium paste in the back of her throat.  He didn't give me much hope when he left.  He said she was probably too far gone.

This was hard to hear.  I spent the next hour in mourning - feeling guilty that I had not checked on her the first time I saw her down, and just overall feeling bad.  It was sobering. I prayed for her, but not with much hope.

In an hour or so, the vet called me and said that in talking to a local university veterinary clinic, they had offered to do a blood test on her.  So he came back out and drew her blood, which I then drove down to the Veterinary Clinic.  They ran a test quickly and determined that his diagnosis was right - very low blood calcium.  They said to use another bag of solution, so he came out again and put another IV in her.  She was a little more alert, but still wouldn't get up.  He decided to put in the rest of the calcium paste in the back of her throat, but when she saw him coming with that white tube, she pushed herself up on her feet and got the heck out of there.  It was so funny!  She didn't want anything to do with that paste in her throat.  We were very relieved that she was up.  She fully recovered, and by Wednesday was being a Mama again and letting her calf nurse.  I am grateful for good vet care, and grateful that Buttercup did not die on my watch!

Even though this was just one of our animals, it gave me a perspective on how people feel when a loved one has health problems and their life is in danger.  It was very taxing emotionally.  I chalked that one of up for experience, and will be more empathetic in the future.  Oh, which brings me back to my decision at 5:30 am to stay home and not go in to sub.  If I had, Buttercup would have died, I'm pretty sure.  I'm grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and being able to be guided and directed by the hand of the Lord.

On Tuesday night, I had a Soccer Board Meeting.  At the end something came up that involved a close friend of ours, and I found myself in the tough position of defending actions that were thought to be indefensible by the rest of the board.  I had to do it, because I had to look my friend in the eye and tell her that I did my best to be loyal to her.  It caused me much reflection, because I was divided between my loyalty on the one hand to our Soccer Club, and on the other hand to a friend.  I feel satisfied that I handled it the best way I could, but it was a tough spot to be in.

On Wednesday, we had Young Women in Excellence.  The YW leaders in our ward are amazing, and I appreciate so much all they do for Jesse and Mary.  For her display, Jesse showed her Hymn book with the list of Hymns she is playing on the organ, and Mary showed the material and the skirt she is making for one of her projects.  I am very proud of the girls and how hard they work on Personal Progress!


On Friday night my friend Tauna texted and said that she was grateful that we had Wade & Holli at our house, and that she was bringing over a Lasagna dinner for us!  Wow!  So we had dinner with them and later played Ticket to Ride with Wade & Holli.  That was fun!  Bruce beat us all by a long ways.  It's a good thing I'm not too competitive when playing with Bruce because he almost always wins.  I need to play him in ping-pong and serve up some humble pie.

On Saturday morning, I told Bruce that we should go over to Rexburg and watch Josh's game.  He agreed to go, but only after naming off all the "projects" that he wanted to get done in this "work" Saturday, as he called it.  This was a big sacrifice for him.  There's almost nothing he loves more than to get a lot of things done on a Saturday.  But thankfully, he loves his children more than his projects, so we all loaded up in the van and went off to Rexburg.  We showed up on the very minute that the game started!  My Mom and Dad and Aunt Angie were there with Ethan and Alyssa.  Angie knew we were coming, but not Mom & Dad.  My Mom's reaction was just what every daughter wants to hear, "Lorena!", and then she wraps me in a big hug.  Dad grabbed my arms and with a big smile said, "What are YOU doing here?"  Ha ha  I told him it was my son that was playing and I wanted to see him play!

Josh was on the "Hurricanes", and his team made it to the championship.  They played a great game - very skilled players - and won 1-0.  It was fun to watch!  After the game, we went over to Josh's apartment for a bit and he played us some songs on his guitar.  We then took off to to another town to watch our high school football team play in State game.  They lost, but it was fun to be there with all the other people from out community.

We drove home after the game, each taking an hour to drive.  We got home at 1:20 am, but luckily we got to set our clocks back, so that helped us get up this morning.  I loved testimony meeting this morning.  How wonderful to hear each individual share the feelings of their heart and express their love for the gospel, for the Lord, and for their families and our ward members.

I just got done reading The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.  You'll have to see my review on Goodreads (see the link on this blog.).  Wow - it was a good book.

Thanksgiving News

These guys sure had fun hunting on Thanksgiving morning. We ate the pheasant at our Thanksgiving dinner and it was tasty! Bruce, Joseph and Peter went with their cousins Joshua W. and Kaleb.

In the meantime, I was preparing dinner,
and Libby was drawing a picture, among other things.

Our meal turned out wonderfully, thank goodness.

The best part of the meal was the fresh apple cider. It's called liquid gold around these parts!

I took a long nap after dinner, and Bruce went horseback riding with Gary and Heidi, and then Peter and Kaleb. They took Lady, Mackee and Strawberry and Bruce said they all did great. We are still in the process of training them, so the more they go out the better, and we talk about "how they did" after every ride.

Later in the evening we watched Get Smart (very funny movie), and played games with Stephen and Kendra and family when they came over. We played categories, and this crazy board game where they made me jump from five feet off the ground blindfolded, and a "Famous Name" game. Despite family members getting a little too competitive (smile here), we had a really fun evening.

Well, Peter just came in to tell me the horses are ready, so I gotta go ride. Wahoo!

Already into November!

I had a new experience this week - being on the other side of the table as the Teacher instead of the Parent at Parent/Teacher Conferences. I really enjoyed meeting the parents and putting the child with the parents. That was fascinating! The four hours each night went really fast. I really do love to meet people.

It took me away from home from 4-8 pm on Wed and Thurs., so that was hard. By Thursday night the house was in total chaos. Thank goodness I had Friday off. I took Libby on my lap and said, "I get to be with you all day today!"

On Thursday I took pictures of all my classes. These are the two wonderful teachers I taught with:
And some pictures of some of my classes.
I really had to talk them into taking these pictures.This class (below) loved throwing paper wads, and here they show them off. I can laugh about it now, even though I made them stay in the classroom after the bell rang on the last day.
The last night, walking out of the room, was tough. It gave me a small glimpse in to how women feel that have a career and come home and take care of children. What it also emphasized in my mind was that you care a lot about whatever it is you put your time into. I've given a lot of time, energy, thought and prayer to these kids for the last six weeks (perhaps not as much as I should have, but as much as my family commitments would allow), and what I found is that I cared deeply about what I was doing. Overall, it was a great experience, and I'm really grateful to have had the opportunity. And a bright spot is that I will be back again substituting in that class on Friday, as the teacher has a training that day, so I'll get to see them again. Yeah!

We left on Friday afternoon to go down to Utah for my Aunt Marzelle's funeral. I wanted to leave by noon on Friday, but the older kids didn't want to leave their classes. I finally conceded, thankful to have good students as children. In actuality, I really needed that time to play catch up around the house.

We left around four and got down to Provo at 10:30 pm. The party at the Robinson's was still in full swing. We were playing a game where you pass a disc back and forth between two teams and one person has to try to describe a word for the rest of their team to guess. Some funny moments:
- Grandma describing "kidney" beans
- Joseph describing "carbohydrates" as a C on the elemental table, and the Greek word for water (and this after being left out of the game at first because he was too young - ha ha)
- Jesse describing "happy as a clam" and saying "It's a simile", which made everyone laugh again about the kids being too young to play. (I wish I could remember everything Jarom and Craig said about this - they went off on it - it was hilarious).
- Mary had the word "unknown" and she started out by looking at the group and saying, "You don't know this". There was a pause, and then Josh Haycock pointed at her and said, "You're right, we don't!"
- Clarissa was so entertaining to watch, especially when her hubby was the one describing the word. The expressions on her face were priceless.

Then we sang some hymns and had some words and experiences shared from Grandma, Grandpa and Angie that were very inspiring. Mom and Dad looked so great, and it As we left, I felt that if we turned around and went back home the next morning, it would have been worth the drive just to be there for that two hours.

I love being with my brothers and sisters, and my parents. I feel, as Jesse's simile described, happy as a clam. Jeana, Clark, Julie, Angie, Chris and Craig were all there - 7 out of the 10 of us. And then Stetson and Whitney, Clarissa and Josh, Jarom, and our six kids. Darcy, Cristen and Lindsey all had dates (or close to it) that night, so they couldn't be there. Of all the things! We missed Cheryl also.

We slept at Sylvia's that night. They have a basement room circled with couches and spare bedroom downstairs which fit our family perfectly. She was so kind to let us use it. I enjoyed spending a few minutes the next morning with Sylvia, Lynn, Murlene, Emma and Stan.

We had a Whetten family brunch at Clarissa and Josh's - who were gracious hosts. It was so fun to see their cute and fun apartment. To see pictures of the morning, go to my Picasa Web Album.

The funeral was a wonderful tribute to Aunt Marzelle and her life. Rene gave her life sketch, and Cynthian told about her early life in Chupie. Sylvia spoke of Aunt Marzelle's gifts - obedience, gratitude, being a hostess, love of family, and peace. While she spoke, I thought of how similar these gifts are to her little brother Jean's. When Dad got up and said a few words, all were touched. He said that two words could be put on her gravestone that described her life, "She served". I love Aunt Marzelle, and I'm grateful for her love for me and being a great example of what kind of person I want to be.

Our trip home was long, but we made it home safely. I was grateful for Josh being able to drive! When we got home at midnight, Josh went upstairs and jumped on Bruce and made him yell. He thought there was an intruder in the house.

Bruce went hunting over the weekend with his friend Lane (who is also my fourth cousin, descended from Edward Stevenson, Mary Stevenson's brother).
They had a very harrowing experience, but toughed it out and made it out with elk meat in tow. Thank goodness they are home safely!

End of October - and all that goes with it...

All is well here. We went to our English speaking Ward today. It was good for the family - all are excited to be back in this ward. I am too, but still struggling with not being in the Spanish Branch. Tears come easily if I start to think about it the least little bit and I have a huge ache in my heart. It's hard for me to leave.

I am going down to my Aunt Marzelle's funeral this weekend. She was a very special person to me, one of my closest Aunt's, and I am so happy for her to be with Uncle Murl (who passed on last year) and for her mortal journey to be over. Besides all the wonderful memories, which are the most important, she left Bruce and I with the beautiful quilt that we have slept under for the last 18+ years. It was a wonderful gift that she gave us for our wedding.

Bruce and Joseph went hunting Fri and Sat. Joseph got an elk, so we are grateful for that! They'll have to tell you more about it.Stetson and Whitney are coming up for Thanksgiving! Yeah!!! Open invitation to who else wants to come - we'd love to have you!

Libby was a centipede (see the end of this post) and Peter was a Ninja for Halloween. Mary was an M&M and Jesse dressed up as a black crayon, with three of her friends as orange, blue, and green crayons. They were really cute. Josh dressed up in the clothes he wore on the Handcart Trek he went on last summer. It was a mellow, and good, Halloween.

Yesterday Jesse and I refereed at a soccer tournament. I did four games, which was too many, as my left knee was really hurting by the end. But before that, it was fun to be out getting some exercise and earning some money at the same time. I missed being home with Mary, Peter and Libby, however.

Have a good week everyone.