Happy 31st Anniversary!

Tuesday September 30th was mine and Wayne's 31st anniversary. We were married in Salt Lake City in 1977 after only being engaged for 6 weeks. Wayne believed that if you were ready to be engaged you didn't need a long engagement so we were married "after peaches and before apples" as he had a huge fruit tree orchard that he took care of and fall was the busy time for harvesting the fruit.

We knew each other for 3 years and had dated for 2 years before we were married. We met in the Y.S.I. (Young Special Interests) program of the LDS church for singles where we were both region officers. We dated so long that my family kept asking if we were ever going to get married - "What is taking him so long?" I actually began to wonder the same question. He was REALLY slow.....in fact, we dated for a year before he ever even kissed me. I was beginning to think that I either had bad breath or that he was gay. HE DEFINITELY WASN'T. He had to make sure before he popped the question because he was going to be an instant father to Daran and Daralyn and needed to get to know them and gain their love, which didn't take long on their part!


My original engagement ring Wayne made from baling wire. He shined up the ends and in the relative darkness of my living room it looked "antique". I loved the ring and although it was replaced a few days later with the real thing, the baling wire ring remains securely locked in our safe.

We went to Grand Canyon North Rim on our honeymoon which was an adventure we'll never forget. Since I had worked there for a summer, I figured being that late in the year we'd have the whole place to ourselves.....wrong! There was a convention of Japanese people swarming the place and since we hadn't prepaid for our room (there weren't really credit cards then) and we arrived late in the afternoon they had rented our romantic rim cabin to someone else so we had "no room at the inn". After viewing the beautiful sunset we drove 45 miles through the Kaibab forest dodging deer to Jacob's Lake and took their last cabin. It had 3 bedrooms and NO hot water! Also, the heat wouldn't come on automatically so it was COLD! After an interesting night freezing to death, I put my contact lenses in with cold water and we went back to the park to sightsee. We then had learned our lesson and attempted to make a reservation at a Holiday Inn in Page, Arizona. Noone answered the phone so we decided to drive there anyway. Well, the Holiday Inn we had called was just a pile of steel barely under construction. We managed to get a room at the Lamplighter Inn and after an embarrassing run-in with the maid, we had many memories of that place, too.

31 years later we have 5 kids, all married, and 17 grandkids and are now empty nesters. Lots of water under the bridge, some trials with losses of parents and health concerns, but we are happy and still in love. I feel very blessed that Wayne came into my life and we are trying to grow old gracefully together.

The Peaches Were Done!

If anyone wants a perfect place to live, it would be Clifton, Idaho. The people are unbelievable! They would (and do) stop anything they are doing to help their neighbors. Countless times I have seen farmers leave their fields and rush to help a neighbor with a fire, or chased the fire truck to help fight a fire.

An example: I arrived home on Saturday afternoon after a trip to Logan to take a granddaughter to a volleyball game and then go and visit her brother, my grandson, in the Logan hospital where Scotty has been for three days with an illness that is still undiagnosed. This grandma worries about her grandkids normally but when they are in the hospital it is greatly compounded. I mean, I don't sleep - so after two debatable nights with about 2 - 3 hours sleep I was exhausted. Still, there were my daughter-in-law's peaches to be put up. She is staying with Scotty in the hospital and, as anyone who puts up fruit knows, it won't wait! My daughter Kelly and I had decided to meet down at the house and put up the fruit.

Kelly calls from LoriAnn's house - "Mom, the peaches are done!" Angel neighbors named Sally and Wayne Jones found out there were two bushels of peaches in our son's garage, went and got them, and delivered the filled jars. I was so exhausted, mentally and physically, when I arrived back from Logan and to hear that the fruit was done.....well, I just became emotional and "lost it".

Just then another friend, Mary Penrod, delivered dinner down to the house and Dana Cox and her girls appeared to help with the fruit and seeing that it was already done helped to clean the house.

This is the kind of people who live in Clifton, Idaho! The peaches were done!

This reminded me of the time that our youngest son, Jeffrey, was in the hospital at age three months with spinal meningitis. I stayed with him in the hospital for 13 days while he recovered. When Wayne brought down Kelly and Jaime for a visit Kelly commented "Mommy, we don't even have to buy groceries anymore. Everytime we open the door someone is there with food!" I will never forget the generosity of the people in this area. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else!!!

Kadaphee's Funeral

Our kids had always wanted a dog but their dad continued to say "no". One day I guess they caught him in a moment of weakness because he finally gave in and said "Ask your mom." Well, I grew up with dogs so the answer was then a rousing "YES!" Daran got our dog (an Australian Shepherd) from his friend Jeremy Smith and brought him home. He and Daralyn decided to name our new hound Kadaphee. It took the younger kids at least a month to learn the dogs name.

"Doff" was a treasured member of the family for many years, I'm thinking at least 13 or 14. I wanted his picture to hang in the front hall along with our other five children, but Wayne wouldn't go for that one!

In April of 2001 old age got the best of our Kadaphee and he passed away quite suddenly. About a year before we had got another dog, Bhoutros, from Jeff's friend Mike Penrod. The main reason for this new member in our family, I found out, was that Wayne was afraid Doff was getting old and going to die (the dog had been having seizures and was on Phenobarbital - the pill was given wrapped up in a piece of bread) and dad was afraid that Jeff would take his death hard and, therefore, agreed to another hound. A second large moment of weakness on Wayne's part. (Truth be known, he was as attached to these dogs as much as the rest of us.)

The morning Doff died Bhoutros circled his lifeless body in the garage and whined and whimpered. It was so sad because the two dogs were so close and literally slept curled up by each other. Well, we had to have a funeral for Kadaphee so the next afternoon Wayne and Jeff proceeded to dig a hole up by some trees behind our house. Then Kadaphee's afghan that he loved so much was placed in the hole, followed by the dog's body. Then came the part that had Kelly and I in tears. Wayne proceeded to shovel the dirt back in the hole. Well, Bhoutros set about howling like you can't believe. It was enough to tear out my heart! He kept this up and I finally said to Wayne, "I can't have Bhoutros up at Kadaphee's grave howling and crying. I've got to go and get him another dog!" Well, Wayne looked up and said, "Maybe if you wouldn't stand on Bhoutros' tail, he wouldn't howl." It seems that I was standing on his tail, and sure enough when I got off of it the howling ceased.

This was another moment mom has never lived down and will probably appear in the "roast of mom" that is commonly referred to as a Life Sketch.

PS - Our children have always named our pets, so blame them for the strange names of political leaders. We have also had cats named Bush, Lincoln, and a hampster named Gorbachoff (spelling???)

...and then there was the Olympic Train!

Since I am using this blog as the journal I never wrote, I must talk about the Olympic Train with the torch which passed through our little valley in 1996 on the way to the Atlanta Summer Olympics. (I know that this will be talked about in the life sketch some day when I croak, so here is MY side of what happened that day.)


I had purchased a nice video camera for Wayne the previous November on his 50th birthday and was excited to use it to record this special event for my family, who were all too busy to see it in person. The train was coming through our valley in the late afternoon, as I recall, so I went over to the hill by Twin Lakes and joined lots of community members to witness this noteworthy event. Well, the train was taking forever to come by us so I decided to sit down and wait. Wayne has always said "Never stand when you can sit!" When the "lookout" saw the train finally approaching I stood up and, I guess, accidentally turned on the camera while doing so. Hence, when the train arrived and I turned on the camera to capture the event for posterity, I really turned it off.


Now, when I looked through the viewfinder all I could see was a black and white setting and the train in the picture, but that was okay because it would be in beautiful living color when we put the tape on to play on our television set. So, I never saw the Olympic Train and torch in color. What sacrifices we mom's don't make for our families!


Upon arriving home I was anxious to show this video to my family. Well, all that was on the tape was the ground as I was standing up. When the train actually arrived the videotaping ceased because I turned the camera off when I thought I was turning it on. My sweet family will never let me live that down! I am reminded often about mom's "Olympic Train" video.


So, if it makes my family feel any better, I didn't see the Olympic Train or torch either!