Keyshaun

Here is our little Keyshaun

at the Park. Cute kid, huh!

Keyshaun

This is Keyshaun. He has been with us now for two weeks and will likely go home later in the summer. He is 8 years old and a good kid. He's alot of fun to have around.

Kylon

Ok, so it has been some time since I blogged. Sorry about that. Life has been sort of busy around here lately. On Easter we got a 14 year old boy named Kylon. He was here for a couple of months and then left last weekend. I will post his photo. Nice boy. Then as soon as he left they asked us to take another young boy. And I do mean young. Sort of. He is 8 years old. Wow! We have had him for a week tomorrow now. do I know how to do young kids? I am not sure. It's not like I have grandkids nearby to practice on all the time. I am so nervous. I had to buy some kids books and toys. I was blessed to find a book in the thrift store right away that was teaching me how to deal with my Eight Year Old. Wow! Awesome. I love it. It helps alot. My younger friends have helped too with many ideas. I signed him up for day camp Monday to Wednesday and on Thurday I take him to a group therapy program that takes kids hiking and works with them that way. It's lots of fun. Friday is bonding time for the tow on us :0). We will plan play dates with friends at the park nearby and other fun things together this summer. I am sort of getting the hang of it. We both takes naps in the early afternoon. I am not sure who it helps more, him or me. He may be here a few months or so. He is such a sweet little guy.

The photo here is Kylon.

We also got a new dog. (Photo above.)

A "Red Heeler" almost a year old. She is a very sweet dog. Barney said"she fills an empty spot in his heart since Buddy got hit by a car and died on Christmas day". We have had "Baby" for a few months now. She is still an outdoor dog and she loves it but sometimes Barney lets her come in. She is house trained and is pretty good but lots of hair everywhere. That not just because of my cat either :0) who is a big male Silver Tabby who may have a MaineCoone mix. Sweet cat. Kitty is his name. (Photo Above.)

Ok - so after some smaller March snow falls, Easter is tomorrow and we actually had a few snow flurries today but nothing stayed on the ground. There was probably much more snowfall on the mountain passes nearby. But finally - the snow has melted all around us (not in the mountains yet) and the weather is warming up to 60 degrees or more. No jackets usually (on days when it's not windy anyway). It feels great. More sunshine to warm our faces and our souls. We are smiling again. We've actually been out doing yard work. We're not couped up inside any more. It's awesome.
Happy Easter to all. General Conference was awesome today. I can hardly wait for the Sunday sessions. We finally got our TV antenna hooked up today just in time for Conference. Yeah! We've had it since around Sept. or Oct. when we shut off our cable TV hookup. It's been great without TV. We have occasionally rented or borrowed movies or watched over and over again the few we own.
Lastnight we got boy #3. 14 years old. Don't know yet for how long. Nice boy. Jr. High with our boy. Nice.
Our friend, Dede's dad, died lastnight. Sad. Last week my uncle Hal died. The weekend before that we were in Calif to another dear friend's funeral who died too young from cancer. So much going on. It makes me think they are needed, to do so much Missionary work, on the other side. We will miss them all. Good bye dear friends and family. Until we meet again.

More Feb. snow

Ok, some of that deep snow has melted. Not much though. We actually had a week that I thought was warming up alittle. Somewhere around the thirties during the day time. Nice. But colder nights. Then....... MORE SNOW ALL DAY YESTERDAY!!!!!! Two more inches of very wet white stuff. It has been melting fast and trying to run into my basement. I have to work hard to keep it from getting in. In the Spring we will fix the problem but not in the snow and mud and frozen ground. Lots to do. We will start with a huge back hoe and move alot of cement and dirt.
Barney, yesterday, on his birthday, left in the middle of the snow storm, they could hardly see, for California with his friends, Kurt Flegal and Keith Abarham to see their friend Denis Asprey who was then in the hospital due to complications with his cancer, but later released. They wanted to cheer him up. What a nice surprize for Denis. They will be home in a few days.
Leah is right. You are definitely acclamated when you think that 40 degrees is warm. We actually went out without a coat for several days. We still had a long sleeve shirt on. Ok, maybe not long sleeves everyday. We were rebelling and got out the summer shirts for a few days there. t felt so good. We even found some awesome sunshine for a day or two. We so needed some sunshine. It felt so good. We miss the sun this year. Enjoy it where ever you are that you have sunshine these days. Tell me where you are so I can come and find some too. I'll only stay until, oh maybe June or July or so, after the "June gloom" goes away. Everyday we pray for sunshine. We only want it to snow in the mountains. That's where we need it most for use later this summer. We try not to complain much. We will need the moisture later on, to drink and grow, etc. Soon enough it will be July and we will be wishing for cooler days and weeks. San Diego is looking better and better. Or maybe St . George.

Still more snow in January

This is crazy. More snow and still coming. Two to three more inches this morning early when I took this photo, then it snowed all afternoon.There is more expected for the next few days. It was sort of warm when I shoveled snow this morning. I didn't even wear a coat or gloves or hat. It wasn't bad, maybe 40 degrees or so. We had a little wind this afternoon but didn't last long.
You can see that the snow level has just about reached the bottom of my sign in the front yard. It is nearly to the top of the chain link fence. One of these photos was taken from the street and another was taken looking down the sidewalk. There is a huge pile of snow in the street but there is a cleared off sidewalk between the road and the front yard as you can see. Look at the wall of snow along the sidewalk in front of the house. Wow!

Snow Fall January 2010

Okay, Have we had enough snow yet? So far three storms earlier this year before and during Christmas. Freezing temperatures followed for weeks so most of that snow was still on the ground for some time. Now, in mid-January, every day this week we have woke up to another 4 inches at least. Every morning we shovel snow for hours.
Exhausting! This storm is from the south. We expect a few more days of the same before it stops. Is this Wellington or Michigan? I forget. I thought we were having Global Warming? Evidently not here. This is weather from the 1920's through the 1950's that was here then. Wow!
But we will be so glad for this moisture later this summer when we want water for drinking, planting, etc. It's really Ok. It's beautiful too. But WHERE IS THE SUN! I NEED SOME SUN FAST! Just for a little while Please! (Maybe a tanning bed. That MIGHT help, don't you think? It sure wouldn't hurt!

We went to visit Amie and Matt and the boys after Christmas this year. It was so fun to see them and play with the boys. They are getting so big. Grandma and Grandpa had a fun day with just the little boys. We did lots of special things with them that day while Amie and Matt took the big boys to the movie. they had fun too.

While at Camille and Dan's home for Thanksgiving this year, Barney and Dan built a fence to enclose their yard for the kids. Nice job guys. It looks great! "Oh My Gosh!"
They worked so hard and it was freezing cold.
We still had time to eat a great meal and a Turkey that Dan deep fried. Yum Yum!

It was fun to spend time with all of them. The kids are growing up so fast.

ok, we do live a very sheltered life here. Sheltered from the reall ills of the world that so many people are truly effected by. We watched a movie the other night called "The Freedom Wrtiers". Wow! we had such mixed emotions about it. We all cried thru the whole thing. the thing is that it was about where I grew up. It was about things I knew something about but the racial issues got worse, not better. So sad. the story was about high school students that would have ben the clas od 2006. That was not long ago. They witnessed friends and family members murdered. Many, not once but again and again. I never knew that in my life, fortunately. Days before the Watts riots in L.A. we had racial riots on our campus. It effected us all. At the time of our 20 year high school reunion, the incident regarding Rodney King had occured and there were more riots, fires all over L.A. county and gunshots everywhere. I was visiting Long Beach at the time and coudl se and hear what was going on around. It was all over the news. I returned home, uneffected directly. Il recognize that racial discriminations exist all around us everywhere. I felt blessed to have lived in the time and place that I did. I loved my school and felt a unity to my friends who were other ethnic backgrounds. Aren't we all? I never felt that my parents were predjudice towards any group of people. I saw others as people not as colors.
My husband and I have taken into our home as foster kids and now sort of adopted, two brothers who are Black teenagers. They have been with us over a year now. They are normal teenage boys with normal teenage issues intheir maturing lives. Their mom died a few years ago. They have contact with their Dad. That is important for them to know who they are. In our community we are very ethnicly diverse, however, we only have a small number of Black (more likely racially mixed) families here. I want my boys to know about their race and who they are. They, however, learn that mostlyfrom TV and movies, which I don't like in our home much (the TV that is, on any level). Fortunately, what they pick up from that is from comedians. that's not bad. They are funny boy. Very entertaining and cute. Everyone loves them. They are charming and sweet, mostly. We would like them to see what they don't know. what they don't live, without buying into the whole racial discrimination thing that often comes when Blacks and While, etc. inter-relate. this movie I referred to taught how people can learn to love eachother and not fear others. Wow! What a concept. Teaching children not to hate or fear.
My boys are unique at school. For them it works to their advantage socially. they are outgoing and friendly. they make friends easily. Girls love it because they are cute and different.
Last year, we took the boys to Calif. for vacation. We traveled through Las Vegas on the Strip. they were amazed at the Black people in cars next to us. We laughed. They were having Black cultural shock. Wow. then we got to southern Cal. there were more, plus Mexicans, etc. They were in shock again. Wow. They wondered what people thought when they saw us together. I laughed and said "Hmmmm, grandkids maybe." We laughed, but it has made me think more about that. I forget that others don't see them as we see them. Now I try harder to see what the world sees when they look at the boys, or at all of us together. I don't mean that I treat them different, or feel different towards them. I just don't assume now that all is always well just we are because we're ok with it all. I need to be more aware of what it feels like to be them with the world looking in. what more could I teach them now?
We just rented the movie of Roots. We are starting to watch that series. We felt it would be educational for them to see some background of the history of their people. then we want to see other old movies similar to this newer one called "Freedom Writers", such as "To Sir With Love", etc. We felt they are good examples of youth being shown how to live together and learn to love others who were not their own color or had the same cultural background, but how we are al still the same in so many ways. Help us out. What are your thoughts on this? We know that teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a big part of it. They are doing prety well in their spiritual education there for the most part. I know setting a good example for them and showing them love and consistentcy is also very important. Maybe I justg shouldn't think about it or worry about it so much. They will eventually get it someday in their lives, I guess. I don't know. It's just that we have them only for a few short years before they grow up and leave home and move on in their own lives. We just want to do all we can in the short time we have them with us. I guess we are trying to make up for lost time, lost lessons and teach good things while we can.Ok, so I guess what I am really saying is this. Who are their good role models? Should they be Black as well as White or other? Wouldn't it be nice to have them see at least one Black successful person they could emulate? They love Thurl Bailey. We encourage that. I plan to get a picture of the First Presidency and the 12 because we want to say, do you see them look like such and such, do you think you should look like such and such? And ask them, "What do you think the Brethren teach us about the way we should dress?" "How do you think perspective Missioanries should dress?