EXCITEMENT ON THE SLOPE

One day Susan and I will have to swap SWAT stories. We had our own little hostage incident tonight in camp. About eight or so, our neighbor called to ask what was going on and we didn't even know. Over a dozen police and sheriff's cars, the ambulance, and a Critical response van were parked all over our lawn and David's and the Community Hall! I couldn't take any pictures because it was too dark. I peeked out the front door and David was standing there. He told me to stay in the house. For those of you who remember, the guy was in Kendall's old house. We had a great view of the whole thing. Bless David's heart. He stayed on the loudspeaker telling the guy to come out with his hands up for hours. We don't know all of the particulars, but the guy had arrived there drunk with a gun and took a shot. I'm not sure if he shot at someone. Early on, two people came out whom they put in handcuffs and into a patrol car. The Critical Response team arrived and surrounded the house. At midnight, they began putting tear gas into the house and the guy finally came out coughing. A peaceful end to a dangerous situation. The most inspiring sight of the night came when I looked out the kitchen window and the dozen or so members of the Critical Response team were all lined in a row kneeling down with their heads bowed. It took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes. Thank goodness for the men (and women) who are sworn to protect us all. God bless them all. I thanked Heavenly Father for protecting David and keeping us safe.

Here's the blog I was working on:

Can you believe that the bones of one of the state of Washington's state fossils, the Columbia Mammoth were found right here on the Slope? What an exciting discovery! The bones were found by Irrigation District employees when they were unearthed (the bones, not the employees.) during a recent ditchbreak. They were found near a small spring near Scott Robbins' house. According to the info on the state's website, the mammoths came across the Bering Strait down through Alaska about two million years ago and became extinct about 10, 000 years ago. Elementary students from Cheney worked for four years so the state would recognize the mammoth as the state fossil. Archaeologists are going to study the area in the next few months. Pretty exciting, huh?

MORE SPRING SPRUNGINGS!!!

Spring is not our favorite season this year! It's been cold and rainy and the wind machines are a constant nuisance running all hours of the morning. As you can tell from the picture Dylan isn't too happy with spring right now either. In an after school program, Dylan had become very interested in soccer. Whatever Dylan does--he does all out heart and soul. He got kicked a good one which did lots of damage to his ligaments. He hates the brace and it's impacted his soccer playing big time! The culprit--the mean old kicker? His own brother TJ who also plays all out--heart and soul and was concentrated only on the ball. Too funny. Aunt Julia is also on the "sickie" list. She's in the hospital with pneumonia and gall bladder problems. Garth's a little sniffly, too, but I think it's his allergies.

I received two nice surprises in the mail this week. Janeen is a longarm quilter and has done one quilt for me and one for Julirae both of which were beautiful. I had given her a pile of quilt tops which she's doing for me. This one was constructed by my mother and Janeen did a wonderful job combining beautiful modern quilt patterns of her own design with the vintage fabrics. It filled me with such a longing for my mom. The other nice surprise was a graduation announcement from our granddaughter Lisarae. Gosh kids grow up fast.

Truly I can say, I'll be glad when spring has sprung for more than four hours at a time!

YOU'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN JOY

I just heard this quote on a podcast and thought it described Garth and I lately. However, I must add a disclaimer because I'm well aware that not everyone is retired and able to do as they please which is our happy joy at the moment. I feel the fast approaching time coming when we won't be quite as free as we are now, so we're reveling in the moment.

My special joy at the moment is my brand new sewing machine-a super deluxe model which I unashamedly feel is my reward to myself for putting up with Middle School kids' shenanigans for the last few years. The scene on the left is a quilting bee at the Community Hall. There were 25 to 30 women there for 3 1/2 days. They sewed from 8 in the morning until after midnight. I went one day for about eight hours and thoroughly enjoyed myself! The icing on the cake was that eight of the ladies were former students--all beautiful women, grown up and quilters to boot! The other picture is a few of the colorful quilt blocks for Andrew's birthday quilt. Life is good.

Garth's joy has been the underground sprinkler system he installed and I can't figure out what kind of picture to use. He really has our lawn looking nice. He's been very busy on it. The system has a couple of small glitches which he's going to work on today. I'm not sure when he'll be coming back inside. He's still enamored with Miss Nips. Recently, she came creeping in from her night ramblings with a major problem--a cat fight! I thought she was going to die under my sewing table (I would never have forgiven her!), but she lived through the night and went to the vet. For several days after that she didn't venture outside. Then we discovered that someone, probably Ashlynne, had locked the cat door! She's fully recovered now and sleeps most of the time in a chair in the office.

Our other joy has been genealogy. I was called to be director of a big project for the ward and Garth's been my #1 helper, of course. We've spent a lot of time working on it. Garth's computer crashed and we lost some of his hard work, but he's now trying to duplicate it. I've included a picture from my Cochran ancestors. Twins run in our family until now. Who's going to carry on the tradition? Joe? Janeen? Julirae? Jennie? Jeff? Jaime? Susan? Steve? Darla? Marie? Tom(mie)?

Our final and greatest joy is each other. Next Monday is our 42nd wedding anniversary. We decided to go on a nostalgia trip to Idaho Falls where we were married. We're leaving Saturday and plan to visit the temples in Idaho Falls, Boise and Rexburg. Our love is eternal and it has changed a lot in the years we've been married. Girls, granddaughters, whomever: if you marry a good man who honors his priesthood and his blessings as a father you will be eternally grateful. My husband is such a man and he's had more than his share of trouble putting up with me all these years! Good men are hard to find so pray fervently about it. We're still in love, by the way!

LOOK WHAT SPRING SPRANG ON US!

You should have seen this guy--Scott. He made my heart hurt clambering around like a monkey with spiked shoes! I couldn't watch. He's the "Call-before-you-dig" guy for the PUD so he climbs poles for a living and he was very good. He pruned both our decidious trees. He really was amazing. He reminded us of Grandpa Gunter's stories about climbing the poles in Adak in his spiked shoes. Look what Scott left in his wake:

Grandpa's been two days getting them all picked up and carted off. He's getting very skinny with all his hard work.

We also had spring pictures of two raving beauties and a red-headed monkey! The four of us watched a wonderful family movie called The Water Horse. You'd all enjoy it. Have a great spring day.

A CASE FOR DANDELIONS

Life is wonderful when spring is on its way! Grandpa has been working for nearly two weeks on his sprinkler system and is nearly done. I was trying to get a good picture so you could see it, but this was the best I could do. Notice his "helpers": Marissa, Sammie, Adaon, Taron and Andrew. If you look hard, you can see that 3 are leaning on their shovels, one is looking for "bugs" and one is working. We really appreciated Adaon who worked steadily for two days shoveling in all the dirt.

Most people hate dandelions and try to prevent them as much as possible. I love the dandelions given as a sweet gesture by the grandkids. Marissa brought me a batch yesterday then she and Andrew brought me this batch this morning. When we went to Jennie's, her girls kept bringing them to me until I told them to stop. Isn't it fun how kids can't tell the weeds from the flowers but know only that Grandma will love their "flowers"? I'm not about to tell them that they're weeds.

Have a great day and don't let the dandelions prejudice you against believing in the basic good of people

WINDMILLS, WIND MACHINES AND WINDBAGS

Recently, we drove by a farm where a windmill had apparently fallen down and was very neglected looking. I thought that was very sad. I love windmills. Here you'll see a small picture of Julia and I at Aunt Laverna's farm--one of my favorite growing up places. In my memory's eye, it was very picturesque. If you squint, you can see a piece of the barn which was the typical picture perfect red and white barn; there was also a windmill and pond, and mean geese. This colt's name was Flicka and Julia says she has every reason to remember it, but that's her story to tell. I loved Aunt Laverna's farm and home. I've returned to it a couple of times--once when it was abandoned, but still had charm and once when it was an isolated derelict in a plowed field. The house still stood proud and stylish. Windmills always remind me of sweet Great Aunt Laverna and her beloved Uncle Johnny.

Wind machines have dominated our mornings for a couple of weeks now. I tried to take a picture to no avail. You can't see the machines but they are, essentially, big propellers which keep the warm air circulating in an orchard on frosty mornings. We awake to these sounds and Chaticleer every morning. They put in a new orchard last year so we are surrounded. One visitor to our house described it as listening to a Mac truck with its engine running sitting in the back yard. Another said it sounded like the house was going to take off any minute.

Now, finally, windbags. Don't you get tired of them? I just know about too many. Politicians and reporters and news people and Rush Limbaugh. I've been torturing myself with a podcast where the "quilter" uses it as a forum to vent her problems at work, etc. Every time I listen, I chastise myself for listening!

Have a great and, hopefully, not windy day.