Took the boys to the hospital to see baby sister and it was an adventure in and of itself. I think they thought baby sister would come out ready to play with them. Craig held the baby and wanted to know why she was sleeping and not opening her eyes to see him. Wesley just gave her a look-over and went on about his business exploring the hospital room and his mothers stuff. I think we wore Reb out in a very short time.

How grateful I am for this new addision to our family. The Lord has truly blessed us.

I went to Utah to help Kim with Jared’s little girls. He had surgery. We had fun. Then I stayed on to help Kim as she was going down hill fast because the pharmacy hadn’t filled her presciption for injections instead of transfusions. (Cancer stuff) I stayed until she finally got the drugs, a week late, and began the totally falling apart before the getting better.

Dad’s red truck had fifth gear die so we made a trip to Phoenix to have it fixed while still under warranty. It was only 114 in Phoenix, a little too warm for me. We survived and made it back home again.

It is hard not having the kids here. I am now trying to play catch up on all the things that need to be done. When I got home from Utah the flowers were dead, or eaten by the sheep. Yes, dad is now letting the sheep free range. Poop everywhere and my plants that were so beautiful are gone. Bummer.

What I’m trying to say, is that we are doing ok, but filling my days with things that need to be done instead of listening to and playing with my grandchildren is just not the same. You know you fly high then you just have to come back to earth and do the daily tasks that make life on the ranch what it is.

For Father’s Day, James, Jordan, and Jared delivered a beautiful golden lab puppy to dad. Cruz, who seems to grow right before your eyes, has successfully won dad’s heart. They wanted someone to take care of dad when Emma could no longer do it. Emma has been dad’s best friend and caretaker for years and the boys felt they needed to introduce her replacement before anything dreadful happened to Emma.

Emma knows she is the alfa dog and the pups know it too. It’s great.

Dad has cut his first cutting in the hay fields and is ready to turn and bale hay this week. Life is full and enjoyable, and we are busy with the usual and not so usual things going on here.

Rebecca was here from Mississippe when we got home.  She has been under the weather since December and so she and I and the boys have spent a good deal of the past six weeks in Utah seeing doctors.  Kieth came last week and has taken her the past two times.  She had a procedure yesterday that should help the problem.

Rebecca and Kimberly got the cousins together for play date and pictures.  The pictures turned out so cute.  It was amazing to have all eleven cousins together in one place at one time.  Kimberly hosted a pizza party after pictures at her home and we got to visit and just enjoy each other.  At least thats how I felt and it is always enjoyable to watch the cousins play together.

I’ve been cleaning the area of the barn that will be the bathroom and laundry area.  I told Jack I was going to tile the kitchen with or without him and after thinking about it said I needed to practice in the bath and laundry area first.  I’m game, anything to get things moving towards more normal.  After eight plus years, we can use the brand new washer and dryer that are over eight years old, as Jack finally agreed to hook them up and let me use cold water to wash.  At least I don’t have to go to the laundry mat.  This is a huge blessing in my life.

My tear drop garden looks good.   The flower garden around the cottonwood tree is beginning to look pretty good as well.   We planted grass in the yard between the two camping trailers and it has begun to shoot up little green hairs.  The pond is filling up and the horses have begun to bath in it.  This morning about eight to ten deer tried their luck at splashing in the pond.  It was fun to watch.

We have 25 baby chicks, two ducks, a sheep, two cats, a dog and the horses all keeping us company.  We also have an unwanted critter that we have been trying to catch with the live trap.  It’s been to smart for us so far.  We are hoping to ride ourselves of this unwanted guest.

Jack has worked on the Quick’s trailer getting it ready for her to take up the canyon with her family, for a big family get together.  Trina was my life saver while we served our missions, she kept the cats fed and looked after.  He has reworked the paddle wheel and fixed a couple of risers he broke off.  The dinasaur is half way down the driveway.  It over heated and so until we get water back into it and restarted it will adorn the drive.  Maybe tomorrow.  Jack needs to dig a ditch across the lower field to put in new risers for our hand lines.  He is removing the sagebrush in that 2 plus acres to put in more horse grass hay.

We reported to the High Counsel, and gave our talks in sacrament meeting.  I received a call to teach in Primary, you know, prepare a lesson each week and if the regular teacher doesn’t show up then teach the class.

It feels good to be home.  Jared and his family came down for the weekend.  It was so pleasant having he and his wife Emily and their children and Reb and Keith and  their children together.

Jared said he saw three marmets, the fury looking beaver like animals with fuzzy tails.  I saw a beautiful fox.  No mountain lion so far, and I have only heard the coyotes.  I need a gun with a good scope.  I plan to kill anything dangerous to my animals that even gets close to the area.

Since coming home from our mission I have been able to see John’s wife Erin and his son, Natalie, Jack’s wife and their two sons, Kimberly and Justin her husband  and their four children, Rebecca and Keith and their two sons, Jared and Emily and their two daughters, James and Jordan.  Almost all the people in my life who really count.  Not much more a mother could ask for.

Sister Dille came on her mission because her Bishop told her to do it.  He had been prompted to get her to go three times.  So he called her in and she told him her back was bad and he told her she was to go.  When she got to us we (meaning all the seniors) wondered how the Church could have ever sent her on a mission to the Indian reservation, with the bad roads, mud, and uneven paths we walk and drive on.  But she exercised faith and came.   That was just a few days before Christmas.

Each time we saw her over the next few months, she was worse.  She came with a cane, and now couldn’t get around without a walking wheel chair.  The pain she was in was worse and her feet were turning in and not holding her up.  Getting into and out of her trailer was almost impossible.  They prayed for people to come to them to teach.  She cooked dinner and people came to be taught.  Other functions of the body we all take for granite were slowly leaving. 

Two weeks ago at a special meeting President Beck was attending elsewhere in Arizona,  he met a back surgeon specialist who said to him if you have any missionaries that need help just call.

Back to the present, Sister Dille went to a Back Specialist in Showlow and they had done an MRI and some other tests and he told her she was in really bad shape and he couldn’t do anything for her.  She called President Beck and he said “I’ll call you right back.”  He made a phone call and called her right back with a phone number of the number one specialist on back surgery in the whole nation.  He just happened to be in Flagstaff.  She called the phone number it was the doctor’s  cell phone and he answered.  He told her to come right in.  She and Sister Smith drove to Flagstaff  a three hour drive and he checked her out and admitted her to the hospital and told her that he had just had two cancellations for surgery and he would operate.  [This should remind most of us of the surgery that the Prophet Joseph Smith had by being in the right place at the right time for his leg surgery.]  The surgery went extremely well, the bad disk in her back was cutting into the spinal cord causing much of her problems.  He told her he would fix only the immediate problem, which he did.  She will be in rehab for three to six months.  She wants to finish her mission.

I drove Sister Smith back to Ganada to collect her things and took her to live with the Senior Sisters in Chinle.  Saturday I picked Sister Smith back up to go back to Ganada to pack up Sister Dille’s things and move Sister Smith with her things back to Chinle.   It was an interesting day, packing and getting ready all of Sister Dille’s things for her son to come pick up.  He will  pack her car and take her things to be stored near her sister in Tucson, where she will go to get well.

I was amazed that the Lord would prompt me, and then in turn I prompted Jack, he communicated with mission president and everything came together for these two sisters.  A miracle.

I haven’t written for months.  Sounds wierd.  Lots has gone one, but not the energy to keep up the blog.  As we have had to set our clocks forward last night, which bugs the tar out of my husband and makes me happy I can truthfully say I love this day.

The Rez blew to Colorado for two days and back to the Res for two days, needless to say everyone one is coughing and choking with all the dirt and dust flying.

Church started late but we had about forty people before sacrament meeting was over.  Short on leadership this weekend.  I led the music and did Primary.  No complaints, its the most they have let me  do this round on the Rez.  Dad took one of the Elders and went to Lukachukia and then to Chinle to turn off the heaters. He went early to turn on the heaters this morning.   Last year they remodled the building and leveled the floor, quite the project, we loved watching it take place.  The building was rededicated in June.  The people have gone all winter with no heat, and lots of complaints to the FM office.  Dad was given on Friday six or eight new thermostates to put in, with the hopes it would solve the problem.  Dad trouble shooted on Friday afternoon and evening and found that 14 of the 18 heaters weren’t working because the gas had been turned off to them, probably when they leveled the building.  The other two have switch problems and all needed to be vacuumed out from all the dirt, dust, and sheetrock stuff collected in them from the remodel.  Dad went down early this morning to jump start the ones that wouldn’t turn on, he will go back and turn them off.  Can anyone believe that a group of people would go all winter to Church in the cold and endure it without trying to find out what the problem was?  Those that stayed just kept wondering how to get the people to stay who decided to go home after Sacrament meeting.  No brainer, who would stay and freeze to death, just to say they did, except maybe missionaries, they don’t have anything else better to do with their time.

Life is good we are teaching a wonderful little family and hope to get them married so that the dad can be baptized.  The culture on the Rez is very worldly and teaching people a better way rings true, but it’s hard to change lifestyles.  Teaching is always fun.

This has been a good experience.  I only wish I had served a mission before sending my sons out.  There are so many things I had never even thought about when they went out.  I would have done so many things different for them.  I only hope they can forgive me for not really knowing what it was all about.

Enjoy the daylight, we get it on the Rez but anytime we leave the Rez we have to remember Arizona is not on fast time and we have to compensate for slow time.  Dad claims Arizona has it right, but as usual he is wrong and the longer hours of daylight  is where its at, unless of course, dad is putting in a pipeline and then I can truthfully say I prayed for the sun to go down.

Yesterday we attended Interviews which is a mission meeting with all the Senior missionaries and the young Elders, serving on the Navajo Nation.  President Beck requested that dad and I be the first to be interviewed.  He called dad to be a Zone leader over the Senior’s.  I’m still wondering what that intells.  Hopefully he will get some training as to what he should be doing.  I’m to give moral support.

We also found out that we GET to spend our entire third rotation this time in the ”loaned” fifth wheel.  Lucky us!  At least we won’t have to pack up again until it’s time to go home.  President asked us to sign up for another rotation and promised us great blessings that even our children would not be able to deny.  That’s hard to give up as my children and my family needs all the help they can get.   I thought of putting stipulations on the request, then had second thoughts, as we don’t believe in demanding signs.

We were able to arrive home from our meeting in time to get ready for the young Elder’s baptismal service in Chinle.  It seemed like the simple baptism went on forever, but a wonderful blessing came of it.  For about ten years the members, in Lukacheukia, have been trying to get permission to have a church building.  Last year we were asked to attend a Chapter meeting that lasted about six hours, all in Navajo, to debate once again the idea.  It finally passed but nothing has been done because the old grandmother who signed giving permission to use her grazing land, was not the right person according to the Chapter committee.  The Chapter told Bishop Deswood that he needed an old man, a drunk, who was spokeperson for the clan to sign the paperwork.  This person, no one knew where he lived, or if he were still alive.  They, the Chapter,  believed he was last seen near Tuba City.  As he is a complete drunk, no one was sure what condition he was in.  Last night at the baptism and old grandfather of the children getting baptized happened to know exactly where the old drunk was.  Small miracle, which we all hope pans out for the Lukucheukia  Ward and their desire for their own building.

John and Erin and Cy are coming for Thanksgiving and I’m so excited about their visit.  I just hope the reservation doesn’t wig Erin out.  It’s quit shocking to anyone first coming to the rez.  I’m not sure Jared would ever come back.  He brought his family  down at Christmas time last year.  Dodging the animals on the road, as well as the beggers, is hard to endure. 

Everyone should be exposed to this farce that our government perpetuates.  It’s time to do away with the Rez.  Instead the government just keeps pouring more money into it.  The socialistic state is ruining the people.  The Navajo’s are good people, but they need to learn to stand on their own two feet and not depend on a welfare state to take care of their every need.

This I do know, the time has come for the great awaking of the Lamanite people.  A lot of effort is being poured into this mission to gather the elect. 

We are teaching a wonderful little family and hope to have one baptism before we go home in the spring.  The Lord is blessing us and strengthening us.  We hope to be of great use to the program, the Lord, and His people.

Tuesday evening the President called and asked Jack to put the call on speaker phone.  He then told us that we would be moving to Many Farms to help out the Elders.  He told us that someone had LOANED a fifth wheel trailer for two months and we would be living in it.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I have loved living in our fifth wheeled trailer for the past eight years!  I burst into tears and bawled my eyese out.  Dad was asked to set it up with the sewer and water and electric hookups and move us in.

When I came out of the clouds and convinced myself that I would go anywhere the Lord wanted me to go I began the re-packing process.  We now had to put a two bedroom trailer into a little fifth wheel.  By the time we had things packed back into the car and truck and the trailer cleaned for the new couple being sent to Inscription House, to move in,  we didn’t arrive in Many Farms until after dark.

We are still trying to find space for stuff.  I have a stack of things that there is no room for so we can’t possible need them, right.  I feel like one of my ancestors who had to push/pull a hand cart across the plains and discard things that seemed important when they started their trip, but no so important now.

Every nook and cranny is filled with our stuff and the fifth wheel trailer life begins.

We were able to teach a young family last night up in Lukachukia.  They had a baby about Cy’s age and I couldn’t let go of her.  I kept telling the mother when I get off the mission my little grandson will be across the country, and the possibility of holding him is right up there with nil.

Today we wait on the phone service to be installed.  Last Friday was the day, but on the rez you take what they give.  So we have a phone and internet service in Inscription House going and one here.  We had left the other one on as we were told a new couple would move in on Tuesday which we now know is not going to happen.  Its a hundred dollars everytime they connect and not knowing what is in store for us its hard to decide whether or not to disconnect or stay connected and just pay the bills.

My shower today was interesting.  No water pressure, then when dad fixed that as I stood freezing, the shower head fell off and I found myself trying to get the soap out of my heair with a flapping hose flipping water everywhere and by the time I got the soap out of my hair the shower was over as all the hot water, all five gallons of it was everywhere but on me.  I just bawled with the prospects of showering for the next how many weeks with a shower head that doens’t want to work and the contraption that sends the water to the shower head  not wanting to stay on unless you hold it on.  Life is truly interesting on the rez.

Tuesday night President Beck called asked Jack to put the phone on speaker and began to tell us that he wanted us to move to ManyFarms ASAP.  One little catch, we are to live in a fifth wheel.  Like I haven’t done that in the past eight years.  At first, I burst into tears and then decided that there is something I haven’t learned about fifth wheels.   Jack was asked to set up the new trailer with the electric, water, and sewer.  We will also have to shut down our phone service here and start up another there.  We were told this was to be for only two months as the people loaning the trailer want it back.  Three weeks out and today we got our forwarded mail, some of it at least.

The good news is the new senior couple coming here will enter the mission training center on Monday and arrive here Tuesday the 18th.  They should enjoy the trailer and all the members here are really wonderful. 

I know that this is the most beautiful part of the whole rez, all 15 million acres of it.  No starving rez dogs, no animals looking like death on the side of the roads, no dogs eating their friends and the ground even has folage on it.  This was confirmed when we drove to ManyFarms to see the trailer and make notes of the things that will be needed to get it set up.  ManyFarms  is dirty and the dead, dying, and diseased animals were truly shocking.  Perspective is everything.  I told my cousin Ann that I thought the Cameron areas was beautiful and she about died.  She has lived in Arizona for most of her adult life going through Cameron often to see her parents in Utah and she said she didn’t think there was anything beautiful about it.  When one wears rose colored glasses they can see all things in a beautiful way.  I brought mine with me!

President called again this morning and told us he wants the people to let us use the trailer for six months.  Sounds interesting to me.  Loan your trailer and then get told you can’t have it back.  Life is good.  We already know the members in ManyFarms. 

Bishop Henderson called this week to tell us to hurry and get there.  He had requested us to be sent back, (not that the President was aware of it) the minute he found out we were back on the rez.  Nice to be wanted but it also makes you wonder if you can preform on the level expected.

We have taught three lessons this week.  We have a family of five committed to coming to Church tomorrow.  We are in the groove and know that the new couple will enjoy their time here.

Life is good.  The sun is shinning and the view is beautiful and we are happy.

I thought the trailer was uninhabitable, but dad keeps fixing things, and it has grown on us a bit.  We have visited with four family’s and taught one lesson so far.  We have a return visit scheduled for next Wednesday evening. 

The Branch had about 40 members to Church on Sunday, the high counselor spoke, did a great job.  The meetings were done in both English and Navajo which made it very interesting.  The Relief Society teacher gave part of the lesson in English then in Navajo and when the older sisters would respond she would turn to me and tell me what they had commited on.  Truly respectful to me to be able to know what was being said.

We have cleaned, patched, and placed our stuff in there appropriate spots and it is beginning to look like home. 

We are excited to be working in this area.  We had our first dinner party!!!  President Bryant and his wife came by and visited and visited and finally Jack asked if they would like lunch and I fixed soup and sandwiches and we visited and visted.  Then as is custom to the Navajos President Bryant told us what he had come for.  He wanted Jack to go help put up sheet rock in a members  home.  He was delighted to go help and when they got to the home no one was there.  The doors were locked, or they would have put up sheet rock anyway.  Sister Bryant says there is a lot of theft here.  Even sheep are being stolen.  The people know who has done it and tell the law but nothing is done about it.  So no sheet rock was put up today, but we had company for lunch.   Yay.

Tomorrow we are to speak in Church.  No topic assigned so its harder to know what to talk about when we are not to familiar with the people yet.

Life is good, the weather is beautiful, the scenery is terrific, and we are happy.