Dixie Junior Livestock Show

A few months ago I posted the arrival of our little piglets, and at the end of April they were full grown and ready to be shown at the Dixie Junior Livestock show held at the fairgrounds in Hurricane.  It is always a lot of work to prepare for the show, and the kids work with their hogs several times a week training them to walk where they want them to go, getting them used to being touched and washed and feeding them just the right amount of feed to get them to the right weight for the show.  They also study about hogs, breeds, feed, cuts of meat, butchering, etc.   The kids all did really well this year and we are so proud of them!!!  I will let the pictures tell their stories.

DAY 1 SET UP AND SHOWMANSHIP JUDGING

This is Mady, Cody and Austin leaving to take the hogs to be weighed.  It is kind of nice
to have the kids older and able to handle things themselves.  I followed behind with all the nice
clothes, but they loaded the pigs and delivered them without Doug or I.

Austin wanted to take his truck to deliver the hogs so we let him.  The truck
and trailer are both old and kind of go together.   
Its just an old brown truck but it fits us/him. 

The kids are waiting for their hogs to be weighed.  The hogs have to weigh at least 220 pounds
to qualify for the show.  Mady's weighed 290, Dalyon's weighed 280, Austins 260, and Cody's
barely made it at 220.  Whew!!  One stock show hurdle cleared!! 

The next thing the kids do is wash their hogs.  The show is a beauty contest
for the animals, and a showmanship contest for the kids so everyone has to
look their best.

The hogs are washed and in their pens, and the kids are waiting to start.  They
have a exhibitors meeting first to be reminded of  any new rules before the show begins.

Austin (back row and 2nd from the right)  and his cousin Kora (front row and center) as well
as others  won $750 scholarships.  In order to win they had to have participated in the stock show for 3
years, including their senior year and applied. They also had lots of jobs outside of their animals during the
show.

The showmanship category began at one o'clock and Austin was in the first class.  This is
him with the judge who is asking him questions about his hog.  The kids have to study their
animals, the meat cuts, and breeds, feed,  etc. to prepare for this short interview.   Austin made
it into the senior star round.

Mady is doing everything right here.  She is keeping her hog in the center of the ring,
about 20 feet from the judge and keeping eye contact.  She also made it into the Senior star round.

In a rare moment that they were together, Mady and Austin were competing against
each other in the senior star round.  Austin took 8th overall, and Mady got 3rd overall.  I
was so proud of both of them!!!

Cody is doing well in showmanship also.  He made it into the
Intermediate star round and took 5th overall.

Dalyon is also doing a great job keeping his eye on the judge while moving his

hog in the center of the ring.  He won 3rd overall in the beginners showmanship. 

DAY 2   HOG JUDGING

On Hog judging day they separate the hogs by weight.  Cody's was the lightest so he was in
the first class of the day.  We were excited to see that he took second in his class, but didn't
come back for the final round because the judge was only taking the first place hogs back for the
Grand Champion round.  Regardless, we were very excited that Cody's hog placed so high. 

Austin had a lot of trouble keeping his hog off the fence and out of the gate.  His pig
had some kind of spine trouble and was in a lot of pain during this part of the show,
so the judge took mercy on him and sent him out early, although he said he was a fine
animal and would have placed higher if he wasn't in so much pain.  Darn. Austin was in
the middle weight hogs.

Mady and Dalyon were both in the heavy weight hogs.  The judge asked Dalyon what his
hogs name was and he told him his ear tag name, which impressed the judge, and the rest
of us too!!  (Because the hogs lay name was Breakfast,  ha ha)

The three top places in the heavy weight hogs were from our 4-H club.
Dalyon took first, Mady took second and Emily Swyers took third.
  Great job!! 

Austin and Mr. Dayley in the ring working the boards and discussing FFA business. (Part of Austins'
scholarship recipient duties.)   When the hogs
fight with each other in the ring these guys (and girls) have to place the boards between
them to break up the fights or they get bloody.  Sometimes I wish I had
a board like that at home too!!  (just kidding . . . . or not).

AWARDS NIGHT AND DANCE

SHOWMANSHIP

Dalyon took 3rd place overall in begining showmanship.  He got
a t-shirt and $25

Cody won 5th place in Intermediate Showmanship and got a t-shirt.

Mady and Austin bolt won in Senior Showmanship.  Mady got 3rd place
and won a t-shirt and $25, and Austin got 8th place and a t-shirt.  Our friend
Erica Swyers (also in our 4-H group) also placed in the Senior Showmanship.
Way to go guys!!!

HOG JUDGING AWARDS

Dalyon won 1st place in heavy weight hogs and won a Buckle!
Wooohooo!!  Our first buckle!!  Good job Dalyon!!

The DANCE

Mady and Austin are usually the life of the party.  They can both
dance really  well and have so much fun!!

I was able to catch Cody for a moment, this is some of
the best moments of the dance, swaying with my boys.

Dalyon got into the fun a little more this year with his
friend Dalton.  He was even asked to dance by a girl! (Mr.
Dilworths daughter) And he liked it!! 

It is fun to see the kids having so much fun and having the confidence
to be silly in the middle.

The final part of the show is the sale, and I'm please to report that all the hogs sold, and all sold for over $500, which meant we broke even again this year.  The most important part of the whole experience isn't the money, it's everything else that goes into it and working together as a family.  This was Austins last year because he graduates and moves on, and next year Cami will pick up where he left off.  I'm grateful for so many events and people that come together to make this possible.  And I'm grateful that the kids step up and work hard to make it happen for them!!

Eprhiam and His Tires

Earlier in my blog I wrote about the Senior Prom that Austin and his friends went to a few weeks ago.  Earlier in that week, the night of the "prom meeting" when all the boys going in their group met at our house to plan the prom, they got a little distracted with Ephriam and his tires.  Eprhiam had decided to trade his tires on his Toyota for some monster sized ones to go rock climbing with on their day date that Saturday.  The tires were old, and Doug warned the boys about their condition, but Ephriam was determined.  It didn't take long for 13 boys to change out four tires, and Ephriam was set. (Although with a trip around our yard he discovered that he couldn't turn without tearing up the mudflaps and side walls of his Toyota.)

Here is Austin, Ephriam, Andy and Kris(topher) changing the back tire.

Jake, Andy, Clint, and Austin working on the front tire.

Ephriam, Dillon, Topher, Austin on the other side.

After they changed the tires they had their prom meeting and a few of the boys left, including Eprhiam to see how his tires did.  About 25 minutes later Austin got a call from Ephriam asking if he could come and rescue him, one of the tires had a slow leak in it, and he had limped it to the corner of 400 S. and 700 W. where he had pulled off to the side of the road when the tire came off the rim.  Austin loaded up his pickup with tools and Ephriams original tires and the rest of the boys still here jumped in to go with him to help. (Most of them really just wanted to give Ephriam a hard time for trying to run too big of  tires.)  Ephriam had stopped about a mile from our house, so it didn't take long for the boys to get to him and begin changing the tires back.  Austin was changing the first tire and the boys gathered around him when they heard a bullet bike (motorcycle) coming towards them.  They knew he was going too fast to make the curve the boys were parked on and the boys that were standing witnessed the bike lose control and slam into the wash next to them.  They said the man on the bike flew about 50 feet off his bike and landed on the other side of the wash on his back, his bike landing further down near the bridge in a crumpled heap.  Some of the boys ran closer, but didn't dare do anything with the man.  Austin got in his truck and grabbed a blanket and a flashlight and ran with Ephriam down to the guy that they recognised as T. J. Martin.  They knew him from school, he had graduated a few years ago.  He wasn't wearing a helmet and there was blood everywhere around him.  Austin felt for a pulse and could feel him breathing, although it was turning into a gurgle from the fluid/blood in this throat.  Austin held the blanket on TJ's head where most of the bleeding was coming from and told me later that TJ had a gash in his head that went from his forehead to the back, and that he could see the skull or possibly his brain.  He (Austin) had Eprhiam pull TJ's jaw forward to open up his airway and hold it until help came.  They kept encouraging TJ to hold on, and Ephriam kept silently praying that he wouldn't have to do mouth to mouth resuscitation because of the amount of blood in TJ's mouth and on his face.  The other boys had called 911 and were explaining the accident to the dispatchers, while watching.   Merlyn Spendlove, and EMT off duty was the first to get to them, he was on his way home from a meeting at station 2 and knew the guys on duty would be a few minutes behind him, so he took over TJ's care.  Ephriam was very upset and had blood on his hands, and Austin stayed with him to calm him down.  The boys had to fill out a lot of police paperwork and Austin called us to tell us that he would be late getting home because he had witnessed and accident, but didn't tell us how involved he was in it.  Someone had called Ephriams sister, Moriah, and told her that Eprhiam had been in an accident, because his truck was parked there, and Moriah hurried over scared that something had happened to her brother, but found him shook-up, but ok. The police figured that TJ had been going about 100 miles an hour when he missed the curve and plummeted into the wash.  (The speed limit is 35mph there).  

Austin came home about an hour and a half after he had left.  I found him sitting in the dark in the living room processing the experience.  He told me generally what had happened, and said how grateful he was to have had first aid in Boy Scouts.  He seemed to be able to move through the experience fairly well, and slept well that night.  In school the next day the counselors called them in to make sure they were all ok, and told them that TJ had been trying to commit suicide and that they had saved his life. TJ had been life flighted to Las Vegas and was in stable condition the next day.   Ephriam has been changed by the experience.  He feels like he was guided by the spirit to limp his truck back to our house to change the tires, and that the tire came off the rim exactly where he needed to be to help TJ without him or any of the other boys getting hurt.  Their testimonies have grown, knowing that they were instruments in saving a life, and that even without knowing it, they followed the promptings of the spirit.  Doug and I are very proud of these boys and especially of Austin and his choice in keeping good friends.  I am grateful that none of them were hurt in the accident.  I know they were well protected, and TJ was watched over, even though he didn't want to be. 

Senior Prom

This is Austins senior year and he and quite a few of his friends got together and decided to go to prom.  Thirteen of his friends in fact, which made the group a large group, 26!  He tried to downsize or split it up but who would you cut out?  No one!  So they all went together and had a really great time.  The boys wanted to plan everything on their own, and I stepped back and listened while they did their planning.  There were ideas of going out into the desert for dinner, or having dinner up on the water tower in Hurricane, but I couldn't help myself and stepped in in defense of the girls and their beautiful dresses.  I asked the boys at their  "Prom meeting" one night if they would mind if us Mom's got involved and there was a unanimous YES!!  (I was so happy because I love to do these things with the other moms!)  I took down the names and numbers of those parents that I did not know and got right to work.  They decided to have it at Grandma Swyers place in one of her yards, and that they would have the meat and potatoes catered by Sanford Saline, so that took alot of the pressure off of us.  We just needed to do the desert and a nice salad, as well as the decorations to set the mood.  Lori Swyers and I borrowed the dinnerware and tablecloths from my neighbor Annette Ferrin, and we pieced it all together.  I think it turned out beautifully!! 

 But before I get ahead of myself,  their "day date" began at 8 in the morning with them gathering at our house and going out to a place south of town called the Fort Pierce Wash, where they hiked up the wash into a canyon where there is a pool of water and sand.  They ate their lunches there and played around.  I'm told that everyone had a good time and laughed together.  There were no bad feelings between anyone that was reported and for a group that size that is great! 

Here they are ready for the hike.  There is Austin Beutler and Holly Holmes, Austin Swyers and Madison Ferrish, Austin Wilcox and Kendyl Baker,  Darringer Scow and Abby Londrie, Stetson Nelson and Charly Billings, Kris Wilson and Kimber Hawkins, Jon Jones and Cassidy Ekins, Andy Ashcroft and Amelia Schaffer, Tanner Jones and Jenna Post,  Clint Gubler and Bailey Hirschi,  Jake Nielson and KC Gubler (not shown because they had other engagements), Ephriam Tate and Guilia Staples, and Dylan Stratton and Holly Tammietti.

Waiting. .. .  and waiting. . . . and. . .

 They got back from the hikes about 2 in the afternoon and the boys chilled in Darringers pool while the girls got ready.  They all met at the Swyers home for pictures at 6 that night.  Clint Gubler did an amazing job with the picture backdrop.  He brought over his dads' covered wagon, and placed some fences, old milk cans and guns around it.  During their pictures the kids held the guns.  With that many couples to photograph it took almost two hours!!  They were all great sports, and I'm sure they will look fabulous!  Here is a few that I grabbed in between running around. 

Here is our handsome guy!  He is on his way to pick up Holly.  I had some trouble with the corsage earlier, the one I had ordered with yellow roses and black tips looked awful, the black paint had ran down the flower and looked bad.  I had another florist make me another one, but it didn't turn out much better in my opinion, so I apologized to Holly all night long.  You win some, and you lose some.  funny!

Here is the covered wagon and fences.  Kirt and Liz Wilson (Kris's mom and dad) are
the photographers.  The set up turned out great!!!

Here are the others waiting patiently for their turn.  Everyone looks so good!!

Darringers date wore a dress that was the Confederate flag, so Darringers Mom made him a vest to
match.  Abbie also went out of her way to make him a boutonniere, which was made from bullets.  He was
the hit of the night for sure!!

This is Ephriam, Giulia (back), Charley and Stetson (Front) at dinner.

Austin and Holly (back), Kris and Kimber (right side), Austin W. and Kendyl (left side). 

Austin S. and Madison (front) and Jon and Cassidy (back).

Darringer and Abby (left side)  Clint and Bailey (Right). 

This is KC and Jake (back), and Tanner and Jenna.  You can also see
the Tiki torches behind them.  It was a very pretty setting.

Dylan and Holli (back) and Andy and Amelia.

This is the view from above.  It turned out really nice.  They ate dutch oven potato's and teriaki chicken.  The moms
made an oriental salad and raspberry cheesecake.  We had Lori Swyers, Liz and Kirt Wilson, Amy Stratton, Debbie Tate, and Alene Jones helping.  We had a really great night!

After dinner the kids left for the dance.  It was a masquerade ball and they had masks, but the boys weren't excited about that so they put a "redneck" flair on things, and everyone drove a pickup truck and wore cowboy hats with the masks.  Way to personalize things! 

"And it came to pass". . .

About eighteen months ago while picking peaches in the back yard I suddenly had a deep pain in my back.  I came in and laid down for a minute and the pain steadily got worse.  Doug happened to be home and it was a Saturday so I had him take me to the Instacare here in Hurricane to find out that I had a kidney stone that was passing.  They gave me a couple of shots of pain killer and some to take for later and I went home and went to bed.  Thankfully my mom came by and told me she had prayed that morning to be able to help someone, so she bottle the peaches I had picked for me.  I can't tell you how much I appreciated her help that day!  I was able to move the stone out of me in just a few days and was pain free for about four months, until the same symptoms came again.  This stone took a few weeks to pass, but I could find relief without drugs this time, but I would still have an occasional back and side ache. 
Finally, about last February the pain had become constant and I was spending a lot of time laying down to ease it (they said that when I laid down on my left side that the stone moved out of the exit hole and that is why I was able to relieve the pain),  and doing a lot of stretches on the floor which also seemed to help the discomfort.  I was drinking a ton a water each day because the more water I had in me the less pain I felt.  When I finally got in with my Doctor, they felt it was a kidney infection and gave me an antibiotic and sent me home.  The medicine didn't help and I continued in pain.  Dr. Worwood sent me for a CAT scan the first of April to see if I had another stone, because he was worried that I might have one that was five or six millimeters, which would be too big to pass.  My CAT scan showed that I had a THIRTEEN MILLIMETER stone and I was referred to a Urologist, Dr. Adams, to have it surgically removed.  Dr. Adams is a great doctor, and we had a good laugh at how big the stone was, he said it wasn't his largest to remove, but definitely close.  He scheduled me to have it blasted for the Monday after Easter. 
I am very sensitive to medications and because of that I had a hard time coming out of the anesthesia in the hospital.  I was very sick and bleeding, even though Dr. Adams didn't cut anything.  He used sound waves, coming from different directions and they crossed paths on the stone.  He described the procedure as a bomb (the stone) going off in my kidney, sending shrapnel (stone particles) into the tissue. Then over the next few days I'm supposed to pass the particles out of my body.  The general anesthesia made me very sick and I ended up throwing up on the way home, the worse case of motion sickness I have ever experienced.
The next day was probably the worse of the whole experience, I had developed a blood clot inside that was keeping things from moving.  It backed up into my kidney, causing it to swell and be incredibly painful, then backing into my stomach.  The only thing they could do was wait for the clot to dissolve and give me morphine shots for the pain. (I'm so grateful for pain medications!!)  I'm so grateful for all the powers that BE and I only suffered for about 24 hours when the clot dissolved and I got rid of the rest of the stone.  Recovery after that was 100% better and faster.  I was able to go to Austins Sterling Scholar regional competition with a friend who drove me over (I didn't think I should drive while on heavy painkillers), and went to church on Sunday.  This may be gross to some, but I have to include a picture of the stone fragments that I kept for Dr. Adams. 

They will test them so I can change my diet to keep from getting anymore kidney stones.  I'm so grateful to not have a knife in my back  anymore, and to be able to have some energy to get some stuff accomplished without having to lay down all the time.  It is amazing how much pain zaps your energy. 
While reading the scriptures the other day we started a chapter in the Book of Mormon with "And it came to pass"  and I started laughing.  The phrase has a whole new meaning to me.  I'm grateful that these things have "come to pass" and I willingly am letting them go. 

Hoppy Easter!

This year Easter came fast it seamed.  We didn't get in the spirit of it like we usually do.  We had General Conference the week before, and didn't have our usual Family Home Evening on the atonement, so when the weekend came to "celebrate" the resurrection, I wasn't in the right mood.   We did, however, enjoy some Easter fun, in the eggsighting kind of way.

Saturday morning we went to Leeds to join in their Easter Egg Hunt.
They always do such a good job.  Dalyon and Cami were in the same group this
year so they had fun looking for eggs together.

Cami got her face painted like a bunny.  It was Dalyons idea
to put the ears above her eyebrows. 

The Easter Bunny came and gave them large chocolate bunny suckers.

Dalyon is eating the ears off his bunny, so that it won't
hear what is going to happen to it.  Funny kid.

Later that day Dalyon went with my sister Vickie and her family and my mom on a hike to Toquerville Falls.  They were going to hike Redcliffs reserves, but the park was full so they went to Toquerville instead.  It was rough terrain but they made it all the way to the falls in the pickup, played in the water then came back to my moms for dinner.  We all joined them that night for an Easter dinner of ham and dutch oven potatoes complements of Grandma.  It was nice to visit with our family again.  The kids had a small Easter egg hunt that night while the adults visited.

Sunday morning the Easter bunny hid the kids' baskets in the back yard as he always does.  This year he was too exhausted to hid eggs I guess because he only hid baskets, but everyone was happy. 

Cody and Cami looking for their baskets. 

Mady is happy, she found her basket, Cody and Cami are still looking.

In our sacrament meeting Sister Joyce Swyers spoke about what the knowledge of the resurrection means to her, and how, after loosing so many of her family members to death, Easter morning gives her new hope and joy knowing she will live with them again.  She lost her husband two months ago after him being bedridden for sixteen years.  She also has lost both her parents, her in-laws, and three of her children.  She quoted from Elder Bednars article in the last Ensign and gave us all renewed hope in the atonement of Jesus Christ.  I really enjoyed listening to my dear friend speak, that renued in me the true Easter spirit. 

Asking Holly to Prom

Austin and his friends enjoy coming up with funny ways to ask girls to their dances.  Senior Prom in April 21 and Austin finally decided to ask Holly Holmes to the dance.  It took him a lot of pondering to decide who he was going to ask because he gets uncomfortable with girls who wear immodest dresses, or that have kissed too many other guys.  He decided to take his friend Holly and was excited to ask her. 

He has had an old fridge sitting in the back yard for a few weeks and wanted to plug it in and fill it with soda for he and his friends.  I told him no because I didn't want to pay for the electricity to fuel such an old fridge, so instead he worked it into asking Holly to Prom. 

Austin and Mady made up this poster and put it inside the
fridge.  The "cool" part refers to the refrigerator. 

They cut out colorful fish and taped them all over the fridge on the outside. 
Mady didn't get a picture of the fridge standing up, but this is right before they took
over to her house.

Austin bought some gold fish crackers and wrote each letter of his
name on separate crackers, then put them in a small fish bowl.

The only problem with the fish crackers was that when Austin bought
them, he bought fish and basketball shapes.  He and his friends had
to pick through the shapes to find enough fish to put in the bowl.  He
mixed the letters of his name though the bowl of fish and put it in the fridge on
her front lawn. 

Austin Swyers and Darringer Scow are sorting
through the basket balls for the fish.

Kris Wilson (AKA Topher) and Ephriam Tait are supervising the
"Fishing".    The boys call themselves a "brotherhood" and
make sure each of them are taken care of.  They have a good time for sure.

Later in the week Austin got a call from his friend Austin Swyers telling him that he needed to go out and hide his truck because he got word that Holly was going to answer him.  When Austin went out to his truck to move it, it had been covered in real fish, frozen ones that were duct taped to the side of his truck.  In the window Holly had taped a note that said, "Out of all the fish in the sea, I'm so glad you choose me!"  then painted YES on all of his windows.  I think she got him back really well, wouldn't you say?  (Luckily the fish were still frozen, sadly, not edible anymore.)