Halloween is about. . . .

It seems like the older the kids get the less I have to do with them for Halloween.  This year was a very different year for me.  Cody asked if he could have a party with his friends so I knew I would be home chaperoning his party and I farmed the rest of the kids out to friends.  This is the first year in about 18 that I did not take the kids trick-or-treating and stayed home to answer the door.  (Usually Doug does that).  All the kids went four different ways, and all had a great time. 

Mady went with her friends to a party in Toquerville.  They all dressed up as the "Dougs'" in Doug's coveralls.  They thought they were SO funny!!!  They giggled and giggled about it.

 This is Mady, Chelsi Cahoon, Mercy Something, and Alyssa Bohne all dressed up as Doug, and Doug and their other brother Doug, and Larry.  (Alyssa's coveralls didn't have a name on them.)

This is Mady, Rachel Nielson and Chelsi ready to go to the party.  No one recognized Rachel until she smiled and then they thought she was her Mom, Britta.  What a great costume!!! 

Dalyon went trick -or-treating with his friend Dallas.  He dressed up in his Karate outfit, but Dallas wasn't ready to go when we got there.  They went all over Dallas' neighborhood begging candy and having fun together. 

Cami went as a farm girl with her friend Jessica Perry.  Jessica lives in a neighborhood call Roberts Ranch and they close the street off and have a big Halloween spook alley/trick-or-treat/party with all the neighbors.  Most of the town drop their kids off at one end of the neighborhood and let them go for the night.  Jessica's Mom took the girls to other neighborhoods that night because they get better candy if they do.  Funny.  They had a really great time. 

We didn't get any pictures of Cody and his friends but had a good time at home with them.  He had Carsen Bjelland, Summer Stratton, Hollie Isom, and a few other friends over for a small party.  I think everyone had a great time, and definitely their sugar fix. 

The gifts of Music

It is that time of year when each of the orchestra's our kids are in have their annual fall concerts.  This year I enjoyed three.

  Dalyon is in the beginning orchestra in the intermediate school and he plays the cello.  It is a lot harder to play than he thought but I think he is getting the hand of it.  His concert was on Thursday October 25.

Dalyon was very nervous for his first concert but I think enjoyed it anyway.  He seems timid right now with his playing and I hope he gains confidence and keeps practicing.  I know he will enjoy it as he gets better.

Cody is in the Middle School and he and Mady have the same teacher for their orchestra's,  Mrs. Thorton teaches both the Middle and High School orchestras so they have the same concert night.  My mom and dad came and we ended up sitting on the wrong side of the auditorium so I had to strain for a picture of him.  It was a Halloween concert so all of the kids dressed up, and Cody went as a cowboy (how did you guess that?).   He is a strong player and Mrs. Thorton always complements him on his playing. 

Mady also played that night in the High School orchestra and symphony.  She really enjoys playing also, however I couldn't get a picture of her in her costume because she was on the other side of the stage.  I guess I'm not very good at guessing where the kids are going to sit ha ha, but I will do better from now on. 

Cami also performed for the fall festival on the 27th of October at the first annual Halloween festival held in St. George at the town square.  It was a fun festival with magicians and lots of costumes, food, and games.  The performers before her group were belly dancers and she was funny because she couldn't watch, saying they were too immodest.  She did a great job dancing and smiling and having fun.

We are proud of all our kids and I'm especially grateful that they are interested in music and performing, even if it on a small scale. 

Taking a Little Time Out

Every couple of years a few friends and I get together and take a little Time Out.  Deseret Book Company puts on a production called Time Out For Women where they have several authors speak and LDS musical artists perform in uplifting and spiritually edifying ways.  In the past we have gone to Las Vegas when the tour was there, but this year we decided to try Richfield, Utah for a quieter, less traffic place to enjoy ourselves.  The idea turned out to be fabulous, and very very fun! 

We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Richfield and there were three to a room.  I went with Bobette Green, Maria Hall, Shelly Beutler, Joyce Swyers, and my Mom.  Bobette drove because she knows Richfield, her in laws live there and she visits often.  We traveled together on Friday afternoon, getting there early enough to check into our hotel and grab a bite to eat at the Wingers next door.

It seems the ride wasn't as stimulating as we had hoped.  Shelly got the coveted seat in the back, and the others were out, until I mentioned putting something up Maria's nose and she magically came awake. 

 Dinner at Wingers.  I love the "self portraits" (when you take the picture of yourself with your own camera).  They seem to always give you a double chin. 

Cute picture of Maria and Joyce trying to hide behind their menus.  Being silly is a part of the fun!

 Our seats were up in the balcony and it was great seats for us!  With the big screens we could see the speakers and performer up close and still enjoy everything. 

It is amazing how, in a room as large as this, with this many people there and all the disruptions that the spirit can be so strong and witness to you of truth. 

Jenny Oaks Baker, an exceptional violinist performed for us on Friday night.  Shelly and I got our pictures takes with her and Shelly got a CD autographed for her daughter Sadie, who is also an exceptional violinist.  Her music is beautiful. We also heard from Sheri Dew and  Virginia Hinkley Pierce.

Sleep was very late in coming for us that night.  When you let a group of women get away together without any kids of husbands, we tend to let our hair down and get silly, which is what happened that night.  Someone brought ice cream, bowls and spoons and dropped them off at Maria's room and told her to take some and pass it to the next room, so we did!  We also had treats we had picked up at Wal-Mart that night and we talked and laughed until well after midnight.  Such fun memories!!
 

 On our way into the convention Saturday morning they handed out their famous bags.  Every year they give those who attend on Saturday a fabulous bag, and this year was no exception.  Don't we all look happy and like we are having a good time? 

We had a great day with lots of great information and perspective changes.  We listened to the music of Mercy River and heard presentations from authors like DeAnn Flynn, Michael Wilcox, Wendy Ulrich, and Emily Freeman.  After the convention we took another photo opportunity on a rock outside of the convention center.  The weather was a perfect fall day, and the leaves were changing, adding to the beauty of the weekend. 

Not in any hurry to get home, we took a few moments to look around Richfield and eat at the famous Pufferbellys Mexican restaurant.  Our cute little waiter got in the picture with us, and a bunch of others before that .  Funny guy.  We had a really nice time together and I love to look over my notes and remember what I learned, hopefully to apply the ideas into my life.  I look forward to going again in a couple of years!! 

Introducing Indy Beutler

After all the luck we have had with our animals lately I was hesitant to consider getting another animal.  However, Cody found a Britney Springer Spaniel on the Internet that was in LaVerkin and we all fell in love with him.  He is five years old and is a pure bred, and well trained.  He had been with the same family in LaVerkin since he was born but they can't have pets in the place that they are moving to so they had to put him up for sale.  They were so sad, and I could tell he was too, but we were so glad to get him and I hope we can love him enough to replace his old family.  We picked him up on Sunday, October 7th after General Conference.  The kids had scrubbed out Gracies kennal and washed the blankets and tightened the fencing to get it ready for its new occupant,

.

 The first thing we did when we got him was give him and bath and found out he loves the water.  He jumped right in the tub and sat there!  He also has been trained to come, and sit, and lay down, and roll over, and the kids are teaching him to play dead.  He also shakes hands with both paws.   He is a purebred bird dog and the other day he brought me a chicken.  He had disappeared and suddenly I could hear a chicken squawking and found it in his mouth.  He was so proud of his catch and only played with it, not wanting to kill it.  (I'm told it is in their instinct not to kill the birds).  The poor thing was traumatized, but Indy was so proud!!  I didn't know whose chicken it was and I knew ours were locked up, and I didn't dare go around to my neighbors and tell them my dog captured one of their chickens, so we put it in the coup.  He was very excited to have gotten a bird!  It was so funny!!

We are so glad to have him apart of our family!  Even Doug likes him and that says something!  Welcome to our home Indy!!

Spud Harvest

While we were having such a "great time" at home, Doug and Austin were in Dayton working potato harvest on the Beutler Farms.  The Farms are owned by Dougs' cousin Wesley Beutler, and is run by he and his son Andrew.  Austin has been working for them since June, and Doug went up for the spud harvest at the first of October.  He was gone for 3 weeks and sent me some pictures so that I could share them.  He loved working with his Dad and Austin.  Grandma fed them well and made them lunches everyday!  We really appreciate all they did for the boys while they worked!  And we appreciate the opportunity to work!   Here are some pictures from Doug. 

The trucks and the potato digger getting ready to get digging.

The view from Doug's truck as he gets loaded. 
The digger brings 12 rows together and loads them at the same time so
it only takes about the length of a football field to load the trucks to capacity.

The view as Austin loads his truck.

The rear view of Austin loading.

Austin in on his way to the scale and the pit where he will unload
 the potatoes into the cellars.

Austin unloading his truck onto a conveyor belt.

As usual with farming, there are a lot of breakdowns.  This in their mechanic
Virgil Archibald and Uncle Mike fixing the crossover.  (The crossover digs four rows at
a time and crosses the potatoes over then dumps them in between the next two rows so the
digger can pick them up easier)

When they were down for repairs Doug and Austin would haul hay or do the field
work.  This is Austin loading a hay truck for delivery.  They really enjoyed working together,
and worked well together.

This is Doug running the track tractor and pulling the disk ripper. The
new tractors are GPS driven so they basically drive themselves.  He just had
to turn it around when the computer beeped at him at the end of the row.  I called him
once during the process and he said he was dozing.  The disk/ripper is a combination of a disk and
a ripper that turns the ground after harvest.  He is driving a tractor that is on tracks instead of tires.

What a great opportunity it was for Doug and Austin to work together with Grandpa Beutler doing something they all love.  This is a great picture of three generations of truckers doing what they love, and driving the trucks that they love.  Grandpa and Austin are driving Peterbuilts, and Doug is driving a Kenworth.  Grandpa took time off his regular job at Oakdale Eggs to drive for spud harvest.  They worked long hours, sometimes until one in the morning to get the potatoes in before the frost.  We all learned a lot about potatoes, the types and their sensitivities.  Doug really enjoyed working with his family again and being back on the farm.  Working with his Dad and his son really added to the experience.  We are grateful for the experience, and for the work/money that it brought to us. 

Therapy

 

It has been a hard couple of weeks, I'm not going to lie.  With Doug in gone and all that has happened I felt the need to get out of the house, and out of the area for a day, so on the Saturday of General Conference I loaded up the kids and we took a day long drive to see the leaves through Cedar Canyon on SR 14.  It felt good to heal our hearts and spend some time together as just us, with no friends.  We were all tired, sad, discouraged, stressed, and whatever else you can think of. 

We started about 9 am from Hurricane and made an always needed stop in Cedar City at the IFA there.  It is one of our favorite stores, and were able to get a few things on clearance that we had looked at during the summer.  Shopping is very therapeutic and paying $3 for something normally $20 is even more therapeutic.  We also grabbed some treats for our trip and headed back onto the road.  SR 14 has been closed for about a year due to a mountain slide and recently reopened to through traffic.  The "fall flowers" through the canyon were about a week away from their peak but we were still amazed at all the beautiful colors.  This is my favorite time of year, it includes the cooler weather, the color changes, wearing sweat shirts, jeans and boots again, and the feeling of peace I feel when I take it all in. 

Mady drove from Hurricane to Cedar City.  She is getting better, but I still am nervous.
She did great on the freeway though.

Cody is feeding Mady crackers and cheese.  We discovered Laughing Cow cheese
that is less fat and calories, and they like it!!  How nice of Cody!!

After our stop at IFA, we headed into the canyon.  It was so beautiful!!  We took our time
and enjoyed all the colors.  The trees were in various stages of peaking, with a lot of
yellow and a little red. 

Mady is in charge of the camera. 

A picture of the leaves through my sunglasses.  My glasses made
the colors pop out!

Another very pretty setting.  Mady and Cody took the pictures while I drove. 


 

Having fun with the camera sure made some nice pictures!  

 

Mady picked a flower and it was very pretty, but didn't last long without water.

We had a passer-by snap a picture of us at the peak of the drive.  Cami was
grumpy and wouldn't get out of the car.  It was so nice to get away!!

We stopped at Mount Carmel Junction and had lunch at the Thunderbird restaurant before heading home through Kanab.  The kids were getting a bit rambunctious by then and were a little loud in the restaurant, but it was good to laugh and joke around together.  We listened to General Conference the whole day, and when we got home Cody went with my dad to the Priesthood session.  Sunday morning we gathered at Grandma and Grandpa Winn's for the morning session of conference and had lunch with them.  The kids didn't even complain when they had to watch the entire session that morning.  Little did they realize that they listened to every session of conference.  It ended up being a nice weekend and a very good release for us. 
 

Goodbye to Gracie

 

Gracie last year as a puppy.

 

We are not having great luck with our animals and I want to scream "ARE YOU KIDDING ME???".  We have been grieving over losing our neighbors horse Mack, who had to be put down because it hurt its leg and the infection got into the tendon and became untreatable.  My kids cried over him for days and Cody was very sad because he was learning to ride on Mack.  The horse was 24 and it wasn't ours, but we all grew to love the old man and was so sorry to see him have to die the way he did.    Then the experience just a few weeks ago with our cat Maverik, which we are still sad about, and now I'm so sorry to report that we have lost our dog Gracie.  Friday morning after taking the kids to school I let her out to run and play and use the bathroom.  I wait to let her out until after the kids go to school because she likes to chase the kids and run after the bus.  I was sitting on the back deck watching her so she didn't run out of the yard and was reading a book.  She could be sneaky so I had to keep an eye on her.  I could see her in the back of our lot by our chickens so I laid my head back and closed my eyes as I soaked in the morning sun.  Every time I checked I could see her so I wasn't worried.  But then I looked up and she was gone. I hadn't heard her come past me to get out the front, so I called for her, and she didn't come.  I walk back to the chickens and she wasn't there.  I walked around the yard and into the front yard and couldn't find her.  I ended up driving around the neighborhood then walking through fields and backyards looking for her and I couldn't find her.  While I was walking I passed the animal control officer who had her lights on.  My thought was "I hope she didn't pick Gracie up, she didn't have her tag on."  I take her tag off when I put her bark collar on because it makes the bark collar shock her without her barking and it confuses her.  I searched for about an hour but needed to get to St. George and back before the kids got out of school at 1:15 so I came home and decided to call the pound and let them know that she is missing.  When I called with Gracie's description the lady got really quiet and asked me to describe her and her collar.  I did, and she told me that she had just picked up a black lab that had been hit and killed by a car just down from my house.  I couldn't believe it!  She had only been gone for just a few minutes, but she can run really fast so in a way it didn't surprise me. She had obviously gone down to the Stirlands to "herd" their cattle around, something she loves to do, and probably heard me calling her and started to run as fast as she could to get home, and got hit. I was so sad!!  I wondered how I was going to break this to my kids. . .again!!  I had to identify her, so instead of going to St. George, I went out to the pound.  Her bark collar had been broken with the impact but her body was intact except for the blood coming out her mouth.  I knew Cody would be devastated, so I gathered all of my courage and tears and brought her body home.  The animal officer was very nice and wrapped her up in a blanket so I didn't have to handle her.  She felt like I was holding a small child in my arms as I lifted her from the car and put her in a cool place until Cody came home.  More tears, sobbing and sadness for me as I anticipated telling the kids.  I knew Cody would be angry, and I was right.  I waited until he got home from school to tell him and he started yelling and throwing things.  I was grateful that I had brought her body home because as I watched him dig her grave I could see the therapy he was feeling as he swung the pick ax and shovel. I wish that I would have had the courage to bring home Maveriks' body so and given Cody and the kids that closure.  Cody dug a deep grave then went and got Gracies body.  We were all sobbing as he carefully laid her in her final resting place, not taking the blanket off.  Slowly he covered her with earth and we all hugged.  Cami and Dalyon weren't home yet so I had to tell them later, which meant more tears with each one.  I wish I could understand what we are to learn from losing all of our animals so close to each other.  Although they are just animals, they are members of our family and a great source of comfort for all of us.  Their unconditional love heals us in our trials and comforts us in our sorrows.  I'm so sorry to lose another friend. 

Gracie last summer at Mt. Timpanogas.  She had gotten so big and was learning to obey,  to come, sit, stay, etc.  We will really miss her.  Gracie died  October 5, 2012