The text I sent Craig this morning.

So . . .

I caught my first mouse. 

🐁 

I headed out to get the garbage can from the curb. I was careful. 

I stepped on the sidewalk, or so I thought. It was a sheet of ice. I tried my hardest to recover, but I went down. 

Not really hard, but in a spectacular fashion. A sweet gentleman in a cowboy hat with gray hair was driving by and he pulled over to see if I was okay. 

By the time he got out of the truck I was on my feet talking my self out of running away in embarrassment. 

How was your morning?

I picked up these bad boy mouse traps yesterday. First day and we caught one. 

Josh came home for Christmas

The dog went nuts. She was so excited. She wouldn’t stay away from him. She wore herself out and ended up just needing to touch him. 

We stayed up and talked til after 1 in the morning. Since it was already Christmas, I had him open his wrapped gifts. 

I found these and had to get them. 

I think they are funny. He says he loves them. 

He asked me to do his hair for church the next day. 

I was super excited. 

The dog still won’t leave him alone. 

Next to our little tree. It’s still cute though. 

Profile picture. 

All the curls in back. 

Man. I think he is so handsome. He can still charm me with just one smile. 

The best part about Christmas. 

Vision Clinic Christmas Party

The Jones’s took us to a Lindsey Sterling concert for Christmas. 

!!!!!

I was so excited. We traveled to Idaho Falls and went shopping before. There were four of us in my car. Wendy, Bren, and Terry. I drove. 

These ladies are my work buddies. We giggle and have fun together. 

After shopping, I found three pairs of shoes to wear in the jungle, we met for dinner. 

We had yummy Mexican food. We were a pretty big group. 

Then we stopped quick at the hotel and made it to the venue. A stadium where they play hockey. We were sitting on the side. 

I have not been to many concerts before. But Lindsey puts on a great show. She is very active on the stage. Her and her violin dance and move all over. Her dancers were great. Her personality shone through. She was funny, clever, and extremely talented. We had so much fun. 

Not all of us. Terry is hiding in there somewhere. 

The Joneses ended up a little bit away from us. 

A fun Saturday. We woke up and headed home for Sunday at home. I made it to church. 

Christmas Party for Craig

Craig’s work party was at the bowling alley, same as last year. People gathered to bowl and have fun together. 

He works at a shop. The majority of the employees are men. Men at a bowling alley means intense competition. Craig played to warm up. He hadn’t played since the previous year. It showed. He has never bowled so poorly. His knee hurts a lot and he was adjusting his throw. 

Not even one full game in the competition started. Everybody that wanted to put in $10.00. The boss, Jim Bob, matched the pot. People were way into it and the pot ended up to be over $600.00. Some people put in more than 10.00. 

I am not a good bowler. If fact I was worse than normal, so I didn’t put in. 

Jim Bob had started the trash talking that morning. He said he might not win like last year but he wouldn’t loose to a Russet. (Craig went to Shelley High School and their mascot was a russet potato-honestly the worse mascot ever.)

So Craig dug out his old lettermen jacket and played up the challenge. Jim Bob noticed that Craig was in the lead. He stopped the game and took a microphone and challenged Craig again. Trying to get in Craig’s head. They’ve golfed for over a year together and he has seen Craig choke. Craig laughed, rubbed the big red S on his jacket and continued playing. I thought it was a dirty trick. But it energized Craig - not what Jim

Bob wanted. 

Craig ended up winning. Just over $600.00. That covered our yellow fever cost. 

Some were trying to go double or nothing. I said no and we went home feeling incredibly blessed. 

Craig wearing his jacket standing by Jim Bob and the lady that won the last frame. 

Weather

Craig and I are in Idaho. It is cold here. I took a picture of snow a while back. 

It is beautiful is a freezing kind of way. 

Near the same time in my gallery, Boaz sent this picture. 

This is beautiful in a summer kind of way. 

So not only is Boaz in a different day he is also in a different country, a different hemisphere, and he is in a different season. 

Last stabbing

This past week we had our last shots. 

I had four. 

Second MMR, second Hepatitis (I’ll have the third one after the mission), yellow fever, and the flu. 

Craig had three shots. His second hep, the yellow fever and the flu. 

The yellow fever shot is super expensive. $215 ish each. Not covered by insurance. We were a bit surprised, but what do you do? It was required.

Today Craig was feeling a bit tired. He thinks it’s a reaction from the shots. Hopefully he’ll feel better tomorrow. 

Temple trip

Craig and I have tried to make the trip to the temple at least once a month. 

I think it was our last trip we headed to attend with one of his high school friend and his family. 

We saw three moose on the way. 

These two fine fellows and another one a little down the road. (Now that I think about it, this picture was last month. Too bad, I’m keeping it in this post.)

I have been worried about our health. We are doing good, but if anything happens we will have to reevaluate our plans. 

I considered what answers I wanted from our temple trip. Our health was a concern. When I was remembering the promise from the Word of Wisdom, I felt the heavy comfort of Heaven. We would have health through our mission. My throat thickened and tears pricked. 

I was grateful for an answer. 

Modern day miracle

This right here is a miracle. September 20, 2022

Boaz is in the Philippines, Thea is in Hawaii, Josh is in Utah and we are in Idaho. When I was on my mission, I would have died for something like this. September 27, 2022

Josh told me I needed to let everyone know when I wanted to take a picture so we could all smile. October 4, 2022

Some pictures are better than others. October 12, 2022

Our weekly talks have been a blessing. October 23, 2022

We have gotten closer and more involved as a family.  October 30, 2022

We look forward to Sunday nights ( Monday mornings for Boaz) each week. November 6, 2022

He calls us from tomorrow. He’s 14 hours ahead of mountain time. November 13, 2022

The first time Alex made an appearance. November 20, 2022

He hangs out in the background. Even if he isn’t in the frame. November 27, 2022

We are so grateful. December 4, 2022

Thea didn’t make it until after Josh had to leave. December 11, 2022 

A true friend

Terry and I met at work. She has worked for over 30 years at the Vision Clinic. When I first met her she was so quiet. She had taken five years off to care for her husband.  He passed from cancer just over a year ago. She needed to get out of the house and to reconnect with life so she came back to work. 

Now I can’t even remember her being quiet. Well obviously I can, but she isn’t quiet around me anymore. Which I am so grateful for. We giggle our way through the work day when she is working. She works two days a week. She knows so much. I’m glad I’ve had the time to get to know her and work with her. 

She just had cataract surgery. Which means that her prescription was no longer good. Trying to see with the old glasses was driving her crazy. She also has prism, so her eyes were trying to make her sick. She was trying out different options to block one eye. 

We laughed all day over her troubles. She is wonderful that way. Looking to find the joy in life. Her sense of humor meets with mine. 

I will miss her. I’m so blessed to have her as a friend. 

Oh my goodness. It happened.

Ever since Josh left for his mission more than four years ago, Craig has been talking about us serving a mission. 

Honestly I had no idea how we would make it. 

He planned out what would need to happen financially. 

A month after Josh left on his mission, Craig lost his job in Cortez Colorado. He found another job, but not at the same level. Hospital administrator jobs are not really plentiful. 

We stayed through the end of the year and let Boaz finish out his freshman year. We had just closed on our beautiful house in Mancos. 

I had a job that I really loved at Fort Lewis College in Durango. 

We made it work, but we tightened our belts. 

Craig found a job before the end of the school year in Salmon Idaho. It was closer to Idaho Falls and his mom. She was getting older and we wanted to be closer. We ended up being there on weekends for the last six months of her life. We are grateful for that time we had to be with her. 

We weren’t able to sell our lovely house. We carried it for two years thinking we would be able to sell eventuality and get out the equity. For part of that time we had a young couple stay in it and they paid about half of the mortgage. 

When we finally ended up selling, we made nothing on it. In fact we ended up having to pay a bit to the bank to get rid of it. 

That part of our financial plan obviously didn’t work. We were a bit angry. Houses were selling in three hours in other parts of the country. And our house languished for years. 

We began again. 

A year ago Craig lost his job again. This time Boaz had one year left of high school and he was part of a group of the best friends he had ever had. 

It seems that small town politics are more important than having a healthy business plan. 

He found a job in Boise. But the family stayed in Salmon. We decided to keep Boaz here to finish out his senior year. Boise had large town politics. And Craig was missing out on Josh and Boaz’s last time together. We decided to have him come back. But again, hospital administrator jobs were non existent. So he took a job at half the pay. 

It was absolutely the right decision, but hard to take on a pride level. A much better work environment. Craig made an eternal friend and nourished existing friendships. 

With all that we thought we could make it and then Craig lost his memory for a day. He spent the night in the hospital. After insurance we owed $6,000.00. There was no way we could see past this latest blow. We gave up on our plan. 

With the financial setbacks we faced, we couldn’t see a way forward with our desire and plan to serve a mission.

Then Craig was called to teach the missionary prep class for Boaz and his friends. It was hard to ignore the teaching of have faith and things will work out. 

He decided to look into it once more and found a way. That way involved miracles and a knowledge that Christ was in charge. He always saw a way forward. 

We turned in our papers. A lot of things to get ready. A very specific time line to hit. We wanted to leave after Boaz and get back before him. 

Craig posted this when we got our call. 

We had been interested in Peru ever since Josh was called there. Craig had listed Iquitos at first and Josh told him to take it off the list. It is in the Amazon Jungle. 

When Josh was in the MTC in Lima, a missionary asked if they needed to worry about safety. The teacher said, “No, not in Peru. Wait, are any of you going to Iquitos? No? Then you have nothing to worry about.”

Josh was a bit freaked out when we opened our call. But we feel confident that is the place we are called to go. 

There are pink river dolphins, sloths, monkeys, and jungle birds and butterflies. As well as huge spiders, piranhas and anacondas. And mosquitoes. Lots of them. 

We will be fine. 

Bug spray and permethrin will be our friends, even though they are toxic themselves. We must learn to use them safely. 

We listed we wanted to be the office couple. We had that call for maybe two weeks. Now we are MLS missionaries. Before we would be in Iquitos. We would have a nice apartment and have access to what Iquitos had to offer. As a city of 600,000 people, that would be a lot. We knew what to imagine our mission would be like. Now we have no idea where we will be or what we will be doing. Craig now is required to learn Spanish. (He is studying every day.)

One of his favorite quotes is: “the true church is not only to comfort the afflicted, but to afflict the comfortable.” Harold B Lee. 

So we have compiled papers for our visa applications. Peru is now one of the hardest countries to get a visa. We are also getting our shots. I wasn’t vaccinated  as a child, so I have to get every shot listed. 

This past Monday I got stabbed three times. Next month I have to get stabbed three times again. We are taking the oral typhoid vaccine for the next week. 

Those were the first two critical things on my list. I will look at the list again later. 

I am still working and next week our office will be moving. One vital thing at a time. 

Elk in the river

On Tuesdays part of our office goes to Challis for the day. I don’t really enjoy it. It is always crazy. Sometimes crazy busy and we don’t have time to think. Sometimes crazy not busy and all the stuff I need to do is back home in Salmon. 

The road to Challis follows the Salmon River. I like to watch for eagles which we frequently see. They perch in various trees that line the banks. 

On October 11th we saw a group of elk standing in the water. 

They are rather fabulous. 

Friday Night lights

Craig was Jim Bob’s substitute on the radio for the high school football game. We had to leave work early and head to Firth. (Back to our old stomping grounds.)

Craig did a good job calling the game. I did a good job staying off the air. I had no desire to be on the radio. 

Our poor team finally got one touchdown in the last minutes of the quarter. Firth scoured nine, I think. So that was about 63 to 7. Sad score. 

But we had fun. I was looking for any orange I might have in my wardrobe. Slim pickings. Not my favorite color. 

An experience for sure. Not really ever on my bucket list. But. He led off all the same. 

General Conference weekend

I have been making cinnamon rolls every conference weekend since the boys were babies. I wanted them to look forward to that weekend. 

Cinnamon rolls were especially for conference. All three of my boys look forward to the tradition. 

This year all of my boys were in different states/countries. 

So no cinnamon rolls. 

But Emma came over for the Saturday sessions. We made pudding. I was super excited, but realized I was out of corn starch. 

After a trip to the store where no corn starch was to be had, I decided to use arrow root powder. I looked at the conversion table. Before I put the butter and vanilla in it was thick. A bit goopy. I was worried. After the butter and vanilla the thickening was gone. 

So I had vanilla soup. 

Super bummed. 

But Emma and I had a fabulous time watching conference. 

Selfie in the kitchen. 

Avisha snuggling with Emma. They both are missing Boaz. 

Craig and Thea

I got home after Craig left for his trip. He headed to Las Vegas to meet Thea. She and Alex came to the mainland for an Oakland Raider’s game. 

It was much needed time for father and daughter. 

Happy smiles at being together again. 

She had a plan all worked out on where to go and what to see. Craig loved it, but his legs were a bit tired. 

Silly picture at the Titanic museum. He was there over Conference weekend. 

Work trip in Sun Valley

I went on an overnighter for work with most of the girls. We met early and drove the four is hours to the resort of Sun Valley. 

I wanted to make sure we weren’t rushing to get there, or perhaps risk getting stuck behind traffic on the windy mountain roads. 

We had a bit of time to look around before check in. 

I was tired of wearing black for work. The pink isn’t really my color, but it was comfortable and not black. 

Wendy H, me, December, Katrina, Lorrena, and Bren. 

Josie joined us in this picture. 

We lived in this room for two days. Hours and hours. We were too tired to go see what was out there. We stayed one night, had meetings until 4:00 and got back on the road racing the sun. We didn’t want to meet the deer and elk on the road at dusk and after dark. 

We just missed Terry. 

The doctor had his own meetings. We saw him and his wife for dinner and a few times times in between sessions. 

I learned a lot. But I knew I was going to be quitting soon, so I didn’t panic at the information overload. Also I was pleased to see that I knew quite a bit.