ELK

Paige and I decided to go for a bike ride today, and we didn't go very far since I'm so out of shape. There are a ton of areas to ride though in our neighborhood, so we went down this road to a barn, and found this lone elk. She has been alone for quite some time. I see the rest of the herd early in the mornings, but this one is always alone. Paige my dare devil wanted to get really close to her, but I wouldn't let her. We got maybe 100 feet from her, and she didn't move. Strange! I wonder if maybe she once lived on a farm, because she was not afraid of us at all. Perhaps she is sick. As we were walking away, Paige asked if she could put her ear to a ground hog hole to see if she could hear them. She is so funny!

Pokey

Well we had a sad thing happen on Saturday. Our sweet little dog Pokey passed away. We got him when Gavin was 2 from Grandma and Grandpa. He was just a puppy when we got him. He brought a lot of joy into our home. When we got him he really became my dog. He would follow me every where. We used to play a game where every time we would go somewhere, we would come home and I would go and hide. The kids would let him in, and he would frantically look for me, sometimes barking when he couldn't find me. At night he would get the night crazies! It was so funny to watch him tear all over the house and sometimes pick up a sock or small item and run like the wind.

He had some major teeth problems that couldn't be fixed, and so he died from an infection. He will be greatly missed. I miss him not greeting me at the door when I come home from anywhere!

Our other dog Rosie isn't sure whats up, but she isn't acting right either.

We are all very sad.

Garrett

Okay, so Ron takes the day off, and we have all these errands to run. We decide to take Garrett with us on the first end of the day. We went to Spokane in the morning to go to a job fair. Ron wanted to get his resume in to some employers to see about getting a new job that pays higher. Garrett went with us, and he talked to every military personnel that was there! YIKES! They all told him that he needs more leadership training to get into West Point.

We had talked about Garrett going to a tech school for medical next year, but after we talked to a school counsler at the High School he told him that he needs 2 years of foreign language so that xed out the tech school. He will be attending Post Falls High school next year. I have such mixed feelings about school. He can move so much faster at home, but he can't get the leadership training at home.

He is growing up so fast! Makes me sad to see my little boy growing into a man! Right now he is sitting in our living room (at the piano) with a young lady from our ward. Garrett is writing music and words to his music. She will be singing it a a festival for the stake. It is weird that Garrett's friends are girls! GOOD GRIEF! I never thought that he would every get to this point!

Two years from now he will hopefully be going to West Point for a year, and then come home for his mission, and then back to West Point. 2 years! WIERD!

More of Our House

This is a picture looking out of our back door. The deck is pretty shabby looking, and they aren't fixing it up because this house is being torn down in a couple of years to make way for 5 acre lots with million dollar homes on them. We are thinking of putting some square foot gardens up there so the deer can't get to it. Anyway, this house is so secluded from the world! We really love it here. I didn't go to church today because I'm not feeling well, but I'm listening to all the birds singing. Maybe they know that it's Easter :0) See that pond down there?

Here is a better picture of it. It is our small lake! The owners put some fist in it, and they have a pump out in the middle to give the fish oxygen, but we had a pretty hard winter and we have not seen any of the fish so I'm not sure they are still alive. This picture was taken from the back road. We have a road that is right of the pond, so we can ride bikes all over the place. We have 74 acres all to ourselves! When this picture was taken it was a beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky!

Now I will give you a glimpse of the inside of the house. This is just the entry way, and see that good looking kid in the middle? That is Garrett the night he got his Eagle Scout award! Isn't he a good looking kid? I'm not prejudice either.

Well there you have it! We love it here even though the kids don't have anyone except each other to play with. We are getting our bikes up and going and as soon as the weather clears we will be riding a lot! I got my new job as a in home caregiver, and it will give me more time to be with the family.

This is Where We Live

This is our house! The house itself is 4000 square feet! We don't use the whole thing though; it costs enough to heat the little bit that we do use. We have 2 fire places of which are so inefficient, but makes it nice to have a fire in the fire place. On the far right side of the house the people before us inclosed the garage and it is totally carpeted. We couldn't get the heat to work out there, but it was nice to play ball and jump rope in an enclosed area. As you can barely see we still have 2 dogs.

The birds that come into our yard are wonderful! We had a western blue bird sitting on our railing a few days ago. Some Canada geese were on the lawn this morning. See those window on the left? There is a computer room right there and windows on the other side. The birds fly all over and around that room. It is so much fun! I have a feeling that we will have swallow nests all over. We won't be able to go outside without getting dive boomed.

This picture is looking out over our front lawn. We have a ton of grass! The kids are not looking forward to lawn mowing season! This lawn is one of 3 and they are all this size. One lawn for each kid! How convenient!

Well I'm off to work. Check back for some more pictures of the backyard!

SNOW?

Okay, so here we are having a wonderful spring when all of a sudden yesterday it snowed! I'm talking blizzard! We now have an inch or two on our lawn. The birds are probably wondering what in the world happened! Now on Friday it will be 70 degrees, and I'm wondering what is happening.

FIRE!

It was a wonderful weekend! Conference is always a great time to relax and listen. I also was able to get some counted cross stitching done. I started this picture for Paige when she was a baby, and I'm just now getting it finished. Who has time for that!

Saturday, we watched the morning session, and then had some errands to run. We thought that we could get back so we could watch the afternoon session, but we didn't make it. Garrett cashed his check from Subway, and took us all out to eat. It is so nice having one of your kids that is earning money! Then we went over to Walmart to see about getting a couple of bikes so that we can do some biking this summer. When we got back it was time for the boys to get ready for the Priesthood session. Paige wasn't feeling well, so we just watched some T.V. and relaxed! It was nice not having to go to work.

Sunday was more of the same. I made my traditional sweet rolls. They are anticipated for 6 months. We have them every conference Sunday morning. Then we settled in for the first session which was wonderful! The boys and Paige walked down to the river after the session, and shot their bee bee guns, and fed some geese. I sat home still sewing. It was peaceful without anyone here!

Ron had a pork roast in the crock pot for dinner, and it was beginning to smell wonderful! We watched the second session, had a great dinner and then started to watch Planet Earth. Ron went into the office to get on his website for school. It was dark, and the kids were downstairs. I saw some flashing on the wall, but thought that the T.V. was reflecting on the wall, so didn't pay much attention to it. I did think it was odd though. Next thing I knew I smelled pork, and then I saw smoke! I yelled at Ron, and he came running. He had put a pan on the stove to melt some grease down so we could throw it away, and it was burning! The fire had gone out, but the smoke was thick and black! We opened all the windows and then left the room. We have a sliding glass door into the kitchen so we closed that off. When the smoke had cleared we had soot to clean up.

Ron felt bad, but we were so lucky that it wasn't any worse than what it was. Heavenly Father was watching over our house. It could have been so much worse. As it was it ruined my sauce pan and made the cabinets black. It all washed off except for a little burn on the hood over the stove. That will help us to remember to be just a little more careful and focused on what we are doing.