Winter Kill

Today I did something that I hardly ever do. I carried water. I started singing an old song that my Dad used to sing to us, it goes like this: “Kristi Rogers ain’t no good Can’t carry water and Won’t carry wood.” This seems like it’s a mean song to sing to someone but if you knew my Dad it was always with a teasing smile, probably while he was carrying the water and the wood for you. It was bitterly cold today and it has been for this whole year. It’s January 15, 2013. Cold enough to keep me inside! We haven’t had much snow at all this fall and winter and I started worrying about our trees. Trees are expensive and I don’t want to loose any of them. We have a beautiful back yard and our trees make it lovely. We have some Pine and Aspen trees. All of which we purchased. I waited until after 1 o’clock because Mike had carried the hose that we had stored in the lean to over to the grass to hopefully unthaw so I could use it. I hooked the hose up and it was more like 2 o’clock, but it wouldn’t work. That’s why I had to carry water. The tree that means the most to us is a little blue spruce tree that we got as a seedling years ago for FREE! We dug it up in Uncle Arlo Hunt’s yard in town. Uncle Arlo’s yard has really old trees, an apricot tree that is over 100 years old. Mike remembers when some of the Pine trees in Uncle Arlo’s yard were small enough that he could jump over them. We took this little blue spruce seedling and planted it in a place that we thought would be beautiful. (I’m sure that every one of our boys jumped over that little Pine tree so that one day they could say to their kids, “I remember when I could jump over that big Pine Tree”) Then we added on to our house and decided to park our car right next to that Blue Spruce. I began to be worried that the bigger the tree grew the more that our parking there would be a problem. When we built the 4ft. retaining wall in the back yard and purchased all the other trees that we love, we decided we would move that little blue spruce. At the time it was probably 3-4 ft. tall. We worried it would kill the tree to move it but we knew it couldn’t stay in that spot. I remember Jim Langston came one day with his backhoe and Mike asked him to dig that tree very carefully and put it in the center of the trees on the back wall. Since we moved that tree it has probably grown another 3 feet. It is so pretty! I thought to myself today while I was hauling water. “It would trouble me to lose that tree,” and I thought of Jacob 5, now this is no allegory of the Olive Tree, but it made me think of how carefully and how painstakingly our Heavenly Father has taken care of us. To prune us dig about us and dung us. Way more than Mike and I have done for our little growing “Trees” and we know how much we love them. We want the best for our little “Trees.” My next thought was this… Have I prayed for the water that my little Trees need? I heard a prayer given on Sunday this last. The petitioner asked for Snow or Rain, all that our land needs. It was a hard and cold job today to haul water…. It was all I could do, I was worn out. Maybe I should start by saying a simple prayer. Let’s Pray for Rain!

Our after Christmas Odd Life Party

The kids couldn't all come for Christmas so they came on January 2-5. It was fun! We had an "Odd Life Party" this party comes to us in the Tradition of other Movie themed parties such as "Kung Fu Panda Party" and "Mr. Poppers Penguins Party" The Movie we watched was the Odd Life of Timothy Green. It was a cute movie where the Parents couldn't have children. I got to share with the kids my journal entries of their births and how special each one of them is to our family... I probably didn't finish my thoughts because I was taking too long and the kids were getting restless and wanted to watch the movie. What I really wanted to take the time for is to tell each member of our family that has joined us through marriage and grandchildren that we are so thrilled to have each one of you! You are all so special to us. We are excited to be expecting two more grandchildren this summer. Valerie and Shar are both pregnant. That will be 13! My how fast time goes and how quickly we grow! We ate dinner and the kids requested noodle gravy and Turkey. I'm embarrassed to admit this but that was the Oddest Turkey dinner I have ever had. The turkey was done but just barely. The noodles turned to mush. I haven't had very good luck making noodles lately... Sorry everyone. But Jay's Frog eye salad was good and Chauncy and Shar's veggie tray was yummy and Val's dessert (heath bar cake) was divine but the 'Turkey was odd'. I guess that was fitting! We played "Sleigh Wreck" and "Red light-Green light" and "Mother May I". It's so fun to watch the kids and how they react. Laughing at Morgan when she wouldn't touch the finish line! Oh, and we played charades and Dallin makes a really good squash/mushroom. This is not a complete entry of all that went on but pretty close. We were sad that Trevor and Kim and little Liv weren't feeling well some of the time but they stayed home when it was bad so they wouldn't spread it to everyone. I think Chauncy and Shar had some sickness on the way back home and by Sunday I was starting to feel a little sick. But we did have fun, I love how the boys play so well together. Seth and McKay and Preston and Dallin. Eden wants to boss everyone... Morgan or Liv didn't appreciate that. But all in all we had a lovely 3 days together.