the Hoover Dam!

Dear MJ and the rest of my devoted readers (all two of you)!

The OX has finally been pulled out of the mire. The hole were the septic tank is housed is now all buried and the ground is being settled back into place. As I was about to sigh a HUGE sigh of relief I fell very sick and spent 8 days not far from my bathroom extremely grateful that it was now working properly and I could flush, shower and wash when ever fancy struck me. I spent much time in bed and Jon was very supportive and did not mumble about how the maid, cook and nanny had taken a leave of absence without proper notification. I was even sick in bed all day on my birthday. My children informed me on this day that they could not sort their laundry in the downstairs laundry room because there was a large and very dirty puddle in that room. And sure enough the kitchen “stuff” was not making it all the way out of the house by way of the plumbing system. Our Neighbor Jim Sant, came to the rescue…AGAIN. And got rid of the stinky offending water…AGAIN. I guess that was a very nice birthday present. So I THINK that our Mire is now mostly cleaned up and the OX is back in the Pasture…just waiting… to get back into the mire. My experience is that the Ox will get back into the mire just when it really isn’t convenient.
So I had a Birthday. I turned 16. And I laid in bed or was being very friendly with my commode, not to be confused with comrade. At dinner that day which Jon lovingly purchased from Papa Murphys and put in the Oven all by himself…I said “Now that I am 16 and I can date maybe Jon can take me on a few dates.” to which Jon instantly replied “You know the Prophet said that you should only go on group dates and wait until you are older for exclusive one on one dating. So I guess I can’t take you on a date unless it is a group date.” So I suppose that since we are always with a large group I am ALWAYS on a group date!
Wyatt is very close to being purposely mobile. He is up on all fours often and spins circles like a top. He usually is stuck in back-up mode but I can see that he is going to switch gears here soon before I am ready for it and THEN I an in TROUBLE!.
I took Stiles to the Dentist…$$$$$$$$. Yep there goes his mission fund! And the Dentist told me that if I didn’t have a piggy bank to pay the orthodontist I had better get one started. This is the 3rd Dentist to give me such distressing news. So I guess I will try to believe them.
Erica has a tooth that just keeps on hanging on. Jon tried to pull it out but the only results was a screaming daughter and some blood in her mouth. And since the tooth was not fully extracted the promise of ice cream was not brought to a reality. Erica is ready for school to be out. Mostly she is looking forward to the end of school parties. I am looking forward to not needing to do her hair for her every morning. Because of course I never get it how she wanted it done!
Hunter is trying really hard to talk. He is adding about a word a day. The words he is adding are not full of great diction, syntax, and diphthongs. But I have a better idea as to what Hunter is trying to tell me. I have a meeting with the school district at the beginning of next week to start the paperwork process of getting some intervening help. I got his testing scores back from his evaluation and he was in the 1% for every part of speech that you could be in. I just sat there thinking to myself “well I could have told the evaluators that! Then we didn’t have to waste a whole afternoon. If a Kid does not talk at all…doesn’t that mean that everyone else who does talk, talks better than him?” But as Hunter is trying to make Language work for him I am so grateful that it seems like words are beginning to make sense for him. Before it just seemed like he was not making that connection.
William is being much better about staying off of the road. Jon and I still watch him like a hawk though. Will is picking up a few works and is totally adorable when he says “UH-OH” He says this a lot. Like yesterday when I found that he had taken half a pitcher of RED Kool-aid into his bed room where there is White Carpet that I very Recently cleaned and then spilled every last drop of the Cherry flavored drink…Who even manufactures White carpet??? It should only be sold to the people who have been contracted to build temples. It should not be available to the common village idiot! Mom, How soon can I borrow your rug doctor again?
Marcus is shooting up like a weed. I can hardly believe how tall he has got since spring break. His reading skills are awesome too thanks to the teachers at Tyhee. Reading Scriptures with him is very enjoyable now and we can tell that his confidence is growing daily with his reading skills. He use to get so frustrated if he didn’t know a word that he didn’t even want to try. Now I am impressed with the words that are flowing out of his mouth.
The irrigation water is available for our use. We have MANY MANY MANY broken pipes. Something to do with having a Baby right before hunting season and then of course the afore mentioned season did not result in proper winterization of irrigation lines and the Cold Idaho Weather does VERY mean things to such systems. Not to mention the horses can do lots of damage to the lines as well, and I will not rule out my kids as a contributing factor to the amount of repair that needs to be done. One of the first areas of repair that HAD to be addressed was our Head gate. Last year Fort Hall Irrigation District changed the head gate above us and cause much and many issues with the water. Just when we thought we had figured out the precise amount of water we needed then things would get all flooded and wash out, or dry up and stop the pump. We decided that if our Head gate by our pump was in better condition that we would have less stress and mess. We had in place just a dirt dam with a little culvert built in. SO since Jon has a concrete mixer we decided to fix the gate in a very permanent fashion. It felt like we were trying to reconstruct the Hoover Dam! Jon and I worked Hard all day and into the night on Saturday to get it finished before the water came down the canal. Stiles was a great help and worked his little tail off. Then as we were about finished with pouring the cement the cement mixer lid flipped over on top of Stiles and I. I took most of the force on my back but it caught Stiles right across the top of the head. We were very blessed that he was not seriously injured. Jon had his back to us pouring the cement, from buckets that we had been filling, into the forms. The Motor to the mixer was running and it is QUITE LOUD. I had to scream for Jon to look and see the predicament we were in Stiles was laying on the ground holding his head and I was trying for all I was worth to push the cement mixer lid back up off of me. Since there was very little cement left in the mixer I was able to get the lid off of me and get the mixer back upright. Stiles was not bleeding which I am sure was a miracle and as we were checking him over he said “Can I be done now? I just want to go inside!” We told him that yes of course he could be done and yes he could go inside. WE finished our new cement Gate/dam and now just have to finish putting together the rest of the pipes at the pump that we took apart for our dam building project and then many pipes to be fixed are on the to do list.
The Garden has been roto tilled for the second time and We have started to build a fence around it to deter the Chickens from eating anything we decide to plant. I hope to get many seeds in the ground this week. We shall see what really gets accomplished at a later date.
We are still waiting for a baby horse Jon is getting tired of getting up and checking the barn every two hours in the night. I do not feel too much sympathy for him. It has been rare in the past 9 years that I had the privilege of sleeping all through the night. We are also expecting one of the goats to have her Kids anytime too. We think she might have as many as three Kids. The poor goats and The poor horse look so miserable. And with all of the laying Hens running around the yard it is a wonder that the whole place is not dripping with estrogen! Jon goes out to the barn and the Pasture and asks “HOW are all my girls doing?” He has over 60 of them! All different shapes too!
So how does a Duck drown? We found one of our ducks has drowned in the water trough…Now you may say that that sounds like a very dumb duck, but also in the trough was a great big Chicken that has drown also. Our theory is the duck was going for a paddle and the Chicken was stupid and thought perhaps she could do the same thing. Well chickens DO NOT have webbed feet and they do not float. We think that in self preservation that the Chicken tried to get on top of the duck to save itself and drown the duck then drown itself.
Just a few more serious thoughts. Since the Passing of Tyrell and Rose’s little boy, Levi, I think about how we are all tried and tested in so many different ways I reflected quite a bit about how when I have gone through my trials and have felt the strength of others through their prayers offered in my behalf it is truly a humbling experience. As I sat in the church at Levi’s funeral and saw much of the family assembled there and knew of the eternal bonds within our family and I thought about all of the rest of my family and Jon’s family who were not physically with me in that meeting and of their love and support of me and my family, and I was truly humbled again. Forever Families are real. They are so precious and I am so blessed to be part of such a loving family who has great faith and strength. And I want to thank all of you for your love and support of me and my family and for the prayers you have offered in my behalf. They have blessed my life and fortified my faith in such ways that you can never know and I can never express. I only hope that somehow, in some way I can return the favor. This church is true. It is through trials that we grow and find joy in this journey. I know that it is hard and that there are many things I do not understand, but I know that Jesus is my Savior and that President Monsen is His prophet. I know there is real power in prayer.

I love you all!
Love Monica and the rest of the Dam building Woodin nickel dwellers