This is for you Jackie..... July 20, 2011

I had decided to give up on my blogging. It's a lot of work and few people read it. Plus, sometimes I just want to disappear. Hard to do when you have a blog. So Jackie, you made me feel guilty, so I am going to try to catch up some. I did make some notes so I'll start back a bit and catch up. I also discuss a dinner one of my counselors prepared, so I'll put the recipes in the side bar.... tomorrow. Visit her website for more great recipes:
http://idahofergusonfamily.blogspot.com/

Date- July 20, 2011
July 20, 2011

Yesterday was the husband’s 49th birthday. Ooops! Did I just say how old he is! :D We had a surprise birthday breakfast for him and all the kids and grandkids came over to eat breakfast with him. Afterwards we all had a big plastic ball fight in the living room. Those things were flying everywhere and kids were squealing and it was good chaos. After that my visiting teachers came and visited. Then I had to get ready for my primary dinner/lesson. We had the dinner at one of my counselor’s house. Beautiful home and nice outdoor area to have a get-together. My other counselor is a superb cook and made a dish that made us feel like we were at Bajio’s. It was seriously that good. Everything was just so good and our well-deserving teachers enjoyed all of it. Our workshop portion went well too. However, as I was wrapping it up I noticed this big black cloud on the horizon. We heard it was a fire and the husband wanted to go look at it because it was close. After we helped with clean-up we drove down the road to see it, but they had the roads blocked off. We could see the helicopter dumping fire retardant. It was obvious the fire stretched for miles and was near houses. We went home and heard about it on the news. It ended up burning 2000 acres—mostly BLM. Some sheds and equipment were burned, but no houses.

Today I went horseback riding with my friend Patty. It’s been 30 years since I’ve been riding. I grew up riding, so that’s pretty sad really. It’s like riding a bike though—it comes right back to you as soon as you get in the saddle. My butt is sore though. I have a flat butt, so every time Patches decided to trot, it was pretty much a beating. We rode for over 2 hours and I loved it. We visited as we rode and I loved that too. It was an enjoyable morning and even though I’m a little sore, I’d do it again—and hopefully I will. That was the good part of my day. The bad part was that my hubby left for Scout Camp and won’t be back till tomorrow. The house is so empty without him.

Family Reunion

When you put together a reunion, it's not just a lot of work that goes into it-- it's a lot of love. I walked down the path of so many memories with each old photograph I scanned from each auntie's album to make the DVD and I so enjoyed the time I spent visiting with Carole and the other cousins who helped me put it together. Getting ready for the reunion created memories of its own. My talks with each of Grandma's daughters as I looked through their albums and listened to the stories. The visits with Tom and Carole. The back and forths with Nancy and Dick. The phone calls with cousins I've haven't seen in years. Typing up Grandma's recipes from her old cookbook and remembering not only what so many of them tasted like, but what she looked like as she made them. Having my cousin Mary spend the night before the reunion and staying up late talking and laughing and reconnecting. You forget how much you love and miss certain people (like my cousins). So many memories relived. Good memories.

I know Grandma was there in spirit at her birthday party/reunion yesterday and I am thankful for all the memories and special people she put into my life. I love her so much and still miss her very much. We have lost Uncle Gary and Aunt Mary too and I know they were there as well. We could all feel that. It was so, so good to see my cousins. All the work was so worth it. I have laughed so much in the last two days that I am exhausted. Okay, it could be the late hours too, but the laughing has been good medicine. The food was great. The table decorations were great (thank you Anne). The pictures were great (thank you Stacy). The food was great (thank you everyone). The games were great (thank you Carole). The DVD was great (thank you aunties and my hubby). A big thank you to my sweetheart who helped me so much and understands how important it was to me. So many new memories created. And, not only was it Gma Tucker's birthday yesterday, it was JillyBear's birthday. We went to her birthday party after the reunion and all I can say is the girl loves Dora! :D And chapstick.

In the meantime...... I just thought about that word... meantime. Weird word. Anyway.... regular life also went on these past few days and with the heat gardens have been growing, yard work has made Greg skinnier and me tanner (which I will get yelled at for when I see my skin doc), and my auntie's happier as they have had constant visitors with us weeding, watering, and bringing grandkids and Jason to help. My hubby is one of their new favorite people. He fixed their fence last week and keeps seeing other things he needs to do for them. I think they feel like they finally have a man around the house and I know they have enjoyed all the company and watching the garden grow. It's funny how such a simple thing like a garden can bring people together.

I have been fighting a bladder infection all week amidst camping trips, reunions, and gardening and I think I might have to break down and go to the doctor Monday. It just isn't going away no matter how much water or cranberry juice I drink. Could be all the sun and sweating. Hmmm. Ya think! Then Jeremy, my son pulls his back out lifting bags of concrete and I can barely help him with all else going on. Berry Smoothies have been about it and just checking on him. Sorry Jer. I'll have to make him something today and take it over. I better check on Jason too. He was hula-hooping so hard yesterday he ripped the butt of his pants at the reunion. That was MITN (more information than needed) to the audience! :D :D We did bring Jeremy's three older kids home with us last night and they will be waking up soon to get ready for church. Their mom has had her hands full with Jeremy getting hurt, her dad having a heart attack, and just the normal business of raising five kids! When we got home they saw the hula-hoops hanging in my garage and decided they needed to practice since they couldn't do it at all at the reunion (unlike their mommy, Stacy, who won her division). Daisha was the most determined as she had a melt-down at the reunion when she couldn't do it. I am proud to announce that not only did she learn how to do it, she made up a few of her own tricks with two hoops at once! The boys however, need to pick different activities to participate in! :D I'm going to borrow the gunnysacks from Anne so they can practice up on that too. Good times.

So it's Sunday and now my attention turns to church and getting ready for primary. I am doing a dinner/workshop for all my teachers on Tuesday (the hubby's birthday), but tonight and tomorrow.... I am resting. I have to get recharged because we leave for the coast next Sunday! Yeah!

Family Reunion is Coming This Week!!!

It has been crazy busy.... thus the missed days of posting. I will just say that we have been on the go a lot. One day we ran to Mtn. Home to get pictures from Aunt Louise. Had a nice visit and learned more family history. For example, I never knew that Aunt Mary had been in a coma for 6 weeks when she was young. Apparently the doctors sent her home to die and Aunt Louise said Grandma Tucker kept her on the kitchen table and force fed her chicken broth, never giving up, and having the older girls take turns working her "drawn up side" kind of like physical therapy. Louise said one day she "just woke up" and said she was very hungry.

Found the newspaper article with Aunt Violet as the Snake River Stampede Rodeo queen. Saw pictures of when Grandpa Tucker worked on the ION between Marsing and Jordan Valley. It was considered a construction job, but they used horses. Then the same construction company had a job in McCall so the family went up there. Saw lots of pictures of all the old houses and one of Gma and Gpa's last house in Melba (the one I lived in at times) and I was surprised by the chipping paint on the side of the house. Through a child's eyes the house was perfect because the memories were so special and happy. Carol (my cousin) told me that have built a second story onto the house now. I don't think I want to see that.

We've also been busy with the garden at Bertie's, church callings, family fun, and just getting ready for this reunion. Took the kids to the Discovery Center in Boise and then the zoo. It has been so hot. Left for the mountains yesterday morning to cool off and visit Trish and Allen. Pine and Anderson Ranch are beautiful this time of year. I probably should have been home doing reunion stuff, but we all needed the break. It was so peaceful up there. Well, considering you're with the Kiester boys. Camping with Papa Kiester is always anything but normal. He keeps my life interesting for sure. :D

I was so relieved we aired out the 4 man tents on 4th of July so we wouldn't have unexpected critters or dusty smells when we went camping, but Papa Kiester grabbed the more convenient pop-up tent instead. It's a two man tent (we have Rellie with us so that would be 3- -not 2) but it's so small, it's pushing it for two adults. That was my first surprise. Then he said Trish had an air mattress so we wouldn't have to sleep on the hard ground. It was the largest double decker air mattress I've ever seen in my life. He blew it up and somehow managed to cram it in the two man tent. We had to smash it down to try to get through the opening of the tent to get in the tent. Once in, you felt like you were in an underwater cave with about 3" of air to breathe! To top it off, the largest person-- that would be Papa Kiester at 6'4" and 220lbs. was making the mattress a slanted hill with his weight so Rellie and I were squashed right on top of him every time he moved. I tried hanging on to the other side so I wouldn't roll over to him or smash Rellie, but once you start sleeping, that's hard to do. Plus Rellie just rolled wherever papa rolled. It was not pretty. Papa finally decided to go in another two man tent. So then I slept with Rellie plastered to my side every time I moved because I then became the largest person. So... I didn't sleep much.

It was still a lot of fun though. We had foil dinners, smores, and some campfire soup. Went to the Cafe and Gma Trish cooked us a yummy breakfast. Greg ended up being the waitress for a little while because they were swamped and short on help. That was quite the sight to see!! :D Then we went fishing but didn't have much luck. I took Anne and Maddi to the natural hot springs the first day. They liked that. Had a deer in our camp last night. We're sitting there and Jason points to the bush next to our camp and says, "That looks like a deer." Anne turns her head and says, "Yeah, it kinda does." They thought it was cool a bush looked like a deer, then it moved and we all realized it was a deer. It was about 10-15' from us. It walked off. Apparently everyone knows the deer and it kind of lives there now. Considering I slept with my toes sticking out of my tent all night due to the fact it was too full to zip-- I kept thinking about our visitor and hoping it didn't like toes! Thanks Jas and Anne for coming with us. We love spending time with you!

Now tonight it's back to getting ready for the reunion. I forgot to mention I've also done quite a bit of family history these past few days and found some very interesting stories there (for the reunion), but I'm too tired to write about them now. Tomorrow it's off to check on our garden, the aunties, and the Jeremy clan. Their fence is in! Yeah! Their lawn is looking great and their house is coming together. Jeremy had great news-- only 3 more classes and he will have his bachelor's. :D I am just happy to be home. There's no place like home!