Softball

Jared's softball season has begun again. He had his first game last Thursday. Some of the same teammates from last year are playing again this year, but there's also a bunch of new comers. The team name is still Riverton Rehab after Will Drury's practice. The Drury's - Will, Joyce, Quinn and Miriam - are all playing again this year, as well as Jared, my brother Jim, Jared's sister Heather and brother Trevor with Jaimi-his fiance-, Chris and Tobie Kent, and then a few from Will's work.

Jared is their main pitcher, with Will subbing in sometimes. Jared pitched a really good game, throwing a bunch of strikes. I didn't like this ump though. He was so critical of his pitching, telling how to correct it even though he was throwing and calling strikes. He didn't say one thing to the other team's pitcher, and he was not good at all! I hate when umps favor.

It makes me nervous to watch Jared pitch. I'm so afraid he's going to get hit hard. Last year he got smacked right in the shin right smack dab on the bone. I heard it hit from the stands. I thought for sure it might have cracked the bone. But he was lucky! Especially since he was leaving to hike down dark canyon two days later with the scouts! I got hit once when I pitched years ago. Got it right on my hip. The girl smacked the ball so fast I didn't have time to react. Since then I've been more timid about pitching; especially to guys. I worry about Jared. I just turn my head a little bit once he throws that ball so if it does happen (which I pray it never does!!!!!) I don't want to see it.

Jared up to bat. This ended up being a foul. They had a really hard time getting good hits off this pitcher. He'd pitch the ball way too high. The ump never corrected him. He'd even call strikes when the ball would BOUNCE on home plate. Sorry ump... that was not a strike!

Jared ended up being walked.

My brother Jim up to bat. He's a really good player. He played baseball growing up. Jared's the base coach by third base.

I love watching their games. But it kills me not to play. I LOVE softball. I played both for the city and YW for 8 years growing up. I played pitcher. I miss playing. But since I blew my knee out, I don't dare play on a team. Everyone tells me to take it easy and just play, but I know I wouldn't be able to. I take softball very seriously. I know I'd probably blow my knee out again doing a switchback in between bases, just to try and save us an out. My Dr. told me I have to be very careful in things I do now. My muscles are not the same anymore and with one minscus missing, I could blow it out again very easily. So now I'm a cheerleader. And I'll go practice with them for fun. Plus, Jared and I play catch a lot in the backyard which I love to do. So at least I'm getting in a little softball here and there.

They lost their game 25 to 5 (ouch!) 

My Cute Boys

Today was one of those days where I loved going to church with just me and my cute boys. Jared always has meetings before church so he's there before we even go. As we left today we all piled in the front seat of my red truck. I looked over and saw us all squished in there, all dressed up and ready for church. It was one of those moments when everyone was clean, all looking nice, and all getting along and happy to be with each other (this doesn't always happen!). I felt so lucky at that moment to have this time with them. If Jared can drive to church with us, the boys ride in the backseat, so I would have missed this moment today. But today it was just us, and it was ok.

Then as we walked into church and started down the hallway to head to class, I walked behind them and looked down. All three boys were holding hands. It only lasted a few seconds, but I saw it. It was the cutest thing. Then I heard Hunter look at Cody and say, "Bestest Friends". I love my boys. I love today. Everyone is getting along and is happy to be with each other. Maybe it's because the sun peeked out today and it hasn't been snowing much at all, but I don't care what the reason is. Today I realized how lucky I am to be able to go to church with my boys. How lucky I am to be squished together as we ride to church. How lucky I am to have them with me. How lucky I was to steal a quick glance at them all holding hands and to hear what Hunter said. I love my cute boys.

Some of my favorite pictures of my boys all dressed up for church....

T.J.'s baptism day - Aug. 1, 2009

Mother's Day 2010 (yes that's marker all over Hunter's face from decorating himself as a rodeo clown. We tried to get it all off but, of course, he didn't use washable.)

Father's Day 2010

Jared's awesome ties they made for him in primary.

So dang cute! They loved their goggles they got for swimming lessons and wanted to wear them to church. How do you say no to these faces?!

Friends

I went to a baby shower for my friend Kristina (Hirschi) Gollaher today. After 3 boys she is finally getting her girl! It was so fun to see her and another old friend of ours Karie (Hempel) Crawford. We've been friends since elementary - I think around 6th grade. We've kept in touch through phone calls and facebook, and now blogging. It's fun to see where we've ended up through the years. And now we all live within about 20 minutes of each other. I miss these guys. We had some fun times together from skipping school (don't worry, it was usually the last couple of days of the year. I know, we were rebels!), to boys!!!, to just hanging out as friends. And later on I did Kristina's wedding flowers and Karie helped me with my wedding video after we were married. There's not much in life that's better than good friends!

On the way home, I had to stop and take a couple of pictures of these cool sprinklers. If you know me, I'm obsessed with the huge sprinklers they use on farms. Ok, I'm obsessed with anything that has to do with farms! (I'm not afraid to admit it.) I just loved how pretty they looked with the storm and the trees lining the background. On day I'm going to have my huge farm with sprinklers like these!

The Wettest Spring I Remember Yet

I am in shock at how wet this spring has been. Most of the time I love a good rain storm, especially with thunder. But this year has been crazy. We are way above our average rainfall this year and it's not stopping yet. The news reported that we haven't seen snow totals this high in the mountains in 30 years. After last weekend's heavy snow storm that caused 4 big branches from our trees to fall, we've had 2 good days of weather. Luckily we got the trees all cleaned up during that small window of sunshine.

Look how horrible these trees are. This one completely pulled off leaving it all hollow up inside. This wood just shreds apart. I'll never understand why someone would want elm trees in their yard.

The biggest branch that came down even cracked our walkway. We found this as we unburied our yard. We also found that it broke one of our solar lights out front and hit quite a few of my tulips coming up. But the tulips are starting to pull out of it. And, the lilac bush is doing better, too. Thanks goodness. It's one of my favorites!

We had a TON of sticks to pick up. I couldn't believe how many we had stabbed into the grass. Some of them were pretty thick, others were so thin I was surprised they didn't break. That's how wet the ground is!

Hunter using his "witch" broom to sweep. He's obsessed with witches at Halloween time. So his Grandma Morse gave him her old broom from the sheep camp. He rides that thing everywhere.

Jared had to get on top of the roof to finish cleaning up the huge branches and sweep it off. It was a mess!

We've had rain and snow almost constantly since Thursday. Our yard is a mess! We were going to start selling the puppies this weekend but we've got standing water out by their house which is making them so filthy. Guess we'll wait until the storm is done next week and then start. Hopefully we can get our garden in as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm so thankful for the moisture, but I'm so tired of everything being so wet! I didn't even try to get out and take a picture of the pond the horses are in out in the corral. 

Poor animals. One day they might dry out.

One of the Greatest Examples

A friend of mine, Reed Anderson, passed away last Tuesday night due to injuries sustained in a car accident. He was one of the greatest examples in my life. Even though he's 11 years younger than me, I have always looked up to him. His life story is incredible. When he was in middle school, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It wasn't cancerous but was the type to spread by branching out. Eventually, it was determined that if he didn't have a very serious brain surgery, one that could kill him, the tumor would take his life. So in January of 2006, he had the surgery. They were able to remove most of the tumor. His recovery was very critical. He had strokes, even died a couple of times. Once for 5 minutes but they were able to bring him back to life. Once he was starting to recover he had some things he had to relearn, but he took it on and beat them. Reed also had major knee surgeries shortly after his brain surgery to repair a torn ACL. That wasn't the major part. He ended up with a very serious staff/mersa infection that took months to get over. He had many surgeries for this and had to have his incision left open so they could apply heavy medication inside as well to beat this. Having his brain surgery messed up his hypothalamus which controls so many things of the body... blood pressure, body temperature, how fast you recover from infections, etc.. That summer he ran a marathon despite everything he'd been through. After the first mile and a half he passed out. Once he came to, the paramedics wanted to take him to the hospital, but Reed said no and finished the race; even passing some at the finish line. He said to the paramedics and his family "I didn't come all this way to quit, I have to finish the race." That became his modo throughout his life. And this wasn't his first and last majorly physical thing he did. He climed Dark Canyon with his dad for YM's and last summer wanted to hike King's Peak with Jared and the YM but couldn't because it was the weekend before his wedding. He never let anything stop him.
I loved talking to Reed. He was always so upbeat and happy. You'd never know he woke up everyday with a migraine headache. He'd go on like he wasn't hurting every minute of his life. The only time you knew he was sick is when either the pain would get so bad that he'd pass out or his body would become so run down that he'd sleep for a couple of days. I remember when I really got to know him. We were at the Elder's basketball game. Jared was playing as well as Reed's dad. (Reed and his family live in our ward.) Reed sat by me as well as his mom, Annette. We talked the whole time. Reed was on crutches for his knee and even had an IV in his arm for medications. I was amazed at his stories he was telling me about going through his brain surgery and almost dying as well as everything with his knee and the staff infection. His whole attitude was incredible. He brushed off the dying thing as he must not be done here on earth. It was incredible to listen to him. I was drawn to how strong he was, both mentally and spiritually. I told him he needed to write a book about his life, that his faith through all this might help someone. He kind of laughed at first but then said he should. He told me I could have an autographed copy. This became our little thing over the next few years. I'd see him at church and he'd joke saying he knew he needed to get started. I even offered to buy him some notebooks.
I became good friends with his mom, too. We served in the YW's together. I talked to her a lot about Reed. She was so good to keep me up on how Reed was doing. She didn't always go into detail with everyone about him, but she would with me. She knew I loved Reed. Annette was really good with me, too, when we found out my mom had a brain tumor as well. She talked to me a lot, would call me to see how the Dr.'s appts went, and what was going on with her. One of the things Annette told me when she first heard about my mom was there are worse things in this life then death. She told me to tell my mom not to have brain surgery if they wanted to do it. Reed has been through so much because of his surgery, that sometimes it's harder to watch that then if they didn't have the surgery at all. Annette was one who gave me an idea, too, of what we might be looking at with my mom, whether it be surgery or the gamma knife radiation (which is what they did).                                                                            Reed always dreamed of serving a mission but the family was never sure if he'd be able to. I remember when he was closing in on his 19th birthday, Annette told me they were working with Dr.'s to see if he'd be able to go even on a state side mission. I got the coolest surprise in Oct. of 2008. I was sitting on the stand in sacrament meeting when they called Reed up to announce his big surprise. I looked at Annette immediately and she smiled and nodded at me. Reed announced he would serve a mission in New York. I was so excited for him. He ended up only serving there 6 weeks before he got sick with a sinus infection that he couldn't get over. That doesn't sound like much to a normal person, but to Reed, it was difficult to get over. They ended up sending him home to recover and then finish his mission locally. He served in the So. Salt Lake County Mission in West Jordan. Even though he was so close to home, he did everything he could to make it like a normal mission. When he needed his mom to bring his meds., his companion would call Annette, and then she'd deliver them to his door step, knock, and then after she left he'd go out and get them. He could have cheated and seen his mom every time she brought them, but he didn't. At times he'd be so worn out though that he'd have to come home from his mission to sleep for 2 or 3 days - almost straight - and then he'd go back out. Finally, when his body couldn't handle much more, he was given an honorable release. I remember about a few months before Reed had to come home, I had a message from a facebook friend of mine whom I went to school with. She said she had an Elder Anderson at her house and he wanted her to tell me to tell his family 'hi' for him. I have no idea how he found out we went to school together so he could send this message, but he did. At the time I had his brother Tommy in my sunday school class. He was shocked to hear that little message from Reed through me.
It wasn't long after he got home, that Reed started dating and soon became engaged to someone. He was so cute, asking me for my chinese ham fried rice to cook for her to impress her since she interned in China for 6 months. But, it wasn't meant to be and they broke up. But he soon met his future wife and they got married last Aug. They lived in our ward. It was in October of last year that Reed started having lots of problems. He would loose his mind, or have a seizure and didn't know what he was doing. In 2 days time, he staged a robbery at his own house, then the next day set fire to it. Long story short, he moved back home with his family while they tried to figure what was going on with him. His wife was here sometimes with him and sometimes with her parents. They always loved each other, just went through a hard time not knowing what was going to happen with Reed. Some Dr.'s took him off of the 30 medications he was on, which was causing major ulcers and seizures, and that helped him some. But since he caused so much trouble in those 2 days, he was having charges pressed against him. The family tried fighting it. Jared was able to go help rebuild the rooms that had burned in that fire. He spent a day working with Reed right by his side. He said Reed had so much fun working that day. He was his normal happy self. Jared said they laughed together all day as they worked, even when they were up in the attic.
On March 20, I saw Annette leaving church with Reed who, you could tell, was extremely sick and in major pain. He'd come just to take the sacrament even though he was told not to come that day. Next thing we know, his brother Tommy was running in to Jared during sacrament to come help give Reed a blessing. Reed's dad had just had knee surgery and needed help. So Jared left and went to their house. Jared was the one who gave Reed the blessing. Jared said that before the blessing, Reed was not acting like himself at all, but the minute it was over, Reed looked up, thanked them for helping, and then went immediately to sleep. Jared also said it was a very short blessing; only about 3 or 4 sentences. I trust Jared. He listens to the spirit so well. He said that the blessing just ended, he wasn't supposed to say anymore. It didn't talk at all about him recovering. It just said that through the atonement, he would soon be healed. And it was soon. 9 days later, Reed was getting back from the temple with his sister. He went to Maverick, alone, to get gas before work the next day. As he was driving home, on our road, he suffered a seizure, passed out, and hit the bangerter wall. He died almost instantly. I heard all the sirens. There were so many. I saw them fly past our house. I knew it was something bad. Jared was just coming home and followed the ambulance and cops there, but he couldn't see what happened. But 20 minutes later, Jared's dad called. He'd heard what had happened. Jared came in. I could tell by the look on his face it wasn't good. He said "It was Reed. He passed out and hit the bangerter wall. He died. They're cutting him out right now." I couldn't believe it. I was shocked. On one hand I was so going to miss him, but on the other hand, I was relieved for him. He wasn't in pain anymore. But I'm going to miss him. And as it turned out, his family found out the day before that they'd lost the case and charges were filed against him, but they didn't know if he was going to jail or not yet. But they said they all had a feeling it was going to be ok.
His funeral was yesterday. I almost bawled as I saw Annette. There's a connection between us that not many understand. It has to do with dealing with brain tumors. Unless you go through it, you can't understand it. One minute, everything can be fine, the next, your world is turned upside down. She's been such a big help to me. Just knowing I can always talk to her helps so much. I gave her a big hug. Mark, Reed's dad, gave Jared a big hug and thanked him so much for helping with the blessing that Sunday. Reed's wife wasn't there that day so Mark explained everything to her, saying how Jared came to help. Then he turned to Jared and said, "You knew, didn't you." Meaning the blessing was so short because he didn't have much time left on earth. Jared nodded and started crying. The spirit was so strong at that moment. It was cool. This family, especially Mark, knew Reed didn't have much time left. Jared felt so blessed he could be part of that blessing. He will never forget that.

Reed's funeral was awesome! It wasn't the normal funeral when all you do is talk about the person. It was all centered around Jesus Christ. He had one of the strongest testimonies! Their whole family does. Reed's two sisters spoke, and they both read some of Reed's letters from his mission that bore his testimony or that told of how he felt about Jesus Christ. And his dad read an essay that Reed had written about some of his trials in life and never giving up. All week I've been thinking about how Reed didn't get his book written, but hearing that essay really helped me. He got his writings in, just in another form. Through his essays and letters from his mission, it's there. It may never be published, but it's there for his family to read. One of the coolest things at his funeral by the program was copies of The Living Christ for everyone to take. Reed was one of the best examples of Christ I've ever met, so this was fitting to give at his funeral.

On the back of the program was a picture of a horse struggling to pull a heavy load. His family looked at this picture a lot like their son. Reed gave his best at all times despite his chronic high pain levels and a weak body. Reed love service and was always so dependable and happy to help. He never gave up. He is one of the best examples of enduring to the end. I'll miss you Reed. Thanks for everything you've taught me in this life. I'll never forget it. I am a better person because of you.

This picture was taken around 1917 of a working horse in a mine shaft. This horse was completely blind from working in constant darkness, yet he never gave up.

I wanted to throw this quote in as well. It's so fitting for this. One of my friends put this on facebook along with a picture of her and Reed together.

"To the righteous person, birth into the world of spirits is a glorious privilege and blessing. The greatest spirits in the family of the Father have not usually been permitted to tarry longer in the flesh than to perform a certain mission; then they are called to the world of spirits where the field is greater and the workers fewer."                                         -President Heber Q. Hale

Heavy Snow

This morning at 3:15 Jared woke up to a huge crash outside. At first he thought someone might have crashed into our house, but once he saw it was snowing he knew right off that  it was a huge branch off our horrible trees out front. He was right. He came in and told me he figured out what the big sound was. I was completely asleep and didn't hear a thing (which I'm very surprised at!) so he woke me up when he told me this. My heart started to pound. I knew instantly what he was going to say. 3 years ago we had two big branches fall with heavy snow. One fell alongside my truck, breaking out my window and denting the door. And the other fell, hitting our house a foot and a half above our huge window. It scared me to death! Hunter, who was 2 and a half, was sitting in a chair right by this window. I bawled all morning that day. I was out front when that second branch fell, it was the loudest, most horrible sound and worst of all I didn't know where it would hit. I ran as fast as I could to get out of there. And then seeing where it hit, Hunter in that chair, and Jared not home that morning, was horrible!                                                                          I got up with Jared. Our power was out. We didn't know if the branch had hit our power lines or if the power was out everywhere. Jared went outside and saw the power was still connected to the house so I called the power company to report the power outage. Apparently the heavy snow had caused 25,000 people to be without power. At least it wasn't caused from the branch. The snow was extremely heavy and it was still snowing. Jared went back out and moved my truck out of the driveway and out back by the horses. Also he went around and shook off snow on trees he could reach. A huge branch in the driveway was almost touching the ground and, of course, the boys 4-wheeler was under it. Jared knocked off what he could. He wanted me to look out front at the huge branch that fell, but I couldn't. I was scared to death! And seeing stuff like that when it's dark makes it even worse. So we went back to bed, only I didn't go back to sleep. I couldn't. My anxiety levels were majorly high. I wanted to go back to sleep so bad. But all I could hear was silence with a big cracking sound breaking it every once in a while. That was the WORST sound ever! Followed by waiting in silence to hear where the branch was going to fall, praying it wasn't on the house or into our big windows out front. I tried sleeping while plugging my ears, but that didn't work. My fingers eventually would go to sleep. Then I'd hear another loud crack and my heart would pound like crazy. Jared slept though. This doesn't scare him like it does me. Finally at 6:15 I got up. It was just starting to get light outside. I braved myself and looked out our bedroom window. The area I could see was covered with big branches. I went in the bathroom and looked out the back window. My favorite apple tree had also broke. Sad! That was the coolest tree for pictures! But at least it had stopped snowing, and I could hear tiny drops falling meaning the snow was beginning to melt. Thank goodness!! The power was still out though. I went back in and Jared woke up. I told him what I saw and that I haven't been back to sleep. He helped me to relax some so I tried again and fell asleep around 6:45ish. I woke up at 9:30. The power had just come on. We all got up, including the boys, and checked out the damage. Four big branches had fallen in our front yard. Luckily what had hit the house didn't do major damage. It cracked a small part of one window, and it broke part of the eave on the corner of the house where the power was connected. It knocked the power line loose so we need the power company to come out tomorrow, but at least we had power. We couldn't walk out the front door at all. Our whole front yard was full of these huge branches. One branch fell by our dog "Tuffy's" house, and then the apple tree out back. But our lilac bushes bent over pretty good so here's hoping their ok. We'll work on the yard tomorrow getting everything cleaned up. We need to get those horrible junk trees out. I think we are in a few weeks. Hopefully the snow's done for the year. But we're in Utah, so it will probably snow again.

The big branch that hit the house.

Where one broke from. These Elm trees are HORRIBLE!

The big branch that luckily didn't break and crash their 4-wheeler.

Had to throw this in. Our cute puppies trying to make their way through 5 inches of this wet yucky snow. They didn't like it too much.

My poor apple tree. I love this thing! This is the second big branch that has fallen in just a few months. Guess it's time to take it out completely.

Cody and Hunter checking out the snow.

Our poor lilac bush. It split right in half and just hung over. Even when the snow got knocked off, it still hung pretty good.

Where the branch hit the eave and broke. The power is just barely hanging on. So thankful it didn't do more damage!

The bottom corner of the window cracked. It's hard to tell in this picture.

Our front yard.

So thankful it wasn't worse and that everyone was ok!

April Fool's Day

This year I wasn't sure if I was going to pull any pranks for April Fool's Day. It had been a hard couple of days and I wasn't feeling up to it, but... I did anyways.  :)  And best of all... it worked!! I got this idea from my cute friend Tobie so I can't take all the credit. I made chocolate cupcakes. About 12 of them had "special frosting" and the rest just had yummy chocolate frosting on top. For the "special frosting" I mixed up some mashed potatoes and made sure they were really creamy. Then I added food coloring to made it look even more like real frosting. I topped these special cupcakes with the mashed potatoes and even made them look like pretty roses.

Can't even tell, can you?!

First I got Jared. I told him I tried a new recipe for frosting and wanted his opinion. He totally fell for it! Immediately he started making a face and threw it out. He knew I did it on purpose cause I couldn't quit laughing. Then the boys came home. Jared played along with me. They couldn't wait to have a cupcake. This time I got smart and took a picture of them as they ate it.

I love the look on their faces. It's perfect! They spit them out as fast as they could. This time I did better and didn't laugh as hard as they ate them. They wouldn't have eaten them if I'd laughed.

Friday night is pizza night at Jared's parents house. Another opportunity for my special cupcakes!! I threatened the boys not to tell anyone or they'd have to eat another one. So Cody got smart and just told Jared's mom and sister Heather that there was something special in the cupcakes but he couldn't tell them. They knew it was some kind of joke so I told them what it was. But the best part... we got Jared's dad!!! I told him just to try one and see what he thought of the new frosting. He popped the whole thing in his mouth! I had to hurry and turn around I was laughing SO hard! So was Heather! He said right off, "These taste like @#*&. I think you forgot to put the sugar in them." Everyone died laughing! He wouldn't eat one of the real cupcakes after that. I don't think he trusted me anymore. We also got Trevor and Jaimi (Jared's brother and his fiance), but they ate theirs upstairs alone so we didn't get to see their faces. But I guess they almost threw up. On the other hand... my nephew Kai who is 21 months loved the mashed potatoes and ate every bit.

I guess I deserve what I got from the boys for April Fool's Day. T.J. put a rubber band around the sprayer in the kitchen 3 times! And Cody got me once with it, too. Jared always does that to me every year but this year he promised he wouldn't so I relaxed some. Trust my boys to carry on the tradition!

Don't know if you can see how wet my shirt got but he got me good!

Cody also tricked me pretty good. He told me this big story of what he did at school to his teacher. He said he pretended to faint in class and his teacher Mrs. Wilcox screamed and ran over to him. He said she bent down over him and he popped up and said "Happy April Fool's Day!" And then she screamed again. He had me going big time on this story. Pretty soon he told me April Fool's! That kid!

Oh ya... T.J. got his first punch today at school. He got it right in the temple. It was pretty swollen and was starting to bruise. He was standing up for his friend so this bully in their class wouldn't go beat him up, so he turned around and punched T.J. before he went after the other kid. T.J.'s a good kid. He doesn't start fights. I felt bad he got punched so hard. He hurt there for a little while.

You can't tell too much by the picture but it was already starting to go blue. Poor kid.