Are You Ready For Some Football...

It's that time of year that we all wait for...Football. This year will be extra fun. We have Thursday nights to watch Jordan, Friday for high school and Saturday for OU! Bet you all wished you lived here where football is a way of life :)

The Race

So I haven't contributed for a while and for this I appologize. I was going through some boxes that we've had stored away and found some stories that I loved on my mission. I thought I'd share one of them with you.

The Race

"Quit, give up, you're beaten!"They shout at me and plead."There's just too much against you now.This time you can't succeed."
And as I start to hang my headIn front of failure's face,My downward fall is broken byThe memory of a race.
And hope refills my weakened willAs I recall that scene,For just the thought of that short raceRejuvenates my being.
A child's race, young boys, young menHow I remember well,Excitement sure! But also fear.It wasn't hard to tell.
They all lined up so full of hopeEach thought to win the race,Or tie for 1st or if not thatAt least take 2nd place.
And fathers watched from off the sidesEach cheering for his son,And each boy hoped to show his DadThat he would be the one.
The whistle blew and off they wentYoung hearts and hopes afireTo win to be the hero thereWas each young boys desire.
And one boy in particularWhose Dad was in the crowdWas running near the lead and thought,"My Dad will be so proud!"
But as he speeded down the fieldAcross a shallow dip,The little boy who thought to winLost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himselfHis hands flew out to braceAnd mid the laughter of the crowdHe fell flat on his face.
So down he fell and with him hopeHe couldn't win it now...Embarrassed, sad he only wishedTo disappear somehow.
But as he fell his Dad stood upAnd showed his anxious faceWhich to the boy so clearly said:"Get up and win the race!"
He quickly rose, no damage done,Behind a bit, that's allAnd ran with all his mind and mightTo make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himselfTo catch up and to win.His mind went faster than his legsHe slipped and fell again.
He wished that he had quit beforeWith only one disgrace,"I'm hopeless as a runner now.I shouldn't try to race."
But in the laughing crowd he searchedAnd found his Father's face,That steady look that said again,"Get up and win the race!"
So up he jumped to try againTen yards behind the last,"If I'm going to gain those yards," he thought"I've got to move real fast!"
Exerting everything he hadHe regained eight or ten,But trying so hard to catch the leadHe slipped and fell again!

Defeat! He lay there silentlyA tear dropped from his eye."There's no sense running anymoreThree strikes; I'm out; why try!"

The will to rise had disappearedAll hope had fled away;So far behind, so error-prone:A loser all the way.
"I've lost so what's the use?" He thought"I'll live with my disgrace."But then he thought about his DadWho soon he'd have to face.
"Get up" an echo sounded low"Get up and take your place,You were not meant for failure here,Get up and win the race!"
"With borrowed will, Get up" It said,"You haven't lost at all,For winning is no more than thisTo rise each time you fall."
So up he rose to run once moreAnd with a new commit,He resolved that win or loseAt least he wouldn't quit.
So far behind the others nowThe most he'd ever been,Still he gave it all he hadAnd ran as though to win.
Three times he'd fallen stumblingThree times he rose again,Too far behind to hope to winHe still ran to the end.
They cheered the winning runnerAs he crossed the line 1st place,Head high, and proud and happyNo falling, no disgrace.
But when the fallen youngsterCrossed the line last place,The crowd gave him the greater cheerFor finishing the race.
And even though he came in lastWith head bowed low, unproud,You would have thought he'd won the raceTo listen to the crowd.
And to his Dad he sadly said,"I didn't do so well,""To me you won!" his Father said"You rose each time you fell."

And now when things seem dark and hardAnd difficult to face,The memory of that little boyHelps me in my race.

For all of life is like that raceWith ups and downs and all,And all you have to do to winIs rise each time you fall.

"Quit, Give up, You're beaten."They still shout in my face,But another voice within me says,"Get up and win the race."
by Dee Groberg

WE GOT WHAT YOU OKIES GOT!!!

Flooding in Oklahoma

If you read Chris' post, then you know what kind of weekend we had here. Over 7 inches of rain in 6 hours for most places. The file below is a small sampling from places all around us. Our part of the state was hit hardest. Some of these pictures are within 10 miles.

Click Here for slide show!!

Progress

Kitchen without cabinets

Kitchen with cabinets

Multitasking

Starting to look like a room and not a construction site.

Photos from FL

Pres. Summerhayes and Elder Tanner

Alecia ? Maybe (the pictures weren't labeled)

Turtle hunting

I'VE DECIDED I'M TIRED OF HAVING THE ONLY BIRTHDAY IN FEBRUARY!!!

That being said, Cindy, you're just going to have to make a baby in May.
Nate, you'd better write this down. And Cindy..........don't be early!
Got it?.............Good!

Now that we've got that behind us I thought I'd tell you how my first day of school was.
Well, I have a communications and a writing class, typical for somebody just starting college because you need to learn to communicate and write like they want you to it college.
The first class went of without a hitch. The instructor put their information on the website, we responded to it and all is well.
The second class, now that's another story.
I still haven't seen any sign of my instructor. I called my academic advisor and they said they had never known this to happen before. He put me on hold. After a short time came back, let me know they'll have a new instructor assigned as soon as they can but to keep posting my assignments as listed in the syllabus. Great, right? Hopefully the next person will be a little better than this one.
Just think, this time next year they'll give me a piece of paper that tells me I'm smart. About 18 months after that they'll give me one that tells me I'm even smart enough to deserve a pay raise and tell a few people what to do. If I'm still motivated at that point I'll keep going and about 18 months later they'll give me a piece of paper telling me I'm smart enough to get an even bigger raise and tell even more people what to do. I see a vicious cycle here.

Tropical Storm Erin

We thought Zach would be the first to experience hurricane type weather, but I guess we were wrong. Last night we got about 7 inches of rain in about 6 hours with areas around us getting 10+. We got a call around 6 this morning from someone in the stake presidency telling us that a few of the wards had canceled church for the day because of the flooding. Our bishop told us to suck it up and get to church...LOL. We were blessed to not have too many flooded areas in our ward boundaries. The other wards weren't so lucky. We had high winds on top of the rain. There are tree branches down everywhere and fences lying on the ground. We had a waterfall coming down the outside of our fireplace into our family room. This has been a problem that we were going to fix, but thought we'd make it a little bit longer...note to self, don't procrastinate.

Hope you all have a great Sunday! Love your soggy Oklahoma family.

Tip of the day: Where to grow African Violets.

I put a one pint mason jar next to it so you can get an idea of how big this plant really is.



For those of you who have African Violets here's a tip for growing them.
They seem to prefer morning sun and shade throughout the rest of the day. I recommend putting them in an east facing window. If it's in the bathroom it's that much better. The plant shown is one we keep in our bathroom that has an east facing window. We have violets in the kitchen window that's at the same height and also faces east. They're not nearly as big as the plants in the bathroom. It must be something in the air.
So your tip of the day is this. If you want big, beautiful African Violets and you have a bathroom with and east facing window, that's the place you want to put them.
Oh, I almost forgot. A few nitrogen spikes don't hurt anything either.

The biggest news in Shelley since....

Check it out, guys. Shelley, Idaho now has two, count 'em, TWO stop lights. One on the south end of the main street, near the grocery store and Fiesta Ole (previously Taco Maker), and now this new stop light on the north end of the main street, next to Goodsell Elementary.

We are movin' on up. Maybe one day we'll even have a McDonalds.

Repentance

Dearest Family,

Please forgive us for being truants with this blog. We have really good excuses, I promise! I was down for a full week with a variety of infections and then the kids were starting school and we were organizing and finding those last minute rulers and socks and other school things. So, please forgive us.

In other news, I had a first day of school, too! I'm not enrolled at a university to finish my education - although that is in the 5-10 year plan. I had my first day working as the Skill Building Coach at Sunrise Elementary, Janie's school. I work 4 hours a day, from 10-2 and I help kids learn to build skills for success. In other words, when a child is naughty or disruptive, they come to me and I try to teach them another way to handle those situations. It's a little scary, leaving home to go back to work - and to be working with the types of kids I'll get to see on a regular basis - and I had a lot of mixed feelings about it, although I didn't feel doubt, like it was the wrong thing for me to do, just nervous and a little fear. But Heavenly Father confirmed that this is where I am supposed to be right now in the traditional First Day of School Father's/Husband's Blessings Russ gave us Wednesday night. I still have some apprehension because I am in many ways building this program for the school, but I no longer fear or worry. I feel peaceful because I know it is the right thing right now. Isn't the gospel of Jesus Christ so wonderful? I am so grateful to have access to the same priesthood used by Jesus Christ, Peter, James, and the other apostles to bless, heal, and comfort. I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven who knows and loves us individually. The blessings Russ offered from Heavenly Father the other night were as unique as the person sitting beneath his hands. Heavenly Father spoke to eadh of us, through my dearest Russell, about things so personal to us, our worries, our weaknesses, our strengths. It was a powerful and spiritual experience for all of us, and I am sure many of you have had or will have similar experiences this year!

OK, I hope this letter will suffice as sincere repentance. I'll even add a video clip to seal the deal.

Love you all! Camille

PS - Brian, what is this that I read in Dad's letter? Are you going back to school, too?

..........................and now from Brian.

We're not trying to harp on you guys but Chris is right. We look at this multiple times during the week, sometimes two or three times a day because we're starving for news and stories about every day happenings about the family. Your little anecdotes are great and just hearing about somebody getting a gold star for reading or getting an 'A' on a test is just as important to us too.
Again, we're not trying to harp on anybody. We just want to know more about the every day happenings in your lives. Camille had a great idea starting this thing last year and we need to keep it alive.
Okay, now for my story of the day.
One of our cat's name is Critter. We call him "Tex Critter" because he's bow legged. Get it, Tex Ritter.........Tex Critter.
For those of you who don't know, Tex Ritter was a famous country singer.
I'll have to get a picture to show you. He really is bow legged.

Welcome to the Brian and Chris Blog....

Okay, I just wanted to show you that you can post without pictures. I'm sure your kids have said something funny, cute, etc. Brian and I miss family so much and would love to hear about your everyday lives. You all take for granted that you're around each other and hear about everything, but we are out here starving to be included.

Here's my funny.... Jordan has decided that he's going to name one of his children "Dude". Dude, get over here. Dude, go to the office. Then he thought twice about that and decided he would use that as a middle name and call him Awesome. Awesome Dude.

Have a good one and please share your lives with us lonely non- Utah-Idaho family members. :)

DOES ANYBODY EVEN LOOK AT THIS ANYMORE? COULD I GET A COMMENT ................................. SOMETHING............................... PLEASE?

THE BLOG'S GONE TO THE DOGS!!!!!!

Blossom just wanted to let you all know what she thinks about the lack of activity on the FAMILY blog.

Funny for the day.

This is what Bailey thinks of all of you who haven't been posting.

No posts......it's so sad.
Can't you see the tear in my eye?








THBBBBT!!!!!
In case you can't see it, Bailey is sticking his tonge out.

Yep, it's still here.

With the summer winding down maybe we'll get some more posts going on the blogger.
I know Michael and Jordan are in football this year. Who else is in sports this year? We need pictures and/or video of the action.

Live action from Tennessee.

Okay, okay.......so it's just a dog and a cat being exploited for some cheap entertainment but you have to admit you enjoyed watching it.

Get him off!!!

Max, in the background, is laying on Sassy's perch. She'll sit on the table until he gets off. She doesn't like to share the cat tree......at all.

Bailey at his best.

These were taken the last time Blossom got to spend a couple of days in the hospital. As you can see from the pictures. He's pretty pitiful.

Football begins...Jordan's First Scrimmage

Jordan is in the blue pants.

The work continues

BEFORE: with the ugly, nasty door....

AFTER: with the beautiful new door and window with doggie door below.

New open concept and an office for Dale with a smaller formal living room.

I need help!!! I can't decide which colors to paint. I was thinking of changing the red in the living room and painting red in the kitchen area with a lighter complimentary color in the dining room/family room area. Tell me what you think...
Nate and Jason, you're votes don't count :)

Pieces of Pirates

Kudos to Chris for keeping the blog alive all month long!

Here are a few clips of the "summer project" Henry and I have been working on all month, "The Pirates of Penzance." We closed the show on the 30th and are glad to be done! It was a lot of fun, but a lot of time and energy, too. Henry was one of the police and I played Ruth, the nursery maid who turns pirate.