Old Friends/New Friends

Old Friends/New Friends
I have had a very trusty old friend for many years now. It was a good friend. I could always rely on her and she never let me down. When others were treating their "friends" by dropping them in the river or leaving them at the movies, or even worse having "CRAZY ROSE" take possession of them, I kept my "friend" near and dear to me. Nothing worse than a dropped call now and then but never due to her own fault....it was the satellite who let us all down. I always knew when the barnyard sounds were going off, Jana or Ava were wanting to talk to me. When I heard that peppy music that I always let run until I could finish with a heartfelt "CHA!!!" that Maggie was on the other line. When I heard that "I really wanta dance" sound, I knew the Poole's were hunting me down and when I heard that old fashioned telephone ring, that a very "handsome man" was calling me. Poor Jonathan's ring was just same ol', same ol' cuz when he came back from his mission, I didn't know how to program a new ringtone onto my friend....but nonetheless, my friend always let me know who was wanting to get a hold of me by the special sounds she made. Well lo and behold, I let my friend down the other week and left her in my pants pocket after a hard day of working out in the orchard. Now I always pride myself as I do my laundry thinking...Oh I don't have to check my pants pockets because I never put anything in them. Well I learned a valuable lesson when I reached in to get my laundry out of the dryer and there lay my old friend at the door of the dryer looking ever so pathetically beat up, missing her little antennae stub and I could almost hear her say, "what did I do to deserve this?" I was heartbroken cuz I really thought she'd last forever. But I pulled up my bootstraps and went to the internet to track down a replacement phone thinking life would truly never be the same. After hours of searching and deciding and picking Maggie's brain, I came home from the AT&T store the following Monday with a new "friend".....and she's a BEAUUUTYYY she is. I don't do much with my phone other than make calls (how ingenious for a phone to do that) and take pictures of my grandbabies to look at, but this little friend has enough features to keep me happy and then some....some I'll probably never use, but if I ever want to truly go high tech, I'll be ready for it. Heck I even feel comfortable texting with this one and am driving Jana and Maggie crazy with that newfound knowledge and am even having fun sending Dave a little "sweet message" now and then that he so kindly says....Hmmm, think I'll save that one for a while. But I have the potential for music and GPS and internet and all other fun stuff if I ever want to....WHATTA friend!! The only thing that I'm not sold on yet are my new ring tones....I miss the old barnyard sounds and the "Cha" song and all the other ones that let me know who it was that was ringing me.....but I have found I can dance to Maggie's new tune (I will contain myself if I am in public when you call me Maggie) and I guess they'll all grow on me eventually like a good friend does. So kids, call me often so I can get used to your new ringtones and know who it is calling me....I'll have a quiz to take at the end of the month.

There are Angels Among Us

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The older I get and the more my children grow into
adulthood, the more my testimony is strengthened that
there are most definitely angels among us. As we raise our
children and go through the struggles we face as parents,
there is no training manual to make those steps any easier,
and we in our imperfections make mistakes that we wonder
will ever be fixed; but if we just do our best, the Lord does
listen to the heartfelt prayers of mothers and fathers who
plead for help to make up for what they lack...and the Lord
does just that. There is nothing more important than the family
and he wants it to succeed even more than we do...so we
do our best and he makes up for the rest and we wait for all
to land on solid ground. As a mom now, I love it when I hear
the resounding sound of their footsteps landing solidly. We
hear it in our grandchildren's excited tales of their family
adventures and in the wonderful blogs their mothers post
of those adventures, we hear it knowing our children are all
where we know they're supposed to be at this time in their
life even though they're all out of arms reach, we hear it
when we are asked if we can support a decision they've
made when the only answer is "of course we can; you're
doing what the Lord would want you to do" and we hear it
when we hear our daughter bear her testimony to us
relating the feelings of her heart as she's performing as an
angel in "Savior of the World". Some parents may be able
to take the credit for such success, but for us, I' d have to
say I know there are angels among us...if we could only
see and hear.

These Are a Few of My FAVORITE Things

These Are a Few of My FAVORITE Things~~~~~

Ava and Katelyn and Elie and Zach, Jana and Dana and Maggie and Jon, Adam and Ben and then most of all Dave......These are a few of my favorite things!!!
When the car quits, when a dish breaks, when my computer dies (eeee gad!!!).....I simply remember my FAVORITE things and then I don't feeeeeeel so bad.

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!

Picasa Web Albums - Joann Hey I finally figured out out to put the slide show on, but you can access it here too.

Reflections of Christ

I had trouble getting this video to post but if you click on the small picture, it should come up. If that fails, go to You Tube and go to Reflections of Christ to view it. It's one of my favorite hymns and the arrangement is beautiful and when you add the pictures to it, it is inspired. The only thing that could be better is if Jonathan was at the piano singing it to me with the Savior at his side.

Your Dad is not Liam Neeson

Your Dad IS NOT Liam Neeson~~ We have a certain unnamed daughter who is planning a wonderful trip abroad in the very near future to participate in the Study Abroad program. This really is a kick-in-the-pants exciting adventure I would've loved to have taken myself but yesterday for Valentine's Day we went to the show and saw "Taken" and we now as parents have a totally different perspective on this whole situation. Even though this daughter is of an adult age and CAN and DOES make these decisions for herself often (and does a wonderful job of it), we as CONSCIENTIOUS parents are obligated to set down some ground rules as we can't stress enough that your dad is NOT Liam Neeson....he is, as you hopefully remember, just Popsicle. So the 10 rules (strong suggestions) we want you to comply to are:
1. Watch "Taken" at least ten times minimum before leaving.
2. Dress like a bag lady for the plane flight. Katelyn's one-lens sunglasses ensemble from her Glam Girl photo op is a good starting point and would be highly recommended. The stance, the pose, the smile, the glasses...the whole package are perfect. Maybe you can borrow it.

3. Wear Black Jack gum on your front teeth in the airport terminal and leave it in place until you get safely tucked into your point of destination.
4. Learn the phrase in the native language, "I'm having trouble controlling my bowels---where is the closest bathroom?" so if you see someone approach you that makes you feel uncomfortable, you can throw them off guard by this statement.
5. Call your parents every half an hour.....YES for the entire time you are gone.
6. Carry lots of pepper spray and be willing to use it generously.
7. Instead of your favorite perfume, we are supplying you with our own "What Wally Just Rolled In" musk for you to wear.
8. Assure us that you are really studying abroad and not just following the U2 European Tour through their every destination.
9. Brush up on your repertoire of your best dialogues from either Forrest Gump or I Am Sam if you really must carry on a conversation with anyone....no matter how cute they are.
10. Pray often....and did I mention use pepper spray generously.

And just to set the record straight, these rules also apply to our married daughters as well and not just our single daughter as not only is their Dad not Liam Neeson but I don't think they married Liam either.

Momma's got a new pair of shoes

Momma's got a new pair of shoes~~~~~~~

This is just a short post for my girls. When I went to the bank this morning, the Payless Shoe Store was just taunting me with their Buy One Get One Half sale so even knowing my girls would think the less of me, I still entered the store with the thought in mind that I'd like to class up my feet some new shoes (as best as Payless Shoes can do) and was dedazzled by the selection and comfy fit and WONDERFUL price. I couldn't put them down....Katelyn and Ava would've liked to have been there too I'm sure. I walked away with this assortment...the front row is flats, the back row has two wedgies and then the odd man out back there is THE most comfy flat that are of a quilted material that just wraps around your foot like a blanket...your feet go AHHHH when you step into them. Now they were inexpensive....averaging $15 a pair so I probably supported a child sweat shop in buying them, and they may fall off my feet mid-step at Church some Sunday, but today they do look cute and feel good on my feet....and I left a happy shopper.

I've Got the Power

I've got the Power....or at least it feels like we could anyway. When I came home from Chico last Friday there was a msg on the phone machine from somebody I didn't even know asking us to call him back because he wanted to buy our irrigation water this year and I wondered how he had our name to call us and how he knew we were in the irrigation district. Then I got a call later that afternoon from King Wilson from our ward asking the same thing...but he just asked if we weren't going to use our water this year if we would sell it to him and as I got to talking to him and brought up this other phone call I got, he said that with the water in such demand this year with the drought, our name was posted at the Irrigation District office as someone who hadn't used the water in the past couple of years and that most of those posted only had 1 or 2 acres but with us with 25 acres, we would be a real target as it was such a large quantity. I knew things were bad, but not that bad. In fact the lady at the Irrigation District said that there only may be water until June if things don't improve soon whereas the water usually flows until October. We were thinking about using some of the irrigation water this year to give the trees a few good soakings on top of the drip so we're not sure about selling it off...or at least all of it off at this point, but it makes it really scary for these farmers who are depending soley on the irrigation and what they'll do in those last months of summer when it gets really hot. I mean, here it is February, and we're already starting to drip our trees cuz it's been so dry, what will July be like. Dave and I tossed out the thought of putting our water up on Ebay but I think that's what they call unrighteous dominion....but I do feel like we could end up being the most popular people in Glenn County before this summer's over; everybody will want us for their friend.

But it is a sad thing to think of how this effects farm production and the farmers. And you can't help but wonder about the correlation of the drought tying in with the ramifications of moral social decline of our time, people insisting that same-sex marriage is to be approved and government corruption being a free for all. As we fasted for rain this Fast Sunday, it just seemed that instead of just praying for rain, we had to include in our prayers that people would be more faithful in following the commandments and be touched by the spirit to live better lives so that we can be worthy to receive the blessings of the rain. I guess in essence you can't stop the train of the Second Coming from happening and we just have to accept the trials that are going to come along as that time gets closer. I guess I just want the Second Coming to happen without the trials. This kinds of gives new meaning to the old Credance Clearwater song, Who'll Stop the Rain?----the corrupt, the activtists, the deceived, many government leaders.

So how much would you offer me for my 25 acres' worth of water?