Noise Parade

I have hundreds of pictures of Addie and friends from the homecoming week and this evening in particular. The girls were given the task of finding a classic car to ride in a noise parade and for their presentation at the half time of the football game. After much discussion it was decided to ask a local car restoration enthusiast. I insisted she take her dad knowing he would be in heaven with what was rumored to be in that man's shed. They were there for hours and were truly impressed with his resourceful remanufacture of cars of the past. After selecting the car and washing it Addie rushed home and was made-up by Aunt Rachel. We rushed back to town to start the round of photos. 

Addie with friends Kesley, Elle, Brooklyn, Taylor, Izzy, and Addie (l-r)

The plymouth roadrunner that set off her dress and had a convertible top allowing for Addie to be seen. Her sweet chauffer Colby. They worked together in the Ag Marketing contest the year before and have a fun friendship. This car has a big block engine and roars. It was fun to drive and hear. 

Both enjoying a peaceful drive through our town. 

The ladies of the court before the drive- Carly, Megan, Taylor, Addie, Elle

Another of the escorts Hunter. 

The sunset was gorgeous the friendships are real and the memories were made. A fun time to be a part of. It's curious to me how each kid has such a unique senior experience. None are remotely close to the same even though we seem to repeat the process in relatively quick succession each daughter and son has a very individual senior year. 
 

Hoco Court Photo Shoot

These may be for the annual. I'm not sure but the school arranged for a photo shoot one evening and so Addie showed up ready to smile. 

The newly completed Gary Kamo memorial Japanese park made a beautiful background. Addie with her official escort John Barret. 

The ladies of the week. Megan, Elle, Carly, Addie, Taylor. 

A full court picture with the boys. Cannon, Brody, John, Wyatt, and Thomas. 

 The finished poster for publicity or Annual or both. The theme of the week was legacy. 

Addie was tasked with also writing a biography award speech to present her grandparents with an award for the legacy they have created with their family. She did a nice job and they were very surprised. 

Mark Set-Apart

Mark never received nametags in the mail thus the morning before church we were digging through mission memorabilia looking for a tag. I found Greg's old style tage, and Harold found the slip on one that Mark ended up taking. We were thankful Harold was willing to share and to be here. It is especially touching to me that this baby has 3 older brothers that hold and respect their priesthood and will serve as such strong examples of making and keeping covenants. To say nothing of the faith of the sisters we are extremely thankful for their good examples. 

Our kind stake president made the effort to come to our ward to set Mark apart as a full time missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

Harold waited an hour to be present and then was off back to his college life and responsibilities. 

A family picture just cuz we take them when the majority are together. I appreciated my friend April for clicking the button and capturing the moment. I'm amazed that everyone has their eyes open and is smiling no random poking or crying. Truly a miracle. 

And like that the very full weekend had all the have to do boxes checked-off as completed. Phew. So many blessings its truly hard to hold them all or even really feel them all. We are blessed. 
 

Ontario XC race

This senior race season has been different. Addie has a lot of responsibility with FFA and other things that pop up (not farming per se). She is only running once a week usually sometimes once every other week. While this is slightly sad it has made the races she run more productive and less stressful on her overall. Or mabye it's just the reality of lots going on and thus not having time to really get worried about the race of the day. This race was Ontario I was also needed to get cover crop seed so I worked the pick-up to correspond with her race. She ran well. The strong runners in her district came. 

Addie was able to accelerate at the end after surviving the up and down hills of the course. 

Aunt Alena was there with her family. She has been a big supporter of Addie and a kind helper filling in gaps of running kids around for the past month. 

At the finish line congratulating and talking to friends and fellow runners. 

Senior friends tired after a lot of effort. 

 I drove home with the seed and Addie enjoyed Kiwi Loco yogurt with the team. Life is sweet in more ways than one. She clocked at 21.02 a week ago she ran today in Idaho with a time of 20.11 thats a large improvement and the right trajectory for district competition coming up in a few short weeks. I'm happy for her running maturity to control her nausea this year and learn how to back off a bit then push harder. There is a lot to be said for experience. 

dress up

Last week was homecoming. I mentioned Addie was on court. Part of her responsibility was to participate in every event. From each dress-up day to dodgeball and the festivities of the final homecoming day she was busy. We worked to make sure she had proper apparel to pull this off. Thank goodness for the local goodwill store and a myriad of random hand-me downs. First day patriotic Merica Day. These two put in long days at school in the classroom then a few hours after school for practice and often Addie has a hour or three of meetings after that Hence the mule like packing of various bags and supplies to get through the many hours away from home. 

In between being a princess at school functions, fence building started in earnest. Bruce is learning to pound post and water cows, Addie somehow got a beard in the process. 

One dress up day was use the first letter of your name to dress up. Rancher Reed and Angel Addie. 

One day was dress your age. Freshmen as babies up to seniors as senior citizens. Reed wanted no part of that one. But Addie pulled off granny Addie. 

One day was rhyme day. Two versions of legally blond and James Bond. Reed was such a good sport to wear a suit to school. 

The true highlight of the week was Aunt Rachel coming to teach make-up. Oh the glamour and beauty of make-up. And Aunt Rachel is so patient and inclusive. She let the younger girls test out lipstick and try some powder. 

She and Addie pulled together a hair style that was just right and accentuated her natural beauty with some highlights. Rachel did a great job!

Andrea with enhanced lips!

Addie learned enough to re-create the look the next night those pictures to follow. This was a weekend filled by the hour with activities. I'm grateful for the full life we live and for the many who support and help us be successful at what we undertake. We are blessed. 

 

Mark Send-off

Another one has left the nest. He called after about 27 hours of travel to say he had arrived. I was just thankful to be in service as I was in the black hole of cell reception and was so thankful the call came through. His goodbyes were more spread out. My parents came for dinner Sunday the day before their beet harvest started steady. We were glad to have some time with them. 

We forced a family picture which will quickly be outdated when baby comes but we got those that could in one spot for a few minutes. Man we are fortunate parents. 

Morning of leaving we snapped pictures as kids left for their lives. The early crew off to Willowcreek. 

My workhorse brigade. Or the ones that have never had to fly alone. Mark has provided a lot of insight, teaching, protection, and general confidence to this group. I have no doubt they will be just fine but it's always hard to split the groups. When the older three left or split due to college and missions. When John left Mark etc. It's hard on my heart. 

We rushed to do last minute errands in our town and got a call a dear neighbor had fallen out of bed and could we please go help her get up. We rushed out of town only to get there just after her husband and in-home nurse had got her upright and off the floor. Aliza and Mark said goodbye and we dashed to town to grab Greg and go see my Grandma who was at work for the day. She is a volunteer grandparent spending several mornings a week reading with and drilling kids on phonics and math facts. He gave her a hug and said goodbye. 

John sent out a picture of what he was doing for his preparation day. This is the Houston Texas Temple. It's beautiful and unique. I'm so thankful my children want to go to the temple and that they are able with so many temples across the world. 

We got to the airport with plenty of time. I of course was crying this is hard to send them off. I'm not sad he left, I'm not worried, it's just hard to be apart and this time very apart for so long. I had the thought on the drive over that things I've cried over more than once this year are the very things I know people pray for daily. Being able to get pregnant and have children, to have children leave home and go on missions those are major desires. Here I am pregnant with children  a plenty two missionaries out and crying my eyes out in public. Well my massage lady told me I'm entitled to have feelings too- which was oddly very validating so I will say this separation of being tied to your family is hard and great and so important for parent and child.  

So while we will miss him in so many ways, we are thrilled he is gone and we will survive. We have plenty of strong hands in need of work and responsibility. They will have more space and reason to grow as it is their season to become confident and capable. We will all be ok. And I haven't cried once today a day later. We are abundantly blessed. 

 

Miracles

All of the waiting for parts and wondering how long the repair and replacement would take was vey stressful. This was coupled with constant monitoring of blood sugar and weekly long appointments monitoring the baby's health. Not to mention hoping we would finish before the buyer stopped taking corn and Mark needed to leave. Along with normal daily life requirements. 

In the middle of our harvest was also general conference for our church. The leader of the twelve apostles spoke about the power of families and the goodness of working and struggling together towards a common goal. I felt good in the midst of our struggle knowing we all were playing a part to make it happen. This year was one that started out focused on our gardening efforts. Summer and fall are made more rich and full enjoying the harvest from the plants we started. I splurged on raspberry canes this year and have had a few handfuls of harvest. As have some of the kids who know they are there. This brightened a very worrisome day. The fruit of our labor. I have pulled so many weeds to try to give these plants a strong beginning. That is the work of my life. Trying to give each of these kids a strong start a healthy foundation and what they need to have productive eternal lives. It is tiring and slow work. 

As this kid prepares to leave he was thrilled that his experiments with cover crops yielded so well. Our poorest soil known for half size cobs to no cobs at all, generally a weed patch. This year the corn was over his head and the ears were full and as big as his hand. In this desert water is the key ingredient to growing anything. Holding water and keeping the plants especially thirsty ones like corn is critical. We are working to increase our natural predator population to combat the pest problems. While the guys team cleaned the combine andrea enjoyed harvesting the hundreds of lady bugs off the machine. That is a good sign. Lady bugs eat aphids. This is yet another benefit of 1-2 applications of spray early in the season it allows for nature to get to work. We are striving to create a year round food supply for our soil to keep microbes working there are many predators that will attack the bad things we don't want we just have to provide the right conditions. So even though farm prices are lousy we are investing in cover crops for next year and look forward to increased fertility in our poor soils.  

One more story.  I lost my cell phone in a quartermile stretch that mostly looks like this. My case is cream colored so not gonna stand out in this dry leaves jumble. We tried locate my phone available through apple company. Nothing. Calling it went straight to voice mail. It was out of service or smashed by some of the equipment that had also driven this path. I know I can get a replacement phone but the data that is part of my day not to mention the ability to call and be called is pretty important. 

I made Mark who was the earlier driver retrace our path and see if maybe we might find it. Bumpity bumping over tracks we passed the halfway point and no phone. We got to a small portion of the field that looks like this. It was another science experiement spot with different remaining forage. 

And there it was screen up black in the yellow/brown completely intact just out of service on the ground. When it was in my hand it picked up service and all was well. This was a miracle to me. 

This has been a long year of wrestling with God asking Why again and again and being upset at the situations happening out of my control. Yet there have been so many blessings. A very temperate summer, kids much more capable and less problems than I remember on the farm. Extra help I hadn't counted on in harvest from Anna and many other things I'm not remembering right now. I'm thankful and touched at how patient and generous Heavenly Father is with me and my lack of trusting Him. I'm thankful he cares about me in spite of my weakness and complaining. I'm thankful he forgives and continues showing me how much He loves me. I've had indescribable peace since Mark got his mission call and that has come in the last week about this pregnancy too. That is very reassuring, especially as this is traditionally the time when anxiety and worry seem to take over my emotional state. Life is good and we are very blessed.