Justin Actually said it was hot this week

I'm going to include a few more pictures from our vacation, as I couldn't get them all in last post. One of my favorites is Celeste looking like she was already sleeping at dinner. I think it was 4th of July, but it may have been after our trip to the zoo. Both were exhausting days. The other is about us all just hanging out in the family room chatting. Where I was informed that I was old, and realized that mom still had the airplane that Michael played with. No one but Michael and I remembered it with the door on it. As Michael wasn't there, I was designated as old. I just think they are all still babies :) And of course I wanted to tell them all what to do, and dang over half of them are bigger than I am, made me wish that I lived closer to them so I could get to know them again, but then I'm torn, as I so do love the NW and my life here.

It has been a very HOT week. We had 3 days around 100. I thought it was hot but then on the news one night they said it was 113 in North Bend so I decided not to complain. I was grateful for the A/C at work, made me want to stay at work. But was off early this week as Dr. Claypool was at a conference. I spent the time catching up and making the patients mad as I couldn't do what they wanted done. Monday is going to be a busy day. I don't expect to get home before 7pm most nigts this week. We are working all 5 days.

As many of you know Justin is always talking about moving to someplace warmer. I enjoy our weather up here, but he is not a fan of our winters. One day when we were having our daily lunch visit, he did mention that it was hot and he was wishing for A/C. I reminded that he was not allowed to complain about the heat:)

I'm once again working on my waist line. Chole is being a great help. we take a walk to Canada at least once a day. All but 1 we made it twice!! Considering the heat that was a big deal the morning walk is at 5:30 AM on work days, and 7 AM on non work days. I prefer to do the evening around 8:30 PM, but this week it was 9 or 9:30 PM as we were just waiting for it to cool off. I thought it was funny that one night it was 90 at 9:15 and I felt that it was cool enough that we should go for the walk. I think we are both glad that it seems to have cooled of some. I heard it is going to rain later this coming week possibly, I'm wondering how Chole feels about walking in the rain.

Alice has been working hard, she said that on one of the hot days it was 105 in the barn. By day 2 of our heat wave she was getting home from work early, the cows don't give as much milk when they are hot. Now that it is cooling off they are starting to give more milk!! Alice cracks me up she loves coming home smelling like cow poop and covered in it. Today as she was getting ready for church, she was putting on her make up and picking out a dress. She said she just wanted to look like a girl. I laughed thinking dear, you will always look like a girl:)

It has been a hard few weeks in primary, the stake took my secretary:( and then I was asked to reorganize most of primary:( Most of the sisters I just moved around, but the RS took my counselor and she will also be missed by all. I am excited about the two new counselors I got and teachers. I kept waiting for them just to tell me I was going to be released also. But nope, actually I glad as the thought of being in YW or RS is scary. Besides I still have so much to learn in primary.

Well Alice just called and I have to go pick her up and then finish cooking dinner so I'll end now. :)

Trip to Utah

hello :)

its alice

we haven't blogged in a while so i have so many things to talk about. lets see where to start....well i have two jobs. i work at the doctors office with mama, but i work for the other doctor dr thompson. i also work on r&d dairy. both jobs are great, however the dairy is my favorite. we actually had to get rid of my cow cheesy, who i called mr. cheese, because her numbers were to high. we had what seemed like a million cows come fresh in the same day. the last four calves born have been bulls. two of them were huge because they were bread to alexander who is the biggest holstien bull EVER! haha.

as many of you know the family recently took a trip to utah, however i had to stay back for work. i was sad that i had to stay home because i was really looking forword to seeing uncle johnathan and his family.

i got a dog last weekend, her name is chloe; she is a lab/setter mix, she is black. chloe is probably the best dog ever. we immidiately bonded and now its like i've had her for forever. we have a good time playing fetch and going for walks. i have taken her out to the farm with me and she loves the cows, at first she was afraid of them but she watched how i handled them and now she always wants to go play with the ones around our house.

i want to go to college at either washington state university or texas a&m. i want to go to major in animal science and i hope to own my own farm one day.

anyways, that is pretty much everything that has been going on. oh and i went and visited my daddy and it was freakin fantastic :) but other than that nothing is new

We have had a very busy summer so far. Towards the end of June Zach had Twilight Camp with Cub Scouts. I went with him as the secretary. It was a lot of fun. This year the theme was pirates so around 2 in the afternoon, I would dress up like a pirate at work and leave with Zach for camp. It was quicker for Justin to bring him to me and for us to leave from my work. I think some of the patients were surprised as they are use to seeing me in skirts and I was all decked out in my pirate garb, even hand stripped socks, HUGE hoop earrings, and a bandanna on my head. It was a fun to time to spend with Zach and I am pretty sure he had a good time.

The last day of camp was Thurs. on Friday morning at 4:05 am we headed for Utah. It was a long drive as we did it all in one day but it was worth it. the only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Lizzy and Alice with us. We got there around 9:45 PM. Saturday was the 4th of July and it was a good time. Jonathan and Celeste were there with their girls. We went with Grandma and Grandpa to the parade, that we saw twice it went by and then turned around and came back. The kids got a very nice bag of candy. Then we walked over to the park for lots of things to do. Lisa and Christina got to jump in a GIANT blow up castle, and see all kinds of great things. Zach, Christian, Jonathan and Justin went and did some paint balling, Jonathan of course was the best. There were fun booths to look at magic shows to watch, and snakes to touch. then back to Grandma and Grandpa's for a BBQ. As dark was getting close we headed to Morgan HS, Justin, Christian, Zach, Jonathan, Celeste, Lisa, and Christina to see the fireworks. Christina wasn't sure about doing sparklers, so she helped Aunt Melanie do sparklers, as we became brave sparkler buddies. On the walk in the dark back to Grandma's house, Christina taught me Spanish. :) Some of the best parts of the days were the older cousins helping the younger ones, as they all became fast friends, with shoulder rides, teasing, and watching over them to make sure they were safe.

Sunday was a special day. Justin, and I took Christian and Zach to the Conference Center, and saw Music and the Spoken Word life. It was incredible. Afterwards we walked over to temple square, Justin had said that every time he had been to Temple Square the tabernacle had been closed, it was opened so we went in. We also went through the visitor's center, and the assembly hall. It was so nice to be able to take the boys there and be there with Justin. We then went back to the Conference Center and took a tour, seeing the hall of the prophets, which had busts of all of the prophets, along with pictures of all of the apostles. It was awe inspiring to see them all. We also went and did the gardens on the top of the center. I am hoping that this will be something that the boys will remember for a long time

Sunday evening two of my friends from high school came to visit, I hadn't seen them since the day we graduated. Was was fun to walk to the park and catch up on what Mindi and Geri had done in the last 20+ years. On a similar note, on Monday I got to go see the Gibbs, Don and Jenna and all the family. It was so wonderful to see them. I hadn't realized how much I had missed Jenna until I saw her. We were room mates in college, and got to learn so many things together.

Monday was also zoo day, we went to Hoogle Zoo, which is the same zoo I went to as a child. I was excited to take Christian and Zach as they had never been to a zoo before. It was a little disappointing as the tigers and lions were hiding but at least there were some bears and elephants hanging out where we could see them. It was a lot of fun though as all of my nieces and nephews on my side of the family were there.All of them but the really old ones got face, or in Christian's case, arm painting. After which it was back to Grandma's where all of my siblings but Bruce joined us. It was fun to see everyone. I was informed that I was "old", and still acted like their "mom". I guess somethings never change. I loved seeing everyone and am hoping to figure out how to get back to Utah more often as I miss having a better relationship with my brothers and sisters.

Tuesday we were up early heading back to Washington back to jobs and other responsibilities.

Thought I would start catching everyone up, buy talking about Elizabeth's Graduation!! Alice and I had a whirl win trip, flying out on Saturday. Flying all day, oh did I mention that we thought it would be fun to hang out in the Atlanta airport for 5 hours. It was SOO much fun. Shea, Liz, WayJay, Curtis, and Jack picked us up at the airport. We got in right before Lizzy's friend flew in. Liz zipped back to the airport to pick her up, but took the long way home. By a special detour only known to her :) Luckily, Wayne and Shea were able to help her figure out the rest of the detour so she could return to us. My favorite part of her adventure was when she called to see if it was okay if she could stop and put gas in the car. I must defend Liz, she had been told not to put gas in the car after dark for safety reasons. She got the okay to get gas so she could make it home. The plot thickened as she was in a convertible, and the thunder storms were moving in. She did however beat them home and get the top up before it got wet:)

Sunday was a fun day, there was a yummy BBQ before graduation. Shea made the cutest cake for her. I didn't get picture :( Then off to graduation. This was the BIGGEST graduation I'd ever been to. I think Liz said there were around 500 kids in her class. She was one of the first ones out and across to get her diploma, I was so proud. I was thinking of when she was little and how hard she had to work to learn to read and all the cool things she had done. She has definitely done an incredible job. Back at the Adair's we took some fun pictures, one of my favorites was when Alice put on Liz's grad stuff, it was a glance into the future, a year.

Liz, Alice, and Connie drove me to the airport on Monday for a long flight home. I got back to my house at 2 AM on Tuesday. I got home and slept most of the day. Then back to work on Wednesday to start my week with no boys...but that story is to be saved for my next addition, coming soon.

Spring is in the air

Spring is in the air. I can tell as the cows across the street are frolicking. It has been so fun to watch GIANT milk cows dancing around. It started with a few cows, and they kept going back to the barn and getting more friends. Pretty soon the herd was across the street, dancing around:) Got to love it

We also have a pair of bald eagles that hang around. I see them almost daily. They are incredible. The other day I saw one of them on my way down our road on my way home there was a blue herring standing by the edge of the ditch. I love where we live. Of course we are still under the threat of low land snow which makes us nervous but it hasn't stayed around for long so it's okay.

I have been busy the last few weeks doing some medical transcription work after work, which has made for some long days and weekends, but it is done and dr. has his computer program fixed so we are getting back into the swing of things.

Last night we went to a friends wedding. It was fun, I got to dance with three of my boys, Justin, Christian and Zachary. It was also fun to see a lot of my friends form the Ferndale 1st ward. Our good friends the Walkers are worried about family in Fargo ND, and all the flooding that is going on there. Their family has farms on the shores of the Red River. The Walkers have always been there to help my when I need it. It was nice to say that my parents were in Fargo helping the flood victims there, even if they never meet face to face, it was a comfort to Janet.

My friend, and 2nd counselor in the primary has moved to Connecticut. I am sad to see her and her family leave. We were just getting to know them and now they are gone. I hope that all is well with them, I all ready miss them a lot.

Alice and I have butted heads a couple of times lately. But we keep ironing out our problems and going on. We have had our challenges. But we have so far been able to sit down and talk about what is going on. I can't say that we always come to an agreement but we have at least listened to each other and now understand where the other person is coming from.

I am working on getting myself back on track with my diet/exercise program. Along with working on being a better wife and mother. I have had to also start putting myself first once in a while which is always hard for me. I'm suppose to be slowing down and getting some of the stress out of my life. It is definitely not as easy as it sounds. I'm hoping I'm taking the right approach to this. I am making myself exercise. I also making sure that I get the scriptures in every one of my days. I know that by doing these two things I will be able to be a better mom and wife.

Spring break is here in a few weeks and we are starting to get plans. Alice is planning a party with a bunch of friends coming over for a bon fire, smores, and roasted dogs. It will be a good time. Christian and Zachary are also going to be here and we are working on plans for something furn for them to do also.

We just bought a mini van. It is a new addition to our cars. We did keep the other two cars figuring that Alice is going to be driving at the end of the summer. It also gives us 2 front wheel drive vehicles for the winter next year. We are also planning a couple road trips this summer and there is not enough room in the Stratus for all of us, so we are queit happy, it even makes going to church a lot nicer.

Our week:)

hello

this week has been a great one. i got glasses! i am now a four eyed dork! haha. they are very cute though. ill have to put a picture on here of them. this week was also a tuff week in school. i was gone most of last week because i had a flu kind of a thingy so getting caught up in my chemistry class was a little bit of a challenge. but i finally did it. in psychology we just finished studying beauty and now we are moving on to study relationships. so far it has been interesting. then in precalculus it has been pretty easy. in home ec we are sewing and im making this cow pillow. its so cute! i just finished my heating bag, then im also making a flece hat.

in young womens today we talked about homemaking and its importance. i found it quite interesting that alot of the girls dont do very much around there houses. but i guess it all depends on how we are raised.

yesterday i cleaned the bathroom. and i unclogged the shower drain! it wasnt all that hard. and i was so proud of myself because no one has been able to get it done. mom and i laughed because none of the guys could do it. then i went out and split and stacked more wood, and then i weeded half of the flower bed infront of the house.

last week i went out with nathan and i split and chopped wood. i got to use a chain saw :D it was great! i was so sore though. haha. it was a lot of fun. i want to go out again!

anyways thats me.

how have you been?

hope you have a great week

alice

Hey people was up well I'll tall you guys what up with me.It was fine at school.At school in P.E. class there is this thing called the Blow Out and the hole 4th grade is doing a dance called the potda potda my P.E. teacher said it is from Africa cool right! Well if you don't I'll won't teach it to you and that is final! Well tell me about your week hope you had a great one!

Zacary Masterson

HELLO IM DOING GOOD JUST HANGGING OUT WITH FRIENDS WENT TO MY NEW FRIENDS HOUSE ON FIRDAY AND HIS FAMILY WAS SOOOOOOOO NICE TO ME ... THEY SAID THEY DONT CARE WHAT TIME I COME OVER {BUT CALL}

{LOLZZZ} THEY INVITED ME TO COME BACK AFTER THE WEEK END THAT IS WAY AWESOME HIS NAME IS ROBET AND HE IS COOL ... WELLL MY B-DAY IS IN MARCH WICH IS NEXT MONTH IM GOING TO BE 13 AND IF YOUR WONDERING WHAT I WANT IM ALWAYS SAYING I WANT ONE THING OR THE OTHER SO RIGHT NOW IM ON A BIG "I DONT KNOW!" SOOOO IF ITS NOT BAD MANNERS..." JUST SEND MONEY?!?">>>... PLEASE???!!!>>>... THANK YOU!!! IM STILL ON A SPACE CRAZE TOO... SOO IF ITS NOT TOO WEARD FOR A TEEN TO ASK FOR SPACE TOYS ...SCHOOL IS O.K.... I WATCH NASA TV AND THEY JUST SAID THAT WE ARE GOING TO SEND MORE PEOPLE TO THE MOON IN MY LIFE TIME!!! THAT MEANS I CAN GO TO THE MOON!!!! AWESOMENESS... JUST PURE AWESOMENESS... AND THATS ALL FOR NOW...>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> CHRISTIAN MASTERSON....

Justin got back on Tuesday from being in AZ. He had a great time in the sunshine. He was watching his nephew, JD, in the state wrestling tournament in Prescott. He got to see Brenda, Derrill, Dad, Helen, Aaron, Amanda, Eddie, and Spencer. He enjoyed the nice blue skies, even though it was a little cold in Prescott. Now he has to go back to work. And give Melanie lots of hugs and kisses, as she missed him so much when he was gone. He worked hard in the yard yesterday, in the 3 hours of sun we had, cleaning up the yard etc.

I really missed Justin while he was gone. I didn't realize how much until he got back. It was so nice to have someone to talk to and share all the stuff that had been going on. It has been a busy week for me. Dr Claypool has been gone, so I was the only one in the office. Although it sounds nice and quiet, I was quiet busy, catching up on all the things I needed to catch up on. It was nice to get everything done. Dr. Thompson had a problem with his dictation machine so I am doing his dictation for one of the days this week. The little extra money will be nice, we are trying to save our pennies for all the trips we have coming up in June.

Primary as always has been challenging. I had to do sharing time today, for both sr. and jr. primary. I didn't know I would be doing it until we were ready for the first one. Our wonderful singing lady, did singing time first so I could get something together. I was so grateful for that. I think that sharing time went well but would have liked a little bit more time to get ready. I'm also needing to fill to places in Primary, which is never easy, but in our branch, which feels like it is shrinking, it is even harder. I heard that there was only 3-5 people in relief society so if I take two of them:( for them. Next month there are 5 Sunday's, and as I was looking at it I realized that I may be doing 3 Sharing times. So I'm starting to work on them now.

This week it is the Blue and Gold for cub scouts. I don't know what I was thinking but I said I would make the rolls. So I get to make 3 batches of rolls on Tuesday evening. That was the same week that I said yes to being the secretary at cub scout day camp. I must have been like in the "sure I can do anything" mode.

Alice has Trek coming up in Aug. and is excited. I think it will be a good experience for her. She is also excited about going to Kenya next year, so we are going to get her passport and she is going to start saving all her pennies. One of the Dr. I work with does travel shots so I will be talking to him about when we can start all the shots she needs and the cost involved there. She will be going with a family from the branch, that has goes several times a year and works in an orphanage there. I wish I was going with her, perhaps I'll go later after she does.

I wish Nathan was home to tell you about his week but he is in Sedro-Woolley. He lost his truck keys and is now starting his truck with a screwdriver. And looking hard for his keys. Nate is learning the hard lesson of the money never stretches far enough, and Mom can't always bale you out. It is hard, but good for him. I have noticed that he has been happier as of late, and a great help around the house which I really appreciate.

Many busy things

not much happend with me...at school I got my electives changed from wood shop to art P E is a manditory class so I went to the temple on saturday and it was fun and I learned a trick to do with a soda straw roll up both ends and then flick the middel and boom!! --- Christian

Not much happend to me and my bro Christian got a new video game.School was SO BORING not much happend at school but P.E. was fun.
Zachary Materson

It has been a busy week. Justin is trying to get ready to go to his brothers this coming week. His nephew is going to compete at state wrestling and he is going to watch. He is very excited about going to see everyone. He also went yesterday to get some wood. He thought he was going to be getting rounds to split, ended up they were rounds, just a lot bigger than he thought they were going to be. They were so big he could barely pick them up. I'm glad he didn't hurt himself.

We got a family membership at the YMCA this week and Alice and I made it 3 days this week, which was good for us, we are shooting for 5 days this coming week. Nathan joined us for two of the days. We left early one day as both Alice and I felt that we needed to go home. We still don't know why we needed to go home, but we did.

Work has been keeping me quiet busy, I am settling in I think finally, trying to do enough to help keep peace in the office, without doing other peoples job. I have found that I am very emotional lately and it is frustrating to me as I seem to be mad or sad a lot. I'm working on not letting my frustration from work spill over into how I feel at home, and it is hard at times.

Alice has been great. It was the 4th anniversary of the office this week. I called her on Wednesday and she made a cake for me to take the next day. I was so grateful. I also got 4 balloons for Dr. C chair and then a lucky bamboo plant for him. It was a hard day at work that day as some people were a little upset that day, but I think the cake, etc helped and most of the people were in good moods when they left.

I've been frustrated with primary and church in general as of late,which frustrates me. I have always said that I would not let my feelings being hurt or the way I was feeling about anything keep me from gong to church. This has been being put to the test as of late. I hate the struggle. It frustrates me, and makes me sad. I have a testimony of the gospel, I am just struggling with the people who don't always think before they say something. I have be butting heads with Alice off and on lately about different things lately also mostly about church things. I know what I need to do. Get on my knees more, read my scriptures more, and have a more open, and forgiving heart. I am hoping I am up to this challenge.

Alice and I have decided to do Valentines for a friend who doesn't usually get one. We know that she loves chocolate, so we are going to get some from the local store here where they make yummy hand dipped chocolates right there. One of the ladies in my primary presidency is a massage therapist, and when I talked to her about getting a gift certificate, she said she would donate it. I also found out her favorite flower is tulips so we will be getting her some of those also.

Alice and I both had our eyes checked last Friday. Alice needs glasses, we will be getting them next weekend. I need to get new ones also, but will wait for a few months as I can see, and Alice can't see the board at school. Her and I will do that and then go to the movies. We are hoping to find a good deal on some running shoes for her and then do dinner. I am thinking of either getting Chinese food or steak and cooking it at home. I'm thinking of sweat pants for Nathan, as there was a small incident when he showed up at the gym in cut of pj pants and embarrassed Alice. but she finally settled down and we got to work out. The next time she let him borrow a pair of hers. So I thought I'd get him some of his own.

Yesterday Alice and I were at the mall, looking for glasses, and I started looking for something for Justin for Valentines Day, I ended up getting him a nice money clip. I'm going to put it in his suitcase so he will get it while he is gone. When he gets home I'm going to get it engraved, but it wouldn't be back if I tried to get it done before he left. I do need to come up with something good to get him for the 24th as he has had to put up with a lot this year. He is such a good man.

Nate is 20!!

hey wuzzzz up peoples!!!! its christian sooooo. . . This week I went to a stake sleding activity and it was fuunnn!!! But. . . I was going down the hill fast and then there was lots of people at the bottem of the hill and I was yelling "get out of the way!!!" and this one girl just looked at me and then . . . SMACK!!! . . . AND NOW DUH DUN DUH!!! I'm in alot of pain so ill tell you later if im still in pain - CHRISTIAN


Hey my grandma,aunts,and two of cousins came over for the last week end to visit for a while. IT WAS SO FUN!!!........We had a really good time.At school it was kinda fun but in P.E. we are learn how to play volleyball.- Zachary Masterson

hello :)

this week has been pretty boring. monday their was no school which was really cool. it was finals week at school so it was pretty stressful. i am pretty sure i did okay on all of my finals except english. i am positive that i failed the first section, pratically the whole class failed it because the lady who teaches it is a college student and well she isnt the best. anyway. monday i have the second half of my english final which is the vocab section. then tuseday i start new classes. im trying to switch into psychology. im so excited! im hoping next semseter will be better than this one.

i hope you had a great week :)

alice

It's been a busy week. I worked 5 days instead of 4, ti si amazing how working an extra day can mess with the rest of what you are use to getting done. But i buckled down and got it done. House was clean by the end of Saturday when the Elders came for dinner. I made the Navajo tacos and was sad that Nathan wasn't home as he ahd asked for them for his birthday.

Nathan has had a busy week. He turned 20 on the 20th. It was a hard week for himad he also gave his dog away that day. I felt bad for him, but she needed a better home. One of the neighbors had come over and complained that she was barking all the time, saying that if she kept it up he was going to call our landlord, so he placed an ad on craig's list. With in a few days a ncie couple came and they seemed great for her, I'm hoping that made it easier on Nate. This weekend he went down to Sedro to help his Uncle Rich with a project.

Justin had a busy time this weekend with the boys, Christian went to a 1st aid merit badge class and then it was off to the snow party he talked about. After sendig Christian on his way he and Zach went to the library getting home about the same time the missionaries arrived.

It was very cold this week, but no rain or snow which is nice. I'm hoping that Nate can go and get some more wood this week as we are going through a lot of it with the NW wind blowing.

Alice may be going to Africa in 2010 the summer after she graduates. There is a couple from the branch that goes on a regular basis and she wantso to gowith them. I think it would be a great expeirence for her. They go to several of the orphanges there and work. I would love to go with her, but I don't think she wants me to. I toldher to start saving her money. I'll get her passport in the next few months. and help her find a job depending on how hard her classes are.

Rains came down, and the floods came up

hey a lot had happan Ill try to remaber satis x-mis. My grand parit had to sand us are prasant. So thay try to rembrer sants we last spant time with us what was like when I wear like 5 or samething like that. So thay sand me a hot weals sate and a litte kid remot cantrl car. It was so funny because Im 10 now but it is the thout right. I got two days off of school so me and my bro are home alone so the first day we got along well but not the sancant day we kinda fited. On a video game same of you might have hard gitr haro well I omost baet the game on hard cool right.-Zachary Masterson

well nothing is really going on right now soooo... Iam doing go0d in school we had a really mean sub that said that i was doing go0d in class the class was almost over and so the sub said i had to go to the offfice and talk to the princpal and she said i was doing go0d in the class soooo im like wow,wow,wow here you said i was doing go0d the class andd then she accused me of not even being in the class the time but we got it all fixed and i dident have to go 2 the princapl w0ot!! ps there will be a NASA rocket lanched to the internatinal space staion with more astronaghts and supplies ^.=.^ {happy dragon face}

I would have to say that the biggest event since we last blogged would be the weather. On Christmas day the snow drifts were almost as tall as I am. It stuck around for a long time. Turning to an icy, slippery, dirty, and hard on the bottom mess. (I fell down hard a couple of times) We were pretty much sick of the mess, and wishing that it would go away, when it started to rain. Rain down in town wasn't the problem, it was the rain that visited all that snow in the mountains that caused the problem. The rivers started to rise, and then over flow, along with all the streams, and ditches. School was canceled for Alice one day and a late start on two. I'm guessing they didn't want the buses out in the dark on the flooded roads. They finally shut down the corner of Badger and Benson. I thought they should have done it long before they did. The water was so bad you couldn't see the road at all. Nathan and his big blue truck came to my rescue. He drove me to work on Wednesday and Thursday both. And we put him to work both times. There is a small creek that runs by the office. It jumped its banks and kept raising. The bridge that crosses it is quiet high as it is down in a small gully. When the river hit the bottom of the bridge we became concerned. When Nathan got to me on Wednesday night with stories of how bad the roads were we had him help us put all the book cases, chairs, and the processor for the x-ray machine up on cinder blocks, along with Dr. Claypools roll top desk. I had to pull on the patient files that were down low and put them up high. Thursday when he brought me to work, Nathan helped put the exam rooms back together. We did leave the desk and x-ray processor up. As we watched the water raise the dr. decided we needed sand bags to go around the doors. So I called Nate and being the big buff boy he is, he came and filled a bunch of sand bags for us while I finished work. We then put all the stuff back up and left. As far as I know the office has stayed dry.

On the way home there were several places with water on the road. Our corner of Badger and Benson being the worse. They only let us on to Benson because we were in a big truck and lived down there. Nathan lost his bearings for a bit and we almost went in the ditch which would have been very bad, but he figured it out before it was to late. I was very glad to get home. Where the water wasn't deep.

Lianne invited me out to lunch on Friday so I called Nate to find the best way to get out without getting into deep of water for my car. There was no water the way he sent me and I was glad.
We had a nice lunch, and it was great to sit and visit. She is such a great lady.

Many people would disagree with me, but I'd rather have kept the ice than have the flooding. We are counting our blessings as some parts of NW Washington were a lot worse off than we were. They were saying we might be our own little corner, cut off from the rest of the state for a while, as all the passes were closed due to avalanches or mud slides and I-5 was closed because of flooding. We were lucky this time as it only took a few days for things to re-open. Last time I-5 closed because of flooding it took 10 days to get it re-opened. Most of the roads are reopened now, but many people have a lot of work ahead of them with the clean up.

Church was wonderful, all the talks in sacrament meeting gave me a lot to think about. Sis. Price gave a wonderful talk about Standing Tall and serving where you are called. Without complaining, and to do your best. It made me stop and think am I doing my best. I am trying, but know that as always there is room for improvement. Bro. Smith talked about being a Zion people. I liked his approach which was to get out of Babylon as far as we can and that sometimes that is easier than feeling like you never quiet make it to Zion. I also liked the fact that he pointed out that Zion can be anywhere, not just in SLC.

We are hoping that we are done with all disasters for a while and this week we can settle back down to a normal schedule, with kids back in seminary, and actives on Wed. night. I am glad to say that I did manage to get my early morning workout in each day. I will do it again this week. At the end of the week we are hoping to get a family membership to the local YMCA which will be fun for all of us. The boys love the pool and Alice and I love the work out room. Sometimes we will drive to the Y in Bellingham and climb the rock wall. It will be good for all of us.

Primary is going well, we split to a jr. and sr. primary at the beginning of the new year. We are still working out the kinks but I think it is going to work out well for the children. Today was our first week reciting an article of faith to someone in the branch presidency. Pres. Hackwell was fabulous as always, passing out candy to all who recited, and queuing me to help when need for some so they could have success. We sent the youngest jr. primary classes in as a class so they could help each other. The theme this year is eternal families. I am hoping that as a primary we can teach this principle, without making any of the children feel badly if their families have not been sealed in the temple. Also being sensitive to those who are living outside of the traditional family. I know we have several who have 2 sets of parents because of divorce and those that come with grandparents to church. I am praying that not only the presidency but all who teach the children can do so, in a way that the principles are taught but that no precious feelings are hurt. I just remember assuring my own children that just because their parents were no longer married, didn't mean that they couldn't be part of an eternal family. And that they are still loved by their parents and Heavenly Father.

hey :)

so since we blogged last millions of things have been happening.
however i do not remember half of them.
we have had some killer snow and killer rain. the rain melted the snow causing a huge flood.
sense the flood i havnt been able to sleep. i have no idea why, just havnt.
about a week ago i went on a date with this guy. it was pretty fun. then a couple days later he asked me out.
i said yes of course. but i had to explain the mormon rules. thank goodness he didnt care. cause all the rules can drive some people away.
umm...school is doing great. im working on raising my grades. they arent horribly low but becasue i was sick for forever they dropped a little bit. but not to worry im fixen them.
im pretty sure thats it....
oh my neighbor and i went for a walk in the snow (when there was still snow) and i walked out into this huge field and layed down. it was scary walking out to it tho casue neither of us were sure weither or not there was a ditch on that side of the road. thank goodness there wasnt one.
hope you all had a wonderful week and a happy new year :)

alice