May 2021 Hiking and Mothers

Our fun hike in May 2022

One of my better looking photos. 😀

For Mother's Day in May 2021 I found this photo from years ago in memory of my 2 mothers.
My mother-in-law, Cheryl, and my own mom, Farelyn.

 

Archery

Look at this yummy dinner of biscuits and gravy with fresh veggies and fruit that Daddy-O made!

Archery Practice. Hiram felt like he was in the Hunger Games.

Look at Hiram's form.

James and Grant ready, aim, shoot.

James' perfect skill

You've got this Grant!

Get that bullseye!

They enjoyed all the practice, but their thumbs and fingers ended up numb from all the shooting.

Grampa got in some nice shoots too!

Look at that! Made a straight shot.

Grampa's so good, he can shoot sitting down, but he did hit the box holding the arrows 4 times in a row instead of hitting the actual target.

James is one growing teenager, eating and eating and eating.

National Champion Qualifiers

These 2 boys did it!

Noah and Jaden competed in National Qualifiers for Speech and Debate on February 18-19, 2022.

Noah and his friend, Emma, won in Duo Interpretation, and Jaden won in Original Oratory.

It was such a tender moment to see Noah bear hug Jaden and literally cry tears of joy in celebrating Jaden's success.

Hooray!

These 2 boys were the star of the night.
Way to go, Champions!!!

16 Rigby students qualified for Nationals.

It was an exciting night for all.

Here were all the National Qualifiers in the Idaho Mountain River District.
Jaden and Hiram are in there somewhere.

We stayed at Towneplace Suites in Twin Falls.
The hotel was so nice with a hot tub and a swimming pool.

All the high school kids had fun.
Noah and Jaden enjoyed the water.

Each hotel room had a mini kitchen, and even a little dishwasher.
We all felt spoiled to stay in such luxury.

Happy Birthday to our Newest Teenager!

 James turned 13 today! He has been counting down to this day since Christmas.

He has been looking forward to be able to watch PG-13 movies for a while now.

James has read "The Hunger Games" and watched those movies as he's read the books in the last couple weeks.

Today he watched "The Cokeville Miracle" and liked that movie.

He was happy with his gifts of a book light, "The Land of Stories" series books, one of Hiram's hats, $20 from Grampa, and some treats.

This teenager is going to be amazing and do some great things.

Yay for being 13!

Along with his great gifts, James' has Piper as one of his best friends.

A Devastating Loss - April 2021

Look at these boys and their building skills!
Nice job James and Grant.

This is quite a story.
Cozette was due with her last batch of puppies at the beginning of May 2021.
Cozette was 5 years old and ready to deliver.
She started spotting a green fluid so I took her into the vet.
They said she may have been miscarrying.
They took an ultra sound and counted 4 pups and 4 heartbeats.
I took her home and watched her closely.
She was about 1 week before her due date.
She started spotting a lot more, so back to the vet we went.
In retrospect, I should have let nature take its' course.
They decided to induce her.
The first puppy was born and died shortly after.
The puppies were too little to be born.
I took her home to have the rest.
She ended up having 5 more puppies over the next 3 days.
None of the puppies survived very long.
Cozette was distraught. I was distraught.
Cozette's health deteriorated through the weekend.
I took her to a different vet, who gave her some antibiotics.
Thankfully, Cozette got better after that.
I realized from this experience how much Cozette means to me and all of us.
She is one of our family!

This puppy was born from Roper and another dog he mated with.
We were able to sell her for $400, which helped pay for the vet bills for Cozette.
Grant loved this cute little dog.

Goodbye Sweet Roper!

April 2021

This was a very sad time.

We decided since Cozette was due with her last batch of puppies from Roper that it was time to let him go.

Roper was one yippy dog.

Trying to get him to stop barking was difficult.

He also loved Cozette very much when she was in heat and wouldn't leave her alone.

Roper would sometimes nip at young kids who would try to pick him up or bother him.

But, he was a sweetheart too.

He loved to snuggle, loved to play with his toys, and was a happy dog.

It's been almost a year since we've let Roper go, and I still miss this little guy.

But, he did go to a home of a young couple who fell in love with him, shower him with lots of attention, and changed his name to Ocho.

One kid brought this for his elementary school lunch one day.
I was so fascinated that I took pictures.
He actually ate this!
I've never had it before, but he said they taste good.

Haircut time! April 2021

I had a lot of people comment on my hair saying I looked like Julie Andrews. 😊

April 2021 Soccer and Basketball Season

Jaden finished his last year in competitive soccer this spring season and sure enjoyed playing goalie.

Hiram enjoyed playing basketball with the Young Men at church ball.

You got this Hiram! Make a basket.

Hiram was also a great blocker. Not many could get past him.

 

April 2021 Memories

April 3, 2021 Piper will sleep anywhere, but it's sure hard to do dishes when she sleeps in front of the sink.

April 4, 2021 Happy Easter! Look at the stash from their Easter egg hunt!

April 2021 Do you see the size of this carrot we grew in our garden? It's Huge!!!

April 2021 - Awwww! These 2 are becoming snuggle buddies.

April 2021 - Piper won't be this small for much longer.

Happy Valentine's Day

Grampa and I spent the last 2 days in the hospital.

What a day! Dad and I woke up yesterday morning at 5 am to a crash, boom, bang! We came out to find Grandpa flat on his face, and a glass shattered on the floor (my favorite drinking glass). He had been trying to get a drink and had fallen. Dad got Grampa up to his seat at the table and got him a full cup of water, which he promptly dropped the cup and spilled the water everywhere. He balled up his fist and couldn’t release it when Dad tried to hand him his cup back. I proceeded to clean up the glass on the floor and sopped up the water along with Dad. 

After Grampa took a few sips of water, he started throwing up. After Dad and I talked, we realized we had better take him to the hospital. He was getting weaker and weaker. He really hadn’t eaten much of anything since Wednesday, had been in a lot of pain, and was falling a lot. So, I showered and then off to the hospital we went.

Just getting Grampa in the hospital, he almost fell 3 times. Thankfully I was able to get him to a wheelchair. They ran lots of tests, gave him a liter of liquid, and asked all kinds of questions. The tests all came back fairly normal, so they were going to release us to go home. But when Grampa got up to go, he almost fell again and nearly blacked out. They got him back into bed, admitted him into the hospital, and ran more tests.

After getting medicine to help him not be in pain, Grampa ate and drank and ate and drank without throwing up.

Today his color was back, he was eating and drinking normally, and walked up and down the halls without falling.

The doctor was going to have him stay for another day for observation, but we told her we were going home.

She, thankfully, agreed to discharge us.

We came home and had heart-shaped pancakes for dinner.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!