Family Reunion

On July 16-19 2009 was the Jerry and LaWana Stevens family Reunion. It was held at Ross' sister's house here in Emmett. We all had a wonderful time. There were so many fun-filled activites during those 3 days.

We missed dearly Mike, Lisa, LaWana and Taylor Wright, Matt, Corrine, and Hailey Butler, our missionaries Trevor and Jacob this reunion. We look forward to seeing you sometime soon and love you all dearly! Chelsea was able to be here Thur and Friday of the reunion and then left to help her parents in Ore.

Thursday we enjoyed fishing and eating while families were pulling in and setting up tents in the front yard. Wish you could have seen it...looked like a really nice campground!

Friday was swimming at their pond, some more fishing, quilting and fun visiting. Then that evening Mom and Dad had a special program planned for the family. They never have seen a Flag retired before and I am not sure if any of us have either. We all sat in a circle around the fire and watched reverently while the grandsons and those who were scouts (and had uniforms) performed the Flag retiring ceremony. I have to admit I was quite emotional as I think I wasn't the only one. It was a very special moment. Then Mom and Dad drew names for the quilts. Then they and Tammy presented last years Host their quilt and Sondra and Craig were most grateful and surprised. It is so beautiful! Afterwards Mom and Dad gave out a candle in a walnut shell and we all headed down to the pond to have our candles lit and then placed them in the pond at dark. It was so beautiful to watch. It was all so wonderful.

Saturday was the service projects. Alot of family jumped in and helped cut and wrap a beef for William Mackee (sp?) who Dad and Mom get their hay from for the horses. Then Craig sawed up a bunch of logs. Jerry (our boy) changed the brake pads and roters on our van for the first time with the supervision of his Uncle Eddie and Dad. Many of the grandchildren helped some of the adults tie quilts. Then we went to the downtown building and had the famous and thoroughly enjoyable Grandma's Store! During the event we finished drawing on the quilt squares for the quilts next year. Then was the Talent show "Stevens got Talent" and yes they do! There was laughter, applause and much to enjoy. Thank you to all for sharing your talents and those who share them with us every day. Then we all went to the Emmett City Pool from 6-8 pm and we all had so much fun! A cousin of the family Shauna closed the pool that day but let us all come and play at the pool while her kids were life guards for us. We are very grateful for her kindness. Then we were able to all take showers while at the pool and how convenient that was! We ended the evening with Family Group Pictures and then had our Planning meeting for the next reunion.

Sunday we went and joined Tammy and the family at her ward.

I just want to say thank you to all who made it possible and a very memorable weekend. I am afraid that if I start naming people I might leave someone out and that is the last thing I want to do. We loved every minute of it and are thankful to be a part of this amazing family!

Ever have one of those days???

Have you ever had one of those days where you ask yourself..did I leave my head somewhere?! So far I have started out that way today. One of those serene chaos.. ok maybe not that good!

For instance I went to start the dvd with the phone instead of the remote... yeah, that really worked! Or before that I went to give the dog a bottle of water instead of pouring the water out of the cup. I am sure he thought... wow are you losing it! Or the time when I go to put the milk and cereal away and I switch the places.

Anyway, I am sure that I am normal... whatever normal is! I think it comes from being sick, not getting enough sleep and blood sugar getting too low. I am enjoying life inspite of it!

A new goal....

I have a goal that I am working towards and I just started it today. I am not going to say what it is, but will post it in a couple of months when I have accomplished it.

One of my goals is to actually Stick to my goals! I am sure that I am probably not the only person that has this challenge, but sometimes you feel like it!

I just want to be a better person and example to my family and friends. They are the ones that set the example for me so now it is my turn to give back!

Saved... by the memory stick/ and a little bit of well.. not much!

Well after much requests, I finally saved all my blog entries to a memory stick. (I hope that is what it is called). All 129 posts which is 131 pages worth. I admit, I have been lazy lately with taking pictures and posting blogs. Maybe it is over-rated?? lol. So as soon as I get pictures from our latest Reunion I will post about it.

My dear husband came home sick from work this morning. He has not been this sick in years. He rarely ever comes home. In fact this is the first time he has thrown up (sorry) from sickness. And the first time since he was around 11 years old. I sure don't like seeing him this way. I would gladly take it from him.

Our garden is doing nicely considering the heat we have been having. In fact I blanched some zucchini out of our garden today for the first time to put in our freezer for later.

Blessings come when we recognize the Lord's hands in all things. I spent $70 the other day and for that I got 70 bottles (yes 70) of Kraft BBQ Sauce (that cost me less than $7 for all of that!), 10 32 oz bottles of gatorade ( which was only $1.26 with tax for all of them), 20 boxes of cereal and 10 boxes of powdered gatorade... I am sure that there are better deals than that but for me that was a great day! Then that day I found 250 thread count sheet sets for only $4 which was normally $40. And an $80 comforter for Raelene for $8. I am grateful for the good deals that saved us so much money!

I think that about sums it up for now.

Helpful household tips week 1

I found this to be of great use around my home. Thought I would pass this on. Any way that I can save a penny here and there is great!

Creative uses for Dryer Sheets:

A sheet will repel mosquitoes on your patio. Hang a sheet when outdoors during the mosquito season.

Eliminates static electricity from your television and computer screen. Fabric softener sheets are designed to help eliminate static cling, wipe your television and computer screen with a used sheet to keep dust from resettling

A sheet can be used to dissolve soap scum from shower doors, and the tile walls. Clean the surfaces with a sheet.

A fragranced sheet can be used to freshen the air in your home. Place an individual sheet in a drawer, hang one in the closet, locker at the health club, locker at work or under the seat of your car or truck. Leave several in the RV or camper while it's in storage

. A sewing needle run through a sheet prior to sewing, can prevent the thread from tangling.

A sheet left inside suitcase luggage or travel baggage can prevent musty odors. Place a single sheet inside the empty luggage before storing.

Fabric softener sheets are claimed to clean baked on foods from cooking pots and pans. Place a sheet in a pan, fill with water, let sit overnight. Next morning sponge it clean. The antistatic agent apparently weakens the bond between the stuck on food between the pot or pans surface. The fabric softening agents helps to soften the baked on food.

Placing a sheet at the bottom of the wastebasket, helps eliminate odors found in wastebaskets.

Placing an individual sheet at the bottom of a laundry bag or hamper will accomplish the same results.

Collecting pet hairs. Rubbing the area with a sheet will magnetically attract all the loose hairs.
Eliminating static electricity from venetian blinds and window coverings. Wipe the blinds with a sheet is said to prevent dust from resettling.

Wiping up sawdust, on the shop workbench, from drilling or sandpapering is easy. A used sheet will collect sawdust like a tack cloth.

They will take the odor out of books and photo albums that don't get opened too often

. Placing a sheet in your shoes or sneakers overnight, will help to deodorize them and as a result they will smell much better in the AM.

Fun at the Water Park!

There is an awesome park in Meridian called Adventure Island Park! They just changed the name this year to that name. Last year was our first time going... I know when you live in Idaho you see less of it than those that move here do! My sister just lives about a mile or so away so we went over there Tuesday and took her 2 little ones and we had a great time there.

They have 2 different features there that fill up with water and then dump on to the victims who stand beneath waiting to be drenched!! (which happens to be my 2 oldest favorite part of the park...)

Here are Jerry, Raelene, my niece Katelin and unknown individual getting drenched. They love it!

Here is Raelene playing with Katelin

As you can see, Brayden is not in any of the pictures where it includes being dumped on...

The after math... still going back for more Jerry??!

This is one of Brayden's favorite wetting place... oh wait did I say that?! I mean... his favorite place where the water magically comes out of the ground!


tummy time or fish time?! Any way it is fun time!

After playing in the water for almost an hour they decided to get dried off by swinging. Here is my sister swinging with Brayden.


Katelin is a big girl so she likes to swing by herself.. with her cousin's supervision!

This is the biggest and neatest park I have seen. There are musical toys (huge) to play with... one being a xylophone. A huge jungle gym and playground for the kids to play and worry their parents by losing them...! It was a fun day that day and we will be back for more!

What a deal!

A few weeks ago Brayden broke our t.v. So Ross and I had looked off and on on Craigslist and never really found something we liked that fit our budget. Over a week ago I found one on Craigslist but the picture really didn't do it justice. So when we went to look at it this is what we came home with. It is 60 inches! The picture quality is really good. And the best part... he only wanted $100 for it! I had a hard time finding a small one for that price. Nothing wrong with it and has been working great for us. I know that all blessings come from our Heavenly Father and we happened to be blessed that day.

My li'l parrot

We have acquired a new pet a couple of weeks ago. We already have 1 inside cat, 2 inside dogs, a lizard, a gold fish, 6 dogs outside that Ross is training, pigeons, chukars and pheasants and now we have a parrot! OUr zoo is now complete...

Yep, he repeats everything you say no matter what you say! Has no clue what any of it means or even why he is saying it, just that he knows it is repeated from your mouth.

He is a very good looking parrot, absolutely cute.. and yes sometimes he does try to fly. His name is Brayden. What a coincindence.. we already have a Brayden. Oh wait, this is our Brayden we are talking about!

You think what you say is ok until this little guy repeats it back to you. Jerry was kind of talking back to his dad tonight and Ross told him to shut his mouth. Next thing we heard out of Brayden's mouth was "shut your mouth!" Over and over again he said those words... we couldn't help but chuckle... it was cute for a moment then we told him we shouldn't say that. Now I am sure that we are not the only parents that have this parrot challenge, we teach him horrible things... LOL! So I guess if we don't want things to be repeated we need to be careful of what we say. But when he does repeat good things it is incredibly cute to listen to him! Like when I say to Ross, "honey... and Brayden will say to daddy, honey! And sweetheart... so cute!

I love my parrot, love all of my children dearly. I am blessed to be their mother!

Spiritually fed weekend!

This weekend has been a very special one for our family. Yesterday was a family reunion on Ross' mom's side of the family. So it was the Ashby Reunion that fell on the 4th of July. What a special day to have it on. I am sure his mom will email me pictures she took from it soon. She is so good about that! We started the reunion off by setting up tables inside the downtown building in Middleton. The tables were to display talents of those who had talents to share. I don't have really any talents that I can think of other than I appreciated all the ones that were so beautifully displayed! Then we all sat out on the Church lawn to watch the parade go right in front of us. It was a good parade, but was so different than the ones in Cascade. Every year almost since I have been married to my sweetheart, we (mostly Ross's family) has participated in the parade in Cascade for the 4th of July. Ross has always ridden one of Dad's horses, along with Dad and some of Ross' siblings and nieces or nephews. Then the family has had a float in the parade most of the years. This is a tradition that has been carried on in their family for many, many years. Then afterwards we go back to his parents house for a bbq and then Ross and I and his dad and a few others will go Salmon fishing at the South Fork.

This year was quite different. This was the first parade that Ross and his Dad and some of the siblings have watched a parade in.. well... a very long time! I take that back, Ross' dad watched it last year in Cascade due to technical difficulties with one of the horses. Anyway, the parade was good, just not the same. Not many floats or horses but lots of candy was thrown out in the streets and water was sprayed towards the end, which everyone loved! It was fun to watch the children especially Brayden for this was his first time watching a parade. It took him a while to figure out the whole candy thing but he caught on and had fun opening each piece of candy after he caught it!

Then we set up for lunch and enjoyed a wonderful meal with the family. Afterwards, they had a talent show and each family got 10 min to do a talent. Oh, before that, while some were practicing for the show, Ross' mom put on a presentation for the adults in the R.S. room and gave a slideshow on the Geneology she had done for the Simpson and Lake side. Ross's sister Sondra read out loud what Mom had put together and Christine (Ross' sister) put the pictures on the projector. It was so touching and amazing to me to listen to the stories and history of those families. They were and are so much more than just names and dates on paper. There is so much history there for us to learn and to pass down. It strengthened my testimony on the importance of journaling for we wouldn't know anything about our ancestors and have anything to pass down to our children with out the journals. I guess that is why i blog so much...We are so grateful for all the hard work and years that Mom has been putting into the family history for her posterity to have and pass down and to come to know our ancestors better and know where we come from! And I know she is just in the beginning of it. Thank you Mom!

Then came time for the talent show. Oh how that family has talents!! There were music and comedy and then I got asked by my dear niece and daughter to be the director in their talent show. Oh sure, I love to be on stage and have everyone watching me... not! But I guess it went well, of course they did a great job!!

We ended up leaving the reunion early to attend the baptism of one of our friends' sons baptism in Meridian. It was a beautiful experience for Kenneth. He will long remember being baptized on the 4th of July. We then had a bbq at their house and then came home and watched a beautiful show of fireworks here in Emmett. It has been about 9 years since Emmett has had fireworks. A guy went around and got donations to have one this year and he was able to raise $30,000 for it! It was the 3rd largest in the State! It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! Tried taking pictures with our camera but it didn't work very well.

Then today we had the blessing of bringing our neighbor Patty with us to Church. She works on Sundays and it has been years since she has been able to attend. I bore my testimony today and then Patty got up for the first time to bear hers. It was beautiful. She said she felt a push to get up there. She bore a beautiful testimony, on how just last week she tried to take her life. She felt unworthy, lonely, unloved.. but she was given a second chance. WE love them dearly. The testimony meeting was very spiritual. It was a privilage to be there.

I love my Heavenly Father and my Saviour with all my heart. I love my family so much and am so blessed by them.

Happy 4th of July!

Fourth of July, how sweet it sounds,

As every year it rolls around.

It brings active joy to boy and man,

This glorious day throughout our land.

We hail this day with joy and pride,

And speak of our forefathers who died;

Who fought for liberty in days of yore,

And drove the British from our shore.

We, as descendants of that race,

Should not now our land disgrace.

Arise, freeman, arise once more,

Be earnest as in the days of yore.

Julia A Moore

Running his guardian angel tired...

I cannot begin to say just how many times we have had such very close calls. As Ross put it a few years ago... our guardian angels will feel like they are resting once we get called home. I am sure that they work overtime just for our family alone, let alone everyone else they protect.

Ross went up to Cascade last night to bring up Jerry so he could spend a couple of nights at Grandma and Grandpas house and so that Ross could help his dad cut horses. (Until I met Ross I had no idea that meant to turn them into boys instead of men...) I knew he would be late getting home but had no idea he wouldn't be back until 12:30 AM only to get up at 5 am for work, until I called up there to see if he had left and it was 10:30 and was still there. He told me he was getting doctored up, I asked what for and he said that one of the horses he was working on kicked him in his stomach and left arm really hard. His arm doesn't look pretty at all. He hurts but says he will be fine. We are very thankful and relieved that he didn't end up in the hospital. It seems like he gets kicked almost every time he helps with the horses, but at least it hasn't been anything serious.

I am grateful that he was watched over and that he was not seriously hurt. I am thankful that Dad wasn't hurt as well. I know Heavenly Father watches over his children. I love him with all my heart and love my Heavenly Father.

Now he is out there unloading a pickup bed full of gravel for the dog kennel that he needs to build tonight but he sure didn't want to go out there he said for he hurts plenty. Sometimes I wish we had someone really close to us (next door) who could just pop on over and help him even though I know he doesn't like to ask. I just am grateful for all he does for us. He serves unconditionally every day.