Bunny wars

Beatrix Potter's classic, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, has long been one of my favorite children's stories.  I have to admit though, I have always been on Peter's side - feeling bad he lost his new coat and shoes, that he didn't get to have bread and milk and blackberries with his siblings, that he had to drink camomile tea (ick!) and that old Mrs. Rabbit was a widow and her children, orphans at the hands of Mrs. MacGregor and her pie!

  

I have to admit, though, that this summer, I'm feeling a little more like Mr. MacGregor than I care to!  There are two bunnies living in our property who can often be seen frolicking in the lawn in the evening. Really sweet!  (They are bunnies for Pete's sake, how can they not be adorable??)  I can only assume that my poor broccali plants have fallen victim to one or both of these adorable rabbits.  At first, only one plant was eaten, but within a matter of days, all four were nibbled down to practically nothing!  John had some bottomless, half-buckets that I put around them.  I also saw on the internet that one could build a sort of fence with bamboo skewers.  That didn't work.  One plant is most likely dead, and the other three are trying, but I'm not sure they really get enough sun with the protective buckets (which do work) around them!  My instagram post (below) says it all.  (This, by the way, is yet more evidence that not everything you see on the internet works.  Just in case you are wondering.)

#nobroccaliforrietz'sthissummer

One of the wily culprits

Catching up

It has been a busy month!!  Holy Cow!!  I'm behind in many things, and this blog is one of the victims.

So, here is a quick photo recap of the past two weeks.  

Sister Rietz is thriving on the edge of the Mojave Desert!  It looks like she has finally embraced (Ha!) the Joshua Tree that she initially hated so much!  She and Sister Moon survived her first transfer and are still companions.

Sister Osborne left for Chile, via the Mexico MTC!!  We are so excited for her.  We had to hop from our ward to hers to hear her talk.  Trev and Kristin both agreed they could get into ward-hopping.  (Trev even said he's pretty sure he could be a High Counselor!  :)

We got to go boating with our good friends, the Burrups!  It is incredibly difficult to get together with them.  It probably won't happen again this summer, but it was a great evening.  The water was a little rough for some water activities, but as you can see, it was perfect for tubing.

Trevor turned 14 last week so that means several things...

It means we got to have the yummiest pasta dish for his birthday dinner!  (I strongly encourage you to try this tasty dish.  I'll even give you a link to click on.  You may be tempted to skip the zucchini, but we are here to tell you, this recipe benefits from every chunk of that grilled veggie!)

It means Trev got to head off for his first High Adventure activity yesterday!  They are hiking the Seven Devils loop, and this mama was nervous, but sent him off anyway.

It means there was a good excuse to get his friends together for a "Surprise" party to play frisbee golf, goofy golf, eat pizza and throw the golf balls up into the trees!  (Boys!!!)  (Side note - see the smokey hills in the background?  That day the valley was socked in with smoke from some of the 55 fires burning in Eastern Washington and south of us in Idaho. It was crazy smokey!!!)

It means Trev got to try his hand at homemade beef jerky.  Apparently, this is quite the art, there are many spices to choose from, and it works easiest with a jerky gun.  Who knew such a thing existed??  Although, I have lived in Idaho for 24 years, I should have known that!

 The kids and I got a chance to attend a fireside by Noelle Pikus-Pace.  See her Olympic medal in the picture?  She was the silver medalist at the Sochi olympics in the Skeleton.  She was a great speaker, who had some good advice for the kids.
1- Where are your sights set?  She talked about setting goals, and how you will end up where you set your sights.
2 - You can look back or you can move forward.  After a devasting accident involving a 4 man bobsled and her leg (guess which was the loser?) she had to decide which way to go.  She chose to move forward.
3 - Hold on to your sled - which she likened to the iron rod.  She knew if she held on to her sled she would make it through the course, although not always riding on the sled.

She was very gracious afterward and took a lot of time to take pictures with anyone who wanted to after she was done speaking.  I think my favorite part was the replay of her final run, then realizing she had won the medal and celebrating with her family!  The Olympics always make me cry, and this was no exception!  It was a really great evening.

Along with the above pictures, other things that have happened this month are
-another really sad funeral for a 14-year old boy
-continued nurturing of 90+ pheasants
-Girls' Camp for Kristin (so hot and dry but so fun!)
-so many people moving in and out of our ward it's hard to keep track, meaning many opportunities to help people get ready to move and getting to know the new ones!
-the continuing yard project in which I unknowingly drove a stake right through the pvc pipe, and thus created yet another phase to the project in which we (ok, John and Kristin) had to repair the pipe.  You should know that just looking at the piece of pvc pipe speared by the stake they took out made them smile the rest of the night!!! (I'm just here to help!)
-the launch of our Etsy store, Clabeau, which deserves a post of its own, so be looking for that soon.

And lastly, do you feel the breeze?  The winds of change are a-blowin'.  (more about that soon as well!)

On the river

Way back when I first met John, he told me his family would go water skiing on the Snake River.  Now, I did not go water skiing that often when I was growing up, but the few times I did go, we went on a lake, or a reservoir, but never a river.  The river I was most familiar with was the Platte River, and it was no where near wide enough to ski on, at least not in Nebraska or Colorado where I saw it.
Fast forward a few (ahem) years, and here we are.  Spending our hot summer Fridays or Saturdays, doing just what I couldn't imagine - boating on the Snake River.  I guess technically we are jet skiing, but we have been on boats as well. 

We have a favorite spot to go, and are actually quite put out should someone already be there.  We almost feel like we have rights to the place.  :)  It is perfect for us, as we need a place to set up camp and get to our jet skiis easily when we need to switch drivers/riders/wake boarders/tubers.  Our little rocky beach on the island suits us just fine. 

Trev and Sam being teenage boys

We got a slow start this year, and this past Thursday was our first time this summer.  Kristin was at Girl's Camp, so we beefed up our numbers and invited Trev's friend, Sam who moved away last summer and is visting, to come with us.  Here they are doing funny, teenage boy stuff.  See our set up?  It works for us. We had a nice afternoon, and as it was really, really hot, it was a great way to pass the afternoon, even if it was a bit windier than we like.

Now, you may or may not know this, but our numbers need beefing up because there are fewer and fewer of us coming each year.  And let me tell you, it is weird to not have very many people.  In fact, the four of us have commented that it is very different, and I'm not sure we really like it, but we are making the best of it.

We headed out today, with a contigency plan if someone should (heaven forbid) be in our spot!!  We decided we would load up our stuff, climb on the jet skis and go across the river to one of the small beaches we have seen in years past.  When we got there, we did have to employ our plan, and headed across, found a spot and set up for the afternoon.  Since it was on the other side, it was SHADY!!!  That was great!!  It was also much BUGGIER, and that was not so great, but the bugs we thought were mosquitoes didn't eat us alive, so it was tolerable.  

It was a GREAT day!!  The kids got in some wake boarding, John and I realized we forgot to give the jet ski driving refresher lecture, our dinner was yummy, and we didn't roast in the 100 degree heat.

One of the best parts of the day came toward the end.  We were cruising the shoreline, scoping out other spots on the shady side of the river and we spied a bald eagle sitting on the shore.  He would dip his beak in the water every so often, but otherwise, just sat there taking it all in.  We kept our distance and watched him for a few minutes, wishing we had a camera, and trying to be close, but also staying far enough away that we didn't startle him.  We thought there might be a moment of drama when a few geese paddled by, but they kept their distance also, and the eagle just watched them pass by.  In all our years of being on the river, we have never seen a bald eagle!  A little less exciting, but novel, nonetheless, was seeing a pelican fly over us.  It happened twice today, so we don't know if it was one pelican flying over us twice, or two pelicans each flying over once.  I guess it doesn't matter, but we were happy to see that bird species today.

Trev showing his stuff

And Kristin also

Our two regulars these days

It would seem that dinner was a very solemn event

Each life that touches ours for good.

Last Saturday, I received a phone call that I wished wasn't true.  Our Relief Society President called to say Bryce Winterbottom had been killed in a car accident.  (It turns out it was a plane crash, but initially a car crash was the info people had.)  I truly thought that it couldn't be true, and that he was really just very badly injured but would be okay.  Sadly, it was true.

Bryce was a young husband and dad.  Just 29, his ultra-light airplane stalled and crashed in a field south of town.  He married his Jr. High sweetheart, Mandy, shortly after he got home from his mission.  They lived up north while he worked at his Bachelors and then Masters degrees in Engineering.  John and I were able to attend their sealing in the Spokane Temple.  They have lived in our ward for 2 maybe 3 years.  Bryce was the Teacher's Quorum advisor, and Trevor would have been in his class in just a few weeks.  Actually, just 2 weeks ago, Trevor went on a 10 mile bike ride with the Teachers and Bryce was the leader in charge.

Mandy, his wife, is one of Ashley's good friends.  I was heartbroken to hear the news, but even more so to have to call Ashley and let her know what happened.  Due to the time difference, I had to wait until about 4 pm, and I reached her before she went to church.  Australia is too far away to come home for the funeral, but she would have come if it was possible.  Bryce was her friend also.  Brandon and I had a conversation later in the week, and I mentioned that I was sad even though I know what the Plan of Salvation is, that it is true, and that Bryce is in a better place.  He mentioned that he and Ashley have talked about that, and that there are still things like agency, that sometimes make it a bit harder to swallow.  Did the Lord really need Bryce more in heaven than Mandy needed him here to help raise their family?  He was the provider, the Priesthood leader, the dad, the husband!!  Sometimes it doesn't make sense.

All week, as I thought about his death, and the new life that Mandy will be leading as a single mom of four young children, the song, "Each Life that Touches ours for Good" ran through my head.  There is a fundraiser going on via the Internet, www.gofundme.com/brycewinterbottom.  It started 5 days ago and the goal was 10,000.00  They reached that before 2 days were up and now, 5 days later, there is over $25,000 in it, and the goal has been raised to $50,000!  Seeing the outpouring of support for Mandy and her family, confirms what I couldn't get out of my head - that Bryce had touched a lot of lives in his short lifetime.  (Not to discount Mandy at all.  She is no sloucher, and done her fair share of life-touching.)  It also confirms that when we, the friends and family are confronted with such tragedy, we don't know what to do but give the family food and money.  What else can we do at such a time??  (Today, as I was talking with Bryce's mom before the funeral, she told me that several things have happened over the past week that have let them know that it is okay, and that there is a reason.  I'm grateful they have had that confirmed to them.  What a comfort that must be as they deal with this awfully hard thing.  Maybe some day, some of the rest of us will be able to sort through and understand why it happened when it did.)

Today, after the funeral, there is no doubt in my mind that Bryce had a lot of influence for good on a lot of people!  The overflowing chapel was the first sign, but the talks that were given were the icing on the cake.
One man spoke of our grief, and how we have to cry and mourn and grieve before we can get to a place where we are okay.  He also spoke of Bryce's service to his son when he taught the son to ride a bike, and then fixed it after his mom accidentally ran over it.

Three men stood and declared that Bryce was their best friend.  They each shared remembrances of him, and the ways he touched their lives.  (I know for sure that one of those friends gained confidence in himself because of his interaction with Bryce.  I think his life would have been very different had he not know Bryce.)  I think being considered a best friend by at least 3 people is about the highest compliment anyone can garner.

Bryce's siblings took turns sharing thoughts and memories about Bryce.  Honestly, it was such a great thing to be able to laugh about the things he did.  I think everyone felt better after that.  Bryce never lacked for adventure, to be sure!!  But he also never lacked for service and love.  It was apparent that he knew what life was really all about.

An uncle shared a few experiences he and Bryce had together, and then his dad spoke.  Ed's talk was full of humor, but also the spiritual side of Bryce, and one thing in particular that happened and enriched both of their lives as a result.

So, as I said my suspicions were confirmed, Bryce had touched people and it had been for the good. No wonder I couldn't get that song out of my head.

Each life that touches ours for good
Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;
Thou sendest blessings from above
Thru words and deeds of those we love.

What greater gift dost thou bestow,
What greater goodness can we know
Than Christlike friends, whose gentle ways
Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.

When such a friend from us departs,
We hold forever in our hearts
A sweet and hallowed memory,
Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.

For worthy friends whose lives proclaim
Devotion to the Savior's name,
Who bless our days with peace and love,
We praise they goodness, Lord, above.
(Hymns, 293)