Another week has passed me by.  It amazes me, but the older I get, the faster time slips by.  It has been an eventful one. 
     I enjoyed messaging Jamie back and forth on Monday.  Mondays are quickly becoming my favorite day of the week next to Sunday.  I love hearing how she is doing, and her adventures in the mission field.  She is growing, and learning, and finding more opportunities to teach.  Homesick, and Cache sick, but doing great things.
     This week has been so beautiful as far as the weather goes.  It has been nice, in the low 80's and upper 70's.  I do not think I have ever seen the fields this green.  Wildflowers are popping up all over the place.  I am loving my morning runs, with the smells and sounds of the Virgin River running swift.  Not looking forward to things heating up, but loving every minute of the now.
     So, Carol had her mom and sisters down this week.  We had the opportunity to have a cook out on the river with them.  Lane and Rose actually came down as well, and that has been a ton of fun.  I love Rosella Talbot.  She is and always has been a true and genuine friend to me, and to Ryan.  What you see is what you get with her, and she has so many traits that I wish I could emulate better. 
     So, Cliven had a project up at Sheep troughs that was needing to be done, and Rose was willing to put her kids to work, even though they were on vacation.  Cliven strapped a few old truck seats to a flat bed truck, and he hooked up the trailer to his Ford tractor.  He promised the kids a dutch oven dinner on the range when they finished, and sent them toward the mountain with Ryan driving.  Lane and Rose even hopped on, and believe me, this family knows how to work.  Anyhow, Jerusha, Jasmine, Oak, Chlo, and Mo also hopped on to help, along with Dantley, Noah, and Corban.  The Ford Tractor was really not ok with the work though, and kept having various problems.  At first the battery kept dying.  This had Ryan pretty frustrated.  It died at the corral at about sundown.  Ryan hates shutting a job down for the day, when he feels like it could have been done in one day.  But, the Ford is Cliven's baby, and it is sometimes stubborn for everyone else that tries to operate it. 
   I drove up and picked them all up.  I had opted to help Cliven with his dinner because I had brought part of the food and the dutch ovens.  When we returned, they were just getting ready to eat, and Cliven's potatoes did not disappoint.  I am kinda impartial to Ryan's dutch oven cooking, because he is just exceptional, but I can tell that he learned it all from his dad.  Man...it was just a beautiful night.  The wildflowers were sprouting up everywhere, and Dill was busy collecting empty shot gun shells, and shell casings.  She also gathered her share of wildflowers.  It was a fun night visiting with Lane and Rose under the stars, and watching the kids roast 'shmallows.
     The next day, we had to go and finish because people have been purposely sabotaging our water pipes and tractors.  We just barely got the Ford going again after someone sabotaged it.  So, we actually took Oak on down, and left early Friday morning.  We did not make it far before the tractor stalled...again.  Ryan stopped to fix it, and I am always impressed with my husband's mechanical abilities.  He is amazing.  Anyhow, he found a leaf in the fuel system after several hours of trying to figure out why it wasn't getting fuel.  Once he cleared that out, we had no problems with it again.  And, I was way impressed with Oak and Chlo and their hard work that day.  Good little worker bees.  Lane and Rose showed up and helped us with the last few piles of pipe, and they did an amazing job of strapping everything down.  They only lost a small handful of pieces coming down the mountain.
     One bad thing that happened, was that my phone got smooshed under the trailer tire,  I did not realize it had come out of my pocket, but it had.  It shattered the phone...literally.  When I tried to use it, tiny glass shards would poke my fingers.  The otter box just wasn't tractor proof I guess.  Anyhow, I usually go a few days, shop around, and I just couldn't do it.  Not with my missionaries p-day coming up.  I ran to Walmart and bought the same phone.  I cannot stand the thought of missing any picture sharing or emails from my missionary, and Cache.
     So, bedtime is always a fiasco.  There is a Netflix series called "Stranger Things" that many people get hooked on.  My kids have watched all episodes, and Ryan got kinda hooked this week.  Even though Dill has already watched all episodes, she has been extra clingy at night.  Mo is awful to watch the episodes with because he basically just gives you a play-by-play of all events, including plot twists, and turns.  I finally told him that he just had to keep the series of events to himself, or he couldn't watch with us.  He still cannot do it though.  He is excited and eager to spoil every episode.  I also got an incredible call from Mo's teacher.  He was kinda behind and struggling with reading at the first of the year, and at this point, he is all caught up.  That makes me incredibly happy.
     Pigs have luckily stayed put this week.  Jazz is getting her steer tamed down more and more.  I am praying fair goes well this year.  It is week after next. 

   Spring is here, and it is absolutely beautiful this year.  The hills are green and fragrant, wildflowers are beginning to cover areas.  It is so pretty.  The weather has been nice...70's, the kids have braved the chilly pool, and we had a yard clean up day yesterday.  I am loving it.  Because of all the rain, it is such a pretty spring.
    Unfortunately, the turn in the weather has turned some crazy switch on in the pigs, and they have gone completely insane this week.  They somehow dug a hole under the fence, and they were getting out into the veterinary clinic's parking lot.  Unfortunately, it took me a bit to figure out what they were doing.  I could not figure out where they were getting out.  At one point, I had Oak's pig cornered in the yard, but because there was no one home, but Dill, we were both stuck, literally.  I had him cornered, but when I moved, he would make a break for freedom, and the busy street.  Wazz just happened to be getting out of school at that time, and I texted her, and told her to hurry home.  Of course, she then expected a ride, which I could not provide.  I instructed her to run home...like now.  Luckily the Hafen's brought her home and we got the pig contained in the back yard.  But...they dug a big hole in the center of the yard, and dumped Dilly's big bucket of lemon peel soup in it...so yes, they created a lemony pig wallow in the middle of my grass.  The only plus to all of this, is that they were stinking to high heaven.  The lemon peel soup really helped them with their rancid smells.  But, this prompted a much needed yard clean-up day, and the pigs are hopefully contained until the fair.  They are stinkers...literally.
     This week was also playground Olympics for Oak.  I vaguely recall Jerusha and Jazz participating in the Olympics, but Oak was the first child to insist that I come and spend the day.  It was a very rainy day and I kept thinking they were going to cancel, which would have made Oak way sad.  But, even though it was raining, they held it.  Oak did great.  His first event was hopscotch, and he took third overall.  I was way proud of him, because I was not even aware that hopscotch had specific rules, and that Oak was aware and knew of the rules.  Not only that, but he took third...he got the bronze medal.  I was extremely proud when he was handed the silver medal, and he handed it back, claiming he only earned the bronze...that is my boy.  Then we went on to tetherball.  He was extremely aggressive in this sport as well, and came out with the bronze in that sport too.  Dill and I watched one more event that was called "Spartacus"  that entailed a bunch of people pulling flags off of each other before she had a complete meltdown, and we had to call it quits.  It was cold, and wet, and she was hungry.  I was way happy that he wanted me to come and cheer him on, and that he isn't embarrased by me yet.  He even scooped Dill up, and carried her around.  What a good kid!
    I forgot to mention that Sage had prom last week.  It was a beautiful day, and she looked stunning.  Her date was named Christian Martinez, and he is a very good looking guy who is a very talented musician.  He plays the cello.  Anyhow, when he showed up, Ryan was just questioning him on where they were going and he came off really stern and kinda scary ha ha!  I am grateful that he was brave enough to come back and pick Sage up for dinner and the dance.  Anyhow, Sage had a great day for prom.  I am super grateful that he asked her! 
     The kids found our stash of baloons this week.  I previously purchased the balloons as an incentive to sleep in their own bed.  It got to the point that the balloons were just not enough to get them to sleep on their own and so they were forgotten...until this week.  They blew up a zillion of those dum things.  They played with them for days.  Many popped, but I noticed that they all had been assigned different names, so I am not exactly sure if they were Chloee's students or friends.  Antoneo was brought with Dill as we picked up Jazz.  I was concerned about Antoneo and so I told Dill that she should probably leave him at home.  She refused to leave him home, and sure enough, he went blowing across the yard.  She was all insistent that I chase Antoneo.  I did, and rescued him, but wow.  Dill is kinda bossy.  Berey was another balloon, so Uncle Barry ought to feel really special. 
     Jamie had the opportunity this week to go and visit the Priesthood restoration site.  I saw the pictures already, and it looks like she had incredible time.  I can feel the difference with Ryan home and having the priesthood in our home.  I am so grateful for the restoration of the Gospel, and that my girl gets to be a part of sharing that with the people of Pennsylvania. 
     Ryan and I had the opportunity to go and pick up some food storage from a nice supporter who knew someone who was throwing a bunch of it away.  We had a bunch of our food storage stolen and scattered while Ryan was locked up, and so we were grateful that Patricia rescued us some.  It was a huge blessing to replace some that was lost.  Anyhow, when we arrived, Dill was wanting to have some kind of an adventure.  I told her over and over, that Dad and I were going to be busy loading food storage cans for awhile.  She finally came over and asked me if she could climb the big, red, hill across the street.  I could not see why not, and I honestly did not think she would make it very high.  Anyhow, I was kinda following her with my eyes, and she just kept getting higher and higher.  I am sure that it was not as scary or as steep as I was thinking it was, because Patricia kept saying that kids climb the hill all the time, and they do just fine getting up and down.  Anytime I looked at her, I just kinda wanted to throw up.  I was just so nervous.  I finally climbed up the hill after her, and she was really just fine.  I followed her down, and she did not stumble at all.  She did, however, start demanding a cheeseburger...what?  I have never gotten her to eat anything of the sort.  She then started demanding a cheeseburger, and fries, and a happy meal.  Ok...so, all of the sudden she wants a cheeseburger?  She mentioned it over and over and just told us to be sure that they didn't put any vegetables on it.  So, Ryan ordered her one, and she ate the whole thing.  Dill keeps us on our toes.  I can never predict what that kid is going to do or demand next.