We woke up to rain this morning which was way unexpected.  We live in an interesting era, where we are able to keep up with the weather and all kinds of information from our hand held devices.  My phone's weather icon showed no indication of rain...but we woke up to rain.  It was lovely.  There is something about rain here in the desert.  It is rare, and it makes the whole landscape change.  And it smells incredible.  At home it was the sage, here I am not sure what bush makes the incredible smell, but wow...I love it.  It has been way nice and warm for January, and rain.  I will try to remember these beautiful winter days in the midst of the horrible heat that the summer time brings.
     We had a good week, and weekend.  Jams came home on Friday horribly sick though.  I have been hearing about the horrible flu virus that has been going around this year through facebook, and the news media.  It has had me nervous, although, I am not nearly as nervous now as I was as a young mother.  I have been very blessed with healthy kids, who get over stuff.  I don't know how I think I am going to somehow escape these viruses.  I just have too many kids out there in the world and they bring the stuff home.  I remember when the swine flu scare went around, yep we got it.  And the pertussis outbreak, yep, we got that too.  Anyhow, Jamie seems to be on the mend.  I have been trying to fortify everyone else with airborne tablets.  Someone however, has been politely leaving their airborne tablets on the bathroom countertop uneaten...hopefully their immune system is up to par without them.  This virus has caused a number of youth deaths in the area.  I worry about my baby and Mo.
     Well, it is cow chasing season, and Ryan and Sage have joined in the cow chasing efforts.  I have noticed that Sags enjoys the cattle chasing way more than the farming.  The farming is sweaty physical labor without the excitement of wrastling wild cattle around.  She gets to watch all kinds of interesting rodeos daily as she drives the truck and trailer around the hills.  Ryan and Sage got home one evening really late.  We all went to straight to bed.  Ryan woke up in the middle of the night to see me doing some push ups with Bob Harper.  He asks..."So, are you ready to go?"  I could tell that he was half asleep still.  And here I am, unable to sleep, and in plank awaiting Bob's next outrageous demand, and I am thinking, "no, I am not ready to go anywhere at all." 
     "Where?"  I finally managed to ask...apparently he had lost his phone chasing cows, and figured that we needed to go and look for it in the dark, because when it rang the light would shine making it easier to see.  I could also tell that he was still half asleep and so I told him to go back to bed, and I would help him when he was rested and ready to get up.
     Well, we got up at a reasonable time.  I handed Chlo some sensible shoes, and her coat and instructed her to go get in the car as soon as she was dressed.  I got Mo dressed, and grabbed the baby, and we set out to find the lost phone before it lost all battery.  It was a really windy morning, and the wind was biting, cold.  Well, we got to the first area where cows were chased and caught.  It was up on the mesa, and it was frigid.  I bundled the kids, hollered at Chlo, who had traded her sensible shoes for some strappy high heels, and set off following horse tracks.  Chlo lasted about two minutes in the cold blast.  I was also concerned about her open toe on her shoes because there were prickly pears everywhere.  The baby was gasping, and Mo was trying to be tough, but starting to whine.  Seriously, fifty feet from the van.  I was slightly irritated at the whole situation.  I mean, why does he need his phone to chase cows?  Why didn't he leave his phone in the truck.  We have spent many family excursions searching for long lost phones.  He always loses them as he chases cows.  I was muttering slightly because I had a bazillion things to do at home too.  Shame on me.  Anyhow, I thought I would tuck the kids back in the van, and try to help closer to the van.  Just then, I saw Sagger coming back to the car too, and figured she was too cold as well.  I asked her how she was, and she explained that she had been praying and felt that we should look in several spots where they had caught calves and struggled to get them loaded.  I instantly felt shame.  Here is my Sagger girl praying to help her Dad, and I am just complaining like a real Laman and Lemuel.  I am so grateful for my kids and the lessons they teach me.  Needless to say, Ryan found the phone retracing steps.  Yeah....it is always tragic to lose all of his phone contacts.  This phone tons of numbers that we got during the stand-off and those people have become some of our closest friends.  It would have been tragic to lose all of them.
     The kids were their usual imaginative selves this week.  Chlo and Mo are often lions lately, and can be seen carrying around various stuffed animals in their mouth.  Mo also named one of my necklaces "Jibby" and he pretended it was his pet snake for days.  I am not sure if Jibby layed eggs, or what, but he carted around a bunch of beads that had once been a stylish bracelet.  He explained to me over and over, that they were snake eggs, and he handled them with care.  We actually ended up sleeping with the snake eggs one night.  Last night as I was cooking dinner, he and Chlo made quite the mess and ruckus.  I had brought in some onions from the garden.  Chlo and mo were slapping each other with the onions.  Onion greens were flung everywhere.  Luckily as we settled down for family home evening, they returned to being lions.  Lions is a nice clean game, with only a few stuffed animals being used.  I had to put on the skids of Mo's game this morning...he was pretending a mug was a boot and klomping around in it.
     We also had Stake Conference last weekend, and a new Stake Presidency was called.  I had tried really hard to make sure everyone was ready and looking their best.  Jerusha was not satisfied with the shoes that we had found her, and Chloee, in spite of my constant badgering, ended up at the conference with no shoes to go with her beautiful hot pink dress.  I found an unsavory pair of green flip flops, and they looked ridiculous with her flouncy dress.  Mo raced his school bus into the chapel, and I was thinking we were in for it.  Luckily, Dawn and her kids found us, and helped us.  Most of the kids ended up in the nursery.  Whatever works.  That bus could have been a loud nightmare.
     Baby Salem is still such a wonderful blessing.  She is pleasant and cuddly, and she smells wonderful still.  I love her to pieces.  I am so grateful for all of the kids and the things they teach me.  Jerusha made me a book for my birthday.  It has a lot of compliments in it.  Included are some games and puzzles.  
     Well, until another day!