March 2019: March 2014

03 March 2014

The month of March! In like a lion and out like a lion! We want warm weather without wind! Oh, yeah, maybe April will be warmer and less windy. The events of this month were mainly inside the warm house. There were only a couple of days we were able to get outside play.

I would like to catch you up on our family members. To begin with, Dawn has contacted most of her family and there are ups and downs. Brian and family are still planning to attend the cruise in November and the kids are doing well in school. Brian called to tell his mother happy birthday and send a raft of photos of his kids snowboarding. Monica and Adam are very busy and Roxy and Burton are active. We appreciate the photos and contact. Monica is a champion in sending clips of the kids. We love the contact via the cell phone.

My kids are busy. We did see Josh and Holly as they helped us out when we were trapped coming back from Stanford, CA. Steph is working hard at her new job. Robyn is also the champion for sending photos and clips of the kids over the cell phone. How grand it is to know how the grandkids are doing. Not much from Ben, I always keep him in the loop whenever news comes up of the family.

We are leaving the first of April to visit the Hodgsons in Washington/Oregon. It has been some time since we have seen Mike and Benny.

Well, the capstone events of this month are:

Snow – March started out with snow and cold, burrrr!

The first of March was COLD!

Dawn’s birthday – “Will you still love me when I’m 64”! The song by the Beatles sums it up. Yes I will always love you. She is my best friend and loyal companion.

Dawn's Birthday

Wind and snow – More snow flurries with constant wind. I did get out twice to golf. A third time I had to leave the course at Sage Lake because of the cold wind. Julia, Woody, Dawn and I golfed at Shelley one evening but that day ended in cold wind before we finished.

One day of golf before the cold wind starts to blow!

Sold the Toyota Avalon – paid off the new Honda – Denis from Challis came and got it for his wife.

Good by Avalon

The new greenhouse – Woody and I finished putting the green house together. Julia and I filled the pots and planted the seed. There is new life inside. We thought the wind was going to blow it right of the foundations. It survived and hold in the heat for the new little vegetables breaking through.

All the seeds are in pots

The new green house!

Inside activity:

Loading bullets – I am loading ammunition to take to Arizona next fall. Pistol powder is not available and there is a shortage of just about every component in reloading.

Orion helping reloading bullets

Body building – We are at the gym nearly every day. I want my body back. The eighties were good to me. I had the youth and determination to put on muscle and stay in good shape. Now I trying to get back some of the size I once had. Aging makes is difficult but I am learning you can add size to the skeleton with hard work. I just do not have the ability to recover from heavy lifting and the internal physiology is slowing. I am back eating protein shakes, taking supplements and eating more than usual. I have put on muscle and loosing fat. I still jog or spin three times a week for an hour. I lift three times a week, heavy on Saturday. I just worked out with “Earl “The Pearl” Snyder, who is judging the NGA Rocky Mountain Natural Pro/Am Championships tonight. I remember attending the IFBB finals in California with Roger Millar in the 80s. We were both lifting heavy and working with Bell Pearl (Mr. Universe) from Medford, Oregon.

The Eighties were the building years.

Thirty years later!

My goal for the next 10 years! To be just like Earl "the Pearl" Snyder!

Family History Conference at Madison High School in Rexburg – The 3^rd ward Family History Consultants (Alysa Brayton, Dennis Croft and myself) attended the second largest FH conference in the church in Rexburg this month. We attended several workshops but most impressive was Dennis Brimhall of the Seventy presentation. He reviewed the Root Tech conference and changes in the Family Tree program. Family History has grown tremendously.

.Madison High Conference Center

Anecestry.com and other have now joined as partners in making available the members of the church. This is my passion.

Taxes – Oh yes, I did pay my taxes. You can see “Flat Ronald” with Susan Marushia, my tax agent together on St. Patrick’s Day finishing up on paying State and Federal tax. Hurts!!

The 22^nd of March, 2014 began as the nicest day following the 21^st day (first day of spring). This week there has been winds in excess of 60 mph. As a matter of fact the wind was so strong it blew the 2x3’ metal drip pan underneath my VW over the street and onto the law of my neighbor, Paul Phillip.

This morning I arose to a beautiful, bright, calm day. However, the temperature was 20 degrees outside. Dawn was leaving early for “Time Out For Women” and I was headed for the Apple (gym). She spent the day in meetings listening to speakers with insights to living gospel lives in a modern world. I spent the morning doing push-ups, lifting weights and jogging on the tread mill. We shared lunch together and she and her sister Christine were back to the second half of their meeting. I assisted my brother, Woody with his work on the downstairs bath room then off to golf at Journey’s End golf course in Shelley. All of this introduction to describe the gratitude we had for one of the nicest days of spring we have experienced in 2014. No wind, no clouds, no unpleasant weather, just a clear crisp day to spend together enjoying the out of doors.

The 30^th of March was the biggest snow storm of the year!

02 February 2014

The beginning of February we spent a week in Bullhead Arizona before returning to Idaho.

On our way back to Idaho we spent the night with the Nebekers (a couple we were with on our mission in Mozambique, Africa). We also visited with Doug and Liz Adams (a couple from Yuba City, California). Lastly we visited with our former mission president Loren Spendlove and his wife Tina.

On our return to Idaho we found all well with our home. February can be cold and it started out very cold. Dawn and I jogged the Green Belt of the Snake River in early February and it was extremely cold (below zero) and the river was completely froze over. After being back from our cruise it was very difficult to jump back into the cold of Idaho.

I did uncover the VW later in the month but had to put the tarps back on until March.

This month we spent many days inside avoiding the cold weather. However, we did make a couple of nice outings. Dawn’s niece was married in Victor, Idaho at the Moose Creek Ranch. Rachel and Shawn Benjamin are now husband and wife.

February is also Valentines Day month on the 14^th and our wedding anniversary on the 16^th. We celebrated our 13^th wedding anniversary at home with a steak dinner provided for by Robyn and Wayne Lau through Omaha meats. Thank you very much, we thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful meal.

The paramount event this month centers around my darling wife, Dawn. She flew to San Francisco on the 20^th of February to be tested as a stem cell donor. Once more she was asked by the Natl’ Stem Cell Donors organization to assist her recipient of the past. Yates Lancing received a stem cell transplant from her 8 years ago. He is in need of a replenishing dose of Dawn’s T cells.

When she returned all was well with the testing and we both traveled to Palo Alto at Stanford University to complete the collection for Yates. We were picked up at the SF airport by Andy the limousine driver and transported to the Stanford Terrace Inn for two night stay. It was a beautiful motel with such an array of exotic plants. Then all day at Stanford Medical Center on the 28^th of February. Dawn is such a trooper and so pleasant throughout the procedure of catheterizing the jugular vein and lying in waiting for 8 hours with blood being drawn and separated into white cells and red cells that are returned to her.

The trip home was not so pleasant. Due to the terrific bad weather on the east and west coast our flights were delayed in San Francisco and Salt Lake City. As a result Josh (my son) picked us up at the SLC airport on Saturday and took us to Jon and Holly’s to stay the night. We had a great visit with all and so appreciated the hospitality on such short notice.

Once back home we settled down to routines of temple service and caring for those in need. One of them was my mother with a toilet leak. I was able to repair with all new parts saving her the need to replace the toilet. On that note I will close and hope for a warmer March.