Life as we know it!

Man I just looked at my last post and it has been almost 3 weeks. Has my life been that hectic? It's funny how so many unimportant things can take priority over the important things. To tell you the truth I don't know what has taken up so much of my time the past little bit. Last week I went into a cleaning frenzy. Dusting, shampooing carpets, sending lots to the D.I. However, looking at my house today you would never know all the work I did. I am continually amazed at how fast dust returns. I think it lurks up in high places until it knows I am all done dusting, then swoops down to where it started. The week before that the kids were out of school for spud harvest, or maybe that was 2 weeks ago. Who's counting?

Two weeks ago I finally got my mom set up with this guy, Cal Murdock. I have wanted to set her up with him for so long, but wasn't quite sure how to go about it. After Shawn's birthday party our friend Swede called and said we should set my mom up with Cal. He said he had already talked to him and Cal was all for it. We decided it would be fun to go on a short trail ride then have a little lunch afterward. Mom was so excited to go on the trail ride. She said she had waited 42 years for this. When I asked her what that meant, she said her and dad had always wanted to have enough horses to take the whole family pack tripping in the mountains. As it went she started having kids, and didn't have time to ride much. I don't ever remember her riding while I was growing up, anyway, as life went they were never able to bring that dream to fruition. She said she was really excited about the ride, but really nervous about meeting Cal. We met up Saturday morning and hit the trail. About 1 1/2 into the ride a pole from a forest service fence that was falling down caught Cal on the stirrup, as he took his foot out of the stirrup the pole dropped and poked his horse in the belly causing it to buck. With Cal not ready and his foot out of the stirrup he went flying and landed so hard on the ground. He was hurt really bad. He couldn't move and was in alot of pain. Swede & Suzanne jumped on there horses and hightailed it back down the trail to find cell phone service and call for help. Shawn hiked to the top of the mountain hoping for some service. Ben, Kim, mom & I stayed with Cal, trying to keep him warm, and talking. It was amazing how good a sport he was. He continued to stay in good spirits even hurting as bad as he was. Help arrived in the form of EMT's, then the air rescue helicopter flew right in 20' away and they got him out of there. He kept saying they better not get him to the hospital and tell him he had a sprained pinky after all the ta-do he had put up. A sprained pinky would have been better than his 9 broken ribs and 3 broken spots in his back. What a trooper. He is home from the hospital now and doing really well. Mom said she stopped yesterday and they had a great visit. I think she really likes him, if nothing else, they should have good times together as friends.

It is almost the end of October and I went out in the greenhouse today and picked a cantaloupe, some peas, & tomatoes. It is awesome. I think it is going to be put to the test this week as it is supposed to get pretty close to 20 degrees. Hopefully it stands up to it. I am hoping to keep things growing till at least the end of November. Wouldn't that be cool?

I had all of the kids scheduled for braces, but had to cancel them due to our finances. It has really been a struggle this year financially. We are praying for snow to get us through the winter. We were able to pay off several of our business debts this Summer, which is great, and we got the office leased which takes a big burden off of us financially. We won't make any money on it but it will pay for itself and the shop. Anyway, the past month we have spent countless hours looking at things and trying to figure out how to make things work. It is coming down to cutting our spending, (eating out, travel, gifts and so forth), claiming unemployment, & probably most important relying on Heavenly Father to get us through this. Our most important goal is to try not to let the stress of this burden reflect into our family and the way we treat each other. I know we will get through this, and I am so thankful that we have each other and our family. We are so blessed. We have our health, a beautiful home, an awesome family, food on the table, things that we can enjoy that don't cost money (fishing, hunting, riding, playing) and the gospel and knowledge that we will be blessed if we endure.