The true story of MY Kitten Smoky

Going through old papers today and found this very large handwritten book (words and illustrations) by my daughter, Abby. I'm guessing she was about 6 or 7 when she wrote this. I wanted to share this very touching story.  (Spelling and grammar left intact) The thing that really got me about this cute little peak into her childhood was not just the adorable way it was written, but by how heartless her parents seemed to be about the disposal of the body. I really don't remember it that way.  I thought we buried poor little Smoky. And the title seems to imply that there were some falsehoods floating around.

The true story of MY Kitten Smoky   by Abby Mitchell

It was a windy night and Smoky was by Some big bords? Then a bord fell on smokys tail.

I herd a big crash!  I ran outside.  I looked at smoky.  I took the bord off his tail.  I tride to wake him up but he wouldn't get up.

I ran inside and tolled David, Lisa, Joni and Andy what happened.  they tride to wake Smoky up but they couldn't.

My mom and dad were not home so we didn't know what to do.

We thought what to do about smoky.

When my mom and dad got home we told them them what happened.

My Mom and dad know what to do about Smoky ether! So we trew him away.  I miss smoky!

Soaking It All In

 

 

On Saturday morning we were honored and excited to attend the piano recital of Emily’s students.  It was great fun to see the kids that Emily has been teaching.  She has a lot of students!  I have to say, though, that the highlight for me was watching Nathan and Zach.  They each played a couple of pieces, actually Nathan played 3 of them. 

 

Zach was the first pianist on the program, right behind the one lone flute player.  He’s pretty much a newbie at the piano, but did pretty good!  After his cute little rendition of Alouette Zach stood….

 

faced his crowd…..

 

And looked from right to left as his appreciative audience rewarded him with their thunderous applause.

 

 

…..and then he solemnly bowed. 

 

It was very cute.

 

 

 

 

 

Bear Adventures

This fall right before Halloween, David was here with his family, so I decided our family needed to go to Bear World. I wasn't sure if I could get them all to go, but I didn't worry too much about it.  I just thought whomever would like to go, can.  And I would pay for the whole thing.

I decided to take them all on Saturday, the last weekend of their season.  I happened to hear on the radio that you would get a pretty good discount if you went during their last couple of days, so I told the fam......

I knew David and Emily and their boys would want to go and I was fairly certain that Joni would want to take Ledger. Beyond that I wasn't sure if anyone would bother.

Boy was I surprised!  Lisa AND Tyler came (I was kind of surprised about Tyler) Joni, and her 2 little kids, and shockingly, at the last minute, Mike and Andy decided to also go. (We really felt badly that Abby, David and Asher were not in town and therefore unable to come.)

We piled into 2 cars, both filled to the gills.  As the 2 cars play a part in my little story I have to tell you who was in each car.

Car A:
David's Explorer with David driving.
Also inside: Emily (front seat) Sorren and me in the middle seat, and Nathan and Zach in the back.

Car B:
Joni's car, with Joni driving. 
Also inside: Mike (front seat), Andy, Ledger, London in the middle seat, and squishily seated in the very back, Lisa and Tyler


We arrived at the gate  with Car A in front.  I was quite impressed with the lady who sold us the admittance tickets.  I told her I was paying for both cars.  She asked how many people total and the ages of each.  She worked her magic and we all got in for less than a hundred.  I was amazed.

She told us to go ahead and drive through the animals and that we could go as many times as we wanted until 5:00.  Having never been there before I wasn't really sure what she meant, but we headed through the gate.

It was pretty awesome!  It was so fun to see the white elk and buffalo, all the deer and other animals just lounging around. In our car (Car A) Sorren was so excited!  We let him get out of his carseat so he could stand up next to the window and really look. He kept making really cute little growly noises.  Nathan and Zach seemed to also love looking around and commenting on the animals.  It would have really been a fun relaxing time, but David happened to notice, as soon as we drove through the animal gate, that he was almost out of gas!

Meanwhile back in Car B they were having their own kind of fun. I wasn't actually IN car B so I'm just related the facts as I heard them.  Ledger was also let out of his carseat, I presume so that he could also have a closer look.  He promptly began to climb all over the place, including the front seat.  Mike was starting to get agitated because of Ledger's acrobatics.  At one point in time Ledger was actually climbing around on the dash in front of Joni, the driver.

In Car A we finished driving past the tamer animals and then proceeded through another more secure gate, (which kind of reminded me of the entrance into Jurassic Park) into the bear enclosure.  It was very exciting to see bears everywhere we looked.  They had lots of little "caves" for them, but mostly the bears were out in the sun watching us as we drove past.  I guess there were signs all over showing which way we were to drive, but at one point we saw a great big bear ambling across the next road over, so we skipped an entire loop to drive directly over to where the bear was to have a closer look.  The entire time I'm thinking in the back of my head "this would not be a good place to run out of gas, but I'm sure we're okay".

Meanwhile, back in Car B Ledger also got very excited about all the bears and wanted to take a closer look.  He kept trying to open the car door to do just that.  Mike was pretty calm about that little development. Just kidding.

When we finished driving through the bear enclosure I was kind of surprised to see that there was a kind of amusement park with activities and a petting zoo up ahead.  I had no idea that was there.  I was ready to stop and check things out when we got a phone call from Car B.  "We're going around again cause we didn't see everything."  And I could see that they were already heading through the gate back into the animal enclosure.  Without a second's hesitation David put Car A into gear and we were through the gate right behind them.  It was only after we went through the gate that I remembered, we were out of gas!

The second time around was pretty similar to the first with 1 major difference.

There was a Bear World truck right in front of us, with the back full of paying customers, that kept stopping for long periods of time while all the people in the back threw out food to the bears.

 This time Car A kept speculating about if we ran out of gas who would come first, Bear World employees with a gas can or hungry bears wanting a human snack.

Car B was having there own excitement.  Since the bears were all being fed they were out on the road and surrounded our cars.  Ledger thought this was an extremely good time to see one up close and personal and actually opened the door!  Mike was very calm. Ha. Ha. Ha. His agitation rubbed off on Joni who tried to escape from the herd of bears by putting her foot on the gas pedal.  She's pretty sure she might have run over a bear toe or two.

All's well that ends well, though.  We made it out of the bear enclosure without running out of gas (Car A) or getting eaten by a bear (Car B).

This time we actually did stop and enjoy the fun at the petting zoo.  A few of us used giant slingshots to catapult potatoes at some targets out in the field, a straw maze was run,  animals were petted in the petting zoo, rides were ridden in the amusement park.

It was a very fun outing.  I can't wait to do it again next year.  This time I'm going to ride in Car C.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Slows for Important Work

Yesterday, Saturday, as soon as I woke up I really felt like I needed to go to the temple.

I slept a bit later than normal, so it was 8:45 when I woke.  Too late for the 9:00 session.  I wondered if I could make it to the 9:45.

I went through my morning routine of feeding the chickens, gathering the eggs, eating breakfast and getting dressed with hair and makeup.  I kept having little set-backs, like I couldn't find my lipstick which was in my purse instead of in my bag.  I would start to get anxious and feel rushed and then I would just remind myself that if I was meant to make the 9:45 session I would.  If not, then I would just sit and meditate and relax until the 10:30.
I looked at the clock when it was 9:30 and thought, "I've got to leave the house right now."  I started driving to the temple trying not to feel rushed.  I kept catching myself speeding up in the car and then I'd slow back down to the speed limit. 

I hit all the lights green and thought that maybe I really was going to make it to the earlier session.  I only had one more light left and then it was just a couple more blocks to the temple.  I could see that it was green as I came closer to it, but right at the critical juncture of decision, it turned yellow on me.  I calmed myself and stopped.  I didn't want to rush through a barely red light fearing that it would make me feel even more rushed and harried.  I thought, "well, I'm not going to make it now.  Might as well go slow" because I knew that the lights had to cycle through to 2 or 3 other traffic patterns before it would give me the green light.  I had barely stopped the car, though, when a minor miracle occurred. The light immediately turned green for me, even though there were a lot of cars waiting in the other lanes to go.  I drove up to the temple as slowly as I could, and still felt like I was on the verge of feeling rushed.  There were no close parking spots, so I had to park in the back half of the lot and walk the distance to the front door.

Inside the temple I was checked at the recommend desk and then walked back to the dressing room.  I thought I might still make it to the 9:45. I took my white dress and shoes out of my bag, locked my bag and street clothes into my locker, and then dressed into my whites as quickly as I could.  I sighed a little frustration sigh when I realized that I had only taken 1 stocking out of the bag.  I had to retrieve the key, open the locker, unzip my bag and find the stocking before relocking everything back up.  I then finished putting on my shoes and socks. 

I walked to the restroom, almost bumping into another woman who was walking the other way.  I knew it was because I was still hurrying.  Once again, I forced myself to slow down. As I came out of the restroom I heard one of the temple workers tell a couple of women that the 9:45 sessions was full.

I had kind of expected that to happen, so I wasn't surprised, but I was a little bit disappointed.  I decided right then just to really slow down for real (and quit kidding myself that I was already slowed down), and stopped to write a few names on the temple rolls.  As I was getting the name of the woman who I was going to do temple work for, the lady working there told me that the session was full, but I was welcome to go and wait for the next one. I told her that was a great idea.

I slowly walked up the long flight of stairs to the upper floor where the chapel was.  I was kind of surprised when I noticed the door to the ordinance room was still standing open.  A woman was standing in the hall as if she was waiting for me.  She asked me if I wanted to do a session.  I said yes, and she said they had one more seat.

I went in and sat down, they closed the door, and the session began.

The Power to Change a Life