To Honor and Serve

On October 4, 2007 Vincent George Kamka, age 23 and of Idaho Falls, Idaho, was killed in the line of duty in Bayji, Iraq. He was returned to his parents, Chuck & Brenda Kamka, on the next Wednesday and this last Saturday he was buried in the Annis Little Butte cemetery, which sits on the other side of the butte from where I live. Even though I personally did not know the Kamkas, I was drawn to the Menan Lorenzo Highway, which is the main route from Idaho Falls to the Annis Little Butte cemetery. We went down to the corner at about 1:00 to wait for them to arrive. We noticed that up and down the road were flags posted about every 500 feet. We drove down to Menan and Lewisville and saw that each community had done the same thing. And at the church in Menan, the scouts had gathered to get their chance to honor Vince.


At about 1:30 we saw the flash of the sheriff's lights and here they came. At the front of the procession was the POW/MIA bike club, posing as the honor guard for this solemn procession. Following the hearse was at least 100 cars, carrying friends and family of this humble soldier. I was struck with how quiet it was as each car drove past us. A few waved, as if to acknowledge that we were here to share their grief.


We went on up to the top of the butte, to look down on the cemetery, with it's flag lined fence and roads. We quietly watched as the pall bearers bore him to his final resting place and caught wisps of the dedicatory prayer. We listened as someone sang and then as they did the 21 gun salute.








After having seen all these flags as a sign of pride, a sign of support, I don't know if I will ever look at the flag the same again. We have flown our flag in our yard at half staff, in respect for the Kamkas since the funeral. I hope his mom knows that here in Annis, all of us moms have shed a tear for her and that we know that a truly great soldier lies here among us. We will watch over him for you.





Heavenly Father, bless the soldiers in harms way, keep them safe!

Chris

Snow!!!!!?!?!?!?

So I don't know if you heard, but it snowed in Southeastern Idaho on Saturday! Now it may have been 90 degrees everywhere else, and we may have only gotten our first frost about a week ago, and the trees may have still had all their leaves, but heh, this is Idaho, right?

When it started, I didn't think too much of it. Then we had about 3 inches and the branches were starting to sag. My apple trees still have apples on them too, so I began to worry that we might have some branches break.

So out we went to knock off the branches! And suddenly, it really began to snow! Great big, wet flakes!

Then we started to hear trees popping all around us, like gun shots! Branches were falling every few seconds! We watched the trees across the dry bed continually loose branches, minute after minute!

When the storm was over, the ground was completely littered with branches! The picture below shows this, the yellow under the trees is the branches that broke off! There wasn't a house in Rigby that didn't loose some branches, and even in Rexburg and Idaho Falls, on either side of us! When it was all done, Rigby had the record snowfall of 6 inches!

Conference!
On a lighter note, the General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) was held this weekend. It is held in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, but broadcasted around the world. There are 4 sessions, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. It is a wonderful chance for us to receive counsel and learn gospel principles from the leaders of our church! We get a chance to be spiritually fed and uplifted!

This time, there were some changes in the leadership. President James E Faust, who was the 2nd counselor in the First Presidency, passed away in August.

James E. Faust

Saturday morning, President Gordon B. Hinckley called and we sustained, Elder Henry B. Eyring to be the new first counselor.

Henry B. Eyring

This in turn left a vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which was fille by Quentin L. Cook.

Quentin L. Cook

When I was little, I always thought these leaders looked so old! All of a sudden, they are starting to look younger and younger! It couldn't be that I am getting old!

When President Eyring spoke on Sunday, he talked about being thankful for blessings and trials and even the simple things like the beautiful flowers growing outside your windows. So here it goes for me -

I am thankful that I live in a country where I can choose how I worship my Heavenly Father and that I can even talk about it! I am thankful for the family unit, mine in particular! I am thankful that I have the means to make a written and pictoral history of my family, to hand down through the generations! And I thankful that I can share my thoughts with you on this blog!

So I would like to encourage you to go and find something that you are thankful for today! Embrace the ordinary and love the simple!

Chris

Absolutely Nothing!

I have absolutely nothing to say of any redeeming value! I have not been able to come up with anything cute or bubbly or astute! So here I sit, wanting to post but not having anything of value to communicate!

The family is great, Chelsea's drivers ed keeps me hopping. I have been babysitting my granddaughters while my daughter Tiffany works in the potatoes.

Gene went hunting this week, archery. He was hunting elk and bear. Thursday he called me and told me was coming home. He sounded shook up. I worried until he pulled in on Thursday night. Apparently he had an encounter with a grizzly bear sow! He was sitting in his tree stand above his bear bait (black bear) and along came this grizzly sow and 2 cubs. She saw Gene in the tree and woofed at him and charged. He let off a shot with his pistol and she took off running with her cubs! He said he almost had an anxiety attack right then and there!!!!! So he came down, packed up his tree stand and bait and hightailed it out of there! Says he is finding somewhere else to hunt elk! The funny thing is that whenever you talk to Fish and Game they tell you there are not any grizzlies in the Palisades area of Idaho! Yea, right!

So that's our week! Still haven't found the time to scrapbook, still canning like crazy! Hope to be done this week!

And so ends the month of September!!!

Chris

The Harvest is In!

Well, Mother Nature dealt us another hand on Monday night - frost! So about 6:00 pm we decided we needed to get the patch picked. I rushed over there with my camera and got several pictures, admired our pumpkins, and then we got to work picking! There were alot of pumpkins!

I was sad that our grandkids didn't get to pick them, but Gene, Chelsea and I had a blast!

Look at our haul! The top one on the right weighed 80 lbs! The one to it's left weighed in at 70!

Most of the rest of the smaller ones weigh between 30 and 50 lbs! That's a lot of pumpkin!!! The rest of the little ones are actually different kinds of squashed that we planted!

The grandkids are coming this weekend to pick out their pumpkins, then we will have some of the neighbor kids come and get the rest! Grandpa's pumpkin patch was a hit this year!!!!

Hope you have just a pumpkin kind of day!!!

Chris

Well............

The pumpkins are still on the vine! We had a slight change in plans, due to Mother Nature! We woke up to rain and wind yesterday morning, and the high temperature was only about 48 degrees! So we decided to try for next weekend! The kids were disappointed and didn't really want to be cooped up in the house, so grandpa had to ruffhouse with them! We had a loud, boisterous house last night! By 9:30 everyone had left for home, and Chelsea says, "It's so quiet all of sudden!" We all smiled!

Chelsea finished up her homework, and we helped with drivers ed. I must confess, I am really glad that this is my last drivers ed! It is so funny to listen to Chelsea though, ready to conquer the world at 15! She already has plans for the pick-up she plans to get (not a car, a pickup!) and the awesome stereo system it will have! Dream On, honey!

Stay tuned for the great pumpkin patch...........

Chris

The Pumpkin Patch!

Gene has been watching and pampering his babies (pumpkins) for weeks and today he declared "I think we better pick them!" So tomorrow the grandkids are coming, after church, and we are having our annual pumpkin pick! This is Gene's 3rd year of having a pumpkin patch, and I must say it is probably his best ever! This year we didn't start the plants in the house, we just planted the seeds in the ground about the 1st of June! He has about 35 pumpkins and I am pretty sure that at least 2 will tip the scales at over 100 lbs! I am pretty excited!

So tomorrow, the camera and the scales will make the trek to the patch. I will show you pictures of them tomorrow night and then I am going to use some of my new fall stash to scrapbook them! See you tomorrow night!

Make the day a good one!

Chris

Bad Blogger!

I haven't done well blogging this summer! It is not that there's nothing going on, but that there is too much going on and I get overwhelmed! You ever feel like that? And when I get overwhelmed, I am not good at taking pictures, or scrapbooking, either one! Anyways, I did go to a crop at Express the Moment last Friday, even with a bad cold! I completed one page, and got some stuff for other pages. So I am moving forward. And I had lots of fun.

This last week I read Melody Ross' blog and it appears I am not the only one suffering from this! Click on the link to the side of my page and go read her posts. Maybe we should all make a commitment to overcome!

I was talking to Kim at Express the Moment on Friday, and we decided that the scrapbooking industry is a sort of crisis! They have overwhelmed us all with so much product, that we don't know where to start or what to use first. As a result we are losing sight of the reason most of us scrap, which is a history of us and our families. If you go to the galleries of the big magazines and scrap companies, there are pages that I dare say cost $25 per page! That is not a reality for most of us! And since we cannot achieve the top, we stop! Or we keep buying, thinking that magically some creative fairy will sweep dust on us and suddenly every design team in the nation will be clamoring for our stuff!

So here is my call to arms, ladies! Let's get back to basics! Scrap the memories and don't get so wrapped up in the product! If you see something you love, then buy it! But then be sure and use it, don't tuck it away to be forgotten! I am committing to setting aside time once a week to scrap and I intend on finishing my committment for 100 pages in 2007! Right now I have 42! So I better get to work!

Now, since I don't have any cute pictures to share, I thought I would show you some of the stuff that I bought at Express the Moment on Friday night! It is so cute and I am now ready for those Halloween pictures! The Making Memories Halloween stuff is soooo cool! And the Christmas stuff is really cool too! So go to www.makingmemories.com/ and look at the new stuff! You will be in love too!

Go and be creative today!

Chris