My boys have a love/hate relationship with the sunshine in their faces. 

Once, while riding in the car and trying to escape the glare in his eyes, Sweety said, "The sunshine always likes me! He's kissing my face!"

We've been through a LONG and cold winter this year. We still have a ton of snow on the ground and no relief in the forecast anytime soon. Last week we had a few sunny days, and we dared to hope. But on Saturday morning, another storm blew in with a vengeance. It was disheartening to say the least. 

We're all grateful for the moisture, truly, but we're battling cabin fever. The boys are no exception. As we sat, staring out the window at the snow, Sweety did his best to muster a positive attitude and proclaimed, "Heavenly Father is SILLY!" 

I probably should have corrected him, but I didn't have the heart. It was so cute! Besides, I'm betting Heavenly Father enjoyed a chuckle or two over that, Himself.

Russ' Burn Adventure

At the ranch, last summer, our Flake/Winmill Family Reunion came to a dramatic end with an unhappy accident. I kept waiting to post about it, because I wanted to write it up just right and couldn't seam to do it. But while I was cleaning out my email a few days ago, I came upon the following letter I sent out to family and friends shortly after the whole thing happened. I'm happy with the way I talked about it in this letter, so I'll just repost it here.

August 8, 2012

Dear family,

Thanks to you all for your interest and support with Russ' recovery. I just love you and appreciate you all more than I can say! Russ is doing very well--better and better all the time. Some of you have been asking for details, and I have been craving an excuse to write all of this out of me. So with Russ and Amanda's permission, here's the story from my perspective: (BTW, it's long! I will not be offended if you don't want to read through it.)

We were having trouble with starting fires up there, because our matches were not lighting (perhaps they were old or exposed to water or something), we didn't have any lighter fluid, and, due to monsoon season, our wood was wet. Going to town is no small matter up there, and we were doing what we could to get around that. So we gambled on gasoline. 

On Wed. evening, my dad was working with Russ to get a fire going. After no success, Russ put 2 or 3 tsp of gas in a paper cup. He started to sprinkle it onto the wood, there was no flame in the pit, but there must have been a warm ember or something leftover from the previous evening's fire, because it immediately exploded into fire and traveled up the stream of gas. Russ dropped the cup, but there must have been fumes on his person, because when I looked from my position just inside the house, his whole torso and head were in flames. 

As we were realizing what was happening, Russ was attempting to move toward a hose 15 feet away from where he was. Unfortunately, there were chairs in the way, and Russ says all he could see was yellow, so he wasn't having much success. My parents both called out to Russ to "stop, drop, and roll", and he tried, but we learned that Arizona clay is too hard a surface for that to work, so he kept right on burning. 

At that point, Joe grabbed a bowl of watermelon juice, and I grabbed a towel and we came running outside. I yelled, "Smother him!" and I'll never forget my dear brother (who had not cried out at all)'s pathetic moan of "Please!" in response. It just haunts me. Joe reached him first and extinguished the flames on his head with the juice; then Amanda, with her hoodie, and I, with my towel, smothered the flames on his body. After that they tried to use the hose to cool him down somewhat before moving him in to the shower. 

We quickly gathered all the first-aide kits and medical supplies we could, but it wasn't hard to see that this was a bigger project than we could tackle. My father and Joe administered to him immediately, and after Kayela (a CNA by trade) examined him, they decided to take him to the ShowLo hospital 40 minutes away (if you go the speed limit).

Joe and Kayela drove Amanda and Russ in as fast as they could. As they entered town, Joe was caught on camera and issued a speeding ticket! Grrrrrrrr. Where's a real cop and police escort when you need one!!! He's still trying to negotiate his way out of that ticket too. 

Back at the ranch, Grandma Reeder put Katelyn and Johnny to bed in the hopes that Russ and Amanda would soon return and be able to climb into bed themselves. But when they found burning in Russ' throat and looked at the severity of his burns, the ShowLo ER people decided to med-evac Russ to the Maricopa Medical Center burn unit in Phoenix--about 3 hours' drive away. The ShowLo people just aren't set up to deal with repair of lungs or esophagus. 

Amanda rode on the plane with Russ, while we scrambled to pack up their necessities and get their kids down to the valley before Johnny would need to nurse again. My mother pointed out that the only hope for keeping these kids asleep was to drive them in separate cars. So Katelyn rode down with Joe and Kayela, while Johnny went in the van with my parents. Thanks to divine intervention, both kids slept the whole way!! 

The following morning my boys and I headed down with only the things we would all need to stay there for a few days. This meant that we Reeders left almost ALL of the packing and cleaning to you Jackson girls! I will always be grateful to you guys for facilitating our hasty exit. I know some of you delayed your own departure in order to complete the work load. And thanks to those of you that dropped everything and took care of us during our time in the valley! We are the luckiest people in the world to call you family!

On Thursday morning we witnessed the first of several miracles associated with this ordeal. After examining Russ' clothing I noticed that although his shirt is charred, shredded, and ruined, his garments are perfectly clean and ready to go right back into rotation. True to form, Russ only has one burn on his torso, a heat burn on his shoulder, far less concerning than the places where flame actually contacted his flesh. Check the picture; you can see for yourself! To me, this is not surprising--we've all been promised our garments would be a protection to us--but it sure is interesting! 

The next miracle occurred when Russ was examined in Pheonix. After all the hurry and stress to get Russ to the valley, they found absolutely no burns in his throat! The lining of his esophagus was irritated, but any burns had healed through the night! And, although his skin continued to burn for days (which is to be expected) as time passed, his other burns appeared to be LESS concerning than before--not more. It's just incredible!

On Friday it was determined that Russ could be transferred to the care of the U of U burn center in SLC. So Manda-Lou's mother flew Russ, Manda-Lou, and Johnny to SLC that night, and Katelyn rode home with Grandpa and Grandma Reeder. Russ is home now and just visiting the burn center for outpatient checkups. At this point, there are some concerns with the injuries on his hand. The tip of his thumb sustained the worst damage, due to a band-aide he was wearing. There's also some concern about how tight his wrist is becoming as it heals. He may need some grafting there. We will find out tomorrow at his next checkup.

Obviously this has affected my family. Will's biggest shock came right after the accident when his curiosity lead him into the bathroom where he saw Russ in full glory. So that night we did some crying and talking and praying. We figured out how this situation could have been avoided and what we could do to help now--pray for him and the family. 

It also helped that Kayela was brilliant enough to ask my boys to keep little Katelyn busy while everyone was tending to Russ. They had both taken that job very seriously during the moment and, as we were talking later, it was comforting to feel that they had made a real contribution in some way. 

Howie's big shock came when we saw Russ in the hospital for the first time. He was all wrapped up like a mummy, and even though Howie wasn't afraid to hug him or interact with him, I think it finally set in how big Russ' "owies" actually were. So we cried and talked and prayed some more. In fact, many times over the next few days, at seemingly random times, Howie would stop us dead in our tracks and ask us to be reverent while he prayed for Russ, Manda-Lou, Katelyn, Johnny, and Grandpa and Grandma Reeder. 

Howie also got a fear of lighting all wrapped up in this too. I'm not sure how that worked out. We did have some pretty impressive lightning storms in the days preceding the accident, so all I can figure is that maybe he caught a flash of light through the window (the boys were in the house at the time of the accident) and decided it was lightning that caused the fire.

On Sunday after we returned to Utah, Grandpa and Grandma Bardwell hosted us, my parents, and Russ and Manda-Lou's family for a "get back on the horse" weenie roast. Howie was just a little hesitant at first, but soon got into the spirit of things. Will struggled a bit more. When it came time for him to cook a 'mallow for a s'more, he was firing out all kinds of activities he wanted to do instead of interacting with the fire. Usually he pesters and nags us all the way through dinner to get let him make a s'more, so I figure this was still a bit troublesome. But he did finally give in, and he seems much better for it. 

All in all, I am deeply grateful that this whole thing wasn't so much worse. I'm still amazed at how well Russ is doing! He's an amazing example of inner strength. He's never had anything but a smile and a positive attitude. And his biggest concerns have always been how this affected everyone else. I guess when Will saw him that night, freshly hurt, Russ still tried to call out to Will and tell him he was going to be okay. Russ has asked me a few times about "Will's recovery."

He's done a lot of joking about it all too, which keeps us all upbeat. When he R.S.V.P.'d for Sunday dinner, he offered to bring "grilled me" as a side. I told him no, I preferred him really, really rare; like wave-a-match-only rare. No more flame-broiled stuff! 

Well that is it for me. If you're still reading, thanks for your interest and well-wishes. You are all such lovely people, and I'm glad to be in your family! Thanks for your prayers. They were most-definitely heard and answered in the form of direct blessings for Russ and his family.

May Heavenly Father bless you all for you goodness! 
Much love,
Lynners


A few days after this letter, Will caught a bit of sunburn while swimming. We discovered it while getting him ready for bed. Will was smart enough to remember that Russ' burns kept on burning for a while. He immediately expressed grave concerns about what the morning would bring for his body. More tears and praying. Sweet thing. It was a fairly torturous night for him. He would not be calmed. Only the truth by morning light assuaged his concerns. 

But all is well now. The boys have moved passed their fears. Russ has surprisingly few scars on his face and neck. He still wears a compression glove on his hand and a few wounds in his heart, but he will recover. It could have been so much worse. We have a lot to be thankful for!






Russ' shirt and garments. Absolute miracle.






















At the ShowLo E.R.

Wrapped up and ready to travel

Day 2, swollen mummy, in the Maricopa Burn Center


















Days 3 and 4, looking better and better.

A few weeks later--out of the hospitals and safely recovering at home. Thank Heaven!

Super Sweety

The boys often play superheroes. They are just cute, flying around the house with capes trailing, so full of confidence in their various self-imposed super-duties--so sure of themselves.

In keeping with their wishes, I let them wear superhero shirts to the Howard Reunion in Panguitch last summer. They had such a good time putting on a show for any who would pay attention. 

Sweety, especially got into his role. 

Later that evening, when we were all frantically bustling around the house, trying to get over-tired kids ready for bed, Sweety was looking to 'see a man about a horse'. He knocked on a bathroom door, behind which, Bonnie was wrestling her kids in and out of the tub. She asked, "Who is it?" 

Sweety, with absolute sincerity, replied "Su-puh Man"as matter-of-factly as if it were his own name! It was so funny; he caught us all off guard and did a perfect job of lightening all our moods. ;) How I love that boy!!

(These adorable pictures were taken by Jamie in Sept. Thanks to her for sharing her talents!)

At another time, we were returning to the house when Sweety caught sight of cousin Tracy, the uncontested president of his fan club. He marched right up to her and said, "Tay-see! I here!!" and flung his arms open wide to receive her attentions, which she willingly bestowed.

Goodness! How he makes me laugh.

How Tough Can Life Get?

Our lovely Camry was recently rear-ended and had to go into the shop. 

In the meantime, we are stuck driving this thing around.

Geez! The hardships we have to bear!

Oh well. I guess if we must, we must.

Snow? In 80 Degree April?

A few mornings ago Sweety ran up to me and said, "Snowing, Mom!!" He was literally jumping up and down for excitement. I was less so. We are having an unusually warm April, so all I could muster was confusion and intrigue. I followed Sweety to the door to see something like this: (these are not my pics. I Googled them.)

Gotta love those Cottonwood seeds!
















Ha ha, Mother Nature.  
April Fools!

Windstorm

A few months ago we had a windstorm the likes of which I have never seen before. Driving Smarty to school was a little bit toe-tickley. Our truck took a real pounding under the wind. And every time the wind would gust up, I could hear it roaring a minute or so before it hit, just like a freight train. It was spooky!

Upon my return from running Smarty, I looked out my back door to see my neighbors full-size tramp doing an olley across our fence! All I could think about was my lovely brand-new house. I was actually praying out loud, "Please don't hit the house! Please don't hit my house!" Luckily, it touched down in the yard. It rolled like a wheel into the adjoining yard and finally came to a stop after crashing into a utility trailer in the yard on the other side.

In the meantime, Ben was driving home through Davis County on the Legacy Highway. He had to fight hard to keep our Camry on the road. He remembers thinking about how wind this strong would almost certainly blow a package car over, and then within a minute or so, he happened upon this:Ben says the pics are a bit blurred, because he was having such a hard time standing still.

The driver of this car was a petite little woman who had to kick out the windshield to escape. I recently met her and have trouble picturing it. I'm thinking she must have been on a serious adrenaline rush to release her inner ninja like that.

Once the wind started batting her around, she followed protocol and pulled off to the side of the road, but she claims she hadn't even taken her foot off the clutch when the car tipped over. The crazy thing is, the wind continued to push her vehicle after that! If you look at the pic below, you can see the scrape marks from her vehicle sliding across the pavement. Can you imagine that kind of power?! That's just crazy to me.

Back home, my parent's neighbor's 250 ft spruce uprooted and nearly crashed into my parent's house. Luckily, their own pine trees broke it's fall. They were without power for three days. It would have been much longer than that, but Ken the lineman, pulled some strings at Rocky Mt. Power and bumped them up quite a way on the priority list.


Dave and Jamie live in Davis County, which the media has dubbed, 'the War Zone.' Their neighborhood really took a beating. The storm raged all day Thursday, Dec. 1st, and the damage was so extensive that on Sunday, Dec. 4th, the county was still in a state of emergency. All the stakes in the area cancelled church, so that people could continue trying to clean up and restore order.

Ken, the lineman, worked around the clock for something like 5 or 6 days to repair damage and get people's power on again. I think they finally wrapped up the last of their repair projects in February. It was just crazy.

Smarty and the Second Grade Bullies

Smarty is in first grade this year. And for whatever reason, he has become a target of two bullies in second grade.

The first bully, Cooper, once slammed him up against a wall in the boys bathroom. This was followed shortly thereafter by some incidents of extremely uncharacteristic pants-wetting on Smarty's part, because he was afraid to go in the bathroom when he thought Cooper might be in there. The other bully, Mason, became the terror of the lunchroom and playground for Smarty (though I can't remember what he did initially to build the terror in Smarty).

As these situations escalated, I racked my brain to figure out the best way to handle them. I worried that if we intervened directly, or if Smarty ran to a teacher or stood up to them himself, he would only increase his potential as a target and maybe even inspire some actual violence from his would-be attackers. And yet, I wanted him to be empowered and unafraid at school.

Luckily, my brilliant husband has had experience in this area and knew what to do. He advised Smarty to actually befriend these boys. Honestly, I thought Ben's idea was insane and might still draw some negative attention to Smarty, but since I had no idea about what to do otherwise, and since it would empower Smarty with a positive plan of action, I went along with it.

After that Smarty started being friendly to these guys. He'd wave at them across the lunchroom, and say, "hi," when they passed him in the hall. Turns out, a little confidence was all Smarty needed. Cooper is so freaked out by this positive attention that he has since begun to ignore Smarty (Actually his apprehension at Smarty's positive contact makes me sad for him).

As for Mason, one day, after a couple of weeks of Smarty's friendly overtures, he grabbed Smarty by the shoulders and shook him and said, "Aren't you afraid of me?!" But because Smarty had already made the choice to befriend Mason, he had no idea he was supposed to be intimidated by this show of aggression.

He innocently stated, "No."

And to my knowledge, he's never had a problem with either kid since then. Phew!! Thank heaven for Ben's inspiration. He truly knows how to walk the high road. And I'm glad it worked out this time. I pray we will be so fortunate in the future.

Our Little Angel

Sweety's little neighborhood preschool did their nativity play last Saturday. Unfortunately, Sweety didn't understand the whole costume thing. He was very upset that he wouldn't have access to his shirt pocket during the play. This was how he started out:
I know I'm a horrible mother for taking pics of my son crying instead of just leaping to the rescue. But I couldn't help it! He's so stinking cute being all upset over his pockets!

But, true to form, my good little boy sucked it up, and found a contented face to put on for the show, which worked out a lot better for the scene where he's supposed to be rejoicing with the shepherds:
Love this kid!

More Cute Stuff

Some stories I don't want to forget:

A while ago, my mother and I took the boys to the local dinosaur park where they have statues of the fearsome creatures and a soundtrack of rumbles and roars. Sweety was a little caught off guard by one statue and was clearly taken aback. When I asked him what was wrong, he pointed to the monster and said, "Dinosaur, eat me!" I thought it was a appropriate assumption.

Also a while ago, Smarty and I were having a klutzy day. I just kept knocking him around, because he always seemed to be underfoot. After several unlucky mishaps he said to me, "Mom, stop karate-ing me!" Love it.

My boys have always had a hard time watching one another cry. Generally speaking, I either have no crying boys, or two crying boys. Never just one. A few weeks ago, Sweety was upset about something and was in the middle of a good wail, and as usual, Smarty couldn't stand it and set up a good wail of his own. Well Sweety proved his blog-name right when he pulled Smarty in for a hug and some comforting words, even though Sweety was the one that was initially upset! How cute is that?! These guys always have me smiling.

Smarty is only just starting to understand the need for privacy and what parts of the body should not be made public. But the other day, we were searching out music videos on YouTube, when we happened upon a rather adult shower seen. My good little man didn't hesitate over what to do. His response was something like, 'Mom we'd better stop watching. She needs some privacy!' Obviously my 7-year-old has more sense than many grownups.

Smarty's teacher has very pronounced highlights in her hair. So in an attempt to define this unusual phenomenon, Sweety recently informed me that she looks like she has "tiger" stripes in her hair! The great thing is she's cool enough I was able to share a good laugh with her over that!

The other day we were listening to Louis Armstrong growl his way through one of his charming songs. Smarty asked me who the singer was, and rather incredulously pointed out, "He sings like Chewbacca!" And frankly, as much as I love me some 'ole Satchmo croonin', Smarty is absolutely right!

Dodging a Bullet

We are officially lucky! Our winter snow-pack and spring precipitation was fixin' to bury us. You can read about it by clicking here and here.

But we've been so lucky! June uncharacteristically stayed in the 60's and 70's, which was just warm enough to melt the snowpack at a mostly manageable speed. We did loose control of Causie Dam, but luckily there aren't a lot of people living in the flooded area below, so damage is minimal. Pineview Dam was able to contain the overflow before it reached the densly populated Ogden area down river.

I have to give kudos and props to these irrigation and dam managers. They really did a fantastic job balancing everything. The Ogden and Weber rivers have been running full-tilt and more for months now, and they were great about letting out as much as possible; notifying us when flooding was inevitable, so we could sand-bag and dredge; but never letting things get too crazy.

And I am so grateful to our Heavenly Father for tempering the elements and allowing the snow pack to come down in a timely fashion. I am incredibly thankful that I'm not cleaning up and sorting through a soggy mess of a home right now!

As you can see below, we're almost there. There's still more snow on the backside of these hills, in fact, the Snowbasin ski resort is still open on weekends, but we're almost there.

This is Mount Ogden. Snowbasin is on the reverse side.

This is Lewis Peak. I love the jagged ribbon of granite that makes it's dramatic cliffs.

Our Bike Ride was Cute Short Tonight...

The Weber River continues to carve out new bank every day. The precipitation is relentless these days, and the poor swollen river just cannot contain it all.

On the one hand, I'm grateful that cool weather has stopped the snow-pack from all coming down at once. On the other hand, we're about to head into June! Snow-pack melting in June heat. The circumstances are worrisome to say the least. But then, I was worried about typical May weather, which hasn't bothered to show up at all.

Perhaps it won't ever actually melt, and we'll be left with our own private glacier system all year 'round.

Flooding in our Neighborhood

In case you aren't in this state, or if you are, but you've been living under a rock or something, allow to inform you: we're having a very different water year here in northern Utah--home of the eternal drought.

• Last fall was very rainy and the mountain ground was saturated just before the winter freeze.
  
• Then, December warmed up enough for my bulbs to pop out of the ground, but not warm enough to thaw the mountains.
• After that, things got cold and wet. And we've had TONS of snow and rain ever since. It's pretty strange.

The river by our house has been above flood-stage for the last few months or so. It's been running between 5 to 7 times the normal amount of water for spring runoff because of all the rain and snow.

A few weeks ago, after several days of rain, the river flooded up into our neighbors houses. We're on a little higher ground, but when the water started spilling across the road just down from our house, our toes began to tingle a bit. Luckily we didn't have any problems though.

But we're not in the clear yet. The reservoirs and rivers around here are all more than full, right? But, because of all the precipitation and low temperatures, we haven't even started the official spring runoff yet! The snow-pack in the mountains usually thaws through April as temperatures gradually warm up, but now we are into May, and temperatures are more likely to climb, fast. So the snow-pack will be coming down...fast. And due to the saturation levels from last fall, the mountain ground will likely not be able to absorb much.

Oh, and by the way, as you can see below, this year our snow-pack is something like 200% of normal!!!! So before this is over, we may find out if our little mobile home is actually mobile or not.

This is a kayak park right by our house. Apparently it's travel-worthy under
regular circumstances, but this year, it's really attracting attention.
I spoke with this kayak(er?) after he got out. He said he was just crazy with the adrenaline rush.
I look at these waves, and I'm inclined to think he's just plain crazy.
This is a brand-new storm drain right by our house. It keeps disappearing
entirely under the water.

This is the road just below our house where the water breached the bank. In the pic below, you can see where my boys and I have often sat to reflect upon the complexities of life and chuck rocks and crap into the water. There's usually about 15 feet of bank between the sidewalk and the river, but it looks like much of that has broken away at this point.


These next few pics are not mine, but they're all places near our house that we regularly walk or bike too. Obviously we haven't been able to do that much this year.
About half of the gigantic rail yard in Ogden is now a shallow lake.
At the height of the flooding, this bench could not be seen at all.
There was speculation that it had been swept away entirely.
The channel on the left is the actual river channel, the channel on the right is a dirt road. At the height of the flooding, there was another couple feet of water running over the dirt road.
A parking lot near the river foot/bike trail.

This is a 7' tall tunnel running under the road.
The actual river channel is about 15-20 feet away.
We're seeing tons of washed away banks these days. Our beloved river foot/bike path is in pretty bad shape. I hope it doesn't take to much to repair it all.

So we're all watching the weather intently at the moment. And while I'm grateful we haven't had the problems southern Utah has in recent years, here's hoping we have an orderly transition over the next month without much more drama.