My Sweet Husband

Ben just told me that I'm like frosting: I cover up his bad parts; I make everything better; and while I may be a little bit lumpy in places, I taste great!

How can I not love that man?!

Halloween 2014

We had such a great time, tonight! 

Here's our Ash--the Pokemon trainer:

And our mechanic:

My favorite boys:

And here they are with Clark Kent:

Chew On This

For the sake of medical history, here's what's been happening--teeth-wise--at our house lately:

1-  Sweety lost his first tooth on Sunday, June 2, 2013. We were in singing time in primary. We were literally on our last song and in the last five minutes of church. When I looked down at my Sweety, he had a totally-freaked-out-but-trying-to-be-brave look on his face. So I finished up the song and grabbed him right after the closing prayer.

As all the other primary kids bolted, Sweety threw his little arms around my neck and began to sob about his "wiggly" tooth. Apparently he thought his whole mouth was coming undone! Poor kid. After a fair amount of reassuring, we took him home and Dad set to work with the pliers.

It actually did take a fair amount of work for Dad and the pliers. Sweety has a teeny-tiny sized mouth. Like teeny. Like a stick and a half of gum completely fill his bird jaws up.

The tooth in question was not attached at all, but it was jammed in place by all the other teeth crowded into that little space. It did not want to wiggle free! But a wedged anything has never been a problem for Handy-Man Bardwell! Sweety's tears dried, the tooth fairy left a kickback, and Ben's fingers recovered. Another day saved and all turned out well at the Bardwell household.

2-  In August 2013, Sweety lost his other front bottom tooth while we were in Panguitch. Somehow the tooth fairy was able to find us there too.

3-  Later that fall, the dentist pulled one of the bottom teeth next to the missing middles. Luckily the tooth fairy apparently accepts pre-term teeth as well.

4-  Then in April of 2014, the last of the bottom front four came out all on it's own. Do you think teeth can sense when they are next up on the dentist's hit list?

5-  The two top front teeth started to wiggle in August of 2014. Ben, bracing for a fight, pulled with all of his might. Unfortunately, that was less than awesome for Sweety. He got a full $5 that day. I think the tooth fairy felt a little guilty. ;)

6-  Smarty has lost several molars over the summer. The last two came out just last month. And because of the August incident, the tooth fairy has had to up the ante for him too. Super fun! Goin' broke on used teeth. Gotta' love it.

Shine the Light- Ogden Temple and Tabernacle Rededication and Commemorative Community Cultural Celebration Youth Choir and Cast

That's what we just finished. Actually, I don't know if that's it or not, but all those words are in there--in some order or another. ;-)

Does it seem confusing? Believe me, I can empathize. 'Confusing' is a large part of the experience I just had.

Don't worry. It is not my intention to spend a lot of time whining about the hard parts of this experience. But there have been frustrations. How could there not be?

The scale of this thing just astounds me. 2 separate casts of 8,000-10,500 kids performing 15 songs complete with dancing, costumes, scenery, props, and a full choir. And all of this being designed and put out--start to finish--in under 5 months, by a handful of amazing people, but mostly amateurs, none-the-less, and volunteers to boot.

It is a fact that this never would have worked without divine help. It's humbling to think that our offering was worthy of heavenly supplement. But my hat goes off to the hundreds of committed earth-angels too.

I'm stalling. Can you tell? I cannot figure out how to sum up all of the positive points of this experience in one blog post. There's just too much. But to quote one of my assistants, "[A] simple phone call, three months ago, changed my life."

He texted that too me shortly after we arrived at the Dee Events Center for our only dress-rehearsal on Saturday morning. Stage crew were hustling all around. Sound guys were doing mike checks. The choir turned out to be larger than expected, so we were being shuffled across seating sections. And all the youth were doing what youth do--talk, talk, talking.

However, in spite of the noise and bustle, I don't remember ever feeling that palpable "temple" spirit in a secular building the way I did that morning. My feelings were (and still are) so tender about it all, so when my friend texted me and said, "This place is bursting with the spirit of Christ. I need a box of tissues." I felt I had to verify his sincerity.

After he made the statement about the phone call, I replied, "This has been a great experience for me too. These kids have done more to restore my faith in humanity than most anything I've encountered in recent years. They don't even have a clue about the power they carry with them. But I feel it."

His reply, "No they don't. They are pure like I don't remember experiencing before."

I know we've all been told similar things as youth, too. We've all heard about being part of the chosen generation and how much stronger we were than our predecessors, but I believe it now. And I get it. As we move through this life we draw from the support of those who came before or us, then we reach back to support those coming up behind us. The support we received makes us more capable than we would have been alone, so we have more to give those who follow. We build on each other and make the chain of our generations unbreakable.

And it's not just about families. It's about wave after wave of volunteers in God's service. The generations of this church and this work. Pioneers to settlers to farmers and so on up through our respective times.

I'm the kid who is just now figuring out about the power that is in me, that I didn't have a clue about. And banded together with hundreds of others who were raised to be willing and capable, we were able to do something amazing for the current youth of our church, who will take this and build on it for those who come behind them. That's the power. Generations of giving to each other.

So, evil forces that be, good luck. We actually are gathering strength and closing ranks.

First Day of School and A Very Impressive Burn

In an effort to get myself blogging regularly, I'm just going to throw some stuff on here, for a little while. Maybe, with time, I'll get back into doing more thoughtful posts.

Here's Sweety's first day of first grade and Smarty's first day of fourth grade. 

My cute boys were too excited to get to class. They were having trouble focusing on getting a nice picture. :) Silly boys.

They've been at school for two and a half weeks now, and so far so good!

We're seriously hoping that Smarty has a pleasant experience this year. He was excited to be able to sit by his best friend, Rylan. And I hear they've done a decent job of paying attention, even though they're right by each other. Good boys!

And here is Sweety with his very impressive sunburn.

Woops! My mistake. That's not Howie, but it was kind of hard to tell the difference last weekend.

Here he is now, one week after the fateful day.

Last Friday the entire school closed early and walked over to our local aquatic center. I sent my boys in swim shirts, but Sweety opted to leave his at school. He was without sun protection from 12 until 3, that day. It was a ROUGH weekend, but thanks to a priesthood blessing, a gallon or so of aloe gel, and a little medical intervention, he is healing well. Phew!

Trimming Our House

One of my favorite things about moving is the need to redecorate. I love the challenge of using what I have in a different way. I also love the opportunity to flex my creative muscles when new things are needed. Because the process of redecorating can be so time consuming--and fund consuming--I almost never do it otherwise.

So here we are in our lovely new house, and now that we've lived here for 2-years, I just wanted to show you some of what we're doing:

Sneaky Smarty

There is nothing as charming as little boys living out some scenario from their imagination where the world is easily righted, and as the ultimate individual their little minds can concoct, they save the day over and over. I think it might be impossible to tire of watching that. I will truly grieve when that part of my boys' childhood is over.

Any-hoo, some time ago, my mother left a message on my machine that piqued my curiosity. She was just laughing, and all she said was, "Call Mrs. Lynch!" (My mom teaches at Smarty's school) So I stopped in after school. I passed through the faculty lounge where some staff members saw me, and--after an episode of the giggles--ask if I'd 'heard' yet. This all really had me worried about what my child had done to gain such notoriety!

Come to find out, Mrs. Lynch had been standing in the hall and happened to see Smarty on his way back from a bathroom break. I guess he would flatten himself against a wall and freeze for a moment, then dash a few feet down the hall before flattening himself against the wall again. This process was repeated several times before he reached Mrs. Lynch and the classroom.

She was, of course, completely enthralled by his behavior, so she asked him what he was doing. Apparently, he looked at her like he couldn't believe she needed ask, and replied, "I'm camouflaging."

How funny is that!




A few weeks later, this shirt was handed down to Smarty, and with no coaching from me (I promise!), it's become his favorite. :)

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!