Merry Christmas!

We have been busy but it’s still the same old same old. We’re trying to get all the molding, closets, and shelving done inside so we can paint. So close but so far. I’ve been filling in a lot of nail holes, knot holes and cracks with spackle. I’m about to throw the sander through the window I have been sanding so much! Randall’s been working outside in the freezing cold putting up soffit and the rest of the siding. He’s also been installing the garage door openers, all outside, It’s been so cold.

Window with trim.

Randall and Elder McKinnon installing door.

Door with trim.

Like I said it’s been cold! Thank goodness we got the trailer winterized. Wind is blowing 35 miles an hour with gusts up to 50 miles. It’s been 4 degrees or wind-chill of – 19. It’s COLD for a travel trailer.

We’ve had several different types of social interaction lately. We took the Little Sister Missionaries out to dinner only to have one of the ward members come in for dinner and secretly pay for all of our dinners. I said before the people here are so sweet. The Deseret Cattle Feeders (the company we are working for) had a Christmas party we went and received a gift from them. Our ward also had a Christmas party; it was so wonderful, just a few of the members got together and bought the food. Then the little munchkins dressed up and performed the nativity for the adults.

Little Sister Missionaries I wish I had just a little of their enthusiasm!
The back of our bishop Carl Eggley and his wife Carol. She reminds me so much of my cousin Lisa.

Ulysses Christmas party. Bret Seger and I can't remember the guys name who is bending over but his family sat with us. REALLY NICE PEOPLE!

The other interaction wasn’t the best; we had a disagreement with one of the other missionary couples. It was taken care of but the feelings are going to last I’m afraid. Luckily they will be leaving in about 3 weeks, hopefully we can keep it together till then. Just goes to show, even when you’re doing Heavenly Father’s work not everything goes smoothly.

Last but not least we have been called to go to a tiny branch in Guymon Oklahoma, about 2 hrs away.  The Stake President said the branch is almost all converts and they need help getting used to running things. For some strange reason he thought we could help??? They have about 12 members. Looks like Randall and I are going to be talking and teaching a lot. I’m sad because we won’t be going to Ulysses anymore. I’m still going to their activities since we're still in their ward boundaries. I have made some friends there in Ulysses ward and they said they would keep me in touch and we promised to go to lunch when possible.

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas! Remember the birth of our brother and don't forget to tell him you love him!

Good day!

Thanksgiving suprise

We had the best surprise ever! Desiree and her whole family came to visit us Monday, November 21. They are on their way to Iowa for Thanksgiving and a Nebraska, Huskers game. They could only stay a few hours but that was OK! It was soooo good to see them and it was a huge side trip for them to come see us. We loved on them all we could. Then it was back on the road for the rest of their adventure.

Desiree and her wonderful family in Kansas!

We were invited, along with the McKinnons  to the Andersons for Thanksgiving dinner. We met Tiffany’s sister and her family. It was great fun as well as amazing food. We love the Andersons, they are the cutest family. The Hutchens went to Colorado and had  Thanksgiving with their two daughters who live there.

Lately I’ve only gotten to be a gopher for Randall, but the guys have done a lot on the house. They put up the siding and fake brick. Looks really nice! I should be able to do some sanding on the inside wood trim this next week.

House with siding and brick

Happy Thanksgiving,

Good Day

Oh Ye of Little Faith

I’ve always thought I had faith. And in some ways I do, like believing in Heavenly Father, believing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the restored gospel of Christ in these the latter-days. I know the Holly Ghost is always with me. I believe Joseph Smith restored Christ’s Church and translated the Book of Mormon with God’s divine help. I have faith in these things.

But when it came to believing Heavenly Father would be able to help me with a nasty tooth ache I found my faith sadly lacking. I know he can do anything. I know he can help me find lost keys, He uses the Holy Ghost for that but actually helping me with a tooth ache???????

Several weeks ago I went in with a tooth ache and Dr. Holman and I agreed it might just be my bite was off, making my tooth ache. So he made corrections but warned me if it didn’t get better I was going to need a Root Canal. I was so happy because I felt that would be the problem and I would escape the Root Canal (RCT). It was just fine until...

OK so Monday night before Thanksgiving it really starts to hurt.  Do you know how hard it is to get into a Dentist the week of Thanksgiving?  I know you do Cindy. Anyway, I left a message Monday night for my Dentist.  No one called me back Tuesday morning, so I called and left another message (I’m starting to get a bad feeling and it wasn’t just my tooth). I called his private number, no answer or reply. So I started calling dentists and enododontists to get an appointment. They all acted like I was crazy trying to get in the week of Thanksgiving (I am a little crazy) all the offices I called were booked or closing that afternoon for the rest of the holiday.  

I prayed and told Heavenly Father I was doomed, and in Kansas far from home. You don’t go through any weekend needing a RCT. I told him I had done what I could and needed his help.  I had a tooth ache it was something that happens, I really didn't expect him to help. 

You need to understand, being a former dental assistant I knew what was going to happen to me, the pain I was going to go through, the swelling and the abbess I was going to have in my jaw. I was scared to death because it wouldn’t be for a day or two but a whole holiday weekend! I was going to die!!!!!!!!! My tooth started to calm down, I figured it was the 20 ibuprofen I had taken.

I e-mailed Dr. Goldthorpe’s wife Karen because I didn’t have his e-mail (he’s my dentist in Idaho), my wonderful hero called me not even 5 min. later and I told him my story. He agreed with Dr Holman, I was going to need a RCT. He called in a prescription to control the infection, which I would need even if I did get my RCT. He calmed me down and I was feeling better.

That evening my dentist called! He said the tooth was definitely going to need a RCT. He said to call his office first thing in the morning to see if they had any cancellations. He said the schedule was full but maybe someone would cancel. He said he didn't want to get my hopes up. I was elated! The pain was hardly noticeable now. So now I’m worried I was going nuts, maybe I wasn’t going to need a RCT. I would still try for the appointment because contrary to some people’s beliefs, I’m not stupid.

I woke up the next morning with hardly any pain. I called the office and they said I could come in if I left right then. (It takes 30 min. to get to Ulysses were my dentist office is) So I brushed my teeth and hoped in the car and away I went. I was still a little apprehensive since my tooth really didn’t hurt anymore. As I drove to the office my tooth woke up, yea, nasty pain again.

Then it hit me, bam! I had prayed and as usual Heavenly Father came through. I hadn’t thought he would, me of little faith. He made it stop hurting, he got me an appointment even though all odds were against it, and he let me get drugs to control the infection. It didn’t even register until the pain came back. He had gotten me through, with very little pain. When Dr. Holman opened up the tooth he confirmed that the tooth was a goner and it was lucky I came in.

I have faith Heavenly Father will always get me from X to Y. I just need to have faith and remember how much he loves me!

Good Day!

Sorry, no pictures of my tooth.

Working Like Crazy

We have finished the inside carpentry, the electrical rough in, the insulation, the outside has been wrapped, the steps stairs to the basement were replaced, the front steps and part of the driveway removed, the window openings in the basement were cut out of the cinder block wall and all of the windows  have been installed in House #1. The sheet rocker has completed hanging the rock. The mudders/tappers will finish taping in a few days.  A lot has been accomplished!

Basement window

Wall in garage for mud room and storage

House wrapped and windows in

While the sheet rock was being hung and the mudding done, we took the chance to winterize our trailers. What a job! I was fortunate enough to be the one to crawl under the trailer since I have limited skills and Randall’s superior skills were necessary on the outside of the trailer. Good thing I’m not afraid of spiders.

Ann crawling under the trailer

Ann under trailer

Randall and his superior skills

Randall and more of his superior skills

Almost done winterizing the trailer

We have had several things go wrong with the trailer in the last week or so. Amazing timing since Randall had the time to take care of them since we weren’t needed at the work site. Our toilet died, the faucet on the sink in the kitchen was leaking under the sink, and our heater wasn’t working.  I got a new toilet and faucet (Yeah). The toilet has a duvet, you can see it off to the side. We're high class now! Randall had to hire someone to come fix the heater. He was able to watch the heater guy so if we have problems in the future he might be able to take care of them himself.

New kitchen faucet

High class toilet with duvet and pull flush handle instead of foot pedal

We are now starting on the siding. This house should be really nice when we finish it.  A lot of work but I don’t mind it. Randall has been a sweet heart trying to find jobs I can do to keep me busy.

Good Day!

P.S. How 'bout those elections!

Field trip

We had a field trip the weekend of October 29. We went to the Oklahoma City, Temple, a five hour drive. We went  with the Hutchins, McKinnons and the Shamps. The Shamps are Senior Couple from another site in Texas. It's the site the Hutchins and McKinnons just came from. Randall and I also know them from our Orientation in Salt Lake. It was sooo good to go to the temple; we haven’t been for such a long time. The Hutchins, were able to do the work for Dixie’s uncle and aunt. She was quite happy about that.

Oklahoma Temple

Left to right: Shamps, Vadens, McKinnons, Hutchins

Randall and I later went to the movies and discovered part of downtown Oklahoma City. The city is slowly renovating downtown and it is wonderful. Hundreds of people go hang out and you feel safe. They have a river running through downtown with grass, trees and walkways meandering around the businesses. Street performers set up on the grass and stages. It’s like a big party, without the alcohol and drugs. People were going out to dinner, getting ice cream or coffee just having a good time meeting with friends and getting to know new people.  It would have been fun to sit and watch for awhile but we were late for our movie!

Next day we found a ward close by (according to Dixie, we learned on this trip, Dixie’s close and our close are literally miles and miles apart) to go to church. We went to sacrament meeting and then came home. The McKinnons came with us in our car and the Hutchins drove by themselves, and the Shamps went back to Texas.

We all had a great time and needed the break. Looking forward to our next field trip!

Good Day!

Another New Senior Couple

Good news, we have another missionary senior couple. Now there are 3 couples, Yeah! Their names are the Hutchins, about Randall’s age and super nice (aren’t they all?). Elder Hutchins is about 6’5” and can reach light fixtures without a ladder. Tell me if that isn’t super handy! He’s a human wrecking ball, he’s slow and methodical but boy does he get the job done. Sister Hutchins knows how to do anything so with both of them things are moving right along. They are real workers.

Elder Hutchins cutting insulation.

Sister Hutchins insulating.

Bad news, Randall and I have been sick. I’m getting over mine, aches, pains,sinus, and the old kidneys hurt. Randall is having a harder time getting over his; it’s almost been a week. He has aches and pains, headache, and a horrible cough. If he has it more than a week he said he would go to the doctor.

All and all we are moving along on house #1. We keep tearing things out but now we are starting to put things back. We've put in the upstairs windows and wrapped the house. The Hutchins and I have been working tearing out sheet rock upstairs and paneling in the basement. We are almost done with the upstairs, mudroom/laundry/storage insulation. Elder McKinnon has been putting a new sub-floor in the dining room/kitchen area, furring out walls in the basement,building a wall in the garage for a mud room /storage and building new basement stairs. He's the lazy one, never does a darn thing, can

you tell? Randall is still on the electrical and supervising so everyone is busy and things get done. 

Everything will be ready to sheet rock in about a week and a half. When the sheet rockers start the sheet rocking, we will start putting the siding up outside.  I’ve included pictures!

Wall in the garage for the mudroom/laundry/storage.

Sister Vaden taking a break!

Back of House #1 wrapped and windows in.

Front of House #1 wrapped and windows in.

Hope everyone is well, love you!

Good day.

In Loving Memory

KeeKee ????- October 2016

Good and Bad

So do you want the Good news or the Bad news first?

Bad news, the Shaw’s have been called to start building a Ranch office in Texas, so they will be leaving this next week. Good news, we have gotten another senior couple, the McKinnon’s, and will be getting another couple in the next few weeks. Elder McKinnon is a contractor and has been for 40 some years so he will be amazing to have here. Sister McKinnon has arthritis throughout her body so she isn’t able to do much. She says her job is to make it possible for her husband to come and serve the Lord. I’m really going to miss the Shaw’s though; Sister Shaw is the most upbeat person I think I’ve ever met. But the job goes on.

Vaden's Left, McKinnon's Center, Shaw's Right

Randall has gotten our tankless water heater put in. For awhile we looked like hoarder's because everything had to be moved from the bunk beds so he could put the water heater in. We were a bit cramped for space. The water flow is so low you can only run hot water if you want it to work (you can’t turn on the cold water at all), so he has it turned down to perfect shower taking temp. It has been amazing and just in time for winter.

We have gotten our window order and should be able to put them in soon (we have to wrap the house first). Meanwhile the boys are still working on electrical and plumbing. Sister Shaw and I have been tearing things out, removing the debris and keeping the grounds looking beautiful.  I get very moody if Randall doesn’t keep me busy, so he’s doing his best (poor guy).

A few weeks ago the young women of Garden City and Ulysses came and planted trees for a service project around the "Lodge". I love them! Trees make everything more beautiful. Taking care of them is also one of my jobs.

Before trees

After trees

Before trees

After trees

The flies have been horrendous! I must have killed around 40 in our trailer the other night (not exaggerating) and they are the sticky flies, YUCK! Poor Desiree, you’re probably thinking, join the club mom. I’m sure we will live.

Love you all,

Good day

Randall's tidbits

It is time for me to fill in some of the blanks that Ann left out. She and Sister Shaw have worked like teenagers and have been a great help. We have filled up three 30 yard dumpsters and most of that was hauled out by them as Brother Shaw and I tore things out.  

Dumpster

Ann thinks she is the owner of the 48 “ ZTR lawnmower and spends one full day each week mowing the expansive grounds around the three farm houses and out buildings.  Ann got a taste of the respirator work that Kent Erickson and I did while working at the Site. She got to wear a respirator and paint suit while vacuuming out the attic of house #1following the insulation removal. She was ringing wet when she was done but could not pour liquid out of her boots like Kent use to.

expansive grounds, farm houses and out buildings

We have completed most of the demotion on house #1 and are now working on getting things ready for the sheet rockers. I have forgotten how many little things go into building a house, things that I used to think of out of habit. Speaking of habit, the Case backhoe that I used to dig window wells and trenches was backwards to what I was used to. The boom up and down and the arm in and out were backward so when I dug I was always ripping things up. I was explaining this to Dale Huffaker and he told of a switch on Case backhoes that would switch it to what I am used to. I found the switch and the rest of my digging has been less destructive thanks to Dale. I think that the Lord was tired of mistakes and prompted Dale to help me so that when I had to dig next to His houses I wouldn’t poke holes in the foundations.     

We have gone on a couple of excursions on out P days. One was out to the wind farm where we were able to really see just how humongous they really are. The resulting pictures do not do them justice. We also drove out onto the ranch for miles. It has 3000 acres under pivots and 6000 acres of rolling desert land with natural gas wells that do not belong to the ranch. The roads go all over the place and since there are no landmarks it is easy to get lost. 

The windmills go on forever

See the little stairs at the bottom? That's where Ann's standing in the next photo.

Ann standing on the stairs while Randall lays on the ground to get the photo

Still moving and shaking

We have gotten most of the first house torn apart now. We’ve ripped out walls, ceilings, cabinets, bathrooms, windows, and have been digging window wells outside the basement for new larger windows. We had hit a lull in activity because we needed to know cabinet sizes and placement plus bathroom fixtures; like tubes, showers and toilets.

Randall puking in the toilet... Ha Ha, not really, he's removing it.

Sister Shaw taking out a wall. Let me tell you, she is only 5'2" and can bulldoze anything!

Randall digging window wells with the backhoe. He is multi talented, that boy!

We went to town and met Tiffany Andersen at Home Depot (HD). Randall, Tiffany and the HD designer sat down for 8 hours and figured everything out. It was a grueling day for them, but even more so for Lilly, Tiffany’s 4 year old daughter.

Between Sister Shaw and me we wandered around HD picking out what Lilly wanted to have in her house, fixtures, paint etc. we got to know HD really well. When she got bored, she wanted to play dolls. She has a little pink purse; it is loaded with small dolls like Rapunzel, Arial, Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, Pocahontas, and prince charming. She also has my little pet shop animals. We set up house in the plants department. Sister Shaw brought in chairs from the garden department and some decorating crates and we played dolls. Lilly was really quite amazing, she never complained. In fact when her mom was finally finished Lilly wanted to stay and keep playing with us. YES! SCORE! We’re good.

 

Randall putting up a wall. I helped but had to stop to take the picture

So we have started replacing the walls upstairs for bathrooms, bedrooms and closets. I am amazed how Heavenly Father can keep 4 old geezers moving and shaking.

Randall's tidbits

I am going to fill in some of the things that Ann did not talk about. We were fortunate to set up our base of operation close to where the houses we are working on are. We were originally supposed to be in an old trailer court across the road from the feed lot, which would have been very aromatic. As it is we are about three miles away and still get a strong whiff when the wind blows the right direction. Speaking of the wind, there is a wind farm four miles south of us that runs along the east/west road for over ten miles!

Arial view of the Feed Lot

This shows the feed lot from where we are.

 I have to tell you that taking a shower in an RV is an experience that everyone should try. Since there are only 6 gals of hot water, we try to use as little as possible so that we can both shower. With the overhead exhaust fan on it sucks the shower curtain into your body shrinking the already tiny tub causing you to hit your elbows on both sides. I have knocked the hooks off that Ann put on the side of the tub a hundred times.  

 We have been here for over a month working our butts off compared to what we were doing back home and I am still not getting into any better shape. Growing old sucks. These houses were built in the sixties. They used 1xs for all of the sub sheeting and didn’t have a clue what 16” on center means. All the 2xs are 1 5/8” thick instead of our current 1 ½” and 2x10s are 9 ½” wide instead of our barely 9 ¼”. All this makes mixing new lumber in with old a real challenge.

We were tasked with setting up RV hooks ups for the two other couples that are coming in October. We found the septic tank but could not find the stand pipe for it. We got the previous farm manager to come but he could not remember where it was either, but he said he could ‘witch’ it. I cut up a metal hanger into two right angle pieces and he proceed to walk back and forth across the area and found it. I would not have believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Then he talked some us into trying it. Danged if it didn’t work. In fact we later ‘witched’ the location of a septic tank

Randall Witching

we could not find for one of the houses that needed to be pumped. I think it works here because there aren’t any rocks in the soil to speak of. I am going to try it back home anyway.

Lesson Learned

So it all started when Randall lost the receipts for everything we had been purchasing for the house redo’s. We had bought hoses, sprinklers, weed whacker, stuff to hook up the washer and dryer (which have been amazing) and some tools. Our church needed those receipts to track everything and make sure we are staying in a budget.

We looked everywhere, vehicles, trailer, “the Lodge”, they were no were to be found. We decided to pray and ask for help. Now let me just say, in the past, every time I have needed help finding something all I've had to do is ask Heavenly Father for help and BAM, there it was. Not so this time. We continued to look and look and look. For over a week we looked. All I could think of was they had been thrown away or blown away (I’m tell’n you Kelly Dombrowski, Antelope Valley and Mackay have nothing on this place were wind is concerned). They were gone.

I was having a conversation with Heavenly Father one day walking to our work site and told him I didn’t understand, he had always helped me in the past, why not now? I answered myself (actually its how he talks back to me is through me) He said, or I said, there’s a lesson to be learned here. Then I got it! We need to be more careful; we are on the Lord’s work and need to treat it that way. We need to pay attention not be casual about our job here.

OK, so I got the lesson, but how to tell Randall he needs to be more careful without offending him. I had the opportunity this past week when he “misplaced” something else. I asked if I could tell him something without him getting upset. He said, “No”, I then proceeded to tell him. I’m bad; I pretty much do what I want. So I told him Heavenly Father had used the receipts as a lesson for us to learn to be more careful about misplacing things. Randall did understand, but said it was easier said than done with his Chemo brain. So we talked about some ways to help solve the problem.

I was still looking for the current misplaced item during this conversation and looked in a drawer both of us had looked in at least 4 times apiece. Guess what I found? Where we had already looked. Where we had already looked a total of at least 8 times! The receipts! Lesson learned. BAM! 

Thank you Heavenly Father...again. 

The Work Coninues

We’ve been busy. House #1 is getting gutted and getting an outside face lift as well. Yesterday and today we’ve pulled down most of the siding. We have most of the 1^st floor gutted, walls have been removed and sheet rock torn down. This is hard business for four old people. I’m the youngest one but you would never know it. Shaw’s are amazing, hard workers and then of course there’s Randall, 66 and still works like a youngster. OK, so maybe I’m the only wimp. Hopefully this is going to make me buff, or not. I’m putting in quite a few photos to show our progress so you can see our amazingness. The work continues.

House #1 when we first arrived. What a mess!

Living room looking into kitchen and bedrooms. Nothing done yet.

Master bedroom without carpet, doors, closet.

Elder Shaw being busy.

Living room without walls so you can now see into the kitchen, dinning room, bedrooms. The sheet rock has all been removed plus walls.

Master bedroom and bedroom without several walls and sheet rock removed.

Randall is starting to remove the siding.

Look ma, no siding, storm windows or awnings. See my and Sister Shaw's awsomeness, no weeds, the lawn is mowed? Look'in good!

The boys demolishing the upstairs bathroom. Soon it will be see through like the other rooms.