Sibling Assignment 149: A Collection of Pottery

I'm getting caught up on my sibling assignments.  This sibling assignment was given to us by IEG, and the assignment was this:

"Create A Collection".  Choose something that is easily accessible: soup bowls, cell phones, sofas, chairs, vases... whatever.Create a series of photographs on the collection all photographed the same way. Put the together into a collage or a frame together. Write about the experience.

I took some of the pottery items I have collected over the years and photographed them, and put them in a collage.  Some I have bought.  Some have been gifts.  I started this collection the first year I lived in Montana.  I found a vase at a county fair, and loved it, and decided to start my own collection.  Unfortunately one year, while living in Meridian, the shelf my pottery was on fell to the ground, and I lost some of my pieces.  But they are still in a box in the basement....with the hopes of being made into a mosaic creation. 

I love pottery.  It is such a solid, earthy art medium.  I have always wanted to learn how to do my own pottery pieces.  Some day...some day.  But for now, I get to enjoy and use pieces others have created.

Images of Christmas 2010

In our final sibling assignment of 2010, IEG gave us this assignment:


In only images portray Christmas from your point of view.

RP's Christmas images are here, and IEG's images will be here soon.

Here are my images of Christmas 2010.

You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch!!

Our next Christmas-themed sibling assignment given to us by IEG is this:

What book or story most connects you to Christmas and why?  IEG's is here, and RP's is here.

I would have to say "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" is one of my favorite Christmas stories.  I like it because this nasty, lonely Grinch who lives up on the mountain with his dog Max is so mad because of all the Who's enjoying Christmas, and so he goes down to Whoville to steal Christmas.  But in the end he realizes that Christmas isn't all the packages, boxes and bags!!  It is the time spent with family and friends, and the spirit of love that is the true meaning of Christmas.

I love how the Grinch is transformed because of the love he feels from the Whos down in Whoville, the tall and the small.  I love how his heart grows 10 sizes.  I love how the Whos accept him despite how Grinchy he had been in the past.

I need to extend this same love and grace to those "grinches" in my life, and realize their shoes may be too small, and they just need a little love to make their heart grow in size.

Or maybe they just need to carve the roast beast.

Sunnyside Elementary Christmas Memories

Inland Empire Girl is trying to revive our sibling assignments this month.  For sibling assignment #137, she wants Raymond Pert and I to think of a Christmas memory tied to a school experience and why it has stayed with us.

I remember the Christmas tradition at Sunnyside Elementary.  Each year, the sixth graders would put on the Christmas program at school.


When I was in fifth grade, I remember Teresa Vergobbi, one of the sixth graders,  wearing a black dress and reciting the following poem during the Christmas program:

One Solitary Life

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

If I remember correctly, the fifth grade band also performed at this program, and I got to direct the band while they played a few songs.


The following year, it was my sixth grade classes turn.  My memory of this program was playing the flute backstage during the reading of the story about "Greensleeves".  I remember Terry LeClaire played the role of Greensleeves, which, for this production, was a story about a shepherd, if I'm not mistaken.


I also remember helping out during the SIlver King Elementary Christmas program that same year.  My mom was a teacher at Silver King, and they put on a Christmas program every year.  This year, I got to sit with our music teacher, Mrs. Williams, and help turn her music.  It was a very important job, and one I took quite seriously.


I love school Christmas programs.  I am so glad my daughters are in choir and band, so I can attend their concerts during the Christmas season.  I love listening to Christmas music and watching the students perform.  Watching these performances always gets me in the Christmas spirit.


I think I remember these particular programs because I was a part of them, and had a part in each of the performances, whether it was directing the band as a fifth grader, playing the flute as a sixth grader, or turning the pages of music, I was a part of the performance, and I enjoyed that very much.

Embracing August

This week I gave the sibling assignment, which, to put it simply, is What do you like, and what do you dislike about August.

Here you can read about IEG's last days of August.

Traditionally, August has never been my favorite month.  Either it is too hot, or the evenings and mornings are too cold, and it goes by too fast, because school begins, which in our house signals the end of summer.

But this year, I decided to embrace August, and consciously enjoy the eighth month this year, and be in the moment during each part of August.

As I toured my yard this week, I realized August brought with it much beauty and the beginning of harvest.  I'm going to take you on a tour of my lovely August yard and garden.

String beans growing up the teepee poles.  The beans grow overnight I swear.

Still picking pea pods.

Cilantro, lettuce and Sweet Million tomatoes.

Yellow and green zucchini.

Lots of green tomatoes.  I hope they get enough hot weather to ripen before it frosts.

Goliath grillers.

Goliath grillers and banana peppers.

Yummy carrots.

I got a blossom, but I fear no pumpkins this year.

I've enjoyed picking raspberries all summer.

Sweet peas climbing the rusty bed springs.

My absolute favorite perennial...Moonbeam Coreopsis.

My wagon wheel herb garden...that needs some grass removal!!

My house plants are thriving outside.....I wish I could keep them out all winter long!!

My favorite tree....the Tri-Color Beech Tree.

One of my new rose plants.

Another lovely rose.

I love this shade of pink.

Almost ready to bloom.

I keep

Despite the fact I have quite a few projects going this summer, I have to say it has been one of the most relaxing summers I have ever experienced since moving back to the Silver Valley.  Partly because most of the things PKR and I have been involved in take place in the late afternoon or evening.  So I have had my mornings to putter around the yard, and enjoy the beauty of the backyard.  It has been wonderful.  I wish I could have this schedule year round.

As August winds down, I am embracing the cooler evenings, and cooler mornings.  I am enjoying the harvest from my backyard garden.  I am enjoying the peaches my sister brought me from the orchard near her home.  I'm embracing the final days of vacation before I officially return to work on August 31st.  I'm enjoying the last week of all our 1910 Fire projects coming to an end, where I have dressed as Emma Pulaski and hosted the Trailing the 1910 Fire Trolley around the town of Wallace.  I also helped direct the show at the Sixth Street Melodrama this month, which PKR wrote about his grandpa's birth, called "Rustler's at the Ranch, or...How Swift Can the Taylor's Run?"  And PKR and I have also been presenting "Voices of the Big Burn" a historical presentation on the 1910 Fire where we share first hand accounts from the fire, newspaper stories, and photographs taken by the Forest Service after the fire.  We continue this presentation through the end of the month. 

Soon my schedule will change.  I will be back on the school schedule, and back at Kellogg High School working with ninth, tenth and eleventh graders in the Gear Up program.  School begins September 7th.

But until then, I will continue to enjoy and embrace the month of August, with the slower pace, and days filled with no obligations.

Coeur d'Alene Lake

Inland Empire Girl gave us the next sibling assignment:

Coeur d'Alene Lake



One of my first recollections and memories of this lake involved a speed boat and a flying saucer. Yes, interestingly enough I have this memory of being in a speed boat on the lake when I was about 3 or 4, and I was hanging over the edge of the boat in Beauty Bay, and there was a silver flying saucer in the air. Not sure if I actually did encounter a UFO, but I sure do have a memory about this incident.

I often like to try and imagine what the lake was like back when the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, or the Schitsu'Umsh freely roamed this land, and were the only inhabitants of the lake. I picture tribal members quietly canoeing across the lake, calling to the birds on a cool, misty morning as the fog settled on the lake, and then, all of a sudden, the sun bursts through. What a peaceful, quiet time on the lake that must have been.

I like the lake better when it was filled with rustic cabins. Some of the "cabins" on the lake now don't seem to fit. They are million dollar homes that don't quite fit in their wooded setting.

It is still a beautiful lake, despite the onslaught of tourism that has taken over parts of the lake, but you can still find the quiet, peaceful parts that don't have as much traffic, and perhaps, in these places, if you listen carefully, you will hear the Schitsu'Umsh voices of long ago.

The Fourth Commandment: Refreshment of God's Creation

Raymond Pert gave us this sibling assignment:

I woke up this morning with the words "Remember the Sabbath. Keep it Holy." (my paraphrase) repeating in my head.

Reflect however you'd like upon the idea of the sabbath and your practice of it.

We had recently been talking about this one afternoon at my Mom's house when RP was there, because he had taken a Sunday afternoon nap, and I told him, that was a good thing, because our pastor at church had just talked about the fourth commandment in the Bible.

These are some of the notes I took from that sermon that Pastor David Langer gave on July 18, 201o at Mountain View Congregational Church in Kellogg.

God built into His commandments a day of rest.

Working seven days a week breaks people's spirit. If they do work this hard, they can find ways to repair their spirit, such as drinking, drugs, illicit relationships, etc.

God realized people needed a day of rest.

If we over burden ourselves with work, we shouldn't pretend that we are doing this our of obedience to God.

God wants us not to overwork, but to refresh.

We must labor not for our own good, but for the labor of others.

Our fortunes and well being are not in our own hands, but they are in the hands of God.

We need rest!! God's purpose for the day of rest is to recreate us and refresh us.

God wants us to experience the blessings He has given us in life.

The Sabbath Day is a special gift of God to people.

God in His abundant grace wanted a time of joy and rest for all of creation.

Christ's love is meant to unite...God's Sabbath is meant to unite God's people in refreshment.

Concepts like a weekend or a five day work week came from the heart of God.

I know I feel much more rested if I get a nap on Sunday afternoon. Especially when things are really busy at work, and hectic and I'm working lots of hours, that day of rest is so important. I like being refreshed. I like slowing down the pace, and taking it easy.

I'm glad God steers us toward that time of refreshment.

Bless Be The Ties That Bind...Our Hearts in Christian Love

 After meeting 27 years ago, we grow more and more in love every day.

Well, I'm a little behind on my sibling assignments, so I hope to get caught up during this week of spring break.

Let us hearken back to February 14, Valentine's Day, when this assignment was due.

The assignment, which I assigned throughout the month of February, with the theme "Ties", is as follows:

"Write about the ties that bind you to your husband or wife."

PKR and I joke about the first two times we met. I didn't make much of an impression on him, because he didn't remember me until we met the third time...I guess third times a charm.

The one he remembers is me coming over to his parent's house to deliver his sister's high school graduation present. I had just finished my first year at the University of Idaho, and he was home from Western Montana College. His sister and I were friends.

It was first the ties of Christian love that brought us together. There was a group of young people that summer that hung out together, and did different activities all summer. Yes, I thought PKR was very attractive, but I thought he was way out of my league. After all, I remember him from being a freshman at Kellogg Junior High School as the senior who was the quarterback on the football team, one of the start basketball players, and a state track champion. Those kind of guys weren't interested in girls like me.

Summer culminated with a trip to Church Camp during the first week, of August. PKR was attending, as was most of the kids who we hung out with that summer. We arrived at camp, and one of the girls from Kellogg made a comment about PKR and I making a "good couple". I was genuinely surprised by this comment...again, he was way out of my league.

But I guess PKR had other plans. When I went to church camp, it was popular for the boys to ask the girls to the Thursday night Bonfire. Well, by Wednesday night, PKR asked me to go to the bonfire. I was quite pleased, and I guess that was our first date.

While at camp, our hearts were tied, first with Christian love, and then that focus also started changing beyond being "a brother and sister in Christ", so something a bit more romantic. When we returned to Kellogg after camp, we spent the night before I left for college walking around town, and talking alot. Then I returned to Moscow, and, later, he returned to Dillon.

We started dating in August of 1982. Between that time, and July 1986, when we got married, we were only in the same town about 18 months of those four years...so it was letter writing that tied us together at that point. And I think it helped us get to know one another on a different level...especially because we both like to write.

Marriage wasn't something I took lightly at all. I wanted to make sure that PKR was the man I was suppose to marry, and that I had not doubt whatsoever he was the man for me. During the summer of 1984 I moved to San Bernardino, California and worked at the International Headquarters for Campus Crusade for Christ. The question I wanted answered that summer was this..."Is PKR the man I am suppose to marry?"

By the end of the summer, after much prayer, the answer was yes. If PKR asked me to marry him, I knew without any reservations, that he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life.

During the spring of 1984, PKR told my best friend CE that he was going to ask me to marry him, and that he wanted her help. But God knew I needed some time over the summer to have peace about the decision.

On December 10, 1984, PKR asked me to marry him in front of a room full of sorority sisters at the TriDelt house at U of I. By then, I could with confidence say, "Of Course!!"

Once that decision was made, and I committed myself to PKR, and he to me, that is what has kept us tied together. Because we knew if was right, because we are committed (as he puts it, divorce is not a word we use), we are forever tied to one another, through the good times and the bad. And, for us, it was that time of deliberate seeking after God to give us the answer and patiently waiting for Him to say, "Yes", this is the one for you.

And since that time, I have never regretted my decision.

Many Best Songs for Stirring Up Memories

The next "Best" assignment IEG gave us this month is this:

Best Song for Stirring Up Memories of Another Time

The trouble with this assignment wasn't finding a song, but narrowing down my many choices.

Because there are so many songs I can hear, and it transports me back to a certain time, a certain place, and helps me relive the memory.

Here are some that come to mind:

Chicago's "Saturday in the Park" takes me back to Cedar Island on the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, to the Turnbow's river property.

"You've Lost That Loving Feeling" by the Righteous Brothers made a comeback in the early 80's.  I remember sitting in my boyfriend DG's car in the parking lot of a football field, maybe in Post Falls, and hearing this song come on the radio, and realizing our relationship was coming to an end.

If I hear any song from K.T. Tunstall's album "Eye of the Telescope", it reminds me of our family vacation to Los Angelas in the summer of 2006.

Hearing "I Try" by Macy Gray reminds me of the summer of 2000, when we were getting ready to leave Meridian and move to Kellogg.

Oh, and the list could go on and on!!!

Returning Back To My Domestic Side

Another Sibling Assignment is this:

Find a photograph you snapped last year that epitomizes 2099 for you and explain.

I have rediscovered the joy of being domestic.

I have always loved cooking, baking, canning, creating things, and sharing them with other people.

With the busyness of life and children getting older, I haven't experienced many of the things I used to do when the girls were younger.

But this last year I seem to have rediscovered some of those joys, and put them back into practice.

Canning and preserving food was one of the big things I did this last year.  We moved into our current house in the spring of 2006, and I know the stovetop at our new house has never had a canner with boiling hot water and glass jars perched on top of it.

But last summer that changed.  Last summer, as I started harvesting the garden, and picking apples off a friend's tree, I was given suggestions of what to do with the bounty, and canning was part of those suggestions.  First there was the spicy apple chutney, and the apple pie filling, and the salsa.

Then I headed to my sister's in October, to make more chutney, and grape jelly, and dry apples.

This Christmas, it was such a joy to share canned goods with friends and family.

I am also spending more time knitting.

And I am creating more home cooked meals from scratch, which has also been a delight.

I love being domestic, using my hands and heart to be creative, and share that creativity with others.

As Martha says, "It is a very good thing."

Going To Grandma's House Each Summer

Going to Grandma West's house was an annual pilgrimage in our family when I was growing up.  Our summer vacation was spending a week in Orofino, Idaho, usually in August.

Here is another sibling assignment I missed:

Write about specific things you remember about being at Grandma West's house during the summer.

So many memories flood back to me when I think of being in Orofino during the summers.

Sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste.

Sight:
 I have a very early memory (probably two or three years old) of driving up to the Dworshak Dam site, and looking at a display that told about what the dam would look like, and that the place where the display was would be under water once the dam was built.  Here is a little information on the dam.  Once it was completed, it was always nice getting that view of the dam as you drove into town, because you knew you were almost to Grandma's house.

Hearing:
Another very early memory was going next door to Grandma's house with my sister IEG and visiting the girl who lived next door, who was close to Christy's age.  I remember going upstairs to MS's bedroom, and she was listening to music, and the song was "Sealed With A Kiss".  Another cool thing about their house was the huge curved wooden banister that was on the stairs as you went upstairs in their house.

Touch:
I remember catching a blonde colored fuzzy caterpillar in Grandma's backyard one summer, and putting it in a jar, so we could watch it make a cocoon, and become a butterfly.  The cocoon was very unique, almost furry, not like the normal ones that would hang on our house in the summer.  It never did emerge from the cocoon. But I still remember catching that unique looking caterpiller.

Another touch I experiences was when an insect flew in my ear on summer when I was standing on the front porch of Grandma's house.  If my memory serves me correctly, it was a mayfly.  It flew in my ear, and started flying down my ear canal.  I was taken to the emergency room, and the doctor used a syringe filled with water to flush the insect out of my ear.  It was not a very pleasant experience.

Smell:
I remember the smells of Grandma's garden.  The soil in her garden was very dark, and I believe it was full of volcanic material, which made it a very rich soil.  Everytime I smell tomato plants I think of Grandma's garden.  It was always nice to watch Grandma in her garden, and take in the smells of, not only the vegetables but all her beautiful flowers as well.

Taste:
Orofino in the summer had the taste of corn on the cob, Swiss Steak, cucumbers in cream, and fresh picked tomatoes.  It was wonderful.

One of my favorite things to do in the summer was go to Zan's Beach and swim in the Clearwater River.  I do remember the summer after I saw "Jaws", I was terrified to go into the river, because I didn't want a shark to come and get me!!  Zan's Beach had beautiful white sand, and lots of volcano rocks scattered on the beach.

This summer we are planning a reunion in Orofino with all my the cousins on my Mom's side of the family.  It will be a wonderful time of reconnecting, sharing stories, and hopefully eating some of those wonderful meals we experienced as children.  All of us are anticipating a very good weekend.

When Dad Made Me Proud

Today I am going back into the Sibling Assignment archives, and catching up a bit.  Actually, I only went back through the last 15 or so.  I actually wrote more than I thought I had.

So, back in June, around Father's Day, the sibling assignment was this:

Remember a time that our Father made us proud.

I remember at Dad's funeral visiting with my friend KCM who lived in our neighborhood.  In fact, our backyards were kittycorner from each other.

After I went off to college, Dad started taking a real interest in gardening.  He loved planting vegetables and harvesting them in the late summer and fall.

He was particularly proud of his tomatoes, and liked to share that information with others.

One of those people was KCM.  When KCM would be in Kellogg visiting her parents, Dad would talk to her over the back fence, and would often give her tomatoes, or share tips on how to grow the biggest, juiciest, most flavorful tomatoes.

I loved that she shared that story with me, and it made me very proud!!

Remembering School Christmas Memories Through Music

IEG gave the Sibling Assignment this week. 

"Write a memory about Christmas related to an experience at school."

To find out about IEG's Christmas art project, go here.  RP's will be here later.

Many of my memories about Christmas in school center around music.

When I attended Sunnyside Elementary, the sixth graders were the ones to put on the Christmas program.

Christmas programs were a bit different back then, because it wasn't wrong to have something about the birth of Christ in the program.

I still have this vivid memory of Teresa Vergobbi dressed in a black dress and reciting this reading....

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village, the son of a peasant woman.

He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he became a wandering preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn't go to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of those things one usually associates with greatness.

He had no credentials but himself.

He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial. He was executed by the state. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.

When I was in sixth grade, I remember playing my flute for "What Child Is This?"

I also got to direct the band.

And I think it was that year I got to help at the Silver King Christmas program, by being the page turner for Mrs. Williams, our music teacher.

I still love Christmas music.  Tonight, I got to perform some Christmas tunes with The Princess and Kiki Aru at the Wallace Elks as part of the Wallace Lighting Ceremony.  It isn't every mom that can have such willing kids to go sing Christmas tunes with them.  I am blessed!!!

Z2 and PKR were not with us, because they were in Idaho Falls at the State Drama Competition.  Z2 and her partner CM made it to the final round in Ensemble Pantomime.  We are very proud of them!!!

Speaking of Christmas music, I am going to put a plug in for my blogging friend at Blog My Rabbit.  He is doing a holiday countdown of some unique Christmas music...Here is what he says..

I embark on a 27-day blog voyage, offering up daily some of my favorite Christmastime-related tracks to the yuletide spirit, in hopes that the exercise might help me enjoy the season more while annoying those around me less.

I invite you to check out Blog My Rabbit, and enjoy some unique Christmas tunes.

Afternoon Movie Watching With Dad

This week, I gave the sibling assignment to my brother and sister. IEG remembers watching Peter Pan here, and once RP comes back from the spiritual zone of ancient writers to focus on his blog posts, you will see his here.

The assignment is this: Think back to a movie you remember watching at our house in Kellogg, name the movie, what it was about, and what makes you remember watching it at the house.

I remember during a time growing up that one of the Spokane television stations, I am thinking it was KXLY, showed movies in the afternoon. One movie I remember watching more than once was "The Greatest Show on Earth".

This Academy Award winning movie is about the circus, and had a all star cast, including Betty Hutton, Dorothy Lamour, Charlton Heston and Jimmy Stewart. And more than once, I remember sitting there with my dad watching this movie. Me coming home after a day at Sunnyside School, and he from working all day at the Zinc Plant at the Bunker Hill Company.

And I always remembered the last line of the movie...

That's all, ladies and gentlemen, that's all. Come again to the greatest show on earth. Bring the children. Bring the old folks. You can shake the sawdust off your feet, but you can't shake it outta your heart. Come again, folks. The Greatest Show on Earth. Come again.

If you don't remember this movie, here is a trailer. It might jar your memory.

Vandal Football Memories

Raymond Pert gave us this Sibling Assignment:


The surprising, shocking, soaring Idaho Vandals are off to a 7-2 start and, for me, it stirs memories of Vandal football in the late 60's through the early 80's.

How about you? Do you have a story to tell about a particular Vandal game and what happened that is memorable to you, either on or off the field?

Write it!

Soon IEG and Raymond Pert will have their posts here and here.

As I have written in the past, football has never really been my game. I never really understood, so have never grown to really appreciate and enjoy watching the sport.

But there are some moments during my college years at U of I that I do remember some things about the college football experience.

I was in the U of I Marching Band my freshman and sophomore years, which pretty much forced me to attend the U of I football games those two years.

Unfortunately, many of my memories involve a particular song we played during halftime (such as Ravel's Bolero), or reminders of the musty smelling Kibbie Dome when they were having roof problems, and you would get dripped on while practicing Marching Band in the Kibbie Dome.

As a sophomore in the U of I Marching Band, an exciting part was traveling to Seattle and getting to march at a Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburg Steelers football game. I still remember being only feet from Jim Zorn, and watching Mean Joe Green and Terry Bradshaw jog around the field before the game began. That was pretty exciting.

Another Vandal Football rememberance was sitting with PKR at one of the games, and having him try ( a big emphasis on TRY) to explain to me the nuances of the game. He would tell me what play was about the happen, tell me to watch certain players, and he could predict where they would be going (how could he do that?), but he might as well have been explaining some mathematical theory to me. I was totally clueless.

But the Vandals did have a successful year in 1982, and I remember because they played Eastern Kentucky, and their quarterback's name was Tuck Woolum. He must be some relation, because Woolum isn't the most common name on the planet. So I do remember that little piece of Vandal trivia.

I really haven't been that interested in Vandal football since college, until they started winning this year. I may even take some time to follow the BSU/Vandal game next weekend. What I wouldn't do to have the Vandals beat the Broncos.

Now that would be sweet!!

Finding God's Country Everywhere I've Lived

Time to get caught up on Sibling Assignments. A couple of weeks ago, IEG gave us this assignment:

"What do you consider 'God's Country' and why?"

Raymond Pert's is here and IEG's here.

I am glad I have lived a few different places in this great country of ours, and have managed to consider each place God's Country.

My first 18 years were spent living in the Silver Valley of northern Idaho. The Silver Valley from 1963-1981 was a lot different looking than the one of right now, but it was my home, and beautiful just the same.



Even though Kellogg's hillsides were bare of trees, living in Kellogg was a wonderful experience, and I'm glad I grew up here. You felt safe. People looked out for one another. You started kindergarten with about 25 kids, and most of them graduated from high school with you. You established traditions. And, I didn't know much else besides living in Kellogg. We didn't venture far from the valley while I was growing up. Sometimes to Spokane, and a once a summer trip to Orofino. Other than that, we stayed in Kellogg. Even traveling 15 miles to Wallace was a big deal to my folks.

But I longed for adventure. I liked going new places, and seeing new things.



My second home was in Moscow, Idaho, while I attended the University of Idaho. The beautiful rolling hills of the Palouse, and the U of I campus had a beauty all their own. The years at college were foundational as I grew closer in my relationship with God, and trying to figure out who I was, which really made it God's Country for me.


One summer, I lived in California. I worked at the International Headquarters for Campus Crusade for Christ, and lived at Arrowhead Springs, and worked in San Bernadino. This again was God's Country, because of the work I did, helping spread the "Good News" in all that I did that summer. I found beauty in the desert, in crowded Los Angeles, and Disneyland. I found God everywhere that summer, and again grew closer to Him. I also realized that summer that I loved PKR, and he was the man I wanted to marry and spend the rest of my life with. I attended the 1984 Summer Olympics that while in Los Angeles, and enjoyed watching the USA Basketball team play (Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, among others). I still keep in touch with some of the people I lived with that summer.

After college, my first job was in Glendive, Montana. My dad always said Glendive wasn't the end of the world, but you could see it from there. I lived in Glendive from 1985 to 1991. While we lived there, eastern Montana was experiencing a drought. This is a problem when the type of farming you did was dry land farming...no irrigation.

But you found a tough and genuine breed of people in Eastern Montana. Those farmers and ranchers taught us plenty about trusting and having faith in God and many of the things we learned in the Glendive's Evangelical Church of North America have been the foundation for our Christian faith throughout the years.

One area that really grew on us while living in Glendive, and we came to appreciate were the "Badlands", and Makoshika State Park, located in Glendive. It had a very particular beauty all its' own, and we absolutely loved it.
After Montana, we moved to Meridian, Idaho, outside of Boise. The Treasure Valley again brought us growth in our relationship with God. We grew a lot in our faith and trust and understanding of God, and learned alot while in Meridian. But then, it was time to return to my roots.

In 2000, we returned to Kellogg. And the Kellogg of 2000 looked much different from the Kellogg of 1981, when I had lived here permanently that last time. The hills were now filled with the trees that were planted on the hillsides while I was in high school. The wetlands were emerging. There was no more smelter smoke. But God was still here, and that is because the spirit of the people remained the same. I still had many connections to people in this valley, and this is where a part of my heart and soul had remained all these years. And now I continue to enjoy life here in God's Country, the Silver Valley, the place I have always considered home.

My First Trip to the State Capital

I gave this week's sibling assignment:

"Write about one of your earliest trips to somewhere special, besides Spokane and Orofino, and why it was special, and what you remember about it."

IEG's post about "God's Country" is here, and RP's will be here.

This assignment was somewhat inspired by being reconnected to my cousins from Boise, who I keep in contact with through Facebook.

During spring break when I was in fifth grade, Mom had a meeting in Boise, and I got to travel with her and BG down to Boise, and spent part of that trip with my cousins.

My first cousin, JC, is the mother of the three girls, CC, AC and MC, who are my second cousins, but actually closer to my age.

JC is the oldest sibling of my Aunt Lila, who is mom's sister. She lives in Orofino. I always heard about this family on our yearly trips to Orofino in the summer, but we never seemed to be there at the same time.

So it was exciting when I finally got to go spend a few days at their house in Boise.

AC is my age, CC is a year older, and MC is two years younger than me. I think I only spent two or three days with them during that week.

I got to attend school with AC one day. This was the early 70's and the Boise School District was trying out the "open classroom" concept at AC's school. That was so new to me. Also, "Where the Red Fern Grows" had just been released in the movie theaters, and AC's class got to go see it in the theater, and I got to go, too.

I remember telling scary stories at night with my cousins. Once story in particular I always remember involved a man with no legs, very long fingernails, and the word "Shaboom".

I remember their mom, JC driving us through Garden City.

It was fun finally spending time with the cousins that were closest to me in age, but that I never hardly got to see or send time with.

Other highlights from that trip included going to the State Capital building for the first time, and the Boise Zoo. Somewhere I have some pictures from this trip. I'll have to find them, scan them, and add them to this post at a later date.

I still remember driving home through Oregon, and driving through Pendleton, and I remember how beautiful the town looked, because it was spring and the hillside were all green and lush.

From that moment on, I loved traveling and going to different places.

My next adventure will be a trip to Houston, Texas in February for a conference, and I can't wait to see what Texas is like.

My Own ABC's

IEG gave the sibling assignment this week.

"Pick a favorite photo you have taken yourself. Post the photo and write an Abecedarian poem about the photo. You can also use a series of photos."

Inland Empire Girl's is here and Raymond Pert's will be here soon.


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My Own ABC's

Autumn is a time of harvest

Bountiful blessings both physical and spiritual abound.

Christmas is a time of reflection on God’s gift

Demonstrating His love for the people in this world.

Education expands thoughts and broadens our minds

Focusing us beyond ourselves.

Get- aways to places near and far

Help teach us about the world.

Idaho is who I am, geographically and my state of mind

Joining others in the sunlight blaze, with romance in her name.

Kittens and puppies, now all grown, are always a part of my world

Loving without condition, lending love to the world.

Mary, mother of Jesus, declares the impossible in Luke 1:37,

Never doubting the love of her Heavenly Father.

Outdoors declares the glory of the Lord

Pause and reflect on this.

Queens and kings will all pass away

Revealing the fragility of all our lives.

Seashores call us back to their sandy and rocky shores

Teaching us lessons of life and love.

Until you listen to the world around you,

Very few revelations will come.

Winter is still, winter is cold

X-ed out life as it sleeps below.

Yearning for life, for spring, for summer

Zenning my thoughts towards God above.