We have become a party house! Last weekend we had Bryan and Natalie Hatch, Natalie's brother Brian and his wife and three boys, Andrea, John and Anna and their boys, Emily and Geoff and their family, and Jan and me. It was a good thing our additional room was finished and available for sleeping bags.
Monday, John and I took the canoe out on the lake and paddled some of the little kids around. By Monday night, our crowd had dwindled from 19 to only 8, and the house felt so roomy and quiet. But luckily, Melissa and her kids drove up Wednesday, so we were back to 12. The cousin kids have been having SO much fun playing together - it has really been fun to have them around.
Yesterday I took some of the kids out on the canoe again. It is really fun, paddling the canoe on Edler Lake. It is just a nice size to paddle on - you never get too far from where you started. All the kids wanted to help "paddle" too, although their contributions to momentum were minimal.
Life is good. Family is pure joy. Jan and I can't wait for our ananual Kent & Jan Brooksby Family Reunion in Mesa on Father's Day weekend.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Did You Ever Stop and Think About Scorpions?
My parents moved to Mesa, AZ shortly after they married. Many things there were new to them, including air conditioning, citrus trees in the yard, and scorpions. My Mom was very worried about scorpions. She had heard horror stories about deadly scorpions attacking babies, so when I was born, she took a lot of precautions. She set the legs of my baby crib in glass jars. She made sure my bed was away from the wall and no part of the bedding touched the floor. Some of my earliest memories are of looking at books with my mother and younger brother and sister – books with pictures of scorpions. She made sure that we knew the dangers of scorpions.
Several years later, when my brother Don was a little boy, my mother asked us to clean out the storage room and added, “Be careful – and watch out for scorpions!” Don looked at her and asked, “What’s a scorpion?” My mother was stunned. She had spent so much time teaching the older kids about scorpions, and she had assumed that the same knowledge had been acquired by the youngest. But it hadn’t.
The summer I turned 16, a normally dry river near our home flooded. I drove down to see the raging waters. I parked the old Plymouth Valiant about 50 yards from the edge of the water, and walked to the river’s edge. After watching the river for awhile, I turned to return to the car. I was amazed to see the ground in front of me moving! Closer inspection revealed that the ground was covered by hundreds of scorpions, scrambling over each other. They had been there as I walked to the river, but I hadn’t been paying attention and walked right through them. But now I had to hustle through the scorpions to get back to my car.
Many years later, my brother Craig and I took our children scorpion hunting near our sister’s house in Mesa. Scorpion hunting is done at night, using ultraviolet lights. Under the ultraviolet light rays, scorpions glow an iridescent green, and are easily seen. What a sight it was, seeing green scorpions hanging on the branches of the citrus trees we were walking under, clinging to the block walls of the neighborhood, and shining in the brush we were walking through. It made me wish I had worn boots instead of thongs! But once they are seen, they are easily picked up with tongs or, in my brother’s case, chopsticks, and dropped into a big jar of cleaning fluid to die. We later made them into paperweights and bolo tie slides.
Last year on television, I saw a news story of a man in Indonesia who lives in a room with 5,000 scorpions who crawl all over him and in his mouth. He was shown covered with scorpions, and the reporter mentioned that he gets stung by the scorpions an average of 30 times a day. But he is past feeling it, so the stings have no effect on him. I was left wondering, how did he get that job? Did he seek out the opportunity, or did someone else press him into it? And why on earth did he stay in there instead of running to safety somewhere else?
What scorpions are WE living with that we a too comfortable with?
Several years later, when my brother Don was a little boy, my mother asked us to clean out the storage room and added, “Be careful – and watch out for scorpions!” Don looked at her and asked, “What’s a scorpion?” My mother was stunned. She had spent so much time teaching the older kids about scorpions, and she had assumed that the same knowledge had been acquired by the youngest. But it hadn’t.
The summer I turned 16, a normally dry river near our home flooded. I drove down to see the raging waters. I parked the old Plymouth Valiant about 50 yards from the edge of the water, and walked to the river’s edge. After watching the river for awhile, I turned to return to the car. I was amazed to see the ground in front of me moving! Closer inspection revealed that the ground was covered by hundreds of scorpions, scrambling over each other. They had been there as I walked to the river, but I hadn’t been paying attention and walked right through them. But now I had to hustle through the scorpions to get back to my car.
Many years later, my brother Craig and I took our children scorpion hunting near our sister’s house in Mesa. Scorpion hunting is done at night, using ultraviolet lights. Under the ultraviolet light rays, scorpions glow an iridescent green, and are easily seen. What a sight it was, seeing green scorpions hanging on the branches of the citrus trees we were walking under, clinging to the block walls of the neighborhood, and shining in the brush we were walking through. It made me wish I had worn boots instead of thongs! But once they are seen, they are easily picked up with tongs or, in my brother’s case, chopsticks, and dropped into a big jar of cleaning fluid to die. We later made them into paperweights and bolo tie slides.
Last year on television, I saw a news story of a man in Indonesia who lives in a room with 5,000 scorpions who crawl all over him and in his mouth. He was shown covered with scorpions, and the reporter mentioned that he gets stung by the scorpions an average of 30 times a day. But he is past feeling it, so the stings have no effect on him. I was left wondering, how did he get that job? Did he seek out the opportunity, or did someone else press him into it? And why on earth did he stay in there instead of running to safety somewhere else?
What scorpions are WE living with that we a too comfortable with?
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Round 2
Last week I was called into the Bishopric of the Woodland Lake Ward, as Executive Secretary. The new Bishop is Dave Merrill, who served as my 1st Counselor when I was the Bishop. I was thrilled to hear that he had been called, and thrilled with my new assignment. The two counselors have no Bishopric experience, but they are really good men. I am sure this will be a good experience.
Of course, I was saddened to be leaving the Primary after 2 1/2 years. I have been teaching the same children since the day I started, and I have really grown to love those kids. Sure, at times it has felt like I was locked in a room full of squirrels, but they were MY squirrels and I loved them.
On a more secular note: the budget for the Town of Pinetop-Lakeside is finally FINISHED!!!!! Woo Hoo!!
Of course, I was saddened to be leaving the Primary after 2 1/2 years. I have been teaching the same children since the day I started, and I have really grown to love those kids. Sure, at times it has felt like I was locked in a room full of squirrels, but they were MY squirrels and I loved them.
On a more secular note: the budget for the Town of Pinetop-Lakeside is finally FINISHED!!!!! Woo Hoo!!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Happy Mother's Day!
Just a couple of thoughts on this Mother's Day. It has been a quite Mother's Day here. Jan had to eat my cooking, but she forgives me because she knows I mean well.
I know a few women who hate to go to church on Mother's Day because they can't relate to all the talk about perfect mothers, knowing that they are not perfect. I have just one thing to say about that - DUH! Of course you're not perfect. Who is? No one I have ever known.
Here is what I think makes a perfect mother. The perfect mother loves her children and makes them feel safe at home. She gives a refuge from the storms of life because no matter what else is happening in the world, they know that My Mom Loves Me. That basic foundation is the mortar that holds civilization together.
That's it. If you love and nurture your children (and who else would?), you are a perfect mother for those children. Did you give birth to them? Doesn't matter if they are loved and they know they are loved. Do your children recognize all you have done and continue to do for them? Maybe not, but I faith that someday they will. There is nothing sadder to me than seeing a grown man or woman who does not absolutely adore his/her mother. To me, it is evidence of a major character flaw in the child.
So mothers, keep up the perfect work. You are not individually perfect, but the importance of what you do every day cannot be measured, or perhaps fully appreciated. I am so grateful to God for the mother He gave me, for the example she continues to set for me and my posterity, and for the mother of my children He led me to. I could not have better examples of perfect motherhood than the ones I have.
Thank you.
I know a few women who hate to go to church on Mother's Day because they can't relate to all the talk about perfect mothers, knowing that they are not perfect. I have just one thing to say about that - DUH! Of course you're not perfect. Who is? No one I have ever known.
Here is what I think makes a perfect mother. The perfect mother loves her children and makes them feel safe at home. She gives a refuge from the storms of life because no matter what else is happening in the world, they know that My Mom Loves Me. That basic foundation is the mortar that holds civilization together.
That's it. If you love and nurture your children (and who else would?), you are a perfect mother for those children. Did you give birth to them? Doesn't matter if they are loved and they know they are loved. Do your children recognize all you have done and continue to do for them? Maybe not, but I faith that someday they will. There is nothing sadder to me than seeing a grown man or woman who does not absolutely adore his/her mother. To me, it is evidence of a major character flaw in the child.
So mothers, keep up the perfect work. You are not individually perfect, but the importance of what you do every day cannot be measured, or perhaps fully appreciated. I am so grateful to God for the mother He gave me, for the example she continues to set for me and my posterity, and for the mother of my children He led me to. I could not have better examples of perfect motherhood than the ones I have.
Thank you.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Our Anniversary Train Ride
Almost 37 years ago, Jan and I went on our first official "date" together (after a month or so of swimming in her pool) to ride the White Mountain Railroad that ran from McNary to Maverick, Arizona. That was a beautiful ride, through the tall Ponderosa pines on the last narrow-gauge railroad in the state. To commemorate that ride, we celebrated our 36th anniversary a little early by riding the Verde Canyon Railroad that runs from Clarkdale to Perkinsville. Perkinsville is a lot like Maverick, in that neither place exists anymore.
We left the train station at 1:00, traveling past a big slag pile that covers 40 acres 40 feet deep. The molten rock was poured there over the period of 40 years, and it is really something to see. After we passed the slag pile, the train took us on a two-hour trip up the Verde Valley. It was a beautiful day, just a little breezy, and our first class car was very comfortable to ride in.
In Perkinsville, the locomotive disconnected from the train and attached at the opposite end of the train for the two-hour ride back to Clarkdale. There was a long tunnel that curved through the mountain, long enough to be totally dark inside. Back in one of the coach cars, a whole car full of school children screamed all the way through the tunnel.
After the train ride, we drove into Cottonwood to the Blazin' M Ranch for an evening of cowboy cookin' and singin'. If you have ever been to the Rockin' R Ranch in Mesa, you have seen both. The food was identical, the layout was identical, the music was identical, but it really was a great time.
The next day we drove into Jerome, then on to Prescott where we picked out the tile for our new master bathroom. We looked and looked for something to match the tile we already had, but couldn't find the right stuff. Finally the sales person said, "If you want, I can show you some of the discontinued tiles we have in the back room. You can't return them, but they are only $2 a square foot instead of $6.50." What the heck, we thought, it would be worth a look. The first thing we looked at was the exact match of the tile we had brought with us! We got all of our tile for about 1/2 of what we had budgeted. So that was a great end to a great trip. Happy to have that decision made, we got in the car and drove back to Pinetop.
It was a fun anniversary trip. Happy 36th, my love.
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