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Show -NEWS- Covering what matters most Spanish Fork WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2008 • A3 Bringing in the harvest demanded, "I thought you There and Back said I had another 40 years? Again Why didn't you pull me from out of the path of the Shirlene R. Ottesen ambulance?" God replied, Your chuckle for the "I didn't recognize you!" Yahoooooobo! Sorry, I week: "A middle-aged just had to do that. That is woman had a heart attack my annual pronouncement and was taken to the hospital .While on the operating that our corn is in the bag! table, she had a near-death You farmers who grow corn experience. Seeing God, silage and grain corn know she asked, "Is my time the feeling of relief when up?" God said, "No, you this harvest is complete. have another 43 years, 2 Because of the timing of the months and 8 days to live." harvest, sometimes Mother Upon recovery, the woman Nature will be a little tricky. decided to stay in the hos- We can have good pital and have a face-lift, weather, like we liposuction and tummy had this year, tuck. She even changed her or it can be wet hair color. Since she had so and cold much more time to live, she or even figured she might as well an early make the most of it. After f r o s t , the last operation, she was w h i c h released from the hospital. m a k e s While crossing the street corn silage chopon her way home, she was like straw. killed by an ambulance. Arr ping I see some of riving in front of God, she the combines just beginning the grain corn harvest. Grain corn has to be quite dry in order to thresh out, so it is one of the very last harvests. I was dusting some items in a bookcase today when I noticed that a small figurine had a piece that was broken off. The piece was still on the shelf, so I decided that I could fix it with some crazy glue. I read all the directions and thought this would be a quick-fix. I punctured the top of the small tube and applied what I .thought was a little bit to the piece, and then held it firmly on to broken spot of the the figurine. It seemed that it wasn't working. The glue is clear, so it was hard to see if there was enough on the broken piece. I gave the tube another squeeze and got a little too much. I was so intent on holding the piece still so it would stick that I didn't notice that some of the glue had dripped between two of my fingers. I soon forgot about the broken piece and my attention was now on trying to separate my two fingers! I also discovered that lots of was under my finger , While out in my back nails, which wasn't a yard at about 6:30 yesterday afternoon, the view of good thing. I went to the sink to try Mt. Flonette (aka the front and wash it off, but that mountain) and Mt. Loafer didn't work. I got out my was so pretty. I hope you all copper pan scrubber and saw it, too. The mountains worked on the glued area. I are now in their full fall couldn't feel anything, but I color. It looked like someknew that if I started seeing one had a gigantic paint blood I would know I had brush and just stood back gotten to the layer of skin. and flipped colors that fell I even took a small serrated in big splotches all over steak knife to scrape the the mountains. There was glue off my nails, which did enough sunlight at that time work. Maybe in a few weeks of the' afternoon that the the rest will just wear off. I colors were just brilliant. hope so. So much for my at- And the sky. Because the tempt to repair the figurine sky was full of those huge, that I decided to just put fluffy white clouds, the setaway for anothc time. ting sun cast big shadows on the slopes, adding some contrasting darker colors. By the time this column is in print, I guess we will be having a little taste of some colder weather and maybe the mountains may be sporting another color, their first white dusting of snow. - Grown up and ready to go Life After Birth Janene Baadsgaard When my daughter, April, was small, she put her hands on her hips and informed me she was old enough to walk to school by herself. I'd always walked beside her on the way to school, with her younger siblings in tow. I was careful to teach her to look both ways before she crossed the street. I also taught her not to talk to strangers. When she asked me if I would let her walk to school alone, I was scared. I knew I could watch her from the street corner and make sure she arrived safely, but I really didn't want to let her go it alone. Yet, when I looked into her eyes I knew I would hurt her confidence if I told her all the reasons to be scared. So I agreed. When the big morning arrived, I reviewed all our rules, then walked her to the street corner. We hugged extra tight and said goodbye. When she walked away without me, my heart fell out on the sidewalk I wanted to scream, "No, you can't do that. Someone might hurt you!" Instead I said, "Way to go April. You're so big. I'm so proud of you." I secretly followed my daughter that day, hiding behind every bush and tree so she wouldn't know I was right there making sure she was safe. I noticed she really did look both ways on street crossings without being reminded, and not a single scary stranger approached her. After I watched April open the school door and step inside, I turned and plodded back home. I'd spent years making sure she was safe and well cared for. Now she was ready to take on part of that responsibility herself, and I felt happy, proud, sad and scared, all mixed up together. Then it occurred to me that God watches over us like that. He doesn't want to hurt our progress and growth, so He lets us walk through life thinking we are alone, when He's always there hiding behind every bush or tree, watching over us. We parents face our child's first sleep-over, first choir tour, first date or first college dorm with anticipation and regret. We want our children to be independent, but we never feel like we've had enough time together. Our busy lives never seem to include enough oneon-one bonding with each child. All too soon we realize we'll never get our son and daughter's childhood back even for a moment. We parents walk a fine line wondering: How do we protect our children without being over-protective? So we try - but often feel like a drunk man - weaving on and off the protec- tive versus smothering straight line, unsure how to put one foot in front of the other and walk away. When are our children really ready to play alone in the back yard, walk to school, drive a car, leave for college or get married? Probably never. Yet life is constantly nudging - pushing us, and them, forward. Always sooner than we're ready, it is - ready or not, here they go. Janene Baadsgaard is the author of many humorous and heartwarming books for families including 15 Secrets to a Happy Home, Families Who Laugh . . . Last, On the Roller Coaster Called Motherhood, Winter's Promise, Financial Freedom for LDS Families, Janene Baadsgaard The LDS Mother's Almanac available at local book stores or on-line at www.springcreekbooks. com. Read her columns at www.janene baadsgaard. blogspot.com. She can be reached at janenebaadsgaard@juno .com Preparedness site on the Web Ready or Not Dawn Van Nosdol What an interesting time we live in. Have you been building your food storage? If you have to start relying on your food storage exclusively, will it taste good? Have you been storing soaps, toothpaste, toilet paper and other stuff, too? I hope so. Have you been staying out of debt and cutting back on unnecessary purchases? Listening to the news every night, I find myself especially tuned to the state of the economy and I am very curious, and somewhat apprehensive, about what our nation's leaders will do to try to protect our lifestyles. I am even more curious to see how we will handle ourselves during the next few months, and even the next few years. People keep talking about tie Great Depression in the '30*s, and are wondering if it will happen again. Just remember that not everyone lost everything during that time. I had a history teacher that lived during the Depression when he was child. He remembers the adults talking about it, but it really didn't touch his family. They were farmers in a small rural town in Utah, and they didn't have much money to begin with. They grew a garden, had chickens, slaughtered a cow each year and had a milk cow. They traded goods for most everything they needed and sold their crops at the end of the year. Life went on. They had their food storage, which back then meant preserving and storing enough food until they, could harvest the next year's garden and food crop. They relied on each other, they loved each other and they grew close to each other. If we do go through difficult times - and we probably will - let's do it together, as couples, families, friends and communities Want to hear some good news? Two brilliant friends of mine, Nina Lewis, our resident Technology Goddess and food storage aficionado, and Connie McVey, preparedness/food storage guru extraordinaire, and I, have started an emergency preparedness/food storage web site. Remember? I told you that it is a good idea to surround yourself with people who are • smarter than you are. The web site, www.apreparedhome.com, is based on this column and a lot of other good advice and helpful hints.' The web site is still under construction, but it is growing almost daily. Eventually all of my articles will be posted online for you to look at, or to share with your friends and family. I have extracted all of the recipes that I have shared with you and made them into a printable version, so that you won't need to print the entire article in order to have the recipe. There are measurement tables, emergency substitution lists, safe cooking temperature tables and more. We have a lot of plans to help the web site grow in a way that we hope will really help you to get to the "place" you and your family want to be - preparedness wise. We want to spark your imagination and help you to build your food/ sundry storage, and then be able to use it in a way that brings joy and confidence. We will also have good tips on emergency preparedness and we have posted the preparedness kits that I have written about in the past. I hope that you take the time to visit us at www. apreparedhome .com. Let us know what you think about it, what you would like to see us add to the site and what you want to learn more about. I think that you will be happy with what we are trying to accomplish - building a go-to site for all of your questions about food storage and being prepared. I will continue writing this article for the newspaper and then we will post the current article to the site. So now, if you want to share an idea or recipe with a friend or someone in your family, you can just e-mail them the link and they can get it themselves. I hope to see you on-line and ... don't forget to store your water! SR-198 Fairgrounds to Arrowhead Trail Road Project The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) will hold a public open house to discuss improvements to SR-198 (Main Street), and the reconfiguration of the bridges at the intersection of Main Street and Arrowhead Trail Road. The meeting will be held Wednesday, October 15, 2008 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Spanish Fork Fairgrounds, High Chaparral Building, located at 475 South Main Street. At this meeting, project team members will be available to meet with the public, share information about the proposed improvements and receive comments. Major project elements Include: "• • • Starting Oct. 8th, Brad would like to welcome Jody Crandell, a new barber from Spanish Fork. Walk-ins are welcome. Brad's Barber Shop 59 N. Main Street, Spanish Fork • 798-2629 • Widening Main Street from the Fairgrounds to the intersection of Arrowhead Trail Road (SR-164) to accommodate four lanes of traffic, a center median, shoulders, curb and gutter and sidewalk Removing the free right turn and bridge from southbound Main Street to Arrowhead Trail Road Replacing the existing bridge over Spanish Fork River to accommodate roadway improvements Constructing a new signal at the intersection of Main Street and Volunteer Drive These proposed improvements will provide a safer roadway by reducing congestion and travel delays along this section of Main Street. An environmental document is.being prepared to disclose any environmental consequences that may result from the project. For more information, contact Scott Thompson, UDOT Public Information Manager, at 801-227-8006 or via email at scottthompson(5)utah.Qov. |