Thursday, August 22, 2013

A Great Man!

There is a lesson learned through every life experience.  I always knew that, but it didn't hit home till a couple of weeks ago.
  My grandpa was a great man. He was a man of integrity, love, patience, kindness and so much more.
  He was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the year.  He fought a good fight, and we were all determined that he would beat the cancer and return to being grandpa the invinsible!   The night before he passed away they told him he was doing good and he could come home from the hospital. But Heavenly Father had other plans for this amazing man.
  Getting the call at one thirty in the morning, saying my grandpa would not make it through the day was devestating, but I knew I had to see him before he passed away, my wonderful husband left work, and drove Me the 9 hours to see this great man. I had the honor and privilege of being with him during his last few hours here in mortality.  Being there in that hospital room with him was a bitter sweet experience.
  He was grandpa clear up to his final moments, laughing and joking, and teasing each one of us present.
   He also taught each one of us some very important lessons in his final hours.  He knew he was dying,  and he knew ,and we knew, where he was going.   But he would not tell anyone goodbye, he told each of us, See ya in the morning!
   It did not hit us till the next day what he ment, we all firmly believe he ment the morning of the first resurrection.   In his final hours, surrounded by all his children and most of his grandchildren, he turned to my grandmother and said " Arlene, look what we started,".    Family was everything to grandpa! He loved each one of us, and we knew it deeply, not just because he told us, but because he showed us.    Grandpa had time for you no matter what, I never remember him not doing what we asked!
   I was there over Easter and he had just had surgery, and he was still a little sore, but Hannah wanted to know how to do the bunny hop, so grandpa taught Hannah the bunny hop, and they hopped up and down the hallway.  
    Even his great grand kids knew and loved this great man.
As we were at the hospital Hannah was with us, and grandpa wanted to talk to her, he hugged her and said he loved her, and then he uttered his favorite phrases to her, You be good! And Don't mess around , and then he said I will be watching you.
   Those are grandpas sayings, but I hope someday Hannah will realize the eternal  meanings behind those phrases.
  I know grandpa is watching over each one of us. I know that , that is one of the missions Heavenly Father has already given him.  We all miss him soo much but I firmly believe that grandpa is fighting for us all and we needed him more on the other side of the veil.
   I would dare say that being with my grandpa those final moments be for he passed away was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life.  
My testimony was strengthened , my resolve to be a better follower of Christ was fortified, and my desire to remain an eternal family was empowered !
  You could feel the love in that room, you could feel our heavenly fathers spirit so close, and the prayers that were offered and the hugs and the see ya laters!  
  It was one of the most heartbreaking but amazing experiences ever.
I love my grandpa, he made me want to be better , his example of Christ like love touched my life and will always be remembered .  I will live my life so that my Heavenly Father and my Savior, and my grandpa, will be proud of me, when I grow up I want to be just like my grandpa!    I want to live my life so I will " see ya in the morning!"    I love you grandpa!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Nebraska!

It is finally greening up here in Nebraska!   Today was a beautiful day! The perfect day to brand cattle!  We attended our first large scale cattle branding today!  It was a lot of fun, seeing so many people work together and get all these calves branded!There were 1000  calves to be branded! they started at 5 a.m and we got done around 11a.m!  We enjoyed the little bit we were able to help! thy had an amazingly efficient, organized craziness going on!   Hannah has now decided she needs a horse so she can be a roper for the branding!  Thank you Birch family for inviting us! We enjoyed ourselves!

























  

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Catching up!

  So Facebook and i are mortal enimies right now, all i wanted to do was post some pictures for family to see and i can't for the life of me , get them to upload from picasa.  So i am going to put them on my blog and try to link it to face book and see how that goes!
 But there are a ton of pictures so i will break it up and hope it works!

First of all, not everyone realized that we have moved!  We did move! we moved to Alliance Nebraska for..... this   
And this...
Collins got a job working for the railroad! one of his lifelong dreams!
we have really enjoyed our time in nebraska so far!
Alliance is a very family friendly town and we have found plenty to keep us entertained!
Recently Hannah turned 8 and she had the opportunit to be baptized! We were so excited for her an for all the family that came to celebrate this occassion with us!















It was a fun and memorable day!
Also this past weekend we got the opportunity to take a little overnight weekend trip to Rapid City South dakota!  We had fun , but it made us all long for summer when we can hook up the camp trailer
and start our camping adventures! we love the Black hills!








So hopefully this catches everyone up on the happenings of the Jones Family!