Rest in Peace

I'm sure you could guess that it had to be something big for me to find time to blog, and something big it was. Last night our family pet of 14 years died due to complications of old age. Belle was the sweetest, most beautiful cat, and everyone who ever met her agree that cats don't come better than her (I'd argue that a better pet of any sort there never was).

She has been declining in health rapidly for the last few months, and hasn't been able to eat for a few weeks. She was literally a fragment of the cat she used to be. Nathan held her as her slight body struggled with its last few movements and breaths. She is finally resting peacefully.

After we said our good-byes, Nathan fashioned her a spectacular coffin from a box and duct tape (okay, it may not win any awards, but I can guarantee it's the best that any pet of ours can ever hope for). I wrote a few words on the box, which we'll bury tonight. And as an extra tribute, Isaac wrote a special letter to Belle, which we found next to her this morning. I'd like to share it with everyone:

Dear Belle, I am sorry for the times I was mean . Please forgive me. I am sorry that you died, and I know you are old, but what made you die was you got really really sick and then you died. I am very very sorry that you died. And may you rest in peace in Heaven and you will be good there. Love, Isaac

I think we all echo the sentiments: You'll be good in Heaven, Belle.

East Canyon part 2

We also went to East Canyon this week, with Grandpa Phil and Jake (Paula's dad and brother). There was more fun with hummingbirds, and a little bit of wet weather again, but lots more sunshine than last week. Emily wasn't with us because she was at Youth Conference with the ward (okay, Youth Conference is a bit of a misnomer in my opinion--they went rafting down the Green River from Flaming Gorge. Sounds more like a vacation to me!)

East Canyon part 1

In honor of my dad's visit, I am honoring my step-mom's request that I update my blog! There's not enough space in the blogging world to update all of you on everything that's gone on lately, so I'll keep it simple and let you know what we've been doing the last few weeks.

Last week we went camping at East Canyon Resort. Isaac and Emily loved riding their bikes around (Emily so much that I couldn't even get her to stop for a picture), Adam hung around camp quite a bit with mom and dad (see him with a hummingbird), and Eliza was just Eliza. She ran around, got into things which should just be left alone, and had a great time doing it! It was a fun, but wet, trip.

New Beds!

It's a new year, and kids are growing, so we took a couple of Saturdays and got the three youngest new beds.



You can see the beautiful bunk beds which we assembled,

and Eliza's toddler bed (thanks for the loaner, Tiffany!)

Look What I Can Do!

Our washing machine stopped spinning the other day. Fortunately it was on the last load of laundry for the day, but dirty clothes don't stop coming, so I had to do something. Nathan was busy working in Park City, so I couldn't just hand the job over to him. I found this cool website with specific diagrams of any make and model of appliance you can imagine. I was able to scroll over the picture and find out what each part was responsible for. When I came to the motor coupling device I knew I had found the culprit.

The next step was to call my friend April, who seems to thrive on taking things apart and fixing them. I asked for suggestions and she offered to come over and look at my washer with me. Using the online diagram and a few tools, we were able to disassemble the washing machine down to the transmission. There was the disintegrated coupling device (see diagram at left).


So April took the motor to an appliance shop where the owner removed the damaged piece and replaced it. She then came back over after kids were in bed and we successfully put the machine back together with the functional part. And guess what . . .
IT WORKED!

So I learned lots of new things yesterday. And now if something goes wrong with another appliance (though I hope it doesn't) I just might try to fix it myself!




As a postscript, I had to include the picture of the dryer motor, as Nathan replaced that on his own just last month! I'm proud of him too!

Wishing you a Happy New Year

Here are the Wood children wishing you a marvelous 2009 in their Christmas 2008 clothes. I've been delinquent in my blogging, and one resolution of mine is to do better, especially considering I sent an invitation with my Christmas cards to check out our blog to see what we've been doing. Clearly checking our blog won't help much, so I'm determined to do better. You can see the kids were in good spirits before Christmas. They were even more excited after opening their present from us Christmas morning. Just like 3/4 of everyone you know, we got a Wii (I'm sure between last year and this year, you must know at least 10 people who got the exact same thing for their family). It's been lots of fun for all of us. Even Eliza can help us make music videos on Wii Music. Rock on, and may this year be even better than last!

(okay, this set of pictures goes beneath the other blog of the day, but I still don't really know what I'm doing)