My father has moved on to a better place

The day that we all knew would come, arrived on November 10th, 2008. My father passed away while he was living here in my home. He would ask occasionally why he could not die. He was mostly bed ridden for the past several months and felt as though he was a big burden and of no use to anyone. All of my family members told him that he still had work to do on the earth and that the Lord would not take him until that was written. We knew that he had been working on his life history for a few months and that possibly he was being spared because it was not finished. He then pursued the task of speaking into a recorder or having someone type as he dictated his history. Last week he began to show signs of pneumonia and his appetite was very poor. I asked him if he wanted to see if the Dr. would give him an antibiotic and he said,"No".
I knew that he would not last long with the chest congestion he was having. With each passing day, his color looked a little more pale and he ate less and less. By Monday morning, I could tell that his time was short on this earth.
I called Barbara, Deanna and Doug to tell them that they may want to come over to see dad. My mother was already here with dad. Barb and Deanna got here about 1pm and spent the day talking and typing more of his history as he dictated it to them. He seemed to have rallied a bit and I apoligized to them for having them drop everything and come. But, they were glad to have come and enjoyed helping dad with his history. Deanna was hungry and dad told her to go eat supper. She had Barb come in to sit with dad. As Barb sat with him around 5:55 she asked him if he had anything else to say and he said, "I'm............done." And he closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. Barb came running out of the room saying that he was going. We could not believe it because he was just talking to Deanna 5 minutes before. As we entered the room it was obvious that he was indeed going. We all said goodbye and Pete and a neighbor gave him a blessing to release him. He passed peacefully and quietly. We could not have been blessed more with that release. Mom is doing fine and we will plan on a funeral Saturday at 1pm in Panguitch.

More rooms in the house

One of our guest rooms, the exercise room and the grandkids attic room.

Our New Home

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of our new home.

Here are a few views of the kitchen and dining room.

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Doug Update

Well Doug has been in the mission field for almost 4 whole months now. He is doing really well and seems super happy. We are very proud of him and the changes he is showing already!

Here is a couple excerpts from his letters:

"We have been so busy, we found 8 new investigators this week. Prior to that the most we found in a week was 4. Two of them Jesu's and Sarah are seventh day adventisit, probably the hardest people to teach because of the seventh day. But they seemed open minded and are way cool so hopfully they can get over the seventh day. These are the first seventh day people that committed to read and pray. "................................."Ellsworth (the church ranch) feels like home it is awesome. We drive around in big ranch trucks looking for gators, coyotes, and wild bore. This kid Lance takes out a rifle and we cruise the ranch it is so awesome. They also feed us fatty steaks not spequetti like every meal we get here in Palm Bay. Everyone is so friendly, they told me to come back after my mission to ride air boats and hunt. I am down." (9-15-08)

"Edeline Charisma asked me to be the one that baptizes her family. So that should be awesome, I have never baptized anyone let alone a family." (9-22-08)

"Well our baptisms went great. I was so nervous because I had never done it before but I did all three the very first time no mistakes".................. "I just wrote a letter like yesturday...the weeks are like two days back home."
"I love you all and don't forget to pray." (9-29-08)
-Elder Peterson


"........on the way home from the Ranch a 250 lg. hog with tusks crossed the road. I loaded the gun and my ward mission leader dropped it right where it was didn't even give it a extra step, needless to say it was awwwwesome. On the down side I had a 150 lb. rot wieler dominate me in the dark. It took me to the grownd and i just punched it while some guy was yelling. I should of called the cops but I had to find the nearest bathroom to check my pants. It was scary."
(10-14-08)

Doug & some mission companions having fun at the beach

(Doug is 2nd from the left)

Doug enters the Mission Field

In the middle of our busy life, we stopped long enough to send Doug off to the MTC on June 25.
He is now serving in the Florida Orlando Mission and is loving it so far. The humidity is killing him but he trudges on each and every day, sweating it out like a real trooper. He rides his bike about 20 miles a day and is getting into the best shape he has ever been in.
His first baptism was on Sunday August 17th and he could not be a happier missionary!
Although his mission is an English speaking mission, he has found that almost everyone he meets speaks something other than English! He has learned to introduce himself in French, Creole, Spanish, Cuban , and Portuguese. His first teaching lesson on the day he arrived in the field was to a Hatian man who only spoke Creole! Now that would be a challenge. But, God willing, he was able to communicate and this man is the one he just baptized on the 17th of August! With God, anything can happen and miracles happen each day.
He is happy and working hard. We miss him but cannot think of anywhere else we would rather have him at this time in his life. I'll post some pictures that he has sent us in the next day or two.

We have moved in!

I know that it has been several months since I posted anything on this site and for that I can only say......we've been too busy finishing up the house and moving in to sit down to the computer to post!
On our 29th Wedding Anniversary which was July 12th, we spent our first night in the house. Camille came up from Vegas and worked like a pack mule for three days. She would haul load after load from the garage to the new house. Up and down stairs for hours on end. Before that, she spent a day just cleaning all of the dust from the new home so we could move in. We are truly grateful for her help.
It is exhausting to say the least, to move anywhere let alone build and then move.
We are beginning to feel at home here finally and although every room has little things that need patching or touching up, we can relax a bit for now. Each day we try to do just one or two things on our "still to do" list.
I'll try to post pictures of the finished rooms very soon.

The Cabinets are HERE!

Siding almost complete!

Our big yellow house is just about finished with it's siding. It's just what we wanted.

Now, the yard work is another thing that will take some time and of course, money!

The Man on Stilts / April 3rd

After the sheetrock hanging crew was finished, the man on stilts showed up to begin mudding and taping the seams and nail heads. He was very skilled on these stilts.

Icyene Insulation March 17,18th, 2008

After searching for a better way to insulate our home, we decided to try the Icyene foam insulation. Gale Construction in St. George was our choice of contractors for installing this type of insulation. It is sprayed in wet like paint, but swells and fills the cavity between the 2x6's on the inside of the outer walls. An amazing thing to watch indeed! This type of insulation fills all of the holes in the outer walls around pipes, electrical outlets, windows etc.

The Sheetrock Work Crew Arrives! March 27th, 2008

This was the most amazing day in the construction of our home so far to date! Ten Mexican men arrived to hang the sheetrock. The pieces were 5/8" thick, and 8'x12' long. They arrived at 7am and pulled out at 5:30pm with the whole house fully sheetrocked! They were just like bees in a beehive in full action! They really knew what they were doing, with each one knowing what his job was.

The sheetrock arrives!

Now is the exciting part! The day we have waited for...... the Sheetrock arrives.

Date of arrival : March 25th, 2008

Goodbye!

On Friday, March 14th we signed the papers to finalize the sale of our old home to Elisha Baker and her two kids, Ben and Allison.
They have been living in it since we moved out last October but were just renting until we
could get the home and land converted to
"real property" on paper.
It took us longer than we had hoped, but it is final now and the Bakers are great neighbors. They are just over the back fence!
Lucky for us, they love the chickens..........
and the roosters.
(Our new home is behind and to the left in this picture so you cannot see it)

More local craftsmen to thank

This is Dave Carlson and his son Beau (squatting) as they install foam insulation before attaching the beautiful yellow siding to the house.

Pete and Piete

Here are Pete and Piete Florence working on the miles and miles of wire!

When you are hooking up phone, TV, internet, lightning and speakers you cannot believe the maze of wires!

Also in the picture is pex water pipe, central vac pipe line and gas lines.

It's amazing what goes into the walls and ceiling joists before the insulation and sheetrock!

We are truly thankful

I would be very ungrateful if I did not give credit to the men who have helped us make this new home a reality. First of all, we asked Ariel Escobedo to use his architectual skills that he is learning at BYU to help us take the plans from my head and drawings I had made, to making them real blue prints for the builder to build from. He is to be commended for his patience and long suffering on his computer. Second, James Bleak for the dirt and concrete work. Third, Paul Steed for being our #1 framer and giving our house it's shape. He truly can build anything that we ask him to and he is very, very patient with us and our daily plan changes. To him, we are truly grateful. Also, I need to thank the Weiderman brothers Kenny and Richie for working along side Paul and doing whatever he asked. (see picture) Then, there is Piete Florence who is the most talented electrician that we know. He has more lighting ideas that we could ever dream of. After watching him hook up the main electrical panel, he might as well be a surgeon! With my Pete helping pull thousands of feet of wire, the job of rough wiring is finally done. Next week we will get insulation and sheet rock.

Expect more pictures!

Fresh from the nest

This is what we get in an average day. Our grandkids love to gather the eggs when they are here to visit. We love the different colored eggs that our chickens hatch!

Our beautiful rooster

This rooster is my favorite one.

Down on the farm

When we bought our piece of land to build on, it had an old chicken coop on it. Pete decided that it would be cool to have chickens, so with donations from generous chicken owners in the county we began raising our own home grown eggs. We now have added some exotic hens and colorful roosters and we wake each morning to the sound of the roosters crowing!

It's turning yellow!

For over 20 years, I have dreamed of having a big yellow house with white trim and a wrap around porch. Well, it is finally coming true for me. And, of course, Pete likes it too!

Here is a view of the home from an airplane that Cliff was in while flying over Panaca with one of his roommates who is taking flight lessons. Pic taken Jan 15th 2008

I apologize to Jonathan Christensen for not taking pictures while he, his dad, brother and brother-in-law came and worked on our home Feb. 16th. They installed all of our gas line throughout the whole house. We are truly grateful for their generosity. It takes lots of people to make this dream a reality and it is not over yet. Pete and I are trying to do some of the work ourselves but mostly we hire out our own sub-contractors. We are what they call "Owner Builders" and we do the work of getting our own help. More pics to come......

Doug and Jonathan Brunjes working on the back deck. Shingles being put on the roof.

Still more pics of the house. It's getting bigger each day!

Obviously these pics are not in order but I am doing the best that I can! Enjoy them for what they are OK?

More stages of building. It has been fun to watch it take the shape that we designed!

More pictures of the various stages of our home. November and December 07.

This is the beginning of our new home

started in November of 2007.

We have finally come aboard Blog spot!!

Ok, after much begging of our children, I have taken it upon myself to climb aboard the Blog Spot train and join in on the fun. I have always enjoyed visiting my childrens blog spots when I took the time to sit down for a minute. And that was because one of them would call or e-mail me telling me to check out the newest updates!
I am terrible about keeping in touch with my family especially lately because we are building a new home. Yes, all the more reasons to blog my life with stories and pictures of all that we have going on here. And especially for our daughter Jenny, son-in-law Andrew and our precious Tanner.
So, here is my first attempt of posting. Hope it works!! Are you happy now kids???
Bev