Ready and Waiting!!

Do you think the boys are excited? We all can't wait for

Sarah Elizabeth Covington!

Fun on the Foof!

ANOTHER HAZELISM

I know two blog entries in less that two weeks, but I couldn't get this on our nightly text and it was too funny to pass up.

I was over to Meag's and Cory's the other night watching the Olympics. Which why in the world they have to broadcast them so picking late I will never know. They have been so fun to watch!

Anyway I am laying on the couch and Hazel comes over kneels down next to me with her little face about 6 inches from mine and just studies me. Finally I look over at her, "What are you doing?"
"You know G'ma you're born different."
"Really Hazel, what makes you think so?" (There would be many who would agree with her without an explanation.)
She brings her hand up to my eye and puts her fingers into the crease of my eyeball. "Your eyes are really far back in your head." I started to laugh. Meagan said considering everyone in their family doesn't really have eyelids--think of Ellery's eyes and Cory's, mine probably do look different. Then Meagan says Bennett will probably be the only one with your eyes. Bennett immediately responds that she doesn't want eyes like G'ma's because I can't even wear eye shadow cause my eyes are so far back!!!

I thought all "the sisters" aka "Jafer-look-alikes" would want to know what my g'daughters thought about our eyes. Talking to Shelli the other day she said hers are getting deeper and deeper too. Guess we get it from both sides.

Upside is MY tunnel vision isn't too bad yet--give it a few years and we shouldn't ever have Annie's problem. How is she doing?

Love you, Le Anne

Happy Birthday Adam

Today was very insane for me. I wanted to call but recognizing the time in Colorado, I decided not to bother you. Hope it was great. I feel genuinely lucky to call you my brother.

Mike

Happy Birthday, Adam!

To not say you are the most handsome man in the universe would be like beating a unicorn to death with a bag of rainbows. I love you, I LOVE you, I LOVE YOU!

P.S. Happy anniversary Geof. & Darla, and isn't there another anniversary in the family today?
P.P.S. That unicorn line is from Better Off Ted, in case you were confused. And the "love you"s are Buddy the Elf style.

ADAM!!

Geof. read me his journal entry of our wedding day this morning. In it he wrote that you guys had celebrated Adam's 26th bday that morning. Are you really 8 years older, Adam? 34?! No way. Gosh, we love you! Have a wonderful day. You've done soo much for us over the years. Forever grateful, The VA Bennetts

It's amazingly sunny here at the moment.

My goal in life is to read this often enough that I don't have to go to old posts to get caught up. I can think of all these comments while I am reading, but you will never see them cause they are all so far back. I should take a few notes as I read then post them all on my blog entry. Anyway here are just a few "comments."

Wish I could have made it to the shower Chels! You look beautiful! All of you!! What a gene pool. Aunt Sally and Aunt Mardene are beautiful women. I am so glad you posted a picture of them. Thank you. Yes, I like everyone's dark hair. Ellynn I do love yours blonde. It turned out great.

Eden and Sarah your quilts are on their way. Eden, what can I say? "I wanted you to be old enough you could really enjoy it?" Truth is, going up to Lacey every week and having to keep myself entertained and happy has worked out well. I am getting caught up! It is hard for me to sit down and do anything but there isn't a whole lot to do up there at the apartment while Ellery is at work so I sew and take 2 hour walks. I have explored 5 miles in every direction. That is a 10 mile walk, because there is always the return trip, mostly in the rain. I am bringing up my bike soon so I can explore further. I finished 5 quilts for Christmas and made a headboard for our bed up there. I finally finished Cash's quilt before he started Kindergarten. WAHOO!

I don't think we give cigarettes enough credit for their addictive power. Ellery's brother Scott years ago went into rehab for his addiction to crack, other drugs and alcohol. We saw him at one of the niece's wedding receptions. He told me, "You should be so proud of me--no more drugs or drinking. The only thing I can't kick is this!" He indicated the cigarette in his hand. The last time I visited Dad in the hospital 2 days before he died he didn't recognize me he was so out of it, but he was going through all the motions of knocking a cigarette out of the pack, lighting up, smoking it and flicking off the ash, etc. Amazing, almost completely unconscious the hold it still had on him! We are still praying a lot. Funny how many temples have AJ and Lydia's names on the prayer rolls. That's a good thing.

I have a friend Kathleen that I have hiked with for years. She gave me a statement once about something she had been thinking a lot about. "It's raining where I am!" I will try to briefly explain, but you will no doubt have to read between the lines. As I read the blog about Lydia and all the trials there and with AJ and then sweet little Julia and her post about our adorable little night time monster I was impressed once again with the support from everyone. Jack felt so badly about her comment, but Julia understood. Sometimes I will start my prayers with the line, "Heavenly Father, I realize this has nothing to do with world peace, but this is what I am having trouble dealing with now and it is driving me crazy!" Sometimes when I am in this mode I feel extremely guilty and ungrateful for all the blessings I have and that just makes me feel worse. I mean compared to the people of Haiti what do any of us have to complain about, but "it's raining where I am." I am getting soaked-sometimes feel like I am drowning.

"Jesus wept" is the shortest scripture in the bible, one of the few I have successfully memorized. Mary, Martha and their friends had met Jesus on the road to their home to tell him their brother Lazarus had died. Jesus knew. HE had a plan. He knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the grave and their grief was short term, but he didn't minimize their pain. . . HE WEPT with them. I remind myself of that. So whether it is sleepless nights, impending labor and delivery, laid up with a bad knee and 3 very active kids, not enough work or money, drug addiction, the aches, pains, of an aging body Heavenly Father acknowledges the rain in our lives--blesses us with the strength and prospective to deal with it and grow from it.

Thank you so much for your testimony Jack! It is wonderful!

It was so fun to visit with Joani on her way back from Hawaii and to go up to see Shelli and little Madi. Shell is due a week after Meags and is doing well.

Love you all, Le Anne

Geof.'s bday treat

Apparently Cole does NOT like Gma's famous peach cobbler. We'll have to remedy that. (Check out my blog for a fun video of the girl's dancing and pics!)

Blonde once again!

most of you probably already saw these pictures on facebook but i know you don't get on there Mama so i thought i'd post them on here for you to see. i actually cut it a few weeks ago but opted not to tell because i knew certain people (Mom, Meags, Geof. etc.) wouldn't be excited for me or like it. but i like it so why let them rain on my parade ;) i love you though!

Happy Birthday Ellyn!!!

These two were taken during one of the funnest months of my life when i lived in Georgia with Brookie.

 And these two are from last March down in Monterey. The picture with Brooke was taken just after Elly snatched a pringle right out of some kid’s hand as he was putting it in his mouth! She’s amazing! Sneaky Ninja. that’s what her name should be. Although i think “Ellyn” means almost the same thing. i should know.

 I love you Elly Boo!! Happy Birthday!

Hawaii in January 2010!

You will notice the next 3 posts are from me! I'm sorry but I plugged in my camera to do the ones for Chelsea's shower and had to post a couple more. Totally out of order, but oh well. I have been very entertained and for a non experienced blogger, it only took about an hour and a half!

This is Dave, Ashley's Dave. He took Ash to Hawaii for her Christmas present and he just happened to invite me and Lindsey. He is great and we love having him part of the family. We had a lot of fun.

One of the things we did was rented kayaks and went forever! Lindsey and I hated it because we both have bad shoulders. Ash sat back in hers and let Dave do all the work. This picture was our little hike to Fern Grotto. The plants were huge! I spared you the picture of Dave and Ash in their leaf! I thought it was pretty cute!
This was one of the secret places we hiked to. All 3 of them jumped at once but Dave being a little bigger splashed first. They had fun!


Dave's Mom and sister and her 2 1/2 month old baby came also. It was our turn to ride the scooters. This was probably my favorite day. We were at Hanalei Bay on Kauai. It was beautiful.

Fun times!

Happy Valentine's Day

Chelsea - 3 more weeks!

I know she is going to kill me for posting everything about her but I regret not having any pregnant pictures! Also she joined the dark side with her sisters!

I had the boys over on Saturday night so Chelsea and Joey could have some time together, because soon enough they will have their hands full. Isaac is pulling his gangster face! You can't really see the table but we were decked out with Valentine decor. Ashley and Lindsey joined us. We had fun!
Happy Valentine's Day!

Chelsea's Shower February 6th, 2010

Here are pictures of Chelsea's shower that my sisters and nieces gave for Chelsea!

Aunt Sally and Aunt Mardy

Me and Lindsey in the kitchen!
Jessica with Eden!
Chelsea with little Sarah Elizabeth Covington at 8 months!

Chantell and Monica!
Who knows why I don't have a picture of Paula!

Chelsea's dark haired sisters.

Chels, Jack and Alicia!

Chelsea got a lot of nice things. Thank you so much for everyone and all your work. I know Chelsea appreciated it!

Happy Birthday Valentine girl!

Beautiful day in Carmel with Meagan, Wil, and Hazel here

-- Post From My iPhone

More snow, bad ski day, and rest for mom.

Jacki,

I'm so glad you are keeping us up to date with what's going on with Lyd. She is in everyone of our prayers. What power!! I think we experience things like this to better understand God's love for us. If we didn't struggle with our kids, or just people in general, we would never get close to comprehending the PURE love of Christ. I can feel that love when I read your posts. Lydia's blessed to have you and Kev (and all of her family!).

I am currently on my back for who knows how long due to a yucky ski fall yesterday that screwed up my knee pretty bad. I had to be taken by ski patrol back up the mountain where they put a make-shift brace on my leg and then we drove home. We were planning on waiting until Monday to go to the Dr. (since the pain had subsided quite a bit. I still couldn't walk at all, but it wasn't keeping me up at night), but decided to call our orthopedic surgeon friend over first thing in the morning because I passed out in the shower while Geof. was trying to help me. Lame!! So scary to wake up with your husband over you screaming your name (I guess he had to slap my face pretty hard to wake me), your daughter crying in the background, and your knee in considerably more pain from having it twisted again. Oh!! Fortunately, we have some good Dr. friends out here that take very good care of us. And a miracle!! We JUST got on our own insurance last week! So if it looks like surgery and physical therapy (please no, but it's very possible), then we'll finally be insured!

And because I'm stuck on my back in bed for who knows how long, I'll have plenty of time to write Lyd. We love you, Lydia!! I hope you can make it through this recovery. (is that the right word?). Your spirit knows you can. You just have to convince your body that the spirit can overcome any physical addictions. I KNOW it can! Just pray. A lot!

love you all,

Darla

Talked to Lyd

We got to talk to Lyd a little last night and saw her for a minute tonight. She is having a tough time of it!!! I gave her all the blog that I have written and all your comments. She told me to tell you that she can feel all of your prayers! That she will get very agitated and then suddenly a peace comes over her and that she knows that it is all of the prayers!!! The counselor told us tonight that he doesn't know if she will make it through the whole program, that she is very defiant. I know that with all of us pulling for her that she will continue to feel it and know that she needs to stay and get the help that she needs! When we talked to her before the meeting she was very emotional and tells us how they explain all of that to her. That the drugs have masked her true feeling for so long that now they are all coming out. I know that this program will work for her if she will just let it. Even though she complains she has admitted that this is what she has wanted to do for a long time, but she also admits that if she would have known about the no coffee, no smoking, and no anything that is addictive, that she wouldn't have agreed to go there! I say that it was divine intervention and I am looking forward to her coming back home healthy and well!!! Their theory is not to quit one addition for another, which I agree with whole heartily!!! If you get a chance we found out her address tonight and you can write her, thanks again for all your support!! I love you all!! Aunt Jack

Cold Creek Lydia Rigby

P.O. Box 699

Kaysville, Utah 84037

Saw Lyd!!

We went to a parent meeting tonight that they have at the place Lyd is at and on the way out I heard a little "MaMa" and there she was!! We have had to bring her some of the things that she needed, but I would have Kev take it to her because I knew that if I saw her that I would not handle it very well! Guess what I was right, all I could to was sob!!! Her too!!! They called us on Sunday and we had to go get her a prescription for her because of her anxiety. Lyd is having a very hard time with stopping smoking, so here it comes again, please pray for her. She said that it is the hardest thing that she has ever done. I would seem to me that heroine would top it but I guess not! I told her that everyone is praying so hard for her. She is still in her "Black Out" , but we will get to see her when we go to our Thursday night class and I can't wait and hope that she will be better by then, it just kills me when she is hurting. If you think that it is hard to hear them cry when they are babies, wait till you hear them sob when they are 24!! Great news by the way about Violet sleeping through the night. I remember those days like they were just yesterday!!!! I hate to say it, but it was easier then! Thanks again it is great to know that you are all here for us!!! Love you Aunt Jack

A minor update...

She looks innocent, right?

Thank you so much to everyone who gave baby advice and support when I was going mad with exhaustion! I just wanted to fill you in on how things are going. It seemed as though the consensus from the family was "you have to let her cry", and it made me just sick to think about it. Ugh. But I was determined! (And completely at my wits end). So the first night I put her in her crib and gave her a kiss and said, "Goodnight, baby. I'll see you in the morning!" She was hysterical. So I went in after 5 minutes to check on her, then 10, 20, on up to an hour. Hysterical. Four hours later she was asleep and I thought I was going to throw up. I felt like a big meanie, and was very apprehensive about doing it again the next night. But I did. Same thing, but she only cried three hours... and the next night, ONE! By the week's end, she would fuss for JUST A FEW MINUTES before falling asleep and wake up less every night! Tonight I put her to bed at NINE THIRTY. I CANNOT believe it! I'm sure all of you ladies who have already done this are thinking, "Well, Duh", but Violet went from a baby who had never (in her life!) slept more than 3 or MAYBE 4 hours at a time, to sleeping 6 and 7 hour blocks! AMAZING :)

Thank you SO MUCH for the help and phone calls and encouragement! You inspired me to bite the bullet and do it! I LOVE YOU!

Julia

Update!!!

Joan reminded me that I forgot to say that when the guy thought that he could get this through with our insurance that both Lyd and I started to cry. I was really wondering what we were going to do with her. I was so tired I thought that I was going to die or maybe just wishing to!! I can't even remember laying my head on my pillow last night. Anyway they have been working with the insurance people all day today on the phone. www.coldcreekwellness.com said that if they could fine something that they offer there that no one in the area did that the insurance would have to make an exception because these people are not providers. They called me at about 3 and said that because there was someone at Lakeview that did what we needed that we were pretty much out of hope for the insurance to help. I guess that we all know that I don't take "No" for an answer too well. I called down there and found out that they really didn't have the program, just one like the place that we just had her at and that is not what the Doctors wanted for her. I let them know at Cold Creek and they sent off an exception for a single case agreement and they did except that and are now taking it to the committee! He thinks that we can be 90% assured that it will go through!! So that is good news, but there is better news then that!!! Lydia asked for a blessing last night from the guys there that run the place!!!! I know that she knew when this fell into our laps like this last night, that there was more to this then luck! I'm not saying that it means that she she will be teaching primary with us next week but slowly but surely Heavenly Father is showing her that he is there!! I talked to one of the guys that gave the blessing to her and he said that he had never experienced that before, that the spirit was so strong in the room that he couldn't believe it and both he and the other man both were in tears. I have never been good at baring (sp) my testimony but I bare my testimony to you, telling you that my Heavenly Father is with me and with Lyd and is helping us through all of this. I know that Lyd is meant to do big things for others because of what she has gone through with all of this. Lyd is a very strong spirit and will be able to help others because of this and that is just what she wants to be able to do. I know that it is through all of your prayers that this is turning out the way that it is. I know that Mom, Grandma and all the others on the other side of the vial are fighting for her and want her to succeed. I don't know what I would do without my family and the power that we are when we are praying for one another!!! Thank-you will never be enough to say to all of you and to my Heavenly Father! We are not out of the woods yet with the insurance people, but it is looking good thanks to all of you! We will never be out of the woods when it comes to Lyd either! That "Monster" will always be lurking, waiting for that one moment of weakness to get her to come back to the addiction. She will always be fighting this, but where she is right now they will be teaching her how to rethink things and make herself more powerful then the addition. I think that Lyd will be a huge help to others in their overcoming their additions, which makes her a big threat to the devil to get her to come back in to his control. I also know that she is one strong women and with a family like ours behind her and our Heavenly Father and Mom and everyone else that she is going to be GREAT!!!! Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you!!

Once again!!

Sorry once again I am asking for your prayers!! Lyd got out of detox today and was suppose to go into a residential facility. We were late and called to tell them so and they said no problem, but when we got there they turned us away and said that we should have been on time and that they couldn't take her till Monday!!! One of the things that they said was don't let her go home, so I was dying trying to figure out what to do. I told Kev that I would go get the trailer and fill it up with food, dvds, and books on all this stuff and we would go out in the middle of nowhere and wait it out!!! I could tell that Lyd was very depressed about the whole situation. About 18 months ago they put in a residential recovery home right around the corner from us and the neighbors all went crazy trying to stop it. I was feeling pretty desperate, you know back to my problem of being a spineless jelly fish, having to take care of her and decided to go by there and see what the cost of it was. They said that they would work with our insurance and would make it happen!!! I can't believe how much I have seen Heavenly Father's hand in all of this!!! Nothing went as planned today, everything that we did took about ten times as long as it should have and Cold Creek is where we ended up!! The other place by the way was horrible, you could just tell by walking in there that it wasn't where we wanted her to be. There are no coincidences!!!! The insurance is suppose to pay, but we are afraid that they are going to find a problem somehow, so PRAY!!!!! If she gets to stay I will write more, this is the very best place that she could ever ask to be!!! Please help me pray to keep her there!!! Thanks for your support, she said again today how much she could tell what we all did on Sunday!! Love you all Aunt Jacki