Superhero Grandpa Dale

Last week we got a scary letter from my mom.  She told of an experience my dad had. I think I'm just going to copy it here:

Dear kids I wanted to tell you something that happened to your dad yesterday afternoon. Don't worry all turned out well but here is the story. It is almost unbelievable. Your dad stopped at a red light coming home from paying a bill. He was in his car. His doors were unlocked and a juvenile about 16 or 17 climbed into the back seat and put a gun to your dad's head and made him drive to a place that was a little rough. He gave him his money and his GPS and His phone. Take the stuff and go but he did not. He climbed into the front seat and put the gun to dad's head and said there is one bullet in this gun lets shoot it and see if the one will come up and kill you. So the boy calked it and shot but click then he did it again and Dad decided when he heard the click again he was going to fight. Well he pulled the trigger again and click. Dad grabbed his hand that had the gun and pinned the boy's arm with the gun so he could not use it. He held the boy's arm for a long time. The boy kicked and they had quite a tussle. The boy broke the front window and cut his knee a bit but dad still held him. He finally dropped the gun and dad picked it up. The boy yelled it has no bullets. He was screaming the whole time they were fighting. Dad was stronger. They both got out of the car. While they were struggling dad called out to the people around call the police but they just all went into their houses. One car pulled up and looked inside and smiled and went on his way. One woman finally called. The boy got out of the car and wanted his gun back. Dad said no way and the boy picked up a big rock which he could barely hold and said he was going to bash his head in. The police came around the corner he saw them and turned to run and then there was another police car on the other side. They subdued him and took him in. Dad spent 4 hours filling out papers at the police office. He has to go to court on February 25th. The boy said no one is going to help you here and he was right. I think the neighbors all knew him. but thank goodness one lady had the guts to call and she then warned the boy to get out and not hurt dad or things would go bad for him. She told him the police were on their way. but he wanted the gun back so bad that he didn't heed her. Dad said there were about 10 police there. four surrounded the boy and the others kept an eye out for neighbors who might be give them trouble.  So that is most of the story. He kept saying he was going to kill dad. Dad said he was not scared he said it seemed like a dream. He was calm. The robber didn't like that so he tried to scare him other ways. Dad has a little mark on his cheek because of the fight but it is hardly noticeable. I told heavenly father I would not pick at the stupid things that dad did ever again. I am human so I will probably forget and be annoyed again but for now the whole situation scared me and made me realize how much I loved your dad. I think what could of happened and I thank my Heavenly Father for sparing your dad. I just wanted you to know we are both fine and we both feel protected and we feel great. So maybe I should not have written to you all but I think it is better that you do. I know you will see how brave your dad is and he stayed calm the whole time. I think that is what made the kid so mad. It is amazing that such a thing could happen. People get so desperate and this boy was just plain mean. Well I love and miss you all. Your dad truly is a great man with much strength and honor. He just wanted to beat the kid but he restrained himself. I wish I had that much mastery over my self. I just don't and loose it when I get stressed. Well I love you all. Don't worry we are great. I respect your dad a great deal and I am so thrilled that I have him here with me. Take care. I love you all mom

Of course reading this letter was just scary.  I felt so upset and sick to my stomach, followed by lots of anger.  How dare someone try to hurt my dad!  Followed by, My Dad is AWESOME!

 Life is so fragile.  Experiences like this help you remember what is really important in life.  After I read the letter I didn't care about the trivial things, just grateful that my parents are alive and for all they have done for me. My dad always has been an example to us as someone who can remain calm in the most stressful situations.  I have no doubt that the Holy Ghost was guiding him and helping him remain calm.  Our blessing of the week!  They have 2 weeks left, please come home safe!

Share the Gift

This December for a family home evening we decided to Share the Gift.  I liked how the church focused on sharing the first gift of Christmas, which was Christ.  So, since we have plenty of material gifts for Christmas, I figured this was something we all needed to share a bit more of.  Did we do it?  Well, we tried.  I'm only a month late in posting this, but here it is:

Will shared the gift by making people happy.  He's a fun and cheerful little person and makes everyone happy.

Mac wanted to share the gift by giving someone a present, because that makes people happy he says.  Mac loves presents and giving people presents.

Sara wanted to share the gift by reading her scriptures every day because that's what we we're commanded to do.

Andrew wanted to share the gift by loving as Christ loves.  He says because that's what we should do even though it is hard.

I wanted to share the gift by remembering  that everyone is a child of God.  If I remember that, I have more patience and more compassion toward others, even strangers.

This next person wanted to remain anonymous.  He wanted to share the gift by doing unexpected service, which he always does anyway.  He serves so much, it's almost expected of him by a demanding wife :)

Now, I don't post this to say to everyone, "We are awesome, look at all the good things we say we do."  I post this to say, "We were given the best gift ever, why not share it?"  So, those are some of our goals, not just for the holidays but forever.  Whether we do it or not is up to us.   The gift of Christ is definitely the greatest blessing ever.  Merry Christmas! (a month late)

Rejection

Ok- I know it's been months.  I could write about lots of things, but going to stick with this one for today.

As many of you know, we are trying to sell our house.  We found a big beautiful lot here in Santaquin that I really want, so we are taking the plunge after much thought and prayer- building a new house and selling the old.  Now I've got to tell ya, I honestly thought we'd put our house up for sale and sell it right away.  After all, I love this house.  I love the area, my yard that we've put lots of work into, and our great play place in the basement.  Who wouldn't like it? Why wouldn't it sell fast? (Not saying there isn't room for improvement here, but we love our house)

Ok- so I was humbled.  We put our house up for sale, and.... nothing, nada, no one called- except realtors wanting to sell our house, and people wanting to rent.  No action, so I put forth more effort into it, putting it on MSL, advertising on all the house sites, facebook, and even planning 2 group open houses with 12-14 other homes for sale in Santaquin.  And, just recently, listing with a realtor who promised results- ha. (Oh, and of course lots of prayers.)

After months of effort and no results it gets a little frustrating.  It's been hard for me to be positive, even though I know deep down that things will work out.  When I see people put their homes up for sale and they sell in a week, I think, "What the...? What's wrong with us?  What am I doing wrong?  Why don't my prayers get answered?".  I've gotten this dejavu of the feelings I had on my mission.  While the mission was the best thing I ever did, I had 18 months of rejection- tons of rejection, I can't even tell you how much rejection.  I remember praying and praying there in beautiful northern Spain wondering what was wrong with me.  Do I not have enough faith?  Am I a bad missionary?  Is this rejection personal? (I tried to tell myself over and over that it wasn't personal).  Imagine me standing here with my fingers making an L on my forehead.

Yesterday was one of those discouraging days.  I had a hard time shaking my sad feelings from rejection- feelings of self doubt, nobody likes me, pity potty...  So, after my prayers last night, I laid in bed thinking about the many times of rejection in my life; rejection in high school, rejection when looking for jobs, rejection from principals in my college and teaching years, huge rejection on the mission, rejection in selling the house... (like I said, pity potty- I really know I have a wonderful life).  But, as I was laying there depressed, a thought that didn't come from me came in to my mind: "Jesus Christ was rejected by his own".

What a blessing and a tender mercy that gave me peace.  Christ who is perfect, wonderful, the best, most charitable person who ever lived, got rejected, so much rejection that he was crucified.  He knows how I feel, how everyone feels and has experienced much more pain than us all.  So, although I already knew this, I was reminded that rejection doesn't mean you are in the wrong or that something is wrong with you.  Rejection means people are exercising their God given free will.

Missing Mom and Dad

Once again, I've slacked on the blog. This is something I've been meaning to post for a long time.  As most of the few of you that read this know, my parents went on a mission to Chile in September.  When they called with the news where they were going, I tried to sound excited for them.  After I hung up, I just broke down and cried and cried.  Tavish, who doesn't know what to do with a crying wife, quickly ran over to the computer and said, "Its ok, we can visit them!  It's only a 14 hr plane ride and... $1300 per ticket!"  Yeah- not comforting.   I really should be happy about this, and I am happy that they are serving the Lord and having this experience.  But, oh how I miss them.  My brothers and sisters do too.  When people ask me about them and how wonderful it is they are on a mission, I just want to cry, "Waaa!  This is wonderful, but not for me!  I want them here!  I need them!  Waaaaa!"  Hey, I'm just telling you how I really feel here.  So, I may be a wimp, but it's been hard.  Christmas time was especially hard.  We spent a lot of time with Tavish's family, who I love, but just had this aching to be with my family too.  When my sisters in law weren't there because they were with their family, I just wished I could do that too.  I thought, "How lucky you are to go home and see your mom."

Anyway, I'm not going to go on sitting on the pity potty any more here, because I know this is really a blessing, so here it is:

1- I have become more aware and sympathetic of my family and friends that have lost a parent.  I realized at Christmas, that while I have enjoyed being with my family every year, they probably have this aching to be with their parents, and I haven't even thought about it.  I'm a jerk.  And not just Christmas, but birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, and just random times.
2- My children have super great examples of their Grandparents who love the Lord.  They sacrificed being with their most favorite and loved people (the grandkids of course) to share the gospel.  How important it must be to them.
3- My parents are being strengthened- spiritually, emotionally, socially, even physically.  I know I always thought that they were pretty much some of the strongest people I know, but I guess there's always room to grow, no matter how strong or old you are.
4- My parents are helping others, but they've always done that.
5- I feel closer to my brothers and sisters; we all understand how it is to be without them and want to be there for each other.
6- I appreciate and love Mom and Dad even more.

So, Mom and Dad- you are my blessing of the day and always.  Thank you for being such great examples to us.

Summer Miricle

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but you know how I am.  Anyway, we had an incident where we all (the whole Burnah family) recognized the hand of the Lord in our lives.  It goes something like this:

The Burnah family went to the cabin in the Uintahs this summer.  Tavish's grandpa and grandma were there too.  Tavish's grandpa- Grandpa Bay- wanted some work done by the young strapping boys.  (By young, I mean in their 30's.  Grandpa Bay is 87 I believe.)  You have to know Grandpa Bay- he is a great guy who has lots of energy (especially for his age), is a hard worker, and has done many crazy things in his lifetime.  He wanted to cut down some trees up at the cabin.  They were HUGE, I mean HUGE, pine trees that the swing is on.  The trees had gotten a disease and were dying.  He wanted to cut the top halves, that were dead, off to prevent accidents in the future.  Anyway, this meant that the boys would have to use their climbing gear to get way up, and chainsaw the branches and large portions of the trees down. (An alarm is going off in my head right here, and probably yours too, saying, "Don't do it!")

This didn't seem like a good idea to me, but I'm known as being a paranoid one in the Burnah family, so I didn't say anything.  Some of those boys are crazy risk-takers sometimes, my husband included.  But, Tavish wasn't going to climb up there, so I just thought, "Whatever- as long as it's not my husband doing something dangerous high up in a tree".  I just wanted to keep the kids far, far away and not watch what was going on.  Colin and Phil climbed up the tree- with the chainsaw (Again the alarm is going off, "Don't do it!").  Grandpa Bay and the other boys directed from the ground.

They made a bunch of cuts, and huge trees were falling.  It was scary.  Then, they cut one huge part of the tree that fell the wrong way, not the way anticipated.  I was off with the kids, and heard the crack of the tree and then everyone gasp and saw Grandpa Art running toward the tree.  Immediately, panic set in- in all of us.  The tree had fallen right on Colin- way up high in the tree.  It pinned him against the tree he was in and was on his back and shoulders.  I can't begin to tell you the awful feeling this was for all of us- especially his mom.  No one worries more than a mom.  Everyone was so worried, Grandpa Bay even started to climb the tree to get him out, but I'm sure realized he wouldn't be able to help.  We were all praying as they tried to get him out.  Colin wasn't saying much, so we worried that something was seriously wrong.  Phil went up with the chainsaw to cut him out, then we were worried about branches flipping out and hitting him as well.  Phil made some cuts as everyone guided him from the ground, and soon he was free.  Colin climbed down the tree super fast with all limbs in tact. It was surreal.  We were all amazed and relieved.  We had just witnessed  a miracle.

His mom took him to the Dr. to make sure there weren't broken bones or internal problems.  They didn't find anything wrong besides scrapes, but he was really sore for quite a while.

I'm certain we saw the hand of the Lord that day.  If the tree would have fallen just over a few inches,  it could have been much worse.  I'm pretty sure he has a guardian angel (or two), and we're all so grateful he is OK.

Before the accident

It's hard to see, but Colin is there in the tangle of trees.  Phil is in the yellow.

Back to School

Back to school is always a blessing for us.  I love my children very much, but by the end of the summer it's best for all of us if school starts :).  Mac started Kindergarten this year.  I have a hard time sending kids to Kindergarten, but I know it will be so good for him.  He has a wonderful teacher, so I'm not worried.  I've already written how grateful I am for teachers and school in past posts, so- ditto to them.   Here are just a few pictures:

First Day of Kindergarten

First day of 5th grade and 3rd grade.  Will wanted to be in everyone's picture.

Teacher Appreciation Week- last May.  Tavish helped me make the little peanut kids.  I really do appreciate the teachers.

My Good Husband

Today I'm grateful for my sweet Tavish who got up early to put out flags with the scouts for Labor Day, then came home to take care of our sick baby so I could sleep.   Just had to jot it down, because I feel sooo much better after being up with little Will for a few nights.  And... I am sooo grateful for a dedicated, loving, unselfish husband. I hope Will gets better soon and that Tav can get a nap today! :).