The Back Story

I feel that it is important to make a record of what preceded the purchase of this property not only for myself, but also for posterity. There are a lot of neat things I want to remember and lessons I want to be able to share with my children. To others, it may just be long and boring. Consider yourselves forewarned.

While I was pregnant with Brigham, I developed a painful toothache in one of my back molars. Being pregnant, there was not much I could do about it, so I was grateful when it went away, and I recognized that as being a blessing from our Father in Heaven. I forgot about it for a while, and then only days after Brig was born, the ache came back. I took this to be a sign that though the Lord had suspended the pain for a spell, I did need to take care of the tooth and the time was right to do so. I was in Utah, so the idea that popped into my head was that I could get inexpensive treatment up at Weber State. I couldn't get an appointment but was told that if I was in pain and came first thing the next morning, they would try to get me in. That's what I did, and miraculously, they had the time to see me. After looking at the x-ray, I was told that I would either need to get a root canal elsewhere (they don't do them at the college) or I could have them extract the tooth right then for cheap (maybe for as little as the $30 I paid for the appointment).

As I worked through things in my mind, it made sense that if the Lord had led me here to get work done that the answer was an extraction because I wouldn't be in town long enough to schedule an appointment before going to St. George for a root canal. And then it would be back to Lovelock and on to Virginia. But, I allowed myself to waffle. I wasn't sure and when I asked the advice of the assistant, she did mention something like I was sorta young to already be losing a tooth, and I may end up regretting it. It would be far more expensive to get a fake later, etc. Anyway, I got nothing done and ended up just living with the pain (with the help of a nice pain killer at least) until we got to Virginia and I could get an appointment at a clinic there. And do you know what happened when I went to that appointment? I was told that a root canal wouldn't do any good. There was no saving the tooth. I had to have an extraction! Duh. I should have taken care of it in Utah. I would have saved myself a lot of discomfort and a couple hundred dollars. It was a learning experience. I remember feeling at the time that the Lord wasn't angry or anything. He was just giving me this opportunity to learn from a minor mistake how to listen to the Spirit.

That may not seem like it has anything to do with anything else, but it was the start of my trusting more in my feelings and judgment and ability to listen to and understand the promptings of the Spirit.

Anyway, several weeks later I began to have this excited happy feeling that something wonderful was going to happen. I had no idea what, but it was a great feeling, and whenever I would think about it, I would feel it again-- a confirmation that something awesome was in our future. (At the time, I know its silly, but I was doing online surveys to like Target for the chance at a $5000 gift card, and I thought that would be so cool if that's what this was all about, but I really knew that that's not how the Lord worked and that that was too trivial to be what this was about. I had the stray thought though, probably because we would be looking for employment soon, that a job that paid say $5000 a year more than another job he could get would really be something and way better than the Target card.) I remembered hearing somewhere in a talk or lesson sometime that the Lord is only limited in His ability to bless us by our willingness to ask for those blessings. I also have been taught that we can be guided by the Spirit to know what to pray for. If we pray in faith for what we know we should, our prayers will be answered. I began to do something I've never done before. I began to pray for wonderful things to happen for our family. I didn't know specifics, but I knew it was enough just to ask for great and marvelous things.

Shortly after this, great things did begin to happen. We were quite concerned with finding the RIGHT employment for Hiram. We wanted a job that he would be happy at, that would provide for our family comfortably, and would allow us to stay in Lovelock. NOT easy to find in this very small town. My in-laws' home teacher was over to dinner one night and happened to start talking about how his son was working up at the gas plant or Hiram never would have thought to check into that possibility. He got online and found that there were only three positions open NATION wide, and one happened to be in Lovelock. They were accepting applications for I think six days only, and Hiram happened to have a few days left til it closed. Crazy. Anyway, he knew a couple people that work there including the guy who was quitting and thus opening a spot.

He knew basically NOTHING about the job OR natural gas, so he called and talked to them and asked what things they could tell him that would be helpful to put on his resume. He got his application in and was then, amazingly, given a phone interview. Again he talked to the guys he knew and asked what they would suggest he know/study. He spent a night researching what he could and ended up not sounding like an idiot during his phone interview. This led to a personal meeting. It went from about 14 applicants to 3. Hiram was still in it. Then it was down to 2. Hiram was still in it. It was just him and someone who was "in" company, applying from Pheonix, I think. We prayed and prayed and prayed, and that guy ended up pulling out. (Probably he finally looked up Lovelock and found out that its in the middle of no where.) Hiram was offered the job!!! There was some anxiety and human insecurity during the whole long process, but I felt (and told Hiram too) that I was quite certain this was the wonderful blessing the Lord had planned for us.

One thing that happened that really confirmed my belief in that fact was that when Hiram was called to come in to meet the boss, he wanted to roll up there in his stained t-shirt and jeans. He didn't want to come across as some pretty boy or something. But I felt SO uncomfortable about it. And his mom did too. He left in his dirty clothes kinda miffed at me for spoiling his mood right before this "interview," and I was so worried. When he called to say he was turning around and to ask that I bring him a new shirt, I was very relieved. I knew that there would be no real reason to care what he wore unless he was supposed to get this job and would if he didn't mess it up.

Anyway, Hiram accepted the job, obviously. It is the BEST possible job that he could get here in Lovelock. BY FAR. It is a good starting salary. It offers great benefits and retirement plans. He has built-in pay raises and a flexible schedule. We are absolutely thrilled about it. One cool thing is that the mining job that he had previously been looking at would have been $5000 less a year. WAY better than a one-time shopping spree to Target.=)

Now, this may sound super ungrateful or childish what I'm about to tell you, but believe me, that's not how it was at all. I was SO super grateful to the Lord for this job. THRILLED, but I had this tiny part of me that was like, "This is VERY, very positive and wonderful, but...I don't know....it's not really that EXCITING. I mean GETTING the job was exciting, but there's not much that's exciting about working." I don't know if this will make any sense to anyone. I had the feeling that that wasn't all the Lord had in store for us.

Sure enough, there was more. We had been looking at property all around town trying to find the right fit. We found some mildly interesting possibilities, but nothing was really the right fit. I'm getting tired of telling this story, so suffice it to say that we were led to the IDEAL property for our family. We made an offer, it was accepted, things then got a little crazy trying to find financing and yada yada yada. It was a TON of work and headache and waiting, waiting, waiting. I can't do it justice, but I KNEW we were supposed to buy that land, and I knew that after all we could do, the Lord would make it happen, and that's what happened. We really are EXCITED about the property and all of its potential. We're excited to have animals and a garden, to plant trees and build a home. We are so happy to know that we belong here. We are grateful that God made it possible.

I love my Heavenly Father.

My NEW Address!!!

Its official! Escrow closed yesterday, and now Hiram and I are the proud...and ecstatic!...owners of 40 acres here in Lovelock! And THIS is my new address (but don't send me anything yet--I don't have a home to live in or even a mailbox). There's an awesome and long back story plus more pictures and explanation to come, but for now, this is what you get. Ciao.

Israel's Birthday

Yesterday was Israel's third birthday. I know he doesn't get the concept yet, but I still wanted to make it a special day for him. I decided I'd let him eat whatever he wanted (he had a cookie for breakfast), make him a special birthday cake, and try my darndest not to get annoyed or angry at him all day. I showed him some images of cakes online and let him choose one. When we went to the store to get ingredients for Rainbow Cake, I didn't make him put back the fishing game and KitKat that he picked up like I normally would. He loved these presents.


I thought that he would be very interested in helping me make his cupcakes like he is with making his oatmeal in the morning, but he decided he wanted to watch Lady and the Tramp. I didn't complain. It made my life easier, and it was his birthday. He got to do whatever he actually wanted to do--not what I thought he should want to do.




I love how those pictures turned out. It was a very fun process. I will definitely be making Rainbow Cake again.
Just thought this was cute. He loves hard hats.
He pass on trying the cake batter but enjoyed tasting the frosting.
Here he is with one of the gifts he got from his Grandma Knight. Its a box of puzzles. He also received Salty for his wooden Thomas & Friends train track from her and a book. She gives great gifts.

How gnarly and psychedelic are these?

It was a great day. Simple but wonderful. I am so grateful that this special boy of mine came into our lives three years ago. We love him so much.

Some of the top things I love about Israel:

I love how he begs me to chase him. I love that when I do, he can't run in a straight line. I love that the thrill of being chased becomes too much for him, and that when it does, he stops in his tracks and tries to distract me by saying, "Look, _____!" and pointing at some random thing near us.

I love how he has to tell me every time he passes gas. He'll say with the cutest little grin and laugh, "Israels farted." He also thinks its hilarious anytime he hears someone else toot.

I love that anytime he finds a toy that belongs in water (i.e. fish, boat, mermaid, etc.) he must immediately take a bath with it.

I love everything about his cute little three-year-old body. I try to cherish it everyday because he's growing up so fast. I love to kiss and cuddle and squeeze and tickle him. I love the feel of him sitting on my lap to read a story or of his little arms circling my legs for an unsolicited hug. I love that he'll give me a little wet kiss on the lips anytime I ask for one.

I love how sweet (usually) he is to his brother. And I love his cute voice saying over and over and over, "Hi, Brigham!"

I love how he asks me politely to, "Stop, please," whenever I try to brush his teeth or do anything else he doesn't like like get him dressed or style his crazy hair.

I love that he can pretty much entertain himself all day. He knows how to open and play his favorite games on the computer (Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, and Trapshoot) all by himself. If I get him onto Netflix, he can select the show he wants and then click "Next Episode" when it ends. He enjoys his toys and is beginning to be more imaginative in his play. He loves books.

I pretty much love EVERYTHING about the kid. I even love that no matter how many times I yell at him, "NO CATS IN THE HOUSE!" he can't help himself and repeatedly lets them in. Its been a great year. Looking forward to this year and Israel starting pre-school.