I would rather fight than switch! Some of us old timers will remember that saying and I think it had something to do with the ad for Lucky Strikes cigarettes. Somebody correct me if I am wrong.
My eye is black and it is two weeks old here and with time it gets even blacker. The explanation goes as follows. I needed a box and there was an empty one on the shelf in the garage. I knew it was empty because I put it there and it was empty then. I was pulling it off of the shelf that was way over my head, and surprise, surprise someone had put a medium to large size kind of like a pipe wench object on top of the box and it hit me square on the head.
After the surprise, stars and black spots I felt my head expecting all kinds of blood but to my surprise there was only a huge, let me say that again, a huge lump. I forgot about the box and went into the house and applied ice. After overcoming the stunned feeling I realized I may have a serious problem here and so I had Riley give me a blessing and felt assured all would be fine. When my head did not stop throbbing for two days I finally alerted my doctor and we ex-rayed my head to find I had a 5 inch fracture. Yes my head was cracked. But most of my kids told me they could have told me that without an ex ray. FUNNY! I did have a concussion but with some time all would be well. It took 5 weeks for my black eye to go away and the kids at the school were I work came up with all kinds of stories, some really good ones. In another blog I will share them. Thank goodness I waited until after the wedding pics to do this. Oh yea there is a moral to all this, just before I went to pull the box down a little thought past through my head that I should get a ladder and check the top of the box...so much for listening to the small still voice.

Please Don't drop me!!!

















Oh you caught us...oh yea we are married now.

Here comes the bride and groom...


Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Riley Ballard

The gang is all here and all are asking when will the party begin...soon.
While we are waiting outside the Logan Temple, Doug Teeples was busy snapping pictures of all who came to help us celebrate a wedding. What a great day!

Telare poises for a picture, but one has to wonder is the big smile because she is happy to be here or is it because she is a senior this year. It also looks as if we have Jenae in the back looking hard to get a first glimpse of the bride and groom.

Robin and Chris are probably remembering how it was for them...a little over a year ago.

La Denea and I are excited because we just finished putting the finally touches on Lorie and we are still feeling the special spirit of the temple sealing we just witnessed. It was beautiful.

One of the highlights of Lorie's wedding is that I got to spend time with my best friend, my sister Cheryl. I miss her and wish we lived closer. I guess Cheryl will just have to move here. Thank you Bill for bring her up and being a wonderful, fun person. I love you both.

Karen and Jeff Roberts, Lorie's cousins from Idaho made the long trip to be here and it was great to see them.

Another generation of cousins, Britney Teeples and Beleza Terrill. They live a distance from each other but are best friends when they get to spend some summer time together.

Yes that is David and
Tiare all the way from Texas and you are right they are expecting in January. Yes it is a baby they are expecting.

Jesse and Frances smile big for a picture moment. A side note, France and Dee Doney just got there mission call to Sidney Australia and will leave in Dec. That is where Riley served his mission.

What a cute family...We have Gabe, Dianne, Alyx and Sierra(Gabes Daughter) and somewhere else, probably playing with Ryan is Gabes son, Ternin(not sure of the spelling).

And as our very speical guest Helen Terrill, Jim's mother. What a treat to have her there in the temple with us.

There were many more family and friends present but like the rest of us that day, you probably want to get on to seeing the bride and groom.

The making of a bride...Our home was very busy and very full with all the family arriving for Lorie's and Riley's wedding. Those coming late found only air mattresses and floor space. With all this excitement, Robin remembering her big day not to long ago, announced to all in the house that the morning of the wedding there would be certain areas off limits to all but the bride to be, the hairdressers (Robin, La Denea, and Jesse) and the brides MOM (me). The way she made this announcement none dare to argue or press their luck.

Behold the master piece! Lorie looked like a bride and her hair was gorgeous and so was she, inside and out.

Are we ready for a wedding? You betcha!!!

She left this home as Misses Lorie Jane Terrill for the last time...

Lorie had no idea what lay ahead of her...hence the blindfold, headphone and very loud music! Her family had put a celebration together at the local bowling alley and Lorie and Riley were the guests of honor, but they did not know that. Her brother Jesse and her nephew Landy put her in a car and then drove all over to confuse her and that she was. Her other brother Douglas and her brother in law Chris had Riley as a project to confuse, but it was harder because he knows this area very well.
Lorie's sisters, Robin and La Denea and her sister in law Jenae went a head to decorate and prepare for the moment Lorie and Riley realize what had been planned for them.

After being decorated and some what embarrassed, Riley and Lorie posed for a picutre moment and then got into the fun of the evening.
The evening was a success and there was much laughing and having great fun.

Everyone meet Wilma. She is a little over a week and from the local pig farm down to street brought her over for us to meet. Ty Ballard brought her over and we had fun. Little pigs are so cute...my dad raised pigs when I was young and I remember enjoying the little ones. Having Wilma visit brought some fond memories. The Ballard's do not named their pigs, they have over 5000 pigs on their farm. We named it Wilber at first, but it was a girl so we changed to name to Wilma.





























Welcome back to the farm Alyx...she is down from New Mexico for the summer again. I remember going to Idaho every other summer with my family to visit my cousins and it was a magic time. We are so glad to have to here and it looks like Wilma was too.

Frankie's back! with all four legs! We had a time with him. He hurt his paw a few months ago while chasing a car down our lane, we think! He did not heal and became very sick. We were told he had bone cancer and needed his front leg amputated. We did not like this idea and looked for a second opinion and of course he was getting much sicker everyday. We went to a second vet and he said he had an autoimmune disorder and his body was destroying it's self. We put him on steroids and as you can see he is back to his old self chasing and bothering skunks. Yes he has been banished to outside a few nights because of a too close encounter. Will he ever learned that black and white means stay away not chase me.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and I thought this would be a good time to post pictures of Jim's headstone. The headstone was ordered last October but because of our hard winter and long winter the installation of it had to wait until late this spring.

Both Jim and I enjoyed fishing greatly and when Lorie and I were looking for a picture to put on the headstone this one seemed to fit perfectly. Jim was a terrific fishermen, whether it was for real fish or for the perfecting of the saints. We would go camping and he would find the perfect fishing hole and the opportunity to meet and share something from the Gospel with someone and then he would make them his friend. As all of you who knew and loved him will agree he was forever a missionary, so the fishing one fit and we got it.

This is the back of the headstone and there is a story that goes with what we chose to put here. We lived in Cherry Valley, on Appletree Lane for 30 years and early in those years on Sunday after Church or on Monday for FHE Jim and the Kids and often the neighbor kids would make 8-10 loaves of wheat bread and we would take them out to friends and neighbors, but there is a twist to this story. We did it in secret. We would ding dong ditch them. We would wait until dark and park away from the chosen homes and sneak up, leave the bread, ring the doorbell and run...in all the years we did this we never got caught. Of course we had to name ourselves so we made up the name the Apple Dumping Gang. Partly chosen from the street we lived on and partly from a favorite Disney movie staring Don Knotts and Tim Conway. Our reputation grew and we would hear our gang's name mentioned at church and community functions. To this day it is a mystery as to who the Apple Dumpling Gang was, but maybe not now. I hope you guys can keep a secret.

It is spring here now and all of you can see the cemetery has gone from all white to a beautiful shade of green.

In the following two pictures you can see the bird feeder that we keep filling and it is still a surprise to see all kind of little tracks in the surrounding dirt. Soon the grass will fill in and then the nightly and daily visitors will be as mysterious as the Apple Dumpling Gang. Everyone have a great holiday.

The Easter Bunny brought me an early surprise. The Sat. before Easter the doorbell rang and I answered it and there stood this handsome young man with a bouquet of flowers. He said he had a special delivery for a Trudy Terrill. The lights went on and I recognized him as Gabe, Dianne's fiance, and they had come from New Mexico to surprise me with a visit and it was

a surprise.

Yes Dianne is on crutches. Somewhere in Springville Ut , where Gabe's parents live, she took a wrong step and ended up breaking her ankle. But as you can see she has been accommodated well with the loving help from Gabe and the motorized cart at Walmart.

The Easter Bunny brought surprises to all of us





and we have two couples fashioning what they found in their baskets.

We all settled down for a feast. My visitors ate the food and I feasted on the sights and sounds of being surrounded by family. As I was taking pictures I was impressed with the feelings of joy and the feeling of someone missing. Both of our to be new son-in-laws (I consider my sons),where there and Ladenea and Doug's family where there and I wondered how Jim felt about all the new growth in our family. I wished he had been with us to say all is good, but he is, isn't he and he is saying all is wonderful.

The next week found us all again in California to celebrate Robin's Graduation from cosmology School.















Jesse took us on a tour of Pasadena, China Town, Hollywood and much more via the train which was great because there was no driving or parking problems. Five dollars and we could travel all day on the train and when we got tired we got back on and went back to Jesse's.







Well most of us used the train. Jesse's place is a few block from the train station and we did not have a baby stroller big enough for Dianne so Doug used the next best thing and it worked.



I have seen the staged acts of someone slipping on a banana peel but I have never known of a real accident happening because of a banana peel. Now I do and I am related to her. La Denea was getting out of her car in the parking lot at the school she is going to and stepped right on a banana peel causing her to slip and hurt her back, knee and pride. Now all of you actually know of a real banana peel story and the reason I am sharing this story is to lead into the next two pictures where I had heard stories of this happening but had never known anyone who really had the experience.
While visiting China town Lorie had a Sea Gull fly over and yes...the yellowish stuff in her hair is bird poop! She was very surprised and we just laughed and laughed.

found it a After alittle clean up Lorie even found it amusing but if you look at Robin in the back she represents just how nervous we all were about this event happening again.

Last but not least on our trip down the Calif. was to meet Robin and Chris's new addition, Larry. He is so super sweet and so willing to give kisses. His heart is a lot bigger than he is but so much fun. We love you Larry.





Okay, Okay we are painting!







When we moved into this house the family room had, had some old patch jobs that had not been finished very well. So, Jim took on the project of re-patching them and he completed all of them except one...a big one in the family room. He had worked on this one to the point of re-plastering it. So when you came in the front door and looked at the wall in front of you all you saw was a huge white patched square. It has stayed that way for over a year. But big changes were about to happen. I had a gathering of women at my home this month, a book club I belong to, and I decided the patch had to go! I have not painted a wall in over 35 years because Jim was so good at it he just always took over in that department. So I had to step out of my comfort zone. Out to the garage I went to look through all of his stuff and I also sent up a silent request for Jim's guidance because this could either be a success or a mess! I was helped in my endeavors and as you can see it was by two angels... and it was a sucess the wall looks great and the party was a success.