|
March 14, 2005
The weatherman says it may snow tonight. Snow!!!! After 83 degrees just a few days ago, they are telling us there is a winter storm advisory in the northwestern part of our fair state, with possibilities of a foot of snow in the panhandle. We won't get any accumulation where we are, they say, but the low is supposed to be 34. Now if I had my way, that 34 degrees wouldn't harm the sunny little daffodils, or the bright forsythia at all. It would leave the flowering trees, lovely quince and promising peach blossoms completely untouched, but it would freeze those annoying knats and mosquitoes and grasshoppers and some of the spiders (not all of them, I know spiders have their purpose, too!) that we have already been bothered by... yes, freeze them solid!!! That sounds harsh, I know, but with the extremely mild winter we have had I'm afraid we are in for some plagues!!!
So much for "Sage's Almanac".
We've had a good month, in spite of lingering coughs and a "new" cold to which the boys seemed particularly vulnerable. Our trip to Missouri was blessed with good music and great fellowship. Seems the main complaint was that the weekend flew by too quickly, and we were so thankful to stretch the good times by having our extended "family", the McNaylors and friends, visit here for a few days afterward. It is always an encouragement to us to be able to spend time with the people that we love, and though we are scattered, I am sure that our Father allows these times of fellowship to refresh and strengthen His people. Don't you think so?!? the week was filled with volleyball and canoeing, basketmaking ~ thanks to our friend, Neta Rau ~ and even the grand tour of Guthrie, Oklahoma. The talent night was especially fun. You should see John's imitation of Ernest T. Bass from the Andy Griffith Show!!! And the fondue party was both hilarious and yummy!!!There were some good thought provoking discussions, as well, and have you ever tried to classify people by the way they journal?!?!!? It tells a lot about a person. For instance....now you all know that I am a very sporadic and undisciplined person that can ramble on and on about nothing!!!!
"Dude" the puppy is enjoying his new home with Grandma and Grandpa Jack. John is thankful for that since Dude seemed to be partial to digging - especially in John's newly tilled garden. He (John, not Dude) has been planting a bit, and just finished two new water gardens up by the house, complete with goldfish and everything!!!
Jesse's been riding a couple of horses for other people and taking care of his filly, who is growing all too quickly (the filly, not Jesse!) And we are all working on plans for our trip to Wisconsin next month, which is especially exciting since none of us have ever been there before!!!
We are also looking forward to some time in Colorado in July. We have a couple of concerts being planned and are open to doing some more, so let us know if you are interested, and we will be sure to keep you posted. Mom has been doing some more genealogy research, and finding so much about our heritage in the Northwest. It would be wonderful if we could work out another trip up that way, but we will have to see what our Father has in store for us this summer.
So now you know what has been goin' on around here!!!
Till next time,
May Yahweh bless and protect you all!!!
February 16, 2005
I really did write the previous entry on the 12th…just didn’t get it posted till today. The filly is doing well, and such a cutie.
When I was looking through the more recent pictures of her I came across this one of Anna’s dog Riata and her one remaining pup “Dude”. He will go to his real home with our grandparents in Arkansas soon, probably this week, but these shots were so fun, and I thought I’d share them with you.
Meanwhile, the springtime bug was biting at the beginning of this week, such a nice change from the sort of bugs we have been dealing with!!! The weather has been just gorgeous and “Farmer” John started some seeds in the garden. Crocuses are blooming and the green fingers of the daffodil leaves poked their way out of the soft brown bed they have been sleeping in. It is much chillier today, and it wouldn’t be typical Oklahoma without a couple more freezes coming in before spring really is here, so I hope nothing gets over anxious…that only leads to frozen blossoms. The guys have been building a tree house – one they were hired to build for someone. Guess the practice they had building their own in the back pasture is coming in handy!!! We have been practicing our music for a trip to Missouri coming up at the end of the month, and our CD’s are supposed to be picked up on Friday. The “New CD/We’re Over The Whooping Cough” Celebration will be put off until March though, in hopes that lingering coughs will be much better by then. We’ll keep you posted.
Have a wonderful winter-is-almost-over-and-spring-is-a’comin’ day!!!
February 12, 2005
Finally, something to write about besides the whooping cough!!! Jesse’s mare had a little filly this afternoon!!! Jesse and Jeremy had just gotten back from town and Jesse noticed that Jamee (that’s his mare) looked kind of uncomfortable. He parked the van and then went down to the front pasture just in time to see the baby being born. We four girls had some errands to do in Guthrie, so we missed the birth by about 20 minutes and the baby was already standing up and wobbling around by the time we pulled into the drive. How special that Jesse was able to see his baby’s safe arrival!!! Of course, those of you who know Jesse know that she isn’t named yet, and probably won’t be for quite some time. Any suggestions?
Isn’t she just adorable!!! And isn’t birth a miracle!!! And isn’t it amazing that every bit of that gangly foal was inside of it’s mother just minutes before these pictures were taken!!! How did she fit???
The other exciting news is that we are not contagious anymore, and planning to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house tomorrow night for dinner. That’s the first family outing since December!!! I was premature in writing that we were over IT in my last entry, since Scott ended up coming down with IT after all. He was pretty sick there for a few days, and I didn’t help anything by bringing home a fever-sore-throat-flu-like bug a couple of weeks ago, which Scott caught that at the height of his cough…talk about double whammy. But everyone is finally feeling better, and the coughing is much less frequent. This has been an incredible two months for us!!! We will all be grateful when everyone’s health is completely restored. Until then, though, we are overwhelmingly thankful for our good health, and reminded not to take that for granted.
January 27, 2005
Just a quick update to say that we
will be unable to attend this weekend's GospelGrass Festival in Denver. We are sorry to miss out on seeing all of our friends
and enjoying the great music and fellowship that GospelGrass offers, but it seems it just wasn't meant to be this time.
Everyone continues to improve, but oh, so slowly. No wonder they call whooping cough the 100 Day Cough in some countries...
sure seems to want to linger. Scott, Sarah and I have not gotten it yet, and I think we are done being contagious, but Jeremy
and Caleb still have a nasty cough, and Mom and the three younger boys seem to tire very easily at this point. Now all of
you that are going to GospelGrass please know that our thoughts and prayers will be with you this weekend, and let us know
how it went and what a great time you had!!! Thanks to all of you for the phone calls and encouraging notes you've sent.
You make us feel so loved!!! Aside from that...there really hasn't been much to talk about this week, so I'll close for now.
January 18, 2005
The next entry, coming only almost three weeks later!!! I have to get better at this. Okay, let’s see…a recap of our year…as I think about it, I could write a decent size book about our adventurous 2004 – but will try to keep it manageable. I can’t believe how packed this year has been…with lots of good times, and some hard times, too. Where to begin…
The early months brought a trip to Colorado…that was when the turbo hose blew out on Dad’s truck – right in Slapout, Oklahoma believe it or not, and we borrowed some duck tape for a quick fix. As useful as duct tape is, we wouldn’t recommend it for taping your heated vehicle parts, and ended up having to screw it together just a few miles down the road. Then we took a wrong turn and ended up in Texas!!! We did make it to Kim, CO on time for our concert that evening, and were very blessed by the friendly people and generous hospitality we received. At Gospel Grass in Denver we had a great time visiting with friends and listening to good music, and even managed to fit a ski day in before returning home.
This spring Mom and Dad had several days to themselves in Colorado while Tera and Jeremy became woofers…that is WFRS (doesn’t that look so much more official!), which stands for Wilderness First Responders. They had an intensive training week in beautiful Estes Park and came home with just enough medical knowledge to be really dangerous. Just kidding, of course, but I confess it scared me a bit when Tera said, “I learned how to relocate a broken bone…I just can’t wait to try it out!!!” And I’m thinking…so who is she hoping will break a bone??? (and yes, Tera, we all know that you didn’t mean it THAT way!) John took some First Aid classes at the same time, so for a while wherever we went we had at least one first aid kit, and three people very anxious to try out their new skills. Praise the Lord, they have yet to have that opportunity. Jesse had a great time going to Texas on three different occasions to stay with some dear friends of ours and work at their horse sales. He learned a lot and came back with a handsome stud colt that he finally named Rhondo. Tera and I took a trip to New Mexico to visit family and had a wonderful time climbing around ancient cliff dwelling with our sister-in-law and niece, Sophie. The entire family had a great camping trip in early May with some good friends. We did a lot of canoeing, some hiking, and I suspect that is where the volleyball fever really took hold…which has yet to ease up. Seriously, if we figured up how many hours that we have spent playing volleyball this year…it would be frightening!!! And I’m still not any good at it!
Then came summer and our unforgettable trip to Fairplay, CO for the annual summer GospelGrass festival. It rained every day and we even woke up one morning with ice on our tents. But in spite of that, it was wonderful to spend time with so many friends and to make some new ones. GospelGrass has come to feel like a family reunion, and this one was extra special in that our “McNaylor” family was able to join us all the way from Washington, as well as Bruce and Patty and many of the other families we have come to know and love over the past couple years. Our Guenella Pass “camping trip” that was supposed to happen afterward ended up being a 45 person slumber party at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Georgetown…we just couldn’t get excited about sleeping in more rain and cold – but talk about cozy!!! What warm memories came of that cold week in the mountains!!! Jeremy and John have become quite interested in rappelling and rock climbing, and after some lessons from Israel Zwonitzer and his dad, they have been on the lookout wherever we go for something a little harder than the tall oak near our front pasture!
Things settled down a bit for July and August, but any slow time was made up in the autumn. As a band, we were busy with performances in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado. This fall’s travel schedule was unbelievable. Seemed like we were home for a few days at a time and then off to somewhere else. Tera, our good friend Alicia and I took another trip to NM, and then later all four of us girls flew out to Annapolis, Maryland to spend some time with Papa. The five of us took off on a full day excursion to the Atlantic Ocean and added Delaware and Virginia to our “states-we-have-been-to” list. Sailing on the Chesapeake Bay was another highlight on that trip.
Back in Colorado, George and Julie Robinson absolutely spoiled us for a few days in their comfortable and welcoming home in Buena Vista, Colorado and their friendship and encouragement has come to mean so much to us in the past year. The whole family loved spending a week in Arkansas with our grandparents and oldest brother Josh and his wife Erin. It was so special having the adorable Sophie get on stage with us for the first time and play the tambourine…that girl’s got rhythm!!! I cannot begin to tell of all the fun we had with our out of town company - so many friends from Colorado, Montana, Washington, Nebraska, South Dakota, Arkansas and Missouri. It was very special for us to be able to host a concert in Guthrie for the Wolkings, and though we do hope for a better turnout next time, the canoe wars in the pond across the street were too fun!!!
Seems like some years are just full of weddings (a couple of years ago, we were invited to 13 weddings in one year!!!), and some years it feels like new babies are being born every time we turn around (seems to be about one or two years after the “wedding years”). Sadly, this year held too many funerals. Our 95-year-old great-grandmother passed away finally, after longing for “the box” for 15 years. Tera and I lost our grandmother in April. These two were sad, but not surprising deaths. Our two neighbors and a couple of friends were very unexpected to us, yet we have found such comfort in knowing that God is still in control, and nothing…not one thing can happen to us, or anyone, that He does not allow, and we can learn so much from adversity. So you see, 2004 was full for us…fun and fellowship, but also loss and sadness.. Through every bit of it our Father’s hand has been upon us and His wisdom and blessings are beyond compare. Just when we thought that we couldn’t go on, He always brought comfort and strength one way or another – often through you, our friends, with your prayers and encouragement. Thank you all.
And now December. This year certainly went out with a BANG…
I wonder if most of you have any idea how competitive my “little” brothers are. Sometimes their competitions get a little out of hand, or in this case…right in the hand. It all started with Caleb shooting himself in the knee with a nail from a nail gun while they were helping Dad on a job not far from here. The nail went through a board first, so the impact was considerably reduced - I guess it only went in an eighth of an inch. A couple days later Jeremy just had to show Caleb up and shot himself in the lower part of his thumb. His bounced of the bone, so they didn't have to pull it out, but Jeremy has a high pain tolerance...and we could tell that it really hurt for a few days. I hear Johnny was giving them a hard time for yelling when they shot themselves, but couldn't help but yell a couple days later when he shot a nail through the palm of his hand...yes, all the way in one side (good thing he had two pairs of gloves on - that kept the nail from counter sinking) and sticking about 1 1/2 inches out the other. OUCH!!!!!!! So, John got his first trip to the emergency room. He has pictures and x-rays if you want to see them!!! Perhaps he’s immune to morphine, even three doses of it didn't seem to do anything for the pain. Praise God, there is no permanent damage to his hand and hardly a scar. It hurt a bit for a couple weeks, but what could he expect? Of course, I was giving them a hard time about nail guns, and how they just need to go back to hammers and Jeremy whacked himself in the face with a hammer the next day...just to prove me wrong, I'm sure!!! Then Scott slipped in the mud while he was carrying a piece of plywood, and thinks he threw his knee out of socket. He was limping around for a several weeks after a couple of days on crutches and still feels sore today.
All of this on one job!!!! That job was just one thing after another, due to injuries, rain, cold and wind. Through it all, our Father has been so merciful, and you should hear the guys talk about the lessons they learned, and the patience they were taught. Because Scott was "laid up" a bit, the boys were forced to do things on the job that were beyond their comfort zone, so they learned a lot in that aspect as well. Then to top it off, while the injuries were still healing Mom came down with what we now know is whooping cough. Scott, Sarah and I are the only ones that don’t have it yet, but like Scott said, “It feels like we are just waiting to be hung.” No, I want to remain positive, and pray that at least the three of us will escape! You can’t imagine the sheer volume that accompanies 7 people with whooping cough!!! Thankfully all of us are old enough, but not too old to be able to handle this well, and only wait for this, too, to pass.
I should mention too, that we did finish our soon to be available CD WITHIN REACH. After working on it for almost 2 years, that was a very welcome way to finish out 2004!!! It has been sent in to be replicated and should be ready within the next 3 weeks. There, I think that I’m all caught up now, though there are a million special things that happened this year that I haven’t mentioned. From here on out I fully intend to keep updating frequently, so you always know whatever is worth knowing about the doin’s of the Naylor Family Band!
Ice flowers from our back pasture.
Blessings to you all,
December 31, 2004
Talk about time flyin'!!!
Was it really one year ago that I resolved to start
a journal here on our web site so that those of you who stop by to "visit" us could have an idea of what we've been up to?
And I was so determined to begin in 2004... Well, I have only a few hours left till 2004 is completely history - so here it
is... the first installment of The Naylor Family News!!!
More to follow...very soon I hope. 2004 was an interesting
year for us, and I will try to recap it for you in my next entry.
May our Father bless you all in 2005!!!
Sage
and the whole Naylor clan
~ Click here if you would like to be notified about Journal updates. ~