More videos of our "Blizzard"

This has been the biggest snow fall in many years. I thought I would record some of what we're getting. I took these videos around 2pm today. It is now 5:45 pm and STILL snowing!! The forecast for Monday is calling for MORE snow! Oh, the joys of winter!

Bryson walks out the front door in waste deep snow! (Angie, whenever Bryson wears this pink snowsuit, I can't help but think of Clay and his pink t-shirt!)

Our mailbox is now completely hidden in the snow, even though we dug it out after the first 24 inches this past Saturday. Our deck door will only open about six inches because of snow piled up against it. There was no school today and there is no school for tomorrow. When I asked Dale how much snow he thought we had he answered, "Too much!" It snowed 24 hours straight Friday February 5th into Saturday February 6th giving us 24 inches. It started snowing again Tuesday February 9th around 1:30 pm and is still snowing more than 28 hours later. It looks like we've received another 24 inches! This is certainly a snowfall to remember!

Blizzard of 2010?

Prayer request

During the month of August my father started having trouble eating. As time passed, it got worse. He never knew from one day to the next whether he would be able to eat. Usually, each bite was painful going down. Within the past month the food started coming back up again. It has taken weeks and weeks to get through all the appointments and tests. On Monday, November 30th Dad had a scope put down his throat to check things out. The doctor found a growth in his esophagus and did a biopsy. This morning we found out those results. My father has cancer. We don't know the extent of it yet. He has another test done tomorrow and he sees a cancer doctor for the first time next Friday. We just got through my mother's illness, now here we go again. My prayer is for my father to be healed, for the cancer not to win. I don't know what he'll have to go through to beat this, I just hope he can. Your prayers for my father, Rufus Wagner are greatly appreciated.

Priest/Laurel Conference

On November 20th and 21st I had the opportunity to attend the Priest/Laurel Conference with Kassie, two of our young men and our Bishop. (Priests are young men ages 16 to 18 and Laurels are young women ages 16 to 18.) Bishop Burton drove our big red van (a.k.a. Clifford!) to the Northumberland area for the conference. Our weekend started with dinner and a dance on Friday night. During the dance I met the woman whose home we would be staying in. She was in charge of our service project for the next day and still needed to finish preparing for it. I spent most of my evening helping her to get ready. Before the night was over Kassie joined me along with Bishop Burton and another member of our ward that had traveled up separately. We had a nice time chatting while we worked. That night Kassie and I stayed at a member's home in Bloomsburg, PA. I got the single bed in the room and Kassie got the floor! Before finding out where we would be staying Kassie said, "I hope we stay with a family that has a hot son!" As it turned out, we did!! He was 15 years old, reminded us of Edward from the Twilight movie, and was a real sweetheart! Kassie and I got a laugh out of that!
Saturday morning after breakfast the youth made pre-reading skill games for underprivileged children. The Church will send these overseas.
After the service projects were complete we were blessed to hear from Coach Larry Gelwix as our keynote speaker. Coach Gelwix is the winningest coach in America. In his 34 years of coaching he has 392 wins and only 9 losses. That's a 98% winning record. In the 25 years since the high school national tournament was implemented, his rugby team won the title 19 times, coming in second 5 times and in third place only once. He is a member of the church, and uses coaching principles and techniques that incorporate church standards. A movie was made based on the high school rugby team that he coaches. Forever Strong is a great movie, I highly recommend it!

Nick and Kassie meet and talk with Coach Gelwix.

Following Coach Gelwix's talk we had lunch and another dance. During Saturday's dance Kassie had a character drawing done by a young man studying art. I believe he studies out at BYU.

The trip there and back was long, but well worth it! It was a real honor to meet Coach Gelwix and hear his inspiring talk.