Two Great Men

Leaders greatly impact the atmosphere of any activity they are in charge of.

This is truth and because that is true, these two made my years of 

playing high school basketball fun, challenging and a real treasure of memories.

Mr. Buck and Mr. Gray coached together for 25 years the JV and Varsity Basketball teams at OHS.

They always expected our very best effort and attitude on and off the court. 

The teams I played with were very successful. We made it to the Elite 8 each year and always did well within and out of league play. While there was much talent among my team mates, Buck and Gray knew how to coach the essentials and how to help us succeed. They pushed us to be conditioned and to do things right.

They were usually very calm during games, Gray always, Buck was easier to get riled, but he still mostly kept his cool. They both spent tireless hours at practice, watching film, compiling film for highlight DVD's for us, coaching games, and driving mini school bus so we could make it to our games. I believe they made it the State Tournament for 17 or 18 years in a row with all of the teams they coached. This picture shows girls from all of the different years they coached.

Funny Memories

We made many road trips during the 3 years of playing for them. Oregon is a big state with a low speed limit. During the time I was playing, the bus garage decided to get monitors for the many buses that recorded a drivers speed. It was very difficult for Mr. Gray to stay under. Not only did he get a warning from the bus garage, but was also pulled over by a cop and written a citation. I never let him live that down, but he was always a good sport about it.

If we were playing sloppy during practice or had a hard time doing the essentials, Mr. Buck would get irritated and require us to do 1 pushup. Yes, that is right, 1. I am not quite sure his logic behind 1 and not 2 or 5 or 10 or make us run a suicide, but we also joked about it. Some how he would get his message through to us.

I will always look back on my time playing for them with fondness. They are two men of great character and sound principle. There example and expectations greatly influenced my life and I know many, many others. It is sad to see them go, and they will be greatly missed. 

Thanks for living lives of influence Mr. Buck and Mr. Gray.

Justin and Ruth Blazzard

Hiking

Last weekend, Justin had to work Saturday because of the Oregon Logging Conference.

My Primary Presidency was supposed to be doing a temple trip, but because of sick kids, and my husband being out of town, we called it off.

The Elder Quorom was supposed to be going sledding, but because of the weather they went hiking instead.

By Elders Quorom I mean the President, his three kids, his parents, and myself and Natalie went hiking.

Natalie had been sick, but needed some fresh air, and I always need the exercise and sunshine.

It was a delightful hike and Natalie did pretty well for part of it in the Ergo. 

I had to pack her on my hip the last half, but thankfully the hike was short and flat.

It definitely would have been more fun with Justin, and we need to take him on this hike on our next sunny day.

Justin and Ruth Blazzard

Self Reliant

For the past seven months, Justin and I have been working slowly and diligently at being a little more prepared for any type of emergency situation. It has at times been exhausting, requires a lot of planning and effort, is expensive, and sometimes I feel like a crazy person. 

Tonight though, it paid off in a very small way. Last night Natalie and I drove to Eugene to spend the night with Justin while he works at the Oregon Logging Conference. I accidentally left her pacifier in the hotel room, and just realized it tonight. It has been a long week, I am tired and only Wal- Mart sells this brand. Which would mean a 35 minute drive there, at least 15 minutes in the store and another 35 minutes back. If I had had to drive to get another one, it would have been a long night. Thankfully, I had an extra in Natalie's 72hr. kit I am still working on completing. It was such a blessing to walk into my closet and pull that out of a back pack. 

 

I have had this experience several times with food items over the last few months as well. Being in a pinch for dinner and thinking I may not have an ingredient, but am so relieved I don't have to make an extra half hour trip because it is in my storage closet.While being prepared will be an immense blessing in case of extenuating circumstances, it has brought a lot of peace to my everyday life. 

We still have a long ways to go to achieve our goal of a 1 year food supply, clothes, larger savings, completed 72 hour kits and more, but I know every little step counts and there is blessings along the way. There are always blessings and great peace in following the Prophets counsel.

Side note: (Yes, she probably needs to loose the pacifier, but she only uses it at night to fall asleep and right now, she is sick. So, probably not the best time to come down on it.)

Justin and Ruth Blazzard

Toddler Bed

We switched this little girl to a toddler bed two Saturday's ago. The first night we did our bed time routine, prayed, kissed her good night and waited. We did our best to be quiet downstairs. After not hearing anything for 20 minutes we thought it was safe to start a movie. Ten minutes later, a faint knocking noise was coming from upstairs. Justin went upstairs to investigate and Natalie emerged with a big smile on her face. She ended up falling asleep in our bed and then we moved her back to her bed. She slept the rest of the night.

The next night was Sunday and she doesn't nap on Sundays, so another success and this time she fell asleep in her own bed!

Monday night she fell asleep in her own bed, only to awake at 1 a.m. and knock on our door. I let her in and let her fall back asleep between us. I returned her to her bed and 20 minutes later she woke up again. She came back to bed with me, and this time she stayed. Then we were off to Ontario for the rest of the week.

The last three nights have been pretty good with her sleeping in her bed. Last night she woke up, but still went back to her bed. Truly, I believe the jury is still out on what she is going to like. Her favorite place is our bed though.

This is how her mornings often go while I do my hair. She lays on our pillows and rubs the corners of them. This is her way of soothing herself. Especially since she hasn't been feeling well the last couple of days. Guess where she is sleeping right now? My bed.... we will see where she ends up tonight.

Justin and Ruth Blazzard

Trip

It is 9:42 p.m. and while I usually would be reading a book or getting this prego body ready for bed at this time, I really wanted to get at least one post done for my blog today, so here it is. A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a retirement party for my high school basketball coaches. They have coached girls basketball for 25 years and were ready to be done. This presented me with an awesome opportunity to visit my family as well!

Natalie and I flew to Ontario on Tuesday morning and stayed through Saturday afternoon. During that time we were able to see all 18 cousins, one of my best friends, spend an evening at my parent's wards Relief Society Activity, and visit with my grandma and great aunt and uncle. The highlights for Natalie were cousins, Tux my parents black lab, Josie the kitty, Aunt Mary, and Grandma and Papa Corn.

 

These two are 6 weeks apart. Mr. Trey is quite the tease, but he and Natalie played fairly well together. Natalie is enjoying a "chalk-it". My Dad buys little heart shaped chocolate boxes for all of the children and grandchildren on Valentines Day. He has been doing this for several years and is a fun little tradition we all look forward to.

She was such a good girl on the flights both ways and did really well with visiting everyone. It is too bad we don't live closer to her cousins, because they are a fun group of kids. It was especially sweet to watch her love on my younger sister's baby girl. We were driving home from lunch in town and Natalie held baby Henley's hand for about 5 minutes.

The retirement party was nice. There was a special presentation before the start of the Varsity Girl's Basketball game. Then the game and a reception afterwards for conversing with our coaches. I wrote them each a personal letter and there was a basketball, picture frame and scrapbook to sign for each of them.

It was also fun to see teammates I had not seen in 9 years. We caught up on all the life happenings. I missed seeing the many who were unable to make it. It will be fun to attend my 10 year reunion next year.

Going back to my old high school was sort of surreal. I have been in there since I graduated, but there are many things that have changed from how I remembered "Ontario" High School being. The demographics of the community have greatly changed over the last 5-10 years and have thus created major change in the school. I know the school faces great challenges that are a little disheartening to me when I think about my Alma Mater. Other than that, the school looks mostly the same.

The trip was fun, the right length of time and very rejuvenating for me. I am grateful for my parents always being such gracious hosts. Hopefully we make it back for Memorial Day.

Justin was happy to have us home. He picked us up at the airport at 5:30 and we came home to Papa Murphy's pizza, balloons, chocolates and flowers for Valentines day. Natalie especially loves her Frozen balloon Justin selected for her. It was a bummer that we missed him this week. The two weeks prior he had been out of town. He was able to be in Portland for this week of work, but it is so hard to plan with his job and we never know. I am grateful he was so understanding. 

Justin and Ruth Blazzard