Lila...part 4

I know this is long, but I sure love to hear about her life, I hope you do too.

By now several of our children were going to the school on Adams road. Before we left we had some in Junior High and Central Valley High School. We went to the 5th ward which later became the 8th ward on 16th Avenue just off Evergreen Road. The next baby to come into our home was Brent Michael. He was born on March 17, 1961 at 11:18am in the Deaconess Hospital in Spokane. He weighed 6 lbs, 11 1/2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Dr. Knight was our LDS doctor now. I had to be induced with him, my ankles swelled and I was toxic. Because he was brought on it was harder and didn't seem like a natural birth, however we both survived and he wa a normal healthy baby. My mother came down to help when he was born and we got along fine. Shortly after this my mother went on a mission to the Southern States and was there when I became pregnant with another child. Since she had helped with several of our children after a birth I knew she couldn't be there for this one so I decided not to tell her because I didn't want to worry her on her mission. So I swore all who would tell her to secrecy and then sent her a birth announcement when the baby arrived. Well, when she got the word she was so shocked she was sick for 3 days. (She told me this in a letter she wrote right after she got the birth announcement, also reprimanded me for not telling her). I should have known better but it seemed like a good idea at the time. It took me a few years after I was having my own grandchildren before I got the full impact of what I had done to her. I have told my own children if they do anything like that to me I'll skin them alive. Anyway the baby in question was another boy who arrived April 18, 1962 (on his father's birthday) and we named him Douglas Lloyd. He weighed 7 lbs 3 1/2 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. He came at 12:18 pm in the Deaconess Hospital attended by Dr. Knight. Since he was brought on early he was jaundiced so they kept him in the hospital a few days after I went home. The nurses got quite a kick out of it when we came in with 8 other children to bring their baby brother home from the hospital. Since Doug came a year a month and a day after Brent we now had a big baby and a little baby to care for. My youngest sister Colleen came down to help for awhile, but since she was now married and had one of her own we felt that this was too much for her. So we assured her that we would be fine and she'd better go back to her own home where she was needed more. We enlisted the help of our older children to pick up the slack and they were a great help. Shortly after this we moved to a home on Barker Road in Otis Orchards (owned by Lamont & Phyllis Leavitt who had moved back to Canada). The home had 3 bedrooms on the main floor and a large unfinished bedroom in the basement about the size of 2 bedrooms. It also had a bathroom down there as well as furnace room, storage room, laundry room etc. It had several acres so we were able to have a few horses to ride and several cows to milk. We sold milk also which helped our income considerably. Our grade shcool and Junior High kids went to Otis Orchards and our High School kids went to West Valley High School. I served as room mother for several of the grades my children were in, then went up the ranks in the PTA from secretary to Vice President to President. The church jobs where I served while in the Spokane Valley were in Primary, Star Class, Firelight Class, Sunday School Secretary, MIA attendance Secretary, Beehive Leader, Stake Attendance Secretay, Ward RS Secretary. Woody served a Stake mission with Dean Maughan, Ray Gibbons, Jock Walker, Mont Leavitt, Rae Lybbert & Ross Quick. He also served as executive Secretary to the Bishopric later on. Also Randy served a mission to Calgary Canada Mission right after he graduated from High School. Eldon was called into the service while living here in Spokane. We lived here until Eldon, Randy and Diana had graduated from High School. Woody had now retired from Kaiser Aluminum where he had worked for 18 years. Eldon was now in Minot, North Dakota. The summer before Randy went on his mission we built a camper and put it on a 1 ton extended wheel base truck. Woody had a ten week vacation coming from Kaiser. We got Russ Novak (who worked in a camper manufacturing business) to help us build it. It took 5 weeks to build, paint and equip, then we went on a 5 week vacation covering 7000 miles. We went down one group of States, a little way into Mexico, back up through another group of States (including Minot, N.D. where Eldon was stationed) then circled into Canada on one side and down the other side and back home to Spokane. There were 11 of us (Eldon wasn't there but Diana invited a girl friend to accompany us). It was a great trip that we'll never forget. Eldon was sent to Viet Nam to spend his last year in the military. My mother died in 1968 while we still lived in Otis Orchards. The year after this we moved back to Canada in June 1969. We moved to Travers & Belle Smith's ranch (Belle is Woody's sister) as they had gone into Simmental cattle business and had moved to town and built a home there. They needed someone to take care of the ranch.

I need to stop there for now.

It would be fun if we could get some of the memories and stories of this trip from all you kids. There really aren't many details about it, it sounds huge!!

Until next time!