My parents house

These are just a few pictures of my parents home. They have been working on it for almost four years now, and our home- like our family; is a work in progress.
It was supposed to only be "two stories," tall, with a "daylight basement" but due to the high water table in the area, we have a ginormous house of three stories tall.

Walking though the house I am reminded of the many mistakes we have made on in.
The normal observer cannot tell you where the excessive gaps are in our wood flooring, nor can they tell you where the hinges are loose, or the railing is missing a bracket. But I can. I can tell you why our basement is almost a foot higher than anticipated plans, and how much work it was to help build the house.

In spite of our organized chaos, our kitchen is beautiful, is is graced with granite counter tops, a recessed sink and two ovens and a gorgeous range. It is one of my favorite places.

To the outside observer, we may appear to have a home that is whole and complete; yet we are still working on it. I think I know why I have decided to stay in school year-round for the last two years, and why I will be in classes again this spring/summer. :)

My Chacos

I got myself some new "shoes," In anticipation of my trip to Hawaii, I thought I would get the appropriate footwear. It also helps that the shoes are sanctioned by BYU Idaho (in attempts to avoid sloppy and slouchy dress, flip flops are forbidden on campus). I spent hours trying to find a sale on them, and finally found some that were marked down around 20 percent off. Even at that, they cost me 75 bones.

Trip cancelation...

Yes, it is true; the Nauvoo tour for March 2009 has been canceled. As we have watched the weather patterns and this storm as it is moving across the United States, we would have been in the storm all the way. That would mean snow packed, icy roads across Wyoming, (we talked this evening to the two relief drivers that are already in Cheyenne and they got into two ground blizzards getting there and they were on the front end of the storm) It is expected to have snow throughout most of Missouri and at least 2" of rain in Independence and the surrounding area on Friday, and as the weather forecasters indicated it will snow all day Saturday in Nauvoo. I talked to one of the missionary couple sisters at the Nauvoo Temple this evening and they indicated that on Saturday they were expecting it to snowing all day. Not the kind of experience you want to have in Nauvoo. Also we were really concerned about the safely of our travel in such cold, snowy weather. Many of the roads we would have been on in Missouri and Illinois are small two lanes, up and down, windy roads and if snow packed we would never meet any of our deadlines (also the possibility of a slide off). Also visiting most of the sites require us to be out in the open for extended periods of time. For that reason we decided to postpone the trip until May. I hope you will be able to join us then. I'm sorry that it is canceled, but having been there a number of times and knowing the timetable we must keep and the need NOT to be hindered by weather, it made the trip practically impossible. A poor experience for you, a waste of money for you, and we would never want, but certainly aware of a possible bus accident, that would not have been fun for any of us.

I wouldn’t mind pulling a hand cart back to SLC in good weather, but I certainly do not want to experience firsthand what my Great-great grandfather, William Openshaw and family experienced in the Martin Handcart Company. Call me a wuss, but I need my microwave!!



Love

Bro. O



Richard L. Openshaw Ph.D.

Brigham Young University Idaho



My trip is canceled primarily to snow in Wyoming. Never mind that it is almost April, and snow traditionally should be gone or melting in my memory. However, it all works out for the best. No longer can my teachers penalize me for missing their classes, and I can catch up on the large projects that are due at the end of this semester. Perhaps next semesters trip is a possibility.