Wander With Wayne

Immanuel means “God with us.” At first, I thought that meant God came down from heaven to be with us on this earth. I felt that he came and lived with us so we could call him Immanuel because he lived on this earth. That thought doesn’t make sense. He was given the name Immanuel in the Old Testament. Isaiah called him Immanuel. Before he was born, he was not called “God will be with us.” Now, I believe he’s called Immanuel because he is with us if we will let him. He will not leave us alone. Just because he went to heaven, he is still Immanuel. He is still “God With Us,” if we choose.

After working on Monday and Tuesday, we drove to Daybreak, Utah on Wednesday to spend the night with Kaneesha, Brooks, and Kristin. When we arrived, they had a nice taco dinner waiting for us. After dinner, Kaneesha explained that a small screw fell into their garbage disposal. Earlier, they’d invited a plumber over to give them an estimate. The plumber explained that it would cost around $700 to get it repaired. Amazingly (after unpluging the disposal) Tanner reached in with his hand and pulled the screw out! Wow, it now works! Tanner suggested that they might only pay him $650. After the children were asleep, we played games at the table. It was fun to play and be in their home and visit. We also slept well, when we finally went to bed 😊. Thanksgiving afternoon we went to Noell's parents (Jim and Beth’s) home for Thanksgiving dinner. Noell’s sister, Michelle and her family were there. Dinner was excellent! After dinner we relaxed, visited and played some games. Michelle and he...

Another stomach attack occurred this Wednesday evening. As soon as it happened, I asked Noell to take me to the hospital. They did some tests then sent us home that night. We returned at 7:30 AM to do an ultrasound. It turns out that I had gallbladder attacks. It’s so nice to know what the problem is. On Monday I find out what my doctor suggests. Each week I study Come Follow Me and sometimes I have some special experiences. This week I had one that was special to me — although it may not come to you in the same way it impressed me. Here it is: In Ether there are five chapters that briefly list 28 generations of kings. Some were wicked, others righteous, and a few it doesn’t say. A list of kings isn’t fun for me, so typically my attention fades and I quickly skim the chapters. Chapters 8 & 9 tell the story of King Omer. His son, Jared was wicked and tried to take over his kingdom. Jared’s daughter leads him to secret combinations—which the scriptures tell us will bring to pass the ...

Several weeks ago, I faced a terrible stomach ache. I tried to just deal with it, hoping it would go away. All night I was in such pain. By morning, we contacted the Harrisons and Michael came to give me a blessing. I then went to the Firth Medical Clinic (Shirley Bame’s suggestion). They gave me an injection that took the pain away. By Monday I was much improved, but the pain hadn’t completely gone away. The clinic called and put me on antibiotics. After a few more days, they suggested I see a specialist (gastroenterologist). When I got to him, he decided that because of the symptoms and the fact that Dean has Crohn’s Disease, that I needed an upper GI and a colonoscopy. While I was finally feeling better (after several weeks of illness) this week was difficult for me. On Monday, Tanner had his jaw surgery. Noell went to the hospital with him. I stayed with the twins. While I attempted to get some of my work done, my work suffered. I’d had a busy weekend, but on Monday and Tuesday I...

I loved to go to my grandparents’ home. They had sponges that we stacked like blocks, and a toy where marbles rolled back-and-forth down a little track, until they reached the bottom. We played pick up sticks, colored in the coloring books with many colored pencils, markers, and crayons. We also played checkers, Chinese checkers, Sorry and many other classic games. Outside their home in Garland, Utah was a great sandbox, a yard for playing football, baseball with plastic bats, and an incredible apricot tree that leaned over the sandbox and how we loved to climb it. Grandpa’s lawn was always beautiful, no weeds and always cut perfectly. He lived in an area where the snow fell regularly and deep. His sidewalks and driveway were always clear of snow. Of the many fun memories, another stands out. It is the time I began to recognize the beauty of the neighbors’ lawns. No matter where he lived—no matter the season, their lawns were equal to his. The grass was always amazingly green, weed fre...

Photo of 8 apartments was taken 4 years ago by Google. Notice crooked mailbox stand was the same, more  cement stairs have been replaced with sagging Trex (with no support). From this photo it appears there have been a few changes — more weeds and more abandoned vehicles. On July first, Noell began managing 16 apartments in Blackfoot. The job typically wouldn’t be too bad, but the apartments have many years of deferred maintenance. They had left four of the units vacant, so that they could be completely overhauled.  Last week, on Monday I began my workweek at the office. At some point, I was asked to leave my job go over to one of the apartments to check on the work of our “handyman”. We planned to not look at his work on this project, until it was all done, but he requested we stop by. Around two hours later, I’d purchased some tools to help him lay the luxury vinyl planking on the floor and had informed him that he needed to basically start over. He’d been working on a the s...

The months of August and September, as well as January and February, are my busy times of the year. This year, to add to the load, the First Presidency of the Church extended the pilot for the Emotional Resilience for Self-Reliance course. As a result, besides my typical busy time, I’m also meeting with many stake presidencies and others to train them on the new materials. Emotional resilience is something we need in my area, and apparently throughout the Church. In my area, we’ve seen suicides increase (especially in the Montpelier and Rupert areas). Also, with the Covid restrictions, we’ve seen marriages, that have struggled for years, disintegrate as couples separate (I’m aware of three families in our current ward who have separated during the Covid restrictions). I was also recently talking with Noell’s brother, Thane—who teaches seminary and institute in the Uintah Basin. He said that during these Covid restrictions the youth and young adults are flocking to pornography to cope...

A couple weeks ago, Greg and I tested his chainsaw to see if it was cutting well. It was improved, but still not cutting great. Later, I learned to sharpen the chain and went out to cut up the Russian olive trees in our pasture that he’d cut down. As I went out to cut, I felt nervous. I’ve not used a chainsaw much and don’t know all of the safety precautions. As I was going out to cut, I thought about the time I cut the tip of my finger off with an electric planer. I definitely don’t want to have another accident like that—or worse. I placed my noise-blocking headphones on to reduce the sound. Throughout the cutting I listened to an audio I wanted to learn from. When the chainsaw was started, I had to turn up my audio slightly. Each time the saw was off, I turned down the audio. As I worked on the trees and hauled the small branches to the burn pile, I became more tired. I tried hard to keep my mind focused and thinking about safety. After working in the hot sun for hours, an accident ...

The Harrison family invited us over for water balloon volleyball and homemade ice cream on Friday night. After we ran out of water balloons, we sat in the shade of the back yard and visited with Michael, Karla, and some of their children, while others played around the yard. After we’d been talking for a while, Tanner asked if he could borrow my phone. My children have borrowed my phone for years, but Tanner has his own phone. It seemed strange that he would ask. A couple short minutes later, Tanner handed my phone back to me. The phone was still on and he handed it back to me in a way that I noticed a beautiful sunset photo on the screen. He’d taken several different photos that turned out very nice. I excused myself and walked around to the front of the house to appreciate the gorgeous sunset. I’m grateful for spectacular sunsets, for amazing technology, and for kind children who share wonderful things with me. As we arrived at the Harrison’s my hands were full, so I got one of the...

Since the last of June (when Noell decided to manage the 16 rental properties in Blackfoot) we’ve been investing most of our free time to fixing them up and finding others who can help us fix them. We now have a plumber, electrician, and a handyman who have begun some repairs for us. Things are progressing. We have 4 vacant units that we’re renovating. The owner (actually the executor of the estate) and Noell and I all agree that the units must be improved before we rent them out. They are in very bad shape.  Tanner's friend invited him to golf and it was Tanner's first time. On Wednesday night Dawson and I taught Tanner all we knew. Tanner and his friend golfed on Thursday night and had a great time. This week, I had the 24th of July off work for Pioneer Day. We decided we needed some vacation time. On Friday (the 24th) Tanner and I took his cousins, Martha & Sarah to Rigby lake to kayak. They have two kayaks and we have two. We had a fun visit on the ride and a great tim...

Dean stated, “I always thought Dad took us camping because it was an inexpensive vacation for a large family. I now know that it was his favorite vacation. He loved being in God’s mountain country. He loved to hike, photograph, fish, and hunt. He loved to share that love with his Children.” Some of my earliest and favorite memories were camping. As I was little, we often hiked into Ironbog Lake, because the trail was fairly short, just over 3.5 miles. As we matured, we progressed to Copper Basin, where our most visited area was Lake Creek. I knew nearly every fishing hole on Long and Big lakes. We also hiked beyond the beautiful lakes to find crystals. We loved seeing antelope on the way in & out and deer in the meadow by the lake. We even experienced bear, cougars, and other adventures. As a young teenager, my brother, Fred and I drove to Lake Creek and each rode motorcycles into the lakes. We were there when the trail crew was expanding and improving the trail. We camped on Long ...

Perhaps my favorite line in the movie, The Blind Side is “I need a proper hug.” When the family is taking their adopted son to college, the Mom shares her advice, says some semblance of goodbye and gets in the car to leave. Her son then comes back to her and says, “I need a proper hug.”  Each time I see this, I nearly tear up with excitement and gratitude that this adopted son knows when and how to show love to and thank his mother. I need a proper hug... Covid-19 has impacted so many people in some tough ways. Recently, I read a Facebook post from a single woman I worked with several years ago. In the post she stated how many weeks it’s been since she’s had any type of touch from anyone. She added that she’s fine, “I’m FINE, I’M REALLY FINE”... She then closed with some hash tags. It appears that she’s removed the post, but they were something like, #RememberYourSingleFriends #LivingSomeSortOfCovidHell! I wish she had left the post on her Facebook or that I had been wise enough to...

Last night I woke several times with my throat bothering me. I was beginning to worry that perhaps I had contracted Covid-19. I noticed that my nose was also affected. When I woke this morning, I realized that my eyes were blurry. Shortly after that, I remembered that the cottonwood trees have begun to release “cotton” puffs throughout the area. I believe that is the real culprit. I don’t know if I have a small allergy to cottonwood trees, but I know that each year I have these same symptoms when the cotton blows! Hopefully it's just Cottonwood-19. 😃  Way too many cottonwood trees this time of year! The size of floating cotton Look closely to see floating cotton This week was truly insane. Besides trying to keep up with family and my job, I met with Hank & Renee Goodnow (my friends who have been in the rental business for decades) and Austin Anderson (the executor of an estate who is considering selling property to me). We walked through 13 of the 15 units… Wow, what a mess! ...

Last night we spent some time with our good friends, the Harrison family. Since moving to Blackfoot, we’ve enjoyed getting to know them better. Earlier in the evening we dropped off some pep band music that Tanner had been asked to give to Hailey Harrison. As Noell dropped off the music, they invited us to return later for homemade donuts. Tough, but we decided to oblige 😁. We enjoyed the fresh donuts, and I especially enjoyed the visit. Carla’s old mission companion was also there (Carla served in Brasilia and her companion is from Porta Alegre, Brasil). I enjoyed visiting with Carla’s companion and husband. I love the people in Brazil and hope to spend more time in Brasil again, someday. All the Harrison children love to hold and play with Tate and Dawson. One of them was balancing Dawson, as he stood by the couch, chewing on a piece of PVC. Dawson then fell forward and the PVC cut the roof of his mouth and he began bleeding and screaming. When we returned home, we tried to ...

“Christ was so amazing!” I exclaimed to my younger brother, when I was around the age of 10, “Jesus never swore, always taught the truth, helped others, he was just PERFECT!” I continued, “Can you imagine that, perfect. That means he never got an answer wrong on a test at school. If he played basketball, he never missed a shot. If he used a bow to shoot an arrow, he always hit the bulls-eye! Wow, he was amazing. What’s it like to be so PERFECT?” My younger brother was impressed, but unable to point out my flawed understanding of perfect. Years later, he lovingly tried to explain to me that my knowledge of the word perfect was wrong. While I’d begun to recognize that my understanding of Christ’s perfection was incorrect, I still had lingering misunderstandings about perfection. As an adult, I still struggle with a distorted understanding of perfection. I feel that Christ could live a perfect life, but I’d done so many things wrong. It seems impossible to obey the Lord’s command to...

This week was different than a common COVID-19 week.  Ken came to visit and helped repair sprinklers. He stayed Friday night and Saturday. Ada was unable to come, but sent flowers. As Ken was here, my Aunt Julie and Uncle Greg also came to visit. Greg delivered a gun to Clark.  Dean and Michelle came to visit Dad & Mom as well as Greg and Julie. Dean came at just the right moment (a fuse blew on the pump, less than 2 minutes before he arrived). He’d experienced it before and helped us fix it). At the end of visiting, Dean also spent about 10 minutes adjusting the fuel/air mixture on the motorcycle carburetors – neither of our motorcycles were running well, until he took those few minutes… They now run great!  Clark stopped by for a visit during the week.  Tim & his family visited Greg, Julie, Grandpa and Grandma, while Noell and I were on a drive.  Clint & Kim stopped in to visit for Mother’s Day  Greg & Sherilynn’s family came ...

As I’ve grown, it's becoming clear to me how much I dislike shopping for clothes. When I shop, I have a hard time picking out clothes that I like. Often the clothes in the store follow a fad much too closely. I prefer things that just look nice and continue to look nice. If I have to shop, I buy inexpensive clothes from Walmart. My preferred shopping is done at thrift stores, where I can buy quality clothes for very low prices. My cherished clothes, since I was a child, came from others. My favorite winter gloves weren’t exactly a match. The left glove that was black and red and the right glove was blue and orange. I loved them so much because they were very warm and they came from my friend down the street. I also burst into tears when my brother, Fred gave me his used coat the winter I was laid off after 9-11 and we moved from Cedar City Utah back to Idaho. From the time Fred got married, his wife, Cherilynn has kept him in great clothes. Through the years, some of my favo...