Sister Bassett

          One of my dearest friends passed away last night.  I have known it was coming, but it is still hard.  Rochelle made everyone feel as if they were her only best friend.  She treated everyone so kindly and was the first to not volunteer, but to jump in and do.   The world has lost a wonderful spirit, but I know Heavenly Father has been working hard to get her over there to help the spirit's in Heaven.  The Bassett's fought hard to keep her here.

         I remember when she first moved to the Pasco 2^nd ward.  Cole was just a baby.  Fairly soon after, I was assigned to be her visiting teacher.  My baby at the time was Kaitlin and she was three and my oldest was 15 or 16.  At first I felt like we couldn’t possibly have anything in common.  As I continued to be her visiting teacher and she became my older girls primary teacher I got to know her better.  She was by far my girl’s favorite primary teacher and not just because she tossed them candy if they answered a question.  They knew that she cared about them – truly cared.  

           I was serving in some presidency at the time and I guess she had a certain impression about me and who I was as I remember a comment she made one time while I was visiting her.  I had told her about a family vacation where we had gone to Oregon to the lava caves.  The caves were so short we had to crawl on our hands and knees to get through them.  Her comment was, “YOU did that!?”  I have always remembered that as a great lesson to me.  Don’t be so uptight or at least give the impression of being uptight – let loose and have a little fun.  That is a lesson I once again need reminded of with my new set of teenagers.  Sometimes we focus on the school work too much and not on the fun.  Thank you for such a great lesson.

          After serving in the primary she was called to the young women’s organization and once again my girl’s benefitted from having her as a teacher.  She taught them memorable lessons and got them to open up and come out of their shells.  They have become good women, leaders, wives and mothers because of her.  If my girls had an extracurricular activity she would find out about it and then go to it to support them.  I remember seeing her at plays, sporting events, concerts, and none of her kids were performing.  It was her Young Women she was coming to see.  She treated all the young women as if they were hers.  They knew that she loved them and cared about them and she always went the extra mile.

          Then she became my visiting teacher, along with Danielle Belliston.  We were all pregnant together too.  Danielle with her first, Rochelle with her second, and I with my seventh.  I loved when they came every month and we would sit and rock in my banana chairs as we talked.  I was always sad when it was time for them to go.  I think it was the only time that I loved having my visiting teachers stay a long time.  They weren’t just my visiting teachers, they were my friends.  Even after we all had our babies, we continued to visit and enjoy each other’s company.

          I remember after they moved out of the ward and going to her house to visit and let the kids play.  Conner loved their toy closet under the stairs.  We have one now, just not quite as cool as theirs.  We went to great parties at their house and it was fun to see how much she and her husband, Ryan, love each other and how great they treated each other when we would come over as couple’s.  Such a shining example to Brad and I. 

          A bit more than four years ago, Courtney got married.  My mom and sisters who had never met her before were especially impressed.  They had come to the reception and then Sister Bassett drove her family home and returned to help us clean up.  She was hauling around a huge vacuum cleaner all over the gym floor.  It was just a couple of weeks later that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  

          Nearly three years ago was the best birthday ever.  I spent the day visiting with her while she was in the hospital.  Her cancer had moved to a part of the brain and she was in the hospital for a few days having it removed.  We had so much fun talking and laughing.  I loved it and will treasure that day always.  A few days later she realized it had been my birthday and apologized profusely for me spending the day with her, but I loved it.  It was a lot of fun!

          After moving to our new house she kept bugging me about letting her come over and spackle my nail holes and doing a little bit of sanding and painting.  She wanted to come over and scrape all the stickers off my new windows.  I am so glad that instead we just talked and let the kids play.  My nail holes will probably be forever left undone until we move out as it isn’t really that big a deal.  I have learned from her that spending time with family and friends is what counts.  Who cares about anything else. 

          I am so glad she was able to have her family around her the last few days.  They are the most important of all.  I just wanted my family to know how much I love and admire Sister Bassett and to remember the great example she has been to me since the day we met until all eternity.  She have been a great influence on my family and on so many other families as well.  I could not have ever asked for a better friend.  Thank you for such a guiding influence and friendship. 

          Please feel free to follow her story and read people's comments about her at  http://www.rolumpybreast.blogspot.com/  The world was truly a better place for having Rochelle Bassett here.  I hope we can live up to the legacy she left for us.  This is something I am going to work hard towards.

          I am so thankful for the Plan of Salvation.  Our church is the only one with the answer to what happens after we die.  I know Heavenly Father loves us so very much and wouldn't just leave us hanging.  I feel sorrow for those who think that this is the end.  I am grateful that I will see my dear friend again and I know that she was greeted by a boatload of people on the other side.  I know that she will also be one of the first in line to greet me when I die as well.  I know she is in a better place and that she is happy and that she will continue to watch over her family and wait for them to join her in the Celestial Kingdom as I know that is where she is at.  There aren't many who are much better than Rochelle. I know I have a long way to go to even be half as good as her.

     Dear family, I love you all so much.  Please remember that in all you do and say.  Heavenly Father loves us and He wants us to live in such a way that we can all return unto Him some day.  I know that I am sure going to try to do better.  Please remember our family motto:  Celestial Kingdom with No Empty Chairs.  

January 2011

Sunday, January 16th - called Zach to see how he was doing.  Could not get a hold of him.  We called and called.  Finally he answered!  He had been out doing his home teaching.  What an example to us - most wait until the last moment - and here he was out just the week-end after school had started back up.  I was impressed.

Just as Brad and I were preparing to celebrate our 27th anniversary, his mom passed away.  It was very unexpected.  She had gone to church with us the day before, but was a little under the weather that Monday, January 17th.  Grandpa and I had gotten her all cleaned up and tucked in to bed and I knew she hadn't been herself that day, so I teasingly said, "Tomorrow you will be up and running a marathon."  As I left the room she whispered, "Thank you, Pam."  And sure enough, she was running a marathon the next day.   We called the kids to let them know the funeral would be in Payette on Saturday but we didn't expect them to come.  It would be a long drive and bad weather.  We would rather they be safe, plus we figured that they had lots of work to do between school work, jobs, etc.  Brad and his dad took the van and drove to Payette with Grandma.  I borrowed Spurgeon's (our home teacher) Suburban.  We waited until Friday afternoon when Courtney, Will and Whitney arrived from Cheney and then began our long scary drive to Payette.  I don't like driving.  I despise driving at night.  I abhor driving in the snow and ice.  It wasn't fun.  I found myself a traveling buddy, usually a big semi that wasn't moving at snail speed, and would follow behind him and where ever his lights went, I followed.  The Suburban drove very nicely and I was impressed as we passed many overturned cars, truck, and other accidents along the road.  We arrived safely and a few hours later the rest of my kids from Utah arrived.  It was a sad occasion for a great family reunion.  Uncle Louis let us all stay in his trailor home.  It was crowded and cold, but it was free. 

Grandpa and his 3 brothers

We played games, discussed scriptures, ate food, and enjoyed each other's company.

Christmas 2010

At Thanksgiving time Brad's parents came to live with us.  Brad drove to Payette, Idaho on a Wednesday, celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, packed and loaded a truck Friday, drove back to Washington on Saturday, and they moved into the master bedroom upstairs and we moved into the storage room downstairs.  It doesn't have any walls nor a door, but that's that.

It was a quieter Christmas than usual as we were missing Michael and Allison, and Erin and David.  But it was still fun.  Just a few pictures (or actually quite a few) to highlight the bedlam of the day.   The first two pictures are the ward Christmas party.  Conner was a sheep.  He wasn't too excited about the part, but at least he went along with it.  He is right there in the front. 


The kids were thrilled to sit on Santa's lap!!!

Whitney's first Christmas - let's see how much stuff I can climb on.

What is this!



What am I going to do with all this junk!



Our first time going to "First Night" the New Year's Eve event held every year in the Tri-cities. 

Zach heading back off to BYU.  Kylee and Kaitlin going back to school after Christmas break.  Dad off to work.

It was freezing cold as we waited for Zach to leave.

Missing Zach!

Cardinal Puff Club

When I was growing up this was an exclusive club to join.  My dad would demonstrate the initiation and we would have to copy it.  If we could, we became a member.  He loved to invite people to join after a Thanksgiving feast or some such big meal.  So, one of my brothers and all of my sisters are members of this club.  Lissie had her husband Gary, and I had mine, Brad, also join this club shortly after marrying into the family.  Quite a number of years ago, after Ron and Kellie Wright had come over for a Sunday dinner, my older kids asked about joining.  I demonstrated the initiation and after much trial and error, Michael, Courtney and Erin all join.  As did Sister Wright.  Brother Wright just sat and laughed at all of us dorks.  A few years back, Courtney wanted Will to join, so after a big meal we opened initiation for this club.  Will joined, as did Zach, Kylee and Kaitlin.  (We kind of fudged with Conner, so we will have to make him do this again when he is older to make it official.)  I looked and looked for the picture I took but can't find it and I am tired of looking.  Zach scoffed at this game - "It's just an old drinking game."  Oh, well.  Hein family tradition lives on!

It's All About Kylee

Couldn'd resist using that title since I just recently did a post about Martin.  Here are a few pictures from Kylee running Cross-Country for Chiawana High School in the Fall of 2010.  Then there photos of her Sweet Sixteenth birthday party.  The theme was Fear Factor and we made sure it was kind of gross and fun like the real show.  Too bad it is no longer on TV. 



Kylee is third from the far right.



Now to the birthday party.  Sorry - lots of pictures and not much commentary.  Kylee would have to identify all the people for me as I surely can't.  Ice cold water (ice cubes floating in the water) trying to get as many balls out as you can and trying not to freeze to death at the same time.

An orange is behind their backs and they have to move as quickly from the starting line, around the ping pong table and to the finish line in the shortest amount of time without dropping the orange.

This challenge was that the kids were tossing marshmellows over their backs and trying to get as many into their partners buckets.

This challenge was really gross as far as I am concerned.  It was a relay race passing real worms from the front of the line to the back.  The person at the front of the line would have to dig up a worm from out of the bucket of dirt and then pass it back and then run to the back so the next person would then have to dig up and pass a worm, and so forth.

In this challenge the kids had to catch as transfer as many live crickets as they could from one bucket to another.  I can tell Elizabeth Spurgeon loves this activity!

This challenge uses a different swimming pool. This one has apples in it so the kids could bob for apples. The only trick was that there are tons of goldfish swimming along with the apples.

Now comes the best challenge of all - eating the gross food.  We had anchovies, jellyfish, snails, larvae, baby octopus and vinegar.  The kids had to roll a die to see what kind of shake they got to eat.  We did have some upchucking into the sink with this event.  Just a note for Michael - while I was shopping for gross food - I found balut.

 

 This challenge was to get a piece of bubble gum that has been covered with whip cream without using your hands.  Then chewing the bubble gum and making a big bubble.  First one done wins.  We had shower caps for those who didn't want to get their hair all sticky. 

 For this challenge there was an orange inside a nylon that was tied around your waist.  The kids had to use the orange to hit their balloon across the room and then back.  Another race!

 Another gross race.  Crack an egg then pass it down the line trying to be the first team to fill the cup.  We did this outside as we knew it would be a messy challenge.

Last of the gross things and this could possibly be the grossest of them all.  We had various toppings like carmel or chocolate ice cream syrup or ketchup or soy sauce, etc. and then live crickets.  If you ate the cricket without any toppings you got more points than if you ate the crickets dipped in something.  Of course, those who didn't want to participate surely didn't have to, as with all of the challenges. 



Pooped out party-goers.

  For refreshments we served pop and cow-patty pie.  By the end of the party, some of the kids were a bit nervous about trying this as they weren't sure what we had come up with for real.  It was really just crunched up chocolate cookies and chocolate pudding served in a disposable diaper.  I think it was the diaper that got them!