Life Is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Life is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Sing His Praises
  • My Creed
  • Books I Love
  • Christmas Letters

Larger than Life:  Keith Chad Noel

10/27/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
It was truly a magical day.   Though we were there for a funeral, the sadness was tempered.  We know we will see Uncle Keith again. We know he is with Grandad (Wright H. Noel) and Gram (Marjorie Dionne Noel).  We know that he was suffering here and he is whole there. This knowledge brings us peace and hope. We will miss him.  No doubt. But gospel knowledge tempers the sorrow. And family connections bring joy.  

Following is a poem I wrote celebrating my Uncle Keith. 

Larger Than Life   
Keith Noel

Keith was the last child
​The youngest of three,

The apple of Gram’s eye,
Her forever (and ever) baby.

Wright and Wanda claimed he was spoiled,
He could do no wrong.
At this Gram just smiled…..
And Keith played along.

I didn’t understand---
How could one spoil one’s boy?
Now I have one of my own
And I get it---- the JOY!

The last one is special,
Not better, not worse.
A buddy, whose place at the end, 

Sometimes makes him first.

Keith was the first 
On more than Gram’s list.
His twinkling eyes
Will be greatly missed.

We cherish his laugh,
His hands and his hugs.
We all felt his humor, 

His goodness, his love.

Oh that laugh---
His whole body shook!
When we heard it we’d come
To have our own look.

Was it a joke or a story?
A lie or a game?
Whatever it was, 
The effect was the same.
We all loved to hear it
Again and again.

Jokes..ah, yes….
Uncle Keith was the king.
He told Dad jokes 
Before they were “a thing”.

“Have you ever eaten bear?”
He’d ask so sincere.
And then, when he knew
That he had your ear,
He’d say, with a face
As straight as a reed,
“I considered it once
But feared I would freeze.”

Practical jokes were his forte
As well
There are so many examples
That I’d love to tell.

No one was immune to his
More devious side.
He was willing to take all
For the proverbial “ride”.

Then when his eyes 
Turned twinkling and blue,
You knew that he knew 
That he’d really got you.

He got us alright;
We were all on his side
Though we suspect in some of
His stories he lied….

As Noels tend to do,
Uncle Keith did so well.
There was some tallness in 

The tales he’d tell.
Thanksgiving lie swaps 
Were a favorite of all
When we’d gather at Keith’s
To eat in the fall.

Thanksgiving dinner 
At Edie and Keith’s….
Food, family and fun,
It was truly a feast.

Uncle Keith made the scones,
Edie roasted the beast.
Then we played games like Hearts.
The banter never ceased.

Uncle Keith was a cook.
His skills exceed mine.
His Black Butte bread was amazing
And his scones just divine.
Meat he could barbeque
In a large pit
But never a veggie
Would he let cross his lip!


Those lips didn’t touch veggies
But there were things they did do,
Like speak loving words 
That were gentle and true.

When he looked in my eyes
And asked “Girl, how are you?”
I knew that his interest was real,
All the way through.

Keith had many gifts,
Like talking to kids,
Which he used to bless others
In the things that he did.

He worked miracles
With wood, varnish, saws and glue

Making marble tracks, play stoves,
And annoying kahzoos!

He was part John Wayne,
Part Navajo too.
A man who paid
What was morally due.


Perhaps the best deed
Of his truly great life
Was convincing dear Edie
To be his sweet wife.

Loyal and lovely, 
Direct and dear,
We cherish her, honor her,
And will keep her near.

Uncle Keith defied physics,
Making math laws untrue:
He did what should be
Impossible to do.


Though a large man in stature---
He was not of small girth,
The heart housed inside him
Was bigger than Earth.

Dear Uncle Keith,
You are larger than life.
You’ll be ours forever,
You and your wife,
Thanks to the love 
And blood of our Christ.


Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Redwoods 2019

10/20/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture

NO tipped over trailers this year.
NO setting up tents in the late night hours.
NO driving 17+ hours while pulling a trailer.



YES (and THANKS) to Broughtons left early with their trailer (filled with our stuff).
YES (and THANKS) to Broughtons who arrived safely and early so we could set up tents in the light
YES (and THANKS) to my colleagues, Karen and Talyn, who drove me to the Redwoods and back.
​YES (and THANKS) to Dalton, another colleague, who drove six students to the Redwoods and back (which is probably harder than driving me to the Redwoods and back).

YES (and THANKS) to Rebecca, OPA’s stellar secretary, who's behind the scenes work was eased my burden LOTS..
YES (and THANKS) to all the parents and grandparents who drove the rest of the students to the Redwoods and back.
Most of all, YES (and THANKS) to the students without whom the trip would never happen.

Redwoods 2019 goes on the books as a resounding success. 

While there we:
  • Hiked Trillium Falls Trail (2.8 miles)
  • Saw a herd of elk plunge into and over a river; the water was over their backs
  • Explored tidepools in Patrick's Point State Park and in Trinidad.  Sydney saw a nudibranch! 
  • Did dissections, microscope investigations, and had a touch tank experience at Humboldt University’s Marine Science Center
  • Sea kayaked in Humboldt Bay
  • Took a “two hour” boat tour (actually 1.5 hour) on the Madaket
  • Toured the NOAA Weather Service Station
  • Watched the sun set on Agate beach twice
  • Hiked 11+ miles on the James Irving Trail to Fern Canyon to Miner’s Ridge in Prairie Creek State Park.
  • Pulled European Beach Grass (invasive species) as a service project for the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center.
  • Toured (and hiked in and shopped in) the Avenue of the Giants
  • Ate dinner at the Samoan Cookhouse  (..canned peas?? Are you kidding me??...) 
  • Created loads and loads of memories.

Life is the stories you can tell.  We generated many stories. I will share one.

The skunks were everywhere and into everything.   They pawed anything and everything that was left out.   A library book left on the picnic table now sports muddy paw prints.   A white towel left on the table to dry also had muddy paw prints. They helped themselves to the hot cocoa mix and decimated a bag of pretzels. 
 
On our last night I told the kids to pack up EVERYTHING but their sleeping bags before they hung out by the fire because I’d be singing at 4 a.m. and hoped to be out of camp by 4:30 a.m.    We’d also told them previously to always close their tent doors and to never have food in the tent.

About 9:30 p.m. some boys approached me and told me there was a skunk in their tent. 

“We don’t have any food in our tent,” the boys declared adamantly as we approached their skunk-inhabited tent.  I questioned the veracity of their statement. “Honest, we don’t,” they reaffirmed emphatically. “There is food in the garbage bag but not in our tent.”
Me:  “Where is the garbage bag?
Boys:  “In the tent.”
Oh dear.

Sure enough.   There was a skunk in the tent. Sure enough there was a skunk in their tent.   The skunk had entered the open tent door and was very happily munching on the plethora of food it found inside the tent amongst the shoes, socks, clothes, and various other things the boys had left scattered on their tent floor.  There was also food in the garbage bag that was inside their tent.
 
 “What do we do?” they asked me.   Wait, I said. “What if it stays in our tent all night?” they asked.  Then you wait outside all night, I said. Fortuitously it left about an hour later.

And we all left camp about six hours later and arrived home about 18 hours after that.  

YES (and THANKS) to God for His glorious creations and the opportunity we had to enjoy them together.

[NOTE:  The 2019 Redwoods Trip happened September 9-14, 2019.]



Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Not As We Planned......

10/13/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
Originally we planned to go to Cedar City Friday night.  A later-than-anticipated departure-from-work time for both Lance and I (5:00 p.m.) combined with Tanah’s plans to not be at her home until later (11:30 p.m.) changed our plans so we left Ogden for Cedar City semi-early (6:00 a.m.) Saturday morning instead.    

I drove most of the way, as planned, but was feeling drowsy just north of Beaver so Lance took the wheel.  Five miles south of Beaver we saw a vehicle at the side of the road whose owners were certainly dealing with a situation that they had not planned; blue smoke hovered in a cloud around the SUV.  Remembering the time when he and Tanah were stuck on the same stretch of freeway for four hours (no one stopped to help), Lance pulled over, an action which also was not in our original plan.

The family (mother, father, daughter, two sons, and a foreign exchange student from Saudi Arabia) was headed to Zion National Park.    The SUV was not. The father called a tow truck and accompanied his crippled vehicle back to Beaver. Lance climbed into the bed of the truck with the rabbit--an action we definitely had NOT planned for---while the family joined me in the cab.  [The truck has six seat belts. Five of them plus me maxed out the space in the cab so Lance banished himself to the back.]

Enterprise Car Rental of Cedar City did not have any vehicles available for one-way trips; all their cars had to be rented from and returned to Cedar City.  This caused a cascade of plan changes. The Orem family’s car was toast; it would not be returning to Orem. Renting a car allowed them to stick with their plan to visit Zion but they had no plan for how to return to Orem.

We planned to return to Ogden Saturday night after watching Hamlet.  Our plans changed too. “We are headed north Sunday morning,” I told them, “and could give you a ride to Orem…..if your husband does not mind joining my husband in the back of the truck.”    They quickly agreed and a new plan was born.

Our visit with Tanah went mostly as planned.   It was totally delightful--which we anticipated--but not entirely predictable.   We ate breakfast at 12:30 p.m. (much later than planned), bought rabbit food at IFA (which we should have planned), and purchased a Sunday skirt  at D.I. and a toothbrush at WalMart (because spending the night was not planned)      

Thankfully, we saw Hamlet, which was the event for which the trip was planned.   Utah Shakespearean Festival’s production of Hamlet was absolutely stunning. STUNNING.   The reasons Tanah has been raving about it for five months became very clear. The actor who played was Hamlet was snarky, engaging, and vibrant.   Polonius was stick-up-his-butt pompous and so long-winded , Claudius was a loathsome psychopath, and Ophelia was heartbreaking. Thank you, THANK YOU, Tanah for inviting, entertaining, and feeding us.

After plans changed and we decided to spend the night in Cedar, we planned to sleep on the couches in Tanah’s apartment.  When we returned from Hamlet at 11:30 p.m. and the apartment Saturday night social hour was still going strong in the front room that plan changed as well.   The money we spent on the hotel room may have been the best purchase we made all weekend.

We met the family at Enterprise Car Rental at 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning as planned  [Surprise!!!] and packed the truck: Hislops, three kids and mother in the cab, father and the Saudi in the bed of the truck.  The ride back to northern Utah was delightful. They are truly, TRULY salt of the Earth people---so good, so gracious, and so, SO fun.    The mother, Anadine, was a theater arts major, wrote, directed, and produced a huge community theater production in Tucson, and currently runs a non-profit food pantry for the less fortunate in northern Utah County.  Doug (dad) is a dairy-farmer’s-son-turned-seminary-teacher. Becca, the 15 year old daughter who is drop dead gorgeous (when Miles sees her picture he will be so sad he stayed home….), has a physics test Monday. She likes math but not physics, a fact that has a lot more to do with the teacher than it does the subject.  Sam (probably about 13) has eyes that absolutely light up when he talks about cross country and soccer. Mosad is a senior at UVU studying hospital administration and Ben, the youngest, loves everything Tesla. (Did you know Tesla has a whole line of accessories…?) We feel so blessed to have met these amazing people and to have lived a story together.

The ride home was uneventful, which would have been the plan had we made one, and then we were in Orem.  Hugs and expressions of gratitude on both sides. Good-byes. And gone.  

Thus ended a truly magical weekend.    We could not have planned a better one.   It did not go as we planned but I am convinced that it went as He planned.   There are no such things as coincidences. The weekend did not follow our master plan but it did follow the Master’s plan.    Thank you God!


Picture
Picture
Picture
1 Comment

    Author

    Teresa Hislop
    thislop@msn.com

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.