December 2008

Dear Family,
October, November and December have proven to be very busy months at the Chatfield home. We’ve enjoyed the busyness and are very grateful for the many things we are learning along the way. As I’ve been thinking about the last couple of months I’ve noticed that they’ve been filled with lots of service…Opportunities for the Chatfields to serve and to be served.

The service started on October 31st at about 12:00 noon. Kelsey received a call from the Sherriff’s department requesting his help with a family in our ward. The father of the home had taken his life earlier that morning and his wife and children needed to be told. Kelsey was able to leave work behind to spend much of the remainder of the day “sitting” with this family and giving what comfort he could.

As Kelsey attended to this distraught family, Dr. D. and I continued setting up for Bianca’s big 13th Halloween birthday party. She had invited all of her school and neighborhood friends and it looked to be a big monster bash. Dr. D. set up his awesome sound system, complete with karaoke mics and amplifiers to rock the neighborhood. Dr. D. was a life-saver for us that day.

As guests started to arrive for the party we couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous about the family down the street who was suffering. It seemed as though we shouldn’t be planning a fun and lively party when their lives were in such turmoil. As I took Jake and Kate trick-or-treating a bit later we noticed that many of the Dalley family’s immediate neighbors were staked out front of the house greeting the many trick-or-treaters with a “Happy Halloween” and explaining that “we are all of out candy, try us again next year.” We have many transplant trick-or-treaters that arrive in car loads so they might not have understood the circumstances. We live amongst many good people and we were glad to see that the Dalley family was being taken care of by most of them.

Bianca’s party turned out to be a success and she looked beautifully scary in a re-conditioned gothic ball gown…thanks Connie and Mik. Jake was a handsome Evil Outlaw and Kate a wonderfully PINK Super Girl.

The best part of November is all the reminders of what we are thankful for. The first week of November Kelsey conducted the funeral of Lin Dalley. Lin was a loved and admired father, husband, son, and firefighter. With all the good that was in his life and the great acts of service he provided to so many, he also suffered from severe depression. As Kelsey organized and conducted Lin’s funeral he was blessed to have his cousin, Brent Russon (from Bountiful) as the funeral director. Kelsey felt great peace in knowing that any questions he had could be quickly and gracefully answered by Brent. The funeral was very nice and because of Lin’s association with the Fire Fighters they honored him with a bagpipe rendition of Amazing Grace, the last call, a big fire truck procession and lots of beautiful reminders of how sacred life really is. Kind of reminded me of Grandpa Brague’s memorial.

Thanksgiving day was a quiet, peaceful day with a beautifully hosted dinner at Lois’ home. She said she loves to cook and have everyone over to eat. She does it well and we along with Connie and her kids and Rich and Jon enjoyed a meal we were all very thankful for.

December is upon us and we continue to be grateful for all that we have been blessed with.
We’ve got 3 piano recitals to attend, a pine wood derby, 3 retirement home performances to give, a ward party, a R.S. dinner, a big Karate tournament, Jake’s 4th grade Christmas performance at the mall, a Christmas ballet performance…and a Partridge in a Pear Tree! And Grandma Chatfield supports it all. I think she’ll be glad when Grandma and Grandpa Jackson come home so that she can share some of the grandparent fun. We love her and glad that she chooses to be such a big part of our lives.

I had an interesting life lesson two weeks ago. I was headed off to a PTA meeting and stopped by our elementary school for a quick errand. I was in a hurry because I had only about 15 min. to make it to another school in the area. I completed my errand and then witnessed a lady rush into the building calling for 911. I stopped for a moment to see if I could help and then looking at my watch noticed that I had better leave if I wanted to be on time to my meeting. As I ran for the door a thought kept nagging me to help out. Instead of returning to my car I decided to go over to the accident to see if I could help. I found a lady all alone, sprawled out on the cold, hard ground waiting for someone to assist her. She had been driving down a slight incline and her wheelchair tipped over with her in it. She could not move and because of her inability to move and her weight no one was allowed to lift her except for emergency trained personnel. I had the chance to comfort her, cover her with a blanket that happened to be in my car and chat with her while we waited for the paramedics to arrive. After she was back in her chair with the knowledge that all was ok, just a few scrapes, I found out that she was a resident from the Hobble Creek Care Center (a local assisted living facility here in Springville) and had driven several miles in her motorized wheelchair to see and hear her granddaughter perform in a Thanksgiving concert. She missed the performance but taught those of us that took the time to help a lot about compassion and perseverance. I learned that as important as it is to be on time for a meeting, it’s even more important to serve and watch out for “the one”.

Jake’s example of “watching out for the one” might have a little different spin but just as interesting. His teacher gave him a school assignment to write to the lawmakers and the following is his plea regarding banning soda machines from schools:

Dear Lawmakers,
Don’t you dare take away vending machines out of schools. Soda is tasty and yummy. When I go into middle school, high school and college, I will want to drink soda. I will want soda in my school. I will always Love soda and I will repeat myself, I will always love soda! There’s nothing you can do to make me not drink soda. You know why? Because every time I go cheer at BYU I drink soda. Every time I’m sick I take little sips of Sprite. Sprite is a soda. So I think soda is the best and it beats the rest!
From Jake Chatfield

I thought Jake with his 4th grade writing abilities offered great reasons for what makes soda an important part of his life. A little later that week he showed what great problem solving skills he has. He created a solution to an ever present problem in the hen houses across the America…this account was written by Dr. Davis our local Veterinarian and Friend:
Here on the farm, we've tried for a week to catch the wily raccoon that had been trying every night to dig under the chicken wire seeking a "Utah Fresh Chicken Dinner". He never took the different baits, until yesterday. Jake suggested leaving a trail of Oreo cookies into the trap . And the wily raccoon was caught by the wilier cookie monster- Jake. (Of course Jake first took a bite from each Oreo- so as not to totally waste such good cookies!)


Speaking of wildlife, if you want to see Kate dramatically singing about a headless turkey check out our blog at http://thechatfields.blogspot.com/ She performed it with all of the First graders and I have to say she was the star…at least in our estimation.

Bianca has been given some unique activities to be involved in the last couple of weeks. Last night her group of young women delivered therapy dolls to the Primary Children’s hospital in Salt Lake. Bianca said she saw a cute little girl that reminded her of Hannah when she was younger. She was very tiny and didn’t have much hair but had such a cute little face. We assume the little girl at the hospital was receiving chemo treatments. We are so blessed to have a healthy family.

After the hospital delivery Bianca and her group were able to go over to the Church Office building to meet with Sister McMullin, Bishop McMullin’s (of the Presiding Bishopric) wife and mother of one of our young woman leaders. They met on the top floor looking out at Temple Square and all the beautiful lights. Sister McMullin displayed a picture of a beautiful wooden bridge in the midst of an Amazon jungle. When they were visiting there they came across this bridge and she said it seemed to be surrounded by such beauty, it was breathtaking. As her story went on Sis. McMullin explained that under the bridge lived families of crocodiles. She gave each young woman a copy of the picture to remind them of the parallels in their lives and how important it is to keep to the beauty and simplicity of life and not add the confusion of crocodiles. (picture of bridge on Chatfield blog)

While at the Church Office building Bianca remembered that Grandpa Jackson used to work on the 13th floor. She said she stopped the elevator there for old times’ sake. Bianca continues to visit the retirement home here in Springville to visit with the Grandmas and Grandpas there. She tries to go every Sunday to play the piano for them. Bianca has a special gift of love when it comes to Grandmas and Grandpas.

The First Presidency Christmas Devotional is starting, the Christmas decorations are twinkling, the kind acts of service and love are present, the anticipation of out of town guests is high and we believe that this holiday season will be the best yet. We love you and think of you daily.
Kellie, Kels and Kids
http://thechatfields.blogspot.com/