2011 has been a year filled with many challenges and blessings for us!!! One thing for sure, my faith and total trust in the Lord has greatly intensified!!! I KNOW He lives, hears and answers our prayers and although the answer is not always what we want to hear, it always comes.

I started off the year teaching a 6-week family history course and was able to do another one in Oct/Nov. I had great attendance at both classes and we all had great success! I love teaching the gospel! Add in family history and it feels like I've gone to heaven!

We have faced the dreaded "cancer" word as I was diagnosed with breast cancer in March -- on the very day our 44th grandchild ("Lizzie" to Bill and Ronda Bean) was born; we triumphed through surgery (mastectomy), chemotherapy, and recovery! The cancer is gone and I'm still here! At my lowest point during chemo when the pain was intense, continuous nausea and diarrhea making it so nothing would stay inside me and I was so totally hungry -- so much so that it hurt; plus I was dealing with the after effects of surgery and bald as a baby's bottom, I honestly did not think I had the strength to keep going. I think that is when I offered my most heart-felt prayer ever -- asking Jesus to take the pain away -- even if just for a little while -- so I could get some rest. The pain lifted like a cloud from me; and the message that I received was that I am not alone through this. He has suffered my every pain and heartache for me -- however, to know and understand the depth of His love for me, He had to allow me to know this pain for a little season. I could call on His strength to comfort me, but this was something I could not be spared. It wouldn't be easy, but it would be worth it. I am now on a 5-year regime of an anti-estrogen pill; looking forward to the day I can truly say it is totally in remission!

Our dear neighbors, friends, and family stepped in and made all of the above much more bearable! We could not have had any greater help than we have had. Suzanne came several times from Utah to be here through my most difficult days. She took me to get my prosthesis and a really nice wig! Something only a daughter could have convinced me to do! Flowers, food -- fresh garden produce, jamba juice, berries, bread, jam, casseroles, desserts -- you name it, we were brought it! The service extended in our behalf has been very humbling! We have loved the many cards, letters, phone calls, visits, and friends honking as they drive by! We have been blessed by personal concerts --vocal and instrumental by the dearest neighbors in the world. And the MANY, MANY prayers offered in our behalf have not gone unnoticed by us or by our Heavenly Father. Truly, we have felt their power and the blessings have poured upon our heads! LITERALLY -- you should see all my hats!!!! All I have to do is look at them and I feel the love that went into their creation! I have become known as the lady with all those "cute hats!" I wish Suzanne could hear all the compliments I get when I wear the fancy hats she made me! She is not the only one who blessed me by making hats. I treasure each one and will always look back on this time as a time when I felt so very loved! I enjoy my wigs and hats so much I am not missing my hair much at all -- it is coming back, slowly, but it will be a long while before I go out in public without a head covering --although I do go bare-headed sometimes at home! (Sorry, Sam, I forgot I didn't have a hat or hair on when I answered the door! Guess you were surprised!!! You should have seen one of John's scouts when he saw me!!!) I look like my son, Doug now!

To top it all off, the sweetest blessing of all has been my companion's ever loving service -- at my side day and night through the rough times; cooking, cleaning, gardening, rubbing my back, doing all the shopping, sweeping, and errands galore! John has been so awesome and loving through it all! How blessed we are to have one another! He even tells me I am beautiful and is totally sincere about it! (Did I tell you his eyes have grown dim?) He sings to me and plays the most beautiful music on his accordion.

Our family has been so wonderful! We've seen 11 of our 13 children this year; we have been able to see all except four of our 45 grandchildren! How we love them!! We've even given sweet hugs and kisses to all four precious great-grandchildren, too! All my brothers and their families have been here! John's family has been super supportive through all this -- bringing food, preparing a "good luck" dinner; offering and giving lots of help; making the cutest Get Well Banner that I kept up for 6 months! Sharon put together an incredible After Chemo Party inviting both our families and extended family. It was awesome!

John (with some help from Joey and his boys) expanded our deck to double its size; Doug and Suzanne surprised us with new patio furniture; then Joey added some benches and a picnic table he built! John painted all the trim around our home; planted berry bushes and kept our yard looking wonderful. Our neighbors would come over with their trimmer and hoes and just made it fun to go outside to see what they had done next. We had the prettiest flowers this year and I so enjoyed them.

Besides all his service hours, John was able to get in some of the greatest fishing days of his life! It always made me so happy when he could/would get out and go fishing with his buddies. It recharges his batteries when he goes fishing and gives him hope and excitement and stories to tell! So listen up as he writes his Christmas letter!

Love, Cheryl

Merry Christmas! (from John)

Truthfully, Cheryl is the “perfect optimist,” and I learned to enjoy painting, decking our patio, putting in gardens and flowers, and cutting the lawn with a compulsive zest. Our much anticipated dates were spent eating out between doctor appointments. I treasure her, and appreciate every moment we share.

Sam Christiansen and I became co-dependent fishing buddies because neither of our wives condone our fishing alone. Sam has had seven coronary bypasses and a stroke. Neither of us can hear, see, or think and walk straight, so our once weekly outings mainly this Fall have been intriguing. A broken leader usually means we will spend the rest of the trip trying to tie on a new hook. Our water of choice has been Henry’s Lake, because Island Park Reservoir was soupy green with algae, and the river has been muddied by upstream dam construction projects. Finally I really didn’t feel good about fishing until Cheryl neared the end of her chemo treatment in late September. The above limitations now acknowledged, we had some good days bait fishing around the mouth of Targhee Creek (a tributary to the lake). We caught scads of 16-18" brook trout, Sam caught a 6-1/2 lb rainbow-cutthroat hybrid, and I caught one weighing 8-1/2 lbs. Some of those brookies ought to weigh 5 or six pounds next Spring, and the taxidermy business will post record earnings!

I also had some fantastic solo cutthroat flyfishing around the docks at Henry’s Lake State Park at the first of the season, and again during October. Although I had to compete with a crowd, I had a 70 fish day, two 28 fish days, and coached my nephew in his first ever fly fishing endeavor to a 30 fish day. None of those trips exceeded 3-1/2 hours on the water, and often resulted in hooking fish on 4,5,and even 8 consecutive casts. Those experiences keep me busy tying flies early mornings, during the winter, and during the news casts. Those flies go in a hurry at the lake and among my fishing associates. I usually bring home my 2 fish limit for neighbors who request them, but I think Cheryl and I have only baked two fish this whole year.

The big nemeses on Henry’s Lake are the gale winds and blizzards that can freeze one solid in about ten minutes. Cheryl and I parked our trailer up there for the entire Summer a year ago. My neighbor in the camper court reported he was only able to get his boat on the lake four times during the entire month of June, because of the winds. During October I took a good older friend and neighbor who is on kidney dialysis, and not in good health. When we arrived, the area around the docks was frozen solid, and the wind was blowing 50 mph. We parked in the parking lot next to the water, cast our poles out front of the car, and sat inside with the heater and radio going. We ate our lunch and shivered even though we were in a heated vehicle–and within an hour or so, Gerald caught his two fish to take home. Success is a relative measure, and the challenge is in the hunt.

We love the spirit of Christmas, and find joy in trying to appreciate and implement it all year long.

Love Ya, John

May your days be merry and bright! I hope you'll check out the Bible Video site below! The true joy of Christmas comes when we make Room IN our lives for Jesus all year long! We are counting the days, hours, minutes till our Las Vegas grandchildren come --- its only 3 days, 22 hours and 9 minutes till Doug's family gets here!. 9 minutes, 7 minutes, 6 minutes 23 seconds.....

UPDATE: We so enjoyed Doug, Mindy, Georgia, and Breelynn's two week visit in December! The girls are at such a fun age (5 and 6) and kept life exciting -- but we had no snow which is one of the main reasons they wanted to come! Doug took them up to Bear Gulch for some sleigh riding and they built a snowman up there, too, so went home happy! They stayed at the Marriot in Rexburg while here so we got to go swimming with them.....now that was a site -- this bald, lop-sided woman swimming, but I figured if anyone wanted to stare, they had never known someone who had gone through chemo!

We also had surprise visits from Suzanne, Tracy, and Tara from West Jordan and from Steve, Ana Maria, Kandai, Saschika and their cousin! Steve now lives in Moreno Valley, California while Ana Maria is in Florida with the children at least for the school year. They were excited to be all together for the holiday and it was great to have them come home---that meant I got to see another of my children this year-- which makes all of them living, I saw; and all except two of my grandchildren.

Kellie Murphy also came and introduced us to her boyfriend. She has completed boot camp and will be going to school now in Iowa city! What a girl! We loved seeing everyone. Sharon hosted a family party as she has the biggest house and loves to entertain. It was super fun! The kids loved playing with their cousins and especially loved Sharon's play room!

On Christmas day, we went to Jade and Nancy's home with Doug and Mindy's family and we all had a great time. John and Wanita's family, Jeni and Jason were there, too! The rest of her family had the flu. Yummy food and great company!

Henry's Lake

We have parked our trailer at Valley View Trailer Park in Island Park -- about 2 miles from each of John's favorite fishing spots -- The State Boat Park at Henry's Lake and the County Boat Dock at Henry's Lake. We stay here most of the week -- going home for Church on Saturday night and Sunday and again for John's Scouts and Cheryl's Family History Center shift both on Tuesday nights. We also go home for other family activities as they arrise; otherwise, it is Island Park for us this year. John has had some really incredible fishing. I have been able to work on my writing, do some reading, and crafts. We have also taken some four-wheeler rides around here and that has been beautiful and fun. We took off a week to go Utah for Shandra's wedding and to spend time with Suzanne's family, Jamie's family and Doug's family. John also received his Wood Badge beads during that time. It was a great experience. We visited our mission on the mountain and were able to visit many of the missionaries we served with last year. About half of this year's missionaries returned from last year. We made some very dear friends during our mission. While in Utah, John purchased a GPS fish-finder and he has been all this time getting ready to try it out. We had planned to do that tonight, but the wind is super strong, so not a good night for boating around the lake. Last night John told me that he is so amazed that he is no longer having trouble sleeping and that his stress level has decreased so much. I have done everything I can to keep stress low for him....even hired the lawn mowed and watered so he doesn't have to worry about it when we go home. It makes a big difference in his sugar levels to have the stress down. Just being able to relax and fish whenever he wants and to be outdoors without pressures of being home and having so many chores to complete has been the best gift I could have given him. I am so glad that we rented this trailer spot and have this time for John to enjoy his favorite hobby in the world. I love him so much!

The Caddis Fly by John Derrill Bills

The fly fisherman's world unites an understanding of entomology with the art of casting presentation and the creativity of tying one's own flies in pursuit of the wily fish that is the object of so many of our dreams and acquisitions.

The Caddis Fly is one among several families of water-borne insects imitated by the fly fisherman in his avid pursuit. The Caddis is able to withstand dirty and contaminated waters better than other insects. It thrives in well-oxygenated water, but does well in slower warmer water conditions as well. Among water-borne insects of interest to the fly fisherman, it is the most versatile and most adaptive. Consequently it is a common, available, and dependable food source for fish and routinely imitated by the fly fisherman. Caddis fly hatches begin in mid-May, and still bring fish to the hook through the end of November. The subsurface stages of the Caddis are wonderful fish producers year round.

The Elk-hair Caddis is listed by most published gurus as one of the six most popular dry flies used across the nation in pursuit of the wily trout. With its hollow elk-hair down-wing and palmer-wound hackle it floats like a cork, is extremely durable, and presents a wonderful silhouette of the Caddis either at rest or flitting on the surface. It functions superbly both as a realistic imitation of the adult Caddis Fly, and as an attractor pattern which works miraculously even when there are no adult insects on the water.

My favorite colors are olive, tan, and gray which pretty well cover the range of medium-sized Caddis commonly imitated by the fly fisherman. In the Western States, olive is the prevalent color during the month of June, and tan Caddis' are more common during the summer and fall months. The gray Elk-hair Caddis is a wonderful fly to turn to when the fish seem to be extremely finicky, and in situations where color is less pronounced. I also tie this pattern in yellow or light chartreuse to imitate some of the smaller stone-flies that hatch on our Western streams throughout the summer. Caddis flies come in varying sizes. The ones commonly imitated and purchased by fly fishermen range in sizes between 14 and 18, with size 16 being the most common go-to choice.

Caddis flies are easily recognized by their tent-wing profile at rest, and by their bouncing, erratic flight as they group together near the river banks in the shade of trees and bushes especially on windless mornings and evenings. You can always tell fish are feeding on Caddises by their splashy rises and desperate leaps into the air after an escaping bug.

A Caddis hatch may last a couple of exciting and fruitful hours but there are some productive practices you can implement to extend your fruitful fishing time and increase the number of fish you catch:

1. Prior to and during the hatch, fish are voraciously feeding on emerging insects, and often choose them over the adult fly The adult Caddis often only pause on the surface for a few seconds before taking flight. By adding a trailing emergent pattern about a foot behind your dry fly, you will double the number of fish you hook, and sometimes your dropper will out-fish your Elk-hair Caddis. I tie my emergent patterns with an antron-yarn shuck about half the length of the body, an antron-dubbed body with gold-wire ribbing, and partridge- hackle wings about half body length.

2. When the hatch ends you will see no more adult flies on the water, but there will still be fish rising and sipping cripples and stillborn Caddis. The rise form changes from splashy rises to barely detectable rings in the water, and you no longer see fish in the air or on the surface. Those fishermen who continue to fish their elk-hair Caddis become really frustrated at the sudden failure of their flies. To convert your elk-hair Caddis to a flush surface-film fly simply trim off the bottom hackles of your palmer-hackled imitation. You can use scissors or your nail clippers to do this. Fish it dead drift.

An even better solution is to use a partridge-spent wing, peacock-body Caddis with the palmer-wound hackle tied one hook size smaller than normal. For example, a size 16 fly would be tied with a size 18 hackle. The partridge feather wings are tied extending back and out at a 45-degree angle, and afford a more realistic wing profile than does elk-hair. The smaller hackle will permit the fly to ride flush in the surface film, better imitating the cripples and stillborn. I've fished these patterns long after the hatches have terminated, and have still been catching fish at 11 pm when I couldn't even see my fly!

3. One final suggestion is to fish a Renegade in the appropriate fly size. It does a wonderful job imitating emerging Caddis flies when fished downstream as a wet fly or stripped subsurface on a lake. Its a wonderful dry fly imitation when floated on the surface dry-fly fashion, and it does a pretty good job imitating the cripples and stillborn Caddis when hung downstream submerged. One nice way to fish a Renegade is to cast quartering upstream floating it as a dry fly, and then letting the current drag it under as it swings downstream and stripping it slowly back as a wet fly. As the Renegade hits the end of the float below you, it will be dragged by the current to the surface, and appear to the fish as an emerging Caddis, triggering the strike. For lake fishing and for specifically imitating the emerging Caddis, I eliminate the gold tinsel on the butt of my Renegade and add a gold bead head for weight.

FISH TALES:

As a newcomer to flyfishing and the famous Henry's Fork of the Snake River near St. Anthony, Idaho over forty years ago, I recall fishing a stretch on the river near my home during a July evening. Downstream from me were two associates who would later become nationally known fly-tiers and guides. They were catching a couple of fish and having a great evening. Upstream from me another neighbor seemed to be catching fish every cast. He was even catching fish two at a time. He was fishing two Renegades, casting them upstream as dry flies and finishing their float as rising wet flies at the end of his cast. I became well acquainted with this man, who fished successfully on all of our area waters using virtually no other patterns.

Ten years later, I was fishing on the Railroad Ranch also known as Harriman State Park, that nationally famous stretch of water described as a giant spring creek which brings the nations most experienced and well-traveled fishermen to test their metal against these fish with phd's in entomology. It was opening day on the ranch, there must have been thirty fishermen in the river around me with only a college boy and his neophyte girlfriend catching any fish. The fellow was helping her cast out toward the middle of the river. She would then hold onto the rod and let it float down and hang in the current below her. I watched, amazed, as the unlikely duo hooked about six fish. Their simple answer lay in a Renegade fly fished in a very unschooled manner.

During the winter months I have fished many streams and ponds in hopes of catching a wily fish on a fly in spite of iced-up guides and inclement weather conditions. For many years, I experimented with snow flies (midges) and various woolly-bugger patterns in pursuit of cold-blooded fish. In fishing Henry's Fork near Ashton, I befriended a retired doctor who spent two or three days a week for years during the winter months on Henry's Fork. He always out-fished everyone else on the river. His secret was a size-10 Renegade draped down-stream with a little bit of weight into the deepest holes around.

I have shared those successes on many occasions and in many circumstances since. You can't beat a Renegade and a Caddis. When you go fishing, have some in your fly box and make sure they get attached to your line during the trip. You'll be glad you did! Now you know all the tricks of constructing and fishing the Caddis, put down your papers and go catch fish. Remember: Catch and Release if you want to increase your numbers!

Tight lines! John