Nothing beats a good Utah fan!

Nothing beats a good Utah fan!

Since last summer, I've been trying to get a ceiling fan installed on the deck. Part of the problem was finding one I liked, at the price I liked, with the lights that I liked and that was rated for outdoor use. We finally found this one, and bought it earlier this month. I ran into some problems with the wiring, but finally have it all connected and it works.
I haven't convinced Gene that a fan will make a difference to the heat of the deck, but then he doesn't like fans, and I like them. Of course, it has been breezy today, so I could not demonstrate how nice it is with the fan moving the air - Mother Nature kept doing that today. I also finally got the electrical outlet wired and connected. On the ceiling, in the far northwest corner of the deck, one can see my new outlet. It even has a GFI outlet complete with the waterproof metal door in brown that matches the aluminum of the deck.

Finally, I got one of those bees in my bonnet finished!

Summer part II

These don't really have any theme. I just thought they were good pictures.

This is one of my favorite pictures. I'm not quite sure why this young man got so many pictures this summer, but with that smile, who can resist taking his picture so many times.

Grandma has to tell the "rest of the story" about this photo. Grandpa was just resting on the front lawn and visiting others who were sitting on the steps. Along came Smiley, eyed Grandpa up and down, and then sat down on the grass and turned onto his belly, just like Grandpa. He had to scoot forward on his belly so he could see how Grandpa had his arms, then he crossed his arms and kept falling forward onto his chin a couple of times before he figured out how to lean on crossed arms and keep his face off the grass, and with a little bit of dramatic flair, crossed his arms, leaned on his elbows, and turned to give Grandpa a great big smile. Grandma was so busy laughing and smiling at the whole effort that she almost missed taking the photo.

One of our favorite trips this summer was to go to a baptism.

We had a great day at the beach. I didn't know there were such good beaches that far north. There were some serious rip currents which was actually kind of fun. This is such a good picture of Ben with his hat and his book. If you were ask "Dash", I think he would tell you the water is cold.

We had a great get together in July with family in Little Cottonwood canyon. It had been a long time since we had gotten together. We had such a good time, we had another get together in August.

End of the summer

We started the summer going to Missouri. I am not sure what is going one here. Either Scott got hit with a pie or ...........................

I am not sure when this was taken, it must of been cold because they all have on coats..... it could of been in June when we had winter here. It is pretty indicative of what we did a lot of, eat, look at pictures, and enjoy family.

It was fun when people come to visit.

We spent way too much time at Leatherby's, but with kids like this, who could turn them down.

We had lots of fun in the new pool. We had some pretty cute kiddies in it.

Sometimes the place got rather busy. I think we had 26 in the pool this day before it started to rain. Tammy's family got together to celebrate her parents' 65th wedding anniversary.

The summer ended with a get together for a swim / BBQ. It was the first time all my siblings had been together for 10 years. My Dad came from Georgia to visit and it became a grand occasion. It was nice of David to fly back for the weekend.

Small but sure success

We finally got the pile of rock, dirt and junk removed and replaced with sod and sprinklers. It has only taken months and months to get this finished. It sure looks great. We finally have some grass, and hope it will take root and survive this summer. Now all we need is a chlorine generator, the autofill, the slide secured and plumbed with water, the walk on pool cover tray lids, made and mounted, and some sunshine, and THEN the pool will be ready for use. (We still use it, but it would be nice to have it completed.)

How to get Grandpa up

How to get Grandpa up.
Gene had been napping upstairs when Jane and Tom came over for a visit. I was a little lazy, and didn't want to go upstairs to let him know they had come over. I figured out the best way to get him to come downstairs. I sent him this picture on the cell phone. You can kind of see Jane and Tom's hands waving at Grandpa.

Sure enough, Grandpa was downstairs in 60 seconds!

Tom's first pool "dive"

June 5th, 2010, was the first day it was warm enough for me to use the pool. We had an impromptu pool party with our most reliable guests, the Beckstrands. Tom's first dive off the diving board would be better if you could see the entire video. His belief of his courage far outweighed his ability to follow-through. His speech said he wanted to jump off, but his legs had another idea when he up on the board. Unfortunately, the marvels of modern technology have outsmarted me, and the video I downloaded cut off the funniest part of the video. After Tom "jumped" off the board, he kept climbing up on Jake. As he climbed up, he kept pushing Jake under the water, and saying in his most pleasant reassuring voice, "I got you, I got you."

Katrina was required again, for Tom's second dive. Jake enjoyed catching Tom much more this time. It is reassuring to know that the waterskiing and hotdog lifejackets work well in a calm pool, as well. Jake (with his scant amount of body fat) was much more buoyant with the lifejacket on. You can almost hear Tom's "Huh", which is his "Yes" when asked if he wanted to jump again, as he climbed up on Jake again. The last and third person in the pool is Jane, seen there floating by herself. She has become very confident in that lifejacket, as can go anywhere she wants in it. She does best when someone plays with her in the pool, but lack of a playmate won't keep her out of the water. She has even been known to go down just to look at the pool, give up waiting for someone to join her, begin (and complete) taking off her clothes, and finally, reluctantly go upstairs to get her swimsuit on, only return in a split secnd, ready to climb into her lifejacket and get into the pool. She only lasts about 3 hours before she can be coached to get out of the pool.

We sure have fun with those Beckstrands in the pool!

The Start of Summer Vacation

Well, this summer vacation did not start as I would have hoped. Gene complained of a headache off and on the last couple of days of school. On Friday, the last day of school, the headache was worse, to the point that I was considering taking him to the ER to check for a subarachnoid hemorrhage. This was certainly the worst headache he has ever complained about! By Sunday, tylenol with codeine was not making much difference in his pain. In the past, one of the nurse practitioners at NCC had said taking a decongestant can help to differentiate if a headache needs further workup or is a sinus headache. I talked Gene into taking some Nyquil for the headache. He had just finished taking the Nyquil when he said, "What is this rash on my forehead?" After some time looking at his forehead and searching the internet, we determined he had shingles and learned Valtrex was the best treatment for it. I had him take 2 of my Valtrex tabs right then. I was hesitant to take him to the insta-care, when he was a little groggy with tylenol, codeine and nyquil, and have him complain about the intense pain when he could not even keep his eyes open! I had him sleep off the codeine and nyquil and took him to the insta-care right after I got home from church. (This was the same insta-care I went with Jessica to the night before for her internal and external ear infection which closed off 80% of her ear canal. Jessica and I were lucky, there were only 2 cars in the parking lot.) The "doc in the box" agreed with us, and began discussing the meds for shingles. She wanted to give him acyclovir, but I suggested Valtrex, and got her to agree to 1 gm three times a day, rather than the 2 times she suggested. She also started him on lortab for the headache, and prednisone for 5 days. She cautioned him about blindness from the shingles occurring in his eye, and the need for an opthamalogy consult if his eye started hurting. So . . . . Monday was the third day in a row for a doctor visit. This time we went to the Moran Eye Center and he had 2 lesions in his R eye. They told us to come back on Wed to see if anything had changed.

We didn't go visit any doctor on Tuesday, but Gene was definitely in need of lortab every 6 hours. This is how the shingles looked on Tuesday. We did contact his GP on the phone Tuesday, and she kept telling him he needed to be seen NOW, but we managed to convince them the Moran Center checked him on Monday and we would be there again Wednesday, and that should be enough. OK, they said, we want to see you on Thur. Sure enough, on Wed, there were 16 new lesions on the R eye, and Gene started on eye drops - antibiotics and steroids - 4 times a day. He has his next Moran appontment on Monday. On Thur the GP started Gene on neurontin for neuralgia, in addition to the lortab, and told him he had to take it easy, and NO, he could not run the 5K race on Sat that he was signed up to run. Friday and Sat (yesterday and today) have been spent at times with sharp painful headaches and eye pain, manageable headaches and eye pain, frequent naps, multiple doses of valtrex, lortab, neurontin, ofloxacin eye drops and prednisolone eye drops, but no doctor visits. I guess that means he is getting better. :)

june update

This is a picture of the cutest swimmer in town.

This is me finishing an 8K Saturday. These pictures always look like I am walking. Trust me, that is my sprint form.

They emailed us the day before the race to say they had changed it from 6K to 8K. My chip time was 45.33, which is the best I've done in a long time. (Mind you, it was mostly downhill, only the last mile was up hill.)

Of course, with the yin and yang of it all, I got a terrific headache on the way home. It finally went away, but on Sunday morning, I had a bunch of red blotches on my face, so I now have shingles. What fun.

This is Grandma standing under our new slide. It isn't bolted down yet, but that didn't keep a certain daughter from going down the slide and almost tipping it over. It is a good thing her younger brother was holding firmly onto the slide on the downhill slide!

When it is warm, there is a lot more activity. Becca and her brother and sister are enjoying the sun. Yes, we actually had a whole day of warm weather!!!!

This is what swimming at Memorial Day looked like. They are all pretty cute, but it is far to cold to 1) take off one's coat and 2) put more than toes in the water.

update

It starting to actually look like a pool! We have been filling it for 24 hours. Maybe another two days to get it full.

Virginia and Annapolis

I thought this was a priceless picture of Sarah telling grandma a story. Sarah would start every story with " I need to tell you something." I loved it. We had lots of fun at Ben and Betsy's. We got to help in the garden, play, and do lots with the kids. We had Easter dinner with Colby and Barbie as well. It was just plain delicious and pleasant.

I was so glad that Katrina and company got there before we left. I love to watch all my cute grandkids play together. It is mesmerizing.

At the end of my Virginia trip, I got to spend a couple of days at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Pretty cool place. Lots of toys with which to do an engineering degree. This is a picture of Admn Rickover and me. He is the tall one on the left. I loved every minute of it. I thought of Quinn every time a mid would tell us that they wanted "to roll in the mud and grab people by the throat." That phrase meant they wanted to join the Marines after graduating from the academy. Most of the mids were going to flight school, I think I would preferred to do that.

Most people would agree that I am not much of a fan of visiting buildings, but the chapel at the Naval Academy was pretty special. Each window depicted a particular battle scene. I can't remember which one this was, but it made me want to go to church there. The LDS mids go into town to the local ward, I would be disappointed not to go to church in this building.

On our last day at the Naval Academy, Bob Gates came to visit the midshipmen. All 4400 of them got to stand in the hot sun for him. He even had to stand in the hot sun while they all walked by him. I thought that was pretty impressive too. I want Jake to notice the one confederate army uniform right in the middle of all those yankees.

The mids have to be in formation to enter for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We got to eat lunch with them one day. I told them it took them 20 minutes to get to lunch and they ate in less than 5 minutes. They laughed and left. They are a busy bunch of great men and women.

cute kids

We are in Virginia. They have some awfully cute kids here. They agreed to pose for a picture in the sandbox. The two older ones look somewhat pensive. The younger one had enough sand in her hair to make a large S out of sand on the deck afterwards.

Last week, went to the gymnastics meet. It was the last one of the year, it was against BYU, and they had a fun laser show. Someone got a "U" on their cheek while we were there. She is pretty cute!

We took the trax from the Huntsman center down to the football stadium. There was more parking and it was fun to ride the train.

physicists

Our first swimmer

Who needs water?

Although, when she got to the top, she said: I think you need a little bit more water.

weekend visit

Summer is as cute as ever. Notice the flower and new bag from her Aunt Jessica who always sends a fun package with us. It's great, Jessica does all the work and we get all the credit.

This is what dinner and movie looks like. Summer had finished HP II, so we watched the movie after finishing Blues Clues for the boys. It had been so long since I had seen HP II, I had forgotten many of the bits, so it was quite fun.

One thing we had promised to do when we were there in November is put in a new kitchen door. So, this what the finished product looked like (the door, not Aidan.....). I guess it's not really finished as we didn't have time to put the trim molding on. Their kitchen is quite nice, makes us think maybe we should have done that rather than the big hole in our back yard.

Jessica wins

Here we are at the beginning of the St George 1/2 marathon. A chilly 34 degree start. I can't help looking at this picture and thinking, what were we thinking? Why do so-called normal people do this? Of the three of us, me, Jessica and Melissa ( a friend of Jessica's), Jessica came in first. She beat me by 14 minutes, which is actually quite a bit. A full minute per mile.

This is what "near death" looks like. This is the first 1/2 I have run where it was not preceded by a full marathon a month or so earlier. This was by far the most difficult, so that's my story and I am sticking to it. I have dropped 15 minutes in time in each of the last two 1/2's. I only finished by promising myself I will never run again..........again. This strategy has gotten me through many a race, but this time I mean it..... really..... again (Tammy added the agains).

spot the difference part II

There is a huge hole in our backyard. We had to go investigate.

Tammy has been busy digging.

I think she's done a good job. Who would have thought she could have done all that!!