Sunday, August 31, 2014

We have had a good few weeks.  Jared went to the temple and we got to go with him.  They had an open house Saturday and then he spoke on Sunday.  He is a really good kid.  He will be an awesome missionary.  He doesn't like to do anything half way.  Maca was able to meet him when he landed in Santiago and it was so good for him to see a familiar face.  She went with them to the mission home and gave them a commentary on the sights along the way.  Jared is already excited about getting started.


He left for the airport on Tuesday afternoon and on Tuesday morning we all went to the temple to do sealings.  It was great to be there with Kristin and Sean and Jared and Jer doing our family names.  I had had them some time and was so glad to get them finally done. 

Heather has found a nice little apartment that will be such a nice home for her.  She will move in on Thursday.  She is having some new things delivered tomorrow while she has a day off.  She went to clean and get it ready Saturday.  Sasha went and liked it a lot.  It's just a few blocks from her work and will save her much money and time.  She will go to the ward next week.  I hope it will be a good ward for her.  We have been praying for her to get a ward that will be right for her. 

Jer has been working on refinishing Cathi's basement so that she can sell her house for a good price.  She wants to move to Salt Lake.  She has always loved the Sugarhouse area and has been looking at houses there for some time.  She loves old houses with character.  She will still work here and Grace will still go to school here and finish up and graduate.  She will get her driving license as soon as she can take the class.  She is already a good driver so shouldn't have any problem. 

As soon as Heather has moved Jer plans to finish up the bedroom here that Heather has been in.  It has an exposed heating duct that needs to be covered and some old wallpaper that needs to come off.  He can make it look really nice.  We are also trying to get rid of superfluous belongings.  Cleaning out and getting rid of things.  I have found some things that we made for grandparents long ago and have started thinking that we need to get things apportioned out to children.  I plan to take pictures of it all and see who is interested in what we have here. 

August 17, 2014

We have managed to keep busy for the last few weeks.  Dad has been helping Cathi in her basement and working in our yard.  He has gotten a lot of pre-winter stuff done like trimming the irises down and putting blocks in at the front gate where the grass doesn't want to grow.  He has trimmed the climbing rose and painted the front fence so it's pretty again.  He has weeded everything in preparation for putting mulch on all the beds.  It looks really nice now.  He also means to trim the apricot tree soon now that it is finished producing.  The peaches are coming along nicely now. 

We have picked gallons of blackberries and maybe a dozen tomatoes.  Our tomato plants haven't been happy this year.  They are short and slow to produce fruit.  I think they missed us while we were gone. We have one cantaloupe that is growing well.  The rest of the vine is not doing much.

I have helped Cathi at school get her room ready for the year.  She wanted to do a Dr Who theme but couldn't get the materials in time so she went with the Hawaii/beach theme again and it's really cute.  She has a beach umbrella over each set of  desks and a palm tree on the wall along with the rest of the wall decorations.   I think the kids will be really impressed and think it's a fun room.

I decided to get my eyes checked and go to the dentist.  It has been a long time.  The eye dr said I have a slight cataract that is causing some vision problems and there's not a lot to do about it till it gets really worse.  But my prescription isn't significantly different than it was 10 years ago and that's good news.  And when I went to get my driver's license renewed last week I passed the eye test better than I had the last time so they took off the restriction that made me wear glasses when I drive.  I think that's pretty awesome!

I wanted to see the dentist because I was having some pressure sensitive issues on one side of my mouth.  I dreaded going because I figured it was going to be crown time back there.  But the dentist said it was just tension problems and I should stop clenching my teeth and it would go away.  And it has.  I guess the tension and anxieties of moving all that stuff to Texas made me clench.  It's much better now that that is all settled and nice.  That was on a Thursday.  That Sunday a piece of tooth broke off and it really WAS time for a crown.  It was a pretty intense experience that I am glad is over.  After 2 hours I wore a new temporary acrylic crown home and it broke in pieces the next morning as I had breakfast.  Darn!  So  I went back to get another.  So far it's doing well. I have been really babying it. 

The other morning I woke up while it was still dark with pain in my thumb and wrist.  It really hurt.  I could hardly use my hand.  I called the dr and got in to see the nurse practitioner that morning.  She gave me a prescription for a six day supply of prednisone.  After the first day the pain was gone.  That is really awesome stuff!  I was really happy to go from not being able to move my hand without a lot of pain to totally pain free in a matter of hours.  Considering the side effects of the medication I stopped taking it as soon as I felt better.

A couple weeks ago I went to a special movie with Cathi, Lisa and Grace.  They got tickets to a luxurious theater showing Guardians of the Galaxy.  Jer had no desire to see it so I was really glad to get to go with them.  I had told Cathi that I wanted to see it after seeing that Colin was so very impressed with it.  So Lisa's friend works at this place and got us tickets.  It was really nice with big cushy leather seats and any kind of food we wanted to order.  We had chicken nuggets and watched the movie.  The theater was really nice but the movie wasn't what I had expected.  I was expecting something like Star Trek but it wasn't that.  I'm glad I saw it but I don't need to see it again. 

Heather came home from work Friday in a real mood.  She said she was finally finished with the traffic between here and work and she's ready to move NOW.  So she has been looking online at apartments for rent in Salt Lake.  We went up with her today and looked at some that she saw online and chose one that looked nice.  When we got back home it wasn't listed anymore.  So she will still keep looking.  But there will something come up that will be just right for her.  We will keep praying for her to get in the right place.  She needs a friend in the area and a warm, caring bishop and/or ward.  Those are really important to her.  We can't see those things as we look at places, but Heavenly Father knows those things and will guide her.  In apartments, she is looking for covered parking and hopefully a storage unit.  And naturally, she needs pet friendly. 

This next week we are looking forward to my birthday and Jared's open house and farewell.  Should be a nice week.

August 2, 2014

We have been busy since we got home doing some needed maintenance around the house.  We had lots of big weeds in the garden and flower beds that needed attention right away so we got to that the day after we got back.  

We also had some blackberries to pick!  Wonderful blackberries.  I have made some seedless low sugar jam from some of them.  It's pretty good. A little tart, but flavorful.  It's sweetened with concentrated white grape juice and Splenda.  I got 4 pints from about 12 cups of whole berries.  We also froze a whole picking for smoothies.  

The most valuable thing that has happened since we got back is that the man is finishing off the laundry room!!  It has been a dark hole, one light bulb, with exposed wires and pipes and drains in the walls and ceiling for the 7 years we have lived here.  Now it is almost finished with wallboard around the whole room with a bright fluorescent light fixture, and pretty cover over it.  It still needs to be textured and painted but I simply can't tell you how much it means to me to have it walled in and bright.  As soon as I can get a picture of it I will post it!

Another thing we did was can all the apricots from our tree.  We got 28 quarts of fruit and about 28 pints of pineapple-apricot jam.  Jer picked and we both pitted and canned. 

On July 30 we had a birthday dinner for Grace Langston, brand new 16 year old!  It was good to see some of the family and have fun talking together.  Later that evening her mom took her to a special movie date where they sat in super cushy seats and got served whatever they wanted to order.  Nice evening!

We also had the privilege of attending the temple with Jared after he was made an elder.  It was a very special day.  We also plan to do some sealings with him before the month is out. He chose to go to the Draper Temple.  

Dad and I are going to teach third hour tomorrow so we have been preparing today.  I have also been doing indexing.  I find that it's very enjoyable to me.