Saturday, August 24, 2019

Work & Play in the heat of August...


August 15, 16, 17 were spent helping my brothers, Steve and Greg, prepare and host a big garage sale during their annual HOA sponsored garage sale event.  We all put lots of items up for sale to raise money for them to help with some financial challenges.  They sold lots, but had lots left over so they may repeat the event in a couple of weeks.
I left that afternoon so we could join our mission friends, the Johnsons and Briggs at the Utah County Fair in Spanish Fork.  We love to get together when the Johnsons visit from AZ and the fair sounded like a good option.

There was an amazing Lego display that filled most of an entire building.  Lego fans be aware.

Of course, we sampled lots of fun food items.  I think that our over all favorite was the fresh pineapple whip.  It was refreshing and delicious on a hot, hot afternoon.
Our entertainment concluded with the Demolition Derby.  None of us had been to one before and this one is an extremely popular annual event.  The stands were full of fans who actually knew what to expect.  It was crazy and noisy watching the cars and trucks crash into each other trying to disable their opponents.

We stayed at our Murray house rather than drive all the way to CV that night and drove up early on Sunday morning.
When watering my flower pots on Sunday, I was thrilled to notice this gorgeous bloom on one of our cana plants.  We love it!
Jameson came over early to dinner to help grandpa oversee his "smoked ribs."  They didn't burn this time so we are making progress.
We had Cara make a special cake to celebrate Britton and Steve's birthdays this upcoming week.  Britton turns 18 on the 20th and Steve turns 71 on the 21st.  Happy Birthday to two great guys!

When we actually served the cake and ice cream, the Kirks joined us.  When you have Cara make the cake, then you automatically include the Kirk family in the celebration.
One of our favorite young missionaries from our Missouri Independence Mission, arrived in CV this week to begin school at Utah State.  Hayden Earl was able to eat leftover ribs plus join us for cake and ice cream.  Then he helped Steve unload our table in the barn for future finishing.
On Monday, I went to the distribution center to purchase new garments.  I mentioned to the clerk that I was purchasing "Friend" magazine for my grandkids who lived in Shanghai, China.  The fellow behind me spoke up and said that his family lived in Shanghai China.  It turned out that with the realignment of the boundaries, they now live in Taylor and Jen's branch and know them.  We all posed for a photo which they promptly WeChatted to Taylor.  What a fun little tender mercy to meat them.  They were in the US to have their 6th baby.
Monday night we hosted missionary friends for dinner at our little Murray basement apartment.  We all squeezed in and had a delightful dinner including a celebration of Steve's birthday that week.  Our friends are so thoughtful.
From back to front:  Peggy and Andy Forsyth, Vickie and Dave Briggs, Ann and Mark Larsen, Kristen and Steve Price.
The next day we flew to Texas to help out with Tiffany's shoulder surgery on the 21st.  That evening, we went for Pizza at a local place owned and run by a very nice Russian man.  The pizza and salad bar were made fresh for us.  It was a tasty end to our long travel day.
Here is the medal Abigail won in Korea for lst place in her forms division.  Congrats, girl!

After Shawn and Steve gave Tiffany a blessing, I felt comforted and less worried about the upcoming surgery.  It went well but as in the case of most surgeries, it was a rough day for our patient, Tiffany.
But she was home and doing her icing and exercising by the end of the day.  Ugh!
She was doing much better the next day and she was an excellent patient following the doctor's and nurse's orders explicitly.  Shawn is truly an excellent nurse.
Saturday morning, Steve and I left the patient in Shawn's care and made the almost 2 hour drive to Gilmer to drop off a surprise grocery delivery to a certain Texas missionary.
It was so fun to surprise Brinley and her companion, Sister Crandall, with some homemade jam, chicken salad, fresh fruit, etc.  They were totally surprised!

Then we drove back to Tyler and joined Tiffany, Abigail and Shawn at their favorite breakfast place.




Sunday, August 11, 2019

June's Baptism & Other Highlights



On July 31, Steve and I may a quick drive to SL to participate in the Realtor Day at the Parade of Homes event.  They provide a "free" brunch and a preview of some of the homes in the show.  Since I'm trying to get my money's worth out of my $900 yearly dues, we decided to attend the free brunch and preview.  It was nice to see a few homes and enjoy the brunch.  I still know a few realtors but considering that there are about 950+ members of the SL Board now, the attendance was comparably low.  It rained that afternoon as we returned home.  But the next morning Steve was out early picking apricots and apples.
He assisted as we prepared quite a few jars of low sugar apricot jam.  A couple of days later, we made applesauce.
Saturday was definitely the highlight of our week as we drove to Nephi to observe June's baptism.  It was Brusch's turn to host so it was held in the Jamie's stake center.  Jamie is Jen's sister.




It was very nice and June was so cute and so excited!  Congratulations, June!
Afterwards, we gathered at Jamie's home for a nice lunch.  Hilary, Adam, Jameson and AJ also attended and joined with members of the Brusch family and some friends of Jen and Taylor's who are in the process of moving from Shanghai to Australia.


Back home on Saturday afternoon, I took a photo of this beautiful red and yellow canna blooming in our back yard.  We love beautiful flowers!!!
We took it pretty easy with dinner on Sunday and served hamburgers, turkey burgers and corn dogs.  Good thing we had some broccoli salad for some nutrition.

Tuesday morning Steve had his first appointment with Dr. Carlson, an orthopedic specialist in CV.  It really expedited things that we had brought his x-rays taken a few weeks before in SL. He recommended that Steve have a shot in his hip joint.  They set it up for 8:10 the next morning.  In the mean time we drove to SL to fix Lois' screen door and have supper with Tanner.  The next morning at 4:30, we drove him to the airport to join a group for a college tour in Europe and were back in CV in time for the shot.  Before we got home from that, his office called and scheduled an MRI for 5:30 that afternoon.
Steve was waiting in the hospital for the MRI.  Because of his claustrophobia, the Dr. gave him some Xanax.  We found out that it isn't necessary to take two of them.  Steve got extremely loopy and it took several days to completely wear off.  First he was silly and giggly, then was groggy and sleepy, and then he got depressed.  We learned some valuable lessons from this experience.
Of course, it was necessary to get his mother, June's, prescribed chocolate milkshake after the procedure.  A chocolate shake makes everything better!
On Friday afternoon, we drove to Blackfoot to attend LaVerne Marcum's viewing.  His friendship with the Kerr family goes back 70+ years.  He passed away this week at age 97.   We arrived in town early so we could visit with Steve's sister, Kathy.  She showed us some of the quilts she had recently made.  We thought they were beautiful.  They were just as nice as quilts we saw with blue ribbons in the CV fair.
Kathy is very talented.  She can sew, cook and grow the most gorgeous flowers.  She shared some cucumbers from her garden with us too.


Then we met Aaron and Heather's family at the viewing.  It was nice to see Bob and Janene too.  It was the first time we have connected since they came home from their mission in May.  When we walked into the mortuary, they were playing a slide show on a screen at the back of the room.  I looked up and saw a picture of my mother, Aloha, on the screen.  Ruth, LaVerne's deceased wife had given them to Heather a few years ago.  She sent them to me.  What a treat to get those treasured photos.


Saturday morning, we drove over to the local farmer's market for this first time this year.  I know I took a photo of Steve there, but somehow it got deleted.  I am glad this beautiful photo I grabbed of the Logan Temple up the street was spared.  I love this temple!
After we checked out the market, we drove over and strolled through the CV County Fair.  They have really "upped the program" this year.  This food concession must come with the carnival rides, because we have see similar concessions all over including the San Antonio Stock Show.
We heard them auctioning the sheep from the FFA and 4-H kids.  One went for a whopping $900.  Impressive!  This must be a new trend as this steer was covered in glitter.  Sparkly indeed.

We stopped by the Century Equipment booth and looked at the "Built in America" Case Equipment.

I asked a lady if I could take a photo of her curly fried potatoes.  They reminded me of fried potatoes we saw at the BBQ events in Missouri.  We decided not to purchase any food at the fair but went home and tried to eat something more healthy.  It was sure fun to look though.
I removed all the décor items off from the top of my cupboards.  Styles have changed.  Time for us to simplify.  We hope someone still likes this stuff because it will go to Steve and Greg Kerr's garage sale this next weekend.
I snapped this photo of Steve and AJ walking into church this morning.  AJ was intrigued by the dog that was following them.
After church, our ward hosted a Popsicle Social in the pavilion next door.  The kids were thrilled and there was such an abundance that they got seconds, and/or thirds.  It provided a good opportunity for visiting longer after our meetings.
We love these cute grandkids and enjoy having them over for dinner on Sundays.  Of course, dinner was served later today because everyone was full of ice cream bars.  There weren't any complaints!