February Update...

A fair amount of our time this week was spent working to remove wet drywall and insulation from our CV rental house and then keep it dry through intermittent rainy days.  We worked Monday and again on Valentine's day.  We drove back to SL on Tuesday as Steve had appointments in CO on Wed and Thursday which he drove to.  Between work appointments, I took a fruit smoothie to my friend, Cyndee, at her work to help her celebrate her birthday.  She had no time off for lunch.

While Steve was in CO, I was able to put a listing UC and show a prospective buyer.  I also had my CRS breakfast and class on Friday morning.  Then we drove north to CV to work on the house again.

The tenants moved out Friday so we didn't get into the house until late but Saturday, we pretty much spent the day working and planning the repairs and fix up.

Steve woke up at 4:30 Sunday morning worrying about the heater he had left on to help dry things out so he drove down to the house in the pouring rain and checked things out.  Everything seemed to be okay.  After church on Sunday, we got a call from the local police department.  The neighbor was complaining that water was gushing out of a pipe in the back of the house and was threatening to flood his yard.  Steve had a home teaching appointment so I rushed down to assess the situation.

Sure enough the pipe from the sump pump had become disconnected.  I was able to push it back together and fix another seam too.  I left thinking all was well.

Back home, I finished preparations for Jenna's birthday dinner with us.  We had a brief window about 5:15 between home teaching and Bishop appointments to have our dinner/party.  Jenna will be 14 this week but we will be in Texas visiting Tiffany's family, so we celebrated early.  No one objected to two parties--especially not Jameson.

 Everyone loved the banana splits we had for dessert with fresh strawberries and hot fudge sauce.  I will admit, they were yummy!

We had a few moments of a spectacular sunset.  Jenna really does a great job taking photos off our deck so I handed her my phone.  Aren't these beautiful pictures?  Great job, Jenna!

 After dinner and meeting with our home teachers, we drove back to the rental to make sure everything was okay.  Little did I know that when I shut the gate, I disturbed another one of the connections on the pipe.  The original pipe was okay but a side pipe had been gushing for the past 3+ hours.  We had a huge puddle of water seeping down the side of the house now.  With a broom, a broken dustpan, a piece of wood and a cup from the garbage can, we removed most of the water, duct taped some of the seams, and propped up the pipe to keep it in place.  McGuiver would have been proud. Then Steve had to remove the toilet in the basement bathroom so he could cut out sheetrock and insulation from behind it.

 He then redirected our fans, heaters and dehumidifier in an attempt to keep the basement dry in spite of the water that had been draining down the exterior walls all day.  It feels like we take one step forward and two steps back all too often.  We definitely had our ox in the mire on Sunday.

 The sump pump was working constantly again and this is the photo we took in the dark of the water gushing through our pipeline to the street gutter.

This morning, Steve went to Home Depot for supplies, including clamps, more duct tape, etc.  Since the tenants were now gone, we spent the morning securing all of the connections and working to make sure everything was getting dry and staying dry.  Steve rigged up a hose to the dehumidifier so it will drain in the tub during our absence this next week.  We let the fans and heater run all morning and stopped by to turn them off on our way out of town.  We have asked the neighbors to check on the piping this week during our absence.  Steve put many shovels full of dirt and sand to block water from getting next to the foundation walls. I changed light bulbs and washed walls in preparation for painting and more work next week.
We are feeling a little better about things in the light of day and hope we have finally made the necessary corrections to keep the basement dry.  There is more rain and snow is in the forecast this week but we are hoping for the best.

On the lighter side of today, my cousin Bob, emailed me this picture that he discovered when he was digitizing his photo slides at Rootstech last Saturday.  I am not sure where it was taken, but I'm pretty sure it was when I was pregnant with Tiffany, probably in Provo.  That was the year, they gave female students the option to wear slacks to class.  However, since I was employed on campus, I had to wear a dress every day to class and work.  Some changes are nice.  I look very young.  Where did the time go?  Thanks to my cousin.  I had never seen this photo before. 

A Better Day...

 Today was a cold, dry,  sunny day in our area.  The weather was good for the spirit and for flooded houses.  My childhood friend, Janet,  and I drove north to a small Idaho town to visit our former young women's leader.  She is a special friend to Janet's mother and mine too.  As you can see, she is a tiny lady who will be 98 years old in the spring. She is amazingly sharp but has some trouble with her hearing.  She cooked for the school and then the senior citizen center for many years after retiring from school.  Her legs hurt probably from standing for so many hours on concrete floors cooking and baking mouthwatering cinnamon rolls. She recognized both of us.  She gave me a huge hug and told me how much I look like my mother.  Then she had tears come to her eyes as she told me Aloha was her best friend and that she misses her every day. Now Colleen, Janet's mother, is her best friend.  We had a delightful visit.
Just before we left she told me how one afternoon, Aloha called her and asked her if she could come over.  She went over to our home and asked my mother what she could do for her.  My mother said, "Would you please rub my feet?"  Lucille rubbed her feet and Aloha thanked her and told her how good it felt.  Then Lucille teared up again and said, "The next day she was gone." Meaning she had passed away.
My mother did love to have her feet rubbed.  My dad rubbed them often and when she asked me, I would rub them too.  However, I regret to say that I can't ever remember volunteering to rub her feet. I regret that and wish I had offered to give her that special comfort during her illness.  I pretty much ran the household, but I don't remember volunteering to rub her feet.
Janet and I loved our visit with Lucille as much as she did.

While Janet and I were enjoying ourselves, Steve was working hard at the rental house.

The great news is that with the colder temperatures, sunshine and no rain for three days, plus all of Steve's vacuuming, sweeping, fans, and hard work, the basement floors are mostly dry.

 Above is Saturday with 2" of water.  Below was this afternoon and it is mostly dry.  Yahoo!  So now Steve is removing the wet sheetrock and I cut back the wet insulation.  There is still snow on the ground so there is more melting to come.  Hopefully the ground can handle it from here forward.

Yesterday I was reading a talk by Elder Stevenson entitled "With All Thy Getting, Get Understanding."  One quote I really liked fits any situation.  American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."  Thank goodness through prayer and the whispering of the Holy Spirit, we can figure out what to do.
Some sunshine and an attitude adjustment have helped to make this a great day.  Being truly thankful for our blessings always helps.

The Good, The Bad, and the UGLY!

Saturday morning, Feb. 11th, we met up with Hilary and her older kids at the annual Rootstech Family History Conference.  Above is a picture of Hilary, Steve, Korinne, Kristen, Jenna and Britton in front of the Wales country background. Cool! It was Steve's first time to meet with 25,000 of his closest cousins and family history buffs.  It was pretty amazing and a whole lot of fun.  I actually did run into my cousin Bob Clifford and his wife, Kathy scanning mission photos from 50 yr-old slides.

We also saw a display showing pictures and the history of my great grandfather, Jacob Spori.  I tracked down the person who created the display and visited with her.  Her sister is married to Rocky Kerr, my brother Steve's son.  She just loves Annie Spori Kerr and decided to use her and her ancestors for the display.  How fun for us!

Elder Russell M. Nelson and his wife, Wendy,  presented a family history discussion that was very encouraging and inspiring.  We also had a great session with Reno Mahe, Vi Sikahema and Sherrie Dew that was fantastic. I set a goal to do 30 minutes a day of family history work for the next 21 days. Family blogging and temple attendance count too. Yahoo!

We got an app on our phones that finds names in our lines that need temple ordinances.  We are so excited!  It is take Take A Name.  We highly recommend it!

There were a lot of other fun sessions, including a presentation and free cake from the Cake Boss, an amazing cake baking contest, a couple of mini-concerts, etc., but we had to leave before the end.  Rootstech was good-very, very, very good!  

Rootstech birthday cake for a Mom who loves gardening!

We had to drive back up to CV and were encouraged to see some blue looking skies as we traveled north.  The bad news is that it has rained up there the past 3 or 4 days and with several feet of snow on the ground that has turned into a muddy, floody mess.  There was over an inch of rain on Friday in CV.  Below is a picture of CV on Saturday.  There is still snow in spite of all that rain but it is melting too fast and causing much trouble.

Now we get to the ugly part.   When we arrived at our rental  house, there was water everywhere.  It was much more widespread than when Steve left on Thursday afternoon.  We worked very hard for several hours and dumped about 300 gallons of water out of the wet vac.  In addition, I swept a ton of water into the drain.  It was like a groundhog day experience.  Every time I swept the water out of the laundry room, water appeared again in the exact same place.  The only thing we could figure out is that it was still coming in as fast as we removed it.  When Steve vacuumed in the family room, we could see the water seeping in between the wall and the foundation replacing what was just removed. The ground is just so saturated.  On top of that, the sump pump has been turning out about 50 gallons a minute, 24 hours a day since Tuesday.  We have a pipe taking the water to the gutter and it is gushing constantly.  We can't even imagine what the house would have been like without the sump pump.  It hasn't rained today or yesterday and it is supposed to freeze tonight which may slow down the melting process.  We hope the worst is behind us but it certainly isn't over.  Our tenants are working to find another place and move out.  We told them they could move as there is no way to correct this situation in the near future.  This will be a process that takes weeks and/or months. Every house on the street with this multi-level floorplan is flooded.  The rest of the homes in the area don't have basements.  I feel sorry for any of the homes that don't have sump pumps.  

February -My Love Month!

February began like January with lots of snow and ice.  In fact, I had been looking for a new, longer coat for my birthday since the after Christmas sales began.  I finally made a decision and purchased one as my birthday gift on February 1st.  That afternoon we drove to CV.

It was lucky for us that the local high school had a basketball game that night, and the young cheerleading group was performing at half-time.  We were excited to watch Korinne.  We were also excited that our team pulled off a 4th quarter win thanks to a couple of brother from our ward.

I wanted to celebrate my birthday doing family names in the temple and counting my blessings.  I got to do both of those and then we ate lunch for the first time in the Logan Temple cafeteria.  The salmon was really good.  I think that we will pass on the key lime pie next time.
We drove back to SL that afternoon as we both had work commitments on Friday the 3rd.  After attending an economic forecast breakfast for the real estate professionals, I met up with some of my siblings for lunch.  Steve and Greg hosted.  It's fun to meet at their home because Steve has made it so cute and cozy.  Cathy made a fabulous cake.  It was so yummy!  After that I did an open house on a home I have listed for sale.

We stayed in SL and Hilary and Jenna drove down and stayed with us on Friday night.  The next morning we all went to Thanksgiving Point to watch Jenna perform in an all-day ballroom dance competition.  It is so fun to watch her.  She only started a few months ago, but already she really dances with a flare.  She is a natural!

That evening her team took second place in one of the events.  We thought that was fabulous.  Sorry we couldn't stay, but I had a lot of preparations to take care of for Sunday.

Monday, we met with our accountant and sent in our income taxes.  Whew!  It is always nice to get that finished.

Here Steve is chalk painting an old table we have moved dozens of times.  It will be fun to see how it turns out.

Monday afternoon, we drove back to SL so I would be there for my Broker Network meeting.  I had my listing on tour which means preparing flyers, comment sheets and treats.  I also hosted my Murray bookclub that night, we we needed to finish cleaning the house and preparing the food.  The book took place in a little French village south of Montreal so I served the only French food I really know how to cook.  I had to search for the fresh strawberries, blueberries, etc. to make a yummy dessert crepe.
That afternoon we got a text from our CV tenants that the sump pump wasn't keeping up with the melting snow and ice.  Steve purchased a bigger pump and immediately drove up.  By the time he got there, water was coming in the laundry room, family room, etc.  He bought a wet vac and went to work.  The temperature had warmed up into the 40's and it was raining.  Two feet of snow melting so quickly turned into a disaster.  The next day, he pulled out the sopping carpets and pad then took it all to the dump. Then he vacuumed until things were pretty dry.  He worked on everything again on Thursday and decided he was safe to drive back down to SL on Thursday afternoon.
Then it started raining again.  Many homes and businesses are having flooding issues throughout CV. It is still raining.  There's not much else we can do for now.  Our tenants are looking for a new place to live as they don't want to wait for new carpet in the basement until spring.  We agreed to let them out of the lease.

It was a huge job for Steve to remove all of the wet carpet and drag it out to the pickup and haul it to the dump.  Too bad the tenant didn't offer to help.  I felt terribly guilty lunching it up in SL, but I had work commitments and my friend Jean has been having a rough time lately.

So on Wednesday, I met my friend Jean for lunch.  We haven't seen each other for about 10 months as she moved in with her son in Tooele.  She is back living with her daughter in WJ now.  I ordered a nice salad.  All she wanted was ice cream.  She took more than half of her ice cream sundae home and stored it in the freezer for supper.  She was in the mood for ice cream that's for sure.
Thursday I had my appointment with Jana, my hairdresser and did another open house on my listing.

Friday morning, Steve and I went for a walk along the parkway.  It was amazing to us how much things had greened up with just a couple of days of warmer weather.  The snow in the valley has melted but I love seeing the snow covered mountains in the distance.  Shortly after our walk, it started to rain.  Of course, it has continued to rain in CV, increasing the flood problem there.

This afternoon, Steve went to the equipment dealership to work on a presentation he has coming up.  I hosted my birthday friends for soup and salad at our house.  Marlene, Maretta and Mynon were all born on the 7th of Feb. & I was born on the 2nd all in the same year.  When we discovered this birthday phenonmenon, we were all living in the same ward and we started having dinner together to celebrate.  Our dinners were changed to lunches for the girls and it is a tradition we have maintained for about 28 years.  This is the first time, we didn't meet at a restaurant.  It was more relaxed and easier to chat.  Happy Birthday, Girls!  We aren't too good at taking selfie photos, but we had fun!

I have done quite a bit of cooking and hosting these past two weeks,  However, it makes sense that once I get the house cleaned up, I might as well group my social engagements close together.  It is much more efficient that way.  February is always a busy month for me since I have quite a few friends with February birthdays too.

Was It A Typical January?

January 6 was a big day for us.  My primary teaching partner and I took 8 members of our class to the local Pizza Pie Cafe to celebrate each of them reading the entire Book of Mormon during 2016.  We were so pleased that these kids and three others who couldn't attend that night, accomplished this wonderful challenge.  Way to go, class members!  The three who couldn't make it, were given gift cards to attend later.

It was also Jameson's 5th birthday.  Hilary took him to a local jump house along with about 5 of his best buddies.  He loved it.  He arrived promptly the next morning to pick up his birthday gift from us.

Hilary made special cupcakes for his party.  Here he shares one with grandpa!  Jameson really is getting big and he is growing up!

Throughout January and February it has continued to snow in our area so you will see a few photos of the seemingly endless snow.

We have had to bundle up for most of our walks.  We are extra careful when it is icy and slippery.  We have skipped the outside walks on really bad days.

One day when the temperature warmed up at the SL home, Steve climbed out on the roof from the bedroom window to clean leaves out of the gutter.  The rain and snow were freezing and dripping on the porch causing a dangerous situation.  We are glad that is over.  I think next year, we will pay someone to clean those in the fall.

The second week of January, I finally got my hair cut.  It was driving me crazy.  I went for a new, shorter style.  I also treated myself to a much needed pedicure.  Steve doesn't like it when my rough heals tear at the sheets on our bed.  Now I'm looking fresh and new for the new year.

Xander's birthday was on the 10th.  We couldn't be with him to celebrate but we love that little guy and his enthusiasm.  Here he is standing on the palettes of grass that are to be installed in the yard of their new home.  

On the 12th, we attended the annual dinner sponsored by the builder of our home for his clients.  Utah State's mascot was willing to pose with anyone, including me.

It was a very nice dinner and a lot of prizes were given away.  Adam won a free standing mixer.  Now the kids can easily make cookies.  Nice!

 On Sunday the 15th, Steve and I drove all the way to St. George after church.  That is one of the advantages of early church times.  Steve had arranged to work in Cedar City on Monday, and I had a walk through inspection Monday night with buyers purchasing a home there.
All the way to Cedar City, we enjoyed the snow covered landscape.  As we were approaching the southern city, I marveled at the contrast between the snow covered mountains in the background and the red rock hills nearby.  It was breathtaking.

 I worked in the hotel room while Steve worked in Cedar with a salesman.  When he finished, we were able to take a walk near our hotel.  You can see the snow covered peaks in the background of this photos.

 It turned out to be a very good thing that we attended the walkthrough.  The sellers mistakenly took the laundry room sink and the refrigerator, both of which were included in the contract.  I was able to get the situation corrected for my buyers.  I was happy I could help, Adam's sister and her husband.

While Steve was in Cedar City, he was able to photograph the new temple being built there.  It reminds me of the Nauvoo temple.

 Steve and I watched the concert the night before the 2017 Presidential Inauguration so that we could see the Piano Guys perform.  We love the Piano Guys.  We enjoyed the patriotic presentations and loved hearing the Tabernacle Choir sing at the Inauguration ceremony on the 20th.  We dropped off pumpkin bread to neighbors who had recently had surgery before we left town for ID.  Everyone was watching the inauguration and the parade festivities.  Our neighbors are all pretty happy that Crooked Clinton didn't win the election for president.

 We arrived at Heather's just in time for a quick birthday brownie and song before they needed to leave to drive to UT to catch a plane for a warm birthday getaway and celebration for Heather.
They had scheduled us a year ago to stay with the kids, chauffeur, etc. and they were so ready for a little honeymoon vacation to the Caribbean.

On Saturday, we encouraged the kids to do their chores, practicing, etc.  Brinley, Jantzen and Anna all work cleaning at Aaron's office on Saturday so Brinley took them to do that cleaning.  

Our big activity of the day was Quinn's basketball game.  It was so fun to watch him warm up, dribble and shoot.  Once the game started, it was serious business for him.  He loves basketball.

Here is part of his fan gallery.

I checked with each of the kids and they all agreed that it would be fun to invite my sister, Jackie and her husband Val to dinner on Sunday after church so we did.  Jackie is always a lot of fun.  She is a fabulous photographer and she brought her camera so she spent some time photographing some of the snow and icicles.  Then I pointed out one of Jantzen's creations and she took a picture of it too.

Jackie brought these homemade pickled vegetables to share with us for dinner.  We all loved them!

This jar was spicier since it had been canned with a jalapeño pepper in it.  Val ate the pepper, but except for tasting the cauliflower which he assured me wasn't spicy, we left the jar for Aaron.  Val said adding a peeled, hardboiled egg for a couple of days was really tasty.  I added it, fully intending to share it with Aaron when he arrived back home.  I forgot, however, so Aaron got to enjoy it himself.  He said it was tasty.

Here is Jantzen's "two forks suspended on a toothpick" trick.  He did it on the rim of a glass too and we allowed it space so it stayed put for several days.  Wow!

After dinner most of us went to the music room to hear some of the kids perform for Jackie.

The kids did a great job and then Jackie joined in the fun.  She had brought some music that she played a duet to accompany their choir for Christmas.

First she and Elsie played a duet and then she and I attempted to re-create the Christmas performance.  Ha!  My latent skills were not fully up to the task, but we were able to play some of it correctly and we eventually got through the piece with a lot of stops, corrections and laughs.  It was fun to play with my sister who has been working very hard as a mature adult to learn to play the piano.  She has accomplished a lot and has my total admiration.

After our piano fun, Jackie and Val decided they had better get started for home since it was snowing AGAIN.  We wished them well and gathered everyone together for family home evening.  Anna and Elsie had prepared a very nice, inspiring and motivational lesson.  It was a very impressive presentation.

 Their family routine is to have inspirational reading and prayer every morning at 7 a.m. sharp.  Then they gather again for family prayer before going to bed in the evening.  They are very faithful with this spiritual commitment and I think that it really adds to the spirit of their home.  Either that, or the kids were on their "super behavior" mode as everyone helped and got along very well.

 Monday morning Grandpa started in on his project which was painting the hallway to the master bedroom.  He is happy when he is able to complete a project.  I helped with the taping and edging but he did all the roller work for both coats of paint.  We thought it turned out well and we liked the results.

 I spent a lot of time cooking.  I like to create fond memories of warm comfort food.  It's one way I can show my family that I love them.  Here's a photo of the German pancakes for breakfast.

 Steve had to climb on the 4-wheeler and push snow several times.  Jantzen also scraped snow once.
It snowed on and off most of the week.  Steve usually scraped off about 5 inches off at a time.

 I believe it was Tuesday that Jantzen was supposed to play a basketball game in BLKFT.  Steve planned to drive down and watch the game and visit his sister.  The night before it snowed 20" in BLKFT so school and the game were cancelled.  There wasn't near that much snow where we were so it was business as usual.  The snow storm allowed us to fit in our reward night at the local Pizza Pie Cafe.  The "M" kids had all read the Book of Mormon together in 2016 so once again we had an all you can eat pizza, pasta, salad and dessert.

 This was the only time we could fit this into the schedule and have everybody there.  We had one hour before the girls had to go to Young Women's.  We were surely happy the snow storm 50 miles south of us made this possible.

 The kids picked this spot under the Case sign on purpose.

 We did get to watch Jantzen play basketball a couple of nights later in the local gym.  Their team didn't win, but Jantzen played well and we really enjoyed watching him.  He has a nice shot and he does exceptionally well at defense.

 Anna had an indoor soccer game and practice while we were there.  She also had piano lessons and is participating in ski night on Friday nights.  She kept a pretty busy schedule.

 Brinkley works at least three times a week at Aaron's office.  One morning she came down to breakfast dressed in a black gown and she looked gorgeous.  She said it was picture day for the orchestra.  She is a beautiful young lady who is busy with school, orchestra, work, young women's and friends.  She did an excellent job of driving herself and occasionally Jantzen and Anna on the snowy roads.  One night she and her friend played their violins and piano in the music room for a couple of hours.  We loved that!

 Elsie and Quinn got along well.  I enjoyed reading the book "Pollyanna" with them.  We weren't able to completely finish it, but we found the old movie at the library and watched it on Friday night with popcorn anyway.  I love the message it teaching to be grateful and look for the best in each situation.

 These two were busy with piano lessons, sports, activity day, and Elsie's Act It Out group.  We also went to the library so there was plenty to read and they did extra math each day after school.
They were also eager to do a sewing project and Elsie got out the sewing machine to let me know they were serious.  So one afternoon, I cut out fabric and we made pillows together.  They loved this project and especially their soft, fluffy results.

 Crepes and pancakes were a big hit for breakfast.  Most evenings they ate what I fixed without complaint.  Jantzen asked Grandpa if I always cooked nice meals like that.  I try to cook them for my children and grandchildren.  I hope that I am creating pleasant family memories.

 The week went by quickly and before you know it, Heather and Aaron had returned to the cold, snowy winter from the warm, sunny Caribbean.  They arrived just in time for Quinn's basketball game on Saturday.  They took this photo of us with the kids just before we packed up to leave.  Pretty soon everyone will be taller than me.  Oh well! Such is life sometimes.

We had a fun time with our grandkids.  They are amazing and we love them.

 We arrived back in CV late Saturday afternoon.  We knew it had snowed 20-25" during our week-long absence and we were dreading the fact that our driveway would need to be cleared.  Boy were we surprised.  Angels disguised as our wonderful neighbors, including Adam and Britton, had taken turns clearing our driveway six different times during our absence. What a wonderful blessing to us!  Steve did have to dig out our mailbox so that the postal carrier would deliver our mail.  That was quite a job itself!  We have had 71" of snow since about December 20.

On Tuesday night, Jan. 31st, we were able to meet up with some of our friends from WJ that we hardly ever get to see.  We hung out at the Olive Garden Restaurant until they practically asked us to leave.  We three sisters served in a R.S. presidency together 5 years ago.  We are committed to keeping our friendship current.  I love these "River Sisters."  It was a fun evening!