I hope . . . I wish

I'm on the recovery side of stomach flu. That has to be my most hated common illness. Mom's assisted living place has had stomach flu pass through there so I'm sure that is where I picked it up. I wish I'd feel better soon.

L just left for a swim meet--the first day of a two-day end-of-season meet. I hope I feel better by tomorrow so I can go. I wish it was not so difficult to be a part of the school's swim team during the school year. The larger of the Tri-cities doesn't have an indoor pool, so L would have to get up about 4 or 5 a.m. and I would need to drive with her to Washington for practice.

J is still at scout camp. They may be home today or tomorrow. With all the overcast skies, sprinkly rain, and lightning and thunder, I hope he's still had a good time. I hope he comes home with a BAG full of merit badges and rank advancements because that is important to him.

T has gone to my sister's house to play their XBOX 360. That is about as good as it gets in his world. The past few days, he's been swimming with the cousins and then going over to play but today the pool is closed for the meet.

B is at work, still doing SEAT training. We are happy for the work and I think he likes it well enough. I hope he can have steady work for the rest of the summer.

I have one ton of tomatoes sitting here waiting for me to do something with them. B had gone to his parents' house and picked tomatoes. Just as he finished, they came out and said, "Oh, we already picked tomatoes for you!" So B came home with twice (or three times) what we would have wanted. We canned 21 pints of chili sauce and 14 bottles of chopped tomatoes and we have a little over 1/2 the tomatoes still left. I want to make at least one batch of salsa, maybe two, but I have to get my strength back. Hopefully the tomatoes will keep.

Just checking in

In May, we had a "photo shoot" for the Laurels to create photo gifts for Mother's Day. This was my photo, above. I had chosen Silver Reef for our shoot. The girls really liked the place and I was so relieved I'd "called it right." I sometimes focus too much on everything I do wrong and on everything that goes wrong. So there's my nod to doing something right.

Today is Pioneer Day here in Utah. We watched the parade here in one of the Tri-Cities and then watched some of the Days of 47 Parade on TV. We're waiting for B to get dressed and we're going to go on a drive to Cedar Mountain to see the wild flowers.

Mom seemed to be about the same when I saw her last. She was still in pain and still could not walk.

B has worked pretty steadily for the past three weeks. He is completing a training for SEATS (Single Engine Air Tankers) which is task-based and not hours-based. He will be finished when he's trained with all the required tasks. He took today off.

T still needs to practice driving for his driving permit. On the one hand, I'm not in any hurry for T to get his license. On the other hand, I believe he needs to know how to drive and needs a driver's license but we can practice for the next two years for all I care. Additionally, we need to keep practicing so he doesn't forget what he's learned. He isn't very enthusiastic about practicing so that is an ongoing effort.

L had a swim meet last weekend. It was the shortest swim meet ever. There were so many kids to swim at the meet that they had the races in age-based sessions throughout the day. That made it short for the observers like me but that put all three of L's events virtually back to back. That about wore her out. :-)

J will go to scout camp next week. He has some misgivings about going but I think he'll love it. He is enjoying the new computer that he bought this month. He's had some friends to hang out with this week. He was happy about that.

L and J were each in skit for our YM/YW talent show this past Tuesday. One of my Laurels was in charge of the talent show. I think the kids who participated enjoyed being a part of the show.

We've had some "milestones" at Tom's house (the rental next to Mom's house). The kitchen cabinets are all installed (although some finishing touches are needed for the cabinets but not many). The front porch has been remodeled and the cement around the house is nearly finished. Then, the next big outside project is the stucco. That will be the "cherry on top" of the whole series of outdoor projects when the whole outside of the house comes together. Then, to my knowledge, after a couple of small projects (gravel for the drive and railings for the porch) only the landscaping will remain to be done outside. The next big project inside is the installation of the A/C and furnace, which is "on deck." Really, until the A/C is in, it is just too hot to work inside that house. Is it just me, or is it too hot when it is 113 degrees outside and like a bake oven inside?!

Some photos of the past few weeks

This is my brother J (left) talking with some relatives at our G family potluck the week after Father's Day. I think J enjoyed seeing the relatives since he is not always able to come to reunions and never has time to visit all the local relatives one-by-one. The turn out wasn't very big but summer is a busy time.

Strangely, this is my sole picture from Stake Youth Conference held at the Girls' Camp area on Kolob. This was a morning fireside. I think I took this so I could give a copy to the speakers. The woman (who is speaking into the microphone) and I served in the Stake Young Women Presidency about ten years ago. T, L and I attended this Youth Conference. There were just five young women attending with me from our ward. Most of "my" girls felt riding the zip line was the highlight of the weekend.

I was drafted to help sell wristbands at the City's 4th of July celebration and so I turned around and drafted "local talent"--my kids. They did a great job. You can see the seeds of discontent brewing with J and he eventually left, but T & L stayed the whole time. Like I always say about stuff the kids don't always want to do, "It's character building."

This is a photo from girls' camp showing all of our Young Women who attended (note L in the "human chain," third from the left) as well as the camp director (behind the "chain"). There was a visitor (right end of "chain") whose grandmother is in our ward. This shows our tie-dyed camp shirts that the girls enjoyed creating.

Here is L participating in the evening presentation on the second night of camp. (I don't think her ankle was threatened with fire the way it looks in the photo--the camp fire was down below view and I think it is just peeking through the rocks behind L.) Our theme was "Let your light so shine" and at the end of this presentation by L and all but the 1st year girls and our visitor, our camp director handed out glow-in-the-dark stones on leather necklaces.

As part of camp, we took a tour of the Pine Valley Chapel and the girls are posed here for a photo op. We did so many things that I can't begin to list them without making it a grocery list: games, crafts, skits, a hike, etc.

This is a photo of Mom and the hospice nurse during the initial "intake" visit on Thursday. In this photo, the nurse is having Mom take a look at the photograph he'd taken of her for hospice's records. Mom qualified for hospice--"end stage dementia." We're into a new chapter--well, I think the falls have created a new chapter and hospice is just part of that. Friday, the hospice nurse ordered a wheel chair because, despite the "cement" procedure, Mom still has pain and can hardly walk. It may be up to two weeks before we know whether the procedure will take the pain from her back fracture (L4). The MRI also showed a mass just above the fracture (behind L1 and L2). There were several possible explanations for what that mass might be. The nurse thinks some of Mom's pain complaints indicate a herniated disk (besides the pain from that fracture) instead of cancer.