I've been gonna write this post for weeks but I haven't felt good for weeks and so it keeps getting put on the back burner.
There are a couple of changes that I am thinking of instigating so I want to put them out there for all of you to read and think and pray about.
#1 - due to the fact that within the next year Ed is going to be retiring we are actually thinking about being a little bit more thrifty. Therefore I am going to be cutting down the amount of money I spend on birthday presents to about $10-15 per adult each year. The grandkids will get a little more - $25 each since the family keeps adding a couple more of em each year. I love to buy gifts ...but I have to learn to spend less. Sorry
#2 - Because I have been either out of town or SICK I have missed our family get-to-gethers for birthdays so far this year. I apologize to Glenn and Melinda so far...however, again, due to the size of the family getting together is getting somewhat out of hand.
I have been contemplating different things that we could do and the idea that keeps coming back and back in my mind is having Sunday groupings of Ed and I and a couple of the kids and their families at a time. In the summer time having the whole family over at one time is fine cause there is lots of room to spread out but in the cold weather or rainy weather we are sitting on top of each other trying to listen to five conversations at one time.
So how about if I pull two names out of a hat and call them up and say you and yours are invited to dinner at grandma's house on either a saturday or a sunday afternoon. If that date is not a good date for one of the families then we would put your name back in the hat and invite someone else. That way we could have a much calmer relaxed visit with all of you over a period of a couple of months.
What do you think? Let me know. I really wanted to do this for Glenn and Melinda since they had birthdays in February but we were gone the first half of Feb and I started getting sick the first part of March and I'm still sick. I wouldn't just do birthday combinations but to me that was a good way to start it. Once I got sick the last thing I have wanted to think about was having people come over so I could cook for them - unless of course you want to have a cup of spearmint tea and a piece of toast with me!!! Then come on over.
I love you all - I know that we love each other and want to see and visit and talk to each other and I am trying to figure out a way to do that that doesn't drive us all batty.
with all my love
mom
ps - Easter is coming up and Grandpa Merritt is going to have his annual easter egg hunt in his back yard on Saturday April 3 at 1 pm. Shawn has agreed to take family group pictures to replace the pictures on Grandpa Merritts walls with some up to date pictures - for Instance, Jeff and Teresa and Skye and Katy as a group - Tonya and Brett just had a new family portrait done but it is already a year old - another one would be fun and we could coordinate the sizes of the pictures. In my family Kelly and Jamie are the most up to date but my grandkid pictures need to be done individually - for MY wall. So lets all plan on showing up looking pretty and get some good pictures taken that day. We are even trying to figure out how to photoshop a picture of Cade into the group picture!! Whatever works!!
Hummingbirds on the Mountain
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Grandkids
I've never finished my Quartzsite blogs but thats okay - I had a very busy week last week and it was a good week - I got to see and hug everyone of my grandkids except Cade last week. I guess I need to sit down and send him a hug in the mail!
Monday I went to Provo and helped Kecia and Glenn move into temporary home - Kecia says she is NOT moving until after this baby comes though! -- Emma was at Aunt Da's all day and I didn't get to see her until about 6:30 but she was so excited to see GRANDMA!!!! She is so much fun and has such a personality - as we drove downtown to dinner she reached over and petted my hair and said "pretty"...that was after spending hours loading and unloading boxes - such a soft little gesture to say I love you.
When Melinda brought Emma home she brought Benjamin and Simon with her and they stayed out in the new van...so I ran outside to get some hugs and kisses before they headed back to Lehi. Ben just grinned and was so cute. I talked to them aobut their new van and Simon's eyes just lit up and he said CAR! In fact he is saying all sorts of words. Da came out to the car and I mentioned that to him and she said yeah, he is ...say Mama...and Simon says Maaaaa .....meeeee and he grinned that cute grin that just melts your heart. Not to be outdone I said 'say grandma' and he grins again and says MAAAAAA! So that is who I am this week.
Thursday morning at 7:15 Jamie showed up with the twins and I got to watch them for a few hours. I didn't need to feed them as they had eaten just before coming and Kelly took them home to feed them before ten. But I got to play with them and talk to them - they don't sleep all morning now - they are awake and looking and playing with toys. I have added a cute video (maybe two, I'll see how long it takes to download them) at the end of this blog.
Thursday I went to Lifeline and got to publicly tell Makae that I loved her. I tickled Ethan's back and gave him a hug at the meeting and winked at Jace. After the meeting I got to go up and give Makae a big hug. That night she called me to set up a date to go shopping for Christmas - we settled on Monday at 1 but then Kris told me on Saturday that she couldn't do that until 3rd phase. But it was fun to talk to her on the phone and I guess we will wait to buy her Christmas present for another couple weeks till she makes 3rd phase.
Friday I drove into Ogden and stopped in at Mauri and Ira's - Jerod was home sick so I got to give him the small bag of amethyst rocks for his rock tumbler. He hasn't used his Christmas present yet but hopefully when it warms up and they can set it working outside where the noise doesn't drive them crazy he can start polishing up some of the rocks he has. I guess I didn't give him a hug cause he had the flu but I got to visit with him for a minute. Then Ira came upstairs and we talked for almost two hours. Caleb and Joshua came home from school and I got to talk to them for a minute too, and give them both big hugs. Caleb got the leftovers from Adrie's last hair color job and his hair was a gorgeous dark warm brown that set off his eyes just beautifully. He likes his hair just a little long and cute - its like the beatles wore - long but not too long. Joshua had his hair cut short and cute and he headed out to go play with a friend but I got another hug first. I sat and visited with Ira and Jerod and Caleb and finally had to head home since Mauri and Adrie still weren't there.
But they showed up at my house for a bit Friday evening and Adrie and I had a great visit. She is going to run track and that sounds like so much fun. She was getting her hair colored the next day and was trying to decide what color to go. I agreed with her that red with gold streaks would probably look really really great on her.
Then finally on Saturday I got to see Jace again while Kristanne headed to Draper to visit Cade. He played in the hot tub and watched tv and played with his game boy. Grandpa Ed had waited to take him with him to drive to Centerville and take the razor in for a check up but he didn't want to go. That was fine. He stayed home with me and we had a good time. I made him cookies but didn't realize until too late that he didn't like peanut butter cookies. Next time I will try chocolate chip.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Quartzsite #2
Quartzsite – Blog II
Monday, January 26, 2010: Ed left yesterday morning for Phoenix, flying from Phoenix to SLC to Chicago. When he called last night he said it was 26 degrees when he got in the car in Chicago – he will be ready to come back to Arizona for sure. For grandpa and I it was a lazy morning – I fixed breakfast and did the dishes and then we both went outside and soaked up some sun. The temperature didn’t get above 58 but sitting in the sun and out of the wind feels really nice. When I got up to go inside to get ready to go into town that afternoon I left my jacket sitting on the chair and my cell phone hanging in the chair pocket, figuring that when I grabbed my jacket, I would grab my cell phone too. As I was getting my shoes on, grandpa brought my jacket inside – I told him thanks and put the jacket on and grandpa laid down for his nap and I forgot totally about my cell phone. I hopped in the razor to go do some laundry and head to a fun bead store I had heard about.
Halfway to Quartzsite I realized that I had forgotten to get my cell phone and I had promised to call grandpa about 4 pm. It was 2:30 then and so I figured I would just do the laundry and head back to camp. I was driving down an ATV trail that ran parallel to the highway, cussing the big bumps at each ‘wash’ where they had pushed the sand off the road and partway up the wash. I went up one particularly steep bump and as I crested the top of it there wasn’t any more hill!! Sure enough, I high centered the Razor!! So I got out and found a stick about two feet long and an inch in diameter and started digging out the back wheels and under the main part of the ATV. I dug for a good 15 minutes when a border patrolman came by and saw me digging away and stopped to help. He had a shovel and we both dug for another five minutes when another border patrolman came by and we decided that if they pushed I might be able to drive off the hill – yep, that worked. I thanked them and headed on into town – but at that point I realized that the trail had more ‘cliffs’ in it – so then I drove alongside the road – Ed had said that I should follow the trail until the highway speed slowed down to 35 – which meant about five miles of trail first. I spent another 15-20 minutes trying to find my way around on the trails and over bumps without running into more cliffs. I finally made it up to where the speeds were slow enough for a highway legal ATV and then it was easy going after that. I got to the Laundromat and got my four batches of wash going and then got out my computer and got online – free internet!!! Great! As the clock inched closer and closer to 4:30 I started worrying about my dad wondering why I hadn’t called him at 4 like I had promised. Finally I facebooked Kecia and asked her to call - then I finished folding the dried clothes – once batch was still damp so I put an extra couple quarters in the machine. By the time I got everything dry and folded and put in garbage bags to keep the trail dust off the clean clothes it was almost 5pm - Here I am standing out in the parking lot turning my computer on to see if Kecia had agreed to call grandpa. NOPE! So then I facebooked Kelly because he had also commented on something I had said – I asked him for the same favor. Then I packed up my computer and got in the Razor and headed back to camp. I tried a different trail this time and found a lovely gravel road heading due South – I followed it for miles and miles as it turned slightly East toward the mountains….more and more and more! The sun was dropping farther and farther in the sky and I didn’t want to still be riding in the dark. Finally I saw a trail heading South again and I took it….pretty soon it was going West and then North – I finally came out in the campground to the north of us – I had gone in an almost circle. That campground is where the 35 mph in town started!!! So I drove across the highway and tried the trail on the West side of the highway – again it started really good and then took me back to the main road! UGH!! Finally I got past where I had high centered the machine going into town and got back on the trail and got back to the trailer in the dusk and the cold….it was almost 6pm! It had taken me a whole hour to drive 8 miles! Poor grandpa had been so worried – I had promised to call at 4 pm and here it was 6!! My cell phone was still sitting out in the chair waiting for me!
So I put the laundry away and fixed dinner and we watched “Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion”. We enjoyed it – lots of old time songs.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 – We both slept in this morning. Yesterday’s trip had really worn me out! We had to go into town again today for grandpa’s PROTIME test – to check the level of Coumadin in his system. I had already decided to ask the camp hosts HOW to get into town. So after lunch we both bundled up and headed out – when I stopped at the gate house I asked them which trails were viable since the rainstorms. They said probably to go all the way up to the mtn and then find the connecting trail North – ugh. Or else I could go West across the highway almost to Tyson Wash and take the old El Paso road north. I then mentioned that my ATV was street legal – with seat belts and horn etc and they said – then you can take the main road – if you have a license plate and insurance you can drive on the road. I said, “But I can’t go 60 mph and they said – that doesn’t matter – you are legal”!! So we headed due North through town and to the clinic. We got there along with a whole lot of other people there for the same reason. They do ProTimes on Tuesday and Thursday from 1:30 to 3:00 pm ONLY. So we got in line with the rest of them – dad’s level was too low (his blood is too thick) – they faxed the results to Dr. Lee and I will call him in the morning to find out what we need to change the Coumadin levels too. This means he will have to go in for another test next Tuesday again – we were hoping to wait two weeks between tests. Quartzsite has a beautiful new clinic in town with a full time doctor - its four times bigger than the old clinic was. And there is a pharmacy on the back side of the clinic. It’s amazing to me that it has taken this long to get a pharmacy in Quartzsite – this year is the 44th year that the rock and gem show has been held – 44 years of getting bigger and bigger with all these old people here (and Ed and I are some of the younger old people!!) and no pharmacy within 20 miles!!
After we left the doctor’s office we drove through the back roads of Quartzsite to get back to main street and I finally got to the little bead shop I had heard about. I left dad in the ‘car’ while I ran inside – they had some nice prices and some pretty beads – I only had ten minutes though so I didn’t buy too much. I got a some real pretty strands of malachite, and goldstone and a couple other natural rock chips too. We stopped for a hamburger at McDonalds and then headed back to the trailer. I kind of kept an eye on the traffic behind me and when there were several cars I would pull off to the side and let them speed by so I could stick to my 40 mph. Grandpa was tired and took a nap when we got back – I read.
This evening grandpa read while I made a necklace and three back pack charms. I have started making little beaded charms that hang off of purses or beach bags or back packs. Hopefully they will sell well. Grandpa has now gone to bed and my neck and shoulders are aching from bending over doing beads.
Because we ate in town I didn’t have to make supper tonight – about 8 pm I suggested maybe some popcorn and grandpa said he would make it. So he went outside in the dark to start the generators – I wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to tell him NO – you can’t ….so I sat inside the trailer and worried that he would have some problems – and he did. Evidently when he bends over like that (to pull the cords on the generator) his left knee sometimes gives out. I guess he landed on the ground but got himself up and got the generators going – I was almost ready to go out and check on him when he came back in.
After he made the popcorn he said something about going out again and turning off the generators. I told him let’s leave them running – they should be running out of gas pretty soon – Ed put gas in them Sunday evening and we’ve had them going for three nights now on the same gas… I suggested that we let them run out of gas tonight and we would put more gas in tomorrow. Grandpa asked if Ed had left the gas can out and I said yes. He said okay, we will refill them tomorrow. It wasn’t even two minutes later when he stood up and started putting his coat back on – I asked him where he was going. He said “to put some gas in the generators”. I sweetly said, let’s just wait till tomorrow, okay? He thought that was a good idea.
Wednesday January 28 – lukewarm – felt good to sit out in the sun as long as we were away from the wind.
Thursday January 29 - Drove into town in Razor to go to Relief Society and worked on Humanitarian projects. The sisters meet every Thursday from 9-12 and quilt, and make teddy bears and stuffed yarn balls, and picture books. I worked on the picture books, pasting pictures onto pages which we then inserted into plastic sleeves – ten pages (both sides) to each book. No words – only pictures. Each page covered one subject – mtns, or oceans. or domestic animals, or wild animals or children at play, or music etc. Nothing Americana or religious, etc, nothing scary, and no adults unless they were interacting with children. Thus the picture books can go anywhere in the world and can be used to stimulate a child’s imagination. Then I found the salvation army – I bought a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt that I am going to cut apart and make an apron with on Wednesday – with Patty’s purple hat group. Then I stopped at the big tent craft sale – mostly it is the same vendors that were at the RV show!! (And Saturday the same vendors that are at the Antique Car show!) But there was one booth that had necklaces – I bought some just for the beads. As I was paying for them I overheard another lady say that there were bags of broken necklaces for $1 each. So then I bought a couple of those too. I went back to the trailer and started making backpack or purse charms with the beads – I have made a bunch of them to sell at the Purple Hat Sale this weekend.
Friday was a quiet day – sitting out in the sun (away from the cool breezes) reading and making necklaces. I have made four hats hoping to sell them at the Purple Hat sale too. I have made necklaces, charms, and hats – hopefully there will be someone there to buy something!
Saturday – January 30 – I had to run into town again today to get some oil for one of the new generators. I stopped at the big tent sale again and the jewelry lady was still there – I bought $12 worth of broken necklaces and made a bunch of stuff with them tonight. The weather was GORGEOUS today. It got up to 70 degrees and the cool wind was just a really slight breeze. SO NICE – in fact we almost had to move our chairs into the shade!!!! Tough life!! It’s about time. I wouldn’t feel bad if it stayed like this for the next two weeks.
Its 3:30 am and I haven’t really slept at all yet tonight – its because my neck and elbows are aching so badly – too many hours spent playing with jewelry and I am bound up tighter than tight. I finally gave up and grabbed my computer and will catch up on things before trying to sleep again.
Sunday the weather was gorgeous again - the cool wind blew a little more than yesteray but it was still really nice. Its monday now and cloudy and cool breeze still - only up to about 62 but still quite comfortable.
Monday, January 26, 2010: Ed left yesterday morning for Phoenix, flying from Phoenix to SLC to Chicago. When he called last night he said it was 26 degrees when he got in the car in Chicago – he will be ready to come back to Arizona for sure. For grandpa and I it was a lazy morning – I fixed breakfast and did the dishes and then we both went outside and soaked up some sun. The temperature didn’t get above 58 but sitting in the sun and out of the wind feels really nice. When I got up to go inside to get ready to go into town that afternoon I left my jacket sitting on the chair and my cell phone hanging in the chair pocket, figuring that when I grabbed my jacket, I would grab my cell phone too. As I was getting my shoes on, grandpa brought my jacket inside – I told him thanks and put the jacket on and grandpa laid down for his nap and I forgot totally about my cell phone. I hopped in the razor to go do some laundry and head to a fun bead store I had heard about.
Halfway to Quartzsite I realized that I had forgotten to get my cell phone and I had promised to call grandpa about 4 pm. It was 2:30 then and so I figured I would just do the laundry and head back to camp. I was driving down an ATV trail that ran parallel to the highway, cussing the big bumps at each ‘wash’ where they had pushed the sand off the road and partway up the wash. I went up one particularly steep bump and as I crested the top of it there wasn’t any more hill!! Sure enough, I high centered the Razor!! So I got out and found a stick about two feet long and an inch in diameter and started digging out the back wheels and under the main part of the ATV. I dug for a good 15 minutes when a border patrolman came by and saw me digging away and stopped to help. He had a shovel and we both dug for another five minutes when another border patrolman came by and we decided that if they pushed I might be able to drive off the hill – yep, that worked. I thanked them and headed on into town – but at that point I realized that the trail had more ‘cliffs’ in it – so then I drove alongside the road – Ed had said that I should follow the trail until the highway speed slowed down to 35 – which meant about five miles of trail first. I spent another 15-20 minutes trying to find my way around on the trails and over bumps without running into more cliffs. I finally made it up to where the speeds were slow enough for a highway legal ATV and then it was easy going after that. I got to the Laundromat and got my four batches of wash going and then got out my computer and got online – free internet!!! Great! As the clock inched closer and closer to 4:30 I started worrying about my dad wondering why I hadn’t called him at 4 like I had promised. Finally I facebooked Kecia and asked her to call - then I finished folding the dried clothes – once batch was still damp so I put an extra couple quarters in the machine. By the time I got everything dry and folded and put in garbage bags to keep the trail dust off the clean clothes it was almost 5pm - Here I am standing out in the parking lot turning my computer on to see if Kecia had agreed to call grandpa. NOPE! So then I facebooked Kelly because he had also commented on something I had said – I asked him for the same favor. Then I packed up my computer and got in the Razor and headed back to camp. I tried a different trail this time and found a lovely gravel road heading due South – I followed it for miles and miles as it turned slightly East toward the mountains….more and more and more! The sun was dropping farther and farther in the sky and I didn’t want to still be riding in the dark. Finally I saw a trail heading South again and I took it….pretty soon it was going West and then North – I finally came out in the campground to the north of us – I had gone in an almost circle. That campground is where the 35 mph in town started!!! So I drove across the highway and tried the trail on the West side of the highway – again it started really good and then took me back to the main road! UGH!! Finally I got past where I had high centered the machine going into town and got back on the trail and got back to the trailer in the dusk and the cold….it was almost 6pm! It had taken me a whole hour to drive 8 miles! Poor grandpa had been so worried – I had promised to call at 4 pm and here it was 6!! My cell phone was still sitting out in the chair waiting for me!
So I put the laundry away and fixed dinner and we watched “Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion”. We enjoyed it – lots of old time songs.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 – We both slept in this morning. Yesterday’s trip had really worn me out! We had to go into town again today for grandpa’s PROTIME test – to check the level of Coumadin in his system. I had already decided to ask the camp hosts HOW to get into town. So after lunch we both bundled up and headed out – when I stopped at the gate house I asked them which trails were viable since the rainstorms. They said probably to go all the way up to the mtn and then find the connecting trail North – ugh. Or else I could go West across the highway almost to Tyson Wash and take the old El Paso road north. I then mentioned that my ATV was street legal – with seat belts and horn etc and they said – then you can take the main road – if you have a license plate and insurance you can drive on the road. I said, “But I can’t go 60 mph and they said – that doesn’t matter – you are legal”!! So we headed due North through town and to the clinic. We got there along with a whole lot of other people there for the same reason. They do ProTimes on Tuesday and Thursday from 1:30 to 3:00 pm ONLY. So we got in line with the rest of them – dad’s level was too low (his blood is too thick) – they faxed the results to Dr. Lee and I will call him in the morning to find out what we need to change the Coumadin levels too. This means he will have to go in for another test next Tuesday again – we were hoping to wait two weeks between tests. Quartzsite has a beautiful new clinic in town with a full time doctor - its four times bigger than the old clinic was. And there is a pharmacy on the back side of the clinic. It’s amazing to me that it has taken this long to get a pharmacy in Quartzsite – this year is the 44th year that the rock and gem show has been held – 44 years of getting bigger and bigger with all these old people here (and Ed and I are some of the younger old people!!) and no pharmacy within 20 miles!!
After we left the doctor’s office we drove through the back roads of Quartzsite to get back to main street and I finally got to the little bead shop I had heard about. I left dad in the ‘car’ while I ran inside – they had some nice prices and some pretty beads – I only had ten minutes though so I didn’t buy too much. I got a some real pretty strands of malachite, and goldstone and a couple other natural rock chips too. We stopped for a hamburger at McDonalds and then headed back to the trailer. I kind of kept an eye on the traffic behind me and when there were several cars I would pull off to the side and let them speed by so I could stick to my 40 mph. Grandpa was tired and took a nap when we got back – I read.
This evening grandpa read while I made a necklace and three back pack charms. I have started making little beaded charms that hang off of purses or beach bags or back packs. Hopefully they will sell well. Grandpa has now gone to bed and my neck and shoulders are aching from bending over doing beads.
Because we ate in town I didn’t have to make supper tonight – about 8 pm I suggested maybe some popcorn and grandpa said he would make it. So he went outside in the dark to start the generators – I wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to tell him NO – you can’t ….so I sat inside the trailer and worried that he would have some problems – and he did. Evidently when he bends over like that (to pull the cords on the generator) his left knee sometimes gives out. I guess he landed on the ground but got himself up and got the generators going – I was almost ready to go out and check on him when he came back in.
After he made the popcorn he said something about going out again and turning off the generators. I told him let’s leave them running – they should be running out of gas pretty soon – Ed put gas in them Sunday evening and we’ve had them going for three nights now on the same gas… I suggested that we let them run out of gas tonight and we would put more gas in tomorrow. Grandpa asked if Ed had left the gas can out and I said yes. He said okay, we will refill them tomorrow. It wasn’t even two minutes later when he stood up and started putting his coat back on – I asked him where he was going. He said “to put some gas in the generators”. I sweetly said, let’s just wait till tomorrow, okay? He thought that was a good idea.
Wednesday January 28 – lukewarm – felt good to sit out in the sun as long as we were away from the wind.
Thursday January 29 - Drove into town in Razor to go to Relief Society and worked on Humanitarian projects. The sisters meet every Thursday from 9-12 and quilt, and make teddy bears and stuffed yarn balls, and picture books. I worked on the picture books, pasting pictures onto pages which we then inserted into plastic sleeves – ten pages (both sides) to each book. No words – only pictures. Each page covered one subject – mtns, or oceans. or domestic animals, or wild animals or children at play, or music etc. Nothing Americana or religious, etc, nothing scary, and no adults unless they were interacting with children. Thus the picture books can go anywhere in the world and can be used to stimulate a child’s imagination. Then I found the salvation army – I bought a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt that I am going to cut apart and make an apron with on Wednesday – with Patty’s purple hat group. Then I stopped at the big tent craft sale – mostly it is the same vendors that were at the RV show!! (And Saturday the same vendors that are at the Antique Car show!) But there was one booth that had necklaces – I bought some just for the beads. As I was paying for them I overheard another lady say that there were bags of broken necklaces for $1 each. So then I bought a couple of those too. I went back to the trailer and started making backpack or purse charms with the beads – I have made a bunch of them to sell at the Purple Hat Sale this weekend.
Friday was a quiet day – sitting out in the sun (away from the cool breezes) reading and making necklaces. I have made four hats hoping to sell them at the Purple Hat sale too. I have made necklaces, charms, and hats – hopefully there will be someone there to buy something!
Saturday – January 30 – I had to run into town again today to get some oil for one of the new generators. I stopped at the big tent sale again and the jewelry lady was still there – I bought $12 worth of broken necklaces and made a bunch of stuff with them tonight. The weather was GORGEOUS today. It got up to 70 degrees and the cool wind was just a really slight breeze. SO NICE – in fact we almost had to move our chairs into the shade!!!! Tough life!! It’s about time. I wouldn’t feel bad if it stayed like this for the next two weeks.
Its 3:30 am and I haven’t really slept at all yet tonight – its because my neck and elbows are aching so badly – too many hours spent playing with jewelry and I am bound up tighter than tight. I finally gave up and grabbed my computer and will catch up on things before trying to sleep again.
Sunday the weather was gorgeous again - the cool wind blew a little more than yesteray but it was still really nice. Its monday now and cloudy and cool breeze still - only up to about 62 but still quite comfortable.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Quartzsite 2010
2010 Quartzsite trip
January 15 – Picked up grandpa at 12:45 and brought him back to my house so we would be ready to go as soon as Ed was ready to go – he got home about 1:2O and hooked up the trailer and we were on the road by 2 pm. Grandpa Merritt sat in the front with Ed until we stopped in Nephi and then he got in the back of the truck and took a nice hour long nap as we traveled South. We stopped in to see Grandma Bea when we got to Beaver and she looked and sounded great. We visited with her for about 30 minutes and then left her to enjoy her dinner meal. We headed on to her house and turned on the heat in her house and unhooked the trailer and then went up to Arshels for dinner. After dinner we headed back to her house and left grandpa with his pajamas and pills and toothbrush – he was tired and figured he would just go to bed. We then put on a movie for him and headed back to visit with Grandma again for a bit. We had a fun visit with her and then headed up to see Kevin but he wasn’t home yet so we drove out to his station and caught him there - Grandpa was still watching the movie - Ed finished watching it with him and I read for a while.
January 16 – Ed got up early and took the truck to Kevin’s and got four new tires put on the truck. By the time he got back Grandpa and I were up and had eaten and were ready to head out. I had told Grandma Bea that we would go back out to see her before we headed south again but Ed said NOPE – we need to get on our way. We did stop for a second at the cheese factory and bought some cheese and then we headed south. We stopped at Aunt Eleanor’s to put water in the tanks where it was warm enough to keep from freezing. It was a beautiful day in Mesquite and we enjoyed our visit with Eleanor.
We then headed on down the road, stopping for fuel at the Indian reservation about 45 minutes out of Las Vegas. Grandpa decided to take a nap so again he got the back seat – he woke up just in time to see the skyline of Vegas before we headed up to Railroad Pass. I had figured we would go as far as Needles and then get up the next morning and come the last ways into Quartzsite but Ed insisted we keep on going. Grandpa said fine – just get my pain pills out – so we did and he took a couple of pain pills and went to sleep. He woke up in Parker and I realized that he had taken too many pills – he should have just taken one – he staggered to the rest room and back to the truck. The pain pills were a generic Lortab I think – so two of them would be waaayyyy too much. I also realized then that he had been taking his Coumadin pill when he was in pain because it was a heart pain and he thought that it helped stop the pain. Scary – I have tried to explain to him that he MUST NOT take a Coumadin when he is hurting – only one Coumadin a day – I don’t think he took any extra Coumadin pills but it is a possibility!
We made it to Quartzsite by 9 pm and found our spot just waiting for us. We left grandpa in the warm truck while we unloaded our new Razor and all the stuff piled around it, got the rug laid out and the furnace turned on in the truck. The trailer warmed up quickly. Then we brought grandpa in while I blew up his air mattress and put the foam pad on top of it and got his bed made. He got into his pajamas and went to bed – we read for a while and then did likewise.
January 17 – Sunday was a beautiful day – it got up to 78 degrees. We sat outside in the sun and read for a while after we got dressed and ready for church at one. Church was good, although we only stayed for Sacrament meeting as grandpa can’t handle much more than that. When we got back from church we had some lunch and then grandpa took a nap and Ed and I went for our first ride together on the razor. It was so fun – by five pm though the air was cooling off but Ed got a jacket out for me and we kept going. By the time we got back to the trailer grandpa was back up. Ed and I read and I set a game the game of solitaire up on my computer for my grandpa – he can’t read and we don’t have TV so I was glad when I found something that would keep him entertained. It would have been a looonnnnggg four weeks if he just sat and stared at the walls all day.
January 18, 2010 – It rained all night last night – I guess yesterday was the only warm day we are going to have this week. We will see, but this storm is supposed to be a big one that goes on for days. I got grandpa out for a walk – maybe a 100 feet and back – I told him when we got back to the trailer we would go for a ride on the razor. He said “don’t I get a nap first?” …and he was serious. So we went into the trailer and pretty soon he decided to lay down for a nap. Ed and I hopped in the truck and ran into town to look for some stuff that Ed needed for the trailer. It is normally a 6 or 7 minute drive into town and it took us 25 minutes to get there due to all the traffic. I don’t think we have ever seen so many people here in Quartzsite!! Lots and lots of trailers all over the place. After he had checked out the one store he had planned on going to we walked over to the big tent – that’s the big show that is going on right now – the big RV tent sale – we wandered through it for two hours. Bought some fun stuff and wished we could buy more. Wandered through a couple of gorgeous fifth wheel Toy haulers - WOW!! Pure luxury. By the time we got back out to the trailer I figured grandpa would have been worried sick but he was just busy playing solitaire. I fixed us some dinner and we decided to watch a movie. Ed went to turn on the generator and it wouldn’t go – we think it is a bad solenoid in the generator. Dang!! Guess we will go to bed early tonight! Ed will have to run into town tomorrow early in the morning and figure out what needs to be done to fix it.
January 19 – woke up to rain and it rained off and on all day. It was in the high 50’s and low 60’s but wet and rainy – much warmer than Utah but when three people are living on top of each other it needs to be high 60’s and low 70’s so we can sit outside and enjoy the weather. We read and knitted and lay around all day. When we pulled into the campground on Saturday night we noticed that there was a sign saying no water available. Their pumps were broken. They got them up and running so Ed spent an hour filling up the blue 7 gallon totes and getting our trailer filled back up. He keeps busy.
January 20 – the sun is shining today so after breakfast we got dressed warmly and headed out to go riding. Grandpa Merritt didn’t want to go – it’s going to be a long four weeks with him just sitting – he can’t read, he’s too tired to go for a ride, he plays solitaire on my computer a little bit but mostly just sits. Ed got up early today and went into town and checked out generators. It’s handy having the big RV show and tent sale going on since he can compare Honda generators to several different ones and find the best deal all in one spot. I think he is going to go buy two 2000 watt generators tomorrow and hook them together and then when we get back home we will take the trailer back to Sierra RV and get the built in generator fixed. Ed has wanted to have a backup generator available so now I guess he will have them. It will be nice when we have TV again – I hate to see my grandpa just sitting and staring.
The ride was a cool one – it was 56 degrees outside when we left the trailer. I drove my ATV and Ed drove the RAZOR – We rode about 19 miles --its amazing how many side by sides are out in the hills now – we see almost more of them than regular ATV’s! The temp was up to 59 by the time we got back to the trailer. Grandpa had stayed behind and had a nice hot shower. By the time I got back I WAS ready for a nice hot shower but the water was just lukewarm…Grandpa said he didn’t use much water but he did use all the hot water and Ed’s full tanks were down a quarter of a tank!! I think he just forgot how long he was in the shower!
I spent the afternoon with a fun group of ladies who were quilting. They put me to work with them. Fun afternoon. It was part of a group that camp out here in La Posa South. Now we are back at the trailer – the North wind has been blowing all down and the sky is mostly covered with clouds – it is supposed to rain again tomorrow.
January 21, 2010 - it rained all night last night…when we got up this morning there were streams running down the gully behind our trailer. It is raining today too - It is too wet for Ed to buy the generators to get them set up so we will be another day without electricity as far as watching movies goes. Thank heavens for our solar panels – that keeps our cell phones and computers charged …and the batteries to run the lights at night. I had a shower and fed the guys and took the truck with our laundry and headed into the LDS chapel here at Quartzsite. Thursday morning the sisters meet to work on humanitarian projects. They had three quilts on, were setting up a fourth, two sisters were on sewing machines binding them and three more sisters were on sewing machines creating the tops for even more quilts! There were two people stuffing knitted balls and one table full of ladies gluing pictures onto paper creating books!! Busy place – had a good visit with several of the ladies. I only stayed for an hour and then headed to the Laundromat in town. When I got there I thought – gee I should have stayed at the church house – it looked like EVERYONE in Quartzsite decided to come in to do laundry!! I had to WAIT for a parking place!! Once I got inside I only had to wait about five minutes for some washers to open up – I took my $20 over to the change machine and it poured out quarters!! Someone hollered “we have a winner!!” I laughed and admitted the odds were lots better here than in Vegas. I got all four washers going and then read for a while. When it was getting close to having the washers finish their cycle I went in stood in line so as to be ready for a dryer when some opened up. I got my clothes out of the first three washer s and realized the fourth one wasn’t working. So I got my other clothes in the dryer and going and then found someone to help me with the #4 washer. He got it going for me but it was still going by the time the clothes were dry so I had to take a chance on getting another dryer when they were done – no such luck. By that time people were four deep waiting for the next available dryer so I folded all my clothes including the wet ones and headed back to the trailer. It was raining even harder when by the time I got back to the trailer – don’t know why I was in such a hurry to get back home. I fixed lunch and it has rained and blown and rained and blown all afternoon. The rain and wind is shaking the trailer as I type this. The temp did get up to 57 today – its back down to 53 at 5 pm….gonna be a long cold night. I know, I know – that is lots better than whatever it is in Utah but it’s getting downright scary!!! The trailer is just rocking back and forth !! WOW!!
The storm finally settled down about 5:30 – what a relief – all of us just sat in the trailer and stared at each other wondering if we were going to be washed away.
The generator in our trailer went out the first Monday we were here. Finally on Friday we went into town to the big RV show and Ed bought two 2000 watt generators that he can work them together in a parallel format – so he gets 4000 watts…but they are small enough that I can lift them and start them which was necessary with Ed leaving for a week and a half.
So we have power again to run the TV and the microwave. We have been recharging phones and computers with the inverter hooked up to the batteries recharging on solar power which has been nice!
Grandpa went with us Friday when we headed to the big tent. Ed had already picked out the generators he wanted to buy so grandpa and I wandered for a short while through the tent. Grandpa bought a little chair cane – it has an umbrella handle and then a small seat that folds up when not in use as a chair. It’s a handy thing and helped grandpa walk over the uneven ground – and then when we headed back to the truck he was able to stop = open up the chair and rest for a few minutes before going on. Friday was a cool day with lots and lots and lots of clouds but no rain thank heavens. The wind was from the north so it felt good to be inside the tent. We headed back to the trailer for lunch and a nap and reading. I pulled out the DVD that Dirk and Da gave grandpa for Christmas. We thoroughly enjoyed watching their cute video clips throughout the year of Ben and Simon. For some reason the sound would cut out at the middle of the clip but we still enjoyed it.
Saturday was a pretty day although still cool with the winds blowing. Grandpa and I drove into town in the truck and found the medical clinic and I went in and asked them about a protime test for dad on Tuesday. The nurse said we needed an order from his doctor – so after we got back to the trailer we called the doctor’s office and left a message asking that the order be faxed to the clinic. While in town we went to the library – grandpa found a book in large print to see if that would help his reading. We hit the grocery store for a few things and then headed back to the trailer.
Sunday we woke up to ice on the windshield but it got up to 61 degrees and the wind was very mild. Dad didn’t feel good so he stayed home from church – when we got back he seemed fine. Come to find out, he woke up with a pain in his back and it scared him because he didn’t know what it was. After we had left for church he rolled over and the pain moved to another part of his body. When he investigated he found that the big link in the floor that we tie our ATV’s down with that usually lay flat was sticking up and that was what was causing the pain. He is really frightened of anything different with his body right now and so he panicked. He was kind of shame faced about it when he told us what had happened, but I told him I understood his fear. He doesn’t know what to expect after this stroke and anything different is frightening. After church we sat out in the sun and soaked up some rays – it felt sooooo good finally. Then we headed into town to refill the propane tanks ( Ed wanted to make sure we were full up on water and propane and that the black and grey holding tanks were empty before he headed to Phoenix on Monday to catch his plane to Chicago) and had lunch at Carl’s Jr and then came back to the trailer when grandpa took a nap and Ed and I hopped on our razor to go for a cool but fun ride. For dinner we had the Omaha Steaks and twice baked potatoes and apple pie deserts that Ed’s boss gave us for Christmas – the steaks were so tender and delicious. Grandpa was even able to eat the steaks without any problem! So Yummy!
We watched “The return of Zorro” last night and that was fun. Ed got everything together so he could get up early to head out and then we all went to bed. Edward left this morning about 7 am – he called about 10:30 from the airport – he said he thought he was going to make it to the airport with plenty of time to spare but then got caught up in traffic – an accident had happened and it took him 45 minutes longer than he had planned to get there. Then as he went through the screening he set the beepers off. He emptied his pockets wondering what in the world would have set it off and low an behold he still had his clip from his pistol in his pocket. The gun was left back at the trailer but without thinking he had picked up the magazine and put it in his pocket. Needless to say, he got the royal pat down and luggage search. He said they were really nice about it though and he has left it there in their storage to pick up when he comes back through next week. – he still made it to the gate with 15 minutes to spare!
Grandpa and I are sitting in the trailer watching the temperature go up – as soon as I finish with this we are going to go on a walk – hopefully he will be able to go farther than the 100 feet he has done before – with his cane and little chair – I am hoping we can make it over to the dumpsters so I can dump our sack of garbage. We will see. After lunch he will have his nap and I will head back into town with the rest of our laundry and then I am going to find a spot that sells findings for my necklaces as I need just a couple of different things. Hopefully I can down load this onto my blog –though it will make a LONG blog but at least everyone will know what is going on.
Oh – the large print really helps – grandpa is now able to read for about an hour at a time – even longer when he puts the 4x4 gauze pad over his left eye so it doesn’t jump all over. I think he is enjoying the time – sometimes I feel like more of a babysitter but he is doing better every day. The stroke has done more damage than we thought – but there is improvement and that is all we can ask for.
January 15 – Picked up grandpa at 12:45 and brought him back to my house so we would be ready to go as soon as Ed was ready to go – he got home about 1:2O and hooked up the trailer and we were on the road by 2 pm. Grandpa Merritt sat in the front with Ed until we stopped in Nephi and then he got in the back of the truck and took a nice hour long nap as we traveled South. We stopped in to see Grandma Bea when we got to Beaver and she looked and sounded great. We visited with her for about 30 minutes and then left her to enjoy her dinner meal. We headed on to her house and turned on the heat in her house and unhooked the trailer and then went up to Arshels for dinner. After dinner we headed back to her house and left grandpa with his pajamas and pills and toothbrush – he was tired and figured he would just go to bed. We then put on a movie for him and headed back to visit with Grandma again for a bit. We had a fun visit with her and then headed up to see Kevin but he wasn’t home yet so we drove out to his station and caught him there - Grandpa was still watching the movie - Ed finished watching it with him and I read for a while.
January 16 – Ed got up early and took the truck to Kevin’s and got four new tires put on the truck. By the time he got back Grandpa and I were up and had eaten and were ready to head out. I had told Grandma Bea that we would go back out to see her before we headed south again but Ed said NOPE – we need to get on our way. We did stop for a second at the cheese factory and bought some cheese and then we headed south. We stopped at Aunt Eleanor’s to put water in the tanks where it was warm enough to keep from freezing. It was a beautiful day in Mesquite and we enjoyed our visit with Eleanor.
We then headed on down the road, stopping for fuel at the Indian reservation about 45 minutes out of Las Vegas. Grandpa decided to take a nap so again he got the back seat – he woke up just in time to see the skyline of Vegas before we headed up to Railroad Pass. I had figured we would go as far as Needles and then get up the next morning and come the last ways into Quartzsite but Ed insisted we keep on going. Grandpa said fine – just get my pain pills out – so we did and he took a couple of pain pills and went to sleep. He woke up in Parker and I realized that he had taken too many pills – he should have just taken one – he staggered to the rest room and back to the truck. The pain pills were a generic Lortab I think – so two of them would be waaayyyy too much. I also realized then that he had been taking his Coumadin pill when he was in pain because it was a heart pain and he thought that it helped stop the pain. Scary – I have tried to explain to him that he MUST NOT take a Coumadin when he is hurting – only one Coumadin a day – I don’t think he took any extra Coumadin pills but it is a possibility!
We made it to Quartzsite by 9 pm and found our spot just waiting for us. We left grandpa in the warm truck while we unloaded our new Razor and all the stuff piled around it, got the rug laid out and the furnace turned on in the truck. The trailer warmed up quickly. Then we brought grandpa in while I blew up his air mattress and put the foam pad on top of it and got his bed made. He got into his pajamas and went to bed – we read for a while and then did likewise.
January 17 – Sunday was a beautiful day – it got up to 78 degrees. We sat outside in the sun and read for a while after we got dressed and ready for church at one. Church was good, although we only stayed for Sacrament meeting as grandpa can’t handle much more than that. When we got back from church we had some lunch and then grandpa took a nap and Ed and I went for our first ride together on the razor. It was so fun – by five pm though the air was cooling off but Ed got a jacket out for me and we kept going. By the time we got back to the trailer grandpa was back up. Ed and I read and I set a game the game of solitaire up on my computer for my grandpa – he can’t read and we don’t have TV so I was glad when I found something that would keep him entertained. It would have been a looonnnnggg four weeks if he just sat and stared at the walls all day.
January 18, 2010 – It rained all night last night – I guess yesterday was the only warm day we are going to have this week. We will see, but this storm is supposed to be a big one that goes on for days. I got grandpa out for a walk – maybe a 100 feet and back – I told him when we got back to the trailer we would go for a ride on the razor. He said “don’t I get a nap first?” …and he was serious. So we went into the trailer and pretty soon he decided to lay down for a nap. Ed and I hopped in the truck and ran into town to look for some stuff that Ed needed for the trailer. It is normally a 6 or 7 minute drive into town and it took us 25 minutes to get there due to all the traffic. I don’t think we have ever seen so many people here in Quartzsite!! Lots and lots of trailers all over the place. After he had checked out the one store he had planned on going to we walked over to the big tent – that’s the big show that is going on right now – the big RV tent sale – we wandered through it for two hours. Bought some fun stuff and wished we could buy more. Wandered through a couple of gorgeous fifth wheel Toy haulers - WOW!! Pure luxury. By the time we got back out to the trailer I figured grandpa would have been worried sick but he was just busy playing solitaire. I fixed us some dinner and we decided to watch a movie. Ed went to turn on the generator and it wouldn’t go – we think it is a bad solenoid in the generator. Dang!! Guess we will go to bed early tonight! Ed will have to run into town tomorrow early in the morning and figure out what needs to be done to fix it.
January 19 – woke up to rain and it rained off and on all day. It was in the high 50’s and low 60’s but wet and rainy – much warmer than Utah but when three people are living on top of each other it needs to be high 60’s and low 70’s so we can sit outside and enjoy the weather. We read and knitted and lay around all day. When we pulled into the campground on Saturday night we noticed that there was a sign saying no water available. Their pumps were broken. They got them up and running so Ed spent an hour filling up the blue 7 gallon totes and getting our trailer filled back up. He keeps busy.
January 20 – the sun is shining today so after breakfast we got dressed warmly and headed out to go riding. Grandpa Merritt didn’t want to go – it’s going to be a long four weeks with him just sitting – he can’t read, he’s too tired to go for a ride, he plays solitaire on my computer a little bit but mostly just sits. Ed got up early today and went into town and checked out generators. It’s handy having the big RV show and tent sale going on since he can compare Honda generators to several different ones and find the best deal all in one spot. I think he is going to go buy two 2000 watt generators tomorrow and hook them together and then when we get back home we will take the trailer back to Sierra RV and get the built in generator fixed. Ed has wanted to have a backup generator available so now I guess he will have them. It will be nice when we have TV again – I hate to see my grandpa just sitting and staring.
The ride was a cool one – it was 56 degrees outside when we left the trailer. I drove my ATV and Ed drove the RAZOR – We rode about 19 miles --its amazing how many side by sides are out in the hills now – we see almost more of them than regular ATV’s! The temp was up to 59 by the time we got back to the trailer. Grandpa had stayed behind and had a nice hot shower. By the time I got back I WAS ready for a nice hot shower but the water was just lukewarm…Grandpa said he didn’t use much water but he did use all the hot water and Ed’s full tanks were down a quarter of a tank!! I think he just forgot how long he was in the shower!
I spent the afternoon with a fun group of ladies who were quilting. They put me to work with them. Fun afternoon. It was part of a group that camp out here in La Posa South. Now we are back at the trailer – the North wind has been blowing all down and the sky is mostly covered with clouds – it is supposed to rain again tomorrow.
January 21, 2010 - it rained all night last night…when we got up this morning there were streams running down the gully behind our trailer. It is raining today too - It is too wet for Ed to buy the generators to get them set up so we will be another day without electricity as far as watching movies goes. Thank heavens for our solar panels – that keeps our cell phones and computers charged …and the batteries to run the lights at night. I had a shower and fed the guys and took the truck with our laundry and headed into the LDS chapel here at Quartzsite. Thursday morning the sisters meet to work on humanitarian projects. They had three quilts on, were setting up a fourth, two sisters were on sewing machines binding them and three more sisters were on sewing machines creating the tops for even more quilts! There were two people stuffing knitted balls and one table full of ladies gluing pictures onto paper creating books!! Busy place – had a good visit with several of the ladies. I only stayed for an hour and then headed to the Laundromat in town. When I got there I thought – gee I should have stayed at the church house – it looked like EVERYONE in Quartzsite decided to come in to do laundry!! I had to WAIT for a parking place!! Once I got inside I only had to wait about five minutes for some washers to open up – I took my $20 over to the change machine and it poured out quarters!! Someone hollered “we have a winner!!” I laughed and admitted the odds were lots better here than in Vegas. I got all four washers going and then read for a while. When it was getting close to having the washers finish their cycle I went in stood in line so as to be ready for a dryer when some opened up. I got my clothes out of the first three washer s and realized the fourth one wasn’t working. So I got my other clothes in the dryer and going and then found someone to help me with the #4 washer. He got it going for me but it was still going by the time the clothes were dry so I had to take a chance on getting another dryer when they were done – no such luck. By that time people were four deep waiting for the next available dryer so I folded all my clothes including the wet ones and headed back to the trailer. It was raining even harder when by the time I got back to the trailer – don’t know why I was in such a hurry to get back home. I fixed lunch and it has rained and blown and rained and blown all afternoon. The rain and wind is shaking the trailer as I type this. The temp did get up to 57 today – its back down to 53 at 5 pm….gonna be a long cold night. I know, I know – that is lots better than whatever it is in Utah but it’s getting downright scary!!! The trailer is just rocking back and forth !! WOW!!
The storm finally settled down about 5:30 – what a relief – all of us just sat in the trailer and stared at each other wondering if we were going to be washed away.
The generator in our trailer went out the first Monday we were here. Finally on Friday we went into town to the big RV show and Ed bought two 2000 watt generators that he can work them together in a parallel format – so he gets 4000 watts…but they are small enough that I can lift them and start them which was necessary with Ed leaving for a week and a half.
So we have power again to run the TV and the microwave. We have been recharging phones and computers with the inverter hooked up to the batteries recharging on solar power which has been nice!
Grandpa went with us Friday when we headed to the big tent. Ed had already picked out the generators he wanted to buy so grandpa and I wandered for a short while through the tent. Grandpa bought a little chair cane – it has an umbrella handle and then a small seat that folds up when not in use as a chair. It’s a handy thing and helped grandpa walk over the uneven ground – and then when we headed back to the truck he was able to stop = open up the chair and rest for a few minutes before going on. Friday was a cool day with lots and lots and lots of clouds but no rain thank heavens. The wind was from the north so it felt good to be inside the tent. We headed back to the trailer for lunch and a nap and reading. I pulled out the DVD that Dirk and Da gave grandpa for Christmas. We thoroughly enjoyed watching their cute video clips throughout the year of Ben and Simon. For some reason the sound would cut out at the middle of the clip but we still enjoyed it.
Saturday was a pretty day although still cool with the winds blowing. Grandpa and I drove into town in the truck and found the medical clinic and I went in and asked them about a protime test for dad on Tuesday. The nurse said we needed an order from his doctor – so after we got back to the trailer we called the doctor’s office and left a message asking that the order be faxed to the clinic. While in town we went to the library – grandpa found a book in large print to see if that would help his reading. We hit the grocery store for a few things and then headed back to the trailer.
Sunday we woke up to ice on the windshield but it got up to 61 degrees and the wind was very mild. Dad didn’t feel good so he stayed home from church – when we got back he seemed fine. Come to find out, he woke up with a pain in his back and it scared him because he didn’t know what it was. After we had left for church he rolled over and the pain moved to another part of his body. When he investigated he found that the big link in the floor that we tie our ATV’s down with that usually lay flat was sticking up and that was what was causing the pain. He is really frightened of anything different with his body right now and so he panicked. He was kind of shame faced about it when he told us what had happened, but I told him I understood his fear. He doesn’t know what to expect after this stroke and anything different is frightening. After church we sat out in the sun and soaked up some rays – it felt sooooo good finally. Then we headed into town to refill the propane tanks ( Ed wanted to make sure we were full up on water and propane and that the black and grey holding tanks were empty before he headed to Phoenix on Monday to catch his plane to Chicago) and had lunch at Carl’s Jr and then came back to the trailer when grandpa took a nap and Ed and I hopped on our razor to go for a cool but fun ride. For dinner we had the Omaha Steaks and twice baked potatoes and apple pie deserts that Ed’s boss gave us for Christmas – the steaks were so tender and delicious. Grandpa was even able to eat the steaks without any problem! So Yummy!
We watched “The return of Zorro” last night and that was fun. Ed got everything together so he could get up early to head out and then we all went to bed. Edward left this morning about 7 am – he called about 10:30 from the airport – he said he thought he was going to make it to the airport with plenty of time to spare but then got caught up in traffic – an accident had happened and it took him 45 minutes longer than he had planned to get there. Then as he went through the screening he set the beepers off. He emptied his pockets wondering what in the world would have set it off and low an behold he still had his clip from his pistol in his pocket. The gun was left back at the trailer but without thinking he had picked up the magazine and put it in his pocket. Needless to say, he got the royal pat down and luggage search. He said they were really nice about it though and he has left it there in their storage to pick up when he comes back through next week. – he still made it to the gate with 15 minutes to spare!
Grandpa and I are sitting in the trailer watching the temperature go up – as soon as I finish with this we are going to go on a walk – hopefully he will be able to go farther than the 100 feet he has done before – with his cane and little chair – I am hoping we can make it over to the dumpsters so I can dump our sack of garbage. We will see. After lunch he will have his nap and I will head back into town with the rest of our laundry and then I am going to find a spot that sells findings for my necklaces as I need just a couple of different things. Hopefully I can down load this onto my blog –though it will make a LONG blog but at least everyone will know what is going on.
Oh – the large print really helps – grandpa is now able to read for about an hour at a time – even longer when he puts the 4x4 gauze pad over his left eye so it doesn’t jump all over. I think he is enjoying the time – sometimes I feel like more of a babysitter but he is doing better every day. The stroke has done more damage than we thought – but there is improvement and that is all we can ask for.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Christmas 2009
We had a fun Christmas Eve with all of the family last Thursday evening. Jamie and Kelly came late because of other family parties and Melinda didn't get to come at all because she had bronchitis - we missed her. We tried our hand at fondue and decided we need a lot more practice - I over heated the chocolate and the cheese was stringy ... so they didn't look very pretty but they tasted good - and I MISSED the yummy artichoke dip that Da was going to bring. It was an interesting Christmas Eve - every year I work hard to find just the right story or program for our family Christmas Eve and then every year we have the Christmas Story done by the grandkids. Well this year I just plain couldn't think of anything to do program wise, so we decided that we would just get together and eat and visit and then do the reinactment of the nativity.
We waited for Jamie and Kelly to bring their babies so we would have a baby Jesus and then we decided not to do the nativity at all - we had a fun time visiting and eating and thought that would be sufficient. But we missed the nativity --- it isn't what you call spiritual because the kids don't practice it in advance or anything - but it is definitely one of our family traditions... and it was missed. It also is a break in the talking and eating and I missed the chance to stop and take a moment and appreciate the reason for the Season -- the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The evening felt incomplete because we didn't 'do' the spiritual part of it!
Another reason that the evening was incomplete was because we were missing Makae. We did get to see her though - a bunch of the family all headed down to North Salt Lake for a 2 pm visit with her. It was a wonderful chance to hug her and talk to her and watch her get excited over seeing many of the family that she hadn't seen for two months.
We also got to see Makae on the Tuesday before Christmas - her whole group put on a very fun musical program for us - This is Makae singing with the girls at Lifeline. She seems to enjoy the staff and the students and has adjusted to their routine very well. She is learning to make some good decisions with her life right now and she is in our every prayer.
It was so fun watching Shawn and Kristanne's boys lovingly hold their new little cousins. All three of them were so excited to be holding a baby. Of course the babies were the hit of the party with everyone - here we have Ethan and Cade holding Taylie and Brayden. Taylie even looks a little bit like Ethan!
Here's Cade - in his fancy new jammies which he LOVED!! With a sweet Brayden
Taylie and Brayden were held and held and held that whole Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - they had to be exhausted after having to entertain all their aunts and uncles and cousins and gramma's and granpas!!
Jace was really excited to try and hold Brayden. At first I held Jace as he held Brayden but it didn't take me long to realize he did a good job holding the babies. So we sat him on the floor and let him go solo. We had a fun evening with everyone - there is nothing I love more than spending time with my family. It gets a bit BUSY in my little house when all of us are there but there is no cure for that problem - its only going to get worse as the families get bigger. I am still waiting for my kids to buy me a bigger house!! ;-D
But we had a lovely evening and then the next day Ed and I got up early and were on the road to Lehi by 6:45 am so we could be there when Ben and Simon came down the stairs to see what Santa had brought.
This picture of Benjamin is priceless - the look on his face is exactly what Christmas morning is all about. The excitement and thrill of a new train set! One that he could make go all by himself!
this is our own version of Godzilla - as soon as Simon realized he could make his train go foward and back, he had to get in the middle of things - literally!
Here's Ben watching Da as she sets the train back on the track again - I bet Dirk and Da wish they had a nickle for every time they have had to do that in the last week!
Benji got a normal looking train and Simon got the 'front-runner'....it didn't take him long to figure out how to get the little person in the train out and then he discovered he could make the train go on the carpet as well as the track...the rest of the time we were there he was driving his train all over the carpet. We tried to get Ben and Simon interested in their gifts but nothing doing...all they could see was TRAIN!!
After we had spent 45 minutes at Dirk and Da's house we got back in the car and headed to Provo where Kecia had been waiting patiently (???) for us to arrive. She woke up Glenn when we pulled up (he was glad to get to sleep in an extra hour!)
this picture should be very last --- I had been taking pictures of Emma and her trucks - there she was running back and forth in her jammies and her high heels and watching the trucks go = she was sooooo excited. Then I looked over at her mommie... sitting there with her hat and scarf on, her stack of presents in front of her and holding up her new saute pan in HER jammies and with her new high heels on too! Like mother , like daughter!
Note princess Emma's glass slippers - she didn't want to have anything to do with her new princess dresses and jewelry and crowns but she put on her new high heels as she chased back and forth watching the trucks going.
She didn't touch the trucks or the tracks - she just ran back and forth and back and forth saying truck truck truck
Like Ben and Simon - Emma was so excited about her tracks and trucks she was not the least bit interested in the presents we brought or any of the other presents under the tree - she would look for a second and then back to the 'truck, truck, truck'.
This was what was waiting for Emma when she first came into the living room - a whole box full of princess dresses and high heels and crowns and jewelry ... NO THANK YOU, NOT INTERESTED.....TRUCK ......TRUCK.....TRUCK!
Thank you Kecia and Glenn and Dirk and Da for sharing Christmas morning with us. Ed just decided on Christmas eve that he wanted to watch the little ones and see and feel the excitement of Christmas morning. I wasn't too sure about it (after all, I didn't get to open my presents until 11 am when we got back home!!)
Christmas Day was a fantastic day as we got to spend it with the people we love, watching the excitement on their faces as they opened the gifts that we had lovingly picked out to give them. Christmas is such a special time - as we drove down South that morning we saw a cross walk above the freeway where someone had taken cups and created the message in the fence that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS"
Mauri and Ira and their sweet kids got to our house about 12:30. Grandpa was anxious to give them all rides on the RZR but it was sooooo cold and his hopes of pulling them on their sleighs over behind the church house on the lawn there were dashed because of the ice mountain between the lawn and the parking lot. After they left I got a half an hour nap (which is a good nap for me) and then Shawn and Kristanne came with the three boys. While they were still here Jamie and Kelly and the twinners showed up. We had lots of good food all day long and again, lots of love and laughter. About five pm we followed Shawn and Kris down to Kelly and Terrie's house to see grandpa Merritt - All of Kelly's family were there plus Jeff and Teresa and Skye and Katie Jo - so again, we enjoyed the love and laughter of our wonderful family. Teresa and Jeff added so much fun to the group.
Ed and I were getting ready to leave when the phone rang and it was Chase calling from North Carolina. Kelly put the phone on speaker mode and we all sat around the table for an hour chatting with Elder Nielson. It was great - and it was a marvelous ending to a marvelous day. As he bore his testimony of Jesus and all that Christ did for us I couldn't help but feel an even closer tie to my Savior.
People complain about how commercialized Christmas is but I love it because it gives me a reason to put smiles on the faces of the people I love the very most. Christ is the reason - we ARE celebrating his birth day - Thank you Jesus for inviting us to such a wonderful birthday party!
We waited for Jamie and Kelly to bring their babies so we would have a baby Jesus and then we decided not to do the nativity at all - we had a fun time visiting and eating and thought that would be sufficient. But we missed the nativity --- it isn't what you call spiritual because the kids don't practice it in advance or anything - but it is definitely one of our family traditions... and it was missed. It also is a break in the talking and eating and I missed the chance to stop and take a moment and appreciate the reason for the Season -- the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The evening felt incomplete because we didn't 'do' the spiritual part of it!
Another reason that the evening was incomplete was because we were missing Makae. We did get to see her though - a bunch of the family all headed down to North Salt Lake for a 2 pm visit with her. It was a wonderful chance to hug her and talk to her and watch her get excited over seeing many of the family that she hadn't seen for two months.
We also got to see Makae on the Tuesday before Christmas - her whole group put on a very fun musical program for us - This is Makae singing with the girls at Lifeline. She seems to enjoy the staff and the students and has adjusted to their routine very well. She is learning to make some good decisions with her life right now and she is in our every prayer.
It was so fun watching Shawn and Kristanne's boys lovingly hold their new little cousins. All three of them were so excited to be holding a baby. Of course the babies were the hit of the party with everyone - here we have Ethan and Cade holding Taylie and Brayden. Taylie even looks a little bit like Ethan!
Here's Cade - in his fancy new jammies which he LOVED!! With a sweet Brayden
Taylie and Brayden were held and held and held that whole Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - they had to be exhausted after having to entertain all their aunts and uncles and cousins and gramma's and granpas!!
Jace was really excited to try and hold Brayden. At first I held Jace as he held Brayden but it didn't take me long to realize he did a good job holding the babies. So we sat him on the floor and let him go solo. We had a fun evening with everyone - there is nothing I love more than spending time with my family. It gets a bit BUSY in my little house when all of us are there but there is no cure for that problem - its only going to get worse as the families get bigger. I am still waiting for my kids to buy me a bigger house!! ;-DBut we had a lovely evening and then the next day Ed and I got up early and were on the road to Lehi by 6:45 am so we could be there when Ben and Simon came down the stairs to see what Santa had brought.
This picture of Benjamin is priceless - the look on his face is exactly what Christmas morning is all about. The excitement and thrill of a new train set! One that he could make go all by himself!
this is our own version of Godzilla - as soon as Simon realized he could make his train go foward and back, he had to get in the middle of things - literally!
Here's Ben watching Da as she sets the train back on the track again - I bet Dirk and Da wish they had a nickle for every time they have had to do that in the last week!
Benji got a normal looking train and Simon got the 'front-runner'....it didn't take him long to figure out how to get the little person in the train out and then he discovered he could make the train go on the carpet as well as the track...the rest of the time we were there he was driving his train all over the carpet. We tried to get Ben and Simon interested in their gifts but nothing doing...all they could see was TRAIN!!After we had spent 45 minutes at Dirk and Da's house we got back in the car and headed to Provo where Kecia had been waiting patiently (???) for us to arrive. She woke up Glenn when we pulled up (he was glad to get to sleep in an extra hour!)
this picture should be very last --- I had been taking pictures of Emma and her trucks - there she was running back and forth in her jammies and her high heels and watching the trucks go = she was sooooo excited. Then I looked over at her mommie... sitting there with her hat and scarf on, her stack of presents in front of her and holding up her new saute pan in HER jammies and with her new high heels on too! Like mother , like daughter!
Note princess Emma's glass slippers - she didn't want to have anything to do with her new princess dresses and jewelry and crowns but she put on her new high heels as she chased back and forth watching the trucks going.
She didn't touch the trucks or the tracks - she just ran back and forth and back and forth saying truck truck truck
Like Ben and Simon - Emma was so excited about her tracks and trucks she was not the least bit interested in the presents we brought or any of the other presents under the tree - she would look for a second and then back to the 'truck, truck, truck'.
This was what was waiting for Emma when she first came into the living room - a whole box full of princess dresses and high heels and crowns and jewelry ... NO THANK YOU, NOT INTERESTED.....TRUCK ......TRUCK.....TRUCK!Thank you Kecia and Glenn and Dirk and Da for sharing Christmas morning with us. Ed just decided on Christmas eve that he wanted to watch the little ones and see and feel the excitement of Christmas morning. I wasn't too sure about it (after all, I didn't get to open my presents until 11 am when we got back home!!)
Christmas Day was a fantastic day as we got to spend it with the people we love, watching the excitement on their faces as they opened the gifts that we had lovingly picked out to give them. Christmas is such a special time - as we drove down South that morning we saw a cross walk above the freeway where someone had taken cups and created the message in the fence that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS"
Mauri and Ira and their sweet kids got to our house about 12:30. Grandpa was anxious to give them all rides on the RZR but it was sooooo cold and his hopes of pulling them on their sleighs over behind the church house on the lawn there were dashed because of the ice mountain between the lawn and the parking lot. After they left I got a half an hour nap (which is a good nap for me) and then Shawn and Kristanne came with the three boys. While they were still here Jamie and Kelly and the twinners showed up. We had lots of good food all day long and again, lots of love and laughter. About five pm we followed Shawn and Kris down to Kelly and Terrie's house to see grandpa Merritt - All of Kelly's family were there plus Jeff and Teresa and Skye and Katie Jo - so again, we enjoyed the love and laughter of our wonderful family. Teresa and Jeff added so much fun to the group.
Ed and I were getting ready to leave when the phone rang and it was Chase calling from North Carolina. Kelly put the phone on speaker mode and we all sat around the table for an hour chatting with Elder Nielson. It was great - and it was a marvelous ending to a marvelous day. As he bore his testimony of Jesus and all that Christ did for us I couldn't help but feel an even closer tie to my Savior.
People complain about how commercialized Christmas is but I love it because it gives me a reason to put smiles on the faces of the people I love the very most. Christ is the reason - we ARE celebrating his birth day - Thank you Jesus for inviting us to such a wonderful birthday party!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tonya, Brandy, Bobette
Here you go Brandy - your very own blog!! Cute pictures I think. Ed took these pictures at Jill's funeral in July. It is a fun grouping of some precious women. This is MY favorite of the three of you. You can simply right click and save it onto your computer. Then you can save them on a disk and take them to walmart - or you can download them right to wal mart and just go pick up the pictures when you are done ...or you can have ME send them to wal mart in your name. Let me know if I can help you/
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Making Wreaths!! What Fun!
Kecia and I and Jen all showed up at Jamie's house about 11 on Thursday morning with gobs of red and green ornaments (don't say balls around Jamie!) , red poinsettias, red and green ribbon, plain wreaths of various sizes and also a garland or two. We had four glue guns, and lots of wire too. Mauri and Melinda and Kris we missed all of you.
Of course first of all we got to ooh and aahhhh over the babies - they were sound asleep though - and certainly not the least bit interested in all the craft goings on!
this is a very poor picture of Taylie but I wanted everyone to see the pretty sparklies she has in her ears! so sweet!
Brayden was sawing logs too!
I thought she was going to wake up after the first flash went off - she stretched and opened an eyeball and then promptly went back to sleep.
Kecia found a wreath online at Lowe's that she fell in love with - green wreath with red and lime green ornaments. She put out the suggestion that maybe we could make it for less than it would cost ready made - I don't know if any of us 'saved' much money but we sure had fun copying it.
Okay - this is a the stuff I brought - now four times that with ornaments and ribbons and wreaths from each of us. The table was almost too small and Jamie had the leaf in it!!
My finished product was totally different than what was online - but it is ME - lots sof sparklies!
This is Jen's but of course she hasn't pulled the ribbons up tight yet - so we don't really get to see the finished product here,
This is Jamie's and it turned out really nice - their ribbon was a metallic red and added a whole different look than
Kecia's whose wreath has sparkly green ribbon in it. I apologize for the sideways picture - my new camera has a pretty good program to download the pictures with but the program decided that this was the correct way to 'show' the picture and I didn't realize it until I got it downloaded. Now if I were really a good mom I would delete this picture and put in another picture that was sitting the right direction and pull it down into place....forget that!! turn your computer sideways!
Here is another shot of my wreath. I have it hanging on my front door - and its not even the middle of November!! My poor Thanksgiving wreath is feeling really put out right now!
To finish off this blog I put in the video I took of Emma and her reaction to the babies.
So - we had a great time - I left before Kecia got her garland all decorated but I am sure it is gorgeous too - all of us can give ourselves a good pat on the back!
Of course first of all we got to ooh and aahhhh over the babies - they were sound asleep though - and certainly not the least bit interested in all the craft goings on!
this is a very poor picture of Taylie but I wanted everyone to see the pretty sparklies she has in her ears! so sweet!
Brayden was sawing logs too!
I thought she was going to wake up after the first flash went off - she stretched and opened an eyeball and then promptly went back to sleep.
Kecia found a wreath online at Lowe's that she fell in love with - green wreath with red and lime green ornaments. She put out the suggestion that maybe we could make it for less than it would cost ready made - I don't know if any of us 'saved' much money but we sure had fun copying it.
Okay - this is a the stuff I brought - now four times that with ornaments and ribbons and wreaths from each of us. The table was almost too small and Jamie had the leaf in it!! 
My finished product was totally different than what was online - but it is ME - lots sof sparklies!
This is Jen's but of course she hasn't pulled the ribbons up tight yet - so we don't really get to see the finished product here,
This is Jamie's and it turned out really nice - their ribbon was a metallic red and added a whole different look than
Kecia's whose wreath has sparkly green ribbon in it. I apologize for the sideways picture - my new camera has a pretty good program to download the pictures with but the program decided that this was the correct way to 'show' the picture and I didn't realize it until I got it downloaded. Now if I were really a good mom I would delete this picture and put in another picture that was sitting the right direction and pull it down into place....forget that!! turn your computer sideways!
Here is another shot of my wreath. I have it hanging on my front door - and its not even the middle of November!! My poor Thanksgiving wreath is feeling really put out right now!To finish off this blog I put in the video I took of Emma and her reaction to the babies.
So - we had a great time - I left before Kecia got her garland all decorated but I am sure it is gorgeous too - all of us can give ourselves a good pat on the back!
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