What? August is gone?

Holy Cow! It has truly been a whole month since I last posted. Our Internet has been down (whacked out router) for nearly the entire month and to be able to even read my e-mails I had to sit in the guest room closet hooked directly to the satellite. Before I remove the August page of my calendar and everything is completely erased from my memory I thought I would recap the month.

Kendra turned 19!!! On July 30th we headed down to St. George for the weekend (this is fast becoming tradition) to spend it with my sister. A highlight was being able to watch Tarzan at th Tuacahn theatre. The choreography was fantastic. These actors were doing amazing things up in the air. Loved the music. Funny thing: As we were leaving the theatre I saw a "monkey" perched up on a tall rock and I told Kendra that I wanted to get a picture of us with him in the background she resisted until I talked her into it. Well, the actor was watching this and so when Kendra came over he jumped off the rock and came behind her and right up to her face. Just as she saw him she screamed and Deanna took the picture. He really was pretty creepy looking. If any of you get down to St. George within the next month I highly recommend this show. Other highlights of our trip was swimming, (of course, 'cause it was so hot) watching Cranford II, and eating out at Samurai 21 (Kenni's fav).

That Sunday we drove to Vegas. Kendra flew out the next morning to Nashville where she spent the rest of the week with her cousins. I got to hang out with my mom and dad. It was great! I visited all of my sisters and just loved being there. The highlight of Vegas though was my new niece being born on August 5th. Scarlett Lucia (pronounced Loo Chee ah) is her name. Lucy is truly a miracle baby. My sister and her husband have wanted another baby for lots of years (Their daughter Gabby is 16) so to have this little one here safe and sound is such a miracle. And can I say she's about the prettiest thing I ever layed eyes on. (Of course I am a biased aunt:-)

While we were gone Rick and Gary (along with a group of guys) went on their annual Alaskan fishing trip. They fished, whale watched and ate to their hearts content. They LOVED it!

Skylar turned 2o on the 10th of this month. He and his companion celebrated by ordering a cake from the bakery. The cake looked wonderful but he said it wasn't that great. sad:(

Gary got his wisdom teeth out. What a trooper! His second surgery within a month. He swelled up like a chipmunk, of course, but is doing great now.

The day after Gary's surgery we loaded the trailer and headed up to the Uintahs for a three day camping trip. It rained cats and dogs the day after we got there. But we had fun in the trailer playing games (Boggle Champ Right Here), watching a movie, and napping. It cleared up in the evening and we had a nice dinner and some s'mores for dessert. Our second day there was perfect weather and we drove up to Mirror Lake where we hiked, played games, and the kids caught fish. TEN IN ALL! They brought them back to camp and cooked them up and ate them. (Whatever flips their lid....I refused to even touch them:) Anyway....Love the Mountains. Oh, and we saw 1 moose. We kept looking for more but........nothin'.

So school started the following Tuesday and now it's back to getting up early for scriptures at 6:30. Nope, I'm not a fan of early rising but what can you do?

Rick and I took an impromtu overnight trip to Phoenix last Tuesday to visit our nephew Robert who was in the hospital getting ready for surgery. We thouroughly enjoyed our visit with him. Such a fun, happy person even in the midst of all he was going through.

One last thing......Our ward choir sang in church this past Sunday. They were AWESOME! We sang "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" and we had 25 people singing. TWENTY-FIVE!! That is a far cry from the 4-5 people coming out for our practices 6 weeks ago. I hope we can keep up the momentum. (in case your wondering what the big deal is......it's because I am the choir director)

OK, I know this is a long post but now August will never be forgotten because it's actually written down. September? Bring it on!

TEMPLE(S) DAY

At the beginning of summer Rick and I talked about taking a couple of days and going to some of the temples in UT that we had never been to. Well, let's just say that it got shortened to 1 day. Tuesday night I met Rick at his office later than intended. (he was running behind too) We were hoping to get to the SL temple that night but we were both tired and hungry so we didn't make it. We did, though, stop at PF Chang's for dinner.

Can you say lettuce wrap?That night we stayed at Ellerbeck Mansion (again.....thank goodness for trade) up in the avenues. After a yummy breakfast we headed toward the Mt. Timpanogas Temple. I have never served in this temple before.

WOW! It's beautiful.
Next we were hoping to get down to the Provo temple because I have never served there either. We knew we wouldn't have enough time so we had a quick bite at a darling Bistro and Boutique called Dear Lizzie. (really, really cute) So we drove back into the valley and went to the Draper temple.


After we finished there we were hoping to get to The Oquirrh Mtn. Temple but they were closed for cleaning so we headed over to our old standby (The Jordan River). This used to be our temple when we lived in West Valley so we have lots of fun memories there.

All in all it was a great (but tiring) day. It's amazing that we have FIVE temples within 45 minutes of our house. We are truly blessed!

Top This....

This is totally a random blog today but here goes.

I was just upstairs doing laundry when I opened my sock drawer. It was so stuffed with socks that I could barely open it. After finding a few matches I decided to count what was left over. Can you believe that I had 43 socks that were missing their mates? FORTY-THREE! I hate the thought of having to throw away perfectly good socks because there's only one. I just KNOW that the sock's mate is SOMEWHERE in my house. Anyway, instead of searching for the lost mates ......I threw them in the trash.......yes I did. I will say that I could not bring myself to throw Rick's dress socks out........they are just too darned expensive. I'm just curious.......how full are your sock drawers? Can anyone top 43?

PS One of my boys.......I'll not mention any names (except that he has red hair and is on a mission:) used to love to wear mismatched socks. I thought it was a little strange but it didn't seem to bother him at all. In fact, I think he relished in the fact that he was carefree and didn't have to worry about 'the little things'. Crazy Kid!

Under the Knife.....Again

Today was yet another surgery for Gary. For 12 years now (since his accident when he was 5) he has had trouble breathing through his nose. At the time, he had severe trauma to his face and believe me he's got the scars to prove it. I took him in last month for an evaluation to see what could be done and the doc said he was 85 % clogged.

The poor boy hasn't been able to smell for years.

Here he is in his hospital gown. He's ready to go!The surgery took about an hour and a half. After he started coming out of the anesthetic they let me back to see him. I don't know if any of you have experienced seeing your kids drugged up but it is kinda scary. I must be getting used to it 'cause I didn't feel too freaked out seeing his eyes glazed over. It was actually quite humerous.

Kids say the darndest things when they're out ot it.

I know Gary has felt bad about how he treated me (and the nurses I might add) in his last hospital experience. (He was a BEAR)! I know this because he apologized 5 months later in my Mother's Day card. I believe he set himself a goal this time to be as nice as possible. The minute I walked into his recovery room he opened his eyes. This was our conversation. (remember he is still very drugged and slurring)

Gary: "mom, come here. (except it sounded like commeer)

The nurse was talking to me so he thought I didn't hear him.

Gary: (a little louder) COMMEER.

I walked to the side of his bed.

Gary: "I wanna hug."

I hugged him.

Gary: "See I'm nicer this time. I don't want to be mean................. I feel sooo good"!

Me: "You are Gary. Your last surgery was a little harder so I can understand. I don't blame you. Your a good boy....I love you."

Gary: "I love you too.......... I feel sooo good.

Then he fell back asleep. After 2 minutes he woke up saying....

Gary: "I want my mom"

I smiled at that and I said, "What"

Gary: "I love you"

Me: " I love you too, bud.

Gary: (druggily) "I feel GREAT.

A little later I was sitting at the foot of his bed and he jolted awake and said,

Gary: "I don't want you to leave." Another smile. (Last time he said to the nurse...."I told you not to let her in here!" Yes, he really said that.)

Gary: I can't believe how good I feel.

The nurse walks in.

Gary: I wasn't nice to my mom last time.

Nurse: "What do you mean last time"

Gary: "My last surgery."

Me: "Yes, but he's doing much better this time."

(I did not realize that he was so worried about being nice this time around. I am glad of it for sure. This was definitely a better experience than last time. He slept the whole way home and a few hours after. Here he is playing on Kendra's computer.

He'll have some teflon splints in his nose until Monday and then it will take a couple of weeks to fully recuperate. I can't believe how wonderful he has been. Really kind AND patient. So different than the last time. Maybe he is really growing up:-)

He gets his wisdom teeth out next month so that'll be another adventure:)