The Long and Short of it

We start with the long. Long and lanky #6 child - Chelane came over to help dear old Dad put up The Christmas Tree. Come to think of it, the tree is kind of long and lanky by itself. Weighing in at over 400 lbs. and about 15' tall (counting the angel), it is the tallest tree I have ever seen in a home. Even some of the homes I worked on in Park City didn't have trees this big ... and they could afford to have Modern Display come over and set them up for them. Of course, most of the owners were Jewish. That could have something to do with it.

We love our tree. We love the feeling that comes into our home when we set it up - correction - after we have set it up. There is usually a period of wailing and gnashing of teeth as we struggle to haul it in from the garage where it resides most of the year in three specially made coffin sized boxes. This is usually followed by several profane epithets when we discover that several sections of lights (it has about 4000) have failed to light again this year. This year we were lucky - we planned ahead at Chelane's request since she is so short on time, and got the replacement lights ready. We didn't need them this year. Only about 30 lights failed to work and we know about where the short is located. We decided to hide that section at the back of the tree.

The short of it comes with Janene. Her efforts to decorate the tree this year will probably be limited to the height of a third grader's reach. The most important ornaments go at the bottom of the tree each year. These are the ornaments the kids love. They love to touch rattle and tweak all the ornaments they can reach. We just remember to put the irreplaceable Russian ornaments on the top and leave Neil Armstrong in his space suit down low. "Houston - Tranquility Base here...." The decorating will be a little slower this year, but it will get done. I promise.

Thanksgiving Bonus - 1 - 2 - 3

While we were preparing for our Thanksgiving dinner, Brooke and Steve came over to make a short visit. Brooke made special shirts to show the birth order of their kids. There was just one small problem. We thought they only had two kids. Silly us. We should have known better. I have to admit that this time I didn't know before today. I have been able to tell when all of my daughters have been expecting before they told us, but not this time. Mikey says he is going to have two more brothers. Hopefully, there is not a #4 hiding in there somewhere. Sometime around the end of June we will all find out if Mikey is right.

Baking with Grandma

Mikey decided to help Grandma bake an apple cake tonight because she is sort of an invalid.

Mostly Mikey wanted to sit on Grandma's tall drafting chair that lets her sit in the kitchen. Of course, that meant that Grandma had to stand on one foot or use her crutches to do her baking.

He got to not just lick the spatula, but he got to keep reloading with fresh dough to lick off. MMMM Good!

38 Short Years - The Grand Adventure Continues

It seems like just yesterday that I first met Janene. I had just celebrated my 15th birthday when I met her. I remember coming home from our summer science class after spending a whole day with her in the mountains above Coalville and finding my mom in the utility room of our new home in Bountiful. Mom was sorting clothes and ironing. I told mom all about this wonderful girl I had met. She sounded a little worried, but ended up telling me I was just twitterpated.

Three years later and we were married. That was 18 Nov 1971. Being married to that girl was the grandest adventure of my then young life. I would come home from work and marvel that I got to be with this girl all the time. We could do what ever we wanted ( so long as we could afford it). If we wanted to stay up all night, we could. No one could tell us when to go to bed - or not to go to bed!

Over the years, it has come to be a little more normal, but every morning I wake up and think "I am the luckiest man in the whole world!" It has been 41 years since that day I told my mom that I had found the girl I wanted to marry, and I am still "twitterpated". What a ride!

Janene is still recovering

I took a picture of Janene when she was not feeling really well. She had been working with the girls making fruit bouquets (as seen in the picture). This is how Janene eats dinner. She has to put her foot up on the table to keep it elevated. Because she was feeling crummy, she thought her face was not as pretty as it should be. She told me I would have to find a prettier face to put on the picture. "Just do a cut and past with Photoshop" she said. It turns out I am not smart enough to do that - so I did a real "cut and paste" with pictures and scissors. Isn't she lovely? I think the hemorrhoid cream is doing wonders for the bags under her eyes, don't you?

3 Alarm Surgery

So - What are the odds? My mom is in the hospital, has been there a day while they try to figure out whether they need to do surgery. She started having some heart difficulties, so they sent her up to Intensive Care. On the way, she thought she smelled smoke, but then brushed it off as an effect of her problems. She sometimes smells smoke when her medications are not quite right. Then she heard the "Code Red" over the PA system. Mom has been in the hospital enough to know that means a fire has been reported somewhere in the building.

As soon as they got her stabilized, they took her off to surgery. Meanwhile, Dad took this opportunity to leave the hospital and meet us down at the Regional Center to get our H1N1 flu vaccine. Dad came early so we missed him, but when dad came back to the hospital, the fire department wouldn't let him back inside. There was a fire on the eighth and ninth floors and the hospital was in lockdown. Eventually he was able to convince them to let him back in.

Mom is doing much better now, but the surgery was more extensive than she had hoped, and was pretty painful. We all are praying for her and wish her a speedy recovery and return home.

Heather - Are you home?

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=460&sid=8661042&pid=0

Yesterday I drove past a horrible wreck on the freeway. It took me over an hour to get to Draper - and I got off the freeway at I-215 at Redwood Road  to avoid the backup. On the way back to Salt Lake, I saw it from the northbound lanes. It was a maroon Montana van just like Heather and Joe's. There is a link above to the pictures.

Immediately the thought crossed my mind that this could be Heather. Since it was obvious that nobody could survive this crash, all sorts of pictures came to mind of my daughter and her little family being scraped off the pavement. Then reason kicked in, and I realized that it had been a couple of hours and someone would have called me. I had my cell phone, so - no problem, right?

As I got out of my next appointment and headed for home, I couldn't take it any longer and called Heather at home. I was never so relieved to hear my daughter's voice. She assured me that she was fine, but that she had been thinking how scary it was to pile six precious souls into one vehicle and go hurtling down the road at 60-70 miles an hour. Any one of those trips could end up like the guy I saw on the freeway.

I realize now that there is a family somewhere who did get that phone call. They found out that their daddy isn't coming home any more and that many other people were hurt because of him. Somehow, we think that because it didn't happen to us, it is OK. There is something wrong with that, don't you think?

The Unveiling - and the love of a sister.

Some things aren't very pretty. The bottom of Janene's foot looks pretty good. The part that looks like peeling skin is really just fluffy cotton that was stuck after removing the wrapping. Notice the smile on Janene's face - NOT!!! That's because she is looking at the top of her foot, a much different sight.

Here is Janene's new foot. The word "YES" was written by yours truly to verify to the doctor that we were going to operate on the left foot. This explains why Janene has been in so much pain. It kind of looks like one of those little dolls we used to have with the X's for eyes. Janene has kept her foot up and packed with ice, so there is not a lot of swelling. Do you think it looks like a lady's foot yet? Fit for a glass slipper?

This has been an eventful week. Janene scared us a time or two. If you want to know why and how, call her and talk to her. She can tell you about it if she wants to. I will only say that Devennie and I didn't sign up for this. We will both do whatever we can for Janene, but if they had told us what was going to happen, we would have said no.

Devennie was incredible. Not only did she drop everything in Oregon to come here, but she stayed up all night with Janene the first few days, and was so worried and scared that she couldn't sleep the rest of the time. She spent a whole week caring for her big sister. I don't know how we could have done this without her. I marvel at the love that sisters have even though they live a thousand miles apart. It's just like how Morton dropped everything in his life when David died and came here to care for us. Some bonds can never be broken by distance or time.

KA BOOM!!!

2.1 Miles Away

The other day, I left Janene at home while she was recuperating. At 9:13 AM, she heard a big boom, louder than any sonic boom she had ever heard. It rattled everything in the house and even knocked over a dish in the china cupboard. It turned out to be another explosion at the Silver Eagle Refinery across the street from where Shon works. Shon's boss, Ray Keller, was interviewed for the news because it knocked a light fixture down onto the head of one of our friends, Bill Duffin, in Ray's office. Since this is not the first time this has happened, Ray's secretary got up from her desk, ran out, got into her car and took off.  Ray was quoted on the news saying " If you see a scared woman driving south toward Moab going 100 miles an hour, tell her to please come back."

I am glad we don't live closer. It was a lot worse down there with several homes being condemned. Ray said it brought to mind the thought that at any moment, our lives could be over. It made him think "Am I ready for that possibility?" That is an all too familiar thought for our family.