Us Too

Martha - about 1957

Lacey about summed up this weekend church wise.

Yesterday was finally a beautiful day. I washed both cars, picked up tons of cat crap (I didn't think we had a cat), weed-eated, mowed, sprayed Round-Up, moved the camp chairs to the deck, and still made it to all my meetings. Not without some internal complaining about losing the best part of a nice Saturday (I must have learned it from Kevin).

This afternoon we had the first "smore" cookout on the deck. Seth, Weston and I rather enjoyed it. Seth and I took naps on blankets on the lawn and I seem to have gotten a little too much sun on the old forehead. Not to worry, the forecast calls for rain tomorrow and snow by Friday. You could have bet on that one because we have a Ward BBQ set for Saturday at Gormely Park. Pray for us. It is the end of the semester social - we will lose about 1/2 the ward by Christmas. Hope we get a bunch of new move-ins.

We had the bid opening Wednesday for the Colfax addition. It came in at 1.4 million - a little under what we expected. They should start by the end of May. Colfax is thinking of either trying to rent a building at the Palouse Fair Grounds or put up a tent on Bishop Mellor's outdoor sports court and be like the old revival meetings. My guess is that they will probably travel to Pullman or Moscow and use one of the existing buildings. They may shorten the three-hour block to two (I'd vote for that).

Travis - how did you do the world map showing the places you have been? I'd like to try something like that for my life history.

That's about it. Have a good week.

PS - Kevin, I'm in for a work party if we can work it out.

PPS - We haven't forgotten the pictures. Now that the computer is working at blazing speed it will be easier.

Whoppers for Breakfast

Any day that begins with Whoppers for breakfast is bound to be a good one. And it was. This morning I woke up and rummaged through my underwear drawer (where I hide all my chocolate) for the 12 oz box of delight I knew was waiting for me. After several hand-fulls, I was ready to face the sun-filled, 68 degree day. Can I just say it's high time that spring arrived in Provo?! I was starting to feel like I was living in overcast upstate NY.

As the weather was so tantalizing, we spent the morning on the porch, sitting in the sun, and watching our neighbor Josh wax the truck (he couldn't stand looking at the scratches and dull paint on the truck, and after showing us how much better a small area on the hood looked with wax, he proceeded to do the entire thing). Don't worry, we weren't completely ignoring the Sabbath. I was also preparing a primary lesson.

After church, we had one of our neighborhood BBQs where everyone brings their own meat and a side dish. There were 6 couples on our lawn and porch (good thing we mowed the lawn yesterday) and we had a feast of salads, casseroles and desserts.

And to top it all off, I still have another full box of Whoppers to go...

Um, yes...we also had Stake Conference this weekend

Saturday was one of those days where we had somewhere else to be every hour or so. I had a baby shower in the morning. While I was there, Seth took Weston to Wal-Mart to get a birthday present for Scott Billy's little boy, Joey. While there, Weston decided he didn't want to leave and Seth got to carry a screaming Weston from the back of the store, stand in line and then haul him out to the car still screaming and with no desire to get in his car seat. Seth kept his cool though. After the baby shower I quickly made lunch while Weston finished his nap and Seth went to softball practice. When Weston woke up, mom came and picked us up for the birthday party. Weston got to wear some new shorts to the party (they'll factor in later...) Mom dropped us off at Eggan Youth Center and we celebrated with Joey. Weston and I walked home to the parents house and then Mom took us home so that we could get ready for the evening session of Stake Conference. Seth had left softball early so he could go practice singing for the Priesthood Session. After the Priesthood Session, Seth helped setup and move every chair in the building to the gym. Meanwhile, I was trying to convince Weston that his new party shorts were not appropriate for Church. He has been sick this past week with an ear infection, bronchitis and toncilitis so I considered not going to conference, but he really has been feeling better. Well, Weston threw the biggest tantrum he's ever thrown and when I suggested we pray to help settle him down, he completely lost it. With his shorts half off, I wrestled his church shirt on him and when the parents got here to pick us up, Weston was in his jockey's and church shirt, so that's how we went to church. Mom carried a screaming Weston to the car in his red undies and I followed with Koper wondering why I was taking my tired children to a 7:00pm-9:00pm conference session. Weston screamed the whole way and Grandpa threatened him that he better not throw-up in his car. Seth met us in the parking lot of the church and helped Weston put his pants on. The first speaker was Mark Skinner who spoke about using kind words in our home...Sis. Eichner thanked the parents with small children for coming and the general authority said we were where we needed to be, except those of us on the back row, if only he'd known that if he wanted us on the front row he'd be staring at Weston's red undies. So, yes, Kevin I know how you feel. All in all, it has prompted me to write these stories down.

Z3 Update

Have you ever had one of those Saturdays where you have to work all day and rarely see the family then you arrive home and quickly shower and change so that you can go to a stake leadership meeting at 4:00 and your son asks if you really need to go since all he wants to do is play a game with dad and you tell him sorry but your calling requires you to go and as you are driving to the meeting you feel bad about leaving your son and you would rather skip the meeting and when you finally get there you're still feeling antagonistic toward the meeting but after you hear the first speaker you realize the value of being there and by the time the meeting is over you're glad you attended because it gave you a spiritual boost and when you get home you're feeling good and your wife isn't too mad at you anymore and the kids are glad to see you again (before you go back to the evening session) and everything worked out?

We had Stake Conference this weekend.
This afternoon Lisa suggested that we drive down to Parker to look at several homes our realtor had identified for us. We saw one that normally would have been out of our price range but it was listed at $140,000 because of flood damage. We peeked in the window and saw exposed joists in the ceiling and crumbled drywall on the floor. Color me crazy, but the home interested me. What's a little sweat equity I thought? It would be fun to do some demolition and remodeling. I've got time, right?
Lisa's been busy dejunking the house. Right now all the junk it out of the cupboards and closets. We put about half of it in a storage unit. The other half is still waiting for the prefix "de-".

Signing off.

Pond Renovation

Here is a project I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. A lady in our ward wanted a waterfall. She paid a guy to build her one, but it was never what she wanted. I told her I would help her get it fixed up. I kept the hole and the skimmer (pump box) but changed everything else. I laid in new plumbing and a new liner then re-rocked it in moss covered rock.

I then found a beautiful rock for the waterfall. Tyler and I brought it into their backyard with a Dingo through a four foot gate. (The rock is 4 by 7 feet and weighs 1500 pounds!) Good thing Les wasn't around as I had Tyler ride on the machine as counterweight to keep it from tipping over. I drilled a 2 inch hole in the rock and the water bubbles up and then spills down the rock. I wish I was a better photographer because it looks really cool. I think I need to use longer exposures when photographing water. Lacey and Marlo, where are you when I need you?

After all my work, the homeowner's favorite part is where I hid the bio-falls (filter box.) She likes how the water bubbles up through the gravel like a spring. It is the small waterfall on the left. I probably should change out the water from the initial fill, but the lady was so happy to see it run, I couldn't bring myself to shut it off and change out the water.

See ya on the blog tonight-

Brant