Grady: On The Road Again

Grady had to go back to Vernal this week because some vandals pushed some pianos off a stage and they need checked out. So he left today, and sent me some photos and a drawing he made of the trip. I thought they were cute and interesting. He is a good artist. He will be back on Thursday. Today I went visiting teaching and shopping and changed sheets and baked cookies and talked to people on the phone and it was a very busy day. It was good to push forward--I was starting to act like and feel like a total slug. Today was very productive and I feel better.

My Beautiful Daddy

Yesterday my dad passed away, having lived a wonderful and happy live for almost 96 years. He was such a sweet man and a good and tender father. On Monday Oct. 6 he suffered a massive stroke and went immediately to the hospital, where family gathered and comforted him. Yesterday morning, Oct. 8, he slipped quietly away and just stopped breathing. Those with him said it was a beautiful parting. He had no pain. We will miss him so much--there is no one who can ever replace such a giant.
Today is my 52nd birthday and I am still recouperating from surgery and cannot travel to West Virgnia for the funeral. It is sad but my terrific siblings are including me in as much as possible via cell phone and webcam. I so appreciate their love. Here are some photos I love of my dad.

Home from the Hospital

Thanks everyone for the beautiful flowers. As you can see, they are colorful and wonderful! The whole apartment smells like flowers (which we love). We also received a beautiful Unicorn from Edith and Willis but Uni is too shy and is hiding in the bedroom with Boney and Skinny, and cannot be photographed at this time--but she is cute with purple hair and hooves and talks just like the other horses we have in there, with a feminine touch. The big bouquet with orange is from work; the blue and gold is from Grady and the assorted pastel carnations (sorry but I printed this one sideways) is from Joyce and Steve, Carolyn and John, and daddy. It was also so good to talk to everyone on the phone and to know you had me in your thoughts and prayers. I can tell you prayers really make a difference. I feel so much better than I thought I would feel after such a big operation. HIP-HIP-HURRAY FOR BEING HOME!

A Wonderful Saturday

This morning I got up early and went on an exhilerating bike ride in the rain, complete with a huge rainbow that was framed against the Ochre Mountains on our west. I met the new neighbor and her 2 dogs, and had a nice visit before the rain started. She is a lawyer moving from Colorado. She is nice and is our ages so we will be good friends, I think. After the bike ride I went shopping and got lots of vegetables, because I am now a diabetic and have to watch everything that I eat. (I found out this week and I am going to a diabetic counsellor Monday morning and they will hook me up with test strips and the little machine thingy that tells me my glucose level in the bloodstream).(My sugar level was 142--before that it was 128--and both are over 120 so it is an official diagnosis of Type II Diabetes). (That really means my liver is encased with too much fat and it is secreting too much sugar into the bloodstream; the pancreas cannot keep up dispensing enough insulin to neutralize the sugar). My doctor says all will be well if I follow really strict diet plans and exercise. So the bike riding was great this morning. (Thanks to Grady's bike--mine has a flat tire). And so far today I did not cheat on food.
After shopping we went to see Jennifer dance in THE WORLD OF DANCE at the De Jong Theatre at BYU. It was just fabulous! The ballroom dancers, the Cougarettes, the ballet troupe, and the International Folk Dancers all were wonderful, along with wonderful music and stage props. Jennifer was in two dances--the Israeli one (and her photo is of the Israeli costume) and a North American (I think it was Canadian?) really fast paced one. Really fun to watch! Grady and I had her autograph our programmes when she was done. After we left Provo (and shot a pretty shot of the mts. in Provo with the leaves turning), we went to the Timpanogas Temple and had a wonderful time there as well. It was dark when we got out but I thought I would take some photos anyway. We ended the evening with Grady treating us to Pollo Loco, a new Mexican restaurant with fantastic chicken and side dishes that is inexpensive but great food! A wonderful Saturday after such a busy week. And my hysterectomy surgery is coming up on Monday, Sept. 29th (Beth's birthday)! I am starting to get a little scared.

Martin's Cove

Martin's Cove is a beautifully remote part of Wyoming, outside of Lander, and is an historical site complete with museum, visitor's center, and range rover transportation partway to the cove. Along the famous Oregon Trail and Mormon trail, it was where the Martin handcart company in 1849 sheltered during late October when 18 inches of snow had fallen, and caught the handcart pioneers off guard. They were stranded there for several days until help arrived from Salt Lake City and wagons rescued them on November 9. Many people died there and their bodies could not be buried because of the frozen ground and weak condition of the survivors. Bodies were hauled to one side of the cove and wild wolves would descend and fight for the flesh. It was a horrible thing. One woman made the men on corpse detail promise that they would put her fiancee's body in a tree trunk out of reach of the wolves, and she wrapped his head in her red shawl. She survived and lived to remarry and have six children in the future. Anyway, there were lots of stories told by the volunteers there and we thoroughly enjoyed our time. The Sweetwater River was crossed at least six times by these pioneers and it was a little river but could swell to a great size with the Fall/Winter moisture. One photo shows where the Sweetwater was crossed by the Salt Lake helpers, who hand-carried the stricken handcart pioneers across. The freezing cold waters caused great distress to the four young men who did the carrying. They did not die--but all suffered painfully for years afterwards from their efforts. Also in one photo is a little deer--this was the burial ground where the wolves ate--and if you look really closely, you will see the little fawn staring out at Grady and me. It was raining so Grady improvised with a bath towel for a hat (it was also a cold rain) and looks like a handsome desert shiek! We had such a good time on our trip! It is good to be home, though, and today is doctor visit day--blood draw at 8 am, gynecologist at 10 am, and mammogram at 3 pm. Fun, fun, fun. I had a uterine biopsy last week. They got me into see the specialist in record time, for which I am grateful. Hysterectomy, here I come!(hopefully)

Prairie Schooner

Lander, Wyoming: Day 2 of Labor Day Weekend Trip

This morning we woke up and went to church in Rawlins, then hit the road for Lander to the northwest. It was an overcast day but we managed to take lots of photographs and here are some beautiful shots of landscape, a covered wagon from a bathroom stop, the bathroom stall wall (I just love the rocks embedded in it) and some granite that I have samples of in my own house from other roadtrips. It was another fun day! Tomorrow we will see more of Wyoming and then head home.

Yellow Flowers

Sunset in Wyoming

Vedauwoo Rocks

Wyoming Weekend

Some people drive for miles in order to reach a destination. Grady and I drive because we just love the road trip itself. It is the journey and not the destination that we find is most important. We take long drives once we reach a central hotel--in this case, Rawlins, Wyoming--and use a reputable guide book to explore the scenic byways and dirt roads and historic sites and just----ohhhhhh--scenery! Rocks! Mountains! Prairie dogs and golden eagles and Western bluebirds and even today, a crane! Unfortunately my camera does not respond quickly enough to most of the wildlife shots but there is an antelope in one of my pictures,with him crossing the road in full splendor. Grady patiently parks the car while I find treasure troves of rocks--today it was some sparkly white, translucent rocks (probably some kind of marble), and some pinkish quartz and big chunks of unidentifable gems that make me feel richer than any diamond miner. I have rocks now in every room of the house. Last night I appreciated a rest stop that had the booth walls decorated with rocks embedded in concrete. What a great idea! Anyway, here are some of our pictures. One of them was at Vedauwoo Rocks, right outside of Cheyenne and a state park where the girls, Aunt Sara and I had stopped about twelve years ago on an earlier Western roadtrip. Hannah and Becky and Sara and I had climbed on some beautiful rocks for a couple of hours as a break from cross-country driving. I had forgotten the name of the place until we stopped there today. Vadauwoo means "earth born" and was a sacred place for the Arapaho peoples.

Boney Rules

Boney is our pet horse. Actually, he is a stuffed Appaloosa but we spend a lot of time with him every day as he pontificates and becomes colorful with all kinds of opinons on EVERYTHING. He is a scientist, with special interests in cosmology and astrophysics (we watched all of Deep Space 9 and Star Trek Voyager together; currently we are watching Steven Hawkings: THE UNIVERSE); he is a swimmer (he swims the English Channel in a variety of ways); he's a great psychotherapist (he lets us talk, talk, talk and he listens, listens, listens--then he has something interesting to say!). He makes us laugh and he enhances our enjoyment of life, keeping our hearts happy when we have had a bad day and sharing the good moments with us as well. Here is an artist's rendition of our dear friend. (painted by Grady,of course).

Bertha Engler

My mom was 13 when she moved out of the bustling Lee home of the 1930 depression years (when times were really hard) and became a housekeeper/gardener,etc for Bertha Engler, who lived in Helvitia, West Virginia. She loved "Miss Bertha", who was a school teacher by profession and who loved books and the outdoors. Mama got lots of her own personal interests from this time with Miss Bertha. Mama gave me a cookbook that had been Miss Bertha's and I use it quite often even now, the Amy Vanderbelt's Complete Cookbook, copyright 1961. She always spoke highly of her mentor and guardian and so when my sister Linda sent a photo of Miss Bertha when she was young, I was so happy! Hopefully this picture will show up on this blog posting so you can see, too.

Family History

If you are wondering what I have been doing lately, it is lots and lots and lots of family history research. This week I have spent over 30 hours and have found great new information! The Family History Center in Salt Lake is absolutely wonderful, especially since I discovered the card catalog for the place, and since I also began using Heritage Quest for census look-ups. (Thanks to Louise, who just left on Thursday morning.) Speaking of Louise, we had a fantastic time visiting and eating out together. (hurray for Coachman's). She is really a fun person! And Katie is moved into her new place in Provo. School starts for her and for Jennifer at BYU on Tuesday, Sept. 2. (Although the dance part of school started for Jen this past Monday--long days from 8 am to 10 pm each day--they have a program in --is it late September?). Paul is back as a senior at Utah State in Logan and starts this Monday (Grady is moving him in today--hence, I am able to do more family history research). And Beth is also back in school on Monday, at Fairmont State, pursuing a nursing degree. She was very excited today because she paid all her tuition and fees and has a great schedule lined up. She is also continuing to work at US Cellular 29 hrs a week (and they are reimbursing her for all her college money spent). This coming week I have a doctor's appointment (finally) and hopefully Dr. Christensen will schedule me for a hysterectomy soon (before I perform one myself I am getting so desperate!). I also have an appointment with a career counsellor for IHC, to steer me in the right direction hopefully. After my surgery I would like to go back to school or at least move forward with IHC in a more fulfilling direction.

Hutchings Museum

Katie and I went to the Hutchings Museum here in Lehi. It was really fun. It is a great natural history museum, and originally the site of the town jail was in part of the building. There were exhibits on World Wars I and II, the wild West, birds and mammals, fossils, clothes, old schools and school rules, an old organ and musical inventions, and rocks, rocks, rocks. I loved the rocks! We also enjoyed getting into the jail, the bank vault (Katie is partly behind the vault door in the photo), and trying on old hats. The little girls who were helping the museum lady that collected our money and welcomed us inside showed us the private room with the live birds: peregrine falcons with masks on (they looked dead until one moved and Katie gasped in surprise); great horned owl and screech owls, a cockatoo or some huge white plumed bird that talked a lot, etc. They were part of a travelling exhibit and somehow were in a back room today at the museum. We had a nice time. Then Katie treated us to Wendy's afterwards. We have had a fun time this week.

Katie at Willow Park

Katie Golden is visiting us this week and we are having a great time. Today was my day off so we went to see a matinee at the theatre (Kevin Costner in Swing Vote) and that was fun. Then we went walking at Black Willow Park. Here are some photos from our walk. And tonight we are cooking smothered pork chops, and Katie got all the stuff to make a fancy cake. Yummmmmm!!!

Chickens Crossing the Road

This morning on my bike ride a group of 4 hens crossed the street by a neighbor's house. By the time I could get a photo taken, 3 of them had disappeared into the hedge but one white chicken remained. Here is a photo. Last night I wished I had a camera handy because on my way to the library I saw a little old man and woman in a horse drawn carriage rolling down our street. It was a beautiful evening and it was fun to see remnants from the early 1900's still in Lehi.

"Bad Cat" (Bad Kitty)

Bad Cat (Grady calls him Bad Kitty) came to visit this morning and I tried and tried to take his photograph but he did not want to pose properly. He is such a good stray cat and he ate some turkey, walked all over our side yard, then came inside for a visit and an ear rub. He stayed for about five minutes and then he headed for the door and politely took his leave. He wanders all around the neighborhood and I think all of us love him. When Bruce died, he jumped into our truck when we were coming home, climbed onto each of our laps, put his front paws on our shoulders, looked us in the eyes, and then gave us a hug. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. He is very intuitive and sweet and loves the hedge on our side yard, along with the dirt and grass there.