Mini Posts 109 Degree Summer Addition

Finally Completed!

After six months, we finally have a completed sidewalk up to our home. I started back in February pouring individual concrete blocks and in May began the process of placing them in my front yard. We had to take a break from the sidewalk while we did the sprinkler system and the grass, but picked back up with the sidewalk in June. Shannon has been most patient as the project consumed every free Saturday morning and Monday evening for the last few months and I want to thank her for not killing me when I would come in completely exhausted and done at 1:00 p.m. on a Saturday and she was ready to do other things. I would also like to thank my back for not completely giving out on me at some point during this process. Picking up 18" X 18" X 3" concrete blocks is not a back's favorite thing to do, but no discs gave out and no muscles blew up at any point and for that I am also grateful. Up next for our front yard is the process of building a retaining wall type border around the grass and then bringing in rock to cover the rest of the dirt. No sweat! As long as no one expects a faster timeline than the sidewalk took.





The Mind of Logan



Logan and Braden have been in swimming lessons the last few weeks and it has been a really good experience for them. First of all, they both have been gearing up the courage and they eventually made it off the low dive. It was quite an exciting time for them and everyone was very proud. However, you can imagine Shannon's surpise when she looks over and sees Logan climbing the ladder to the high dive along with the instructor. With trembling legs they walk out to the end of the high dive. He stands there for a moment, looks in several directions and then he and the instructor walk back to the ladder and back down. Shannon asked him later what he was doing and why he didn't jump. He explained that was never the intention. He said, "I just wanted to see the view." Sounds good to me.





Temple Moves On



For those who don't live in our valley, the progress on the Gila Valley Temple is moving forward rapidly. This has been the driest monsoon season we have had in a few years and while at first, we wondered what we were doing that was causing the Lord to be upset with us, we realized that the dry weather has allowed construction to move forward with minimal stoppages. Whether that is the reason for the dry weather or not, I am not sure, but it certainly has helped. However, the heat has been oppressive so maybe it is a little of both. The Lord wants the temple completed and so no rain and for all of us who need to get our act together before it opens, here is a little (lot) heat to help you get your mind right. It hit 109 last Saturday here in Safford. Of course I was in the front yard working. Good times.

We look forward to the temple and are very excited for its progress.

Thatcher and Safford Town Council Update

As I mentioned in the last post, Safford has completely backed off of the library fees and it appears they may be gone for good. The pool non-resident fees remain and the golf course is still in limbo, but the library has been taken off the table for non-resident fees. So good news on that front.

If that wasn't enough, at the last Thatcher Town Council meeting, it was announced that over the next five years, the town will build a library/pool complex on the west side of town. YEEEEEHAWWWWWW!!!!!! With the reality that EAC's pool is probably not in it for the long haul, Thatcher decided to move forward with this plan and thereby resolve Safford's problem of Thatcher piggybacking off of them too much. I wonder how this will work for Safford since they were complaining about the money needed to run a pool now that it appears that they will lose half of their business over the fees they imposed. We will just have to wait and see.

The Progression of Kate



Our sweet little baby who barely began crawling a month or so ago decided it was time to pull up on the furniture last night in the middle of family home evening. This of course took all attention away from anything remotely spiritual for a while and it took us a moment to get back on track, but it was worth it. While she has been the best baby, her new mobility has shown that she is one of our busiest with regard to getting into things. But with a smile like hers, she rarely gets in trouble. She loves to reach and grab Shannon's earrings and is constantly told no. The other day, she looked up at Shannon and smiled her big smile and said, "Na na na na na." (Kate for no no no no no) and then reached over and grabbed Shannon's earrings. Not sure if that is a positive for getting the message across that she shouldn't be reaching for the earrings or a negative for the complete lack of concern shown in ignoring that message.

What Time Is It Anyway?

This has been my first month to conduct Sacrament Meeting and WOW I am not good at this. I have had three weeks now and every single week I have said "Good Morning" or referred to our meeting taking place in the morning and we meet at 1:00 p.m. Also, on testimony Sunday, Shannon pointed out that I tried to close the meeting 5 minutes after it began by saying we would have testimonies until 1:05 instead of 2:05. However, as poorly as I have done, at least I didn't have the experience that Kenny Smith, our High Priest Group Leader had in Priesthood opening exercises. An elderly man in our ward who lives in a nursing home wanted to attend a funeral of a recently passed friend of his. With his condition, this would not be easy and would require the help of some individuals. Brother Smith was asking for volunteers when he said, "Brother Whitecotton needs assistance in attending the funeral of a friend. She was a woman he was fiddling with at the nursing home." Upon realizing what he had said, he quickly backtracked and explained they had played the fiddle together at the nursing home, but the damage was already done.

One Final Thought

I urge everyone to write their congressman or woman regarding the Health Care initiative currently being considered. Having served my mission in Great Britain, I have seen first hand what nationalized health care looks like and believe me, we don't want it. We especially don't want to be rushed into it because a group of individuals say we can't wait for everyone to consider what is actually contained in the bill. This is a really, really bad bill and something that is important enough to ask anyone who will listen, to please take the time to write your representatives and express that it is not what we want. I will now step off of my soapbox.

The Misnomer of Fish Lake: AKA The Rapiers Go To Utah

It is hot. It is really hot. Not only is it hot, the humidity is as thick as I can remember it being in our nice little Arizona valley and we are just getting started with July. Which really has me looking forward to the 24th celebration in Pima later this month. It seems like every time it is held there, it should be renamed The LDS Human Bake Off or The Biggest Loser Mormon Community Edition. (The biggest loser comment refers to the amount of weight loss that occurs through the sweat glands of all present at the celebration and not any person or group of people who call Pima home. I just wanted to clarify.) I realize I sound a little testy about the heat, but that is all because we just spent several days in Central Utah where the temperature never really got much above 80. It was a little hard to come home from that. So with that intro, here is our story of the trip to Fish Lake.

This is the 15 passenger van we rented to drive to Fish Lake. In honor of the movie, RV, we referred to it lovingly as "The Big Rolling Turd".

Our story begins on Saturday, June 27, as we prepared to leave. This trip also doubled as the Danny Rapier Reunion 2009, so we had worked out to have my dad drive behind us to Mesa where we would rent a 15 passenger van and then make the rest of the trip all together. Once in Mesa, we had to then transfer all of the luggage and other items from our van and my dad's car into the new MASSIVE van. This happened at about 1:00 p.m. in Mesa...on the most humid day of the year thus far. I am fairly sure that I am now aware of what hell will consist of. It will be transferring luggage back and forth between vans in unbelievably oppressive heat. Between the head bumping, the profuse sweating, the trying to get wires and cords situated for portable DVD players, the stacking only to find out that your latest Tetris attempt is not going to work and various other frustrations, I think I created a new dictionary of made up swear words in an effort not to use the real ones. Then we were off to Flagstaff for the next leg of our journey and our overnight destination. We noticed a sign in the middle of Phoenix about an accident on Table Mesa Road. (Ok, time for an aside. Table Mesa Road...Really? Unless my spanish has completely deserted me, that translates to Table Table Road. It reminds me of the movie Mickey Blue Eyes when he learns that his fiance's father's restaurant is called, "The La Trattoria". He says, in the stammering way only Hugh Grant can, "Well...doesn't that mean The The Trattoria". Anyway, silly duplicate names in different languages annoy me. Maybe I wouldn't hold so much animosity if I weren't about to describe what happens next.) Sure enough, we travelled at a rate of roughly 2 miles per hour when we got north of Phoenix and in the vicinity of Table Mesa Road. Nothing like having your 12 hour drive turn into a 13 hour drive in the middle of it.

Once we made it through the traffic and had a good stay and visit at my cousin Shauna's house in Flag, we were on our way again after church on Sunday, June 28th. We drove, drove and drove a little bit further stopping in Page and Kanab before finally arriving at Fish Lake Sunday evening. Jerry and Kirt had enchiladas waiting for us, so we ate and pretty much went right to bed.

Hurry, take a picture quick! This is proof that we tried to put a life jacket on Kate. This smile quickly faded.

The next day, we went out onto the lake in a pontoon boat. By law, all children under 13 must have a life preserver on. Kate is not a fan of the law and promptly forced us to ignore it and just put her in her car seat while hoping the pontoon boat didn't sink. It didn't. Within the first ten minutes of fishing, I, the amazing outdoorsman that I am, caught a fish that was by far the biggest fish I have ever caught. This would prove to be the one and only highlight of the fishing portion of our trip over the next three days. Notice I didn't say it was the only fish we saw. We saw lots of fish jumping out of the lake and laughing at us, but this was the only fish we caught the entire trip.

Here is my trophy fish. Unfortunately, no one wanted to clean it, so we fed it to the local pelicans. That's right...pelicans. I had never associated pelicans with South Central Utah, but there you go.

Kirt letting Braden and Logan drive the boat. At least it gave them something to do since the fish weren't cooperating.

That night we ate at the Fish Lake Lodge and then went back to the Cabin and made Smores. At dinner, Abby was adamant that she get a Bacon Cheeseburger. As soon as she got her dinner she took the bacon off and then ended up putting the bacon in her to go box. I asked why she didn't eat it on her burger. She explained that she liked bacon and wanted it later, but really isn't a big fan of it on her cheeseburger. I have never considered myself to be an overly cheap person or someone who is obsessed about how every dime is spent, but this was a bit much for me. I explained to Abby that her Bacon Cheeseburger days had officially come to an end.



Over the next two days, we fished and hiked and hiked and fished or else did absolutely nothing. At night we enjoyed good food and then would play games until bed. We were sorry to see it come to an end.

Jerry enjoying a homemade Smore

But end it did and soon it was Thursday and we were packing up for the drive home. It rained on us most of the way home so we were glad we were leaving the day we left. One interesting thing we saw on our travels was a sign for a business in Orderville, Utah. First off, can anyone think of a name that sounds more Brigham Young inspired than Orderville. Shannon pointed that out and I have to say, I think she has a point. Anyway, in Orderville there was a sign for "Hoyt's Sporting Goods and CHAINSAWS". The emphasis on chainsaws is not my addition, it was emphasized on the sign. First off, you just can't beat the name Hoyt. Second, you hear a lot about the dangers of chainsaws and the number of accidents that accompany them. Well, if there is a large market for people who consider chainsaws to be sporting equipment, I may have found part of the accident problem. Moving on, we stopped for lunch in Kanab at a place called Denny's Wigwam. The food was good and the picture opportunities were even better. Below are a couple of the pictures we got during our stop there. When Braden saw the picture of Shannon standing behind the plywood cutout, he said, "Look mom, you are wearing your party dress." My only comment is, may I please have an invitation to that party.





After another night in Flagstaff, another van transfer and a visit to Ocean Blue (self-serve Frozen Yogurt place in Mesa...Highly Recommended) with Danae and Lamar, we finally arrived home on Friday evening. We were exhausted and ready to be home, but definitely glad we went.

Experiencing How The Other 1% Live

For several months, I had heard about the fancy golf course my sister-in-law Danica worked at but hadn't really paid attention to exactly what the course was. I had it in my mind that it was just a fancy public course that was like other fancy public courses I had played at where you are made to feel as if the staff is doing you a great favor by even acknowledging your presence, let alone allowing you to pay them large amounts of money to golf on their course. I should have paid attention a little closer because this wasn't exactly the case. More on that to come.

Cody had been trying to work it out with me to come and play the course for a couple of months. I am not sure of the exact way this works, but staff members are allowed to have a guest come and play in the off season as long as they aren't in anyone's way and don't embarrass anyone in any way whatsoever while they are there. Danica's last day was going to be on June 14th, but we worked out that I could make it on the 16th and the club allowed her to bring Cody and I two days after she was done. They apparently liked her and want her back during the busy season next year. Anyway, we were on and I made the trip down to play golf with Cody as well as get in a temple trip.

The part where I hadn't paid attention now came into play. They started to explain what this club really is. It is not a public course. It is a private club called Mirabel which costs $120,000 to join and then you get the opportunity to pay an additional $1,200 a month to be a member. That doesn't even cover your green fees. I started to get an idea that I was going to be in a place that was way above my pay grade.



So I drove down early that morning and went to the temple. Following my temple visit, I knew that clubs like this don't generally care for denim...anything. This was going to be a problem since my non-denim shorts and pants options had pretty much disappeared since moving to Thatcher. So I stopped in at Sears and found the cheapest non-denim shorts I could find. They weren't too bad. All right they were hideous. Especially when combined with my collared shirt selection for the day. (This selection has also suffered since I got on at the hospital). But at least I would be allowed on the course and my hideous clothing ensemble would probably be right in style with most of the senior citizen set who make up the clientale who would be golfing at that time of day on a Tuesday. Who knows, maybe if I had used some makeup to add some additional wrinkles to my face to go along with my almost translucent white legs and my "look at me, my rods and cones have degenerated so much I can't even tell what my clothes look like" wardrobe, I might have been able to take advantage of the special senior rate at King's Table later that day. (I am aware that King's Table no longer exists, but I had to give a shout out to the place where many a youth temple excursion ended before the long drive home. I just had to. And let's admit, nothing beat that bland, non-seasoned food of the King's Table.)

Anyway, after getting the shorts, (wow, I really got off topic in the above paragraph. Sorry!) I started driving north to meet Cody and Danica. I was cutting the timing close and it didn't help when I got lost for about 15 minutes. (Danica, there are two exits for Pima Road, just so you know.) Anyway, after what felt like driving to Utah, I finally got there and they put me in the back seat and got me through the gate. I hope this is the closest I come to experiencing an illegal border crossing. Once at the club house (Club Mansion), we walked up and had to dodge the odd Porsche or Jaguar. I walked in between two cars with my clubs and fortunately realized in time that the two vehicles combined had a value that would equal all of the money I have ever made since high school. I lifted the clubs above my head and didn't breathe while walking between them.

The really interesting thing is that the people who helped us out were much nicer than the jerky snots who work at the expensive public courses. However, that didn't mean I didn't feel completely out of place. I had to use the facilities before our round and when I washed my hands, it took about two minutes to realize there was no paper towel dispenser and that the rolled up hand towels were what I was supposed to use. I am such an idiot. An idiot in a bird poop orange shirt and non-matching plaid shorts.



We got out to the practice range and they had free balls to practice with. They had stocked our golf carts with four bottles of water and two towels. The carts had the full back support. There were comfort stations on the course where you could get free sodas and snacks. It reminded me of the Frasier where they opened up the restaurant together and they were talking about all the ways they could make it snooty when their dad says, "You could put snipers up on the roof and have them shoot anyone who tries to get in." I started looking around for the person who was clearly going to come up at any minute and tell me to get out because I didn't belong in this golfing nirvana.

Speaking of the golfing nirvana, that course was NICE!!! Especially the greens. It felt like I was walking on dense green foam. It was awesome. What was really awesome was that I ended up beating Cody by one stroke. I would break down the round in detail, but this post is already too long and most of you wouldn't care anyway.

I want to extend a massive thank you to Cody and Danica for getting me out there. It was a really awesome experience I won't forget.

In other news, the Safford City Council rescended the library fees for non-residents due to major public backlash. That is a good thing for our family, but the downside is that it takes the pressure off of Thatcher to upgrade our community. Oh well, we will keep at them. Also, Shannon said she was going to blog about my thirty...my latest birthday. I don't know if that is going to happen or not, but I am ok if it doesn't because as she stated, "Once you hit thirty-six, that is pretty much forty." Great. That is just great.

Ahhh...Small Town Politics

Life has recently gotten very interesting here in the Gila Valley. For those of you not familiar with our area, there has long been a rivalry between the neighboring communities of Safford and Thatcher. Well, that rivalry took an awfully ugly turn in the last few weeks. To give a full history, you have to go back decades. I don't particularly want to give a full history so we will only go back a couple of years. A couple of years ago, Safford decided that they would charge everyone who is not a resident of Safford who receives Safford water a higher rate than residents. This doesn't sound to out of line except when you consider that Safford receives most of their income from sales tax and not property tax. Thatcher residents are paying the same sales tax as their fellow Safford residents. Also, an agreement existed from when the water delivery system was created that Thatcher residents would never pay higher rates than Safford residents. That agreement is the main catch point. Rather than try and negotiate with Thatcher, Safford went ahead and started charging the higher rates. Thatcher sued and currently it is in litigation while we continue to pay the higher rates.

Shoot forward to a couple of months ago and now Safford is so enamored with their higher rates for non-residents idea that they have decided to charge non-resident rates for their pool usage and, even more recently, to charge non-residents of Safford $50 a year for an individual library card with a 5 item limit (residents have no limit on their library card) or $165 for a family library card. These higher rates don't just apply to Thatcher residents, they also apply to individuals with Safford addresses who technically live on county land. Needless to say, this has caused a certain amount of outrage throughout our valley. Most people would recognize the politically suicidal path this could turn out to be, but one of those people is not the mayor of Safford. My favorite letter to the editor of our local paper was from a man who said he asked the mayor what he should do since he will have trouble affording the $50 library card. He said the mayor told him he should get a second job. Keep in mind the current economy we are in and locally we are still trying to recover from the widespread layoffs recently carried out by the mining industry. That is caring for your constituents on the highest level right there. WOW!

So after all of that background, how does this affect our family? Shannon and I decided it was just too expensive to purchase a summer pass to the pool in Safford this year. Abby asked why we couldn't go swimming more at the Safford pool and Shannon explained why. Abby got very upset and asked what she should do. Shannon explained that about all she could do was write a letter to the editor. Which she did and delivered it to the paper before I ever got home from work. Her letter can be read here if you paste it into your browser line:

http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2009/06/03/opinion/letters/doc4a25952d264f0420686139.txt

I was very proud of her. I have since learned she has no desire to be a community activist and this will now conclude her interest in fighting city hall, but I suppose its a start. A pretty good start as far as I am concerned. But I had started to form my own opinions and felt that if my daughter could get involved, I probably ought to as well. So I wrote my own letter to the editor which can be viewed here:

http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2009/06/10/opinion/letters/doc4a2ee4000029f320878275.txt

Since I had opened the door, I felt I had better back it up and I attended the next Thatcher town council meeting. While there, I expressed that I believed we needed to be a self-sufficient community and asked what the council was planning to do with regard to building a pool, a library and working with Safford on assisting with the golf course so that Thatcher residents would not be charged non-resident rates at a facility that is within the Thatcher town boundaries. (For those not familiar with the golf course situation in Graham County, I am not going to explain it and you really don't care in the first place). I then asked if there were no plans, what could I as a resident do to make them a priority for the council and begin the process of looking into the feasibility of providing these resources. I then asked that if there is nothing I could do to make it a priority to please tell me so, so that I could then figure what my, and those who shared my concerns, next course of action would be. That is where it got interesting.

Those unfamiliar with the Thatcher town government are not familiar with the name Terry Hinton. Those who are familiar react much the way the hyenas in Lion King do when they hear the name Mufasa. Terry Hinton is the Town Manager of Thatcher. Terry is very confident in his beliefs on what is best for the town. Following my remarks, he shared that the EAC pool was now open and therefore what is the problem, just use that one. I pointed out that EAC had not opened their pool to the public in the two years previous and that yet again this year, swimming lessons were not available. I asked what guarantees are there this would not be the case in the future. He then challenged me that the EAC library is open to the public. I responded that the EAC library has no children's books and therefore does not meet the needs of a "family community." He explained that in these tough economic times, we need to be looking to partner with people instead of spending our money. He used the example of Thatcher schools renting EAC's football field for their games which is a huge money saver. I said that is true, but recently EAC has kicked The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and the Boy Scouts of America's Triatholon off their field because they don't like the effect it has on their facilities. What is to keep them from doing the same to Thatcher football? As you can imagine, we were not sharing our ideas while sipping gingerly from tea cups with our pinkies extended in a truly civil manner.

Then came the golf course. I was lectured that I don't pay any property tax to Thatcher (still not sure what that has to do with anything) and that why should residents who don't golf pay for my ability to golf. That is an interesting argument from a town that uses the golf course on their promotional material as a reason to come to our community. Also, following that logic, I am now claiming my independence from paying Social Security (which most of the council should be eligible for in the next 2-3 years if they aren't already). And then entered Dudley Welker. Dudley Welker is the town attorney. Dudley Welker appears to be old enough to have possibly drafted the original charter for the town over 100 years ago. If he doesn't move, you aren't sure he is real. However, to his credit he still has a nice head of hair which is more than I can say for myself. Over his long and varied career, Dudley Welker has apparently dealt with insane antics from Safford so many times that it has warped his ability to think or listen coherently when the topic of dealing with Safford is mentioned. Terry Hinton had just expounded on the virtues of partnering with other entities and so I suggested that with the local paper present, Thatcher should make an offer to reach out and assist with the golf course so that Thatcher residents would not take a financial hit yet again just for living on the west side of 20th Ave. (Everyone present was fully aware that working with Safford is a complete waste of time and it would never work. That was not the actual point of the comment.) That awoke the sleeping grizzly. Mr. Welker started in on me with how ridiculous it even is to have a golf course and the only reason it exists is because certain people in Safford like to play golf. (I actually thought that was a fairly reasonable reason to have a golf course. There are people in Thatcher who like to play golf as well, including one in a blue house on 1st Avenue, but I digress.) He went on to how many times he has sued the city of Safford and ended with a rousing rendition of "Kill The Beast" from Beauty and the Beast. Ok, he didn't do the last one, but I kind of pictured it just now and got a good chuckle. Anyway, as the conversation had pretty much played itself out, the mayor tried to bring it to an end when Mr. Welker said, "One more statement." He then looked at me, leaned forward and stated emphatically, "You could just move to Safford!"

That caught me by surprise and before I could take a moment to compose myself, I stated (shouted) back, "Or I could run for the council and make what I want a priority." Probably not my finest moment.

By the way, did I mention I had taken Abby to this meeting so that she could learn how to go through the proper channels of local government? Well, that went well. I am pretty sure she won't be writing any letters to editor again any time soon.

The coming weeks will be interesting and we will see how they play out. I can't help but wonder why it was again that I poked my neck out and got involved. I suppose it has to do with the way I was raised. Thanks again Mom and Dad. I owe you one.

Mini Posts, Spring Edition

Tis Graduatin' Season

Despite all of our best efforts to slow the hands of time, it just keeps marching on and another milepost just went by. Clinton graduated from high school this past week. This is the same Clinton who was just a cute 5 year old kid when I started dating Shannon. This is the kid who used to say You Nork instead of New York. The basketball fanatic who would spend hours upon hours outside shooting baskets to the point where he had to get a new basketball every year for Christmas because the previous one was worn out.

We went to graduation and it was a nice one. They kept it from dragging on too long and it was the first graduation I can remember where the salutatorian quoted Jerry and David Zucker (Creators of the Airplane movies) and Dr. Ruth Westheimer. I turned to Lamar during his speech and whispered, "They never should have given him that book of quotes without explaining who some of these people are." It was almost to the point that I was waiting to hear, "Never be afraid of the next frontier. -Jack Kevorkian." or "Tear down the walls that stifle your dreams. -Ghengis Khan." But it never came to that.

Although it has been four years since we moved here, I still struggle sometimes that I am now affiliated with the Thatcher Eagle system. So I couldn't resist the temptation to wear my red polo shirt with my gray slacks. Childish? probably. Immature? definitely. Do it again? In a heart beat.

As the ceremony was supposed to be outdoors, they had prepared a fireworks show following graduation. Due to weather they moved the ceremony indoors and announced that immediately following the ceremony, the fireworks show would take place outside. They meant immediately. No one in the building got to see the show, but apparently all the neighbors who didn't have someone graduating were all treated to a nice fireworks display.

I can't believe Clinton is out of school. Good luck old man and congratulations.

Long In The Blue Tooth

People who use blue tooth technology freak me out a little bit. Either they look like they have a growth coming out of their ear or you don't see it and they appear to be speaking either to you or no one and it just creates awkward situations. But I had never seen anyone representing the extreme elderly with the blue tooth technology until today. I saw a woman of advanced years walking in the halls of the hospital and it reinforced my belief that I will never use one of those things. Especially when I get older. The device was mostly covered by her hair and so (I totally recognize that this stereotypical and ageist) it appeared she was...how do I say this nicely...demented? That probably wasn't nice, but you get my point. It just looked like a woman who was content to be speaking to someone in her own little world. Again, no point here, but I will never use Blue Tooth. (I also will never use it because it makes Shannon think of the Borg from Star Trek and I certainly don't need my spouse equating me with that image.)

The Fam

Shannon's family was all here this last weekend for Clint's graduation and Melinda and Spencer's baby blessing. Below are couple of pictures from the weekend. As you can see, all those people finally got to Kate and she just shut down. This happened to Logan as well, but unfortunately for him, it happened in the middle of Golden Corral. He was sitting there eating and then all of a sudden, with his half eaten roll still in his hand, he leaned over on the table and fell completely asleep. When we were done, I couldn't wake him, so I picked him up and carried him out to the car. He woke up when I was putting him in his seat and said he wanted a drink. I went to hand him a water bottle and he said, "No, I want my root beer drink." When I explained that the waitress had taken his drink, he got quite upset, then it hit him. "What about my food?" I explained she took that also. "But I wasn't done!" He then cried profusely. I think it may have been a little bit much for him this weekend. Also, you can see that Abby got to see her Aunt Danica and got her hair done. They also went out to Dairy Queen together. You can't tell at all who Abby thinks is her "young, cool" aunt. Sorry Melinda and Danae, I think you had a shot until that over 30 thing came into play.





Wipeout

You can call us simple minded if you want, but my family is extremely excited that Wipeout is starting again tonight. I don't care how silly it is, there is nothing quite as entertaining as people getting whacked and falling into mud and water. Bring on those big red rubber balls!!!

Little League Baseball...or Rugby???

Braden and Logan start their Little League baseball games this week. Braden is an old veteren at this so nothing funny there, but Logan on the other hand is in his first year. His first game was yesterday and there is nothing as entertaining as a bunch of tee-ballers in their first game. Every hit produces a rugby scrum as they may not know much, but they know they are supposed to get the ball. We even had two occasions where the person who hit the ball, or a runner on base, got confused and ran with the rest of the other team to get the ball. In one case, they actually came up with it. You gotta love T-ball!





Final Thought I Should Probably Leave Alone

If Obama continues to have the government take over the banks, the auto industry and soon the health care industry, how are we going to be any different than Cuba or Venezuela? Oh yeah...we will still be the only country producing The Bachelorette. We're totally fine!

A Surreal Reality

There are some situations in life you wonder how you will handle them when they arise, but you don't really want to know because those situations suck. I suppose last week would qualify as one of those situations. Without dwelling too much on things that are depressing, I guess I will share some of the experiences I had last week as we dealt with the passing of my mother.

On Wednesday morning, my dad called to let me know my mom had taken another turn for the worse and wasn't sure how long we had. I had never been one who felt they wanted to be there when the moment arrived and so I asked my dad if he wanted me to come or if he was ok. He said he was ok, but would keep me updated. As it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered anyway as he called me back less than an hour later to let me know that my mom had passed away. I dropped everything to go and be with him. That was one of the weirdest moments of my life. Being with my dad in the house I grew up in, planning my mother's funeral with her being in the other room, yet not. As fortune would have it, my brother was already in transit from Utah just to come and visit and so he and Kirt arrived at 6 that night.

One of my favorite people in the world, my cousin Michael. The only downside about being around him is, he is such a fashion plate that he always looks so much better than I do. Oh well, at least I can claim him as a relative.

My dad's only real request that he really wanted was that my mom have a red casket. Because of the amount of time he wanted to have between the passing and the funeral (Wednesday to Saturday), it looked like we would not be able to get a red one. Thankfully, the folks at Caldwell went out of their way and were able to find one in Tucson. We found out the next day the reason he really wanted that red casket. He told us that she always looked good in red.

By Friday, family had started to arrive and so we did what any family would do living in the Gila Valley...We gathered at Casa Manana. I felt a little bad for the owners of Casa. It was already a very busy Friday night, but then you throw in our little party of 22 and it slightly taxed their whole system. But they took good care of us and you can't beat their fish tacos. Shannon has raved about them for years and I am only recently getting on board, but they tasted good.

Logan did not like having to wear a flower. However, his problem seemed small when Braden found out that being an Honorary Pall Bearer didn't entitle him to actually try and help carry the casket. In his own words, "Honorary means you don't get to do anything!"

The day of the funeral it just didn't seem real. Shannon had worked so hard on a number of collages and display items that when she was in the midst of getting it together it seemed like a lot of effort for such a short amount of time. But when it was all put in place, it made such a wonderful difference. Special thanks to Kerrie Scarbrough for all of her help on the collages. Of course, all of this means that I have to admit that my wife is smarter and wiser than I am...again. She did such a wonderful job and the effect it had on my dad made me just that much more grateful to have married such an angel.



It was nice to see so many people who mean so much to us. Some of my favorite people in the world were there and I realize yet again how little I see some of the people who mean the most to me. My three best friends from high school came and we realized the four of us had not been in the same place for over 20 years. Needless to say, we took a picture. It is funny because Jerry saw all of us talking at the gravesite and ran over to Shannon and said, "You have got to get a picture of that." "Already taken care of", she said. She is so perfect she might be getting a bit smug about it at this point. Just kidding dear. It meant so much to me to have everyone come who did. My friend Jared and his sister drove down from Salt Lake on about 36 hours notice. I don't know if I could ever put into words how much that meant to me.

First time in 20 years we were all together. If only Brandon had been there. We took this picture in order of hair loss. It is sad that I got the end position of that line up.

That night, we invited Jared and Allison (his sister) to stay and play Runs and Bunches (a rummy type game played with Rook cards) with us. It seemed the fitting tribute to my mom as this was such a staple in our family. In fact, on the way home that night, Shannon said she could remember when we were first married, coming to Duncan and spending weekends where we would get up, play cards, eat, play cards, eat some more, play cards until Midnight and then go to bed. Good times. So we played in memory of my mom and we remembered and laughed and it was great. We may have times of sorrow still to come, but that night was truly a happy time on the day we said goodbye to a great lady.

I love you Mom!

Kate did amazingly well. However, by this point, she was about done.


In other news, the previous weekend had seen the arrival of sod for our front yard. With the help of Heath, Rhett and Paul McMaster, along with several of Paul and Rhett's boys, we got it all laid out and from the picture you can see how the progress is going on the yard project. I can honestly say that in spite of all of the days of massive amounts of dust blowing right in my face while putting in the sprinkler system, there is no better feeling in the world than watching your sprinklers come on without you doing anything to make it happen. It is a beautiful thing.

Til We Meet Again

1949-2009