Bear Lake. . . July 24th with the Preeces

As you can see, I am way behind in my blogging. On the 24th of July, we invited Danalin and family to join us at Bear Lake. One of my favorite places. I'm addicted to vitamin D. They left Baylee home with Dana's mom. It was a great day. Hot!

There' nothing like the sweet taste of freedom! Which brings me to another thought, I'm grateful for the pioneers for sacrificing everything they had to come to Utah, so we could enjoy religious freedom

Happy Pioneer Day, two months late

July 29th Back Surgery

The goodies that were sent home with me from my surgery. One black back brace, one wrist tag and one bottle of percocet!

I had surgery on my L5/S1 disc due to a pinched nerve. Dr. Felix did a mirco diskectomy to clean the disc away from the nerve. The surgery went well. I was quite nervous about having it and prayed to have the comforting influence of the Holy Ghost. Wow, what an awesome experience to feel since peace. I came out of the anesthesia just fine, and I very little or no pain.

I went into surgery with extreme pain down my right leg and a numb foot. I did three weeks of physical therapy at no avail. What started the problem was going in for an epidural injection which only inflamed the nerve. The night of the epidural, the pain in my leg was so intense that I went to the ER. Dan was already in bed, so I had Ethan take me, a fine mother and son outing. When I woke up the next day, my foot was numb which was new to me.

I came home from surgery feeling pretty darn good but that could have been the drugs. The next day, I didn't feel so chipper. I still had the awful pain going down my leg and the numbness. After a week of this pain, I went back to the doctor and he prescribed a steroid to shrink the swelling around the nerve. It worked! No more pain down my leg BUT my foot is still numb. The doc says that's the last thing to recover.

My third week, post-surgery, my incision became infected. I thought it might have been because I sat in my pool the day after I was given the OK to swim. NO more pool for me. I cheat though, I walk around in the pool as it's not high enough to wet my incision. The doctor examined my infected incision and thought it would be fine and he noticed a suture working its way out. Another week has passed, and I'm still oozing. The stitch worked its way out about 1/2 inch and Dan cut it off. Now there's a little hole that likes to weep. Bless Dan's heart, since my arms don't reach around to clean and bandage my wound, he has stepped up to the job. He's the man of great distinction.

Going on my fourth week, and I'm still weeping (oozing, but weeping sounds less gross). I called the doctor and they called me in an antibiotic and he wants to look at it tomorrow. I've seen the doctor every week since the surgery. I'm getting wonderful care.

I could add pictures of the stages of my incision. Would that GROSS everyone out? ? ?

The Alaskan Experience

Brady and Jess went to Alaska the end of June and spent a week. Jess has a friend from college living there, who they stayed with. Ethan and I babysit Ellie, their love able dog. They brought back a huge swag for all of us. I learned that swag means presents. Brady and his new video camera shot hours of video that we enjoyed watching. Now I wanna go to Alaska, but I wanna go to a lot of places. Brady and Jess are our world travellers. Last summer, they went back to Wisconsin to visit her family and they took our little Ethan along. He now loves drove trips. They spent several days at at family cabin at Eagle River. I could have some of the cities and facts wrong, but I'm doing my best to remember. They went to the World's Largest Mall and Mount Rushmore, just to name a few events. Oh yes, there was a bear in Jess' mom's backyard one night when Jess was letting her dogs out to potty. Jack and Ellie went on the trip too, with the help of a "dog sleeping pill", the trip was a breeze.

Toe nail art by Dana Preece

I think those are real diamonds

Fun in the Sun with friends

The date is wrong as to when this happened. I'm about two or three weeks off.














Livi likes to be the girl that sits on the ladder. I asked her if she wanted to be the life guard and she said, "No, the girl with the whistle."

Liv and I swim together quite often, playing make believe games, like I'm her baby or the little inter tubes are the other siblings. It's all good fun in the sun. . . just as long as mom says I need to take a nap. . . then I relax for awhile and then the fun starts all over again. Life couldn't be simpler. I am blessed to have such a true friend as Olivia.















The Evans kids! They're always fun to be with. All that is missing are the Aschcroft kids and it would be complete.

Boy howdy, them's some Shiners!

Danton fought a towel rack and won. He went to bed not knowing what he was going to wake up with.

Konnor celerated the 4th of July with a BANG. We went to our special spot on campus to watch the fireworks. Dan put out our chairs at 7 a.m. One can never be too early to save a spot, that's our motto. Jason, Danalin, Taylor, Konnor and Baylee joined us. The Mark Ashcroft family was there as usual and the Kyle Ashcroft family. This is our little tradition to sit in this special place and enjoy the fireworks together. We won't see Kyle and Susan until next year, even though they also live in Hyde Park, funny how things work.

Back to poor Konnor, he was sprayed down with OFF, but unfortunately, the next morning, he woke up with this new look. He wears it well.

We had fun watching the fireworks. It was fun to have Danalin and family with us this year.

I found it quite humerous that TWO lads in our family had black eyes in the same month.

Setting up POOL #2

I had some great help to set up my second pool of this season. The first pool lasted just under one month and the filter died. We returned the whole shootin' match to the store box and all, and they gave us a brand new one. Yippee. . . another pool to set up. Nevertheless, I had some great help. Luke and Ethan, and Meg and Liv, I couldn't have done it without them. For most of the time, we worked as a well oiled machine until Ethan or Luke got tired and we took a break of sorts.

I love my pool. Dan is so good to me to buy me a new pool each year, and he says, " it's my pool". I could spend hours just floating around my spacious watering hole. The neighborhood is always welcome to take a dip with me. I have one rule. . ."No peeing in the pool!"

Father and Son

Dan and Ethan just chilling on the swing in our backyard. Happy as two peas in a pod. Notice the ladder up against the shed and a lawn chair on the roof. That's Ethan's spot for the fire works. He is so special to me.

The sun never sets on a KOOL Cat

Taylor and Konnor

Guys just hangin'

Konnor and Ethan just hanging out together

eating a Popsicle. It all sums up to be

one uncle and one nephew enjoying life in their

own simple way.

BFF's

(Best Friends Forever)

Coco and Livi

Taken in the summer of 2007

Introducing Sugar and Spice

ONE DAY OLD

Sugar and Spice

They were so fun to try and catch and hold. They were adorable little creatures.

The Stock landed . . .

It's a Boy and It's a Girl.

Our beloved Pepper had her babies on Friday, May 23, 08 at around 7 pm. We all gathered for the special event with great anticipation and concern. Every time Pepper had a contraction, we could see the little hooves, then afterwards, they would disappear. I was a nervous wreck. Her contractions were 4 1/2 minutes apart. The look on her face can not be described. . . the pain and agony. But finally, the hooves and a little nose appeared and suddenly dropped to the ground. Bill rushed to the baby's aid, wiping her off and laying her by her mom's nose. But Pepper wasn't finished yet. A few minutes later, another little nose and hove appeared. Dan was concerned as there wasn't two hooves. Dawned with rubber gloves, he felt inside and there was another leg but it wasn't pointing in the wrong direction. The good doctor that he is, he started pulling the little guy out. The baby was trying to breathe while still in the sack so Dan pulled the membrane away from his nose. Pepper just about hit the ceiling when Dan tugged on her baby. The pain! Eventually, the baby came out. I guess we could have let nature take it's course. . . but that wouldn't have been as much fun. Dan was concerned that Pepper needed to lick her babies clean and bond with them, but Pepper fell asleep. So Dan and Justin Evans wiped off the babies. After her little nap, Pepper regained her motherhood, and frantically licked her babes. By this time, they were trying to stand and then walk. Her tongue was going 90 miles a hour cleaning those babies.

It was a fun Friday night activity!

Baby girl born first

Baby Boy last. Born with Dan's gloved assistance. He should have been a vet.

Kinda a messy and gucky. The Evan's and Dixon were at the birthing event. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Quite a special event for the neighborhood.

Happy 51st Birthday BILL

Just gotta wish you a Happy Blogger's Birthday even though you'll never see this. It's not cuz you're blind or can't find you're glasses. . . .you're not a blogger like your better half. You can't view it on your work computer and I don't think you know we have a computer in our computer room at home. . . .nevertheless

We all love you to pieces!

Dan and Baylee

Positive Vibrations. . .

"If you have a positive thought your body actually goes into a positive vibration, you actually attract everything that resonates with that vibration."

Smallest House

This house, located near the intersection of Dufferin Street and RogersRoad is believed to be Toronto 's smallest house. Occupying what used to be a driveway, i t's a one bedroom, one bathroom home that sits on aparcel of land 7.25 feet (2.2 metres) wide and 113.67 feet (34.6 metres)long and has an interior area of just under 300 square feet (under 28 square metres).

That's our boy!

I read it in 96 days

The Hinckley Challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days. One day for each year of his life.

It was an awesome experience and I think I learned more than usual this time. My mind was more open to receive the influence of the Holy Ghost. I really enjoyed reading the books called "The Book of Mormon Made Easier", by David Ridges, it took twice as long but the insight I received was phenomenal. Anyone can borrow my books!

Konnor's 2nd Birthday

Baylee's First Pedicure

PRICELESS