Time Flies

Can I just say that I've spent over three hours on my blog tonight and have only done four posts. I'm a mess. How's a woman to ever catch up? ? ? It's not like I have a lot of time on my hands. Besides, my bum is killing me.

One day, I"ll have this blog printed and bound to serve as my 2008 journal.

Sunday Dinner

Everyone came over for dinner today. . . grandma Balls, Brady and Jess, and the Preece. Oh yeah, Dan, Danton, Ethan and I. We had turkey steaks, corn on the cob (from our garden), funeral potatoes ( I made them for a change instead of Dan), Waldorf salad, and green beans (grandma made) and yummy brownies (Danalin made). Some of us ate until we pucked. . . lol. It was fun to sit around and visit. The kids played outside some and the boys play a video game. I sat on the couch and rested my back.

Baylee is sitting up and crawling some. . . . .she's growing up. And she likes the favor of my Zinnias!

The Hole

One Saturday, Dan and I went down to Brady and Jess' to help Brady put in their patio doors. Last weekend, Jess' father came from Wisconsin to help Brady cut a huge hole in the back of their house, through brick and concrete to create a place for double patio doors. What a process. My hat goes off to Brady and Will.

Dan's favorite face! I'm quite fond of it!

We enjoyed our time with Brady and Jess. Dan loves working with his boys. Ethan stayed home that day as we left home early on a Saturday morning and he wanted to sleep in. However, by 11 a.m., he was texting me and wishing he was there. He loves spending time with Brady and Jess. Jess made a special trip back to Hyde Park to pick up Ethan. After the project was completed, Dan and I went home and Ethan stayed the night. He and Brady stayed up late watching war movies, and had their favorite $5 Pizza, which now cost $9. Jess and her firends went to Peach Days. Ethan went to Elders Quorum with Brady on Sunday morning. We had dinner on Sunday at 5 and Brady and Jess brought our little boy home to us.

Skyview vs Logan

Ethan dressed for the varsity team last Friday. He didn't see any playing time but he looked like he was having fun from where I sat in the bleachers. He looks so cute in his little football suit. Skyview cleaned Logan's plow. Danton, Dan and I attended the game. The new football field was packed. It was fun to have Danton be able to come with us. He usually works Friday nights. We, of course, brought and rang our cow bells. Danton was even getting into it. I'm not sure if those around us appreciated the noise. It was a brisk September night in Cache Valley. What a way to spend a Friday night. I have no clue what the score was but does that really matter? Skyview won their rival on their own field.

Ethan is on the third row from the top, fourth from the left. . . in case you were wondering.

Glamour Shots featuring my prize Zinnias

I love my Zinnias. I planted massive amounts of seeds this year. Dan thinks I went over-board. I used most of the seeds from what I harvested from my Zinnia heads from last summer. I went berserk with the seeds and filled every inch of my yard, that wasn't filled with rocks. As you know, rocks are our ground cover. It's difficult to dig through the rocks and plant my little seeds. Well I did in some areas. You should drive by and see for yourselves.

Zinnias make me HAPPY!

I love the bright vibrant colors

The very photogenic Taylor

Dreamy Ethan

Adorable Baylee and Taylor

One Sunday evening, a few weeks ago, we set out to captive the beauty of the Zinnias and the kids. Thanks to Megan and her hi-tech camera.

Number 62

Last Friday, Ethan got to dress for the varsity game against Freemont. Skyview's field isn't finished so the game was played at the USU stadium. Brady and Jess came along with Dan and I. Ethan is a sophomore and plays offensive linemen. We were excited for him to dress even though he didn't get to play. By the way, Skyview won. It was a great night under the big lights!

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.