The end of summer

I don’t hardly know where to begin! We have really crammed a lot into the last month. The first weekend we held the Richard K. Preece family reunion. About 11 people played FREE golf that Friday morning at the course where Derek has his office, and that evening my mother, her kids and grandkids met at Golden Corral for dinner. There were around 34 people there for that. From our immediate family, everyone except Jesse was there – Ingrid and Jeff drove up from Colorado, and Heidi had that weekend off of work, so she was able to join us. Saturday we had a picnic at a park near our home for everyone – this time including great-grandkids. We ate hogie sandwiches and played volleyball. The kids climbed on the jungle gym and drew with sidewalk chalk. My mother was able to be at that for a couple of hours. That evening we had dinner at our








house for my siblings, their spouses and my mom. We brought an extra table over from church so we could all sit together, and then after dinner we went through the collection of church books that my parents had and everyone took what they wanted.

Heidi turned 26 on August 5 and we celebrated it on Sunday evening, August 8. That Sunday turned out to be quite busy – I substituted as the Gospel Doctrine teacher, and also took dinner over to a sister that I visit teach and her family because she had just had surgery on her knee.

There was a Relief Society night at the temple that my sister Connie and I attended. Connie only worked for half a day that day. The sisters met at someone’s home for refreshments afterwards, but we did not go to that. Randy and I attended a sealing session at the temple on another night, also.

I started a new course at school – it's on Organizational Theory, Design and Structure. Yes – it is as exciting as it sounds! I still have a couple of chapters to read every week in the textbook with 10 multiple choice questions to answer, 2 essay questions pertaining to the reading, and 2 entries on the Discussion Board with other class members. But this time, instead of having a final with 50 multiple choice questions, I have had to write a 2-page article critique and I have a 10-page research paper due at the end of the course. Fun.

Randy’s blues band played a gig at a park in Midway one night. I didn’t get to go, but he said it went really well and the promoters only had good things to say. There were about 550 people in the audience and they sold CD’s and posters afterwards and did a lot of autograph signing. The following day, Connie only worked a half day again, and Randy & I met up with Jim & Connie Hubbard and drove to Evanston, Wyoming to have dinner with Frank & Stormy Draney. The food was wonderful and the company was great – so we had a really good time.

I took my mother and sister Connie down to Orem for blood tests one week, and then took them down there the following week for their regular doctor’s visits. I also drove Connie down on one other day so that she could visit her periodontist. I took my mother to the hearing aid doctor a couple of times. She has decided to keep the new hearing aids and the doctor gave her some more advice about cleaning her ears and also ideas about cleaning the new aids. I also had to get new frames for my mother’s eyeglasses because her old ones had broken and lost a spring. Luckily she didn’t have to go with me, and they were able to find some that her lenses fit into without having to trim them down and the cost was minimal.

The Honda that Dylan drives passed the emissions inspection, but did not pass the safety inspection that is required before we can register it for the next year. So I had to get a new tie rod, a new front wheel bearing, plus adjustments, get the battery secured, and get 2 new tires. So, with registration, it cost me about $875 just so that we can keep driving it! YUK.

Our nephew Richie (Terry’s son) got married on Aug 17 in the Salt Lake Temple. Connie, Randy and I made it to the wedding, and Randy & I went to the reception that evening. It was nice. We saw my cousin Sande there and found out that she was attending the “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington DC on Aug 28. Tyler was also planning to attend the rally and visit with some friends that live out in that area of the country now. I also found out later that my niece, Nicki, attended, as did some friends of ours from Tennessee. I heard from all of them that it was fantastic.

On August 19 we had some pretty wicked weather roll through here. There was thunder, lightning, rain, hail, wind and flooding.

It was on the news, in the newspaper and on the internet – although it was nothing compared to weather problems in other parts of the world. Today I read in the paper about a volcano in Indonesia erupting after 400 years and they had to evacuate 30,000 people. We’ve also had 3 police officers shot (one fatal) here in Salt Lake in just 48 hours! It’s getting depressing to follow the news.

Dylan went with a group of friends to climb Mt. Timpanogos for his 2^nd time. They climb at night so that they can see the sunrise when they get to the top. He and his buddy went in their old scout uniforms! His friend got altitude sickness when they were only about 45 minutes into the climb, so he went back down to the parking lot with him. Neither of them had driven there and they didn’t have keys to their friend’s cars, so they ended up spending 8 hours in the cold – trying to sleep on the ground while his friend occasionally threw up. What a horrible experience – but what a true friend he is! Thankfully, he went camping with some other friends in American Fork canyon a few days later and had a really good time. He has started to fill out his mission papers and has already gone to the dentist for it. He has to get all 4 wisdom teeth removed.

The last weekend of the month Randy, Dylan and I flew to Kansas for the Mundy family reunion. We were able to stay at the Ramada Inn in Topeka for a really good price because Jesse is the head night auditor there. It’s very nice with an indoor and outdoor pool, a hot tub, a game room with pool table, a war museum that we quickly went through one day, and a free hot breakfast each morning. Ingrid and Jeff also stayed there for two nights since they allow people with pets in a specific section. Ingrid and Jeff brought their 1 year old dog, plus the new puppy that they got last week. They are Vizslas, and they will breed them when they get older. We took Jesse and Dylan to dinner to celebrate their birthdays. We ate at a Chinese restaurant and Jesse’s girlfriend, Amanda, joined us. On Friday we swam in his brother Danny’s pool and he barbequed hamburgers, hotdogs, and made sloppy joes to eat. On Saturday there were about 16 people that went and played golf. That evening we joined everyone at Randy’s brother Tom’s in Burlingame for barbecued chicken and brisket. Randy’s sister, Janna, and her family were able to come up from Texas to join in. They had a water balloon toss, line dancing and relays before we got there.

There was a band playing and Randy performed a few numbers on his harmonica with their guitar player. A bunch of the guys played football, we did a lot of visiting, and some of us visited the cemetery where Randy’s mom and dad and a lot of his relatives are buried to see the new stones for his brother that died at birth and his sister that died in infancy.

On Sunday we attended church in our old ward – it felt just like coming home. I am able to keep up with a lot of those old friends through Facebook, so it seems like we had never left! After we said goodbye to everyone and dropped Dylan off at his friends (he is flying back to Utah in a few days), we headed toward the airport. We intended to go by the site where they are building the new Kansas City Temple, but we ran out of time. We flew home and arrived at the house around 9:30pm.

I am hoping that this month is much quieter and things slow down a bit.... Only 98 shopping days left until Christmas (I don’t shop on Sundays) – but who’s counting??