I am NOT ready for summer to end!

Wow. August was quite a month! I knew we had done a lot, but I was amazed when I looked at the calendar. I got pictures of a lot of it, so I will include them.

First, Randy had back trouble (along with his usual Meniere’s and neuropathy –feet- problems). So, his doctor had him go to the chiropractor. I guess he has arthritis in his left hip from all those years of roofing, and he had 3 vertebrae that were smashed together. He saw the chiropractor for several weeks, 3 times a week and they decompressed his spine and generally worked him over. He feels much better now, but I’m not sure how long it will last.

We celebrated Heidi’s 27^th birthday on August 4^th. She has turned out to be a beautiful young woman. I gave Mom another perm, and hopefully got everything straightened out with her hearing aid. It was feeding back horribly, but we think we finally got that taken care of.

We went to a wedding reception for the son (Michael) of my visiting teaching partner, Jill Young. She is divorced, but we got to meet Michael’s dad, also. In addition to being my visiting teaching partner, she was my partner when we were ward missionaries for the first three years after I moved here, and she is wonderful.

Ingrid and Kalvin got to come for the whole week when Jesse would be here and Dylan would leave on his mission. Randy was also able to take vacation time for that week. Jeff stayed in Colorado because their female Vizsla dog was pregnant and about to have puppies. Ingrid drove the full

nine hours here by herself – I think she is very brave. It was very nice to visit with her and bond with 4 ½ month old Kalvin. Jesse and Amanda eloped – they got married on Thursday, August 18^th and then got here on Friday evening and we all went out to dinner at Tepanyaki. It was wonderful and we had a great time with all the kids.

On Saturday we all (except Dylan) went up to Ogden where Heidi, Amanda and Ingrid

participated in a mud run for girls (and 3 guys that were dressed up as girls!!). It was fun to watch and they all did great. Jesse and

Tyler got some good pictures, but they misjudged where they were going at the end, so they missed the very last of it.

For Jesse and Amanda’s reception, we borrowed tables and chairs from people in the ward and set them up on the basketball court. We moved the table and chairs around that are usually on the back porch and strung up some white Christmas

lights outside. We put butcher paper on the tables so kids could color with sidewalk chalk if they wanted to. After we had pizza for dinner – it poured outside! Even though it had stopped by the time the reception began, everything outside was soaked. So, we

changed plans and had everything inside. Tyler went out in the rain and retrieved the lights which we hung up inside. Ingrid decorated our family room and dining room with the vases and paper flowers that Amanda h

ad brought. Amanda had frozen all the food and brought it with them, so we set all of that out on the kitchen counter/bar. They had only received a few RSVP’s so they thought it might be real small, but we actually had a large crowd considering it was just family and a few friends, and it was very enjoyable.

On Sunday Dylan and I spoke in church on the 4^th Article of Faith. He did a great job. Jesse and Amanda went, Tyler was there with Lydia, and Ingrid and Kalvin were there. Randy, my mom, Connie, Derek and his wife Rita, my sister Becky, and Connie Hubbard were also there. Heidi had taken the entire weekend off from work and had intended to be there, but she had participated in a motorcycle ride for fallen police officers that was a lot further away than she anticipated and then started an hour later than she thought it would. So, she didn’t arrive here until Sacrament Meeting was over. Even though Dylan is always saying that all his friends are on missions, he had quite a large group of friends there. That afternoon we drove over to the “Up” house. (Heidi let Jesse and Amanda take her motorcycle). It is a duplicate of the house that is in the animated

movie “Up” and is only a little over a mile from our house. It is pretty amazing.

We celebrated Dylan’s 20^th birthday that night - several weeks early since he will be in the MTC on the actual day. Ingrid and Tyler made ‘beach’ cupcakes since

Ingrid remembered (and we found it on video) that Dylan had wanted to go to Ohio for vacation when he was about 7 years old because of all the beaches there! We also played Pictionary Man with the game that Ingrid got Jesse and Amanda for their wedding – it was a lot of fun.

The kids were talking about hiking up Mt. Timpanogos Sunday night into Monday morning.

However, they decided to just do a shorter hike, so Randy, Ingrid, Kalvin and I were able to go along. It was on the back of Mt. Timpanogos and went up to some waterfalls (Stewart Falls). It was beautiful. It was supposed to take about 45 minutes each way, but because we are old and slow, it took Randy and me a while longer than that. I was sore in my calf muscles for days afterwards – sad. Tuesday night we went to watch Heidi play in a championship coed softball game up at the University of Utah and they won! Then we came home and took Dylan over to the Stake

Presidents office so that he could be set apart for his mission. Ingrid was able to join us for that. Tyler was going to come up, but he got stuck being a ‘good Samaritan’ down in Provo! On the way home from that, Ingrid got run into (with only minor damage and no injuries) and Dylan and Randy joined her for about 1 ½ hours until everything was completed by the police officer.

Wednesday morning I helped Dylan pack everything for the MTC after I got back from taking Connie to work. Tyler even went to one of Dylan’s friend’s houses to try and find some things that had been left there, but didn’t have any luck. We all met down at the Italian Place in Orem (Heidi couldn’t come because she was working at the zoo) and had some steak sandwiches. After saying good-byes, Randy and I drove to the MTC with Dylan.

We said good-bye to him and he had a friend that is already in the MTC that was able to meet him there, so our farewells were quick. I am so proud of him for deciding that this is what he should do. Tyler did say that he was able to see Dylan playing volleyball on Saturday morning when Tyler was on his way up to go rock-climbing, and that he looked happy. We finally heard from him on Wednesday (Aug 31) and it sounds like all is well.

Thursday evening I went to a Primary picnic and ate a wonderful pulled-pork sandwich and had some nice visits with other Primary workers. Randy wasn’t able to go. Then on Saturday Randy went to a park where various bands (including his) were playing and I was able to join him around 6pm. While we were there we ran into Kenny and Susie Lovell – small world. We also heard from Jesse that they had trouble with their car’s radiator in Hays, Kansas on the way home. They had to leave the vehicle there and borrow Amanda’s mother’s car. I hope it doesn’t cost them too much to fix!

Ingrid’s dog had her puppies on Tuesday morning, August 30, 2011. She ended up having eight of them, but one puppy was dead and Ingrid said it looked like he had been dead for awhile. Ingrid had to help a lot, but she said that by the time her dog was having the last few, she finally had the hang of what she needed to do. There are four males and three females and about half of them are already spoken for.

Lastly, my tomato plants are giving us really big tomatoes! I don’t know if it is the kind of plant, or what, but they are huge. Randy wants to eat at least one, but I will probably ‘can’ most of them.

♫ Oh, What do You Do In The Summertime? ♫

I am loving this summer weather – I can’t hardly get enough of it. I am in the middle of 3 weeks off from school, so I am trying to get a lot done. I have still been doing a lot of yard work – both in my yard and service projects. I love it. I have also painted the window-well covers in the back yard (metal grates) and stained the pole on our patio table. While I was working in the back yard I discovered a toad in one of the window wells. I don’t know if he was lounging around the pond and accidentally jumped down there, or what. It’s about a 5 foot drop. Anyway, he seemed to be OK so I rescued him and let him get away while the dogs were in the house.

Randy, Tyler, Dylan and I were able to fly down to Aurora, Colorado and stay with Ingrid, Jeff and Kalvin for a couple of days over the 4^th of July weekend. It was nice to be able to actually interact with and hold Kalvin rather than just see him for a few minutes in the ICU. Jeff’s mother was also there, so we got to know her a little better. That Sunday Kalvin received his baby blessing and all the men got to participate. We all had a nice time. Since 4^th of July celebrations were going on, we just watched a few fireworks from our bedroom window when we got home that night. Heidi participated in a 'dirty girl' run here in Salt Lake that weekend - they run in mud. She seemed to have a lot of fun. Their team was nicknamed “Guns and Garters”. Because there were so many people that signed up for the race and they could not all be accommodated, another race has been scheduled for this month. It is the same weekend that Amanda and Ingrid will be here so Heidi got them signed up to run it that Saturday morning. Hopefully, we’ll be able to go and watch.

We’ve had a lot of work done on our cars lately. Obviously, “when it rains, it pours.” We’ve had to have new brake pads and rotors on the Honda. We also had to have a dampener removed from around the axle because it was making a lot of noise, but didn’t serve any useful purpose. I had been driving around without air conditioning in the Blazer because it was out of coolant. I finally had time to take it into the shop, had them plug the leak, and fill it up with freon. Now it is very comfortable. Of course, then there seemed to be a leak in the radiator, so I replaced the radiator cap. Since that didn’t seem to do anything, I put some stop-leak in and it seems to have done the trick. I’ll have to keep my eye on it for awhile, though. I need to get the oil changed soon, also.

I shampooed the carpets on the main floor and up in the bedrooms. It’s still not looking great, but it’s better than it was. I also rearranged our bedroom – just for a little change. I put new blinds on our French doors (with Randy’s help) since the old ones were falling apart. I also did my best to clean out the garage, but it is rather hopeless!

Connie had a full week to celebrate her 60^th birthday. She took the day off on her birthday which happened to be a Wednesday, then we had the extended family over for cake and ice cream on Sunday evening, and then the following Tuesday Becky Preece took her out to Tucano’s restaurant where she got a free lunch.

Randy and I taught Dylan all 6 of the Temple preparation lessons and we did the same for another young man in the ward that has recently received his mission call. Randy and I went with Dylan to the Jordan River Temple so that he could receive his endowment. It was a wonderful experience. I have had to send $500 to the Cleveland, Ohio mission for a bike, helmet and chain. I guess missionaries there ride bikes. I have started his monthly payments of $400 a month, also, since he reports in 3 weeks. He has started purchasing the clothing and miscellaneous items that he will need on his mission. Tyler is going to let him use the luggage that he used for his mission eight years ago. John Preece just came back from a mission in Hong Kong, and Kenny and Susie Lovell (he’s one of the Bartlesville Boys) just came back from Chile where Kenny was a Mission President. I wasn’t able to attend either of their homecomings.

Finally, I got both the puppies coats trimmed for summer so they wouldn’t be so hot. I think they actually look cuter with more fur, but they are easier to scratch this way, and I’m sure they are a lot happier!