Boise, ID trip

We decided to go to Boise, ID for a weekend. Actually we went to go to the David Archuleta concert with Sandy, but seeing and staying with the Richardsons was an added bonus! This is mom, dad, Kathy and Sandy.

I hadn't seen the Richardsons since mom and dad's 50th anniversary party last Oct. and it had been about 30 years previous to that.

We used to go camping with their family a lot as we were growing up. We have fond memories of spending time with that family. When we were in our early teens and were camping we had placed our tent and noticed it was near a trail. Bob Richardson was teasing us that it was a Bear trail. Well, at dinner, here comes a momma bear and her 3 babies to our site. Mom ran and locked herself in the car. We just backed up and watched, but dad stayed sitting at the table eating. He was not giving up his dinner. We shooed them off and finished our meal.

Later that night, mom heard a noise, we unzipped the tent window to look out and pointed our flash light to see if it was a racoon or bear, but what it was was a different kind of bear! Poor Bob slept in the nude and had gotten up to quickly take a pee, thinking all were asleep he just slipped out of his tent, but got caught in the light! We still laugh at that and his nickname became "Running Bear" and has stayed with him since with our family.

I really enjoyed our visit with them, and reminescing of old times. By the time we left that Sunday my jaw was sore from laughing so much. There were some special quiet and thougt provoking moments as well.


Sandy and I laughing at Kathy and her dressings



Kathy was so funny, she couldn't make up her mind which salad dressing she wanted so they brought her 3 different kinds to try! Kath, would you like some salad with your dressings? lol

Mom, Dad, Kathy and Bob Richardson enjoying breakfast. It was so nice to listen to Bob tell his stories again. He is so funny, yet very spiritual some times. It was great spending time with them.

Sandy and Norma Richardson shooting the breeze.














Hmmmm, can't remember why I took this picture, but I think there was a dove in the tree, or maybe another squirrel.... Terrible when the mind goes blank... but it is a pretty picture anyway!

The Richardson's yard was so nice and peaceful. The one thing I miss the most about our area is having the squirrels around! I don't know if it is because of fond memories of being in my Nana's back yard and feeding the squirrels or what.... I think it is.... but they always bring me a fun and peaceful feeling. I know that probably sounds nuts?

This was their dog. I can't remember her name, but she was a gorgeous dog. She reminded me of Nikki that I used to have.

Kathy, Sandy and I by John and Wendy's home. Wow, I don't remember what we were laughing at, but what a face I have!

John and Wendy. It was so neat that they all live within walking distance of each other.

This is Kim and her daugher. We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs with them.

Eric and his wife..... we had a real nice and fun visit with them the night before we left. It was a short stay and we need to go back again some time. It was fun getting reacquainted. I hadnt seen Eric in over 30 years!

Bob took us all out to breakfast at the Golden Corral there in Napa. It was quite the breakfast!

Saying bye at Church and on our way back home. It was such a nice visit. From left to right... Dad, Norma Richardson, Bob Richardson, Mom, Eric Richardson, Kim Richardson and her daughter.

Tigger's Tale, or should I say, Tail!

Tigger somehow had gotten the tip of his tail dipped into the Scentsy wickless candle and had wax harden on his tail. For the life of me I didn't know what to do to get the wax off his tail... try holding him down and use a hair dryer to make it warm and plyable? I don't think so... he is declawed in front, but still has pretty sharp claws in back... I know as I was gouged a few times while trying to tape a bandaid all down his tail.

The wax was on a week before he started gnawing the wax off, problem is... he didn't stop at the wax. I don't know if it burned him or was itching, but he kept gnawing at his tail until he had gnawed down to the bone. I would hear him growling at his tail. I can't count the number of times I had wrapped his tail in gauze and tape to keep him from gnawing, but he had somehow gotten it off.

After a couple of days it got so bad that he was down to the bone. I took him to the vet to have a look at it. He had to have a good 4 inches amputed from his tail. The vet said they get a lot of tail amputations, but this was their first one because of wax! The next day, and $250.00 later, I was able to bring him back home. He did not like the long tape on his tail. He kept trying to get it off, but the tape was on there good. It actually took him a whole week to get the thing off his tail.

On his check up, he had gotten the bandaid off the day before, it looked to be healing pretty well. The vet retaped it and said his fur on his tail will fill in nicely (which a year later, it has and looks okay!) The bandaid needed to stay on at least another week.

He has healed fine, and can still swak ya with his tail in the face or across your arm, depending on where he is sitting. It actually hurts more since it is a little thicker!

A closer look at the end of Tigger's Tail. Pretty weird looking, huh?

So Tigger's tail is getting better here. It looked kind of silly at the time, and tookTigger a bit to get used to it. He still glares at it as if it is a foreign object, or growls at it occasionally, but at least it is healing well. And that is the end of the Tale.....

March 2009 - Ashton

Ashton was tiny when he was born in July of 2008. He has showed no signs of difficulties from being premature at almost a month. He is pretty quick with a lot of things. I took him to my parents' home with Pyper one Sunday so Renee and Spence could take a nap. Jordan was taking a nap but Pyper and Ashton wouldn't go to sleep. These are just some fun pictures I took of Ashton and Pyper at Mom and Dad's



Ashton found Grama Great's necklace to chew on...















Of course, what is going to Grama and Grampa Great's without getting some kind of goodie to eat!






On the right he was rolling Grampa Great's pants.

Poor Ashton was so tired, but he kept fighting it. Look how tired his eyes are in the picture on the left!

Ashton likes to do this a lot lately. He thinks it is funny.

So I received a phone call on my cell phone from Scott about 11:45 PM. I was at work at the time. Scott was complaining that his stomach hurt and he had the runs. Well.... he almost always has the runs so I wasn't in too much of a hurry, and as I was sooo tired already I dreaded the thought of having to sit on a very uncomfortable chair for who knows how long for the hospital to give Scott an IV and send him home.

I left work early, and quietly snuck (is that even a word?) into the house. It was all quiet, so I sat at my computer hoping Scott had fallen asleep and would feel better soon. I had already been at work for about 6 hours and just wanted to relax and then go to bed. No such luck! About 10 minutes after I got home, Scott came down stairs..... I swear he has a sensor that tells him when I get home....

We ended up going to the ER and much to my disappointment they kept Scott there for about 6 hours on an IV. He had developed an infection and his white blood cell count was elevated. We were waiting for the larger hospital to call back with an empty room before they released us to go to the other hospital.

So.... at 6:00 AM I drive Scott to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. I stayed with him until about 2:30 PM when I could hardly keep my eyes open any longer. I told Scott I was going home to take a nap and clean up a little and I would come back to see him a bit later.

This was Valentine's Day, so much for going to dinner or a movie..... but I actually enjoyed the quiet for a bit. Well, I thought I would enjoy the quiet... but like an idiot and not thinking very well, I left my cell phone number on the white board in Scott's room for the nurse to call if they needed. Instead what a got was a phone call from Scott about every half hour, telling me to bring his lap top and a book for him. Same conversation repeated each time...

The only variance was when he called and yelled at me for just leaving him and not saying goodbye or giving him a kiss before I left! I told him I did give him a kiss and told him I was going home for a bit since I had worked all night long, and that I had just talked to him half hour ago, and every half hour before that, too! He hung up on me!

Half hour later the phone rings, and it is Scott, forgetting the conversation we had half hour before where he had yelled at me... This was an on going thing all night long! I actually had to turn my cell phone off.

Well he was released the next day... needless to say I did not go back the night before with the laptop or book.... I was so tired and couldnt keep my eyes open enough to go back, add to that it had snowed pretty hard all day. Tired plus snow and icy roads = not a good combination.

I learned a very important lesson that day, though... The next time I will NOT put my cell phone number on the white board or where he can see it, but only in his folder!

Feb. 2009

Well, it has been quite a while since I have updated my blog. I will be trying to add in increments according to pictures taken, as they tell the best story. I will be building my way up since Feb. 2009.

Tiffany sent me some flowers for Valentine's Day. They were absolutely beautiful, and very much needed. It was a great "pick-me-up" for me at the time. I absolutely loved all the colors!

So a few years ago I painted our Living room. When I got done I hated it! I was disappointed with the color, and it didn't go too well with the blue carpet. Maybe too much blue. I figured I would wait a few weeks to see if it grew on me or if I would like it better. Well, I didn't. While I was trying to decide what color I should do the walls, Scott had had his accidental overdose that put him in a coma for 8 days. A week after he got home, he had his strokes, and was in the hospital for about 6 months between the strokes and severe pancreatitis. I was constantly at the hospital or at work. I would go home about 4:30 am every morning, and sleep about an hour or two and be antsy to get back to the hospital.

After he was able to finally come home, we went through all kinds of trials and it was all I could do to manage taking care of him and trying to keep things on an even keel, all while working on the pretext of the Joseph Smith Papers project during the day and emails for the Post Office at night.

It has finally started settling down, (don't hold your breath, who knows for how long!) at least enough that I decided I could not deal with the blue walls anymore! I finally picked out a color ( Cottage Stone by Valspar Paint) and I am quite pleased with the results!

And to add to that I was very fortunate to find that we got back a good amount of money in our paychecks from out health insurance policy. I had been wanting an electric fireplace for a couple of years now, (ever since Scott got impatient for Joe to come home from work to light the fireplace and as he couldn't find the matches, that I hid from him, he took a piece of paper towel and lit it by our stove, carried the burning paper towel over to a candle and tried to light the candle but burnt himself. He thought if he lit the candle he could take the candle to light the wood on fire!) so I went to Home Depot to see if the one I wanted was still there. It had been originally $649.00 and there was only one left. They were having a close out sale for these items so I lucked out and got the one I wanted for $319.00!! I put it on hold and had Joe and a couple of his friends get a truck and bring it home for me. It adds nicely to my newly redone livingroom! I LOVE the results!!!

Here are the blue walls I hated!

This is what my new living room likes like now.... color is so much better than the blue! You can see a tiny bit of that blue in the upper right corner.

No it isn't crooked, I was leaning a little to get the reflection of Ariel out of the picture....didn't work, LOL. This has been a wonderful addition! I wanted one for a long time, and got this for 1/2 off! I love it! Scott can enjoy a fire without burning the house down!! And it puts out good heat.