Daddy, Daughter Date

There were more problems at work today, but I guess that's what keeps me in a job. I am grateful to have my job, and hope that it does not go by the wayside as plenty of peoples jobs have.

On my way home from work, I went into Smiths Marketplace to see if they had a "garden claw". They did. I decided that I would call Lowes, and have them give me 10% off that price. This ended up being a bit of a fiasco, but I did get it. When I got home, I called Lowes, and had them tell me their price $37. It was $29.99 at Smiths, so I asked them to call them and give me a call back if they could verify that it was the same exact one. He told me that he would call me immediately. Twenty minutes later I got through to Lowes again, and he told me that they couldn't find it. I told him exactly where it was in Smiths, and he told me he would call them, and then call me. A lot of time passed, and he hadn't done anything yet. More time passed, and I called him back. I was told that they still couldn't find it. I had to go pick up some subway sandwiches for my daughter and I, and then get to the Daddy, Daughter date. I left home.

My daughter and I went to the park where the Daddy, Daughter date was being held. We ate our sandwiches and then there were a few games. The first one was a game where your daughter threw a frisbee so far, and then you threw it so far. The goal was to outthrow all of the other daughter/father teams. We got pretty far on that one, but got beat out by one team. They then had a hoola hoop contest. The girls did pretty well, and lasted for a long time, and then they gave the hoops to the fathers. That lasted about two seconds! I wanted one of the smaller hoops as it may just fit around my waist and sit there. Next, was a water balloon toss. My daughter got wet almost immediately. They then had the girls get another water balloon to throw at their dads. I got out of there in time, and just as I turned (while running) the balloon bounced off my butt and went out harmlessly on the grass. The watermelon contest was next. Thankfully, they picked 5 different teams to compete and I didn't have too. Last of all, we got to draw pictures of our daughters. Mine came out pretty terrible.

After arriving home, my son handed me the DVD's that needed to be returned today. I also called Smiths on my own. The guy there knew exactly what I was talking about immediately although he thought the price was $39.99. I got him to go look and he verified that it was indeed $29.99. I got the UPC from him and called back Lowes. They said they were the same one, so I went in. When I got there, they asked if I had Smiths phone number. I did not. A manager was called over, and she told them to give me the same price. I didn't want it for $29.99, I wanted their promised 10% discount. They told me that they needed to call Smiths for that. I told them to go ahead. The didn't know where to look in the Yellow pages to find them. They didn't have the White pages. I expressed some dissatisfaction, and they finally gave in and just gave me the 10% on my word. Long and short? I don't think the first guy called them at all and was just making stuff up. I know it was only $3.00 for all of this aggravation, but it just got my goat how hard it was to get them to finally give me this. I get stubborn over things like this.

I returned the DVD's, gassed up the car and went home to put together the "garden claw". We tried it out and it looked like it would work, but not for what I wanted it to work for. I guess I'll still have to get out there and do some of that weeding the old fashioned way. I absolutely hate to do garden work. I had the sniffles for the rest of the evening from the little bit of weeding that I had done.

Squeakers Death

Yesterday was Sunday. Soon after we woke up, my wife noticed that Squeakers (the guinea pig) had died during the night. This is kind of sad for her, as she sits and pets her every morning. I was still tired from the trip, and had a hard time going to church, but I did get there. Not too much of interest happened at church though.

After church, I had to bury Squeakers. My wife thought I was cruel for wanting to just throw her in the trash. Instead, I had to dig through rocks and such to get her deep enough on our property so we won't dig her up at any other time. At least that was taken care of. We just relaxed for the rest of the day.

Today I had to come into work. It seems there was only one problem while I was away, and I am still working on getting a solution to that problem. It looks like I will have to work on it tomorrow as well. There really isn't anything to say, so I won't bore you with any more details of the day.

Lake Powell Trip

I'm going to try to recap the week here of what has been going on.

Sunday, we skipped church. I know we shouldn't have, but we just weren't prepared enough to go on this Lake Powell trip without doing so. We were ready by about 12:30 and headed out. We did decide to go to dinner for Fathers Day at TGI Fridays. It was a good dinner, and then we started the trek for Powell.

There were only a couple of stops that we made on the way there. One in Price, and the other in Hanksville. We noticed a car in front of us after Hanksville that looked a lot like my parents car, so I honked and passed them up waving. My sister-in-law was in front of them.

Of course, unloading is a real pain, but we were able to do that in pretty good time. I, of course, was sweating quite badly as I sweat even if I think about work. My brother came a bit later and we were all there before 9:30 PM. All 26 of us. We slept in the slip at BullFrog Sunday Evening.

Morning comes early when my brother wants to move out. We left the slip about 6:30 AM to go to Escalante in the houseboat. My brother really likes the area of Escalante, and that is usually where we go. The water is up about 27 feet from where it was last year. The whole landscape has changed. We found a spot, but it wasn't the best spot for the slide off the back of the boat. There was only a little over six feet of water at the back end of the boat. That is where we made our home though.

On the first banana ride, my son put his chin into his cousins head and had a big goose egg from that. It was all of 2 inches in diameter. I teased him about being hurt from head to toe. He wasn't enjoying his time too much. That was after just a couple of minutes on the banana (a dangerous water toy). There was an old lady run on the banana of which my brother promised not to knock anybody off (he blames it on the women). My mom, from my understanding, had a look of sheer terror on her face as she is afraid of any water that she cannot stand up in (and have her face above water). She was excused from further water sports. Being 76 years of age she can get away with it. Of course, we milled around a bit and just enjoyed being out there. There wasn't a lot of time for the watersports because we only had one speed boat and like I said, 26 people.

Tuesday was another day of rest and relaxation. I did get out on the tubes and am going to be really stiff from that. There was a point when I thought I got about 2-3 feet of air on the tube, but the boat said I got about 5 feet of air. I landed twice just fine, but the third time knocked me off. They all had a look of concern on their faces when they came to pick me up. I stayed out a bit longer on the tube and enjoyed trying to hang on. I told everybody that I did my barrel roll when I tipped over, since my body is shaped like a barrel, and I rolled around. They tell me that doesn't count. My son got up on a wake board for his first time (despite that darn toe).

Wednesday came and went. More relaxation, and more water sports for various people. My son also messed up his toe again when they were playing scum (a card game) and he went to go down the slide and stubbed it on the ladder. The poor kid. I forgot to mention, he also had a major sunburn from his day at the water park that we were fighting (he didn't tell us about that either). We also took 6 people back who had to get home for various reasons and picked one up on the dock (now there are 21). One of the things that we did was with the boys who went out to an area for a hike. There was a rope to climb. My son couldn't climb too well because of his foot. The excuse I used was that I needed to stay back with him (I actually think I would've been able to make it, as I attempted some of it but then stopped because there was nobody there if I got hurt).

My oldest brother has scleroderma. He went up the rope but it was extremely taxing on him. He had a really hard time getting up the rope, but got banged up a lot and got angry. He was going to make it if it killed him. At one point, he had wrapped the rope around his hand, and then was left hanging by the rope with his hand. That would hurt a lot for one without the disease that he has let alone him. He did get up, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. He lost his watch in the first pool (up the first part of the rope). I got in that pool. It was about chest deep on me. I felt around with my feet for about 1/2 hour and found his watch. It had a deep scratch on it, but other than that it was fine. The women started to worry about us because we were gone a long time. The others headed up another area that they had to free hand climb the rocks and then come down on the ropes. My youngest brother showed us all how to do testicular rappelling later (ouch). I guess he doesn't have to worry about kids anymore.

Thursday, I did some water skiing. My daughter was not able to get up and gave up trying to get up. She really wanted too, but it just wasn't in the stars. I was water skiing longer than I thought would be possible. In the afternoon, we went sight seeing (all 21 of us on the speed boat) and had an enjoyable time. We did go back to the place where we had been the previous day, but nobody went up on the climb again. There was more skiing and stuff for the rest of the day.

The speed boat was making a strange noise, so there wasn't going to be any more activity on that. Friday morning, early, we pulled anchor and headed back. This trip we didn't have anything too major go wrong. That makes it nicer than the other years. The propellers were a bit out of line and we tried to get back into the slip. My youngest brothers hand got squished between the houseboat and the slip. We were able to take care of it, and it doesn't look like anything got broken. His hand is quite sore though. We stopped in Hanksville at Blondies (like we do every year) to eat lunch. Then we headed home. One more stop just before Price. It is good to be home.

Today, I have tried to recuperate. As I am getting older, I am finding that my body just doesn't recuperate as easily. I can't lift my arms much higher than my head, so I won't be doing that. There were odds and ends to take care of, and we did that. We picked up the guinea pig and the dog. Not too much more to say.

Youth Conference

Before anybody wonders, I did not go to Youth Conference, but my son did. Youth Conference started with Thursday evening (well, that part I did go too). The 12 and 13 year olds were invited to participate in Thursdays events. My son had hurt his big toe really bad. He stubbed it in morning, and didn't tell my wife. They then went to my wifes parents home, where he continued to try to keep it a secret, until he finally came upstairs and asked for a bandaid. I guess he had spent a good portion of the morning stopping the blood with tissue in the basement. We can't believe he wouldn't come to us and tell us about it, but that's what he did.

Anyway, back to Thursday evening. My son had a sore foot, and my daughter also was able to come to this part. They had a wonderful dinner of hamburgers or chicken (or both). Then, they went outside and played various games like volleyball and ultimate Frisbee. I watched my son hobble around the field on his sore foot. He got the nickname 'cripple'. I told him not to play too hard because he had some intense days coming up that would tax his foot (we are going to Lake Powell on Sunday).

All of that went well enough, and we came on home. Of course, Friday for me was back to work. My son left the wardhouse at around 6:30 AM. They headed to a ropes course in Provo where you need to learn to rely on a harness and a person for your safety while you jump from trees to rings and stuff. They then headed to Manti for the Manti pageant. They slept in a campground in Manti (I'm glad I wasn't one of the adult leaders trying to make sure boys were with boys and girls with girls). Saturday, they headed to Seven Peaks resort where there was a bunch of water activities. My son said that he had fun and was able to do all the stuff despite his broken toenail on his foot. He did seem in pain though he would not complain about it.

For me, Friday and today was spent getting ready for our trip. The lawn needed mowing, and there were odds and ends that I had to buy for the Lake Powell trip tomorrow. Not too much else going on though.

Baseball

The normal things happened at work. There were problems and I fixed them. Then there were even more problems. I guess that is what keeps me in a job. And, I am grateful for my job.

After arriving home tonight, we got together and headed out to the Franklin Covey field to see the Bees play against Fresno. The Bees lost by one point, but it was a fun game. We had the tickets because I had won them at work by making a basket. It was in the suite, so we had nachos, hot dogs, pasta salad and other goods. That's the only way to go to the game. All you can eat, and then some. The suite was crowded. There were less seats than people outside. We all kind of took turns outside or some of us sat on the steps.

I got a note about Randy today from my parents. There was a symposium that he was supposed to speak at tomorrow. Of course it is still going on, but they are taking 15 minutes of it as a memorial to my brother. They are also going to have a new garden at a new building of the University named The Randy Rose Memorial Garden, and they are getting together with his wife to see what kinds of plants and flowers he would want in there. This is a nice gesture on the schools part.

Anyway, nothing more to report.

Hometeaching

Well, it's been a week since I have posted anything in here. Mostly because not too much has happened all week (at least out of the ordinary). I go to work, I come home, I do more work at home, I go to bed, and then start my day over again. Kinda blase'.

I mean I was home on Friday, and ran a few errands, and then Saturday was just yard work all day. I didn't think of sun screen until I had a slight sunburn on my neck. My weed wacker has a broken piece to it and I was a bit upset about that, but this too shall pass.

Today, I finally got around to my hometeaching. I have not been doing that at all, and I really should've been doing it. I have no good excuses, though I'm sure I can come up with some excuses as to why I haven't done it. It is mostly laziness. It's kinda sad, because I do have a testimony of hometeaching (obviously not a strong enough one). Anyway, I grabbed my son and we went to two families. This was my sons first experience of hometeaching. Hopefully, we'll keep it up, and he will have many more. The people I home taught recognized me, and just kind of said, so that's who you are! I don't know if that is good or bad. It just is.

It felt good to get the hometeaching done, and I will have to complete my repentance by not putting it to the side again.

Now, you know why I have not put anything in here all week. Like I said, not much to say!

Family Reunion

Yesterday was our annual family reunion. We started out at 10:00 at the gate to Mount Aire. I was in charge of making sure everybody signed in and wore name tags (color coded). This didn't take too long. Of course then comes the hike. There is a long one (not as long as it used to be) and a short one. Of course during the hike you are looking at rocks so that you can go back for the rock contest. You may color the rocks or just find rocks that are in a particular shape. Prizes are given out liberally for the various kinds of rocks found. I went on the "long" hike. Though I didn't really want to go any further than we did, I do remember the days when we went to the top of the mountain. Nobody seems to want to do this anymore, even the young ones. As a matter of fact, my son and those around his age stayed at the cabin and played pool instead.

We get back from all of that, and there is lunch. My kids completely messed up the cooler. I had it somewhat organized and they just took things out and put them back in, and made a huge mess. It will be harder when we get to dinner.

Volleyball is next with teams that are too big and then you get those who forget it is just a friendly family game and get too competitive. We tone them down somewhat when they figure that part out. There are wise cracks all around as to BYU vs U of U during the game. We then do some basketball. Same thing. We play speed. When a big guy gets out a little guy there is the usual booing that happens. All in all, we have a good time.

Later still, there are nail pounding contests, Balance beam contests, fish pond and bubble gum blowing contests. Still you can't forget the hoola hoops and many other things going on. Not too many people got into the arm wrestling this year. We did get more people into the blowing a matchstick across a plate than we have in previous years. This is where you get two people down by a plate of water to blow the matches across and when you say go, you slap the water soaking both participants. We can only do this to newcomers for obvious reasons, and usually don't get to do it twice. In this case there were people who weren't paying attention to what was happening and we got to do it three times.

Then there is general goofing off, and dinner happens. My wife made it up just a little bit before we had dinner. There is a campfire, and family skits are done. After the skits we had a candle lighting ceremony (but we used glow sticks). This tells of my grandparents as the lights to all who are here. They light their childrens candles, and on down, so that all have a candle. This went well, but it wasn't dark enough outside yet.

We cleaned up and finally headed home around 9:30 PM. It was a long, but fulfilling day.

Today, was church. I found out that while I was gone, we got a new deacons quorum presidency. There was a lesson given by one of the deacons but I still can't figure out what he was trying to accomplish with the lesson. We salvaged it somewhat. Of course, being the first Sunday of the month, it was testimony meeting for Sacrament meeting. I bore mine, and my daughter was a bit upset because she chose to go out to the restroom just before I got up and did it. She did hear some of it though. That's about it.