Chemo

What an ugly word, Chemo. I know when I hear it, I cringe. This is the word I heard from my cousin Steve today. I finally called him. My wife has been asking me to do so for a little bit. To go and visit him. It was just a little bit ago that he was in the hospital having a testicle removed because of cancer.

I called today. I didn't completely identify myself and it took him a minute to recognize who I was. I think he was glad I called. He sounded like he was. He asked me how things were going, and what could I say, but great. I mean when you consider the alternatives of what life hands you, I am doing great. We are struggling a bit with money right now, but that is peanuts. We will pull out of that shortly. Steve is dealing with cancer.

He told me that he would be seeing his oncologist tomorrow. The oncologist will give him the time schedule for his chemotherapy. He does know that it is supposed to be hard for about six months. He is concerned about it kicking his butt while he is trying to keep his business running. His mom, of course, wants him to stay at her house while he is going through all of this. Steve is independent. Always has been. Always will be. But, then again, never say always. Who knows what circumstances will do to him. He said it was great while he was with his mom after his surgery. He also expressed concern about being with her in the time that he is going to chemo. By being at home, he is closer to his business needs. So, when he feels good, he can work. When he feels bad, he doesn't want his mom to see him sick. I told him that he could get a web cam for both he and his mom that he could leave on, and that way stay at home where his mom could watch him. He kind of laughed about that and told me he would consider it.

We weren't able to talk very long. I called him during my lunch and he had to get in the shower so he could go to his girlfriends grandmothers funeral. He was hoping that the snow was done for the day so they could have the graveside services without the storm. As it was, it is cold enough. The weather did hold, so he got his wish there. The terrible part is that part of Steves business is taking care of snow removal. It was a busy day for him and he had to try to hurry up so he could be with Susan during this trying time for her.

Well, work was slow. I left an hour early so I could get home to go to the first ever student lead parent/teacher conference at my kids school. It used to be that you go into the gym and stand at every teachers station waiting your turn in line to just find out the grades and have a brief talk with the teacher. The student lead part is where your student goes and introduces you to her teacher and then grabs a folder that they have prepared beforehand. They have gathered all the grade assignments from all the teachers as well as filled out a questionnaire about how they are doing (things like they turn in homework on time). The teacher has also answered the same questions so you can see if there is a discrepancy. This is all in the homeroom of the student. There is also a place for the teacher to put in some comments. The student is also asked to put something in from each class that they were particularly proud of and could show to their parents with an explanation. After about 10 minutes you then can go see any teachers that you think you need to talk with. We talked with Mrs. Gordon (the math teacher). I got some of my concerns off to her, and she told us that our daughter would pick it up later. It didn't take too long, and I liked the way the student lead parent/teacher conference went. I hope they keep it that way. We rarely need to talk with any of the teachers because our children (thank goodness) do pretty well in school and are well behaved.

We went to the bookfair (even though we don't have much money - sounds like a song coming on). I talked briefly with Mr. Jensen (the principal) about our daughter having to take algebra over again and that I didn't want her to go back to Mrs. Gordons class. He asked why and then asked if it was because we did not agree on homework philosophy. I told him that this is the reason I don't want her in Mrs. Gordons class, and he understands. The thing is, my daughter said it wouldn't be too bad. We'll just have to wait and see what the schedule is, and if we want to change it we were told to call the school. Our daughter does want to take dance, and that is with Mrs. Gordon. I told her that wouldn't have too much homework (probably) unless Mrs. Gordon wants them to talk about the Geometric patterns of dance.

Tonight, I got out and shoveled some of that snow off of our driveway. There was still about 2 inches after a bunch of it melted. It was icy underneath it. I relaxed for a good portion of the evening while my wife was doing the hair of Connie. I mostly just stayed in our room. I also did a little bit of work on my personal PC to try and set up things so I can check out books from the library on my Palm TX.

Ward Conference

There really isn't all that much to tell for the final days of last week. There wasn't a lot going on at work, and there really isn't too much going on at home either.

I did get my son to call the people we are supposed to home teach on Saturday. One was home and the other was not. He at least set up the one appointment. I was working on the computer for a good portion of the day. There were just things that I couldn't get to work on it. This darn program called Windows Installer is all messed up and I really don't know what I can do about it. I may need to reload the whole XP system. That was pretty maddening.

Well, Sunday came along and it was our Ward Conference. Of course I was able to sit with my wife in the Young Men/Young Women meeting. That made it nice for me (who knows how she felt about it). The whole Ward Conference seemed to be themed around the Atonement. There were some great talks given in both the Young Men/Young Women setting as well as Sacrament meeting. This was a week that I was not bored with what was being talked about. I just wish there were more Sundays that I felt this way. It's probably an attitude problem coming from me. I mean, here I hear all these things at church and I get bored and then I read in an Ensign how Spencer W. Kimball says that he has never been bored in a Sacrament meeting yet. I guess I should really work on my spirituality.

Sunday School points out a couple of my other weaknesses. At least I have a couple of things to work on for the next little while. In the couples class the thing that came out that I need to work on is having Couples prayer every night. It is an oversight that really shouldn't happen, and I don't have a decent excuse for my failure in that area. A member in the Stake presidency brings it more to bear by saying that even though his wife is away, they have a prayer over the phone (this fits into what another has said who is not home with his wife except on the weekends). Sheesh, what kind of excuse can I come up with now.

My son got to stay after church for a presidency meeting with the Teachers quorum. As soon as he arrived home, we got him to eat something quick and then he and I headed out for our appointment in Home Teaching. I am grateful that he comes with me. He doesn't want to say anything, and I don't know how to get him to come out of that shell, but at least he comes with me. Our message (prepared before I knew the theme of the conference) was on the atonement. We finished with the one family (Lambournes) and then went to the other family (Peeblers). We hadn't contacted the Peebler family, but they let us in anyway. We had to go into the kitchen with them because they were stirring homemade caramels. I found out that she and her sister make these and dipped chocolates as a side business during the Christmas season and she has to make some for somebody in Tennessee. They looked and smelled great. We quickly gave them the lesson and then had to come home fast so our hometeachers could come on over (it must be the last Sunday in the month). Anyway, they give the same type of lesson that we had been giving and it goes for quite awhile. My son is a bit fed up with church for the day. He feels like he has been at church from 11:00 until 5:00. That's just too long to be at church for anybody. He also comments to me about one of the speakers that mentioned not wearing his garment top one day when he went for a quick tubing experience during a lunch break at work. he felt bad for not wearing the top especially when an accident caused him to be in the emergency room and his mother saw him without it. My son didn't understand because why would you wear garments if you were in the water doing this. I kind of agreed with my sons assessment. Well, other than that part, the talks, as I said earlier, were good.

This morning there was a little bit of snow. Not a lot, but a little bit. It is also supposed to be another snow day tomorrow. I still need to get my car in for its inspection so I can make it legal to drive again. We will more than likely need new tires and all of that. Money is a bit tight right now, but we will have to make do.

My wife cut my hair tonight. She first cut my sons hair and then mine. It's good to get it shortened again. She then did my daughters hair. It was tiring for her I'm sure. Not too much else going on, as I said earlier, but I thought I had better write in here anyway.

Just stuff

There really isn't too much going on right now. Yesterday, I had to take my son to the school so he could play one song (it was a medley) for the incoming seventh graders to his middle school. He had to borrow some "church pants" from a neighbor because he only knows where one pair is, and it is at grandmas house. They do a really good job. After that, we watch Flicka. It was a good movie, but not one that I consider to be great. I had to get it back to the video store that night. I have the "Free with MVP" there, and they haven't updated their lists. That is maddening to me because they used to mark all the videos but don't anymore. The only way to know on the newer releases if it is free with MVP is to have the list that they have been putting out. By not having it, it makes it difficult to figure out. I pick out a couple (finding out that one I picked out is not free with MVP) and then leave. I was a bit discouraged. I was in a melancholy mood for the rest of the evening.

Tonight, after arriving home from work, I take the kids to piano lessons. My wife stays home preparing us some wonderful chicken tacos. After picking the kids back up, I don't have time to sit down and eat so I have to take my taco to the school and eat in the parking lot. I then go in to listen to the medley that my son gets to play. This time, knowing that it starts out with a really strong note, I am looking over the audience. Everybody jumps when they start. It is the star wars song at the beginning of this medley. Once again, they do a wonderful job.

While I am waiting for my son (they had some pizza) I saw the principal in the hall. I introduce myself to him and he remembers who I am. He tells me that he is still working with the math board on my particular problem. I ask him if any other of the math teachers do the two hours of homework thing. He tells me that they don't. Mrs. Gordon is the only one who has the boot camp mentality. That was his words. I guess he is going to tell her not to do that anymore. At least I was able to help out future kids that will be going into that. Too late for my daughter though.

At Young Men tonight, we learn what we need to do for a road show. We will be doing the part about Ammon where some sheep are scattered and some arms are cut off. The deacons will probably have a good time with that. I had to run to Lances house to find his bag that he keeps all the scouting stuff in. It was nowhere to be found. Lance went home and found it but had told me the wrong places to look for it. We had a party for his son tonight who is leaving the deacons quorum for the teachers quorum. Today was his birthday.

Mental Illness

When I was at the church tonight with the Deacons, I had a thought about a particular woman that was in the ward house. The Deacons are no angels, and I would never say that they were, but in this case I think they called yelled at for no good reason. Of course, we were there for Young Men. One of the boys found a little car that should've been in the nursery but wasn't. He was running around the halls with it (which he was in the wrong to be doing). A lady in the Daybreak ward that meets in our building came out of the kitchen and started yelling at all the deacons. She was claiming that one of them had run over her three year old child, and the proof was that a three year old child would never lie. Anyway, she became quite unglued. I just went to the boys and told them to put away the car and have more respect for the church building and sharing it with all people.

Well, Lance wanted to go talk to her and see what right she had to get all up in arms over something as harmless as the boys were doing. I had been out in the hall and know that the boys did not run over this womans three year old child. I just told Lance to let it go. I'm not so sure that the lady is not mentally ill. We later had another lady come to us and tell us not to worry about this incident because this lady is like this all the time. She told us to just brush it off.

Unfortunately, I have seen some mental illness first hand in the form of my wifes sister. It is sad really, and she is living a really sad life. Over the Presidents Day Weekend when we were at my in-laws home, Melanie called home a few times. Sometimes she talked OK for a little while before she escalated and made life miserable to the person who ended up on the other end of the phone. It was mostly my mother-in-law. I felt really bad for Margaret for having to go through this on a continual basis. Melanie's' mental illness is so bad that my children have never even met her. I have never been with Melanie when she did not escalate to the point of craziness. There was even one time when the Heber City Police got called on us when we were up at the cabin and she had a major argument. It is something terrible.

Melanie's' recent complaints are quite valid. Her husband has been picked up and put into jail for his coke problem. He also has lost his job. For many years he has been able to give Melanie some money to live on. Now, it seems that this won't happen any longer. She is really worried about how to live on nothing. Margaret has told her that she is willing to see what she can do to help. The only problem is that part of that help has to be based on Melanie getting help through some of the drugs that are available to one with a mental illness. Melanie complains that we aren't there to support her, and to a point she is valid in that assessment. What she doesn't see is that we can't get around her because sooner or later she loses it and it isn't sensible to be around her at that time. She sees that we weren't there for her when she lost her kids to her brother-in-law. What she doesn't see is that we were also restrained from seeing her kids during that time as well. I don't know what to do about this kind of thing, but it is really sad to sit back and see all this crap going on.

We never go to visit Melanie, because of her illness. My wife and I tried to go see her a couple of years ago when we were in Ogden. Unfortunately she wasn't at home when we went around. My wife really misses her sister (even when her sister is around), and the camaraderie that she once shared with this long lost sister. How do you fix that kind of thing? In some ways, I think death of a loved one is easier than this. At least with death you know you can't visit with them at this time. With this, you can't visit them even though they are around because it is terrible when you do.

When Margaret talks to Melanie on the phone, she only talks while there is some semblance of sanity. That soon leaves. Things escalate. Margaret ends up putting the phone under a cushion on the couch while Melanie rambles on. She can't hang up because that will give Melanie one more thing to complain about. It has to be Melanie. You can't get a word in edgewise though when she is that way. She has to finally hangup. It can take a long time before she finally hangs up. Margaret checks the phone periodically to see if that has happened yet. Finally, it is over. Margaret is sad. She doesn't know how she can help her daughter. If her daughter isn't willing to admit that she has a mental health problem, she also isn't willing to get drugs to help her out with it. I'm afraid she has to hit rock bottom before things will get any better. Maybe, now that she doesn't have any means of living she will finally hit that point and something can be done. I have hopes, but they are not great hopes. I would love for my wife to be able to visit with her sister again and talk like close sisters do.

The Twins

Well, a good portion of this last weekend was spent with the twins who came here from Las Vegas.

I was off work on Friday and my wife and I just spent the time together. After getting the kids home, we took our daughter to her friends house in West Jordan for a sleep over birthday party. They had snakes, scorpions, tarantulas and other critters for the girls to enjoy. My daughter says that she was brave and handled all that they would allow them to handle. We took our son over to the Wachs' house so we could meet up with the twins as well as have some dinner over there. We had a good visit. Of course, we left our son with them and came on home. We also started to take care of the Mordens' dog for this weekend.

Saturday came along and I headed over to pick up our daughter. She had had a good time and was wondering when we would go over to grandmas' house. I told her we would get there when we were all ready. After a little while at home, we were ready and headed out. I was asked to grab my sons PS2 stuff so he could play with it. A few more people came over this time and my son did not get to play on the PS2 all day (even though it was there). Casey took it over and really didn't allow for anything else to go on with it.

I headed out with Jeff to go back to our home so he could get bed frames and some other things for him to be living at Brandon's (his sons) house. We filled the van up with dressers and the like and then went to Brandon's house to drop it all off in the garage. We got back about in time for some dinner. That night, we left both of our kids at the Wach residence. We headed on home pretty late.

Sunday morning came along. I only went to priesthood meeting where we got a new presidency. Tevivi was called as the president of the deacons quorum and Jacob Gustavos was called as his first counselor. No second counselor was called yet because they weren't able to talk with him. Dallin Christiansen was called as the secretary.

My wife and I stayed home for a little while and then went back over to the Wach house. Once again there was dinner, and we found that our kids as well as the twins were going to head over to Pam and Anne's house for the night. Once again, we were on our own.

Today, we were going to go to Boondocks for a party. With it snowing during the night this made this so it wasn't going to happen. Instead they decided to see a movie. The movie they chose was Bridge to Terabithia (or something like that) and they were watching it a little earlier than we wanted to go and watch it. We declined. They thought it was because of the movie, but it was because of the time. They didn't let us know that they went to the later show, so we simply missed out on it, though they told us we didn't miss out on much. We decided to take care of the dog (even though the Mordens' were going to be home tonight) and then I called them to leave a message about feeding the dog. I didn't realize that the phone they use is their cell phone. I talked to April, and she said that it was good that we were going to take care of the dog because they were going to be another day because of the bad weather.

I got my exercise shoveling the walks, and then spent the day watching stupid TV shows and reading. We finally went back to the Wachs house to be with everyone. Dinner never hurts either. We just spent the evening there, and said goodbye to Zach and Casey (they are leaving tomorrow) and then headed out.

Tomorrow, Zach and Casey will be going to the UofU so Zach can see what's going on as far as his education. Zach will be back up here to go to school, and Casey will be going to NYU. This could be interesting, and I will enjoy having Zach here.

Well, that's about it.

The Principal

Today, I headed to work as usual. I told my wife that I didn't think it would snow, but it might rain just a little bit. As if to mock me, it started to snow about an hour after I got to work. I called her and told her that I told you it wouldn't snow. Of course, she wanted me to take the SUV for that reason. Ah well, that's just the way it is.

I called into my kids school and asked for the principal. I was given his voice mail, and I left a message. He, unlike that vice principal, called me back. I was grateful for that. I told him all about the homework that my daughter has been doing and complained about the two hours that was required for the whole week. He seemed to think that was too much homework, and said he would talk to Mrs. Gordon about it as well as talk to the Math Board and all the teachers to see how they are all handling this situation. I also told him about the vice principal not calling me back. I was grateful that he had. He seems like a pleasant enough guy, and I appreciate what he does. He also seems to know my daughter personally (on a good level), and I appreciated that. I sure hope they do something. Plus, my daughter doesn't deserve to get marked down for late work on things that really are out of her control. It seems she was marked down a bit on that. I thought the conversation went well, and I hope this guy stays at the school through my daughters two more years (he is an interim principal who retired before coming here). I had to call him a little bit later to let him know that I would not be into work tomorrow. I will be interested to see what they do.

We didn't do too much tonight. It was just a quiet night at home.

Valentines

Not too much happened yesterday. During my lunch hour I went around to a few different stores to pick up various candy to make my wife a candy gram for Valentines Day. I had to modify what I wrote somewhat to take the place of what I was going to do.

When I got home, I found that my wife was doing Tony's hair. My daughter was doing her never-ending homework. My wife asked me to go out and get some dinner at Jalepenos. When I got there, I found that they were closed for a family medical emergency. That's when we decided it was a "corn dog" night. Not that you would get any complaints from the kids.

I called the Post Office again to complain about the mail being delivered wrong again. I mean, this has made us know some neighbors a bit better, but this is really ridiculous. I told them that I would be taking their mail to them because the last time I followed their advice and put it in the mailbox, it stayed there for the next day with our new stuff put on top. I hope they take care of the problem soon. It's tiring. I will call and complain each and everytime until the problem is fixed.

My wife went into our room to watch some TV (remember we don't have a couch in the front room yet). My daughter needed help on her homework, so both me and my son were in there trying to help her. Between the two of us, we got done what needed to be done. My son did more of it than I did. While he was still helping her, I went out and grabbed the stuff for the candy gram and did it in my sons room. I heard my wife ask them where I was, and they told her that I was working on a problem. I was glad they covered for me.

Today, being Valentines Day, I put out the candy gram that I had done the previous night for my wife to see first thing. She called me at work a little later to thank me for that surprise. I also picked up some chocolate covered strawberries from V-Chocolates (they are yummy) and then a little later went and picked up a small in-expensive (not cheap) necklace.

My wife was a bit upset at me because we had talked about having a small Valentines Day. We either had different definitions of small or my wife didn't realize who inexpensive the necklace was. She was upset because she thought it made her look bad. That was never my intention, and I don't feel that way at all. I was a bit melancholy about what I had done though.

My daughter had a headache, so I headed to piano lessons with my son in tow. He told me that my daughter had said the headache was Mrs Gordon's fault because of the math homework (again). I became rather upset at that. I discussed this with my wife because the two hours worth of homework was over as of the 13th. This wasn't two hours worth, but shouldn't they give the kids a break? I resolved that I would call the principal tomorrow.

After picking up my son, and after we got my daughter up, we headed to Jack and Donna's 60th wedding anniversary. The kids were glad that we were going there because Young Men/Young Women was going to babysit some of the ward members children tonight so they could go on a romantic dinner. My wife and I were glad of this because we would've had to have been with the youth.

Anyway, we had a good time at the 60th anniversary but had to leave a bit early because of that homework. It took my daughter 40 minutes to do (who's counting?). By the time everything was over, we were tired. It's not that late, and we are heading off to bed.

Crazy People

Soon after I arrived at work I found that Sundays jobs had not run. After some searching we found that the scheduler had gone down. I had to get things up and running again. After I ran Sundays jobs it looked to me like it had done Mondays jobs all over again. Fortunately, it was my mistake. I was looking at the wrong log. It was a bit embarrassing though because I was talking to people at work about it.

Instead of going home, I went to Audrie's Design to take back the cushion that we had borrowed and to finalize the sale of a leather couch and love seat. They said they will deliver them tomorrow. Once home, I found that my daughter had a tension headache from all of this homework stress. It just makes me angry about this. We went out and grabbed some hamburgers for dinner, and then I tried to work on my computer to fix the printer problem. It is still a problem. I may have to redo my whole system. I don't want too because that wipes out all the information that is on it currently.

My wife also wanted me to move the couch in our living room tonight into the bedroom. It barely fit through the door after we took the legs off of it. I was sweating profusely after that. I also had to move the bed over a little bit to make room for the couch. It'll be that much more convenient when my wife says, "Go sleep on the couch" (just kidding).

I titled this crazy people because of something that went on tonight at Trolley Square (a mall in Salt Lake). It seems some guy in a trench coat took a shotgun there and started shooting up the place. He killed 5 people that we are aware of, and it sounds like a few others are hurt bad enough to go to the hospital. The police had to shoot and kill this gunman.

Some other stuff going on today was that my cousin (Steve) had an operation to remove a testicle because he has testicular cancer. It also has spread a bit so he will have to have some chemo later. While he was having this operation done, his brother (Don) was in another hospital to get his knee replaced. I'll bet my Aunt Donna is having a fit.

More Stuff

While I was at work on Friday, I tried to contact my daughters vice principal again to complain about the homework that has been assigned. I have not been able to get any kind of help there. He has not returned my calls. This has been frustrating to me. I want to see if this is the acceptable norm or not. This homework thing is going to drive me nuts before it is all over.

My wife was also called from Perry Homes, I guess they won't be coming out to fix our problem till about the end of March. That is frustrating because we have all this blue tape on our walls waiting for them. I wish there was a different solution to this.

Saturday came along and we did a little bit of cleaning. It was pretty nice outside and my daughter wanted to go ice skating. We went over there (with her friend) and they skated for about 1/2 hour. Some cub scouts had been there and had messed up the ice by kicking huge divots in it. It makes me mad when a group of people destroy it for the rest.

We hurried on home and decided that we needed to go out. We called up Pam and decided that we would meet at my in-laws home and then go out to dinner. We ended up going to "The Golden Coral". It was pretty good food.

When we took everybody back to my in-laws house, my wife and I took off to go get our car washed and to go look at some furniture. We ended up in Audrie's Design where we found a leather couch and love seat for around $3,000. It is kind of country with nails (I don't know how to describe them) on the back of it. It's also a cream color because we have a lot of darker stuff in the house. Anyway, we are pretty much in love with the look of this.

Later in the evening, we drove home to pick up some clothes for our kids so they could stay with their Aunt, and then met them at a coffee shop. They took the kids, and we had time to ourselves. It was late, so we just kind of watched TV in each others arms.

Today came along and my wife was not feeling well. We went to church in the morning, but ended up coming home because of how she was feeling. We watched the movie "Invincible" today, and thoroughly enjoyed that movie. It is a great family movie.

We got a call from Anne asking us to come out for dinner when we come to pick up our kids. We found out that my daughter was getting her homework finished and everything. I was quite impressed. It seems she didn't even need to ask questions of how to do it because she knew pretty much what to do.

After a fabulous dinner, we headed home. On the way home, my son told us that he had had some wine when he went to church with Anne. They have a mingle after services and he thought it was apple juice. Evidently, so did Anne. Well, he didn't like it much. I was also surprised to hear that he didn't know (at 15) that wine is alcohol. He knew it was against the word of wisdom and just assumed it had high doses of caffeine. Anyway, the things that you learn about your kids, huh? We had a brief talk about it and I told him jokingly that we would have to talk with the bishop. I think he is nervous that I will say something in a joking way in front of the bishop sometime, and he really doesn't want me to do that. Of course, I wouldn't.

After I got home tonight, I came in to work on getting a scan of some stuff for my mom. My HP all in one didn't seem to take scans and said something about having to reload the software. In order to reload, you are forced to unload (it does it automatically) and so I uninstalled the printer, but was not able to get it installed back. That's maddening. I don't quite know what to do about that. It was giving me an error saying that I didn't have a good version of Windows Installer. I emailed HP, and will hopefully get the answer to that. Right now, my printer is not hooked up. I may have to get it hooked up to my other computer.

My daughters bad day

A couple of things have gone on in this last little bit. Yesterday, while I was at work, I went to a meeting to find out that we are going to be changing the database stuff sooner than I would've thought. At first they were talking about changing it all next week. I pointed out that the day they were thinking of happened to be Valentines Day. They all decided that that may not be the best day to do it. So, instead, they decided we could do it tomorrow night (which was tonight). Of course I would have to be available for them to do this.

When I arrived home the first thing I was hearing was that my daughter had had a downright bad, good for nothing day. We couldn't find out for sure whether she had argued with her math teacher or not. What we did find out was that she has two hours of homework each night until February 13th. It started the day before when she missed that math class so she was already behind. To make matters worse, she had piano lessons and then Young Women. I shot off an email to her teacher kind of complaining. I am mad that there would be that much homework. I am against homework in the first place, but to have two hours in any class is just stupid.

After my daughter made it home from Young Women, she took a shower and then she and I sat down to do her homework. It's been a long time for me to remember what she was doing, and she did not know how to do it. My poor daughter was tired. After I worked on one problem with her for a half hour (and still didn't know what was going on), I looked at her and she had her head on the table. I sent her to bed. I had an answer for the y part of the equation, but thought it wasn't the right answer. I couldn't quite remember things so went to look on the internet to see if I could find a good example. I couldn't. I still wanted to figure it out. I decided to look again at what I had done and decided that maybe my answer for y was correct. I finished out the equation and then tested it and it worked. It looks like I was correct in the first place. But, dang, I hate story problems. It was 11:00 and I was tired.

For Young Men tonight, we had a Court of Honor. There really isn't too much to tell about it, but they did have my son stand up along with the other life scouts and told them they need to make sure they have the eagle packets and on the eagle project they need to get them turned in. That last part was to my son and Tanner Bean.

Today, I was still a bit miffed about the two hours of homework. I left a voice mail with the offending teacher. She never returned my call. She did send back to me an email saying that they knew about this two hours of homework since about three weeks ago (at least). Frankly, I don't care. I told her that I was concerned with it and she sent me back another email saying that there is help available after school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (from other teachers not her because heaven forbid, she has outside activities). Well, I also called the Vice Principal and left him a voice mail. He also has not returned my call. I don't know that it will do anything, but it will at least let them know that there is a parent who is against all of this.

Well, at work, I prepared for the changes that are to take place tonight and left. When I arrived home, my wife was making a favorite dinner for my daughter because of two bad days in a row. I love those spinach and chicken croissants. It is also one of my favorite dinners. My daughter did go to a tutor after school today and she actually understood her math assignment. She did get that homework finished for tonight. She still has to make up two days worth though.

My daughter had to go to a Young Woman meeting tonight to learn about camp for the stake. I was at home working on the computer (I did get the problem fixed that I was having a couple of days ago). There were a few problems that I ran into, but after they bounced the machine everything seemed to work. I'll know for sure starting tomorrow. My wife was out cutting hair for a part of this, and then had to go and give insurance information for our daughter to go on the camp.

My daughter finished her homework for tonight, and that was a good thing.

Working from Home

Today was a bit frustrating to me. I had worked out that I could work from home so we could have the sheetrock guy come and look to see what was needed to be done to fix all those nail pops. I woke up and started to try to work from home around 5:45. I wasn't able to log on to my computer at work from home. This was maddening. I worked on that for quite awhile and then did a few other things.

My wife had to take my daughter to the dentist. Of course we had to take Meghan out of school for a couple of periods in order to accomplish this. I stayed home and waited and worked on trying to get my computer to work. I was talking to the help desk and at that time I was being called by Perry Homes to tell me that they couldn't make it out. I didn't realize they had left me a message so I continued to see what I could do. I really didn't want to take my machine in and have it re imaged as that would wipe out a lot of what I have.

My wife got home just after 10:00. Perry Homes was supposed to be at our place between 9:30 - 10:00. The first thing my wife did was see that there was a message on our phone. I wish I would've realized that, as I could've gone into work a bit earlier.

Since I was supposed to be working from home and couldn't, I headed into work. They were surprised to see me, but there were things that I had to do. I was glad to get all that stuff accomplished.

I remained a bit upset all day because of Perry Homes and their not showing up when I had made special arrangements. I was also told by them that they would fix the house to "industry standard". He particularly didn't like that we found a lot of them by using a flashlight. I just hope that the sheet rocker gets it all fixed up. I'll try not to be in too bad of a mood.

21st Birthdays and such

There isn't a lot I can think of to tell for what has transpired over the last few days. Not much going on at work, nor is there much going on at home that is out of the ordinary.

Friday, I had the day off. My wife and I didn't really do too much. We took a ride together and took care of some errands and had some lunch out in Herriman, but other than that, it was the same old stuff.

My wife has been feeling sick and has had troubles with her breathing. The air quality hasn't been too good, but it has gotten better during this time. She is still struggling with the breathing. She has been kept up some nights because of this and I have been all alone in that big king size bed. I don't like that much, but there isn't too much to do about it.

Saturday, I made sure the kids got their rooms all cleaned up, because we should be having a sheet rocker come to our place on Tuesday. Of course, they should be keeping their rooms clean anyway. I also made sure the den and family room were clean. All the laundry was finished and we felt pretty good about that. My daughter went out ice skating and my son stayed at home waiting for his friend to call. He didn't call, and we finally called over to him around 5:45 PM. We then took my son over to Craig's house so he could have a late night. He stayed there until 10:45 when he finally came home.

Sunday came, and my wife was too sick to make it to Young Women. I took the kids to church, went to priesthood meeting and then came home during Sunday School. I had to get the Ham into the oven and my wife had prepared a seven layer dip. This was all for the SuperBowl party. I went back to Sacrament meeting and then we hurried on home.

After a few minor preparations, we all got in the car and headed over to my in-laws home. Pam was there as well as Nathan, Brandon and Jeff. There were a few preparations there and then we had a huge dinner with Roast Beef, Turkey or Ham rolls, Chili, Chicken Wings, and all kinds of other things. Of course there was that seven layer dip. We had way too much food and simply snacked on it all during the game.

The game kicked off and I was surprised to see that on the Kick off the Bears ran the ball all the way for a touch down. I won't go into what was going on in the game as that isn't important. It was a fun game to watch and there were a lot of errors made. Some of that, I am sure, was because of the wet conditions they were playing in. The Colts won the game, and my wife was really getting into the game which was a surprise to me. She usually isn't into sports much at all. We finally went home and got into bed.

Well, today is my daughters 21st birthday. I really can't believe that she is 21 and even worse that I am old enough to have a 21 year old daughter. I called her after I got home from work today. She told me that she had sluffed school today and that she was going to be going to dinner at Splash with a few friends and just hang out. That's kind of scary on a 21st birthday, but that is what she will do.