Marathon - Talks - and life in general

Well, once again, it's been awhile since I have written in this journal of mine. One of these days I'll do better, but not now. I would probably be translated if I kept journaling all the time. Now, I just have to recall everything (and at my age that is getting harder and harder.

I'll start with last Friday and Saturday. My wife took off for St. George on Friday the 22nd. So, I came home from work to a house with two kids, a dog and me. I did pick up some Arbys Roast Beef sandwiches on the way home though. That's what my kids had come up with for dinner when mom isn't home. Of course, I don't mind the easy way out either. Nothing much happened for the rest of Friday. We did get a call from Kevin who was hoping we could come out and visit him.

Saturday morning there was a little bit of shoveling of snow for me (not bad, just a little bit). I was able to get it done in good time. Of course I had also done some shoveling Friday evening as well. The scouts that I am an assistant scoutmaster too were out on a Scout camp. It was the Klondike. I couldn't go because of the cold and my Cpap machine. Also, we felt that somebody should be home with the kids. We did a couple of other chores around the house and then my son and I took my daughter to a baby shower for Cosy. My son and I decided to try to find a couple of geocaches on the way home. This wasn't to be. Even though they were allegedly easy ones to find, we couldn't find them. I'll have to try a bit more on another day.

We ran on home to drop the dog off and then headed out to see Kevin. While I was driving to see him, I got a call from my wife. She told me that she had run/walked the 5k in under 40 minutes. Later, when we looked at the results in her sex and age group, we found that she had come in 6th out of 11. For a woman who hasn't trained in that at all, I thought she had done good. I don't know if I could do that at this point as I haven't been exercising the way I should be (or at all).

At the halfway house, they take my drivers license as well as my sons (since he is 18) and then we are allowed to go back and talk with Kevin. My sister is sitting there by his side (I guess she does this each Saturday). We sit there and talk for two hours in an uncomfortable school lunch table setting. It was a good visit though. We discussed various things and then Derek and his fiance (Andy [for Andrea]) come in. My daughter has given me a call so we decide we had better head home. On the way home we buy some Tyson Appetizers (or something like that) for dinner. It has fries, buffalo wings and popcorn chicken. I won't get in trouble until one day my wife reads this and finds out about the fatty things I eat.

Saturday evening I help my daughter prepare a talk. We found something online from a preacher and modified it to fit in with her and the way she would talk. She only needed a five minute talk anyway. In the meantime my son is given a call by one of the neighbors informing him to give a talk. He told him no. He thought that would be the end of it. It wasn't.

Sunday, we all go to church. The deacons quorum presidency had changed so they had to be set apart. While that was happening, I noticed somebody had tried to come in. I told them to let somebody in. It was my son. He asked for the keys and seemed upset. After the setting apart of all in the deacons quorum, I left and gave him a call. He was upset. He had to give a talk. I told him I would come home to help him. We got it all done. In this case, I took it off the cuff because we didn't have any time to really find anything. Anyway, both of their talks went quite well (if I say so myself). And, even though it was on the same subject, their focus went to two different places. I was glad of that.

We came home from that and made some Lasagna (the frozen simple kind to make). My wife called and told me she would be coming home. We were able to have some of it for her as well. She had a wonderful time. Now, I just wish I could give her all that good of a time. That is something I still need to work on. I was grateful to have her home, and I love her dearly.

Over this same weekend, a problem at work started to develop. It is something that we have struggled with for the whole week and it still is not taken care of. That has been frustrating to me. It is still an ongoing problem that I hope will be fixed soon.

I can't think of much that has happened this past week (its terrible that you can think of something if it is longer in the past but recent past is a blur). Tuesday evening I went swimming with the Scouts. We also got to watch a blog that my brother had made up for his wife and her friend that she gave a kidney too. That was quite interesting.

Friday, I took the day off from work. My wife and I decided to go see Shelly in the hospital and then to go to lunch at the Olive Garden (it was chosen because on Thursday my coworker found a gift certificate given to him for me at Christmas since we were gone). At the hospital was my sister. We had a good time with Shelly and then decided to go with my sister to see her husband at work. We were able to take them to lunch (once again that gift certificate) and had a good time with them. We then had to go find a green tea that my wife is getting that is not fermented. It is to help out with health issues. We had to go to an Asian market to find it.

Oh, we also went to look at some tile to do our back splash with. We have some bids in and it looks like all of that will be a go. We just need to wait for all the materials to come in.

Saturday was chores. I was able to get all that done as well as getting our Honda Pilot in for an oil change. I had a good time making a shepherds pie with my son. It was a learning experience for both of us and we just did it out of our head. It came out quite good.

Today was church and that's about it. Not much, but enough.

Time Flies - Wife Accident

Wow! I didn't realize that it had been so long since I last wrote here. I don't even remember most of what has happened, but I'll try.

I had last Friday off. My wife and I just had a nice day together. We didn't do much of anything though.

Saturday, our kids left to go to Pam and Anne's house. There they were to help take care of Boston (their cousins 18 month old child) along with Pam. My wife first gave Pam a haircut and then she stayed for awhile before leaving. I got in a bit of trouble because I did some reading while we had a guest in the house. Saturday evening my wife and I were able to go to a Jon Schmidt concert that our daughter had gotten us tickets too. That was quite enjoyable.

Of course, Sunday came along and our kids were not at home. I went to church and came home after taking the Sacrament. So, I got most of church, but left for the last 40 minutes. I probably shouldn't have gone home, but I just wasn't into it. We were also wondering if we would have to go pick up our kids. I hate the 1:00-4:00 schedule of church because there isn't time to do anything in the morning (as far as visiting family) and by the time its done, there isn't much time in the evening either. I probably shouldn't feel that way, but it's how I feel nonetheless. As it sits, Pam brought our kids home and then visited for awhile. While they had our kids on this Sunday our daughter had gotten on our sons facebook page and answered some questions that also got sent out to certain people. One of the questions was if he would date Danny. She answered that as a yes and Danny happened to be online. Our poor son tried to minimize the damage by letting people know that his sister had hijacked his facebook page. My wife and I were concerned because of the implications of being teased at school. Pam didn't understand this at all. I don't know that she ever will. But then when I was reading my daughters post that said she loved destroying her brother life (because he had said something to the effect that she always destroys his life) Pam thought I was taking it to seriously. I told her that I was reading it because I thought it was funny. I guess she doesn't really understand me at times. That's OK.

Well, that crisis was over. Monday came along, and it was a snowy morning commute. It was rough getting into work. I had white knuckles even driving into work as early as I do. The kids were home from school both Monday and Tuesday because of Martin Luther King day and a Teachers prep day (first of new quarter and all). So, my son had shoveled the walks which makes my life easier. My son told me that he had applied to work for a company called Chacha and that he would be starting on Wednesday. It is a job where he is basically a contracted employee who answers questions that people send in electronically.

Tuesday evening, our kids went to the school to play in the Pep Band for a basketball game at Bingham High. I went to a combined activity at the church. It was lip sync which I thought I would be able to just sit and watch. But, I was wrong. They wanted the bishopric to do one of them and since one of the members of the bishopric had to leave the bishop told us Young Men leaders that we were enlisted. Basically we did some dumb dance to a Backstreet boys song. We survived.

Wednesday, my wife called me wanting to go look at some tile. I told her I would meet her there. I was on my way there and was at the corner of 300 W and 3300 S, when I got a call from my wife. She told me that she was in a fender bender at 500 W and 3300 S. I told her I would turn around and come to her. I got there and she had rear ended a guy and his bumper was a little bit messed up. The policeman came a bit later and told them where to move too. They did. I just sat with my wife while she was filling out the paperwork and helped her very little. She was glad I had come. This was her very first accident ever. She was flustered. I felt bad for her.

There was one moment that I found to be a bit funny. The officer was handing her a citation (not the funny part) and she was talking to him and told him that it was her first accident ever. She then did a little pout that made her look like an innocent child. It was a really cute scene. I wish I had it on camera. I kind of grinned and my wife thought I was smiling because she has given me a hard time when I have had accidents, and now it was her turn. I told her that wasn't it, but don't know that she believed me. Well, we went to the tile place.

At the tile place we spent some time looking around and then took home a few samples from there. We had picked on type that we liked and decided to look at a couple of things at home. I went back to work and my wife went home.

Once home, I looked at some of the tiles. We came up with the one we liked. We had Shane coming over to look at our water pressure problem and he did come over. He said that we have quite a bit of pressure and in our shower took out a restricting piece from the shower head that made it have enough pressure that my showers should be a bit more enjoyable. I always hate it when somebody flushes the toilet while I'm in the shower. We also had him look at our kitchen faucet and he took out a couple of pieces. That was a mistake. We couldn't really get them back in. We did get it fixed good enough that we are happy with what we have, but what a pain. Anyway, my wife gave him some money for his time and he told us that we had given him way too much (he would've done it for nothing). He said that in the spring he could look at our outside water pressure on the hoses. Hopefully, he remembers this promise.

After Shane left, I called Val Razo (the guy who did our counter top and is doing our back splash) to see what we need to do. He told us that he would meet with us on Thursday evening.

I had a few problems at work on Thursday. It started out as normal enough, but the jobs that I was running didn't do what they were supposed to do. I ended up chasing my tail for the whole afternoon on that one. I didn't figure it out at all. On the way home I thought of the problem and decided that it was a known problem with the new system and we had come to a solution to fix it. But, I had destroyed that solution so I need to get with Darin and see if he remembered what the solution was. I sure hope so.

Val and his two tile people came over to help us out. They have another place for us to look at some tiles and maybe we can come up with something that will go well with our house. It may even be cheaper through this place. We'll soon see. We talked with Val for awhile and our kids were in and out of the house. My wife had to get out and pick up a few things for her outing with the girls starting Friday morning. I want her to have fun. I had to go get some shorts for our son to be in gym. He grew out of the other shorts we had.

My wife spent the evening packing and I spent the evening back and forth with some of that and watching my son do some of his job with Chacha. I just hope it brings in the money he thinks it will. If it does, it is a good job for him to have.

Well, that's about it. I'm long winded, eh?

Klondike sled - Countertop

It's only been a few days since I last wrote. Not too much has happened, but I thought I should write it down anyways.

Tuesday evening, I went to Young Men and we ended up over at Glens house building a Klondike sled for when the boys go to camp on the 22nd of this month. I will not be going, first of all because it is too cold and I don't feel comfortable breathing that cold air through my Cpap machine and secondly because my wife will be down in St. George for the weekend with a bunch of women in our ward and in the 1st ward. Anyway, we just led the boys on how to do things and they pretty well did it. This seems like a fun project for the boys and I hope that it goes well for them when they go to race it.

Today, I worked from home because some people were coming over to take care of our countertop. I don't recall if I mentioned it or not, but our countertop was falling in one corner and we had to call to have it taken care of. It looks like they will be doing it free of charge for us, but it has been a hassle. Anyway, I was originally told that they would be coming over at 1:00 but that changed to 3:00. In reality, I got a call around 4:30 saying to expect them around 5:45.

Well, since they were going to be a bit later, I went out at lunchtime with my wife and we bought a new faucet for our kitchen. I had to take apart the plumbing under the sink including the garbage disposal, the sink drains and the water itself. Since I was that far into it anyway, I told my wife that now was the best time for us to make the change to get a faucet that has the sprayer inside the faucet since she really likes that. It was expensive, but we had the extra money to do it at this time. We also bought a cabinet to put over our toilet in the master bedroom. We also grabbed some sandwiches to bring home for lunch from Quiznos.

While I was waiting for the countertop people to come over, I started to put together the cabinet for over the toilet with our son. I am so grateful for all the help that he gives. He certainly knows what it is that he is doing. I am impressed with his varying abilities at almost everything he does. We were pretty close to done when the countertop people came over.

I let my son finish out what were were doing on the cabinet and went to talk with the countertop people. They didn't seem aware that they had to take out a cupboard before they were to do the countertop. They got it all figured out and then went to work. We could see where the pieces that were supposed to hold up the whole thing had fallen down behind the cupboards. From what we saw, they only used glue on them instead of glue and silicone. The silicone is the most important to use of the two as it is what grabs with a good solid grab. They were at our house for about an hour and a half. The only complaint I have is that they didn't know a lot of English. They have enough to get by, but that is about it.

After they left, my son and I started to put the plumbing back together. We got everything together and were able to also get in the new faucet. It looks pretty good. I hope it all works out the way my wife thinks it will. It also came with a soap dispenser. This was great because it took care of the one extra hole we would've had.

Florida Trip - Kevin home

It's been awhile since I last wrote in here. There is no way I will be able to remember everything and I'm not even going to try. Anyway, I thought I had better at least put in two of the bigger events that have happened.

As a family, we decided to go to Florida for Christmas vacation. We left home on December 22 and came back home on January 4th. It was a two week vacation. We had told our kids that they would not be receiving any gifts for Christmas. This trip was taking the place of that. The kids agreed to this and we went ahead as planned. We have my mother-in-law to thank for covering the plane tickets for us.

There was supposed to be a storm on December 22nd, so we had them come to our house early so we could get to the airport without any problems. The storm didn't actually hit until we had already left. I'm told it put down about 4 inches. We have Randy (our next door neighbor) to thank for keeping our walks clean when it snowed. I know I'm getting side tracked here, but it was Randy and Therese who took care of our dog and the bird. They were a really good pick.

Now back to the airport. I had checked in online so it was quite easy to get our bags onto the flight. This saved us $5 a bag by doing it online (I still can't believe we have to pay to take any kind of luggage on a trip). We went upstairs to go through the security gate. My Father-in-law struggled to find his drivers license, and thankfully, he did have it with him. I don't know what we would've done had he not found it. We all concentrated on getting ourselves through and then found that my in-laws both got stopped. I guess there is just something about older grandparents that screams at them that they have tendencies to need extra screening. Rod had kept his glass case in his pocket which set off the alarms and he was taken into an area and spread out so they could check him out. They also had him sit down and hold up each leg individually to make sure all was OK. One officer came out with warehouse size toothpaste and shaving cream and asked me what to do with it. I told them to throw them away (it was no use paying to mail them home). Another officer told me to make sure he gets all metal off of him next time we travel and showed me his glass case. In the meantime our mother-in-law was going through her own search. They actually took the wand down into her pants even though she had a card saying that she had knee replacements. She had also worn her watch through and her sweater. Both no-nos. At last we got us all through and on our way, but not without making Margaret feel like a criminal. She was to the point of crying a bit. I mean, what do they think a 79 year old woman and 84 year old man are going to do? We got to sit for quite awhile waiting to board the plane. They let us all board early because of the elderly parents, and that was quite nice.

We arrived in Tampa right on time where Steve and Kathy picked us up at the airport. I also arranged with my daughter to come over to their house and meet us. She was sick (as was Kathy). We were able to pick up the minivan that we would drive for the two weeks and I had a pleasant surprise to find out it would be about $80 cheaper than we thought it would be (that total cost was $869). It wasn't a very nice van. It was completely stripped of any niceties. And, it continually told me that the tire pressure monitors weren't working.

At Steves house we had a nice homemade chicken noodle soup that Kathy had made. We also enjoyed going into their backyard and looking out at the ducks on the lake as well as grabbing a couple of fresh oranges. My daughter got there and was able to eat dinner with us. We then took her to our condo and settled in for the night with her staying with us. She was coughing a lot and we had to get some Lysol and Clorox wipes to take care of things to try and keep from getting sick.

I can't give a day by day synopsis, because I don't remember what happened day by day. I believe we stayed at the condo most of the day of the 23rd. We did go to the house at some point because we went out shopping for the prime rib that we were going to be eating on Christmas day. I think it was probably just relaxing even when we did get over there. Aubree had to go home because she had to be to work Wednesday evening.

On the 24th, we hung out at the condo till at least noon. We then headed to the house for Christmas Eve with everybody. Steve and Kathy had their son Shaun and his wife Diane come home for Christmas (they don't live too far, but live in a Scientology complex). Shaun had a one track mind as to when he would be able to open his presents. They always open their gifts on Christmas Eve. Kathy had a sister and her husband that also came to their home. There were all kinds of treats to eat and it was pretty filling to us. Kathy and Steve gave us all towels and sunscreen in a bag for the beach. That was quite thoughtful of them. Also we saw some sandals that her brother-in-law was wearing that had bottle openers on the bottom. We thought that was pretty cool and an idea started to form in our heads.

Christmas morning saw us at Village Inn having a Christmas breakfast. Soon after that, we headed to the house again to spend the day with family. Plus there was that nice prime rib dinner that we were going to have. It was wonderful. I saved some for Aubree and she was grateful because it would've been gone. We were able to have Aubree stay with us once again for the evening. I think it was Christmas day that we went to one of the beaches that are in Florida. It was cold for Florida and for the beach, but it was kind of an interesting thing to do for those of us who don't have a regular beach front nearby.

On one of the days around this time, we had a big game of Progressive Rummy. There were eight of us playing and it was kind of fun, although it lasted a long time. Kathy couldn't be with us that night because she had to go as a minister to be with a family who was having a memorial service for somebody that had died. We had Shawns wife with us and it was her first time. She came close to winning the whole thing. It took about three hours to finish that game.

Pam and Anne came to Florida the day after Christmas. We met with them and had some good times. We went to a place called Sunken Gardens at one point. Pam and Anne saved us some money because they were members of the Red Butte gardens at home. I know it wasn't real fun for the kids, but it was fun.

I know it isn't a touristy type of thing to do, but we went to see the movie Avatar in 3D at one of the theaters. One thing that I thought was kind of humorous was that while we were traveling there, I turned on my Garmin Nuvi (GPS) but we were following Kathy who knew the way. We didn't make the first right turn that it told us to do, and then a bit further they turned left. We followed and then they stopped. Steve got out and asked if I had my Garmin. I told him I did, and he said that they would follow us. So, the ones who knew nothing of the area needed to show them how to get there. In their favor, they usually go a different way, but since they had to come to our place first in Clearwater, they didn't go their regular way. It was an enjoyable movie.

On Tuesday the 29th we went to Clearwater beach so we could meet everybody there and eat at a place called Frenchys. Aubree was able to come there and be with us for this meal. I don't like seafood, and they all told me I should have some seafood while I was there, so I at least tasted a soup that my daughter had gotten. I didn't like it that well, but could see how those who like seafood would think it was great. The rest of the food there was pretty good as well.

Later that day, the rest of the group was going to go to the Scientology building for a tour. We opted to go with Aubree to see my ex-wifes brother and his wife instead. They had asked to see me while I was visiting down there and I do consider them to still be related and if not still good enough friends that we should see them. Aubrees grandfather and grandmother wanted to see me as well, but that didn't work out.

We went to their home and it was a beautiful place. They have recently sold it although they aren't telling the family yet that they have done so. I guess it is just too big for them and they want to get into something a bit smaller because of the economy the way it is. We stayed there for a couple of hours and had a nice visit. I'll have to keep in better contact with them than I have in the past. It's been a lot of years.

Aubree stayed that night with us and into Wednesday. We didn't do too much on Wednesday because Aubree wasn't feeling well. She was sick everyday that we saw her. She felt really bad about that, but there was nothing we could do. We finally sent her off on Wednesday so she could get some sleep before having to go to work. While we were with Aubree on Wednesday we went to Clearwater beach. It wasn't too cold but it certainly wasn't hot. Dee Anne got another soup from Frenchys, and some of the rest of us headed to the ocean. I got up to about my knees in looking for various seashells. We got a few good ones, but not a bunch. We did have a good time out there though.

On Thursday, we went to Busch Gardens. We spent the majority of the day in there. Soon after we got there, Dee Anne and I went on Sheikra. It was a fun coaster, but the first drop was straight down. We went on that twice. We also told Pam and Anne they had to get on it. Our kids met up with us (they were running all around the park) so they could have some lunch. When we were going for the lunch, we saw Grandpa wandering about and he went and got in line to go on Sheikra. We sent our daughter with him because we didn't think an 83 year old man should go on the ride (especially alone). After that we went for lunch. A little later Dee Anne and I went on Montu. It has seven loops in it and after about the halfway mark I didn't know if I was facing up, down or sideways. I literally had a green pallor after that ride. I was quite sick for the rest of our time at Busch Gardens. Dee Anne and I just walked around a bit after that looking at the zoo part of the place. We had fun, and then we headed home. Some people played Progressive Rummy again that night and then we headed out with Pam, Anne and Melanie so they could get their purses that they had left at our place. We then got them to a late night pharmacy to pick up some stuff for their various ailments before they left on the morning of the 1st.

Another funny thing with the Garmin. We had to get to the pharmacy. My wife had remembered that there was one on a street called Belcher. The Garmin was telling us to turn. I asked if she was absolutely sure and she wasn't. We followed the garmin. It turned us off of Belcher (left) and then a right turn down a signal and another right turn on another signal on Gulf to Bay. The place was on the corner of Gulf to Bay and (you guessed it) Belcher. I think the reason it made us go that way is because the address was on Gulf to Bay and I had to avoid U turns in the Garmin. Anyway, I thought that was kind of amusing.

We slept in on the first and just mostly did things around the condo. There were only a couple of days of vacation left now. On Saturday we went to the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs. That was a place of shopping. We also met up with Aubree for this. This was the last day that she was able to be with us. A bit later when I was saying good bye to Aubree my wife made sure not to be there. It usually gets pretty emotional, and if I didn't have to be there to say good bye to my daughter I wouldn't be there. I usually get pretty moody at times like this. I was glad to be able to spend the time with my daughter that I was able to spend, and I think that God was looking out for me because she had more time than normal off of work making that possible.

Sunday was kind of a lazy day with a little bit of cleaning up. My wife worked quite hard on getting everything clean. I think the place was cleaner than when we got there. We also spent some time on Monday cleaning up. We went to a restaurant and then came home. We then met Steve, Kathy and the in-laws at the car rental place so they could drive us to the airport.

Did I say I hate airport security? I had gotten our tickets taken care of beforehand, so we hopefully wouldn't have to wait in long lines for our tickets (plus you save $5 a bag). Well, that didn't work that well this time because the Kiosk machines where we were to go were broken down. We finally got through that part. Next was security. We were working on getting grandma and grandpa through security, and I almost forgot to take off my own belt. My belt ended up in the same container that had my Cpap machine.

There was an obnoxious guy behind me in security. That didn't help my mood out much. While we were trying to get our whole group through he was told to go to another line. He protested saying that the other line was longer (he was actually mistaken in that). They told him that he had to move to clear this area which he utterly protested and refused to move. I think he should've gone through extra screening just for that, but then I was in a foul mood.

As I said, my belt ended up with my Cpap machine. They told me that I had to wait right there for them to come and test the Cpap. The guy behind me yelled at me to move. I told him my stuff was still there and I was told to stay. He told me that I had better move that it wasn't going to get it through the scanner any faster. What he didn't understand is the scanner isn't good enough. I told him to chill out, my Cpap wasn't going through the scanner and I had to wait here. He was still angry with me. He was a real ass. They wouldn't even let me get my belt that was in with the Cpap machine, so my pants were loose and I wasn't happy. I told the guy to feel lucky he didn't have to go through this extra screening. I still think they should've strip searched the guy. Well, after waiting for a bit, I finally got it all. We headed to the gate.

We waited at the gate for awhile. When they were announcing the people who would be getting on early, I heard nothing that fit my in-laws. I went to the desk and asked. I told them that they didn't want the wheel chairs, but that they needed to get in first because of their age and they weren't real firm on their feet. I was told that only they could go through, but not the rest of us. I still tried to have my kids go on with them. They told my kids they couldn't. So, they had to walk into the plane on their own. We were furious that they didn't even have anybody helping them along. Later a stewardess told us that we should complain to Delta Airlines. I have done this, but haven't heard anything from it yet. Let alone, my in-laws sometimes get disoriented, they really did a dis-service by not allowing us to go on the plane with them.

The plane ride was long and tedious.

Brandon picked us up from the airport and after arriving home, we grabbed some towels and sandals that we had bought for Randy and Therese for taking care of our house and dogs and went to pick up Lizzy.

The sandals that we bought were kind of fun. For Randy, we got those sandals that we had seen that opened the beer bottles. For Therese we just got some pretty sandals that are nice. They both seemed pleased with this though they protested that we didn't need to do that. Randy started to say that it would be cool to open bottles of b... er coke with that (I guess he didn't think we would know that he might drink). We told him he could open his beer bottles with it too.

Anyway, Lizzy didn't seem to happy to see us. Before she could see who we were, she growled, and then she came up to us, but when we went to leave she ran to Randy and tried to get him to pick her up. I guess she was saying don't send me home with these people. I guess that is the problem when you send your dog to be spoiled by somebody else. Interestingly, even their daughter was sad to see Lizzy go. Randy said she isn't even this way with their own dog.

Thanks goes to Randy, Therese and Brittany for taking care of our dog. Brandon for driving us too and picking us up from the airport and mostly, Steve and Kathy who both took off quite a bit of time from work to make it special for us. Also, we are grateful to the guy that allowed us to use his condo. That made it all nice.

Well, Tuesday after coming home, I had my eyes glued shut. I decided I probably had pink eye and better not go into work to give this to them. That was based on the fact that Anne had a strep throat as well as pink eye when she got home. I got some eye drops from my doctor and was told I could go into work the next day. Now, my wife seems to be a bit sick. Hopefully, she can get better soon. I also skipped out on Young Men that night (for the same reason).

I've been busy the rest of this week just trying to catch up at work. I did get pretty much caught up on various things and hopefully next week will be more back to normal.

Kevin came home from prison on Thursday the 7th. Well, at least to a halfway house that is in the Salt Lake area. On Saturday, my kids and I went out there knowing we wouldn't be able to spend a lot of time with him, but hoping too. We got there and filled out some paperwork so they could do criminal background checks on each of us. We were then told that he was out with his family shopping until 4:00. It was 3:30. We went to an indoor swap meet and looked around. My kids mentioned that almost everybody there was of Spanish descent. We then went back. My wife didn't come because she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to give Kevin some kind of welcome back sickness.

Of course, we couldn't go back into the visiting area for Kevin because we haven't had our backgrounds checked, but we had him come out to us. Another thing that would've kept us from seeing him is that my sister and her family were already there. You're supposed to only be able to have four at a time back there (they had to get special concessions because he has a family of six kids plus the wife). My sister came out a bit later and said that she was concerned that somebody would take him away from his family when they asked him to come out to us. I wasn't real pleased with that comment because we were making an effort, and it didn't seem too appreciated. We had taken up a substantial part of our day to be able to see him for a total of about 10 minutes (of course we knew this going in).

Anyway, it was good to see Kevin after 4 years of not seeing him while he was in a prison in Texas. He looked well, if disoriented, and he expressed that my kids had changed quite a bit. He expressed some concern to us of how he is going to cover $926,000 in restitution that he never benefited from any kind of money. That will be hard on him. Money will be taken out of every paycheck of his for the rest of his life.

Well, we hugged him, and then headed out. We ended up going to Rumbis for dinner and bringing that home.

Today was our first day of the 1:00 schedule for church. I hate that schedule. It makes it so your whole Sunday is gone after church is over. It will also make it so it is hard to visit with Kevin if we wanted to on a Sunday because of visiting hours that he has. Well, I won't complain too much. Things could be much worse.