So Dang Busy

Just to catch everyone up to what's been going on....
Emerson is still hunting for jobs, but his current employer has been working with him to give him hours as long as they can.  He's been busy creating things for our Etsy shop and playing the new Halo game with the boys.
Dwayne is working full time and searching for a new cheap car to buy since his car completely fell apart.
Dexter is in training to work at the same tech support place where Dwayne is working.  He visits us, usually to play games with Dwayne.
I'm in the middle of several looming deadlines at work and beyond overwhelmed.  I won a free month at a fitness boot camp and I'm learning how painful early morning workouts can be.  On nights and weekends, I work on stuff for our Etsy shop.  If anyone has Blue Bird flour sacks sitting around, I'd love to have them to make things out of. 
That's about it for now.

22 Years!

Yesterday was our 22 year wedding anniversary.  I had to work, but not for long.  With all the stuff I did this week, I only needed to put in a few hours.  That left me free to run off with Emerson and have some fun.  We went to a place in Salt Lake City called Advance Display.  We saw a cool display form that a vendor was using at Craft Lake City last weekend and this is the place she got it from.  Photographing items for our shop has been difficult without having some sort of model to use.  Consistency in the photos is also good.  This store has all kinds of display stuff and was really awesome to check out.  After that, we headed over to the Cheesecake Factory for our celebratory meal.  We had fish and chips and then had our cheesecake.  No matter how hard I try, I always end up choosing the Godiva chocolate cheesecake.  Emerson had the banana cream (that's his favorite pie as well).  Thoroughly stuffed, we headed to the mall to walk around some and then stopped by Ikea on our way home. 

How did we make it through 22 years of marriage?  I honestly don't know.  Part of me still expects him to run screaming from the house some day once my craziness gets to be too much for him.  We have definitely had our down moments and struggles.  The fact that we're willing to continue to keep trying is probably why we haven't called it quits.  Things are so much easier now than when we started.  We know how to help and comfort each other so much better now.  I don't have to tell Emerson when I'm upset, frustrated, or troubled...he just knows.  He knows how to calm me and reassure me.  It's pretty amazing! 

News About Dad

In case you didn't know, my Aunt Twyla had a personal experience last year that prompted her to do something about the temple work for my dad (her brother).  This was a remarkable thing since he had been the source of a lot of pain for her.  Dad had been excommunicated from the LDS church when I was in middle school.  For those who aren't LDS/Mormon, see this article about temple work for an explanation.  Being excommunicated removed his baptism and temple endowment ordinances.  When he passed away last year, I wondered if it would ever be possible to restore those ordinances so he could be sealed to his parents and possible have our family sealed together as well.  I turned to my Aunt Twyla for guidance and she checked into it.  It took a lot of work for her to gather the necessary information about Dad and I had to write a letter about his intentions and state of mind at the time of his death as well as his remorse for the things he had done in his life.  Everything was sent to the church offices and we've been waiting for an answer.  Today that answer came.  Here is the letter I received (mine was a copy addressed to President Buxton, Twyla's stake president):

The First Presidency has asked that the Temple Department respond to your letter on behalf of Sister Twyla Heath, requesting readmission and restoration of temple blessings for her deceased brother, William Lea George.  Approval has been given for vicarious temple ordinances to be completed for Brother George.  We are pleased that this will allow the ordinances to be made available to him.  The First Presidency has directed that the readmission by baptism and restoration of temple blessings be performed in the Salt Lake Temple by members of the temple presidency.  When these ordinances have been completed and recorded, within a few months, we will notify you by mail.  Please give this letter to Sister Heath for her records.  Thank you for assisting Sister Heath's family in this matter.

Very Interesting Weekend (already!)

Yesterday, we had Gambit neutered...poor baby!  To keep him from bothering the stitches, we had to put a cone on him.  Yes, the "cone of shame."  For such a little dog, this is very difficult.  He doesn't lift his head enough and the cone catches on the carpet and keeps him from going anywhere.  When he finally gets moving, the cone catches on everything he walks past.  Then he just sits there and mopes and whines to let us know his frustration.  Only 5 more days, baby...

We went a a great (and free!) event in Salt Lake called Craft Lake City.  I'll write more about it on my Etsy blog, but I will post this picture of the earrings Dexter should buy for his girlfriend.  Emerson and I had some great conversations while looking at all the booths.  There were some bizarre items as well as many of the same hair accessories.  The most interesting part was seeing how many of the artisans were tattooed, pierced, and had colorful/interesting hair.  This was quite the contrast from the street fair they have in Provo for the Freedom Festival.

Upon coming home, Emerson noticed we were having some electrical problems in the back of the house.  After some trial and error, we traced the problem to the dryer.  Emerson mentioned that his clothes hadn't dried and there was a smoky smell .  The smell wasn't like the last time we had problems (burnt rubber smell from a belt problem).  The only skill we have in this area is knowing the phone number of the most wonderful handyman in our ward.  We called him and he knew all the right places to look.  It turned out that excess lint had made its way under the drum (where the clothes are) and had caused several wires to connect that shouldn't have.  The result was some singed piles of lint and burnt and melted wiring.  Fortunately, Brother Sanford had some extra wires and connectors that he was able to splice in and now we are up and running again.  It was scary to realize how close we came to burning our house down.  Are we just disaster magnets?  At least we know the right people to help us out!  Brother and Sister Sanford were even pleased to get some of the squash fresh from our garden as a thank you.

Victory is Ours!!!

If you're a parent, especially if you've had teenagers, you will understand why I'm celebrating.

When Dexter came over tonight to play video games with Dwayne, I asked him about something that happened with his girlfriend the other night.  Dexter and Dwayne had been playing video games at our house and Dexter's girlfriend (Emily) was off somewhere else with some other friends.  About 2:30 or 3:00 a.m., Dexter got a call from Emily's mom.  She was wondering if Emily was with him.  Since she wasn't, Dwayne and Dexter left to go search for her.  She wasn't answering her phone and they found her car at a grocery store's parking lot.  While they were looking for her in the store, she had noticed Dwayne's car in the parking lot and went into the store to search for Dex.  They found each other and Dexter let Emily know how worried everyone was. (Ironically, this was in the wee hours of the morning of her 18th birthday.)  Dex found himself telling her she should have let someone know where she was.  When she told him that her phone had died, he uttered the very words we have asked him several dozen times...
"Couldn't you have used someone else's phone to call?"

Dexter knew I would laugh when I found out he had used our words.  I did! Honestly, I thought I would have to wait until he had children of his own before this would happen.  Dwayne has had a few times where he has been upset at Dexter leaving him waiting because he didn't let anyone know what was going on.  These experiences are just awesome!  See, your parents knew what they were doing.

Being Productive

Here you can see our back yard and garden.  The zucchini is growing very fast behind the dog pen (the cage with the roof in the middle of the picture).  Emerson's Anaheim chiles look great and are in a pot on the top of the white shelf.  A few tomatoes have turned red (yippee!) and we've had some yellow squash and small bell peppers, too.  You may have already noticed the row of corn growing in front of the grapevine along the fence.  They're not very tall, so this has probably identified one more place that the corn doesn't grow well.  Keeping up with keeping the grass green has been a challenge with the scorching hot weather.

Back to the zucchini - no matter how hard I try, one zucchini will manage to slip by me and grow to gargantuan proportions.  Squash that large isn't the greatest to eat since you have to work around huge seeds.  I found one today and let the dogs have fun with it.  Scout was mildly amused (she's had some in past years), but Gambit really went to town on that zucchini.

I learned how to do a tatted rose and went a little crazy making them.  I made one in a variegated blue that I made into a hair clip for Dexter's girlfriend's birthday (she's 18 now).
Then I made a bunch of roses in red and white.  I turned some of them into earrings so I could sell them on Etsy.  I took a red rose, a white rose, and a red & white rose and put them on a hair clip.  After much thought, I've decided I want to keep the hair clip rather than sell it.  Then I made a few more roses that I will probably give as gifts.  Enough with that obsession, time to do a new project...

Fun Family Saturday Trip

Mirror Lake

Emerson and Dwayne have been doing some fishing lately and they made plans to visit Mirror Lake on Saturday.  Some of Dwayne's friends were planning on coming with us, but one had to change his plans and the other didn't get out of bed in time (in fact, he may still be there). 

Provo River Falls

The drive out there was pretty fun and it felt more like Wyoming or Montana than Utah with all the trees.  Definitely not Oregon trees, though.  It was only about a 1.5 hour drive from our house and absolutely worth it.  There are a series of lakes up there and campgrounds tucked in everywhere.  The biggest surprise for me was seeing signs for the Provo River Falls.  They are quite beautiful and I want to come back and explore them more some time.

cool stuff on the rocks because of the moisture from the falls

picnic in the trunk

Much fishing was done, but not much catching.  Emerson got a few "wiggles."  When our kids were really little, we used to go fishing with our friend (and their babysitter), Linda, and they would say they got a "wiggle" when a fish nibbled at their hook. (I miss those days!)  There were a lot of people around the lake who were fishing and a few out on the lake in boats and canoes. 
The people next to us were definitely lacking in fishing etiquette and managed to cast over and snag onto our fishing lines several times.  In what world does that seem okay?  I didn't actually fish.  I let the guys entertain me with their fishing while I did some tatting. 

My tatting projects

Just 10 minutes before we planned to leave, Emerson hooked a fish and reeled it in.  Watching Dwayne struggle to pick it up and get the hook out was very funny.  Since the fish managed to swallow the hook, we had no choice but to take it home with us.  We ended our time at the lake with a picnic out of the trunk of our car.
Dexter has taught me to notice interesting signs and take pictures of them, so I'm including one I found on this trip.  I don't know what was more amusing about the pit toilets - this sign or the woman who I heard come in and start yelling "Oh my gosh, oh no, oh my gosh" over and over and over because the smell had overwhelmed her.  Remember, everyone...help us keep this toilet clean....

A Small Dose of Heaven

I know this will sound utterly ridiculous, but there is something so amazing about gardening.  It feels like you are doing God's work.  I find myself talking to my plants, coaxing them to grow and demanding to know what is eating all my lettuce.  Our garden is doing well despite the late start.  We moved the corn to a different location so it would get more sun.  Unfortunately, that also made it more vulnerable to our dogs.  They have busted a lot of plants while chasing each other around the yard.  We've never had much luck with our corn, so it probably won't be worse than in previous years.  The tomato plants are growing well and I see tomatoes popping up in there and I hope it won't be too long til we have some ripe ones.  If you made a visit to our garden, you would probably laugh at seeing some of the tattered plants growing there.  We had cilantro grow spontaneously from last year's leftovers. They've gone to seed because of the heat, but I can't bear to get rid of them.  I've broken off pieces because they're getting too big, so they look really bad now.  The squash never disappoint, of course, and I was excited to have some ready to eat.  It's a little taste of heaven!

Relaxing Weekend

For those of us in Utah, it was a holiday weekend (Pioneer Day).  I welcomed the extra day off even though it was scorching hot.  Emerson and I have very different ideas of how to spend our weekends and time off.  He likes to have actual plans of things to do, even if it's just wandering around stores and malls.  I don't mind doing some of that, especially when I need to feel a little air conditioning, but my preference is to hang out at home and relax.  I may clean a little, organize a little, work on random projects, play with the dogs, do some gardening, read a little, write a little, and so on.  I can tell this drives Emerson crazy because he'll start pacing the house and looking for things to do.  Even though I am totally fine with him running off by himself, I guess it's just not very fun for him to run around alone.  Me, I could wander almost any store for hours all by myself.  Fortunately, Emerson and Dwayne went fishing a couple of times over the weekend and they had a really good time.  I got to hang out and do all the odds and ends.  I even created a new tatted necklace (for details, see my Etsy Madness blog).

The family update for this week:  Dwayne started his new job at Teleperformance and seems to be doing well.  Dexter reports to also be doing well despite misplacing his Cutco shears (scissors).  Emerson is still losing weight and may be the skinniest he's been since I've known him.  I'm trying to do more exercising and push through the weird popping, cracking, and pain going on in my foot (I've been told this is normal).  The dogs are getting used to sleeping in their pen outside again.  The brakes on the car (and the rotors) had to suddenly be replaced - bummer!  The truck is holding up despite all the miles Emerson has put on it for work.  Our mechanic is still looking for a used engine for it that's affordable and in decent shape.

All is....

Well?  Still working on my Etsy shop, but at a more reasonable pace.  Dwayne hopefully starts his new job tomorrow.  He had problems when Job Corps wouldn't answer their dang phone to verify that he had been there.  Things are worked out and he should be starting his tech support training tomorrow.  Dexter stopped by the house.  He is still busy doing his Cutco thing and even recruited some others to do sales.  It sounded like he was running out of referrals, though.  The garden is doing okay and some tiny bell peppers, squash and tomatoes are forming.  The 100 degree temperatures are frying the lawn right now.  Gambit's wound has healed up very nicely and he's happy to get outside more.  I thought it would be quieter with one less kid here, but Dwayne has had some friends over somewhat regularly, so there's no shortage of activity in our house.  Dwayne is also becoming a bit of a legend over at Dragon's Keep where he plays Magic the Gathering.  He wins the tournaments a lot, even when he drafts lousy cards.  He also manages to trade cards and basically never pay an entry fee for these tournaments.  You know he's serious when he's got a locker at the store!