Arizona State Swim and Dive Championships

Adam and Jeremy had their last regular swim meet the other week. Over the weekend, they participated in a regional meet. The top 16 from day 1 advanced to day 2=both boys advanced in at least one event. On day 2, the top eight advanced to States this coming Friday and Saturday. The top four relay teams medaled, so Jeremy will get a medal from Regionals. His State events will be the 200m and 400m freestyle relay and 200m and 500m individual freestyle. Adam had to wait for relay results but barely missed an individual event. What a great, great job for a freshman!

The boys just came home from swim practice and Adam found out his 200m medly relay team made it to States!!! So both boys are participating in the Arizona State Swim and Dive Championships on this weekend! YEAH!

See how they grow

Today is Austin's 13th birthday, he's officially a teen! He's a really great guy to have around. He has a cute sense of humor, he loves to be helpful. He's good company and has a big heart. It's hard to believe he's already 13 but it's fun to watch him grow up. He loves adventure and is usually up for trying something new. The other week he saw a remote control car on tv that follows a laser and can even go on walls and ceilings, so that's what we got him and he loves it! (Frankly, so do I, it's too fun!)

Austin, we're so glad to have another year with you and are looking forward to many, many more. Happy Birthday, buddy!

Update on "they're just things, right?"

If you read my blog post from the first weekend in October, you read about all the things that were broken in our home in a very short amount of time. Expense breaks, things we needed to fix, there was no chance we could wait until we could afford to fix it. No chance we could just "live without", either. It's been three weeks and I'm happy to say we called a repairman who fixed the water softener in a short amount of time. It cost us about $150 less than we thought it would, yeah! Ken had to do the work himself of cleaning out each and every faucet, toilet, shower head, etc. clogged by the resin because the repairman would have charged $75 each to do it. There are a few faucets that are still slow and we've been taking baths instead of showers because the master shower is still clogged, but slowly it's coming together.

Ken found parts, mostly used but a few new, to fix his car. Since I haven't been allowed to drive after surgery, it's sort of been a good time for all this to happen. It's been frustrating and not cheap, but Jeremy got his old job back and is already making money to pay us back for the parts. He thought he'd be in SO MUCH TROUBLE for having a fender bender but we said trouble is for bad choices, he just made a rookie mistake. What good would it do to punish him? He has to pay for the repairs but that's not trouble, it just is, right? The car is back together and running, we just need a new bumper (well, one from a junk yard) and we'll be back on the road.

The washing machine door is still cracked but the machine works just fine, doesn't leak, so who cares.

So what do you know...they really are just things.

Our family is busy and stressed like everyone else, goes through the ups and downs of life, we laugh and cry, we gain and we lose, and through it all we have each other and that's what really counts. Despite the unfortunate death of our little bird, our dog Zoe is doing very well and even has a birthday coming up next week! So things are looking up, this month came in rough but is going better. :) I hope yours is, too.

Bye bye, Birdie

We haven't had the best luck with pets. Our first pet was a rabbit we named "Jetta". We needed a car and my VW Rabbit had died on us, so I wanted a Jetta. Ken got me a bunny and named him Jetta to be funny. Jetta didn't live very long, unfortunately. Then we were given a cute little parakeet and one day found him feet up on the bottom of the cage. Then I wanted a kitten and Ken found one for free. He brought it home and although it sure was cute, that little thing would jump up onto us and cling onto our thighs with its claws. Ken took it for a walk and only Ken came back, if you know what I mean...
We thought we'd go cheap and safe and get some fish. We loved the black golfish with the long fins. They looked so pretty and graceful! One day we saw that one of them that had been sucking sludge off the bottom of the tank must have sucked a little rock into its mouth and it really couldn't breathe properly. We took tweezers and removed the rock but it was apparently too late. The poor fish died. We'd gotten two, that left us one. Then we came home one evening to find the second one had committed fish-i-cide...it had jumped out of the fish bowl and was dead on the counter!! Yes, we are sure that's what happened because nobody else was in the apartment at the time of death. So we had a fish drown and another one decide it just wasn't worth going on...
When we moved into our current house Jeremy wanted a bird. I told him if he studied about how to take care of one and could tell me the important points, we'd go get him a bird. Jeremy is a real go-getter when he wants something and by the next day we had to go to the pet store to pick out a parakeet! It must have been sick to begin with or something because he was lethargic and acting weird right away. We took him back and got another one, who we named Sam. Then Ken found three more he liked a few months later so we had four parakeets.

Sam was still pretty friendly since we'd worked with him on a few things while he was the only bird we had. One day while he was perched on my shoulders, he jumped off and hit the tile floor pretty hard (his wings were clipped). The skin on his belly split open and his poor little leg was broken. Most people would get rid of him but nooooo, we suckers felt so responsible for him that we took him to the vet. We paid $140 to get him stitches, a leg cast, and some antibiotics to make sure he was ok! Is this a sad sight, or what?

Then my sister came for a visit and brought our sweet dog Zoe's daughter, Ginger. Somehow Ginger managed to get into the birdcage and swiped one of the birds, Charlie, within something like 20 seconds flat!! Poor little bird was gone and hopefully didn't suffer much. Months later, we found our pretty white one on the bottom of the cage. That left two, Sam and Woodstock.
When virtual pets were big I had one and the batteries kept dying...
The other day I woke up and went downstairs. Sam and Woodstock were in their cage in the loft and I noticed them both singing and chirping away. A few hours later the boys came downstairs and said Sam was on the bottom of the cage. Yet another pet gone wrong...so sad! Bye bye, little birdie.

A happy birthday on October 14

I totally see Tawni in this picture!!!




You should never ask a lady her age and a lady usually doesn't tell, but you'd never guess which birthday this is for my sister if you knew her. She's young at heart, active, fit, and way younger than the calendar says. Barb has a big heart and is extremely creative. She is really good at decorating in a funky, ecclectic style and is THE dumpster diving diva! Happy Birthday, B!

A look back

52 years ago today, two young people in love got married in Dover, Pennsylvania. They settled down the road in York, PA and raised a family of five daughters. They couldn't have known what the future would hold, but they knew they'd find out together.

For the first time since then, the bride has to spend this day without her groom, who passed away in January. I don't know what everyone believes or holds dear to their hearts, but I'm glad the marriage of that bride and groom was later sealed in the LDS Temple for time and all eternity. Their original marriage was performed "until death did them part"...but their sealing in the temple is for all eternity, without end. I know he's waiting for his bride and once they are reunited, there will be no more loss or separation.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad...

They're just things, right?

A few weeks ago one of our sons burst through the garage door coming home from school. We have a bad setup, I guess; our garage door into the house leads into the laundry room. We used to have a regular washer but about a year ago got uprights. I happened to be doing laundry at the time. I never, and I repeat NEVER leave the washer door open but because I was in the middle of doing laundry it was open. The garage door handle smashed into the washer door and broke the glass. It still runs but DANG IT...I wasn't the least bit happy. I'm still not. But it's just a thing, right??

This past week I had surgery on Thursday (gallbladder removal, no biggie, I'm doing great) so Ken was home from work on Friday helping me out. We texted Jeremy and told him to ride the bus home from school so he could pick up Ken's car and head back to swim practice. That way we wouldn't have to come pick him up when practice was over. A few minutes after he left the house he called and said he had a "fender bender". Not what a parent wants to hear. He rear-ended someone who stopped suddenly. The light ahead was green so he just didn't expect the lady in front of him to stop, but she did because the person in front of her stopped, not wanting to possibly get stuck over some railroad tracks because traffic in front of them wasn't moving well. It caught him off guard just enough to run into her back end. Her car apparently didn't get much damage and after all, isn't this why we have insurance? But the car Jeremy was driving is a 1984-not worth enough to have full coverage so we only have liability. Jeremy said Ken's front grill was dented so I'm thinking ok...not too terrible. Ken ran up to the scene and was gone for over an hour. A good friend of ours helped Ken tow the car to our house--not a good sign. I went outside and couldn't believe my eyes. The front end was OBLITERATED. The lady Jeremy ran into had a higher bumper than Ken's car-so her back end went about 6-8 inches into our front end. There happens to be a LOT of important stuff up there (who designed it that way??), most of which is now toast because there wasn't anything to stop her bumper. The damage to our car runs into the thousands, even just for parts, let alone labor. The hood is bent, the front of the frame is bent, it is awful. We desperately need that car and are now down to one car. Good thing I can't drive for a week because of the surgery. After that, it WILL matter much more. Nobody was hurt, thankfully...and after all, the car is just a thing, right?

So we're having a peaceful Sunday and I noticed that upstairs the water pressure was lower than normal. Later in the evening there was almost no water pressure at all. Strangely enough, the hot water had some pressure and in other places the cold water was normal...like no pressure at the sinks or shower, but the tub in our bathroom ran as strong as normal. Then I noticed something odd coming out of the tub faucet-it was orange, had no odor, and looked like gelatin or fish eggs. People out there with plumbing experience have probably seen this before and know exactly what it is, but we were stumped. It wasn't rust, we know that. We've seen rust and this wasn't it. So we did what any normal person would do--we turned to Google and according to a helpful website, we now have a broken water softener. Apparently there are orange, fish-egg looking beads at the bottom of water softeners and if they are coming out of your faucets you need to call for a repairman. Holy crap. But I'm trying hard not to stress because it's only a thing, right?

Last month both of our cars were in need of major repairs (that happens once every few years) and we spent over $3,500+ in repairs and parts...this month isn't looking good so far, either. I'm FREAKING STRESSED!!!!!