Some things just have to be remembered!

Lyndsy had an ultra sound this week to see how far along she was with her pregnancy and to listen to the heart beat.  After the ultra sound she got on Voxer to spread the exciting news to the family.  She told everyone that she was actually due in November, not December and that the little peanut was a boy!  She posted a picture of the ultra sound. Immediately Greg got on and said he thought they ought to name him Flash Flood to go along with River.  Tucker jumped in and said, “By that face he kind of looks like reverse Osmosis, you should call him Osmosis. That’s a type of water.” Greg says “The picture looks like James.”   Tucker then suggested they could name him Pond so they would have a River and a Pond.  Derek pipes in with, “I was thinking you could combine the names, James and Pond.  Then he could say, “My name is Pond. . . . . James Pond!”  (I had the best laugh of the day over James Pond.  I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.  Very clever Derek.)

Lyndsy finally came on and said that she appreciated all their comments and suggestions but that she and James had a couple names picked out and she wasn’t going to share them right now.  Probably the best decision ever, Lyndsy.  You don’t want to be giving your brothers ammunition for the next 5 months!

The Hamster saga!

One day Abby decided that she needed to have her own personal pet.  A hamster would be the perfect little pet to have in her bedroom.  She convinced her mom and dad that this little pet would be good therapy for her loneliness. So off to the pet store and home again with a hamster and all the paraphernalia in tack to live happily ever after!  Thus begins the saga. 

Mother’s Day weekend when we were in Park City, Annie gets a phone call that the hamster had pushed the drinking water holder out and had escaped from the cage.  I’m sure the little varmint looked around and thought, “Gee, I have the whole basement to explore!  And explore she did.  She found a perfect hiding place between the cement wall, the framing and the insulation in the far corner of the storage room. 

Of course, everyone was sad that they couldn’t find her and worrying about her welfare they set out food and water.  Each day they notice that food and water was missing.  So they knew that she was alive and well somewhere in the basement.  One night when Annie was at work she got a call from one of the kids that Abby had spotted the hamster in the storage room but it got away.  

Unbeknownst to the Gertsons, this little hamster was busy gathering insulation and food because she was NESTING!  Yup, they had purchased one pregnant hamster!  They didn’t know this yet, that was to be a surprise!  Almost to the month from when she went missing a baby hamster was spotted and caught.  That was the first clue that they were not trying to catch one varmint but many!  As the days went on they ended up catching three babies and finally yesterday the caught the queen! 

Annie found the nesting area and borrowed a strong vacuum that would reach back behind the framing and suck out all the nest, food and droppings!  In the process they spotted one more baby scampering away.  They haven’t caught her yet but have set out a trap for it.  There were two white ones and one gray one (that they caught)!

Today they hauled all the babies and the mother back to the pet store per Abby’s orders.  Annie says she is keeping the the cage and all the tubes just in case Hayley or Andrew decide they want to try having a pet hamster when they are a little older.

And thus, the story of the pet hamster!

 

Brock and Boston

I had the chance to tend Brock and Boston while Maren went to her cross-fit training.  They are busy little characters but fun to have them around.  After Maren left, the kids decided they wanted some cereal and then we walked over to the play ground area behind the condos and they played for nearly an hour and a half. 

The interesting thing is that Boston thinks he can do whatever Brock can and Brock thinks that Boston can do whatever he does as well.  For example:  Brock had me push him on the swing until he was quite high and then he would jump out landing on his fit and rolling on the ground.  Boston decided he could do the same thing and Brock was sure he could as well.  I had a feeling Boston was going to give it a try so I wouldn’t push him very high for fear he would leap and leap he did landing flat on his back.  I think it scared him and kind of knocked the wind out of the little guy.  He cried for about 15 seconds and then after a couple of kisses from his Gam he was right back on the swings and all the other equipment being as fearless as could be.  He didn’t, however, do anymore jumps out of the swing.

We walked back to the condo and the boys had a dish of ice cream just before Maren came to pick them up.

Stitching project

Every once in a while I get a project that when I pick them out I have a feeling that they are going to be a challenge, but I apparently haven’t learned to listen to that gut feeling because I just keep buying them.  Well, this one that I’m working on now is definitely one of them.  I feel like I’ve been working on this for months and am making little if any progress.  I noticed that I hadn’t posted what I had accomplished by May first so I’ll post where I am on June 3rd and see how much further I get by July!  Holy Cow!!!  What a project.  The first picture is the left side of the sampler and the 2nd picture is the right side.  It is too big for my camera to take the whole thing.

Jaden’s baseball game

Neal and I drove out to Herriman to see Jaden play baseball.  When we got there, he was pitching.  He is a good player.  I was very impressed.  He pitched the first three innings and did a great job.  One ball was hit just to the right of him and he was able to grab it, throw to first base and the runner was out.  Great game, Jaden.  You made Gam and Pa proud of your athletic talents.  Boston and Brock spent most of their time going to the snack bar for treats and drinks.

Hard getting pictures through the fence but I did get one of Jaden pitching and one of him up to bat.

Taylor was sporting her new pet that she inherited from the Hintzes.  It was amazing how many people were interested, asking questions and wanting the pet the little thing.  Taylor just lets it run all over her body and doesn’t seem to mind.  I asked her if she minded it peeing and pooping on her and her comment was, “Oh it happens all the time.”  Apparently no big deal. 

After the game Neal and I headed to the market to get some salmon for dinner and then to the local hamburger joint for dinner.  Didn’t get everything on my Saturday list checked off but certainly had a fun and rewarding day with the grandchildren.

Tending River

James was called into work so Lyndsy called and asked if I would tend River for the day.  I had a list a mile long of things I needed to get done but figure River could either go with me or I would have to put my list aside.  River came about 10:30 so I was able to get some things on my list done before he got there.  When he arrived I told him that we would be going to get the car washed.  He wasn’t excited but didn’t have much choice in the matter.  Neal was extremely busy doing school work so River was stuck with his Gam.  I think it turned out to be a very fun outing for him.  He got to see a huge blue parrot and shoot some hoops and then give the guy a tip for cleaning our car.

River decided he was hungry so we headed home to fix him a peanut and butter sandwich.  He made sure I knew that he didn’t want Miracle Whip on it!!  Pa cured him of that!

River was insistent on going swimming.  He just couldn’t let it go.  I had a million and one things I needed to do but how do you turn down the easy wish of a child when there is a pool right outside your front door that beckons him.  So off to the pool we went.  I feel bad that he got sunburned.  I didn’t even think about sun block.  Not sure I even had any.  I just didn’t realize he would be out there as long as we were.  Sorry River.  The first picture is of him talking himself into taking the first plunge.  The other two were of him begging me to take a picture of him doing his tricks.  You’ll notice he had the pool entirely to himself.

Lyndsy picked him up about 4:30 and then Neal and I headed off to Jaden’s baseball game.

Golfing in the snow!

Not really!  It seemed like snow.  The Cottonwood trees are shedding their fluffy cotton balls like crazy this time of year.  The Stansbury golf course is surrounded by hundreds of these trees and playing golf last Saturday in the falling cotton was interesting.  I took a couple of pictures but they just don’t do justice to what we were experiencing.  By the time we were through, I was brushing the cotton from my hair, clothes and shoes.  If you look closely you can see the looks white.  It was literally covered with cotton.  Check around the edges of the sand trap and you see white everywhere.

I tried to take a picture of the cotton coming down from the trees.  It was seriously like being in a snow storm in the middle of the summer!  The camera just couldn’t capture the stuff in the air but looking across the fairway you can see how white everything is.

This is where Emmi works and spends most of her time during golf season.  She makes pretty good money and says she enjoys her job.  This is the second year of working at the golf course.  The benefits are free golfing any time for her and her dad.  Very nice perk as they both love to golf.  Her grandpa Maxfield has also had a few free rounds.

Date night

Neal and I (well, truth be know, I did) decided to go to a movie instead of going to the senior center for the quarterly bridge play off.  Neal gets very intense when he plays in a tournament and isn’t very tolerant of mistakes made by himself or by his partner (which is usually me).  I don’t like the feeling that comes over me when we play this game together so I try to avoid playing with him when I can.  Thus, the movie won out when I was given the choice.  We both wanted to see The Great Gatsby so the choice of movie was easy.  Did I like the movie?  Don’t know.  Not sure I would recommend it and not sure I would ever want to sit through it again.  Was it a good show?  Yes but not a ‘feel good’ movie.  It has been so many years since I’ve seen the old one with Robert Redford that I had actually forgotten most of the story line.  Now that I’ve seen it again, I know why I had forgotten it because it really isn’t worth remembering.  But, weighing movie with competitive bridge . . . . movie wins out hands down.

Emmi’s pottery and ribbons

Emmi took me on a tour of her accomplishments in her junior year pottery journey.  She won many ribbons and has found a love of creating art work in her pottery classes.  Pictured are just a few of her many creations that she has won ribbons for.  We are very proud of your accomplishments Emmi and thank you for the gifts that have come our way!

This first picture is a beautiful vase with an etched in design.  The second picture is a fountain that can actually have water running up and over each tier. 

This third and fourth picture is a Nike tennis shoe. 

Fifth, sixth picture is two tea cups with a matching water picture.

My personal favorite is the gigantic ceramic beaver!  You will notice it is without tail.  Somewhere in the move from the pottery class to home it lost it huge tail.  I should have snapped a picture of it.  The tail was on the floor.

Making banana bread and using my cooling racks!

My goodness, what did I ever do without cooling racks!  I LOVE them! 

Tucker here is another picture of dad doing his usual thing.  I went out to tell him that the banana bread was out of the oven and to see if he wanted a piece and this is how I found him.  So I grabbed my camera and sneaked around the house and snapped these two pictures for you to add to your collection! 

My brother-in-law, Max Johnson

This is a picture we took of Lila Mae’s husband, Max.  He has been really sick, but thankfully is on the mend, slowly but surely.  So many wonderful childhood memories of this great man.  He baptized and confirmed me a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I insisted, even at 8 years, that he was to baptize me.  Many fun memories of my time with Max in the big milk truck, on the farm haying, bringing in the cows, milking and working out in his shop. 

Memorial Day

This is a picture of Neal and Lila talking genealogy and Lila Mae and I at the Midway Cemetery.

Sunday afternoon visiting the graves

As soon as Neal and I got home from all our meetings, we had a bite of salad and headed out to visit the graves.  We didn’t want to fight the crowds on Monday so chose to do our visiting on Sunday.  First, we went to Judy’s grave and left some flowers there.  Both Neal and I are not really happy with her marker so we discussed maybe making a larger one that would hold all our names and the children’s.  Just something we are thinking about doing.   We noticed that it is impossible to read what is on her marker.  The dark lettering is much nicer and so much easier to read.

After leaving Judy’s grave, we headed to Midway to put flowers on my mother’s grave.  We stopped at Lila Mae’s and picked her up with all her flowers.  There is always a sad moment for me when I stand by mother’s marker.  I miss her terribly even though it has been 10 years since she died. 

We then decorated other family member’s graves.  For the first time in my life I realized that Lila Mae gave birth to Kathy Ann on her birthday and that this sweet little spirit was taken back to Heavenly Father four hours after she was born.  Lila Mae gave birth and then lost a child on her birthday.  I would have been 8 years old and would not have known the grief that she must have been experiencing.  I cried and cried and told Lila Mae how sorry I was that she had endured that kind of pain.  How does one deal with that?  My heart broke for my sister today.

Maren got caught!

I got a call from Greg asking me if he and the family could come into our neck of the woods and attend Sacrament meeting with us.  I told him I had to speak in another ward and would be visiting another relief society meeting so wouldn’t be at our ward but that Neal would be there.  The story goes that Greg and Maren are getting their house ready to put on the market and Greg had all kinds of calls to substitute Sunday school classes and he just didn’t have the time to prepare lessons so he told each caller that he would be out of town.  Well, you can’t very well attend your ward meetings when you are supposed to be out of town, thus the phone call to us.  I think going from Herriman to Murray is going out of town, don’t you? 

Our sacrament meeting is from 11:00 to 12:10.  My meetings were from 10:30 to 12:30 and then I had a little break before my next meeting so I decided to run home and grab a couple of things and then head out to my next meeting.  As I was driving into the complex, I noticed the garage door was open.  I pulled in and saw Maren and Greg’s car in the center of the driveway.  As I walked up to their car I saw Greg in the passenger seat with Jaden, Taylor and Brock in the back seats.  Maren and Boston were in the house.  So, I visited with Greg and the kids until we saw Maren coming out of the house and in her hands were three baggies of M&M’s.  I heard Greg say, “Oh, no, Maren you’re caught, you’re caught red handed and you don’t even know it!”  She started to punch in the numbers to close the garage door and Greg and I called to her to stop.  I wish I had a camera at that moment to capture the look of total surprise on her face at seeing me standing there.  Of course, we all had a good laugh over her being caught taking M&M’s.  I have to admit, it was the highlight of my day. 

I’m glad my children are comfortable coming in and helping themselves to what they want.  It was a great moment and I chuckled about it off and on all day long.  It was nice to see them and visit with them for a minute and to catch Maren with her hand in the candy! 

Emmi creates a special piece of pottery just for Pa!

Emmi has made some incredible pieces of pottery and has had them entered in the state to be judged and has won many ribbons from first to third place.  She surprised Neal with this piece of pottery for him to add to his patio collection.  However, when he brought it home, I decided it was just too nice to put out on the patio.  I didn’t want it to accidently get broken.  So, I’m saving it for Jamie to decorate with artificial flowers and will display it in our front room or our bedroom.  Thank you Emmi!  We love it!

KSL responds!

Last night as I sat thinking about the incident with Lilly and the generosity of the lady who was driving the car, I kept getting a nagging feeling that I should report this to KSL.  I dismissed the feeling a couple of times but my mind just wouldn’t let it go.  I finally came to my computer and proceeded to find KSL’s website and with some searching found a place where one could actually send a message to the station. 

The message board went like this:

This is a KSL Online Form Message from:  Jeannine Maxfield

Message category:  Radio News Tips

My message: “A family of 5 children had their little dog run over accidently this morning.  Lilly (the dog) had to be put to sleep.  The woman who hit the little dog was so distraught that she not only cried on the scene but later came back to the house with a big bouquet of flowers and a sympathy card with a check enclosed for $500.00 for this little family to buy another puppy when they were ready.  I think this is a wonderful story about someone going the extra mile.  It restores your faith in humanity that there are still good people out there who care deeply about others.  This family had no extra money to buy another pet.  Now, they will be able to when the time is right.  Nice to report ‘happy ending’ stories.”

This morning I got a response from KSL:

“Hi there Jeannine,

We got your tip and I wondered if you have any contact information for this family.  I would love to talk to them about it, if possible.

Thank you so much!

Celeste Tholen Rosenlof, Content Manager & Reporter”

I was totally taken by surprise when I got the above email from KSL.  I honestly didn’t think I would ever hear back from them.  I called Lynda Ann and told her what I had done and asked her if she would mind my giving this reporter her name and phone number.  She was hesitant but said it was OK.  So I responded back to Celeste with Annie’s information and thanked her for responding and taking an interest in a simple but very profound act of kindness by a total stranger. 

I don’t know where this will go from here or if anything comes of it, but it was fun to report such a good deed by this woman.  A good lesson for all of us to reach out to others and go the extra mile. 

A very sad day for the Gertson family

Their sweet little Lillie was hit by a car this morning and died shortly after.  From what I understand, Lilly went out with the kids to get in the Van to ride with the kids to school.  Apparently she saw someone across the street and darted out in the road in front of an on coming car and was hit.  Abby saw the incident and ran and picked Lilly up bringing her back to the house.  Lynda Ann recognized immediately that Lilly wasn’t going to make it.  She quickly found a small plastic container, put a blanket in the bottom and carefully laid Lilly on the blanket.  They transported her to the vet where it was determined that she needed to be put done.  She was suffering terribly.  Goodbyes were said and Lilly was quickly and quietly put to sleep.

I couldn’t help but think of Tucker and Jamie’s just recent experience of having to make the decision to put Belle down and how hard it was for the girls and parents to deal with that.  What a sad, sad time in both these families lives. 

I do have to add another part of the Gertson story.  The lady who accidently hit Lillie was crying and very sad.  She told Annie that she would pay for the Vet bills and anything else they needed.  Of course Lynda Ann declined any assistance but felt very sad for the lady knowing that she was suffering almost as much as the Gertsons.  While Lynda Ann was laying down taking a nap this lady came to the door with a bouquet of flowers and a sympathy card.  Enclosed in the card was a check for $500.00.  She wants the Gertson to get another puppy as soon as they are ready. 

Does that totally restore our faith in humanity knowing that there are still good people out there who genuinely care about others.  I don’t know who this lady is, but what a hero she is in the lives of those five Gertson children.  When they get past the pain of loss they will realize the goodness of this Samaritan.