AVERAGE DAY

Friday, August 14, 2009 Not a lot to write about the last couple of days. I think I am slowly getting out of my funk. Judy has been back from Drum Corps since Monday morning. Yesterday I ate lunch at Chipotle with Corey and Jim. Today I have been with Jayden and Bailey since shortly after nine a.m. We watched cartoons in the a.m. then played basketball at the park in back of their house. This afternoon we spent at my place. We swam for half an hour until we got rained out. After that we played Monopoly—Jayden kicked butt. Later we played Ladder Ball in the back yard. That’s about it.

CHECK-UP

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 This morning at 9:00 I had a doctor’s appointment with Shelly Ebert NP for a check up. I took with me a list of some typical blood sugar and blood pressure readings. She was ecstatic over how well I am doing and told me not to change anything.

FAMILY REUNION

Saturday, August 08, 2009 Today was the Jepson family reunion at a park on Bountiful Boulevard in Bountiful, Utah. Niki, Alexa and Gavin picked up Sierra and Jim rode with me. We had a good visit with family we don’t often see and the kids played on the playground. It was Niki’s idea to visit for an hour or two then go out for lunch. Generally of course everyone brings a lunch. It is a major part of the visiting and we all share. As usual Cousin Rick (Jepson) made homemade root beer the job my dad had for so many years…sugar, water, root beer extract and dry ice. This year Rick also made one with Lemonade…carbonated…it really turned out well. He said he (or someone) had tried it previously successfully so he was confident it would be a hit. Sierra brought her fifty raffle tickets hoping to sell them. I will refer you to Jenn’s blog entry on the subject and my comment to her blog. http://jjnern.blogspot.com/ Some of the buyers who bought five tickets ($5.00 worth each) were Christina, Rick and I think Brent. I bought seven, all the cash I had except a $20.00 bill. There are a lot of less than wealthy people in our family and I chose not to approach them. After the reunion, the six of us went to lunch at the Olive Garden on West Temple in Downtown Salt Lake. Mari, the general manager is a friend of Jim’s from when he used to be a waiter at Olive Garden and she gave him his lunch for free and gave us all a celebration cake which was nice of her. Later this evening Jim and I went first to Sears in the Provo Towne Centre Mall and then drove along University Avenue and State Street looking for a water distiller. Jim is into drinking nothing but distilled water. Yuck but oh well. I wouldn’t mind being able to not have to buy distilled water for my CPAP machine. I woke up crying from a sad dream last night but choose not to include it in my blog entry.

THEY HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE DAY

Friday, August 07, 2009 Today was my day to watch Jayden and Bailey. They prefer to stay at their house which is more boring for me and from nine in the morning to five thirty/six in the evening makes for a long day. At one point Jayden could tell I was not overly enjoying myself and offered to play catch with the football for MY sake. Good on yea Jayden it was fun as long as it lasted. The three of us earlier went to their school and played wall ball. Later this evening Corey and his family, Greg and Niki and theirs and I went to Teppanyaki in Lehi for dinner which was fun. Alexa especially enjoyed climbing on and looking at their large tropical fish tank. She did not like it when the Teppanyaki chief made fire on the cooking surface twice. She turned her back to it but peaked back at it through the corner of her eye. Afterwards Jayden and Corey came over to my house to pick up the first book in the Harry Potter series for Stacey. Since I had two copies of it, Jayden took one for himself. He read the first page to me while he was still here. Corey put the last of the molding on in the little bedroom and Jayden and I wrestled. I’m glad Jayden and I are good enough friends that he will wrestle with me and tease and harass me. Bailey and Alexa do too.

G.I. JOE and CPK

Thursday, August 06, 2009 Corey had gotten passed to get free tickets for the sneak preview of the new movie G. I. Joe. I got the passes from Corey and was at the Gateway at a little before 4:00 p.m. when they started handing the out actual tickets. They gave out more passes than there were actual seats so we wanted to be early enough to insure our getting in. After getting the tickets, I got in line for the movie itself and was in the first forty or fifty people or so. Corey and Jayden showed up at a little before 5:30 and joined me in line. While we were waiting for that last hour before we could get in, we chatted including talking to the people around us. There was a really pretty eleven year old girl next to us who showed some interest in Jayden including whispering to her cousin who was with her, and Corey and I as tactfully as possible kidded Jayden about her. He really does handle things like that well if we don’t go too far with it. The movie was a lot of fun. It was action packed almost constantly from start to finish. It was so loud that Jayden kept his fingers in his ears the whole time but watched the show intently. After the movie, the three of us went to the California Pizza Kitchen to eat. While we were there, I told Jayden he was a good sport and handled the kidding about the cute girl well. He laughed and jokingly said. “That’s ok. When I get home I will put the frustrations out on Bailey.” (i.e. take my frustrations out on Bailey.) Bailey and Stacey saw Monsters and Aliens at a theater in Sandy. It is a tamer movie for kids.