Marty and Kathy

I wasn't smart enough to think of it but Judy arranged to have our son Chris who spends much of his time in Houston to get and deliver a bottle of wine to our good friends, Marty and Kathy who also live in Houston.

We first met over dinner on a cruise ship and hit it off. Since then we have gone on another cruise together and keep in touch regularly.

Both Marty and recently Kathy are retired; he from the benefits business and Kathy from Toyota. I never did get my free Avalon from her. Oh well.

It is always good to hear from them as when they called this evening thanking us for the wine. Always the comedian, Marty said that their cat and his/her neighbor friend drank it before they got home from diner at their neighbors.

Judy is in Minneapolis visiting her mother; an annual New Year's tradition.

Happy New Year's everyone!

Corey and Fred at the Utah Jazz - Portland game

The Jazz lost by five but we had fun and had free tickets!

THE OLD TESTIMENT

Monday, 20 Dec, 2010 For a number of months now, Judy has been teaching the Old testament. The Old Testament is this years subject in Sunday School. Judy teaches the adults every fourth week. Right from the start she has done a "bang up job" of it and every time it is better yet. Yesterday and today person after person told me how wonderful a job Judy is doing; or I REALLY enjoyed her lesson; or the way she presented that subject etc was sooo good.

OH POOP

Monday, December 13, 2010

Today Corey, Jim and I ate lunch at Joy Luck. (I call it Sum Dum Luc.)

While we were there, Corey told us about his weekend. He looked and sounded tired.

He said that Jayden was sick all Saturday night and was throwing up. He wanted to sleep in his parent's bed so Corey slept on the floor.

Jayden got so bad that he couldn't make it to the bathroom. Corey was cleaning up messes all over the place.

After Jayden had thrown up and had diarrhea at the same time Corey put him in the shower.

After the shower, Jayden thought he might feel better if he soaked in the tub. In the tub Jayden ended up throwing up and Pooping again.

The next night it was Bailey's turn though she didn't have it nearly as bad as poor Jayden.

And poor Corey spent two night with little sleep.

The kids seemed fine today when I picked them up after school.

Ps.

Postscript to yesterday's post:

Jayden spent the night last night, throwing up!

CHOCOLATE and a SALTINE – “Don’t judge me!”

Friday, 10 December, 2010

I picked Jayden and Bailey up after school. Bailey asked if I had seen her PSP which, they say, may be at our house. I said no and at Bailey's insistence I started driving in that direction with the intent of looking for it.

Jayden took my cell phone and called his dad which he does more-often-than-not when he gets in the car. I wasn't paying much attention and before I knew it he told his dad that we were on our way to Won Won Wok and for him to meet us there.

Corey assumed it was my idea. I wasn't paying any attention and the next thing I knew Jayden told me we had to hurry because the lunch menu ends at 4:00 pm and it is 3:45.

I thought; "OK???" but decided since it had gone that far I would go along with it.

We got there in time. The girl who greeted, seated and waited on us; said to Bailey, "Orange Chicken, right?" and to Jayden and me she asked, "How many orders of California Rolls do you want?" (If you can't tell, we are regulars there.)

We were the only ones in the place at that hour.

She took our drink orders and a few minutes later without our asking, showed up with two small containers of spicy mayo and sat them down in front of Jayden's and Corey's places. (Corey hadn't even shown up yet.)

Bailey had been crying. She wanted to go to Del Taco or would settle for McDonalds.

I felt caught in the middle.

When the waitress asked us how many orders of California Rolls (two rolls to an order) we wanted, Jayden said, "All I had for lunch was chocolate and a saltine I want three orders. Don't judge me!"

"Don't judge me" must be his catch phrase for the day. He kept saying it at every conceivable opportunity.

We finally settled on four orders of California Roll. That's forty-eight pieces. Ugh!

When Corey arrived he couldn't believe it; two huge platters of sushi.

He sat down across from Jayden and went for a piece of sushi.

"Jayden quickly told him "No, these are mine. You share with Grandpa. All I had for lunch was chocolate and a saltine. Don't judge me!"

He ate and ate and ate. Suddenly he got pale, spit out his last piece of sushi and excusing himself and ran for the door.

A couple of minutes later he came back in looking much better though there was no evidence that he had thrown up.

HARPING ON THINGS -

Thursday, December 09, 2010

    One thing about the Holiday season; Judy spends more time playing her harp. As much as I hate hauling the thing around, I love listening to her play. It is 10:00 p.m. right now and she is playing it right now; the second night in a row. It is my background music as I am in the bedroom on the computer, (obviously.)

SIERRA in HAWAII

Our Son Chris at the Fijian Village at the PCC

BYU

The following institutions are widely recognized as amongst the most popular universities:

Brigham Young University (US)
- BYU has been named the most popular university in America by U.S. News & World Report. The rankings are based on a measurement called yield, which is the percentage of accepted students who go on to enroll. BYU topped the rest of the schools with a 78 percent yield, followed by Harvard at 76 percent and Stanford at 71 percent.

SHE’S AT IT AGAIN

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

    Judy and I are thinking about going to Hawaii today or tomorrow with Sierra depending on when Sierra can get out of drill (dance class) at school. We have a free room thanks to Chris and Lynn and we fly free so what the heck.

    Niki sent us a text message this morning. She said: "Chris is on a flight with 'Troy' aka Zac Efron headed to Hawaii. Alexa is freaking out. I'm laughing so hard.'"

    Four year-old Alexa keeps taking turns being in love with this or that Disney boy star.

A little later I received a call from Judy. She had just gotten off the phone with Niki. Nike said that Alexa was lying on the floor just beside herself kicking and screaming, "I want to go to Hawaii and see Troy!"

GEORGE W.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Last night Jim, Austin and Molly went to the Hockey game at the Maverick Center in West Valley City. I understand they lost to Alaska.

Austin said that Molly spent much of the game "screaming at the Canadians"; whatever that meant.

Sometime yesterday they went to the Costco in Sandy in hopes of getting a glimpse of former U.S. president George W. Gush who was doing a book signing there. Austin said the line to get in was "miles long." I'm sure that wasn't too big of an exaggeration as Utah is probably the most "Republican" state in the nation.

They waited as close to the "back door" that President Bush exited from as they could, and when he came out, Austin screamed out, "I love you!"

Following is the newspaper article telling about President Bush's visit and book signing.

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700083573/George-W-Bush-doesnt-disappoint-adoring-crowd-at-Sandy-Costco-book-signing.html

BIG GUNS

Thursday, November 18, 2010

    Last night I received a text message from Chris our son who is a flight attendant for Continental now United Airlines. It read:

    "I just flew over Bagdad and landed in Kuwait. Flew near the border of Iran. Crazy but got some cool photos with (of) big guns.

GOOOOOD LOOKING

Thursday, November 18, 2010

A few days ago I said to Stacey how beautiful I thought Bailey is. Bailey overheard me.

Last night their family went to Stacey's cousin's wedding reception. Everyone kept telling Bailey how beautiful or how pretty she is. Later she was talking to Stacey and said, "I didn't know I was so goooood looking!"

SILLY GIRL

The other day Greg and Corey and I were talking and the conversation turned to kids.

Greg mentioned that Alexa at age four is really into computers. She will spend hours on "approved" web sites that they have put the icons for on the monitor.

The other day Alexa called her dad into their home office (she often calls him "Greg") and said "Will you print this for me?"

She had somehow traced her hand on the computer and drawn feathers on it to look like a Thanksgiving turkey. After that she wrote "B.Y.U." on the body. It's all part of the BYU University of Utah, playing both ends against the middle game she plays.

Greg responded with an emphatic "No"; which, when he says it that way sounds like a drawn-out "Newwwwww".

Later Greg said, "I guess you'll have to go live with Avery", her next-door neighbor friend whose family are BYU fans.

Alexa responded with, "Ok, I'll go pack my things; I'll sleep with Avery. Her bed is big enough!"

COREY & The GREAT HAM

Yesterday Corey found a ham recipe on the Internet. He sent me the link for it and we both agreed it sounded good.

He went to Wal-Mart, got the ingredients and he and Jayden put it together.

Jayden, with Corey's help made the "funeral" potatoes…yummy stuff.

Stacey was at work all this time.

When it was about ready I drove up to their house for a good tummy filling.

Around midday yesterday I started feeling ill while I was doing my thing in the pool. It felt/feels like the flu but I had a flu shot several weeks ago. I am still feeling the effects. I only went to sacrament meeting today then came home.

Judy is in Minneapolis visiting with her mother, Bev. She is supposed to come home tomorrow morning—going straight to work from the airport.

The weather is bad back there plus the flights don't look good, space available wise so who knows.

CRAZY GRANDPAS

Friday, November 12, 2010 Today Eagle Mountain held a Veteran's Day parade and when I picked Jayden up from school, he had an American flag on a stick to which he Scotch Taped a short pencil. He climbed in the car and gave it to me. I thought that was nice of him. They both rode their scooters to school and Bailey asked if she could ride hers and go to Jade's house with Jade and Alure (sp Bailey and Jayden pronounced it Alur A) I told her that, that would be fine and asked were Jade lived. She said by the park that is by the church. After I dropped Jayden off at their house I remembered that Bailey was still wearing her school backpack. I drove to across the street from the park, turned around so I would be on the east side of the rode and waited about fifteen seconds until I saw them. I asked Bailey if she wanted me to take her backpack home for her. She said "yes" and added her gloves and then her coat to the pile in my back seat. One of the other girls said, "Your grandpa is nice." Bailey said, "Yes and crazy." "Crazy some of the time?" "No crazy all the time." To that the other girl said, "I wish my grandpa was crazy!"

2 in the pool

I had a so, so day as far as how I felt. At five thirty this evening; (night I guess, it is dark already) I went to the pool to do my hour walking and jogging. At my doctor's command/request I am supposed to walk in chest high water for half an hour. At first that was enough to wear me out but then I got used to it. It is much more strenuous than jogging. Today at the end of an hour I didn't feel like I had done anything so I kept going. My body must be geared to the hour thing because it wasn't many minutes later that I started feeling the "pull." I kept going for another hour, so if I'm unresponsive tomorrow morning that is probably why. I walked and jogged. the jogging feels good on my joints and when I walk I feel like it is helping my strength.

a CHIP OFF THE OLD (Grandpa's) BLOCK

Monday, 08 November 2010 Judy and I, and most of the family are BYU fans, while Greg and Niki are for the University of Utah. (I always say that "I went to the 'U' for a while but I repented.") Four year-old Alexa has quite the sense of humor (Like her grandpa?) She has gotten to where she will play both ends against the middle. I will say to her, in a strong voice. "B.Y.U." to which she will react as if I had shouted out a four letter word. But, when she is alone with one or both of her parents she will get a big grin on her face and shout out "B.Y.U." and wait for their reaction. Last night the whole family including Lyn were over for grilled marinated chicken with all the trimmings for Chris' birthday. Chris is forty-two years old as of yesterday. Jim turned forty-one a couple of weeks ago. Funny having two boy about the same age as their father...he, he. My mind's young--my body's over the hill; in fact so far over the hill I can't see it from here! I especially can't see my feet unless I am sitting down and my legs are outstretched.

HALLOWEEN PARADE

My four year-old granddaughter Alexa called me bright and early this morning to invite me to her Halloween parade at her school, Learning Dynamics Preschool. She said to be early so I was there about ten before ten. The three year-old classes came through first in one direction then the four year-olds came parading in the oposite direction. I know it sounds like a proud grandfather, but, Alexa was far and above the most gregarious one there out of all the kids. She was beeming from ear to ear and looking all around and waving. Of course, her mother being a photographer, Alexa poses at the drop of a hat. Grandma Lynn Chazen was there as well as Niki's sister-in-lay Kelly and her cute daughter Cisely. If I can figure it out and if there are any good ones I will put a picture or two in the blog.

LOST IN JAPAN - BEAUTIFUL BROWN EYES

Monday, 25 October 2010 Last night I had dream after dream of being lost and having trouble finding my way back. In the last dream Judy and Niki and I were in Japan and I kept stooping down to pick up nickels and dimes and quarters and standing back up to discover Judy and Nike were ahead somewhere l0st in the crowd except every once in a while I would see Niki's head turned trying to find me. I guess she was torn between trying to keep up with Judy and not loosing me. I woke up singing a song my parents used to often sing: "Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes I'll never love blue eyes again."

SIERRA's JOURNAL ACT 3

9/9/03 Thing(s) that make me mad. The thing that makes me mad is when I fall of my bunk bed. When my sister messes up my room after I've cleaned when my brother hits me on accident. When I'm stressed 9/10/03 This is about A good habit I do. A good habit I do is dance, I have gone to many places. Snowbird, Las vegas, Sandiego, St. george, Layton Florida, And all other places. I dance Ballet, Jazz, Tumbling, Brodway, lyrical, and point. 9/11/03 This is about my bad Habbits. One of my bad habbits is I talk alot, I don't sleep very much I usualy sleep for 5 hours, I don't do any thing at recess, I don't really do any thing at home. I watch TV.

SIERRA's 4th GRADE JOURNAL INSTALMENT 2

Sierra 9/12/03 This is about my name. I like my name because it is named after a lot of stuff like, Truck, dressing, Mountains. I don't like my name because, Nobody can say it right, Nobody can spell it right, And a lot of people have the name. Sierra 9/13/03 This is about what makes me special I'm special because I have a brother and a sister and I have a mom who teaches dance and a dad who makes a lot of money serving people on planes, And a grandma who spoiles me 9/14/03 This is how school would be better. if we had air conditioner. We could all have second for lunch. longer recesess less home work. No mean people. Lockers in Elementry.

4th GRADE JOURNAL

A few days ago, my granddaughter Sierra brought over her 4th grade journal. (She is now a junior at Taylorsville High.) Often her Teacher, Mrs Martin started a sentence which Sierra would finish. At the first of each she did like the following for September I am leaving the spelling etc as is: Super Students, starting school Everyone enjoying each other Plesent people doing P.E Truman teacher's teaching Terrfic Thunderbirds Excellent Example for Education Mumbling Momas makes me mad Blooming blossoms, Busy as bees. Energenic, eager Recess, Roses, Reading I plan on adding a new entry or more every few days or more often.

BABBLING

Monday, October 11, 2010 My mother would often say: Oh dear, my dear, your dear too; If it wasn't for my dear what would your dear do? She would also say: This world then the next then the fireworks.

SATURDAY SPORTS REPORT

Saturday, October 09, 2010 Greg and Niki came to Jayden's game today and Greg and I were talking about Alexa's soccer game this morning. Greg said that for the first half Alexa was pretty focused. At one point she asked Greg if it was OK to fight. Greg said "sure". At that Alexa grabbed one of her own teammates and threw her to the ground. I guess not to be unexpected from a four year old. Jayden’s football team won 12 – 7. He took a couple of hits that hurt. One of them was a hit under his chin. He got a bit of a whiplash and the back of his neck was still hurting after the game.

A BOO FROM THE PAST

spelling left as in the original The following are from my granddaughter Sierra's 4th grade journal October 2003: Costume, creepy, ghost, goblin, haunted, monster, pumkin, treat SIERRA 10/20/03 This is a paragraph about “The Magic Broom” There once was a little old witch who would always twich and her broom stick was always sick. And she could not fly because the broom was shy. Thear once was a creepy pumkin that was as white as a ghost white was not his natral color it was jist a costume. had a bag of treats that were made from goblins feet so have a Haunted Halloween…BOO!!! If I was a black cat I would…Run around at night, I would eat mice and Insects, I would go out on Halloween night and fright people from their sight. 10/23/03 These are some good directions for a jack-o-lantern. Step 1 find a big round pumkin Step 2 get some tools for the pumpkin, then take a pen and trace the eye like this (up pointing triangle.) and the other like this (down pointing triangle) and a mouth (jagged teeth) Take the tools and cut the shapes out. 10/24/03 For Halloween I would like to be… a vampire. I got my costume at “SPIRIT the Halloween store” and I got glow in the dark vampire teeth and I got white makeup for my face and I got long silver eyelashes. Kendra had the same costume as me so were going to be vampire sisters.

A DAY of SPORTS and SUN

Saturday, October 02, 2010 This morning, Judy and I were off to see Alexa’s soccer game. It was at a park south of “their” Smith’s. Alexa was funny. Greg says that in practice she is more focused but at the games she mostly runs around next to other kids and visits. Once in a while if the ball fortuitously stops in front of her, she will kick it. She did in fact one time dribble the ball down the field ten/fifteen feet. It is funny, those four year-olds, even when the ball is right in front of the goal with no opposition they can still miss it and it isn’t just Alexa’s team, the other team was that way too though all in all they were the better team. Alexa’s team, the Bumble Bees lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 2/3 for their team to perhaps as many as twenty points for the opponents. But, nobody seemed to care including the coaches. Greg, who I guess is the “head” coach, seems to get the biggest laugh out of it. He even rooted the other team on when they were about to score and Alexa’s team was nowhere to be seen. They are learning the game and I assume, learning to appreciate it. Holly Forsyth Smith’s little Jeffery is on Alexa’s team. He is a ball of fire and the best one on the team. In huddles, he is on the outside running circles around the rest of the team. A little hyper it seems. Gavin hung out with the other coach’s family. They are neighbors of theirs and he wants to be at their house all the time. Later he and Grandma (Judy) did go to the playground for a while until Gavin slid down the big slide and landed hard on his bottom on the ground. After Alexa’s game, we headed in the direction of Bailey’s soccer game. I guess someone didn’t read the schedule right because there wasn’t one. We climbed in with Corey, Jayden and Bailey, met Wayne, the other grandpa at Wal-Mart and he followed us to Jayden’s football game in Alpine. Jayden and Corey were supposed to be there an hour early for warm-ups. As mentioned before, Corey is one of the assistant coaches. We were a little late but not bad. We watched one of the other West Lake teams beat a Lehi team then watched as Jayden’s team beat another Lehi team 26-14. They looked pretty good for the most part. After nearly two hours, Judy was pretty much sunburned on the face and left side of her neck. She said this is the second week in a row having the sun beat down on her left side. Bailey for the most part ran around with Dia Prins who lives in our ward. Since she found out (last week) that Dia is in our ward she wants to come over, and today even asked if she could stay overnight with us. Stacey nixed it because she wanted the whole family together this weekend since Corey will be gone all next week on business in Baltimore and Jayden will be spending a night or two (whatever it is) at a camp sponsored by his school. Next year Bailey will be able to go. It is for fifth and sixth graders. Dia’s mother is all in favor of having Bailey for Dia to play with. Bailey bragged at one point about how she is better than Jayden at making friends. I don’t think that is true but Bailey goes out of her way to do so anytime she is out in public. BAM! a new best friend!

SERVING NOTICE

POOL CLOSING Our neighborhood pool is going to be closed all next week for its semiannual servicing. In the local paper it said that they will be putting in a new system to better keep the water temperature regulated.

BIRTHDAY LUNCH

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 Today, my boys took me to Simply Sushi for all-you-can-eat sushi for lunch. Chris came in to town yesterday so he was there. Sierra skipped school because she has walking pneumonia so she came with Chris and of course Greg and Michael came too; obviously Jim and Corey are included in “my boys.” Sierra kept coughing into her shirt though not too often. Poor girl! As usual, we all stuffed ourselves and needed to be rolled out to our cars in wheelbarrows (figure of speech). I thought to take my camera so you may get a few pictures though not too many and not too great. Sierra and I each shot a couple.

PNEUMONIA

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 Sierra’s facebook page, she says: pneumonia. awesome. Pun intended, I’m sure. She has been sickly for some time now. I was worried that there was something wrong with her. Hopefully that is all it is. Chris is in town or will be in the next couple of days.

SILLIER YET

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2010 Today was another silly day with kids. Jayden and Bailey got off at 1:45 for some teacher…something-or-other so we had plenty of time to get nutty. At one point we were in the kitchen of their house giggling and goofing off when in reaction to something I said, Jayden said “I’m going to put my foot up your…beep!” Beep” is the word he used. I laughed and said “Where, up your mouth…up your shirt?” Jayden started laughing. That made me start laughing. And Bailey, who had just swigged a large mouthful of milk and hadn’t swallowed it yet started laughing so hard that the milk came spewing out of her mouth and her nose. Fortunately we were sitting around the island in the kitchen and the floor was stone and not in the living room where it was carpet. I cleaned it up. Then they went outside to play with some neighbor kids. Jayden’s football ended up in the window well of the unit next door to the neighbors. It is a vacant home. They were afraid to jump in and get it because of the bugs down there. They said there was a black widow but they had drown it with water from the hose. It probable receded off somewhere. Bailey came running in the house asking me to help them. We grabbed a broom handle from the garage and ran over there. There were a handful of kids screaming and pointing. Jayden asked me to climb down and retrieve his ball for him. I told him there was no way this old body could do that. I reassured them that it was safe now. All there was was a couple of black beadles left and one of them Jayden killed, cracking its back with end of the broom handle. Jayden asked me to hold him by the ankles and lower him down to the ball but after I started lowering him down he changed his mind. Finally he worked up his courage, jumped down threw the ball out and scampered back up as fast as he could. Later it turned into and water fight. By the time it was all over both Bailey and Jayden were quite wet. Jayden was soaked including his tennies. He changed into a pair of white shorts and his boots. That was a sight to behold. He was even laughing at himself for how he looked. Later Corey called and asked if I would take the kids to Wal-Mart and meet him there since he needed to pick up some groceries. Bailey sat next to me up front. She and I got loud and were making funny noises to the point that Jayden in the back seat was shaking his head in disgust.

A LITTLE SILLINESS

Friday, September 24, 2010 After Jayden and Bailey came home from school yesterday, we were talking when Bailey said, “In P.E. to day, everyone wanted to sit next to me. They kept moving their chairs (to get closer to me.) As we were driving Jayden to football Chalk Talk, Bailey blurted out, “You’re a silly little grandpa!” Jayden said at school that he and a friend “were scribbling with crayons on a piece of paper and blew up the world.” This is coming from an eleven year old. They were of course just being silly. I can’t understand where they get there silliness. It couldn’t be from me.

GOOD NEWS

FRIDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER, 2010 The word Gospel means Good News but that is not what I have in mind this morning. Yesterday I received a phone call from a pretty 39 year-old red-head… again irrelevant. The good news is that Dr. Sanderson's nurse, Jessica called with the results of my biopsies. All three came back negative for skin cancer. Yahoo! or Google or something like that!

SONG BIRD - BAILEY

Thursday, September 23, 2010 Yesterday after football practice, Corey and family came over for dinner. Bailey asked Grandma (Judy) if she would play the piano for her while she sang. She sang for quite a while. She is really quite good. Today, after school Bailey tried out for a singing and speaking part in their school's Christmas program. Corey said that Stacey said she did well. Good for nine year-old Bailey. On facebook I asked Stacey how it went. She said: “She’s in the choir but that’s good ‘cause that’s where she wanted to be…she sounded so good I was blown away.”

A FEW FUN TIDBITS from STACEY

From Stacey’s facebook: Thursday, September 16, 2009 Stacey Jepson: "Today is crazy hat day at school. Bailey was walking with some friends when she remembered. She yelled out to me to go (home) and get her cowboy hat… So I had to run to the house, then back to the school with her hat and a few of Jayden’s hats for him to choose from. (When I came back to Jayden,) he said 'I am already wearing a hat. It’s invisible...If only you could see how crazy it is Mom.' I laughed all the way home." another entry September 15 at 1:54pm ‎"MOMMY WHERE'S MY…?" "MOM CAN YOU DO THIS" MOM I’M HUNGRY!" MOM CAN I…?" And last but not least "HONEY I'M HOME WHATS FOR DINNER". Everyday coming at you on all four sides.... I wouldn't give it up for anything... I might dial it down a little."

THE UNIVERSE

CHECK OUT THIS LINK http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm

CUT AND SEW IN OHIO; or was it American Fork, Utah

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2010 – As stated earlier, I was rescheduled for my in-clinic surgery from last Wednesday to the sixth of October then from the sixth to this morning. Dr. Sanderson passed a kidney stone last Wednesday and will be out of town on the sixth. Anyway, bright and early, at eight thirty this morning I was in the clinic wearing loose fitting shorts to facilitate matters and had three procedures done. Three is the maximum they will do at one time and if I understood them correctly it is because, if they shoot any more numbing “stuff” in you it can make you goofy. Well, the three they did do made me a little light headed and feel funny as if –I- needed that. I have other problems that do that to me on a regular basis. In all, I had a big gouge taken out of my lower left leg, where the trace of melanoma was found previously. They also took off a hairy brown blob off my upper right leg and a dark spot off my right hand. The doctor sounded almost disappointed that I didn’t flinch when he poked me to give me a shot in the hand. I saw it coming, was prepared and wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. I guess I should be happy he came in early today to do this for/to me. I mentioned to him that Judy asked the doctor how may stitches she got after delivering one of our children and the doctor retorted, “Do you count when you sew?” Dr Sanderson said that any doctor who says a specific number when asked that question is either lying or guesstamating because they are concentrating and too busy sewing to sit there and count stitches. Dr Sanderson said that if I haven’t heard the results of the biopsies by a week from now to be sure and call in and ask! Oh, Dr. Sanderson turned out to be as big a comedian as I am. We had a fun time and his nurse Jessica, a cute nearly forty year-old redhead, joined right in with us. Sorry Jim she's happily married!

- JAYDEN -

Thursday, September 09, 2010 Stacey tried to send this yesterday but it didn’t show up, thus the wording following the pictures. There you go Freddie, hopefully that time it worked. One pic is Jayden getting his arrow of light. And the other one is his teeth; Jayden had to have four teeth pulled out this morning, everything is fine no cavities, But his adult teeth were going to come in weird if they didn't come out... He must have inherited that from me. The following is from Stacey's facebook page: We all had dentist appt: this morning, I am happy to report no cavities and healthy teeth for all.... Except one..... Corey had cavities and some kind of infections. And Jayden had to have four teeth pulled due to the fact that his adult teeth would come in weird if they didn't come out..... he did awesome. He is going in to the American Fork Hospital this afternoon to have X-rays to check for Scoliosis.

SUPER LADY

Wednesday, September 08, 2010; 9:40 p.m. Right now Judy is downstairs helping Ethelynn Higbee, a very bright neighbor lady, on a project and that made me think of something once said about Hugh Nibley. Hugh Nibley was one of the LDS Church’s top super brains. It was said once by a Catholic Jesuit historian, if I remember correctly that Hugh Nibley, when he is working on a topic, becomes more knowledgeable about the peripheral subjects than the experts in those fields. (He complained in a tongue in a cheek disgusted way, that it just isn’t right or fair or however he worded it.) I’m not saying Judy is another Hugh Nibley or Einstein or whatever, but she is very bright and does much the same thing. She is “indispensable” at work and it seems there is always someone there or at home, in the ward (church) or elsewhere asking for her knowledge, advice, help on something or whatever and she soon delves into the subject and becomes “expert”. She, of course, is a very talented pianist and harpist. Her only downfall, if there is one (she admits) is that she can’t memorize music; she has to read it. I wonder if it is just that she has never put that much effort into doing so. To her credit, she is always so busy on other things that she seldom has time to sit down and play her instruments.

NO DIGGING AND GOUGING TODAY

Wednesday, September 08, 2010 This morning I was supposed to have an appointment with Dr. Sanderson to do some more “digging” at the site on my leg where I had melanoma discovered as well as some other suspicious “spots” on my body. Last night I had the impression that the doctor was sick and would call and cancel the appointment. Sure enough as I was driving in this morning his receptionist called with that information. We rescheduled for Wednesday, October 6 at 9:30 a.m.

- D.I. -

Friday, September 03, 2010 At eight this morning I was at the DI for four hours of sorting clothing. I was not feeling well. Fortunately from 9:30 to 10:00 was devotional. It was really nice. There was a sister who probably never gave a talk before, talk about her road to recovery from alcohol, drugs etc if I remember correctly. She started out by telling about one of the younger men who is just starting to hear (I hope I have all this correctly.) ask her if she was angry with him. She said, “No;” to which he asked if she was a couple of weeks ago; again, “No.” Because of his inability to hear his ability to pick up vibes was acute and he had done so with her and thought it was directed at him. She said that she had been angry about how her life had been going including not being about to get a “regular” job. This talking to him made her realize she had a problem and she changed her attitude. The prayer was given by another sister who had never given a “public” prayer before. They each did an outstanding job. I snuck out at 11:30 and had lunch with Corey via Mr. Mack where he looked at suits. Jim invited Julia and her three over for dinner and sleepover, I think. Her Jake chose not to come. I went to Austin’s and Molly’s new home to pick them up. I assume they are here for the weekend. Austin drove. Again, he did a good job. He hasn’t done much driving after dark. No problem. Tomorrow Jayden has a football game and Bailey, a soccer game. Stacey has to work so I am going to Bailey’s game and afterwards take her to Jayden’s game.

LONG DAY - MANY MILES

SATURDAY, August 28, 2010 I admit this is a disjointed entry! Jim has Austin and Molly this weekend and had a couple of fun things planned to do with them. The first was tubing down the Provo River; Austin opted out of this one. The other was go-cart riding up north; Kaysville or Layton or that area somewhere. First thing this morning I went to Jayden’s first football game and Bailey’s first soccer game. Jayden’s game was against American Fork’s fifth graders. The West Lake Thunder; Jayden’s team won thirteen to six. Bailey played some other local team. Bailey’s team lost five to one. Grandpa Wayne, Stacey’s father was at the games. He was also at Jayden’s scrimmage last Saturday. As I was riding home from the games, Jim called and asked if I would drive up Provo Canyon so they could drop one car off down stream and I take him and Molly up to the drop off point to float downstream. I said OK. About that time Corey called and said they were hungry. We all ended up going to DP Cheesecake in American Fork for Philly sandwiches. From there we went home so Jim and Molly could get ready for rafting. Austin rode with me on the way from home to dropping Jim and Molly off. He did the driving from our house to the sandwich place with Jim and Molly. As we were going to the canyon, I queried Austin on his driving ability, how much, what kind of roads etc. I came to the conclusion that at least he was confident in his abilities so when we dropped them off, I let Austin take over the driving. He has his “permit”. I had him drive the Alpine loop which is about forty-six miles of somewhat steep up—then down narrow windy mountain road. I for the most part kept my mouth shut as far his driving goes and let him do his thing. He did very well. After coming out of the canyon there were miles of stop and go traffic and he did well with that. From there he drove on I-15; again, no problem. He parked at Costco and later backed out of the parking spot and drove home. In all, he drove sixty-five to seventy miles of all sorts of conditions. That doesn’t count the seven somewhat miles driving with Jim and Molly. He mentioned and I agree that he does better when no one is freaking out and telling him what to do. All I did was tell him where/when to turn and that sort of necessary stuff. I did matter-of-factly point out that on the canyon road he did sometimes go over the center line (unpainted) when there was no way of knowing if there were cars coming from the other direction. Alexa had her first soccer game at eight this morning. We haven’t been able to get hold of Niki to see how that went. Nike told me earlier that since it is four year olds, not to bother to come. It would have been a stretch to get in all the games. As it is I only got in the last couple of minutes of Bailey’s game.

BANTER

Thursday, August 26, 2010 Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:57:58 -0600 My cousin Sherilyn sent me a link showing a video of two boys doing some amazing antics, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, from walls to building sides and scampering up to the roof grabbing onto bricks and ornamental features at amazing speed; a whole bunch of that sort of thing. She followed it with the following comment which ended up going back and forth between the two of us. Sherilyn (speaking) I'm amazed! I think they're great, but none of my kids ever better try such a thing! Fred I was somewhat that way as a kid but on a much more limited bases. I had/have a fear of heights which put a damper on things a bit though I always tended to attack my fears rather than shy away from them. There were times though that I simply panicked and could go no farther. I did jump off the peak of our house onto the lawn and other times into the trees that were next to the house. (Montie did much of it too feeling he had to I suppose.) Maybe I landed on my head once which would explain other problems I have. He he I did tend to push the limits. I rode my bicycle standing on the cross bar or seat or handle bar. I did that all the time. (On the few occasions I fell, I just landed in my feet running then jumped back on.) Sherilyn Fred! How could you?! That's terrible! I'm so grateful you lived to grow up! What in the world would I ever do without you?! You hadn't better be doing anything like this anymore! Climbing buildings and jumping off roofs and riding bikes on the handlebars! Now I'm frightened all over again! Fred Yea, I was forever climbing up on the roof of our house by just scaling the wall, window sills etc. Sherilyn Did you join the track team in high school? You shouldda! You would have been the star and won state and just everything! And that would have added even more glory to the Jepson name, more than you've already brought, which is a LOT!!! Fred The one time I ran the track in gym class I was only 2nd best. Some wiz kid passed me maybe 100 yards from the finish. If I couldn't be first...well you know. You have got to remember I gained six inches over the summer between my sophomore and junior years and another six inches the next summer. I was such a little runt the coaches weren't interested in me. Besides, remember I am the quiet shy one in the family. I used to jump over picnic tables at Fairmont Park to impress Uncle Alex's daughter. What was her name...Sandra? Sherilyn You'll always be first with me, no matter how you did in gym class! Always! And that's true. You've always been quiet and shy, even more so than I am, and I'm real bad! You were impressing Sandra?! I'm so hurt! I thought you were jumping over them for me! I'm not interested in your story about Sandra! I'm just green with jealousy!!! So there!

ALEXA and GAVIN

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 Niki needed two of our round folding tables and ten of our folding chairs for a party for some of Alexa’s friends today. It was her first day back to preschool. Niki said that when she dropped her off she ran to her class. There are four schools in their group and of all four schools; this year Alexa has the teacher who is rated far and above all the rest. Even the other teachers say so. Niki printed off a coupon for buy one, get one free breakfast at Mimi’s Cafe. I met her and Gavin there and then I delivered the tables and chairs while Niki picked Alexa up from school and did some running around. Mimi’s has a lot of ceramic rooster vases and lamp bases and what not. Gavin wanted to get down so while we were waiting for breakfast to come he and I walked around looking at roosters. Every time he came to one he said “Rooster!” Finally we came to a hen on the wall. He looked at it and said “Chicken.” I thought that was interesting from a two year old. The boys, Greg, Jim, Corey and Michael had an eight a.m. breakfast office meeting a Mimi’s. Niki, Gavin and I got there before they left. They warned us not to get the breakfast burrito.

SONGBIRD

Monday, August 23, 2010 - Today was my day to be with Jayden and Bailey. I hesitate to use the term “babysit” or even “sit” as big and responsible as they are. They could spend the whole workday alone but they would be bored never mind what would happen if there was an unforeseen problem. School starts this Wednesday so from now on I will be there when they get home from school or I will pick them up after school on the days Stacey works. Judy forgot her cell phone when she went to work this morning so I met Stacey and the kids at Kinko’s; now FEDEX-KINKOS and from there we drove downtown to Judy’s work and gave her, her phone. Jayden called when we were on West Temple and she came downstairs and met us curbside. From there we drove to the Gateway. We went into Dick’s Sporting Goods and looked around for a little while. Mostly the kids ran up the down escalator for five minutes or so and got sore/tired legs. From there we went to the plaza where you can play in the water that pops up out of the ground. At first Jayden was showing how he can run through it without getting wet. Then he did it walking. By this time Bailey was following him. Finally they got silly and started pushing and pulling each other into the water jets. Bailey was smart and took here shoes and socks off. Jayden didn’t until it was too late. They got wet obviously; Jayden so much so that he was shivering from the cold. When we drove away, Bailey and I had to suffer not having the air conditioner on in the car. Corey had an 11:00 appointment near 33rd S. and Main. When it was over we met at La Puente for lunch. It was spicy but tasty. The kids and I spent the rest of the day at their house. After work, Corey called and said to meet him at Wal-Mart. He had a little grocery shopping to do. As Bailey and Jayden and I were drive to Wal-Mart, Bailey started singing. I told her how good she was doing. She asked “Really?” I answered a sincere “Yes!” She said, “Turn on the radio.” After some searching, she found a Country station and tried to sing along. She didn’t know the songs and had a hard time hearing and understanding the words. But, when the second song came on and the guy sang, over and over, “Are you gonna kiss me? Are you gonna kiss me?” Bailey turned beet red and got all flustered. DON’T TEASE HER

FOUR DAYS AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA

As the title says we spent nearly a week in Florida going to Universal Studios. It was quite the Marathon. We flew in last Sunday; Austin and Molly went by way of Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines. Judy flew from Indianapolis where she had been at Drum Corps with her mother for several days. Jim and I tried for a non-stop but when it go to us there was only one seat left so I told Jim to go on ahead of me. I took a flight to Minneapolis and from there to Orlando. As it turned on it was the same plane but with a flight number change in Minneapolis so I got off and right back on again. At least the second leg was in first class. We stayed at the Saratoga Springs (Disney) Resort but drove each day via our red Toyota Camry rent-a-car to Universal. We had lots of fun and got very worn out. The heat and humidity didn't help any. On Thursday Austin was so sore on the inside of his legs, he looked like he was astride a horse when he walked; if you can call it walking. FOLLOWNING ARE VIDEOS AND PICTURES OF THE TRIP--PRETTY SELF EXPLAINATORY. YOU WILL HAVE TO CLICK ON "older posts" TO SEE THEM ALL! They are in reverse order of how they were taken. Many were left out.