Welcome to the world - Zachary!

I just got back from the hospital where I got to meet my brand new grandson - Zachary Bruce Kevan. He came into the world a few hours ago at 8 pounds and 15 ounces. He's perfect! Here is their new family picture.

Oh and by the way -

Welcome to the world, Zachary!

Half-way Through the Day

Okay, so you all read about my shaky start this morning. But I'm half-way through the day and want to report. We have been busy. We said goodbye to her mom and dad when they left for the hospital.

We said goodbye to Scott who left for SLC and then will fly home later today.

We got dressed.

We combed her hair.

We walked to the park and played and played. Sadie fed the big scary dinosaur at the playground. She climbed the stairs and the climbing wall too.

She went on every slide - even the wet ones. She liked hanging from the bars way up high.

We found a snail shell and she dropped it to me and I gave it back to her through the holes in the platform. Then we both went to swing. I pushed her really high. We laughed and laughed. We saw 3 dogs and found a bat on the soccer field. Then it was time to go home. When we got home we got a little snack and then decided to walk to the store. She rode in the stroller this time. I had to pump up the tires first. That was hard. But the walk was fun. We saw lots of good things. At the store we bought some more Pull Ups for Sadie. Plus some fruit snacks - Yum! We also couldn't leave without getting a doughnut. She wanted a sugar doughnut. She ate the whole thing! She licked her fingers and cheeks and lips and still had sugar everywhere.

But the doughnut was really good.

When we got home she even ate her sandwich. We watched a little Elmo and then she went down for her nap. Here is where I almost made a mistake. Sadie took herself to the bathroom. When I checked on her she was done - but she was winding about a half roll of TP on her hand so she could wipe. YIKES! that would have clogged the bestest flushing toilets. Luckily I caught her just in time. We re-rolled most of the TP and used a few squares. Good save, right?!

She went down at about noon and it is 2:15 and she is still sleeping.

So take that you skeptics. I think I am doing pretty good now.

Capable?

Rob and Lindsey left for the hospital this morning with a promise to Sadie that they would be bringing baby brother home. So that put me in charge of little Sadie. And after just 2 short hours she managed to lock herself in her parents bedroom. So the question dancing in everyone's mind is, "Is she capable to handle Sadie?"

Well the incident began innocently enough. She went into her parents bedroom and said bye-bye and closed the door. But when she didn't emerge after a few minutes I started listening more closely to what she was saying - "I waked up", and "lock door", and other troubling self-dialogue. So I started trying to talk her through the process of unlocking the door. But to no avail. No panic yet - Sadie or me.

So after several minutes, even though I hated to do it, I called Lindsey at the hospital to help me locate a screwdriver (my initial search produced nothing screwdriver like). She told me where I might find one but I didn't find it there. Another look around and I found a leatherman tool. That had several gadgety appendages - a short can opener, a rather long saw blade, several short screwdriver ends, a cutting blade, a larger cutting blade, and of course the famous pliers. After a quick appraisal of available tools I chose the long saw blade. When I tried to insert it into the small slit it didn't go into the hole very well. It just sort of jammed in about 1/4th inch. Dang! But before pulling it back out I tried turning it and TA DA!!! The door was unlocked.

So before you evaluate my capabilities as a babysitter you might consider that the whole episode was over in a few short minutes, without being scared, without yelling, without dialing 911, and without any tears. Actually she emerged smiling totally unaware of my questionable capabilities.

I think I've proved myself. But maybe we better wait for a final evaluation until Rob and Lindsey return home and see for themselves.

Spring?

We woke up early this morning in Springville ready to celebrate Evan's graduation from BYU today. Upon Lindsey's arrival in the living room I heard an excited announcement. "Oh, it's snowing!" I thought - No Way! But glancing through the window I quickly realized that she was right. It WAS snowing! It looked like tons of tiny snowflakes were rapidly falling through the sky. Then the flakes became heavy. But as we checked every few minutes it seemed to be slowly becoming less and less. I didn't get any good pictures of the event. At the peak all the grass was completely covered by the fluffy white stuff. What was there quickly melted. These pictures are of the quickly melting phase. But it is hard to believe we are seeing Spring.

Spring - the rerun

I forgot to mention something in my previous post titled "Spring". As I drive around our ward area, many times I see or cross over the normally dry creek beds. They are usually brown and dry with not even a hint that wet water once flowed through them. However, I end up smiling nowadays when I see them. WHY? Because these dry creeks and runoff channels have flowing water in them. The areas are green and plush with new growth and the water is flowing. Now, the flow is narrow but it is rolling down through these water channels. So whenever I see them I just have to smile and enjoy them while they are still around. You just gotta love them!

And as I sit here in Springville, Utah and recount the joy I feel in seeing the green water areas, I have the sounds of thunder and heavy rainfall in the background. The wind has been blowing and we have had hail. So in just a couple of hours I have been enjoying the Spring here too.

Spring

Spring has sprung around here. And during my errands today I took a few pictures to prove it.

There are cacti beginning to bloom, century plants with their stalks racing taller and taller just ready to blossom, all variety of desert plants are actively growing and flowering, the bees are busy going from blossom to blossom, people are planting colorful flowers, and even the traveling snow cone shop was set up for business.

Note to Self (with p.s.)

Note to self:
Be sure to tell husband when sliding arcadia screen is installed otherwise new screen may be broken when huband goes out door and slams into screen.

OOPS!!

P.S. Not to worry, luckily Doug wasn't going quite fast enough to break through the screen, so it remains in pristine condition.

Yummy way to start the day

Early Saturday morning a few weeks ago I saw Doug standing in the Living Room like this:

The reason why?

Free Corn Pops with our newspaper! He ate them all.

What a yummy way to start the day!

Reaching New Heights

We have a basement. There is a window up in the area where the stairs go to the basement. I noticed a dead fly and dust and other "stuff" on the window sill when I was outside cleaning the windows the other day. That window is nearly impossible to get to on the inside. The one landing where a ladder can stand is to the left of the window. The next landing is to the right and farther down. The ground is - way too far down. So how would I clean that window sill?

Well I chose the landing on the left - that way I could use my right arm (I'm right handed) to reach to the farthest corner of the window. But my arm alone wasn't long enough. I had to get out my Swiffer extendo duster and a nice furry extention duster that my mom just gave me in order to reach far enough.

We padded the top of the ladder so as not to scratch or scuff the paint (there were already some scuffs up there). Then with my tools at hand I started up the ladder. I couldn't change the angle on the blinds or pull them up to give me room to operate. So I had to force my hand/arm behind the blinds and dust the window and sill as good as I could. I didn't dare do too much leaning because I didn't want the ladder tipping over. While I was there I also tried to dust off the blinds but after finishing that I realized that I did a pretty lame job at that. I also took the opportunity to paint the scuffs that were way up there.

At one point, in the middle of my treacherous job, while I was Reaching New Heights, I called out to my family for a little assistance. No response. I called again. Nothing. So I climbed down the ladder and looked around for some help - I found the guys outside glueing the bottom onto the puddle duck boat that dad and the priests are building. I think they were having fun while I was working up a sweat. Something doesn't seem quite right about that. What do you think?

Compare the pictures and figure it out.

I made quite an exciting discovery while I was Reaching New Heights. I found an electronic gizmo wired up to the blinds. I took note of the name of the item and then looked it up on the internet. And guess what? It is an electric gadget that will change the angle of the blinds and possibly be able to lift and lower the blinds. HEY, THAT WOULD BE NICE! Doug quickly emailed the company and is trying to find out if we can get a new remote device so we can put the gadgetry to work. NOW he's interested in my project. Sheesh! A little earlier would have been nice. But we all know dad's nickname - Johnny Come Lately. He lived up to that today.

April Voila

I am amazed at how quickly April has rushed by. Here we are nearly half-way through the month! Unbelievable. We have been blessed with the most heavenly weather lately. Really. We have been able to open the windows in the evenings and blow cool air into the house*. Then in the morning when the sun comes up and the outside air starts to warm up we turn the fans off and close the windows. Then the rest of the day voila, we enjoy indoor temperatures in the 60's and 70's. It seems like heaven. Maybe the main reason it does is because we know that just around the corner we won't be able to enjoy the cool evening air - because there won't be any. Nope, just a few days or maybe weeks away (if we are lucky) are the warm/hot nights that will give no relief from the hot/hotter days. So we just take it day by day and try to enjoy it while we can.

In the old house we used the same spring/fall cooling method. We took an old box fan that we inherited from my mom. We put a stool below the driveway door. We carefully balanced some thick phone books and a box of food storage on the stool. Then we wedged the fan into the opened window. After opening a couple of windows in the house we would turn the fan on. That would blow air out of the house and suck cooler air in through the opened windows. It was a marvelous system. We had been doing it for about 25 years or so.

I remember thinking when we moved into the new house that we would get some fancy schmancy built in "whole house fan" system that we could just open a window and flip a switch and voila some powerful hidden fan would blow and the air would be cool and plentiful. Nothing like that has happened. Why? Mostly $$ or the lack of it. What we did though was make an improvement on the system we used at the old house - and it is working like a charm for a tiny fraction of getting a built in system. We bought 2 new 20" box fans. We needed more blowing power because we had a much bigger house. We attached them together, side by side, by using long zip ties. Then we turn them sideways and put them into an opened basement window. The fans just sit on the window sill with no need for stool or boxes or books. The blinds rest on top of the top fan so the fans are very secure. The very top part of the window that is empty is blocked by a precision cut piece of cardboard. We open a couple windows upstairs. Turn the fans on. And guess what? They probably work just as good or better than the built in system and we only paid $20 per fan. The system is flawless!

So like I said, in a short time we will have to dismantle our system and put it away until sometime in the fall when once again we will enjoy our heavenly weather.

*Note: Our system is flawless, however, our location is not. Our new house lies just a short mile away from a cattle farm. And sometimes we are pleasured with the scents of "fresh country air". When those odors float our way - we have to hastily abandon the open window fan system and just hope the smell "clears the air" quickly.

TEN!??!!

Did I say 10? Let me check my last post. Yes I said 10.

What I meant was 14!!

Yes, 14 more windows to do - and they are big windows! Anyway, just in case you were wondering, I finished washing the outsides of the remaining 14 windows this morning. I started at 6:30 and finished at about 9:00.

Now I need some powerful hand lotion - any suggestions?

Squeaky Clean

I spent the morning washing windows. This house has a lot of windows. I did all the outside basement windows (5), all outside south facing windows (6), and the outside of the sliding glass door. And that was enough for the day. Did I mention they are squeaky clean now? In addition to the windows I washed down all the screens to those 11 windows. Yay! I also vacuumed out the basement window wells - why not? I was already there. Those pesky leaves that have been blowing around like crazy and have found their way down into the window wells - they're all gone.

I hope to get the outsides of the 10 remaining windows done tomorrow.

Anyway, now I can almost guarantee it will rain soon.