Happy Birthday, Gail!

Dear Blogger Friends and family,
It’s a little different way to post a blog, but here’s my own entries of what’s been going on in MY life of late. Just in case you care. And it’s just that: a ‘Web Log’ which is what a blog is to begin with. The rest of you are just WAAAY too fancy with all your pictures and video clips, slide shows, etc. “Just the facts, ma’m.”

May 2, 2009. Graduation at SUU. I didn’t have any graduates in my personal family this year, but there were quite a number from my “library” family who were graduating—many of them with honors. Such good people, all of them. I volunteered to help usher with the tremendous amount of security that was in place in the Centrum arena due to the presence of Thomas S. Monson, commencement speaker. Volunteers had to report at 6:00 a.m. It was a wonderful graduation ceremony, the class was huge and the crowd was very well-mannered. They DID use an awful lot of flashing cameras when he got up to speak, however. It was blinding. Really, folks, from across the arena, does a flash really do ANY good? (nope) I was glad I went, and glad to do my part for the school. And the weather was even really nice! I was a ticket taker at one of the outside doors. Our door had to send Michael O. Leavitt back to his car or house—Jackie had brought a bag, and there were no bags allowed in the Centrum at all. Michael did come back—bag free. Ha.

May 3. Drove to Richfield to have dinner with Gail, Seth and Caroline. We took 2 cars. Mike took Nick and I took Eric. It was fun to visit with them. Gail is still feeling fine, though very ready to have this baby. We dropped off Grandma Liebhardt’s car to be worked on by Seth in their shop, and came home in 1 car.



May 4. I presented our report to theProvost and Dean’s council about how Women’s Week went this past year. I guess I’m just permanently on that committee. It was sure nice to have a lot of help this year. I hope it will always be so. The Dean’s council is an intimidating group, though all nice folks. We’ll have a new provost next year.

May 5. Eric’s orchestra concert at 7 pm in the HS auditorium. His last one. It was also the last concert with Dr. Neves who is leaving to take a position at a university in the Midwest somewhere, so they presented him some flowers. It was so touching. It embarrassed those poor students to see him get so choked up. But, you know, they really are orchestra students extraordinaire. They won straight 1’s in State this past weekend, and that’s for all three years that Neves has been there. They don’t play easy stuff, either.

May 6. Right after work, Mike and I drove to Beaver in one car and came home in two. We brought back his Mom’s car. Since it was about 8 pm and we hadn’t eaten, we stopped at a little Mom and Pop restaurant to have dinner together. Since we came in separate cars, I wonder what sort of rumors we started, with our “meeting” at the restaurant. Or maybe I just have a dirty mind. I honestly didn’t think of that until way later.

May 7. Thursday. Regular work day. Imagine that!

May 8. Friday I worked at home in the morning, doing some laundry (only a very little bit, and ended up not packing what I washed anyway!), packed, picked up a rental car and drove to Southern California to Damian and Tandy’s house. Was there in 7 hours. I had no bad traffic or wind, so that was nice. Spent the night there with those cute little grand-babies of mine. Lexi got to sleep in my bed with me this time. Last time she was sleeping with her Grandma Pam. My turn! :-D

Saturday, May 9, 2009. Janey Kozloski’s funeral in San Bernardino. I went over to Suz and Kirk’s house early in the morning, and they drove me and Sandi over to the funeral. It’s about an hour’s drive from Temecula. We found Suz and Sandi’s mom and dad, my Aunt Tuny and Uncle Gary, and met at a Mc Donald’s for a diet Coke before the funeral service. The service was short and sweet, held in the funeral home at the cemetery. The person who was conducting it didn’t know either one of them (Janey or Kenny K.), and had only met with Kenny for about an hour previously in the week to gather his information. But he did a nice job. There was an opportunity for members of the audience to share their memories of Janey, and a few did. I came VERY VERY close to standing up to say how much we loved having her at our All Girls Weekends in Las Vegas, and how at every family get-together, Janey was always the life of the party. I’ve been kind of a “distant” cousin until recent years. Literally—living in Hawaii makes it hard to get to family get-togethers. One that I did go to fairly recently, she had us all out on the lawn at Aunt Tuny’s house, passing marshmallows down the line with funny little santa-heads on a stick—the trigger operated ones. It was so fun and so funny. I have pictures somewhere of that. And the other cousins mentioned the jingle-bell necklaces that she provided another year. What a fun, caring, loving person she was. At the graveside, a few words were shared, but the highlight was a white dove release. The lady recited a beautiful poem, then Mary Alice released a single white dove into the air, symbolizing Janey’s spirit returning to the heavens. Then, 10 other white doves were released, joined with the single one, and as a group they all disappeared into the surrounding trees and buildings. I believe the officiator said something about that representing the reunion of others who had passed on before. I was touched. I’m sure there was a joyous reunion with her mother and grandmother, father, and others on the other side. Janey was only 56. We all met at Kenny K’s house afterward for a lovely meal of sandwiches and trimmings. I shared the Grandma Sorensen framed music that I had given to Damian and Tandy this past Christmas with my cousins and aunts who were there. After I got back to Damian and Tandy’s house in the afternoon, I took a nap. Funerals are exhausting.

A photographer came and took some charming photos of the kids Saturday afternoon. Here's a sneak peek at her portraits, and Tandy will be posting some, I'm sure, in the future.
http://melodeetontiblog.com

The pool that evening was very refreshing. We all went swimming and had a great time. But we didn’t get home till after dark and by the time baths were over, we were ready for bed! I was ZZZZ sawing logs at 9:30 pm with both Lexi AND Braeden in bed with me. But they moved Braeden later. Damian fell asleep reading to Braeden and Braeden didn’t have anyone to talk to once his dad went to sleep. Ha. I wasn’t much company, either. We were all out very early.

Sunday May 10. Mother’s Day! It’s so nice to have a late church schedule (12:30 p.m.) so we can lounge around and eat breakfast in our jammies or in bed. In bed was the plan, but I was up and at ‘em early after having gone to bed early the night before. Church was nice, dinner after, relaxing and getting ready for my early departure on Monday.

Monday, May 11. Left Temecula at 5:30 ish a.m. Drove straight home, with just stops for gas and stuff. Tandy sent me home with three boxes of chocolate covered strawberries. They were wrapped and decorated, ready to deliver to Pam, Grandma Liebhardt, and me. I shared mine with my family because I am a nice Mom. Sometimes. Plus, I’d eaten quite a lot of them at Tandy’s house before AND the roof of my mouth was positively raw from all the junk food I consume while driving. I listened to books on tape on the drive there and back. Real Page-Turners that cause me to gasp out loud and say things like , “Oh, no! “ ha. I delivered the strawberries to Pam where she works at Valley View Hospital, then I returned the rental car to Enterprise. Nick picked me up. Gail had a dr. appointment that morning, so it was fun to find out that she’s on her way to having this baby—really soon! Effaced, dilating (only a 2), contracting just a little. They told her to come back when the contractions were 5 minutes apart. So she was back at the hospital at 1 a.m. Tuesday. They gave her shots to stop labor and sent her home. Drat. They say it’s too early. They had her do an ultrasound that afternoon, to check amnionic fluid levels. They are way up. I went with her to that. Seth is coming back down here to stay for a bit and bringing Caroline. School is not out yet, but testing is over… the ultrasound indicated that she is carrying a baby that is estimated to be about 7 lbs. 9 oz. at this point in time, according to measurements….big baby!


Tuesday, May 12. One of my TWO work days of the week. It’s really hard to play catch up when being gone a lot. But I do make dents in it occasionally. I have a lot of committee work that seems to take a lot of time lately. I guess my long, hard, first day of the week exhausted me (well, that and water aerobics) because I went to bed really early.

Wednesday, May 13. This was an early day for me. I knew I had to spray the apple trees before the wind kicked up later in the day, so I went searching for my sprayer. Found it, but it was ruined because the last person who used it didn’t rinse it and put it away like they were told. I was pretty mad at that person. So I had to go buy a sprayer AND the stuff to spray on the trees (I was spraying my apple tree and Berenice’s 2 apple trees). So I walked out the back door at 5:15 a.m., it’s dark, and I missed the bottom step! Crumpled right down on a very twisted ankle, bumped my knees on the hard concrete. Ouch. I took my flashlight and crawled back up the steps into the house and whined to my sleeping, exhausted, incoherent husband, “I think I broke my ankle! It popped really loud and hurts very bad!” Didn’t even phase the poor guy. He’d done an all-nighter Monday/Tuesday and was done in by Tuesday night and just not coherent quite yet. Well, I determined that it must not be broken, but was sure sore. I hobbled around in WalMart, got what I needed, came home and sprayed the trees (no wind!), got ready and came to work where I sat most of the day with my sore and slightly swollen foot propped up on a chair. Barefoot, no less. VERY unprofessional. I did make it to water aerobics that evening, and after that and dinner (thanks, Seth, for making the Pizza!), Caroline and I walked (slowly) to the high school to listen to their band concert. Those kids are pretty good, too. They played an original piece by a kid from SUU that was marvelous. “Portrait of a Soldier” four movements. Very nice.

Thursday, May 14. Ruth Hair picked me up at 7 a.m. and drove to Salt Lake City. We never even stopped, or got out or stretched until we got out of the car at 5300 south. We were meeting about 6 other ladies for lunch, our Texarkana Ladies luncheon. I even sent out invites this time . Here's a few shots of the people.
Kim and her mom, LaVoice

Norma and her daughter, Karen


Norma with Martha Reavis.

We met at noon at Mimi’s Café, laughed, talked, visited, caught up, reported, laughed and talked and ate and talked and laughed and talked some more. After 2 hours in the restaurant, we moved it out to the parking lot. What a fun crowd! Ruth Hair, LaVoice Evans Wright, Kim Evans, Martha Reavis, Norma Conner Wadsworth, Karen Conner Green, me, and Sherry Patterson ?. I don’t recall her married name. She was a surprise, as she was in Provo with a daughter who’d just had her first baby. Sherry lives in Georgia. All of us former Texarkana Ward members, all of us glad to have updates from LaVoice who visits there about twice a year. All of us BIG talkers and visitors. It must have sounded like a gaggle of very noisy geese or SOMEthing equally loud and terrifying. And all of us now live in Utah, along with others. [One regular, Lynn Reamer Richardson, couldn’t come because she was subbing at a teaching job that day and couldn’t get out of it. We missed having her there. ]



And all of us having that very close bond of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that brought us together initially and keeps that bond strong and close. Even if we only get together once in a very great while. Martha, recently returned from Chili on a mission with her husband, was heavily recruiting for missionary workers with the two widowed sisters. Once a missionary, always a missionary, right?
Ruth and I walked through the Church art exhibit in the Conference Center,



stopped in Nephi to eat some dinner, stopped in Orem to buy a box of Krispy Kremes to take to my family. Ruth has never had a hot fresh sample from that place—didn’t even know they did that! We also stopped to say hi to Robert in Provo because we were practically driving by and he was home. And then I just drove us on home to Cedar—on a wing and a prayer, I might add. I’d looked at the gas gauge earlier and thought we should get some, then started driving and visiting and forgot all about it until we had passed the last Beaver exit and the “Gas Low” light came on and dinged, reminding me that I’d not stopped to get gas! Yikes. But we made it to Parowan and the truck stop. Whew! I did slow it down from 80 to 70 mph.

Friday, May 15. I had the day off, killed weeds in my garden spot, did 11 loads of laundry, elevated my now swollen ankle. Gail was resting, timing contractions. Seth and Caroline had gone back to Richfield in the morning, and Seth just knew if he went, then things would pick up and she’d have that baby. He even went up on the mountain (like out of reach of cell phone service). And it worked. She went in to the hospital when they were 5 minutes and less apart. I took her about 11 pm. She was admitted, strapped to monitors , checked, then they called her Dr. Then they gave her ANOTHER series of shots to stop her labor!!!! Grrr. Just take the baby, already folks! He’s ready to be here. Seth got there about 1 a.m. and I went back home. Oh well. They followed shortly after. Turns out, Gail’s Dr. was out of town, and the subbing one thought it best that they wait till she’s 38 weeks.

My house cleaning day. Do you realize how many weeks I’ve been absent from my home? It’s been getting deep. As a reward for getting ONE ROOM all done (YAY— this is way hard for someone who has difficulty staying on task), I rewarded myself with a movie from Red Box that Nick had rented for a client and I watched it in the afternoon. I soaked our parched lawns. I ran errands. I took Eric to the Dr. He has an infection in his chest and was leaving at 2 pm for State Orchestra in Salem, UT. Got his meds. I’m still limping around, and it’s swollen (my ankle), but not too bad. I keep trying to wrap it, but am not successful. I think I can see a bruise developing on the side of my foot.

From my back yard. Chive Blossoms. They don't smell very pretty, but they do LOOK pretty.

Saturday, May 16, 2009. Gail is now 37 weeks. She’s lounging around, feeling the effects of a muscle relaxant . Did more house cleaning, but there is still so much to do. Mike left for Southern California today. He’ll be back late Tuesday.
Sunday, May 17, 2009. I was the only one in our ward today from my family. And I almost felt like a visitor. Does that make me a “Visiting Teacher”? because I was teaching Sunday School that day. Ha. Seth had gone back to Richfield on Saturday so the other grandma could get some stuff done. Gail was still resting, and lying down as much as possible. Eric was still coughing a lot. Nick goes to his own student ward (where he also teaches Sunday School). But we did make it to Eric’s Seminary graduation that evening. And he managed to get through a solo in a musical number with two other gals. They did a nice job. Each sang one verse of “Army of Helaman” with all doing the chorus in harmony/parts. Only afterwards, he couldn’t find me and drove home without me! Silly boy. I hadn’t wanted to walk there AND back. One trip to the stake center is plenty in uncomfortable church shoes. And I had specifically said, “Don’t leave without me, Eric. I’m just walking grandma to her car and I want a ride home with you.” I guess he redeemed himself my bringing me a brownie. You can get a long ways with me on a brownie. And I do have a lovely green-ish bruise on my foot.

Monday, May 18. Gail’s 30th Birthday. I left for work today and forgot to wish her happy birthday before I left! Duh. But she had a Dr. Appointment at 8 a.m. She saw her regular one, he said, “no more drugs to stop labor and we’ll schedule you later this week for a c-section. ” That was the report I just got from Seth. Now I’m off to the dentist for a crown prep. Yuck. I told my co-worker that I’ve never actually chosen to go to a dentist with a pain-free mouth and exchange it for pain and suffering willingly. I’ve only ever gone when I HAD to because something was wrong and hurt. I do choose to go for check ups and cleaning, but that’s not painful.

Monday night (tonight) is Eric’ s final choir concert.




He's still coughing. Tuesday night is a Senior awards assembly at Cedar High and Somebody is getting an award. Wednesday night is the SWATC graduation and Mike is receiving an award there. He does not know that yet, but I was given a heads up by his cousin who also works there in the office (Lisa’s about a 5th or 6th cousin, I think). Thursday this week we have dinner guests. Friday is Eric’s graduation from Cedar High. So it’s a perfectly busy week in which to have a BABY! Go Gail!