Our cry for most of the month of May was 'Where's the water?' The irrigation water was turned on into our development at the first of the month but there was very little water coming to our property. Our neighbors and several of the residents up the hill from us had the same problem. Paul kept texting Marshall, the new landscape guy for the development, but got no response. Next he sent in several action items to the management company and got a standard answer that it was the water department's problem, and not the development's. As our lawns became drier and drier, we all got very concerned about ever getting water to them as we could not get anyone to take responsibility to solve the problem. As Paul wrote in a letter to Tracy Cannon, the developer, it's like a circular firing squad with everyone pointing the finger to someone else to solve the problem. Luckily, last year's development landscape person, Steve, came to our rescue. After looking into many things, he discovered water streaming out of a new viaduct put in this Spring. Paul reported that to Tracy and she had her son out that very afternoon. They finally woke up to the fact the the problem was within the development. Long story short, the water company turned up the pressure coming into the development and the water was set to bypass the new filter......and we had water!!!! Obviously something was wrong with the new filter. For the last week of May, we have had pretty good water pressure and luckily we've also had several days of rain to help our lawns. The lawns are finally greening up and looking much better. We're afraid that in August we will be making that same cry, 'Where's the water,' as we've been told our irrigation water will run out sometime in August due to lack of snow pack this past winter. We may have to become use to brown lawns. We pray constantly for water from heaven to break the drought we're in right now.
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| This was taken when we thought we had water. The pressure only lasted a day so, for several days, we had to move a single sprinkler around to save our lawn. |
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| The picture we finally sent Tracy so she could see the effects of not enough water to green up our lawns. |
May always brings Mother's Day and this year it also brought the day we celebrated Avery's birthday. We were out of town the Sunday after her birthday when we would have baked a cake and given her some presents so it fell on the next Sunday, Mother's Day. I was glad to share my day with her. For dinner, Paul cooked some filets and Todd stuffed the potatoes so my job was relatively easy for Sunday dinner. Todd and Kailee brought me some flower and bath bombs. I love taking my late night baths with the great smelling bath bombs. The girls made me two super heroes out of Hershey candy bars. Andrea had sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers the Thursday prior to Mother's Day. She knows how much I love flowers. Her flowers lasted more than two weeks and were enjoyed every minute of that time. Of course, I heard from Ryan and Jon who called or texted to wish me a happy Mother's Day. It was a great day. I love being a mom of such wonderful children.
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| From Andrea |
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| From Todd and Kailee and the girls |
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| A close up of the girls superhero grandmas |
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| I loved this meme about Mothers |
Now for Avery's birthday celebration - I think she was a little confused that she would have another birthday party two weeks after her birthday. We always do a Sunday celebration for the girls and give them toys that stay here for them to play with when they visit. Avery is really into Peppa Pig so I did a Peppa Pig cake and found a Peppa Pig playhouse and some other Peppa Pig characters to supplement the ones that came with the playhouse. She seemed to love both the cake and the toys.
May always brings more Spring clean up. Paul was involved almost everyday going through and cultivating the soil pep in the shrub areas as well as weeding them. We decided to take out a couple more dogwood plants on the front slope. I have wanted those out for a long time as they were so big and almost out of control. It took a lot of digging but they are finally out. The two stumps were a bit of a problem and Paul was afraid to try and pull them out for fear of hurting his back again like he did last year. The neighbors came to his rescue. While we were at lunch one day, Joe, Joyce and Jeff got together and pulled them out with Jeff's truck for one and Joe's pick ax for the other. I was so thankful for these thoughtful neighbors. The berm looks so much better now. We'll add a couple more plants but they will be small ones.
Each year we also plant many annuals in the pots placed around our yard. This year, we decided to buy 6 pots already planted with flowers from Highland nursery. We have bought as many as 4 before and loved the look so much that we bought 2 more than usual. Learning from last year, we bought them before Mother's Day and had to store them in our garage till it was time to put them out in our yard. It has been known t freeze as late as the second week in June and we didn't want to take any chance of losing those beautiful pots. Paul faithfully watered them every day and we kept the garage door opened all day to give them enough sunlight. We also started buying annuals for the 10 other pots in our yard.
At the first of this month, I got a call from President Lythcoe to asked if I would accept an assignment to go to Young Women's camp in June. He said I would be working with the Spanish branch girls as well as his wife, Jan. She is the Young Women's President for the branch. Marth Witt was the camp director so I would be working with her, too. Of course, I said yes. Martha asked if I would be in charge of the food, which is an easy assignment for me. There are only 9 girls and 3 leaders so I didn't think that would be too difficult. Jan asked if I would help with the faith walk so I will be giving a 5 minute talk on the Liahona as a director in our lives. I don't think President Lythcoe realized how old I was because when I went into him for my temple recommend interview, we got talking about camp. I mentioned that I would be the oldest person there as I didn't think there would be too many 76 year old grandmas at camp. He seemed very surprised and said he would not have guessed that I was anywhere near 70. That made me happy, not to look as old as I really am. As a result of this calling, I've been cooking food and freezing it for the last two weeks. As of right now, I have spaghetti sauce, refried beans, barbecue beef, cinnamon rolls, and 40 frosted sugar cookies in my freezer. I'm trying to make meal preparation as easy as possible while we are there.
One of the wonderful things about this month is that we are back at church full time with no limit to the number of people in attendance. We have an hour sacrament meeting and then an hour relief society or Sunday school. It was so exciting to see most of our ward gathering, many without masks. Maybe this COVID thing is on the way out...at least in Utah and other Republican run states.
Graduations started in May, also. Clark graduated from Skyridge high school. He's not been the biggest fan of school so we are very proud of him for making it through. The ceremony was held at the Rio Tinto stadium in Salt Lake City. It was also broadcasted on zoom. At the last minute and at Jon's suggestion, it was decided we would just stay home and watch the ceremony on our television instead of battling the crowds and parking. We probably got a better view of everything than Jon and Mindi did. I was all set to take a picture of Clark as he came out to receive his diploma but was not able to because he decided to to a little dance instead of holding still long enough for a picture. Luckily Jon and Mindi got a few pictures.
Aria also graduated this May. She graduated from preschool and is ready to start Kindergarten this Fall. We were unable to attend her end of year program and graduation because of COVID restrictions but Kailee sent us pictures and even a video of the program. Aria has matured a lot from last year when she just covered her face while her class was singing. This year, she sang and even did the hand movements. Growing up and becoming more confident, for sure.
The week before graduation, Jon and Mindi put on a big dinner party for Clark and his friends prior to their Senior Prom. We dropped by their home that day to drop off a Texas Sheet cake for the party. The next day, they invited us to come back to their home for leftovers from the dinner party. They had ordered smoked brisket and chicken from BamBam's and had lots left over. We drove down and were so glad we did because Jon's boys were there, too. We hadn't seen them for quite some time so it was good to hang out with them for a while. After dinner, we went downstairs and did a puzzle together. A fun Sunday evening....
Because we did not get to see Todd's family on that Sunday, we decided to get together at P.F. Chang's for dinner on the following Tuesday. We had a delightful dinner there and then went with them to the children's favorite park. It was in Orem and was an amazing place for the girls to play. We took lots of pictures, of course. We always love being with Todd and his family.
A few more thoughts on what this holiday should be all about....
Each Sunday, just before the girl leave our home, they have to get a candy bag. Lately, we have been splitting the candy into two bags so they could each carry one in the car as they ride home. Todd sent this picture to show us that they play a trading game with the candy but some how Aria ends up with all the good candy, leaving Avery with a Payday and a Mike and Ike or two. Interesting.....
And then there's the ritual of saying good bye to us. It used to be that they rolled down the windows and yelled good bye all the way out of the driveway. Lately, though, they have opened up the roof top and the girls stand up through the skylight, yelling good bye and I love you. It's so sweet.
Enough said!
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| Avery and her Peppa Pig cake |
May always brings more Spring clean up. Paul was involved almost everyday going through and cultivating the soil pep in the shrub areas as well as weeding them. We decided to take out a couple more dogwood plants on the front slope. I have wanted those out for a long time as they were so big and almost out of control. It took a lot of digging but they are finally out. The two stumps were a bit of a problem and Paul was afraid to try and pull them out for fear of hurting his back again like he did last year. The neighbors came to his rescue. While we were at lunch one day, Joe, Joyce and Jeff got together and pulled them out with Jeff's truck for one and Joe's pick ax for the other. I was so thankful for these thoughtful neighbors. The berm looks so much better now. We'll add a couple more plants but they will be small ones.
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| This is the largest tumbleweed Paul has ever found in our yard. |
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| The limbs and stumps from the two plants Paul (and the neighbors) removed |
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| The wide open berm now with those two large dogwoods gone. |
Each year we also plant many annuals in the pots placed around our yard. This year, we decided to buy 6 pots already planted with flowers from Highland nursery. We have bought as many as 4 before and loved the look so much that we bought 2 more than usual. Learning from last year, we bought them before Mother's Day and had to store them in our garage till it was time to put them out in our yard. It has been known t freeze as late as the second week in June and we didn't want to take any chance of losing those beautiful pots. Paul faithfully watered them every day and we kept the garage door opened all day to give them enough sunlight. We also started buying annuals for the 10 other pots in our yard.
At the first of this month, I got a call from President Lythcoe to asked if I would accept an assignment to go to Young Women's camp in June. He said I would be working with the Spanish branch girls as well as his wife, Jan. She is the Young Women's President for the branch. Marth Witt was the camp director so I would be working with her, too. Of course, I said yes. Martha asked if I would be in charge of the food, which is an easy assignment for me. There are only 9 girls and 3 leaders so I didn't think that would be too difficult. Jan asked if I would help with the faith walk so I will be giving a 5 minute talk on the Liahona as a director in our lives. I don't think President Lythcoe realized how old I was because when I went into him for my temple recommend interview, we got talking about camp. I mentioned that I would be the oldest person there as I didn't think there would be too many 76 year old grandmas at camp. He seemed very surprised and said he would not have guessed that I was anywhere near 70. That made me happy, not to look as old as I really am. As a result of this calling, I've been cooking food and freezing it for the last two weeks. As of right now, I have spaghetti sauce, refried beans, barbecue beef, cinnamon rolls, and 40 frosted sugar cookies in my freezer. I'm trying to make meal preparation as easy as possible while we are there.
One of the wonderful things about this month is that we are back at church full time with no limit to the number of people in attendance. We have an hour sacrament meeting and then an hour relief society or Sunday school. It was so exciting to see most of our ward gathering, many without masks. Maybe this COVID thing is on the way out...at least in Utah and other Republican run states.
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| The best picture I could take from my seat without being too obvious. The cultural hall was filled to the very back as was the chapel. |
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| How COVID is affecting people is depending on the political party in charge. The CDC came out and said no masks were needed outside, especially if you have been vaccinated. Even with that, several states have not lifted the mask mandate nor opened up completely yet. So grateful to live in Utah |
Graduations started in May, also. Clark graduated from Skyridge high school. He's not been the biggest fan of school so we are very proud of him for making it through. The ceremony was held at the Rio Tinto stadium in Salt Lake City. It was also broadcasted on zoom. At the last minute and at Jon's suggestion, it was decided we would just stay home and watch the ceremony on our television instead of battling the crowds and parking. We probably got a better view of everything than Jon and Mindi did. I was all set to take a picture of Clark as he came out to receive his diploma but was not able to because he decided to to a little dance instead of holding still long enough for a picture. Luckily Jon and Mindi got a few pictures.
Aria also graduated this May. She graduated from preschool and is ready to start Kindergarten this Fall. We were unable to attend her end of year program and graduation because of COVID restrictions but Kailee sent us pictures and even a video of the program. Aria has matured a lot from last year when she just covered her face while her class was singing. This year, she sang and even did the hand movements. Growing up and becoming more confident, for sure.
The week before graduation, Jon and Mindi put on a big dinner party for Clark and his friends prior to their Senior Prom. We dropped by their home that day to drop off a Texas Sheet cake for the party. The next day, they invited us to come back to their home for leftovers from the dinner party. They had ordered smoked brisket and chicken from BamBam's and had lots left over. We drove down and were so glad we did because Jon's boys were there, too. We hadn't seen them for quite some time so it was good to hang out with them for a while. After dinner, we went downstairs and did a puzzle together. A fun Sunday evening....
Because we did not get to see Todd's family on that Sunday, we decided to get together at P.F. Chang's for dinner on the following Tuesday. We had a delightful dinner there and then went with them to the children's favorite park. It was in Orem and was an amazing place for the girls to play. We took lots of pictures, of course. We always love being with Todd and his family.
May always brings Memorial day and this means putting flowers on Paul's parents graves. We did this on the Friday aafternoon as we were already down on that side of the mountain running other errands. We bought flowers at Smith's in Pleasant Grove and then spent a few minutes, at the gravesite, placing the flowers and reminiscing about Harvey and Pauline. We miss them and are grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the promise of Eternal families.
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| We love how Heber honored those who fought and died for our country and our freedoms |
A few more thoughts on what this holiday should be all about....
Now for Aria and Avery.......We love when they come up for Sunday dinner. One Sunday, they brought up Aria's bike to show us that she could ride it without training wheels. Of course, Avery had to show us she could ride her scooter.
Each Sunday, just before the girl leave our home, they have to get a candy bag. Lately, we have been splitting the candy into two bags so they could each carry one in the car as they ride home. Todd sent this picture to show us that they play a trading game with the candy but some how Aria ends up with all the good candy, leaving Avery with a Payday and a Mike and Ike or two. Interesting.....
And then there's the ritual of saying good bye to us. It used to be that they rolled down the windows and yelled good bye all the way out of the driveway. Lately, though, they have opened up the roof top and the girls stand up through the skylight, yelling good bye and I love you. It's so sweet.
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| At first it was just Aria doing this but lately Avery has joined her |
Just some thoughts to end this months blog entry....
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| Our world could use a lot more of this |
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| As they try to divide us on race, we need to stand together |
Enough said!
