Millar Moments: AUGUST - MORE COVID, VACCINE PASSPORTS, OPEN SOUTHERN BORDER, INFLATION, AND THE FALL OF AFGHANISTAN CAUSED MUCH WORRY FOR OUR COUNTY AND OUR WORLD THIS MONTH

I just cannot begin this month's blog entry without mentioning the downward spiral our country is taking in just 7 months, under the Biden administration. Our Southern border is wide open. COVID variants are threatening lives. Vaccine passports and masks are being required in many places. Lockdowns are being proposed. Inflation is through the roof with gas prices leading the way at over $4 a gallon. We abandoned the country of Afghanistan by pulling out all our troops and the Taliban took over that country within hours of our withdrawal. This left thousands of American citizens stranded and many Afghans, who helped the U.S., fearing for their lives. We are now considered cowards around the world and President Biden has been described as a clown. We are in serious danger if we can no longer command respect around the world, to say nothing of the many terrorists coming into our country through the southern border. Things have gone so badly since Biden took office that it's almost as if it was all planned by those orchestrating him in order to bring down America. Our prayers to our Heavenly Father are continual as He is the only one who can help us save our country.

Speaking of COVID, our ward had several families infected this month with two sisters and one brother ending up in the hospital. They have all recovered, thank goodness, but, with the new variants that are out there, we are all a little on edge. At the first of the month, Paul got a bad cold. Fearing it might be COVID, he made an appointment for a COVID test. We drove to Walgreen's drive up window, showed the girl our proof of appointment and she prepared a test kit. When she gave it to Paul, she instructed him to remove the long cotton tipped swab, put it up his nostril as far as possible, and circle it around. He then returned the swap to the plastic container and gave it back. It was then sent out to be tested. Two days later, he got the report back - negative for COID, thank goodness. He struggled with a lot of congestion for a couple of weeks but at least it wasn't that dreaded COVID.

Jon and Mindi closed on their home at the first of the month and took a quick trip to San Antonio to check on a home on which they had put a tentative offer. Before they left, we were able to all get together with Jon's boys at Cafe Rio in Sandy so the boys could say good bye to their Dad and Mindi. All but Taylor were able to be there. It was a tender time for us to see Jon say goodbye to his boys. Jon and Mindi loved the house in San Antonio so they finalized the offer and returned to Utah to get Mindi's children and their trailer before heading back for good. They left Utah on Saturday, the 21st and traveled to San Antonio in 2 days. We were able to get them a Worldmark condo to stay in until they closed on their new home and could move in September 3. We will miss them but, hopefully, this will be a profitable move for them.

The listing for the home in San Antonio
they eventually bought.

So happy the boys came to say good bye to their Dad and Mindi

We decided to replace our area rug in our living room so we took a trip to Guy Blaine's new carpet display room to look for samples. We originally wanted to go wider then 12 feet but only found 2 carpets that would work. (They were only 13 feet wide.) Guy got back to us on the two carpets - one was discontinued because they couldn't get the yarn and the other one was $75 a square yard. The area rug would cost us $2000, a little more than we wanted to pay. (Note: the one that was discontinued would have been $100 a square yard!!!) We started the looking process over again and found a couple pieces we liked in a 12 foot wide carpet for $40 a square yard...more in our budget. It'll be great when it gets ordered, bound and installed. Our old 15 year old rug is looking pretty bad, especially since we took the Turkish woven rug downstairs in the family room. It looks really good down there but that prompted a need to change the decor in that room. I took out most of the Americana decorations and replaced them with brass and apples. We bought a large round clock for over the piano to complete the look. It's a good and long over due change.

Every two years, we have to reseal our deck to keep it waterproof. The man who does this, first power washes it, lets it dry, and then seals it. While he was power washing it, he noticed a soft spot which meant a major repair. We had gone through this 4 years ago so we knew it would be expensive, which it was. While grinding off the pebble rock, one rock hit our glass window and shattered it....another expense, so we thought. We checked with our home insurance and they said it would be covered after a $1000 deductible The total cost of replacement was $1700. When we got the final invoice from the deck man he discounted our cost by $1000 meaning he absorbed the remaining cost of the broken window. We were thrilled. The sad thing is that the next day it rained long and hard and we found the deck was not waterproof because of the amount of the water that had dripped down onto the patio below. We called our builder over to look at it, and he confirmed that our deck system was failing and would have to be replaced. We'll look into that next Spring.

We started harvesting our garden this month. We have had some incredible corn and lots of beans. Our beets never really did much so we were grateful when Deon called and said that Kim's new home had a garden bursting with beets. Kim didn't know what to do with them and said we could go harvest them. We were thrilled. We've enjoyed beets all month and still have some to cook up. We took a bag full to Kailee and have even cooked some for Gary. He loves to pickle them with vinegar and pepper. Last year our garden produced several lovely banana squash. We were so looking forward to lots of squash this year because our vines were full of little squashes at the first of the month. By the end of the month, we discovered that the deer had eaten every one of them including some of the vines. So much for ever growing squash again.

Look at all those beets. Yummy

The first pickings of corn and beans

Deon and I did a fun thing when we traveled to Salt Lake City for a luncheon with our cousins on the Richards side of the family. It was being held at our cousin Jill's home which had belonged to our Grandpa and Grandma Richards, Joel and Georgina. Jill had purchased the home soon after grandpa passed away with the idea it would be a starter home. Well, 40 plus years later, they are still there. They have remodeled much of it and added a large kitchen/family room. It was so fun to remember all the times we had spent in that home with grandpa and grandma. We had a great time talking with our cousins, too. It has been years since we've seen any of them so it was an afternoon of getting reacquainted and eating good food. We had arrived a little early to Jill's home so Deon and I took a side trip to see our Grandpa Elggren's old home on Yale Avenue. The only thing we could recognize is the front porch and granite pillars. The trees were so over grown that the house was almost totally hidden - except for the rainbow flag hanging off the porch. It was hard to even imagine the beautiful yard and gardens that we remember of Dad Elggren's home. A fun afternoon to reminiscence about our youth.

Dad Elggren's home of long ago

At the end of the month, Paul and I attended his 60th high school reunion. It's always great for Paul to reconnect with his old school mates. It was amazing how many times people referred to Paul as the star athlete of the school. His accomplishments in basketball and football are obviously how he is remembered. I'm amazed at how many of his classmates Paul could recognize without looking at their nametags. We are all getting old, but we don't realize it until we see people we graduated with looking so old. Paul's best friend, Keith Allred, passed away this year along with a few other of his classmates. It will be interesting to see how many are still here in 5 years when the next reunion is scheduled.

We met Todd's family for dinner one Monday late afternoon. We took our car in to have a part replaced so the Bluetooth would work when we used our phones while driving. It was supposed to be a pretty quick fix but we ended up spending 3 hours there and they still couldn't fix it. We'll have to bring it back another time when we can leave it there for longer. We wanted to drop some beans and beets off to Kailee, so we met them for an early dinner at Pizzeria Lemone in American Fork for dinner. We hadn't seen the girls on Sunday so it was fun to be with them. Of course, we had to treat them to ice cream after pizza.

When Todd and Kailee had to go to Idaho on Sunday the 22nd, we were able to attend the blessing of Deon's great grandson, Mason. It was held at her home and was a beautiful affair. Mason's dad gave an amazing blessing. Afterwards a late lunch was served - a potato/nacho bar. We were glad we could be apart of this special occasion and I didn't have to cook dinner that day.

Gary, Deon, Morgan, Cameron
and baby Mason

It's back to school time for Utah students as well as BYU students. Aria started Kindergarten this year and was real excited, especially when she did so well on her kindergarten screening tests.

Aubrey started at BYU this year so Katie brought her up to get her set up in her dorm. The next day, we met Ryan and the rest of the family in Provo for lunch at Olive Garden. Ryan had brought the family up so they could be a part of the BYU experience. Lunch was great and it was fun to feel Aubrey's excitement at finally being in college.

Aubrey's newly decorated dorm room

At Olive Garden

That same day, Andrea, Charlotte, and Maggie came into town so Charlotte could get moved into her apartment before starting at BYU. They brought Maggie because she will be coming to BYU in January and wanted to get familiar with the campus and Provo. They arrived on Wednesday, spent Thursday getting books and all the things needed to start a new school year, and moved Charlotte in on Friday. We met them for lunch after our temple shift and then Andrea and Maggie took off to make it back to Oregon by Saturday. A quick trip for sure.

In front of the Jeep Andrea rented in which
to return to Oregon. A bit of a rough ride. Not her
first choice but at least it was a car. Rental cars
are harder to come by these days.

And then there was Todd's birthday dinner on the last Sunday of the month. He requested his favorite pot roast dinner. Charlotte and Aubrey came up for dinner and to join in the celebration. We love having family so close that we get to see them often.