I'm busy planning this trip across the country next month. Actually, David's planning the route out to New Hampshire, I planning my itnerary back. We are caravaning out with 4 vehicles- Jared and Heather have to take their own cars, then we are taking the truck with a big rental trailer full of their earthly goods, and my Mom wants to go, so she is driving her motorhome. David and Nic will drive straight back within a couple days, but Mom and I will stay a week in NH to help get them settled in, and of course we have to go to the Atlantic ocean while we're so close.
Then the real fun begins- I'm forcing my Mom to drive with me to Ohio and Iowa for genealogy research. I figure that it's for her family, so she has to help. We'll be doing exciting things like cemetery visits, taking pictures of gravestones and such. Then we will ramp up the fun factor by heading to the courthouses, and finding birth, death and probate research. Aren't you jealous? I know, some people would rather go to Vegas, or have dental work, but for me, this is a great adventure. 3 lines of Mom's family lived in Jackson Ohio area, and are buried in the same cemetery, so this should be really cool! Or cold, since last weekend Ohio had 1-2 feet of snow dumped on them. Hopefully the flooding will be over, or not quite started, by the time we get there, and I can only hope that there won't be any snowstorms while we're tramping around.
I'm planning to stop in Nauvoo, IL on the way to Iowa. Nauvoo is big on the LDS history tour, and it's right on our way. There is a new LDS temple there, modeled after the one that was burned by mobs in the 1840's. Now Nauvoo is a great tourist place, so I plan to take full advantage of the new friendly natives, and have the wagon-ride tour about town. They don't run Mormons out anymore, they are happy to have the tourist dollars, so it should be a very interesting visit. Next it will be on to Iowa, party central USA. Mom's grandparents lived in southeastern Iowa for a 100 years, and I want to find all the history I can on her families there. I know her grandpa Mathews was a coal miner, and I have a picture of him in a beautiful garden at his home, so maybe we can find more.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
buses and heart attacks
What a week of drama! Adele, David's sister, got stuck at our house for a couple days longer than she expected when her husband Rich was delayed in Las Vegas. No, he didn't lose the house, but his friend George was hit by a bus. Literally- he was working as a security guard at a huge building project when a bus spun out of control and hit a concrete barrier, which then hurled into George and fractured several bones. Rich, my brother-in-law, is such a hero. He went to hang out with a buddy, and ended up organizing care for him for the next few weeks. He stayed for 3 extra days, and contacted George's family and friends to set up people to take care of him when he was released from the hospital. He finally got here on Monday, and they drove home Tuesday.
In the mean time, David's friend and employee Jerry had a massive heart attack last Sunday, actually 2 heart attacks that morning. Luckily, he was already at the hospital because of the first attack and had the massive heart attack on the table. He flatlined, and was brought back by the staff. If he'd had the big one at home, I don't think he would have survived. He's home now, recuperating, thank goodness. We went to the hospital Sunday morning for a while, and left Adele home. Anyhow, it was a challenging week for all of us, just in very different ways.
In the mean time, David's friend and employee Jerry had a massive heart attack last Sunday, actually 2 heart attacks that morning. Luckily, he was already at the hospital because of the first attack and had the massive heart attack on the table. He flatlined, and was brought back by the staff. If he'd had the big one at home, I don't think he would have survived. He's home now, recuperating, thank goodness. We went to the hospital Sunday morning for a while, and left Adele home. Anyhow, it was a challenging week for all of us, just in very different ways.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Another great week! I can't help it, I love the weather in Arizona in February. It's why I was willing to leave our beautiful home in Colorado, to have 70 degree weather in February. I sat on the back porch yesterday and read a magazine, listened to the birds singing- they are starting the mating songs. My container water garden burbled gently in the background and the violas are blooming nicely. It should be spring, but it's midwinter in the rest of the country.
David's sister is visiting from Utah, she's wading through all the things accumulating on Mom Farr's kitchen table. Mom won't let anyone else sort and toss things, she waits until Adele comes into town, then reluctantly allows her to eliminate waste. Mom Farr brings napkins back from the dining room every day, and they build up into quite a messy stack after a few weeks. Then there are empty bottles that she wants to cut the tops off and use for storage. She feels impelled to read every section of the newspaper, but falls asleep too often to get through them all, so there are 4-5 plastic bag full of papers she expects to read, someday. Adele can actually dictate things to toss, and the place looks much neater when she's done. I can't talk much, I collect fabric and yarn like there might be a shortage someday...
David and I have cut back on the clutter in our lives quite a bit though. We still store kids old stuff, though, so there's more stuff in the shed than we'd like. With Heather and Jared moving out of state, I imagine there will be more stuff they can't take with them, but aren't ready to get rid of, so that will have to be stored too. Storing them gives me hope the kids may move back this way some day, so I will hang onto their baggage and my illusions as long as possible.
David's sister is visiting from Utah, she's wading through all the things accumulating on Mom Farr's kitchen table. Mom won't let anyone else sort and toss things, she waits until Adele comes into town, then reluctantly allows her to eliminate waste. Mom Farr brings napkins back from the dining room every day, and they build up into quite a messy stack after a few weeks. Then there are empty bottles that she wants to cut the tops off and use for storage. She feels impelled to read every section of the newspaper, but falls asleep too often to get through them all, so there are 4-5 plastic bag full of papers she expects to read, someday. Adele can actually dictate things to toss, and the place looks much neater when she's done. I can't talk much, I collect fabric and yarn like there might be a shortage someday...
David and I have cut back on the clutter in our lives quite a bit though. We still store kids old stuff, though, so there's more stuff in the shed than we'd like. With Heather and Jared moving out of state, I imagine there will be more stuff they can't take with them, but aren't ready to get rid of, so that will have to be stored too. Storing them gives me hope the kids may move back this way some day, so I will hang onto their baggage and my illusions as long as possible.
Friday, February 22, 2008
UFO's and kids visits
I just finished the book 'Mysterious Sedona', which talks about UFO and unusual occurrances in and around Sedona and the Verde Valley. Now, it's true that there are many unexplained things about this area, not the least of which are UFO sightings, but this wasn't the best book I've read on the subject. I am typically fascinated by things like UFO's and the vortexes, etc. Some of it is hooey, frankly, but there are enough sightings and such that can be corraborated by several people seeing the same things, unkown to each other. I remember a high school teacher in Prescott, AZ that lived near Granite mountain and insisted there were UFO sightings around it on a regular basis. A few of us went out at night to watch for the unusual, and I may have seen something that couldn't be explained away, but mostly it was other people that had the good stories. My brother-in-law brought this and another book- about the crystal skulls, so I think I'll read that one next. Not really Tolstoy, but reading is something I can do laying down, so that's the way it is.
We've been lucky to have each of the kids up here over the past few weeks, just not all at once. Nic was here for Dakota's birthday, Heather stays on Thursday nights so we can watch Lost. She doesn't have cable, so it's a good excuse to hang out here. David hates Lost, so he heads into his office while we dive into the alternate reality of a crazy TV show. Go figure! Jared came up today for a dentist appointment. Since it's raining and dreary out, it wasn't hard to talk him into staying the night and not driving back to Tempe tonight. He and David just went to Office Max to spend some money on computer stuff- male bonding! He brought his dog, Lucky, so there's no reason to head back to the traffic and hassles of the valley.
We've been lucky to have each of the kids up here over the past few weeks, just not all at once. Nic was here for Dakota's birthday, Heather stays on Thursday nights so we can watch Lost. She doesn't have cable, so it's a good excuse to hang out here. David hates Lost, so he heads into his office while we dive into the alternate reality of a crazy TV show. Go figure! Jared came up today for a dentist appointment. Since it's raining and dreary out, it wasn't hard to talk him into staying the night and not driving back to Tempe tonight. He and David just went to Office Max to spend some money on computer stuff- male bonding! He brought his dog, Lucky, so there's no reason to head back to the traffic and hassles of the valley.
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