August Activities, Continued

We are grateful that Sam has returned to good health after having surgery last week to remove a large stone, even though he had his gallbladder removed more than a year and a half ago.  On Monday evening, August 7th, he was hurting and nauseated, but felt enough better the next day to serve his shift in the temple.  However, by Wednesday evening he was in such pain that he was ready to see a doctor, so about 11:30 that night we went to the emergency department in "Mountain View Hospital" in Payson.  After preliminary examinations, he was admitted in the hospital about 4:00 a.m.  The ultrasound revealed he had a stone, and it was blocking the passage for other "debris" behind it which caused infection to be backing up to the liver.  

Sam had surgery on Thursday afternoon about 5:00 p.m., a procedure where they went down through his throat, cutting a hole in the stomach to get to the stone.  His bilirubin count was high, so he remained hooked up intravenously to receive a high dosage of antibiotics until he was released Saturday morning on the 12th when he came home with a prescription to continue with pills for the infection.  He had an appointment yesterday (Friday), and the bilirubin count was down almost to normal.

As my family know, I always prefer someone else doing the driving; but I did get along okay driving back and forth to Payson to be with Sam in the hospital each day.  He received good care while in the hospital, but I am very happy to have him home and feeling well.  He will have to go back next month to have the stent removed by having the same type of surgery going down through the throat again, only they say it might be a same-day surgery.

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This evening, we joined Beth and Todd's children at the Monster Truck Show, which was part of the Utah Country Fair.  Hal and Christy Smith went with us.  The kids enjoyed it more than we did, but it was an experience we had never had before and glad we shared it with them.  In the arena they were selling earplugs for the noise, but we stuffed our ears with tissue.  Our clothes got covered with dust.   

Here are some photos I took:

Joshua, Ethan, Rebecca, Megan, Amanda, and Jared

 

Hal and Christy Smith and Sam

 

August Activities

We were pleased to go to Layton on August 5th to attend Isaac's baptism and the nice luncheon afterward his mom had prepared for family and guests.

Isaac's Baptism Day - August 5

Isaac with Grampa Sam and Gramma Narene

 

Pleased parents enjoying the special day.

(Doug and Shannon)

Ryan and Tani were among Isaac's aunts and uncles who came.

Lauri and Kevin Hyer have always been supportive 

of Doug and Shannon's family.

Isaac got to change out of his suit,

and Grampa got to remove his tie.

Maggie and Sarah are Isaac's first cousins,

and Sarah's Paul and Anna are first cousins once removed.

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MTC Open House

I enjoyed going with Beth's family to the open house

at the Missionary Training Center in Provo

to see the new addition.

(Megan, Amanda, Rebecca, Beth, Joshua, and Ethan)

One of the paintings in the MTC.

This was the scripture that

accompanied the painting shown above.

Each painting had an appropriate

scripture displayed beside it.

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 Utah County Fair - Spanish Fork

 I always enjoy seeing the beautiful quilts at the fair.

The quilt featuring a bull was impressive

because of the many tiny pieces of colored fabric

comprising the body of the animal.

After looking at the exhibits and booths at the fair,

we went to the rodeo with Hal and Christy.

The rodeo was free with most of the participants

coming from the area.

(Sam, Hal, and Christy) 

The bull riders were the last event,

but not one of them made it the required 8 seconds.

The bulls were good;

and the riders seemed to be cowboys more used to 

riding broncs or bareback, not bulls.

Todd and Beth's family were also at the rodeo

along with Todd's mother, Irene.

(Joshua, Ethan, Todd, Jared, Amanda, Megan, Rebecca, Beth, and Irene)

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The first half of August has been hot with almost no moisture.

They have been good days for sharing the pool with family and friends,

and the corn has been plentiful to share.

Sam enjoys driving around the neighborhood talking with people

and offering to give them corn.

He even has given corn to some of the workers who are

hired to work on the houses being built nearby.

The corn is very good and it is nice to be neighborly.

We have also been enjoying the delicious peaches

picked from our trees.

So far we have been keeping up with the peach harvest,

although some we have shared.

We were in the Provo Mall 

when we saw this huge Christmas tree.

They had posted a sign letting people know

the reason for Christmas decorations being put up

so early is because scenes for a movie are being shot in the mall.

Sam and I were in the mall looking at refrigerators at Sears,

which is closing its doors at the mall on September 9.

We want to replace the refrigerator in the garage, which quit working;

but we will wait and go back again to see if there will be further reductions.  

Had we bought a refrigerator today,

it would have been delivered from the warehouse

with a sale price but not a closeout price.

We are looking forward to our dear friends, Greg and Chris Shepard,

coming to stay with us and attend Education Week at BYU August 21-25.