Happy Father's Day

We always enjoy sharing times with family, and Sam appreciated those who were able to come to celebrate Father's Day with us and those who called to express their love and messages. Three of our seven children were here with family to celebrate the special day:  Scott, Ryan, and Beth; and we know the other four would have been here had they lived closer.  All seven families went together in the giving of the gifts for their dad.

Sunday, June 21

   A gift all ages will enjoy, a large wooden stacking game.

This was one of the gifts from our 7 families

along with special insoles to help relieve pain caused by

Sam's current Plantar Fasciitis

and a Roku attachment for the TV 

so we could watch "The Chosen" on vidangel.com.

They ended up, however, connecting to vidangel.com with my iPhone 

and using the Roku downstairs in the family room

where it can be enjoyed by those watching on that TV.

Joshua carefully adding a block.

Jared watches as Alex decides his next move.

Beth shared with us the special "Olive Garden-style" soup she had made

along with two desserts from their family dinner.

Sam is displaying the four creatively painted ties

that came in the mail from Brittney and Matt's kids in Texas

to wish Grampa Sam "Happy Father's Day." 

Saturday, June 20th

Ethan and Johusa posing with their dog, Peggy,

whose curls are beginning to show again after the recent shave she had.

We were invited for hamburgers and the trimmings

on Saturday in the Graham's backyard. 

Rebecca showing her agility.

Some petunias displayed in the Graham's backyard.

Friday, June 19th

Friday afternoon we stopped by to wish Empty Nester friends

Paul and Ginnie Snyder a "Happy Anniversary."

Prior to several ward boundary changes, we had been in the same ward,

and Ginnie was a regular coming to our choir practices in our downstairs.

 This is a picture of Paul and Ginnie Snyder

that was taken on their recent mission in Florida.

Monday, June 22

Sarah and Derek's Family came swimming for FHE

Monday evening about 7:00 on June 22nd.

(Paul, Max, Sarah, and Anna;

Derek hadn't gotten in the pool yet.)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The storage room now holds the items we chose to keep

following the refinishing of the floors in the garage and storage room.

 I should qualify the statement indicating "we chose to keep,"

as Sam would gladly have gotten rid of most items

on the first three floor-to-ceiling storage shelves,

since they are the current home for the holiday decorations

(with the first two for Christmas decorations,

and the third one for the other holidays).

On the opposite side of this wall is the air hockey table,

and we also have a ping pong table currently folded up.

Continuing on down from the five floor-to-ceiling shelves 

are file cabinets, folding tables,

and a good drier if anyone would like to have it.

 

Sam's tool cabinet is on the opposite side,

with additional shelves for other storage items.

On the corner shelves at the end are

items currently being stored for three granddaughters.

This is our garage with its new floor finish.

We're liking how this all turned out.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

As we celebrated fathers this weekend, I posted the following picture on Facebook paying tribute to all fathers who have blessed my life.  Although the photo does not include my father or father-in-law, they were very much in my thoughts also.

This is the caption for my photo on Facebook:
Happy Father's Day to my husband Sam and to all the dads

who have blessed my life.

Today I am remembering with loving thoughts my father, my father-in-law,

my sons and sons-in-law, my brother and brothers-in-law,

my grandsons, my nephews,

and also my dear friends who are fathers and have a special place in my heart.

The photo was taken at a Nelson Reunion in 2002 at our farm in South Dakota.

I am grateful for all the happy memories

and times shared with the fathers in my life.

 

Some Home Renovations

Moving from South Dakota to Spanish Fork at the end of October 2012 had not been foreseen by us prior to our rather quick decision to relocate after seeing a walk-through via iPad by Beth following Kristine's letting us know about this home she saw on the Internet.

So on a Sunday we read Kristine's email message about this home that would work for our future family reunions, and on Monday we watched Beth's walk-through with her iPad.  Then, we drove to Utah on Friday when we ended up signing the papers and paying for the property with our check and becoming the owners of our present home.  

Although we continue to have fond feelings for the farm and our life there, we have enjoyed being here where we tend to see more of our family including visits from more of our grown grandchildren, and we have made new friends.  Being part of our ward has also been very nice, even though we have been in 5 wards and 3 stakes while living in this home due to the rapid growth in our neighborhood.

Why am I writing about this today?  Well, the last couple of days we have been in the process of downsizing some of our stuff that we either moved here or accumulated since. Having the floors in our garage and in our storage room redone with an epoxy finish necessitated our moving everything out of those rooms and provided the motivation to sort through things and decide which things we won't be moving back.

The sports court became the sorting area where

sections became designated for holiday decorations,

wrapping paper and bows, luggage, etc., with the center tables

receiving items no longer being kept.

 Plus we have these garbage bags full of discarded things ready
to be taken to the disposal site.

 Here is the floor looking from the open garage door

with the steps going into the house at the right.

The pattern is light with brown flecks.

The garage floor on the left half as seen from the open garage door
with the back door at the left. 

Looking into the garage from the doorway into the house.

Brian from MAXANDMAXCONCRETECOATINGS.COM

 The floor in the storage room had to have the finish removed
before the epoxy could be applied. 

The storage room with brownish flecks
is slightly darker than the epoxy finish in the garage.

All the shelves remained outside for 3 or 4 days
before returning things inside that we are keeping. 


* * * * * * * * * * * * *

We also had a new pool cover put on Monday morning
replacing the blue cover that had a couple of holes
and had also been a challenge to keep looking nice.

I had chosen the previous blue pool cover,
but Sam wanted to replace it with a tan one;
and I'm liking it, too. 

It was a treat to have Gordon  and Cherry Wilcox 
come for a visit on June 3rd.  
We had not been together for years,
although we have kept in touch.
We have many good memories from when they lived in Martin
and were part of our little branch.
After they moved, we have continued to keep in touch.
We visited them when they lived in Texas and also in Aberdeen,
and they came back to visit us at the farm one time.
Now they live in Kaysville, Utah.
Laura was with her parents; she now lives in Texas near Dallas.

One memory that came up while we were together was the roadshow entry 
our little Martin branch of two families plus one visitor friend performed 
in the Rapid City, SD stake competition - winning 2nd place. 
Our original "patriotic themed" (but humorous) script included our revised words 
sung to "America the Beautiful." 
A scene included the Saints stopping in Utah 
for the ailing Brigham Young who momentarily fainted before finishing, 
"This is the place . . . . " 
According to our script, Brigham had intended to finish his sentence before fainting 
with . . . "where we will rest before going on to California." 
This got a good laugh, especially from some of the young missionaries 
who were not from Utah.

Our Asiatic Lily is blooming.