Month: January 2007

Looks like we’ll all be heading home tomorrow for the funeral on Monday. It should be an interesting flight. Luckily the flight was about 40% cheaper today than it was when I checked it last night, so that will help. But it should still be interesting. Abigail was on a plane 2 or 3 times the first 2 or 3 months of her life, but she hasn’t since. None of the other girls have been on a plane, and not even Julie has flown since 9/11. It should be fun to watch us go through security. I also checked what seats we’ve been assigned on this completely booked flights, and we’ve all been assigned separate rows. I would imagine we’ll be making some other people mad when the airline lets us sit together. I look forward to all the comments, both repeatable and not so much. Of course US Airways seems to enjoy annoying me and other travelers, so who knows what will happen. Hopefully they will disappoint me this time and actually provide good service.

On another note, Julie has been playing around with our little camera and PhotoShop. She seems to be getting more interested in it all again. She took a bunch more pictures today and posted them to flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

She’s even putting her signature on them now. She’s very fancy.

The weather report for the last 3 days has said that it was going to be 30, but it’s never gotten above 18. Even now, it says that it’s 18 here, while saying that the high will be 31. I would imagine that it will be a bit warmer in AZ, although the forecast does look a bit cool the next few days (by Phoenix standards, that is).

Today started off innocently enough. Or maybe not so much. I was lying in bed at about 7:57 when Julie said “What time is your call this morning?” Of course my call was at 8, so that meant I needed to try and get the sleep out of my voice, try and clear a place, and get on an ever so interesting phone call about benefits websites for some school districts in Texas. And it was with some folks from Mercer — some whom I have always enjoyed, some I whom I didn’t know, and others whom I have never enjoyed. It was mesmerizing. Of course this also meant I was going to be late to work. Another day.

A few days ago, my Grandma Kay’s health started taking a turn for the worse. She’s an amazing lady. She’s fought through a lot of nonsense, most often with a smile on her face. Actually there was always a smile on her face in the end, even if there were some ornery looks in between. Apparently it became pretty clear pretty quickly that this was probably going to be it for her. I would guess that if you would have asked her, it may have been just what she wanted. Well, maybe not what she wanted, but I think she would have agreed that it was probably time. I got the word tonight that she passed around 6pm this evening. She’ll be missed.

Grandma was always so good to me and my family, and so incredibly generous. She always had that smile that I wrote about above, even when I knew she probably didn’t feel like it, especially with sometimes unruly great-grandchildren hanging on her. The girls really loved her and were always concerned about her. They knew that she loved them too.

I know that she’s in a better place now, and certainly more comfortable. She’s probably fishing with Grandpa, just like Susi suggested. He’s been gone almost 15 years. They’ve got a lot of catching up to do, no doubt. Love you, Grandma.

I know that I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but it’s really cold. This image was taken from Provo’s Daily Herald website at 10AM!

So, yeah, pretty cold. On top of that, I’m at work today and the thermometer on the clock behind me says 54 degrees. Apparently something froze somewhere or someone’s playing a cruel joke on us. I might be heading home soon.

We had a good weekend this past weekend. Sean, Jana, Eliza, and Anna came down from Perry (where they’ve been visiting Jana’s sister who just had twins) to see us. It was fun to have them here. We had some Thai food, which was completely gone in no time flat. I helped Sean set up his own blog: http://sean.photographykeepsakes.com. I’m sure there will be all sorts of exciting things posted there.

After they left, Julie decided that we *had* to go sledding. So we found all of the cold weather gear, including the newly-purchased bibs and boots, and bundled up to go. We only had one little saucer thing, so we had to take turns. Some friends had told us that there’s a golf course up in Cedar Hills that’s got some good places to sled, so we headed up there. There wasn’t much snow (enough to cover the ground, but not much more), but it was really fun. Abigail, Grace, Lucy, and Gwenyth all had turns going down the hill. Lucy and Gwen didn’t go by themselves, by the way. It was really fun. I was surprised at how fast you got going on that thing. But, again, it was really cold, so we didn’t last too long. Just long enough to have fun and get cold. I took a few pictures before we went out, but then I forgot the camera, so that’s all I have. Those will be up shortly.

Don’t worry, I’ll tire of this video thing eventually. It’s fun for now, though. Here are 3 more:

1. Lucy and the girls eating dinner.  She’s telling us that it’s “Yuck”:

[googlevideo]1696977050520736846[/googlevideo]

2. Lucy telling us about her dolls’ “slippers” and wondering where her “purse” is:

[googlevideo]6168206540173700475[/googlevideo]

3. Gwen and Lucy in the tub. Hopefully I’ve edited it enough:

[googlevideo]-5161460557119827828[/googlevideo]

Julie took some great pictures of the sunrise yesterday. You can see those at flickr. It’s been snowing pretty heavily for about 4 hours. We probably have about 2 inches out there in most places. Likely more in the coming days. It’s supposed to get pretty cold. I saw a forecast that said lo of 1/high of 18 on Saturday. Sean is coming up this weekend, so he should be plenty cold!