A muddle of a week

We had all of the normal things going on with theatre ushering, school and homework, housework, and to make it fun another stomach bug for me that lead into a migraine again and wiped out a couple of days for me.  Gratefully by the middle of the day on Saturday I was feeling much better which was a good thing because Jena had a busy day and night planned--

Jena's Saturday:  Ushered at the matinee at Centerpoint (black pants and white shirts), then home for homework (me) and Jena (cleaning her room) (casual and comfortable clothes), then to a wedding reception of one of Jena's friends (nice jeans and dress shirts--I love that when they say to wear jeans to a reception), then off to Syracuse Days for dinner at a food truck, then to a swimming party (swim suits and covers), and home for fireworks (wrapped in a towel and our swim suits) while we watched them from our porch. Changing clothes for all of that made enough laundry for a couple of batches it seemed.  It was fun time.

Ben also had a nice evening as he attended a party with some friends.  He has really been struggling still with the voices however and didn't sleep Friday night and then again on Saturday night.  This afternoon he asked to go to the CRU unit where he was admitted for day treatment.  Poor guy. Hopefully some of the medication they gave him will help him finally sleep.

Everyone else seems to be doing well.  Jessica is finally feeling better and enjoying the pregnancy now that she is at 16 weeks.  Jessica, Elessia, and Liam went to the Utah Arts Festival where they had a "petting zoo" of instruments.  Kids could touch and try out all sorts of instruments.  How fun is that! Liam tried the violin.

Scott and Chantel are busy with jobs and life.  (Jena and I stopped in and saw them on Wednesday night but no pictures.  If you like videos, you can see a cute one of Scarlett pretending to sleep on Chantel Berenyi Hall's Facebook page.)

Niki checking out tires of the car

Tosha had a respiratory infection for about a month.  When she finally went to the doctor, they told her it was an Okinawa bug and it is normal to hang on so long.  I remembered things like that in Hong Kong, too.  When you move to a new country you have to get immune to the local bugs and flora, I guess.

Happy Father's Day t-shirt...

True to form, Jessica found another clever t-shirt for Gary to celebrate Father's Day!  He laughed out loud when he read it.  Nice job.....

And he loved his other gifts as well.

Sis. TO comes for a visit.....

Actually it was Dick and  Robynn Thiot for our Plano Texas ward and our dear friends and they didn't actually come and visit us this trip but made a quick visit to....

Sis. Jena Hall at the Church History Museum on Tuesday.  They had made a quick stop in Salt Lake after visiting their new grandson in LA before making it back to Texas.

Jena was so excited to tell me about Sis. TO and her husband (sorry Dick!).  You love friends just a little bit more who love your children and Robynn has a special relationship with our three youngest children and even though they are adults they still all call her Sis. TO.  Tosha, who adores Robynn, said it just wouldn't be right to call her anything else.

I am sure I have shared this experience sometime before in talking about the Thiots, but just in case, I will repeat it here.  Ben and her youngest son, Skyler, were in the same kindergarten class (and were best buddies.)  One day when I was volunteering in the class, Sky called out to me, "Sis. Hall, can you help me please."  Catching his "mistake", he quickly said, "I mean, Mrs. Hall."  A little later the teacher came to me and asked why he called me Sis. Hall.  She also shared that she had noticed that Ben sometimes called Sky's mom Sis. Thiot. I explained that we attended the same "congregation" and we referred to each other as Brother and Sister to illustrate our relationship to each other.  The teacher commented, "I love it.  Tell the boys that they should call you Sis. anytime they want.  I knew it was significant because of the way they said it.".  I grew up in the Church and took that all for granted before that time---now it is a sweet thing to be called Sis. Hall.  Even five year old boys at school used that term in such a way that impressed their teacher.

How sweet our friendships are and how wonderful to understand that we are all brothers and sisters of the same Heavenly Parents.

Happy Father's Day Ditto!

I just reread my blog posts about Father's Day last year and really everything I said last year applies this year---

My dad was the perfect dad for me.....
Gary has been the best husband and parenting partner for me...
and Scott and Austen are darling dads for their cute children which we adore.

Happy Father's Day to you!

Love you all!

And probably due to our recent involvement in family history, I have been so grateful for all of the fathers throughout our lines of family.  In ways we don't understand, we are connected and touched by them as well.

I was recently involved in a conversation with friends about family reunions and our upcoming Hall Mini-Reunion (which is just for our immediate family minus Tosha and company this time).  They were commenting about reunions they have or didn't have depending on what side of the family it was.  I mentioned that the Owen Family was written up in a Family Journal Magazine (I am not sure which magazine) in an article about family reunions because they have been having a yearly reunion for over 125 years in Oregon.  My friends laughed and said that there must be a reunion gene in my family and that is what we have reunions.  My dad's birth family, the Morgans, also has a long running reunion.  Maybe it is genetic!!  But it made me think about Benjamin Franklin Owen who settled in Oregon, married and had 15 children (my grandfather was number 11th or 12th).  His wife passed away when my grandfather was only 6 years old.  It was his family who started the Owen Reunion which has continued these many years.  I am grateful to be from families who value connections over the generations.  I can't wait to meet them someday.

It is amazing to me

how quickly time is flying by--days and weeks come and go so fast.  I guess it is a product of being old (er).  I can still clearer remember sitting in my 6th grade class and watching the clock tick the finally few minutes of school.  Those minutes seemed to last an hour each.  Now it seems like it is so fast between Sunday to Sunday.

On Wednesday, Jena was part of a reader's theatre at Wonderwood.  They did "Wizard of Oz".  I was at a meeting with Ben so Gary took pictures for us.

All of the kids in the play with Vicki Elhen, one of the owners of Wonderwood

Jena was the tin man who was looking for a brain.  I had gotten Jena a black funnel to serve as her hat.  She commented that it should be grey but I couldn't find a grey one (at the Dollar Store).  After a couple of minutes she came in and asked me for some silver duct tape.  She used that and made her funnel silver.  We didn't realize that her mask had a tin hat attach to it, so she was double covered in her costume.

 Jena is the one that decided she needed a silver tie as well (since I hadn't found a grey vest which was her first choice).  These girl is passionate about her costumes.

Thursday night was our Pack Meeting "End of the School Year Carnival" with the value of obedience.

We played four different games which allowed the Bears and Webelos to pass off some of their requirements to teach games and fitness activities.

Marble Roll Race

Duck Race (with squirt guns pushing the ducks)

This would be a great relay for family reunions.
You have two teams which line up on opposite ends with a basket in the middle.
You run to the middle and take off one of your shoes and then run back.
Everyone does it until both of their shoes are in the basket.
Then you take turns running , finding your shoe, putting it on and racing back.
Everyone does that until they have both of their shoes on.
Might not be great on socks in grass, but the boys had fun.

The Bears did a couple of different games but the one I got a picture
of was passing a hula hoop around the circle without letting go of hands.
They timed it but I don't know which team got the fastest time.

We have stopped having refreshments at Pack Meeting except for special events--about 4 times a year.  I can't believe how nice it is to clean up when there has been no food served.  It makes planning less as well.  I have never had a boy complain about it to me either.  This time they did get a small treat from the duck races.

Saturday was my dad's birthday so Jena and I headed down to Salt Lake with a Marie Callender's cherry pie (got some ice cream), picked up Jessica and Liam at Michael's (Elessia had to work) and headed over to their house.  No pictures but we had a nice time and they got to know Liam a little better.

Then we headed back to Syracuse and Chantel and Scarlett joined us for the evening.  We stayed outside almost the whole time, playing in the sand, jumping on the trampoline, swimming in the little pool and having fun.

Playing with Aunt Jena

Liam was hoping to get a lick from the dogs
He did but I missed the picture.

Scarlett loves the sand box.  She looks a bit cold in this
picture but it was about 92 degrees.

The fun thing is that we are doing it again tonight for Father's Day.  Scott will miss out again as he will be at work, but the rest of us will be around.

The only down side yesterday was that I fell on the cement stairs going into the garage and twisted my ankle.  It was pretty painful by the end of the night but doing much better today.  I probably can't wear a shoe to Church but at least I can walk on it.  Ice is a good thing.

Grandkids' picture update....

I changed out some of the cute pictures on my refrigerator so here are the new ones---

Liam-- a couple of days prior to his first birthday  (June 1, 2016)

Niki--at the Sea Wall in Okinawa

@21 months (early June 2016)

Scarlett--this was taken in May by Chantel's brother, Austin.

@ 22 months old

They are so different and so fun.  We love them and are excited for number 4 who should be arriving in December.

Well, we had a plan

to go on vacation last Wednesday and be gone until tomorrow.  Today we were planning to attend Church in Hanksville, Utah and then head to the slot canyons in the middle of Utah called Goblin Valley.  We were going down 122 miles of an "All American Byway" through south east Utah.  Oh well, we are home and I am typing on the computer so our plan didn't go as plan.

There were some early warning signs that things might not work out.  Ben changed medications just over a week ago and that is always not a good time to head out of town but we tried to remain positive.  Then our normal dog sitter broke her foot and had surgery..  And then life was busy and we didn't start working on getting the RV ready as soon as we had planned, but last Monday we were still planning on leaving on Thursday and then the bug hit....

first Gary, a few hours later Jena and a few hours later I got it--a 48 hour stomach bug.  That cinched it.  We stay home....and I was asked to sub for Relief Society, we attended the High Priest Social we were going to miss and we had a Scout meeting and I got homework done,,,so it was good.

We will try that trip another time.

My carp windsocks flying in the breeze....which of course, reminds me of Japan

 and this cute picture of Niki at the sea wall....

 and another beautiful sunset in Okinawa.....

Weekend of reveals......

Not only did our bathroom get "revealed",  Jessica and Elessia had their own "reveal" on Facebook this weekend.....

That is right.  Jessica and Elessia are expecting another baby in early December and Liam will be a big brother.  I guess since she didn't have the first grandchild she decided to be the first of the 2nd wave of grandchildren.  Jessica has been quite sick especially in the evenings and nights but has started feeling better over the past few days.

Don't you love that face!! It was perfect.

Of course, Jessica and Elessia had announced to us earlier.  I have given all of my children strict orders that baby announcements, new jobs, or "we are moving" notices need to be delivered "in person" before Facebook.

They kept trying to make arrangements over the weekend to meet up before I left for Japan.  However I ended up running a fever that weekend so no luck.  Finally we met at a McDonald's near the theatre where Jena volunteers.  They said they had a package for me to take to Tosha.

And they did, but also these things for us---

These little flowers have the faces and birth dates of our three grandchildren and the ultrasound and due date of number 4.  We are happy to be adding another grandchild.  So far it has been great to be a grandparent. They are amazing!

This is our picture of Liam in his "Big Brother shirt".

They had wanted to give it to Gary and I together so they said I could tell Gary and Ben when I got home.  However, Jessica beat me to the punch by texting Gary first.  I walked in and said "Guess what I got for my Mother's Day present?"  And he guessed right!!! So disappointing when you think you have a surprise.

However I did get to deliver to Tosha and Austen a package with the same picture and a cute frame. Jessica had asked me to video them opening their package and I did get to see them guess and be surprised.  It was very fun to share with Jessica and Elessia by video.  Technology is fun!!!

Bathroom Reveal!!!!

You might remember that back in October I posted a picture like this---

when we started our demolition of our main upstairs bathroom.  Since October Jena has been using the powder bath for her bathroom except for baths and showers (which have been happening in our master bathroom).  We had someone lined up to help, but he couldn't start until sometime in late November which then went to December.  He did some of the work over Christmas break but then his work schedule changed and he wasn't available to do any more work.

So it has taken a while to find new people and to get our (meaning Gary's) part done.  It wasn't the highest on the to-do list.

However this week we are pleased to announce the (almost) completion of the bathroom.  We still need to do the baseboards and hang the mirror and towel racks but that is really all that is left. So Jena has moved into the bathroom and I am loving finally have a place for extra bathroom towels and stuff.

Under construction---

Moving In day!!!

I love our small farm sink.

Jena wanted blues and greens and shiny chrome fixtures.  Now she wants a silver mirror.  We are both happy how it turned out (but I am on the hunt for new bathroom rugs which match a bit better than her old ones.

It is great to be at this point. Some thing done. checked off!!!!!

Happy First Birthday, Liam!!!

We were lucky because Jessica and Elessia brought the party to us.....

Scarlett loved playing under the umbrella in the sand

Liam loved the pool and being with the other little kids who came to celebrate.

Aunt Jena and Uncle Ben joined Scarlett in the cover of the umbrella as it turned out to be a hot day to celebrate.

 Eating birthday pizza with Jessica....

 Scarlett loves watermelon.

 Here is the darling Monster Smash Cake.....

 Liam didn't smash his cake but enjoyed taking pieces of the frosting and eating them.

 He shared with Jessica, too.

 He is a very happy boy and seemed delighted to be a part of the action even if he didn't quite understand what the point of the whole occasion was.

Scarlett takes a trampoline walk with Uncle Ben.  Today was the first day that she actually jumped by herself, both feet off the trampoline, all by herself.  She was very proud of herself.

 Dallin Page, Liam's second cousin came with his family.  He was showing Liam how to use his new trucks.

Opening presents with Elessia............

Working that trampoline again.....

After other friends and family left, the playing kept on going with Liam and Scarlett.  They were laughing at Elessia through the glass.

Monster cookies.  It is a bit hard to see the eyeballs but the kids and adults liked them.  They were all different colors which made it fun.

Liam, we are so glad to have you in our family.  You are a happy boy and you love to read books, be outside, and to laugh.  Happy first birthday, sweet grandson!

Whirl-wind Wednesday and so forth

Jessica had some tests up at University Hospital so I met them there and got Liam to spend a couple hours at Liberty Park.  It was a beautiful day and we had a fun time being together....with three school bus loads of children, several pre-school and community groups of more kids and then the rest of the small family groups like us trying to enjoy the park on a June day.  It was actually crazy there and very loud.  But we found fun things to do anyway.

We even take a selfie to send to Jessica and Elessia

I then headed back to the hospital to drop him off and then headed down to the central part of Salt Lake to the Intermountain Medical Center.  There I met some of my class mates to attend a SART meeting for Salt Lake County (Sexual Assault Response Team) and then we did interviews afterwards for a class project we are doing.  It was so great to talk about people so passionate about reducing sexual violence in our communities and to providing appropriate support and control to victims.

I experienced a funny moment as I walked out with 3 of my class mates.  They are all young moms and in their late twenties or early thirties. We were talking about the passion of the people in the meeting to do good.  One of them commented, "Don't you wish that you didn't have to work and worry about money.  Then you could spend your time serving the community in any way you wanted."  We all nodded our heads and agreed--then I said, "Wait, that is what I did with my life so far."  How lucky I have been in my life to have the support (Gary), the freedom (Gary), and the financial stability (Gary) to be able to serve in some amazing ways over my life.  And I know that the next 20-30 years will also have some unique experiences.  Life is an adventure!

Rushed home so I could meet with my visiting teachers (I know--the first day of the month.  However we have a standard appointment for the first Wednesday and when she texted to ask me what I wanted to do, I realized that the rest of the Wednesdays were crazy so we did it anyway.)

Had hot dogs for dinner because that is what you do on a Whirl-wind Wednesday, then we headed down to Woods Cross to drop off Jena at Wonderworld and then Ben and I went to Kaysville for a meeting...

then home again home again jiggety-jig!

And Thursday was more of the same as I made two trips to Salt Lake--one for Jena's orthodontist appointment at Primary's and then took her home and then I left for a meeting in Salt Lake for the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation.

Friday, I was happy to stay home ALL day and work in the yard.