My Hearing Aid Journey and Dr. Peart

Last Monday, I had my last appointment to check how things were going with my hearing aids.  Now, I just need to have my hearing checked every 3 years (unless I feel there is a problem prior to that.) and probably have to replace the hearing aids at that point as well.  And I accidently wore them while I took a bath after working in the yard--not a problem until I decided to sink my head into the water.  Fortunately, I immediately felt the hearing aids and grabbed them off.  And they were fine! Dr. Peart, my audiologist, had said that everyone does that one time or another.  It is a sign that you have gotten used to wearing them. So, that is good, I guess.  But I don't want to have to replace these expensive aids because I forgot and got them too wet.  Hopefully a lesson learned!

I wanted to talk a bit about Dr. Peart.

Back in February, after going through my insurance's on-line hearing screening, I was given a list of places I could go who took my insurance.  I knew that I wanted an audiologist office and not just a hearing aid specialist.  I have a friend whose husband is an audiologist and she is a speech therapist and she had posted about hearing and what to expect and require if you are having problems with your hearing.  I was impressed by her information and was determined to follow her suggestions if the need ever arose.  They live in Montana so using her husband was out of the question.  But I looked for a place which would provide the services she had suggested.

I literally prayed as I reviewed my options as I wanted to go to the "right" person.  Interestingly, most of the doctors I have been dealing with lately have been assigned or chosen for me by my family practice doctor or the referral process and they have all been great.  However, since I was choosing, I wanted to pick the right one.  It was just a feeling I had--even though I didn't think my hearing was a very complicated situation--just the regular getting older thing.

I felt right about this practice which is in South Ogden, further than I wanted to go, but it felt good and all of the audiologists were women which I liked as well.  I was assigned to Dr. Stephanie Peart--and it turned out that she was the "right one"---again not because I had a complicated case, it is not.  However, we connected in fun ways for both of us and made the whole experience sweet.  It is a minor thing in the totality of our lives, but it was good and I felt that it was guided to happen.

Dr. Peart also lives in Syracuse in the Bluff Stake.  She is probably in her mid-forties.  She also serves as the Gospel Doctrine teacher in her ward on the same Sunday which I also usually teach Gospel Doctrine so we had fun conversations about that.

She is a temple worker at the Ogden Temple on Friday afternoons and will also serve in the Syracuse Temple starting in June.  She has been asked to be the Live Endowment coordinator for her shift just as Gary has been called to do that for his shift on Saturday.

The most fun connection is that her son, who took Chinese immersion in school from kindergarten on, is currently serving as a mission in the same Taiwan mission where my friends, Bruce and Michelle Cummings, are the mission leaders. I was able to reach out to Michelle about the connection and she sent a cute reply that I was able to share with Dr. Peart.  There is always something special about these connections and inter-connections.  She said when she spoke to her son later that he mentioned that both President and Sister Cummings had commented to him that their friend knew his mom.  Michelle said that he is an excellent missionary so that was fun to share as well.

In the grand scheme of things, it probably makes no difference to how the world turns or global warming, but for her and I, it was a sweet collection of connections and truly isn't that some of the richest blessings of this mortal life.

Status On Moving In!

 It is a big project and has to fit in between other parts of life, but we are making progress--slowly and somewhat steadily. 

The first great sign is that our flag is now flying daily!  Just in time for Memorial Day weekend.  The sight and the sound of the flag is just part of this house and part of what we want our grandkids to remember about our house.  Glad to have it back!

Still boxes and stuff in the dining room which acts as a holding area currently, but I thought I would try some curtains as well as the blind.  I have the fabric to make them longer which needs to happen, but I am still trying to decide if it adds what I want to this room.  I might have to wait until we get everything moved out and the new dining room chairs to decide.  What do you think?

Finally, the junks are back on our wall.  This was the first major purchase we made in Hong Kong--this piece of art from Stanley Market for Fathers Day 1987.  It has hung over our bed since then, even in Salt Lake (but not Arkansas, it didn't fit into the car well.) So glad to have it back.

Now I need to get some king size pillows for our bed to look "done."

My entry rug came this week.  As soon as I started looking at rugs, Facebook filled my feed with rug vendors--since that is what happens in our world today.  As soon as I saw this one, I knew that I wanted it somewhere.  It was similar to a smaller one that we had in Arkansas.  I left it for the new senior missionaries, but was hoping I could get another one from Wal-Mart here, but no luck so far.  I love this one as well.  Not what you expect when you walk into a house, but it is fun and quirky.  Gary doesn't like to walk across it barefooted, but I even love that part of it.

The colors are so bright and cheerful and because it includes every color in my house, it is a perfect way to enter....for me anyway.

And the library room--still not completely done, but one of my favorite rooms ever--thanks to Gary Kerr and to my Gary for their work on this bookcase.  The cushion for the bench is on its way and we will get some pictures hung this week as well.

The grandchildren corner.....

Our TV room is currently the DI pile and the extra boxes pile (not shown in this picture.) These Roman shades work great for what I wanted them to do---block out the light on the TV when closed.  The fabric is perfect---if you look at it close up.  It is made with a blend of blues, yellows, and greens, but unfortunately, as you can see in the photo, it looks more like a dull green from a distance.  Not quite the look I wanted, but it will be okay.  It doesn't have to be perfect and it was what I choose from the samples.

Our floor rug and our couch are scheduled to be delivered this week.  I am so excited.  Outside of the basement (which we will talk about in a minute), the TV room is the last big piece to put together.

Our pantry----I LOVE it!!! I want to put wallpaper on the few walls in there but that will be a later project maybe in the fall.

Now to the basement--we have lived down here since January completely.  So part of move-in was moving things UP from the basement---stairs, stairs and more stairs.  It was nice when that was mostly done.

About 2 weeks ago, we had some rain, and Gary came downstairs and discovered water draining through the window from a full window well.  One of the gutters above had gotten clogged by leaves and caused a waterfall into the window well.  Fortunately, we didn't have to live in the basement anymore, but it has been a project to dry out the carpet and get it ready for new pad and new baseboard (mostly it has been Gary's project).

I am glad that Gary thought to check on things to prevent even further damage.  Oh, the joys of owning your own home!

This also means that unpacking boxes downstairs have been delayed (which is fine because I haven't really had time to do that yet.)

Gary's take on the whole thing is that we are living upstairs fine without any of the things in these boxes so we should take them straight to the DI as is.  Silly boy!  This includes our toys which I have saved for the grandkids including our dress-ups, books, art work, and a box or two from Arkansas with some of our blog books which I got while we were there--and other "important
 stuff.  It has places to go and things to do...and some of it MIGHT end up at the DI, but not until I check each box first.

So much stuff.....but some of it will be so fun for the grandkids to play with AGAIN!

And in the middle of all of that, we also have started working on outside projects as well.  Gary gave me four purple polka dot petunias so I had to get them planted and once you start that type of project, it expands as we try to regain control over our wild yard and gardens.

And that is our update on the house remodel and getting close to the last time you have to see photos of inside our house.  There will be a few more though as some of the decorating things will be put into place over the next month or so.  For example, I finally ordered formal photos from our extended family photo shoot last November.  So excited to put them on the walls of our house!!!

Whew!!!

Kindergarten Graduation for Carter and Alex

Their school had a very simple plan for kindergarten "graduation"---when did that become a thing???  Meet at the park, play, have a picnic, and handout graduation certificates.  We couldn't stay for the whole thing, but we spent some time hanging out at the park before lunch. 

Carter

Alex

A beautiful day to be at the park. 

Ava should also be graduating from kindergarten but they aren't out of school until June 11....more pictures then.

The Add-On Project

Everyone talks about during a remodel that there is often the "add on" project that you decide to add in the middle of everything else going on.  Although we knew this could happen, we were hoping just to replace a few that had cracked around the edging of the tile pan under our washer and dryer.  However, when the tile guy came and looked at it, he said that they didn't make that type of tile any more--shaped and molded to edge a tile pan that high.  They don't build them the same way anymore. I had looked in the past for replacement tiles, so I wasn't surprised to learn that.  So we ended up ripping the whole thing out and this was our replacement.  I love penny tiles and found this one that is approved for floors.  We grouted it in greys to match the floor tiles (and to hide the dirt that will find its way in there over the year between spring cleanings.) I love how it turned out.

When the tile guy came, he realized that there wasn't quite enough to do the edging the way he wanted to do it and asked me if I could run to get some bigger white tile for the baseboard part. As I was getting ready to do that, I realized that the floor in our bathroom might work perfectly and we had extra pieces--7 to be exact and it took 6.  It looks perfect--like we designed it that way.

 And now the laundry room is dry and back to working--

Now we truly have some tiny things left and our remodeling project will be officially DONE!!  It hasn't been too bad, but it is great to live upstairs and open my windows and blinds each morning and close them at night like a "normal" person. So nice....

Dancing with Ezri

Ezri got to come and hang out at our house for a couple of hours while Elessia and Alex went to an appointment.  Gary had recently hooked up the TV in the upstairs TV room and while we don't have a couch yet (hopefully this Wednesday), it made for a great place to dance to Dino Stomp and other kids songs on Pandora.  I think this was the first time Ezri has been at our house with us alone and she seemed a bit quieter than her normal self at firs, but we read books, dance, and played Candyland.  She did great in following the rules.

Simple things that bring such pleasure to life.
 

Alex's Art Show

Jessica and Elessia got notified that one of Alex's piece of art from school had been nominated for the district art show and there would be an art display and experience at the Union Station on May 15th. They didn't know much about it other than Alex was not happy that the kids got to take all of their art home, but they wouldn't let her take her picture home.

It was a beautiful evening in Ogden and turned out to be a fun night of art (although how they judge the art work is something that we couldn't figure out.)  They had a art scavenger hunt where the kids had to find different things in the paintings--like patterns or the use of warm colors.  That was fun.  They also could make book marks, water color painting, and model something out of clay. Jena and the kids loved it for the most part.

Ezri loved this cowgirl so we got a picture there.

Working on foil art with water colors....

Zander with his choice of favorite picture (for the scavenger hunt).  He thought it was amazing that a 2nd grader could draw such a good fox.

And this is what happens when you take just one photo-
the dread eye blink!

Working on their book marks

Carter

Alex

Liam

Ezri was done with art so she hung out
with grandpa.

A cool door outside of Union Station
Zander is not happy because he lost his bookmark. Darn.

Ezri

And the star of the show was Alex's picture of a rainbow....She won first place in the kindergarten group and got a $30 cash prize for it.  And she could finally bring her picture home!

And because it was Jessica's birthday and the Art Show, we headed to Artic Circle for Ice Cream (ice cream- two days in a row for us).  Not quite the same as Farr's ice cream, but yummy just the same.

Happy Birthday, Jessica!

Backing tracking a day or two, I skipped Jessica's birthday and Alex's Art Show on May 15th.

It was fun to be in town and to be able to take her to lunch at IHOP for her birthday. Jessica "made" me a mom and she also supported my desire to have siblings for her.  For me, dealing with infertility was much harder after Jessica arrive (weird, I know).  Before that, being a parent was a theoretical experience--one I hoped to have, but really didn't know how it would be to raise a person. Having Jessica allowed me to understand that mothering was amazing (hard and difficult and demanding and all of the rest--but amazing beyond imagination.) And, as I frequently reminded Heavenly Father that I had prayed for at least 2 not only 1 child all of those years. Jessica was on board with that.  At 2 1/2, she asked why she was the only one of her friends with "her own room" (because they have siblings) and she actually offered to share with dad and let me have my own room. A few months later, she told me she wanted a brother to play with, "but not one of those little babies who can't play."

Now she is a mom with five little ones of her own. The circle of life is real.

Us trying to get the IHOP sign (fail) and Jessica's free birthday ice cream in our selfie....

We definitely need a stool for Jena to stand on when we do selfies.

NAMI WALK 2025 With USSC

What is USSC, you ask?  It is mostly these amazing women you see below.  It stands for Utah Shattering Silence Coalition.  It is a volunteer advocacy group designed to promote positive and meaningful change in our community for those with Severe Mental Illnesses and their families.  It is to look at the gaps and silos within our communities which prevent those who need help from getting it in a prompt, humane, and dignified way.

I met Debra (second from the left) on a Facebook group dedicated to people with psychoses.  She was wondering if there was anyone in the group from Utah.  I responded by private message and later that day, we talked on the phone.  This was when we were still in Arkansas on our mission.  We exchanged messages from time to time as I checked on how her son was doing.  She invited me to join by Zoom with some "like-minded" moms who were looking to see what they could do to improve things in our state.  We have been meeting weekly since January on Zoom and through the process have started this branch of the National Shattering Silence Coalition, developed our website, and created our logo and we have t-shirts. And we should have a Facebook group up and going now or within the week.  I haven't done much yet, but be a cheerleader and do little tasks here and there.

The back says:  Mental Illness is not a crime...a reflection
of the use of law enforcement and jails to house
the mentally ill because of the lack of understanding and
resources throughout the state.

We actually met in person for the first time on May 16th at the NAMI WALK Meet and Greet which was held the night before the walk.  Four of us attended and met other people also involved in mental health issues, mainly in Salt Lake County.  

I actually spend much of my time with our host and her mother who actually were from Hong Kong.  Her mother actually still lives there.  The host had immigrated to the US many years ago due to her employment. About 25 years ago, her father committed suicide.  Her mother in seeking support realized that there was really not much available in Hong Kong and so she started a support group which expanded to many support groups throughout Hong Kong and also got involved in other social policy issues related to mental illness.  As her daughter moved to Utah, she decided it was time for her to get involved in these issues which were so important to her mother and so she began to volunteer with NAMI and actually chaired the Walk this year.  It was her home where we met for the Meet and Greet. It was fun to talk about our shared experiences and love for Hong Kong. Ms. Pak told me next time I came to Hong Kong, she will show me places I have never seen before even when I lived there.  Not sure if I am planning to go back to Hong Kong again, but I would love to have a tour with Ms. Pak.

Back to USSC---so this week, we will be together for two events--one- a public gathering to express concerns about Medicaid cuts in our state and then on Friday, a meeting with some other professional people involved in the legal side of the mental health issues as we are planning a symposium in the fall.

Our website is:  www.utahshatteringsilencecoalition.org for more information.   

This is a developing, work in progress organization.  It will be good for us to use our collective experiences to bring relief to the many many people who suffer from these awful brain diseases.

"Moving Minds  Moving Mountains" our motto

My Theme Song--

It is a big job, but someone needs to do something--

We can't do it all, but we can do something

And somehow it will help us make sense of

the terrible journeys our loved ones deal with everyday.

For Ben!  

Ogden Temple YSA Ward VIsit

Jena's YSA Ward had a session scheduled in the Ogden Temple for the evening of May 14th so we decided to all go then.

View of the temple at night after
our Farr's Ice Cream cones

With the Syracuse Temple set to be dedicated in 2 weeks, not sure how many more visits we will make to this temple...and the YSA was heading to Farr's Ice Cream afterwards, which is a classic "date" night at the Ogden Temple back in the day when we didn't have kids waiting for us at home.

Now that we are "old" and retired, we typically attend the temple during the day when there are more openings.  However, on this Wednesday evening--I ran into THREE friends who I haven't seen since we got home from our missions and for a couple of them it has been even longer.  The first was Linda, who had served as Dr. Neville's nurse for 30 years, since before we moved back to Utah and started seeing him. She is a sweet and lovely lady and she was delighted to see us, too. (And everyone loves seeing Jena.) Then as I came around the corner in the dressing room, I saw an old friend from Family Services, Amber Falk.  She and I worked together as caseworkers in the Farmington and then the Layton office from 2004 to 2012 when I finished.  So great to see her.  And then, as we headed upstairs, we saw Sherilyn Parkinson, a fellow mom of a young adult with Down Syndrome.  She mentioned that she had been meaning to call me after we got settled back into life.  Not sure we are settled yet, but I look forward to connecting more with her as well.  The temple is a great place to smile and hug with old friends, but doesn't allow for lengthy conversations about anything.

I used to say that about the Dallas Temple--Each time I went there it seemed I saw someone I knew from my stake or from my services with LDS Family Services (what it was called back then.). Layton is sometimes like that as well and now Ogden.  I can't wait for the Syracuse Temple to be open.  It will be filled with my friends--serving there, working there, worshipping there.  It will be remarkable.  Thirty two people from our ward alone will be serving in the temple.

Our Syracuse Temple

I probably mentioned this before in the blog, but one day long ago when Gary and I lived in Sunset/Clearfield area, we were driving to Gary's parents house in Syracuse and I felt a strong feeling that because of the good people who settled this area and built the Church here that there would be a temple built in Syracuse. Now that might not seem so strange now, but that was in 1979 or 1980.  They had recently announced the Jordan River Temple which would be the 20th operating temple and the first time that there would be two temples in the SAME valley. Who would have thought that the growth of temple building would expand so much in our lifetime! It is one of the major examples of the hastening of God's work in the Latter-days....back to my story.

When the Layton Temple was announced, I was a bit disappointed.  It seemed so unlikely that we would get a temple when Layton was just 15 minutes away from us.  But in April 2020, it was announced--a temple in Syracuse, Utah and I wept (okay, I have cried when many temples have been announced--Lubbock, Tri-Cities, WA, Hong Kong, the list can and will go on. But this was a very personal response.) The impression I had felt so long ago was now going to be a reality.  And I am here to be a part of it.

Our public Open House started on May 10 and will go until May 31st.  We got to attend the Open House on Monday, May 12 and then we got to serve there with our stake on Friday, May 16th.  Gary served in the parking group and Jena and I did physical facilities.  In our case, we cleaned the bathrooms and greeted people. (Gary said that my talent of lack of being able to smell was put to good use in the bathrooms.) It was fun to see members from our stake serving together on Friday and again on Saturday. I also got to push a sister along with her twin sister also in a wheelchair through the Open House during my shift.  That was a sweet experience.  Their brother had worked on the cement work in the temple but passed away in January and didn't get to see it completely done.  It was their birthday and they came to see the temple and remember their brother (and I managed to not hit any walls in pushing the wheelchair.)

Photos from our Open House visit--

through the car window

A windy day in Syracuse

The cattail theme appears in different places in the temple due to the local fauna along the Great Salt Lake marshes.  I loved it on the front windows.

Our temple is the first completed with two baptistry which is such a tribute to the youth in our area and their good work in doing baptisms for the dead.  The Salt Lake Temple will also have two when it is rededicated after the work is all done.

Our temple will be dedicated on June 8th but still no announcement on who is doing it.  I can't believe it is almost a dedicated reality.

Gary has one last shift in Ogden on Saturday and then a two week break until he starts to serve in Syracuse.  He has been asked to be the live endowment coordinator under the shift coordinator.  It is a different position than they have in Ogden so they are all learning the different roles they will have in Syracuse.  Gary has already had one training and will have a second one in the temple before the temple is dedicated.  

What a pleasure it will be to go to the temple and see so many people we know serving there.  We have 32 ordinance workers from our ward alone. And then many more from our stake.  Our former stake president, President Brandt and his wife are serving as the counselor and assistant matron in the temple.  And Gary said that he grew up with the wife of the temple president, Luann Flint.  It is Syracuse and it will have its own special feeling because of those "good people" I felt those many years ago.

Moving Day! May 7th

Although there are a couple of minor details and one small project to do in the laundry room (replace the tile under the washer and dryer), we decided we could actually move stuff into our house.  We hired two men to come and load up our stuff at the storage unit and then unload it at the house.  They also helped us move some stuff up from downstairs like our piano and Jena's bed.  The movers did a great job and we were so grateful for them.

Loading the U-Haul from....

our storage unit  (didn't get a picture of the unit filled up)....

back and forth until it was now in the U-Haul.

and around the block to our house.

And now we have boxes and furniture and so much to do to put our house and our lives back in order again.

We have too much stuff....

but I don't think you can have too many books.  I was so excited to start loading up my new book case in our Library room.

It is now May 18th and we are mostly through the boxes upstairs, but now need to tackle the basement stuff.  

It was so wonderful to sleep in our OWN bed a couple of days after the move.  It has been 4 years since we have slept in it. We have a Sleep Number Bed and Gary was able to put it together using YouTube videos despite our older technology and it works! I was concerned that I had missed this bed so much that it would be disappointing to sleep in it again--maybe my memory was better than the actual reality.  Nope, it is heaven. Gary is a rock star in figuring things out and making it work.

Jena posted on our family thread that it was Christmas with so many gifts (boxes) to open. I know what she meant as it was so nice to see familiar things that mean things to me--even a simple book or a piece of pottery.  It all has meaning...well, most of it.  The kitchen stuff not so much. ;)
 

Let the nesting/settling in begin.