Day family newsletter - December 2010

Dec. 31, 2010
NEWS FROM THE DAYS:
Sarah, Stephanie’s 4 year old, stayed overnight one night with her sister Taylor. Sarah read Grandma a book by holding up her hands like a book, and turning the pages as she told her own story. As she turned each page, she would make a “swish” sound so Grandma knew she was turning the page. Cute! She calls me Popee – don’t know exactly why, but Taylor calls be papa, Kaylee (Deb’s 5 year old) calls me Papa too. The other grandkids call me Grandpa. Linda has several different names for me, depending on what I’ve done.
Our cat, Pumpkin, is about 3 ½ months old, and is a vampire. I say this as he loves to bite me with his eye teeth and draw blood. I am a mass of scars on my hands and arms, but so far he has left my jugular alone. But his eyes! He definitely has vampire in him. We took him to the Vet for his first shots, and the Vet confirmed he is vampire/tabby mix. He suggested we keep him locked in the basement during his waking hours when the sun goes down. That’s helped, but it scares us when we discover werewolf tracts in the snow out back by the basement windows.
Brian David Mitchell, the man who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart, was found guilty and will go to jail finally, eight years after the crime. He’s been a mental hospital all this time. I’m disappointed, as he was going to battle the anti-Christ and save mankind, but with him being in 24 hour lockdown, it could hamper the possibility of that battle. Perhaps they could do it right in his cell and put in on cage fighting on PPV?
We all spent an evening at Debbie’s in Herriman celebrating her birthday. Another night we met at Gateway to have a birthday dinner for Taylor’s 3rd. One Saturday, we attended Jessica’s baptism and confirmation. The couple who had been teaching Jessica in her home knew Derek Farnes when he walked in – they had been in New Mexico 6 years ago on a mission when Derek was there on his mission. Linda and I enjoyed White Christmas, the play, at the U of U one night. We went to a nice Christmas dinner one night with people at Linda’s work. We dined at Ruth Chris Steak House – what a nice Christmas present!!! And we enjoyed watching the football bowl games, even though the outcome wasn’t the most desirable for the Utes.
At Halloween time, Linda had bought a plastic pumpkin about the size of a basketball. I decided it would look good in our backyard sitting on the bird feeder. An unexpected bonus – when it rained or snowed, the pumpkin floated and turned around when the wind blew. I got our grandkids almost convinced the pumpkin was alive when they saw it turning. Now I’ve replaced it with a Santa Claus, mostly cotton, about the size of a soccer ball. I’ve been in a battle with a squirrel that comes around and knocks it off the bird feeder and steals cotton from it. I found a counter attack – we had a spool of very fine wire, and I’ve wired it all together thru the body, head and hat, and it is secured by its hat to the trellis above the bird feeder. I think I’ve won this battle. My defense is better that the Utes.
Finished a very hard read for me – the Idiot. I’ve enjoyed another book Debbie gave me called the 7 miracles that saved America. Mostly history -the little turning points that decided which way major events turned out. A very good read. I expect the authors will have to come out with a reprint in two years entitled “The 8 miracles that saved America”, Obama being the 8th miracle. I guess because I was precinct chair for our local democratic district last year, I’m on the mailing list now for Obama’s Christmas card. It was a nice surprise to get a card from the White House and signed by the Obama’s, their two children and the dog. Linda finished her True Blood book series – eight of them in all.
It was nice to have Danny up for Christmas this year. Santa broke down and bought him a new HD flat screen TV (26”) that fits in his entertainment center. I got in all installed in his apartment and Danny is going to use his old TV in his exercise room to watch while on the treadmill. Linda got a present that absolutely delighted her – we had the diamonds from her old wedding ring, her mom’s dinner ring and an old anniversary ring I had given her combined into a new setting. WOW, how it sparkles. We took Danny with us to the Zito’s annual X-Mas Eve gathering and buffet, to Bruce Baird’s house for drinks after, and then home to get in our Pj’s and open one gift. The kids all came over Christmas afternoon for a ham/turkey sandwich buffet and gift exchange. Debbie downloaded Skype’s on Linda’s lap top and Christopher (currently stationed in North Carolina) was with us as we played a sort of charades game. Debbie would type in the word for Christopher when it was his turn, and he took turns along with everyone else playing the game. Debbie just held him on her lap at the end of the circle (well, him “in” the laptop). Amazing technology – the first time we’ve actually used it. Danny helped me cook quiche Christmas morning, and I took him home Sunday. He got more than one large stuffed dogs for his apartment. This in addition to the large stuffed dog he’d bought just the day before I picked him up for the Christmas trip to our home.
I wrote an op-ed article and submitted it to the Tribune, and they decided to publish it. You can view it at sltrib.com on Dec. 26th, 2010. It’s entitled “U.S. needs immigration workers”. The next day, I mentioned it to Debbie, and she informed me that people make comments on-line on these op-ed pieces. After logging onto my article one day after it appeared, there were 44 hate comments blaming me for everything from the bad economy, to traitor, commie pinko, low life and much more. Overall, I was blamed for more ills than Obama. Perhaps I’ll think twice before I make my views known in a public forum. Believe it or not, I got, and have started to read, George W. Bush’s book, Decision Points.
We’ve had a LOT of snow this month – over 100” for snowpack at the ski resorts – and I’ve snow blowed the walks more than the last two years combined. We’re going out for a nice New Years Eve dinner with friends, and are looking forward to a great 2011. Love,

Tom & Linda

Day family newsletter - November 2010

December 1, 2010

NEWS FROM THE DAYS:

Jessica turned 8 years old this past month, and agreed to let me celebrate my birthday with her. We went to Fat Cats where you bowl and eat pizza – a lot of fun. Earlier that day, Linda and I accompanied Stephanie in hosting Jessica’s friends at a birthday party at the local recreation center. Wall climbing was the activity, and after watching Jessica go to the top of a 40’ wall with ease, I strapped on the gear and tried it. After getting up about a third of the way, grandpa decided that was enough and repelled down. Still fun. Linda got me a new computer with a gazillion megabits for my birthday and it sure is nice.
We got to have little Jack (Katie and Bill’s) over for two nights this month while mom and dad went to a cabin with friends to celebrate Bill’s birthday. This was Jack’s first overnight trip to our house, and we thoroughly enjoyed having him over. He’s a riot! And smart! And cute! He loved the cars grandma got him, enjoyed watching the birds eat peanuts off our windowsill out back, liked running and jumping in the leaves in the backyard that grandpa raked up, and enjoyed playing with our new baby kitten.

Yes, we got a cat – originally an overnight stay when Stephanie asked us to help out with a stray found at their condos. But we fell in love with this (about 8 wk old) tabby, named him Pumpkin, and even paid the owner a small fee when he replied to Stephanie’s lost kitten notice posted at her condos.

I spend two Fridays with Danny trying to find additional employment or volunteer opportunities. He’s applied at 4 or 5 grocery stores, the DI, and at the Lindon Bishop’s Storehouse. The Storehouse Mgr. agreed to have Danny come down as many mornings as he likes from 8 AM to 10 AM to help sort and portion bags of various produce for their customers. Danny started going to the Bishop’s Storehouse on Nov. 30th, and will volunteer twice per week (Mon. and Wed.). Shelley took time off work to accompany Danny the first day to make sure he got all his paperwork done correctly. And para-transit agreed to get him there and back. I also got Danny signed up at the Orem Senior Center and he’s been over once for lunch (just a $2 donation) and is going on a ½ day trip on a bus to the Festival of Trees on Dec. 1st with them.

I thought nothing could top the spanking the democrats took in the elections until Utah played TCU and got spanked even worse. Then losing to Notre Dame! But truth prevailed when they came back and beat both San Diego and that school south of the border (Utah County border, that is).

The morning after Jack and I played in and raked up the leaves in the back yard, we awoke to the first major snow of the year – one foot deep on our back yard patio table. Winter has arrived. And it’s basically never stopped snowing ever since.

It’s been interesting listening to the daily news accounts in the trial of the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case. Mighty weird goings on there, but hey, this is Utah after all…. I got another letter to the editor published – another ranting about balance of politics here in Utah. Linda, Stephanie and Katie went out at 5 AM on Black Friday for their annual shopping spree. Stephanie sold her car and got a van with three rows of seats. She finally has the room she needs for the 3 kids. Katie and bill traded in their Audi for a Subaru SUV that likewise has more room with their Sophie just 3 months from being born. Debbie reports that the big fire in Herriman didn’t get near her home, but there was tons of smoke in their neighborhood. And she enjoyed having Christopher home for Thanksgiving week. He’s stationed at Ft. Bragg in No. Carolina and recently was assigned funeral duty where he goes to funerals certain months of the year and plays the bugle (although there is a recording in the bugle that actually plays – he just has to pretend to play it). This is just a part time assignment in addition to his normal duties.

We had a great Thanksgiving, hosting all the kids/grandkids for a total this year of 19! Linda cooked her normal great Thanksgiving dinner, the kids all pitched in and brought something to help out, and little Jessica said the prayer for us. She’s getting baptized on Dec. 4th, and was glad to say the blessing. We also celebrated little Taylor’s 3rd birthday party at Thanksgiving as well as Bill’s 40th while we were all together. Christopher had flown in from his army station at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina for the week, and it was special to have him here. Two of Wiggin’s children, Blair and Page also joined us. And our little great grand daughter, Emry was here with Cole and Jessica as well.

And that’s the news from the Days. Tom & Linda

Day family newsletter - October 2010

November 2, 2010

DAY FAMILY NEWSLETTER FOR October 2010

We're celebrating my birthday this coming Saturday and sharing the celebration with Jessica who is turning eight. Stephanie is having a kid's birthday party for her earlier in the afternoon at their local community rec. center, and that night we're going to dinner. Jackie, Katie/Bill/Jack joined Linda and I for a nice dinner last night as they couldn't make the dinner on Saturday. I received my Medicare card in the mail last month, and I'm officially on government health insurance along with all you older ones. Linda paid for my wedding ring to be resized so it wouldn’t keep slipping off. Because I started exercising one year ago and watching my diet, I have lost 26 lbs. My original goal was 30, so I’m close, and will continue with the program. I may even go for 35 lbs.

Jackie and Wiggins hosted a Halloween party this past weekend. They had their place decorated to the hilt and we had fun taking the kids trick or treating around their neighborhood. Other activities surrounding Halloween included going to see Dracula at the U of U Pioneer Theatre. Katie and one of her friends joined Linda and I to see this play. And the week prior to that, Jessica accompanied Linda and I to see Thriller, a dance program put on by a local dance company. We saw it last year, and it was soooo good, we returned this year. Jessica loved the dancing, as that is her forte.

Linda got me a new computer for my birthday - WOW! No more waiting around. The guy tried speeding up my old computer, but he said it was so old (256 K) that there wasn't much that could be done. And a new monitor and printer/fax/copier/scanner!!! When I learn how to work all this new stuff, I'll be up to date.

I saw an obituary in the paper for Edith Mathiesen (they lived right behind us on Hollywood Ave.). I attended the viewing and saw my old friend, Steve Mathiesen. I don't know if you remember him, but his dad, Axel had a basketball court put in their back yard (half court), and that's where we played basketball for years, right across the alley from our backyard. After seeing another childhood friend, Tom Smith at his Dad's funeral, we decided to all get together for some golf. In the old days, the 1960's, Mathiesen, who was one or two years older and could drive, would drive us up to Bonneville golf course where we lall earned to play golf. And we used to play over-the-line at the church baseball field down in the gulley a lot, as well as just hang out, play pool, go on camping trips, and all the normal guy stuff. And I was really shocked to see an obituary for an old friend, Wayne Leighman, in the paper last week. Linda and I picked up Bruce Baird and we all attended his wake. Wayne was in the original Cabin Classic golf group where we all get together for an annual golf outing with the guys. He was married to Jackie's Baird's close friend, Carolyn Davis who attended nursing school at Holy Cross with Jackie. In fact, before anyone got married, I dated Carolyn a few times.

Linda has really gotten into reading the series of books that are used for the HBO True Blood series. She's already on the 7th book of 8. We watched the first two seasons on CD and got hooked. And Linda recently got some new reading glasses, as this is about the only vision problem she has encountered after her cataract surgeries.

We voted this year by mail, and have signed up to do so every year in the future. It is really nice avoiding the lines and parking when you go down in person to vote. Today is the election, and I'm sure there is joyous celebration in several of your homes with the republican wave this year. But it will be a good reminder of the failures of the past that got us into the mess we're in. And things will swing back again, and all will be good.

Major car repair was needed on my little truck, and I almost went out and bought a new car. But then I decided 4 months of the new car payment would pay for the truck repairs…..I’m still driving the truck ):

Shelley joined me this week to attend Danny’s SIS meeting where the State of Utah DSPD rates him on his various life abilities. This is done every 3 years and is used to base the amount of funding they give Tri-Connections/TURN for Danny. It was an interesting meeting and came out OK. Danny recently had his hours at Fresh Market cut to 4 hrs per week (one day), so Shelley and I went over and met Danny’s boss, Rick, and discussed the situation. Bottom line, their business is down (they took over the Albertsons in Utah), the bagger budget has been cut, and Fresh Market just closed the location on Parkway in Orem/Provo, and two baggers were transferred to Danny’s store. Rick, the Front End Manager, was told to utilize the most productive baggers to still get the job done. Because Danny is the least productive bagger, his days were cut from two to one. They had already been cut a few months ago from 3 days to 2 days. Two other baggers were laid off. So I’m going to start a search in the next months on Fridays when I’m available for possible new employment for Danny…..or even volunteer work, such as the Bishops Storehouse (or warehouse). Derek, could you check into this for me? (Deon, if you would forward this to him – thanks). In fact, if any of you nephews/nieces in the Orem/Provo area could check possibilities for Danny, I would appreciate it. Danny seems to want to make a change, not necessarily from a baggers job, but from the location he is at. He let me and Shelley know he does not want to go bowling with RAH, as the noise level and crowds there are too much for him. I’m also going to contact RAH about other activities he might enroll in. They all cost.

And that's the news from the Days. Tom & Linda

November 2, 2010

Day family newsletter - Sept. 2010

October 2, 2010

NEWS FROM THE DAYS:

Linda and I decided to celebrate our 43rd anniversary in Las Vegas this year and had a wonderful 4 day/3 night trip. We stayed at Treasure Island, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing sights, swimming, relaxing and catching two shows. First we saw The Price is Right – a recreation of the TV show – lots of fun. Then we were accosted by a couple of marketing people for Wyndham Hotels selling time shares at their resorts world wide. We finally decided to suffer thru 3 hours of pressure selling in exchange for tickets to see Cher at Caesars Palace (tickets valued at $150 each). We didn’t buy any time shares, but sure did enjoy seeing Cher! We also stopped by a hotel across the street and saw our niece Jamie on Linda’s side of the family who works at the Toby Keith Bar & Grill. Took a nice gondola ride at the Venetian too.

Jury duty called me for the first time in my life. I arrived bright and early looking forward to the experience, but all three trials scheduled settled right before going to court that morning. The judge thanked us all for our time and excused us.

Linda and I both experienced some car problems, but now everything is fixed and running OK again. We attended Kaylee’s (Debbie’s daughter) 5th birthday at a place called Bounce Up. All the kids had fun playing on blow up slides and play things for an hour before we sat down and had pizza, cake and ice cream. Fun! We met for dinner at a neat place we had never been to before – Bayous – with some friends. We also went to dinner one evening with Linda’s brother Steve and his girlfriend – a good time. And Stephanie had a very nice birthday celebration at a local restaurant she likes. We enjoyed helping her celebrate! And Wiggins had a nice birthday celebration that we missed because we were in Las Vegas at the time.

Linda and I took almost a week to stay in our condo in St. George. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing a couple of plays – Greater Tuna (in Cedar City) – and Crazy for You (Tuachan in St. George). Playing some golf, swimming, a quick trip to Mesquitte, Nevada for dinner, bingo and some gambling rounded out our stay. Linda is in the middle of reading the True Blood books, and finished the 3rd of 8 books while there. I finished reading Religions of the World, and started The Idiot. I also enjoyed reading everyone’s bio from the Jannson reunion that Shelley sent. Thanks. Stephanie was able to use our tickets to Pioneer Theatre with a friend while we were in St. George.

We finished up the month spending two nights at Wendover, Nevada relaxing, swimming and, well, donating a little to the cause. But we did listen to most of the Saturday afternoon session of LDS conference on the way home. It seemed to tie in perfectly to some of the talks about the struggle between good and evil……

Speaking of evil, it was interesting – at least to me – that Sean Hannity’s radio talk show left KSL Oct. 1st. It seems Hannity’s often-divisive tone was contradictory to KSL’s new mission statement which emphasizes “integrity and civility”.

Katie is feeling fine and looking forward to the birth of Sophie (not sure of the spelling yet). Debbie’s city of Herriman was subjected to a wildfire started by the National Guard doing some training on the other side of the mountain. Three homes burned and hundreds were evacuated for several days. Debbie’s home was about 6 blocks away and safe, but they got lots of smoke.

And that’s the news from the Days. Tom & Linda

August 2010 News from the Days

September 6, 2010

NEWS FROM THE DAYS:

Our whole family spent 3 days at Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. We have gone there almost every year over our married life, and it was fun to spend time swimming, visiting, celebrating Cole’s birthday one night, golfing, and just relaxing. Jackie/Wiggins and their kids along with Cole/Jessica and Emry stayed later Sunday and went tubing down the river. The kids always love the trains that come thru town about every half hour and blast their whistle. Sarah in particular (Steph’s 4 yr. old) is a Thomas train fan.

We came back from Lava to find that our manual turn on sprinklers wouldn’t turn off all the way, and so we had an automatic sprinkler system with a timer installed. Kind of like getting a self propelled lawnmower…a little bit of heaven.

Linda’s sister Jaelyn had a daughter, Tori, get married and we enjoyed going to the wedding/reception and seeing everyone. We also got to see Jamie, another niece who we hadn’t seen since she was about 10 yrs old. She is Clint’s daughter (Clint is Linda’s little brother), and came up to see family for a week. She lives in Las Vegas.

I attended the funeral of Bob Smith who lived just down the alley on Hollywood Avenue. I used to pal around with Tom Smith growing up. We had attended the funeral of Tom’s little brother a few months ago. It was good to see the family and I visited briefly with Janie Perkins, one the speakers (Bob was her uncle). The Perkins lived on Redondo. Our bird, Charlie, died this past month. He was one of two we got right after Linda’s mom passed away 6 years ago. The other bird, Dixie, died about one year ago.

Linda and I saw Garrison Kiehler in concert at Red Butte Gardens. Other than the rain and cold that particular night, it was GREAT!!!!! He is tall, and dressed in a white suit, he came out into the audience and wandered all thru the crowd seated on the grass while telling stories and singing. Annette originally turned me on to Garrison, and I have enjoyed his weekly program (Prairie Home Companion) on PBS radio for years and years. He also writes a syndicated column that is published nationwide every Sunday. His tales of Lake Woebegone are classic, where all the men are good looking, the women strong, and the children are all above average. He’s a modern day Arthur Godfrey, but loves music and sings too. His humor is dry, down home, and he’s a classic.

Remember when Linda, Danny and I left D.C. last year and the airline messed up our flight home? We got some credits from Delta as a result, and they expired at the end of this month. So Linda and I decided to use them to fly to Vegas for our anniversary on Sept. 2nd to celebrate our 43rd year of marriage. We just got back and thoroughly enjoyed the 3 night weekend. We stayed at Treasure Island, and saw a performance of Linda’s favorite TV show, The Price is Right at Bally’s, stopped and saw Jamie (our niece who came up for the wedding three weeks ago). She works at Harrah’s in one of their restaurants. We made the mistake of agreeing to go see a timeshare presentation which wasted one morning, but it gave us free tickets worth $300 to go see Cher at Caesars Palace the next night. And believe me, it was worth it. She puts on a great show!!! We took the gondola ride at the Venetian one afternoon, and enjoyed swimming (even though the entire pool was filled with young people drinking and dancing to the loudest music possible played by a poolside DJ).

Christopher flew into town for a quick weekend after arriving back to the States from Bahrain (where he was stationed in the army the past year). We got together as a family and had a nice lunch with him. He is now stationed back in North Carolina.

I finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird and another book Linda gave me for our anniversary, Driven (an autobiography of Larry H. Miller – who passed away this past year). He owned the Jazz, about 40 automobile dealerships, and a host of other businesses that his wife and sons now manage.

Danny is going to spend Christmas with us this year, as we finally have a year where Christmas falls on the weekend, and Linda and I both have jobs where we have weekends off, something new in our family. I told Danny to arrange Thanksgiving with one of you if possible. Danny has finally been put on a medication to help him with his heartburn, and the stress test he took was borderline, so we’ve decided to have him see a cardiologist as a precaution. His work schedule has been reduced to two days per week, primarily because the new company that bought out Albertsons (Fresh Market) isn’t doing the level of business that Albertsons was. But with Danny’s age (he’ll turn 67 in December), this is probably a good alternative to Danny not working at all.

Linda’s knee is really bothering her, and I’ve been trying to get her to see a different orthopedic doctor to get some help. I got my Medicare card in the mail and am eligible starting next month (yee gads). I’m going to continue working until we are both on Medicare. It’s too bad a healthcare bill didn’t pass years ago so I couldn’t be denied coverage or charged such an outrageous monthly fee ($1300 per month) that it was unaffordable.

We’ve enjoyed some fruits of our labor from the garden – corn, squash, tomatoes, sugar pea pods, green peppers, radishes & cucumbers. Where did the summer go? It can’t be September. In fact, where did our life go? We can’t be in our sixties, can we??? When Linda and I got married, we drove to Vegas for our honeymoon on State highways – no freeways. We entered Vegas on Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard, where it was so bright with casino lights (The Golden Nugget) that it was as light as day. And we stayed for 4 days and 3 nights at the Sahara (Linda says it was the Stardust) for $89, and that included a dinner show to see Nancy Wilson, and another show without dinner. We drove down in our 1959 VW (without air conditioning), and on the way home, the car broke down and we pushed the car 200 miles across the desert in 110 degree heat (OK, I made that part up).

And that’s the news from the Days.
Love, Tom & Linda

DAY FAMILY NEWSLETTER - JULY 2010

DAY FAMILY NEWSLETTER – JULY 2010

Stephanie had to have her gall bladder out and moved in with us for a week to recover. She also brought their cat, and it was nice to have all the company. Stephanie is feeling fine now, and glad that she won’t suffer any more attacks that feel, quite frankly, like a heart attack. They have been going on for over a year, and the doctor finally agreed that surgery was the answer.

Debbie took two weeks off work to drive Christopher’s car (which had been in storage for the past year in her garage) back to North Carolina as Chris returned from Bahrain to the states. Debbie took Kaylee and Chris’s girlfriend, Jamie with her. They had a great reunion with Chris, did lots of things together while there, and then flew home. Debbie had us babysit her cat while gone, and we got quite attached to it after the first night of meowing stopped.

I took off for our annual four day Cabin Classic trip with the guys. We golfed, ate like kings, and socialized in Phil Hansen’s cabin up above Oakley. We’ve been doing this since the early 1970’s now, and I wonder how much longer it can go on. We never imagined we would be doing this in our sixties. Everyone made it except for John Oakason from Sedona, Arizona due to kidney stones.

Linda and I went to see Hair, the rock musical play from the sixties. It was playing in the Egyptian Theatre in Park City. Oh my, what MUSIC! We had the album and played it a lot when we were first married. And we were shocked when towards the end of the first act every, and I mean every, cast member stripped down to nothing, and I mean, nothing in the middle of a song. Yee gads, holy moly, yikes. It was pretty good, the play, that is.

The 24th of July holiday included a movie and golf and dinner for Linda and me Friday. On Saturday, we met Katie and Jack at the Farmer’s Market on Pioneer Square downtown. Linda and I had never attended this weekly event, and we thoroughly enjoyed the shops for arts and craft, food, fresh vegetable stands, musical entertainment and overall atmosphere. That afternoon, we continued the 24th celebration by going swimming with Steph and her 3 girls at the local community pool, and then watched a local parade in the afternoon. We topped the day off by having a barbeque in our backyard – Debbie and Kaylee also joined us along with Jackie and Wiggins. Debbie brought tons of fireworks, and Wiggins set them off for us in the front yard. Debbie and Stephanie had set up their tents in our backyard, and they all had a sleepover that night. Overall, it was a busy, busy day and night!

Linda treated me to a company sponsored movie/treats one night and we saw The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. A pretty good movie.

The month ended with The Summer Days, a rescheduled and downsized family reunion – but you all know that – some of you were there. We enjoyed the activities up Provo Canyon on Friday, and swimming at D & A’s clubhouse condo on Saturday. Thanks Deon for getting it put together, and Tiffany for the food preparation. Little Sarah (Steph’s 4 yr. old) had a close encounter in the pool after most of us had gotten out and were discussing the antics of a couple who enforced pool rules while we were there. Luckily, Deon saw Sarah’s head under the water, and quickly asked everyone if she could swim. Linda immediately yelled at Danny (who was floating in his illegal oversized tube) to grab her hair and pull her up which he did. Stephanie wasn’t too far behind in diving in and getting her up while she gasped for air and cried. Stephanie had her eyes on Sarah not 10 seconds earlier when she was in the 2 to 3 foot area of the pool, but Sarah apparently walked out to get close to Danny, and quickly was in water over her head. And she had been in her little inner tube the entire afternoon till then. Just goes to show how quickly something can go so wrong in a matter of seconds. Linda and I both woke up the next morning in bed thinking about what could have happened, and couldn’t get back to sleep. Thanks Deon for having such a watchful eye and alerting everyone to Sarah’s situation that afternoon – we just can’t thank you enough.

And that’s the news, the whole news, the true news, and possibly more news that you need. Love,

Tom & Linda

Day family newsletter - June 2010

July 1, 2010

NEWS FROM THE DAYS:

We started off the month going fishing with Stephanie and her three girls. It was a State free fishing day and we went to a fishing pond in the Murray area and enjoyed the morning trying to catch a fish. No luck, but we had fun trying, and Sara (age 4) and Taylor (age 2) enjoyed playing on the park slides and climbing apparatus for kids. That night, we met up with Debbie and Kaylee for the Herriman day’s rodeo. We got to meet the rodeo clowns before the show, and a cowgirl showed Jessica, Kaylee and Sarah how to throw a rope and lasso a steer. Debbie fixed us dinner before the rodeo, and then she kept Sarah and Jessica for a sleepover that night.

We attended more funerals this month, after going to Margie Myricks service last month. A friend’s mother passed away, and then we were saddened with the passing of Annette. Her service was so nice – it was good to see everyone.

We saw several movies this past month – Sex and the City, Toy Story (Linda had gotten tickets thru her work for all the kids/grandkids), Knight and Day, The Prince of Persia, and Eclipse (the best one of the bunch). Debbie got us hooked on another vampire series on HBO called True Blood. Linda bought the 1st season, and we’re now true believers! Linda bought the 2nd season just this last week.

Linda and I just got back from a week at our St. George condo. We enjoyed the time away to ourselves, saw a few movies (mentioned above), the musical Tarzan at the Tuachan, golfed, swam, and just relaxed. And oh yes, we actually came out $$ ahead on our trip to Mesquite this time, and I even won at bingo, something we like to play each time we go there. While at the Tuachan, we ran into Nathan and Julie Boone, a nice surprise.

Stephanie had another gall bladder attack a few weeks ago, and the doctor decided it was time for her to have the old gall bladder removed, so Stephanie and the girls moved in with us tonight for a week while Steph gets this done and recuperates. She goes in tomorrow morning for the outpatient procedure.

Katie, Bill and Jack had us over to their home for Father’s Day. Bill’s parents joined us as well, and we enjoyed a “healthy” backyard barbeque with chicken kabobs. Linda surprised me with tickets to Garrison Keeler at Red Butte Gardens in August. Annette originally turned me on to Garrison Keeler, and we took her and Dad to one of his Red Butte concerts years ago, but got rained out after about 45 minutes. And Katie and Bill announced they were expecting again in February 2011!!!

And that’s the news from the Days, the whole news, and nothing but the true news.

Tom & Linda

NEWSLETTER FROM THE DAYS - MAY 2010

June 1, 2010

NEWSLETTER FROM THE DAYS – MAY 2010

The big news this month was that Jacquolene “Jackie” and Burdette “Wiggins” Shumway were married on Thursday, the twentieth of May, 2010 at five-thirty at The Edelweiss Center in Midway, Utah. The day started with all the sisters getting make-up and hair done while Grandma and Grandpa Day (us) watched the four flower girls, Jessica (age 7), Kaylee (age 4), Sarah (age 4) and Taylor (age 2). We got the girls hair done that afternoon, and then everyone traveled up to the Homestead in Midway to get checked into our rooms before heading over to the Edelweiss Center for the big event. Jackie planned the entire event, and the lady she hired as a wedding planner did a superb job. A lady reverend performed the ceremony, and in talking to her, she knew Jackie and Wiggins from their shared biking hobby (Harley’s). Just immediate families were invited along with Jackie and Wiggins friends and coworkers, most of who were policemen that they have worked with. They had a very nice catered dinner buffet, followed by dancing, drinks, photography session, cutting the cake, the whole nine yards. Jackie was striking and beautiful in her full length wedding gown, and all the bridesmaids wore black with pink high heels. The guys wore pink vests under their tuxedos, and pink socks. Jackie got me pink socks and a pink tie to go with it. We all stayed over and had breakfast the next morning at the Homestead before heading back to Salt Lake. The night before the wedding, Linda and I hosted a very nice wedding dinner for immediate family at the Olive Garden. Debbie lent Jackie and Wiggins her motor home for a honeymoon trip to the Portland area. They were originally going to do the trip on their Harley, but because of the weather forecasts, hauled it behind the motor home in their cycle trailer to stay a little drier.

Some of our kids/grandkids joined us one Sunday afternoon to see the new Shrek movie. And Debbie/Kaylee and Katie/Jack joined us to do Memorial Day flowers this year. We added a stop this year for Jackie Baird who died almost one year ago. Linda and I babysat little Taylor for a couple of days while Stephanie took the other girls on a singles camping trip up Logan canyon. They ended up coming home one day early because of bad weather, but still had a good time. I finally finished reading Little Women yesterday. I just loved this book, perhaps because we also have four daughters.

We celebrated Katie’s birthday the morning after the wedding while having breakfast at the Homestead. We celebrated Mother’s day with a back yard barbeque at our house and got our backyard flowers all planted. The grandkids helped me start with the garden planting, and I finished it a week later. These are all yearly rituals for us, and mark the beginning of spring.

I did a 5K walk for life with some people at work – we were on the Patty Martinez team – she works with us - her breast cancer showed up again. We all wore pink t-shirts that said “These boobs are made for walking” on the back. I now wear this t-shirt while mowing the lawn. And that’s the news from the Days.
Love, Tom & Linda

Day family newsletter - April 2010

NEWS FROM THE DAYS – APRIL 2010

Cole and Jessica invited everyone to their new home in Lehi for little Emry’s first birthday party. She was walking everywhere, and enjoyed having so many people around. It’s hard to believe that our little great granddaughter is already one year old! Cole and Jessica have a cute home nestled away at the very end of a rather large subdivision in Lehi.

I took Danny to the airport for his big Hawaii trip to visit the Kimball Boone family, and I’ll let Danny tell everyone about all of his activities. The next day, we had everyone over to our home for an Easter egg hunt. Because of the weather, we moved it indoors, but all the kids had fun finding all the hidden eggs. Jessica, our 7 yr. old granddaughter, helped me hide the eggs in the front room for the one yr. olds – Jack and Emry.

Linda celebrated another birthday on April 15th (same as Sherilyn Farnes), and the following weekend, we all met at the Spaghetti Factory for her birthday dinner. Quite a group at 22 people. Alisyn, Deon and Shelley joined us as well! Linda got some new glasses – the final step of her cataract procedure, and is pleased to be able to see perfectly. She had failed her eye test for her driver license renewal one week prior to getting her new glasses, but has now gone back and is legal again.

I continue to follow Danny’s lead and walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes daily. I started after hot tubing with Danny last Thanksgiving and seeing how much weight he had actually lost over the previous year. After I also started to watch calorie intake, the pounds finally started to come off. Like the movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, where he ages backwards, I am likewise having my baby (excess stomach weight) backwards. When I started, I was in my third trimester, or about 7 ½ months along. Now, after 5 months of “babying my baby”, I’ve moved backwards into my 2nd trimester, and lost over 15 pounds. My goal is to deliver by Thanksgiving and then not get pregnant again.

A question “Does belonging to the tea party, or supporting/believing in/rallying for the tea party infringe upon the word of wisdom?”

I took Debbie to see a play at the U this past week – 42nd Street. We enjoyed having a night out. Debbie works almost exclusively with Indian people at American Express. They contracted with a company out of India and hired 200 people to come here to work on a 5 yr. contract. So Debbie is getting to be quite an expert in their culture, arranged marriages, religion, etc. Debbie is a Risk Manager, and works at keeping theft losses at a minimum in her division. Linda babysat Kaylee, and they enjoyed going out to Noodles for dinner and having ice cream while we attended the play.

Stephanie’s condo is still for sale, and she was disappointed that it didn’t sell before the new home buyer $8K program ended April 30th. All the girls are attending a naughty or nice wedding showing for Jackie this weekend given by one of Jackie’s friends.

Katie ran in the Salt Lake half marathon a few weeks ago with a friend. And I’m going to walk in a 5K for cancer next weekend for a coworker. We got to babysit Jack one evening recently, and enjoyed seeing him walking all over the place. He loved being here at the same time Steph’s kids were here, and having all the extra kids around. He even sat on our swing set for the first time and enjoyed swinging.

Can’t believe Jackie and Wiggin’s wedding is almost here. Wiggins recently completed 5/6 years of undercover drug work, and is going back to being a “street” cop again this month. He’s glad, as you get burned out doing undercover after so long.

Linda and her boss hired our niece, Danielle (Linda’s little sister Jaelyn’s daughter) to work part time in their office. Linda has enjoyed the extra help. She replaces one of her boss’s sons, who left to get into another business. Linda recently did another blanket for our nephew’s daughter who Linda fell in love with on a recent visit with her brother.

And that’s the new, the whole news, and nothing but the true news, from the Days.

Tom & Linda

Day family newsletter - March 2010

April 2, 2010

DAY FAMILY NEWSLETTER – MARCH 2010

I can’t decide which to cover first, family news, or political news? For those of you squeamish with my political news, skip to the second paragraph. I’m going to quote from a letter to the editor this past month reflecting on our Legislature. “Let’s reflect on the just-ended session of the Utah Legislature. If you believe civility is unnecessary and global warming is just a big conspiracy (Rep. Mike Noel); or Utah-made guns are special and exempt from federal laws (Sen. Margaret Dayton); or mandating child restraints impinges on parental rights (Rep. Chris Herrod); or we need a state holiday (preferably shared with Martin Luther King Day) to celebrate guns (Sen. Mark Madsen); or we need more pet monkeys (Herrod); or the 12th grade is an unnecessary luxury (Sen. Chris Buttars); or we should get the wolves before they get us (Sen. Christensen); or women who miscarry should be screened for criminal charges (Rep. Wimmer); or Utah should opt out of federal health care reform ((Wimmer); or citizens have no business in the oversight of legislative ethics (Sen. John Valentine); or we need to reduce retirement benefits to police, firefighters, teachers and state employees (Sen. Liljenquist) – then you have been well-represented!” And we can’t forget how our Legislative session started and ended. It started with the majority republican leader of the house resigning after getting a DUI. And it ended with the majority republican leader of the senate resigning after admitting to hot tubing nude with a 15 year old girl while he was 30 years old, married, and her employer and Sunday school teacher. This was 25 years ago, and he had already paid this girl $150,000 8 years ago to keep quiet about it when he was running for congress. So the political news here in Utah is indeed interesting.

Now for the family news. Linda got implants this past month. She got the right one done first, as it has always been a little larger than the left – as a result of lazy eye when she was a young girl. I did mention these were cataract implants, didn’t I? Then she got the left one done, and her vision in both eyes has improved quite a bit. She is getting a prescription to help primarily with her right eye, but for the most part, sees a lot better.

Christopher came home for a two week stay from Bahrain, and it was great to be able to have lunch with him one day, as well as have a family party for him at our house one Sunday afternoon. He stayed with his Mom and sister, and Debbie and Kaylee loved having him around for two weeks in between his visiting friends. He looks great, and we hate to see him go back. While here, he had a rather interesting night while waiting for his girlfriend to get off work at a local Taco Time. While in his car in the parking lot, two robbers knocked on the back door, and when his girlfriend (who was in charge) opened the door, thinking it was probably Christopher, one of the robbers produced a gun and shot it off to the side into the wall to scare them. Christopher’s girlfriend, Jamie, shut the door instead and called police. Unfortunately the gun shot went thru the wall and hit another girl employee in the chest. She survived, but it was a close call. Christopher meanwhile heard what he thought was a firecracker, turned and saw two people with hoodies on (this was about 10:30 at night after close) running around to the other side of the building. He got out of his car and ran around to see what was up, but they had disappeared. Shortly thereafter, the cops and paramedics showed up and Christopher found out what had happened. The robbers were caught the next day when they came back to the house next to the Taco Time and tried to retrieve the gun and their hoodies from a shed in the back yard that the owner of the house had found.

Stephanie sold her condo in February, and in early March bought a very nice mobile home. Two weeks later, her buyer failed to secure his loan, and the sale of both Steph’s condo (and of the mobile home which she had made conditional upon the closing of her condo sale) were nixed. Sad, as everything looked so good. But her condo is up for sale again, and she’s hoping for a better result next offer.

Crocus (spelling?) came up in our back yard – beautiful purple and white. It snowed pretty heavy on April Fools Day – almost 6 inches at our house. We hope it melts in time for the scheduled Easter egg hunt in our backyard with the grandkids this Sunday. Linda and I went to another play at the U called Our Town. Just absolutely loved it! Very powerful!

Katie had everyone over for little Jack’s 1st birthday party. He is such a great addition to our family! And Katie wrote this great poem in their birthday party card invite! Stephanie also wrote a great poem in her April Fools activities and surprised Jessica with it in her lunch at school that day. Steph submitted the poem to a contest for April Fools and won free dinners to Noodles Café for her efforts. I guess our family just has the knack for writing.

Linda and I went on a quick 5 day weekend trip to St. George, and Steph and her girls joined for three of them at the last minute. We enjoyed swimming in the warmer St. George weather with the grand daughters, and just getting away for a few days.

Jackie continues to get ready for the big wedding day May 20th. She has pretty much got all the details and planning completed. We’re all looking forward to this big event in her life.

Finally, Jessica Rikli has tried to get me to set up a blog for my newsletters for quite some time. She finally set one up for me and taught me how to update my blog. The address of this blog is http://daynewsletters.blogspot.com. So, this is the first newsletter that I will attempt to add to our blog by myself. If you go to this blog, you will find not only my blog, but links to other family member blogs. I don’t quite understand all of this yet, but I’m sure that as I work with it, it will all fall into place. And that’s the news, the whole news, and the only true news from the Days. Love,

Tom & Linda

February 2010

March 1, 2010

NEWS FROM THE DAYS:

Valentine’s weekend we received the best Valentine’s gift grandparents can receive. Friday night, we got to watch Kaylee (4 yrs.) for the evening while Debbie worked. She is such a darling! And smart. I showed her how to do Word on the computer, and in one session she picked up how to erase and correct, print and exit out. Because she is so good with letters, she wanted to practice writing her name, her Mom’s and Dad’s, and her brother Christopher. She has also grown an inch since last measuring and marking her height on our kitchen wall. Saturday, while Jackie and all the women (and some men) in the family went to a bridal planning lunch, I watched Sarah and Taylor (Jessica is now old enough to go to the women’s stuff). They entertained me, and we colored, played dolls – or in the case of Taylor – bears, and went thru all the rituals of taking a nap (counting things in the light fixture, listening to each other’s heart, drawing pictures on our backs, telling stories). All the rituals done, they didn’t want to take a nap after all. Saturday night, we got little Jack – now 11 months old. He is all over the place crawling, stands and balances himself, but not quite ready to take that first step yet. What dimples he has! And a smile! He’ll simply melt the girl’s hearts. Linda got to see Cole at the lunch, as well as our little Emry (11 months). Linda reports she is quite vocal, like Jack, stands and gets around easily, and is quite a character. So between Linda and me, we got to see, visit with, or babysit every grandchild except Christopher. And Christopher called us from Bahrain yesterday while we were grocery shopping and we missed his call. But it was good to hear his voice and he said he’d be here on March 11th for his leave. We went to our favorite restaurant for breakfast Valentine’s morning, and saw Valentine’s Day, the movie, that afternoon.

Linda had cataract surgery in her right eye, and all went well. Her left eye is going to be done March 2nd. She can’t wait to see well! Linda had lazy eye in her right eye, and perhaps that is why the doctor said it was the hardest surgery he had ever done – we’ll have to ask more questions. Her vision in the right eye has already improved a lot. Linda put together a baby quilt for her boss’s son who works part time in her office. Now she’s crocheting a throw, and always has a project going for something or someone.

Linda’s eye wasn’t’ quite ready, so I took Katie to our U of U play “12 Angry Men”, a great play about jury duty. I enjoyed our daddy/daughter date. I had bought Linda tickets to the Billy Joel/Elton John Face2Face concert last March for her birthday. The concert was canceled in November due to illness, and rescheduled this past month. It was a GREAT concert, lasting about 3 ½ hours. Wow. I, of course, loved the piano playing by both, as did Linda. It was worth the wait. And we had great seats.

Stephanie sold her condo! She has to move out by the end of March, and has already started looking at trailer homes with three bedrooms that would suit her family. She hopes to pay cash with the equity she is getting out of her condo. She may move back in with us and put her stuff in storage for a short while, depending on the closing and the move in date of the place she hopes to buy. Stephanie also hosted a nice birthday party at McDonalds for her 4 yr. old Sarah.

Wiggins shaved his head, and has a new undercover look. Jackie is working hard and getting ready for the wedding on May 20th. She has picked out a very nice reception place in Midway (in the Heber valley) on old Main Street. Most of our family is going to stay over the night of the wedding at Homestead nearby. Linda and I are hosting a family wedding dinner for them the night before their wedding at a local Olive Garden restaurant.

I am coordinating with Kimball Boone in Oahu for a weeklong trip for Danny in early April. He will then have another week off for the reunion in August, and his yearly visit with us on Thanksgiving. Anyone want to volunteer for Christmas this year? Attached is the travel history I put together for Danny after the sibling reunion last year.

I finally finished reading David Copperfield (now I know why it’s a classic), and also read a great book Stephanie gave me for Christmas, The Johnstown Flood. What was interesting about this reservoir that broke was that the dam was originally built to hold water for a canal system (like the C & A) in the Pennsylvania area. Then the railroads came, and the reservoir was used by area rich people for their cabin, boating and fishing retreat. When the dam broke in May 1889, over 2,000 people lost their lives. A great book with tons of history about that time in America. I’ve now started reading Little Women.

The local legislators in Utah are spending a lot of time trying to put thru anti-federal/pro state bills/resolutions that State attorneys predict will cost the state 100’s of thousands of dollars to fight in court, with a small chance of being successful. Apparently, the sovereignty of the federal government over the states, a battle fought long ago, hasn’t registered with a certain fragment of the legislative body on capital hill. Ironically, the one bill I thought for sure would sail thru the hurdles is the tax increase on cigarettes. But there’s still two weeks or so left on that one. Another idea floating around is one to eliminate the 12th grade to save money in the education budget. A recent letter to the editor pointed out that eliminating the 12th grade may increase the chance of electing future idiot senators like the one who proposed this idea, Sen. Chris Buttars. But enough of local politics.

I find myself listening to Garrison Keiler on PBS with his Prairie Home Companion radio broadcasts each week more and more. And I stay up late watching a TV program each Saturday night on a cable station called Woodsongs, an hour long music program out of Kentucky featuring artists in blue grass, blues, country, folk and rock and roll. The artists on this program don’t have to be famous, just very, very good. Last night, they had a piano guy on that tours with Mick Jagger among others, and specializes in boogie woogie. Oh my! Is this what awaits in heaven?

And that’s the news from the Days. Love, Tom & Linda

January 2010

I continued my lobbying assignment from Tri-Connections/TURN, and emailed and phoned the 11 members of the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee who make initial decisions on the funding of people like Danny. The culmination of my effort was testifying before their committee at their hearing the morning of Jan. 12th. Quite an experience to sit and listen to over 40 to 50 different people/organizations dealing with various disabilities lobby the committee for their particular cause. I was next to last to testify and threw out my “numbers oriented presentation” after listening to everyone else throw out their “numbers”, and instead tried to tell them what Danny would have said if he were able to testify. Apparently it caught their attention, as several people came up to me after and complimented me on my remarks. In fact, a Tribune reporter even got my name and number, and asked if she could do a story on Danny. I’ve never heard from her since, but still, I gained an appreciation for what legislators go through trying to weigh public input against hard economic times and budget cuts. Shelley met me during the meeting, and afterwards took me on a tour of the Capital and grounds. I was highly impressed with her knowledge and obvious stature wherever we went, as she must have introduced me to at least 10 legislators who all knew her, including one who let us into the House chamber and visited for several minutes with us. Shelley is well known on capital hill, and wherever we went, staff knew her and welcomed us to their area. Only time will tell what happens to Danny’s funding in the future. I drove down later in the month and signed another year’s lease for Danny. While there, Danny shopped for and bought another gerbil for his apartment, and we had a quick dinner at Wingers before I drove back to Salt Lake. His lease remained the same for the second year in a row without an increase.

Linda and I took a quick 4 day trip to our condo in St. George and enjoyed getting away and relaxing. We saw two good movies, Avatar and It’s Complicated, and visited Mesquite one evening for our usual donation. We went back to the church we had attended last trip there, going to the early service as they pictured a Choir on their brochure who sang church music. To me, they looked like they were a gospel choir from the picture, and I was looking forward to a rousing morning of gospel music. In fact, it turned out the people who sang were 70 to 80 year old congressional members who could barely stand or sing. Oh well, we still put $5 in the basket as it was passed around.

I celebrated my 8th year of quitting smoking on Jan. 5th. And I continued my exercise program like Danny of walking on the treadmill 30 minutes per day. No weight loss, but I’m sure I’m healthier. I signed up for a Healthy Living Utah program offered thru work and got some additional tips on calorie management, and had a good talk with my physician at my check up this month about weight loss. He explained that the pill I take for diabetes makes it hard to lose weight, but would consider taking me off it for another less effective pill if I would lose 10 pounds.

I met the cabin classic group for a lunch last week, and all we talked about was our health issues….sad, but true. The second of our group was diagnosed for prostate cancer just before Christmas. While on health related issues, Linda is going in for cataract surgery for one eye in February, and the other in March.

Linda and I went to a good play at the U called Touched. We’ve enjoyed being able to babysit grandchildren several times. Stephanie got free tickets to a U of U basketball game and invited us to go with her and the kids one Saturday afternoon. She has her condo listed for sale again and has had two people come by already – but no bites. Stephanie was also elected to an employee committee at her job with the Utah State Tax Commission. Debbie and Kaylee came up for hot tubing the other day in our back yard. Debbie recently got a nice bonus and raise at her Risk Manager job with American Express. Katie’s employer, Ogio, recently was acquired, and Katie survived job cuts and reorganization. She is well liked there, and continues to work ¾ time. Little Jack is now 10 months old, and I was impressed with the way he picked up on learning how to climb our stairs with me. Cole and Jessica bought and moved into a new home in the Lehi area this past month. Little Emry is likewise growing and crawling, and both her and Jack will probably be walking in another month or two. Jack was born one week earlier than Emry and twice as big, but they’re pretty evenly matched now. Jackie is busy making wedding plans for May – it’s going to be a busy spring.

And that’s the news from the Days. Love,

Tom & Linda