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