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