Day family newsletter - February 2012

Feb. 29, 2012

NEWS FROM THE DAYS FOR FEBRUARY 2012

We spent a weekend in Wendover just to get away at the first of the month, and stopped by Stephanie’s condo on the way home for a Super Bowl party. Both were good times.

I got the gumboo (basically a good chest cold) towards the second week that lasted for the next three weeks. After missing several days of work, I finally went to the doc and got a Z pack (antibiotic), slept with Vicks vapor rub on the bottoms of my feet with socks on, and drank herbal tea. One of the three cured me.

We had Steph’s kids over on the weekend twice in February, and enjoyed doing stuff with them. Saw Puss and Boots one weekend, got their haircut and nails done another. Katie and Bills Sofie turned one yr. old, and threw a nice birthday party. She is walking now and is a real cute! Stephanie’s Sarah celebrated her 6th birthday at McDonalds as well this month.

Debbie got t-boned by a drunk driver last week on the way home from work. She got two staples in her head, but otherwise was OK. Her car was totaled – the other driver had insurance, thank goodness.

We went to see Emma (Jane Austin play) at the U of U with Wiggins and Jackie one night. A great play – slow first act, but WOW – a great 2nd act and finish.

Linda and I took the long weekend over President’s Day and went to our St. George condo. We really enjoyed getting away again, even though it was short, and basically relaxed. A little cool, but OK. I finished readying A Tale of Two Cities (a hard read for me), then read right thru The Count of Monte Cristo in one week – a much better book I thought. Linda’s been reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Help. While in St. George we saw two good movies, The Descendents and The War Horse. We also rented another pretty good Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris.

Our legislators are in the middle of another interesting session –they want to secede from America, privatize most government activities, adapt several Amish traditions and customs, go back to prohibition, raise chickens and goats, convert Santorum to the gospel, and elect Mitt Romney for president.

Hardly any snow this year – only twice have I had the snow blower out, not because I really needed to, but spent money having it tuned up last fall after the hard winter last year. We’ve had no more than 3 or 4 inches a couple of times all year.

Kind of a slow news month, but it felt good. Love, Tom & Linda

Day family newsletter - January 2012

Feb. 1, 2012
DAY NEWSLETTER FOR JANUARY 2012
We had Katie and Bill’s little ones over for a sleepover while mom and dad took a day off for R & R. Jack is just shy of three, and Sofie is 10 months. Sure enough, Sofie awoke at midnight, and we couldn’t get her settled down for over an hour. Probably the strange environment and lack of mommy nursing to calm her down. With all the skills of a parent raising 4 daughters, I tried every trick in the book to get her to stop crying, as did Linda. Sofie is quite a character, even at 10 months. When I tried to smooth talk her, she gave me a look as she clung to Linda, and the look said “Don’t EVEN think about picking me up”. When I tried again, she said “Did you HEAR what I said?” And after another attempt, “Really? You don’t understand English?” Finally, Linda decided it may be a teething problem, and we went searching for gum numbing medicine. I did find some children’s Ibuprofen, but with no dispenser. So, I dipped my little finger into the liquid bottle, and put my finger in Sofie’s mouth several times. She reacted like you would expect sucking on a lemon might affect you, but after a few minutes, quit crying, and was willing to play peek a boo. She was finally content to lie in the crib again, but whimpered off and on for another 10 or 15 minutes before falling asleep until 9 AM the next morning. When she awoke, she was a little angle once again. She charms everyone to death, including Jack, eats like it’s going out of style, and is “this close” to walking. She has also got music in her bones, as demonstrated when she danced when music was played on our stereo. Jack surprised me before bedtime when he “stood” peeing in the big toilet. I’m not used to this with all the girls in my life.

Linda and I are buying another two weeks in the family condo by trading our 1/12th share for Linda’s stepsister’s 1/8th share. With the depressed real estate market, the additional cost is fairly reasonable. And we just mailed off a deposit to go on a guided New York City tour in August for 5 days. We can’t wait, and will see three Broadway plays while there. Enjoyed lunch with Deon while she was here.

We’re back on the every other weekend agreement with Stephanie to watch her kids Friday afternoon thru Sunday afternoon. Steph is on her last semester, and will get her associates degree at SLCC in May. Katie & Bill had us over for dinner one night and we talked politics – so much going on with the presidential primaries (thoughts of Palin last summer, but Romney in the lead, hopes for The Donald dashed, then Bauchman takes the lead, followed by Perry in August, then hope that Richie of New Jersey could tip the scales, back to Romney, but here comes Herman Cain in November, followed by The Newt, only to overtaken by Santorum, perhaps Paul next, but quickly back to Romney, back to The Newt once again, and Romney again? The musical chairs will stop come June, when only one chair remains).

Linda and I took Steph’s kids one weekend to see Dinosaur Land at Thanksgiving Point – very entertaining and interesting. That same weekend, Jessica (Steph’s 9 yr. old) taught me how to paste a photo into my emails. She said her teacher taught her how to do it. The entire Day family met for Jackie’s birthday at a Chinese place (P F Changs) downtown. Very, very good food and company! Linda gave me a trophy like plaque on Jan. 5th that says “Tom Day - 2002 to 2012 - Smoke Free - Congratulations”. We went to a play at the U of U called Find and Sign – a fairly new play that was pretty good. Just before the play started, I noticed a name plaque on my arm rest that said “Joseph D. Smith” 1869, farmer, bishop, helped built Cove Fort”. Got my religion this month.

I spent a Saturday getting Danny’s lease signed for another year, doing some errands and shopping with him, and driving to Salt Lake to see Julie Bertosh at a rehab center. She had quit taking her medications and stopped eating, so a trip to the ER ended up with her being assigned to a rehab center to try and get her back to a normal routine. Shelley met us for lunch prior to visiting Julie, after which we all visited with Julie while she did her physical therapy.

Finally, the gall bladder operation that Danny had on Jan. 25th. Thanks to everyone, Danny was looked after, well cared for, and is on his way to a full recovery. We’ll have to do this again in the near future when he has his hernia done, but the experience gained this last week will make the arrangements even easier.

Linda and I just sent a travel agency a deposit to go on a guided tour to New York in August – and see several plays while there. We had one night free, so I just reserved tickets to one play we weren’t scheduled to see called Book of Mormon – The Musical. I’ll be sure to give you a report in about seven months about the trip and plays. Can’t wait!

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