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