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