Beneath the Wraps

In addition to celebrating the nations birthday in July, Utah also celebrates its roots with “Pioneer Day” or “the Days of ‘47”    On the 24 th of July Salt Lake holds its annual two hour parade in addition to the youth parade that takes place the week prior.   “The Days of ’47” parade is well attended.   There’s several people who will actually camp overnight in order to get the perfect parade watching spots.   I happen to believe that all of these people are crazy – yet at the same time I admire their enthusiasm.   The parade is truly an awesome moment for them and I’m grateful for the enthusiasm.   I really am.   I’m also grateful that the parade is televised and I am able to watch it in my air conditioned home.   I am not a parade person – actually I am not a crowd person.   I could handle the parade in Afton, Wyoming just fine.   I don’t think the entire population of their small town matches the tremendous ...

I cry everytime I hear this song - long before Mom's dementia took her to another demention

     I have gone camping before – several times actually.   I’d gone with my family. I remember times when Patrick and I were younger though not too much with my other two sibs.   I do remember when Corey and Kayla were both a lot younger, we did do a family activity where we stayed in cabins.   That’s the only time I recall camping with the two of them.      I’d gone to girls’ camp through the church.   When I was twelve and thirteen I went to a camp called Oakcrest.   We stayed in cabins.   I remember going to rough camp twice (we stayed in tents) as a youth and twice as a leader.   That was well over twelve years ago.      And then there was the one time we attempted camping as a family – before Jenna entered the picture.   Memorial weekend 2002 .   The boys were in a tent and Roland and I tried to sleep in the van.      Roland has actually gone ...

Biff’s girlfriend (at the time) gave him a puppy for Christmas – ironically the last year they were together.   They didn’t even make it to the next Christmas. The puppy was cute with his little brown patches and Jenna liked holding him and playing with him while his patches were still intact. As Buddy got bigger (just in the matter of months really) the patches disappeared and Biff had a large white dog who wanted to play 24/7.   Biff couldn’t give him 24/7.   We all needed to sleep sometime – except Buddy. Barked if we tied him up.   Lot of complaints from the neighbors. Buddy was no longer cute.   He was a nuisance.   Jenna loved him when he was a puppy, but when he got bigger than her, he was just too much for her to handle. He went through the chewing stage and managed to get some of her toys while indoors.   She hid all of her outdoor toys in his dog house – which he refused to take shelter in.   And that was okay by Jen...

Wesley walks from yard to yard collecting rocks and sticks and stores them in the garage of his parents’ house.  Wesley is their only child. Wesley takes medication for his ADHD. It takes away any appetite that is necessary for growth.  Wesley is thin like the twigs he finds.  I think a heavy wind could blow him away. He and Jenna have collected morning glories and have thrown them into the pool.  But no worries – they don’t plan to leave them there.  They just want to see how cool they look floating upon the water When it is time for Wesley to go home, Jenna invites herself to go with him                                ...

  I have had so many problems with T-Mobile the last couple of years, it’s a wonder I haven’t dropped them sooner. I created this post last year and had actually taken it down for two days when I thought that the problem had been resolved – but returned it two days later as there was still miscommunication.    My brother-in-law had also switched to Consumer Cellular – but was without service for a month.   He blames T-Mobile.   I don’t have all the details, but because of my own experience, I think that sounds pretty accurate.  I decided that we would just keep our phones and have new SIM cards through Consumer Cellular.   I was pretty distraught to learn that I would still have to call T-Mobile to get the SIM unlocked as we wished to keep our current phone numbers.   I ended up going through four people before I was given instructions and could receive the rest by email. It really didn’t take as long as they said – well at least...

          Jenna has outgrown the fort which I mention here. I was hoping to save it for Anna and Garrett whenever they would visit but the slide broke and the idea of having Anna tromp around  with so many openings did not thrill me.  The slide would have been Anna’s favorite part, but we took it off after it broke.               Bill and Kayla don’t exactly have a place for the fort right now – though we did offer it to them.  Jenna really doesn’t play much with it anymore.  Especially since we got the trampoline.  But lately, the tarp to the tramp has been so hot, the trampoline itself has been neglected.  I thought if we pushed it back to where we have the fort that it would get a little more shade.               I posted Jenna’s fort for free i...

             Mom embellished on her “sky-diving” story – a bit with the realization that jumping out of an airplane is something she would never do.   In this version it was from a commercial airline with mechanical problems.   Mom said she didn’t want to, but it was the crew that had forced all of the passengers to jump.           Harold told his story about going up in a stunt plane that did loop-to-loops.   They had fastened video cameras to each wing and had one in the cockpit.   This filmed every move that was made and then the three films were spliced together.   Harold said he had it on video tape.   But that it does tend to make most people sick when they watch it because it’s like being there.             Corey had explained to the family that there are seven stages of dementia and th...

--> --> When Jenna was three she discovered some blue gravel that had been dumped by the shed.   Biff had left it there after cleaning out a fish tank.   Jenna thought that they were beautiful seeds and wanted to plant them.   I tried to explain that they weren’t seeds – but she was insistent that we bury them so that they would grow into a beautiful flower. Everyday she would check the spot where the “seeds” had been planted – impatient that the flowers had not bloomed overnight.   Again, I tried to explain to her that even if the seeds had been real seeds – flowers do not spring up overnight.   It takes time.   Especially in our family, it seems. Jenna did not stop checking.   She was determined that her flower would grow.   She watered the area.   She talked to it.   She was certain that a flower would grow.   I really did not want her to be crushed and so devastate...