Much nothing to “ado”

I learned that Evelyn had not slept well last night, so we both slept very late this morning.  We had no time to exercise.  We had a very light  breakfast and just waited around until lunch.  We had some of the ribs we had brought from our anniversary.  Evelyn was still sleep deprived so she slept some of the afternoon.  I spent most of the day looking for some more of the restaurant coupons I had lost.  I also looked for some ways to contribute to charities.  I have had some trouble with the websites accepting my credit cards.  We skipped supper and went to choir practice at 6:30.  It was a nice restful day.

53 and counting

We went to Silver Sneakers this morning and then rested much of the day.  Of course this was after cleaning up some of the area from yesterday’s party.  Many of the people were very good at helping us clean up yesterday, so there were only a few dishes to do.  We ate more spicy chicken chili for lunch because we had plans to go to Asheville for dinner and a ball game.  We left for Asheville a little after 4, dropping off the chicken that we had neglected to serve yesterday to Diane and Linda.  I had a Groupon for 1 appetizer and 2 entrees at the Bier Garten.  We were surprised to find a parking place on the street.  Asheville is terrible for parking places downtown.  I had called Karen and Dallas to join us but they couldn’t.  We had a very nice waiter and ordered steak medallions to eat then and ribs to take home. While waiting for our meal, we talked about previous anniversaries that we could remember.  The 2 outstanding ones were the 25th and 50th.  On both those occasions our wonderful daughters had thrown big parties for us.  We were blessed to have them as gifts from God.  We also remembered the 51st because we were with Tom, Stacy, and Olivia at Frankie Bones restaurant.  We remember that because the restaurant gave us each a glass of sparkling wine and a chocolate covered strawberry.  Tonight I told the waiter of our anniversary, and he brought us a large piece of mocha Kahlua mousse to share—on the house.  We were blessed many ways today.  We used our complimentary tickets to the Tourists game and saw some good plays by the team.  They won 9-3 so we saw plenty of offensive action.  The evening was just delightful even though we were a bit chilly about innings 7 and 8.  We were home by 11.  Even though we have many disagreements, I think we both praise and thank God for each other.  We have some great times together and serve Him together in many ways. 

Memorial Day pictures.

The side of our house showing the lovely flowers.

Mike McDonald, Diane Williams, Bill Williams, and Gary Tollefson’s head.

Bill Williams’ back, Diane Williams’ back, Andy Novotney and Gary on the swing.

Adele Novotney and Thelma “Sammy” Galloway.

Keith Galloway’s back, Susan Hartzell, Linda Tollefson’s back and Marty Dye.

These are all neighbors in our Cypress Meadows group.  Some of the food people brought is on the table.

God bless those wounded who returned home.

Memorial Day.  During the morning I played golf with Marty.  I played well for me.  We were back home by 10:30, took a shower and ate lunch.  We spent much of the rest of the day decorating the card tables we had borrowed from the neighbors who would be coming to our gathering later in the day.  We spent the thinking part of the day remembering the Memorial Day concert telecast from DC last night.  It was quite moving.  Evelyn gets excited whenever we have company coming.  She claims she didn’t today but couldn’t get to sleep during the time she lay down to rest.  We were ready to go by 5:00.  I had grilled the hamburgers Saturday but heated them today in our slow cooker.  Our neighbors brought many side dishes, making it a large buffet.  I started the meal by playing a patriotic CD that began with the National Anthem.  My prayer emphasized thanking God for giving and preserving our freedom. We had 3 veterans in our group and gave them thanks for serving.  We had invited 2 other couples new to our community but neither came despite implying they would.  They don’t know how much fun we have together and likely won’t.  We happened onto the film version of Ring of Fire, the play we saw Sunday afternoon at the local civic theater.  We will celebrate our 53rd wedding anniversary—if our Lord allows us to awaken tomorrow. 

We can do it all!

We were off for church before 9.  We were responsible for making coffee and setting the table with snacks for after worship.  The interim pastor was gone and his substitute arrived later than he normally does.  The organist/choir director let us in.  I went to work on the coffee and Evelyn worked on the table.  She came down and told me no one was at the Bible study that we were supposed to lead as substitutes for the substitutes for the study leader.  During the worship I read the Old Testament and New Testament lessons before going to the choir loft to sing with the choir.  I was the only tenor and had more or less a solo.  We had to stay until almost the last to clean up the snack area.  We came directly home and ate a bowl of chili we had made yesterday.  Evelyn lay down to relax while I tried to make an on line order.  At 2:20 we arrived at the HART to usher for the afternoon play Ring of Fire, a musical history of Johnny Cash.  It was fair, mostly because the orchestra overpowered the lyrics of the songs.  Evelyn and Doris walked when we got home and we stayed in the rest of the evening.  We watched the Memorial Day concert from DC before going to bed.  Earlier in the day Evelyn had received a call from Elaine Cowen, a colleague and friend from IPFW.  She called while we were in church and promised to call back later in the day but didn’t.  She is travelling and wanted to stop in for a visit.  Perhaps she will call tomorrow.  This has been a very busy day. 

Flipping hamburgers.

Saturday was another beautiful cool day.  We slept in and enjoyed it.  After breakfast I worked on making a big bowl of spicy chicken chili.  I had to open cans of beans, etc. and added the spices Evelyn recommended whenever she came back from the bathroom where she was coloring her hair.  She has several steps in that process.  Linda returned from Sam’s with the hamburger patties but no chicken.  We let the patties thaw while we were eating the chili for lunch.  I started the grill and seasoned the meat.  I had a small problem when the grinder top of the wonderful sea salt came off.  I dumped the salt all over some of the patties.  I cleaned it up as much as I could and put them on the grill.  I had 24 very thick patties to cook and had to cook each at least 40 minutes.  I spent the afternoon watching TV and the hamburgers while Evelyn went to the grocery to get some chicken breasts because some of the neighbors are not hamburger people.  I was cooking until 5:30.  Evelyn talked with Emily for a while since we had decided to not eat supper.  We snacked a bit but nothing else.  We have a big day scheduled for tomorrow.

Meals galore

Friday Doris decided she wanted to take us out for breakfast at Joey’s Pancake House.  She said she had wanted to take us out for our anniversary for a couple of years.  We had a good time eating and laughing together.  We have a lot of fun with Doris.  She is a very good neighbor.  We didn’t get home until close to noon but didn’t have any lunch.  We were kind of in a funk all day because we had planned to go to Roswell for a day but that had been cancelled.  We spent the day planning and preparing for Monday.  We didn’t eat lunch, but Doris likes Mexican food, so we went to El Pobre, a local restaurant, for supper.  As usual Evelyn and I shared a meal.  We had another good time and then went to WalMart to get some Scotch Guard to treat our reupholstered couch.  Evelyn also had to buy some patriotic decorations for our Memorial Day tables.  We came home and watched a recorded program of Parks and  Recreation.  I really liked the episodes we watched at Stacy’s but was disappointed about the way the program had slipped into the same overly risqué type of comedy that is shown on almost every network.  I doubt that I will bother again.

Strange event and change of plans

Thursday was quite unique.  We were on our way to Silver Sneakers when we went around one of the many curves.  I noticed a young black woman walking down a band toward a black car.  It was located in such a place in light traffic that prevented my stopping.  I took Evelyn the final mile to the Rec center and returned to the site.  To my surprise she was holding an infant less than a month old.  She was also with another young lady and another rescue couple.  I was assured that things were under control.  It was too late for me to exercise, so I delivered some Folkmoot brochures and returned for Evelyn.  Stacy called and told us we didn’t need to come to their home in Roswell. On the way home we talked with the tow driver and found out how the young lady got down the embankment.   We covered much of our immediate area in our brochure distribution projects and came home for lunch. We began working in the yard after lunch.  We tore some creeping Jenny out of our flower garden, transplanted some Monkey grass, and tried to trim our Aloe plant.  We rested a while before supper and the evening.  We hope to hear from Stacy again tomorrow to see how things are going.  We planned to go with Doris tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Party preparations

We have had a torrent of rain during the first part of this week.  We slept late on Monday morning instead of going to exercise.   We worked on planting some of the things we had bought at Lowe’s.  Marty came home around noon, and she and I went to play golf.  The charge on geezer day is $17 for 18 holes and a cart.  I played a fairly good first 9 but returned to form on the 2nd 9.  I also gathered the recyclable items from the trash receptacles and brought them home since the centers were closed by the time we returned home.  After supper we watched the next to last performance of Dancing with the Stars.  

Tuesday we attended Silver Sneakers.  We had a very good workout before we went to the library and the Open Door soup kitchen to set up a time to volunteer.  We have decided on just Tuesdays and Wednesdays for our volunteer work.  We will work at the hospital on Tuesday afternoons.  We had Pollock for lunch and then worked on more planting.  Evelyn went to a local plant store for some hanging plants before having a smoothie for supper.  I went to some of the neighbors to invite them to the Memorial day party we will host.  We plan to put tables and chairs in the middle of the street because nearly everyone living in Cypress Meadows will be here eliminating traffic in the area.  We watched the finals of the dancing show before going to bed. 

Wednesday I went to the kitchen to make a large omelet for our brunch.  We didn’t eat until after 10.   We were cleaning our carport, deck and small porch incase we have to move the party under roof.  Most of the area was covered with yellow pollen, so it sprayed off without much elbow grease.  What little needed was done by both of us.  I also had to take items to recycle and took some things for the neighbors too.  We skipped lunch but went to the Dairy Queen on our way delivering brochures for Folkmoot.  We then went to choir practice at 6:30.  At home I went to make sure everyone had been invited to our party and knew to bring lawn chairs.

Catching up

Naturally we slept late on Friday.  I just brought the suitcases indoors and Evelyn unpacked them.  I worked on dumping the accumulated emails.  We did take a trip to the post office to have our mail resumed and to the library so Evelyn could get some more books to read.  We also went to the grocery to replenish our food supply.  When we returned, we found the mail had been delivered.  I was excited to see that the replacement telephone had arrived.  I spent much of the afternoon opening the mail and recycling the paper.  We napped in the afternoon before dressing for the ballroom dance.  We were one of the few couples there.  Our friends, Dallas and Karen, were helping their son move to a new home nearer the coast.

Saturday we went to the Verizon store to have the new phone adjusted.  Sadly we learned that the contacts had been removed from the old phone.  I spent much of the day emailing friends asking for them to send their phone numbers.  On the way home we stopped at Lowe’s to buy some plants for decorating the outdoor of our home.  We got some good buys, especially a Mandeville plant.  We also got our aloe plant back from our neighbor.  I also began practicing the scripture I was to read in church tomorrow morning.  I also put many of the received telephone numbers into the new phone’s contact area.

We  were up at 7 and in Bible study by 9.  I went to the lectern to practice before joining the Bible study.  The worship celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost.  We were also blessed with Holy Communion.  We had planned to go out for lunch in Asheville and asked our interim pastor and his wife to join us.  We had a great lunch and visit getting to know both of them.  We came home by 2:30 and took a nap while watching the Cubs lose a game.  We went to the first band concert of the season in Maggie Valley.  It was a memorial of a female trumpet player who died at 36 just 3 weeks ago.  We remembered her from previous years.  We went with Jo Wooten to Bo Jangles for supper afterward.  I didn’t want to go because I was sure our normal popcorn would be ignored for the evening.  It was.  We went to bed after the news.

I am behind again.

Tuesday was a big shopping day.  Emily took the boys shopping in the morning.  They go to thrift stores to buy most of their clothes and some other items.  I was blessed to pay for most of them although they were not costly.  She returned us home for lunch and left with the girls and Evelyn.  Then we all went to the Golden Corral so we could pay for a dinner for all of us.  We all enjoyed the meal.  We came home and played more hand and foot for Stephen.

Wednesday was a busy goodbye day.  We had planned to go to Antelope Island yesterday or today but just didn’t have the interest.  We spent much time packing and checking that we hadn’t forgotten anything.  We walked to a nearby park in the afternoon so the family could play Ultimate Frisbee together.  We just watched them and left to take something out of the oven.  Just as we got home it began to rain.  The kids came home soaking wet.  We had dinner and then played more cards.  This time it was really neat:  Stephen and I, Noah and and Elizabeth, Rosalie and Evelyn were a team in Hand and Foot; Noah, Elizabeth, Rosalie and Andrew played Yas at one end of the table; Andrew and Pieder played chess at the same end.  All this was completed at the same time with music blaring and Emily washing dishes.  It was a frenetic farewell.  I haven’t been involved in anything like this before.  Oddly enough, things went quite well. 

Thursday morning we were all up early and on our way to the airport.  Andrew was flying to California and was on the same plane with us to Las Vegas.  We sat together in 1 row.  He helped me with a computer challenge in Las Vegas before we parted.  We left for Atlanta at 11:30, had a great flight, and arrived in Atlanta at 6:25.  Since it was only 4:25 by our body clocks, we decided to drive on home.  We caught the shuttle to our car but were disappointed that it wouldn’t start.  We found a man from Brazil who gave us a jump start, and we left for home.  We stopped for dinner at a Captain D’s because we had not had fish for some time.  We arrived home with the continued blessings of God right at midnight.  Since our phone didn’t work, we couldn’t call the girls.  I emailed them letting them know we arrived.

A more relaxing day

Tuesday was our day for breakfast with Elizabeth.  She chose Carl’s Jr. just as Rosalie had. 

We We walked the mile there and back before it became too hot.   We had talked about going to Antelope Island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake but no one really wanted to go.  We just relaxed until it was time to go to Noah’s fundraiser at the Get Air trampoline parlor.  I went with Noah at 3 and the rest of the family joined us at 6.  I took some movies that I may try to post tomorrow.

Fun at Pleasantview Lake

After leaving Snowbasin, we drove to Pleasantview Lake where the kids could play in the water and on the beach.  We took chairs and towels to lie on.  The lake was calm and beautiful.  We were able to find a shady spot where the adults could watch from the 20 foot high cliff above the lake.  There was little boat traffic because of the season and the day of the week.

The kids are playing in the sand on the beach almost surrounding the calm, inviting lake.  They had a large shovel for digging instead of the small shovels that smaller children have.

This was just before the children began swimming.  They once had a beach ball, but it got away from them and floated to the other end of the lake.  I hoped a boat might come along and bring it back, but no one came close to it.

This is Emily in one of her few moments of relaxation.

We drove back to town where she dropped us at the Golden Corral and went to get the remainder of the family.  I wanted to take them to dinner since Pieder had paid for the Mother’s Day meal that I had planned to pay for.  We don’t normally go to the “feed lot” but know that the kids, especially the boys eat a lot.  I must admit that Golden Corral does serve good food, but we avoid buffets to prevent massive overeating.  We were home by 8 and played 1 hand of hand and foot with Stephen.  He and were smashed by Rosalie and Evelyn.  That boy does love to play cards with us.

Fun at Snowbasin

We didn’t take our walk today because we had planned a day of travel.  While Emily and Evelyn went to get some garden plants, Rosalie packed some lunch for us to take to Snowbasin, a relatively nearby place where they ski in winter and hike in summer.  It was amazingly hot for this time of year.  It was 90 here and 79 at the resort.  The breeze and the cloudless sky made it very pleasant for us.  We played on some snow piles and had lunch near the lodge.  The lunch was delicious and complete with fruit for dessert.  It is amazing as to how many practical things these kids know.  We enjoyed their telling us about what they did during the winter ski season. 

 

These snow piles were “jumps” during ski season.  They are different from moguls, but I am not sure why.

Evelyn, closer to snow than she ever wants to be again.  She is quite averse to being around it.

I am claiming this snow in the name of Pineville.

This tree was cut earlier this year.  It will widen one of the slopes for next season.

I had to help Elizabeth up to this moose last year, but she got up by herself this year.

Rosalie and Stephen sitting on chairlift they have ridden many times in the winter.  This one holds 4 skiers and takes them to the highest slope.

Thanking God for good mothers

Our morning began slowly with a breakfast on your own approach.  The only faithful couple, the Caldwell’s, came for the house church/Bible study that Pieder hosts each week.  He approaches translation of scripture using 4 tools: contextual, logical, gramatical, and  semantic, in that order.  We had a discussion of the pronoun you in Colossians chapter 1.  It was an interesting study.  We followed this with a photo op in the back yard.

These are obviously indoor pictures.  The latter is perhaps the final Mother’s Day picture Noah will have with his mother.

This is everyone in the sunny back yard.

This picture is not as good, but I like the shaded effect.

These are 2 of the best 3 mothers I know.  I helped in making one of them a mother.  Can you tell which one? 

After this we walked a mile to a Thai restaurant and ordered from the menu.  The meals were served family style allowing us to share some of each entrée.  Disappointingly, I suffered the 3rd attack of my esophageal sphincter in the past 2 days.  I was unable to enjoy much of the meals.  It wasn’t until we walked back home that I finally recovered.  We rested a while and then Emily drove me back to the Verizon store.  My new phone was still not working, and the people at the store were unable to correct the problem.  The best they could do was order another replacement phone to be sent to NC.  This meant that daughter #1 was unable to wish Evelyn happy Mother’s Day.  I sent an email explaining why.  We were both sure she had tried and wanted her to know why we hadn’t returned her call.  Evelyn will call her Monday morning on Emily’s phone.  We played 2 hands of Hand and Foot before going to bed.  Stephen and I (the usual victors) were double decimated in the second hand, finishing over 1,000 points in the hole!

Shakespeare Home School Style.

Saturday was Noah’s turn to go to breakfast with us.  We try to let the kids choose the restaurant, and he chose Subway.  I knew they had a breakfast menu but had never tried it.  He loves being able to create his own sandwich, so we all did.  We talked about his future plans and told him he could stay with us if he wanted to leave home before his apartment in Columbus was ready, but he said he could get into it whenever he wanted.  He will leave in early August and has a job promised by a man in that area.  His boss owns the apartment building too.  He has a long distance romance going with one of the girls in Ohio near Xenia where they used to live.  We came back home and prepared to go to the play the girl’s have been practicing for. It is a spoof on some Shakespeare plays.  We had to go to the afternoon performance to help Emily with the tickets, so we attended the first half of it before coming home for supper.  We had chopped carrots and potatoes in the morning and put them and some beef in a slow cooker.  I had one of my attacks and could not eat anything.  It was the second I have had in the past 2 days. 

This is a display of the snack items made by parents to sell during the intermission. 

We went back and attended the entire play this time with the entire family.  It was a very funny play.  Many of the lines and settings were modernized in a very humorous way.  For example, 2 teens were texting messages to modernize a conversation between Bianca and Kate in The Taming of the Shrew.  A parent video taped the final performance and will give each cast member a copy.  Since our girls will get 1 each, we hope they will send us a copy. 

Another iron chef day.

Noah wakened me because Emily was ill and unable to take Pieder to the air base to work.  I drove him with Elizabeth along as a guide for me to return home without being lost.  Rosalie was ready when we returned and we walked to Carl’s Jr., a restaurant Rosalie likes for breakfast.  We spent almost an hour eating and visiting with her. 

We walked back past an interior design store she would like to work for in the future.  She wants to be an interior designer someday.  We returned home and relaxed a while before lunch.  Suddenly, there was another movement for an iron chef competition.  Three contestants began their feverish preparations. limited to 30 minutes time.

Here they are lined up in front of the community cooking area.  In the distance is Andrew, Stephen and Elizabeth in the foreground.

The contestants display their creations below.

Elizabeth seems to be stronger after sampling her work.

Andrew, who was not interested so much in winning as eating the food, appears relaxed and was begrudgingly patient.

 

Stephen watches the judging and waits for the judging of his dessert.  He loves to create things in the kitchen but seldom wins the competition.  After this late lunch, the girls were off to the play practice.  The first of 3 performances begin tomorrow evening, but we won’t see any until the final one.

Wonderful culinary competition.

Wednesday was a down day for me.  Stephen and I went for a walk about half a mile in length before breakfast.  We began another round of hand and foot before Evelyn and Emily took the girls to play practice.  I stayed home and read to Stephen, helping him with his studies.  We worked for nearly 2 hours before Andrew came up to fix a good lunch for the men left at home.  I was surprised as to how good it was.  When the ladies returned,  we began another game of hand and foot.  Emily had to take Andrew to the Goodwill to get some shoes and clothes.  Noah replaced his mother on their team, but didn’t get too enthused with kids enjoy a competition they based on a TV show called “Iron Chef”.  Evelyn, Rosalie and Stephen were the contestants.  They were to prepare an appetizer, entrée and dessert, but the catch was they had to use some predetermined items in each dish. 

The 3 contestants working in the early stages of the shared kitchen project.  One of the judges is preparing something else.

Stephen had burned a finger, and I made him submerge it in ice water.  I substituted for him in some of the chopping he had to do, but he continued doing other things one handed.

The competitors worked feverishly to finish within the 60 minute allotted work time.

Each presented his product for the judges to evaluate.

The judges based the products based on creativity, taste and presentation.  To our surprise, Rosalie won the competition.  We shouldn’t have been surprised because they do this often at their home, and she has had much experience.  Everyone’s offerings were good despite being required to use macaroni in the dessert offerings.  We all shared in the leftovers, even the boys who had gone to a home church for the evening. 

When everyone was finished with kitchen clean up, we continued with 3 more segments of hand and foot.  Stephen and I won but must remember: the is little skill to this game.  You either get the cards or you don’t.  We went to bed early so we could take Rosalie to breakfast in the morning.  I had hoped to receive a phone call from Joe and Bonny who are grieving the loss of their daughter in law, but they probably have many family members visiting for the funeral and may call tomorrow.  We are sure she trusted in Christ’s promise of eternal life, but we all need the comfort of each other in these times.  That is why Christ established His church: so He can comfort each other through us.

Around the neighborhood.

We took Stephen for breakfast at a local restaurant for breakfast.  It is close to the Beeli’s.  Afterward we walked to the nearest post office which is in the city administrative center.  I had to mail my old telephone back to the Verizon company, so we walked a mile to this post office.  The building was very relaxing inside.

We relaxed a bit before continuing our walk to the Wal-Mart.  It was a short distance from this area but farther from their home.  We bought a couple of items and walked the mile+ back.  The weather has been wonderful, but today was the warmest: 78 and sunny.  We worked up a mild sweat on our return trip.

We returned to find the second son, Noah, finishing his breakfast.

We didn’t eat lunch but did snack a few times before supper.  We worked on the computer some, and I helped Noah cut some wood for the compost bin he is making.  Probably due to a mistake I made in holding the wood he was cutting, the table saw stopped working.  Noah was able to dis assemble and reassemble the saw, but it still wouldn’t work.  We used a Skill saw to complete the cutting.  He will continue to build the compost bin later.  We came in for supper and then the 6 of us played the first phase of hand and foot before going to bed. 

Breakfast with Stephen

This is Stephen Beeli, the 10 year old eating machine.  Emily suggested we take the children out to breakfast alone.  He is 10 but eats like a forest logger.  His breakfast is a large omelet, hash brown potatoes, 2 slices of toast and 2 pancakes.  I had to help him a bit with the pancakes but not much.  Evelyn and I shared an omelet, hash browns and sourdough toast.

The Elizabethan Hotel

Elizabeth’s bedroom the girls prepared for us to use.  I features a great mattress, a goodies basket and coupons for various services,  e.g. back rubs.  The pictures covering the wall are permanent fixtures.

This is the vanity prepared for their grandma.  It features a long string of earrings to wear.

This is the bathroom sink featuring goat soap for us to use.

The girl’s are in a play of excerpts of Shakespearean plays, so they named the room Elizabethan Hotel.

My buffed sweetheart

Evelyn posing before her exercise class at the Waynesville rec center.  The equipment consists of a chair, 4 pound weights, and a stretch band.

Home school wrap up

Elizabeth is reading some praises of her teachers at the closing ceremony.

Rosalie is presenting a plant to and reading praises of the teachers.  The lady on the left is the director of the plays, and our daughter, Emily, has been a great help in the program.  She will be the leader for the next season.

These students have finished a 3 year course called the Thomas Jefferson Youth Certification meaning they have learned how to think and know many principles of US government and how to become statesmen. They each gave speeches.

This is Noah giving his speech.  He was last of the 5 to speak.   The first 4 spoke far beyond the time anyone could pay attention.  Realizing this, Noah spoke impromptu and shortened his sincere thoughts about the important points in the course.

Worship and Sunday fun

We went to the Lutheran church in Layton for our worship.  We had attended there last year and looked forward to the formal worship service.  While the message was inspiring, the order of worship was not.  Rosalie and I took turns helping each other find the correct places in the liturgy.  Part was in a printed folder and part was in the Lutheran Book or Worship.  It is a chore to flip back and forth plus being unnecessary in my opinion.  It should be printed in total or followed the liturgy in the hymnal.  We were also blessed by Holy Communion.  On the way home we passed a corner where a man advertised for Little Caesar's Pizza.  He waves a sign, spins it on his fingers and then on his foot.  We were so impressed that we went to the corner and solicited his autograph.  We then went to the store and bought 2 deep dish pizzas.  Even though an egg casserole had been prepared for lunch, we ate the pizza.  We then finished our game of hand and foot.  We ate the casserole in shifts for supper in between hands of cards.  We went to bed a bit early so we could take Stephan to breakfast tomorrow.

Some fun in Utah.

Friday Evelyn and I went for a half mile walk by ourselves before having a late breakfast of cereal and then went to watch the kids play Ultimate Frisbee.  We did take their dog, Cody, and took him for a walk around the park where the kids play.  Noah had taken a tennis racquet and the dog’s tennis ball.  I hit the ball several times and watched the dog run after it.  He ran very fast and always brought it back to me until he got tired.  Then he walked past me and lay down under the Suburban for a rest period.  When rested he brought the ball back, and we continued for a while.  We returned home and the girls made several pizzas—one of which was Italian sausage.  They were quite tasty albeit with a very hard crust.  We all loved it.  I can remember their making some very unpalatable food they had made in the past but this was very good.  During the evening we watched an episode of “Chopped” in which 4 chefs compete to make different courses for prize money.  We were visited much of the time and then went to bed.

Saturday we walked with Elizabeth and Rosalie a bit farther than yesterday and returning for breakfast.  We had cereal and goat milk again.  They have 3 goats that produce milk and a kid. The goats are pregnant and are not giving much milk yet but will be pumping it out by summer.  Stephen is an obsessive/compulsive card player and wanted to play hand and foot.  Since it was hard to assemble the right amount of participants, he settled for Phase 10.  We had a good time with 4 people.  After lunch the older kids went a movie theater to see “Iron Man 3”, an action packed movie too full for Stephen.  We played a game for 2: Protestant Poker.  It is a game that challenges the memory.  The lunch was a turkey casserole that was delicious.  Finally we were able to assemble 6 people to play hand and foot.  Partners were Evelyn and Rosalie, Emily and Elizabeth, and Stephen and Grandpa. We only played 1 of the 4 hands and Stephen and I were far in the lead.  We all went to bed early so we could be alert in worship tomorrow.