Grandpa's One-liners...

I've got several friends with young children that are always posting the funny things their little ones say on their blogs, and I have often wished the boys were younger and giving me material for my blog. Now I have my father saying funny things almost daily, so I'm going to begin posting the things he says & calling them Grandpa's One-liners.

Here are a few samples:

About a week after he moved into Jamestown, he had been over for a visit & I was taking him back to his apartment. As we walked into the common area where a lot of the residents come to watch TV he said, "I don't like it here, I don't belong here." My response was "Dad, you're always telling me how much you like it here." He then waved his arm around the room & said "But look, they're all old."

Suzy & her family were flying into town Friday morning & were going to drive up to Idaho to visit a favorite uncle, dad's brother Skip. They decided it would be nice to take dad with them, so Friday morning I picked him up at 8:00 & took him to meet them. As we were walking toward the door I was a few steps ahead of dad, when a lady that lives there passed between us & dad kind of bumped into her a little. After bumping into her dad said, "Excuse me darling" to her, then to me he said, "She's one of my girlfriends. I like her best...she doesn't talk too much."

Then, tonight as I was taking him back over to Jamestown the radio was on a country station. Kenny Chesney was singing his song Down the Road, about a boy that wants to marry the girl "down the road." One of the lines is about how the girls father wants to know if the boys makes enough to take his daughter down the road. After that line dad said, "heck, how much money do you need to go down the road...that's dumb"

Keeping Promises...

In September of 2005 my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer & a month later got pneumonia, which sped the dying process, but was a much gentler death. As mom’s body was shutting down on her, we could tell she was fighting to hang on & felt that it was because she was worried about our father, who has dementia. Independently & unknown to each other, my sister Suzy & I each went in to let our mom know that she did not need to worry about our dad, because we would take care of him.

Suzy does not work outside of her home & had an extra bedroom, so the plan was for dad to live with Suzy & her family. Suzy & her family were wonderful! They welcomed dad into their home with open arms. Then about a year ago, Suzy began having health problems due to the stress of caring for dad, so he moved into my brother Norman’s home. When dad moved in with Norman & Toni we all knew it was going to be temporary, because as dad’s dementia progressed he would need more skilled care. We began gathering information on some facilities in California that were centrally located between Suzy & Norman, but none of them quite met dad’s needs.

Then one Sunday as Tanner was speaking in the Sacrament meeting of a retirement home in our ward boundaries it dawned on me…“dad should move to Utah.” It hit me that if dad were living here in Utah, he would be able to attend Sacrament meeting & the staff at the facility would be respectful of his religious beliefs & customs. I began checking into assisted living care facilities & found Courtyard at Jamestown. They have an Enhanced Care unit, which is a secure section for patients with memory loss. When Eli & I toured the facility, we knew it was perfect! It met all dad’s needs…they even have an outside courtyard where dad can pull weeds!

In April I flew down to San Diego on a Thursday & the next morning Suzy & I drove dad up to Utah with all his belongings. On Saturday we went to Jamestown to set up dad’s room with all his furniture & photos, so that Monday when he arrived it would all be familiar. As we were putting his stuff away I have to admit, there were moments of guilt…I had promised my mother that I would help to take care of dad! But now that dad has been at Jamestown for almost two full months, I no longer have guilt. Dad has thrived at Jamestown! They have daily activities such as cooking classes, music appreciation and exercises, as well as scenic bus rides three times a week. He even went to a petting zoo last week. He is also eating regularly & has even gained some weight back.

From the moment the idea came to me, I have felt it was the right move & as plans have just fallen into place for dad to be able come to Jamestown it has been reaffirmed to me that this is the right decision for dad. So I guess that sometimes keeping the promises we’ve made means doing things differently than we had planned.

Round-abouts...Wanna Love 'em, Gotta Hate 'em!

I have actually been formulating this post in my mind for quite a while now...and was re-inspired to finally get it written when my niece-in-law Hannah acknowledged her frustrations with them today on her Facebook status.

The city planners in Provo & Orem love their roundabouts! In the past five years most of the really busy 4-way stops in these two cities have been converted to round-abouts. The whole concept behind them is actually really good & they are very convenient...when used properly. That's the "gotta hate 'em" part of the equation...most drivers don't use them properly. On my daily commute, I have to drive through at least two round-abouts and depending on the route I take may need to use up to five...just to get to 8 miles from my house to UVU!

The whole concept of the round-about is to keep traffic moving, so there is nothing more frustrating then to be driving along, enjoying my morning ride & come up to an idiot driver stopped at a round-about waiting for all the cars to pass! It's not a four-way stop any more...the idea is to safely merge into the flow of traffic. The other side of the frustration is that there are those other idiot-drivers that insist on speeding up when they see someone approaching the round-about so that they won't have to let them in! UG! And I'm not so sure it's a "Utah driver" thing either...I've noticed that the round-abouts with the most problems are located in areas highly populated by BYU & UVU students driving cars from out of state & I've also been the passenger in a car driven by someone visiting from another state & had them ask me "what do I do?" when they get to the round-about.

I'm not quite sure what the solution is...it's kind of like the "carpool" lane, which is a whole other frustration! Some people get it & some people don't, & those of us that do will just have to continue to tolerate the idiot-drivers that will never get it!

Are You Twins...

My sister Suzy & I have always been very close...best friends in fact. Whenever we get together there is lots of laughter, joking & teasing. I think the fact that I am only 18 months older than her helped, but another big contributor to our close friendship was our mother making us play together when we were younger...because, "friends come & go, but you will always be sisters!"

As kids, then young adults & later as roommates when we would go places together it wasn't uncommon for strangers to ask us if we were twins...usually the reply was one of saying "yes" and the other saying "no" at the same time! I don't know how many people told me "Welcome home" when Suzy returned from her mission. Even now when either one of run into people that new us when we were younger, they will ask "Aren't you one of the Thomas girls?" because they don't know which one we are.

It's funny though, because when we were younger I didn't really see it...maybe because my hair was blond & hers was brunette. But I was noticing the other day as I was looking at photos, that we really do look quite a bit alike.

Blood, Sweat & Tears...

When Eli & I bought this old house it was not because we loved it! It was because we loved the property & the beautiful view of the valley, and knew that the house could be remodeled. Currently our house is not very pretty to look at...it is a hodgepodge of cinder block, river rock, lava rock & siding. Not to mention the "garage room"...an addition that was intended to be a garage with an extra bedroom on the second story. The only problem it that the owner at the time forgot to factor in the staircase to get upstairs to the bedroom when he figured the length of the room, so it ended up being too short to park a car inside!

We had great plans for turning this ole puzzle into something beautiful...something to be proud of. Due to economic situations & a fire our plans have not come to pass quite as quickly as we had planned, but during my Spring Break from work we finally got started on our remodel!

One of the things that bugs me most about the house is that my kitchen is practically a part of my living room. In fact when we first bought the house, as you came in the front door, you were standing in my kitchen. Eli built a wall and created an entryway, but we knew one of the first things we wanted to do was move the kitchen.

The area we wanted to move the kitchen to is the perfect spot for a kitchen, except for the wall of windows! The windows are too long...we wouldn't be able to place cabinets on that wall. Well, not unless we change the windows! So that was our project for Spring Break.

Friday morning Eli & I started removing the molding around the windows & that went really fast...so then we took out the windows, & that went really fast too! We kept looking at the clock & saying, "Wow! That only took 10 minutes." Things just kept moving along so quickly, we were thinking we might actually have the new windows back in by that evening!

The wall that we were needing to change is a cinder-block wall, so while I made a quick trip to Lowe's to buy mortar, Eli was going to get the cinder-blocks we already had moved to where we needed them. That was when he noticed that the cinder-blocks on this wall are actually not as thick as the ones we had! Which was really odd, because the left over blocks were from when we filled in a window on another wall...who would have thought that a builder would have used two different size cinder-blocks when building a house! (This is the point in the story where Eli tells people that having level floors & square walls is seriously over-rated!) Luckily when we got back to Lowe's they had the exact size of cinder-block we needed sitting right by the back door, so I just backed the truck up to the stack & Eli loaded them on.

Once we had the right size bricks work started moving quickly again. Connor got home in the afternoon & was able to help Eli placing the bricks, which really helped out! Once all the brinks were in place, we decided to let the mortar dry & save the framing & putting the windows in until Saturday. Thankfully the weather cooperated, because we left it all open & just closed the door on that room, so the rest of the house wouldn't get too cold.

Saturday morning Eli's back was feeling a little tender from lifting & hauling the cinder-blocks the day before, so he took some Aleve & we got started building the frame for the opening. Once again things were moving along really well...we had the frame up & were trimming the molding that was going to hold the windows in place when Eli cut his finger with his circular saw...OUCH! Wow! What a lot of blood! We quickly got him into the bathroom to try a get it cleaned & bandaged. The problem was that the first aid kit with the gauze & surgical tape was out in the tool shed, and all we had was band-aids...which weren't sticking because he was bleeding so badly. So being a quick thinker, Eli grabbed some blue painters tape to wrap around the finger & keep the band-aids in place! It was amazing...within 1/2 an hour Eli was back working! He was back trimming the molding & nailing it in place. In fact it was his back that was bothering him! I guess it was a good thing he took that Aleve in the morning.

Eli's injury slowed us down a little but, by the end of the day we had the new windows in place! We still needed to make another trip to Lowe's for the the finish molding & it was late before we got home, so the project is not quite complete...but we are so close!

Outside...before we started!

Outside view: After the windows are out.

Inside view: without the windows!

Eli pulling wires for electricity...

The first row of blocks...so far so good!

Framing: After the 2nd row of blocks...before the accident!

The new windows!

Now we just need to get the finish molding up & paint. These new windows are wonderful! The old ones were not double paned...we never realized how much noise from outside came in until we got these new windows up!

I guess this is just the beginning...

Simple Machines...

Tanner had an assignment in his Science class to build a machine, that can perform a task, by putting together three simple machines...and he could not spend more then $10. He came up with an idea & the three simple machines that he used were a screw, a wedge, and a lever. Adding in some of the scrap wood that we have from past projects he was able to build a lathe....& it actually works!

Silence Is Golden...

It all started a few days ago...Tanner & I had been running errands & decided to get something to eat on the way home rather than cook. As I was getting ready to order, I turned off my radio to speak to the person that was taking my order. After getting our food, I forgot to turn the radio back on. We had been driving in silence for a while before I noticed how peaceful it felt. Then the most amazing thing happened...Tanner & I actually had a conversation about his day at school, rather then sing to the radio together!

The next morning as Connor & I got in the car to go to seminary & work, Connor asked, "Why is the radio off?" Then, after I explained why the radio was off, he & I preceded to have another very nice conversation!

After work, as I was driving home alone...still with the radio off, I realized that there is almost always some sort of noise going on in the background during my day...the radio playing in the car as I'm driving or in my office while I'm working, or the TV at home...even when no one is watching it. Then I realized, I really enjoyed the quiet! So...I have been leaving the radio off in the car & turning off the TV at home more often.

Wow! What a difference it has made! Not only am I getting to know my boys a little better & have them know I am interested in what they're doing...I find that I can actually hear that still small voice sometimes...now that it doesn't have to compete with the noise!