OBX

I have "old blogger's x-haustion" or rather OBX. I returned from our marvelous trip to the Outer Banks/Greensboro, with a lifetime of memories and 500 photos, and have been a failure at bloggerizing it. I even kinda DREAMED about it last night. In my dream I had a great idea for a novel. I was struggling so hard to make myself wake up so I could write it down because I KNEW I'd forget it. I didn't wake up or write it down, but I didn't forget it either. The idea was that I was writing a scholarly article and needed to interview an expert. I found a blogger, and quoted them in the article, only to find out, and here's the twist and dramatic tension, THE BLOGGER WAS LYING AND WASN'T AN EXPERT AT ALL!! So, yeah, I'm having issues.

When I returned from our trip, I realized that using my home computer was giving me carpel tunnel. BAD! When I went on vacation, my wrists/hands/arms were relentlessly bothering me, fire, tingling, cold, numb. I told Grandpa Hiatt I thought I had "peripheral neuropathy." Say it syllable by syllable - it's fun. Not fun to have though. I had started squeezing my fingers for relief. But while I was gone, the symptoms blessedly disappeared, only to return when I came home and started using my computer. So now I don't have a new set-up figured out. And I have sworn off playing Words with Friends endlessly on Facebook (insert sad face here). 

Last week I started writing about the trip using "notes" on my ipad, and it was a blast to use the bluetooth keyboard Angie gave us. I propped myself up IN BED and with the ipod under the covers next to me and  held the untethered keyboard separately on my lap and TYPED!. I was riding high, pouring out all sorts of stuff. At the end of my writing session, and it was a doozy, pages and pages, I copied and pasted over to my email, but it didn't work. So I tried another route, and in the process deleted everything. I'm so ticked. And now I can't make myself do it over again.

So, this attempt is a lurching, unorganized mess. Case in point, try making rhyme or reason out of the following:  I love looming dark afternoons when a summer rainstorm comes rolling in and I'm home ironing. It happens every so often. I'm making myself laugh out loud right now thinking about teasing Andrea about ironing, actually teasing the younger generation about ironing, which is something you aren't a slave to and neither am I; but you've grown up with synthetics so it's not in your lifeblood like it is in the veins of we, your mamas. While I was in NC, I got go attend Sunday Relief Society with Andrea and they passed around a sign-up sheet asking for household items for sister who was moving into a new apartment. One of the needs was an iron. Andrea perked up and whispered to me "I can give her mine!" Just made me giggle.

There's a scripture in the Book of Mormon, one of my favorites, Alma 48: 17, that reads: "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men."

Well, yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all gospel doctrine teachers had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Andrea, behold, the very powers of hell and Sunday School would be shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." We loved being able to attend her gospel doctrine class. I got to play the organ in their ward too! I LOVED it. And Brandon gave a talk and he seemed like a young man, like a missionary-in-training, like a man/boy. I beamed at him the whole time. It was awesome.

And I got to see my sister Julie's dear friend Dee who lives in Andrew's ward.She told me stories about when she and Julie were roommates in San Franciso- back in the day -and were starving young professionals trying to cobble together a life in that expensive town. She said she spent the year changing jobs and Julie spent the year fending off men. At one time there were 8 or 9 guys who wanted to marry Julie. And then she told me a story about needing 43 cents to buy a bar of soap so their houseguest would have some, and only having 41 cents and finding the other two cents on the street!

Here is me and Dee at church, and also a selfie Brandon took of all of us in the parking lot, right after we said our final good-byes at the church, and were headed to the airport in Raleigh (and Brandon found my earring in the parking lot that I didn't even know I'd lost):

Okay, I'm going to write a little about our long, luxurious trip. I will feel better for at least starting, and will add more in the coming days as I can.

OUTER BANKS TRIP 2014!!!
Since we were going to be gone for two weeks, we decided to ask friends and family to take us to the airport and pick us up so we wouldn't have to pay for airport parking.Our neighbor Roger took us to the airport, and Denny picked us up when we returned.

Roger is a retired fireman and the class clown of our ward. He has that gift of being funny in the moment (like Forrest) and he makes me laugh out loud on a regular basis. Roger lives four houses down from us and as we pulled up to get him he was standing outside holding up this sign. He cracks me up.

Roger dropped us off at the airport and we flew to Atlanta where we were to make our connection and fly to Raleigh/Durham where Andrew would pick us up. At least that was the plan..............until we found out our plane out of Atlanta was delayed because of weather, and they actually gave the plane away to another destination. So we listened to a guy playing live music which was a treat.

Dennis assumed his Kindle pose, and I bought a book and some snacks. We called Andrew to let him know of the delay. With his vast experience on planes being delayed, he told us to be prepared for a looooooooooong wait. He said they will tell us they should have us leaving around 9:45 pm then they'll change it to 10:15, then 10:45, then they'll say we won't be leaving until the morning. REALLY? I called him back and said they had a plane for us and he said in an ominous voice, "But, do they have a CREW?"  Well, yes, they did have a crew and we flew into Greensboro in a terrifying lightening and thunder storm. I thought I was going to die. It's the only time I've ever had a fear of flying. It was scary. But there were no announcements about impending death from the captain and nobody else seemed scared. I was never so glad in my life to feel those wheels touch mother earth. We were seriously playing dodge-'ems with lightening.
It was so fun to see Andrew Boppy Sweat's tall self waiting there for us at the airport. (side note, man he's tall! He said he gets comments about his height on a daily basis). I provided him with comments every day while I was with him. Andrea has created a brand new guest room (here's a photo from her blog). She even had books for us to read and a basket of toiletries. Heaven! Well, heaven for Dennis, because we don't fit so good in one bed any more, and I fit better on the hide-a-bed. It seemed a crying shame to waste this room on a guy. Not that he didn't deserve or appreciate it, which he did and did, but, still. I took many daytime "resting my eyes" moments in the room whenever I had the chance! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Memorial Day Weekend

Where exactly did May go? Before too much time goes by I wanted to post some photos of Memorial Day weekend. We had three different Memorial Day visits this year. On Friday we picked up mom and dad and drove up to the Salt Lake City cemetery. Such a grand old cemetery with prophets and apostles galore buried there. Here we are next to Grandmother Nan's grave. She was the only grandparent I had and I thought the world of her. When we would come to Salt Lake City to visit, on our way to Iowa City, I would be SICK with excitement as soon as I saw the lights of the refineries on the North end of Salt Lake City. We were there! The big city, the lights, the traffic, the exits! Grandmother's house with the curved stairs and the apartment in the bottom where nameless law students lived, and the little stained glass window at the curve of the stairs and her bedroom at the bottom, and the serene veranda and grape juice with 7-up in it and toast with honey.

Doesn't grandpa look sporty with his cane? The ground is so uneven at the SL cemetery that I wished I had a cane myself! Before we left I called Uncle Steve to see if he knew the location (I always forget) and he told me he remembers being a boy and running around through the headstones while grandmother and her sisters would visit and clean the headstones and spiff up the plot and make sure the grass wasn't growing over the edges. He said he was going to go up on Monday and bring a shovel and do that, but his knees were too bad now so he couldn't kneel down to wash off the headstones, so I told him we'd do it. Windex and bottle of water we brought are in the background.Uncle Steve will always be 28 in my mind. And I will always be eight. But alas, he's 82 and I'll be 62.

The Russell headstone is quite grand! You can find it on the far west side of Salt Lake City cemetery. It's in that first quadrant if you park on the street on the West close to the North end - second little cemetery street from the top. It might be" P" street and 6th Avenue. I already forgot. When we were first married, we lived across the street from this cemetery, at 1023 3rd Avenue. I would take Angie over and she'd trace the letters on the headstones with her fingers and I'd tell her what they were. Come to think about it, we did that day after day after day! Much more exciting than buying Fisher-Price toys. And she was only 9 months old and speaking in full sentences..........really!.......

After we were done visiting the cemetery we drove by mom's old house on Harvard Avenue and gaped at the beautiful homes and streets and trees. Dennis spent his entire boyhood at his cousin Mardy Jolley's house on Michigan just a stone's throw away from mom's childhood home (Uncle Joel and Aunt Mary's house where I spent many happy hours as a newlywed, bless their hearts). Uncle Aaron and Aunt Dorothy's house is just across the street from mom's Harvard house and I never realized that!

Then we took our annual Sunday night drive to Valley View cemetery with Tony and Cindy and the kids. Dennis and I have plots on one side (don't know which). It will be a nice place to rest. I hope great-grandchildren bring whirlygigs and mums for us on Memorial Day if they live close by! Last year Calvin LOVED the whirlygigs when we went to the cemetery so I bought two mostly for him, although I think he was kinda over them this year.

Earlier in the week Tony and Cindy stopped by the cemetery in Heber City on their way home from St. George. While they were at the graves, I guess Calvin spontaneously flopped down on the headstone, kinda in the attitude of a Muslim prayer. So Tony asked him to do it again and here he is bowing to Mohamad in the East!. Grandpa Ranquist always included all religions so I think it's a fitting tribute, for as grandpa was once overheard saying to a stranger: "Hello! I'm from the tribe of Ephraim! What tribe are you from? ".

In the sideways photo below, Lauren is holding a picture of grandma and grandpa Ranquist. I bring that along because she is the only one of Tony's kids who remembers Grandpa Ranquist (and she only remembers riding in his Jazzie). Grandma Ranquist has been gone for three years and Grandpa for eight years (I think eight years, now I can't remember for sure). He died on my birthday.

I have flipped these pictures to be going the right way twice in my photo file on my computer and they are straight when I download them, but then they download sideways. Such is life.

On Monday dad and I headed up to Heber City to finish off our Memorial Day weekend. Such fond memories of Memorial Day picnics in Heber and softball games in the rain with the Hjorths!

This year we didn't run into anyone we knew and wouldn't you know it, another family there had a gas-powered weed eater and were "whraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang-ing" the dickens out of the reverie that is usually that little spot of paradise.

Below in the background: The "whraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang-ing"family caught in the act!

Remember the "Rasband" headstone? This is so engrained in my memory that I had to take a photo of it!

And finally, it has been so beautiful here lately. We've been working hard on the yard, with much left to do, but it looks kind of like retired people live here.

Is that a happy man? He LOVES being retired. He said Sunday night is his favorite night. I concur. Sunday night is like Christmas Eve every week - it's the night before NOT HAVING TO GET UP AND GO TO WORK the next day. It's sweet! He also loves getting a good night's sleep for the first time in decades. He has been working out at the gym religiously (and teaching sunday school and going to the temple once a week, speaking of "religiously!" AND doing family history too). He goes to Lifetime fitness and works on the treadmill. He tried swimming but that didn't work. He likes the treadmill although it's still hard some days. His blood sugar is down like 40 points, his blood pressure is down, he's dropped some weight, he doesn't have headaches, diarrhea or leg cramps any more.It's marvelous.

He's also selling the motorcycle. He said now that he's retired he doesn't want to take the chance of someone turning left in front of him! He puts it out in front of the house every night and lots of people slow down and look at it but nobody's called with any offers yet. I get wistful and want him to take me on a ride through Daybreak on warm summer nights. It's time though. They are dangerous. Don't ever buy one children!

We had quite the month at our house as all four girls (Angie, Amy, Andrea and Cindy) were all serving as Relief Society President at the same time for about an hour last Sunday until Andrea was released as a result of Andrew's new calling into the Stake Presidency. I honestly can't wrap my head around that happening. It's just beyond belief, and I smile with wonder and gratitude each time I think about it. Love all of you!!!
XO
Mom

I'm married to someone who is on Social Security!

It all started about a month ago when Forrest told us he would be in town for the St. George IronMan thingy where they run and swim and bicycle in torturous succession and somehow don't end up in the hospital. It also happened to be over the same weekend that Dennis retired and turned 65 and seriously, he's on Social Security. That makes no sense. My PARENTS are on Social Security. Then Angie decided to come too and we thought, hey, let's not tell Dennis that Angie is coming, and surprise him! It would be just like on my 60th birthday when I answered the door and there stood Amy with Jack, Macy and Carly and I about died. So then Andrew and Andrea put their heads together and decided Andrew should fly out too (what a stunning phone call that was!) and so then we had to call Amy and fill her in on what was brewing and see if she if she could arrange everything and come too, and wait, better call Tony and Cindy and make sure they're in town.... Whew, they were, yippee! But THEN Angie got called as RS President and made the hard decision that she needed to stay home and take care of the cascade of events that were pouring down on her, with finals and kids and their ward being split and her calling. We MISSED having her here, but we know she and Andrea and Dave were here in spirit and oh thank you thank you thank you all eight of you rock stars for making this happen! I haven't been this excited about something for years. It was sooooooooo fun to have something to look forward to, and that it was a complete surprise to dad. Detective Shmetective - Officer Sweat didn't suspect a thing.

So to backtrack a bit, the day Dennis retired (Friday, May 2nd) I was in Provo enjoying the annual BYU Women's Conference, sitting in the Marriott Center listening to the speaker. I got a text from dad about 9:30 that morning. My FIRST text from dad and, knowing dad, it might be my last. It said: "I'm done!"  That was it. Gotta love it.

Here is the view from Women's Conference. We sat on the "dark" side in the soft seats. It's fun because we see the back of the presenters heads and read the teleprompter.

The campus was bursting with springtime beauty .We saw a mother duck and her 12 little ducklings....

 Go back into the water, ye little adventurous ones!

These pink trees are my favorite. Every year I want to find out what kind they are and plant some. Oh, wait, they would die in my South Jordan clay.........

Not to be confused with the backs of the speakers at the Marriott Center, these are the backs of the ladies I went to women's conference with: Kathy Shaw, Caren Thomas and Debbie Solberg. Their fronts are beautiful too

Yes, that's Dr. Sweat. We were on his stomping grounds! And that's Janelee Despain standing beside him. How fun is THAT? She reminded me so much of Merrily. Tony showed us his office and some paintings he's working on of Joseph Smith and the translation of the Book of Mormon. We even got to go to lunch with him. Plus as we were walking through the Joseph Smith building, we stopped to get on the elevator, and there was the photo below hanging in the main hall spotlighting him.I can't believe how much thinner his face is now that he's gotten all skinny on us! Handsome either way.

One of my favorite traditions at BYU women's conference is after we hike back to the Marriott Center from lower campus and are all exhausted, we take a break and lie right down on the grass and feel the sun on our faces and smell the roasted almonds in the air. This year the weather was gorgeous. Some years it's rainy and wet.

That evening we participated in the service project.This year was my favorite one ever. This lady next to Kathy needs major electrolysis.

We filled pouches with dry soup mix and sealed them up and put them in boxes. My job was to put 48 pouches in each box and then tape it shut. Dang postal tape dispensers foil me every time! I think we processed at least 500 pouches. They had fun disco music blaring too and we would all cheer each time we filled a box.  Do you like Kathy Shaw's happy pants? Kinda like Dave's party shirt.

There is a concert on Thursday night which is a highlight for me. Jenny Oaks Baker. Oh my. I could listen to her for hours, and watch her even longer. She is a feisty fairy princess. When the boy band  plays each year, hundreds of Mormon women sway with their phones. It's kinda silly.

We stay at the Bates Motel, er, I mean the Provo Super 8 every year. Luckily the ladies I get to hang out with are so fabulous that it really doesn't matter, and we can walk to campus, but I swear this place must stay in business because of BYU Women's conference. They just don't make 'em like they used to! Thank heaven.

"I like the painting above my bed!" "Actually I like the other one too!" 

Everyone was so nice and left a little early Friday to get me back home in time to hop back in the car and zip out to the airport and pick up Amy. I was as excited as a little kid before Christmas! When I left, Dennis was working on the sprinklers in the front yard, so when we came back home Amy crouched down in the passenger seat just in case Dennis was outside. High drama!! I pulled into the garage and left the door up, and walked into the house and chatted with Dennis. Then after a couple of minutes Amy got out of the car and walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. "Honey, would you answer that?" I love these photos!

Tony and Cindy helped pull off the surprise and volunteered to pick up Andrew that night. Andrew's plane was an hour late, and when 10:00 rolled around dad was yawning a LOT and I kept saying, "Tony and Cindy wanted to drop by and tell you congratulations, they should be here any minute. Gosh, I don't know what's taking them so long...maybe they had to stop and get gas...." But pretty soon, they walked through the front door, but Andrew stayed behind and out of sight. I didn't catch the "moment" when Andrew came into view and surprised him, but this was right after, when Dennis said, 'Is Angie in the closet?" (I wish!).

We had such a great time! Saturday they all went golfing (see Amy's blog for photos) and I stayed at Tony and Cindy's and had my own version of fun, giving four piano lessons to the best students I've ever had the pleasure of teaching. Lauren, Reagan, Jane (Jane is just taking off and is getting so good) and Eli. Vivi knows where middle C is too. Then Cindy made everyone a fabulous lunch and we sat around their round table and visited forever. I didn't have my camera with me, but we had a ball!

Sunday we had Dennis's party and gave him his book with everyone's sentiments and memories written in it. He loves it! Here are some photos of that get-together, beginning with Vivi and Cal walking on the stone path in the back yard and Reagan lying in the hammock.Can't wait for EVERYONE to be here walking on stones and lying in the hammock. Well, not everyone in the hammock at once. I remember Dennis breaking mom and dad's hammock a long time ago in La Grande. Sorry!

If you look closely at this picture below you can see Forrest FaceTiming with Angie and the kids in Minnesota. That was super cool!

So, that's about it for now. I just get so excited now waiting for this summer!!! Love you all to smithereens.
Mom