Mark's surgery

Mark had back surgery on March 23rd. He is still in Mountain View Hospital. His doctor said he would be off work for 6 weeks to 3 months. I hope he starts feeling better soon.

Mark had to use a walker to get around at first.

These are the two bars along side Marks spine now.

The incision is only 4 and a half inches long.

Mark actually liked wearing comfortable pajamas.

His pain medicine made Mark feel "foggy" and he did and said some funny things.

California trip 2011 Part 1

I traveled with the Idaho State Bengal Dancers
February 25, 2011, Friday
We all flew out of Idaho Falls on Allegiant airlines to Long Beach, California. It is so nice to be able to drive 10 minutes to the Idaho Falls airport, and Mark drove me. When we arrived in California it was raining, and yes, I and my luggage were wet by the time I got in my nice Nisson Altima Hybrid Car. (I really like my rental car, and it is so silent you can't even tell when the engine is on.)
I loved my rental car. It was nice to drive. It was a Nisson Maxima Hybrid.

Our hotel was right next to an outdoor shopping center.
We left soon after to walk to Mimi's Cafe, where we had a yummy dinner. This picture is of Katie waiting with the team at Mimi's Cafe.
Then we walked to the movie theatre in Downtown Disney and the coach paid for us to all go to a movie, Gnome and Juliet. I fell asleep at some point. Then we waited at the theatre while a few cars drove people back because it was after midnight, cold, and windy.


It was 1am by the time I went to bed. Katie's room is just 3 doors down from mine. It is fun being with a group of beautiful young girls.


I ate with the parents at Bubba Gump's one night. It was good seafood. And the restaurant is based on the movie "Forest Gump".


As Katie's team left to fly back to Idaho, I drove off to go to my Uncle Keith's home in Sanger, a suburb of Fresno.
This is his yard. He has a flock of peacocks that just wander around the yard.

When my kids were young and we visited Uncle Keith they had a ton of fun playing in the pool (which was actually filled with water back then)
Uncle Skip drove down from Sunnyville on Wednesday to spend the day with us. It was great to spend some time with my funny uncles.

The last night Debbie and I went shopping at Wal Mart to get everything on his shopping list. They are arriving tommorrow at noon.

Many moons

It has been many moons since I posted anything on my blog. Since my daughters like to use this blog site, I guess I'll try to update mine.

February 11, 2011 Friday
I felt old today because I took off work 2 hours early for doctor appointments. Mark and I spent 2 hours getting our hearing tested. I have some volume and clarity loss, but Mark's is worse, especially his left ear. If we could afford it, we would order a fancy, expensive hearing aid for him. He has another appointment in 6 months. Then I had to go the Sleep doctor. I turned in my home study sleep machine and got another one to do this weekend. Then I did errands and had an eye doctor appointment. I got new contacts last Saturday and he needed to check my eyes. He is going to order a different pair of contacts for me to see if he can improve my vision even more.

As I arrived home, Mark did too with the twins. I had a terrific evening spending time with the twins, Sam and Will, while Amber and Shaun went to a dance.


This is my new suitcase I bought for my California trip.

And here I am in my green and yellow shirts ready to cheer on the Green Bay Packers for the Super Bowl.

Main Salmon River rafting trip

Thursday
I've been so excited for this trip. The opportunity just came up a week ago. I've always wanted to do the rafting trip on the Main Salmon River through the Frank Church Wilderness.
6pm We arrived at Greg Hulets home in Idaho Falls. (The Alpine Club's rafting director).
8:00pm We had the trailer packed with the rafts and all our gear, we had stopped for taco fast food, and finally drove onto the freeway to drive to Corn Creek-which is at the end of the road up from North Fork. (43 miles up from North Fork)
We camped at the campground next to the Corn Creek Boat ramp.
Our party of 7 consisted of Greg Hulet, Mark, and I from Idaho Falls, Lanie Benson from Driggs, Mark and Cheryl Hoza from Bozeman, MT, and Stormy Hulet and Marcie from Utah State in Logan. We took 3 rafts; 2 blue Maravia, and the big yellow club raft.
Mark,and I were in the yellow raft with Lanie Benson as our oarsman.
Friday
The ranger at Corn Creek inspects your gear and gives a lecture on sticking with the Leave No Trace requirements.
12:30pm We finally left Corn Creek Boat ramp and on to our wilderness adventure!
Today we saw a black bear walking beside the river as we floated by, a bald eagle sitting in a tree next to the river,
7pm We finally arrived at our reserved camp site along the river. Which by campsite they mean a flat area on the beautiful white sand beaches to pitch your tents on. I'm not sure you'd be able to figure out which sandy beach was yours without GPS.
Saturday
It seemed like a long, calm day on the river. We had to cover more miles than usual because this is supposed to be a 6 day trip and we opted to do it in 5 days.
Mark and I cooked dinner this evening.
Sunday
We had the most rapids today. It was a fun day on the water.
Monday
This evening a herd of 7 Mountain sheep walked on the mountain just above our camp. We just sat in our camp chairs on the beautiful white sand beach and watched them slowly work their way across the mountain.
This afternoon a bee got tangled in my hair that was loose under a bandana and my wet suit and it stung me on my neck.
10:30pm The night was so beautiful we sat on the beach talking for longer than we had planned. Each night we would sit in our camp chairs in a circle to talk. We never had a campfire since you have to carry out the ashes with you from this wilderness area.
Tuesday
7am Mark and I got up. We provided breakfast this morning. It was cold and breezy this morning.
9:10am the rafts were packed and ready to go. 11 minutes later we pushed off and out on to the river in the sunshine. It was a beautiful morning and the scenery was beautiful. We stopped on a sandy beach for lunch. We passed another group of chuckers. We did several fun rapids and the most exciting was Vinegar Rapids. Then I was practicing rowing. (I kept calling it oaring) and Lanie (our oarsman-he is 62) decided I had improved enough to do the last class 2 rapid. Well we went sideways into the second hole (we only had 3 people on our raft). Well; Lanie got washed out, my backpack, and I lost an oar. It made such an exciting end to our trip.
2:25pm We pulled out of the "River of No Return" on to the boat ramp.
4:00pm We had everything loaded and ready to leave. We started the long drive back to Idaho Falls. The nearest city when you get off the river is Riggins, Idaho. As we drove on the dirt road we came upon a small black bear. We stopped and he was really scared. He very quickly climbed a tree. We took pictures of him, he came down and walked off. Then we stopped to picked black raspberries along the road above the river. We stopped in Weiser and ate at Idaho Pizza Company (we called ahead and ordered).
2:20am We arrived back at our home in Idaho Falls.
It was truely an awesome trip and I'm hoping I'll be able to go again someday.
As for pictures, it's the same old story. I need to find the cord to get the pictures off of my phone. My camera is another story altogether. On day 3 I stepped on a large rock that turned out to be slick and fell into the river. I'm not sure my knee will ever be the same again. We had just gone on a short hike and my camera was in my pocket. It has been drying out for days now. I'm afraid to put the battery back in and see if I destroyed my camera.

Celebrating the Fourth of July at the cabin

We had a great time celebrating the Fourth of July at the cabin in Island Park.

Shaun's Surprise Birthday Party

On April 17th our daughter Amber gave Shaun a huge surprise birthday party at our house. It was a great party. I will post pictures later.

Tommy, Nancy, and Victor came to visit

April 9th and 10th, 2010

I was trilled to have my grandson Tommy, and his parents Nancy and Victor come from Twin Falls to visit me. We had Shaun, Amber, the twins, and Evan over for dinner too. It was a fun evening.

Easter 2010

This Easter was a little different than usual. A heavy, wet blanket of snow fell during the wee hours of the morning on Easter in Salt Lake City. The weather continued to improve, so we waited for the snow to melt until 2pm to have a fun Easter Egg hunt. We were much smaller in numbers this year. The kids hunt had just 3: Trevor, Colter, and Chloe. Trevor found the most money. The young adult hunt had 4: Abby, Brennon, Katie, and Evan. Abby found the most money. Then we had a small old adult hunt with 3: Danny, Pam, and I. It was fun. Pam found the most money. We had a nice dinner cooked by Danny at 5:30pm. We played a few games, and then it was time to go home. I sure did miss all my family members who weren't there. And of course my mom worried me by saying that this was her last Easter. But, we had a fun weekend.

My Birthday and I am not a senior citizen!

My birthday celebration has been spread out, and it sure has helped to face the big dreaded DOUBLE FIVE Birthday. And no, I don't feel any different, and not I'm not a senior citizen!
On March 13th I was visiting Nancy and Victor for the weekend in Twin Falls. Nancy made me a delicious birthday dinner: spinach lasagna. It was nice that I was able to celebrate with them. They gave me a battery operated Dolphin fountain.
On March 30th my visiting teachers delivered 3 beautiful pink roses to my work. Since then I've been getting birthday wishes from all my co-workers too.
Then that evening Amber cooked me another delicious birthday dinner: swedish meatballs, my favorite vegies, and a fantastic cheesecake. Brian and Nele were there too. Mark and Shaun went to bed (they catch the site bus early) and the rest of us played speed scrabble after dinner.
Tonight Mark and I are going to dinner with our friends David and Joni to the Sandpiper Restaurant. They are going to have a tough job to trying to cook a meal as good as my daughters Nancy and Amber did. Joni and I share the same birthday and we are a lot alike.
But my actual birthday day started at midnight when I went to the storage room to look for some easter stuff and found water on the floor. So I spent the next couple hours taking care of that. I beleve the rain gutter outside is clogged with leaves and we had a lot of rain yesterday. So when they tried to call me in early to work, the phone ring did not wake me.
I've received several happy birthday phone calls already, so thanks everyone for helping me through the tough DOUBLE FIVE.

My Florida Trip with the Bengal Dancers

The Bengal Dancers Team flew to Florida on Thursday. My text from Katie was: hey, I’m on the plane to Orlando. It’s nonstop booo haha. (January 14, 9:44am.)
She knew that our plane tickets had 2 stops. That evening I drove from Twin Falls to Pocatello. I was meeting 3 other mom's to drive to Salt Lake City tonight. But, they weren't ready, and it was 11pm by the time we left Pocatello.

JANUARY 15, 2010, Friday
On January 15th I flew to Florida with 3 other mom's and a 16 month old girl. (the daughter of the youngest Bengal dancer). We left our hotel room at 6:30am to leave for the airport. (And we just went to bed at 2:30am). We spent a long exhausting day traveling.
text from Katie: I hope your traveling goes ok today! Let me know how it’s going! We’re gonna go practice and play! (that was thoughtful of Katie)
I was hurrying to the gate for our connecting flight in the Atlanta airport when I received a phone call. “Katie is OK, but she is in an ambulance headed to the hospital.” Her coach explained that she choked on some chicken and couldn’t swallow. As soon as we disconnected I read the text that arrived while my phone was off on my first flight: text from Katie: I can’t swallow I’m choking 2:50pm At first I thought, oh it’s just like Ben, he’s been through it, and then I got al upset. Katie was so far away, in the emergency room, and I was stuck in Atlanta waiting for a late plane. My son Ben talked to me and calmed me down.
text from Katie: Might as well call me Ben Jr., haha
3:24pm By the time my plane landed in Orlando, Katie’s coach Hilliary said the procedure was done, and she was just waiting for Katie to wake up. They put Katie out and removed the piece of chicken and stretched her throat from a 12 to a 15. (the normal size is 20) I tried to decide if I should take a taxi to the hospital. But I ended up traveling with our group to the hotel, and taking forever to get checked in to our room, and walking all over the place. I kept in contact with Coach Hilliary and Katie at the hospital. Afterwards the hospital did another x-ray of Katie, and then they wanted to see if she could swallow soft food. They finally arrived back at the hotel around 8pm and the team was practicing out in the parking lot. Katie attempted to join them, but she was still unsteady and her coach made her sit down. By the time I saw Katie we were finally in the cafeteria getting something to eat. What a relief to see my beautiful daughter Katie coming towards me. She ate 2 bowls of ice cream for dinner. This was a stressful day.
(I left my camera cord in Twin Falls,so I will post pictures later.)

My January vacation-Babysitting

I traveled to Twin Falls late Sunday evening on January 10th.
pictures will be added later

New Year

I traveled to Salt Lake City to spend New Years Eve at my mom's house.

Christmas 2009

I'm really behind on my blog, so I'm trying to catch up.
Christmas Eve, I cooked for hours to make a nice Christmas Dinner. Amber and Shaun and the babies, Evan and Katie were supposed to be at our house for Christmas Eve for dinner and to play games. But, Amber and Shaun didn't come at 4:00pm when they said they would, and then they didn't have the twins. Just as we were finishing opening gifts, the twins got dropped off by Amber's mom. They spent about 15 minutes gobbling down dinner and took off for a church service. And that was our Christmas celebration with our kids. Pretty short. We were supposed to play games after their church service, but they called and said they wanted to tile their bathroom instead.

My first visit with my new grandson Tommy

December 18, 2009
When I got back from Oklahoma a little after 1pm, I repacked my bags and left for Twin Falls about 2 hours later. Amber made dinner for Nancy and Victor, so I stopped to pick that up.

Yipee! My training is done.

I am happy that my training at the NCED in Norman, OK is complete and my final exam is done!
Tomorrow I get to fly back to Idaho Falls.
Yippee!

A new Grandson!

My 6th Grandbaby will be born today. Nancy and Victor went to the hospital at 1am this morning. I wish I wasn't so far away in Oklahoma. It seems like it is taking forever for Tommy to arrive.

Tommy was finally born at 3:38pm!!!!! He weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces.

Training in Oklahoma

Well my training in Oklahoma started this morning in Oklahoma. I'm not sure where to post my pictures, on here or on facebook. But, it is starting to get late and I still need to study.

I posted the pictures on facebook.
December 6, 2009 Sunday
I’ve decided that I HATE flying anywhere. I had a nightmare trip back in January of this year, and today isn’t much better.
3:00am I awoke on the couch and began to get things done. I have felt so terrible the last 3 days with really bad stomach cramps. I organized Christmas gifts for wrapping. I worked on our budget. I washed clothes and took the Thanksgiving decorations downstairs.
I went to church and finished packing for my trip.
12:20pm I arrived at the airport, only to find that my airplane had not even left Denver. AAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! My flight ended up leaving over 2 hours late. And to make matters a ton worse, my cell phone died while we were parked on the runway waiting. And then when I arrived in Denver discovered my phone charger was in my checked luggage. Anyway I missed my connecting flight to Oklahoma City. Now I’m stuck in the Denver airport for over 2 hours.
11:15pm I walked into my hotel room.

December 7, 2009 Monday NCED BMEU Training
7:00am I have training every day for Bulk Mail Acceptance. Then we have homework to do at night. They have a nice fitness facility and I’ve been going there each evening. I got a fitness evaluation, I went to a nutrition class, a marriage relationship class. They are trying to help us improve ourselves in all areas of our lives. At the end of all the optional stuff they ask us to make goals.

December 11, 2009 Friday NCED Training
7:00 Training all day as usual.
4:00-6:00pm I went with Greg and his wife Tammy to see the local Casino run by the Chickasaw Indians. I went in one door and out the other, it was way too smoky. I walked around outside for a few minutes. Then we just drove around town, and then went to Wal Mart and I bought a few snacks and a book to read.

My Dad

I worried all week about my dad. He went to the hospital again for 2 days. So on Friday as soon as I got off work I drove to Salt Lake to see dad. On Saturday I spent 3 hours cleaning and reorganizing his bedroom. Dad isn't allowed to go downstairs anymore. Which is where he has spent all of his time, reading and watching TV for many years. Dad is not happy about not being able to go downstairs anymore.
Here is Colter and Chloe decorating Grandma's Christmas trees.


On Saturday I left at 1:30pm to drive home and spent the evening taking care of the twins. They are such a joy to be with.

Thanksgiving in Washington

November 25, 2009 Wednesday
I worked 10 hours today. They called me in early. And I had planned on finishing my packing before work. So when I got done working I had to rush home and finish packing.
4:50pm When I finally got on the freeway. I picked up Katie at her apartment and I drove to Nancy’s home in Twin Falls.
7:30pm Katie and I arrived at Nancy’s home. Nancy took Katie on a tour since it was the first time Katie had been there. They feed us dinner, and we played Catch phrase for a few minutes.
8:30pm Back on the road again. Katie drove.
3:45am We arrived at Jason’ house. We hadn’t expected to arrive so early, the garmin doesn’t account for time changes.
4:15am Back on the road again. Jason drove.
6:30am We arrived at Ben’s house. He was already up with Kiersten. Before long we were upstairs playing Ben’s new video game while Katie slept. And soon Ben and Jason kicked me out of the Wii game because I kept dying.
I helped Kara set the table for Thanksgiving. She did such a good job. Little children are so sweet and pure.
We had a good Thankgiving dinner early in the afternoon. We were all so hungry, we didn’t even wait for the potatoes to get done. We had some good ham, no turkey. I think that is the first time in my life I didn’t have turkey on Thanksgiving. Becky made homemade rolls and pies. We had corn on the cob (my favorite vegetable) and other good stuff. We had a nice day talking and playing games. I end up watching TV whenever they go back to playing their video game. I did miss seeing my mom, dad, and my sister Pam today. (and of course little Nicole)

November 27, 2009 Friday
Katie and I tried to get to Wal Mart at 5am. We arrived a few minutes late, and the store was jammed with people. We got a few things.
6:15am we arrived at Fred Meyer. Katie and I love to shop there the day after Thanksgiving. We’ve shopped there for years and they always have the same sales. It was 9am by the time we left. I spent way too much money, but I bought a lot of gifts. Meanwhile Jason was at the house alone. Ben had gone to work, Becky had taken the girls shopping. Then I slept for a long time. Becky brought the girls back and Jason and Katie watched them. Ben got off work early. We played a game and then Ben wrestled with his printer to get it to print our Zoo tickets for the Zoo lights. We finally arrived at 7:35pm. It was so neat, they had beautiful lights everyone, and animals made of lights. I loved it. They have a really nice acquarium and we spent a lot of time there. We stayed until it closed at 9am.

November 28, 2009 Saturday
After breakfast I watched a dull movie called Reach with Jason and Ben. It was a true story about
(I just copies this from my journal, I'll fix it later and add pictures)

A wild weekend

I knew this weekend would be crazy, but it was tons of fun.
Friday
I went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with Mark since it was the only time I would see him this weekend. Driving back home I got so sleepy I went to bed and slept for 8 hours (instead of driving to Twin Falls).
Saturday
I got up at 4:45am. Got ready to go and left just as the snow was starting in Idaho Falls. By the time I got to Blackfoot, the roads were sheets of ice and then most of my trip was at just 45 mph. I finally arrived at Nancy's home at 10am.
At 11:00am Nancy's baby shower began.


Tons of people arrived, there were 30 women and 4 kids!!! And 12 other ladies stopped by before and after the shower. Everyone thing was really nice, and Nancy has a beautiful home.
At 1:30pm I had to rush off, there were still a few guest at Nancy's when I left. I got to Pocatello to the Holt arena to see Katie perform at her last ISU football game.




It was a great game, but so long........I kept thinking I should leave, get on the road to my mom and dad's house, but the game was really good, and the ISU Bengals won in the last 35 seconds. I got lots of good pictures which I'll post later.
7:20pm back on the road again driving to my mom and dad's house. Mom and I played one game of May I and we went to bed.
Sunday
9:30am I went to breakfast with Mom and Dad.

Then Dad and I loaded all his pop can into the back of his truck. I helped Mom put away Halloween decoration and then brought up Thanksgiving decorations. I washed sheets and made all 5 beds downstairs for my family coming at Christmas time. And that was a lot of work, cause I was still trying to clean and organzie the area too.

Ta da! I worked hard to prepare these room for Christmas company.

Mom and I made time for just 3 hands of Kings in the Corner. I won for the first time ever!

Then Pam and her kids called me and wanted me to come by their house on my way home. They called me a bunch and really made me feel wanted. So at 8:00pm I arrived at Pam's house.


I gave them some pirate shirts I bought on sale and we played 2 games: Bones and the animal game.

It was 12:30am when I got home and then I had to take care of Sky. It was very cold outside. I hear with the wind chill last night it got down to minus 11.