Meet Tate

This is our new boy! He is as sweet as can be. I can't help but notice the difference between him and Bowie. Tate is mellow and cuddly and dopey and Bowie is high-strung and hyper-alert and kind of grouchy (but will cuddle with me when he wants to). We take them both to the dog park several times a week and Bowie sticks by me and observes the other dogs until he decides they are worthy of playing with. Tate, on the other hand, bounds in and runs around in an uncoordinated manner, trying desperately to play with ALL the dogs and cuddle with all the owners at the same time. They love each other though and it helps me immensely to have them entertain each other. I get so much more done! We love this boy! And, of course, we love Bowie too! Hope everyone is good!

Introducing Sadie Black!!

Baby Sadie finally made it here to us! She was born on June 21 (Happy Father's Day to Casey!!) at 3:38 AM in Blanding, Utah. She was 6# 12oz (we're all wondering where Marisa was keeping her, because she sure didn't look big enough to have a baby that size) and she was 21 inches. She has the sweetest dimple in her right cheek, and the longest fingers I've ever seen on a baby. Pen was lucky enough to get down there on Sunday, while I had to wait clear until Tuesday, and Molly had to wait until Thursday!! But we had a nice visit. It was great to see Grandma and Grandpa and Peg and her girls. And even Jake came down!! So this is the first of many pictures you will get to see, because my mom has all the really good stuff on her camera and she is still in Blanding! Love to you all, hope you are doing well!
Love-Meg

Graduation & House Hunting

Skyline Graduation 2009

The Sibs and Nate:

The Girls:

Cute Hannah:

Hannah just graduated from high school a few weeks ago. We went down for the festivities and had a blast. Hannah is so smart and cute and it was awesome to get to see her graduate. She is off to Utah State in the Fall and I am positive she will do fabulously there.

After days of hunting and a few false alarms, we found a cute townhouse at the point of the mountain and will be moving there the end of July! Although I hate to pack and move again, I am so excited to be back where all the action is.

Baby Shower!!

Hope to see all the ladies at Marisa's shower next week!! On May 8th @6:30, Molly's house. It will be a really fun time, and it would be great to visit with everyone. Hope we'll see you there. Call Molly with any questions.

Finally Healed!

I think I am finally all healed from my cancer surgery. I have been doing yard work and walking on the treadmill, but yesterday I played 18 holes of golf at Westridge Golf Course in Salt Lake with Dave Gunn, Rob Wiseman and Brent Leseberg. I hadn't swung a club since November and it felt great to be out there. My game was pretty rusty but my back didn't hurt and doesn't hurt!! Now I can get serious about the yard work and the garden and wage war on the weeds. crabgrass and dandelions!!

Yesterday and today are both gorgeous and it's unbelievable to think that a week ago yesterday, we awoke to a foot of new snow!! Even the real estate market is picking up a little bit - not much - but some.

Happy Birthday

Today is Julie's birthday - I think she is turning 39 again, but she looks good enough that it might just be 29. Looks like we are finally going to get some decent weather - it's still mid morning and the temperature is over 50 degrees!!

SNOW IN APRIL

April 16th and we get to start the day with 8 inches of heavy wet snow. Every shovel full feels like 50 pounds so my shovelling was very limited!! Now it's blue sky and sunshine so maybe it will all melt before I have to do more shovelling!! We made a quick one day run to Moab to test my back and have a little fun - last Friday we left Orem at 4 AM - met our club members at 7:30 AM and ran Poison Spider Mesa with them then went to the Fairgrounds for an hour or so to look at all the 4X4 exhibits - ate our favorite food at the Moab Diner and came home - got here about 10:30 PM - a little tired but what a great day!! And my back was OK - I got the last of my stitches out yesterday so I am officially done except for checkups every 4 months. Hope all is well with all of you - Love to all - JB

Easter Fun

We had a little early easter fun with Russell's family on the 4th. Of course it was freezing and windy, but that didn't stop Luke from hunting eggs....3 times! This was his easter outfit--yes those are dinosaur rain boots you see with it. (He wears them with everything.) The tradition of an easter outfit is one I remember from when I was little. My mom always had an easter dress for the girls and something cute for Jake to wear, so it is something I have loved doing with Luke every year. Anyways, we hunted eggs and barbequed hamburgers and just hung out with Russell's parents and his sister and her baby and husband. Other than that, we have not been up to much out here, it's too windy to do anything. But we're getting excited for spring and yard work and golf. Hope everyone is doing well.

Love-Megan

Oh the Guilt

Ok, JB you guilted me into it.

Here I am with nothing much to say. All's pretty well with our clan. Maggie and Aidan are in school, 3rd and 1st grade and they seem to be doing really well. Maggie was recently cast as Goldilocks in a play that the school's putting on so that should be pretty fun.

Ike and Ian are still just hanging around. Ian's well into the one year old leaving a path of destruction behind him stage and I'm getting really sick of cleaning up his messes but the other day he came over and kissed me for no reason and suddenly all was forgiven. Ike's still stealing cars every chance he gets and there's a little part of me that's dreading summer because I have a very clear mental picture of the auto theft it's going to lead to (but if it keeps snowing I might just lose my mind so bring on the warm).

Shaun and I are the same as ever, working a lot, hanging on to our sanity a little and just y'know, getting along. the construction on the kitchen's done(ish) and for those interested you can find pictures here. Other than that, I was thinking about going back to school this summer but I think it's going to wait until fall at least, maybe the new year...

And that's all I've got. Adios.

The Ides of - or the End of March!

Here we are - almost at the end of March! I had some more surgery this morning - just a few new stitches and a couple of other spots scraped. Hopefully that is the end - I am sick of the whole thing. It's like the first quarter of the year is gone and I have done nothing except get cut - heal - get cut - heal!! It is getting old.

I sort of hoped Spring was really here then I woke up this morning to 6 inches of snow on the hood of my Jeep. Then the wind blew like crazy and it was stinking cold all day!!

I can't get very enthusiastic about writing very much because I guess if hardly anybody is writing here then hardly anyone is even reading here. I suppose you could prove me wrong but then you would have to write and the problem would be solved!!

I hope you are all doing better than I am.

J.B.

Sorry JB!

If you check my own blog, I never write on that one either.  I have a hard time with the cyber communication.  I never read my emails either.  That is probably why I have lost touch with most of my friends.  Things are okay in Boise.  We suffer from the same terrible weather everyone else seems to be.  It's nice in Phoenix!  I'm wondering why I ever left.  Winter has been long and rough here.  We seem to bring bad weather with us.  Boise is usually really nice this time of year and everyone here is baffled.  

It was so nice to go home a few weeks ago and see everyone, particularly Grandpa for his birthday.  Nate had some interviews... no news yet.  Lawyers are slow to respond.  We still feel like chances are good that we will be in Salt Lake this summer.  I have to make the hard decision between BYU and U of U.  I love BYU but the thought of that drive makes me crazy!  I don't know a thing about U of U.  Feel free to give advice!  We have a family full of Cougars and Utes.  

School is going great for me and Nate still likes his job, but now that we know we are moving on yet again, we are anxious to do so.  Bowie is getting big and he changes colors weekly.  He is now a pretty light gray and beige.  He is a smart dog and we like him more and more as he gets older.  If we could find a house to rent we would consider getting a pal for him.  Apparently we are going to fill our house with dogs instead of kids!  For now, anyway.

I hope spring hits for everyone soon!    

Rainy days and Mondays

There is a song with those words - maybe by the Carpenters? Anyway, it is Monday and it is rainy. Mom and Dad were up for the weekend - Saturday was Dad's 86th birthday - we had a little open house for a few people. I was a little late getting there - more on that later - so I missed Jer and Sarah and Peter. Uncle Ray and Aunt Veloy were there and Aunt ValGene and one of her daughters. It was fun to see them.

Dad wanted to play a game of Hearts so Mike, Stevie and I sat down and got whipped. I guess it was appropriate for Dad to win since it was his birthday!!

The reason I was late is I had spent the morning at Troy Garrett's. My seat in my Jeep has been busted for awhile so we finally got together to fix it and like most projects, it always takes a lot longer than we thought. I kind of overdid the lifting and I am still paying for it today, but it sure is nice to have the seat fixed. We also installed my spare tire carrier which mounts on the back bumper. It looks pretty good and I am thinking about taking the roof rack off the top for less wind resistance and better gas mileage.

Pretty much hardly anyone has been getting on the blog so I am hoping that will change and a few of you will not only read but also take the time to write.

Love to all - JB

February and time marches on...

I have 2 new holes in my back, so the recovery time is set back again. They wanted to go back to the spots they took off in December and enlarge them so they have good clean skin all around and get the stuff tested again. So I have 2 new sets of stitches and when I get them out in a couple of weeks, I will get some more new ones.

Our 4 wheel drive club spent President's Day weekend in Moab, but, of course we couldn't go. We are hoping we can do Black Dragon Canyon in March, but probably won't do Easter Jeep Safari in April for the 1st time in years.

I have been far more miserable and less tolerant with winter this year - at least partly because I haven't been able to do much - but I am praying hard for warmer weather!! Real estate is still very slow but I think it will pick up a little with the coming of Spring. We went to Realtor Day at the Legislature this past Friday and I had a chance to talk with my Senator who I know fairly well and my Representative who I have voted for but never met. We had about 1000 Realtors there and most of the Legislature was able to attend for at least an hour or two.

Hope all is well with all of you!! Love to all - J.B.

February Blahness

Hello from Vernal. Not much to report for us out here. We have a case of the blah's as well, getting really antsy for spring and the park and golfing (for Russell, Luke and Duane.) All of our jobs are going well, for now. We get a bit nervous from time to time about the slowing of the oil field, but so far so good. Luckily for me, there will always be people that have to come to the doctor! We had a fun time at Gavin's birthday party in January, we went ice-skating and had some great cake that Molly made. We had just gotten rid of almost all our snow here, thanks to a couple days of rain, and then we got over a foot of snow in one day!! That was a mess! Luke is getting so big and cute (and sassy!) He talks all the time, this is such a fun stage watching him learn new stuff all the time. Hope everyone is doing well!

Lots of love- Meg, Russell, and Luke

The January Blaaaahhhhsss

I'm looking out my office window at a foggy dreary day, but on the other hand I am in my office and I am still alive so that's good!! Went to the Huntsman Cancer Institute on the 9th of January and had a major excavation on my back and my right arm pit. It was a strange day. They had me on an IV for awhile but my feet were killing me that day so I kept getting up and walking around, but the IV would go backwards every time I walked and the tube would fill with blood.

So this guy comes in the room with 2 syringes and says he is going put them in the IV but I have to get on the bed first because when he puts them in I will be history!! I asked if there was any chance they would go straight to my feet because they really hurt but he said "No way!"

I remembered him putting them in and I was GONE!! Julie said I was awake for another 10 minutes talking a hundred miles an hour but I remembered NOTHING When I woke up I could see a clock way across the recovery room and thought "WOW! What happened to that 2 and 1/2 hours??"

I was so dehydrated from not drinking anything since the night before that I thought I would die!! I ate 3 cups of ice chips in about 5 minutes then way across the room I noticed this nurse drinking Coke from a can. I spoke loudly enough for her to hear me and said "Hey - that's not fair to drink that where I can see it!" She just smiled and put the can where I couldn't see it.

A couple of minutes later she was standing next to my bed with a cup full of ice and Coke in 1 hand and the can in the other hand. I think I drank 3 or 4 of them and 3 or 4 cranberry apple juices which I had to mix myself - they just had them separately - in the next couple of hours while I was waiting to see the Doctor.

He finally came - asked a few questions and gave us some instructions and said we could go. By then it was 1 or 2 PM and Julie was hungry and so was I so we stopped at Neil's in Draper and had fish and chips for lunch!! I was still pretty anesthetized so not too much pain, but by the time we ate and got home it was a different story.

It took us 1 and 1/2 hours from Thanksgiving Point to our house because of a wreck on the freeway that had happened at 9 AM that morning!!

By the time we went back to see the Doctor on Tuesday the 13th he had all the test results and said he got everything out of my back and the lymph node they took out of my armpit was clean so no chemo or radiation - just get healed. That drive to SLC and back was not very fun, but I survived and ended up driving myself and working a couple of hours on Thursday and Friday.

My back looked like Frankenstein with a long row of staples and these 2 big cross stiches, but I have all the staples out of my arm pit and about 1/2 of them out of my back now. I get the rest out in a week or so. Doctor Noyes said no racquetball of golf for at least 60 days from the surgery and no heavy lifting - but I am feeling pretty good.

I have this little window on my laptop that is called Google Sidebar and I can pick a city and watch the weather. So of course I set it up to see Moab and I would see sunshine and 7 degrees because of the inversion so I changed it to Tucson and it would be 75-80 and sunshine and that was even more depressing!! So I added Blanding, Las Vegas and Orem and I rotate between those 5 depending on my mood!!

Guess I will give it a rest for now - OH - Jer and Sarah had a baby boy on Monday named Peter David - mother and son are both doing OK.

Love to All - J.B.

New Year

Hi Family!  Happy New Year!

I finished the semester and was super disappointed by a B+ in Economics.  I really, truly hated that class so I guess I should be happy with that but there you have it.  It drags down my GPA. Boo.  Otherwise, the semester went well.  I learned a great deal about myself, namely that I don't want to be an artist.  It was a fun, if not slightly wasted, semester.

We then jetted off the the fabulous Phoenix to go to Rachael and Whit's wedding.  It was so much fun.  I have never been to a wedding that was so cool.  She had the backyard of a really old Victorian house decorated beautifully and Rachael was stunning.  I have never seen a prettier bride.  I was the first one to start crying during the ceremony but that's okay; she is my best friend after all.  They had a s'mores bar and hot chocolate bar and food catered by the Olive Garden.  It was amazing.  Whit's band buddies did the music which was weird and perfect and then we wrapped up the night with some silly-white-people-dancing to a Mariachi Band.  It was so fun.  

I also got to see a bunch of other friends from high school.  It is so nice to catch up with all those people!  If any of you remember my friend Marie Hatch, its Parker now and she is hugely pregnant.  She is due in February.  We also got to go to lunch at Filibertos with Paula, Kory, and Kory's girlfriend Jen.  It was so nice to see them.      

We then flew home to have Christmas with the fams.  We got some good chill time in.  It was good to talk to Daniel (Nate's little bro, on a mission to GA) on Christmas.  He sounded so good and so happy.  

Among some other wonderful gifts from the families (my favorite of which is my David Bowie concert t-shirt I'm wearing as I type), is a sweet new tv from Nate's family.  Nate is in heaven watching all those bowl games on 37 inches, and Gilmore Girl's doesn't look too bad either.  We had to move our couch back.  I was mildly uncomfortable getting such and awesome gift when we have so little to give, but Nate's family is always so generous.  Hopefully next year we can make up for our meager offerings.  The bottom line is it's so good to spend time with family.  We played endless rounds of American Idol on the Wii with my family and it was just so fun.  

While we were home for Christmas, my buddy Courtney had her baby.  She had a beautiful little girl named Claire.  I am loving holding her.  It is nice to sit there and just snuggle a baby.  It is also nice that as I sit there Courtney recounts the joys of pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing, so that I don't get too baby hungry.  Right now I'm just super house hungry.  I'm jealous of our friends that don't have neighbors.  We are at war with ours at the moment, but that is another post for another time.

Nate is back at work but I still have two weeks till I start school.  I am trying to look for a job but that is not very fun. Our puppy, Bowie, is getting bigger and better everyday.  He is going in for his neuter next week and we are hoping he will be a whole new dog (but we are prepared if he is not).     

Yesterday was Nate's 27Th birthday!  Happy Birthday baby!  I love my handsome hubby.

I hope everyone is doing well.  I will try to post some pictures of Rachael's wedding.    

Let it snow - blah - blah - blah

I think we got a foot of new snow in Orem last night - anyway it was a lot. I'm trying to just work and get things done and not think about going to the hospital on Friday but I'm finding it's not that easy to do, especially when everyone keeps asking me how I am doing, etc!! Fortunately today is Tuesday - my favorite day of the week because I leave the office about 2:30 PM and head for the Mt. Timpanogos Temple where I work until we close around 10 or 10:30.

I just printed out the blog and mailed it to Mom and Dad and Dustin and that's what prompted me to write a note. Hope you are all well - wish a lot more of you were reading this and writing here on occasion.

Happy New Year

Hello everyone! We had a really nice Christmas here. My mom came up on Christmas Eve, Molly, Paxton, Gavin, Savannah and Jake came on Friday; and Marisa came on Saturday. We got to see Dylan, Jacqueline, and Jacqueline's new fiance, Tyson. We played games, ate a lot, enjoyed my parents new home, and had a really nice time. On the 29th, Molly and Paxton went to a concert in Denver for New Years'. My mom, Marisa and I kept the kids for them. Gavin had such a fun time "sleeping over" at Grandpa's house. We had a nice New Years Eve, with mini pizzas, a toast with sparkling grape juice, and Luke and Savannah up running around until 11:30! My mom took the kids back to Salt Lake on the 1st, where their mom was really happy to see them! It was so nice to be with family for the holidays! Hope all of you are doing well.

Love from Vernal!!