This and that - May 17th

Hello to whomever is reading this!

Ok, so I am not very good about updating this thing. That's ok because the only people who care to look at it are family and I speak with them in person or by email regularly anyway. Todays goal is just to update some pictures taken over the last couple of weeks to share them with the family members who do look at this post, so here we go.

On Mother's Day Eric came over to the house to spend the afternoon with us. He started out by rotating the tires on his car.

Of course, as usual his mom was right there helping him. Pam takes great pleasure in helping her kids, and of course there isn't much of anything that she can't or won't do, including cleaning the rocks out of the tire tread???.

After he finished rotating his tires Eric washed his hands and then cooked us this delicious looking meal. As instructed I must tell Amy that "it was the best dinner anyone has ever cooked for us". It was good and we were both very appreciative of Eric fixing it for us, but especially for his mom.

Then we sat down at the new patio furniture I had gotten Pam for Mother's Day and enjoyed a great meal.

Would it be a post from me if I did not mention that Pam's flower beds are looking great. Right now they are filled with tulips. She'll be planting the other flowers soon. I love the onset of spring and being outside again and this weekend we have had fresh strawberries from our garden. Very sweet!

White Christmas

Today I wish all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas! I love the Christmas season and everything that comes with it, from the kindness people show to the music to remembering the birth of our Savior.

But one thing I don't love about this time of year is the weather. I am not a fan of snow. I know most of the country is in the same situation we are in this morning but I thought I would share the view outside of our house today. Pam braved her way out in to the snow to take some pictures.

I guess I will have to go outside and start to clear off the driveway. It is still snowing very hard but the biggest part of this storm is not suppose to hit until later this afternoon and evening. If that is the case the snow in our driveway is going to get deeper than my snow thrower is capable of digging through.

Happy Birthday Emi!

Today was Amy's husband, Emi's, 28th birthday. They came to our house for dinner and Eric joined us also. We want to wish Emi a very happy birthday!

Here are a few pictures, first Pam and Amy lighting the candles on his "birthday pie".

A very tasty banana cream pie, Emi's favorite. We also took a couple of minutes to take a family picture. At first it looked like a moment from a sitcom as Amy was trying to use the timer on the camera to take the picture with her in it also but she mastered the camera and we all got in the picture. This one was looking a little too much in to the sun. Enjoy Eric's funny face as he squinted at just the wrong time. HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMI!

It's been awhile

So I knew I would have big gaps in remembering to update this blog. Actually it's not that I forget, it's just that other things tend to take a higher priority and it's been a busy summer.

If you check out my daughters blog then you know that Pam has been busy painting Amy's new condo, and of course Pam does a great job. But we have had a few other things going on this summer. One of the biggest, most time consuming activities has been our exercising. Pam and I have both been on a diet and exercising routine. Pam has lost in excess of 20 lbs and while she has not yet hit her goal weight she looks great. For me it has been an up and down experience. In 2006 I had a very successful year and lost about 45 lbs but after some back problems and treatments in 2007 I climbed back up to 204 lbs. I am very excited to say that this summer I have finally hit my target weight at 170 lbs. I wasn't sure I would ever make it there but am very grateful I did. Now of course the challenge is keeping it off. Total I lost 65 lbs, or 85 if you count the pounds I put back on and then lost again.

In early August we took a trip down to St George, Utah for my work but while we were there we went to Tuachan, an outdoor Ampitheater, and saw Les Mes. It ws the first time either Pam or I had seen the play and it was fantastic. Tuachan is such a beautiful place to see a play because it sits at the base of some red mountains which they use as a part of the play for scenery. Two days later we saw a personal favorite, Fiddler on the Roof, at the Shakespear Festival in Cedar City. We had a great time.

We also had a funny experience as we went to see the house my boss is building in St George and found Gina's husband, Darrell, there working on the house. I didn't recognize him nor did he recognize us but fortunately Pam did realize who he was. We went to dinner with him and Gina that night. We also got to visit with Shannon and Jon in Cedar City and saw their beautiful new home. While we are traveling we always leave Moby with Eric. Thanks Eric for keeping him for us!

Then on Labor day, after 11 years and 6 months of driving my Saturn around I finally purchased a new car. We bought a 2009 Nissan Murano. After test driving most everything out there, except the large SUV's, over a six month period, we finally picked this car because of how comfortable it is. I have struggled with getting in and out of my Saturn for years because of my back problems, it sits too low and is a tight fit between the steering wheel and the drivers seat, but with the Murano being a crossover and just plain comfortable it is a great improvement. Pam and I hope to be able to travel around a little bit now that we have a car I can stand to sit in for longer periods of time, that is of course if we can afford the gas???

Finally an update on Pam's garden. They have done well and we have been eating most of our vegetables (salads) from it for several weeks now. Our Raspberry production was great this summer. The raspberry's were not large but they were full of flavor. Also, the flower gardens up front look great. In most areas you can no longer see the dirt under neath because of the beautiful flowers.

Well, I guess I'll go back to seeing if BYU can hang on and beat Washington. Take care everyone!

Pam's Gardens

Today I want to focus on Pam and her work around the house. Pam has always enjoyed taking care of her gardens and this year, with working only part time, she has had more time to devote to it. She loves both her vegetable garden as well as her flower gardens and has given us one of the most colorful yards in the neighborhood.

This first image is similar to what you'll see on Amy's blog. Both her and her mom have gotten in to these Topsy-Turvey's. Pam has bell peppers, cucumbers, celebrity tomato's, Amy melons, eggplant, and a strawberry plant. They are growing very well.

Next is her regular vegetable garden. You can see that her tomato's are doing well. She also has carrots, peas, beans, cucumbers, bell peppers, turnips, lettuce, fennel, and Chinese cabbage. She is trying to make me eat more healthy foods.
This is our raspberry patch. This is Pam's gift to me. I love raspberries, as does she, but with me around we are lucky if any of them make it in to the house. Moby loves raspberries also so when they disappear I just blame it on him. The berries are showing up now and we will soon be picking them. The frames over the raspberries are for a netting Pam is making to protect them from birds who have in the past eaten more of them than we have.
This is the front of our house and the flower beds she has put in there. You can see all of the beautiful roses right in front of the house. She has also planted a large number of petunia's in the front bed which will be beautiful as they mature.

Then this year we pulled out our evergreen trees in the front and replaced them with a variegated willow and a flowering pear tree. The willow tree will only get to be about 10 feet tall and maybe 12 feet wide and changes color through the season. You can also see our flowering plum tree by the house.

This is the side of our house with gladiola's and pansies. There is also a strawberry patch in the back which has already given us a very tasty treat this summer.

So that's a quick look at Pam's gardens. She sure makes it a pleasure to come home and I love looking at our yard. I am also lucky I married such a talented girl. The only thing I know how to do is push the lawn mower around. Thanks!

Father's Day

Today Amy is teaching me how to create a blog. This picture, as well as the header for our blog, is from our recent trip to Hawaii featuring Pam and I and our dolphin friends. Some have tried to tell me that these dolphins are not real but I know better. We went to Hawaii in February and spent a week on Maui.

Amy was here today making me a special father's day dinner. She made a meatloaf cordon bleu that was very good. Her mom helped. Don't want to fail to give her credit! I had never had a meatloaf cordon bleu before but enjoyed it very much. Amy is a good cook!

Eric gave me a book from my favorite author, Dean Koontz. This one is entitled "Odd Hours" and is the fourth in a series of books about the character Odd Thomas. A young man who can see dead people. He can't talk to them, just see them.

Pam gave me an HD radio for "my room", the downstairs family room. Along with the radio it also plays MP3's, CD's and DVD's.Then we took some pictures of all of us, including our little dog Moby. He gives an excellent performance (yawn) in the picture with Pam and I.

Dana and Emmy (Amy's husband) had to work today so they could not be here with us.

That's it for today. Pam and I will try to update this from time to time so check back. Worse case, Amy will stop by and make me update it cause that is what she does.

Bye for now. Dennis and Pam