May Mayhem for sure!

Some weekends you are just glad that they have come and gone, others you feel were just too short... This past weekend, I am torn between both. It didn't feel long enough because we were so busy and did so much I couldn't recharge. I was glad it has come and gone because we were so busy it is a relief to have so much finished. It was quite the weekend.

Jay took off Friday. Jay did the high speed test Thursday night so he was actually working from 8:00 p.m. Thursday to 5:00 a.m. Friday. Therefore he slept all morning on Friday. The rest of the day we didn't want to do anything so Jay and I had a spa day, we got a pedicure, and a massage.... It was wonderful (" sigh ") Saturday we worked on our projects. Jay and I made new cornice's and curtains for the back of the house, washed windows, cleaned the pool, cleaned the house, touched up the tile, watched movies, did the laundry, and purchased supplies to complete the kids bathroom. Sunday was church and more curtains, tile, fixing a big dinner, and doing an extra project for work.

The last thing we did last night was put together our calendar for May.... Anyone with kids knows that May is the busiest month of the year. When we got the calendar done, we noticed we have two or three activities a week for the whole month. With Jace graduating we have the scholarship banquets, and graduation activities. May is mothers day, the fathers/sons outing, appointments at colleges, and much more. Then of course, May begins Jay's working evening/night time hours to do the testing on the rail cars. It is exciting to think of what the month will include, but at the same time exhausting. I often wonder how my parents did it. It is bad enough with two kids but the thought of 8 kids, and being in your 50's is mind-boggling. We are always telling our kids that they have to be patient with us. Were the 8 of us patient with my parents? Something to think about anyway.

Exercise the Dog the easy way!

this is a little hard to see but I had to add it! Our dog loves the water. He loves to chase the hose. I was out with the hose and got a bright idea. This is a sprinkler, it sprays water as the two circles spin different directions. It was the funniest thing to watch, the dog chase the water as it spun around. By the time I got the camera he was tired, and got smart. He just stood in one spot and waited for the sprinkler to come to him.

He is just too smart for his own good. Now I guess I will have to actually exercise him the right way.

Elevators, Politicians and Jay!

One of Jay's many jobs now that VMR has moved to the new building is to take VIP's on a tool of the facility. He has done many tours, long and short, but was tagged for another one yesterday. This time the tour was for a high profile democratic politician and his entourage. As is Jay's custom they start at the mezzanine; with the wide expanse of window existing on the 2nd floor mezzanine you see the complete garage and numerous trains below. Start them out with a bang, give them the WOW! factor from the beginning. After meeting on the mezzanine Jay took the group through the offices and the control room. This completes the tour of the 2nd floor but the best is yet to come. On the main floor you can get into the cars, touch and feel the actual train. You get to watch the trains run back and forth on the practice tracks. Oh, the best part of any tour, the nuts and bolts of the operation.

Jay took his guests to the stairs and mentioned that any who would like could take the elevator. Jay and a small group took the stair while 9 of the entourage loaded onto the brand new elevator. I failed to mention that the facility has only been open for about a month. And Jay, to get a little exercise, always takes the stairs. Jay and his small group went to the first floor and waited in front of the elevator. He waited... and waited... and waited.... then became concerned. Jay heads up the stairs taking them two at a time and starts to hear yells from above....

You got it! The elevator was stuck between floors. The elevator held 9 large men, including the politician himself, and had started down to the main floor only to get stuck about 5 feet down. Jay didn't lose his cool at all. He pulled on the two doors to separate them about 3 inches and started to make decisions. They tried all the resets, fail-safes, and restarts. No luck. Jay points to his co-worker and says, "you call the elevator company, I will call 911, whoever gets here first will get these people out!" After waiting only 5 minutes or so both the elevator company and the fire department arrive at exactly the same time. The elevator company employee tries the resets, fail-safes, and restarts, but the elevator still doesn't move. By this time it is getting warm in that elevator, and hot around Jay's collar. The elevator repairman turns to Jay and says "it says that there is a door open. Jay pulls apart the outside door 3 inches again and asks "is there a door open in there?" Someone from the entourage answers, "yes, we pulled it off the hinges trying to get it open." The Elevator repair man says, "that's why it won't reset." Out of his little front pocket comes a bent piece of metal. He places it in the top of the outside doors and they open all the way. Jay turns to him and says, "why didn't you do that 15 minutes ago?"

Needless to say, they help all 9 people out of the elevator and the paramedics checked each one of them out. All was well but they had been in that elevator for 35 minutes. Now their time was gone and they never did get to complete the rest of the tour. After the group was gone, Jay is told that is the 4th time the elevator has broken since the facility was open, and the second time with people in it. The moral of this story: Don't let Jay put you in the elevator!

Is it really only Thursday!

Jay and I have been commenting all week that we are a day ahead. I was convinced yesterday that it was Thursday. Now today feels like it should be Friday. I know it is because of all the things I have had to accomplish in the last week. Mostly finishing all the grouting in the bathrooms.

I grouted on Monday night, then Tuesday Jay and I took the day off. We went to the Dodgers/Diamondback game. I love going to the baseball games, and even in the big arena it is a great event. We had a father with three little boys sitting next to us (the boys ranged from about 7 to 3). They were cute kids and so well behaved. They were so excited to watch the game, but even more excited about all the treats they were having. The family was all decked out in D-back shirts/hats, and of course, each one had their baseball mitt, waiting for a foul ball. I miss of my boys being that age!!!!! As for Jay and I, we really needed that time to relax and enjoy each other. He is the best to go to a ball game with, especially the Dodgers. The game was close scoring all night, going back and forth but because the Dodgers won, it was a perfect night.

Wednesday I was back to grouting again. We have all the tile grouted that we did over the weekend and the master bathroom is really starting to take shape. But as with any project, we get one thing done and two new things pop up. Jay's shower has a windows above it and tiling the windows seal means I now have to touch up the paint. And of course grouting means I have to touch up the ceiling because I forgot to tape it off first. It always seems to happen that way. And then the bathroom will take 3 or four cleanings before it feels like all the dust and grit are gone. Today I am just glad to be back at work even though I can't feel much with my fingers. One of the normal reactions of doing a big job with my messed up hands! :)

My Mothers hands......

This weekend we were laying tile again.... The only bathroom left to finish is my master bath. Our master bath has a lot of tile to be done, it will take us a few weekends to finish.. But it was a cold, (well for Arizona) blustery weekend so we decided to work indoors. Anyway....

As I was washing off all the tile adhesive from my hands I realized that, with the exception of my long fingers my hands, wrists, arms and elbows look like my Mothers. I remember many times when I was growing up my Mother telling me to just wait, someday I would look just like her. I, being a young know-it-all didn't believe her. But looking at my hands under the running water I realized that she is right. I looked at my feet and realized they look just like hers too, (with the exception of all the scars from hating to wear shoes my whole life.) The skin is looser, the fat pad has moved from the top of my hands to my wrists, and the coloration is different from when I was younger.... The skin on my feet is dry and cracked, just like my Mother's was. My Mother used to try to get someone to rubb her feet because they were so dry they would itch. At least mine aren't that dry. Thank you for pedicures! If my Mother were still alive she would get a real kick out of saying "I told you so..." Therefore, "Mom, you were right, wherever you are!"

:)

Where did they go?

This picture was taken in 1994. It is one of my favorite... Jaron has only two little front teeth, and Jace so quick to cuddle him.

We tried to get them to set up like they were in that picture... This is what we took..... Still great looking young men.... But where did they go?

Easter

Easter is a lot of things but to me it was another reminder that my boys are all grown up. I remember like it was yesterday holding Jaron's hand at my parents in American Fork while he was two years old and trying to find the eggs. With his long Dutch boy haircut, and pudgy quick walk. He was more interested in opening up the eggs he had than looking for the next one. And then Jace at 4 or 5 helping everyone else find something, especially those younger than he is. He never seemed to notice if he had something in his own basket, just that the younger kids did, especially his little brother. That is just who they always have been. When the boys were little we made a decision that candy wasn't what we wanted the boys to have for the holiday. We would buy them a little gift for their basket instead. We would always go to Grandpa's easter egg hunt and the boys would still end up with candy all the same. But I remember giving them a beach themed baskets, Disney video themed baskets, and then as they got older, video game baskets. When we got the basement finished in our house in Utah we started having our own little easter egg hunts in the basement. They always went well until we started finding an egg or too in July because we had missed one. We never seemed to count them first and we always missed a few.

This year we were so busy trying to get the yard and deck put back together after all the remodeling we didn't really do much holiday stuff. But Jay and I did buy the boys some chocolate and put together a basket for each. Jay and I had planned on doing an easter egg hunt. I was already a little homesick because my family was all having a hunt on Saturday in Utah, but we didn't live there anymore. By Saturday night we just thought of chocolate all over the house and didn't want to do a hunt after all. Jay bought all the stuff to do colored eggs. Of course, we never got to the colored eggs, the stuff is still in the cupboard waiting (we are determined to do it sometime this week just for the fun of it.) We didn't have themed baskets for the boys, for the first time it was actually just chocolate. Oh, and a little money to spend on whatever they wanted. Can you tell mom was a little lazy this year?

But one thing never changes.... Jaron's candy was gone by Monday night, Jace still has candy in his room, it will be hanging around until Halloween when we finally make him throw it out. See, the kids grow up but they stay the same.

One good thing about having teenagers at Easter. They may have forgotten the Easter Bunny but they understand the true celebration of Easter. They understand the importance of religion, the impact it has on a person, and the benefit it is to them to have a belief system. So, teenagers do get something out of Easter, just something different than what they did when they were young.

Finally, Pictures

Spring training game with April, Debbie, and Heidi. I love going to the games but this one was a bit of a blowout. Jay took the picture, but didn't mention to anyone when to be ready.....

Now this is the life, well, my life. Our plan for the weekend was to spend the whole time doing this but, alas, we actually did a lot of other stuff. You will notice, I am the only one with a jacket on. I thought it was kind of cool that evening. Jaron is in the background playing tennis with himself. Don't ask, at least he is easy to entertain.

The cool deck is wet because the dog kept getting in the pool. He likes to swim.

Debbie was driving the boat. She is a little speed demon behind the wheel. Truthfully, it is easier to handle a boat if you are going at a fast clip than when you are moving real slow. Me... I am sure I was just reading my book as usual.

Spider Man!

Jaron walked upstairs today and noticed the cat howling at the ceiling. This is what we saw. I have never seen a spider like this. Of course, Jay had to take it outside. Unfortunately it didn't cooperate with the idea of going outside and ended up squished!

Speaking of outside, we can't use our back door again. Today the pool cool deck was refinished. It looks so nice and fresh. We should have done that a long time ago but we can't wait to get on it this weekend. We have to wait 24 hours to walk on it, and another week or two before our patio equipment can go out on it.

Poor puppy will have a difficult time going out to relieve himself!

Spring has sprung!

Spring is here, well, truthfully it has been here in the desert for awhile! I can't believe where the time goes. I can't believe it is April already. Taxes are at the top of my list for April this year! Then of course we have all the work that has to be done on the pool and yard to be ready for the summer. All this has to be done in the next month, we don't want to be doing it when it gets really hot.

Jay is feeling a little better though, the yard is almost put back together. You see, Jay has a thing about a clean and tidy yard. When the yard is a mess, Jay is just stressed! The last two weeks with the contractors working on the pool they had dug a trench along the side of the house. All the extra dirt was piled on the sidewalk so high we couldn't walk that way to get out of the house. And then of course it rained!. Now we had mud! We couldn't even open the gate to get the garbage cans in. Well, the contractor finally came back and cleaned it all up. It is so nice to be able to get through again, to walk out and see a cleaned up yard. But what comes in the mail today, a warning from the HOA because our garbage cans were in front of the gate! We couldn't open it to get them in the back. I had to laugh at that.

So that is how my April started! Who says I need April Fools at all after the last few days.