Mike

 This past week has been a difficult one. Every day has brought one catastrophe after another for Adams side of the family.

First- 

Adam got a call telling us that his oldest step brother, Mike, was in the ICU.  Despite there being very little religious priorities or values, Adam was asked to go give Mike a blessing.  Adam had planned to go to Island Park but he changed plans and we went to the hospital.  Mike is on a ventilator and sedated.  He had pneumonia and was running a fever of 106 degrees.  His kidneys are shut down and he was extremely dehydrated.   

Each day is like a roller coaster.  One day he is improving and the next he has digressed.  After several days in the hospital he was diagnosed with Legionnaires disease.  They believe he got it in the hot tub at the Red Lion Hotel.  

Adams step mom, Cheri, had back surgery this week.  She had some discs in her back shaved down.  She lives in Ivans Utah so it has been really hard for her being so far away from Mike.  She wants to get to SLC as soon as possible but she is still struggling from her surgery.  

Adams Mom, Juline, has been going down hill for the past 10 years.  She got subacute thyroiditis several years ago and she has never really recovered from it.  Her life style and personal habits have contributed to her poor health.  The past couple of years Adams oldest sister, Tera, has been living with Juline due to poor decisions and lifestyle choices.  This has ended up turning a bad situation into a catastrophe.  

Adam and Briggs went to Springville a couple of weeks ago to move Tera out of his moms house.  Tera was moving in with friend.  We thought this would end up being a healthy step forward for Juline but unfortunately she fell this past week and got a hairline fracture in her wrist and some stitches in her head.  The same day we were told that Juline had bed bugs.  

WHAT!!! BED BUGS!!!

Adam and I immediately jumped into action to try to resolve the situation.  Unfortunately it was going to cost us $2400 to debug one room.  This wasn’t exactly part of the planned budget so Adam and I headed to Springville to empty out the house and bug bomb the house.  

Now we are in a little predicament because it is crunch time to get the cabin completed in Island Park.  Adam was torn between getting things done in Island Park and taking care of his Mom.  Oh, did I mention the Superintendent working for Adam  in Island Park, quit a month ago.  This has added an enormous amount of stress to Adams life.  

We put Juline in a hotel and left for Island Park.  Luckily Nicholle can take Juline to her house after Memorial Day so we only had to pay for the hotel for 5 nights.  

We are currently working on finding a senior independent living facility or assisted living home for Juline.  We still have a lot to juggle before we get her settled but hopefully we can get control of her finances, settled in a good home and some good therapists to help her.   

At the age of 71, I thought it would be many more years before we were juggling these kind of things for parents.  

Graduation 2023

 It is a huge relief having Briggs graduated from High School.  He really only had one class and seminary this year but it was impossible getting him to school on time or at all.  Its discouraging seeing how little he cares about education.  Hopefully after a little time and maturity he will see how important school can be.  

Briggs graduated from Seminary.  He was asked to share his testimony at seminary graduation.  He shared a great testimony that was both funny and spiritual.  Thankfully Briggs had his favorite Seminary teacher ever for his senior year.  This wasn’t an accident  that the Lord blessed him with this teach for this year.   

Briggs graduation was pretty chill.  I didn’t do anything special and I feel like I was lucky to get a few pictures before he turned in his cap and gown.  

Briggs wasn’t too excited for graduation but he was really excited to be done with school.  

Buddy

 While working outside one morning, I had the dogs with me.  This was a typical thing the dogs and I did together.  We live on a super busy street but we train our dogs to not run in the street.  There has been times when Buddy has got out of the back yard and he will just lay on the front porch and wait for us to let him in or get home.  Rebel is not so reliable.  If she gets out to the back yard and no one is out side then she likes to wander the neighborhood.  

There was a lady walking her dog on the opposite side of the street.  This didn’t worry me, my dogs are well trained and they don’t run, especially when Im outside with them.  Since Rebel isn’t 100% reliable I stopped working, walked over, and made sure Rebel didn’t get anxious.  I was actually hold the water hose and I squirted Rebel at one point because she was acting too interested in the dog across the street.  

Suddenly Buddy jumped up and bolted for the road.  I called for him, he always listens, but he didn’t stop and his timing was horrible.  An suv happened to be driving down the road the same time he ran.  Buddy was hit by the car.  He couldn’t move and he is over 100 pounds.  Thankfully a young man in my ward happened to drive by just minutes after Buddy was hit.  The kid is 21 and exercises a lot so when he pulled up I said, “Conor, is there anyway you can help me?”  In the mean time, Ila is a little hysterical and Rebel is barking and out of control.  

Conor and I loaded Buddy in the back of Conors truck and we took off to a Vet office a couple blocks away from my house.  I ran in the office, composed, but as soon as I started talking (Which I was asking them if they could put Buddy down) and the emotions spilled out.  The Doctor came out to the truck but it was too late.  Buddy had passed away.  In some ways Im thankful Buddy passed away before we arrived because it would have been so hard to actually pull the trigger and say good bye.  

The next several days I just tried to stay busy because as soon as I stopped I started thinking about Buddy and the tears flowed.  

Ila struggled for a day.  Briggs had a hard time for a few days.  Adam really had a hard time dealing with Buddy’s death.  

Rebel also struggled for a few days.  We actually pulled up a home video of Buddy just the other day and Rebel heard him and came running.  When she didn’t see him she started crying.  

The most surprising person was Avram.  When we told Avram that Buddy had passed away he said, “My best friend died….Well its ok, I teach people every day about eternal families.” 

Sierras big Day

 We have made a couple of trips to Vernal lately.  We pulled an all day trip and drove to Vernal and back so that we could go to the temple with CC.  Im so grateful we made the trip.  

A few weeks later we went to vernal again, this time to CCs mission farewell.  This time we made it into a 2 day trip.  We got there Saturday, in time to take some pictures of the Anthony family and of CC.  It was hard trying to accommodate so many people for the pictures and the location we were going to take pictures wasn’t assessable so it took some flexibility.

We got to church Sunday morning and my parents were there, Sarahs parents were there, and we were there but there was any of the J. Anthony family there. This was very alarming because Justin, Sarah and CC were all suppose to speak that day.  We were all relieved when they showed up during the opening song.  They tried to slip in inconspicuously but that is tough when your sitting up front.  

Justin blessed Trinas baby that day so it was a great experience and we are thankful we were able to be part of this occasion.  

Spring Break

This was not a typical spring break.  

First, I have been trying to help ila find a way to earn some money.  It just so happened that she finally got asked to take care of animals during spring break.  Two different people asked so we had 3 dogs for almost 2 full weeks and the 4th dog came for one week.  4 dogs! 

Luckily they are all well behaved so we didn't have any major problems but it was still a lot of work.  

The golden doodles

The Bernadoodles

We also shoveled snow several times this week. We got nearly 24 inches of snow in 2 days.  

Once we completed the shoveling at our house we went around the neighborhood to help out others.  

Last week Adam and I were able to squeeze in a dinner together to celebrate our 21 wedding anniversary.   

We also splurged and got a couple of Ebikes.  It is tough riding bikes in this area with all the hills.  We are excited to actually use them when the weather is a little better.  

Young Womens is a busy calling.  Last month I had 14 girls at my house to teach them how to make corsages and boutonnieres.  

The following week the youngest class came to my house for banana splits.  

Not only did we have young womens but it was also Ilas birthday.  She is officially a teenager.  13! 

She is an emotional roller coaster. She is always the life of the party.  She is great at making friends and her social life is at the top of her priority list.  She and I are opposite in many ways so she is teaching me a lot about patience and finding a different way of doing things.  She and I have had a great year and have grown much closer since I am home schooling her.  Some days are really hard but overall it has been worth the time and energy.