D. O. N. E. Done!

Well, it has taken some time to finally finish the flagstone porch ad start the landscaping.  We also cut dead pines out front, fertilized and put in systemic insecticide for pine beetle.  We would hate to lose anymore trees.

This is our new favorite place on the porch.  it i quiet, cool and as soon as we get the waterfall going again...soothing.

We are planting tomatoes, herbs, melons, rhubarb and pumpkins among the flowers for a more edible landscaping.  Yesterday we had the back leveled and scraped and now are ready to bring in gravel for a driveway to our back door.  It has literally been a long haul, but we are so pleased with the results and look forward to enjoying this space for a long time.

All good things come to those who wait…

So very close!  Final finishing touches being done.  Blinds went up on Sat.

Plumber hooked up refrigerator and dishwasher and drinking water.  All appliances are in.  Bruce spent most of Saturday down in the "pit of despair" below the house running a wire for the Internet that should have put in during our pre-wire visit.  He is brave.
Inspector due on Monday.  We are ready!  We hope.

In the meantime, Mom, Teresa and I went to the Dicken's Christmas festival and had lots of fun.  Ate goodies, bought Christmas stuff and tried on halos.  It is so strange to be putting up Christmas stuff in 60 plus degrees and sunshine.  But no complaining here!

Dan and Lori Cunningham stopped by on Saturday.  They were on their way to Las Vegas for a conference. It was wonderful to see them and they were doing well.



Mom left a chocolate cake on the counter on Sunday while we went to church.  I bring Andy home the third hour and he is here alone.  This is what we came home to…an "Andrew frosted" cake.  Good Job, AJ!

Well, it is finally Monday and Jeremy, or inspector came this morning.  He passed us on our final inspection and Mom stopped by to pick up our Permit to Occupy from the office.  In the meantime we were at the storage unit picking up the furniture with the High Priest Group Leader, Brother Johnston and our Home teacher, with a few other helpers.  They moved all the bulky stuff for us and we will move smaller boxes over as the cabinet maker finishes and we have room for it.

We will never be able to thank Bruce and Mom for making this new home possible, and we are so grateful to Joe and Karen for giving us a place to live while building.
Here's Mom with the Certificate of Occupancy.  Whew!

Well, we're almost done.   Adam is finishing a work of art in doing the flagstone on our front porch and new steps.  That will still take a little while.  It will run all the way down Mom's porch to the front gate as a walkway.

Andrew celebrating his 54th birthday.










Sun setting on a 6 month plus project.  What a ride!

Thankful for Family, workers, turkey day, music and homes

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  We were absolutely delighted to host James and Joe and their families down in St. George.  My sister, MJ and her husband, Brad, were also able to come from California.  We had incredible weather, great company, and a quiet holiday.

While they were here, we celebrated birthdays for Marcus, Brielle, Brynnlee and Elijah.  The kids had lots of fun playing at Grandma Jo's house.  She has the best climbing tree!

MJ and Brad were so sweet to host the group at the club at Entrada.  She took a group one night and then again on Friday for all the visitors that missed the first night.  The food was incredible!

The grandchildren had great fun making fruit turkeys on Thanksgiving Day while waiting for dinner.  Then they promptly ate them for a snack. They were quite creative.

My dear sister thought John needed some cheer in his life, and so brought him a ukelele.  They tried out a few songs during the holiday, but now he is online learning some Christmas carols.  So fun!

Kids playing in Mom's front yard…without jackets.  They then returned to the freezing rain and snow.

We had the opportunity last night to attend the performance of Messiah put on by the Southwest Symphony and the Leito Voices (combined with some community people) at the Cox center at Dixie.  It was really quite a good performance.  We are a little spoiled after singing with Dr. Jessop so many years that some things seem to stand out, but we enjoyed the evening.

It was delightful to run into Barbara (Jensen) Orvin and her husband, Harry.

Famine and feast

Well, for two days the house has remained dark and quiet with John and Bruce the only ones doing anything.  And Adam, of course, working on the outside porch. 

 Today, however, the morning was quiet and then we had the flagstone delivered for the porch, the HVAC guy here to finish his project and the carpet guy to do the master bedroom!  All stumbling over each other at once.  But we are still waiting on the countertops to come.  Everything else is waiting on him.  AAARRRGGG!!!!

So, yesterday we gave up and went to the movies to drown our sorrows in popcorn.  We saw Interstellar, which was wonderful!  So worth the price of the ticket.

So, Friday morning has dawned sunny and cool.  And…guess what!?  Countertops are here.  Bruce finished the electrical and we have lights!  Backsplash tile guys will be here this afternoon!  Brick is being delivered to finish the wall and life is good.

John was feeling somewhat nostalgic about not conducting Messiah this Holiday season, so he got the youth of our ward together to do the Hallelujah chorus (the silent monk version) for the ward Christmas party.  The rehearsal was pretty funny and we shall see how the performance goes.

We are really looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday.  My sister, MJ is coming from CA for the whole week!  Her husband, Brad, will come the day before Thanksgiving along with our Joe and James and their families.  So we will have a bountiful table with lots of family (including all the ones already in the St. George area) and food.  We, however, really miss all those who are not with us.  

Flagstone delivery

Fluffy went to the groomers today.  She was getting pretty "fluffy"!  The photo on the left was after the groomer vacuumed 2 times!  This was just before the third.  Crazy!!

Fan and lights on the back deck and John and the HVAC guy putting the intake vent in the linen closet.  

Home again

We have returned back south as soon as we heard that snow was forecast for the north.  We spent a wonderful 5 days at Jonathan's house while he wore out a path to the hospital and home and back again, until the new twins were allowed to come home.  Diana was marvelous, as usual, and is a wonderful mother to her now 4 little boys.

We were also able to see James and Joseph and their families.  We miss them all so much!  The little ones are getting way too big, way too fast!!

Jackson and Brandi



After returning to St. George we finally got the guys back to finish the stucco.

The tile is all done and we are waiting to have counter tops installed this week.

Friday was clean-up day and another huge load went to the dump.  We also filled our new firebox in case winter makes an appearance down here.  It is beautiful and near 70 today.

Tonight we attend another concert at the Cox center.  This one is Jazz and Swing music.

John had another CT scan this week.  It looks like  the cancer has spread throughout the lymph system.  Still, his oncologist feels that at this point any treatment would do more harm than good to an already compromised immune system. Instead good nutrition and exercise is her recommendation for the next 3 months, then we shall check again.

John working on installing the door hardware…

Double double toil and trouble?

Thought we would take a little jaunt north this weekend to see Jonathan and Diana and help out with preparation for the twins.  We got a call the night before we  left saying that Diana was already in the hospital.

We arrived the next day, Nov. 5, and Greyson Bruce (6.4) and Oliver Jon (5.4) were born.  Diana was a real trooper and is doing fine.  Oliver spent a little time in NICU, but all is now well and they should be headed home after the weekend.

We had a nice visit with Joe and family.  Here are Dad and Amelia communicating…

We were able to take a tour with Jonathan of his new venue while we were here.  He is planning to open on Dec. 1, and now has his hands really full…literally!!  Below is his office, where he was working very hard!  I love his "elephant in the room"!  

Today we plan on heading up to see Joe and Diana's new home in Kaysville and meet James and Brandi who are coming down from Logan.  We sure miss being near all the grandkids.

  We will head home on Mon.  Work is still going on at the house.  We hope to be in soon!!

Slight blip on the radar!

Well, it's November, and we are almost there!  Whoo hoo!!

We had a good Halloween.  Bruce was trying to be our Jack O Lantern, which left much to be desired!

We also went to a really fun concert by a Simon and Garfunkel tribute band, honoring all things in the 60's.  Boy that was a long time ago!  Fans and lighting are all in.  Bruce is just now doing all the finish electrical work.

The cabinets are going in and today the guys are working outside on the stucco.  We had lots of rain the last 2 days and even snow on Pine Valley Mountain.  It has definitely cooled off.  I actually might have to find something other than a light sweater to wear!

The tile is going into the master bathroom and our countertops should be here this week, too.

The only downside in our lives has been a surprising diagnosis for John after a surgery to remove a swollen lymph node.  We found out he has a Non-Hodgkins (B cell) Low grade Follicular Lymphoma.  It is Indolent (meaning slow growing).  Following some "staging" studies and tests they will decide a course of treatment.  At present, our extremely competent Cancer specialist feels that it would be best to have no treatment right now.  He will have repeat labs and a checkup every 3 months and unless more severe symptoms begin to show up, we will concentrate on exercise and a good diet so he can remain strong.  He spends most of his time when not working on the house at his computer, researching his condition and working on his legal cases.  He really is doing quite well and, despite this blip on the radar, has a very positive outlook for the future.  I rely on his strength, and the prayers of all our family and friends.