A New Year

Year 2007 looks like a fun year! We will be living in Utah for the summer months and Arizona the winter months. Going back and forth April and October.

We have two fun trips planned for 2007. Hawaii and to visit the church history sites between Missouri and New York.

Our children are doing well. We are feeling better in this warmer climate. And life seems more exciting!

There is no news of any new grandchildren coming to our family, but we expect Amy and Jake might want one more, and Chris and David who just had their first, won't be having one too soon, but we think they might in a few years.

Fun in the Sun - Florida

Two years ago dear friends and neighbors from the sixties invited us to Daytona Beach, Florida where they've lived since the mid-seventies. They love it there and now I know why!

We were invited to join them in the celebration of their sixtieth wedding anniversary. We were excited to see them since we had only been together once since they moved to Daytona Beach.

Dolly and Fritz are my parents ages. Fritz was a air force fighter pilot, and Dolly was a good friend to my mother who passed away in 1987. My sister and I earned money by baby-sitting for Rick and Marilyn, their two children.

Dolly worked a the BX at Hill Air Force Base where she helped my two sisters and I get jobs. We adore Dolly and unfortunately lost her last year. She, my mother, and my sister Jeri who passed away a year and a half ago from colon cancer are probably enjoying each other again in a much nicer place.

My sisters Jeri, and Melody and I had a wonderful time in Daytona Beach. Melody and I went to the beach outside our hotel hoping to swim but it was November and the water was too cold. That didn't stop us from enjoying our stroll down the beautiful sandy beach though.

I guess I would have to say one of our favorite excursions was visiting the second tallest lighthouse in the USA. Ponce de Leon Inlet Light Station, New Smyrna, near the town, Daytona Beach.

Melody was the only sister who was healthy and was astounded when I said, "I'm not leaving until I climb that lighthouse." Jeri immediately echoed my words. Jeri was really sick, suffering with colon cancer, and I have post polio. We walked straight up the 200 stairs and thoroughly enjoyed the view from the top.

Right to left: Jeri, Peggy, Melody.



We didn't attend a Nascar race but saw where the races are held. We went to Disney World and of course had a wonderful time! One of our favorite experiences was to visit the Kennedy Space Center! What an experience!

My cousin Gail lives in Melbourne and we were able to visit with her also.

I've wanted to visit Florida for many years but have lived on or near the west coast my whole life, and had never taken the opportunity until then. I can't wait to return, and there is no doubt someday I will.

Clenching Teeth

About 10 years ago my dentist told me I was grinding my teeth at night. He could tell by the pattern on my teeth. I had a hard time believing this was true since no other dentist had ever brought this to my attention. I also couldn't believe it since I thought I should be aware of it, but was told that grinders are rarely aware of it since they are asleep.

Recently, I've had terrible jaw problems, where my teeth and jaw ache day and night. I awoke this morning at 4:35 with a very sore jaw, and the thought came to me that I could be clenching or grinding my teeth. I got on the web and put clenching teeth in quotations. As usual when I get on the web, I found many interesting articles.

One good piece of advice is totally free since it's an exercise. You clench tightly for a slow count of 20 seconds, then totally relax for another 20 seconds, and repeat 10 times. I did it, and my jaw is more relaxed already.

Clenching and grinding teeth is attributed to stress and anxiety. Well, we've had more than our share of that in the last few months!

P.S. This note is written 7/7/07, good date huh? It took me five months to figure out that eating wheat is what causes me to clench my jaw. I am gluten intolerant and have to avoid many other foods. When I eat those foods my whole body tenses up. And I get cramps in my calves, feet and toes. It was a good thing to figure out. I have been miserable!

Vacations

As I've mentioned in several blogs, my husband Mike recently retired after 36 years with civil service.

He worked at IRS in Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City, and then served most of his years in civil service at Hill Air Force Base, in Utah. He also retired with 24 of years of service with the Army National Guard. We are enjoying retirement and are planning several vacations.

The first will be to Hawaii in May 2007. My cousin lives there and has invited us to stay with him and his wife. We are excited to see them and plan to stay with them for a couple of days. We don't want to impose for an extended stay though, and also want to be on our own.

We plan to stay at the Hale Koa, a military hotel for another few days.

I've been to Hawaii twice, 1976 and 1978. This will be Mike's first trip there. We are also interested in staying at some of the other islands. Possibly Kauai, and Maui.

There are many luxurious beach front condos and homes offered for rent directly by the owners.

We have a second vacation planned in September to visit the church history sites in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Nauvoo, and New York, and a few other New England states, like Maine, and Vermont.

We're hopeful that we will be touring Europe in 2008. Most of our stay will be in England.

This will be my first trip to Europe and I am very excited. Mike served a two year LDS mission there, and we both have ancestors from surrounding cities in that area.

My niece Robyn put our grandfather's name in quotations in a search engine, and much to our surprise his name and picture appeared.

Family members who still live in that area have created a website connecting him to their genealogy. Thanks to e-mail I've struck up a friendship with one of my grandfather's descendants.

Don't ask me to give you the relationship, it would hurt my brain to figure it out. We plan to visit him and his wife, who is really the relation.

We are trilled to make this connection, and trilled for the opportunity to go there!

Relieving Jaw Pain

I have been experiencing pain in my jaw everyday and night from clenching or grinding my teeth at night. I browsed the web for clenching teeth and came upon several things one can do to help this condition.

Several companies sell mouth guards to you, and you can take an impression of your teeth, mail it to them and they make the guard. This saves you money because you eliminate the middleman which is the dentist.

A second hint is to do an exercise by clenching your teeth for a full slow 20 seconds, and then drop the jaw and totally rest your mouth for a slow 20 seconds, then repeat 10 times. I did this and have realized a relief already.

The pain is not totally gone, but it is better. I'm going to continue doing do this for a week to see if this takes care of the problem before I invest in the guard. The $99.00 investment will be worth it if this doesn't help.

That wasn't the problem. Foods are! Wheat and sugar's cause my teeth and jaw to ache! It took me months to figure this out.

A second problem causing the jaw pain is the way I sit at the computer for hours on end. I learn forward, with my elbow on the computer desk, with my chin in my hand. Which puts stress on my jaw.

Kids say the darndest things!

Kelly, Josh and Tate

Kids are so cute! My sister's grandson Josh recently celebrated his sixth birthday with a friends party and later a family party. Afterward, he came up to his mommy and said, "Thank you Mommy, "I had such a wonderful birthday. And, thank you so much for "born-en" me out."

Precious!

The picture is my nephew Kelly, and his three sons, Josh Tate, and Beck! Adorable, aren't they! His wife is Kelly also. We call her Kelly Anne to keep them straight.

Allergies

Allergies plague my life and one thing that helped save my life was buying a new vacuum six years ago.

My biggest problem! I was sick two nights ago with vertigo and vomiting. Not fun! This was all brought on by eating dessert at a fast food restaurant. I am allergic to wheat, milk, corn, soy, simple sugars, chocolate, and that's just the food category.

Along with foods I'm allergic to everything that grows outside, molds, mildew, tobacco, dust.

Well, you get the idea, I'm allergic to the world.

I took shots for years and had finally gotten the pollens, and molds under control, but in 2002 I was so sick I thought I was going to die. I was on three or four inhalers, pills, shots and a nebulizer, all for asthma. I had constant asthma attacks, and had to constantly blow my nose because I was filled with mucus.

I was at my wits end when I turned to Heavenly Father and asked for help. The following day I a young man came to my door and said he would clean my carpets free. I'm usually quite hep at figuring out salespeople since I was a Realtor for 15 years, but this time I was clueless. It took quite a while for me to realize that he was selling Kirby vacuums.

By this time he had cleaned several large sections of carpet and some of my upholstery. I was sick looking at what he was getting out of the carpet and furniture. The real clue that my vacuum wasn't working was when I saw beans from a bean bag toy that my grandson had broken several months before. I had vacuumed more than a dozen times since then.

I asked the salesman to clean my mattress as I was dying in my bed. I had horrible asthma attacks during the night. He did and I was shocked at what came out of there!

Bottom line is that I bought the vacuum knowing full well that my husband would not be happy about the price. I told him that I would pay for it out of my retirement check and that I would save enough money to pay for the vacuum by not having to buy all the inhalers etc.

Turned out I was right. I've been free of inhalers, nebulizer, and pills ever since.

I was still coughing and blowing my nose after the salesman had left, even though I had cleaned the entire house.

Turned out I was sitting in the recliner which was next to the bar where he had left all the filth that had come out of the carpet, bed, and furniture. I cleaned up the mess, sat back down in the recliner, and immediately the attack stopped.

My nose quit running, I could breathe, and what's even more amazing it never returned!

Because of the testimonials I was giving all my neighbors and friends, two neighbors, a friend in San Fransisco, and my son in Connecticut bought Kirby Vacuums.

An Unbelieveable - After Ski -Story

After a fun filled day of skiing on the second day, we stopped for lunch.

My brother was talking to me and could sense I couldn't hear what he was saying.

A deaf person can bluff many times but not when a question is asked and an answer is required. This was the circumstance I found myself in.

I'm not totally deaf. My right ear is slightly deaf, 40 decibels below normal, but my left ear hears 80 decibels below normal. My hearing in that ear is very compromised. I realized I could hear better if I took the hearing aid out because there was too much outside interference.

I asked the four family members surrounding me to not let me forget to put my hearing aid back in. I realized when I said it that the words didn't go anywhere, but simply hung in the air.

After lunch, four more runs, turning in our skis, and 15 minutes down the road toward home I realized I didn't have my hearing aid! Panic struck the car. We all said silent prays and headed back. When entering the resort we stopped and asked a fervent prayer. I knew Heavenly Father would help us find it.

Mike knew which garbage can he had thrown our trash in. He said it was only a quarter filled at that time. We began emptying the can into another can and started going slower and looking more carefully when we got down to where we thought it might be.

Suddenly, Robert said, "I had Doritos, oh, I ate that too. Be careful aunt Peggy, that looks like my plate." Then Sherri said, "you had a Kit Kat Bar." At that time Robert announced there was no doubt about it it this was his plate. I stopped and carefully picked up his plate which was right on top of another plate.

There in the middle of what looked like a perfectly clean plate sat my hearing aid.

This was remarkable to us since the trash can was filled with water, soda, and gooey food. None of which had touched my hearing aid!

I've had many blessings in my life, and this one is among the ones on the top of my list. I'm so grateful for a loving, generous, Heavenly Father.

To ski or not to ski - that Is the question?

My brother's family and I had our date set and plans made to go skiing. But a week and a half before we planned on leaving I came down with a sinus infection.

We planned to leave on a Thursday and by Tuesday I still wasn't well. I told John I'd better not go, but was pleasantly surprised that I felt well enough on Wednesday that when he called I told him that I had changed my mind again and I wanted to go. He laughed and was happy.

It's a 3 1/2 hour trip from Apache Junction to Sunrise Resort close to Show Low Arizona.

I was also pleasantly surprised that it is a very nice resort. I wasn't expecting too much because I have been spoiled by the wonderful resorts in Utah.

We skied the afternoon on Thursday and the Friday morning into the afternoon. It couldn't have been more perfect! The sun was shinning. There was no wind. The snow was perfect. The runs were perfect.

We skied in 45 degree temperatures that are perfect. If it's any warmer the snow becomes slushy, and if it's colder it can be miserable.

I skied about 15 years before coming down with post polio. At that time I couldn't walk, let alone ski. I have only skied once in the last 12 years and that was during the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.

My cousin and I went to Snow Basin in Ogden where they held some of the down-hill races. I watched, wishing I could be with them while she and her daughter skied. The next day we went to Nordic Valley also in Ogden and this time they went sledding and I went skiing! I stayed on the bunny trail, but at least I skied.

I was certain this trip that I would do fine and hoped I could ski some of the higher runs. I did! I skied 10 to 12 runs on the bunny trail, three or four runs on a blue trail and did one run on a green and black diamond trail.

I wasn't able to carve the turns the way I did when I was younger, but did much better after a ski attendant tightened my boots. I wasn't able to ski my normal level, but it was good.

Hey, I have post polio and I'm 66 years old and probably shouldn't be doing it at all!

Not!!!!!! Bottom line. I had a ball!!!!!!!

The Weather Was Perfect!

Snow!

Mike and I were amazed to see snow on our Arizona mountains.

Later we learned that Mesa had snow. When Sherri got to school (she teaches math) she saw the football field covered with snow and the kids were making snowballs and throwing them at each other.

Mesa hasn't seen snow for twenty years.

I'm surprised that Apache Junction didn't get snow since our elevation is a little higher than Mesa's.

Finally! we have an offer

Finally! We have an offer we can accept! Yesterday was a roller coaster day. Our emotions were up one minute and down the next. It all started during breakfast when our Realtor called. I had suggested the previous day that possibly we could assume the present loan on the home and pay the rest in cash, and close.

She wanted me to call and get that started. We did, and bottom line is that we could assume the loan but the seller would still be held liable. That was the first downer of the day. Next, we applied for a bridge loan at our bank. They would let us know the next day whether we were qualified.

We ran errands and was totally in shock when our Utah Realtor called to present an offer. Now, we were really up, but since I've been sick for a week and a half and this up and down business took a toll on my body. I was so down physically, that I couldn't enjoy the up of the offer.

We are very relieved to know it's presumably sold! We're crossing our fingers and toes that all will go as planned. Actually, we're praying that it all goes well.

Too Much Fun

Mike and I are sick! I think we packed a little too much fun into that 10 days. Andrew came down with a stuffy nose which I treated. He was better in two days. Two days later I got it, and still suffer from sinus infection a week and a half later.

Later I realized it was wheat that caused my sinus infection. I made chocolate chip cookies for the kids and ate a few myself. I also at taco shells. I can't have corn or wheat.

It took a shot and antibiotics to get me feeling almost good again. A week later Mike came down with it. He's much stronger than I am and by his third day seems to be on the mend.

The weather isn't anymore well than we are. It's been raining for two days, and I will be happy for tomorrow when it's supposed to sunny and warm again.

My friend Connie loves rain from the first drop to the last drop. Not me! I love the sun.

Our sweet neighbor and billiard buddy Sandy, discovered we were sick when she called to invite us to a game of pool. She surprised us by bringing homemade chicken soup and crackers. It was delicious and much appreciated!

Goldfield Mining Town

When Mike and Susan returned from their cruise, we took them to a mining town called "The Junction."

We took a train ride, wandered around the town, ate ice cream, and watched a gunfight. Oh, I forgot, and Froze! It was a chilly 48 degrees, and Susan and I were miserable.

Happy Children

We had a ball! We swam all six days. And, Katie learned to swim.















Swimming with Mike and Susan and the kids. We were freezing!

The temperature was in the mid-fifties, but there was a cold breeze! You can see in the top picture that the sky is overcast.






We went to a nice park where Andrew and Grandpa played basketball. The favorite thing in the park was the self- pushing merry-go-round.

We were amused watching Nicholas, who hooked up with a cute girl his age, named Sarah. It was a mutual admiration society for sure. They locked hands and didn't let go.

Nicholas shared the remains of his lunch with her and she offered treats to him and the others. They were instant friends and it looked like love.

You've heard the saying, "Parting is such sweet sorrow?" Well, it was true. I was afraid there were going to be tears, but we hurried and got a phone number, so the two can write and become pen-pals.

Ben made friends with Sarah's brother Tyler, and Katie played with Sarah, and all.

We packed three or four things into each day. Making cookies, watching cartoons and videos.

We went to Walmart where the three youngest kids spent the Christmas money we had sent them. They thought it would be fun to spend it with Grandma and Grandpa. Katie bought a doll. Nicholas bought some type of man figure doll, and a flute. Ben bought a car that turns into something else, and had money left over.

When Mike and Susan returned we went to a mining town called The Junction. We took a train ride, wandered around the town, ate ice cream, and watched a gunfight. Oh, I forgot, and Froze! It was a chilly 48 degrees, and Susan and I were miserable.

Later, they played with Pippen the dog, and air hockey at John and Sherri's.

Later again, we drove to the center of Mesa and saw the statues, (boys playing ball, a boy delivering newspapers, and lots of animals, etc.)

Later again, we went to dinner at The Old Country Buffet.

All in all, we had a great time.

Mike and Susan got lost coming and going, very unfortunate!

Ingram's are coming

Mike and Susan have had a trip planned to go to Ecuador and visit friends for several months now. We were asked to tend the children while they were gone and we or rather I quickly said yes.

There's been a glitch however, Susan fell off a ladder while putting up Christmas lights on the outside of their home and has badly injured her foot. The doctor told her she couldn't go the Ecuador unless she spent the entire trip in a wheelchair. Mike said no way! They would be at the foot of the Andes and he intends to go mountain climbing.

I was disappointed that we weren't going to have the children, but things are looking up. They've decided to drive to St. George, stay the night with his dad, drive to Phoenix, fly out of her the next day and fly to LA and take a cruise instead.

We will have the children for 6 days by ourselves. Upon returning, they will spend two days here, then back-track the same way they came. I can't wait!

Friday December 21

It started off well with Sherri picking us up to take us to the airport to begin our two- week Christmas vacation in Utah and Idaho. We were only about 15 minutes away from the airport when we got a call from Delta that our flight was delayed. We heard that message about every 20 minutes after we had gotten to the airport.

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 12:20 and arrive in Utah at 1:30 or so. Instead, we arrived at 5:00.

Things didn't improve much in the Salt Lake Airport either. We were there over an hour looking for our luggage which had been placed somewhere different than we were told.

Lisa, bless her heart was already helping us by being at our home seeing to it that the Comcast technician could get in to re-connect our TV cable, which was on vacation mode. Now was needed at the airport to pick up up. Chris was planning to do that but couldn't because we were late. She and David had a family party that evening several hours from where they live.

Lisa was already feeling stressed because of the Cable guy, then got stuck in traffic due to a car accident on the freeway. She could only go 5 miles an hour for about 15 miles. She and Mike had many cell phone calls to each other, and she let him know that she would be late. It didn't take long for him to let her know that we were running late because he couldn't find our luggage.

We were ready about the same time and were finally on our way home.

Next problem was the cold, but that was already expected. Not fun though.

I was late for a friend party with my Riverdale girls. The party was scheduled at 6 and it was already going on 7. More on that later. I'm on Mike's lap-top, and the battery is low.

A New Year

Christmas has come and gone and a new year raises her hopeful head.

We enjoyed the holidays with phone calls to our kids, dinner and pool with friends at the club, and presents and dinner at John and Sherri's.

New Year's Eve was on a Sunday so we celebrated by going to a movie with John, Sherri, and Kristin on Saturday, and saw, Night At The Museum, we thoroughly enjoyed it! Afterwards, we ate wonderful taco's at the Code's.

Sunday was spent at home by ourselves watching two videos given to us by John and Sherri for Christmas. They were: Behind Enemy Lines, and Second Hand Lions. We ate chips and salsa and other snacks.




Our Clinton home is still not sold and we are feeling desperate! We're still renting the home here and the contract has been extended to Jan 30, 2006. We are very hopeful that we will have an offer by then.