Catch Up

  

Have put this blog on the back burner. And tonight the house is actually empty.  Let me repeat that

E M P T Y!   It really does feel good for a change.  The quiet is nice.  So this would be an excellent time to fill in on what has happened in my life.  Easter has come and gone.  With an easter egg hunt here at the house with all 14 grandchildren and 5 children with 4 spouse here.  Derek will be home soon from Texas, (which Kay can hardly wait I think), and Sean surprised me by coming in that night.  Made his Mom cry. I think its the youngest thing, and I had worried about him and how he was doing. Had spent time on my temple shift Saturday pondering and praying for him. Had even planned a trip up to see him Sunday morning, but he came down here instead--just to make me cry.  We got to spend time with the whole family Saturday and Sunday. Just hanging out and visiting with each other.  Sean created fun by having night games Sunday night. Way fun for the grandkids!!  We have had Grandma Tiede here for about 2 weeks. She will go over to the Sullivan's tomorrow night. We are trying to do the 2 wk time share for the next 4 months.  Tonight Bruce took her and the kids to a talk at the library. Holly went to the cub scouts pinewood derby, and Doug has church visits.

They say when it rains it pours, and its been doing a lot of pouring lately.  Tuesday Grandma tried to do some laundry and found out that the washer would 'nt drain or spin. The end of the washer. I spent the next 3 days pouring over the internet and trying to educate myself on which washer/dryer would be the best. I think I made myself more confused with every passing hour on the internet doing searches. The final deciding factor was a call to an appliance repairman--said to go with a whirlpool. I ended up buying a maytag (owned by whirlpool) from Sears on Friday night.  $1100 quickly left our hands. It was earmarked for another debt, but the washer and dryer took priority, and thankfully we had that money. They delivered the set Monday and in the process scratched the front of the first new washer/dryer I have owned in a long long time. Mom Tiede suggested that we shouldn't accept that, so I got on the phone with Sears. They offered me a $50 coupon to spend in their store. NO! Could you just give me a discount or something like that.  After two days of trying to get a hold of a manager, they finally called and said they would give us a $100 credit in a check that would be issued. Thank you. That $100 was going to come in handy to pay a $200 bill for a furnace repair that went out over the weekend (finally repaired today--just in time for freezing temperatures tonight). That and the electric dog fence , which went down on Monday too--with me out trying to locate Cooper who took advantage of the breach.  I was stressed a little. We kept Cooper in the kennel for the next day, because I wasn't in any frame of mind to locate the break. Doug had a little time tonight to come out and help and we did locate and fix the break. Cooper will be back in the open tomorrow. Interesting, Nilla didn't bother testing the line, and stayed in bounds.  So as of right now. Everything is working!  Knock on wood.  So the FHE lesson Sunday on gratitude in all things was put to a test.

Friday, Doug took off work for the day and we went into Salt Lake to the Planetarium and watched the Hubble 3D Imax movie. WOW! what a special movie. We are planning on trying to get all adult children to see it again with us in May.

Life is full and interesting isn't it. Sitting down and typing this all up, I have a little more perspective, and can put things in a better light. That is what the Hubble 3 D movie did on Friday.  With all those views of earth from outer space, makes you see that all our "little irritations", really are only little. And if we can keep it the right size, we will be ok. Have to admit, I could have made this past week's challenges a smaller deal than they were.