Chicken Sod and other good stories

So much has been happening, and its hard for me to take the time to sit down and write some history.  Do I really have the time to do that?  No, but that just proves I'm too busy.  It will be good to sit and ponder a bit of what all has transpired.  Besides when will have the time?--  When life has slowed down that all I get to do is sit.  Where to start?  Yesterday we loaded up Sean's futon and lamp and some boxes of dishes, pots and pans, etc. and headed for Logan stopping to pick up his box springs and frame from Ellen's.--which he bought from her.  That created another little story of itself.  I had called Ellen earlier that morning to see if we could come by and pick that stuff up on our way.  She was in Jackson Hole on a trip with Kelly, but she called and arranged for Matt to stop by and leave a key to the house under the door mat and give us the alarm code to disarm the alarm system once we got in the house with the key.  (You can see how this is fixing to become a good story)  Well, when we got there, there was no key under the mat.  We checked the back door mat,  No key.  We had the pickup and hated to just forget about the whole thing.  But we persisted.  Tried to call Ellen on her cell, after calling Holly to get that number.  No answer.  Then a call to Holly again to find maybe a cell phone number for Matt or Kelly.  Success.  We got Kelly's phone number and called--she answered and then said that Matt had decided a key under the matt was too obvious--he put it under a watering can, told Ellen, and then Ellen forgot to call us and tell us.  So now we can get into the house.  With the code in hand and some instructions, we unlocked the door.  Beep, beep, beep, we leave the door open and go to the laundry room and put in the code.  Can't find a light switch so am trying to do this in the dark.  Of course I'm way nervous because Ellen has said you only have 30 sec to disarm the system.  Put the code in and the Beeps get louder--front door open.  Then I remember Ellen said you have to shut the doors first.  So I yell at Doug to shut the door and I try putting the code in again.  It wasn't too pleased with how we finally did that--and I was hoping the police wouldn't show up all of a sudden, and Ellen and Joe get charged a fee.  We proceed to get the box springs and frame get it out in the truck.  Then I have to rearm the system the right way.  We lock the door finally after a few botched attempts and with the system beeping--hopefully it got the right message and we got out of there.  Of course, we tied down the mattress--made it only as far as the bottom of the hill, and we had to redesign how we were going to pack it.  Spent another 20 minutes doing that, then we were on our way.  Not looking too "okey" (mattress on the top of the car).   Met up with Sean at his new apartment.  It is a beautiful and wonderful location--got a pond in the back yard with privacy even, next door to some older ladies (no college kids!)--just a nice place.  Sorry I didn't get any pictures.  Reminds me of Mom- (who always packed a camera--I sure miss her) and would never have let the opportunity go by of photographing the moment. 

(Sean and Kim--this picture just makes me Smile)

Unloaded everything, set up the frame (took a bit of figuring) changed clothes and headed for a bite to eat and then to the Temple.   Wendy's seems to be my eatery of choice--can always count on what you get to eat.  Visited a little over dinner, catching up on the holster business.  The Logan temple was great.  We got to see the new film and did a little crying in the celestial room--feeling pretty grateful for being with a son, and husband there together.  We then went to Sean old place, picked up a chair, plants, misc stuff said our goodbys to his old roommate and went back over to Sean's new place to unload this stuff.  Had our scripture reading together and a prayer (we have been doing that every night for a few months now--as Sean has no other family to do family scripture time, we devised that as a way to do that via Skype.  It has been good for us and hopefully him too.  We will miss that when he's married.  Anyway we drove home--it was late--but we were happy.  This is what parents do--and the last child to leave is somewhat of a milestone. 

 Sean's room emptying out quickly--the Star War's figures will be some of the lase stuff I think.

 

Now, so I don't go crying the rest of the day, I will have to add some other good stories. Nephew Dave broke his neck in a bicycle accident--And there were amazing stories of miracle after miracle of things that took place for the injury to not be so drastic.  It's bad enough, but he was saved from being paralyzed by a miracle.  Being in him and Heather and Michelle's presence is pretty special--there is a special spirit.  That type of suffering has a sanctifying  affect I think.  We are grateful for all the blessings that have come there way. 

 

The sod story is kind of crazy.  We had worked for months to prepare the ground for the new sod--the dead Russian Olive had to be cut down, the stump ground, the dirt leveled, and the side front yard had to be cleared of rocks, plants, and leveled too. On Monday afternoon (Aug 5) we were ready to put the finishing touches--green sod to make it look like the rest of the yard.  I started looking on KSL for some extra sod someone might have to sell--about 400 sq ft.  Found one and called. The guy was vague about the sod, asked that I text him with the amount of sq ft I needed.  Didn't hear back.  I called again--this kind of went back and forth for a couple of hours.  Never getting a clear answer of whether we could get this sod or not.  This was all happening about the time Dave was coming out of surgery, so I was getting texts from Michelle too.  And you know I can't text very fast.  So it finally becomes Tuesday morning.  We haven't heard any thing more till we are driving to the Temple and this guys texts again and says, do I still want the sod?  I'm concerned about the quality at this time, but he reassures me it is in great shape, etc.  We agree to meet him at 11:00 am in West Jordan.  We load up the trailer and get Bruce to come with us-- are sitting at the intersection of 3200 W and 7800 S waiting.  I text him to tell him which corner I'm on.  He immediately calls me back and says he inadverdantly hit an extra 1--he meant 1:00.  Since I have gone to so much effort, he will just deliver--say 1:30 pm.  I give him my address and go home.  We wait.  1:45--no body. I call.  He says, it will probably be 3:30.  I say ok.  Still asking, is the sod being kept watered.  Yeah, yeah.  I tell Doug we should just cancel the whole thing and he says, let's let it play out.  They finally show up at 4:30 with a black tall sided trailer (very hot)with this dried up sod.  Not looking good.  I have them take one piece off, and it looks kind of ok.  They unloaded 40 pieces.  I pay them $80--deducted 1cent off of what they were originally selling if for!!--I guess I was thinking I hated to not take it, after all that we went through.  They were pretty low life guys, tattoos, hugh truck--I was just disgusted over the whole thing and I just wanted them to leave.  As we unrolled the rest of the sod--it was terrible.  Hot, mold, dried up--just bad.  I was getting mad--but I kind of did it to myself--I set myself up for this--when I should have walked away.  We put the sod all down, got the water to it immediately and prayed that maybe by some chance it would revive.  No deal.  By Friday, I determined I would pay the extra money to get fresh sod and eat my folly.  Before Doug left to pick up Dave's hospital bed, we had picked up some more sod and had some of it laid down--putting the dead or nearly dead sod in wheelbarrows.  The next day Sean laid the sod in the chicken pen--giving the chickens something to scratch on.  We have watered it some since, to help it maybe take hold.  And we are now calling my sod fiasco the CHICKEN SOD.  The yard with the fresh sod is looking very green and nice for only $200 ($80 + $120) and I have learned a few lessons. 

 

 

 

the "chicken sod"-- trying to revive it--didn't work so it got relegated to the Chicken pen.

 

 

Looks much nicer now!

 

The rest of the yard is too. We are so thankful for children and grandchildren who have labored with us.  The Fence is now painted too.  Sean, Kim, Jessie, Noble, Lucas, Doug and I scraped and brushed off the old paint.  Then Kay, Jack, Hank, Tom, Jessie, Noble, Lucas, Emory, Doug and I painted--the painting got done in one day.  A big job, but many hands make light work--right.