Steve's 2011 Garden

Every year I say I am going to plant a smaller garden. Each year I fill up the whole plot. This spring Janet decided she would like to have some strawberries and raspberries. Andrew and Amy brought me a few raspberry plants the first part of April. Unfortunately, some of them froze so I ordered 75 strawberry plants and 12 raspberry plants from Burgess. It took over a month and one half before they finally arrived. I also ordered 25 raspberry plants from Daisy farms. They were here within a week. Not all of the strawberry plant lived so I sent for the free replacements. We eventually hope to have a good strawberry and raspberry patch.
Even though my garden seems to be later this year the garden it is doing very well. I planted five rows of potatoes on April 07 with the good help of our granddaughter, Madison Wilcox. It took them a month to come up, but they look real good. I have also planted carrots, beets, spinach, radishes, lettuce, cabbage, Swiss chard, okra, onions, and 70 pepper plants of different varieties. I have cucumbers, zucchini, yellow and butternut squash.
    I have planted my first two plantings of corn and will plant the third planting in a week. Two of our grandsons, Sam and Ethan,  helped me plant the 2nd planting. The first planting is about 10 inches tall. I planted two rows of pole beans and on Monday I will put in the poles for the beans to climb. I put in 50 tomato plants and the tomatoes are setting on, plus I have honey dew, watermelon and cantaloupe that are doing well. The ground where I planted my tomatoes and melons is covered with black plastic and is irrigated by drip system. It takes very little water to water them and there will be no weeds. I appreciate my dad teaching me how to garden and because of his good example, I try to keep my garden weed free.

I receive great satisfaction from my garden and I really enjoy eating the fresh produce.  We ate our first radishes this weekend.

Bi-State Excurions

 After a very busy Quilt Camp, and 5 days with four of the grandkids, we headed to Tooele on Friday the  June 3to take Lauie and Brendan home.   We stoped in Provo to deliver Danny's birthday quilt.  Most of the other kids were on Herpes alert....so we didn't stay long.  Danny will be baptized July 2 by CJ.

We stayed with Tammy and Nathan that night, and went to Brendan's Soccer game the next morning.  Nathan finished up a big research paper for his class the weekend they brought the kids down, so he's down to his last semester of school for his Masters.  Tammy and I had a lot to talk about--mainly about healthy food recipes, their new drink blender, and family matters.  I'm so busy with projects and service at home, I don't squeeze in many phone calls each week, I'm sorry to say, but I love visiting in person.

Since Steve was headed home Sunday, we left for Autumn's in the afternoon so he would have a little time to play with the Munchkins there...and as you see we did munch. 

    Amy and her crew of three joined us for a sunny day lunch.  Andrew and Amy had just gotten back from seeing Little Mermaid at Tuachan that weekend.

Hinckley has really grown up a lot and is walking all over; Jaxon has turned into quite a jabber box, and, of course, Mattea is still the organizer of fun and games, along with Hunter and Peyton.

Autumn and I and the kids went to the big West Valley Days parade, and shopped a bit--though didn't have much money to squander!  We walked Hunter to school each morning, and I learned some of the regime I'll need to follow when I got back to tend the kids the end of June, while Theron and Autumn are trek leaders.  Hunter and Peyton have learned to clean up their bedrooms really quite good, which is a big help to their mom

Monday evening we went to see 17 Miracles, which was about the Martin and Willie Handcart companies.  It was wonderfully done, with striking cinamatography.  Well worth a trip to SLC to see it.  I've recommended it to everyone I've seen.  Hope it comes to Blanding.

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Wed. morning Autumn dropped me off at the airport, and I flew to Phoenix, where Ashley picked me up.  I got the ticket for $115 on Delta.   It was a quick and easy flight--no nap time.  We went bargain hunting at American Discount..and I froze most of my things, 'til we drove home Mon. the 13th.  It was fun seeing all the new things the kids were doing.  Sam has turned into a terrific reader, and seems to remember everything explained to him. 

I went with the kids to their last swimming lesson with cousin Mark as chauffeur, while Ashley went to a Dr. appt.  Logan still has a hard time listening to the teacher, but she is fearless when she dashes into the water..

Sammy learned the back stroke, and is getting lots of confidence.   By Sat. he was doing flips and dives into Karen's pool!

Anthony is firmly entrenched into his summer schedule which includes a class, and working 150 hrs. for the County attornies, and writing a research paper.  I don't think he'll get bored.

   After swim lessons Ashley took me over to Quent and Bev's and I got to see the new beautiful baby, Jens Quentin.  He was born May 9, just after Mother's Day...so that was a great present.  The kids are all really wonderful with him, and are a big help to Bev.  Jens looks really healthy and filled out, but we're not sure if he likes chocolate yet as Bev thinks that's why he gets fussy.

  We had several joint meals together, the big hit being fresh produce and Mexicano grilled chicken from the hood. 

Karen also hosted an early birthday party for Logan Sat. afternoon at their place, and Quent and the kids came over for that.  All the kids swam there, chased bubbles, and played with Fudge--the dog, who can catch a toy in mid-air.

 

 

Everybody helped blow candles out.

 

 

Friday evening, the dad's catered to Grandma's wish, and we went to Yogurt Kingdom to try the multiple choice flavors and toppings.  One of my classmate's husband plays there on Fridays.  Last time I was down, Sharon took us hiking up to Elephant Butte. 

 

Sunday I was back in Logan's bed, and then late church on Sunday.  The air conditioner had gone out, so the last 2 meetings were cancelled...More time for naps! 

 

Ashley had lots of prep and packing getting ready to leave on Monday, as she'll be gone 2 weeks.  We ended up taking the Tahoe, and I bought as much fresh fruit as I could fit in, from a little market on our way out of town.  Great prices: 2 lbs strawberries for $1; catalope 2/$1; honeydew 3/$1. Colored bell peppers 5/$1.

We had a nice trip back to Blanding; got there about 4 PM and Steve was ready to plant corn with Sam and Ethan. He also took the boys fishing.  Rob's family came down and we had ribs and birthday cake for the birthday girls.  Steve did a good job of getting everything prepared for the meal, and activities.  He even decorated the kitchen and ordered a birthday cake.
 
I made about 7 batches of strawberry jam that night before I went to bed, so we're stocked back up again.  The next morning Dad headed to the temple and we took a long hike up to see the tepee, tower, and pioneer houses out at the Nations of the Four Corners.  The kids really had a fun time, and Travis was a good traveler in the stroller.   They actually wanted to stay and sleep in the tepee.

After the hike, we drug home...had lunch, and the kids packed up to head to Altamont. 

 

Buff Stuff Goin' On

Theron participated in a Jeppson team relay on June 3-4.   Out of 44 teams Theron's team took second place. They got beat by about nine minutes. I guess that's not bad after riding 527 miles. Autumn reported Theron had heat exhaustion during the heat of the day and got really cold riding during the night. He had to stop and put on warmer clothes. This stress made him sick and he was throwing up. Because Theron took first place in the Lotoja the $150. per team member was waved for his whole team. Theron got a fancy tee shirt for being team leader and each of Theron's team members including Theron received a nice watch, so they came out ahead

Theron said the organizer of the race had a word of prayer before the start of the race in Moab. The presentations of the awards will be later this evening, but Theron couldn't stay. When the fellow in charge of the race asked him why he had to get back, Theron told him he had bishop things to do. The fellow said I know what you mean, I'm also a bishop.

A few weeks earlier Autumn ran in the Ogden Marathon and finished ahead of her last marathon time.  She reported it was perfect weather, and beautiful, but lots of uphill running.

As of June Autumn has logged in 500 miles of running, and Grandma Janet has over 300 miles walking.  

June updates

Here's a few pix of our fun new swimming pool...at least the part for the bigger kids.

Travis learned how to flirt with girls at the pool yesterday! Ethan, Laurie, and Brendan learned to defend themselves on the log jam/monkey ropes. It was the only beautiful day so far this week. So glad we went then. Steve was at the temple from 8-2:30, enjoying the peace and quiet...!

Today Steve tended the boys, while I did quilt camp with Laurie. He had to do some multi-tasking to survive, but only burned 1 pizza.

Rob and Kathryn got home today. The next hearing on the adoption is on the 21 of June. Their lawyers are forcing the judge to require that previous decisions be complied with, i.e. DNA proof, home evaluation, etc. To \night Laurie and Brendan went to Nizhoni's softball game, and played for a while. Both the girls got a lot done at camp. We had 22 kids, and about 12 leaders. Tomorrow...more of the same, but it will be easier, as they now know how to thread a machine, and the needle, and sew semi-straight! We hope to have the top done before we leave on Friday for Tooele.
 
More on the court proceedings:
Here is a more detail on what happened at court from Rob: I guess the judge came in with an attitude and wasn't going to hear the case. He had reviewed the past judgements and still had the opinion that LDS family services used fraud to do this adoption. The judge kept telling our attorney to move on. I guess it got real heated and he said he wasn't going to move on until he got the information out.
      Luckily the other attorney had the birth father on the stand and he testified that he went to SLC and met with LDS family services before Travis was born. That kind of self-incriminated himself. He never told anyone that before. If we would have knpwn that at the first, I think it would have been settled by now. The judge did admit that the courts made a mistake and there was no fraud involved.


Mom was right on what the courts ordered. They appointed a G.A.L for Travis. He will do the home study on all 3 families involved. They only problem with that, the next hearing is in 3 weeks, and they won't have time to do the study before then. They said if that's is the case, we will have to have another hearing after this one in 3 weeks. We have to have a DNA test on Travis. They are telling us that we have to go to Colorado Springs before the next court date to do this. Hopefully they can send us the kit and we can do it here.

They next court date is the 21st and 23rd of June. They have it scheduled for 2 days because of all the testimonies that will be presented. So we might have to be back in Denver for a week. We didn't get to go to court on Tuesday. Only our attorneys knew we were there. We were the secret weapon. Hopefully next time we will be able to testify.

Another thing in our favor, because the Birth Father filed the wrong paper work. He filed a allocation of parental responsibility, instead of petition of paternity, we now have rights. The state of Colorado, after having the child in the home for more than 6 months, we can intervene and we now have rights. If this drags on for more that 1 year, the burden now goes to the other side, and they have to show that we are unfit to have Travis. That's why they are trying to rush this case. The judge still wants to do everything required by law, but doesn't want to be the reason this drags on for more than the year.

So as it looks, worse case scenario, They won't terminate the father's rights and they will give him visitation rights. He would have to start paying child support to us, but we will still have custody of him. We wouldn't be able to finalize until his rights are terminated. Our attorney said in past cases like this, the father looses interest after a few months and quits paying. At that point, we could have his rights terminated. So we shall see.
     All and all the hearing went good for us. At least the judge said he needs to start going by state statue instead of skipping around. So our side felt real good about it. They said the birth father's attorney was pretty upset when she left the court house, so the tides are turning. Any questions, give us a call.
    Thanks. Rob and Kathryn.

4-H Quilt Camp June 1-2

 One of my old loves resurrected this weekend, when I got to help teach young girls how to sew in a 4-H setting. That is where I first learned to sew, and I hope the 18 young people we introduced to quilt making, will also find much joy in it.  We had 17 girls and 1 brave young man participate in the camp.  The County 4-H leaders provided some break activities, and also lunch and snacks.  It was a great pairing of resources.

It was especially fun having Laurie come down to share the 2 days with Grandma! Nathan and Tammy brought the kids down Sunday, and we had a couple of play days with them and Ethan and Travis, before the camp began on Wed. We had several one-on-one teaching stations, and several who worked with two kids. Laurie's friend Nizhoni Lacy was also at our work station, and both girls did really well.

It was probably the funnest thing we've done through quilt guild all year; at least for me, and definitely for the girls as well.  What a great feeling of accomplishment they had after completing their first big block.

This is how Laurie's quilt top looked when finished.