I took several digital pictures this afternoon as mom was opening her birthday presents. I really liked this picture which was taken as she was opening up her new iron. Dad saw the iron and said, “Good! Now I can have her old one!” That evoked quite an expression of surprise, and a pretty nice picture. Happy birthday, mother!

We’re busy packing up the apartment. We’ll get most of our stuff out of here tomorrow and finalize it on Tuesday. It’s time to get into our own house with all of our own stuff! Dawnmarie and Kirk will spend the next couple of nights here (with now adequate sleeping accommodations) before they head eastward. It’s been fun having the grandkids here for a few days and we’ll miss them when they go.

I guess we’re officially here. We closed on the house late Wednesday afternoon and then met our realtor at the new house at 7 a.m. on Thursday to do a walkthrough and accept the house. Everything was in order and the house is now in our possession, although it’s owned by the bank! The Qwest phone guy was to show up between 8 and noon on Thursday to install the phone. Nina waited all morning and, of course being Qwest, no one showed up. The new refrigerator was scheduled to be delivered on Thursday afternoon between noon and 2 p.m., but they were early. Nina finally called Qwest and was told the installer would be there between 2 and 5 p.m. He showed up at 4:45. Nina spent the entire day at the empty house waiting for the stupid phone company. Over the years I have come to have a very low opinion of Qwest as a company that will never, ever have the customer’s needs and requirements as any part of their operating practices.

The electrician was at the house promptly at 7:05 a.m. on Friday and they were done by 10. They ran a new circuit into the office so we would have sufficient power for the computers, put a 30 amp circuit out on the RV pad for our motorhome, put 220 volt wiring out back for the new hot tub, and another 110 volt circuit out back for a pond or fountain whenever we put something like that out in the back yard. I spent the morning tracing down coax cable connections so that Dish Network can install next Wednesday. Dawnmarie’s car wouldn’t start, so we spent some time in the afternoon getting a new battery installed in her van.

Dad and mom came over Saturday morning and we spent much of the day building shelves downstairs in the utility room. He also helped me put a wiring circuit in for the cable modem that needs to be in the utility room. While we were doing that, Nina and Dawnmarie took the kids into town for the 24th of July Parade. The parade was excellent and we had a very good, productive day.

Last Sunday (the 19th) our membership records were read into the ward. On the Friday before, the Bishop asked Nina and me to talk in Sacrament Meeting this Sunday on patriotism. Amongst all the hubub of the week, we both prepared a lot of material. There were no youth speakers, no ward business, and we were the program along with the Ward Choir singing in between. It was good that we both had a lot of material prepared. I’m sure that the ward members got a reasonable look at us and we probably passed muster. The Juniper Hills Ward is a very friendly ward, perhaps one of the friendliest wards we’ve ever attended. We’ll enjoy being part of the ward. I received a calling today: teaching the 4th Sunday lessons in High Priest Group priesthood meeting. Only problem is, I’ll be out of town two out of the next three 4th Sundays! But, I enjoy teaching and this will be a good opportunity for me. I may switch Sundays with one of the other teachers….

Mom and dad drove over from Soda Springs to be in Sacrament meeting and hear us speak. They came up to the house afterwards and we had dinner on a very small table that I bought on Thursday so Nina would have a place to sit while waiting for the phone guy. Next Sunday is mother’s 80th birthday, so we also celebrated her birthday as Kirk and Dawnmarie will be leaving on Wednesday to drive back to Pennsylvania. She’ll get two birthday parties this year, since we’ll go over next Sunday for her real birthday.

The moving truck arrives tomorrow morning between 8 and 9 a.m. We’ll be sleeping in our new house amongst all the boxes tomorrow night. Pocatello, we’re here!

Every once in a while, a pleasant surprise comes along. Today brought one of them.

I’ve been having some troubles with the motorhome. Just before the Fourth of July I discovered that the generator would run, but electricity wasn’t getting into the vehicle. Everything I looked at seemed to be OK — but nothing I tried fixed the problem. Further, the rear left turn signal wasn’t working. The bulbs were fine, the front left turn signal flashed quite rapidly, which further meant something was wrong. It acted like there was some kind of a break in the circuit, like may a blown fuse? But where were the fuses? I discovered a couple of fuse boxes, but all seemed to be in order. Finally I resigned myself to take the vehicle in to a repair shop and have them fix the problem. I took it in about 9 this morning. At 10:30 they called to say everything was fixed and the bill would be about $30. The turn signal did indeed have a blown fuse (and they’ll show me where it is). The generator had not been plugged back into the motorhome wiring after the last generator oil change, which I had done just before we brought the vehicle to Pocatello when I took the new job. It looks like they just forgot to plug it back in! Anyhow, the problems are fixed and the price is right. It also means that I spent too much time trying to figure it out myself. I should have taken it to the experts earlier!

We’ll close on our house in about another hour — another big milestone in our move to Pocatello. I’ve just about got all the accounts in Colorado Springs closed and corresponding accounts opened here in Pocatello. The moving truck comes on Monday!

It has been incredbly hot here in Pocatello. In addition, the weather
pattern is bringing a lot of moisture up from Baja California. That has
spawned some very spectacular thunderstorms. In between, it has just plain
been HOT. The small window air conditioning unit in our apartment isn’t
capable of keeping up with the heat. The new house is air conditioned!
Hurrah!

We’ve got some company visiting. Dawnmarie and her five kids are staying
with us this week. Kirk has flown back to Pennsylvania to work for a week.
He’ll be back late Saturday the 24th. The small two-bedroom apartment gets
pretty tight occasionally. Meanwhile, this is an eventful week coming up.
We’ll close on Wednesday afternoon and take possession on Thursday morning
with a walkthrough at 7 a.m. Air conditioning, here we come!

Dad’s workshop is coming along. My brother Perry drove over from Green
River, Wyoming on Friday. I went over Saturday morning and we spent the day
putting up siding. We got the west side done and most of the south side
until we ran out of material. I made a quick trip to Home Depot last night
to pick up the J-strips needed to complete the siding work. We’re going
over this afternoon and will take the motorhome over this afternoon so
everyone can ride in the same vehicle. We’ll take the remaining siding
material with us so the rest of the siding can be put up. Life is good (and
HOT)!

The flight was completely uneventful and we arrived in Salt Lake City on schedule. Our whirlwind trip to Kentucky for the twins’ baptism was coming quickly to an end. Before we went to the Cincinnati airport this morning, Nina and I talked about whether or not the flight would be empty. I told her that I thought it would be a very sparsely populated airplane. Boy was I wrong! The cabin configuration was 2-3-2 (a-b c-d-e f-g where a and g are window seats, b, c, e, and f are aisle seats, and d is the middle seat) and all of the window and aisle seats were occupied. Most of the middle seats were occupied as well. Fortunately, the seat between Nina and me was empty — she was in 12C and I was in 12E. The Cincinnati airport was very busy, even at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning. The wait for a McDonalds breakfast was about 20 minutes. That was my only choice since the hotel breakfast didn’t start serving until 7 (or 7:30 for room service).

When we arrived in Salt Lake City at about 10:15 MDT, to our surprise the terminal was very busy! People were everywhere and there were lines in the restrooms. Where is everyone going on a Sunday morning??? Why is Delta in such difficult financial circumstances?? Inquiring minds want to know!

We drove to Heather’s to pick up Bradica (the dog) and stayed for dinner. Crock pots are wonderful inventions. Daryl drove down from Salt Lake for dinner as well. We had a great dinner, great conversation, and then loaded up the dog and drove home to our apartment in Pocatello. The trip was finished, and so were we. It’s been a very quiet evening! It was a great trip, but it’s good to be home again.

We’re back at our hotel room for the evening and will soon head for bed. We’ve got an early flight tomorrow morning and will go directly to the airport after checking out of the hotel.

The remainder of the afternoon was quite pleasant. A huge thunderstorm dropped more than 2 inches of rain shortly after we got back from the baptism. That kept everyone indoors for the remainder of the afternoon. It truly felt like a Sunday afternoon!! Perhaps that’ll count as we won’t get to Church tomorrow. The most eventful part of the afternoon was when a Pyrex dish exploded on the stove top. Jim was getting the dish ready to make gravy from the roast juices, had left it heating up on the top of the stove while he did something else, and it boiled dry. The explosion was pretty spectacular — glass everywhere, particularly all over the stove top and on the floor in front of the stove. What food was on the table was protected, a very good thing. In spite of the fireworks, the dinner was quite tasty.

The picture to the left was taken just prior to the baptism. James is on the left and Steven is on the right. James is just slightly taller than Steven. I’m actually getting to where I’m pretty sure I can tell them apart. They definitely have distinct personalities and differing preferences. However, they sing together beautifully — well in tune and right in time with each other. They really enjoy singing and they could easily be singing close harmony together in a few years as they’ve both got great talent. I was also impressed with the ward support at the baptism. There were more than 25 ward members present at 2:00 p.m. on a sultry Saturday afternoon. James and Steven were the first two baptized in the new ward building. In fact, their baptism was postponed from early June because the ward was being split and they were moving into a brand new building. Jim and LeeAnn attend a good ward and have a good relationship with a number of people in the ward.

For us this was a whirlwind trip. We arrived late Friday night and are leaving early Sunday morning. It is very warm and very humid this time of the year in northern Kentucky. We aren’t used to this kind of weather and it just wears us out. The hotel room’s air conditioner is on full high coldest setting and it isn’t doing the job. We’re looking forward to getting back to the dry country!

James Roland and Steven Leeland Smith were both baptized and confirmed
members of the Church this afternoon by their dad Jim. They were both very
excited about being baptized. The service was quite delightful. Everything
went as planned. Shaundra gave the opening prayer, Nina gave the talk on
baptism and then James was baptized first followed by Steven. LeeAnn’s
mother Nancy gave the talk on the Holy Ghost after which Steven was
confirmed followed by James. The Primary President and then the Bishop
welcomed the boys into the ward. LeeAnn’s father Vern gave the closing
prayer. I played the piano for the service. The boys were very handsome.

Jim gave both of the boys a very nice blessing. Each of the boys received a
very individual blessing, taylored specifically to their personality. I was
very pleased with all of them. Good job, boys!

Delta is providing the transportation as we head to Florence, Kentucky for
the twin’s baptism tomorrow. We’re about 45 minutes from landing when the
Blackberry will get a signal and this missive will be sent.

The flight has been completely uneventful. Flying has long since lost its
glamour and allure. I’ve been wondering if if would be possible to put
together a “frills” airline that didn’t cram everyone in like cattle and
treat them like peasants. Would it really cost that much more? Trains once
were the elegant way to travel but now the service is so poor in the U.S.
that most folks don’t even consider travel by train. On the other hand,
Ijll be in Europe in a couple of weeks and would probably use the train for
any long-distance travel. For instance, I could fly Virgin Atlantic (an
airline that seems to do well while treating people like they have value)
to London and then take the train through the Chunnel for a price less than
air fare. We’ll see….

We’ve begun our descent into the Cincinnati Airport. The trip will soon be
over. Nina’s caught a cold and is feeling pretty poorly. Lousy timing for a
cold!