Fall in Cache Valley, Utah

As I was leaving Cache Valley to do some training in the Bay area, I noticed the changing leaf colors on Sardine pass. They are beautiful this time of year. The temperatures are getting around freezing at night and therefore the leaves are on their way out.

The first picture is overlooking the golf course going into Sherwood Hills Resort. Does that make you homesick, Darcy??

Check it out!!!

Changing Cars

Time to blog again and let everyone know what is happening with us. We are changing members of our car family. I bought a 1941 Chevy which is exactly like the first car I owned after I turned 16. I bought it over eBay and it is located in Southern Colorado. It will be delivered to me on Aug. 6th. I am excited to see it and check it out completely. I am enclosing a couple of pictures. Check it out.

To make room in my garage, I have sold my Corvair. It is going to California next week on a transport to Los Angeles to a guy I met when I was doing defensive driver training there. I am including a couple of pictures. Check them out.

I also bought a Blazer in Denver over eBay, I will pick it up on Aug. 6 when we go to Denver to see Kathy's mother and nephew. We will drive it home on the 11th of Aug. Here are a couple pictures of the Blazer. Check it out.

San Ramon Trip

I guess it is time to update the blog again. I was doing defensive driver training in San Ramon this week. Kathy went with me. We had a little time on Tuesday night so we took a quick trip to Concord and Antioch. We went by the houses where we used to live and took pictures of them (check them out). We also stopped and visited the Ponces who are friends from when we used to live in Antioch. I couldn't believe the houses, condos and appartments that have been built in both Antioch and San Ramon. I don't where all the people are coming from. Buying or renting a condon in San Ramon isn't a cheap thing. A guy at Chevron told me they will be hiring 6000 new employees this year and 6000 in 2008. I guess that is where they are coming from.

I didn't have time to go by my house in Concord and take a picture of it. I will do that in June when I am there.

Gramie Jameson's car to Denver

Still have no pictures to post but have to tell about the trip from Brownsville to Denver. I was working in Houston so I volunteered to drive Gramie Jameson's car to Denver for her. She is moving and needed her car in Denver.
I got off work on Thursday and flew to Harlingen. Gramie met me there with her car and her neighbors to take her back to Brownsville. It was about 8:30 when I got there because my plane was a couple of hours late. I had made arrangements to stay all night in Kingsville which was a couple of hours up the road. I made it there okay but it was late.
Next morning as I started to hit the road, I found I had a flat tire. I went to a service station and put in some air. Not wanting to be in the middle of Texas with a flat tire, I took it to Goodyear to get it fixed. They found a spike in it and the spike had damaged the tire beyond repair. I had to buy a new tire.
While the car was on the lift, they found a lot of play in both front wheels and told me the wheel bearings needed to be replaced. They also told me the rear brakes were about 98% gone and should be replaced. I called Gramie and she gave me the OK to get the repairs done.
The quickly fixed the rear brakes but could not get the ball joints out to access the bearings in the front wheels. They worked on it for a couple of hours and finally said they couldn't do it. They thought whoever had put ball joints in had put in the wrong ones and they were afraid to mess with it. So they decided to put it all back together and send me on my way and hope nothing happened until I could get it to Denver and get it fixed. While putting the front wheels back together, they found the problem to be nothing more than the bearings were not properly adjusted. They adjusted them and I was on my way. I had lost 4 hours. I had hotel arrangements made for Amarillo. I changed them to Lubbock which was closer.
I stopped in San Antonio to get gas. Gramie's car has this thing that it will lock the doors after they have been shut for so many seconds. I am at the back of the car putting in gas when I hear the car lock and yes, the keys were in the ignition. I had to wait almost an hour for a lock smith to come and unlock it. He unlocked it faster with his "slim jim" than I could with a key.
The rest of the trip went pretty well with the exception of 45 to 50 mile an hour winds blowing against the car between Amarillo and Raton. If the winds would have been from the back of the car, I would have had to put my foot on the brake to keep from speeding.
All is well that ends well?

Trip back to Utah

We have no pictures to post or anything exciting to report about our trip back to Utah. We stopped several times and put Abbey (the cat) in the litter box to do her thing and she would just lay in it like it was her bed. We think she liked it because it had a cover and she felt protected. Sooooo, we just left her in there. We would stop to get gas, give her food and water, and clean the box. Worked great!! We made the trip in one day - 15 hours lapse time.

3 Days in El Segundo, California

I am contracting to do Defensive Driver Refresher Training for Chevron's 900 vanpool drivers. This last week I was in El Segundo at the refinery. The El Segundo refinery is about 10 minutes South of LAX. Kathy went with me and spent time reading, making stocking hats, watching movies and kicking back while I was doing the training. After I finished for the day, we went out and had a meal and checked out the ocean in Mahatten Beach (about 15 minutes from the hotel where we were staying). We had a good time and enjoyed the food and ocean. Check it out!!

Easter Dinner

We had Easter dinner with Darcy and Justin. Kathy and Darcy prepared a 4 course dinner that we all enjoyed. We had the hors d'oeuvres course (the deviled eggs seen in the next blog), the salad course, the main course, and the dessert, of course. Check it out!

Easter Celebration with Easter eggs

We celebrated Easter with Darcy and Justin. We colored a few eggs, hid them a couple of times, made devil eggs out of them and ate them. Check them out.

Our cruise to the Mexican Riviera

We went on a 7 day Mexican cruise leaving on March 17th. It was the same cruise that Brian and Suzi went on only two weeks earlier. We had a great time and enjoyed total relaxation. It was on the Princess Diamond which holds about 3000 passengers plus aroung 12oo crew. The ship was completely booked. It didn't seem crowded, however. We left LA and went to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas back to LA.

Here are some pictures of the ship. Check it out.

Grandkid watching and cookie disaster

We stayed with Michael, Derek, and Tyler while Brian and Suzi went on a Mexican Rivera cruise. We had a good time with the kids. We decide to make chocolate chip cookies with the boys. Michael and Derek were helping Grandpa. Michael was reading the recipe and Grandpa adding the ingredients while Derek was mixing.

There was a communication problem between Michael reading and Grandpa adding ingredients. The cookies came out looking like a flat cake. We realized that we were a cup short on the flour. Check them out.

Adoption papers have been signed and new family member is home

I found another truck to replace the one I just sold. I found in on Ebay and it was located in Boise, Idaho. I flew in and drove it home the next day. It runs great and I had a good trip. It is like the other except it is a V-6, extended cab, 2 wheel drive and gets better gas mileage. Check it out.

Trouble inside the Logan House

In addition to the problem with water getting behind the stucco, we found that water has come in through a vent in the cold room and did some damage to some things we had stored in boxes. Actually, it was things that Darcy had stored in there. Most of the stuff was stuffed animals. We unboxed everything and laid it out around the basement to dry out. Check it out.

Trouble with Logan Home

We made a trip to Logan on 2/14 to check on water damage at our home there. Water is running down the roof to the flashing around the chimney. A flip out was not placed at the end of the flashing so the water ran down inside of the stucco instead of flipping it out into the gutter. We had a company come with their meters which showed it to be plenty wet inside. They removed portions of the stucco and verified that there is damage. We decided to have them put in the flip outs and cover it to keep additional water from coming in until it gets warmer. Then, we will cut out the side of the house and replace all the wet wood and insulation and have someone come in and re-stucco the outside.

Lost a Family Member

Well, we just lost a member of the family. We sold our truck which we have had for about 2 years. It was hard to let it go but because of the lousy gas mileage it got, it just set around and depreciated. So we put it on Craig's list and sold it to a gentleman from Prescott. We are now looking for another pickup but without the V-8, Quad cab and four wheel drive. We want a 6 cylinder, extended cab, 2 wheel drive. If anyone knows of a good deal, let us know.

Josh's Visit

We were delighted to get a visit from our grandson, Josh Janda. He bought a 2002 Chevy Silverado over Ebay and it was located in Chandler. So he came to pick it up. Josh arrived 1/24 in the evening and we picked him up at the airport. He purchased his truck on 1/25. It is a good looker (check out the picture). We then had a get-together for him that night with all the family that is Arizona meeting together at Organ Stop Pizza for pizza and listening to some guy play the organ. Mark had to work so he was unable to attend.

Check out the man and his truck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Year's Eve

New Year's eve was a blast! Everyone met at Brian's, had some snacks, said goodbye to 2006 and welcomed 2007. Everyone was there except Mark, Darcy and Justin. At midnight, everyone made noise with indoor fireworks as we toasted the new year with some cider and grape juice. Here is a picture of the rebels setting off their fireworks. At this point we had lost one to sleep - David.

Hurricane?????

This is how it looked 30 minutes after the beginning of gift opening.

Could we have a clean up in the living room?

First Christmas in Arizona

This is our first Christmas in our house in Chandler, Arizona. We did not bring down many Christmas decorations because the house is not big enough to have a big Christmas tree. So we put up our little tree. Here is a picture of the Christmas tree with presents around it. Merry Christmas - ho ho ho!!!


See the Christmas tree to the left of the mirror? I should have turned on the Christmas tree lights so the tree would show up better.

Kathy has kept busy!

Last summer, I traveled a lot from July through October. Kathy came along and spent quite a bit of time in hotel rooms during the day while I was doing Defensive Driver Training for Chevron. We had dinner and did things together at night. To occupy her time, she made stocking caps which she donated to needy children. She has made over 100 caps and has donated some 85 already. Good job, Kathy.

Arizona Casita

Our daughter says we should get with the times and maintain a blog. Well, here is our attempt to to so.

We will start by sharing our new home that we bought last summer in Chandler, Arizona. It is a small home in an adult community that is just big enough to enjoy without a lot of work to maintain. The yard is small and in Arizona rock so it also is easy to maintain. The best thing about this house is that it gets us out of the snow and here where most of the kids and grandkids are. We are enjoying attending the grandkids' games, recitals, concerts, ordinations, etc without a day's trip to get here. We plan on staying here until sometime in April. We will leave after Michael is baptized.