Utah: Day 1

Up bright and early Thursday morning...okay, not bright, but early.  Del drove me to the airport for my 8:30 flight - and I had a layover in Denver.  I text ed Kylie while in Denver telling her I was sitting in the airport watching for Peyton Manning (Broncos quarterback).  She dared me that if I saw him, she would pay me $20 bucks to pinch his butt.  I told her that for $40, she had herself a deal.  We had a fun bantering conversation which I found this morning on face book.  Glad she refrained from putting the FULL conversation on.
My sister Becca picked me up from the airport and we had the best conversation in the car on the way to dad and moms house.  It's always fun being with my sisters.  We never lack for anything to talk about...(no comments from smart mouths thank you).. We just gabbed about grand kids (she's new Nana) and her daughter Jenna that is waiting to have her baby after such much difficult moments of pregnancy.  Then we got to mom and dads.
What was I expecting???  I'm pleased to say that I found my mother and father both waiting for my arrival...big hugs from them both...and my mother had HOT homemade bread on the counter ready to be eaten by ME!!  Daddy looked good.  He's always dressed nicely for the day and he had on nice slacks and a nice shirt and got up from the couch to give me a big hug.  I had to assist him get up and down, and he used a cane to keep him up, but otherwise, I was very pleased to see him look as good as he did.  While visiting and chatting, he made his way to outside where he went to pick some tomatoes he had grown.  Becca said he was 'showing off for me' of how good he was feeling.  I was thrilled he looked so good.

We had a short amount of time to play a few hands of Make a Million before I had to head off to my haircut appointment.  During the game, I was able to notice a few things observing my daddy.  His hands still shake, but not uncontrollably and he is very much slouched over in his chair.  He cannot sit up straight.  His nose will run on occasion and he can't feel that happening, so we have to tell him to wipe his nose.  But his mind is still sharp and quick, especially when it comes to games.  He's lost NOTHING there.
My mother was knitting when I arrived.  She has been knitting since the age of 3 when she lived in England.  To say she's good? is almost comical.  She doesn't watch while she knits.  She either watches t.v, reads a book or talks to people as she knits.  Seldom, if EVER, does she 'drop a stitch' or make a mistake, and she produces beautiful baby sweaters and booties.  I love to watch her hands FLY holding her needles.

Diana Neil is my hairdresser in Utah.  Every time I come to Utah, I have Diana cut my hair.  When I lived in Utah, the fee was $7.  That was 13 years ago.  Yesterday, she charged me $15.  Unbelievable.  So I fly to Utah to have my haircut...well, not really, but I take advantage of her living here when I come to get my hair done.  While there, we GABBED like no other (except my sisters).  I had questions for her about previous ward members and her family and she had questions for me.  I was DEVASTATED to learn that our sweet Valerie King had passed away from breast cancer back in April.  I had known during last years visit to Utah that she had gotten the cancer and was ill.  Her son Sterling, is the young man that Kylie had become very good friends with when we lived in Utah and at one point, we all thought or hoped Kylie and Sterling would get married.  (Young love).  Diana had been keeping me informed about Valerie's progress and status but had failed to tell me that she had passed, so when I asked yesterday, I was shocked when she told me Valerie was gone.  We both cried.  And Sterling, who is on a mission, and comes home this week, was given the option to come home early from his mission, but decided to stay as he knew this was what his mother would want.  But his mission president did allow Sterling to call home and talk with his parents for a good 3-4 hour conversation.  Valerie died two days later. 
After my haircut, Becca and I went back over to dad and moms where we had a spaghetti and homemade bread dinner with them, chatted for a bit, but then came back to Becca's house to prepare to watch the BYU football game - season opener.  Becca had huge bowl fulls of peaches picked from their peach tree outside that she had no idea what to do with and no energy to do whatever they needed to have done with them.  WOW, was THAT a mouthful.  So I took charge.  For the first hour of the game, I multi - tasked, peeling and slicing peaches until we were down to only one bowl left.  Becca would bag them into large gallon freezer bags and put them into the freezer for later use.  i saved the last bowl of peaches to peel and slice today to make a peach cobbler for tomorrows family get together.  Becca wants me to teach her how to make the pie crust for the cobbler as she has never made it before.  Of course, Lance has informed that there are probably another three bushels full of peaches still out on the tree so I may be peeling and cutting for the next few days...but that just means I get to watch a few more football games without being asked to do anything else.
BYU football was....ahhhh...sigh.  I love football.  We won...hand idly ...and the game was great.  I didn't get to whoop and holler as much as I'm used to, but I did plenty of screaming, yelling and four letter word calling during the game...(idiot, stupid, crap, NICE).  You know, the basic 'football terms' we all use and say.  And I definitely felt the BYU spirit throughout Utah the short time I had been here...BYU flags on all the cars, posters everywhere, decals, commercials, etc etc...so fun.  I even saw BYU DUCT TAPE in the local grocery store here last night.  I ALMOST bought it, but I'm on a pretty strict budget while I'm here and the $8.99 for a small roll of duct tape was cute, but not THAT cute.  I have other BYU things I want to buy while here.  So I'm saving my pennies.  I'll let you know what I get.

I finally got to bed at 12:20 Texas time and I was beat. 
Today, Becca has gone up to Salt Lake for some wedding business and will be back now in about an hour.  I have been up since 8:00 (sleeping in for me) and started on the computer right away...Talked to Kathryn this morning and sent Del a text but otherwise, I'm just hangin until Becca gets home.  Lance and I have had a great visit this a.m. too...what a great guy.  We will have a fun next few days....
So, until later then... much more to come.