August 2023 Randoms

MY BIRTHDAY: 

I had to work all day on my birthday this year...which may be a first for me. I honestly don't remember the last time I worked on my birthday. I was NOT looking forward to spending the whole day at Saveway pharmacy, but thankfully there were some fun surprises that made my day more joyful. My friend Whitney texted me from Florida that morning saying that she had a gift waiting for me at the Coffee Shop. I stopped by before work, and picked up a drink, a gift card, and a sticker that she'd gotten for me. It was so thoughtful! I went out to lunch with Gina and had a great time, and she gifted me a jar of chocolates that I love, too. Josh brought me some flowers, which were beautiful and brightened my day! And Camille had a flower bouquet and a restaurant gift card delivered, which was a fun surprise. When I got home from work, Josh had my favorite dinner ready of roast, funeral potatoes, and strawberry rhubarb pie--complete with a singing candle in it! My mom sent me a birthday package of some fun little gifts and homemade treasures and a little painted stone with the word "HOPE" which I adored! And the day ended in a happy way, with a joint phone call with Elder Tolman of the North and Elder Tolman of the South. 

HURTING and HEALING:

Apparently, Josh and I are now to the age when we have ailing bodies and multiple doctor appointments. In August, Josh and I both had several appointments. He went to a pain doctor and had to schedule an MRI for his neck, to see what the exact cause of the shooting pains down his arms were from. I had my throat scoped at the beginning of August to see if there had been any change to my vocal cord nodules and scarred larynx in the past 3 months, which there wasn't--so the doctor confirmed the damage to both was permanent. I had a scare in mid-August that appeared to be a stroke, with slurred speech, and my vision and head were affected. I went to the hospital, and they ran some tests and did an EKG, but everything came back normal thankfully. I also had numerous appointments with a dermatologist for some pre-cancerous spots on my scalp in August. He froze a few spots, but the rest were pretty deep, so I had to have a different appointment where they applied a laser light therapy to my scalp that burned the layers of irregular cells. That appointment was a few days after my birthday. In order to make it a more fun day, I met up with my friend Val for lunch in Idaho Falls at the Snake Bite restaurant. She had also just been to the dermatologist, to have a suspicious spot removed from her leg. As we ate, we were commiserating about the procedures we'd just had done to our skin! The food was great, and we had a fun time together. We decided to do some shopping and walk around to some of the nearby stores afterwards. I bought a few things in one of the shops to include in my boys' birthday packages that I was mailing that day to their missions. Then we walked back to our cars and said goodbye. It was a lovely addition to my day of doctors--(I had one more doctor appointment that afternoon at EIRMC). 

When I got home to Salmon that evening, there was a rectangular-shaped puncture in the front side of my house, one of the glass bottle trees was laying on the ground, and there were bits of glass all over the driveway and in the landscaped rock beds in front of our home. I couldn't figure out what had happened. It looked like maybe someone had backed into the bottle tree, which fell into the house. There was a bag full of broken glass inside our garbage can, so clearly somebody had done something and tried to clean it up. There were only 2 options: Kanyon or Josh. When Kanyon got home from work, I questioned him about it, but he knew nothing. Josh had a meeting that night, so he didn't get home until late. When I asked him what happened, he said his dad had been driving by our house on a 4-wheeler with a trailer that he hadn't attached properly, and after he went over a bump, the trailer came loose, rolled backwards, hit the glass bottle tree, and it impaled our house, breaking all the glass bottles on the tree in the process. His dad had informed Josh about the incident, but nobody had told me. So when Josh got home from work that afternoon, he cleaned up as much glass as he could, before having to leave to go back into the meeting that evening. I couldn't believe his dad wouldn't try to clean up the mess he made himself! When I confronted him about the incident, inquiring about why he left a mess for his son to clean up, he blew up at me and didn't speak to me for several months afterward! Josh fixed the hole in the house to the best he could the next week, and he also fixed the bent glass bottle tree. We also added more bottles to the tree to replace all the ones that had broken, and it's almost like the incident never happened. Except, Josh's dad ended up building a new roadway that circumvents our driveway in order to avoid driving by our house anymore, because apparently that's easier than cleaning up after making a mess in one's driveway!

This cute sign was in one of the shops Val and I 
went in. It's exactly how I feel about Val!
We're both a little weird, but because of that,
we understand each other! 

The glass bottle tree is the black, limbed rebar
laying on its side in the rocks.

COLORFUL SKIES:

JOSH'S MOTORBIKE RIDE:

Josh went on another dirt bike ride and saw some new trails. He drove down river past North Fork, then unloaded the dirt bike at the Indian Creek turnoff. From there, he rode along Indian Creek to the Divide Trail and then to Spring Creek. It was a big loop, and once he made it back to the River Road, he drove back to his truck, loaded up his bike, and headed home. 

BACK TO SCHOOL:

Kanyon started his Junior Year at Salmon High School at the end of August. He took his obligatory "back to school" photo next to his daily ride--he started off the year by driving Great Grandpa's old Chevy truck to school. Midway through September, he learned how to drive stick-shift and started taking our Scion to school and work instead. Micah used to drive this truck and Jonah used to drive the Scion, but after the boys went on their missions, Kanyon initially felt more comfortable driving the truck. However, once he learned how to drive stick-shift, he actually preferred driving the Scion because it's more gas efficient (the boys are responsible for paying for their own gas since we cover the cost of car insurance).  After a couple of weeks, Kanyon shared his opinion about his new class schedule. He really likes strength and conditioning. He has friends in many of his classes: seminary, English, and band. He thinks Mr. Born is funny, and he hates chemistry with Ms. Lewis.

We also sold Ammon's college car in August to another local young man who would be driving it to college over in Dillon, Montana. 

July 2023 Randoms

 Independence Day: 

Although we didn't do much to celebrate the 4th this year, we did finish it with a bang. We were so excited when we found out that Jeff Crosby's band would be performing in Salmon on the 4th, so our only plans were to go to that concert. Thankfully, both Josh and I had the day off, but Kanyon had to work at the grocery store. Josh and I went to Sweetwater Hollow that evening, and we sat by/danced with our friends Phil and Darcy, and the Judy family. We had such a fun time! The concert ended after 10:00pm, then we drove up by the hockey rink in town to watch the Salmon fireworks show, and Kanyon watched it from his friend Sam's house. It was fairly short; it only lasted 15 minutes this year. 

Outdoor Concerts:

In addition to seeing Jeff Crosby (our current favorite band!), we also got to watch a few more outdoor concerts in Salmon in July. On Thursday the 6th, there was a free outdoor concert at the Sacajawea Center with Muzzie Braun singing. Josh went to that, and I joined him for the last 30 minutes of the show after I was done working at the pharmacy and doing concessions at the movie theater. We've seen  Muzzie perform before; he's an old country singer/songwriter from Challis that Josh's grandparents used to listen to! We like his music style.

Sarah Burton performed at Sweetwater Hollow on July 20th as an opener for another band. Sarah was the musical guest in our group when we floated for a week on the Middle Fork with Wilderness River Outfitters the previous summer. She's a solo act, and is a songwriter from Canada, but performs a lot in Austin, Texas too. She didn't perform as long as we hoped she would for the pre-show that night. We like her relaxed music and how she opens up onstage about her past and includes the process of when/why the songs were written.

Our Garden:

Because I worked full-time this summer for the first time in 20 years, I didn't have time to weed the garden. Josh and Kanyon were working full-time, too, and between all of our weekend trips to hot springs, the garden wasn't a priority and it definitely suffered. We'd planted potatoes and onions in the spring, and the rhubarb and raspberry section were still there, and they all grew, thanks to Josh's mindful watering, but seeing the overgrown weeds was an eyesore and I felt bad that it got ignored. One evening in July, Josh helped me tackle some of the weeds. He worked on the onions and I worked on part of the raspberries. 

These lilies that I transplanted 3 summers ago really flourished.
They are located in a flowerbed between the garden and the ditch. 

Josh weeding the onion rows

The disastrous state of the raspberries--the weeds were taller 
than the raspberry plants!

Cloudy Sunsets:

We just love the lighter-later nights of the summer, and we both delight in the breathtaking views that sunsets often bring. 

Week Full of Family & Friends:

Ammon stayed with us for the week of Monday, July 17th to Friday the 21st (see previous post for more details). The very next day (Saturday the 22nd), Tiffany, Scott, Isaac, Joel, Emmy, Dallin, and Al came to visit. The Entrikins stayed at our house this time around, instead of at Grandma's or an Air BnB. I had to work all day, but Josh got the house cleaned and Ammon's bedding washed and the yard mowed before they arrived. They all hung out inside that day, mostly playing on their devices. When I got home from work after 6, we had a hamburger BBQ in Grandma's yard. Then they came back up to our house and we played Telestrations and watched a movie together. They went to church with on Sunday, then we ate at Grandma's house again before they left to return to Pocatello. 

The next day after they left (Monday the 24th), I had a Dr. appointment in Idaho Falls with my ENT to have my throat scoped again to determine if there was any change with my vocal cord nodules and scar tissue on my larynx. Sadly, there wasn't so the Dr. determined that I indeed had permanent damage from the toxic chemical I was exposed to in February. After my doctor appointment, I met with Tiffany for lunch in order to bring her a few things they'd forgotten at our house. We ate at CupBop: I love their food and Tiffany hadn't been there before but wanted to try it. On my drive home, I stopped in Mud Lake. I met up with my Dominoes friends for a summer game night at Val's house. We had so much fun together! These girls bring so much joy into my life!

I went to snap a photo of the group, and it happened to be right
at the exact moment that Rosalba told us she was going to be 
a grandma! I love all the excitement in this photo!

Jonah and Micah's one-year mark on their missions was on July 18th! It feels so long since they left, but I'm glad to be on the "year of lasts" rather than the "year of firsts" now! On Wednesday, July 26th, we got to see both twins at the same on their weekly video phone call to home. It's pretty rare when that happens, now that Jonah's P-Day is on Wednesday but Micah's is still on Monday. But sometimes due to special circumstances, like holidays or birthdays or a change in their P-Day because of special visitors or their country's national holidays (Micah is in Chile and Jonah is in Canada), we get to see them together. I absolutely love when that happens! It makes my heart SO happy to get to see my sons weekly and hear about their progress on their missions, but when I get to see them at the same time, it's even better and my heart feels so full! Occasionally, on special occasions, Ammon join in the video phone call too, and it is absolutely heavenly to have my whole family together for even just a few minutes on my screen!