Painted bolo ties

I spent a good part of the evening painting the bolo ties I have carved to give to the scouts who are going to summer camp with me on Monday. They look really good. They are numbers 600-610.

My mom set a new speed record walking today. She got into the living room for scripture reading in 2 min 30 sec. Good job mom!

Apples to Apples

Interesting day today. Cathy came downstairs to find my mom sitting on the floor. Apparently she had tried to get up herself and get to her wheelchair, but slipped and sat down on the floor. Cathy said she found her in a very cheerful mood waiting for someone to help.

Cathy had her walk halfway down the wheelchair ramp and back, then at scripture reading time we had her walk into the living room, back to the bathroom so we could empty her catheter bag, and then to her bed. This is the most walking she has done since she got to our house.

We played Apples to Apples for family night last night. We got my mom to play. She got a bit frustrated trying to figure out what card to put down, and when it came her turn to be the judge she struggled a bit to choose a winner of the round, but I could tell that the game was getting her to think.

Julie shaved off part of one of her eyebrows today and put on some of Cathy's makeup. Cathy said she did a decent job with the makeup, but her 1/2 eyebrow looks a bit funny. I hope she learned her lesson. She wants to grow up too fast I guess. She tried cutting her own hair last week and got her bangs too short. We told her we would be glad to help if she wanted her hair a bit shorter. Silly girl. It is a good thing she is so cute.

Fishing trip

Since we had to pick up the camping equipment from girls' camp we decided to take all of the kids and go fishing at Electric Lake afterward. Cathy's former visiting teaching companion Cassey DeQuatro offered to stay with mom for the day. We babysit her four kids often. We helped the girls camp people pack up all of the gear then headed to the lake. John caught a few fish, but nobody else had much luck, but we enjoyed being outdoors. We haven't gotten out much the past two months, especially Cathy. Since we didn't have much luck at Electric Lake we headed down to Lower Fish Creek. Sarah caught a small fish, Ben caught his finger, and the rest of the kids got some practice casting.

I think I'm going to take some of the older kids backpacking in the Uintahs this weekend and see if we can have better luck.

I'm getting ready for summer camp next week. I made 11 carved bolo ties. I always give one to each scout that goes with me. I'm also making neckerchiefs and staves. I bought a plastic Scooby Doo figure and some moose finger puppets. I put them on top of the staves. They look pretty good. One kid is a basketball fanatic so I got a basketball player trophy top from DI and put that on top of a stave for him. They look pretty good.

Mom enjoyed Saturday with sister DeQuatro. We had her walk up 1/2 of the wheelchair ramp after church yesterday. She didn't think she could do it, but she made it just fine. She complained a bit. We also had her walk to the living room for scripture reading and then back to her bed. She is able to stand up out of the wheelchair or bed by herself all of the time now. The bed sores on her behind are almost all healed now. The sores on her heels are taking longer. I have noticed that she has much more feeling in her feet now, which is a good sign. She is more interested in what the kids are doing and smiles a lot more. It is nice to see.

Orem Owls game and fireworks

My brother-in-law Jared Miller offered us tickets to the Orem Owls baseball game. They were playing the Casper Ghosts. All of the kids wanted to go so we went. The little kids spent most of the time at the playground, but some watched the game. We were in the general admission seating which is on the grass on the 3rd-base side. It was a new attendance record for the Owls with over 5,000 fans. After the game they had a fun fireworks show. We really enjoyed that.

Mom walked more today that any day since she came to live with us, and seemed to have a better attitude about it. It is nice to see her gaining confidence. Aunt Lucille, Larry, Joan, and Linda came over yesterday. Aunt Lucille commented on how happy mom seemed.

The remodeled bathroom is now operational. Mom was able to walk in with her walker, use the facilities, brush her teeth, and take a shower. She was able to stand up from the toilet when she didn't think she could. It will be a tremendous help in taking care of her.

Took equipment to girls camp

I took the morning yesterday to take a van and trailer full of equipment down to Camp Mia Shalom. We loaded coolers and food containers early in the morning and drove down through Scoffield. It was a nice drive. We saw some deer on the way. When we arrived we unloaded everything and carried it up to the cabins. We setup canopies for their cooking and eating areas. It was a lot of work, but it was nice to be out in the mountains. I think Cathy enjoyed the diversion.

After we finished we went on a short hike down the river from the Scoffield reservoir dam. It is beautiful down there. There was a massive thunderstorm just ahead of us with a constant show of lightning. As we hiked up a little ravine a fawn darted out of the bushes not 5 feet from us. He was a cute little fellow. He worked his way ahead of us, down the ravine, then over the ridge to the left of us. We enjoyed the wildflowers. There were many sego lillies in that area.

Busy Sunday

We had stake Priesthood meeting at 7:00 am. I taught the gospel doctrine lesson in our ward. Our regular teacher asked me on Thursday to substitute since they were going out of town. I then spoke at a ward conference. The topic of my talk was teaching Aaronic Priesthood holders the value of hard work. Then I attended a youth fireside which was a review of experiences on our stake pioneer trek.

My mom got herself into her wheelchair by herself today. Big breakthrough. She was able to stand up with her walker, walk over to her wheelchair, and sit down without assistance. In the evening she walked (with her walker) from our front door to our living room. She even made it up onto the carpet. Good job mom.