Mikelle and Kristen on a Monday afternoon

A Close Call for Josh

On Conference Sunday, we all set out for the Wilsons to watch the morning session there. Marielle and Mikelle were ready early and started walking. Josh had followed them. When we picked them up, Josh was left at the corner. We took off, thinking that he'd run home but he seemed to linger. Bruce watched in the rear view mirror and noticed a car stopped at the stop sign for too long. We were worried and decided to go back. To our horror, Josh was gone. There was nothing to do but start the chase. About five miles later, we caught up with the car Bruce had seen and sure enough, there was Josh inside! We pulled alongside and motioned for them to stop. They did and only stammered as they handed back our little Josh. Everyone cheered when I brought him to the car. He was no worse for wear although he smelled like a dog of the world--smoke and alcohol. Peter said, "I think they fed him whiskey."

Our little Ruthie and an apple

April Fools!

It was a quiet afternoon and our dad was at work (coming home in an hour or so.) We scrambled to put together an April Fools prank. First, we dipped little fuzzy balls in chocolate. They looked exactly like cherry chocolates. We opened a can of pop and substituted the contents for highly concentrated salt water. Then we put a note on the door saying we'd gone to a movie and would be home soon. We decided to hide in the closet with Dad's laptop loaded with a cat meowing sound effect.



To add to the deception, we printed this recipe and left it on the counter.




There was only one thing left to do....wait and wait for Dad to come home. He was almost a half hour late. But finally, Marielle, the lookout, spotted the van coming up the driveway and we all piled into the closet with the laptop.



It turned out that he fell for every one of our traps! He ate a whole phony fluff ball chocolate, drank a big swig of salt water and was checking on line to see which movie we might have gone to (without him!) when he heard the cat. The cat sounds became more and more frantic and we had a hard time keeping our composure as we heard his "Here kitty, kitty!" calls. But we managed to surprise him with our screaming when he opened the door. This picture fails to capture his look of utter shock. He made it so fun!

Seth made varsity!

I thought these two pictures of Mikelle were particularly lovely. I'm going to miss that pretty face this fall.






BYU, Here she comes!

Corneal Transplant

What a great blessing. Almost a year before expected, I was able to receive a corneal transplant. Bruce looked on via television from the next room and I was awake, though somewhat oblivious through the whole operation. Dr. Christopher Sturbahm, who has been with us from the start skillfully performed the 2 hour operation which included removal of a cataract, replacement of the lens and a full thickness transplant.

Note the 36 tiny stitches.



I love this picture of me. During all the months that I really did feel beat up, I looked ok. Now that I feel great, I look beat up. Go figure. My vision is better and will continue to improve but my sad little iris is damaged forever. My one battle scar. But look at that right eye--ever faithful, never wavering, my constant window on the world.

New baby and a visit to Utah

The highlight of my month was my visit to Natalie and Kevin's house to commune with my wonderful little boys and welcome yet another one! Jack was almost always game to cuddle and I realized that mid-life is not going to be so bad because there will be a continual stream of soft sweet little bodies to relax with at the end of the day.
No one was more enchanted with the new little stranger than Taylor. I took a hundred pictures of Taylor--exploring tiny toes and soft hair. Finally, he just had to kiss him. It was instant bond.
And who wouldn't!!??? Austin Paul Larson--the beautiful square-faced baby. He is two days old, in the morning light right after his first bath at home.





Another highlight of the trip was hearing Kristen sing at a restaurant in Provo. She was awesome as usual and Marlee and her friend Dan were the self-designated presidents of her fan club.

Back to blogging

To tell you the truth, I forgot for a year or so that I had a blog. But I stumbled on my blog one day and realized that it needed an update.