The day after Christmas was Dallas and Rebecca's 17th wedding anniversary. Rebecca was out shopping with Brooke and they stopped by for a few minutes.
I asked Brooke why her mom was spending her anniversary with her instead of with her dad. Mother and daughter looked like they were having a fun time together.
Dallas and Rebecca were able to go out together that evening, so that was nice for them. The weather was clear for their date which was the exact opposite of the day they were married.
There had been a gigantic snow storm that caused a day-long power outage and snow falling so much and so steadily that their wedding photographer got in 3 wrecks on his way from Provo trying to get to the Salt Lake Temple. He turned around and went back home before reaching his destination.
Rebecca's children probably didn't even miss their parents as they have so many new toys and crafts that they got for Christmas to play with and work on.
Jacob's family left shortly after Christmas to go to Disney World. They were going to meet up with Abe's family at the beach one day, but those plans ended up not happening. Jacob's family went without them.
Plans had been made for my brother Andy's daughter Rachel to fly to Florida and vacation with Jacob's family since Rachel and Natalie are such good friends. One would think the girls are cousins since they are the same age, but it is really Jacob and Rachel who are the cousins.
There was unusually cold weather going on for a while in Florida. I kept reading about falling iguanas in Florida as I thought of our two sons in that part of the country.
The Disney World fun and adventures had begun!!!
Natalie celebrated her 18th birthday the day before New Year's Eve.
What a fun way to bring in the New Year--vacationing in Florida!
We had a little New Year's celebration a day early when we drove to Mapleton to see Michael and Lynn Maughan's townhouse they are living in until they can buy a lot and start building a home.
Lynn was one of our faithful, devoted mission nurses. She and Michael had been contemplating leaving Escondido, California for a while and finally made the move. They now live very close to one of their sons.
They had invited us to have dinner with them. Lynn cooked the most delicious salmon.
Turns out the very first person Lynn met upon moving in was the mother of one of our missionaries--Liam Roberts. He was one of our Farsi-speaking elders.
The Maughans had had him in their home for dinner on the mission. Now they invited him over to see us and he ended up staying for dinner. It was nice to get the update on his life.
With all the Covid scare going on for so many months, the grandchildren have not been to our house as often as they would like. On Christmas Eve, we had dinner and the program and then they left.
They were sad they didn't have time that evening to go downstairs and play and watch movies like they like to do. Madison was begging to spend the night here.
I decided it would be fun to have them over on New Year's Eve day to spend a while here doing what they love to do. Madison came with her agenda and everything had to be done on her list before she felt the day had gone satisfactorily.
The children were begging to start the day with a French toast breakfast. Check that off the list! They helped take the ornaments off the Christmas tree and helped take down other decorations. They played downstairs for a while as Glen took the lights off the tree and I packed up the Christmas decorations in the many storage boxes that got hauled downstairs.
For lunch they wanted Costa Vida. Works for me!! I enjoy not cooking!! They got to watch movies and eat popcorn and they were in grandchildren heaven!
The night before, I had noticed a brown drip going down the entire length of the wall in the basement bathroom and a water spot on the ceiling tile. NOT GOOD!!!!
Glen took out the ceiling tile and saw that there was leaking water, but we could not figure out where the leak was coming from. We checked the main floor bathroom and saw nothing. We checked the upstairs bathroom and saw nothing. It was a mystery as to the source of the leak.
Shortly after Glen had arranged for a plumber, I was upstairs in the loft and heard dripping. Lots of dripping. Constant, steady dripping. I opened the door to the furnace closet and what did my eyes behold... A watery mess!!! UGGGGGGGGGH!!!
We discovered the BRAND NEW HUMIDIFIER on the left side of our BRAND NEW FURNACE was leaking--steadily and a lot.
Glen got a hold of the furnace guy who was in Island Park for the holiday. Oh nooooooo!! He said he could send his son over to check it out.
We got thinking about how we could turn off the water under the bathroom sink where they had run a water line for the humidifier from there and that stopped the dripping. HURRAH!!! Sure wish we had found the source of the dripping the night before!!
Glen called the furnace guy back to see if it is okay to run the furnace without water going to the humidifier and he said that would be fine. We were so relieved to know the dripping had stopped.
I took Rebecca upstairs to show her the wet furnace closet so she could see where the water was coming from and I kept thinking that it was sure wet on that level and water had showed up in the basement, so how come we weren't seeing any water on the main floor???
We were investigating where the water might possibly be going and found a water bubble on the ceiling of the main floor bathroom. Another UGGGGGGGHHHHH!! That means water in the walls and the sheetrock.
Glen used a needle to pop the bubble, and happily we discovered no water came out of it. He was also able to smooth the bubbled ceiling back into place and that was a relief.
I had been so sad to learn Andy had gotten sick with Covid the couple of weeks before Christmas. Thankfully he is recovering and is feeling more like himself once again.
We borrowed some fans and a space heater from Rebecca and using them and our fan and two space heaters, we set up our drying out stations on each floor of the house.
It didn't occur to me to check the bedroom next to the furnace closet...
Or check the carpet in the loft next to the furnace closet... It was very wet there!!!
This was bringing back nightmares of the three water floods we had on our mission where the big heavy-duty dryer fans were brought in and carpets were stripped back and two feet of sheetrock was cut out all along the bottom of the walls.
And this is how we are bringing in the "Happy" New Year. As one friend told me--it can only go up from here!
Then another curveball came our way more recently when we learned my sister Nani now has Covid. She and her friend Jan and Jan's daughters Lindy and Heidi are all sick with it, as well as Jan's son Rich. The four women all spent Christmas Eve together and now they are all sick together.
Rebecca, Sarah and I have talked about how the vaccine is here now and we have got to keep staying well and not get the dreaded Covid at this stage in the pandemic. Cross our fingers that no other loved ones will get it!!!
I loved so much that her bouquet and flower decorations included succulents. Like me, she fell in love with succulents while serving her mission in southern California where succulents abound.
Let's end with some good news. This is actually great news. This is actually two great news stories.
Four of our missionaries got married today: Seth Nance and Laura Johnson and Andrew Jensen and Hallie Merriman. They are our 12th and 13th couples to marry.
We were only able to attend one wedding as the other one was out of state.
Each departing guest received a little paper basket with some chocolates in it and this tag that has a guitar pick attached to it.
They had a civil marriage in Kaysville, followed by a lunch and an early afternoon reception. Then they went to the Ogden Temple in the evening to be sealed for time and all eternity.
It really does make us happy when our missionaries marry each other. I do believe it is a wonderful blessing for those that find their eternal companion through serving a mission.
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