Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Lisa's mom writes: On Wed. June 30th my life-time Clearfield, Utah friends met at the Lion House in SLC for lunch. (left to right) ReNae, Rexene, Nancy, Sharon ReNae Chandler Hulse next to me. We had not seen each other for 44 years. Her daddy owned "REXALL Drug Store" in town. One of the nicknames I got in elementary school beside "Tryannosaurus Rex" was "REXALL Drug." The Chandlers were a great family. Sister Hulse is serving a mission in Salt Lake City. (Senior missionaries can do lunch). Dear Nancy Jones Rutledge and I were in second grade together. Sharon Nauta Steele has always kept me close to home from the time I left Utah in 1978. We all graduated from Clearfield High in 1966. My wonderful cousin, Dorsey Geockeritz Ford (light blue top), also was able to take her lunch hour from the Church History building to join us. I give Dorsey credit for writing our CHS school song (she did have a few helpers). She has amazing musical talent. (I was so f...

Lisa's sister, Debbie, writes: We went to Arches this weekend. We mountain biked Klondike Bluffs and hiked to the Delicate Arch. It was fun. Kellen did really well biking up and down. I was impressed.

Lisa writes: So, this picture was included along with the other 95 photos Mom sent of their trip, and it just sort of ... kind of ... reminded me of ... well, see for yourself: I know what it is! It's the jackets! They're both wearing North Face jackets! Phew, I'm so relieved.

Lisa writes: I'm not positive, but I think that's my mother.

Lisa writes: I caaaaaaaaan't stoooooop waaaaaaaaaaatching thiiiiiiis. Does anybody else pick up shades of Prince's " i would die 4 u "? No? Just me?

Lisa writes: Three pieces of evidence in support of the argument that surfing in Oregon just ain't right. Exhibit A: Surfer Dave in the neoprene burkini . Exhibit B. Surfer Cameron in similar outfit. Exhibit C. Surfer Dad, the only bona fide surfer of the group, choosing to stay on shore and dig a really big hole.

Lisa writes: My sister Debbie is currently saving the endangered pygmy rabbit somewhere in northern Utah. You will recall last year she was saving bats and before that she was counting invasive weed species. Mostly the current project involves following signals from the rabbits' radio collars and counting pellets, but based on this picture she sent from her camera yesterday, I think she caught one. P.S. That's not a baby. That's how big they really get. I think the undiagnosed primary cause of their decline might be terminal cuteness.

Lisa's mom writes: Here is the rest of the story of our Oregon Trip. We traveled up the coast and crossed the 4-mile bridge into Washington at Astoria. Pacific City is a lovely beach area. We enjoyed Tillamook and the cheese factory. We loved the light houses and quaint farm houses and land through the winding roads and trees. We saw a lot of cows, horses, and deer and visited the home of the Spruce Goose in McMinnville the first day. What a fun way to celebrate Father's Day, Ava's birthday and my birthday. Four days went very fast. Good memories. Every vacation picture ever taken of my dad looks exactly like this. Siblings, am I right? Mom and Benjamin (above) and Evelyn (below).

Niece Ava, age 9 Nephew Cameron, age 12 Lisa's mom just got back from vacationing on the beach in Oregon with my sister's family and wrote: We had fun flying kites on the beach and making digging in the sand. It was brisk and we appreciated Dave loaning us jackets. We didn't get in the water. It was nice to be cool and so beautiful. We came off the plane in Denver and the heat blasted us. Dad said, "Let's go back!"

Lisa's mom writes: Madison (age 13) is in West Virginia for four weeks, visiting Mike. I asked her in an email about her calf who lost its mother. Madison wrote: The little calf is doing great. She follows you around when she gets hungry and starts to lick your hand. It is pretty gross and funny. She even started licking Babe (the dog) on the head. That was really funny. We feed it twice a day. So that is how the calf is doing.

Lisa writes: The next morning after I posted the previous blog post, I started to worry that it didn't sound right. I wondered if it sounded braggy or judgmental -- really and truly not my intention. I was just excited that I'd "discovered" this wonderful world of awesome cheap stuff and I wanted to talk about it. So, if anybody read it and came away with a bad taste, please read THIS . It's a post by Mary of Owlhaven, and she says it a lot better than I did. P.S. I'm still sticking to my resolution for the rest of the year. Not braggin'; just sayin'.

Lisa writes: I am six months into a little experiment, and it's going really well so I shall spill the beans: I am not buying any new clothes or shoes for a year. We are nothing if not wild and crazy around here, huh? So the inspiration came from Wardrobe Refashion and being unemployed. It also came from volunteering at ECHO and seeing the piles and piles of nearly new (sometimes still with tags on!) clothes that people (especially women) donate every day. The obvious benefit of this experiment is that I have saved money. The surprise benefit is that all the "new" clothes I've acquired in the past six months are probably better quality and certainly more expensive labels than what I would have gotten if I'd been buying new clothes retail. I now have a work wardrobe of J. Crew, J. Jill, Banana Republic, and Ann Taylor clothes to supplement my usual intake of Eddie Bauer and LL Bean. The "rules" of my experiment are that I can sew (new or repurposed fabr...

Lisa writes: The correct response is, "I do! I do!" So, as of Monday, I have a new job. I'm savvy enough to know it's not a good idea to talk about your job on El Interneto , so we shall refer to my new employer as Weorge Goshington Medical Faculty Associates. (I think that'll fool 'em. If not, I'll be writing a new post about unemployment come Monday.) The job itself is not that exciting to write about: this is an outpatient clinic in downtown DC with an electronic medical record instead of paper medical charts. I'll train people how to use it. The end. What is exciting -- to me -- is that I'll be working right smack downtown in a major metropolian area and taking public transportation to get there. The last time I regularly had to take public transportation was riding the bus to school. You'll understand the anxiety I was feeling last Sunday night, thinking of the mean, potty-mouthed, bully kids who hogged up a whole seat to themselves while...

Lisa writes: Today, a patient -- military wife -- told me that while her husband was in Iraq, all the wives of the squadron formed a support group that got together every month. Shortly before the guys got home, one of the wives, who was a professional body piercer, suggested a "fun surprise" for their husbands. She hosted a piercing party at her house and gave all the ladies tongue rings. What a fun surprise to come home to! (Our patient said she thinks she's the only one who declined to participate.)

Lisa writes: I've discovered something here at home with my parents, and my parents' friends: people over 60 have interesting hobbies. More specifically, some people who didn't seem to have particularly interesting lives back when they had kids at home, suddenly got really interesting a few years after all the kids left for good. My dad, for example, now builds and battles remote controlled fighter planes. Our old bishop now has a basement-full of gem cutting equipment and boxes full of beautiful, hand-cut stones. My uncle assembles elaborate model train sets. He was a CPA, for heavens sake! CPA? Boooring. Tiny little engineer waving out of a tiny little steam engine as it zooms by? Fun! This discovery is consistent with a recent Gallup poll which seems to indicate that everybody is most miserable between 25 and 50 and then we all suddenly get a lot happier. Here's a quote from The New York Times article : In measuring immediate well-being — yesterday’s emotional state ...

Tom just texted me: Next door neighbor had put a hay bail in his backyard with a statue of a deer in front of it. "Random," thought I. Now I understand why: he has a compound bow and remarkably good aim!

Lisa writes: I am in Colorado Springs for two weeks while Tom lanquishes at home without me. I like to imagine he's languishing; I sort of suspect he's actually fine -- going to work, going to the gym, renting Netflix movies that I would refuse to watch because I knew they were sad. (I don't do sad movies.) Meanwhile, I'm cleaning teeth. Lots and lots of teeth. I think cleaning teeth is fascinating and I could talk about it all day. I really could! And I DO! But what I've learned from the glazed expressions on too many faces is that, somehow, the rest of the world doesn't find this as fascinating as I do, so I will spare you further details. Except these: Today, there was one 6 year old who has such a sensitive gag reflex that he vomits when he brushes his teeth. I cleaned his teeth very carefully. There was a 17 year old girl with pierced CHEEKS. Like, studs, going THROUGH her cheek muscles into her mouth. When I made her take out the studs for an x-ray, she ...