A Belated Update.

Okay, so I deserve to be chastised! I'm getting worse at keeping up on blogging. Dave and I are through with our weight loss program--quite a while ago, actually. New clothes are nice, but replacing Dave's suits might be a little pricey. We just found out today that there is a place here in Brigham City that alters clothes......I wonder if that means suit jackets too?

Mindy gave birth to Tayton (Tate) David Merrill on February 12th, which just happens to also be the twins birthday. So I guess we'll have three granchildren share with Abraham Lincoln. Mindy actually had a much better delivery this time than she did with Porter. When we got to the hospital, she had just given birth and she looked great. Last time she looked like she'd been through the mill. She had been in labor all day long. Tate was born at 8:55 am. She checked into the hospital at about 11:30 pm the evening of the 11th. She attributed a lot of her ease to Heather (Jon Farrell's wife) who had worked with her to learn breathing exercises, and had shown Clay where her pressure points were to rub.

We discovered that Adam and Alicia are expecting a baby in October. Joe and Janette are having a baby in May. Mike and Charity have had their names in for another adoption for about a year now, so they might be having another one this year as well. I'm lucky at this point, to remember to get birthday cards out for all of them.

Dave's supervisor approached him a couple of weeks ago and asked him if he would be interested in finishing his MBA if TCR would reimburse him for his expenses. Dave explained that the only thing that kept him from finishing a few years ago was funding. Mark, Dave's supervisor, said he was going to approach the big boss to see if the company (TCR) would consider the reimbursement program. We're very hopeful that they decide to do it. Dave would love to finish.

We are in the middle of a construction project again at our house. Is this a never ending thing? We are remodeling our master bathroom. We have needed to replace the floor in that bathroom three times previously due to a leaky toilet. One of our good friends (Mike Nelson, who ran the hardware store in town for years) came and took a look at it this time when we had the floor all torn out. He said he thought the plumbing was too high for the floor level. He recommended that we install cement board and ceramic tile to raise the level of the floor. That was a little more invasive than we were planning on, but since we were in the thick of it, I convinced Dave to replace the vanity, mirror, sink & faucet, and towel racks, etc. It's taking us forever to move forward on it, but the floor is finished.

Right now the toilet resides in Mindy's old bedroom along with the vanity we tore out, all the toiletries from under the sink, the old medicine cabinet, etc, etc, etc. With a little luck, we might be able to clean most of it out of that bedroom before Jamie comes to visit us in March. Leo is flying her home for a week-long visit with their families while he perseveres with school. I believe he's getting ready to take the MCAT next month or in April.

Michael is still enjoying Hawaii too much. We had a little discussion about setting his priorities straight. He reminded me that he's attending school and that's a very big priority. Unmoved, I insisted that he could get into the highest level of the celestial kingdom without a degree, but not without a wife! As usual, I have no influence--he's still not even dating anyone. He did admit that now Adam and Alicia are married, he's left as low-dog on the totem pole since he's the only unmarried child in the family.

We worry about our married children with the downturn in the economy. Most of them seem to be holding their own. Joe and Janette are probably hit the hardest in Nevada where building has come to a screeching halt. No construction equals no engineering work. They are considering moving back to Utah, but even jobs here are scarce. It's interesting that he's our only child with a Master's degree, and yet he gets hit the hardest when the job market has a downturn.

Mike Sanders is the next hardest to get hit. He's also in the building business, but in Utah things aren't quite as bad as Nevada, but still he's feeling the pinch. Susan has been getting her graphics art design business going. You can visit her blogspot (soon to move to a web page) at http://imgraphicdesign.net/
Susan was thrilled to find out that the twins were accepted to attend a charter school in Syracuse this coming fall.