Our 2010 July - Yikes!!

July 1  Moapa LDS Recreational area.  Elder and Sister Watkins, my parents, were serving a two-year service mission at the resort. Their missionary home burned to the ground with all of their belongs along with 9 other homes and 700+ acres in the Warm Springs, NV area. How devastating! They left with the clothes on their back, Dad's wallet and Mom's camera. 100% loss. With a lot of shuffling around and squeezing together, they moved into their rented-to-a-grandson-for-the-next-six-months house. Replacing their belongs is a work in progress but it has slowly begun with the help of family and friends.  

July 3-4  Ibapah visit. Yeah!!!! As we looked over our calendar, we figured the only time we could squeeze a visit to Ibapah this summer was the July 4th weekend. Duncan was not happy about missing all of the Independence Day celebrations in Grantsville but Ibapah provides a different kind of fun. Grandpa Hardman was preparing for the arrival of their new pre-fab home so John and Duncan helped clear the area of debris and fence. We took the two dogs, Marley and Donuts, with us and they had fun too. Donuts went missing overnight and gave us all a scare but he finally made it back. He lost his collar so we think he must have been caught somewhere and finally worked himself free so he could return. We were hoping he had not be killed by the wildlife out there. It's always fun to visit Ibapah which offers serenity and peace to our crazy busy fast-paced city life. 

July 5-9   Duncan at the Snow College football camp. What a great experience! He was hesitant to go but he had fun. He played VS lineman throughout the drills/scrimmages and took a beating from the huge 6'+, 300+ lb. senior linemen from Alta but proved to his coaches he was good - real good. 

July 12   Endocrinologist appointment.  Dr. Sohrevardi was very concerned with my uterus and how it was reacting lately to my PCOS. The many years of abnormal levels of hormones have ravaged my body with irreversible damage. She was very concerned with the possibilities of uterine cancer so she scheduled an appointment with an oncology-specialized gynecologist.

July 15-17  Camp Helaman.  Travis Richeson, one of John's YM, has been trying to organize Camp Helaman for our stake for the past several years but has been met with apathy so he convinced John and I to organize one for our ward. Oh what an adventure. The three of us spent a lot of time around our kitchen table discussing, planning, organizing and working out the details of the camp. On July 15-17, we had our camp at Bishop Watson's cabin in Ophir. We had 23 young men attend. It was an awesome, spiritual experience. We had incredible TAPP (teaching Aaronic Priesthood principles) sessions with fantastic speakers. The activities were fun. Bret Wells provided delicious food throughout the camp. What a great experience!!!

July 24  Pioneer Celebration.  John and I got roped into volunteering our time and talents for the carnival part of the Pioneer celebration. After the children's parade, everyone from both Grantsville stakes gathered at our stake center for games, food and activities. We shared a booth with Natalie Barrus who helped the children make bees wax candles and then we helped them make tin-punched lanterns for their candles. It was the most popular booth and was VERY busy throughout the entire time. Then we cleaned up and attended the pageant. Busy, exhausting but fun.

July 26  Oncology-Gynecologist appointment.  Going to the doctor is never fun for me. I will not rehearse all the bad news I received but the doctor took a biopsy of my uterus (very painful) and gave me some options to deal with my uterine/ovary problems. It was quickly evident that he did not know much about PCOS so his advice was skewed improperly. His prognosis for me was a very shortened life. I have too much to do before I die!! Needless to say, I want a second option.

July 27  Carbon County School District - part 1!!  John has been earnestly seeking a principal position since he graduated with his educational leadership degree in March. When he applied at Carbon County School District at the beginning of the month, he had the feeling that he was going to get the job. I, in my normal leave-it-up-to-the-Lord attitude (aka I don't want to think about it attitude), said I was not moving and reassured Duncan that we were not moving so we didn't have to worry about it. Well, he had his first interview and knew he had the job. Then had a second interview and knew he was not getting the job so we quickly went home. They called and say they had offered the job to someone. Whooosh!! I knew we were moving. What a relief. 

July 28  Carbon County School District - part 2!!  John had gone to work at Adult Ed for the night (1 to 9 pm) and then they called and offered the job. What!!! We have to move now??????? This was not in my plans. So John said we would talk it over and respond the next day. 

July 29  Carbon County School District - part 3!!  Duncan had been at youth conference all week so he was unaware of all of our drama. We knew deep in our hearts that Heavenly Father wanted us to make this change so John accepted the job. Great. Now we ARE moving and need to find a house somewhere out there. Duncan took the news very well.

July 30  Elmo treasure!  John had to sign all the legal documents to change employment in Price so we decided it was a good day to look for a house. After all the papers were signed, we drove around and around and around and around looking at all sorts of dumpy houses trying to find a suitable place, seeing big beautiful out-of-our-price-range houses and too-close-together city houses. We happened upon a last-day-to-be-printed ad in the newspaper about a 5 bedroom, 2 bath home in Elmo on three acres with no posted price. Duncan forcefully insisted on us calling about it. When John heard the details, he said we would quickly meet the owner at an arranged spot. We followed him to the property. 

I know I've never experienced what we did then. It was as if someone angelic had reserved this spot on earth for us. Love at first sight....... The ad was not correct. The house has 6 instead of 5 bedrooms and 10 acres instead of three all for $130,000. As we surveyed the backyard and acreage, I pointed out a doe on the property down among the trees and pioneer-like buildings. The owner said there was always a dozen or so deer with a buck on the property all the time along with coyotes, pheasants, quail, wild turkeys, hundreds of gophers and rabbits. Duncan fell in love with it instantly - visions of future adventures danced in his head. We talked about the opportunities if offered and the cooperation of all three of us to get it acceptable for us.  How fun!!!

Now we have to sell our Grantsville house quickly so we can move to our new home and be together as a family.

Are we excited to move? Yes. Are we excited to move? No. Well, we are excited for the new adventures ahead of us but heart-broken to leave our wonderful Grantsville 7th Ward family, friends, football coaches/players and huge mentors - eternal friends. Twelves years in Grantsville has provided so many footprints embedded in our lives, hearts and minds forever.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. On to new adventures....bring on August 2010