June 2008

The month of June passed quickly. It started out with finishing up Annie's tonsilectomy rehab at home with us. It was hard, but we sent her on her way south to get back to normal life again. Her operation was a challenge but appears now to have been worth it for her and glad it's behind her and all of us too.

The sandpile will never be the same again. Melanie and I weeded it and salted the earth (in this case the sand) and then started hauling in the two dumptruck loads of chipped bark for the play area. Thankfully, Roy Purkiss and his boys saw us and helped us get it finished up really quickly. Twelve yards is a lot of chips! It really looks nice now though.

We enjoyed the culmination of Kayli and John's engagement by attending their wedding reception in Layton on the 5th of June, which was also my sister LaRena's 57th birthday. Now Joey is alone in her little condo, at least for the time being.

On Friday the 6th, Melanie and I went to the Outback Steakhouse in Layton to dinner with Hunter's and Beech's to celebrate the 17th year since our release as a Bishopric. We always seem to have such an enjoyable annual visit and dinner together. They are special and choice friends and ever will be.

Saturday the 7th, Jeremy, Jimmy, Cody and I met Lee and LaRena over at Gma H's to lay sod in her former garden area. Jeremy had already done a good job with some bark and planters and a tree. Now we were trying to put some finishing touches on it with the sod. Lee and Bryce had installed some sprinkler heads to take care of the water coverage.

On Sunday the 8th I started teaching the temple preparation class during Sunday School. I was called to teach this class last July but had to wait until now to have some people ready for the class. I'm starting out with six. I am glad to be able to teach it and to be a ward missionary with Dale Hunter. It's a little more of a spiritual lift to me to get out of the finance clerk office and get out with the people.

I had an interesting and satisfying experience on Monday the 9th. I went to Salt Lake City and had a full body scan to see what if anything would show up. Given a large family history of a variety of things I guess I felt some compelling need to know if there was anything lurking beneath the surface of this plentiful, deep skin. That and the fact that I had a little extra "use or lose" flex plan money that expired June 30th. Anyway, the scan went better than I had anticipated as far as results. It was encouraging to find out arteries, heart, lungs, entrals, etc. all looked to be in reasonably good shape for a fellow in my condition!

Donated blood on the 11th to the Red Cross to help with an Eagle project for Todd Nelson from the ward. I've always been glad to help with blood donations whenever they hold them. Sort of like the morbid warm feel of the blood flowing through the tube along my arm and down into the bag. It would be an easy and peaceful way to bleed to death!

At my encouragement, the city held a free swim night for Riverdale residents at the Roy Aquatic Park on the 12th. Only problem was that it was too cold. So, Jeannette Hall just met people at the gate and passed out free passes for another time to those that showed up. We bought 175 passes and surprise, surprise, she needed more passes on a cold day. Oh well, guess it is a good idea and we do have another day coming up in July.

Friday, the 13th! Our special family day that occurs occasionally and we celebrate. Melanie and I, Jimmy and Amber, Cody and Tiffani met together for a celebration dinner at Rickenbacker's at the airport. We had a nice time together for the $300 tab. The food was ok, but the company was where the real value was. I suppose we are establishing the 13th as a family tradition worthy of some efforts to continue and expand, that is if any of the others decide to follow along some time. It's fun and we like it!

Father's Day was on the 15th. My family got me a new grill for the deck which is really nice along with some nice battery operated Fisher Price Lawn tools, a blower and a trimmer. They also made a delicious cookout dinner complete with a giant 2 lb. cheeseburger that I could only begin an attempt to eat. It looked and tasted great, but I could only down a small portion of it. There was a day now long past though that I'm sure I could have and would have eaten the whole thing. Gma H came over and ate with us. This was the first year in 59 years that my Dad wasn't around to celebrate it with us or us with him, rest in peace.

I appreciated the Mayor and City Council approving my request to reward the city employees with a special one-time 1.5% June 30th incentive payment. Our staff is pulling together and performing well and building an organizational culture worthy of nurturing and encouraging. It is better and different than recent years ago. Yea!

Dale and I met an ex-con on a missionary visit who said he was waiting for us to show up and that he needed to get his life in order in line with the Lord. He said he would come to church. It was a very good visit. He didn't make it to church. We will stick with him and see what happens.

Between the 20th and month-end I used up some vacation time doing some chores and things around home. Melanie and I went to the temple. We went to Cedar City for a couple of nights while I attended an URMMA (Utah Risk Management Mutual Association) Board Meeting and conference. While there we saw a "Fiddler On the Roof" play and enjoyed a little time together and away.

On the 21st we met a lot of Gma H's Kunz relatives at the Riverdale Park for a reunion. It was good to see some of them again. There were a couple of hundred of them. Most of whom I'd never recognize if I passed them in WalMart. Next year it's our turn to host the event and organize the festivities, yea.

On the 30th I spent the last day of vacation while Melanie went back to work. I got the carpets cleaned and had some cement landscape edging installed in our front yard and in Gma H's front yard. It looks good. It was quite hard work at the end getting rid of the sod they cut out though. Made me appreciate Jeremy and Cody's help with it at the end of a hard day's work. Glad to go back to work in an air conditioned office tomorrow.