November 2013

Dinner at Lynn & Cherie's House

 

Lynn, Cherie, Ron, Annette, Ron, Karen, Bryan

We are excited that Bryan's brother, Ron and his wife Susan are moving to Arizona. Ron got another job with State Farm in Tempe, since they were shutting down the Salt Lake offices. Ron moved here in October and is renting a guest house from my friend Dawn. Susan is still in Utah because she is committed to teaching pre-school until spring. They will have to live apart until then.

As of November, with Ron moving here, 4 of the 8 Watkins siblings were living in Arizona. However, Annette and Ron decided to move to Washington, so there will now be only 3 siblings in Arizona again. It was fun telling everybody that more of the siblings lived in Arizona than in Utah - for a short while.

Lynn and Cherie had us all over for a farewell dinner for Annette and Ron. We loved getting together and enjoyed Lynn's little fire pit, as the night was a little chilly. We all worked hard to get Annette and Ron's house packed up and cleaned so they could move. Darrin and his son, Ben, flew down to help them with the move and to drive the moving truck up to Washington.

Time Out for Women - Salt Lake 2013

I have gone to Time Out for Women in Phoenix for the last few years. I thought it would be fun to have my Mom and Kathy fly out here to go with me this year, but then I found out Ann Romney was speaking at the Salt Lake Time Out for Women, so I decided to fly to Utah and go to that one instead of Phoenix this year. I was hoping Holly could come down from Boise and go with us, but it was too hard this year with a baby. I invited all of the Utah family to go with Kathy, Mom and I, and I was thankful Shauna and Melinda were able to.

Time Out for Women was fabulous and we all enjoyed it so much. It was Friday evening and all day Saturday, so we stayed in a hotel Friday night right across the parking lot from the event. I'm so thankful we were able to go together. It was uplifting and inspiring, as usual.

When I first arrived in Provo, Kathy was there to pick me up at the airport and she didn't know where Mom was. Her car wasn't in her garage that morning and she was supposed to come with Kathy to pick me up. So, we were pretty worried about Mom. After Kathy picked me up, Dennis called her and told her that Mom had just called from the Emergency Room and we should go there. So, we went to the ER and there was Mom. She has been having quite a few problems with her heart. She recently got a pacemaker and has had several visits to the ER recently, so it wasn't a complete shock that she was in the ER. The doctor discovered that she was possibly low on oxygen, so he ordered full-time oxygen for her. 

When we got home later that day, the oxygen was delivered and here is a picture of Mom with her new friend, Oxy, as we call it. Of course, she wasn't happy about being on oxygen for the rest of her life and having to cart Oxy around with her wherever she went. She was concerned about taking all of the equipment to TOFW, but she was a trooper and went along anyway. It actually was an advantage to us as far as getting into Time Out for Women because she was able to go in the handicapped door and we got really good seats without having to wait in line for hours! So, thanks, Mom!

 

 As it turns out, Mom doesn't need to be on oxygen full time. She has a monitor that helps her know when she should get some more oxygen. This is a huge relief to her and we're thankful she doesn't have to be on it full time. She also now has some smaller tanks that she can carry around with her- and when she's at home she has a machine she can hook up to and doesn't have to use the tanks. It's really hard to see all of these changes happen to Mom. She's been so healthy and active for so many years.

 Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving morning, we got the turkey in the oven and then we went shooting out in the desert with Ty, Tiff and girls. It was fun to use our guns and get more familiar with them. 

Then, in the early evening, we had our Thanksgiving Dinner. We had BJ's family and Tyler's family, plus Bryan's cousin, Ken Scott. We had an enjoyable time together. The kids were at their usual noise level, and we love having them here. Everybody helped with the meal, so it was easy for me.

You can barely see Sadie next to Sam, then Hannah, Shannon, BJ, Tiff, Ty, Kylie, Lexi, Ken, Bryan. It was a nice and relaxing Thanksgiving and we loved having some leftovers for the next few days.

Owie on my finger!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Bryan had just put up the outside Christmas lights and he left to help clean the church. I opted to stay home and decorate for Christmas. I was carrying some boxes into the house from the garage and I tripped over a box that was in the driveway and fell right on my left hand. My pinkie knuckle was completely turned around, as you can see from the pictures. I called Bryan and he came home quickly and took me to Urgent Care. The doctor took x-rays and it was obviously dislocated, so she twisted it back where it was supposed to go. I knew she was going to have to do this and I was dreading it more than the immediate pain that I felt. I held my breath and held the nurse's hand while the Dr. twisted it back and it was done - just like that! I wore a splint on it for a week and it healed surprisingly quickly. It didn't even bruise as much as I thought it would - since I bruise easily. I guess I should have gone to clean the church instead of stay home to decorate!!

Phoenix Suns game

We went to a Suns game the night of my finger accident. I wasn't sure I felt like going at first, but decided I might as well sit there instead of sit at home. So, Bryan, Ron and I went to the game. We sat up in the boonies, but it was fun to go to a game in person. We rode the light rail there and back.