Traffic for 2009 May

In TX enjoying some good BBQ and avoiding messin' with anybody.

This week has not been good to us, but is full of entertainment value for the masses. Firstly, last Friday, our basement flooded. It's from the neighbor's sprinklers, which everyone says means he (his insurance) should pay for it. But he hasn't. My goal today is to go ask him about that, since it's been a money pit getting it fixed. Why our insurance guy didn't tell us he should pay for it is utterly ridiculous. Some people are only interested in a paycheck and not in doing their jobs. All he cared about was telling us that he would cover it, but our deductible would basically throw the entire liability back on us. But on the plus side, I have learned a lot about the carpet laying. Maybe I can qualify as a carpet-bagger now.

Second, yesterday, around 3:30, a coworker tells me that he thinks he saw a homeless person sleeping in my car when he walked by it at lunch time, 3 hours previous. After yelling at him, I went over there and lucky me, no homeless person. He did, however, leave me his coat, shoe, and smell as a calling card. I spent most of last night cleaning my car, including deoderizer into the carpets and upholstery and sanitizing spray over all hard surfaces. I think my carpool buddy didn't lock his door, because it does not appear my car was broken into, nor did he touch or take anything out of my car.

This morning my carpool buddy called to tell me we couldn't carpool today. His basement is flooded. So, now that I am a flood expert, I went over and helped him clean up the disaster.

I'm pretty sure God's mad at me.

Last night we went for a walk in Corner Canyon and Maggie had the time of her life. She sat in her stroller and ate her fav: Teddy Grahams. Then she got to see goats! Then on the way home we had the perfect view of the Draper Temple and Maggie couldn't stop pointing at it and saying "mama daddy temple." Then a woman on horseback joined us on the trail. And then it starting raining on us (one of those wierd storms where it rains but the sun's out) and then came out the most beautiful rainbow! It arched from Lone Peak right next to the temple and was breathtaking. Maggie finally saw it (after much pointing) and now she knows a new word.

But Maggie's favorite part was her shoulder-back ride and looking for bugs. She loves bug hunting, and beetles are in season in Draper. It was a very fun walk.

We're having a boy! Susie & I were both right this time. I really wanted a boy the first go around, and got a girl. This time, I really didn't care, and got a boy. I am glad to even up the gender numbers in the house, but would have been happy either way. Everyone we know that is pregnant right now is having girls, so I guess we get to stand out now. I have a feeling that raising this boy will be substantially different from raising Maggie. I hope I'm up for the challenge.

Now we need to go through all Tyler's baby clothes from 2001 and see what is still usable.

It's been an exciting few days:

1. I ran all the way to the end of the Porter Rockwell Trail! It was a 7-mile run and I did it in about 75 minutes. I wish I could find a good 10K here; it seems like it's 5K to half marathon only. I'm not sure I'm ready for a half yet.

2. We made yesterday a Provo day, including eating Rubio's with Frances and Roy, and gave them flowers and an "It's a Boy!" card that Maggie colored in. We also perused BYU. Maggie enjoyed the Eyering Science Center, the Richards Building, and the Tanner Building most. She was also obsessed with the "Y" on the mountain. We wore her out traversing campus, because she slept the whole way home. Traffic was horrible in UT county, so that explains why this is a yearly pilgrimage only.

3. Today we cleaned the chapel and luckily I had two elders to help me, which is two more than they got last week. Cleaning grubby handprints off so many glass doors apparently takes 90 minutes.

4. We bought some sleeping bags today (which is our mother's and father's day gifts to each other). Maggie thinks they are fab.

5. We settled on a boy's name: Dalton. Everyone heard "dolphin" over the phone, for some reason. We're still working on a middle name, but, needless to say, it won't be James, nor will be it John.

Tomorrow we head to the cabin after church.