July 2009

5 July 2009

Hi Hurdsmans! What a fun week we had - Congratulations to Jake and Kenzie!!!! Hope they are enjoying LV and Disneyland! Monday we and the Lunts and nana dropped the boys off with Hilary and headed to the Oquirrh Temple Open House. It was really beautiful and had amazing chandeliers and a lot of pretty stone. Reagan loved the baptistry (she can't wait to be 8!). Afterwards we had lunch and Gwen was able to meet up with her first AZ roommate which was a lot of fun. That afternoon Jake and Kenzie took us to ride Kenzie's horse Oreo. The kids loved it! And that night we had s’mores with Jim and Ann around Marj's fire pit. Tuesday Jim spent the day driving to UT and in the meantime Jake took us out on the boat. We all got to ride the new tube which was a lot of fun and then we played in Mike Reeder's backyard. Jim arrived and the kids (and me) were thrilled! Wednesday afternoon the CA Hurdsmans arrived and the kids had a great time playing with cousins and Gwen got a chance to visit with a high school friend, Kathy Coburn. Thursday was the wedding at the cool tabernacle, with pictures afterwards. Then home for a rest and off to the Maddox luncheon - sure wish we could have remembered more embarrassing stories about Jake to share :-) And that night was the reception and we were able to see some people we hadn't seen for awhile. Jim hung out in the nursery most of the time, but we all enjoyed a yummy snow cone. After that we did fireworks which was fun (especially for us from CA/AZ where they are illegal). Friday Jim worked on projects around nana's house and we got Mike's broken car to SLC and that night we did fireworks again before bedtime. We also took the kids to the train museum and got on the caboose. Saturday we went to the cemetery, and went to rog and hilary's for a quick visit, then it was off to AZ, which we drove in one day. We got home pretty late but were lucky enough to time it right to see the fireworks in Flagstaff, although John was more intrigued with the trains that kept passing. Sunday was church and taking dinner to grandma and grandpa since grandma had a hurt foot and couldn't walk. A couple of fun memories from this trip will be Reagan and Sierra using grandad's old "fashion" cameras to take pictures of everything, picking berries, john "storing" his white sox in nana's fireplace - for how long we don't know, he just opened it and pulled them out of there on Friday! And while we were on the boat, Reagan kept telling Ellie to look at the dragon fly, when Ellie asked where, Reagan said, on the "honkers" (horn) It was funny! It was great to see everyone! Love Jim gwen Reagan and John (John can now say Reagan instead of Da-Da)

12 July 2009

Hello everyone! Well, we have been enjoying some extreme heat...so it's been alot of inside time and pool time for us. Monday we had our movie day and saw "Kitt Kittridge" and even though it may have been too old for the kids, Gwen enjoyed it. That afternoon Jim took his mom to the doctor and found she had a torn ligament in her foot and is now in a boot. Tuesday we waited for a couple of candy orders and had Stockton over to play while Cara and Steve did an errand. That night Jim went to the temple with Elder's Quorum. Wednesday we had the neighbors over to play and that night the kids played with daddy while Gwen did a cub scout orientation. Thursday we had a kid switch, we took John to play at someone's house (cousin Hailey is being watched by someone in our ward so he went to play with her) and brought the sister to our house to play with Reagan. It was fun for them and that night we had our ward pool party at the jr. high nearby. It was really fun! Jim and Reagan did alot of the slides and diving boards. Reagan loved the high dive! I think she impressed some of the kids in the ward with her "no fear". Gwen and John stayed in the beach area on the Frog slide :-) Friday Jim and Gwen had a date and Saturday Jim spent doing electrical service for some neighbors, then he did the lawns in the heat (I don't know how he does it!). Gwen went to a convert baptism (spanish branch) and was called up to bear testimony in Spanish - it's been a long time! And that night Jim had UFC and Gwen watched a Hallmark movie which was really good "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler" about a polish woman who saved 2500 jewish children during WWII. Sunday was meetings and visits with Cake and our neighbors. Also Cleibe is in the hospital and Jim and Reagan went to see him (and meet someone to help give a blessing to him) and currently they are running tests but he seems to be doing better (they thought it was an ulcer). We hope everyone is well, Happy Birthday Jenn! Have a great week!

19 July 2009

What a week! Gwen was on-call but because it was such a busy week, it seemed to go by quickly. Jim took off Tues/Wed and worked Thurs/Fri. Monday Gwen and the kids took some friends to the movie with them. It was cute, usually too long for the kids though. Monday Cleibe had an angiogram which indicated he needed a pacemaker. We were told it would be that day...Tuesday Gwen and Cara went to the shooting range for "girls shoot free" day and then we went and saw Cleibe in ICU. Something funny about grandpa, his ICU nurses kept asking if he wanted to watch TV or read and he said he was "too busy" to do any of those things! must have been contemplating the meaning of life :-) That night Jim had EQ softball and they had a really good time (after finally finding an open field). And again, Cleibe didn't get the pacemaker...until Wednesday morning. Things went fine and he was moved to a normal room so that afternoon Gwen and the kids went to visit grandpa (Jim had been there all morning with Lois). Thursday Gwen and kids went to the grocery store in preparation of the grandparents coming to stay on Drummer. Then we went to the hospital and it worked out that Cara was able to take the kids to story time at the library close by (Cara saves us yet again!!!) while Gwen got Lois and Cleibe discharged and to their new temporary home. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very cooperative! It was so hot this week!!! That night the kids were fitfull so because of grandma and grandpa in the house Gwen took them to the doctor and John had strep! so grandma went somewhere else and we kept grandpa quarantined (he was already taking antibiotics) so we stayed home. Saturday Jim went to a convert baptism and we brought grandma back to Drummer. Sunday Jim went to his meeting, Gwen went to church and meeting and then petersen dinner at our house to celebrate Rachel's upcoming birthday. Jim had frozen A TON of ice in buckets, 5 gallon barrells, etc and we threw it all in the pool for an ice pool party! It was fun, but they melted so quickly! We hope everyone is doing well, hopefully enjoying nicer weather than us! We are anxiously awaiting our first real monsoon. Have a great week!

26 July 2009

Greetings from hell :-) It's been super hot! Monday we went to the movie "Dog Hotel" and here we learned that dogs are more important than kids going to a stable foster home...but dogs are people too! Monday night we had a doosey of a thunder storm. The thunder shook the house and Gwen ended up sleeping with scared Reagan. Wednesday Jim took the day off (van in the shop too) and we took grandma and grandpa to the hospital followup visit. The following is our "oh my hell" moment of the week: The doctor came into the room, was reading through the records commenting, "oh yes, I remember you mr. petersen" and said this a couple of times. Then he proceeded to tell us about the condition of Cleibe's heart and said, "we have two courses of treatment: we can continue on with the medication or we can put a pacemaker in" ???????!!!!!!!! Gwen quite abruptly interrupted the doctor and informed him that Cleibe ALREADY had a pacemaker put in in the hospital! wow! actually, we had already discussed that we would not be using this cardiologist and that just sealed the deal. Jim did very well at keeping it all bottled inside and didn't explode at the doctor. We got through that and Jim worked the rest of the week and Gwen did some visiting teaching and we all took care of grandma and grandpa. The kids did really great helping out with them. Friday morning Gwen took the kids to the library for Bingo. It was a lot of fun and they each won a book. That afternoon we picked Cake up from the airport (she was visiting Emily in St. Louis) and took her home. Saturday was busy, Jim did the lawns, Gwen went to the gym and then we transported grandma and grandpa back home. They are happy to be home (and back with the dog again) and are doing well. But the kids were not very happy that they left - they loved having them at the house. Saturday night we had Ryan Manning's family over for dinner and pool. Cara and Steve came over too and it was fun to visit with everyone. Sunday was church and meetings and a nice relaxing night. Hope everyone is well.