Complaint...

I intend to tell all that I feel about my health today! Don’t be surprised at my feelings as I try not to complain very much but I feel very ornery at the moment.

When I first found that I had diabetes I felt “No big deal I will just act like I had nothing wrong with me.”, this was a big childish mistake as I was only twelve at the time. My problems have mostly risen from the fact that I never changed this attitude that “I am just going to act as if I were normal”. Since then I have gone totally blind in the left eye and legally blind in the other and this is the worst thing that could happen. I truly wish that I had paid attention to the doctors and to my mother as they were only concerned for my health.

I have put Diana through a living he__ as I would go through insulin reactions without knowing what I was doing or what was going on around me and I am sure I affected many others as well.

Each of the following incidents caused me pain and nausea without me even realizing it.
Ø Renal transplant
Ø Heart attack 7 in total
Ø Loss of both legs
Ø Loss of the ability to use left hand and arm for much beside balancing on
And the worst of all is the stroke which has left me without the capacity to think clearly about most things. This is the reason that I had to take a disability retirement. It is the reason that Diana has to do so much more than a normal wife should have to do, she has to act as if I were not even here with the exception of my little income.

And eve worse than the stroke is the poor way I treated my children so they don’t even want to have much to do with me now.

Diana asks me why I don't complain about the raw deal I was given in this life and my answer has always been that each of us were given the choice of what would happen to us and this is what I chose. So why have I done so many sinful things if I believe this so strongly? Answer: That is the sixty-four thousand dollar question.

So I have come to a point where I am incapable of doing much more than existing, well I told you at the start that I am in a foul mood today!

Grandchildren

To each of my grandchildren I want you to know:
1) Never ever doubt the love of your parents of whom your Heavenly Father is the MOST important. (I believe your earthly parents will teach you of this great being and so I will not take the time to try to tell you all you should know.)
2) As you get to be a teenager you will discover more and more exciting things that you will believe is a new discovery to you and your friends. This is great and you should be excited about it. Your parents were excited too. There is little that you will learn that is not already known by your earthly parents and our Heavenly Father knows ALL.
3) Don’t be as dumb as your grandpa while studying. I never tried until after I got married, then I thought it was important to understand what I was studying so remember it is not just for yourself but for your future spouse and children that you are studying now.
4) Friends are a good thing in your life and will mean more to you than you can believe. Friends will help you make many decisions in life and because of this you need to be very picky about who you choose as a friend. Try to choose members of the church as the biggest portion of your friends. ALWAYS REMEMBER that friends are not as important as your parents. My children forgot this sometimes.
5) Cars were so exciting to me and so I believe they will be to you also. They are not a toy that can be broken and forgotten as you have done with Christmas gifts a lot so far. They are a significant expenditure to you or to your parents and so should be treated as you would treat a good friend.
6) When dating:
Remember that dating is a time in your life when you should have fun, good wholesome fun that you can always look back upon with pride during the rest of your life. So don’t do something you cannot tell everyone including your Heavenly Father about. (He will know anyway.)
a) Wives will almost always be like their mothers. (Except your grandma who is like her mother in most ways except she wants the best for her children.)
b) Husbands will almost always be like their fathers. My sons are just like me, they love to be in front of the computer or electronic games.
So always get to know the parents of the one you choose for your eternal companion. And please find someone who is worthy to go through the temple of our Heavenly Father with you.
As time goes on I will think of other things I think you should know so keep your eyes open for future posts named Grandchildren.

Bear

I wake and take Duke for a pee walk every morning at around 5:30 AM. We normally go over to the middle school next to us, Wy' East Middle School, where they have a track that I can go around while Duke runs around me all over in front of me , behind me and all over. I can do this only when there are no prople around as Duke always wants to go visit everyone and lick them. This morning we got out to the side of the apartment complex and some guy was running away from the area. Well he stopped long enough to tell me to get out of the area which I did not understand as he was talking so fast that everything sounded like a blab. Duke and I ignored the fright he seemed to have and went on a little way further until a police car came up and told us that there was a bear about 1 block east of us and that I should go home, which I did.

Duke still had to go to the bathroom and so I took him right next to the building. While I was waiting for him to go to the bathroom he started barking and I looked up to see a bear running across the soccer field in front of us. So I decided Duke didn't need to go that bad and went in to tell Diana.

This was the first time I have ever waken Diana early and she didn't get angry at me for waking her. She turned on the TV to watch for news and then went out into the back yard to see if she could see it. Diana didn't see the bear but she did see a pickup and a police car. She came back in to watch more news and we watched until just before the bear was darted. Because there was a commercial Diana went out in the back yard again and saw the bear running for all he was worth south. Apparently, according to the news, the bear was Darted and took off. They also said that he had been reported at around 5:00 AM and it was about 7:00 AM before the news reported him to be unconcious and in custody.

Family without Alex

Lil ole Keary, Andrew,
Calixta, Ciria, Kristy, Diana and Cathy.
I was asked to put this up as Diana is ashamed of her blog. I guess.

What an odd world

It is funny how things work in this world. Last weekend my legs were very itchy and Diana told me that I had welts of rash on both legs. I went to see the doctor on Monday and she said it was a “contact rash”, whatever that is. I have gone without putting on my legs/prosthesis for the whole week and they are almost cured.

So I asked the doctor, through email, if I could start wearing the prosthesis once again and got the reply last night about 8:30 PM and was told the rash would reappear if I did that. I am so grateful for the new chair Vallen and Cathy purchased for me.
Love to all Dad

Boy do I feel like a dumb guy.

I went today to pickup the wheelchair Cathy and Vallen bought me and while I was there I was shown a couple things that I was unaware that it can do.

After I got home I decided to show off to Diana what the capabilities of the wheelchair are and as I was twisting the seat around and around and the wire broke and now I have no new wheelchair. So I called All in One Mobility and they are talking to Diana to see if she can fix it. Otherwise they will have to come fix it next Monday. So far so good.

It's going to take about a week to get the part, and its going to cost me as I was the Dumbo who broke it and that is not covered under the warranty. Oh well, I never claimed to be a gret thinker, that's Dianas idea.

Happy birthday Cathy...

I feel there must be at least 36 reasons why I love and appreciate Cathy:
01. Cathy is one of Heavenly Fathers prettiest children.
02. She has always been a very content person.
03. Cathy was a great swimmer.
04. Cathy could beat up everyone in school.
05. She is a conscientious cousin.
06. Cathy was true to the gospel of Jesus Christ even during her deplorable teen years.
07. She has always been a very good employee to everyone she has worked for.
08. She is very loving and kind.
09. Cathy doesn’t break the speed limit unless she is trying to keep up with her mother. JKTLP
10. Cathy takes care of herself.
11. She has always been a great example to her siblings
12. She has unconditional love for each person she meets.
13. Cathy allows us to go to her home and destroy it during our vacation.
14. Cathy is a great housekeeper.
15. Cathy is a terrible cook, but she tries. (sometimes)
16. I’ll bet Cathy is better than most at scrap booking.
17. Cathy always remembers her family in her scrap booking.
18. She takes after her mother in most ways except cooking. Just teasing.
19. Cathy is an excellent parent, much better than I have been.
20. Cathy has always been excelled at all she has done in church.
21. Cathy never seems to get angry.
22. Cathy tries to be like our savior.
23. Cathy worked for a year while Vallen was a missionary and then went to school.
24. Cathy married a great guy. (her words and I think so too)
25. They have Summer Daye
26. They have Breck
27. Cathy started blogging.
28. She is our first
I am sure there are many more but I am getting tired and I guess Cathy is going to have to loose a few years.
I love you, Dad.

What an exciting day!

I woke at about 05:15, put my hat and coat on to take Duke for a walk and let him run free to get his exercise. I have to take him early and late when no one else is around or I loose control of him; he likes to go with people who can run after him or that he can chase right now as he is still a puppy. When we got home I could not find my keys, this was around 05:45 – 06:00 so I started going back to where we had gone looking very closely at the ground all the way. I found nothing and then I thought? Did I check to see if the door was actually locked, maybe I left the keys on the desk?

We went home again and found the door to be locked. WHAT NOW? Duke said let’s pray and so we knelt in prayer then started back to look once again. When we got back over to the school I saw a lady who was just getting to work, and I was prompted to call out and explain my situation, at some point during the first time we walked I dropped the water bottle without a lid on my lap and it looked very much as if I had wet myself again so this was quite hard to do. But since I was being prompted from Heavenly Father I did it.

Well this lady told her co-worker what I had said and he got a flashlight and came out with me and we walked the same path Duke and I had taken this morning. Well when we got out to the track he found the keys with his flashlight before we even went around said track. I need to start carrying a flashlight and maybe I could have found them without the embarrassing situation. I also started zipping up my coat pocket or putting the keys in my cargo pocket. We finally got back into the apartment at about 07:30.

I then took a shower and realized I needed to wash my shorts as they are all dirty. Then I had to wash my shirts for the same reason. Anyway by this time it was getting pretty late and I still had to go to Salmon Creek Kaiser so I stopped at Taco Cell, ours hasn’t gone much past the “B” Alex, on the way to Kaiser. When I get off the bus I have to go about another 3/4 mile each way. This is significant later.

When I got home I found we had received a check from RSL, the disability insurance company, so I charged the wheelchair batteries for half an hour and took the check to the bank. While at the bank I had kept some cash so I thought I would go to WinCo for some supper not thinking about my shortage of battery power. Well on the way home I found my chair not working very well, I had to put it free wheeling and get up and push it till I was exhausted then sit down and run it a while longer. Each time I turned it off and let it freewheel the battery would gain a little extra power, no idea how. I called Kristy at one point hoping she could bring Zachary and ask him to push me the rest of the way home. Well by the time I got a hold of Kristy I had gotten quite a ways home but I was terribly tired. At that point a very kind lady came along and asked if she could push me for a ways. Well with her help I got to Mill Plain Blvd and I was able to use the chairs power from there home. By the time I got home I had to help the chair get into the door.

It was now about 19:30 and I charged the battery while fixing me some supper the blood sugar was at 250 – 260 so I had not used up all my sugar with the exercise.

Why not?

A few weeks ago I told my doctor I thought I needed a new wheelchair and she said that she would have to tell the people at permanent machines or something like that and they made an appointment for me for yesterday afternoon. Well yesterday afternoon Diana and I were there in the meeting with several people; let’s see a salesman from Care Medical, a person from physical therapy, a person who dealt with Medicare issues, a nurse, a doctor type, Diana and I were in the meeting trying to determine if I qualified for a new wheelchair. Well we started with me telling all of the repairs that had been going on with my wheelchair and the salesman from Care Medical saying he thought I needed a more durable wheelchair for all I do with my wheelchair. And we talked for 15 minutes or so to find that the Medicare probably would not pay for a new wheelchair as I was given a a pair of prosthesis which Medicare paid for and the Medicare ruling is that they will pay for only one type of mobility device per person.

When we first started talking I was light and jovial as I ever am and the first thing I did was to push the chair back a bit to show them the problem I was having with my left front wheel, this was a deadly error as the rest of the people felt I was being too cavalier with the wheelchair. The rest of the meeting went downhill from then on. As the meeting progressed I got to feeling more and more like crying as it seems to me that medicare and the people in congress think that a person who has problems has to quit living as he/she is no longer worth the effort of keeping him/her alive if that person cannot pay for it without the aid of the United States. And yet I worked for many years and probably paid in a good portion of what they are re-supplying me with. And I would still be paying into this horrible thing if it were not for the DIABETES which I did not ask for, on this earth.

I would not want a socialistic nor a communistic type of government but I think the people in congress need to be more realistic with their thoughts of how a person should live once disabled. Or maybe they think nothing drastic will ever happen to them. Beside this, Diana and I have always tried to be honest in all that we do so I did not cheat the insurance company and told them that I was receiving Social Security and for this we get our butts kicked every time. I don’t understand.

This is how I feel! http://bonehead.oddballs.com/BagLady.html Scroll down a little to start the video.

Last weekend

We had a wonderful trip to visit my parents this past weekend. As we traveled in the van for more than a few miles and I must say that it was a really nice trip as I didn’t have to be squeezed into a small area for a few hours and as we traveled for the first time without having to argue about the temperature. This car has individual heating for each side and for the back. In the past Diana would complain and say that she had to have the car adjusted for her comfort as she was driving and I thought that was only fair as I didn’t want to be involved in an accident but I was always either very cold or I was sweating. Also I was able to travel many miles without having leg cramps as the seats are higher and Diana was able to see better than she has in years as she was higher and she has some new glasses, thanks to Cathy.

While we were in Othello, we were able to go to a stake conference where we saw several people we had not seen in many a year. I don’t know the reason Alain Bifano was there but Veral and Michael gene Hansen were there as he is in the Othello Stake presidency. I saw a girl, Shawna Hebdon, now Scorup, I used to know while in college institute where we put on a roadshow and things like that.

While in Othello we saw several things that were quite pleasant to see. My father, after having the bone spurrs removed from his back looks about 10 years younger as you can see and below is a short video of Melissas son making Diana laugh harder than I have heard her laugh for many years, actually he made Diana laugh the night before when we didn't have the camera available so we are trying to recreate the situation here.

Cameron spins on his head.

http://www.videoegg.com/video/cztIuX

One Word Answers

I didn't always listen to the title.
This Moment: confused
Shoes: 10 1/2
Craving: new-body
The State of Your Home: confused
Annoyed By: diabetes
Noise In the Background: tv
Really Want To: cry
Thinking About: warm weather
Smelling: salts
Favorite Product In Office Supply Aisle: pens
Don't Ever Want To: die
Your Eye Color: blue
The Weather: cold-n-cloudy
Have Never Tried: kyaking
Think Everyone Should Try: relaxing
Last Vacation Destination: utah
The Last Thing You Had to Drink: drpepper
Your Bad Habit: laziness
What You're Going To Do Now: sit

The surprize

Diana and I went to Portland on Tuesday night 01/23/2007 and even though I told her I would walk she decided that we needed to take the wheelchair. Well in doing this I am surprized to still be alive for one and I am even more surprized that we found the place as Diana still had not recieved her new glasses and I believe we were the blind leading the blind and tumbling over one another as we went. She had the sunglakses but it was pitch black out there and she could see less than I as far as the road was concerned, though she could read the street signs better than I(after stopping at each street). But this is not the story I wanted to tell.


In order to take the wheelchair to the dog training session, Diana had to lift the wheelchair four times, probably 75 lbs. after the battery and seat had been removed. The next day Diana forgot to take her cell phone so I could not easily reach her during the day and after work I thought she had gone to exercise when I did not hear from her till 6:30 PM. Then I started to get worried and it was about 8:00 Pm when she called me for my social security number and said that she was looking at a new van. I had told her that I wanted a Dodge Caravan or Chrysler Town and Country, guess what! She paid no attention to me (surprize surprize) but did her research and found the safest van on the road, A KIA Sedona. See the photos below. Diana only did each side but did not take pictures of the front and back. I guess she is ashamed of the name
No SÉ.
Diana found a car sticker priced at $31,665.00 and talked them down to $23,000.00 and in doing so she did her share of missionary work, as the manager was LDS and had not been to church for ten years, After Diana was finished at 10:30 PM he went home and called his mother and apologized for not beig more active. O algo asi.

Baffled

Duke is introduced to a new and baffling situation by Andrew as you will see in this video
http://www.videoegg.com/video/cUCUoP

Only Andrew would think of something so inertaining and fun!

Snowbound

Unfortunately Diana has broken her old glasses so now she walks around 24-7 with these binocs to see with until she receives her new glasses in the mail.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Tuesday it snowed here and we have been snowbound since until yesterday.

Calixta we want you to know that even though we still love you very much, we have had to replace you with Duke as you seem to have replaced us with Nate. See Cirias comment to Dianas post of the 18th.

DUKE

We have become one of those strange pet owners who think only of the pet and of the pet as if it were a child.

Am I ever jealous as he has now gotten 1 more letter than I have. Mine are all bills!!! And to think they are even prejudiced in the invitation. I'll bet they wont allow me to bring an extra leg to munch on.

Stopping

I am doing very poorly at this blogging thing and as I do not want to hurt anyone else I guess I will quit writing these posts until I am sure I have something positive to say, and that doesn't seem to happen very often. Please re-read Zachary's birthday wish just before if you read it before and if you did not read it prior to my fixing it you can feel lucky.
I love you all.

Happy birthday Zachary Prows

I am so excited for this year to finish as you are now eleven and will be turning twelve at the end of this year. That means you will get the priesthood and be able to start looking down at people while serving the sacrament.

I know that you Zachary will go far in this world. You will be a faithful missionary and you will go on to be a Bishop some day because of your wonderful care for others, and that is what our Father in Heaven needs for the bishoprics. I believe that all bishops must care for others a great deal more than I have the capability of doing.

My wish for you Zac is that you find a pretty little girl that you can start dating. LOL No really I wish all that you are interested in if it is only a goose or the whole world!
Love you Zac.

Read Diana's blog

At least don't believe all that she writes. Especially if it is concerning me. I don't know how she can say that we are going to get a van. HUGH car payments and little reward. As I told her we can get a different type of wheelchair (power assist) where I would get more exercise and Duke could help by pulling if he will. This would eliminate the need for a new car and would make me healthier and stronger.
Anyway I love the fact that so many people are blogging and don't stop. Just eliminate the looking at Diana's blog. JK
I had to change the name which was don't read Diana's blog but I wrote this before I had done the research on the power assist wheelchair. First off I found this wheelchair setup to weigh 50 lbs. Secondly I found that this is an add on to the regular manual wheelchair. The manual wheelchair costs about $2,000.00 and the add on costs $6500.00 and a regular electric wheelchair can cost as little as $3,500.00 - $4,000.00 or as much as $15,000.00. The one I got in December 2001 was about 4,200.00.
Now the reason for all of this is that I keep having the little scooter batteries burn up on me (mostly my fault for leaving the key in place or for not charging the battery at least once a week, preferably once a day). Now the batteries cost about $300.00 each time we have to replace them and it is rather embarrassing. Now I am embarased about the beginning of this post.

Dogs name & history

I really appreciate all the suggestions. He is very princely and we could have named him that and it was a front runner until Alex reminded us of Duke and he is a duke. Rosco would have been good but we were told that one syllable word would be best and he was originally named Buzz for Buzz Lightyear and we originally wanted to keep the name similar so we started to call him Buddy, not a one syllable word, and even now I keep saying buDUKE. Finally we appreciated each suggestion, even Sebastian, I thought that would be a good name for him and was reminded that a one syllable word would be best. If we had known that, then Isaiah would never have flown.

Duke was originally the pet of a lady who lived in a van and kept driving around on stolen gas, for which she was sent to jail. Duke obviously got put in the dog pound and every time we see a dog pound truck I hear him growl. JK Anyway the pound adopted him out as he is such a sweet dog and when the original owner got out of jail she wanted him back. The adoptive people were concerned and were told that the original owner had rights to Duke but the pound asked for Duke back and kept him for a week and kept adding charges to the bill which the original owner could pay as she had been stealing gas so she signed over the rights. Then when the people who got Duke found that he kept knocking their little boy down they decided to sell him for part of the cost of nuetering him.

We went out last night to the first meeting of trying to train Duke to be a full fledged SERVICE Dog, the lady there has a service dog named Kisha so the one syllable thing was blown. I have to get a doctors say so that I need a service dog and then we will get a cape that identifies Duke as a service dog in training. Then I will be able to take him whereeer I go. to the store to the restaurant to the john and everywhere.

ANYWAY I AM EXCITED ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING NOW. When Diana first suggested it I wan't sure but now I am excited.

By the way Cathy, how many posts do you have in total? I have 122 so I want to go to a restaurant where they give a real doggy bag! LOL

Dog's name.

Well we have chosen the name Duke! It was a toss up between Isaiah and Duke when we got Isaiah and as we were getting the dog for Andrew we let him choose the name and he chose Isaiah for Isaiah Thomas so we still had the name Duke to use which we have now used.

By the way, Diana has finally started her blog at the link on the side.

Our dog your name?

We got a new dog to help grandpa Keary in doing things. And we would like you to help us in choosing a name.

And as usual

Diana got home gave me a hug and a kiss, ate then sat on the couch to watch TV and directly fell asleep.

I don't know what yous guys do to her but she is always so tired when she comes home that she falls asleep.

Actually I do know; she loves her children so much and she always wants to help all she can whether it be one of her children or anyone else. Each of you should feel honored in that you act much like your mother. I know there are differences and you should feel great that you are much like she who bore you.

Strange goings on around here.

I went to bed at around 21:00 last night and woke at 06:30 exactly and noticed that Diana was not in the bathroom as she usally is so I went to her bedromm door and called Diana, Diana, then I yelled Diana, Diana, DIAAANNAA, and then realized that I had been left for another woman. What a terrible feeling, Calixta should be ashamed for doing this to her own father I’ll bet that Diana would not have done this for any of the rest of her kids! Oh, that is because we had other kids at home or because we were trying to drag ourselves out of the financial hole we keep trying to avoid but seldom do.

This year we decided on, no presents for one another, which I broke by writing her a letter of appreciation and putting it on a certificate sheet with gold diamond shapes around the edges. Ah shucks I guess I will be sent straight to the depths of h___ for doing this, or one of many other things.

President Lee Info!

I am just trying to give you all a few pics of the front pages of the Samuel Lee Family history and Genealogy along with some pics of some of my forefathers, however they are related to me. I would be able to figure it all out but my father and his way of doing genealogy is different. He has it all in his genealogy books but instead of putting it on a cd he has put it all on floppies and has not given me instructions as to which family is whose parents and I have as yet to figure it all out.
........................................................................................President Lee and his wife below.

For those who like lights.

Diana went the night before last to see the light show on the Columbia river. We decided that I would have more than I could do in trying to walk and stand at this event. Since I have a sore on my left leg that if I don't get healed may cause another amputation.

Christmas thoughts

The biggest thing about Christmas these days is that the world has chosen to celebrate the Saviors birth at this time which is great. My problem is that satan has demeaned it by making it the greatest shopping time of the year and everyone is trying to gain a little bit of it, from diamonds and other jewelry and cars and yachts and lights to toys and tape and turkeys and hams everyone wants to disgrace othe memory of our Savior. Yesterday I read ten chapters all together in the books of Luke and John to help myself with discouragement.

Christmas 2006

Nothing to say except WOW look at Andrew & Shawnie.

Christmas Past

I don't know if this is what is meant by Past Christmases but one of my favorite memories of Christmas is when we had Santa come to visit with our girls while we lived in Moses Lake, WA. The best thing is that he came into our home and talked to each of the three girls who were alive at that time and when he came back on Christmas morning, each little girl got exactly what she had asked for.

Another story I believe was from Christmas time was when we as a family acted out a play in the Spokane Ward and the girls - Cathy, Kristy and Ciria - sang as the chipmunks of Alvin and the chipmunks and I played the father and kept yelling ALVIN ALVIN in between songs.

At last.

I'm so glad everyone else is blogging as now I don't have to, I can just sit back and read, this takes me a couple hours when everyone else blogs. Do you think your mother will every blog? She says she has to much to do and I am sure of that as she does so much for helpless me! She really does do a lot for me!

I don't know

First off, I must apologize for the lousy post I put in last called "Leviathon" and if you didn't see it you can congratulate yourself as it was that bad. I deleted it for the sake of all those who did not read it.

Sometimes I wonder what life is all about. Diana seems to always know that life is about others and I agree with her only I have a hard time achieving this same attitude. Seems that I could deal with a great big attitude adjustment about now.

Cathy seems to have learned from her mother what I wish I could learn, she is the sweetest person and she seems to always put other people first.

When one looks at me one must wonder how sick is this jerk and no I do not mean physically. I mean psychologically, if I could just look at how the savior lived his life and follow it I would do so much better but I am always worrying about myself and what am I going to get instead of looking at my fellow human and wonderinmg how can I help that person?

It seems that I got the best person in the world for me, I wonder who should have gotten Diana for a wife? I also wonder who could be bad enough to deserve someone like me.

Oh, now I remember

We were extremely rich and lived on a hill in Victor, MT. this was a beautifl site with a small stream running down each side of the hill were I would go fish and catch 12 pound trout that would be caught on a safety pin bent just so. A little sewing thread tied to the end of some pole found in the thick foliage a few yards back of the streams.

We had so many cattle they could only be counted in two months. About three million depending on how succesful the last stranger who had been caught in cattle theft had been. We had two thousand milk cows that I had to milk each morning and evening. We would get about three thousand gallons of milk each time we milked. Boy the dairys and pasturizers all wanted it as it was the best milk in the whol state and probably the nation. This milk carried almost 10% milk fat so it was ideal for butter manufacturering and ice cream as well as for the best tasting milk.

Boy don’t you wish you could have lived then? This is purely made up nonsense. It is only for the highest amount of blog posts so that I can win JK.

Christmas

I think that Christmas is the best of all holidays and yet I never get ready for Christmas. Ask me on the 24^th “are you ready for Christmas” and my answer will most often be when is it? It always sneaks up on me without my having done anything positive for Christmas. This year Diana has fially gotten the Christmas decorations out and asked me how does this look to which I had to say I don’t see it what do you mean.

As we go into this season I always feel sad for Zachery as he has to share his birthday with all the Christmas zeal. Seems that his birthday is almost forgotten because everyone is to busy doing Christmas things. I hope everyone will take the time to wish Zachery a happy birthday this year.

Diana tells me that she finds the blogs I write of my parents lives to be very blah, I hope they aren't seen in this way by everyone, else I will quit with these type of blogs.

Isn't it exciting that we are going to have such an exciting day on the 15th, Alex starting work at a new job and Calixta moving on the very same day.

By the way

Cathy: I am not interested in any contest.
I blog as a way to communicate with all my family as I am very poor at communicating with anyone by telephone, through letter writing or any other method of conversation. But I am interested in what my family does. I have no way of escaping all that Diana does LOL but my children are totally incommunicado con migo, with me. And blogging is an excellent way of writing a journal as you can write what you have done or seen. Some of the more personal things need to be kept in ones diary or dairy as you choose but blogging is a good way for people to write their life.

And I hope that everyone reads this and acts upon it.

Grandmas end

The neighbor tried to do away with my grandpa by poisoning the Epsom salts (strychnine) strychnine in the Epsom salts. They used Epsom salts for just about everything now that’s all I know about my grandmother. (How was she killed rather than your grandfather?) They put strychnine in the Epsom salts that they used for medicine (apparently she,the neighbors wife, came in the house and put some strychnine in the Epsom salts knowing that they would take it for medicine). My grandpa wasn’t feeling well oe night so she fixed him a cup of tea but he didn’t like as much sugar in his as she did and she got more of the s strychnine than he did.(So he got some also?) He got sick but it killed her. (So did they get prosecuted?) No they couldn’t prove anyrhing, they tok it to court but they couldn’t prove anything nothing to prove for sure. This is something I don’t understand. They used strychnine’epsom salts for tea, it wasn’t tea it was a hot toddy that’s why she (tea could have been a hot toddy) I was just wondering why (what is a hot toddy) (I’d say that anything hot was a hot toddy but I don’t know) I don’t know but anyway she got more of the strychnine than he did.

Wierd...

We had the weirdest thing happen tonight. Someone knocked on the door and Diana answered it. There was a man there who wanted to come in. Well Diana called me out and when I got there this guy was scared out of his mind. Apparently he and his friend were watching a movie when her ex-boyfriend, a jailbird, said at his door open up as I am coming in. There were three knocks and all of a sudden this poor guys door flew in, frame and all. Well the guy ran as he was frightened to death and hid behind our car then called 911 on his cell phone and talked to the police until his battery died then came to our house and wanted to come in and use our phone. He was scared to the point were he couldn’t sit down or anything. He talked and worried and talked and eventually we found that he works at the same place as our bishop. Small world huh?

Horses and first of grandmas

In here it says tell a story of your grandpa. I don’t remember my grandpa Passey at all, he died from diabetes when I was about eight years old. What about your grandpa?

I only had one grandparent and that was my grandpa Morgan and I was about sixt… fifteen when he died. I was a sophomore in high school and he died in the spring so I think I was about fifteen years old whe he died and all I can remember about grandpa Morgan is that we used to go see him and he lived five mile- seven miles outside of Idaho Falls and it would take us thirty minutes in the car to drive that seven miles at that time. One time Rex and I rode a horse back from his place we started at noon and didn’t get back until dark (slow horse) we would ride a ways and then we would have to get off and lead him (was it winter time) summer time but you didn’t go as fast in those days as you do now (yah well you had a horse that was worse than a mule) just about.

And this one says tell a fond memory of your grandma and I never knew my grandma Passey. She died when my father was about eleven I think but we lived with my grandma Lee and she was always doing or buying us things, I loved to sleep with her in her feather bed. She had a feather bed mattress. I can remember we used to puff it up and pound it down so.

I never knew my grandmother at all but I know that she died when my mother was eleven years old she was poisoned by a neighbor that lived in the area where my grandpa did over a fight over water rights who could have water and who couldn’t have water

Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say!!!

Dentures

Uncle Larry told me a story about my grandfather. Gramdpa would take out his knife and whittle on his dentures whenever they would hurt until he had to get a new set of dentures.

Dianas mother will wear her dentures until it is time to eat and then she will take them out and put them beside her plate so that she can eat without any teeth and she does a very good job of it, she even eats tripas without any teeth tripas are normally quite gummy but I guess one could say those tripas are extrely gummy. I remember one day when Cathy was asked to go into the trash can behind the restaurant we had eaten at in order to find those dentures. I don't remember but Cathy would definitely remember if she found them or not.

Want anymore denture stories? I guess I could dig some up and I don’t mean from the grave.

Visits Visits Visits 2

Well Larry did come and Diana did get the house cleaned up and fixed dinner (Chicken, Mashed taters, Green beans and Mushroom gravy) but she was mocing so fast I didn’t see her till we sat down to eat. I sure appreciate it when anyone comes over to eat, I get something besides Nalleys chili con carne or Oatmeal to eat.

Larry said that he had gone up to Spanish Fork Utah to be with his daughter and son-in-law for Thanksgiving. Spent a couple weeks there, went to visit my uncle Bill Barnes for a couple days then went to see Mom and Dad for a couple days then went to see a one of his colleagues in Seattle before coming down to see us. He spent the night with us then went to church with us before leaving to go to Portland to see another colleague. After all of this he will go down to LA for his company christmas party and go shopping with his daughters. We told him to go over to see Cathy and family but I don’t know.

Well now you have Larry’s travel itenary for all to be interested in. I hope this satisfies your challenge Cathy. Oh BTW Larry did give us some of his pictures and genealogy but no money. Larrys wife Jerry died this past May and he showed me a PowerPoint presantation that he had prepared of her life for her funeral dinner I guess, it was very nice. While we were gone to Utah one of the members of our ward had passed away and several testomonies at Fast and Testimony meeting were about death and poor Larry was really suffering because of them.

The above are my mothers family who are still alive. Right to left uncle Keith - looks like a Passey, aunt Karen, Uncle Larry - looks like a Lee and mom. Mom is 76 and Larry is 70. 70 and still working is quite awesome.

Visits Visits Visits

My mother called a little while ago to let me know that her brother Larry was coming by to see me. hope he leaves a great deal of cash while here. LOL Although he is doing quite well, he struggles just like the rest of us. I hope that the visit will be very interesting concerning genealogy and how his family is doing!

Diana is quite upset that we didn’t get more time to clean up0

Thanksgiving!

We were so frightened by the news of Karis illness and it was especially good to go in and see her in the hospital. It was nice to see everyone there at Ciria and Adams house and once Kari got home everyone else started dropping off like flies in October. Well I enjoyed myself even if I got so exhausted that I was home on Tuesday and most of Wednesday.
I forgot Brecks birthday on Wednesday as I was too busy trying to get well enough to see the doctor and then going. I am so sorry Breck. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you.

Hi Alex n Kiki

Doing it again and I still haven't been told what we are doing so I look kind a dumb, normal I guess.

Hi Alex n Kiki, Vallen n Cathy

We are in the monster er dinosaur museum and I am just getting out of the restroom and they want me to join in without explaining what is going on.

Dad in Sports

I hadn't heard this one in the past!


Sports – Me personally.

Well I went to a school – went to a small school that didn’t have football or baseball until I was a senior in high school. Consequently the only sport I played was basketball and there I made the team while I was a freshman. And the coach told me that if I quit doing some of the things I was doing I could play basketball next year but if I continued doing some of the things I was doing which I was – had taken up smoking and I liked to play basketball better than I liked to smoke and it was no problem to quit and I have never touched it since. So the first year we went to the state tournament and in the district tournament a good friend of ours , he was a senior at the time, they had quite an article in the paper of how the rest of the team was in the dressing room when he shot the final shot and he shot it from the dressing room door and it went in, of course he was on the court but it was a longgg shot it was a hail Mary shot and it went in and we went to the tournament. We went to the tournament all four years I was in high school. We never won the state tournament any year but we got to go. Then the year after I graduaed from high shool - they got rid of me they went to state tournament and took the state tournament!

So that is about all I can tell you about sports.

Cowboy Football

How is this game?



Like I say our senior year we got to play football and we played 6 man football as we didn’t have enough kids in school to play 8 man or 11 man football on the team so we played 6 man football. And we went to Iona to play and they’d been playing every year fer all my high school years but I didn’t get to play as I stayed home and helped on the farm till I was a senior and my senior year we went and they put me in as quarterback and we went over to Iona and we had 8 men dressed for our 6 man team. Well like I say they’d been playing every year and they just literally wiped the field with us, we didn’t know what we was doing really, we was trying but… and at half time the coach said they have been murdering you guys, he says I’ll turn my head and you guys go out there and get even with them and they had 12 men dressed for football and they didn’t have enough players to finish the game. They was all bruised up so bad they couldn’t play. Now that isn’t saying much for sportsmanship but they weren’t good sports to start with so we just retaliated. (But Iona won.)

First date according to Dad

Almost exactly like mom told me.


I got out of high school in May and this was in June I mean August that I had been dating this girl and,, her sister was Darlines friend. And Darline had got in trouble last year, her and her friend so they didn’t go to scout camp this year. A friend of mine, one of the kids I run around with in school all the time, he had a date with Darlines friend and she asked Darline to come down that night cause Jerry had asked her to go out on a date and she didn’t want to go o a date with him and she didn’t want to go with him so Darline said yah Ill come down. And so she came down and so when we got there Darline was there and I didn’t have a date – didn’t figure on taking a date but Darline was there and Darlines friends mother asked me if I was going to take Darline on a date. I said I don’t know, I hadn’t thought about it. I says do you want to go out on a date? And that was the beginning of a long romance. And it is still continuing today!

Dad dating

Another I don't remember.


Once I went out with two or three girls the same night, not together but individually. Now if you can figure that out more power to you. I asked “Out to diner or something?” Oh no, I never spent any money! That’s what my mother said, she said you could give Rex twenty dollars and you could give Delbert a dollar and he’d have fifty cents left when Rex was out of money.

Cows and bulls

I do not remember hearing this one.



Question: What was the naughtiest thing you did?

Mom: Mother would ask me to take the kids (her brothers and sisters) and she would say “make sure you don’t get the sun in their eyes.” Of course when I got away from the house I knew that if you got the sun in their eyes they would go to sleep, so then I could take them home and go play.

Dad: One of the naughtiest things I did was when I was a kid. And we had a corral – we had a barn and a corral and the corral came out around the barn and we had a shed out behind the barn a hundred yards or so behind the barn. But there was a big low spot in the corral and when it would rain or snow and then melt then we would have all this soupy stuff in the corral.
Every morning we would have to get up about 4 – 4:30 in the morning and go out and get the cows in and milk them by hand. Well he’d (Rex’d) make mego out and bring the cows in from the shed. Well I’d rebelled one day and made him go get the cows and he didn’t know we had – he knew we had it but didn’t know how to do it because he went into the shed and turned the light on. That woke all the cows up including the bulland the bull took out after him. Here he come running across the (corral) and there was an ice pond there at that time but the bull broke through it and the bull would come through and just butt Rex in the butt end and push him a little ahead until he got to the barn doorand I had the barn door which was a door with a top half and a bottom half were you could open all together or separate and I had the door open so he could get in. just as he got to the door I shut the bottom half of the door and the bull hit him in the butt and just put him through the top half of the door all covered with manure. I wouldn’t do things like that on purpose! (Of course you wouldn't!)

Grandfathers brother

This is one I never did understand until I watched this!

Mother was the youngest of eleven children. There was quite a few years between my mother and her parents in fact my aunt Jane which was mothers oldest sister, her daughter married dads brother. Brother just older than he was (how much older was he than she) Frank wasn’t much older than June was he? Delbert I didn’t know them. There wasn’t too much, Frank was just a little older than your dad wasn’t he? Frank was just two years older than dad (3 Sep 1902) but Frank (11 Feb 1900) married aunt (Sarah) Janes oldest daughter (Selma) June CHARLESWORTH (9 Jun 1905) That made my dads brother his uncle.
Grandma would have been Junes Aunt and therefore dad was a bit mistaken as grandpa (Lenard) would have been Franks uncle.
Dad, Mom, Me

What to say - What to say?

Diana and I are planning a trip to visit my parents this coming weekend and like I said I am going to purchase a tape recorder with several tapes and talk to mom and dad to get the best of their life tales. Mom has told me that she wrote a lot of this kind of stuff for Wendy at one time (probably ten years ago or more, some people are really on the ball) and so I will get a copy of that as well.

Now I hope that dad is feeling up to the task of remembering as many tales as possible. I know that if dad can remember all of the tales it will take about a full week of just listening and I know that mom can tell just as many only she liked to hear dad’s tales and didn’t say a great deal while we were growing up, I remember her telling a few. I do remember how fun it was to hear each tell of how they met and started dating, it is almost like a different tale with pretty much the same ending. The following is how mom told it to me over the phone today then sometime next week I will be able to tell dad’s “getting to know you” storie:

Mom and her friend had done something at camp the previous year and so they weren’t allowed camp that year, but her friends older sister, who was dating dad at the time, had gone to camp. One day my mother went to her friends house to find the boy she had been gowing around with there with dad. (My words or the words I am adding will be in brackets). Somehow mom, her friend and dad and the guy mom was dating (but didn’t like) decided to go out. Now moms friends mother (who didn’t like dad can you imagine) suggested that Delbert go with Darline so (he got down on his knees) he asked her if she would go with him and she said “I’ll have to ask my mother”. (wouldn’t it be so much better if we could get snywhere close to that kind of obedience today?)

Oh, mom also told me that while at the Lee reunion she was given a book explaining how we are related with President Harold B. Lee. If interestted let me know and I will get a copy of this book for you.

Is there anyway that you all can tell me what kind of info you like from this blog?

Hopefuly I can get a few pictures to go along with each tale.

Love you all, dad

My fathers flat tire

This one is hard for me to believe; however, I have never known my father to lie and mom also says it is true apparently she was along.

One night my father had a flat tire and so he went and found a couple making out. He took his jack and jacked their car up and traded his flat tire rim and all. Then he let the car down and the couple never even noticed. He then took the tire and put it on his own car and drove home.

Oh, BTW Alex dad told me each of these and uncle Rex verified several. I need to go back and talk to my parents with a tape recorder as I remember so few of the great many stories he has told!

While my father was reading in class

As my father tells it he was asked to read in class one day and so he stood to read and as he was reading he held a firecracker out so a friend sitting next to him could light it. While still reading he flicked the lit firecracker up underneath his teachers desk. Well the firecracker exploded as can be expected and the poor teacher was up and out of the class room in three steps.

When the teacher came back with the principal she had the whole class under suspicion except for my father as he was standing up reading when the vile firecracker was thrown under her desk.

When my father and his brother had an argument

When my uncle Rex and my father would have an argument my father would run til he got to with eyesight of his mother and then fall to the ground and Rex would jump on top of him and start to beating on my father. Well they both wore the bib overalls that were what farm kids wore in those days of the early thirties and my father would wrap his arms threw uncle Rex’s overalls and hold him so that he could not get in a very good punch as the distance was so short.

Well my grandmother would see Rex beating up on Delbert and she woould go out and beat on Rex until he stopped beating on his little brother. Seems that Rex always got the worst of it.

Zachary being funny!

Kiki taught me how to use YouTube!

This was taken before they moved to Utah!

I wish everyone would get back to blogging once a week at least. Do you think that is possible?

Health questions

I went to the doctor today and told them that I was continually getting bumps on my arms, neck and head that I didn't understand why they were there. The doctor looked at them and told me they were caused by an over production of skin that some people get. Because my mother gets the same type of umps on her I thought I would write and say this as it is probably caused to me as a hereditery type of problem and as I was visiting with Alex this past week he told me that he got some bumps on his head. So I thought I would explain these type of bumps for any other children.

I know that mom was always wondering what caused these things on her, so I though I might answer any possible speculations by the rest of my family. Because some of the bumps on my arms have gotten quite annoying the doctor burned three of them with liquid nitrogen to see if this would get rid of them and told me that it would take up to three weeks to find out a definite answer but if this works then she would try with other problem areas.

Babie A playing football

One from Texas

After bring me here to visit with Alex, Kiki & alex, Diana and sister Linda left to go visit Greatgrandparents or their parents in Mission, TX or way down south. Probably 400 miles south. I'll bet you can't guess who is oldest.

As I am having a hard time sleeping I think I will send a short note from Alex & Kiki's computer. I have been having the best time laying around with little alex. He is the best natured child I can think of, at least I don't remember any of my children being this sweet. I think he always has a smile on his face unless he has hurt himself and these episodes only last about 2 minutes or less.

Kiki framed this picture and alex gave it to me as a gift. How special!

But Grandma Diana gets along with alex better than grandpa Keary. Of course this is not surprising as Grandma Diana gets along with everyone better than grandpa Keary.

I really hope and pray for Alex to find one of those do nothing jobs at the fire department, but I think he will find there is more to do than nothing. BTW Alex did not say they were do nothing jobs, we were talking and he said that a lot of hopefuls had that thought. If he can get some experience he will not have to work so hard in finding a job as it seems that most Fire departments are looking for experienced help.

Good night and have a great day.