I am one year older and feeling it. I can no longer stay up to midnight or later and take it in stride. Staying up that late means I drag for days after that. I am starting to feel those little aches and pains that I would always hear the older folks talk about. But I'm not going to talk about them or I will have joined their club. I now order from the 55 and older menu selection at Denny's and I'm not embarrassed to do so. The portion sizes make more sense for me and I like the lower prices. A fun time for me is spending time with grandkids. I am excited for Sierra & Cosette to be living closer this next year. It means I hopefully will be able to share in some of Cosette's milestones that were missed with Sierra living in England.
When I was in my mid-twenties I can remember swearing that I would never get old. I do think I'm in better shape and health than a lot of people my age, but I am learning that you can't stop the world from spinning and the body from aging. I think I can only minimize the damage. It's a constant battle of the bulge (that just seems to ebb and flow with no clear winner), a regular routine for keeping the gray hairs at bay, and this year adjusting to being empty nesters, at least for part of the calendar year.
I no longer have any of children in the teenage stage of life, as Spencer turned 20 on Dec. 1st. Wow. In some ways it has been forever since I first laid eyes on my son and in other ways it has been a blink of the eye. Spencer celebrated this milestone out in Missouri. He is now back in Utah. He has gone back to working at Subway, only as a peon worker bee, not as a manager. He does not plan on making that situation long term. We will see if he can pull off his latest current plans. I am still holding out hope (and praying an awful lot) that he will choose to serve the Lord and his fellowmen as a full-time missionary. I know he could be an awesome influence for good wherever he might be sent and I know it would help him to reach his highest potential.
Jenni is currently as of today a grandmother, of sorts. Her dog, Mocha, had 8 puppies. She is very proud.
We are anxiously awaiting the return of Alyssa and her family to Utah from England. They were told the paperwork is completed, all except for the necessary signatures of the officers on base. As soon as that happens, they have 20 days to be packed up and gone. It will have been 3.5 years that they have been at the air force base in Lakenheath. Their plans are fluid right now as Kelan tries to decide what his new career plans will be.
Dave turned 58 this month. December has not been kind to him. His John Deere painted Jeep Cherokee that he has driven for many years slid on a patch of black ice early in the month after one of the first few snowstorms we had and slid into the concrete barrier at the Pleasant Grove northbound on-ramp and was totalled. That will always be remembered as the fateful location of his beloved Jeep's demise. We feel fortunate that only one other vehicle was involved minimally and that his injuries were limited to soreness to his neck and back for a few days and a cut on his right forearm just below the wrist as his arm went through the steering wheel, which has no padding on the metal bars.
But that is not the only thing that went wrong for Dave this month. He came down with a cold and decided to visit the doctor early to hopefully nip it in the bud. The doctor talked him into getting the new pneumonia vaccine (as he had pneumonia back in September) and he had a bad reaction to the vaccine. He ended up lethargic and fighting a very high temperature for a number of days. He was sort of out of it for his birthday on the 19th. He doesn't remember much of that actually as I think there were times he was actually a bit delirius from the fever. Finally I grew so concerned that I took his temperature and it read 102.4! I called in the Priesthood and he was anointed with consecrated oil and blessed. Shortly after that, and I do mean shortly, his fever broke and began heading back down to normal. This was the Friday before Christmas Day. He felt well enough to be up out of bed for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, even though he had to take it easy. His appetite and stomach were the last to return to normal. I gained plenty of weight through the holidays, Dave lost weight. I think I'll blame Dave for sending the weight my way.
Because of Dave being under the weather, Christmas was pretty quiet. We didn't go visit any family or friends. We did have Jenni & Spencer here at home with us for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. The 3 of us made it out to a see a movie, "Here Comes the Boom" (It came Jenni recommended, thus the fighter theme) Dave stayed home and rested which was probably a good thing because his kids and grandkids stopped in towards the evening and visited and opened presents with us.
Dave is spending the New Year at the firestation. His plans for retiring in January were put on hold earlier in the year when his son became very ill. He still plans on retiring from Unified Fire Dept. in 2013, but it most likely will be towards the end of the year, rather than at the beginning.
We feel very blessed to be where we are at in life. We are concerned for the future, but know that if we put our trust in God, his prophets & apostles and live worthy to have the Holy Ghost as our guide, we will be sustained and all will be well. We hope all our family, near and far, and friends, near and dear to us, will do the same. Happy New Year!!
