7/27/2008 - 9 years!!

Happy 9th birthday to my blog!  She turned nine years old on July 27, 2017.  HAPPY DAY OF BIRTH VONNIEROM!

Even though I don't have as much time as I use to, I STILL love to blog and I'm still going to keep going.  I'll admit that I use to blog a lot at work in the early years.  I had a job where I was at a desk for long hours each day and some of those hours involved just being there.  Blogging was a perfect way to fill those hours.  It's kind of crazy now that I am retired, that I don't have time to sit around at a computer anymore.  Who would have thought it?  I'm almost as busy as I ever was, but now I get to structure my day the way I want to.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being retired! Rick keeps saying that I must be the happiest retired person that he knows.  I think I am!

I've given my blog various birthday treats over the years.  She and I aren't big chocolate lovers, so she has received some delicious non-chocolate treats.  2008 was her birth, 2009 she received a birthday cake, 2010 a caramel cheesecake, 2011 a lemon cupcake, 2012 Key Lime pie, 2013 Creme brûlée with fresh fruit, 2014 a rootbeer float, 2015 delicious caramel corn, 2016 grandma's cinnamon rolls and this year.....

Tuh duh......

Home made ice-cream!!

Ever since I can remember, I've made homemade ice cream.  It all started with my Grandma Mayme. She made homemade ice-cream by the freezer full.  She made a special caramel ice-cream that I can still imagine and taste to this day.  She used one of these hand crank models and I'm sure that my Grandpa Ray and my dad churned many a batch of caramel ice-cream treats.

We made ice-cream in our home growing up and having it in the summer was especially delightful. My mom made some great ice-cream.  I still use her recipe and change up the fruit to go with whatever is in season.  I use this type of machine now.  We've burned through many, many motors and just this 4th of July, burned out another one.  Now I have a new machine and I hope it lasts awhile.

During the winter months when it isn't practical to be outside freezing ice-cream, I use this delightful table top variety.  It only makes enough for about 6-8 people, but guests love it when I bust out some freshly made ice-cream.  I keep the container in the freezer and it is ready to go at a moments notice and freezes up in about 15 minutes.  I've added a crushed up candy bar, fresh fruit, chocolate syrup or just had it plain with a good vanilla flavor.

The recipe I use the most is this one:
Fruit Ice-cream
(can use raspberries, strawberries or peaches)
2 1/2 cup sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
4 cups ground up fruit (we like the fruit blended in the blender so that there aren't big chunks of fruit)

Mix these ingredients and let stand for an hour or so
then add to the ice-cream freezer the blended fruit and sugar mixture and
1 pint cream
1 quart half and half
1 can evaporated milk
It makes about 4 quarts and can be doubled if you have a large ice cream freezer.

We also like this recipe for 3 fruit ice-cream.  It is very refreshing in the summertime:
2 cups water
3 cups sugar (dissolve sugar in water and boil for three minutes.  Cool completely)

4 oranges juiced
1 lemon juiced
3 large bananas, mashed
1 pint cream
1 quart half and half
1 can evaporated milk

Enjoy birthday girl!

Activities in June/July

The amazing crater at the Homestead resort in Midway, UT.

The crater at the Homestead is a wonder.
 It is the first time we soaked in it.
 Rick's mom even went with us and we had an
 enjoyable hour soaking in the warm mineral water. 

Everyone wears a life jacket and it's nice
 to just float and let the jacket do the work.

We enjoyed a family reunion with Rick's family
 at his uncle and aunt's beautiful home in Midway.  

The kids always have a great time with G. Ricky.

Hot tub soaking and

swimming were favorite activities.

Lizzie's well loved blanky went from this to...

this in no time.  Thank goodness!

We attended the children's parade as part of
 the Provo Freedom festival and the kids loved it.

Fancy snow cones with the Ada, Lauren and Ellie.

Another Stadium of Fire was a success.
  This is about the 25th one we've attended over the years.
 It's our tradition!
 We LOVE Stadium of Fire and this year
did not disappoint!

Will watching the sky divers come in.

The skydivers always bring a huge American flag.
Then two huge jets fly over.
It's the best part of the evening for me and I always tear up.
I love the patriotic theme each year
and the way we celebrate the land that I love.

The line up this year.  So good!

The fireworks are always. The. Best.  Period.

Oh man, a huge lump in the throat every year.

Another successful landing. 

Another amazing skydiving show.

What a funny, clean comedy entertainer.  Loved him.

Our group for the parade.
This year we invited one of Andy's Mongolian companions
 and his family to join us.  This is their first 4th of July in the
states and we wanted to show them how it's done.
 Rick claims we OWN the 4th of July.
 I don't disagree!

We enjoyed a visit from Syd and Adam and their family,
some of Jordan and Jake's good friends from AZ,
 nephew JRE and his wife Bronwen,
niece Kate and her fiancee Ty,
R's brother Westin and wife Rachel and their kiddos
and our crew.  A fun group!!

Love my husband! He ran the 10k that morning
with R and Westin.  He's still got it.

Pool time to ourselves with the Mongolians
who didn't know how to swim.
We got them swimming suits to try it out!
Baby Ermoon loved it and I think they did too!
What sweet people!

Lizzie had a very successful lemonade stand and made some $$

Jordan asked me to make a covering for their chaise lounge.
  It was harder than it looks, but the final product turned out great.
 The pillows shown are not the ones she kept.
  We covered some pillow forms she had with much cuter fabric.

The sunflowers in my back yard are going crazy!

Grandma Ricky takes the kids on an adventure
 every Saturday.  This time they went and bought
the new football shirts for everyone.
  BYU brainwashing is serious business around here.

Cute little pals.

These cousins love each other!

Grandpa's alma mater. 

A pack of cousins hangin with Cosmo at the Bookstore.

Dementia/Alzheimer's disease

What an insidious disease Alzheimer's disease is for millions of of people and particularly Utahans. A recent article in the Deseret News points out the growing numbers of people who are being afflicted with this debilitating disease.  "Interestingly, Utahans are being hit particularly hard because many have avoided alcohol and tobacco throughout their lives and are living longer.  Is dementia an ironic consequence of good health?

Utah has some of the lowest rates of cancer, diabetes and heart disease, it has low rates of obesity, tobacco use and alcoholism.  In Utah, the number of deaths attributed to Alzheimer's in Utah has more than doubled.  Utah ranks 9th in the nation for Alzheimer's deaths compared with 50th for cancer and 35th from heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moreover, Utah is one of six states in which cases of the degenerative brain disease are predicted to rise 40% or more over the next seven years.  People who tend to have a more healthy lifestyle overall and that causes them to live longer here in Utah.  But the longer they live, the more of a risk we have for Alzheimer's. Grim statistics seem to bear this out:  One in 10 Americans over the age of 65 have Alzheimer's.  After age 85, 1 in 3 of us do.  The average life expectancy in Utah is 80, one of the highest in the nation."

Enter my dear mother.  Age 90.  She is struggling with advanced dementia/Alzheimer's disease.  She can no longer care for herself.  She can't cook or clean (which was one of her many strengths), doesn't care about her own hygiene and appearance (which is shocking since she always took good care of herself), can no longer read (which she loved to do), sew (she was an amazing seamstress and quilt maker), manage money (she lost over $9,000 being scammed and didn't even realize it) , drive (believing that she still could and would still be driving today if not for intervention), converse, follow a conversation or contribute to it, know who her grandchildren are (especially those she doesn't see very often), know what is proper social decorum, interrupts conversations and interjects stories about herself, can't recite her childhood poems any longer, has a hard time following time, and doesn't like to watch moves anymore since she can't follow the story line.

So much of who she is and what she loved to do it gone.  It is tragic and hard to watch her struggle along.  My siblings and I decided at the end of April that it was time and that she could no longer live alone.  She has lost a lot of weight and wasn't eating and was alone too much of the time. She refused to live in any of our homes, and several of them wouldn't have been conducive anyway due to stairs and other challenges.  We made the difficult decision that is was time to move her into assisted living. My oldest sister found a new, lovely assisted living residence in the community and at the end of April, we broke the news to her that it was moving day.  She is very strong willed and has told us repeatedly that she would never move.  Never.  Under any circumstances.  She was going to stay in her home and go out on a gurney to the funeral home.  Well, that scenario would have been nice and it is what she wanted, but is just wasn't possible.  She tells anyone who will listen that from her neck down she is about 70 years old (which is true, her overall health is fine), but from her neck up she is 200 years old.  True. Sad. Statement.
We broke the news in the best way we could.  With love and concern.  We told her that we really and truly feel that this is what our dad would want us to do to take care of her.  She cried, swore, said she didn't want to go, and then we got her out on a drive while an amazing crew of family moved her furniture from her current home to her new home.  When she arrived two hours later, it was all set up. This is her former home:

to her present lovely home:

Now her days consist of three good meals a day (which are delicious!), watching lots and lots of her favorite TV shows recorded on her DVR, playing Bingo and going to some of the activities at her new home which include crafts, games, entertainment, and enjoying visits from family members who live in the area which are daily visits and sometimes more than once a day.  My sister and I who live out of town visit her on schedule. She can dress herself, bathroom herself mostly and control her TV remote. She has Sunday dinners in the homes of family and she has her cell phone to call when she needs help.  She also has a button around her neck to push whenever she needs anything and a CNA will arrive and help her.  She is safe and is being watched over.
Of course, she just wants to go be with our dad.  She doesn't want to be here anymore.  She knows her memory is bad, but she either doesn't realize how bad her disease is or how much it is affecting her ability to function, or she just doesn't want to admit it.  Whatever the case, we will continue to love her, to serve her and to make her final days or years as enjoyable as possible.  She is a dear mother to me and I love her so much.  She is so strong and willful and that is her blessing and her curse. It is terribly hard to see her in this state of being.  Alzheimer's is an insidious disease because it robs a person of their life, personality, memories, abilities, ability to think of others and their overall functionality in dealing with life.