MERRY CHRISTMAS

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Merry Christmas From The Elves

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Steel Framing Completed - Windows In

It has been a few weeks since we posted the progress of the new childcare building. The exterior supports of the building are complete, including the roof supports. Although there are no walls or roof, the windows are all in. It looks so strange. Notice the blue trim around this picture. It took them all week to do that last week. There are only a couple of guys working right now because most of MidValley's employees are trying to finish up the elementary school which is two months delayed. That means that we too will be delayed.

This shows the finished steel supports and roof supports. This is the east end of the building which will be where the main door is. However, we have put in a change order to increase the size of the front door to allow large furnishings to be brought in.

My Ride Back to Provo!

Dad came and picked myself and two other girls up for Thanksgiving (Thanks, Dad!), so one of their dad's got us back...on his plane!

We got to wear the headphones to protect us from the noise and so we could talk to eachother. I could also hear the airport tower people! He has a really high-tech plane and showed us on all of the screens what he was doing and what everything meant.

The first thing I thought when I saw it was...That is a TINY plane! Four seats including the pilot, but since it flies closer to the ground, I could see a lot more.

It was so much fun, he did zero gravity a few times and had us hold our cell phones out on our palms, pretty soon they were floating at the top of the plane! IT WAS GREAT!

Once we landed in the Provo airport, Steph, Julie, and Julie's boyfriend came to pick me up and they brought signs! Such as Harrison, April, and WELCOME BACK!

Building Update - November 23

(Two weeks ago.) Much more steel on the building and less on the ground! Last week they almost finished with all of the round vertical support poles, overhead beams and the roof support slats.
This past week they finished up the top and worked on the horizontal wall supports. It is fun to be able to see where the windows and doors are going to be. No more big trucks will be able to drive inside the building any more. I suppose the walls and the roof will be next. I get an excited feeling when we walk around in there anticipating what it will look like. Dee and Melissa and I went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to see a new childcare center there. The owner is a very confident lady and charges $15/hour or $90/day for infants. Melissa and I didn't think is was worth it and that it was her "I'm the best" attitude that sold her. She has no early childhood background but was a "baby nurse" and a lactation specialist. She said she was a college drop out so I don't even know if she has a true nursing degree. Anyway, we plan to make ours even better, but not as expensive. We could never get away with that in Riverton. I'm sure we will be the most expensive one in Riverton though.

Roommate Pictures!

So, before two of my roommates moved out we had a fun photo session one day! Here are the results.

Julie, Carmen, Me, Brittney, April, and Stephanie!

Now there is only four of us so we have two empty beds and more room in the fridge. I miss the other two, but it is kind of nice, and there is less tension!!! Actually, now there is no tension.

Steel Uprights on Building

This past week they started putting up the supports for the steel building. Here are a few pictures of their progress. The kids loved watching the process out the window.

Notice a section of our white fence missing in the back. We had a big windstorm a couple of weekends ago (while we were in Utah) and a section blew over. It had been previously broken and the neighbors claimed that the construction workers hit it with their equipment but there were no marks on it and the building superintendent insisted that they didn't hit it with anything. The neighbor kids have been pretty rough on it before and have broken several slats. Who knows how it happened but Dee and Quinton and Ryan repaired it yesterday. It was necessary because they have 3 dogs and one is a mean Rottweiler.

Quinton receiving Eagle Scout Award

Quinton received his Eagle Rank in scouting and his first palm on Wednesday, October 22, 2008. He resisted having a court of honor and just wanted them to hand him the award but finally consented. This is a new friend that recently moved into our ward congratulating him.

Three boys got their Eagles that night. None of them wanted much "hoopla" so we did a joint Eagle Court of honor following a regular boy scout court of honor.

This is Brother Powell who helped Quinton with his Eagle Project. He supervised him in sheetrocking, taping and painting a storage shed that will be used for canning and emergency food distribution. The shed is behind our Stake Center. Brother Powell is a recent convert and was wonderful to work with.
Dee and I with Quinton. Oops. I didn't notice that Dee's eyes were closed when I uploaded this picture.
Quinton, Nick Galloway and Ethan Billin all taking the Eagle Oath. The other two boys finished theirs a week or so before their 18th birthdays. The one on the right is already married.

Halloween at BYU

I figured I would post some pictures of last night. I threw my costume together in about an hour...I guess I was a country girl or something like that. My stake throws the best Halloween party at BYU I am pretty sure. I wish I had taken my camera, but I didn't, so I will just tell you about it. There was a fun house, a maze, tons of games to win whole candy bars, a costume contest, and dancing! It was a lot of fun!

This is me and four of my roommates. Julie, April, Me, Carmen, and Stephanie.
Julie, Me, and Steph.

Concrete floor completed

These pictures are a little out of order. I am still learning how to do this blogging business. After the plumbing was finished, they put on four inches of sand, then a layer of this blue moisture barrier, and then another four inches of sand. Then they compressed it and smoothed it out.

This should be the last picture of this blog. I gave up trying to put them in order. Here the concrete floor is all complete and they are bringing on the steel supports to begin the construction of the steel building.
After the sand work was finished, they put a grid of rebar over the entire floor.

This picture was taken after the sand work was completed and before they did the grid rebar. They did have to repair a few of the plumbing pipes that they hit during the sand instillation process.

Phew! Three blogs in one night and I am still not caught up. I will do a couple of more this weekend, hopefully.

Marching Band - Football Game

Melissa and Celeste came to the RHS Homecoming game with us. (Ryan was hunting with his dad) Our football team is terrible this year but the marching band was performing and Quinton is the Drum Major leading the band so we went to watch him. Lots of people go to the games just to watch the band.

That is Quinton on the platform directing the band.

Quinton and Rex Amend, the other Drum Major, leading the band onto the field.

Happy Halloween from Smart-Start Academy

Halloween is a fun day for children but I am glad that it is over. After seven parties in two days, we are all exhausted. Actually, they went very smoothly though. One of our parents makes some jello worms every year that look so realistic. Most of the kids won't eat them but they are sure fun. The parents plan all of the treats and most of the activities for most of the parties so we just have to deal with keeping the kids calm.

Celeste came as a giraffe for her first Smart-Start Halloween. She had her 6 month old immunizations yesterday and she was a little fussy today, but still a sweetie. I think is was a little too over stimulating for her.

Here is one of seven of our classes. We get some pretty cute costumes.

Snowy Weekend

Riverton got nearly a foot of snow on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was 13 degrees this morning. I'm sure the weather will stall construction for a day or two. However, the temp is supposed to be back up to 60 degrees by Thursday.
They finished the underground plumbing but it is difficult to see our "forest" of white pipes due to the white snow. They also backfilled and compacted the dirt around the pipes. I think the next step will be to pour the concrete floor as soon as the ground dries out enough to work it. It will probably be a muddy mess for a couple of days.

Quinton's Tennis Season

These are some shots of Quinton playing tennis that Melissa took . He finished up his tennis season last week at State where he had 3 wins and 2 losses. He tied for fifth in the state at 2nd Singles. He had a winning season and seemed to improve a lot. It was fun to watch him (especially when he was playing well).

Plumbing Update on building

The Plumbers were in last week digging trenches and putting in the underground plumbing systems. The contractor commented "there is an awfully lot of plumbing in that building. I believe this area will be the kitchen and one of the bathrooms. I think it will take them the rest of next week to finish it as there are still a lot of trenches without any pipe in them.
Oops. I guess I should have rotated these two pictures before I uploaded them. I am still learning all of this tech stuff. Here is one of the trenches. After they dig them, then they put a remote control compactor in them. It has been interesting to watch all of the steps.

Patsy wanted me to post some pictures of the playground. I was hoping the "traffic signs" would show up. Maybe I'll put more of the playground next week. All of the sidewalks are the trike tracks for the multi-child ride-on toys. There are enough now that all 20 children per class can be on a trike. We usually only take out one class at a time.

This is the ball court with one of the basketball standards showing. The ball wall is for the children to throw and retrieve balls at to work on eye-hand coordination. We use the tables for finger painting or special (messy) outdoor snacks.

Mom's BYU Bowen Hall Reunion

The reunion exceeded all dreams and expectations. It was SO much fun. All six girls from Bowen Apr. 13 were there. This is a picture they took of us and they arranged us in the same order as the portrait 37 years ago. 44 out of 63 women came to the reunion, including our dorm parents. (Our Branch President and counselor also came).
This was the "charger". I had never had a charger plate in my life so I learned what it was. We all wanted to take the plate with us. The reunion was held in the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni House and everything was so beautiful. Dad drove me there and came for the last hour or so. It was nice to be able to relax and not have to drive.

These are the ladies who live in apt 12 and 13. I lived with some of them the next year. The girl in the green and beige, center front, lived with us the next year, Anell Pasket Gibelyou, and the girl next to her is Melanie Gard's sister, Tamela Rencher.

Here are my actual freshman roommantes. Bonnie Payne Bond who was from Wausau Wisconsin and now lives in Woods Cross, UT., Patsy Polson Baird whom I grew up with and have remained friends with now from Idaho Falls, Kathy Bigelo Bulkeley from Bakersfield, California, myself (still the shortest), Lynn Abegg Herron from Sugar City, ID, now living in SLC, and Gwen Dearden from Fillmore UT. It was so much fun to share our lives and renew our friendships.