This one made me cry

Will recovering from his burns and Anna on oxygen for a respiratory problem.

Knowledge is power, if you know it about the right person.

Ethel Watts Mumford (1876 or 78? - 1940) was a U.S. author, a New Yorker.

I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.

Edward Verrall Lucas (11 June/12 June 1868 – 26 June 1938) was a versatile and popular English writer. His nearly 100 books demonstrate great facility with style, and are generally acknowledged^{[by whom?]} as humorous by contemporary readers and critics.

Fun with Victoria

While Barbara was off to Utah and Idaho to help with Will, along with Will's parents and siblings, I got to spend a lot of time with my beautiful granddaughter, Victoria.

Victoria and Will - June 2010.

My son Russell, his wife Sarah Jane, and Victoria are living with us right now.  Russell graduated from UT law school last spring, and has been very busy since getting ready for the bar exam which will be held at the end of July.  When Sarah Jane is at work, Barbara has been taking care of Victoria.  Victoria will start day care next month after she turns one.

Russell needs to keep his full attention on his bar exam review, so I happily volunteered to watch Victoria during the day.  I will have to say that it has been a long time since I spent so much time with an 11 month old.  I now have an even greater appreciation for those who regularly take care of small children. Victoria is literally into everything that she can think of, so it has been a lot of fun keeping up with her.

This is how my last week went:

• Get myself and John up and ready for the day before Sarah Jane handed over Victoria.
• Drive John and Victoria to John's adult care.  I discovered that the snaps in children's car seats were not designed for older fingers.
• Run short errands before returning home.
• Feed Victoria.   Change Victoria.  Repeat as needed.
• Put Victoria down for a nap.  Pick up Victoria because she doesn't want to nap. 
• Feed Victoria.  
• Put Victoria back down for a nap.  I discovered if I lay down on the bed next to her crib, she eventually decides that if Grandpa is tired, she must be too.  
• Log into work and try to get some work done while Victoria naps.
• Pick up Victoria when she wakes up for nap and feed her again.  I found if I put the high chair next to my laptop on the kitchen table, I can answer emails while Victoria and I are eating.
• Take Victoria to pick up John from his adult care.
• Kill some time by going to Target and buying baby things.
• Bring John and Victoria to the office.  Get John signed on and then take Victoria around for visits.  Victoria is very popular among my co-workers, some of whom do very odd things trying to get her to smile.
• Change Victoria.  One of the days she had a super poopie diaper that required a trip to the men's room.  Luckily, one of my co-workers took her off my hands so I could wash those hands and dispose of the diaper.  The same co-worker said he doubted if his grandfather ever changed any of his grandchildren's diapers.  We discussed how things have changed, and for the better.
• Follow Victoria as she crawled down the hall way.  The elderly mother of a co-worker in the next office from mine passed away, so my co-worker has been out.  She decided to come back into the office yesterday afternoon just so she could do something besides deal with her mother's death.  In her absence, Victoria has been crawling up to her door and was irritated that she couldn't crawl in.  She was happy that the door was open yesterday and my co-worker was very happy to have Victoria visit.  I think it brightened up both their days.
• Sarah Jane comes by on her way home from work and picks up Victoria.  I then spent a few more hours at work with John trying to keep caught up.

This has been probably one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for me, spending so much great time with Victoria.  I know she won't remember when she gets older, but I don't think I will ever forget it.

Wonderful News About Will

Will's checkup went much better than anticipated.   Short version, Will only needs skin grafts on some of his fingers on one hand.  This is totally amazing considering what was anticipated only a few weeks ago.

Click on James' blog for all the details.  He was trying to tell me some of the medical details on the phone until I had to remind him who he was speaking with.  There is a reason I work with computers.

Thanks for everyones kind thoughts and prayers.

Power to the iPod People

My favorite podcast is Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me from NPR.  


I was listening to the July 10th 'best of edition' in my car, and when I heard the 'Power to the iPod People' segment,  I laughed so hard I had to pull off the side of the road.


At church this morning I heard the message that I needed to lighten up.  This helped a lot.

More on my Grandson Will

The old adage of a picture being worth a thousand words is certainly still true.  In this day and age, it is so much easier to get those pictures out there also.   My imagination was certainly running wild, so even though I am the last person who wants to see these kind of pictures, I was glad to see for myself the extent of the burn damage.  Ever since I got word of his accident, I had been imagining much worse.

I have to hand it to him, he is certainly a lot more chipper than I would be.  I suppose being 3 rather than 59 has a lot to do with it.

Barbara left yesterday (Friday) for Salt Lake City.  As I understand it, James and Emily will drive down from Idaho on Monday to take Will back to the burn center at the University of Utah.  The doctors will determine whether or not Will needs skin grafts on his fingers and back.  If so, Barbara will stay with Emily and Will while he recovers at the hospital.  If not, she will go back to Idaho Falls with them.

My small part in this is to stay home and keep tabs on John.  I am also watching my granddaughter Victoria during the weekdays so her mom Sarah Jane can go to work and her day Russell can study for the Texas bar exam at the end of this month.

Continued good thoughts and prayers on Will's behalf are much appreciated.

We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.

François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (15 September 1613 – 17 March 1680) was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. The view of human conduct his writings describe has been summed up by the words "everything is reducible to the motive of self-interest," though the term "gently cynical" has also been applied.^[1] Born in Paris in the Rue des Petits Champs, at a time when the royal court was oscillating between aiding the nobility and threatening it, he was considered an exemplar of the accomplished 17th-Century nobleman. Until 1650, he bore the title of Prince de Marcillac.

If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress, talk-show host, and bon vivant.^[1]

Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes

My lovely daughter-in-law Emily posted this earlier today.

I don't have what it takes to visit people in a burn unit  and sing to them (composure or vocal talent), but I am glad that are folks who do.

I wasn't familiar with the song, but I liked it.

Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.

Dr. Laurence Johnston Peter (September 16, 1919 - January 12, 1990) was an educator and "hierarchiologist," best known to the general public for the formulation of the Peter Principle.

Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself.

Jane Wagner (born February 26, 1935) is an American writer, director and producer. Wagner is best known as Lily Tomlin's comedy writer, collaborator and life partner.^[1]

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

William Somerset Maugham (pronounced /ˈmɔːm/, mawm), CH (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era, and reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.

Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a fish a man, and he'll eat for weeks!

Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata, Animal Crossing: Wild World, 2005

Animal Crossing: Wild World, named Oideyo Dōbutsu no Mori (おいでよ どうぶつの森^?, lit. "Come to Animal Forest") in Japan, is a video game published and developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console, and the follow-up to Animal Crossing for the Nintendo GameCube. It was released in Japan on November 23, 2005, North America on December 5, 2005, Australia on December 8, 2005 and Europe on March 31, 2006. A follow-up to Wild World, Animal Crossing: City Folk, was released for the Wii on November 16, 2008.

Adventure is just bad planning.

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈɾuːɑl ˈɑmʉnsən]; 16 July 1872 – c. 18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912. He was also the first person to reach both the North and South Poles.^[1][2] He is known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage. He disappeared in June 1928 while taking part in a rescue mission. Amundsen with Douglas Mawson, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton, was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.

Robert Orben (born March 4, 1927) is an American magician and professional comedy writer. He is also an author of books for magicians. He wrote a book called "Speaker's Handbook of Humor".

The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we have of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.

Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt, 25 December 1908(1908-12-25) – 21 November 1999), was an English writer and raconteur. He became an icon of homosexuality in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant, brought to the attention of the general public his defiant exhibitionism and refusal to keep his sexuality private.

Sanity is a madness put to good use.

George Santayana (December 16, 1863, Madrid, Spain – September 26, 1952, Rome, Italy), was a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States, wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters. Of his nearly 89 years, he spent 39 in the U.S. Santayana is perhaps best known as an aphorist, most famously for his oft-misquoted remark "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."^[1] Similarly, a line of Santayana's, "Only the dead have seen the end of war,"^[2] is often falsely attributed to Plato

Even More Waterton!

Both Emily and Rachel have posted to their respective blogs more pictures!

Here is a totally unflattering one of me (it makes me look as old as I really am), but it is a great one of Victoria and Will.

Rachel's photos are here and Emily's are here.  It was so good seeing everyone in one place.

You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.

Mike Dirnt (born Michael Ryan Pritchard (sometimes known as Mr. Kidner) on May 4, 1972) is an American musician who is currently the bassist and backing vocalist for the American rock band Green Day. While at school, he would play "air-bass." While pretending to pluck the strings, he made the noise, "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt," so his schoolmates started to call him "Mike Dirnt."

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906 – August 14, 1972) was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.

If only all closed minds came with closed mouths.

As seen on a button at evolvefish.com.

More Red Shirts

Emily just sent this photo, what a great shot! She and James are getting very good at this.

Thanks again to Rachel for providing the red shirts. On the back are numbers that would correspond to a genealogical family group sheet starting with Barbara and me. Very clever!

Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us.

Georg Henrik Tikannen (9 September 1924 – 19 May 1984) was a Finnish author, known primarily for anti-war literature. Several of his works are either autobiographical or semi-autobiographical. Though Finnish, he published primarily in the Swedish language. He was born and lived much of his life in Helsinki, and died of leukemia in Espoo. He was married to the Finnish writer Märta Tikkanen.

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.

Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. He was a major figure in pioneering art attribution and therefore establishing the market for paintings by the "Old Masters".

Huffington Post: PHOTOS: 48 States, 48 Ridiculous Signs

 

		PHOTOS: 48 States, 48 Ridiculous Signs

 

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Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

Judith Martin (née Perlman, born September 13, 1938^[1]), better known by the pen name Miss Manners, is an American journalist, author, and etiquette authority. Martin's uncle was the distinguished economist and labor historian Selig Perlman.

Waterton Trip: Saying Goodbye

We stayed at Water Lake Park for a week.  In some ways it seemed like a long time, especially when John got tired of not having constant internet access or a local IHOP.  In other ways, it seemed short.

I would again like to publicly thank Barbara's Aunt Barbara for letting us use her cabin for that week.  It is a trip that had been long hoped for.

It was wonderful to see Rachel, James, Emily, Harris, Jack, Will again and to meet Anna for the first time.  It was a lot of fun to fly up there with Barbara, John, Russell, Sarah Jane and Victoria.  I thank all of them for arranging their schedules so we could all spend time together.

James and his family had to leave a few days before the rest of us.  They drove to Nampa Idaho to attend a graduation.  It was sad to see them leave.

I don't think Will every saw a camera he didn't like, probably because he is so darn cute and photogenic.  He is all ready to leave.

Harris and Jack are all buckled in for their long ride to Nampa.

Slate.com: Scientists Uncover Genetic Basis for Autism

I do hope that they figure this out before I die.  Every time I read something like this, I feel a little less guilty and a little more hopeful.

Researchers at the Autism Genome Project have released the biggest study to date on the genetics of autism, comparing the genes of 996 people on the autism spectrum with those of 1,287 people without the disorder. They found that people with certain genetic variations (CNVs) were 20 percent more likely to be autistic than people without them, but also that "most people with autism are probably genetically quite unique, each having their own genetic form of autism." The study was published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. Scientists believe that as many as 300 genes may be implicated in connection to autism and that the targeted genes are linked to cell formation and nervous system development. "These are not random hits in the genome," a geneticist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory told Science Now. Still, "only 1 percent of the genetic defects were shared among the study participants," AOL News says, and very few were inherited from parents. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 110 children is on the autism spectrum, and the "the prevalence of autism among eight-year-olds has increased 57 percent from 2002 to 2006." The Guardian writes that uncovering the genetic basis of autism could "help further allay parents' fears of a sinister environmental cause" and assist in developing treatments for other diseases linked to CNVs, including learning disabilities, mental disorders, and epilepsy. In the meantime, scientists have enlisted 1,500 new participants to finish sequencing the whole genome.

Read original story in Discover | Thursday, June 10, 2010

Waterton Trip: Red Shirts

Continuing a family tradition, Rachel brought everyone in the family matching shirts.  James took the group shots, so I am just posting a few random 'Red Shirt' pics that I took.

Thanks again Rachel!

Waterton Trip: Tuesday Morning

Barbara, Rachel and Russell got up early and went to Cardston to attend a session at the LDS temple. The rest of us stayed at the lake. It was still overcast and chilly, but all the snow had melted away, so it was time to take some more pictures.

After I took John for his morning trip to Pearls for internet and hot chocolate, we went out for a walk at the lake.

It was still overcast but not as bad as it was on Sunday.

 While we were out, we bumped into Sarah Jane and Victoria.

 James and Emily were outside also enjoying the morning.  Here is a shot of  Jack, Harris and Will.

James and Emily have become serious about their photography.  I can't wait to see the results from the trip.  Here is James going after a shot of the boys.  

Cameron Lake

On Wednesday we took a drive to Cameron Lake.  This is what it looks like on a nice day.

This is what we saw.  The lake was frozen over solid.  The grandsons wanted to test out the frozen part, but we wouldn't let them.

I was interested to know that I could see British Columbia and the United States from here.  I got the following from Google Maps.

Here are some more photos that I took.  A winter wonderland.

Here are John and Barbara.  John didn't look any too interested in staying out in the cold.

Waterton Trip: Monday

It was still overcast on Monday, but thank goodness the snow was starting to melt.  I live in Texas for many reasons, one of them being that I don't like snow.


We decided that it would be a perfect day to drive over to Raymond.  Barbara was born there and spent part of her childhood there, plus she has a bunch of family members who still live there.

On the way, we stopped in Cardston which is home to the LDS Alberta temple.  Here are some quick shots of my family in front of the temple.

We then drove on to Raymond and ate lunch at the one and only burger place in town called Burger Baron & Pizza.  It was small, but packed.  I had a Raymond burger.  Not bad.

We then went on to see one of Barbara's aunts and other family members.  John lasted a few minutes, so he and I went for a very brisk, long walk so everyone else could visit.

On the way out of Raymond we stopped at the cemetery where Barbara's parents are buried.

Waterton Lake

Lake

Waterton - Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

On Sunday morning, I went for a walk with my grandson Harris to check out Waterton and all the snow.

Here we are in front of the cabin.  Harris lives in Idaho Falls, so for him, snow is no big deal.

Waterton Lakes National Park

We got back from our vacation to Waterton Lakes National Park late Sunday evening. It was cool in many ways. I wasn't expecting to see snow the last weekend in May.

Check out the Wikipedia link to learn more about Waterton.

We flew to SLC with John, Russell, Sarah Jane and Victoria, and then met up with Rachel who flew in from Washington D.C. We then flew up to Great Falls Montana and then drove up to Waterton.

I was very surprised to see snow blowing sideways as we approached the park.

James, Emily and their children drove in a few hours later. It was a wonderful reunion. I got to meet my new granddaughter Anna for the first time ever. It was also great to see James. He looked pretty much like he did a year ago which is amazing considering that only a few months ago he was going through chemo.

More pictures and posts to follow.

Back Home

Things are back to normal, John is enjoying a good Internet connection again. His favorite part of the trip was his twice daily trips to the coffee shop so he could surf the web. YouTube about brought the connection to it's knees.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dear Margo: Autism Awkwardness

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Dear Margo: Autism Awkwardness

How does a mother handle strangers who complain when her son has an outburst? Margo Howard's advice …

Margo Howard | Today 12:00 am

Autism Awkwardness



Dear Margo: My husband and I have a 9-year-old son with severe autism. I cope well enough most of the time, but I would really appreciate your advice about how to handle shopping.

My son may look like a typically developing 9-year-old, but if a loud noise startles him, or if he likes something and wants it, or maybe even for no apparent reason, he will make loud noises or say a few words repetitively, getting louder and louder. He can even have a full-blown meltdown (which is like a temper tantrum on steroids). When that happens, I try to finish my shopping as quickly as humanly possible, grabbing only the bare essentials (milk, bread, etc.) and leaving, apologizing and explaining if ...

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Malcolm Forbes

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Malcolm Forbes

"There is never enough time, unless you're serving it."

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Mitch Hedberg

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Mitch Hedberg

"I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later."

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