May

 May has been quite busy.  It began with a Bridal shower for Garrett's fiancé--Amber McBee.  Amy hosted it at her mom's home the first Saturday of May.  Here she is listening/watching the video made of questions asked of Garrett and she would say what she thought he would answer.  

She is a nice girl and they get married June 25th. 

The next day, Sunday, we went down to Mom's for dinner.  Heidi and David were in Dallas at Parker's med school graduation...Olivia was at home so mom had her and us over.  It was fun to have a smaller group and Jacob got an opportunity to talk to her a little bit.  She is still a PB & J eater....even with roast, potatoes, carrots, etc. around! 

Jason looking pretty formal.

My Mother's Day gift.  I love it!

At the beginning of the month our food closet, down in the basement began to smell.  We thought maybe one of the water bottles we store had a leak.  

We took everything we had near the floor (that stuff was up on a wooden table) out, but found no leak.  The wall looked dirty in a few places, but I put vinegar on it to clean any possible mold.  Still smelled.

Jason had to go out of town for work so on Saturday we unloaded the entire closet into the family room area. We found no leaks on the shelves.  When he returns we plan to pull up the carpet to see if there is a problem there--or water leaking down the wall.  

Wondered if when they poured cement if anything happened???

So Jason left for  his work trip and all that stuff is out in the basement.  Tuesday morning I get up and am running around trying to get Jacob's lunch made, get into the fridge and discover EVERYTHING is WARM!  UGH!!!  The light is on and the fridge is humming, but not cold.  I look in the freezer and same thing.  The Rhodes rolls bag has leaked out rising bread dough.  Again UGH!!

I pull what I think is salvageable, throw it in a clothes basket and take to basement freezer to put in there.  Then I pulled up our cooler and began piling things in there.  I took Jacob to school, bought a 20 lb. of ice and poured it in.  I called Wendy Cathey to see if I could borrow her cooler and she went to Tom's work to get some Styrofoam coolers with ice packs for us to use.  

So now I have 2 coolers and 4 styrofoam coolers in my kitchen.  

I have LOVED my fridge.  The door, the inside etc.  SOOO sad to see it die!

I spent most of Wednesday looking for a new fridge.  Finally settled on one, but won't be delivered until Thursday (a week away) and it is stainless steel color (My kitchen is white. Very few are made in white anymore)...again UGH....and French door....again UGH!

Apparently they don't make the size I have with the single door anymore.  I guess too many failed because of the weight of the door.   Hoping I like the new fridge. 

The landscaping is finished.  The guys worked Monday-Thursday getting it done.  I am so glad to have that finished.  Now we need to move on to painting the fence and then the outside should be finished!!

Month is half over, Jacob has 2 more weeks of school.  Hoping the situation in the basement is an easy fix!

Jason got home and he and Jacob cut out part of the wall in the basement to find the problem.  The pad under the carpet was wet so water is coming in from somewhere.  We dried it out with a fan and it rained again one afternoon and the area was wet again.  

Jason suggested opening the wall all the way up to see if we could find the problem.  Leaving it open and figuring out what we could do.  This might take a year.  UGH!  I called a foundation place and they are going to come out and look at it in June.  I hope it can be fixed at a minimal cost!

After a week, we finally got our new fridge.  Living without a fridge is HIGHLY stressful!  I had all of the coolers with ice packs, bags of ice etc. to try and keep things cold...but there is always this under lying feeling of, "am I going to make us sick with food not being at the proper temperature?"  I could feel the stress low boiling inside me all week.  

When it came they couldn't get it through the door so they took off the doors of the fridge.  

Fridge is in and I love it!  It seems big and empty, but I think much of that is because we lost so much of the freezer food.  There is not a lot to put back there.  Also, this weekend is Memorial Day and Jason is on a trip with Dave Kenner and Robert Hokanson down in Kanab.  They left Thursday and get back Sunday.  I didn't want to be home for the weekend so Jacob and I are tagging along with Marcia and family up to Lava Hot Springs.  Hopefully we'll have a good time.  And NOT stressed.

Back from Lava and we had a good time!

Steven, Marcia, Adam, Jacob and Me

     We left at 5 p.m. on Friday afternoon and drove up to Pocatello.  Pocatello is about 30 minutes north of Lava and is where the hotel was.  After arriving we went to the store for s'more supplies and to see 

the Brady Memorial chapel. It was in the city cemetery, which was quite big.  Took up several blocks.   It wasn't open, but was a cool looking, building. 

   We went back to the hotel and Marcia's sister, Karma, her husband, Mike, and their grandson, Forrest, were there.  Sharon, Marcia's other sister, her husband, John, and daughter, Jenna, also joined us.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast and drove down to Lava.  There are 4 pools you can sit in.  They vary in size and degrees of heat.  102-105 degrees, 105 degrees, 105-110 degrees, and 112 degrees.  I tried all of them except the 112 degrees.  All were too hot for me, except the 102-105 degrees.  I sat in that for a while.  It was very relaxing!  The weather was perfect for this.  It was a little overcast and cooler--at times drizzling, but that made it great for the hot pools!

  

John, Sharon, Luisa, Kate, Mike, Steven
Me and Jacob

There was a group of people over by the 112 degree pool dancing.  Marcia went over and joined in.  Soon Luisa was there too.  They were from Ghana and going to school at Idaho State in Pocatello.  

After the pools we got dressed and walked down the main street to find something to eat.  It was drizzling a bit more so we wanted cover.  We tried a restaurant, but too expensive so we tried this outdoor place.  Jacob had TWO bacon cheese burgers.  He was a little over stuffed by the end, but they were good.  

Mike, Luisa, Kate, Jacob, Adam, Sharon, Jenna,
Karma w/Forrest, John, Steven

Soda Springs where you can drink
carbonated water.

After lunch we headed over to a man made guizer.  Apparently someone had bought the property and was going to make a public swimming pool, using the geothermic heat from underground.  He began to drill and a guizer shot up 37 feet.  He couldn't use it and turned over to the town.  The town capped it and now release it every hour on the hour.  It was cool to see.

The cover over the spring of carbonated water

We drove farther east from Lava to Soda Springs.  There is a pool of carbonated water coming from the ground.  You can fill a cup with the water and add flavoring.  I tasted just the carbonated water and then with flavoring....it could taste a lot like a soda.  We only had a sip or two in case the water wasn't that clean.  It was pretty cool!

Tasting the water

Jacob sipping his soda

We were going to try and go out to Chesterfield to see the "ghost town", but it was on dirt roads to get out there.  With the rain we thought it would be too muddy and take too long.  This is a former Mormon town that was abandoned, but is on the historical registry.  It is maintained by the church.

Marcia, John, Steven Karma, Forrest, Kate,
Luisa

Jacob, Sharon, Marcia, Adam, Jenna,
John, Steven, Karma, Forrest

Driving back we stopped to look at the Pocatello temple and by then I was driving on fumes so I headed to Costco for gas.  The rest of the group went our to Thai for dinner, but Jacob was still full from lunch so we just hung out at the hotel.  

Later we went out to the firepit in front of the hotel.  It was a little bit chilly, but fun to make  s'mores.  

Me, Sharon, Marcia, Adam, Kate, John

Jacob and me keeping warm!

I took this to send to Anna

We went home on Sunday morning and leaving Pocatello it was so green and beautiful!  Jason also Drove back from his trip with the guys. 

 

On Tuesday it was our final inspection for the xeriscape part of the yard.  The Flip Your Strip rebate part.  We had to show that we had a filter installed in the sprinkling system and Monday night we went out to unbury it from the rocks.  I knew where the 2 valve boxes were, but I had never seen the filter box placement.  We uncovered both boxes, moved the rock above them, below them and to the side.  Finally I texted Caiden (one of the guys who worked on the system) and asked him.  He said he'd come by on Tuesday morning to help find it.  I got a text a 5:30 a.m.  He had been over and uncovered it.  

We had dug nearly every place close to it!  The visit went well and we are going to get our rebate!!

Lastly this month we went to a neurofeedback appointment for Jacob.  This is a process of looking at brainwaves and working to even them out a little more for someone with ADHD, anxiety, depression, etc.  It depends on what you're dealing with.  Our first appointment was looking at the brain waves and next week we go and in and we'll talk about what they look like and how to move forward.  
  

Putting the neuron reader on Jacob's
head

Jacob's brain waves condensed

Last day of school for Jacob was on Tuesday, the 28th.  Official day was Thursday, the 30th.  He did very well this year.  Here is his schedule and his final grades.

He is done with 10th grade!