Lost tooth

Well, what a sight. Three generations of Paulson's looking for Zach's missing tooth. He was swinging the girls in the hammock and the rope caught his loose tooth and popped it right out. We told him that the tooth fairy would still give him money if he left a note for her under his pillow.

-Elaine

Four wheeler

Matt and the family came for an extremely short visit the weekend of the 16th. The class of 1990 of Parowan High School had their 'first' reunion party at Brianhead. The party was a success but the family wasn't here long enough. I was able to spend some time with the kids the previous weekend at their home in California while Matt and Amy were in Canada. I really had a good time with the kids. They were great! I caught a cold the day I got there so couldn't talk very well. The kids would wisper to me when I would whisper. Too funny. They really helped me with everything. We even went out for breakfast one morning and they were so fun. Hope I can come again and visit soon.

Grandpa and I are planning to visit when Zach and Zoe will be baptized in January. Curt seems to be doing really well. He still gets tired a lot but can usually do what he wants. Lee came down for the beginning of the Elk hunt. No luck but they had a good time. Curt went out several more times but didn't see anything to shoot.  I am taking 12 weeks off from driving my school bus. I talked to the district and I will be able to return to MY Route with My pay scale on January 18th. I just need to spend some time with Curt and have some fun. I will miss most of the cold weather so I am happy about that.

-Elaine

Pond Pictures

Catch Up

> I checked the blog today and the last time I wrote was around the first of August. Guess its time to play catch up. On August 7th Curt and I celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary. Wow! We didn't feel like going out so we just stayed in. Quiet time is good.
> Curt has enjoyed working in the garden. Everything did pretty well except the Indian corn. I have bottled lots of tomato sauce and we have really liked having fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. We certainly did well with the zucchini too. Curt fixes a meal with the big ones using sausage and onion and seasonings. Very good.
> He seems to keep very busy. I really wanted to go somewhere before I started back to driving bus but he had too many projects going! He gets tired easily so we don't push him too hard.
> On the 16th I got a watch from the school district for 35 years driving bus. Its always nice to be recognized when you do something good.Then school started the 19th and Curt started back with his Chemo.
> He will have blood work on Mondays and Chemo on Thursdays for four weeks, then one off and another four on. We will see Dr Zangari in October.
> Happy birthday to all the August and September birthdays in our family. Kira on the 25 of August, Daniel on the 29 of August, and Caitlin on September 24th. All my kids wished me a happy birthday the week of August 15th so it was good.
> Clint surprised us with a visit last Sunday.( Sept 19th) He came by the house and visited with his Dad for a while then saw Tishanna at work, then came right into my Relief Society class (after the prayer) and got me. What a great surprise. He took me to get my car at Tishanna's work and we visited for about 20 minutes. It was a great surprise and a very nice visit.
> Last Tuesday we went to St. George to have an exam by a VA Doctor. She just had to write on his records that he will need to continue with treatments with Huntsman in Salt Lake and Dr. Te in Cedar City. The VA should now pick up any medical bills that Curt may have. We just have to get a worker with the VA so we can call and get a number for every treatment. Sort of like a purchase order. Every time! I hope we can figure out a better way of doing that.
> Today is September 25th and Curt and I went out early to clean the pond. We actually got all the fish out yesterday and put them in a circle tank with a net over the top and a pump to keep it aerated. Tishanna helped with catching them. Curt had a big net and would get one, hand the net to Tishanna and I would pull the net on the tank back so she could put him in. Some got caught on their gills in the net and Tishanna didn't like that. She wanted a gentler way to get them in there. We did get them all there even with the net problem.
> As we were getting to the bottom of the pond Curt saw a little fish. Yeah, our first baby! We put him in a bucket and have him in the house. Curt will put him in a fish bowl until he gets a little bigger.
> We are both tired now and know where all the aches and pains are. We really are too old to be doing that but who else would do it? That is just one more of Curt's projects! We will fill the pond back up now and put the fish back later today or tomorrow. Curt got a LOT of muck out of the bottom so it should be good for another two years. We have really enjoyed having the pond area. It is always peaceful and shady. The Summer is my favorite time but it is always nice out there. When Curt and I were Foster parents the pond area was OFF LIMITS to the kids. That was our place where we could just be together. Thanks Curt!
> I will be going to Matt and Amy's on the 8th of October. I get to stay with the kids while they are out of town. Gramma time!!! I'm really looking forward to being there.
> Time to go check the pond. -Elaine

Joe's Crab Shack

Well Monday, (August 2) we left early for Salt Lake for Curt's appointment at Huntsman. His first appointment was for Labs, then we had a small break so we went to an Art supply store and bought some oil paints. We bought enough that we should be able to keep him busy for a long while. At two we went back to Huntsman for the bone biopsy. This is painful and just plain not fun. Abbie was the tech who did it and she was good. She has to actually take a core sample of the bone then take some marrow for testing. After that he had an MRI. I waited out on the terrace and took in some sun.We stayed at Ryan and Ginelle's house. It was so nice to have a place to just kick back.

Tuesday we didn't have any appointments so we went to IKEA. Curt was still pretty sore from the biopsy but we managed to get through the whole store. We bought some furniture for our front room. I'm very excited to put it together. We will wait until the new carpet is put in. We have already painted in there and it really looks great.

Tuesday night we went to the Jordan Landing and had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. I really have never been fond of sea food but was willing to try it again. At least the place didn't smell fishy! That was a good start. I got a little nervous when the waiter came and put a bib on us and gave us these tools to crack open the crab. It looked more like an orange peeler. I really thought I could get away with getting a good steak but No.......Curt wanted to share a steam pot with me. We got 2 of everything. Corn on the cob, a whole crab, about 10 shrimp, a big fat sausage. I was really surprised because I dug right in and actually finished before Curt. It was really good. I won't give Curt a bad time about eating fish again. Well, maybe I won't.

Today, Wednesday we packed up and first went to Capitol Ceramics where Curt bought 100 pounds of clay and some new glazes. Then we went to the VA Hospital where I went in to see if we qualified for travel money. When we have to travel away from home the VA will give us gas money. Yes, we qualify and they will send it to us. Yeah!  Then we went up to Huntsman and had lunch at 'The Point' restaurant. Very cool to look out over the valley and watch the lightning show. We could see all over the valley.  At two thirty we went to see Dr. Zangari. He looked at the test results and told us that it was 'Very Good'. There were no new spots to be worried about and the cancer count was actually below 1 percent. Like point zero seven. I think. Anyway it is looking very good for him and he was very relieved. We addressed some issues and changed some drugs,and set up the schedule for the next two months of Chemo in Cedar City. Then Dr. Zangari wants to see him after that. Hope we can work around the Elk Hunt! Well, then we left!!!!! Of course we got into the afternoon rush hour traffic, but we were so glad to have that over. We got into some rain and hail but got home around eight. So good to be home.

-Elaine

The Gap at sunset.

This was just an awesome picture that I took with my phone!   It is looking toward the Gap while Curt was gathering polliwogs. I took the picture not knowing exactly what I had.

-Elaine

Cooler

This is the cooler with just a few polliwogs in it.  We took home about one hundred. Sure was fun.  I wish the grand kids could be here when the polliwogs are out.  They would have a great time!

-Elaine

Polliwogs

Last week Curt and I went out to see the frogs again. This time we saw thousands of polliwogs, so we decided to take some home to our pond. This is Curt using the little net to catch some and put them in a cooler.

-Elaine

Fishing Day

> Today Curt and I went to Pruess Reservoir. It is almost to the Nevada border. It was pretty hot but we had a good wind most of the day. Actually it got pretty darn windy and there were white caps on the water. We did catch and release on the suckers that we caught. I think we both got a little too much sun but it really was a nice day. On the way home we were watching what we thought was smoke in the distance. As we got closer we found out that it was the wind blowing on a dry lake bed. On part of the road we had very bad visibility. It was a short stretch though so it wasn't bad to go past. This little reservoir has Mirror Carp in it and we saw bunches of them together. It just made the water look like it had a dark spot. The water has a lot of alge so it looked O.D. (olive drab) in color.
> Curt had a pretty good day. He was tired when we got home but it was sure nice to be out for a while. We watched TV and then watched the Moon come up behind the mountain. I love watching the moon come up especially when it is a full moon in the Summer.

Clay

Yesterday we went to Summit mountain to get some clay.  There is a great road at Braffits Creek.  Someone was going to put in a sub division but ran out of money.  There is a road clear to the top and what a view!  We can see clear to the Gap and Cedar City. It was very nice up there. Not too much wind and very cool.  We found some clay and brought 5 buckets home.  Its in the dry state so it was easy to shovel into the buckets.  The picture is of Curt running the clay through a screen to get the rocks out.  He smashes it to make a  fine powder then he will add water.  This Summit clay fires a tan color and is really pretty.  Curt says that it is a little hard to throw, sorta like porcelain. 

Today is Fathers Day.   HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE FATHERS OUT THERE. ESPECIALLY CURT AND MY SONS,  CLINT, MATT AND DANIEL!

-Elaine

West Hills

On June 18 we took a ride to the west hills to check out some places that we hadn't been to in a while.  It was less windy out there.  It was nice to be out of the wind for a while.  Curt is having more and more good days now.  The edema in his feet still bothers him but he is taking meds to take care of that.  He loves being in the garden and when it gets too hot there, then he goes to his studio and works on his ceramics.

-Elaine

Water Water

Memorial Day in Parowan is really a day to work and get everything
ready for Summer. Curt and I have been sorting through pictures and
cleaning out our storage in our bedroom. We have a lot of stuff to
get thrown out and some stuff that we could possible sell. I hate
yard sales. I would rather just pitch it out.

The pictures were taken yesterday of the flood control channel
behind our house. We have seen it higher than that and muddier too.
All the snow is finally melting and coming down. We still like to go
to the ditch and look for good rocks right in our own backyard. So
when it stops running we will be there looking.

Curt has been working on the garden getting everything planted. He
even put up a fence around most of it to keep the critters out. He
does get tired easier but has really done a lot around here.
He has even been working on some pottery. He starts up with his
weekly chemo this Thursday. It will be for 4 weeks then one off,
four more weeks then around the first week in August we will be
going back up to Huntsman. We are hopeful for a good report. Still
no word from the Veterans Administration about Curt's claim for
Agent Orange exposure.

School is out so I am without a job for now. Its nice to have a
break, but I will miss the paychecks. Oh wrong. Did I say
paychecks? I meant kids! Hope we get to visit the kids this Summer. It always seems to go by
too fast.

-Elaine

Water

Pond by Minersville

Rockin

Saturday Curt and I went out by Minersville.  We looked for some turquoise but didn't find anything worth bringing home. there is a small pond there too so he fished a little.  It was a good day.  The weather was great!

-Elaine