finally getting back to normal

on New Years Eve, dad got sick as did I. We thought he had the flu, but it turned out to pneumonia. It took two Drs. visits to get him the right help. He had no appetite, fever, and such weakness! after missing church two weeks, He is showing signs of being stronger. I was proud of him for going to the temple even though he was sick. He only missed one week. I think he was blessed for going when he was so weak! He loves the service and is now a session starter on Thursdays. His Wednesday night is not quite as fulfilling.! I think he started to improve so fast a couple of days after his antibiatics. (spell?) Also the night he started his antibiotics, he was so affected, I called Marty at his request. and the Bishop came and gave him a blessing! Wednesday, I went to temple alone and Thursday.! I appreciate it more when he drives.

I had a neat experience doing iniatory as a patron Thursday. Usually it is not a thing I am able to do. The 5 names I was given, were from Somoa. I have NEVER seen names from there in all my time. It was an over whelming feeling I had in the participation that morning.! It is hard to explain My mothers father was one of the first missionaries to Soamoa and it all touched me so.!

THe last two weeks have been kind of hard and blurred into each other. I remember having a family party on the 5th Dad was not too well then. I am grateful he did not end up in the hospital or get worse. Lynn is in the hospital again from the nursing home. We have not seen her since Dec 23.

I just got a visit from the Bishopric, THey want to have me released from Primary as the organist. Primary Pres hinted that there might be a change so I could attend Relief Society. There are some sisters in our ward that play well and I think they need to change. I will always have a tender spot for the music in Primary. I learned so much from Emilina when she was the chorister.

It snowed17 inches last Saturday.! Melody and Ben came and shoveled the driveway.! Melody was still sick. Then I saw across the street, I saw Ben refuse money for helping a neighbor. Kudos Ben. Marty and kids have been cleaning our drive way many times this snowy winter.!

I went with Dad to Britons and to buy a camera for his Birthday , late but he felt strong enough to go see Todd and get advice, then laugh and go but another camera. We found a camera out of the box for a really good deal. He is having fun with it.

It is beautiful but cold outside. Mel and Marty dropped over last night as we were watching a Jazz game. That was a fun surprise. The Jazz have won the last 8 games. Go Jazz.

Angel has announced her 4th pregnancy. We wish her luck. I am sure it was double hard for her to come to our state for Christmas. We are excited for number 12. We put her in our prayers as we do all our children.

Lord bless you.

Marlene G

Yucky January

Well here it is the 22nd of January, and I, Dwayne Glad, am strong enough write on my blog.
The winter sickness and snow has just about dun me in, to quote from Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

We, Marlene and I, got sick the week between Christmas and New Year. We spent New Years Eve in bed. Marlene got better but I just could not shake the Ills. I had no appetite, Fevers, Chills ect. I went to the Doctor and he said he thought I was anemic, took blood tests and said see ya. Another week went by with the same problem. This time he took an X-ray and found out that I had Pnuemonia

So all in all I have been sick for a month. I have lost about 2o-25 pounds, all in all a bad experience.

Monday the 21st of January was my Birthday, 69 years and holding. I was feeling some what better. We invited all the family to come to our house to celebrate Stuart,16, Ben, 14. and My Birthdays. Everything was well until Monday morning when we woke up to a major Snow Storm. There was sixteen inches of new stuff over about twelve inches of older snow with more to come. The Neat thing was that even with the really bad weather every one made it to our house. Then best of all Angel called to give me the best gift of all, she is going to have another child.

So there is light at the end of the tunnel. Life is good even in January. Spring is coming and soon I will be able to Plant my tomatoes for 2008. Oh I forgot that this morning the stock market went to the bottom. So am I sad, No. I converted all of my assets in to cash a couple of weeks ago. So the snow is melting. I look better being at my High School weight and we are soon going to have an even dozen Grand kids. Yea, Yea

survived the Holidays!?

We started out the Holidays great. My son and his newly married wife came Friday before Christmas. We had a good time at the Special Christmas Program Sunday. We had all the family but Angels family from California here to do the traditional things.( Shylynn was in the hospital)

We went Caroling at about 4 pm. It was nice weather at about 3 then it got terrible and started to snow and was quite cold. Braving the cold and wet went to about 9 houses to carol. The younger kids liked to get in the snow and as a result were getting pretty cold. Marty went and got his car for the coldest ones. We went to Sister Eunice Hansen and Cheryl Lintons daughter had her family there, the famous Hughes Brothers and their kids. We went to Sherrie Thomas. Her husband had broken his ankle. Krystal Booyack , other neighbors.ect.

We then came home and had soup and Dads famous spiced fruit drink. ,We then put the kids in costume and acted out the Nativity. Bruce and Tara were Mary and Joseph. The grandkids dressed as wisemen, shepherds , and a sheep. A fake baby dressed in swaddling clothes. It went quite well while Grandpa read. Melody still loves to be the angel as she does a good job at it.

Then we opened the family gifts. What a riot. We started so early, we were ready to go to bed by 8:30. Santa had the presents in the stockings early, thanks to a wonderful Daughter in law.

We were woke up by Tara and Bruce jumping on our bed at 6:15.am. It was so neat to have someone here for Christmas morning.! We later went to see the damage at Melodys and Martys. Wei took control of most things in their house. We then went to dinner at Melodys and Martys at 4. They had a delicious meal. Then we came home and watched tv and went to bed.

Wednesday we reported to the temple, that was sparsely attended. We had a nice time serving,

Bruce and Tara took Tayler and his girlfriend to dinner. that night. At about 3 in the morning Tara came and told us that Bruce was very sick, could we give him a blessing. This was of great concern as Angel and her family were coming Thursday. Bruce got somewhat better, but Angel decided that they better not stay in the same bed. So they stayed at Melodys among Christmas choas. I called some people in our Ward and borrowed two twin mattresses. It worked quite well and they visited us to eat lunch and such. They went with us to Thanksgiving point. Bruce and Tara were feeling somewhat better. We went To Cabellas and ended up eating at Spagetti Mamas. It was cold and I was hungry. We did like the exhibit we saw.and the kids liked the shooting gallery.

Christmas Candy

Well, last Friday was candy making day. Everyone came to Grandma and Grandpa's house and pitched in making goodies. Some of the grand kids were running around screaming and luckily staying away from the kitchen.

Allison was the expert on making cheese balls. Which we will all share on Christmas Eve along with Soup and Wassail.

Andy was involved helping Grandma making cookies and then dipping pretzels and etc in chocolate. Stuart and Cody were the experts in making rice crispy treats and peanut flavored Fudge.



Grandma was running around trying to get it all done. Marty was dipping Graham Crackers in Chocolate and adding Sparkles. They look really pretty, Not like Andy's pretzels.

We had Family Prayer and then every one left. It was really quiet except for the noise of Grandma and Grandpa cleaning up the mess. All in all it was another great night for the Glad Family.

Getting Ready

We are almost there. getting our act together for Christmas. We put up our Plastic Tree in the center of the Front Room. Then we moved it to a corner, so people visiting could see each other across the room. The outside lights are all in place. They look kind of nice. It looked like it was going to be a chore getting them up on the house because of all of the snow. last year I used a step ladder to place the lights on the the eves, dragging it through the snow to each location, a lot of work. I stopped and looked at the problem and had one of those "Duh" moments. I got a broomstick and stood on the ground and reached up with the stick to place the lights.

Wednesday night was a Christmas program for Jimmy's school class. Thursday Ben and Stuart were both involved in Christmas Concerts. Ben at Albion Jr High School and Stuart at Hillcrest High School. We Grandparents try to attend them all. Cody has his program next Wednesday, we will be serving in the Temple that day, Sorry Cody.

The presents are all, except for some from Amazon that are late, wrapped and placed under the tree. Lots of them when there are 11 grand kids and our 5 children and their spouses. Marlene was shopping so I got to wrap them all. Marlene seems to be somewhere else every year when it comes time to get them taken care of.

Tonight is our traditional candy making party with all of the family. We make a lot of chocolate dipped stuff, like Nuts, Camels, Mini marshmallows, pretzels, and what ever else we can come up with. Some years it has been some strange things.

Christmas Eve we all get all bundled up so we can go out in the cold and go caroling to our neighbours. Giving each some of the goodies we made at our candy night. Coming home we have home made soup and hot spiced fruit drink. We then read the story of the first Christmas from the Bible, with some of the kids acting out the parts of the Shepherds, Wise Men, and Mary and Joseph. Gifts are then exchanged between members our Family to remember the Gifts that were given to the Christ Child and the Gifts we receive in our lives because of the birth of our Savior.

Christmas morning and day are pretty calm around the Glad house. Now that we are empty Nester's we get to sleep in.

getting warm

It was cold and snowy in Salt Lake City last week, but we were so sad that we were not there to enjoy it "Not". We were on a Cruise Ship in the Caribbean. When we arrived to board the ship we were told that the room we had reserved had been up graded, so instead of having a room with a port hole we were given a mini suite state room with a balcony. The room was as large as our bedroom at home. It was cool to sit out on our patio and watch the Ocean go by.

Another fun thing about this Ship was that on the top of the deck by one of the Pools they had a large movie screen, two stories tall by 3 stories wide, for movies under the stars. We would sit on the lounge chairs and watch the movie while they brought around Pop Corn and Cookies and Milk.

We visited St Marten, which is one half owned by the Dutch and the other by the French, St Thomas of the U. S. Virgin Islands and Princess Kay. There were some fun tours. They had a little pink tour bus that we rode in for a Tour of St. Thomas.

The buss took us to the highest point on the Island from which you could see many of the other Islands around us. The Islands are varied and are still owned by many differing counties. The Islands in the distance are some of the British Virgin Islands.

Marlene is such a wonderful person in and around the water as you can see from the photo. The last place we visited is a private Island owned by Princess Cruise lines. They have a really nice beach with palm trees and water sports equipment. We had a very nice barbecue on the beach and then took a glass bottom boat tour. It was kind of sad to come home too the land of cold and snow but Christmas is coming soon. So we have too much to do to worry much about the winter weather.

Winters Day

I am still trying to decide about snow. When I was younger I waited expectantly for the first white flakes to come drifting down from the sky, but now in my golden years the fun is all gone. The snow is wet and cold and makes the streets slick. I can no longer work in the yard ( maby that is a good thing). I have to wear a bulky warm coat if I leave the house.

As you can guess I am watching the first really big snow storm work its way into our lovely valley. Now is the time to go south for the winter with the ducks and RVs. Marlene and I am flying out of here for a trip to the Caribbean on the Princess Diamond.

We will be flying out of here at midnight, Ouch, to arrive in Florida, bright and early to board our home away from for the next week.

It is one of the great pleasures of life to come back to the cold wintry Utah with a sun tan. Then we can put up the Christmas Decorations and get ready for the Ho Ho Man. Yes we have not put up the tree yet. I have just not have had the energy to drag all the stuff up from the basement and try to make the the artificial tree look pretty. Mom thinks that it is time to get a new fake tree with the lights already on it, but I am to cheap.

We have been taking care of Melody and Marty's children, our grand children, this week as they are back in Chicago. The kids are to return to their home to day. It is a major effort to get them to turn off the TV, pack up their stuff and clean up the mess they have made of our house. We love them dearly but It would be nice to love them from down the street for a while.

We have most of our Christmas shopping done. We just have to wait for UPS to get it here. It is so nice to stay at home and click on all the things you want on the computer screen, but I was disappointed to find out that it is not magic but the old cash money still comes in to play.