Bad Air Week! Cough! Gag!

It's times like these that I remember those days of wanting clean air to inhale. For the past week and a half, the valley has be socked in with the inversion. The polluted air from exhaust and every known gas emmission is trapped in the air we breathe. When we're in doors, we don't notice it but when you step outside, you get your lungs full, you immediately know the difference.

We've lived on the Wasatch front going on 15 years now, and I've never noticed it this bad. You can see it as you drive, looking at the mountain range, or even When our family was younger, our daughter Nikki could tell if the air was bad, or even if there was an approaching storm. Sort of like a built it barometer in her system. Of course, she'd take a puff of her inhaler to help clear the air passages.

During the week, as I prepare to go to work, I'd step out the front door, and immediately I could tell that the air was bad. Now, I long for the cool clean air in the early morning but I guess I have to wait until a storm strong enough to stir up the air and move this bad stuff out.

Remember when you were younger and riding in a car with all the windows up and someone let one go? Its sort of like that. Our kids would say, "If you smelled it, then you probably dealt it." Now that was a trueism of monumental proportions. We could all be sitting in the family room watching a movie and all of a sudden, the silent but deadly (powerful wiff) of another one that got away would interrupt the room and we'd take an instant air break.

The air is so bad that it doesn't even come close to the old, "Pull my finger?" So, there's bad air, then there's BAD air.

As you ponder these thoughts, which is worst? . . . . . . . . . . Happy Weekend.

Hauoli Makahiki Hou!

We've certainly enjoyed having two of our daughters and their family visit during this Christmas season. Prior to that, we had another daughter and her family for a visit at Thanksgiving. In two weeks, we expect to visit with our youngest daughter and her family.

Our visits have been wonderful, especially fun times getting to know our grandchildren. They have all warmed our hearts. The greatest sadness is that they live far from us and so the visits are few throughout the year. Each time we see them, we marvel at how much the've grown and their personalities along with that. They are all very bright, cheerful (when they aren't sick), energetic, and just fun to be with, so much so that its worn us out.

Later this month, our oldest grandson will turn 8 years of age and will be baptized. We have two grandsons attending school, another to start in the fall, and four more wanting also to go to school. By mid year, we will have another grandchild. With our children and their families living far away, we do miss out on some of the significant events in the lives of our grandchildren. Yeah, their's cell phone calls and even an occassional video call. Even then, we still miss them all. There are only two choices or alternatives we have. Either we retire early and spend the time traveling from one home to another or, they move back to within reasonable travel distance. Go figure?

On Sunday, our grandson "Teddy" was blessed at church. We were happy to be there. While our son-inlaw and his family we all in attendance (they have a large family), there was only a few of us. Anyway, the blessing was wonderful, and it would have been great to have more family in numbers there.

When its all said and done, both my wife and I are so happy and proud of all our children and their families. Taking an assessment of their lives and how happy they are, we couldn't be more pleased. For this reason and more, we are so thankful and blessed. In the wisdom, tradition and example set by our daughters on their blog pages, we are blessed because:

1. They and their spouse are living their dream, that is having children, pursuing a livelyhood to support their dream, and striving to reach their education and employment goals. In other words, they are fulfilling the measure of their creation.

2. Our grandchildren are well cared for, nurtured by loving parents, taught to love God, Grandparents, and their parents. They love rice with "fish eyes" and seaweed.

3. Our daughters are so talented in their own way, like giving hugs to a seemingly unhuggable screaming children, enjoy changing a wet or worse smelling diaper, wiping up throwup that projects a distance more than six feet and still soothe their sick child, creative in matching fabric patterns to fulfill the components of a baby quilt that they are sewing, prepare meal in advance, even a months worth, brave enough to step on the scale and admit that its either broken or their loving husband sabotaged the programming on it, determined to getup early to go exercise and workout before the little ones start screaming, and have the courage to face the demands of motherhood day after day after day, just as their mom did all these years.

4. They learned the art of motherhood from their mom, which also includes hemming their husbands trousers, going yard sailing on Saturday to get the best deals, be frugal in their shopping at DI and Savers, have the patience to know, if it ain't there this week, it just might be there next week, and still creative enough to know that "they can make that item for less."

5. They are all intelligent, just as their mother, and aren't push overs or wimps, know how to negotiate the price of an item at a yard sale or swap meet, recognize a bargain when they see one, all for the benefit of their husband and children.

6. Developed social circles that go beyond the confines of their home ward relief society or primary. Actually this is finding more friends, just not it their assigned wards. Its a comparative research on how well the church is run in the other ward than their own.

7. Being greatful for the blessing of a righteous husband who honors his priesthood and is the priesthood role model in their home. For their spouse, they will call home to mom or one of their siblings to get a recipe for a favorite dish or dessert, often calling to confirm weather it should be one cup or two of an item, what temperature it should bake at and how long.

8. Though they may be competitive with their siblings, just as in a good game of scrabble or settlers or that crazy rabbit game, they give greatful loving support to each other in their time of need, emotionally and spiritually.

9. Have solved the mystery of motherhood wisdom, or know where you can get it at a bargain, and still hug their husband and kids at they end of the day.

10. Lastly, when they need confirmation or know that they are speaking with knowledge and authority, they ask their mom, who ultimately knows where its at.

How can anyone match that? They have shown such refined maturity in the recent year. Gosh where has all they time gone or gone by so fast. It seems just a little while ago, they were under one roof picking at each other or attending school and YW. Time has really flown by. As they say, you snooze, you loose.

We have much to look forward to this year. We hope for good health, time to enjoy each other and family, work on the things that need improving, prosperity in our employment, faithfully doing our callings, etc. This year will be a better year for everyone. Aloha.