2007 in Review - September

With the help of my entire family, I completed a fun home improvement project this month. My 40th birthday is next month, and I’d really like to spend it in Hawaii. But since we’re already planning to go in April, it’s not possible to also go for my birthday, darn it! So I decided to bring Hawaii into my house! My bedroom has had 20 year old wallpaper, the bed that I bought when I bought my first condo almost 15 years ago, one hand-me-down dresser from Mom and Dad, one hand-me-down dresser from Grandma Jensen, and Jon’s old nightstand. Obviously, nothing matched. I have had in my mind what I wanted my bedroom to look like, and have been buying things for about six months for it. Over Labor Day weekend, I took every single thing out of my bedroom, and Mom, Dad, Ryan and I stripped all of the old wallpaper off, and then painted. I also got a smokin’ deal on a 7-piece bedroom set, which was exactly what I had in mind. Marc and Frances, home improvement gurus that they are, installed new light fixtures for me. Here are a couple of before and after pictures (although the new light fixtures weren’t installed yet in the “after” pictures).
The second weekend in September was one of our favorite SLC events – the Greek Festival. We go every year, and enjoy the dancing, the choral concert in the cathedral, and especially the food.

Monday, September 10 would have been Steve Chase’s 40th birthday. Kevin and the rest of the family put together a wonderful memorial service held at the Eaglewood clubhouse. The most touching part of the evening was a home movie/slide show that Kevin and a friend put together. In true Kevin form, the presentation had perfectly-coordinated music and lyrics to go along with each period of time. I think everyone in attendance cried as we saw pictures and home movies of Phil, Jane and Steve. The evening was beautiful. Here is a picture of “Uncle Kevin” with Ryan and Carter.
While we were at Steve’s service, Grandpa Inman passed away (my last grandparent to go). There was a message at Dad and Mom’s house when they got home. He has been living in a care center in St. George for several years, but has really gone downhill since his wife, Catherine, died. Monday evening, he went to dinner in the cafeteria with his buddies, but then told them that he was tired, and was going to his room to lie down. When the staff made their evening rounds, they found that he had passed away. He was 92 years old. We all decided that was a pretty good way to go – 92 years old, after spending an evening with friends, in his sleep, and even on a full tummy! We traveled to Milford on Saturday, September 15 for his funeral. After the graveside service, we went to Janice's house (Dad's step sister) for a luncheon with the family. It was nice to visit with all of them.

Sunday, September 16 was our ward Primary program in Sacrament meeting. Ryan and I have been taking Jaye, my cub scout that was baptized last month, to church with us every week. His mother is not active, and so we invited her to go to Sacrament Meeting with us to watch Jaye in the program. She did! I hope that she was touched seeing her cute little son singing all of the sweet Primary songs. After Sacrament Meeting, I invited her to stay for the rest of the meetings, but she declined, so I took her home, and then joined Ryan and Jaye back at the church for the rest of our meetings.

Ryan’s fall soccer season has been great. His coach has decided that Ryan is the best goalie – not only due to his ability to stop the ball, but because of his amazing drop kicks! Ryan played goalie most of the season, but is a pretty assertive little player, too, so his coach gave him one quarter every game playing forward. We were excited to see him score! One particular game when he was playing goalie, he had a drop kick that went all the way down to the field, within just a few feet of the other teams’ goal! All of the parents were saying, “The GOALIE’S going to score a goal!” and “Look at how far that GOALIE kicked the ball!” Everyone was amazed at the power in his little legs! He has now decided that he wants to be the punter or field goal kicker for BYU.
Which brings me to another highlight of our month. For eleven years, Dad and I had season tickets to the BYU games. We never missed a single game during that time. When I moved to Las Vegas, we let our Cougar Club membership and west-side tickets go. Too bad – we’d probably be at the 50 yard line by now! Well, Ryan has become more and more interested in BYU football as he has watched the games with us. He started asking if he could go to a game. So, on Saturday, September 22, Papa, Ryan and I went to a game – homecoming. Three generations of BYU football fans! Even though it rained most of the game and we were drenched (right through our ponchos), we had a great time. Ryan loved being there!