MID JULY

JULY 17, 2015

I still can't believe the year when I write it.  2015!  How are you all doing?  Alex's birthday was last week.  Last Friday.  His friends gave him a surprise party then he continued to celebrate the next day with a party for his friend Erin.  I'm glad he had some fun. 

Danny and Jenni seem very happy in their new home.  I think they must be very glad to have the move and the clean up over.  Tommy and Rilee think they have a good investment there with wonderful neighbors and a beautiful back yard.  Somehow I think Danny is moving ahead on finishing the basement.

Travis is riding bikes all over Poland.  He posted something on facebook about a card game (it looked like a role-playing game) he was involved in producing.  I think it was called Gwent.  Hopefully we will talk to him this weekend.

Ty and Dawn just finished an eight-day stretch without any time off.  I caught Tyler on the phone at the beach with the family.  He said they stayed long past sunburn and were ready to leave.  I think it was the day of the beach fair.  Dawn is working on planning another trip to Arizona.  Her mom is settled in a nursing home in Sedona and is very weak and won't eat much.  We hope Dawn can handle her concerns for her Mom at this time.  We enjoyed our visit so much with them in Port Hueneme. 

Dad and I just got back from the Shakespeare Festival.  We just went to one play, but what a play!  We saw "Amadeus", the play (and movie) about Mozart and Salieri.  It was amazing.  It was described as a one act play with two scenes.  (There was an intermission.)  The main actor who played Salieri sat in a large armchair in an old robe and talked to the audience for a lot of the time.  Intermittently he would continue talking to the audience.  The story was intense and fascinating, the actors were cast so well and were so good.  This might be the best theater I have every seen!  (Tommy and Rilee:  I could see it again.)  Whenever I see art so well done I wish I had you all there to experience it.  The theater wasn't full (unusual for the festival) ( I think it was a deep play that required some mental effort) but the whole audience sprung to their feet for a standing ovation, maybe the most sincere one I've ever experienced.  Bravo!

We didn't go to a ball game last night.  We were supposed to.  We gave some friends downtown tickets to a Bees game for their wedding (they didn't want gifts).  They invited us to go with them, then sent the tickets out of town in someone's purse.  We might have stayed longer in Cedar City if we had known, but we were tired anyway. 

Tommy and Rilee are on a 30-day diet where they eat no grain, sugar, and only certain oils.  And no dairy.  We had a good dinner last Sunday and I have a plan for this Sunday.  It's kind of a mental cleanse, too, to rethink what you are grabbing to eat all of the time.  No problem.  It's garden time and there's lots of produce.  Here's the winners:  red potato slices with onion in foil packets seasoned with coconut butter, and frozen raspberries with coconut milk poured on them.  Let the berries begin to freeze the milk.  Also making the salmon/caper sauce with coconut butter instead of dairy worked great.  It was sharper, but good.

Dad and I found some good road snacks on our trip to Cedar City:  Jalepeno cheddar cheese chunks eaten alternately with blueberries covered in dark chocolate.  Yum. 

Next birthday is Rilee's on August 31.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

I hope you are happy and well.  I read a book I highly recommend: Choosing Clarity.  Simple and so life changing.

Love, Mom