When it rains, it pours

I'm tired and empty.

Although the weather has been dry, this month has been full of storms for me and my family. Afer a month and a half of getting little to no sleep, my dad went in for back surgery to fix a pinched sciatic nerve. Surgery went well; he came home for a few days, only to go back again because his kidneys stopped working. (We got the call at Peef's house during the farewell party for Lucky. Nothing like that kind of phone call to put you in the party mood.) They flooded him with fluids, stopped several of his medications, and got everything going again. He's home again and doing fine.

Phil and several of his siblings had a "family meeting" of sorts with his mom and some geriatric specialists at LDS Hospital just after my dad went in for surgery. They got the lowdown on his mom's mental state, and it's not exactly rosy. We're probably looking at early stages of Alzheimer's. She's going to need a lot more help, and she's going to have to accept it from people besides just Phil's sister (who lives next door to her). There is talk of a care center. All of this brings back painful memories of both of my grandmothers, who had problems with dementia and lived with my family when they were having those problems. This will be a long, hard road for everyone.

The final storm was something that must remain confidential. Let's just say it was shocking, to say the least. However, the storm will not break us. It's just made life heavy for a while.

Forgive me if my comments are lacking in wit, wisdom, or sense. I find that I have been turning inward for several months now as if in preparation for this month. I know everything will be fine. We will weather the storms. But for now, I'm hunkering down and holding on.

What I did on my summer vacation

What I did on my summer vacation was go all the way to Salt Lake City. And stay in a hotel.

With a swimming pool downstairs.

The end.













No, just kidding. (About it being the end--not about going to Salt Lake City.)



Truly, we did. We took our three boys, stayed at the Shilo Inn (in spite of its sad history), and had a wonderful time. (I've been told, however, that when you take your children with you, it's not called a vacation but a trip.)



My favorite part was taking the boys to Lagoon and discovering my surprising love for roller coasters. I think I have scarred A-- for life by riding with him twice on the Wild Mouse and laughing hysterically both times while body slamming him every time the car turned a corner. S-- was terrified by three things: the huge swing that is Turn of the Century, the ferris wheel (seriously terrified), and the Sky Ride. T-- and S-- were both scared spitless after I forced them to go on the Terroride with me, but they both wanted to go back and do it again, so I guess there's hope yet for my cautious S--.

My least favorite part was taking the boys to Lagoon, a.k.a. the string bikini capital of Utah. Yuck. I haven't seen that much skin since who knows when. And it wasn't just the young teenage vixens--oh no. Trust me, ladies. Even if you have a body that looks that good, a bikini isn't the most flattering thing to wear at an amusement park. Then again, given the amount that we paid to get in, I guess we ought to have expected some type of show.

Hogle Zoo was also on the itinery for the Pottymouth family. The animals were, well, animals. What else did you expect?

(A--, above, looks uncannily like his mother. Poor kid.)

(A rare specimen of the Homo Sapien variety, sleeping soundly on a bench.)

(See those lovely cankles?)

The Hill Aerospace Museum was awesome. Some of those airplanes are ginormous! Of all the boys, however, Phil was the most enamoured of the steely birds. They have a hands-on room where kids can explore the physics of flight and sit in a real flight training cockpit. (I had wicked fun teasing T-- while he sat in there. I kept turning the lights on and off and he couldn't figure out how he was making it happen. I am so mean!)

The best part of the whole trip was coming home. It was lovely to not be too far away, and it was nice to have some time with the boys without any interruptions. But my bed was absolutely heavenly to fall into when we got back. There's no place like home.