HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!

We miss you, Sarah! Wish we could be with you tomorrow on your 24th birthday! Stay safe in Russia and Ukraine and we'll talk to you soon. Love you lots!!! Mom and Dad

July - Vacation Time

It was vacation time...Yeah!
Bruce did all the driving, as usual, from Utah to Washington. I got to relax, work on crochet projects, and watch movies on our DVD player. Wyatt kept a ladybug for awhile in his new bug box we gave him for his 2nd birthday coming up on the 31st.

One day we went raspberry picking and Jane made us a wonderful sorbet!

Here's the whole group out on a walk near Camus, WA.

Wyatt loved playing at the playground.

Spencer and Jane always show us a great time by taking us on walks and hikes. Wyatt loves the rides on his dad's back and the expected daughter gets her rides in front of Mommy.

Lee drove us to the Sea-Tac airport and said good-bye.

Flying from Washington took all day with a stop in St. Louis, Missouri. Zach and Emily especially liked the take offs and landings.

The view below our Daytona Beach hotel windows was very beautiful. I could stand out on the balcony and look for a long time if it wasn't for the dense humidity.

Aunt Kathy played with the kids at the swimming pools. We tried staying out of the sun as much as possible.

It's hard to get a good picture of Zach, but he couldn't hold back his smile today.

This was their first visit to the Atlantic Ocean and they couldn't get enough of it. Even with all the sunscreen I put on them, they stil got some sunburns.

Zach thought he could dig out a crab from under the sand.... but they were too fast for him.

Here's some of the group at our dinner cruise. Jeanette's husband, Max's sister, Maureen (in the red) was very nice and sang "Don't Worry About a Thing" to all of us.

Emily wanted to dance over and over again to the live entertainment.

Lora was sweet to put shiny strands in Emily's hair. They stayed in until I combed her hair later the next day. Guess I should have just brushed it.

Love this picture of my parents, brother and sisters....

.......but we can be goofy!

Eating lunch at Johnnie Rocket's was fun. The servers entertained us with a dance.

This is the 2010 Garrard Family Reunion bunch (minus Kristina, Clint, and Maddie who had to leave early). We're a great bunch, aren't we! A big thank you to everyone in Washington and Florida who made our trip so fun!!!

Just before flying back to Washington, I realized we didn't get a picture of all of us together, so I asked a girl that was waiting for her ride if she would take it. General Maou is Emily's favorite friend. Our grandchildren were pretty fun to vacation with. Thank you, Lee and Karyn, for letting us take them. Their new son is ready to be born any time now.

On our drive home from Washington we stopped for a few minutes at Multnomah Falls. It is so pretty as well as almost the whole drive. Just wish it wasn't so far to drive home!

Dallon and Diane's Sophie turned three yesterday, the 22nd. Bruce and Jared went to her party in Syracuse. (I missed it because of Choir rehearsal.) She looks like she is all smiles! What a cutie!

WEEK 6 - June is gone!

Where did June go,...huh? I want summertime to stay longer! It's fun just to sit outside and visit or look at the plants and blue sky. Last weekend, Diane, Dallon, and Sophie came for a visit. They helped us make some delicious stir fry with fried tofu. It was really good. Sophie was so happy and can go potty very well now.

Grandpa, Bruce, made her a Holly-Hock dollie and she had fun with the chalk and bubbles.

We love having you over! Do it more often, ok?

We're keeping in touch with Sarah by internet and she has arrived in Krasniarsk (sp), Russia for her study abroad. She is staying with a nice family that lives in a really nice home. She can walk to where her classes will be.

These are our Holly-Hocks. They look so pretty in bloom with the different colors showing up.

We planted strawberries in the tiers and should get a better crop by next year to make some strawjeri bam.

We're eating salads from our own lettuce Bruce planted in boxes. Tastes fresh and yummy!

Well, today is the 1st of July and we are both encouraged by our health quest. We decided that slow and steady is the best way to do it, so the pounds are coming off pretty slowly, but that way they should stay off. Since I only have to go into my job about five times this month, I'll have more time to work in our gardens and go to the gym. I don't think I'm jiggling as much as I was. I really do like the weight machines Bruce showed me how to use and I like our walks. Below is the walkway from our front door. I trimmed it up this morning. The daisies have just started blooming! I should be hearing back soon about the lab work I did to check my thyroid. I am scheduled on July 7th for an ultra sound to measure how big it has gotten. I just want everything working like it should.

Well, on Sunday is Independence Day, so I want to wish everyone a HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! We haven't made any big plans, but we are looking forward to our trip to Washington and Florida in less than 2 weeks!

Grandbaby #7 (Lee and Karyn's son) will be born in just about a month and grandbaby #8 (Spencer and Jane's daughter) is due the middle of October. We are very excited for both and wish them all well in the weeks to come.

We love you all, Jeri

WEEK 4 - Father's Day and "Back to the USSR"

Here's a 3-generation shot on Father's Day. We enjoyed the day in our backyard with family over and phone calls from those outside of Utah. Hope all the fathers had a good day.

Raidon is sporting his first haircut and looks like a big boy now.

He and Andy played a mean game of hopscotch and made me laugh. I'm proud of Andy and how he tries so hard to be a good father to Raidon.

Tuesday night Sarah was packed up and ready to fly off for her study abroad in Russia for six weeks. She plans a short trip over to Ukraine to visit friends after her classes are over. She is first stopping in New York for a day with another travelling student since she has never seen it. We will miss her!

A few words about Bruce's and my health quest...., it's going well. We're both feeling better, even though I'm more tired. I'm going to see my doctor tomorrow and get my thyroid checked again. He'll probably just change my prescription. It's keeping me from losing any weight. Other than that, things are great. I spent a couple hours at the gym this morning and Bruce was there last night. We can't always go together, but tonight we can take our walk in the neighborhood. Jeri

WEEK 3

This is our typical Saturday now. Bruce and I eat something for breakfast, like a smoothie-shake, then head over to the gym.

While I take a class, (this one is Zumba) Bruce walks the treadmill and elyptical machines.

Then we head upstairs to go through the weight-lifting machines. After showing me what the personal trainer taught Bruce, I can pretty much do it on my own.

It's pretty fun, but not that easy. That Zumba class is probably too much for this old lady and I may just stick with yoga and step classes. It wiped me out the rest of Saturday!

My muscles aren't too sore anymore, but they need to be a little bit to know it's helping.

I really like what we're doing and so thankful we're finally doing it. Through the week days Bruce and I make sure we either go to the gym or do something else every day, even if it's by ourselves. Our schedules don't always jive together, but we can do it on our own fine too. We are both feeling better but have only scratched the surface.

Our Relief Society had a salad and dessert get together at the Stone Hollow pavillion yesterday and, sorry, but I did have a yummy cupcake! Also had a low-fat creamy and an ice-cream sandwich for our Monday FHE group. It's gonna happen, like I said before, but it will be alright.

WEEK 2

After many of our attempts to change our exercise and eating habits, it has pretty much died out after 2 weeks. But this time we are much more determined and it's still working for us. After all, it is for life. I'm learning more all the time about nutrition and that the things we grew up thinking aren't necessarily the best ways to eat. I don't fault my parents in the ways they fed us because that is how they ate growing up and how the world in general looks upon eating still. What you have to do to learn about anything is to study it out for yourself. It seems that when I'm open to get the help, it comes to me from acquaintances at the right time. Someone directed me to a site on the internet that is well worth looking at. It's called Healthlady.com. It is loaded with good information. I've only skimmed the surface of it and it will take a lot longer to see everything in there. But it's a start to a way that I want to change how I eat. I've learned about some of these things before, but slipped back into some bad habits again. So I am recommitting to good foods. Bruce as well has been studying some things and it is helping us. We're not trying to live forever, we just want to feel good and be healthy while we're alive.

Exercising makes us sore, but it's a good kind of sore. Bruce can feel a difference in how he is feeling in just the two weeks. He showed me his routine of using the weight machines at the gym and I will be do them also. They should be done three times a week, so I'll have to figure out when I do it. I will go tonight for a yoga class. We have been walking most days for at least 45 minutes. We take the dogs sometimes but don't get as much benefit because they keep stopping to explore and to rest in the shade. I've been working in our gardens quite a bit also. We have mostly flower gardens and I can work up a sweat like I did this morning pulling weeds, etc. It's enjoyable exercise. I always said when I get old, I want to just putter around in my gardens. We're growing a few vegetables also: lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, squash, and herbs. I love Utah but don't really love the long winters. If we could have the other three seasons all year, we could grow plants all the time.

So our progress in two weeks is a couple of pounds off each of us. I don't actually know how many off of Bruce but it's probably more like five. I know his face looks thinner and he's starting to fit into his clothes better. We both feel better and sleep better. That's progress I'd say, but only a start. We're hanging in there! Our 38th wedding anniversary was last Sunday, June 6th. The picture above was taken around the time we were married. We loved each other then and we love each other now. Think how far we've come....six children and almost eight grandchildren. Our goal is to be back to our sizes at that time or better. Too bad we will never look that young again though. Oh well!

For My Family

I think that it only fair to first say how out-of-shape I am, and then I can talk about what I have done. I am grateful to my children for the gentle nudge to do something.

At the first of the May I volunteered to cut down six 25-40 foot high trees at the condos. They had died from some sort of disease. I rented a saw, and started cutting. It went quite fast and I had good help to pick-up and load the trucks. The saw weighed about 10 -15 lbs. After about two hours of cutting, I was pooped. There were times that I couldn't get a breath. I was sore, hurting for a couple of weeks afterwards. Well, two weeks later, Jeri and I helped plant the area that the trees were cut from with flowers. As Jeri and I walked back home, I told her that I thought that I had asthma, since I was wheezing.

I was really concerned that I may have had something more seriously wrong with me, yet knowing that the biggest problem that I had was how much I weighed and how little exercise that I get. I have for the past couple of years slept mostly sitting up in order to breathe at night. It helps me not to snore or to stop breathing (apnea).

Also, I take a pill for blood pressure, and niacin and a small dose aspirin for my HDL (it is low). OK, that's about it and probably too much information to put on a blog.

This week has had challenges with exercising and eating, but I can already feel the good affects of doing it. I have been tired, and wanting to stop; hungry and wanting to eating more. Eventually some of these things feeling will diminish, but I know urges won't. Good feelings, and minimizing some of the unhealthy lifestyle problems will be rewarding.

As I get older, I know it will be harder to be active, so I really need to watch everything that I eat and make exercising more enjoyable. The journey of a 100 years begins with the first step.

An interesting bit of information. To maintain my current weight and inactive lifestyle, it would require 2350 calories each day. To maintain a weight 100 pounds lighter with a moderately active to active lifestyle, to would take 2450 calories each day. I guess what that is saying is that I can eat more once I get to my new weight and lifestyle. (Bruce, just keep it up and we will see when that day comes.)

Bruce (sometimes referred to as Dad, Pops, Grandpa, and PaPa)