The Final Weekend of Summer

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac (and Google), September 22 is the first official day of fall this year.   That made this past weekend the final official weekend of summer 2026.  Here are some of the highlights.  

Friday morning we had some very heavy rain and even some hail!  This is the view of the condo complex behind our home at about 8 a.m. Friday morning. We had heavy rain and thunder storms off and on throughout the morning. 

A very sad result of Friday's storm is that this lightening strike killed a 19-year-old hiker.  We know it was this strike that killed the young hiker on Mt. Timpanogos (which I can see from my front window) because the time stamp on the photo was the exact same as the moment the hiker was struck and killed.  Tragic. 

The rain finally let up about mid-morning and we ventured out to get some shopping done.  

We were able to go to Walmart for a few things and then go over to Winco for our regular groceries.  As soon as we got our groceries in the car, it started to rain again, but not as heavy as earlier in the day. 

In the late afternoon, I decided to venture out for a walk, even though it was still cloudy and quite windy. 

I finished most of my walk, then in the last two blocks, I heard thunder and the rain started again. Fortunately, the heavy rain waited until I was back in my house.  

It rained off and on, sometimes quite heavily, for the rest of the day and well into the night.  It was the most rain we have had for some time. There was flooding some places and even a tornado in Davis County which is north of where I live.  Tornados in Utah are pretty rare. 

We did not g et any rain on Saturday, and there were some blue skies but also a lot of clouds.  We went out for a morning walk and it was cool enough for a jacket. 

I spent some of Saturday morning taking everything out of our fridge, and cleaning and reorganizing it. I threw away some forgotten and out of date food items, and cleaned every shelve and drawer. I love a clean and organized fridge. 

We also worked in the garage, further organizing and putting things away. We made enough progress that we can once again get one of our cars in the garage, so that was nice.  Our goal is to get rid of even more things so we can get both cars in the garage. 

Saturday evening, Charly and I went to the temple to worship and pray.  It was a lovely, peaceful evening. 

After the temple, we had some delicious pizza from our new favorite pizza place that is literally only a couple of blocks from our home. 

Sunday morning we went to church.  This beautiful painting of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples is just outside of our chapel and I saw it as I went in to the worship service.  I love the paintings of Jesus in our chapels. 

After church, I ate lunch and spent most of the afternoon getting ready for my daughter and her family to come to Sunday dinner. I made sloppy joes and we had baked beans, cut-up fruit and salad with it.  This is a cake I baked for desert. This was a new-to-me cake recipe called Are You Kidding Me Cake?  I got the recipe from a blog/vlog friend, Kathy at Kathy's Happy Home 2 on YouTube. 

Here is the recipe as I wrote it in my recipe journal.  The cake was excellent - my family gave it 5/5 stars!  We had it with vanilla ice cream. 

Here is the recipe I used for the sloppy joes I made. They were so good - another recipe I got from Kathy's Happy Home!

We had a delightful eating and visiting together. Only three of the grandchildren came because the oldest granddaughter is serving as a missionary and the oldest grandson had a project due for one of his college classes and he had to finish that.  I'm so grateful that we were able to enjoy an evening together.  We made plans to get together again soon.

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good week and Happy Fall! 

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

End of July, First of August Catch-Up

Here are some of the things that have been going on in my world this hot summer week. 

Our backyard project is continuing.  We are having a new deck and patio cover built.  This is what the project looks like at the end of this week. Work will continue on Monday, but because there is a delay getting the materials for the roof, it probably won't be finished until the end of next week.  We are so impressed with the quality of workmanship the contractors we hired are doing. This is going to be a great addition to our backyard. 

Charly had his annual eye exam last week, and I am so grateful that his eye health is good.  It's my turn to go to the eye doctor next week.  I don't love going to the eye doctor, but I know that it's important to get my vision checked once a year. 

We had a couple of days of cooler temperatures last week, and even got some rain, which was great.  Today the heat is back, but it was nice to have at least a couple of days with cooler, cloudier weather. 

We went to Market Night on Wednesday of last week.  

Our favorite thing to buy at Market Night is Sourdough bread, and this last week we got Cheddar Cheese Sourdough bread.  Delicious!

Charly and I tried a new sandwich place near our home on Friday, and it was reasonably priced with good excellent sandwiches. 

This is the BLT on wheat that I had for lunch.  It was huge.  I ate half for lunch one day and saved the other half for the next day's lunch. 

Saturday was a low-key day for us.  It was a very hot day with temperatures over 100.  We went for a walk in the morning, then we were home almost the entire day until we went to the grocery store in the evening.  

Charly hung my book clock on Saturday. It wasn't easy to hang because it is a very heavy clock. I bought it at a thrift store for $14 when we were in St. George earlier this summer.  It didn't work, so we had to take it to a clock repair shop.  We were able to have it repaired for a reasonable price, and now it is hanging in our basement family room.  I really like this cute clock which, the clockmaker told us dated back to the 1960s or 1970s. 

I went out for an evening walk on Saturday after we got home from the grocery store.  I have been noticing that it's getting dark a little earlier each night, now that we are moving toward fall. 

Sunday morning, the flowers in my front yard garden looked so pretty.  I took this picture as we were on our way to church. 

We went to church.  I passed this beautiful painting on my way into the chapel. After the main worship service, we attended Sunday School. 

Sunday, we got the news that our dear friend Ron, (second from the left in this old picture), had died.  He is a long-time friend of Charly's and we have known he and his wife since before we were both married.  Our children were similar ages.  His wife (on the far left) passed from cancer about two years ago, and then his son (on the far right) passed from colon cancer just a few weeks after his mother.  It was all very sad.   We had seen Ron just a few weeks ago when he was in a hospital in Salt Lake City.  He was then released from the hospital and went home to Wyoming where he died this morning. 

Sunday dinner was Cowboy Breakfast Casserole, with green salad, coleslaw and fruit.  I thought the casserole was very good, but Charly said it wasn't one of his favorites.  Josh joined us for dinner as he does most Sundays. 

I did quite a bit of reading last week and finished this book, Leap of Faith by Kate Hewitt. It is about a typical suburban family who decided to leave the stresses of modern life behind and move to a homestead in West Virginia.  I really quite liked this book.   My reading has drastically fallen off this year due to a number of things, but I was pleased that I finished four books during the month of July.

Also last week, we finished watching the series on Netflix about Teddy Roosevelt and started watching this documentary on FDR.   I love history documentaries and these are both excellent!

Gratitude for this week:

😊Making progress on our deck and patio cover project. 

😊Having a productive week. 

😊Being retired.

Praying for:

🙏 My children and grandchildren.

🙏 Health for Charly and I.

🙏 Help with making some important decisions we are facing.

🙏 The family of our friend who passed on Sunday. 

Looking forward to:

🠞 The completion of the deck and patio cover project.

🠞 Seeing our grandchildren next weekend.

🠞 Not going back to school next week!

That's all for this week.  Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the week ahead. 

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

" Be not afraid 

nor dismayed...

for the battle is not yours, but God's."

2 Chronicles 20:15

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250th American Anniversary Weekend

Our 4th of July was really a good one.  Here are some of the highlights.

Saturday morning, I was up very early, at 5 p.m., to pick up my granddaughters and take them to the Freedom Festival July 4th Parade in Provo, Utah.   Getting up early paid off and we were able to get good seats to watch the parade.

Here we are together in our front row seats getting ready to the see all the fun parade action. 

Here are some scenes from the parade that, I have heard, is rated as the #1 July 4th parade west of the Mississippi.  It usually draws quite a crowd - about 300,000 spectators, according to the city of Provo website. It was a fun parade and I enjoyed being there with  my granddaughters. 

After the parade, I took my granddaughters home, then went home to rest.  After rehydrating and taking a short nap, Josh and I went to another fun July 4th event in our community - the Colonial Heritage Festival.  

Josh's bishop (pastor) was one of the directors of this event, so Josh had been wanting to attend since he heard about it. 

The entire event centers around reenactment of colonial culture.  There were lots of "soldiers" and military reenactments. 

There were all kind of interesting colonial period exhibits.  

There were also some lectures and talks about the history of that era. 

Later, we went to our daughter's home for a special 4th of July family dinner. This is my son-in-law and daughter. They are a lovely couple and are raising a wonderful family.  

There was lots of American themed food, including this fun fruit salad that my granddaughter made to look like a flag. 

We enjoyed eating and visiting over a very  delicious July 4th dinner. 

After dinner, we played badminton and cornhole in the backyard.

Jumping on the trampoline looked like lots of fun.  I wanted to try it, but I also didn't want to break something. 

It was so much fun to have a fun evening with these people that we love so much. 

No fireworks for us on July 4th because personal fireworks were banned by our governor due to recent wildfires in our state.  Our community's fireworks and patriotic drone show took place last month, and while there was a big fireworks show in Provo, it could not be seen from our house.  Josh really wanted to see the WWII movie Lucky Strike, so he and Charly went to a late showing of that. They both liked the movie and said they would like to see it again. 

Sunday was a low-key day.  Because our 4th of July was so busy and Charly got home so late after going to a movie with Josh, we did not go to our Sunday morning worship service.  I really miss church when I don't go, and I look forward to being there to worship next week! We had to go to our old house again Sunday to take the garbage cans back to the backyard after garbage day. Back home, we had a restful day, mostly inside because it was 99 degrees outside. Our Sunday dinner had a summer Independence Day theme - hot dogs, baked beans, macaroni salad, and chips.  Josh came over for dinner and we enjoyed eating and visiting with him. 

After dinner, Charly and I settled down to watch another American history series about Ulysses Grant on Netflix.  It is a very good series.  

When we finished the series on Ulysses Grant, we started another one about George Washington.  I love history and found the series very interesting. 

Later, when it was a little cooler, I went for a walk around the neighborhood. 

Weekend Gratitude:

• Living in the United States of America. 
• Having a wonderful weekend celebrating this nation's birth. 
• Spending time with our children and grandchildren.

Praying For:

• Our nation. 
• My children and grandchildren.
• The sale of our home. 

Looking Forward To:

• Lunch with my cousin this week. 
• Seeing our daughter and her family again next weekend. 
• Getting our house sold. 

That's all for now.  I hope you have had a good weekend and that the week ahead is a good one for you.

Until next time

😊Deb💖