Syracuse Boil Order

On Friday, June 5, Syracuse confirmed a contaminated sample (E-coli) from the culinary water system. The city issued a "Boil Notice" for the entire City until further notice.


We were advised to:

• Use boiled or bottled water
• If you plan to boil, bring it to rapid boil for 1 minute.
• Throw out ice cubes from regrigerator
• Boiled water or bottle water should be used for brushing teeth, washing hands before food prep, and for food preparation.
• Shower is permissible in un-boiled water if there are no open sore on the body and it doesn't enter the mouth.

The the water from the provides is declared safe:

• Drain and flush all ice makers, water heaters, purifiers, water softeners.
• Lets cold water run through water every faucet in your house for 20 minutes followed by 2 straight hot water. Replace filters.
• Throw out ice cubes or other water stored in refrigeration that have connections o culinary water sources.

The "Boil Notice" in effect until the effect until until late Tuesday.

There were a lot of people panicking and I heard it was pretty intense at the store trying to get water. For whatever reason, I really wasn't concerned at all. Friday night we tried to use bottled water, though I admit I forgot a few times and drank from the tap.

On Saturday, we spent most of the day down in Utah County for my nephews' baptism. So we really weren't home much of the day.

The next few days, we simply boiled water when needed, used bottled water when needed, and it really wasn't that big of a deal. I informed Will that there were "bugs" in the water and he did a really good job not drinking from the tap or giving any water to Blake. Yes, it was slightly annoying and I felt it was harder to clean things since I couldn't just wash dishes in the sink, but it wasn't the end of the world. Maybe I should have been more concerned, I'm not sure.

But yahoo for clean water again!

Wild West Days

Last Christmas, we planned on taking Will up to Heber City to ride the Polar Express. Apparently, if you don't buy you tickets right away, you wont get to go. I've been telling Will for months that we would go ride the train, there just hasn't been a good time.

On Memorial Day, we were sitting there wondering what to do, so I looked online to see if any trains were going today. It turns out it was Wild West Days. There was a small magic show, a gun fight, and a short train ride complete with train robbers.

There were still some tickets left so we bought them, invited our friend Savannah, and headed up to Heber City.

Will was so anxious to get onto the train. While we were waiting to go aboard, we walked around the train to look at all of the cars. As we got to the front engine, the engineer invited Will to climb up and go look inside. He went in a little ways, before coming back out and saying he was done. I though he would want to go in and look at everything.

We boarded the train and we were off. While we were going, we had a fiddle player stop to play some music, and the sheriff came by asking if we had seen any robbers. About 15-20 minutes into the ride, the train stopped. We were being held up by some robbers.

They came aboard and told everyone to get their hands up. As the sheriff got closer, they hurried to the next car. When the sheriff came, we pointed him in the direction the robbers had gone.

Later, the robbers came back through with a bag of gold, but the police had caught up with them. The robbers were forced to share the gold, and we were all given a chocolate gold coin.

The train turned around and we headed back to the station. Will was very upset because he wanted to keep going into the mountains and he wasn't ready to turn around.

 

  I wish it would have been a longer ride, though we had fun. Next time, we will have to try the 2-3 hour trip. Will would love it.

Grandpa William Lee Banks

The past couple of months have been pretty rough on my grandparents. I can't remember how long it's been exactly, but it seems as if they both declined extremely fast.

I remember getting a call from my mom a while ago saying that she had received a call in the middle of the night because they found my grandparents driving home from St. George on the opposite side of the freeway. Luckily, there was no accident and no one was injured. That could have been a very bad situation. Immediately the following day, both of their cars were sold.

My Grandma Banks has been forgetting things for some time now. She will ask you the same question every 2-3 minutes and you can have the exact same conversation 10 times. Since they had their vehicles taken away, her health has declined rapidly. She hardly eats and has lost a lot of weight, her kidneys are failing, and sometimes she wont get out of bed for days. There has been more than once, when my mom has told me that she wasn't sure if Grandma would make it through the weekend.

Then suddenly my Grandpa started having some health problems as well. They were finally able to get a hospice nurse to come spend an hour with each of them every day, taking blood pressure, checking oxygen levels, feeding them, whatever was needed. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough as someone needed to be with them pretty much 24/7. So my mom and her siblings have taken turns staying there and taking care of their parents.

There was one point a couple of months ago when my mom said she wondered if Grandpa had had a stroke. He was normal and acting fine one day, then suddenly he could barely communicate and all sorts of other issues. Eventually, they determined it was not quite a stroke, but something very similar where the brain goes without oxygen for a time.

My mom thinks the same thing may have happened the day before he passed.

On Memorial Day morning, May 25, 2015, my mom, Kim, and McKenzie were at my grandparents house taking care of them. My mom said that at one point Grandpa said "bathroom" and her and Kim were able to help him to the restroom. When he got back to bed, he lay there and gone within a few minutes. As my mom could see what was happening, she urged my grandma to lay beside him as she didn't think he was going to make it. I'm told my grandma kept telling him that he couldn't leave her, and that she asked him to take her with him.

I got the call around 1pm that my Grandpa had died.

The funeral was that weekend in Cedar City, UT.

I was asked to prepare some sort of musical number. I looked through a ton of sheet music, but nothing felt right. I finally remembered a song that I would maybe be interested in singing, but I really didn't want to do a solo. My cousin's wife Tina volunteered to sing with me. I played the piano, and together we sang "The Test" by Janice Kapp Perry. I was so nervous and shaking terribly, but I suppose it turned out well enough.

The funeral was really nice. There was a lot of family there, and it was good to see cousins that I hadn't seen in years. At the cemetery, my grandpa was given a military salute.

They gave my grandma a flag and thanked her for his service, there was a gun salute, and a few trumpets played. It was really cool and the most emotional part of the day for me.

My grandma has had a tough time, understandably. She forgets that he is gone and asks where he is. Then she remembers and become very sad. She's mad that he left her behind. I'm afraid that she wont be too far behind, though it's hard to say.

I lived with my grandparents for my last two years of High School, but I feel like I don't know them that well. I have very few, if any, memories of them when I was little, and I really didn't see them a ton during the time I lived with them. It was really nice to listen to people talk about his life and to learn a little more about him. It's unfortunate that it wasn't something I took the time to do while he was still alive.

 Fortunately, I was in Cedar City about 2 weeks ago and I was able to see my Grandpa before he died. I really wish I would have a least got one picture with him that weekend.

 I have the best siblings in the world and I'm so glad that everyone was able to make it.

Love you, Grandpa. 

A Week Later

A week later, and Blake's glasses now look like this:

My friend was babysitting Will and Blake while I was at the dentist, and when I returned to pick them up, she handed me the glasses in pieces. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but Will says she grabbed both parts and just pulled in opposite directions.

Unfortunately her second pair is still on back order and we are waiting for them to come in. Meanwhile, I took this broken pair back and they are repairing them, but it could take several days. Until then, Blake is without glasses again. And maybe it's just a coincidence, maybe not, but she has sure been grumpy since they broke. I really hope they get fixed quickly.

Luckily they have a warranty on the glasses and I shouldn't have to pay anything to have them fixed. And hopefully this doesn't become too common of an occurrence.

And She Can See

As I mentioned in this post, Blake will now be wearing glasses. Last week, we headed to the place our doctor recommended us, but they didn't take our insurance. They had so many options and I really liked the way that they fit Blake. I reluctantly left and headed to Target Optical, where my insurance does cover.

But Target had a VERY small selection for kids and I really didn't like any of them. Either they were just plain ugly, or they didn't fit right and would fall off of her head. Even though it was a bit more expensive, I headed back to the other place and ordered her two pairs of glasses. I'm sure it'll be worth paying the extra to actually have them stay on her face.

Her main pair that I ordered are on back order and probably wont be here for another week or two. The second pair that I got came in yesterday. After only two days of having them, I can already tell a difference. 

It was very interesting to watch it all go down. Last week when we were trying the glasses on, Blake HATED them. I had to restrain her to even put them on, and if I let go of her arms, she would immediately rip them off. She was screaming, throwing herself around, and making it impossible to try to take a picture. 

Here are a few of the different pairs we tried on.

I thought these were cute, but they were just a bit too big. 

 I also kind of liked these Nike ones, but they were very pricey. 

This was the pair that I ended up going with. They are different than normal glasses in the part by the ear is extended and wraps all the way around the ear so they really stay put. They weren't necessarily my favorites, but they seemed to be the ones Blake liked the most. They were the only ones that she didn't pull off immediately. And really, it's not about what I like. The most important thing is that she wears them. 

Because we could get a second pair for half-off, I decided to go with these Dora glasses. We got a call saying the Dora glasses were ready and we went to pick them up yesterday. I wanted to get a video when she very first tried them on, but I wasn't able to. But when we put the glasses on, she instantly froze. Then she slowly started looking around. I could see her eyes just looking around the room, taking everything in. I couldn't get her to look at me for a picture because she was so engrossed with looking at everything else.

After a few adjustments, we were on our way with Blake in her new glasses. I stopped outside the store and got this video.

 

And when we got out to the car, she couldn't take her eyes off of the window. It was fun to watch her just take everything in and experience seeing things clearly for the first time. 

 

I was amazed at how well she did all day long. She took them off once or twice, and one time hid them in a place that took me FOREVER to find and almost had me in full on panic, rip-apart-the-house mode. But overall, she kept them on and did super great. Way better than I was expecting. 

I'll admit when I first heard she'd have to get glasses, I was a little worried at how they would look. A lot of kids look super cute in glasses, but some just look a little dorky. And if she fell into that latter category, oh well. But after seeing her in them and watching her, I've decided that she is more adorable than ever.  

I mean just look at that face! How cute is she?!

 
And of course, Will had to have some glasses as well. 

Whether is just coincidence or not, she has been a really happy girl the past two days. She no longer stands inches away from the tv, and I'll frequently find her staring and looking at everything. She seems to enjoy wearing them, and has brought them to me several times today telling me they were dirty and asking me to clean them. I'm thrilled that she seems to be doing so well with them and I'm happy for her that she no longer has to live how she was.