Sunday, August 31, 2008

Life's a Rollercoaster - Family Update

Moving into September, here are some of the things that are happening in our family. Devery and Easton are now back at BYU and are living once again in south Provo. Devery will be finishing her degree this semester, taking 19 hours (!) of mostly business-related courses. Darren is about to hit the one-year mark on his mission and at present is still training a new missionary in Comayagua. We need to start looking into what it will take to get him back into school, anticipating that he'll be able to return a couple of weeks early next August so that he can return to BYU for the (entire) fall semester. Kiley is starting her junior year of high school and is busy with honors classes, early-morning seminary, and her cello-playing. Heidi and Kristy and their families are busy and have their trials. Dorine is back working as an EA at Chelwood Elementary School, and I hope to have a few recreational opportunities this fall -- a trip to Carlsbad over the APS fall break; a couple more hikes in the Sandias (South Peak, Piedra Lisa Spring); and a caving trip to the Guadalupe Mountains in November. So far I've resisted the idea of another trip to Las Vegas, where I haven't been now in almost two years.

I'm still not sleeping as well as I'd like, although last night I found it helped significantly to change out the air-filter element in my "VPAP" machine. But I still haven't had to resort to medications again, and that's the way I want to keep it. I still think I can overcome the minor "environmental" discomforts I'm facing, but it may take some time.

I have gone back to my "Rock 'N' Roll Favorites" posts from January-February and added links to video/audio files on Youtube for most of the songs (I couldn't find videos for a few of them). I think you'll enjoy following the links and seeing what my "favorite" songs by all those groups actually sound like.

The attached picture was taken in May 2007 on the "Ghost Rider" rollercoaster at Knott's Berry Farm, which of course is just up the road from Disneyland in Orange County, CA. As you can see, Devery, Darren, Kiley, and I all have interesting reactions to higher-than-normal g-forces!