Crazy Time here in DaHo...

First, I am very sorry that I have not posted to this blog for two weeks. It has been a very crazy time here and I am finally getting back up to the surface again.

When we last spoke, we were in the process of grieving through Matt's funeral preparations, and all of the details that went along with that tragedy. Then, during the next week, we were preparing for Pam's 50th Birthday party. It was a crazy time from all sides.

We did have the birthday party on July 4th as planned and it was a great one, as far as parties here have gone before. We had lots of friends and neighbors over with their families and a good time was had by all. This time I held off on cooking too much food and we ran short of the best stuff - mainly my ribs. I did them a new way and they were the best ever, but I most always say that...

Then, after finishing the party and recovering from it, we had to clean up the house for the events to come.

Then, on Monday evening was Matt's viewing. There were a lot of folks that attended the viewing from California, where he as lived lately, and from all over Idaho, from all the places that he had lived or had friends.

The grave side service was given by Roberta's Pastor Mike and he did a great job as always. It was attended by a lot of folks and was a great affair for as much as such an event can go.

After the service, everybody came over to our house for a last opportunity to be together and remember Matt. We had some food left over from the party, and Pam was up most of the night preparing food. And, when the other guests arrived, there was a ton of food brought from Roberta's church folks that was added to the mix. We covered the pool table and it was completely filled with food from all sides. It was another great event for Matt.

After everybody left, we spent the next couple of days cleaning up the house and getting everything back into order again.

Then last weekend, Pam had her 4 nieces over from her youngest brother Bobby. They range in age from 8 to 14. And, since that wasn't enough, Pam had her nephew, Roman, come over. He is about 9 I think. Anyway, we had a crowd of folks and had to use two cars to get anywhere we went for the weekend. We went down to this place that Pam had been before where you pick out raw ceramic figurines and decorate them however you want and then leave them there to be fired in their ovens to be picked up the next week. It was great fun - except for the bill...

All of Saturday, Pam and the girls, and Roman had a great time with a slipnSlide and Wii Games and clothes and all sorts of stuff. Pam and all the kids stayed in the living room over night on air mattresses and sleeping bags. We ended up going to restaurants a couple of times and it was none stop excitement until they all left on Sunday. Then, we had another house to be straightened up again.

Then a few hours later, I got a call from Pam Bissell that we knew from Moss Beach California for many, many years. She was frantic an told me that her and her husband, Lyle, had been here visiting his family in Pocatello, ID for the last week and on Sunday morning he was dead. He died in his sleep from a heart attack. He was discovered by his wife Pam when she was trying to get him up so they could get ready to leave for home. He was only 55 and very healthy. His only bad vice was smoking. It was a shock to all and he will be sorely missed by everybody.

His funeral was on this last Wednesday, so Pam took off of work and we went up to Pocatello for his funeral. It was very different as everybody was totally shocked by his passing and they have family all over Idaho and Utah. We were there for about 3 hours until it was over and we had a chance to spend some time with Pam Bissell. Pam took Tommy with us to the funeral and he was one of the only bright spots of the day. Everybody loved him and he was able to take a little of the shocked and stunned feelings away with his cute and loving ways.

Then, after the funeral, we continued to drive north about 35 miles to Lava Hot Springs. This is where Pam has a lot of family and use to go up there for summers when she was a kid. It is probably the most impressive water oriented place I have ever seen. There is a white water river, only about 25 feet wide, going through the town of about 8 blocks in length. Then there is this VERY LARGE swimming pool with Olympic sized diving platforms, over 30 feet high, and giant water slides. All over the town, there are places to rent the river rafting tubes and the whole little town is a tourist place for families to bring their kids for tons of water oriented fun.

And, now we are back home. We still need to finish cleaning up the house from the last weekend of 'fun' and I have been trying to catch up on all the business work that has been limited to only necessary things while all of this has been going on.

There is still a lot of great things to mention about the business, but that will have to come at a later date. That is about all I can type here in DaHo...