It's Official--Carl's Retired!

May 4, 2009--Carl officially retired from Verizon Wireless. To say he is ecstatic would be an understatement! He went out as a rebel. He bought what he refers to as a "retiree shirt" to wear on the last day.

1. Here he is--not at all happy to have to go to work.

2. At his retiree party, he really was happy

3. Here is our retiree, as he comes in the door on his final work day. To quote nephew Nick, "Hoot Katoosh!!!"

Spring Has Sprung

We think it's for sure this time--spring has arrived! That means time for yard clean-up. Carl wanted a handy dandy wagon he saw at Lowe's--he had all kinds of reasons to justify the purchase. You can see from these photos that he has come full circle. Just wish we had a photo of him pulling a wagon as a little boy. There was a big construction waste container down the street so he piled all he could on his wagon and headed down the middle of the street. He was right. The wagon came in handy! Guess it will have to take the place of a pickup for us.

Proof that it's spring...

The Big 65!!

Carl turned 65 on April 23rd, and it couldn't come soon enough for him--he is sooooo ready to be done working so he can do some playing--ha! Pat has a honey-do list that is fairly lengthly.

We celebrated the big milestone on Saturday--went to breakfast at Village Inn, then steak and grilled veggies dinner with Carl as the griller (of course). Dessert was a decadent 6-layer coconut cake from Paula Deen's book (butter required of course). Pat had requested favorite Carl memories from the kids, and (with Carrie's help) put together a memory book of quotes and photos--quite a masterpiece.

Happy guy with his coconut cake--his wish as he blew out the candles was that the next 6 days of work would go by "really fast."

The happy guy with his memory book

This is how the grandkids spent part of the evening (the other part was tearing around the house having a wonderful time--only a few tears and scrapes)

The evening ended with a hot game of "The Office" trivia game--as I recall Curtis was the winner.

Spring Snow Made Tolerable

After posting the photo of the pussywillow tree in beautiful spring weather last week, here is what is happening now. However, a visit from my pal, Cameron, makes it all tolerable! This is how he likes to be held when his grandma sings the ABC song to him.

Carl and "The Center for Facial Appearances"

("The Center for Facial Appearances" is really the name of the following facility) Yesterday, Carl had his first follow-up appointment to remove stitches and have the contacts removed. He went to the downtown office for the first time (this doctor maintains two offices, one in downtown Salt Lake City and one in Sandy). As we walked into the downtown office, we could plainly see that anyone who is interested in the medical field should go into cosmetic surgery as it was PLUSH--exquisitely decorated with original artwork, statuary, and Persian rugs.

While waiting in the well-appointed waiting area in the comfy overstuffed leather chairs, Carl noticed a restroom and thought that if they are going to be "digging" around in his eyes, he better take advantage of the opportunity. The restroom was as equisitly decorated as the rest of the entire office. After finishing using the facilities, his attention immediately went to making sure no one could tell he had even been in there. After a quick examination of the "rim" he lowered the lid, quickly washed his hands, and departed.

It wasn't long until we were called to follow the perky little assistant down the long corridor to the examining room. The stitches were removed by the physician's helper, as well as the protective contacts, and his eyes quickly felt better. The facial surgeon made his entrance, sat down, and proceeded to tell Carl about his experience under anesthesia during the surgery. Carl said, "yes, I remember waking up during the procedure and hollering, 'I'm awake!' " The doctor said, "yes, I know, we had to turn off the anesthesia because you were so agitated." So Carl asked the doctor: "Was I being a real brat?" He laughed and said, "Well, you were thrashing around, moving your head from side to side, closing your eyes really tight and refusing to open them, and trying to get your hand up to your face to help out. We finally had to turn it off and wake you up so you would hold still, and proceeded with a local with you awake!" As a result of Carl not holding still, he has to go back in in three weeks to complete the procedure of permanently removing eyelashes that grow straight up from the lower lid, rubbbing against the eyeball (a condition he's always had).

It wasn't until on our way home that he happened to put his hands in his lap and felt the rought edges of a zipper. He looked down and realized that his fly was wide open and had been the entire time since using the fancy restroom. He guessed he was so intent on destroying all evidence of his being there, he forgot to zip up! The positive in all this is he can see better and has a wider range of vision.

Day Five...

Day #5, and things are getting scarier all the time. Carl eyes now look like a green hamburger with mustard and ketchup top and bottom! However, out in public he looks mighty fine in his cool sunglasses, so he doesn't scare little kids!

Sickies-Day 4

I (Pat) just figured out we can take photos right from our laptop...I know, you probably all knew that, but we are of the generation that has to learn every little computer thing one at a time!

I had just called Carl tlo the kitchen where I was working on the laptop...he came up behind me with his hand on his foreheard...to see the wonder of the laptop camera. So, here you have him on Day 4! He is still swollen and black and blue; however, if we can look beyond all that we see "one hot stud." (He told me to say that!)