Oldroyd Family Life and Times of an Oldroyd

Saturday 10/16 was a long day for all of the family. I’m glad that I am taking Monday off. We started off the day with family pictures. We haven’t had family pictures in 6 years. Ok it wasn’t full out family pictures but kid pictures. We went out to daybreak and met the photographer and amazingly enough all the kids cooperated quite well. I think we will have some nice shots. I took some pictures as well but by that time the kids were thoroughly ‘done’.
We went from there to dad’s house to help clean up his yard. Jon and Matt were there as well and we worked for several hours (enough for me to get a good sunburn on my head). We tore up a whole lot of vegetation and filled Bob’s trailer to overflowing. I had the privilege of doing the pyracantha shaping. The gas powered hedge clippers helped but it still was a tiring pain-filled process. We all have always hated that hedge, but I can’t imagine it not being there. It has so many memories for us. The cleaning up was emotional as well. Kris came up to me in tears needing a hug because she missed mom. I too was choked up thinking about how much mom loved her yard and every plant in it (maybe the exception being the pyracantha). Her presence was certainly felt as we cleaned up her yard. While we were technically helping out dad, it felt alike we were serving mom. I love and miss her, even though I know she is busy with other work. I hope I can make her proud.
After the cleanup we went home and saw part of the Utah football game and then it was on to installing our new dryer. It wasn’t all that hard, but just time consuming. I tried to switch the door around but found that it requires a special ‘kit’. So after tearing it apart I put it all back without any change. Finally it was installed and it runs soooooo quietly. I forgot how quiet a dryer could be. Our not-so-old one was extremely loud. It needed a whole lot of work – so much that it was cheaper to go with a new one. Glad that we did it. Hopefully it won’t tear our clothes either.
Then I went on to changing a light switch. It has been a pain for a long time and it is so nice to have the switch actually work without jiggling it every time.
We were scheduled to go to Cassidy’s play, but we were all pretty wiped out so we swapped our tickets out for this Thursday night. After a quick dinner for the kids of Mac-n-cheese we got them bathed and off to bed. They were all tired to and didn’t give us much grief.
Kris and I then had a mini in-date with Chinese food and a mindless tv show. It was a nice end to a long day. Kris is great and I love her tons and tons. So glad to be married to her forever.

From Mare:
We welcomed a new baby boy to the family today! 7:22am, 8lbs 3oz, 21 inches. He has all the right parts and pieces and we are thrilled to have 2 boys to chase around. We do not have a name yet but are happy to take suggestions. Mare is doing well and looks forward to a long day of sleeping.

Love to all,
Jonathan, Marianne, Elijah and baby boy