Duane Wall

died 2009-08-23

Duane A. Wall, age 82 of Vernal, surrounded by his wife and family, passed away Aug. 23, 2009 after a recent injury.
He was born July 24, 1927 in Maeser, to Henry Wilford Wall and Alice Adams, the oldest of seven children, four of whom precede him in death.
He was raised in Avalon, Utah, graduating from Alterra High School where he played basketball. He attempted to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War II, but was rejected as being too tall. He married Valenna Rae Gardiner on June 21, 1950 and was then drafted for the Korean Conflict where he served as a Motor Pool Sergeant from May of 1952 to Feb. 1954.
A daughter, Anita, joined the family in May of 1962. Duane worked in the building trades for many years, receiving diplomas from the State Board of Vocational Education as Carpenter and Carpenter Foreman, and certified in Civil Defense. He worked on construction of the Flaming Gorge Dam as well as numerous other projects. He also worked most every job in the oilfield, retiring from Dresser Magcobar in 1983, then working for Turner Lumber for many years.
He married Vadrus Joyce Bodily on Nov. 6, 1973 after the death of his wife Valenna. He often stated he always wanted a big family, and was immediately joined by six more children.
A faithful member of the LDS Church, Duane served as President of the Gusher Branch in 1961, and later as Sunday School President and greeter. He served two Stake Missions to the Uintah Basin Indian Mission as well as ward missions. Later, at the age of 73, he was called with his wife Vadrus to serve a C.E.S. Mission to the Vladivostok, Russia Mission, where a doubtful Mission President was impressed by his vigor and impact, particularly with the many young people who were baptized.
He is widely known in the Basin for his work ethic, friendly demeanor, and never-ending willingness to help anyone. Many times after working all day, he spent all night repairing a vehicle broken down along the road. Trips to the city after a snowstorm could be painfully long, as he always stopped to pull every car that had slid off back on the highway.
In his retirement years he built quilt-stands for dozens of people and gave away scores of handcrafted stools. His grandsons and other boys were built scout footlockers, and children were made blocks. He liked carpentry projects for the joy of giving them away. He is loved as a gentle, friendly man with a steady temperament and faith. Greatly loved by his family, and many others in the Basin.
Duane is survived by his loving wife Vadrus; children, Ann Reynolds (Kenneth), Lisa Watkins (Greg), Lydia Anders (Gary), Edward Burghardt, Anita Ashmead (Lon), Laurie McDowell (James), Barbara Madsen (Robert); brothers Don of Casper, Wyo. and Ted of Powell, Wyo.; 27 grandchildren and 51 great-grandchildren.
Preceding him in death are his parents; brothers, Laverne “Poncho”, Neldon “Blondie”, Wilford “Doc” and sister Veda; his first wife Valenna Gardiner; as well as grandchildren, Kevin Reynolds and Sheridan Madsen; and great-granddaughters Hunter Watkins and Izzi Howcroft.
Services will be held Aug. 28 at 11 a.m. at the Naples 1st Ward Chapel (2313 South 1500 East) in Vernal. Friends and family may call Thursday from 6-8 at the Mortuary. Military honors will be by the American Legion Post 124 and 11 and the Utah National Guard.
Interment will be in the Maeser-Fairview Cemetery under the direction of the Blackburn Vernal Mortuary.

Uncle Duane

I found out today that my Uncle Duane passed away. A few days ago he fell walking up some stairs and broke his leg. He hasn't been really well for a while so it was hard on his body. Right now I'm just glad that he isn't in pain anymore. It's sad to know that we won't see him at any of the family reunions or get togethers but it makes me glad to know that we will see him again someday in Heaven if we live worthily.
Uncle Duane was this very tall man, he was like this giant teddy bear that wouldn't hurt a fly. Whenever he was around he would stand next to you and give you a side hug and tell you how glad he was to see you. He was always very complimentary. He would tell me how pretty I was and how I looked like my Mom. He was such a sweet man and I'm so glad that I could call him my Uncle. He will be dearly missed.
My Mom told me that yesterday Duane was talking about how he had seen some of our family members that have passed away already. I like to think they were near to him at the end to help him find the way back to our Father in Heaven. I am so grateful to know that we are a Forever Family and we will be together again with all of our loved ones that have passed on before.

A moment of duh!

So the last few days I noticed that I was the only visitor to my blog. Being silly me I wondered if I had done something offensive to keep people from looking at my blog. Then it just occurred to me that a few days ago I turned my private blog setting back on so that I could get a few e-mail addresses from it. Silly me.. I turned it back off now.

All about Kimber

Kimber has started to talk a lot more lately. She says, "HI!" and "Bye!" She also says, "Pleeease!" which when she says it sounds like she's saying cheeese. It's so darn cute! She also says, "Thank you!" and then possibly my favorite, "Okay!" She kind of says it like Little John (is that the name of that rapper guy?) It's too cute for words but don't worry I have it on video.

We're starting to see that Kimber is probably going to be left handed. Her uncle Russ will be so happy to hear that since he is a lefty too. Anytime I hand her a crayon or a spoon she takes it with her left so I'm thinking that's a pretty good sign but we'll see maybe it will change and maybe she'll use both her left and right like my older brother John does.

She absolutely loves shoes. She is so totally a girl. The other day Brett took her shoes off because we came in from outside and she had the biggest fit. If we leave her bedroom door open she will go in there and find shoes to put on herself. Usually that means that she pulled every other shoe at of the drawer too so now there is a fun shoe mess to clean up. We leave our flip flops by the back door so they are ready to be slipped on as we go outside and Kimber usually sits down and puts them on and walks around the house. I don't know why it is but girls love shoes and this is proof that it starts at a very young age.

Whenever I am in the kitchen Kimber comes in to mooch a cracker or anything else that is tasty to eat. When I pull out the crackers she just plops down wherever she is standing so that she can completely concentrate on her treat. I sometimes sit down on the floor too to feed her some dinner since that's where she puts herself. I do that instead of picking her up and moving her which would end up with her being mad at me.

Speaking of being a mooch... Brett usually eats his food in the family room in front of the TV. Kimber is always right there with him asking for a bite or a sip of his soda. Brett doesn't mind though. I think he really likes the attention from her.

Kimber just loves to be with her sister. Anywhere that Madi is Kimber is sure to be close behind. They love to dance with each other which really is Madi pulling Kimber by the arm and Kimber trying so hard to stay on her feet. They have so much fun together I just love to watch them play.

We are so blessed to have these sweet little girls in our home. I thank Heavenly Father for them everyday and I pray that I can do my best to teach them to do what is right and follow the teachings of the gospel.

New Background

Hey do you like my new background? It's a barn get it? The Barnes'.... Ha ha ha! Just kidding it's really not that funny but I do have to buy a calendar of barn's every year and once I even had checks with barn's on them. I'm silly I know.. When you grew up with the last name Fairey you have to have a good sense of humor about your name and Barnes is really pretty normal.

Jumping Bean

These girls love to dance!

The Turn Around

On Saturday I took Madi to the open house at a dance studio here in town called The Turn Around. From the moment we walked in I got a completely different vibe when compared to the other dance school I had Madi enrolled in. Madi was really excited about the girls that were there practicing their gymnastics. I enrolled Madi in the Pre-Gymnastics class and the Pre-Ballet class. While we were there we picked up Madi's dance shoes and a new leotard. I'm thinking that since Madi will have Payton and Claire in the same ballet class that it should go a lot better oh and the fact that her teacher wont be the Ballet Nazi should help too. Her first class is on the 25th so we'll see how it goes.

Girls Night!

It is so necessary to have time away to hang out with the girls. I have always felt guilty about not taking every possible moment of free time that Brett had off from work to hang out with him and the girls. I never and I mean hardly ever leave my girls with anyone. If you ask Tifany she'll tell you that she would always offer to take Madi but I would never take her up on it. I rarely left the girls with Brett and head out on my own. He would offer to take the girls but I would take them with me. I just don't want to inconvenience anybody but come on myself I need to accept help. It's not that I don't trust Brett or Tifany with the girls I know that they are both very capable I'm just silly. Since moving to Iowa I have started changing my ways. I have come to realize how nice it is to go to the doctor by myself and not have to juggle the girls while trying to talk to the doctor. Tifany has been my life saver many times.
Tifany has also tried to get me to go out on a girls night without kids but since I'm such a silly I wouldn't ever go unless I took the girls. Brett was so glad when I asked him if it would be ok if he took care of the girls so I could go out on a girls night. I didn't even finish what I was saying and he already knew where I was going with it and he said, "Definitely!" So once a month we (the girls) get together and go to a movie or whatever without kids or husbands. It's such great fun! Last night Tifany and I had already been planning on going to see The Time Travelers Wife (which neither of our husbands wanted to see) and go eat at Hu Hot (which isn't Brett's favorite). We met Shelby Ropte at Hu Hot and she then came with us to the mall. At the mall we decided to take Brett's advice and try out this new massage parlor. I'm a little sore today from the chair massage that I got but it was so worth it. It just hurt so good!! After we all had our pampering we did a little window shopping until the mall closed at 9:PM so we went to Target because we still had 50 minutes until the movie started. While we were shopping I heard back from our friend Amber (that we met at the girls tumbling class) and she decided to come meet us at the movie.
The movie was really sad and I knew it would be. It was sad and happy all in one. I liked the story line. I like sad movies but I guess I'm weird that way.
The night was a lot of fun and I'm so glad that I've finally decided to go out and take a little Mommy break. It's also so fun to come home and have the girls so excited to see me.. I mean they love me I know they do but since they are always with me it's no big deal when they see me except when I've been away. It's cool to see how fun it is for Brett when he comes home and the girls are so excited to see him.
We (the girls) have decided that we are going to do a girls night at least once a month. It's so nice to have the time away and it's fun to get to know the girls better.

Facing Her Fears

Madi isn't what you would call the bravest of kids. She doesn't like to be tossed up in the air or swung around. Brett took her on a carousel ride and she screamed and cried the entire time. What's scary about a carousel? It's not like it was even going up and down or anything. She doesn't really even like to swing in a swing either. If you push her very high at all she completely freaks out. She is just a ground loving little girl. She doesn't usually like to climb the stairs and go down the slide at the park. Well, Friday we finally went to the pool at the YMCA. They have a zero entry pool that is kind of like the splash parks. They also have a long winding water slide. I didn't think that there would be anyway that Madi would want to go down the slide. I watched her face when she saw Payton and Kutter going down with their Dad. She thought it was pretty cool. I asked her if she wanted to go down if Ryan took her and at first she said yes and then immediately said, "NO!" Then Tifany turns to me and says, "I bet I can get her to go down." I knew that if Tifany talked to her about it she would probably go for it. I watched in disbelief as Madi took Tifany's hand and walked with her over to the stairs of the slide. I did notice a little of hesitation from Madi. You know how you know what your kids do when they don't want to do something well I could see in Madi's body language that she really wasn't wanting to go up there but she went ahead anyway. I thought for sure that they would get to the top of the slide and Madi would start screaming. I was so excited when I saw that she climbed onto Tifany's lap and rode down the slide. Then when she reached the bottom she was smiling from ear to ear. It was awesome! What was even better is that she wanted to do it over and over. Then I tried to take her down and I didn't know the trick to keep her head above water at the bottom so we both went for a swim and she didn't like having her head go under water. After that she was starting to change her mind about the slide but Tifany was right there and immediately took her up and down the slide again. I was so proud of Madi for facing her fear and then stomping on it.
I had another eye doctor appointment so I left Madi with Tifany and Ryan at the pool and Kimber and I went to the doctor appointment. When I got back to the pool I sat down by Ryan and asked him how Madi was when I was gone and he said that she was just fine. Then about a second later he shot up from the chair and through the wading pool. My eyes were dilated so it was hard for me to see anything in the day light but Ryan was running to save Madi. She had been standing playing with the rope that separates the deep pool from the wading pool. She lost her footing and went under water. She was still in water that she could have stood up in but she was panicking so she went under water. Ryan brought her out of the water and she was just fine. I think she swallowed a little bit of water but other than that she was ok. I told her that she needs to be more careful about going by the deep water. I told her that she better tell Ryan thank you for saving her life. Tifany came over to see how Madi was and then almost immediately said to Madi that they were going to go down the slide again. Madi hesitated but with a little coaxing she went right along. I was so proud because Madi having just going under water and being scared was brave enough to face her fear and go back in the water. Of course I have to give all the credit to Tifany and Ryan, I don't think she would ever do it for me. Now I just can't wait to put Madi in swimming lessons.

My poor little Baby Boo

Poor little Kimber has had a rough week. I think it was Wednesday morning that she woke up with a temperature of 102.3. All day I was giving her Tylenol to get her temperature to go down. She played outside a little but just wasn't completely herself. She wasn't really interested in eating. I really started to worry about how high her temperature was that night when she just felt so hot and she wasn't sleeping very well. I consulted one of the nurses in the family about when I should get worried and take her to see the doctor. Megan (the nurse) told me to alternate between Tylenol and Motrin every three hours and give Kimber a few luke warm baths. She said that if the temperature was still above 101 that I should take her in. So that night I started Motrin then Tylenol three hours later. I also gave Kimber a luke warm bath which didn't go over too well. She was just sitting in the tub shivering, it was a pretty sad sight. The next morning her temperature was back up to 102.3 so I called the doctors office to get her in.
At the doctors office they weighed Kimber and she was exactly 20 lbs. she's a growing girl. When the doctor came in the room she looked Kimber over and was concerned that the palms of her hands and her knees seemed to be yellow. She told me that she was just about to just send me over to the ER. She then went out and brought in another doctor to get his opinion. He was also concerned about how yellow Kimber seemed to be. I asked if it could just be the olive tone in her skin and he said that her little hands should be pink. I honestly couldn't recall if her hands were always that color or not. Then the doctor said to run a CBC and some other blood test and to check liver function. That right there freaked me out. When the walked out of the room I had to have a little pep talk with myself so that I didn't break down and start crying. While I was waiting for the doctor and nurses to come back in the room I took a second to send a text message to Megan to ask her what it all meant. She responded saying that the CBC test is what they do just to check everything to see what's wrong. That made me feel a little bit better but my imagination was just running wild with all the what if's.
The poor nurses that had to take Kimber's blood weren't happy about having to do it and Kimber wasn't happy about being laid out on the bed to have her arm tortured either. They had me lean over Kimber to hold her still because they had to take the blood from her arm. Neither of my girls have ever had to do this so it was traumatic for us all. I tell you what Kimber might be a tiny little bean but she sure can put up a good fight. I really had to hold her tight to keep her arm from moving around and of course they had to use a tiny needle for her tiny little arm so it took longer to get the amount of blood they needed. Not a fun experience that I ever want to have to put my baby through again.
It probably took 30 minutes to get all the results from the blood tests back so I had a good little while to ponder about all of what could be. I was so worried that something serious could be going on with my poor little Baby Boo but I tried really hard to be tough for both of us. Kimber fell asleep a little while after her ordeal with the needle so she got some much needed rest. When the doctor came back in the room she said that everything looked really good and that her liver function was normal. WHEW!!! A huge sigh of relief from me. She told me that sometimes kids just get an unknown virus that makes them have a temperature. She also told me that if Kimber still had a temperature by Friday night that I should just get her in to be seen again on Saturday.
I kind of thought that this could all be because of teeth in the beginning but because of the scare of the Swine Flu I was being very cautious. By Friday evening Kimber was cooling off she was still not in the best mood but she at least wasn't burning up. When Saturday morning rolled around she seemed much more like her usual self. We are pretty sure that the whole thing was because of all the darn teeth that are trying to come in at one time. She is still pretty ornery but she doesn't have a temperature anymore thank goodness.
I am so thankful that our girls are blessed with healthy bodies. It breaks my heart to see the sick children in the hospital. A few weeks ago I saw "My Sister's Keeper" and it broke my heart. I can only start to imagine how hard it would be to loose a child and then to have to watch them be sick would just kill you everyday. I am just very very VERY grateful to Heavenly Father that our girls have been blessed with good health. Actually they have great health because other than these little sicknesses they both have been very healthy.

2 boxes in 1 day...

What I said when I first saw this, "Ahhhh!! Kimber! Where's my camera?"

What I said when I first saw this, "Oh Kimber really? Two in one day!" What can I say she loves cereal and she knows where to go to get it. Oh and what's with the way she is sitting? Sheesh bendy girl!

Eye doctor

Two weeks ago I went to the eye doctor for my yearly eye check up. While I was waiting for the doctor I looked at all the fun frames. I tried on some really fun Tiffany and Co. glasses but decided that they were just a little too fancy for me. I just couldn't make my mind up about what frame to go with so I planned on taking Brett in with me to help me make my mind up. When the doctor was ready for me she checked my eyes but didn't dilate them because I had asked her about lasik. I guess for lasik they have to do another type of dilation to make sure your eyes are really healthy. She also told me about these extended wear contacts that I could wear for 30 days straight so sleeping, showering, everything in them. She then went and got me a pair of the contacts to try out for a week. I guess sometimes your eyes don't accept them that well so she was going to have me wear them for a week and then have me come back at the end of the week and see how I did.

I felt like I had brand new eyeballs. It was awesome! I didn't have to think about putting my glasses on in the morning or even messing with contacts cause they were already in my eyes. If you have ever worn regular contacts you probably know that if you accidentally sleep with them in your eyes you wake up feeling like you have sandpaper in your eyes or if you shower with them in they totally suction to your eyes.. It doesn't feel nice. These contacts on the other hand were wonderful! I was totally in love with how cool they were. I kept on telling Brett how much I loved them.

At the end of the week I went to the eye doctor appointment and again while I was waiting decided that I would look at some of their sunglasses because I needed a new pair to wear with my new contacts. I ended up with some super cute red ones. After goofing around with that I got in with the doctor. When I first sat down in the chair she asked me how the contacts felt. I told her that they were so great and it was like I had new eyes. After that she looked at my eyes with the contacts in and then moved one of the contacts around a little and then said that she needed to take it out because it had a film on it. She had also said that I had a bit of an astigmatism now which I didn't have before. After she took the contact out and looked in my eye again she said, "Oh dang it! These aren't going to work." She said, "You have a corneal edema." To what I said, "What does that mean?" She said that it's like I have little blisters all over my eye. I just said, "Oh dang it!" I wasn't too worried about it she said that I would need to put eye drops in my eyes for a week and then we could try these other contacts. I kept joking about my new eye problem and the doctor said at least I have a sense of humor about it. She felt bad that they seemed to be so great when they were actually causing my eyes to get sick. I figure that we were just trying something out and there was no way of knowing how well my eyes were going to accept the new contacts. So basically my eyes have an infection because they were starved for oxygen so the drops I have are a steroid with an antibiotic in it. The doctor said that I had Hypoxia from extended wear contacts and it is causing microcystic corneal adema. Awesome!

So I put on my new glasses that came in that day and drove home.I was a little bummed about the contacts but I was more bummed that I couldn't wear my new sunglasses home. Boo Hoo!

I do have to say that my new eye doctor is wonderful! She has a great staff that are very helpful and very willing to help you find just the right frames. I most definitely will be going back there for my next eye exam... Well besides the visit this Friday. Ha ha ha!