"WHAT A DATE THAT WAS!"

In early April, I told Mike that I wanted us to take turns planning a "super date" each month; one that might include an overnight stay to someplace where there was more to do than the regular dinner and a movie that Vernal offers. We decided that the weekend of the 25th would be our first super date.
Unfortunately, at her last check-up with her heart doctor, Mike's mom was told that she needed to go to Salt Lake for an overnight stay at the hospital in order to monitor a prescription change.
So we left Wednesday morning and got Mother checked into the hospital. Shara Dawn had arranged her schedule so she could be at the hospital the whole day. We all stayed for a couple of hours until Shara Dawn shooed us away. (A million thanks, Shara Dawn!) Mike then dropped me off at the Family History Library and he ran several errands before going back to the hospital to spell Shara Dawn for awhile. (I appreciated that he let me have that extra time at the library because it had been months since I was there.)
That night, we were both pretty drained, so we opted to find a nice place to eat dinner, did a little bit of shopping, and then called it a night.
At 2 in the morning, Mike got a call from Jared Dansie, telling us that the Beauty Salon and the Pawn Shop had been broken into and that a fire had been set in the Beauty Salon. He told Mike that he was watching smoke pour out of the roof. Obviously, there would be no more sleeping for Mike, so after calling Shara Dawn to have her pick up Mother in the morning, we took off for Vernal. We arrived shortly after 5 and went straight to the building where we saw most of the parking lot sealed off in yellow tape with the fire truck still there. Mike asked if we could go inside to see the damage and was told no, the fire marshall hadn't arrived from Salt Lake yet. But, then a good friend on the fire department suddenly appeared and let us past the tape and took us on a tour of the building. (It's times like that when we are grateful we live in a small town where everyone knows everyone and "what happens to one happens to all".)
The Beauty Salon definitely got the worst of it. The young man who broke in trashed it, dumping out all the cabinets (I thought of Sasha when I looked at it!) stealing all the cash and then setting the place on fire. He then bypassed Family Dollar (possibly because they always leave lights on) and broke out one of the big front windows at Jiffies, which set off the burglar alarm which ultimately alerted the officers who were able to to catch the guy before he did much damage to that store.
Because there was nothing that could be done until the fire marshall arrived, Mike and I returned home to sleep for a few hours. Mike was busy all morning with the fire marshall, the insurance adjustor, the glass company, the alarm company and various others. I left at 11 to meet Shara Dawn in Heber where I picked up mother and brought her back home.
Pam Sutton, the owner of the beauty salon, was especially heart broken; not so much for herself, but for the 13 women who worked there. When you are a beautician, you must provide all your own supplies...curling irons, brushes, combs, perm rods, aprons, carts, shampoos, hair color, etc. Those girls lost almost everything. Two of them were the sole support to their families. One of those two was Allie Anderson, whose husband Cody died from cancer late last year, leaving her to provide for herself and her two little girls. (On an even sadder note, Cody's mom, Carolyn died of the same cancer just yesterday afternoon. Her funeral is Tuesday, Aspen and I am sorry we forgot to tell you about Cody's passing.)

We have been blessed in this trial. Although the beauty salon was destroyed, it was mainly interior damage. The building's exterior structure received only minor damage. Jiffies was able to open the next day, and Family Dollar will open on Monday. We live in a boom town, where building is going at a frantic pace. And yet, we were able to have the huge front window at Jiffies replaced first thing in the morning. Mike was told by the fire marshall that an electician would have to do some work before any of the clean-up could start. After calling several and being laughed at when he said he needed someone that day, he finally had one electrician return his call...Ryan Peltier who said he would try and rearrange his schedule and come that afternoon. He came, did the work and then refused to charge us anything. (Again, one of the bennefits of living in a small town where we are all friends) While the insurance adjustor was talking to Mike, one of the ladies who worked at the beauty salon said she knew of someone who did reconstruction jobs. Pam's husband vouched for him, he was called, came to look at the job, and was approved on the spot by the insurance adjustor to do the work and said he could start next week! Again, something nearly impossible in this building boom town.
I was also struck by the fact that Mike and I were both exhausted Wednesday night in Salt Lake... quite unusual for us to be too tired to take advantage of being in the city and playing. Instead, we were both sound asleep very early that night, which was a blessing to be rested when we left for Vernal at 2:30 in the morning. It reminded me of the time when we were in St. George, visiting Stevensons for Scott's mission report. The afternoon before, Mike and I fell asleep in our room and slept soundly for a couple of hours, almost missing Nate's Eagle court of honor. But later that night, we got an emergency call which sent us on the road back to Vernal that night. Without that extra sleep, we would have been hard pressed to stay awake for the long drive. And, I don't know if this qualifies as a blessing, but it was exciting to be the lead story on the Channel 5 ten o'clock news Thursday night. We recorded it!
So that brings me to Mike's comment on the way home from Salt Lake. "What a date that was!" Certainly better than dinner and a movie!