How and why someone ends up being dehydrated is a subject on my mind.  After our Devil Pup Awards night, honoring 27 recent Devil Pup graduates from the prestigious and difficult summer camp at Camp Pendleton, California,  I went to look for something out of one of my plastic tubs, felt light headed, sat down and fainted!  Wow - never happened to me before in my long life.  Someone called 911, an ambulance arrived, and I was taken to the ER.  A non-family member was allowed into my ER room creating a lot of stress giving faulty information and invading my privacy, so it was not a restful night. After lab tests and a cat scan, it turned out to be dehydration -  so I am hydrating.  It's because of a medication prescribed for me in April by an orthopedic doctor.  Beware if you are prescribed Meloxicam.  It can mess up kidneys quickly.  A couple days after the fainting episode, I came down with a virus.  Caught me when I was down!  I'm rarely sick and I'm impatient with it!

Looking for Joan Nordstrom

I'm working on a tree for a friend.  I worked on her tree a few years ago and found a half-sister she hadn't known about, and just recently found out there was another half-sister born in 1933 who was adopted out when her father and his first wife divorced.  She (and I) would love to find this other half-sister, even if to only know what happened to her.  The baby was born as Joan Nordstrom on 19 Mar 1933.  Her birth certificate shows up on Ancestry and shows her father as Clifford Nordstrom and her mother as Aris Thomas.  We know nothing about her adoptive parents, her adopted name or anything else about her.

Moving On

I'm wrapping up another year as Coordinator of the Southern Utah Devil Pup program that Bill and I brought to Southern Utah in 2006.  2006 was the first group of teens from Utah to attend camp at Camp Pendleton for this citizenship program and we have now graduated 138 kids and taken a whole bunch of awards thanks to a really good Liaison Rep/trainer.  

So now that I've been involved in the Devil Pup program for 44+ years, starting in California when Bill and I married, I'm wanting to retire.  It's really difficult to find someone younger (that is key) who has the time and is computer literate and has the right personality for herding a bunch of cats, er teenagers and busy parents.  It may take a while for the search.  We thought we had it worked out, but the right fit wasn't there.  There should be a Zip Recruiter for volunteering!

Another Southern Utah Devil Pup Year

Another Devil Pup summer camp is behind us.  This one kicked my patootie!  Due to a lot of vacancies in other regions, So.Utah Devil Pups program was asked to send as many as we could - all those who qualified.  29 local teens qualified; two dropped out for personal reasons; and we sent 27 pups to camp.  Our quota was 12.  27 is a lot of paperwork and created a bunch of other issues to resolve, but we graduated another 27, making a total of 138 in Southern Utah since 2006.   One pup showed up too late for this photo, but yeah, we graduated 27.  Sgt. Billion was awesome once again - he always is.  

2022 Devil Pups from Southern Utah

Camp Pendleton, California

23 July 2022