Jam-Packed Week

It s been a wild week.  So much stuffed into it.  We had a delightful time at Mom’s and hated to leave.   Monday evening we went out for a delicious Chinese dinner.  Tuesday we left at the crack of dawn…um… pre-crack of dawn, driven by our faithful brother-in-law Jim.

We had an uneventful flight home.  It was kind of fun.  We sat next to a country singer, Bobbie Dean, on our last leg.  He had to hoof it to get to his show on time.  We had our friend pick us up and drove home in good time.   It was good to sleep in our own bed again.

Beans had grown in our absence, so we froze a half dozen or more bags of green beans.  Tomatoes were also giving their last gasp with ripening tomatoes on dead vines.  Saturday afternoon we did two batches of salsa.

Wednesday I did visiting teaching. We have a sister who is quite ill.  She’s 89.  Tom and I have visited her for years.  She recently went into the hospital, then a retirement home, then back to the hospital, then to rehab.  There were times I visited her that I wasn’t sure she’d be around… but she seems to be rallying some.  She has two little dogs that were her constant companions.  Her whole goal was to get back to her babies.  Her daughter didn’t think she could live alone any more, thus the retirement home.  Now it’s likely to be a nursing home as she doesn’t have the strength to do things for herself.  However, this week we just learned that the daughter had the two dogs put down.   I was shocked!  What if the mother gets well enough the dogs could have come visit???  And if she learns they were put down, she will be furious with her daughter and likely die mad.  I suppose grief may make one do strange things, but it seemed not well reasoned to me.  Now the daughter’s worried mom will get better.  How terrible is that?

Thursday I had a call with the co-founder of AWAI about the AWAI Boot Camp I’m going to next week. She answered a few questions I had about Boot Camp. Then I prepared for the seminary training. I trained by phone that evening instead of a group meeting.  It’s hard to get good attendance even when all they have to do is pick up the phone and listen.  But those that were on the call were involved and it went well.

Friday Tom and I drove to Branson.  I love the Harvest Festival at Silver Dollar City.  It has a cowboy theme and lots of craftspeople.  We watched a … lumber man?  house builder? trimming logs.  He axed off and trimmed the sides of the logs so they could be used for log homes.  He’s built about 35 houses!  One log at a time.  We watched pewter makers and potters and weavers. Glass blowers, wood carvers, quilters, painters.  One painter has Parkinson’s, his wife said… but he still paints!  This time we didn’t go on ANY rides.  We watched a wild west stunt show, a performing horse, a world champion roper, a cowboy poet, a Dutch oven care class, and a horse trainer with his no-longer-wild mustangs.

We dined at IHOP and stayed at the Dutton Theater Hotel.  Saturday Tom had a training in Branson.  Actually, I was to have had my Seminary training on Saturday… but I thought, with the next training in two weeks (at Stake conference) let’s save on travel for my people.  That was before I knew TOM had to go to Branson.  So he dropped me off at the library and I worked on shortening a Christmas program script for our December program.  Then I worked on a few things to prepare for my trip to AWAI Boot Camp.

When we came home Saturday afternoon, I tried to get some things organized for Boot Camp, but ended up spending about 4 hours making salsa.  Tom made a cake and brownies for Bishop’s Youth Discussion which was on Sunday, and I frosted the cake.  Then about 8pm as he’s talking to the missionaries, I hear him say, “Sure, Sandy will be glad to teach that class.”

Actually, I was.  I love teaching Gospel Principles.  This one was on the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  I took a picture of a kitchen machine a friend gave me—the kind that does mixing, chopping, blending and so on.  It was all in a box in pieces.  We talked about what good this gift does me if it just sits in this box in the family room.  What would the giver think if she knew that the gift she gave with love and charity was sitting there unused?  It came without a manual, so I’ll need to work to figure out how to use it.  How is this like the gift of the Holy Ghost?  We reject the giver if we don’t use it.  It doesn’t do us any good at all or bless us if we don’t use it.  We need to work at it to figure out the language of the spirit to get full use.  And when we do that—the Spirit can help us do lots of things.

Tom had BYD after church.  I did my last visiting teaching right after church with a sweet sister who spends all week out of town.  Then rushed home to be there when the kids started arriving.  They actually waited for Tom and all came in a clump.   Now it’s blog writing time.  Then time to think about packing.

I’ll leave tomorrow and go to Miranda’s and visit Tuesday.  Then early Wednesday I fly to Del Ray Beach, Florida.  The Boot Camp begins Wed afternoon.  It goes from 7am-9pm Thurs and Friday and most of Saturday. I’ll fly back to Miranda’s on Sunday and hope to catch church there in the afternoon.  Then I’ll drive home on Monday.  So you may not get a blog next Sunday.  And if you do… it will be full of things I learned at Boot Camp!

Fall Colors

We came back to Mountain Home and found the fall colors had burst forth.  Oaks are more restrained in their colors, but the sasifrass and sumac and maples are delighted to display their vibrant colors. I have my handsome man standing in front of a sasifrass tree.

 These are the colors coming down our road.

We went to Branson on Friday and I kept snapping pictures.

It looked so vibrant with my sunglasses... a little less so, without. So I put my sunglasses in front of the lens.

I know more color is coming.  But sometimes the winds come and the leaves disappear quickly.  So we rejoiced in the colors we saw.

A Great Week at Mom's

This has been a fun week at Mom’s house.  Tom has done many small… and not so small honey-do’s.  He’s repainted the front door and changed out the weatherstripping.  He’s adjusted closet doors to slide smoothly, found and installed flow reducers on the shower heads, fixed a chair, changed florescent bulbs in the kitchen and other lights, moved the light over the dining room table so it’s centered over the table… and likely more things I don’t know about.

Monday Mom and I drove to Sally's.  Lisa and Sally joined us and drove to the Swiss park where we had a lovely lunch with the Swiss Ladies organization.  Mom joined and got a great welcome with lots of applause.

Sally shared some Donop genealogy—folders of it—and I’ve taken it back to Mom’s to check out.  In the evening, we went to see slides of India.  It was very interesting.

Tuesday I sent off some spec writing assignments I did.   I looked some at the Donop genealogy.  I was invited to be interviewed for the Professional Writers’ Alliance.  Nice.  Mom ended up moving her arm wrong and feeling a “snap” in her shoulder.  So she tried to keep her arm immobile.  We shopped and fixed dinner—a simple one—and invited Cynthia and Jim over.

Wednesday Mom and Pat and I went to her Circle meeting at church.  They are a lovely group of women and we had a nice time.  Came back and then headed to San Diego to see Randy Stedman graduate from the Sheriff acadamy.  It was fun to see Randy and Cynthia and their baby, Jude.  Lisa and Russ were also there and Sally and Steve and lots of Randy’s family. 

 This was the sunset that evening!

 We stopped at the commissary as we were already on Miramar.  Then went to a great Mexican place for early dinner.  It helped us miss the traffic going back home.

Thursday  at 6am I had my mastermind call.  Usually it’s 8am central time.  This felt EARLY.  I was supposed to initiate the call… and I couldn’t remember my password on Skype.  I was up way too late on Wednesday trying to get that sorted out.

Later Thursday we went and did two sessions at the Newport Beach Temple.  It was lovely to go there.  We had some rain which was nice and refreshing, too.

 We took route 1 on the way home from the temple.  It's so beautiful and typically Southern California.

Friday I had lunch with Cynthia near her work.  It was fun to just sit and talk.   In the afternoon I worked on Donop Genealogy.

Saturday I walked with Tom.  He’d been walking every morning.  I hadn’t.  I should have.  I was really sore after the walk.   Cynthia, Jim, Mom, Tom and I went to the opera.  It was the  New York Metropolitan Opera opening day of  L’ Elizire (?)  The Elixir of Love by Donazetti.   It was very enjoyable.  We saw it on the large screen at a theater.  Great singing, fun acting, and a romping plot.  In between acts, we got some interviews with the singers and producers and some looks into the back stage.  Apparently this simulcast production started with 6 theaters and now it’s shown in hundreds.

Sunday Tom and I went to the Lake Forest Ward where we’d attended when we lived in El Toro.  After church Mom and I and Cynthia went to the community concert to hear a string quartet.  They were lively and played a variety of music.  I enjoyed it.  We came home in time to turn around and go to Cynthia and Jim’s for dinner.

Mom’s shoulder is feeling some better, but not great.  So she’ll go see a doctor… if she ever finds the time.

We’ve been having a really lovely time here.  It will end all too soon.

Trip to Mom's

I’m late!  I admit it.  And I have few excuses.  Worse yet… now I can’t remember anything very exciting about the past week.

Monday I spent some time working on my info-marketing course.   That evening we went to the Empty Nesters Family Home Evening at Janet Hohn’s house.  We had hot dogs around the campfire and s’mores and had a great time.  Visited with her dogs.

Tuesday I made applesauce.  Tom brought home 40 pounds of apples from the orchard on the way back from the temple.  It’s been a while since I’ve made applesauce.  We dug out the Victoria Strainer and the pressure cookers and got started.  Tom was busy fixing up the North College rental—painting and such—so I was mostly on my own.  But we managed to make 17 bottles.  Most of the time I remembered to add some cinnamon.  I didn’t add sugar.  I figured people could add that at the table if they felt the need.

Wednesday we voted on the Dump bond issue.  It was early voting, but we wanted to make our wishes on the tax increase and increased liability known.  Yesterday was the special election day and it was soundly defeated!  My friend Leslie wrote on her facebook:  “Today’s the day to go to the polls to vote against the land fill tax.  If you’re voting in favor, vote November 2. Wink wink.”  I thought that was cute.  Might be the reason it failed 4 to 1.   The others were waiting to vote later.

Wednesday I also went and had fun with Marion and clay.  I really didn’t have time to do this, but I need to be involved in maintaining friendships and in being creative in clay.  So I went and made two dishes.  It’s so fun to be creative.  “How do you want the sides?”  “Let’s make them about “this” high.”  Or “I think I’ll make a braid for the sides.”  And when things are not quite perfect…that’s part of the artistry.

Wednesday afternoon I helped Barb a bit with her book shelves.  Tom had already helped some with building them.  In the later afternoon, the church youth came over for an activity.  Hotdogs, chips, stories, games, a hay ride (pulled by the truck since the tractor konked the day before.)  I stayed for the tasty food (HUGE hotdog!) then heard the merriment as I worked on a few things inside.

Thursday we packed for our trip to Mom’s.  We had a friend drive us to the airport and keep the  car so we saved some on parking fees.  It was a fun dive and I learned a lot more about Dave than I knew before.  The flight was uneventful—the best kind—and we arrived at Mom’s by 9pm.

We’ve had a nice time here. Don’t remember what happened on Friday.  Saturday and Sunday we watched General Conference.  How fantastic is that!  Wow!  Such great speakers.  Exciting news that missionaries can now serve at 18 for boys and 19 for girls.  Likely there will be a dip in BYU class sizes for the next year.

Sunday Sally, Steve, Lisa & Russ, Cynthia & Randy came down for the last sessions of General Conference.  Then Cynthia and Jim came over and we celebrated Sally’s birthday a few days early.  Such fun company!  

 Happy Birthday to Sally!

 Celebrating new Baby Jude, Cynthia and Randy's little one.