Scorching the World

Tom needed to get to church even earlier than I did, so we convinced Francisca to be ready by 7:45. She didn’t get home from Great America with Ryan until well after midnight, so it was hard for her to get moving, but with considerable prodding, she made it. I was so proud of her! So we made it to church early, and as we drove into the parking lot, we saw this: We saw at least 5 hot air balloons going up. It's so pretty! There's a field next door to the church where they launch hot air balloons. They are so incredibly picturesque! I found out it’s a Napa thing – breakfast and Napa wine from a hot air balloon on Sunday mornings. Anyway, this was the Sunday we had been asked to present a 3 rd hour lesson in combined Priesthood/Relief Society/Young Men/Young Women meeting.   Tom needed to get there early to set up our computer with the tv to show a powerpoint presentation. The guy who knew how to do it wasn’t there, nor anyone with keys to the library to get the tv, ...

Saturday – We had invited Francisca’s friend, Anita from Czechoslovakia to come up to dinner with her sister and family, so I cleaned all morning. Tom really wanted to get his grapes planted so he worked on that. About 10am, I got a call from Ryan saying he was on his way to pick up Francisca to go to Great America. She seemed surprised, but he said they had arranged it all through texting the night before. Apparently she didn't totally understand what she had agreed to do. So she hurried and got ready and he was there in half hour. She had planned to spend considerable time packing today, but now didn’t have time and hoped to do it in the evening after getting home. After they left, Tom and I went to Napa to do some shopping. I needed to get food for our trip to Yosemite and he needed to get some supplies to build the fence around his grapes. While we were there, Tom said he saw a woman who had a t-shirt that read “I’m allergic to Mormons.” We were shocked that someone wo...

Thursday I woke up slowly and enjoyed it. Tom took Francisca to Napa on his way to work and I got up after they left at 8am! Unheard of!  I spent the day sewing and working on computer stuff. It was way fun. It was a beautiful day - sunny and above 70. Tom had great success at work and came home very happy. He got home about 5:30 and we left at 6:15 to get our interviews for temple recommends. We got there right in time and got both interviews taken care of. We were surprised when the Stake President gave Tom a calling while he was in there. He will be the new High Priest Group leader. He's never had that calling before so it will be good for him. We tried to go to the movies after the interviews, but the one we wanted to see had already started, so we decided to go tomorrow. It was a fun day! On Friday, Tom had 2 very large parks where he needed to pass out flyers. Francisca had a full day of playing planned with her friend Anita, so we dropped her off in ...

Boy, I bet that this blog is just so fascinating and exciting to anyone who might read it. I bet hundreds of people are on the edge of their chairs and can't sleep at night waiting to see what the next installment might bring. Well, here it is. Today I had scheduled Lunch with the Ladies - a little lunch out with sisters from the ward - at 11:30, so I took Francisca to Napa at 9am, then went to the library to get some new books on cd and to kill time until the lunch. I really love listening to books on cd while I'm in the car, but I hate trying to choose a new book. When I choose a new book, I have to listen until it becomes clear that the book is or isn't appropriate. I really wish books had ratings and warnings for language and inappropriate content. I read the descriptions, but they don't give enough clues to know if I'm gonna hate that I ever listened before the junk started. Anyway, I talked to Tanya and Trina on the phone for suggestions while trying to ch...

This morning Tom had to leave early for work, so I took Francisca to Napa again. I had also set up a visiting teaching appointment for 10am, so I just needed to kill a little time before going there. I went to Target and picked up a few things; the appointment was just a few blocks away from there, so that worked out really well. It's  nice to be able to be a visiting teacher again. I only have two sisters assigned to me right now and I don't have a companion, so apparently they do things a little differently here. Both of the sisters I visit are active so it will be nice to be able to visit people who are happy to see me. I had a good visit with my new sister and it was fun to get to know her. I bought gas and came home after the visit and spent the day sewing. It was so fun. I made shopping bags, and put velcro on them so they can roll up small for carrying in the car. Tom got home about 5 pm, which was nice. It was nice to spend the evening together. Francisca texte...

Nina and Mila chose to spend the night last night, so I got to play with them today. First thing in the morning I had to take Francisca to Napa, so while I was there I bought their favorite donuts and a couple other things then ran back home. They had eaten breakfast but were happy to get the donuts and snacked on them the rest of the day. They played with their hand-knitted dolls (I especially like the fur-collar jacket and the Converse shoes Mila made for this one) and horses, played on the exercise balls, and cared for their fish and goats. I wasn't feeling too good, but I forced myself to stay awake and play with them when they wanted to play golf (the card game). It was so much fun. They got really good at it and each of us won one of the games. Tami and Phil got there and had brought a tent-type carport which we set up. I get to park my Miata in it for a while - until they clear space in the garage. It wasn't easy. They had to clear out an area under the trees and ...

Saturday we decided to let Francisca sleep as long as she wanted to for a change. Tom wanted to work on the area where he will plant grapes and I needed to spend some time cleaning. We had found a house for sale and went at 9am to go see it with a realtor. It needs a lot of work, but once it's fixed up could be a pretty nice house. Francisca eventually got up and went jogging, then showered and dressed and was still busy doing stuff when I decided to see if we could go to the Jelly Belly Factory for a tour. It is her next-to-last Saturday here, so I felt we should do something. By then it was 2:30, so I told Tom and he said he was ready for a break. I let Francisca know she had 15 minutes, but she needed about half hour before we could leave. The tours were only till 4pm, and it took almost 45 minutes to get there, so we were one of the last tours of the day. Fortunately we did make it in time! It was fun though; informative, and they gave lots of samples. Afterwards, we went t...

It's a good thing our car is so comfortable, because sometimes we spend a lot of time in it. Our tax appointment was on Thursday in Fresno. We still haven't decided where we want to live permanently, so we've kept Fresno as our address, and have kept our entourage of doctors, dentists, and tax man etc., there. So far. It's a little inconvenient, but less convenient than changing to all new people in Napa and then having to change it to somewhere else if we decide to live somewhere else. We're still in temporary mode. Anyway, our appointment was for 5pm but Tom had to work on the way. Francisca had class and didn't want to skip it so we offered to wait until they broke for lunch to take her, or leave her here in which case she would have to find her own way home. She chose the latter, and we left her a key to the house. We were a little nervous about it, but she's an adult, so we have to trust that she can work things out. So we left the house at 8:15am...

I didn't do much in the morning before going over to Marc's to help out - just a little sewing and breakfast. Tom took Francisca to Napa and when he got back made some phone calls for work and then we went over to Marc's house. He was busily putting up sheetrock, taping, and mudding it, to get the room ready to paint today before the new carpeting would be installed tomorrow. Alissa was painting the 2nd coat of ceiling paint. Tom helped Marc and they worked busily for several hours. I helped later by beginning to paint the Kilz basecoat on the walls. When she got the girls taken care of, Alissa helped me and we quickly found that there wasn't near enough paint. They had bought 1 gallon, and it just wasn't enough to cover the whole room. The other problem was that they had also only bought 1 gallon of the color paint, and we could see that it wasn't going to be enough. So they decided that after the walls were ready they would take off with the girls, and go ...

I had a list of about 20 things I wanted to do today. I got to almost half of them. I was a good girl and started with Scripture study. That shouldn't be so hard, but it is. I sure feel better when I do it first thing. Then I walked up our hill and back down again. Hills are a good way to exercise and cheaper than a gym. I did 4 loads of laundry and sewed some. I was happily sewing when I remembered that Marc and Alissa are here, so about lunch time I went over there and spent the rest of the day with them. Most of the time I didn't have anything to do and there wasn't anywhere to sit, but it was fun just being with them. Laelle and Tova found some shiny green fabric and wanted to wear them, so I brought them home to sew. Laelle wanted hers as a skirt, and Tova wanted hers as a cape. They were pretty happy about them. At one point Laelle needed some glue, so she walked with me back home and on the way, Tom came home! Such fun! So he spent the rest of the day at Marc...

What a nice day. I love Sundays. Today was the first Sunday for me to lead music. I got a new calling to be the music director in Sacrament meeting so I wanted/needed to be at Church at least 10 minutes early to talk to the organist and to be reverently in place, instead of running up to the front at the last minute. But we couldn't get Francisca to get ready. Tom told her we needed to leave by 8am, but at 8am she stepped into the shower. So I was really on her to get ready faster and get to the car. We finally left in time for me to run up to the front right before the meeting started. I wasn't too happy about that, but she will only be here 2 more Sundays, so it won't be an issue too much longer. It's always hard to get her anywhere on time. I think it's a Chilean thing. Anyway, the meetings were great, as usual. As an extra treat, before Relief Society started they announced that there was a lot of food leftover from the funeral yesterday, so we could all go ...

I just can't seem to fill in the activities on my blog one day at a time; the days keep piling up and then I have to try to remember. Thursday Tom had to work. He's had a lot of work to do, trying to find mobile home parks to work. It's hard to convince the managers that they are providing a free service and not soliciting. Anyway, he left early, so I took Francisca to school and then went home. On the way to Napa we saw a huge turkey with it's tail spread wide in the middle of the street. It came towards the car as we drove past, and went running after us after we passed it.  It was huge! I spent the day trying to sew, but didn't feel like I got much done before I had to put it all away again. I knew I wouldn't get back to it till Saturday or maybe Monday, and didn't want to leave everything out that long so in the evening I packed it all back up again. Sure would be nice to have a sewing room, or a sewing corner where I could keep it set up. Francisc...

The days are too short and speed by. What's up with that? Monday Marc rode up here with Tami and Phil and the McGill girls. Alissa stayed home with Tova to get some more sleep. They had a guy meet them here who will be doing work for both of them. They got here before 8am and we fed them breakfast. Tom made some of his great potatoes and eggs. Then they went to show the guy what they want him to do. It's exciting to see Marc's house progress. All the rooms except for the master bedroom and the kitchen have walls, carpet/flooring, windows and doors torn out. Also a lot of the electrical is being re-routed, so there is a lot going on!  I helped Tami plant some flowering bushes that are supposed to be deer-proof. They are really pretty!  They stayed till early evening, then went home. Usually we don't have visitors on Mondays, so it was fun. On Tuesday, Marc and Phil drove up on their motorcycles because they had to get the workers started doing the right things and ma...

Saturday we decided to let Francisca sleep as long as she wanted. We've been pushing and rushing her to take her places since she got here and wanted to let her be ready on her schedule. We worked on computers and cleaned the house and did a bunch of stuff before she got up around 10. We had wanted to go to San Francisco to the Chinese New Year's Parade, but when we found out that tens of thousands of people would be there we chickened out. Plus by the time she got up it was way too late to go. We decided instead to take her to Jack London Square in Oakland.  As usual when she got up, she wanted to go jogging, so we let her and then waited and waited. After she came back, she took a shower and it was about 2 hours later when she was finally ready. By then it was almost too late to go, but we did anyway. We had one stop on the way, then went to Jack London Square and walked around. It was so pretty!  We loved the lamp posts with bicycles on them:  We walked along th...

It's not hard to want to spoil Francisca and take her everywhere and show her everything, so yesterday was beach day. We managed to get tickets to go see the elephant seals at Ano Nuevo. It's really towards the end of their breeding season, so there weren't as many as there might have been in February, but it still was really interesting. Tom was still working and had some important things he needed to accomplish, so on our way south he stopped at several mobile home parks to talk to the managers. It was a hurry trip because he needed to catch them all before they close for lunch at noon. That also made it so that he was done in time for our appointment with the seals at 2pm. When we got to Ano Nuevo State Park, they told us our tickets had been for March 2nd, but they let us have new tickets for a tour 15 minutes later, so that worked out well. It was extremely windy, but not cold. The tour took over two hours because the tour guide was very knowledgeable and the other...