Scorching the World

I decided for exercise today I would work on the front yard. The weeds have loved all the rain we've had this year. I cleared a small area that looks much better, but it's not 1/10th of what needs cleared. I'm trying  to learn a piano piece that the young women will sing in Sacrament meeting in a little over a week. I'm not sure I'm capable of it, but I'll keep trying up to the last minute. I have to admit that sometimes it feels like I'm beating my head against the wall. About 12:30 I got a call from a sister in the ward whose car doesn't work, asking for a ride home from work. It was the 2nd time this week I got called for that. This is also the 2nd week she is getting help from other people with rides to and from work every day. I wonder how long until she can do something about her situation..... Our stake RS presidency was hosting a dinner for all the ward RS presidents tonight. I agreed to take Spanish rice, so I started it about an hour befo...

Now that I'm feeling better, life is so much more fun! Tom had to go to Modesto today and left before 8am. I did my morning routine and then decided to try something new. I was searching for fabric when  I found more of the blue for the recliner! Happy days! It was enough to make arm covers, so I did that and I think it looks much better! I got the idea to try to hand paint designs on neckties and have been dying to start it. Yesterday I went to a new thrift store someone told me about and bought a few solid colored ties. These are my first attempts: On the first one I just used a print out to help me create the outline, then I filled it in with acrylic paint. Simple, but I like it. the 2nd one, I wanted to try a design of a tie my Dad had of a name written out, then a mirror image of it right under. This one spell Draven McGill cause I was thinking of doing one for a gift for Phil. I had to print out the name and then cut it out to just the outline. Pretty labor intensive...

Tom had a favorite recliner that we left at the lake house, thinking Tami and Phil would enjoy using it. But they decided they had way too much furniture, so they sent it back to us last Sunday, through Tanya. Tom really wanted it in the house, and has mentioned several times that he would love to have a recliner in the family room so he can lie back and watch tv. (This is an issue because I felt there wasn't room in the family room for a recliner. We already have a recliner which I relegated to our bedroom where there is more room.)   Anyway, I figured out how to fit it in the family room. This is what I did: First I sold our old piano. Then moved a long end table to that spot, which is kind of behind the couch.  I moved the keyboard that used to be in the guestroom into the livingroom on the other side of the pool table.  Then I took our chaise from the living room, which I have been trying to sell, out to the garage to be donated.  Then I moved the ...

March 27 was the day I got a whole lot done I felt pretty good today! (I only had a sore throat.) Hooray! I made a list of 8 things I needed to do today, and got 7 of them done by 3pm. It felt so good to be productive! Tom had to go to Marysville and was gone 13 hours. Poor guy! His back has been hurting from yard work ever since last Friday, so everything is painful, even sitting in the car for long periods. When he finally got home, he just wanted needed to lie down. It was so windy today that it always sounded like there was a lot of traffic in front of our house. The pool got COVERED in leaves and debris! I scooped some out, but it didn’t make a dent in the mess. Anyway, hooray for productive days!

I love my calling in the Stake Relief Society presidency. But I'll start at the beginning. Today in Sacrament meeting one of my students played for the first time. I was so proud of her. She is a young single adult, but still her mom told me that neither of them slept very much during the night. They were both too nervous! But she played perfectly! I was so proud of her! I left right after Sacrament meeting. Today I was scheduled to visit another ward. We just visit Relief Society, not the whole block. We're just getting to know the sisters in the different wards and it is just so delightful to see them regularly. The lesson in that ward was EXCELLENT and I was so glad I was there! After it ended I went back to our ward which was just ending so I could get a temple recommend interview, then I went home to rest. I'm still not feeling great. Tom wanted to go visit Tanya, but I needed to lie down. Later he went to do a visit. He's really trying to be an example and g...

Finally the day of the Women’s Broadcast. The Stake Relief Society was in charge of the dinner and decorations, and the Stake Young Women’s and Stake Primary helped. Someone long ago decided that for the March Broadcast we should have just salads and for the October Broadcast we should just have soups. So we had salads. To me salads do not a dinner make, but it was written in stone long ago. Each member of each presidency prepared 2 salads for 20 people and we were expecting about 200 sisters, so there was PLENTY of food. The decorations came about with a collaboration of things people had in storage from weddings and such and turned out pretty nice. The had assigned a few men to actually set out the rolls and cut the desserts while we were watching the broadcast, and they helped fold and put away all the tables and chairs afterwards. All it all, it turned out pretty good and went very smoothly. I had two tables of sisters from my ward, so I was pleased.   But I’m ahead of mys...

I had a meeting of Stake RS first thing in the morning. We are preparing for the Women's Broadcast tomorrow, which we are sort of in charge of, with the Stake Primary and Stake Young Women's presidencies helping. We're doing what they call a dinner, but which I call a salad bar and dessert. To my way of thinking, Salads do not a dinner make. Anyway, we had to get the centerpieces put together, so for our regular presidency meeting, we met at the Stake Center and worked on centerpieces. It took a couple of hours, but we got it done. Tomorrow we just need to meet in the morning to decorate the tables after some men put them up. From the meeting, I went to the store to buy the things I need to make my share of the salads. When I got home I got them put together and later was finally able to do my nails. Tom had to leave home to work today. It sounds funny to say, but most days he is able to work from home. He got home in the early afternoon and we had a relaxing evening. H...

I spent almost all day working on my gift project and finally finished it. It turned out really good and I was able to secure a discount that made me really happy and I ordered it! Hooray! Finished!! What a relief! Tom got to work from home today so that was fun. He did a little work in the morning, then got to spend the rest of the day working on the back yard. He finally finished the fence. That's a huge relief. I want to paint it and now that I finished the gift project I can work on that tomorrow. In the evening Tom went out to do visits and I got to have an evening to myself. I cleaned and paid bills. It was colder today. It's hard to believe the grandkids actually swam last week!

I spent all my spare time working on a birthday project. I kept trying different websites and programs, and kept almost having it good enough to send to print, but then something always went wrong and I had to give up for the day. I went to pick up Caeli and we went to their house. I continued to work on my birthday gift project but had to give up again to take Caeli to gymnastics. From there I had to boogie to the church for my first piano lesson. Most of the lessons went well and only two of the students didn’t show. I really need to do something about that.  Tom worked in Bakersfield today and met me at the church just before Mutual. I was glad I had gone in my my own car so I could leave when I was done instead of waiting for Tom to finish supervising mutual. I still didn’t feel good and just needed to lie down.

I’ve still had a sore throat that just isn’t getting better, so I decided to get serious about gargling salt water. I added coconut oil to it and by evening my throat felt much better, but my tongue became extremely sore. I think I’m just basically falling apart. I also worked on my next upcoming birthday project all day. For scripture study I decided to do Elder Nelson’s challenge to study all the scriptures there are about Jesus Christ. He studied something like 2400 in 3 months. I’ve been taking all the scriptures from the Index and Bible Dictionary. So far I have about 45 pages of references. I haven’t even started actually studying the scriptures. It’s taking me many days just to compile the list and it is really interesting. I might want to spend more than 3 months on it. Tom ALMOST finished the fence. We’ll be so glad to have it fixed. I bought a stain to put on it when he’s done because it is really old and dead looking. His next project is to get all our sprinkler ...

When Tom rented the trailer to bring Trina’s stuff home, he could only get a one-way rental, so we had to go back today to return it. Fortunately, he had work he needed to do in the Bay Area, so his work paid for the gas. We had hoped to leave about 5am to get back in time to accomplish things at home, but he had to work from home in the morning. We didn’t get on the road until about noon. I’ve still been feeling pretty rotten, so I tried to sleep much of the trip. We managed to get to the rental place in time to return the trailer – barely on time! But at least we made it. At Trina’s we were able to get all the rest of the things we thought they might want to keep, and most of the things they would want to donate. The van was packed all the way full again making it hard to sleep in the car on the way home. We had hoped to visit with Tami and family while in the area, but they weren’t home when we passed through Dublin. Traffic wasn’t too bad and we made it home about 9pm...

Today was our monthly Saldivar get-together (we need to come up with a catchier name) at Marc and Alissa’s house, so we left church right after Sacrament meeting and picked up Caeli and Kaden on the way. (Tanya had a fireside she couldn't skip and Cannon had a Bishop interview and Priesthood Preview. He's going to turn 12!!!!) Before going to Marc's house, we needed to go to Trina’s house to pick up some of the things they had to leave behind that they really wanted to keep. They had loaded a Pod and a storage unit and still had some fairly valuable things they hadn't had room for. They had left for Arizona last night and couldn't delay their trip because they already had hotel reservations and Chris’ mother had taken the week off work to spend time with them. So we went there on our way to Marc’s house. We thought we’d be there maybe half hour and just throw a few things into the back of our van, but we ended up renting a trailer and filling it plus the ...

Piano lessons are always the first thing on Saturday. My 1 st student came and is doing well. The 2 nd one canceled after verifying there was piano today, and the 3 rd one just didn’t show. That’s ok cause I needed time on the organ! After piano, our ward was having our Relief Society Birthday Celebration. It was really well done and it was obvious the presidency had spent MONTHS preparing. They had a slideshow going with pictures from the organization of the Relief Society, had detailed and darling decorations, including cupcakes on cake stands surrounding a glass jar with fresh yellow flowers as part of the decorations on each table. There were homemade banners on walls and hanging on tables, and on and on. Once again I was amazed at the difference between this Spanish ward and the other Madera Spanish ward we used to go to. I could tell they got their ideas from Pinterest. The program highlighted all the past General Relief Society Presidents. I gotta say, after visiting 5...

It got up to 80 degrees today. That’s a little too warm for me, but it was sure a nice day to be outside. Tom and I worked on the fence, and I did a few other things in the yard that were fun. I liked being outside again after the long, wet winter we had. But given the choice, I would prefer the long, wet winter over the upcoming hot summer. In the evening Tom went to do visits and Tanya and Caeli came over to visit. That was super fun. Caeli loves to check on the chicken and play with our parakeets. Tanya loves to watch shows that she doesn’t have time to watch at home. And I like to talk. On the Sara (the homeless lady) news, she called Tom again because on weekends they kick the residents out of the shelter, so she was asking for a blanket. We don’t have any spare blankets (when we moved I got rid of everything we didn’t love) but Tom found something to take to her, along with some snacks. He really wanted to bring her home for the weekend, but when he went to take her t...

Tom had scheduled the four missionaries from our ward to come and help us work on fence repair. He promised them breakfast if they came, so we fed them fried spuds, ham, eggs and pancakes or waffles. They all chose waffles. Unfortunately, breakfast took almost an hour of their service time. But they got out there and helped dig holes for new posts and cleared weeds and stuff that was in the way. They did a lot of the heavy work that would have taken Tom and I a whole day to do. We were really glad they had come to help. Missionaries are wonderful, young, and strong. Then Tom and I worked on the fence the rest of the day. We got a lot done; I am amazed that Tom knows how to mend a fence. I wouldn’t have had any idea how to do that. We weren’t able to finish it, but we got really close. Maybe we can finish it Saturday. In the evening Tom had visits to do and I had a Ward RS Birthday celebration to go to for Van Ness Ward. It was the absolute most fun of all the ones I’ve be...

Tom had to go to Bakersfield today and left before breakfast. I worked on my latest project for an upcoming birthday all day. I still feel a bit tired and like I haven’t recuperated fully yet, so I did manage to grab a nap before time to go pick up Caeli from school. It’s been nice weather – in the 80’s – so I invited the Knudsen kids to come over and swim. They got very excited and packed up their homework and swimming suits really fast. I bet them that they wouldn’t be able to stay in the pool more than 5 minutes, but they were in almost 20 minutes before they got too cold. They realized that when they got cold, they could go stand in the greenhouse for a few minutes and warm right up. They had a good time and were glad they came over. This last picture is of Cannon and Kaden. They were wrapped in towels to stay warm, and had completely covered themselves  to hid from bees. Tom made it home just in time to go with me to take Caeli to gymnastics and drop the k...

I can tell the eye drops I got are helping, but I still slept poorly. I was glad in the night that I didn't go with Tom to the Bay Area. I was coughing and kept getting up for more water. SO because of that, I was tired all day and took a couple of wonderful naps. I am very grateful that I'm retired and can sleep when I'm tired! Such luxury! I was assigned to go to the Riverview Ward Relief Society Birthday Celebration, but I almost didn't go; I just didn't feel like I had the energy. But I got myself showered and dressed and went anyway. I picked up Tanya on the way and we got to talk some more, which is a rare thing these days. The celebration was very nice - well done and I was glad I went. Tom got home from the Bay Area about 9:30 and we were both ready to go to bed after catching up on Jeopardy, although I think he earned his tiredness more than I did. It was a beautiful day - about 85 outside. We should be able to start swimming soon!

Yes, I gave in and called the doctor. I got an appointment within a few hours. They gave me some drops for my eyes and took a culture of my throat to be sure it isn't strep. I won't know about the strep until tomorrow, but I'll be really happy to not have eye gunk anymore. Tom needed to work in the Bay Area and Trina needed help packing her house. They are putting everything in a Pod and Tom is the very best in the world at packing many things tightly into small spaces. Unfortunately, since I am still not really better enough to be with people, I stayed home. He had to spend the night to get the most done possible in two days and I stayed home alone. So sad to be apart. You'd think it's no big deal after 48 years together, but we both have a hard time sleeping apart. The only time I left the house was to go to the doctor and pharmacy but it was a beautiful day!

3/12/17           This was my last time to go to Ward Conferences. We had two today, and Tanya’s ward just happened to be the last one. We’ve (all the stake leaders who go to all the wards’ conferences) have heard the same talks and same presentation 7 times now, and all I can say is, it was better every time and I’m sad everyone would have benefited  by hearing it over and over like we have.   After the first one, they had a linger-longer, and I was super hungry. Unfortunately, the line was super-duper long. By the time I got to it was more than a little disappointed to see that all they had were raw carrots and broccoli and some tiny rolled up things. They only allowed you to take one. Then there were some tiny cubes of cheese. Other than that, it was just dessert. I texted Tanya and asked her to bring me a granola bar. That food didn’t quite cut it for how hungry I was. The last presentation of Ward Conference was g...

3/11     When we came home early, Tom and I agreed not to let anyone know that we were here. We needed time to heal and Tom really wanted to get some urgent yard work done. So we “hid out” for the rest of the week. We didn’t do any normally scheduled things because we knew that if everyone knew we were home, we would have been scheduled and over-scheduled and Tom would get nothing done and we would get no rest, yet it's funny how people can manage without you if they think you’re out of town.   However, we did pick up Caeli as usual on Wednesday so that Tanya didn’t have to leave her class early. She was very grateful. And I did go to a Ward RS Birthday Celebration on Thursday as a stake RS representative because that was just fun. And then today we did go to the temple in the middle of Tom’s yard projects because it was the right thing to do.   The weather was beautiful again and Tom and I worked on the yard all morning. We stopped in time to go to ...

3/10     It was such a beautiful day and Tom and I both felt significantly better, so we headed outside. In the morning I worked in the front yard and in the afternoon I joined him working on the back yard. The weeds are so high and thick, it’s very difficult to get them out. Actually, some pull out very easily because the ground is still soft from all the rain. Yardwork is wonderful exercise and (especially after being flat in bed for so many days) it was wonderful to be outside. It made us fall in love with our house all over again. There is just SO MUCH that needs to be done!

3/9       My headache came back – not a bad one at all, just bad enough to not want to do anything, but I had a ward RS Birthday Celebration I was scheduled to go to, so I was determined to get over it. I took a pill which made me sleep almost all day, then I got up and showered and put on read clothes and make up and felt and looked like a real person!!! Hooray!

3/8       A day very similar to yesterday. I really wanted to get busy doing stuff, so that was an improvement over yesterday – yesterday whenever I thought about doing something, I couldn’t think of anything at all that needed done. I had NO ambition. Today I kept thinking of things I wanted and needed to do, but when I would get up to do something, I just felt too rotten. Actually, now I mostly had a headache and sore throat and by late afternoon the headache went away and I was feeling quite a bit better. Hooray!

To Utah we go! 3/3         Again we had a rough night. We were too cold; we were too hot. We coughed, we couldn’t sleep, we couldn’t breathe, and on and on. Finally morning came and we got up very slowly, which felt good. We finally left Reno at 10:30am.   We were very fortunate that the roads and weather were all clear and good. Hooray! We took turns sleeping, although the truth is, I slept way more than Tom and he is way sicker than I am. We ate salads and vegetables and drank lots of water.   We made it to Logan at 7:30pm and went directly to the hotel. We had decided not to stay at Mike and Becky’s so we wouldn’t share our germs.   We couldn’t wait to get in bed and rest. But other than that, we’re happy to be able to come for Oscar’s baptism!

3/7       I spent all day resting, watching TV and taking vitamin C, along with a ton of other natural remedies. Tom did a little yard work and ran some errands, while coughing and dragging a little. But clearly, he was more productive. We made it through the day and hopefully, tomorrow will be better. It is so incredibly wonderful to be in the comfort of our own home!

3/6       We found that traveling the southern route was quite pleasant and almost the same time. The freeways are clear an smooth and the weather was great. We were told that a huge snow storm pounded the part of Utah we had come from after we left, so we were very fortunate that the southern route was clear! Plus on the northern route (through Reno) we already know every town, city, and where we want to stop for gas or eat. The southern route is new to us, so there were lots of new things to discover.  If we hadn’t been sick, we might have stopped in some of the places we passed through, like St. George to see the sights, but all we really wanted to do was get checked into a hotel and go to bed. It was 8 hours to Las Vegas.  Actually, we didn’t stay in L.V. we went to Primm, just south of Las Vegas and stayed in Buffalo Bills Resort and Casino. It was pretty fun even though it was pretty outdated and everything was old and beat up. But we wi...

3/5       We slept rotten again, so we got up slowly and checked out about 10am. We decided to go the southern route – through Las Vegas instead of through Reno because there was a huge storm predicted. We made it to Las Vegas by 6pm and checked in. The winds were so strong all the way going down Utah that it was hard to keep the car on the road. When we got out of the car, the wind nearly blew us over! I was wishing we had a kite! This was Tom trying to get back into the car.   The trip home has been flawless except for feeling rotten. We are not sorry we drove so far for Oscar’s baptism, just to turn around and come back home. It’s not fun to feel sick while traveling, but we’ve been blessed to have no weather problems, no car problems, and be able to see Mike and Becky and family. We miss them so much and we really enjoyed sitting and visiting with them even though it was a shorter visit than planned.

March 4, 2017            We slept poorly again, so we slept in, then went to the free breakfast. We got to the baptism half hour before it started and got to watch all the little cousins practicing their song. They were so cute! There were four kids getting baptized from different wards in the stake, so they gather everyone in the chapel first where they have songs, prayer, someone gave a talk on baptism, then each mother spotlights their child getting baptized. Then they let a group go to the Relief Society room where the font is and they perform their baptism, then they move to another room in the building for their closing services alone. Oscar was part of the 2 nd group and we went to see the baptism. Mike baptized Oscar. It was a beautiful service. I was so proud of Mike and Oscar! Then we went to the Young Women’s room where Maggie played piano and the cousins sang their special number. Then they had a teen boy ...

3/3       Tom and I both had a hard time sleeping during the night, but I felt much better when I got up. Unfortunately, Tom didn’t. This cold is whipping him. So sad. He napped off and on, but also had to work in the morning. He planned for us to leave about 1pm so that he could stop at some parks to do work on the way. Once he got everything taken care of, we left. I had plenty of food to keep us happy all the way to Reno. We made several stops for the bathroom and we took turns napping while the other drove and finally arrived in Reno about 6:30pm. We were soooo tired! We are not being very exciting party animals considering how long we’ve waited for this trip! Hopefully we’ll feel better in the morning. There was a trailer that flipped on the other side of the freeway, blocking both lanes. We were really glad we weren’t going west! Poor people approaching that area had no idea that they were about to be stuck in their car for hours. I think ...

3/1        This morning Sarah called Tom to tell him (instead of asking him to go pick her up or buy her something) that she found a place to sleep and is fine and staying clean. She thanked him for all of his help. So nice!   Tom needed to leave by 6am, but is still so sick, he is just dragging and didn’t get out of the house until a couple of hours later. I worked on my computer restore and ran to the store to pick up a few things for our trip tomorrow! Hooray! We’re going on vacation! I never felt like I needed a get-away vacation so much as right now. I need to be away from home and the stresses we’ve had lately, and I need some alone time with Tom. I think he feels the same way.   Tom’s day got drawn out/made longer by work complications so he was several hours late starting his trip back home. He was 3 ½ hours away, so he knew he wouldn’t be home until about 8pm. As it turned out, he hit heavy traffic and was later than that. It was a really pain...

2/28                       Tom got Sarah up early to drop her off. They had to be at the Salvation Army rehab center by 7:30, so they had to leave here by 7am. She had said she only needed minutes to get ready, but when he got her up, she took a shower -she almost made them late. Another thing learned about drug addicts – they have no concept of time management. After they left, I started to strip the bed. The smell that came out when I peeled back the covers was an overpowering stench. It smelled like a combination of urine, menstrual odors, wet dog, outhouse, and I don’t know what else all rolled into one. I couldn’t breathe it! It was BAD. As I started to strip the bed, the thought came to me that she might not get in the rehab for some reason and Tom might bring her back, so I put the covers back, remaking the bed a little. (another thing learned about drug addicts, no co...

2/27       This morning I took my computer to the Geek Squad, who have become young men I am deeply in love with. They are young, tall, handsome, and know how to fix a computer!  I tried to get there as soon as they opened at 9, but it turned out they didn’t open till 10 so I ran errands for an hour. When I got back shortly after 10, there was already a long line for the Geek Squad, and there was a wait time of one hour! I went home, grabbed breakfast, and went back. By then it was after 11am. They took my computer and told me it would be a 3 day turn-around. Since Monday was already half gone it would be Thursday before it would be done. I really needed it by Wednesday because I knew it would take a long time to reload all the programs and documents. Oh well. So much for getting there first thing in the morning. Tom had told Sarah (a homeless woman he is trying to help) that if she stayed clean all weekend, he would bring her to our house on Mo...

2/26       Sunday was our Ward Conference. Since I’m in the Stake, I’ve already gone to 4 ward conferences and the same talks and SS presentation are given each time, so I know it pretty well. Plus, I translated the PowerPoint presentation for Sunday School, so I really know that part. The only variation is that the Bishop of each ward gives one of the talks in Sacrament meeting and each one has been REALLY GOOD. The thing about hearing the same talks and seeing the same presentation over and over is that you really get a deeper understanding of the principles being taught. I told the Stake president that by the time we are done (there are 7 in all) I might actually begin to implement what is being taught. It’s all great stuff! Tom had brought stuff to give to Sarah (a homeless woman he is trying to help) after church, stuff she needed and wanted, and had also considered picking her up after church and bringing her home for a few hours so she could bathe...