Scorching the World

4/29        Tom went to our ward and I went to two ward conferences. This time I knew some of the people in the 2 nd one, so that was a little more fun. It’s not very interesting listening to the same presentation and talks from the Stake President, but the Bishop’s talks were both really good. The linger-longer was pretty good and it was fun to visit with the others in the Stk RS presidency. I got a phone call from Tanya as soon as my meetings ended. She was out looking at houses again so she came and picked me up and we drove around for a couple of hours, looking at the fronts of houses for sale. We also went into a couple of open houses where we saw BEAUTIFUL houses that Tanya can’t afford, but it was fun to look at them. Since I wasn’t home, Tom didn’t want to go home after church, so he went to Knudsen’s house until I got there, then we went home. We did video chats with Pettus’ and then added Knudsens.   Later we chatted with Mike and the kids. ...

4/28/18  Saturday Tom and I went to the church at 8 to clean. One other family came to help, which was nice. I spent the time practicing the piano and organ. From there we went to watch the Knudsen kids perform in their semi-annual piano recitals. They all did good. So proud of them! By then it was almost noon, so we ran home and I grabbed some lunch before returning to Fresno to go with Tanya to look at houses. She has decided that they need to move to get her kids in a more active stake and better schools, and because their house needs some serious updates that she isn’t willing to do because of wanting better schools and wards with more youth. So I rode around with Tanya and Todd for 4 hours, driving up and down streets looking for houses for sale. She has identified a certain area of the desired school district and will not look outside that boundary. Fortunately, it is a very large area, so there is bound to be something, but most of the houses were beautiful...

4/27 Friday It was cooler today, really beautiful weather, so I went out and worked on my patio. I spent a couple of hours taking sand and rocks from rows between the pavers. I’m out of cement for now so I just prepared everything so I can put in the cement tomorrow. Then I’ll be a little more than half done. But it did feel good to be outside. Tom was working from home. He wanted to get into the yard to work, but stuff kept coming up. I got an email from a lady in another ward who is looking for a job, so I referred her to Tom. He called her and arranged an interview with her and his boss to happen here at our house! He decided it was so nice, they could do it on the back patio, so he helped clean it up a bit. In the afternoon, he was finally able to get outside and worked on some stuff of his own. I helped him and we raked and scraped weeds in the front yard. It looks way better. Then we went out with the missionaries for the evening and I took it easy. When I had to ...

4/27/18   I had to make 4 trips to Fresno today for different things, but they were so spread out, I couldn’t combine them and sometimes there wasn’t enough time to make it worth going back home in-between. We started with Laurel’s class. This week it was on Patriarchal blessings and I will post it as soon as I get around to typing it up. Tom got to go with me, which was sure nice. He had set an appointment for a landscaper to come do a consultant at our house at 11am, which seemed like plenty of time, except that I had planned to go buy fresh strawberries at a fruit stand and a bunch of other things I needed for our thing tonight at another store on the way home from Laurel’s class. Instead, we managed to get the fruit then had to head home for Tom to meet Carlos, leaving me to need another trip to Fresno. It isn’t far to Fresno, but every little trip eats some of my time. After Carlos left, we discussed options until it was time for me to leave at 1pm to buy the rest ...

4/25/18     Wednesday Tom had to leave at 630 this morning for work. He was going to the Bay Area and I could have spent the day with Tami, but I didn’t want to go with him because sometimes he doesn’t get back in time for Mutual. I So  was having a quiet morning at home when Tom called to say the missionaries had called him to confirm that we were feeding them tonight. Good thing I stayed home.  I knew I had signed up for one of these Wednesdays, but didn’t know it was today. I had put beans on to soak last night, so I cooked some ground turkey and added kidney beans and corn and made a delicious chili. Then I made a cake that was pretty good. While it was baking I worked on the pavers on the back patio. I finished up the two bags of cement we had bought, thinking that would be enough for the whole space, but I have only done about a fourth of the space. I am getting better at it, which means the first ones I did don’t look nearly as good as the most recen...

4/24      My first thing this morning was my piano lesson. It is encouraging to be able to see whether I’ve progressed during the week. I love playing even though it is slow progress. Tom had to go to Ceres since he didn’t get to go yesterday. He was gone until 3:30. When he got home he worked in the yard, weeding and mowing. It is really never-ending and it never looks quite how we envision it. While he was doing that, I worked on the pavers I’m cementing. It was so much work last year putting in the pavers with rocks and sand between them. It kills me that all it didn’t turn out how I hoped and now have to take out all the rocks and sand. So it’s slow going, taking out the sand and rocks between the pavers. I don’t want to dislodge the pavers, so I only take out the sand and rocks on 2 sides of each paver at a time. I do a row of that, then mix the cement and pour it in the gulleys I created. The cement I put in the first day turned out really rough, so Tom expl...

4/23        I had so many things I needed to do today that I had a hard time going to sleep last night thinking about them and trying to not forget anything. Tom got up early (around 4am), as usual, so I got up about 6am, which is when he usually comes back to bed. We were hosting family home evening here tonight, so I wanted to be sure I got everything done in time. An early start really helped. Tom was supposed to work in Ceres today, but found out he had a big video/phone conference he needed to be home for so he just kind of leisurely took care of work at home until it started. That meant that he needed my help on several things. It was a little frustrating to me when I already had so much to do, but we got it all done. I worked through my list and what really saved me was that Tom needed to go to the office, so was able to pick up stuff for FHE treat on the way home. I actually ended up with a couple of hours to relax before FHE started. I had ...

4/22      I was scheduled to go to 2 more ward conferences today. When I was getting ready to leave, I couldn’t find my Miata key. It wasn’t on the hook, which usually means Tom drove it last and probably had left it somewhere. I thought maybe he left it IN the Miata, so I went to the garage to look, but the Miata wasn’t there. Then I remembered I had loaned it to Cai and Devin for the weekend. Oh yeah! We have 7 wards in the stake, so our ward was the first ward conference – we are the only ward in our building. Then the other 6 wards are scheduled out 2 to a day for 3 weeks because each of them have 2 wards meeting in their buildings. Anyway, today started with Tanya’s ward. Unfortunately,  yesterday   they had gone to Great America and when they got home, Cannon started throwing up. So Tanya stayed home with Cannon. I got to sit with Caeli and Kaden, which was way cool.    I loved it so much!  (Todd leads the music in Sacrament meetin...

4/21       Tom and I went to the church so he could clean and I could practice. I was practicing the same things I’ve been practicing for months, making very tiny, slow steps of progress, week after week, when a friend came in. He’s the one who did our tile work. I knew he played around on the piano and he mentioned once that he might consider taking lessons, but never showed up. He doesn’t know how to read music and is a young single adult who works full time and never has time for anything else. Anyway, he came in and said, “Hermana, I have great muscle memory!” He was all excited that he had heard a song and thought it would probably be way too hard for him to learn,   but he had learned it – IN THREE DAYS! It was incredibly complicated with different rhythms in the right and left hands, some crossover work, and way beautiful! I couldn’t believe he learned that in 3 days from just listening to it! He was even amazed that he had been able to do it...

4/20/18  Friday Tom got to work from home today and spent quite a bit more time trying to finish up the details of the water heater move. It’s way more complicated than I would have ever thought. He’s working on venting to the roof, but since we have ceramic tiles, he can’t figure out how to nail it down. Hmmm. I’m no help there. I sewed a little, um, watched a movie, um, did stuff. Oh I know! I found a new budget spreadsheet that’s really, super cool and I spent hours figuring out how to make it work for me. I love it and can’t wait for the next time I get to enter things. Tanya had invited us to go to a car show in Hanford in the evening. There’s a Portuguese bakery in Hanford, so we decided to go early and pick up some quezadas before it closed for the day. Just before we left, Tanya texted that the car show was in Kingsburg, not Hanford, which was nice because it’s a whole lot closer, but it   meant we didn’t get any Portuguese pastries. So we left early ...

4/19       Thursday We’re really only about 10 minutes from Fresno but I usually try to consolidate trips whenever I can. Today there were too many trips to Fresno, and not much of it could have been consolidated. Tom worked from home today so he got to go to Laurel Lawrence’s class with me. I love it when he can go with me. The class was on Conquering Satan in the latter days and was really good. I’ll write all about it in my other blog. I always write as fast as I can and still feel like there were a lot of things I wish I had caught. She is such a scriptorian! Thursday might be my favorite class because of Laurel. We went back home and Tom worked on finishing up the final touches of the water heater move. I lamented not having a sewing machine but found other things to do that weren’t quite as much fun as sewing. I kept thinking there wasn’t anything else on my calendar for the day and enjoyed that feeling. Then the sewing machine repair called to say m...

4/18/18              Tom had to go to Sacramento today so I had the whole day to myself. I didn’t have a sewing machine cause it’s being serviced, so I had to think of something else fun to do. I have some sparkly fabric hanging on my bedroom drapes and they always get snagged to parts of the drapes and not hanging straight, so I decided to sew them down. It was a little tedious because I had to pin them in place first, to be sure they were straight, then I took them down and laid them out on the floor where I sewed the strips by hand. I wanted to do it by hand so the stitching wouldn’t show as much. It took all day on my hands and knees, but it turned out pretty good. Tom came home shortly after I rehung the drapes. Tanya dropped Caeli off so we could take her to gymnastics while Tanya picked up the boys. Then she came back and dropped off the boys and went to watch Caeli in practice. Cai and Devin showed up shortly afte...

4/17    Tuesday                I practiced a lot before going to my piano lesson. I didn’t get to practice Saturday or Sunday, so I felt quite behind, but the lesson went well and was fun. From there I took my sewing machine to a repair place to have it serviced. This is the first time since I bought it so it was long overdue. While I was there, they were happy to show me the new Berninas. They were so impressive! No foot pedal needed, self-sewing, intuitive with a computer display to tell you everything you need to know, like what size needle, what type of thread, which stitch to use for your type of fabric, etc., etc.   Amazing and “only” $6,000. I told them I wasn’t in any in the market for a new machine, but it was sure fun to look. I ran from there to meet Tanya, Cai and Devin for lunch. We had a good visit over Mexican food. It’s so fun to have them here! Then I went to the bank to get the cash to pay our friend wh...

4/16      Monday We’ve been wanting to move the water heater ever since we moved in. It is using prime real estate in the kitchen and even though I have a ton of cabinets and a pantry, I can still use more storage. So anyway, Tom found out that a friend from our ward knows how to do plumbing and is willing to do it. We keep telling him we’re paying him, but he just laughs. He came one full day last week on Monday and didn’t come back. Tom was never sure when he was coming back, and we’re not always home, so we kept waiting. He showed up today first thing in the morning so we were glad Tom was working from home today. They spent all day working on it again. I didn’t have any idea how hard it would be to relocate a water heater. First they took off a ton of pipes that weren’t connected to anything, apparently left over from the last time the water heater was changed.  Then they had to relocate the water pipes and gas lines to go to the new water heater in...

4/15/18              Today I had two ward conferences to go to. We (those who have stake callings) get to hear the same presentation 7 times with little variation. This is the 2 nd time we’ve had a round of ward conferences since I’ve had this calling and have really enjoyed hearing it all 7 times. It’s always such a good presentation and each time I hear it, it’s like, “Oh yeah! I was going to act on this.” Good stuff. Anyway, the first started at 9am. They do Sacrament meeting, then a combined Sunday School, then a linger –longer for the 3 rd hour. We really like the linger-longers. By then we’re pretty hungry, and it gives us time to talk to people in the ward. It was very enjoyable. I love my calling. Then the next ward conference started at 12:30. Still really good stuff but this time we didn’t stay for the linger-longer. Tom and I met at Tanya’s house. They had leftover dinner for us, which was sure nice. Af...

April 14              Tanya planned a fun trip on the Sugar Pine Railroad ( Sugar Pine Railroad ) today and as preparation we had them meet at our house so Tom could make a delicious breakfast before going. I had a headache all probably from the carrot cake we shared last night and wasn’t much help making breakfast. The whole rest of the day my head hurt but I powered through and enjoyed it as much as I could. I’ve always wanted to ride the Sugar Pine Railroad every time we pass the sign for it on the way to Yosemite, and I wasn’t at all disappointed in it. It’s just a nice, slow ride through beautiful forest. There was a narrative that we couldn’t really hear because of the seats we chose, but it was still nice.       After we finished, Tom and I got a hot dog there because I hadn’t had breakfast, but nobody else bought anything. They planned to eat in Yosemite. We were only about 5 minutes from...

Cai here April 13             Cai and Devon came to California for 2 weeks’ vacation. It’s so fun to have them here. They wanted to come while all of the Knudsens were on vacation from school, but it wasn’t possible. Tanya took the whole week next week off to be with them, but today she worked and Todd and the kids were in school. So first thing in the morning we went and picked them up and brought them here for Tom’s fried spud breakfast. After that we had a good time playing cards, playing pool, and generally talking non-stop. Tom mostly worked from home, so that was nice. After kids got home from school, Cai and Devon went back to Knudsen’s house  but we met later with them and Tanya and Todd for dinner. It was so fun hanging out with them. It’s amazing that this little grandchild who I kind of helped raise when Tanya was a single mother, who now is a very mature and responsible adult. She will graduate college th...

April 12              Tom left this morning at 7am and got home about 9pm. Long day. His company got a new contract with the utilities company in Sacramento, so now he needs to go there a lot. Fortunately, he got enough done to only have to go once this week. I went at 9am to Laurel Lawrence’s class. This week it was on the House of Israel and very interesting. I can’t wait to type up the notes, which will be on my other blog. From there I went to a Walmart to buy more fabric. I got a text in the morning reminding me (and my friend) that we should also give aprons to the visitors who will be speaking to us at our roundtable for the ward relief society presidents. Then my friend and I also decided to make one for both of the other two members of the stake RS presidency. So I needed to make 3 more. I went to Joanne’s first because they would have a huge selection, but they are so stinking expensive! I bought a few things ...

Tom got to work from home again. So nice! I spent all day sewing. I finished the other 2 aprons which were a little more complicated than the first 2 because I ran out of bias tape (we figured wrong) and had to make my own. Fortunately, I found a really cool way to do it online. Unfortunately, I miss-read the instructions so it wasn’t as easy as it should have been, but was still way easier than any I’ve tried before. They all turned out so cute! I wasn’t ready to quit sewing yet, so I made another shopping bag, using one of my favorites as a pattern. It was way too easy and turned out way too cute. Now I’m going to have to make more and start giving them as gifts. The only problem was that the only velcro I have is sticky-backed. I've found they don't stay stuck and you can't sew them on because the sticky gums up the needle. So I spent about an hour trying to find something that would remove the sticky back. I tried dish soap, oil, vinegar, citrus hand...