Scorching the World

6/30/18            We started the day with cleaning the church, as always. Tom is over the people who are over the cleaning so he feels that he should be there to support them every single week. So I practice while he cleans. He’s so dedicated. We stopped on the way home we stopped at Lowe’s to buy the wood for the deck we want to put in. I decided I didn’t want the rocks that are in one area and had started putting down pavers, but we didn’t have enough of the pavers to finish it. We decided that a deck would look way better. But when we priced out the wood, it was going to cost WAY more than I imagined. So we looked at more pavers, not pretty ones, just a slightly different color and they cost about half as much as the decking so we decided we would just have to do pavers. Anything is better than the rocks! So the pavers will be delivered tomorrow. When we got home, we assessed what needed done and decided a nap was the first, most important thi...

6/29/18             Tom had to leave by 6am this morning and was going to the Bay Area, so he asked Tanya if Caeli wanted to go with him and spend the day at McGill’s. He could drop her off on his way to Santa Rosa and pick her up on the way back. Turned out she just stayed there and spent the night. I didn’t have a lot of calls in the morning, so I ventured out and did a little yard work. I’m trying to make the blueberry area less weedie. I have one row done but I don’t have enough pavers to do the whole area. Not sure what I’m going to do about that.  I quit when I started sweating. Here's before and after:     It at least should keep some of the weeds down on the walkways. I did a little Clean Queen work but started getting a headache again so I took it easy the rest of the day, except for one errand. We just found out this week that the Stake Relief Society Presidency has been put in charge of the Stake Pioneer Day celebra...

6/28/18     Nothing interesting here. I worked a couple of hours and…………. Oh yeah, I woke up to my phone sending new message notifications at 6am and did an hour’s work before I even got dressed. Ah the wonders of working from home. Today Tom had the missionaries (4 of them) come over to help do yard work. They ask every week if there is something they can come and do in our yard. I’m sure part of it is the wonderful breakfast Tom always gives them, but they also love doing yard work! The funny things about breakfast was this: we had bananas and peaches to have on the pancakes with whipped cream. One missionaries apparently loves whipped cream because he put a huge pile of it on his pancake, then scooped it off by the spoonful before touching the pancake. He also put a  bunch of whipped cream on his potatoes and even on the sausage! We had a hard time not laughing and pointing at him. These wonderful missionaries really are just big little boys I had a hea...

6/27        Tom had to leave early this morning to go to San Jose. He had to go straight to Mutual when he got back so I met him there. I actually worked 5 hours today. I just kept getting more and more texts and emails throughout the day and kept working on it. But I also managed to get some cleaning done and almost got to sew. The YM/YW were doing a fun activity today. Sunday the leaders gave all the ym/yw mission calls, or at least letters that really looked like real mission calls. Then tonight they had to come in dress clothes, ready to start their missions. They had several people who came to present all about a mission in a certain country so the kids could learn about them. We have a missionary in our ward from Chile, so he was presenting that class but had nothing to show, so Tom had me take a bunch of cool stuff from Chile for the Elder’s presentation, which I did. I had my two piano lessons before mutual started. One girl, the...

6/26        Tom’s day got totally messed up today. He had planned to work in the yard for an hour before work hours began, but before he got out there, he got a text from one if the marketers saying he was almost out of work and needed a new park immediately. They are supposed to give at least a day’s notice but never do. So he quickly packed things up and headed to Stockton. On the way to Stockton, he got another message that the guy didn’t need help immediately after all, so then Tom headed to Hayward where he was planning to go anyway. After he got to Hayward, he worked on what he needed there, and then, after finishing, found out that what he had done, they had changed to San Jose instead of Hayward. So then he canceled what he had set up and headed to San Jose. He needed my help to locate a park for what he needed, was finally abe to get some things set up and came home. But that didn’t end his rough day. When he got to Madera, there was a big rig ...

6/24        Sundays sure seem to come around frequently. Seems we just had one. But after all the hard work we’ve been doing the last few days, and considering all there still is to do, it was nice to have a day off to focus on more important things. Tom and I went to church early but in separate cars so that I could visit another ward after Church. The meetings were really good today, with lots of good lessons that I need to remember. I was especially impressed, as always, with the Young Single Adult Relief Society. Those young girls sure have their acts together and seem so far ahead of where I was spiritually at that age. I’m always amazed at them and the discussions they have. My favorite little YSA, Becky (who was Cai’s best friend in high school) is the RS president and also gave a wonderful lesson. I’m going to give it to Tanya’s kids when we get a chance. We invited Tanya and family over for dinner since her house is mostly still in boxes and they w...

6/23/18 Tanya wanted us at 6am again, so that we could get a significant amount of work done before it got too warm - they were expecting 109 today; the first really hot day of the year so far. So we got up early and headed over there. The moving trucks were there and they took out all the big furniture. It was so nice to have someone else doing all the heavy stuff. Still, we carried lots of boxes to our car, helped pack a few things, and then went to the new house. There, Tom and I worked on building shelves until noon when the moving trucks were totally unloaded. I helped Tanya set up some beds and arrange the furniture a little and finally came home. It was way too hot for me to be very much help to Tom so he finished the shelves after I left. He had the truck so he stayed a while longer working in the heat. After Tom got home, totally hot and sweaty, we got a nap then went swimming. We were so tired that even though we were painfully hot and dirty, we couldn’t go swimming un...

6/22   I worked in my new job off and on all day and into late evening. I felt really bad for Lilian and Kathleen who run the crews; they work long, hard days! They were so far behind most of the day and the only thing they could do about it was to keep working as fast as they could. They kept calling me to tell their next appointments that they were late and later, and later. At the same time, Tanya got the keys to her new house, so we started moving her. We met at 6am so we could get stuff done before it got hot. It was hot and miserable, after about 10am, but we carried load after load to the cars & truck and took them to the new house. Then Tom and I started building some shelves Tanya wanted. We didn’t have everything we needed, so most of the work was put off to tomorrow. Still, we worked until about 9pm, so it was a very long day. Throughout the time we were helping Tanya move, I kept getting texts being asked to contact clients, with lots of back and forth. T...

6/21       Tom was home today so we got to work on the back window. He managed to re-route the electrical wiring that goes where we want the window and then we began the framing. It’s so exciting and I’m so impressed that he knew how to do all that! We just need more time and I think he can actually finish the window install. Super exciting! All summed up in that little paragraph, it sounds like no big deal, but actually, it took a very large part of the day. I was supposed to go to another ward's Relief Society social, but decided to cancel at the last minute because at the time I needed to leave we had the power off. I needed to curl my hair and do a couple other things that needed electricity to get ready to go. Plus, without my help, Tom couldn't finish and we would have had to leave the power off until I got home about 9pm. So I stayed home and helped and we got the electrical hooked up right so everything still works. We're so amazed that we could do i...

6/20        Tom needed to go to Stockton today so  he was gone all day and only needed my help a couple of times. My Clean Queen work was more manageable today so I was able to leave for a while to do some shopping. We were running out of shampoo but we have lots of bottles of conditioner for some reason. So I picked up several bottles of shampoo and other things we were out of and only got texted once the whole time I was gone. When I got home and went to put the shampoo in the shower, but all the bottles I just purchased had turned to conditioner. Now I have twice as much conditioner and almost no shampoo. I don’t know how that happened! My 6:00 piano student said she needed to come at 6:30, but she didn’t show up at all. I went back and re-read the texts to see if I misunderstood, but I didn’t, so I don’t know what happened. I did mention to her mother that it might be good for her to see a better teacher. I hope she follows up on that. Anyw...

6/19        Tom had to go to Bakersfield today and left about 10am. But he was back within an hour; luckily, his reason to go to Bakersfield took care of itself and he was able to come home for the day. He worked on some things in the yard, and then worked on the wiring for our window. Putting in a window is way beyond his abilities – just because he has never done it before – so he’s being very careful to plan it out well and do as much as he can before he breaks through the outside wall. So the hole in the inside wall keeps getting bigger and he is now ready to actually disconnect the wires, put in the framing, and then reconnect them. He wants a whole day to work on it in case he runs   into any problems. Pretty scary. I have spent so many days/weeks since we moved in, moving rocks. It’s difficult and tedious, and kills my nails. After working a little each morning for a couple of weeks to remove the rocks from one area, I realized there is no place...

6/18/18 I suggested to Anne that I might be interested in helping her with her job of working with Lilian. I’ve been looking for something that I can do from home, that would be somewhat flexible and it sounded like it would work. So Anne talked to Lilian and she reluctantly agreed to give it a one month trial. Today was a trial by fire! I handled about 25 phone calls/texts – mostly texts, scheduled and rescheduled clients, assured Lilian many times that things were being handled even though she was sure they weren’t, and called/texted/emailed Anne about a hundred times for advice and instruction. I worked from 7am until about 3:30 and was still getting texts at 8pm. However, I used an online stopwatch to track actual minutes worked and it only added up to 3 hours.  Suffice it to say I didn’t get anything else done today and whenever Tom needed my help or wanted to talk, I got texts that I had to handle. He wasn’t thrilled about my new job. Things were made more compli...

6/17       Tom suggested to the Bishop that they cancel all morning meetings so families can spoil their Fathers, but he said it would be meetings as usual, so we went to the church at 7am and I practiced organ while Tom was in meetings for 2 ½ hours. The meetings were good, but the Bishop had instructed Tom that none of the talks be about Father’s Day so fathers weren’t mentioned at all. However, he did get a cute gift that someone had made for all the fathers after Sacrament meeting. It looks like a cupcake, but is a tie and cuff links! Clever! Somebody spent some $$ and a whole lot of time!  We had a "linger-longer" after Church, but Tom and I didn't stay for it. We love our ward. We met Tanya and family at our house and took off for Marc’s house. We were an hour late but nobody else had arrived yet, Alissa wasn’t home from work yet, and Marc was busy working on house stuff while he watched his three cute ones. It’s sad to me that we don’...

6/15        First thing this morning, we went to the church for Tom to train a new couple that will be in charge of cleaning, and for me to practice. There was a young man who set up a blood bank event at our church building for this morning, as part of his Eagle Scout project. Actually that wasn’t the first thing. We both woke up early and did at least half hour of yard work before we went to the church. It felt good to be outside on a crisp, cool morning. Tom had a little trouble training the new couple. Actually the sister learned, worked, and enjoyed the work. She’s pretty delightful – always cheerfully finding the fun in everything she does. But the husband didn’t know how to do anything. Tom told him to take out the garbage of all garbage cans and put in new liners. He said, “I don’t know how.” So Tom said, “Just take out the bag, tie it up, and put in a new one.” He said, “I don’t know how to do that.” So Tom showed him – he took out the full bag, tied i...

6/15       Tom and I were up early for some reason so he started his real work – the one that pays, and I started on the back yard again. I’ve spent the week picking out landscape rocks from the back, but it ruins my nails, so today I started a new project. The area between the rows of blueberry bushes is all weeds and river rocks. Tom always just planned on keeping the weeds cut short, which should be fine. But our weeds are so powerful and persistent, that it always looks like a weed patch instead of a blueberry bush area. So I gathered some pavers that I’ve collected from around the yard and started putting them in the rows. It looks really nice! It’s super hard work and I worked for over an hour. Even though it was cool outside, I was sweating like a pig when I finally came in. As I sat looking at my computer, I had sweat dripping off my head. That’s what I call good, honest, hard work. Tom had to go to Bakersfield today and got home about 5pm. After ...

6/14/18       I almost got up early to get out and clear rocks again, but Tom woke up and coaxed me back to bed for another hour. It’s just too hard to resist cuddling and he wasn’t ready to get up. Consequently, it got warm before I got in much yard work. I filled the wagon (which holds a LOT OF ROCKS) that we’ve been using to transport rocks to another area, but we’ve filled all the area where we needed rocks, so now I don’t know what to do with the rocks we take out. We definitely have decided we don’t like the rocks between the house and the pool but haven’t decided what to replace them with either. Tom is thinking astro-turf? Decking? Sod? ??? So without wanting to, we’ve started another project. We also want to remove the rocks that are under our fruit trees. It would be so much easier to keep the areas clean if Tom could just rake instead of trying to blow all the leaves away. But there are SO MANY LANDSCAPE rocks. So I decided that maybe it might be a go...

6/13/18    Tom asked the Young Men leaders yesterday if they would like to bring the young men here for a swim party while the young women are at camp. They were happy and excited about it so we spent a major part of the day getting stuff ready – cleaning up the back yard a little, buying and preparing food, and cleaning the house in case anyone came in. It was so nice that Tom was able to work from home again today. He spent the morning finishing the front of the house. It looks so nice – so much better. The front yard would actually look good now if only the lawn weren’t dead. But we took rocks from the back yard to fill the area in the front yard. Now the back yard where we took them out looks really bad and we’re trying to decide what to do with it. I had planned to just fill it with river rocks from another area, but Tom thinks he wants to put decking there. I guess we’ll have to discuss it more, but it was frustrating that, in spite of the fact that we’ve ...

6/12/18      I woke up early (5am) to find Tom sleeping on the couch so I slipped out the bedroom door and started doing yard work. I began gathering rocks to put in front and putting them in our wagon to move to the front yard. I worked about an hour before Tom came out and joined me. We worked a couple of hours more and I got way too tired and came in, but Tom kept on working and working and working. He worked pretty much all day on it. He was beyond exhausted but just kept going. I joined him in the afternoon but again I didn’t last very long. Around 3 we got in the pool  briefly  to cool down and then he went right back to it. He finally quit at 6pm so that he could go translate for a temple recommend interview with the Stake President. Todd brought the boys over; Tanya and Caeli are at girls' camp. I had invited them over to swim - it was great weather for it! They came just before Tom left and we got in the pool. However the boys didn't last very long...

6/11        I totally forgot we were hosting family home evening here until this weekend and even then, I kept forgetting to give people invitations and reminders. So we didn’t expect very many people to come, but we still needed to be prepared. I told Tom I would do refreshments if he would give the lesson; I gave the lesson last time – all the past times, so it was his turn. We worked on the front yard some. Now that the front door is finished, we want to clean up the area in front of the front window – between the house and the sidewalk. It always has so many leaves and is very difficult to clean out. It used to have a hedge running the whole length and I never liked how it looked. We pulled it out last year but until now hadn’t replaced it with anything. So we began cleaning it out better in preparation for putting rocks and potted succulents. When Tom was digging out a leftover bush, he hit the water main, so he had to spend the rest of the usable day...

6/10/18      There was a Priesthood Leadership meeting this morning at 7am, and they invited all ward and Stake Relief Society presidents to attend, so Tom and I got to go to the meeting together. Apparently nobody had thought to provide translation devices, so Tom sat behind the ones who didn’t understand English and hoped I could help if he couldn’t come up with a word. I’m not actually any better at translating than he is, but sometimes 2 brains are better???? There was a brief introductory part, then they divided us up and Tom had to go somewhere else. Fortunately, the ones who needed translation also left, so I was off the hook. The meeting was really good   - Elder Larry Lawrence, former seventy, helped us understand better the nuts and bolts of ministering, especially the interviews that the RS and Elder’s Quorum presidencies are supposed to do. He answered quite a few questions I’ve heard. After the meeting, we went to our own Sacrament meeting ...

6/9         First thing w e went to the church to clean. Nobody else showed up even though a new couple has been called to be in charge of cleaning and were told they had to be there every week. Not a good start. I don’t think they actually understand what their calling is. On Mother’s Day, Tanya had invited me to go to the beach with her on June 9 th , today, but I never connected that it was supposed to be a Mother’s Day gift until today. She texted me this morning and said it looked like it was going to be too cold at the beach and asked what I suggested we do. I suggested we go to the pool instead – at our house. So she came over and we sat outside just looking at the water and talking. It was HEAVEN! We never get to just sit and talk, uninterrupted and undisturbed – just me and her! Then we had a little lunch of leftovers and watched some TV episodes that she wanted to catch up on. It was so relaxing, just sitting around.  Tom decided the only way...

6/8          Tom was home today and we got to just be together and work on stuff. We struggled with finishing the door, but Tom needed some different screws. We worked on the yard. We worked on the sink faucet that has no pressure. We couldn’t figure out how to fix it, but did get a lot of stuff done and had a very nice day together.

6/7                     Tom had to go to far off places again today. I worked in the yard a little in the morning; not as long as yesterday, but I finished weeding the area around the blueberries. It looks much better, but needs a lot more work – other days. I worked on father’s day gifts for my sons and sons-in-law most of the day. They turned out pretty good but I always wish there was a do-over after I finish something. At least they are ready in time to mail the ones far away. Hooray! I did manage to remember to pick up Caeli after school and drop her off at home, then went back and finished preparing the food for our Relief Society round table dinner with the ward RS presidents. Tom got home right before I left, so it was nice to see him for a little while. For our dinner we had 3 different and delicious salads and rolls. Everyone enjoyed the food and raved about it as usu...

6/6          I woke up a little early today and went out and worked in the yard for an hour before it got warm outside. I was getting lots done and didn’t really want to quit until I finished weeding the area I was doing, but my legs got so tired they started shaking and being wobbly. I’ve had problems with Quicken downloading lately and this week it hasn’t worked at all. I tried some things that were recommended online and ended up really messing up my accounts. I spent many hours trying to the accounts straightened out. What a pain. I hope it works right after this or I’ll be contacting them with some complaints. We were feeding the missionaries today and we like to do it at the church on Wednesday nights. It saves them having to come all the way to our house. I spent some time cooking, baking, and getting dishes and stuff ready, so when Tom got home from Bakersfield, I was pretty ready to go. We had a nice dinner with the 4 missionaries. We have...

6/5          I got to stay home today and even though Tom didn’t travel far, he had to go to the office and also worked quite a few hours from home. Of course, while he was at the office and while he was at home he needed my help on lots of computer things. I worked on computer stuff and finished painting and cleaning up the front door. It’s so pretty. When Tom had time, he worked on the yard and then worked on finishing the door, but he found he had bought the wrong size screws to hold the kick plate and there were a couple of other problems that delayed finishing it until another day. That’s life! Once I read that a guy who was working on a home improvement project went to the store to buy something and talked to the sales clerk about what he was doing. When he left the sales clerk said, “See you soon.” The guy wondered about it, and shortly later found he needed to make another trip back to the store. He asked the clerk how he knew he’d be back. The cle...

6/4          I can’t believe my youngest child turned 39! How is that possible?? His post on facebook, instead of being all about his birthday and excitement, was on how grateful he is for wonderful parents. He spent 15 minutes in prayer this morning expressing gratitude for his blessings. He runs his own business and is in school full time working on his PhD. He takes the best care of his wife and is fully expressing blessing all day long. What a wonderful man he has turned out to be! We're constantly amazed at what a great person he is. Tom and I worked on thing around the house. He did yard work and I finished painting the front door. It looks SO MUCH BETTER! Tom still needs to finish the kickplates and weather stripping on the doors, but my part is done. The rest of the day I worked on computer and music stuff. I wrote some piano arrangements to go with the choir number we’re singing Sunday. It still isn’t totally beautiful, but I sure hope I ...

6/3         I don’t know why the church is kept so cold when it gets warmer outside. It’s like I need to dress appropriately for summer outside, then put on a coat and blanket for inside. Church was nice. I love testimony meetings. Sunday school was good, too, with a new gospel doctrine teacher. Then the 3 rd hour was combined with the priesthood men and young men/young women to explain the whole new ministering program. It was well presented and Tom did good on his part. Choir practice was rough. We have a couple of hymns we’re working on, but we’re having a special speaker next week, so I really wanted to see if we could get one of them ready. Unfortunately, they don’t adapt very quickly to change. I had to play the piano and one sister had to lead for me, which she doesn’t do very well. She doesn’t know how to control (or actually LEAD) the choir, or follow me on the piano. I wanted to slow down a part, and they just couldn’t do it. It was like trying t...