Scorching the World

Tom and I went first thing to the church to clean again. Tom cleans, I practice. He was the only one there, and I think he really enjoys making sure the building is nice for Sunday. I think he would do it even if he weren’t over the cleaning. Tom had agreed to help Tanya build some shelf cabinets in her bathroom this morning, but also needed to take the van to get smogged. We went straight from the church to the smog place, but when we got there, he gave the form to the guy who said, “Tom, that car isn’t a Miata.” Tom realized we had taken in the wrong car! So we gave a heavy sigh for old age and went to Tanya’s. She wasn’t home and Todd wasn’t expecting us so early, but Tom started breakfast. He had taken our electric frying pan and a bag of spuds. The boys were happy to know they had some fried spuds to look forward to even though they had already eaten breakfast. After breakfast, we were just sitting around waiting for Tanya so we could start the cabinets, so I sugge...

I woke up thinking about my middle so and thought about him all day. I did send a little text to him, but didn’t get to talk to him otherwise. I love my son and it was sad to not have more contact with him, but we will see everyone this Sunday, so we look forward to that. Tom got to work from home and that’s always fun. I’ve tried to celebrate my birthday all week and so far, I’ve managed. Today I got a card in the mail from Tami and Phil, and every day this week I’ve received more texts from people I love. That is one fun thing about Facebook! I’ve heard from many people from Chile and very old friends. Each day I’ve also received texts from grandkids. I think this is the first year grandkids have texted me to say happy birthday. So fun! I “worked” on my wall hanging. I like how it’s turning out and it’s fun to work on. Tanya texted me to say that for my birthday, they wanted to take us out to dinner! And we all wanted to go on a movie, so we decided to go to a movie tonig...

Tom had to go all the way to Chico, which is 4 hours each way, so he left early. I decided to take a day off and not put on make up, which meant I wasn’t going anywhere! I hardly did any Clean Queen work, so almost no interruptions, and I was able to sew ALL DAY. It was so fun! I finished my winter pajamas, which turned out harder than they should have been, and I’m convinced that one of the pattern pieces was wrong. I figured out my own way and got them done. They will be fun to wear when it gets cold – it’s still in the low 70’s inside at night but we all know it will suddenly turn cold any minute – like right before Halloween. When I finished the pajamas, I worked on a wall hanging I decided to do. It is for hanging over the tv when we’re not watching it. I used scraps of some of my favorite fabrics that I’ve been hanging on to but had no idea what I could use them for. I’m liking it so far and hope it turns out good in the end. The pool guy needed to talk to me abou...

Tom had to go to the Bay Area today and I had Zone Conference to help serve. When I was baking the brownies last night, I had doubled the recipe and baked in double-sized disposable baking pans. The problem with brownies is that you can’t tell whether they are done until they have cooled off. When I got up this morning to frost them, I found that they were rock hard. I had baked them too long, and what I found out later is that the disposable, aluminum pans are so thin that things get baked faster in them. So I was pretty worried that they would be inedible. I decided to made 2 more regular size batches to be sure I had enough good brownies for the missionaries. They didn’t cool in time to frost before leaving, and I had run out of powdered sugar, so I stopped at the store and bought more on the way, then frosted them there. We (the 4 of us in the presidency) arrived about 9:30 and began preparing our food. We worked almost the whole time until time to serve the missionaries, a...

Tom planned to take me out to lunch again today so we sort of didn’t eat breakfast. Around 12:30 I was still in the middle of things – Clean Queen, other compute stuff, and sewing when we realized we were too hungry to wait any longer. So we went to Sweet Tomatoes and had delicious salads and other wonderful things. Going along the salad bar, I just put tiny amounts of lots of different things, and way too soon the plate is heaping and overflowing. Tom was more careful and arranged his ingredients beautifully on the plate as he added them. I got to the checkout way before him, so I ended up paying for our lunches. It all comes from the same account, but he thought he should have paid for the meal on my birthday. He was so slow making his food pretty that a couple of people passed him in line. But it turned out so pretty.   Obviously, the first one is Tom's. So pretty! After eating, Tom wanted to take me shopping for my birthday. He envisioned walking around the mall, lo...

We woke up this morning very relaxed and just kind of enjoyed being in bed past 6am. We finally got up at almost 7:30! Unheard of for us. I had to get on the computer right away to work on Clean Queen and Tom started dressing to do some yard work when he came to me and said, “We forgot about cleaning the temple!” We were supposed to be there in 15 minutes and it takes 20-25 to get there. I was still solving emergencies, so he left me and took off as fast as he could get ready. By the time he got back a couple of hours later, I was sewing happily and got to spend many hours sewing. I finished Cai’s Pocahontas dress and now I wish I had taken a picture of it before boxing it up to mail it! Then I started on some new pajamas for me – a little birthday present to myself. They are flannel for winter with sheep on them. Tom worked on clearing off his desk, an ongoing job, and found several urgent things that had got buried. He had planned to take me out to lunch for my birthday –...

Just as we were headed out at 6:30 am for Tom’s bishopric meeting, he got a text saying the Bishop’s back was hurting too much and couldn’t make it, so we did a u-turn and went right back home. I practiced and Tom worked on a required Scouting course on sexual harassment that has to be done before the end of the month. It was nice to have the extra hour, but if we had known earlier, we would have just slept longer. Sacrament meeting was good and I had to leave right after to visit another ward. Their RS lesson was on ministering, which sure feels like we’re being hammered with this year. I’m sure we need it, but it’s hard to make any lesson or talk into something we haven’t heard 20 times already. The teacher was a young mother who had her baby on the table at the front and was rocking her while she taught. I thought, only a mother could do that – rock a baby and still focus on the lesson. She was very shy, but did a really good job on the lesson, bringing in things I hadn’t he...

We didn’t have to go to the church to clean this morning because the people in charge actually did it!! Hooray! So we hardly knew what to do with ourselves. Tom did some yard work and I sewed some. We were trying to figure out what to give the couple getting married and looked online at their Target list   when I suddenly remembered that I had purchased sets of nice towels at Costco some time ago just for such occasion!! Hooray for finally remembering! So we got those wrapped up and ready. The other thing we needed to do was go to the store where we bought our furniture because they were supposed to refund our delivery   fees, but they actually called to get Tom’s information so they could credit back to our credit card, thus saving us another trip and some more actual money! Wow! We’re getting rich just staying home! Tom went to Madera to buy a part for his truck and barely got back in time for us to go to the wedding of some good friends. The groom is the guy who rem...

I don’t always get dressed as soon as I wake up. It’s my little luxury that I enjoy after many years of getting up at 6:00am and dressing up to go to work. So I was still in pajamas, working at the computer when Tom called to say he was at Jiffy Lube and forgot his wallet. He needed me to take it to him. So I hurried and got dressed. I had put the top down on the Miata yesterday when I picked up Caeli and didn’t put it back up afterwards. It was still a beautiful morning, so I went to him with the top down. So nice! When I got to him, he apologized for making me run to Fresno to save him and I said, “Yes! How dare you force me to drive my Miata with the top down on a beautiful, sunny morning!” The nerve. I spent most of the day sewing. I didn’t try to take a nap and didn’t feel like I needed a nap and oddly enough I also didn’t get hardly any calls or texts all day! It was a lot of fun sewing. Tom went to Modesto which isn’t very far. He got lots of work done and still ...

I sure woke up tired. In the morning I helped Tom a little and did a little Clean Queen work, then headed to my favorite Thursday morning class with Lauren Lawrence. She always has information I’ve never heard. She studies a LOT and remembers what she reads. All information and facts seem to be on the tip of her tongue at all times. She’s amazing. She’s doing a series of Church history lessons right now. It’s very interesting. I plan to type the notes in my other blog, but that blog is seriously behind, so we’ll see when I’ll get to it. I only got a couple of texts while I was there, which I answered. But one was a voice message from Lilian so I had to tell her I couldn’t listen to it for about an hour and then I’d get back to her – if she wanted to send an actual text message, I could answer, but couldn’t listen to a message in class. I took a bit of a chance by going to the fabric store after the class and got about a thousand messages and urgent calls while I was there. ...

9/19        Tom had to leave fairly early, but needed me to help him with some things before he left. At the same time I was working with Clean Queen stuff, but we got it all taken care of and he was off. I had the urge to clean this morning. Ever since we moved into this house I’ve scrubbed and hated my floors. The stamped concrete has all kinds of little crevices where I can’t get the grime out. I’ve scrubbed away the sealer in many areas, but can’t get it to look clean.   In the middle of the night it occurred to me that if I mopped the floor every day or even every week, it would stay cleaner. What a concept! So now I’m trying to figure out the easiest way to mop the whole floor way more frequently. I’m not an everyday mopping kind of person. So anyway, I swept, mopped, and scrubbed the floors did a few loads of laundry, cleaned our bathroom, and vacuumed the family room. Then I finally took down the new drapes that I have in the family...

9/18       Tom had to work far away again so he left before I was even up. I was awake, but not up. We had a door-to-door salesperson come to get our propane account. When I showed the information to Tom, he followed up and arranged them to be our new provider. So today was the day for them to come and remove our tank and put in their tank. So I was home waiting again. Finally in the afternoon they gave us a more specific time and then later gave us an even more specific time. So I was home all day waiting. I organized and cleaned mostly, with a little Clean Queen work mixed in. We were supposed to go to the vineyard again tonight, but Tom didn’t get home until 7:30 and by then they were done. I wasn’t too sad about missing it. In the evening we had long conversations again about when Tom can possibly retire. His work isn’t hard and he has lots of days where he doesn’t even have to leave the house, but he is over 70 and has been working since he ...

I spent all day waiting. We bought new furniture last week that was supposed to be delivered on Thursday. I waited most of the day Thursday before Tom contacted them and they said it didn’t get scheduled for delivery. We sadly moved the big, heavy sofa-sleeper back into the family room. So today we moved the big, heavy sofa/sleeper back into the living room first thing in the morning. We knew they were supposed to come today, but didn’t know what time so we had to be ready. Eventually we found out they were supposed to come between 2pm and 6pm. So I busied myself with scrubbing the floor again, moving some pavers in the back yard, and Clean Queen. I think I got more phone messages yesterday than I’ve ever had in one day. CQ was constant all day, but only totaled up to a couple of hours. Tom got an update on the furniture, that we would be delivery #17 and they were currently on delivery #3. Later we got another message that they were on delivery #6. The good news was that To...

Even though it is Saturday, Tom needed to go to the Bay Area for a work park meeting, so I rode along and went to visit McGills while he worked. We got there just in time for me to go with Nina and Mila to their horseback riding for the day. Tami and Phil were both at work. The have their horses in a place that has several acres where they are free to wander around. It also has a barn for their tack and a small corral where they ride around in small circles. Soon the corral will be bigger; the owners are working on that and the girls are very anxious to have a better place to ride. It was fun to watch them. The take turns riding. First Mila tacks up her horse, then rides. She likes to have Nina watch her and give points, tips, and suggestions while she rides. Then they go back and Mila takes everything off her horse and brushes him down while Nina goes to get her horse and she tacks her up. Then Nina rides while Mila watches her. So it takes a long time but it is cute to wa...

9/14        It’s so nice that he has a job that he can do even if he doesn’t go anywhere. He gets everyone booked up where they need to be, then he can just be near a phone all day and still spend the whole day with me. And my Clean Queen phone was so silent, I was worried that the internet was broken so nobody could book appointments. Consequently, Tom and I had a nice day together. He worked on stuff for work, then on the yard, and I worked on cleaning the garage. I actually removed a whole bookshelf, moved 3 others to better places, put stuff in cabinets and on shelves that were already there, and got rid of a bunch of stuff. It is amazing how stuff accumulates! So it is cleaned out and the cars fit better. So nice. I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time and just needed the weather to cool off enough to be able to be out there. Yeah, the weather is cooling off, which means it’s very nice to be outside, but not fun to swim. Too cold. So sa...

Tom and I decided to buy a loveseat. Tom has always wanted a double-wide recliner so we can sit together on it. We've half-heartedly looked for one for decades. Last Friday Tom decided we should just go and look at real stores to see if we could find one. The first store we went to had exactly what we were looking for, at a reasonable price, and even better than we had thought we were looking for, so we bought it and a sofa to go with it! We were giddy with excitement! Anyway, they were supposed to be delivered today. Last night Tom and I rearranged the furniture so they could be delivered. This morning I decided not to go to Laurel Lawrence’s class- just to be sure I would be here in case they called or came. We had been told we would have a tracking number and be able to see exactly where they were and when we could expect them but we hadn’t received any of that. So when the store opened I called to see when they would be here. Turns out there was a mix-up at the store...

I thought I would take it easy today because the dentists had warned me that I should buy pain killers and that I might be in a lot of pain, but I really wasn’t. I woke up feeling fine! Tom left early and was gone all day. At 10 there was a meeting of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. I didn’t realize it was a potluck and felt a little foolish for not taking anything. There were a lot in attendance today, being the first meeting of the year. The meetings are interesting, but sure seems long. I took a little crocheting to do to pass the time better. I only got a few texts while I was there and nothing urgent, so that was good. I did a little Clean Queen work during the day and not much else. Slowly a headache started coming on for no reason. I finally almost fell asleep around 4 but kept getting texts, so it wasn’t a very sound sleep. Then Tom arrived at home and Tanya and kids got there at the same time. Tanya hung out while Caeli was at gymnastics. It was nice to have he...

Tuesday This was probably the least fun day of this year. I was busy doing Clean Queen when the dentist called, about 8:30,  that they had a cancellation and asked if I wanted to come in to get a cavity filled. I really didn’t want to, but it was time to put on my big girl panties and get it done.  The complication was that the cavity was under a crown, which I think is totally unfair, so they had to remove the crown, then fix the cavity. Unfortunately, when they drilled out the cavity the dentist decided it was too close to the nerve and that I would need a root canal. They don’t do molar root canals in their office and set me up with an appointment that same day with a specialist. So they put a temporary crown over it and sent me on my way. I hadn’t eaten before I went, but afterwards, I wasn’t supposed to chew anything, so I had some ice cream for lunch. As the numbing wore off, it began to hurt some, so I couldn’t wait to get to the next appointment at 3:45pm...

I did only about an hour of Clean Queen work, but it took all morning. Suddenly it was 12;30 and time to go to my presidency meeting. It’s a good thing for Alexa. If hadn’t set that to remind me, I would have missed the meeting! We had quite a few things to discuss - our last round table dinner, the upcoming zone conference where we feed 80 missionaries, upcoming Women's Conference where we feed everyone who comes, and the Silver Belle's luncheon in December where we feed all the old ladies like me. Fun stuff! I bought stuff for the treat for FHE on the way home. We were hosting family home evening, empty nesters here, so I spent some time cleaning and getting the treat ready. It went really well. Tom gave the lesson from a lesson he gave in YM yesterday and I prepared a “not-so-newlywed” game that they loved, but it took way too long.  I had prepared Strawberry Shortcake, but also with peaches, blueberries, and bananas. They loved all the fresh fruit, so that was...

Tom didn’t have Bishopric meeting this morning so we got to sleep an hour longer. That was sure nice! Sacrament meeting was good, and then I had to leave to go visit another ward. Their Relief Society was really good. I love visiting other wards! Then I had to run back to our ward so I could help the YW practice their song for a youth concert in November. After the first practice, I talked to the Stake YW presidency and told them that all the young men are tone deaf and that it sounds terrible and that we didn’t want to embarrass ourselves. She said she had heard them in a rehearsal and knew they sounded bad. She said they didn’t want all the wards to have all the youth sing like choirs – they wanted piano solos, violins, small groups of 2 or 4, or vocal solos, so she told me to tell them what they wanted and cut it down to a few young women. When I told our YW president, she told the YM president, who apparently is also tone deaf, and he wasn’t very happy about being cut o...

Of course first thing on a Saturday morning is to go to the church to clean the church. We ran a couple of errands on the way home, then settled into doing Saturday work at home. Tom did a bunch of yard work and I worked in the house. I can’t even remember what else we did. So sad. If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen.

I worked and did stuff at home; nothing exciting, nothing to report.  Tom worked far   away. He drove 2 ½ hours, flyered a park (which involved walking through the whole park to put flyers on each mobile home) for 3 hours, then drove 2 ½ hours back home.  As soon as he got home, we left to go to his brother Dan’s concert. Dan lives in Modesto, 1 ½ hours north of here. The city does these things in the summer in an area that has stores on both sides and very wide walkways in-between. There were bands in every block and lots of little craft and food booths set up all along.  Dan played from 7pm to 9pm. According to them, they play blues and jazz, but it all sounded like country to me, even the rock songs. And it was really, really loud. But Dan’s 2 kids came to watch, and it was super fun to see them. We haven’t seen his son for about 10 years and now he’s a married adult! We got to visit with them a little after the music was over.  ...