Scorching the World

10/30/18           Tom had to leave just before 8. I woke up early and was working on Clean queen when I suddenly remembered, thanks to a reminder on my phone, that I had an appointment to get my hair cut. It was the one I rescheduled last week when I got delayed and didn’t make it, so I really didn’t want to miss this one or be late. So again, I RAN out of the house at the same time that Tom needed to leave. I was only about 5 minutes late and was so happy to get my hair cut. I get very frustrated when it just hangs all scraggly and flat and always feels so much better when it is trimmed and shaped. At home again, I was scheduled for a phone conference with Anne and the contact with the new scheduling program and at the same time, I was expecting someone to come and fix one of our new couches we bought. They were due between 9:30 and 12:30, and sure enough, they came right when I started the phone conference. But they were very respectful and ...

10/29      Tom got to stay home today, and had lots of desk work to do. His job has a lot of pressure right now, trying to get more work done each month than they’ve done in the whole year. Ever since we got back from our mission he has had 2 or 3 marketers to find parks for. Now he has about 7 and is having a hard time staying ahead of them. I’ve been working non-stop on the new calendaring program for my little job and have been so stressed over it, I’ve starting dreaming about it – stressful dreams. So I worked on that most of the day. Suddenly at 3:50 I remembered that I had a presidency meeting at 4pm! It is a good thing I put reminders on my phone or I would have forgotten completely.  So I RAN out of the house and got there just a little late. It was a good meeting and we got a lot planned. It is also just wonderful to be with those women I respect so much. While I was in the meeting I missed about 8 texts and a couple of phone calls, so I hur...

10/28     I got up at the usual early time to get ready before leaving for Tom’s Bishopric meeting. When I was almost in the shower, he told me there was no bishopric meeting today because the Bishop is out of town. Oh well, I was already up, so it gave us a longer morning at home.   The meetings were good. My two girls who take turns playing the organ in Sacrament meeting were also out of town,   so I played all the hymns today. I made it easier for myself by choosing hymns I knew I could play! And the talks were really good.   We had planned to leave right after Sacrament meeting, but with the Bishop gone, there were a lot of things Tom needed to help take care of before he could leave, so I was able to sit through all of Sunday School and the beginning of Relief Society before he came to get me so we could go. This week I was scheduled to visit my very own ward (as part of our Stake Relief Society visits) but I didn’t get to be there for my own ...

10/27        Tom and I got up as usual to go clean the church at 8am. It was already pretty clean because people had done it on Wednesday, so we weren’t there long. I spent the rest of the day working on the new calendaring program for Clean Queen. It’s a little complicated, so it has taken me a lot of study and practice to get it going. I still ahe doubts about whether it is going to be better than plain old google calendar.   In the afternoon, Tom called a stereo place to see if they could replace the stereo in the Oldsmobile we just bought an they said   to bring it right in. So we went and dropped it off and picked up chips and dip for tomorrow.   Within a couple of hours, the stereo was done and Tom needed to go to the Stake Center. Whenever there is a Fresno State football game, the church sells tickets for parking behind our stake center. It’s a fundraiser for the scouting program, so they need a whole lot of men and teen boys to hel...

10/26    Friday About 6:30 am we got a text from Tanya saying that Kaden had the day off school, but was the only one, so she wondered if we would like to have him come over and spend the day with us. We were happy to have him here, but both of us had a LOT of work to do so it worked well that he’s so self-sufficient as far as keeping himself entertained.   She dropped him off and left for work. I was in the middle of Clean Queen stuff, so Kaden just set himself up on his computer and started playing video games. Around 9:30 Tom was about to start breakfast when he had a sudden phone conference for his company. So I cooked some spuds and eggs; his meeting   ended shortly after I took him some food. Kaden had already eaten breakfast before coming, but managed to eat just a little because he loves fried spuds.   Then I had a phone conference at 11:30. I was so excited and anxious for it because I couldn’t start the new program until after this meetin...

10/25      Thursday            Tom was able to work from home today and he really did work almost all day. He had a ton of stuff he needed to get caught up on and spent most of the day at his desk.   Fortunately, he was able to take a short break to go to Laurel’s class with me in the morning. It was good, as always, and so nice to have him there with me. I got a voice message from Lilian during the meeting, so stepped outside and chatted back and forth with her until everyone started coming out of the Lawrence’s house. I missed the whole end of the class, but at least I got to go to most of it.   The rest of the day we both spent working on various stuff around the house. I have to say again, how much I love this time of year. It has been months since we have had to turn on our heater or air conditioner. It’s just beautiful weather. This week I talked to a person in Chicago. He said it’s freezing, ...

10/24     I have been waiting all week for a 1:00 pm meeting today to get our new program for Clean Queen set up. I was excited for it.   In the morning I was working along and I got a call from Sprint saying that my phone was fixed! Hooray! I went straight to Fresno and got my phone back/or rather a replacement-duplicate of my phone because mine wasn’t fixable. It’s so nice to have back, but frustrating that I’ve lost all the text messages and history that my phone had. I picked up some groceries on the way back.   I had volunteered to take dinner to my ministering companion so I worked on that throughout the day.as well as Clean Queen. When it came time for my phone conference, it turned out to be just a tiny thing where they asked a few more questions. Now I have to wait until Friday (was going to be next Tuesday but I talked them into doing it sooner) for another phone conference, then there will be an implementation meeting, and so on. So now I’ve g...

10/23     Tuesday I didn’t have to go anywhere again, and was happy again. Tom left EARLY and came home LATE. He went to Napa, which is 4 ½ hours each way and he had to deliver flyers in a park, which took 2 hours of walking. So he came home with lots of aches and pains from the long walking and the long sitting.   I worked on Clean Queen, did stuff for Tom, scrubbed a floor, and cleaned out a cabinet. Not an exciting day by most people’s standards, but I sure like my life! I've also been Christmas shopping online and LOVE having packages  show up at my house all the time! So fun!

10/22      First thing in the morning Tom and I went to help clean the temple. Tom is convinced that even though Monday mornings are SUPER busy, if we go serve in the temple. we will be blessed and everything else will work our right. Turns out he was right. Tom had to leave early to go to far away places. I’m trying to get a new program set up for Clean Queen, but they won’t start it until Wednesday. I was really hoping to start using it today, because it is the beginning of a new pay period, but no such luck. Still, I spent a LOT of time looking at their how-to videos and trying things out. I’m a little panicked that it isn’t going to be as good as it sounded because we’re in a 1 year contract. Yeah. Panic.   I had to help Tom A LOT through the day –I’m his local office. Whenever he needs information or needs to send an email, he calls me to do it. And I worked on Clean Queen off and on. Other than that, I was just home and was happy that I didn’t ...

10/21      Tom and I went early as usual, for his Bishopric meeting. After we had been there about 15 minutes and nobody else had showed up, he remembered that he was supposed to be at a stake Priesthood meeting. So he left me alone in the building and ran to his meeting.   While I was happily practicing the organ, Cai called! Woohoo! It’s so fun to talk to her! She likes to call people in the mornings when she gets off work. Usually she calls her Mom, but Tanya wasn’t available, so I got to talk to her. It was so fun that we set up a regular time each week to chat. So fun! We’re probably closer to Cai than some of our other grandchildren, because they lived with us when she was born, and I took care of her while Tanya worked for many years. Now she’s all grown up, married, and a wonderful adult!   Sacrament meeting was nice. What can I say – it’s nice to be where we belong, partake of the Sacrament, and hear good speakers. Right after Sacrament...

10/20      Tom had been asked to help someone in our ward “with the roof”. He had no idea what they were going to do, but wanted to help. I made him promise he would not climb up on somebody’s roof! So he left and went to the church first to make sure it was clean and ready for tomorrow. Then he went to the person’s house where they were removing a roof and putting on a whole new one. He was there quite a few hours. I went to a craft fair near where we used to live and was glad I didn’t have any money because I could have spent A LOT! There was a lot of very cool stuff there, most of it stuff I would not be able to make myself, so I would have had to buy it. It was fun! Then I went back to Sprint so they could fix the reason my new loaner phone wouldn’t make an audible notice of incoming texts or phone calls. My phone has been way too silent lately, so I’m afraid of it not working correctly. The fixed it quickly (after I waited about half hour) and I headed ...

Friday - Or I could call this post a very Phoney Day! because of all the phone problems I had. 10/19     My Clean Queen phone has been auto-muting the ring tone for a few days. It’s really a pain and has caused me to miss a lot of phone calls and texts, even when I have the phone right next to me. I suffered it about it 2 days ago, but right after I told Lilian, it started working right, so I didn’t worry about it for the rest of the day. Yesterday it worked fine all day, so I didn’t worry about it again. But today it started right away auto-muting the ring tone, so about 9am I took off to go to Sprint. Unfortunately, they didn’t open until 10, so I spent an hour in Walmart and got some groceries and stuff. By the time I finished, Sprint was open. They looked at the phone and puzzled over it and finally sent me to another Sprint location where they have techs. The guy who looked at it at the 2 nd location knew right away what the problem was – the switch ha...

1/18       Thu  So a couple of days ago, Tom saw a 1985 Oldsmobile in pristine condition while was passing out flyers in a park. He talked to the owner and the next day took him a check to buy it. Today after he had worked in the morning, we decided my phone was being quiet enough that we could run up and pick it us. It was 1 ½ hours each way. The man who was selling it was only the 2 nd owner, and he LOVED that car. He said he couldn’t sleep all night thinking about losing it and not seeing it I the carport every day. I got to drive it home because Tom had to leave from there to go to work. It is super comfortable. It’s really big, like those old cars used to be, but the steering wheel is so skinny! It is the top of the line for that model, so it has power everything, even seat tilt and power forward/back, power windows, power locks, etc. It’s been so well cared for that there is no wear on any of the upholstery or vinyl. It’s beautiful. Tom is ...

10/17     Wednesday                      We didn’t have to go to mutual tonight because the youth were all involved in a rehearsal for their upcoming concert/fireside. I was so busy all day that I didn’t even think about having all that time free! I’ve been searching online all week (lol, today’s only Wednesday) for a program to help Clean Queen streamline the scheduling, calendaring, payroll, and billing. I got a call on Tuesday from Verizon, that was following up on somebody’s inquiry and the more I talked to them, the more excited I got about what they had.  I told Lilian and she suggested that I check with other companies and spent most of the day researching and doing free trials with many of them. I talked to salespeople and got price samples, then I reported it all to Lily and made my recommendation. But it seriously took all day. That was besides helping...

12/16     Tuesday My Clean Queen phone kept acting weird all day. I finally told Lilian what it was doing – auto-mute, over and over. So I kept missing texts and calls. I searched all over the internet for fixes; there were lots of complaints of the same issue, but no easy fixes. So Lily gave me the Sprint account # plus the pin so I could go get it looked at, and from that point on, it worked great. That’s how things are. I did Clean Queen work, lots of requests from Tom, and some housework, but I just felt so tired I kept trying to take a nap. It never worked, but I tried. Tom finally got home about 6pm. Yesterday while walking a park, passing out flyers, he found a 1980-something Oldsmobile that he fell in love with. He texted me about it over and over and finally decided to buy it, so today he took them a check. He’s super excited and I think he wishes I would be equally excited, but cars just don’t get me that excited. I try, though.

12/15  Monday I had a dentist appointment first thing in the morning to get my permanent crown. I never was so excited to go to a dentist appointment. It’s so nice now to have the crown that fits right and my mouth can be comfortable.   Happiness. I had time to run home and do a couple of Clean Queen things and help Tom before I needed to leave again for my presidency meeting. There are so many exciting things happening in relief society that there was a lot to discuss in preparation for our Stake Leadership Training. Lily had been trying to contact me the whole time I was gone and I didn’t get home until about 1pm. Then there was lots to catch up on. Tom worked far away. He left about 8:15 to go help clean the temple. I couldn’t go because I wouldn’t be back in time for my dentist appointment. Then he came back home, changed clothes and took off again. He said his day was pretty complicated, but he knew if he took the time to serve in the temple first, all wou...

10/14      We were so tired when we got up, but still had to leave by 6:30 am. Our meetings were good. The stake president came to our Sacrament meeting to see if he felt inspired towards anyone to replace our Bishop. Changes are coming! We had a linger-longer after church. This is about the 4 th month that we’ve done it. The first 2 were pathetic, with a couple of bags of chips and a couple of liters of punch, and only a few families. Now we had a huge feast with at least half the ward staying for a very long time. I needed to visit another ward at 2:30, but Tom still had to do the tithing before we could leave. Anyway, we left so late that we didn’t have time to get Tom home so I could go visit the ward so he just dropped me off and picked me up an hour later. The ward I visited had such a good lesson with such a good Spirit. I loved it! I love visiting other wards and getting to know other sisters in the stake. We both needed a nap really bad, but I w...

10/13     Saturday             First thing in the morning we were scheduled to go to the Stake Center to participate in a major cleaning/beautification project. It was pretty fun. There were a LOT of people there, everyone very busy. They had put out a fairly decent breakfast that people could go to anytime they needed a break. Our ward was in charge of cleaning the relief society room. It didn’t look dirty when I first walked in, but we still had about 10 women who cleaned for a couple of hours, just dusting and scrubbing, vacuuming, wiping down blinds and light fixtures., etc. It was fun. But when I saw people start to do jobs that I had already done, I decided it was time to leave. Tom spent the whole time outside working on landscaping. There were tons of people outside and they had said that as people finished their jobs inside, they were to go help outside. It was fun, but we had promised to go with...

10/12     Friday I can’t remember Friday so I guess it didn’t happen. Yup, pretty sure it didn’t happen.

10/11     Thursday Tom needed me in the morning, just long enough that I wasn’t able to go to Laurel Lawrence’s class. It’s sad to miss it, but as much as I love going, I love Tom more than I love Laurel. Then I did a WHOLE LOT of Clean Queen work. I realized that since we’ll be closed for nearly 3 weeks, and the weeks before the shutdown are filling up, I should warn the pre-scheduled clients in case they want to book before the vacation and before all the spots fill up. So I spent a long time notifying all of them. A long time. The rest of the day was uneventful; just stuff.

10/10     Today was not very memorable or exciting, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love just being alive. At my age you appreciate   every day and count all your blessings – a beautiful, comfortable, home with all the amenities I could want, a wonderful husband who takes care of me with his every thought, the blessings of the Gospel that give my life purpose and direction, and on and on. But as for what happened, Tom left for a meeting and said he would be home in a couple of hours. He didn’t get home until time to leave for Mutual. He had a long day! I made one little trip to Walmart to pick up only a few, but very important things. One of the things was curtain hangers so I can mount the textile picture I created to go in front of the tv when we’re not watching it. It wasn’t easy to measure them and get them mounted in the right spot by myself, but I think it turned out just right! I’m pretty pleased.   Other than that, I did very little Cl...

10/9       Tom had to go to a meeting in Modesto today. I was glad because that guaranteed he would be off his swollen knee most of the day. I had a quiet day alone. I did a TON of Clean Queen work – constant texts pretty much all day and into the night. It didn’t total up to 8 hours or even 4, but it took all day. I worked on the wall hanging I want have to put over our tv when we’re not watching it, and I think I finished it, but I still have to find a way to hang it. Then I’m afraid that when I buy the hangers and mount it, I still might not like it, so it’s frustrating to me. I have an idea in my head, but the reality doesn’t always turn out how I imagined. We’ll see. We “read” scriptures using the phone reading to us from lds.org again and Tom really likes listening and following along instead of him reading out loud. The way it is read is a little annoying to me, not putting inflection where I would, etc., but it’s fine. We sure read more this way and li...

Late last night, the missionaries asked if they could come over today to do laundry. We’ve never had them ask that before, but Tom said, “Yes, but come hungry!” so even though only 2 needed to do laundry, all 4 came for breakfast. After breakfast and a spiritual thought that I gave them for a change, they left their laundry and took off. I enjoy doing laundry; it’s one of my favorite household chores. I actually wish sometimes that Tom and I had more dirty clothes so I could do more laundry – especially if I can hang it up outside, but that’s beside the point. I had fun doing their laundry. Some of it was pretty dirty and I had to scrub by hand to get collars and sleeves clean, but it turned out nice. I was nervous all day morning about going to the doctor for a regular check-up. I don’t know why I get so nervous. It turned out I was there a total of 15 minutes, including the waiting room. Turns out what I suspected all along, I’m basically fine – need to exercise more and...