Scorching the World

11/28 Again I woke up at 3am and tried very hard to hold still as long as I could. At 5:30 I just couldn’t stay in bed any longer but in this room the sink and mirror are outside the bathroom door, so you can’t turn on any lights or do anything without waking up everyone. I got up and showered, dressed, and took a hair dryer, make-up, and computer downstairs to try to finish getting dressed and get some computer work done. Unfortunately, the downstairs public bathroom didn’t have any outlets, so I still couldn’t dry my hair so it was a little funky all day. I got a couple of hours of computer work done before Carma started looking for me and we had breakfast.   La Quinta has a really good breakfast spread! It was a wonderful breakfast, then we went up to the room where Trina was trying to wake Ziona up before breakfast ended.   Eventually we got out of the hotel and ran a few errands before going to Lynn’s house. Actually, errands took so long we had to get lunch...

11/27  Tuesday Trina and I needed to pick up Carma from the bus shuttle at 5:30pm in Boise, so I figured as long as we left home by 4am, we could make it. But in the night, I realized we would lose an hour and needed to leave even earlier or Carma would be sitting waiting for us out in the cold. So I woke up at 3:30 and quickly packed and dressed and then woke up Trina who basically grabbed her stuff and we all got in the car and on the way. It’s always hard to say goodbye to Tom, but he couldn’t get off work this week.   The trip was long, but not bad. We hit a lot of rain when we passed through Oregon and into Idaho. A lot! But we had smooth sailing all the way and actually got to Boise before Carma which gave us time to grab some dinner first and check into the hotel to unload our stuff so that Carma’s would fit. Ziona was such a good little traveler. She never complained about anything, or asked if we were there yet, and just always went along with whatever was h...

11/27      I woke up way too early and started trying to tackle the very long list of to-do items I had been making over the weekend. The biggest thing was Clean Queen, of course. I needed to get the whole week set so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it while in Utah. The clients were very cooperative and I was able to do that. I got things done for Tom, and worked my way through the other items.   Tom had to go far away and managed to get home just in time for us to leave for Tanya’s house. It was her birthday and we had agreed to take a pan of enchiladas for dinner. Unfortunately, I forgot to take her gift, so now I will take it to Idaho so we can celebrate again. We had dinner, dessert, and then played Uno until time for Tom and me to leave to pick up Trina. She and Ziona took the bus up from L.A. so she can ride with me and help me drive to Idaho. Then her family will come up on Friday, and Tom and Tanya will drive up after Tanya gets off work on Frida...

11/25     Sunday We really like our new car. (obviously not new, just new to us)   We left early as usual to get to the church for Tom’s meetings, but the Bishop never showed. Tom forgot his phone at home and the Bishop sent him a text after we left that there would be no meetings. So Tom and Brother Donnadieu, the other counselor, just kind of prepared for church for a couple of hours.   I’m still in the middle of making arrangements and talking to family all through the meetings. I felt bad for texting so much, but some stuff couldn’t really wait.   I’m sad, but whenever anyone asked me how I was I said, “fine!” because I just wasn’t ready to tell people and actually say the words, “Well, my brother died.” It’s too sad to say in normal conversation.   Today was the day of the annual Messiah Sing-Along at the First Presbyterian church in Fresno. We love going. I wasn’t sure I even felt like singing, but once I started, the music just e...

11/24     Saturday Trina and family were packing up right after breakfast to leave but she had seen a Nissan Rogue for sale in Madera that I wanted to go see, and if I could talk Tom into buying it, Trina and Chris could take our van home. They previously agreed to buy it, but the timing wasn’t quite right last time. So Trina went with us to see the car while Chris went back to his Mom’s house in Madera to get a hat she had for him. We decided not to buy that car because it was just a little too expensive, but it sure was cool! It was red!   After Pettus’ left, Tom kept looking at cars online and found another Rogue that was a little less expensive, newer, and with fewer miles, so at 3:30 we took off for Turlock, an hour away. Tom was scheduled to go out with the missionaries at 6, and it seemed like we had plenty of time.   When we were almost to the place, we realized there was no way we could get the car and get back by 6pm, so he texted them that...

11/23      I love the day after Thanksgiving. For many, many people it means crazy shopping. Some people even started last night and camped out in front of a store all night and all day Thanksgiving to be able to enter the stores this morning. But for me, it means we relax all day and watch movies, play games, play flutes, and generally hang out with whoever is still here.  It means no cooking; everyone can just warm up what they want. It means eating pie if I feel like it and not even waiting for it to be time for dessert.   And we were all doing that. Tom wanted to do some yard work but didn’t get to be outside very long before he needed to get ready to help clean the temple. They had said they needed extra people to do a deep cleaning in the middle of the day today. So he went, but when he got there, there was only one small job for him, so he was back quickly.   Around 3:30 while we were watching TV, I got a call from the coroner’s office i...

11/22      Tom and I woke up way too early and never went back to sleep. About 6;30 we went into the kitchen to get the turkey in the oven. We had Ravenna (who arrived last night after we went to bed), Geneva, and Ziona all sleeping in the family room and Christian in the living room so we tried to be very quiet. Then we went back to the office to get more stuff done. We knew we would need a nap later.   We decided to just serve cold cereal for breakfast, which made everyone happy and Tom and I prepared a lot of the things for dinner later. By 11 am, I had everything ready except the mashed potatoes and gravy. Trina and family went to see Chris’ mom who lives in Madera and I told them they had to be back by 2pm for dinner! Ryan and Anitta came with their puppies right after Pettus’ left so we got some alone time with them. We talked for quite a while and showed them everything new around the house. We were sitting outside enjoying the nice clean air from las...

11/19 Thanksgiving week begins Trina wanted to come up for Thanksgiving, and her kids wanted to come up to be able to play with the Knudsens. However, the Knudsens are going to Utah for Thanksgiving, so the kids convinced Trina to come today so they could play with them before they leave for Utah. Instantly everyone is happy.   They had just returned from LEGOLAND a couple of days ago, and after that trip they said they didn’t want to go on another long car trip for at least a month. But then suddenly it’s Thanksgiving and that sentiment went out the window when they saw a chance to play with Knudsens.   Anyway, I expected them in the late afternoon, so I figured I had plenty of time to plan meals, clean the house, and do some grocery shopping. Unfortunately this was the busiest Clean Queen day I’ve ever had. I broke away from the phone and calendar in little bits of time to clean some, but never got to plan meals for the week. Towards the end of the Utah work day,...

11/20       We love having family here. The kids sleep in longer than the adults, so the adults stay as quiet as possible for as long as possible. Tom and I get a lot done in the office so that we can enjoy the rest of the day. Or at least that is the plan. Tom found out he would have to drive to Sacramento to talk to one park owner, and left as fast and he could. I had lots of Clean Queen questions and texts to answer and stayed busy for way too long in the morning.   But we managed to feed the kids some muffins that Tom had bought. They didn’t seem to love them, but ate some and went back to playing.   We watched Christmas movies, and whenever there weren’t any kids around, we watched Dr. Who. I used to not be crazy about it because Tom and I don’t care for science fiction stuff, but that show is growing on me. The plots are so clever and imaginative, the acting is SO good, and there are many clever lines that could be quoted endlessly, so...

11/18        I feel sorry for people who don’t know how to keep the Sabbath holy. It is so nice to have a day set aside where we don’t do the usual work, cleaning, cooking, tv, and other distractions and can just enjoy doing God’s work and worship Him.   As I predicted, it was hard waking up at 6 to get to the church by 7am, but we managed. Sacrament meeting was good. I had Brother and Sister Rico sing a special number instead of our usual congregational number and it turned out pretty good. We had a high council speaker who gave an excellent talk, and Tom had a new member to the ward do the translating and he did an excellent job. Most wards don’t deal with that kind of thing at all. What fun they miss.   After Sacrament meeting, I went to visit another ward RS and their meeting was SO GOOD! There were tears, laughter, and a wonderful spirit. How I love visiting other wards!   From there I went back to our ward for choir practic...

11/17     Saturday The day started out slowly, which was nice for a Saturday. We didn’t have to go clean the church, because it was cleaned after the ward dinner last night. So I did a little Clean Queen, still trying to get Monday’s schedule to work out, and then I sewed. I’m almost finished with one gift. I only have about half hour left on it, but at 1pm we had to get ready to go to the temple. It was our ward temple night (at 2:30 in the afternoon). It was a nice session. It was one of the newer movies, and seemed more beautiful in Spanish. I really liked the way the Spanish was pronounced and acted. Very good! Being in the temple is always wonderful, and more wonderful when you’re with a bunch of people you love.   Tom needed to stop at one house to issue a release on the way home and then we only had about an hour to eat and change clothes before going to the Quad Stake Youth Dance. We had to help chaperone. There is NOTHING I wanted to do LESS than go cha...

11/16   I didn’t have a lot of Clean Queen work, but I did work off and on all day trying to set up a good schedule for Monday. I never got it like they would like it, but oh well. In the scheduling, they like it when I can get all the appointments in very close proximity, and in an order so they don’t have to back track cities. But sometimes I just can’t make things work out that nicely. I finally figured it was good enough about 6pm. I did have to leave mid-day to go get the rolls for our ward party tonight, and a few other things we need, but most of the day I spent sewing, happily sewing. I’m making Christmas presents, and of course I can’t say what they are because of the millions of readers I have who might tell, but it was fun. I watched tv and sewed away all day.   Tom went to faraway places but managed to get home in time to go to the ward party.   I like going to the ward party except for the fact that I don’t like to eat heavy meals that late. I...

11/15  Tom had to go far away. In his travels he has seen lots of the effects of the fires that are raging north of us. He sees people walking around with face masks on; the air has so much smoke that you can smell it and see it. Some areas the visibility was down to one mile. So sad how many people have died or lost their homes and everything. We need to never take anything for granted.   So I did about an hour’s work before leaving for Laurel’s class. I was glad I was able to sit through it all with only 1 Clean Queen text. Just as I was about to go out the door to go to Laurel’s class when I remembered I had holes in my socks! I had to run back in and change because we have to take off our shoes at her house! Can’t go with holes in the socks! The class was wonderful and I really need to type up the notes!   I spent the rest of the day cleaning up the list of clients on our scheduling program. Then I figured out a way to send a mass email to clients we haven...

11/14     I’ve been trying to do a lot of sewing for Christmas, but my sewing machine pedal has not been working well. I have to get the cord in just the right position for it to run. It’s been going on like that for a few months and this morning I just couldn’t get it to go. So I looked online to see how much a new pedal would be. I found one but wasn’t sure it was exactly the right one so I decided to just go down to the sewing machine repair store and buy one. I called first to make sure they had one. Then picked up a few groceries on the way home and got back to sewing with my new pedal.   The rest of the day I worked a little and sewed a lot.   I needed to go to Mutual tonight to practice with the Rico’s who will sing a special number on Sunday. They did pretty good and will be fine. I hope to get more families to sing in Sacrament meeting while we don’t have a choir because of not having a pianist.   Tom went way far north, then west, ...

11/13     This morning I had a LOT of phone calls and texts coming in as soon as I got up. By 8:30 I had already worked 2 hours and was still busy so I didn’t get to go help clean the temple. I was still working when Tom got home from cleaning.   I worked more than I sewed today. In the afternoon I tried to make queijadas   for Family Home Evening. I ran out of milk so Tom went to buy me some for me. I felt like I mixed up recipes and they didn’t turn out as good as the first time I made them, but they were good enough and everyone enjoyed them. (Queijada is a type of sweet made most famously made in Sintra, Portugal. It is a small sweet prepared using cheese or requeijão, eggs, milk, and sugarfor Family Home Evening. I ran out of milk so Tom went to buy me some for me. I felt like I mixed up recipes and they didn’t turn out as good as the first time I made them, but they were good enough and everyone enjoyed them.)   We had 3 couples...

11 /12   We had planned to go to the Union City ward where we lived for so long, but I over slept and Tom did not want to wake me up. So we ended up going to the Brookvale ward where Pettus’ were going to go. We beat them there and managed to save them seats. There are a lot of people in that ward that we’ve known a long time, too, so it was fun to be there. Pettus’ stayed for the whole block, but Tom and I left after Sacrament meeting so we could spend some time with McGills.   When we got to McGills we didn’t want to knock on the door and wake up Phil, so we texted Tami who didn’t answer, then Tanya, then Nina, the Mila, then Caeli and nobody answered. Finally we got a text from Phil to see if we wanted to come in! Tom thought that was hilarious. Tami, Tanya and all the kids were up at the stables, riding horses, so we just visited with Phil for over an hour when we decided we needed to head up to Marc’s for our get-together.   We got to Marc’s and got to...

11/11     We planned to leave by 7am to go to the Bay Area to see a band competition at Logan High School where our kids went and marched so many times. Sadly, Trina texted us early to say that the competition had been moved to Modesto because of poor air quality. We knew we didn’t want to go spend the day in Modesto, so we decided to just go ahead and go to the Bay Area to be with our kids. As it turned out, the band show was canceled in Modesto, too, also because of poor air quality.   When we got to Tami’s, Phil was asleep, so we didn’t want to go in and wake him up. We sent Caeli in so she could spend the day with the girls, then we went to a thrift store in Dublin. The thrift store there is just really nice; they have really nice clothes that are not all that expensive.   Tanya spent a couple of hours looking at clothing and trying things on and ended up buying quite a bit. I didn’t need anything, but still managed to find several blouses. Tom fou...

11/8      Thursday This morning I woke up at 3:33, but managed to go back to sleep. I woke up again at 5am, and after half hour of just enjoying being relaxed in bed, I got up and started making queijadas for our Stake Leadership Training meeting tonight. Tom was already up and working in the office.   I got 3 batches of queijadas made and dyed my hair, all before 8:30 am. I was so proud of myself. The real advantage of being up at that time of morning is that I don’t get any interruptions from Clean Queen. And also since CQ was being so silent, I decided I could go to Laurel Lawrence’s class this morning. I’ve missed it a couple of weeks in a row so I was happy to go. I only got one text during the class which I was able to ignore. Actually, I also got a call from Tom, but he said I didn’t have to leave to take care of his stuff, so I was able to enjoy the class. She has SO MUCH information that I always just write as fast as I can because I know I won’t rem...

11/7       Wednesday Tom was able to work not so far away so he got home a bit earlier this time, but as soon as he got home, he got ready to go to Mutual. I didn’t need to go for any reason this week, which was nice.   I did a little Clean Queen, and a bit of helping Tom with his office stuff, but mostly I sewed. I finished some flannel pajamas for me and started some bottoms for Tom that match. How cute of us. I love to sew and can lose whole days on a project. It was fun.   While Tom was at mutual, I finally watched the first part of the So You Think You Can Dance finale. I’ve been just postponing that because I couldn’t stand for the season to really end. It was fun to watch; I love really good dancing so much and now I still have the other half to save for another day so happy times ahead!

11/6       Tuesday I actually only worked a total of an hour today, which was much more do-able.   I woke up early and made my last batch of queijadas – the cheesecake ones, using ricotta and goat cheeses. They turned out ok except that the crust was so hard it couldn’t be even broken with a hammer. Not really, but it was way too hard to serve to anyone. Next time I’ll use phyllo dough and see how that works. And next time I make them all, I’ll half the recipes. Or I’ll make them all and freeze the extras for future sharing.   Anyway, I had a presidency meeting at 10 and took some of the queijadas to share with them – beta testing. They really liked most of them. There are so many changes to how relief society will be starting in a couple of months, and we are the ones who are supposed to know all about it to help train the ward RS presidents, so we needed to discuss our stake leadership training meeting on Thursday.   I received 7 Clean Q...

Monday 11/5 So today I got my first Clean Queen text at 6:30 and they didn’t stop for a long time. Consequently and sadly I didn’t get to go to help clean the temple, but Tom said there were still 8 from our ward there, so it worked out ok without me.   My last text came at 9:30pm, which is 10:30 pm Utah time! I can’t believe people are looking for a cleaning company at 10:30, but this guy sounded desperate. I was glad I could help him.   The only other thing I did today besides Clean Queen was to make queijadas. I decided to make them for our Stake Leadership on Thursday, so I needed to make some as a trial first. For the most part, they turned out pretty good. Of course I had to keep sampling them; I made 4 different kinds, so I had to see if they were all good. I never made the last kind. I ran out of day, but I was happy that I learned how to make them. They are super easy; the hardest part is getting them out of their little pans, and washing the little pans aft...

11/4   Today was a marathon. . In spite of the extra hour of sleep, we both barely slept last night and woke up ready for a nap.   Tom and I left at 6:30 as usual and went to the church for Tom’s bishopric meeting and I practice the organ. Church was good, as always. I spent half of the 3 rd hour helping the young women practice their part for the fireside a few last times. We only had 4 girls who were going to sing – the sum total of the active girls – and this morning two who are sisters called in sick with strep throat! So we’re down to a duet along with the cello. It actually sounded pretty good! So I went back to Relief Society for the last 15 minutes. I missed enough that I never did figure out what they had been talking about.   Afterwards, the young women’s president wanted to practice the song one more time in the chapel, and it did sound good, so I told them they were great, and officially left it in their hands.   We went home and grabbed s...