Scorching the World

Tom made potato burritos for breakfast. Tanya sent some with the kids when she dropped them off in the morning on her way to work. Todd came later; I think he enjoys being able to sleep in when he gets the chance. For some reason I woke up about 3am – at the same time as Tom. He got up and went to the office. I stayed in bed and tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t. I finally went and retrieved Tom about 5am and I fell back to sleep around 7 for a little while. Getting up was painful. I spent quite a while on Clean Queen because I needed to get a mass mailer out. I'm not getting the Christmas vacation I had hoped. I thought I would be able to just put it all out of my mind for 2 weeks, but there is always some work I need to do, so I continue to wake up early with a slight panicky feeling that maybe I haven't done everything I should. I needed to send a notice to all of our clients telling them of our price hike and our new cleaning product we are using. With the ne...

Since we had such a long morning, after people were ready to go to Church, Mike put It’s a Wonderful Life on his little computer. We didn’t get to finish watching it before time to leave, but we saw most of it. We were told by our stake president a few weeks ago that effective January 1 of 2020, Riverview Ward would no longer exist. Our ward is being divided into two existing wards, adding about 50 more people to each ward. The other bishops are super happy because now they can fully staff their wards, and our bishop is happy because he was ready to be released. First the stake presidency released each of the members of the Bishopric, then released “everyone who has a ward calling”, and we all raised our hands to thank all of us who had been in ward callings. Kinda funny. They asked the Bishop and his counselor and their wives to bear their testimonies and that was the whole meeting. (the other counselor is out of town.) We had a t luck farewell afterwards and people were...

It is always fun to have Pettus' here and so sad to have them leave. They, meaning Trina, is always very efficient at gathering everything up, packing it up, and loading the car, and suddenly (about 11:30am) they are in the car driving away. So sad, especially knowing we won’t see them until next year. There was just a little more tidying up that we needed to do after they left Tanya had come over with Cannon and Kaden to spend what little time was left with Pettus', then stayed and hung out until late afternoon. I think Tanya was hiding out from all the work she needed to do at home, but I don’t care what the reason is, it’s always nice to have them here. They were feeding the missionaries at 5, so she couldn’t stay until Mike and family got here. Becky gave occasional notices of their progress on their trip so we could know their approximate arrival time. I put a lasagna in the oven to be ready for them when they got here. The last notice that she sent was a picture...

Tom needed to get back to work today, and since Trina needed to go to Fremont to pick up her newly—repaired van, he decided to work in the bay Area. So Tom, Caeli, and Trina headed out around 8am. I had a whole lot of Clean Queen for some reason. Lilian kept messaging me about stuff and spent some time continuing to set up the new program that we switched to. I made pancakes for breakfast and tried to estimate how many would get eaten. It wasn't enough, so I made another big batch, then had to make another one before everyone finally had eaten enough. I had to go to Fresno to pay for our solar panels, which turned out to be way more complicated than it should have been because I forgot to take the checkbook and had to get special authorization from my bank to use my debit card for such a large payment. It took a while, but I finally got it. I fixed leftovers again for lunch, along with some fresh baked cookies and root beer floats. Fun times when parents are gone! ...

  Tanya convinced us to go see the new Star Wars today, and wanted to see the last 2 episodes before it so we would have some continuity going into it. So after we had a delicious burrito breakfast, we watched the 2 episodes. But I got Clean Queen work and missed the whole last movie. We all enjoyed the new Star Wars movie. It was like the original ones with lots of imagination, clever dialogue and the good feelings of good winning over evil in the end. The evening went quickly and we barely had time to watch one Jeopardy before Tanya took her tired little family home.

I didn’t feel good all night, so we woke up slowly. Tom woke up early (4am) and had to be quiet for a long time until people woke up. Trina always puts food in the kids’ stockings so they re happy snacking until adults are ready to make breakfast. It was a relaxing morning, and after everyone had wondered out and were ready, we opened presents. Everybody was pretty happy with what they got and we just relaxed. I love having the big meal on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas so I can relax all day on Christmas. In this case, I was glad I didn’t have to do anything because my system was definitely upset from all the good food yesterday (and the day before and the day before). The Knudsens got tickets to Six Flaggs for Christmas, so they left first thing for the L.A. area. They had a great time and came over as soon as they got back to town in the evening. The kids were totally worn out and ready for bed. It was pleasant to just warm up leftovers all day. Tom took care of br...

There were a few things I still needed to buy for dinner, so I decided to go at 6am to get them, before crowds got to the store and before everyone woke up for breakfast. Trina caught me before I left and asked for a ride to Walmart so she could finish her shopping. So we went together and helped each other make decisions. It was fun. Kids were almost waking up when we got back and made breakfast. Tom hadn’t left yet, and was panicked for be because I had left both my phones home and my Clean Queen phone was going crazy. My poor little Jessica, the team leader, couldn’t get in the first house and didn’t know what to do. She had called, texted, and called again for 40 minutes before the guy finally answered the door. I felt bad, but also deeply regretted agreeing to run another schedule on Christmas Eve! I won’t make that mistake again. We got through breakfast then we worked together to get Trina’s gifts wrapped. The Knudsen kids came over, but Tanya had to work and Todd had ...

  Tom had to go to work today, so he was gone about 12 hours again. Everyone slept in really late by our standards. I finally went out to start breakfast after Trina got back from Christmas shopping at 10am. She had left early to get a jump on it. Knudsen kids arrived before we had finished breakfast so they were happy to get in on it. Todd dropped them off and went back home because they were getting new windows installed today. Tanya was at work. Trina went back to do some more stopping – she takes kids to choose gifts for each other, so she can’t take all the kids at once or they would see what their counterpart is getting for them. It gets pretty complicated, but she makes it work out. I managed to take a nap after lunch. I woke up this morning at 4am, with one of our choir numbers going through my head so repeatedly that I couldn’t sleep through it. So while all the boys played a very noisy computer game on their computers that were connected to the tv, I took a ...

We had choir practice at 10am, so there was still plenty of time to get ready. They said to be there by 10 so we could actually start by 10:15. I really don’t like it when people say that because we are on time and then have to wait until the actual start time, which in this case was almost 10:30.  But we rehearsed enough that we were sounding pretty good. The Sacrament meeting was good. Ginger Duran either wrote it or found it and it had a wonderful balance of really nice music and spoken parts. One of the numbers was done by David Miles. It was a beautiful arrangement of Angels we have Heard on High. He was seated behind me in the choir, and on his way to the piano he asked me if he could borrow my oversized hymnbook that I was using to lead the music. Of course I let him borrow it, and what he played didn’t seem to have anything in common with that hymn in the hymnbook. I told him afterward he would have to show me where that arrangement was in my book because I sure haven...

Tom had yard work he wanted to do, and rain was predicted, so he tried to start fairly early. We decided to go to the temple, so he had to be done by about noon. It was funny because he asked Alexa the weather report, and it said it would rain. Then he asked Alexa what time rain was expected, and it said, it probably wouldn't rain because there was only a 17% chance! I had quite a bit of Clean Queen to do and managed to stay busy until time to go. The temple was wonderful as always, but what made it extra special was that there were people there from the Spanish ward, one of which was a young woman (Karen Miranda) who I used to give piano lessons to, who was taking out her endowments in preparation to go on a Portuguese speaking mission to Zimbabwe! Holy Cow!!! Then we decided to go to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. There, we saw some friends from many, many years ago – Ellen and George Drysdale. It was fun to catch up with them! The food was good and we ate too much, but ...

Tom still needed to deliver See’s Candy, but had arranged it so he could deliver to parks on the way to Stockton, then end up at Carol Hadley’s house by 5pm. Bur first he had to go renew his driver’s license. He had set up the appointment to renew a month ago, and had been studying the last several days. He was nervous, but kind of prepared. We found out there was a lengthy form you had to fill out and take with you, and we were able to do it online, so we stayed up until 10pm to get that all taken care of, then wrote down the reference number so they could access it there at DMV. But they couldn’t access it, so he had to take the time to fill out the whole thing again. Big delay. Then he paid his fees and took the test. He passed, with only one incorrect. When they were about to finalize him and take his picture, he asked about the motorcycle license that is part of his license. They said, “Oh you have to take a test for that, too.” So he agreed to take that test, even tho...

Tom had to go faraway again, this time to the Bay Area, so he was able to drop in on Tami and Phil and give Tami her birthday present, one day late. Wish I could have gone with him, but I’m glad that at least he got to spend a little time there. He left about 6;30 am and got home about 9pm. Long day. He was really, very tired when he got home. I got a lot done today. I had hoped to go to Laurel’s class, but we were expecting someone to come and fix our couch, and I also wanted to talk to the pool guy when he came. So I left early to go to the post office to get Tracey’s gift in the mail and got back in time to have Tom tell me the couch guys wouldn’t be here until 11. I could have gone to the class except for wanting to talk to the pool guy. I didn’t want to miss the pool guy, so I did work that kept me in the kitchen or family room where I could keep an eye on the back yard. I even went out and swept off the back patio and around the pool. It looks much nicer now. I fou...

Today is Tami’s birthday! My 2 nd born child is 49 years old. How is that possible! And I have a grandson who is 22. No way. Tom had to go faraway again. He thought this whole week and to the end of the year would be very light, because all he has to do is deliver candy to mhp owners. But it takes a long time to go to all the parks, while they are open. He way underestimated how long it will take. He is trying to deliver more than 100 boxes of Sees candy in a few days, everywhere from south of Bakersfield to Sacramento and the Bay Area. Crazy. I finished Tracy’s gift and started a new prayer rug just because it was so fun. I decided I can try to use up some of the miscellaneous yarn I have on the shelves. I don’t know what I will do with it, but it is something I used to make all the time 55 or so years ago and it took me a while to remember how I used to do it. Now that I remember, I want to do more. I just need to find a cheaper source for rug yarn. We have heat a...

This morning, very early, Tom got up and turned on the hall light, that was totally shining in my eyes. When he came back to bed, I asked him what he was doing. He said our propane ran out so the “heater” was blowing cold air. He knew the propane was low and we had discussed whether to just weather the cold until summer when propane prices drop, or bite the bullet and buy propane at the winter price, which is WAY more. We decided we shouldn’t freeze our family when they come for Christmas, but hadn’t got around to ordering the propane yet. So now we are out and have to pay the higher price. At about 7am, Tom grabbed me to take me to the garage. I was afraid he was going to point at the gift and ask about it, but instead he wanted to show me the spectacular sunrise! We hardly ever see sunrises where we live. Then he was gone all day. It was pretty cold in the house, but I can handle cold way better than heat. They are scheduled to come out tomorrow to refill our tank. ...

Tom was working from home today, which worried me because I was expecting a delivery of his Christmas present and it would have been really hard to keep it a secret if he saw it arrive! So I was a bit worried about that, but tried to not show it. Fortunately, he had to go to work locally. The delivery window was 12-4pm, and he left around 9am. I was still nervous for it to work out right, but tried to stay calm. We had our solar panel guys here doing one last install, and were still here when the delivery guy said he would be here in 15 minutes. About 15 minutes later, someone knocked, so I assumed it was my delivery, but it was the solar guy and my huge package was already on the porch. I asked the solar guy, and he said he saw some guys deliver it to the porch. I can’t believe they put it there and didn’t even ring the doorbell or knock or need a signature or anything. If the solar guys hadn’t knocked, I would have waited all day and Tom would have seen it! Then my ne...

So last week we were advised that our ward will be discontinued and half of us will go to Van Ness ward and half to 5 th Ward. I convinced Tom to go to Van Ness ward starting today to get a jump on meeting people and seeing what it is like. We always get up plenty early, so we were able to go through his lesson once more before leaving. It was fun to see who is in the ward that we already know, and a few people noticed that we were jumping the gun on attending their ward when our ward dissolves at the end of the year. We were happily sitting in Sacrament meeting when the stake president took a few minutes to let everyone know that in the new year, they would have a lot of new members from the old Riverview ward, and he commented, “I see the Saldivars already jumped the gun and started early to come here.” It was a little embarrassing, although I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way. Sometimes it is embarrassing for the stake president to know us so well. Their Sunday School was...

I don’t know how we stay so busy, but we sure never seem to run out of things to do. I spent a lot of time on Clean Queen because we had 2 teams working again. I keep promising myself that we won’t ever have 2 teams; it always brings too many problems. But we made it through somehow. Tom wanted to go take the Olds somewhere public to park it, so I made him wait until the thrift store opened so I could go there while we were in town. We also had to get ingredients for a dessert to take to Carol Hadley’s tomorrow, and then to mail our Christmas cards. I got the dessert made while watching tv, in-between answering phone calls and texts. I was constantly going back to the computer to check or fix things. Tanya had invited us to her ward’s Christmas party. Tonight was also our ward’s Christmas party, but ours was just going to go caroling and then have a light snack. Tanya’s had a huge creche display and musical numbers all evening, plus a live nativity outside with hot ...

There are just so many things we want to get done every day, but the days fly past. If I didn’t write down what we did, it would seem that we are just not paying attention to the privilege of living and growing and progressing. We really try to appreciate each day and all the good that comes. At our age, no days should be wasted or taken for granted! Tom worked on the yard and on his Comet. I tried to do some yard work and get some sunshine, but after about 30 minutes I started getting lots of texts and had to go in. My shoes sure got muddy, though, so I must have had fun! Last summer, it seems so long ago now, I bought a lighted yard nativity from the auction house. It was super cheap and we were anxious to see if it actually worked. It took a long time to get it out because it was too heavy for me, it was behind the Olds, so I couldn’t get it out, we needed a day when we were both home and it wasn’t raining and when we had time to do it. So this was finally the first opport...

Tom went with me to Laurel’s class this morning. I love it when he is available and able to go with me. He really enjoyed it, too. It was about Joseph, why his brothers hated him, and lots of background on him and his whole family. It almost got confusing between all the brothers, the name changes, the different lands where they moved to and back to, and where they found their wives, especially she talks faster than anyone can write, but it was sure interesting. Laurel obviously loves to study and share what she learns. We hurried back home after the class because I was getting texts and calls and Tom had plenty he needed to do. He worked on the yard, his car, and his Sunday School lesson. It really takes us quite   few hours to put the lesson together, then it takes me several hours more to get the power point set up. That’s the fun part. In the evening he had his company Christmas party at a bowling alley. He said it was a lot of fun. He rented the largest shoes they wo...

After my physical with my new doctor yesterday, she sent me for some lab tests and a bone density test. I’m actually surprised my doctor never sent me before for that. I scheduled it for the afternoon to be sure it wouldn’t interfere with any Clean Queen emergencies. Tom had to go to faraway places again and was gone from about 6am until about 7pm. Long days, but he was able to accomplish what he needed. He sure will be happy when he gets to retire, whenever that may be. I’m switching Clean Queen over to a new calendaring/scheduling program that is way better than the one we’ve been using for over a year. It’s way easier and does much more and should make everyone’s lives much easier. But switching everything over is taking some time. I have to recreate all the appointments and set other things up, which isn’t hard but sure takes time. I spent most of the day on that. I also worked on a new nativity I’m making I might have to admit that I have enough. I had to go all the ...

The doctor I’ve had at Kaiser for the past 3 years left, so I was assigned a new doctor. This doctor wanted to see all her patients for a “new patient review” and I kept getting calls from Kaiser to book a physical. I told them a couple of times I wanted to wait until next year because I have too much going on right now, but they called again and I agreed to come in at 7:30am today. I sure wasn’t happy about having to go for a physical, but Tom convinced me to just go and get it over with. I found that 7:30, even though I didn’t enjoy getting out of the house all dressed with make up that early, I found that the parking lot was almost empty, so parking was a dream and there was no line or waiting. I was the only one in the waiting room so I got in and out in a record short time. I think my doctor is younger than any of my children. She was very pleasant, efficient and cute. The appointment was basically an intake physical – all she did was ask me questions and recommend flu...

I had a lot of Clean Queen again this morning, and I welcomed the distraction from being nervous to play in the concert tonight. Tom had to go to the office for a little while and while he was gone, I went to get my nails done and picked up some groceries. Mostly I was trying to kill time until time to leave. A friend, Kim Balough, and her Mom, Sue Davis, decided since there was no stake Christmas concert this year, and she had some special music she wanted to perform, to just do her own little concert in her home. Her house is small, but she has a fabulous grand piano that she wanted to use. So she invited a few others who had good music and talent to join with their families. There was a couple of vocal solos, a violin and string bass, another flute duet, and our number was Dance of the Reed Flutes from Nutcracker. We had only practiced twice so we were all a little nervous, but it turned out fine and we were so happy. It was so fun! I was super nervous about it all day, bu...

We had such a relaxing morning without anything we had to get ready before Church. We went in separate cars because I had a stake meeting after our meetings and Tom needed to stay for choir. When Tom got to the church building, he got out of the car and slipped on a leaf. It has been raining a lot and there are a lot of leaves on the ground. He landed on his hands and knees, so he got his pants and hands dirty, but though he was ok except for that. As the meeting wore on, he hurt more and more. His back was already sore from climbing on the shed to try to fix the leaky roof. We had all three of the stake presidency there, which made us conjecture that our Bishop was going to be released, but they had the first 2 speakers as usual, so we were confused. Then they turned the time over to the stake president for a few comments. His comments turned out to be that they are dissolving our ward at the end of this month/year. It has been shrinking steadily over the past many years, ...