Scorching the World

7/30     Trina needed to leave by 3:30 am to take Geneva to meet up with the girls camp group in Fremont! I didn’t hear them make a sound when they snuck out at that hour and at 5, I woke up thinking Trina had overslept! But all was well. Tom had to go to faraway places again and had Caeli going with him, so Tanya came over to drop her off and stayed and visited with me until time to go to work, which was fun. I  was   already deep cleaning the bathrooms, and had started the first of 3 loads of wash. I went to Lowes to get a couple things I wanted, then to Costco to get food for the week. When I got home, I found one of the things I bought didn’t work, so I went back to Lowes again, then went to Walmart to get the rest of the groceries and a couple other things. At home I assembled things and put things away and made new curtains for the main bathroom and was still very busy getting ready when Pettus’ arrived back home about 4pm. They had a great time i...

7/29     Trina needed to take Geneva to the Bay Area so she could go to girls’ camp there, and planned to stay with us from Tuesday until Saturday, so I planned to spend today getting ready for them to come – cleaning, shopping, etc. But I got a text from her around noon saying she would be here around 6pm. I said, “today or tomorrow?” she said, “both”. So suddenly I needed to get ready for company. I had a lot to do, so I didn’t manage to go grocery shopping or clean the house like I had planned. I had purchased a few things on Auction – actually more things than I wanted; I hoped somebody would outbid me on most of it, but they didn’t! So I had to go down there to pick my things up and needed to go before it got too hot to be outside. When I got home I started unboxing and assembling stuff. I got 3 room-fans and one of them didn’t work. That’s the risk. But the two others I got were such a good price that it was still worth it. I got a lighted magnifying mirror on ...

7/28/19          What a great combination! We had a long morning before needing to leave for Church because I wasn’t visiting an early ward, we didn’t have to set up Tom’s class, and there was no other reason to leave early, so we spent the morning putting Tom’s lesson together for next week. It was good and we got a lot done. Church was good, as always. It was a farewell for Aaron Thompson, so there was a LOT of family and friends visiting. It probably doubled our attendance for the day (but that’s because we have a very small ward). Tanya surprised us by her whole family showing up for Sacrament meeting. That was fun to have them in church with us! After Sacrament meeting I realized, with Tom’s help, that this was a 4 th Sunday so I should be visiting a ward. When I checked where I was supposed to be, the meeting had already started, so I didn’t go. I felt bad that I spaced it, but none of the other members of the Stk RS presidency were going so...

7/27  I suggested to Tom that since Trina will be visiting all next week, we should work on his lesson this week, but it came down to today and tomorrow to work on it, so I reminded him of that and he said he just wanted to do a little yard work first, then we would spend the day on it. But he didn't get out to do yard work until afternoon, and got so hot doing it that he needed significant time to recuperate from it so we didn't start studying/organizing the lesson until later afternoon. We got in about 2 good hours before I needed to stop and get ready to go to the baptism. Because of his dyslexia and inability to focus, it is hard for him to read and organize a lesson or have any idea on how to present it or what questions to ask to solicit questions, so he needs me to help him understand the main points and figure out the best way to teach them. It takes many, many hours to do that, and then I create the powerpoint, which takes a few hours, and then we need to practice hi...

7/26     I can’t believe he’s been sick all week. I think it hung around so long because the first 3 days he had to work while sick so he couldn’t get better, and/or it made him worse. So now he has spent 2 days lying around and trying to recuperate so we watched a couple of movies like Dream Team – that’s still a pretty funny movie. The biggest problem with him being sick all week, besides the fact that he feels terrible, is that he hasn’t done ANY yard work, and you can sure tell when he misses a few days. I got tired of the heat, and we’ve only had a couple of weeks of real heat so far this year, so I’ve been talking to Tom about getting solar so we can run the air conditioning all day. I finally convinced him that it is worth at least talking to the guy. I texted Todd because he did a LOT of research before buying solar, and he has bought solar twice, using 2 different companies, so he gave his company a referral and we set up an appointment for this morning at 9am. ...

7/26     I can’t believe he’s been sick all week. I think it has hung around so long because the first 3 days he had to work while sick so he couldn’t get better. Now he has spent 2 days lying around and trying to recuperate, so it has taken longer. He still just didn’t feel good so we watched a couple of movies like Dream Team – that’s still a pretty funny movie. The biggest problem with him being sick all week, besides the fact that he feels terrible, is that he hasn’t done ANY yard work, and you can sure tell when he misses a few days. I got tired of the heat, and we’ve only had a couple of weeks of real heat so far this year, so I’ve been talking to Tom about getting solar so we can run the air conditioning all day. I finally convinced him that it is worth at least talking to the guy. I texted Todd because he did a LOT of research before buying solar, and he has bought solar twice, using 2 different companies, so he gave his company a referral and we set up an appoin...

7/25     Tom still felt not great again today and fortunately he was able to stay home and rest. He took lots of naps and didn’t do much. The only time we had to leave the house was to go pick up the truck we sold to Knudsens from the repair shop and deliver it to them. In the evening I coaxed him into the pool. I got fed up with trying to keep our electricity bill low and called a solar panel company. We have said ever since we bought this house that we won’t get solar panels because we are too old to have the investment pay off in our lifetime, but I’m tired of being hot all day and don’t want to live another day like this. I had turned off the A/C every day until 7pm, then I run it until we go to bed, then turn it off again. The house stays tolerable until afternoon, then I’m just counting the hours until I can swim, the come in and cool down the house. It mostly stays cool enough through the night if we have a fan in our room. But I hate the heat and if there ...

7/24/19          Tom still went to work today even though he still felt really bad; he felt that he absolutely had to go to Sacramento to set up some parks. So he left early. I would have made him stay home if I had had anything to say about it. I got invited to a baby shower for one of my young women from Madera so many years ago. I’m super excited for her and can’t wait for it. So this morning I went to get some fabric to make her a baby blanket and a bag for baby stuff. It is hotter in the office than the rest of the house, so I started as early and got both put together quickly. It was pretty fun and they turned out cute. Tom got home about 7pm and just took it easy the rest of the evening. I sure hope he feels better tomorrow! Yeah, we really don't celebrate Pioneer Day in California.

7/23/19                      Somewhere in the night Tom’s fever broke, but he still felt terrible when he got up. He felt he had to go to the Bay Area anyway, and had arranged to have Caeli go with him, so he dragged himself out of the house. I worried about him all day, but he was healthy enough to make it through. As it turned out, he should have stayed home because none of his appointments worked out, but that’s how life is sometimes. I just did home stuff, cleaning, computer, piano, and stuff. Our friends the Thompsons texted to see if they could come and swim, so that was fun. They came about 6:30 so I got in at 6 and started cleaning it up. Tom got home about 8 and we were still in the pool. He was exhausted, but I think it felt good for him to relax a bit in the water. We got a warning from PG&E that our bill was going higher this month, so I decided to just turn it off except for about 3 hou...

7/22       During the night when Tom came back to bed after a little time watching tv, he told me he didn’t feel good. I could tell he had a fever and he was shivering, but he was able to go back to sleep. The whole day he slept off and on and didn’t do much of anything else, so I just stayed and didn’t do much alongside him. I finally took his temperature in the afternoon and it was 101.5! I’m sure it went higher at night. So that was our day. I don’t like him to be sick! Good thing he doesn’t get sick very often.

7/21       I was nervous because I was playing the organ in Sacrament meeting today. It is way scarier to me than playing in the Spanish ward because there, they appreciated anyone who could/would play and there was nobody else to do it, so they would never be critical about my errors. But in our ward now, there are several others who play, and play very well. I’m not sure why the ward music chairman wants me to play, but I am willing – it just makes me very nervous. Anyway, I needed to be there early enough to play/practice as soon as the other ward got out. Tom and I also needed to be there early to set up for his lesson. Besides that, our choir was singing today and there was a rehearsal 45 minutes before church. Somehow we managed to do all three and it all worked out. I played pretty good; I did make a few mistakes but they were very slight and hardly worth mentioning. After the meeting, 2 of the people who play well, told me I did well. I told them I knew ...

7/20/19              I hadn’t looked at what was being auctioned this week, because I don’t every week, but when I woke up, I remembered that Tanya wanted me to get one more set of earphones like the other two I got. It’s a really good price for them, and they seem to have them consistently. So as soon as I got up I checked out the website and searched and found one that hadn’t been bid on at all, so I placed the first bid for only $5.06! What a great price! But after I entered my bid I realized the reason nobody had bid on it because it was a lot of 316!!! I accidently bought 316 earphones for almost $1600!!! I was absolutely sick to my stomach. I finally confessed my sin to Tom, and he called the place as soon as they opened. It says all over the website that all sales are final and to be careful because there is no going back, but after 3 or 4 phone calls, Tom managed to convince the manager that we really didn’t need that many, so she cance...

7/19/19             Today just happened and I already can’t remember what I did. I guess just stuff. I’m trying to figure out why the sprinklers in the front stopped working, I finished assembling the exercise bike I got at auction so now I know what is missing and I ordered the part, I did a little Clean Queen, we swam in the evening then worked on Tom’s lesson, and there are hours and hours not accounted for. Oh well, it was good, whatever it was.

7/18/19             Tom and I had put the carpet I got in auction in the family room, but after asking Tanya and Sandy Thompson their opinions, and after looking at it all day, Tom and I decided it would look better in the bedroom. Tom told me to wait until he got home to move it, but of course I couldn’t wait. I figured I needed the exercise! So as soon as he left (he had to go to Sacramento today) I finished my Clean Queen stuff, and began moving furniture in the bedroom. It was hard because there is too much furniture to be able to just get the bed out of the way, so I had to move almost everything. Then I got the bed moved mostly out of the way and put down the carpet. I was careful to remember where the middle was for the carpet placement. With the bed out of the way, I could recover the headboard. I put it in place and pinned it on the front so it wouldn’t move when I turned it around. Then I used the staple gum to fix it in place, then tur...

7/17       Tom had a meeting in Fresno at noon, so he was home in the morning. We tried to put the recumbent exercise bike together that I won in auction, but quickly found that there were pieces missing and/or broken. That was pretty upsetting, but we didn’t have time to deal with it because he needed to leave. It is still sitting in pieces on the back patio. I went to a store and bought more of the fabric I bought 2 days ago for my table runner. It is beautiful material, and I don’t think anyone will notice that I used it again to cover my headboard. I draped it over the headboard and it livens up the whole room! I had no idea that was what the room was needing! I’ll need Tom’s help to get the headboard out and staple it on, but for now it is pretty enough just hanging there. I also recovered 4 pillows for the living room. Did I already say that? I can’t remember which days I did which things, but they turned out cute, in my opinion. I got a call from our fr...

7/16       Clean Queen was so quiet today that by 6:00 pm I had only worked about 12 minutes. I got quite a few calls late, but it was amazing how quiet it was. I got LOTS done! Tom had to work in the Bay Area so he asked Caeli if she wanted to go with him and visit Mila while he worked near there. She was happy to go with him and Tom loved having her along. They talked a lot and she sang along with the radio a lot, which made him very happy. She helped him pass out flyers, and was a great road buddy.

7/15       There is an auction house near us and they seem to have some fun stuff. Usually there are hundreds of things for bid, and it is a pain to look through all of them, but occasionally there is something fun. I’ve wanted a new rug for the family room and they frequently have them, but I always get outbid because I don’t want to spend much. I got tired of waiting and kept bidding on one and accidentally won it. I say accidently because I didn’t plan to pay as much as I did and then nobody outbid me, so I got it. Practically the same thing happened with an exercise bike. It’s a recumbent exercise bike, but I hadn’t planned to pay so much for it. Still, I got both of them for about half what they are supposed to be worth so I guess it’s ok. The new carpet in the family room made me finally figure out what I didn’t like about the family room. It was too dark and not enough color! The carpet is white and it makes the dark grey furniture look so much better! I...

7/14      Christian spent the night and planned to go to church in Madera with Chris. Tom and I didn’t make breakfast because we focus on other things on Sunday mornings, so I just asked Christian if cold cereal was ok for him. He said it was, but I felt bad when I saw that he just had the cereal with no milk. He could have put strawberries, bananas, or blueberries in it and milk, but he just ate the dry cereal with nothing else. Oh well; I don’t feel too bad because he’s am adult and knows how to fix his own food if he had wanted to. We left about the same time as Christian, who was going to Church in Madera with Chris, so that we could get my RS lesson set up, but found that the other ward uses the RS room so we had to wait for them to get out. When Tom teaches we don’t have that problem because they don’t use the RS room for Sunday School. It was fine, though, and we were set up with plenty of time. Then there was some confusion with choir practice. Right before ...

7/13/19    A few months ago the ward had a young women’s fundraiser auction. Tom really wanted to offer a breakfast of his special burritos, and was very happy when several families actually bid for it and the Fox family won it. They have 5 kids between 3 and 16. Today was the day we set up for them to come for the brunch and swim that we owed them. We were up at 7 and went to Walmart for the groceries for the brunch, then went home and worked until 11am to prepare everything. We had potatoes, sausage, bacon, tortillas, fresh squeezed orange juice, pancakes, strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream, slices of oranges. There was also peanut butter, jam and syrup for the pancakes.   It was a beautiful spread. We served them inside but fed them outside. They loved the sausage and burritos, but they ate pancakes with nothing on them – not even butter. All those strawberries and whipped cream, and nobody wanted any of it. Oh well. They couldn’t wait to get in the poo...

7/11/19    I did a lot of Clean Queen today. It didn’t add up to a lot but it was very constant all morning. I also got a few calls from Tom needing me to do things for him. Now that the guest room looks better, I’m looking at the master bedroom, and it looks like it needs an update/improvement. I can’t wait to see what I do! I was asked a few weeks ago to play the organ in our ward on the 3rd Sunday of July, so I've been practicing for that. It makes me a lot more nervous in our ward now than it did in the Spanish ward because in the Spanish ward, there was NOBODY who could play at all, and most had NO music training, so everyone appreciated my playing no matter how bad it was. In this ward, there are several who play very well, and know how to play right, so I hate to make mistakes in front of them. Also this week the Relief Society president, Judy Johnson asked me to teach her Sunday lesson for her because she has a family emergency, so I have spent most of the pa...

7/9    I think this is what old age is for – relaxing! I didn’t have a lot of Clean Queen to do, so I focused again on the guest room and my computer work. Crazy how fast the days go when it doesn’t seem like we did much! Tanya and Todd came up to pick up their car, and Tom and I had left to see if we could find a chair for the guest room. Unfortunately we went too late and 2 of the 3 thrift stores we went to were closed, so we came back home just as they were getting about to leave. I gave them all the paperwork to go with the truck and a couple of things Tanya had asked me to get for her on the auction near us. Caeli was super happy to see I got headphones!                                                

7/8         Today I got a day to myself. Spencer and Tom both left around 7:00 and both traveled about the same distance, but in opposite directions. For some reason I could not go to sleep last night and we got up early to get them both off to work, so I hadn’t slept much. I was dragging all day. I spent most of the day working on balancing my budget and working on Clean Queen. Actually, Tom called and needed things many times, so I might have worked for him more than Clean Queen, which is fine because he pays better. 😊 Todd called me to say he was coming to pick up the truck. We convinced Tanya to buy our old truck for Caeli because she will be driving soon. She resisted at first because Caeli can walk to school and seminary, but we reminded her that with a car she would be able to drive herself to gymnastics and could give Cannon and Kaden rides when they need it. So Todd wanted to go to buy something at Lowe’s that wouldn’t fit in his car, so sudde...

7/7  It was so nice to have Spencer visiting. He is very low maintenance and pleasant to be around. He went to bed fairly early last night – he hadn’t had much sleep the day before, so I’m sure he was ready for it. This morning Tom and I worked on his lesson for a couple of hours before Spencer got up. He asked last night what time church was, but I hadn’t warned him we leave almost an hour early, but that was ok. He was up and dressed in plenty of time. We went early, as usual, to set up the room and Spencer played the piano while we did. He got pretty good at the hymns while he was on his mission! He said every place he served people would ask if he played and he would say no, but then they would hear him practicing and would make him play in the meetings, so he was forced to learn quickly. Our ward is so small, and so few people want to bear their testimonies that there are long pauses between them, and the same 4 or 5 people get up every month. It’s kind of sad. We ha...

7/6         Sadly, Trina had to leave by 8am so that Geneva could go to a girl’s camp meeting. She takes off for girls camp on Monday, so it was important. Tom and I got up and made french toast for them, which was a big hit. Trina had them packed up and out of the house almost on time. So sad to see them go, but they will be back when Geneva goes to the Fremont girls’ camp and Tom and I are planning to go down there Labor Day weekend. I had a lot of Clean Queen work to do in the morning, and Tom had yard stuff. When Spencer was ready, he joined us outside and helped get some of Tom’s stuff done. He finished taking the rest of the dirt from the front yard to the planter boxes in the back, and mowed the back lawn. That was so nice! By the time he and Tom finished, it was getting pretty warm outside. For lunch, I texted Todd that if he had hamburgers, we had lots of buns, so they came over to swim again. We fed them and then they started watching tv again. I ...

7/5       We really just took it easy today. The kids were still tired from yesterday, and so were the adults! We ate mostly leftovers, watched a lot of tv, worked on a puzzle, and the kids swam some. Tanya had gone to Sacramento to visit a friend, so she wasn’t here to play with us. Cannon and Kaden had been hired to dog-sit for a neighbor, so they had to go home 3 times during the day so that they could let it out and feed it and the cat. There was a Star Wars marathon on TV so we watched one of those and Spiderman 3 or 4, I forget which. There was lots of laying around all day. In the evening I made ice cream and earthquake cake, which was delicious! Amazing that some kids didn’t like either of them because we sure did, In the evening there was a tremor. We found out, through the magic of internet on people’s phones, that there was a 7.1 earthquake 3 hours south of us. Amazing that we could still feel the earth roll this far away. I’m so glad that I...

7/4        We had scheduled this morning to go to Tanya’s ward for an Independence Day breakfast at 8:00 am. That was awfully early for Trina to get all of her kids up, dressed and out of the house, but she managed to do it. We were just loading into the car when Chris texted her to say he had lost his car keys and needed picked up. He is staying with his Mom in Madera to take care of her and had gone to Fresno to do a 4 mile run. Trina had no choice; she went to pick him up and I texted Tanya that we wouldn’t make it. I found out later she didn’t get the message because the kids had borrowed her phone and left it at home. I also found out later that when Trina got there, she suggested to Chris that he go to the lost and found to check if someone had turned the keys in. Just as they were getting there, they announced that another set of keys had been turned in! So he got his keys! Tom went to Lowe’s to get wood to build a couple more planter boxes and left alon...

7/3        The morning was to finish getting everything ready. I did some Clean Queen work, then finished cleaning up the house. I asked Tom to be in charge of vacuuming, sweeping and mopping the rooms I hadn’t done yet, then I went grocery shopping. It was too warm out to go to 2 stores without going home to put the cold/frozen things away, then I left again to buy the things that Costco didn’t have. It took most of the morning. Tom got some thing cleaned up in the back yard and worked on cleaning up his truck in between doing actual work but never got to the floors. I was about to grab a nap when the Pettus’ arrived around 2:30!! So fun to have them here! Tanya and Trina had made a pack that the kids would be electronic free while they are here, so the kids were very much more around and active. They couldn’t wait for Knudsens to get here, but they had to wait until after Cannon’s orthodontist appointment at 4pm. So all the Pettus’ got in the pool and h...