Scorching the World

In the hotel room,  Tom and I woke up about 3am and couldn’t go back to sleep until almost 5:30. We tried to be quiet so we didn't wake up Ziona. That made for a short night when we needed to wake up by 7:30. Mike had scheduled for us all to eat breakfast at 7:30, then leave the hotel by 9am. I really wanted to get Ziona to take a shower, so I pushed and pushed her to eat fast to get bac up to the room, shower fast, and get dressed. I was sure we would be the last ones out of the room, but when we got out of our room and checked with the other two rooms – one with the 3 boys and Mike and one with the 3 girls and Becky, none of them had even begun to pack.   We got them to hurry up, and we managed to get out of the hotel about the time Mike wanted. I’m not sure what he was thinking, though because the San Francisco zoo was only about half hour away and didn’t open until 11:30. We found a shopping center where we bought snacks for the zoo, then got to the zoo and found a parki...

Mike got the idea that it would be more fun to go to the Bay Area if we didn’t have to come all the way back to Fresno at the end of the day. He has points from work that he used to book a Hampton Bay hotel by the airport in San Francisco for all of us! Tom and I got a room with Ziona, Mike got a room with the boys, and Becky had a room with her crazy daughters. We had planned to get to Dublin in time to watch Mila give a horseback riding lesson to Laelle and Tova, but I really wanted to go to Savers in Dublin and Mike really wanted to go to Stoneridge mall in Pleasanton, so we stopped there first. I found a few things I liked and Becky managed to find some pants and sweatshirts for Dexter and Trevor to wear at the beach.   Suddenly Becky told me it was 4pm and Mila would finish her lessons at 4:30 so we hurried to check out, but by the time we were in the cars, it was too late to make it to see Mila at all. Sadly, we went to plan B, which was to just go check in at the hotel...

Right after breakfast, I got the kids to tie die t-shirts. I had already washed and dried them, covered the table outside with plastic and had opened the dye package and set it all out. Everyone went out and all of them seemed to know what to do and how to do it.  Trevor didn’t go outside, so I went in and coaxed him until he came out, but he kept his distance from the table. I talked to him and asked what colors he wanted. He kept saying he didn’t now, but I slowly coaxed answers from him until finally he was pouring his own dye on the t-shirt. When everyone finished, we wrapped them in plastic and left them to sit for 6 hours. Becky and Tom wanted to take kids to Sequoia national forest, but was having trouble getting anybody moving, so I told them all to get shoes, socks, go potty, and get water. I chanted shoes, socks, potty, water until everyone was ready to go. Eventually all the girls were in Becky’s car, with Amy driving, and all the boys were in our car with Mike driving...

I had scheduled all the kids to go to Defy, a trampoline place, DEFY Clovis Extreme Air Sports now open - YouTube at 9:30am, so everyone had to get up, dressed, have breakfast, and be out of the house by 9am. Caeli, Cannon, and Kaden met them there. Tom went along to watch, but I needed to be here for CQ so I didn’t go. It also gave me some time to clean the house a little and get food ready for when they returned. Becky and Mike stayed here, too.   When they got back I had grilled cheese sandwiches ready and as soon as they ate, Mike, Oscar, Ziona, and Dexter got in the pool. It was overcast and not as hot, but they still had to wear sunblock. They were in for hours until they were so hungry they had to get out. I love that they can play for so long in the water!   While they were swimming, since it wasn’t so hot outside, I got Mike to help me figure out how to do the bottle rockets using water bottles with vinegar and baking soda. It was tricky to get the right amou...

I had scheduled myself to play organ in Sacrament meeting today and really needed to figure out how to work the organ since I’ve never really used the volumes or stops. I invited all of our company to go to Tanya’s ward so they wouldn’t be there to make me more nervous (they didn’t know that was the reason. The only one I couldn’t convince was Nina. She had stayed overnight so she could play with her cousins more, but she firmly rejected the notion of going to church with us. I sure hope someday someone will be able to change her heart. Anyway, we left most people sleeping, set out all the cereal and bowls for breakfast and went to the Church. Tom didn’t have ward council this morning but was willing to hang out at the church that long. Other bishopric people were there setting things up, so we weren’t alone. It was good to practice for over an hour and helped me be less nervous. I guess I did fine playing – certainly not without any errors, but nothing too glaring. It was my first t...

We don’t even care here that it is Pioneer Day. Becky was the only one who mentioned all that would be going on in Utah. I meant to show Beyond Come Follow Me episode about pioneers, but I forgot, so Becky’s was the only mention of what today was. We were in no hurry to get people up and moving, so Tom and I stayed quiet until we heard noises in the livingroom. The boys are always the first to go to sleep and the first to wake up, then that got everyone else moving. I was doing some Clean Queen while Becky helped peel potatoes while Tom cut them and started them frying. His favorite breakfast! Everyone loved the burritos, and we eventually got it all cleaned up.   Becky woke up Maggie, Amy, and Veronica for breakfast. They were nowhere ready to get up and were yawning for hours after she forced them out of bed. But still, the laughter was constant. They sure have fun together!   I remembered that we hadn’t even told Tanya that everyone was here, so I shot her a text....

The kids slept in really well this morning, and so did Tom and I. It was a very leisurely morning and breakfast. I was dragging all day after being up so late last night. I remember a time when I used to just keep going, even after a late bedtime. It was hard to keep the boys entertained all day without their computers. I tried to get them interested in trying to test out some bottle rockets made with water bottles and set off with vinegar and baking soda, but they really weren’t interested. I almost got it to work, but Tom was too busy to help. Ziona watched some,   but it was a “fail” as an activity for the boys.   I finally put on “Little Feet” for them and they enjoyed watching that. As soon as it ended, Caeli and her friend Abby came over while Tom used her truck to pick up our new doors since Trina and Chris have Tom’s truck. He wasn’t too happy that the doors came without trim and I wasn’t happy that they came without the hardware! We are positive he ordered them ...

It occurred to me that if we wanted to spend any more time with the Pettus kids, we should do it before school starts. It just so happens that next week, Geneva is at girl’s camp, so it made it an ideal time to bring the other three up here (because we can only fit 3 kids in our car). Then besides that, Mike and Becky are coming tomorrow and will be here next all next week, giving a chance for cousins who play remotely all the time, to be able to spend time together in person. There is nothing better than cousins! So we had a lot to do to get ready before picking up the kids. Chris agreed to meet us half way at 9pm so he could miss commute traffic, so before leaving our house at 7pm, we needed to go pick up Trina’s washing machine from Chris’ mom’s house, get that loaded, finish cleaning the house, get the yard watered, clean up some more, and a bunch of other things.   We got the washing machine loaded with a little help from Christian, no problem. That was scary. Then we de...

I spent a good solid few hours cleaning. I cleaned the kitchen really good, then swept, mopped and vacuumed the whole house. It was exhausting. With Clean Queen, Lilian has a really good leader for the team right now and has a full team, so things are going very smoothly. They only needed my help a few times.   Tom did a ton of yard work again. He would work until he was too hot and sweaty, then come in to drink water and rest a while, then he would go back out again.   In the early evening our new renters came to turn in their rental agreement and pay the cleaning deposit. We are pretty sure they will be good renters. They will move in on August 1, right after Mike and Becky go back home, so it is excellent timing! It will be nice to have that room available for them.   Our evening swim was as wonderful as ever!  

I think today was just like yesterday except my ministering companion texted me to see if we would like some cucumbers!!! She brought over a bag with about 5 cucumbers! Such happiness.   But the funny thing was that I was in the middle of changing into my swimming suit when I heard the doorbell. I yelled at Tom to see if he could answer the door. He didn’t answer me, but went to answer the door. Since I didn’t know he was answering the door, I hurried and got dressed again to go to the door, just to find him with the bag of cucumbers. So I went back to change back into my swimming suit.   And the other difference is that Tom went to run errands and was gone from about 8am to after 5pm! He went to do a sit-in at the  optometrist to get new glasses since they gave hin an appointment for October and he needs the glasses to drive. He finally got in and will get the new glasses in a couple of weeks. Yay! He also got his truck smogged, went to physical therapy, spent a lot...

It felt good to just take care of Clean Queen emails and texts instead of watching and waiting for my trainee. I’m not surprised she quit, and I spent most of the wee fixing things she didn’t quite finish. Not a lot, just several lingering throughout the week. Tom did lots of yard work.

I went early to the church so I could practice the organ while Tom was in correlation council. Sadly, I had to play quietly because they could hear me in their meeting, which meant I couldn’t try out all the stops and different configurations. I could have done that kind of practicing at home on my keyboard. Paula got confirmed, and cried quite a bit after that, too. She is so happy! And I can see a huge change in her from just even a week ago. The Spirit does amazing things, and He has done amazing things to Paula. She is so happy! I hope it lasts!   The meetings were good. Another young man returned from his mission. This one went to Ukraine! He had some different experiences, like being greeted at a door they knocked on by a man with a gun in his face! It turned out to be a joke that the guy planned for a friend, but ended up listening to them and going to General Conference with them!   We came home and changed clothes then went to Tanya’s for dinner and some fun...