Scorching the World

I got to go to the Spanish ward today, for their ward conference. It was really fun because they are so many nice people there who we love and they are all so happy to see us! Such good people! Unlike all the other wards we’ve gone to for ward conference, they did not do a linger longer ☹ , but instead had their regular meetings. So we went to Relief Society and I tried to translate for Janice. The teacher, the RS president, just reads one paragraph at a time, then asks if anyone has any comments. We got through about half of the lesson before time was up. But it was super nice being in there with the people I love. I’m so grateful that I learned Spanish so I can be part of their world. It has turned into a much bigger blessing than I ever imagined when I took Spanish in high school! When we got home, Tanya, Todd and the boys were already at our house. Kaden had brought a package of pancake mix and put our waffle iron on the counter. Like a big hint! Tom and I changed clothes, th...

Tom loves to clean the church every Saturday whether he is assigned to go or not. He also likes to go earlier than everyone else and finish before they get there. I like that option because we can choose our jobs and go fast and get out of there. He was happy that I was dressed and ready to go with him this morning. We had stake conference last week so the building was pretty clean, but when we were there for the game night last night, he noticed that the fridge was full of food that had been there for months and wasn’t very clean. So we started there. There were about 30 squirt bottles with salad dressing in them that had been there since before Christmas, so we decided to dump them and take them home to wash them. It was a very messy job that took quite a while but we worked on it together and got the bottles into the car. Then we cleaned the fridge and sink area The Bishopric was arriving to make breakfast burritos for the youth for an activity he had going with them, so we didn’t...

Last time we tried to give blood, we planned to go out to breakfast afterwards as a reward, which made us both fail the iron test. We felt so bad. So today we had a good breakfast and then went to the blood bank right afterwards, as soon as they opened. It was quite an experience this time. I went in first, to fill out the questionnaire and get my blood tested. We sped through and I was done with all that quickly. Best part – my blood passed! Then they took me in to where they take the blood and I waited, and waited, and waited. Tom got delayed. He was taken in after I had completed that first part, then his blood failed! They suggested that he let them try the other arm, which seemed silly. Isn’t our blood the same throughout? But they said sometimes that works, so they did and he passed. Finally he was brought into the blood drawing area, and they got him started. They still hadn’t started mine. Finally someone started me going and my blood flowed out happily to save a life. ...

I slept much better last night, sleeping until 5 and stayed in bed until 6 or so. It felt great! Tom woke up in the night and came back to bed just after I got up. Such is old age. I just didn’t feel like getting dressed and putting on make-up to go to Laurel’s class. Besides, Tom was going to leave at 9am and I didn’t want to leave before him. So I was here to kiss him good-bye. I hate that I can’t go with him, but one day I will be free to be away from the computer for a whole day. I did a significant amount of Clean Queen and other similar things. I exercised, and worked on the computer. I managed to book a flight for our August trip! That was exciting. But mostly I just waited for Tom to call or come home. This time he did get some adjustments done by Ryan, so that was good. It is just a very slow process while Ryan is doing it in the school with the 5 hour round-trip drive, waiting and waiting at the school, then being treated. He dropped some things off for Tami and Phil bu...

I managed to stay in pajamas all day by adding sweats and sweatshirts over them. This week the colder weather appropriate for February came back so it is in the 30’s at night and 40’s in the daytime. The house stays around 60, which is just a little too cold for me. We’re trying not to use the furnace because propane is expensive and we need what we have to last until the prices drop in August, but since I’ve had a cold for a few WEEKS now, I convinced Tom that it might help me get better if I weren’t freezing all day every day. So we set the thermostat to 65. I still have to dress warmly, but t feels much better. I woke up at 3 something this morning and was awake a couple of hours, but then was able to go back to bed and sleep some more. It felt so good in the nice warm bed. I was still tired later so I tried taking a nap but go too many texts. Tom got a call to help a neighbor pack up stuff because they are moving. He warned them that he isn’t supposed to life anything over 15 pou...

Today we got to watch and celebrate at 2:22 on 02/22/2022. We thought that was pretty cool. Rain was forecast for last night and today, but all morning the sun was shining brightly, so I doubted the weatherman. But in the early afternoon it started raining HARD. It rained off and on the rest of the day. I hope we got some significant amount in the reservoirs. I woke up early this morning and tried to take a nap later but many, many texts kept me awake again. It sure seems like people have a sixth sense for when to contact me. After Tom woke up and left me, I did fall asleep and slept soundly for a little while. It sure felt good! Ryan told us he had booked a flight from Portugal to Prague and gave us the information so we could book the near the same time and flight. We spent several hours working on it with different airlines but couldn’t get anything to book. The best rate we found wouldn’t let me book it without our passport numbers. We sent off our passports a couple of weeks a...

I did sleep better last night – no sinus pain! I woke up at 3:30, which is better than 2am like the night before last. Leah Ensign, a long-time friend who I hardly ever see and who I love, had arranged to meet me at a restaurant in Clovis at 11:30, so I worked on stuff to be on time for that. I got there just in time, but was searching for parking when Leah called to say the place wasn't open today! How rude is that!!  So we decided to go to Olive Garden instead. I only mention this because it explains how I got so behind schedule! We finally got seated in Olive Garden and ordered our food and talked for 2 hours! It was so fun! The food was good, but I love Leah, love spending time with her and hearing all about her life and family. She’s pretty amazing. But I had also arranged to go on the blossom trail in Fresno with Sandy and Jim Thompson at 1:30, so I knew I needed to get out of there soon. Leaving took some time, so I ended up not even leaving the restaurant until 1:30...

I really didn’t sleep well last night. The congestion and runny nose and sinus pain kept me awake in spite of the fact I took a decongestant before bed. Stupid decongestant. I got about 4 hours of sleep, then a little more after being awake for several hours. When I went back to bed in the middle of the night, I told Tom I didn’t think I would make it to the 7:30 session of stake conference for leaders. He said I really shouldn’t go because clearly I was sick still. His alarm went off at 6:30, and I argued with myself for about 5 minutes then decided I really had to go. I always feel better in the daytime anyway, so why stay home!!! We got dressed quickly and I dragged myself to the car. The leadership session was really good, as the leadership meetings always are. I tried to pretend I wasn’t sick and wore my mask so I wouldn’t spread anything. We got about a 10-minute nap in the car between that session and the main one at 10am. It felt so good! I felt much better going to the...

There was a funeral of a sister who we didn’t know, but Tom sort of knew the husband so he wanted to go. I slept very poorly because of sinus congestion, so didn’t want to go. Besides that, I had a LOT I needed to get done in the morning. As soon as he left I went to the grocery store to get the supplies I needed for the dessert for the Bishop’s dinner. It was just a couple of things, so it didn’t take long. I also got some things to ease my congestion so that tonight I might hopefully be able to sleep. Then as soon as I got home, I started the cream cheese dessert. While I was working on it, Sue needed help mailing out the invitations for our round table next month. We wanted them out before stake conference tonight because the messages we hear will play into what we talk about in our roundtable. I tried to help her, but she was stressed and not understanding my instructions, so I just did it myself. I barely got the dessert done in time for it to cool an hour before we had to l...

i t got into the low 70’s today – too nice to stay in! But I had a LOT of clean queen today. I spent over 3 hours straight just dealing with things. Also, on Fridays, I try to get all of next week’s schedule set up, so that takes some time. Tom wanted me outside so bad that he set up a table in the sun and put a rolling desk chair out there. Then he kind of dragged me out and encouraged me to work while sitting in the sun. It was so sweet for him to think of that. The problem wasn’t obvious to him – I couldn’t see my computer screen at all. I tried moving into the shade, but I still couldn’t see it. I thought I was almost done, and told him that, but as soon as I would finish one thing, something else would come up, so I was another couple of hours. I finally went outside to be with him while he worked in the garden. He tried to give me little assignments, but my phone kept dragging me back to the computer, so I wasn’t much help, but it was so nice outside! I really wanted to be ...

I missed Laurel Lawrence’s class today because yesterday and today I woke up feeling like I had a bad cold – sinus congestion and sore throat. Since people in the class are sitting right next to each other and nobody wears masks, I didn’t want to chance spreading something and wasn’t sure I felt good enough anyway. I had Presidency meeting at 10:30 on Zoom so I spent the morning getting CQ ready and set up. I also made a sample of the dessert I’m making for the dinner the stake is doing for the Bishops, stake presidency, and visiting authority on Saturday night between the afternoon meetings and the evening session. Tom bought me the ingredients last night. I started it a little late, and barely finished it before our meeting. Our meeting was very productive, even though it was on zoom. I think this time it turned out more productive on Zoom because we kept needing to run to get something to show the others. So it helped for each of us to be in our own homes. After the meeting w...

I woke up with a slight headache and lots of sinus pressure. I felt like I had a bad cold. No fever, no other symptoms, just lots of sinus pain. So I decided to drink some healthy tea and added a little lemon juice and honey. I took my morning pills with it and the combination was very unhappy in my stomach and promptly came back up. Yuck! But that was the last of my stomach issues. I sure didn’t have any desire for more tea after that. I spent the day taking it easy and being grateful that I didn’t have to go to work. There was very little CQ work, so I got lots of rest. Tom worked outside most of the day. His right knee has been swollen every since our San Francisco trip and by the end of the day, he can hardly walk. It is twice the size of his other knee, but he sure won’t spend much time sitting down. The calendar says February, but the trees say spring!        

The highlight of the day! Talking to my sisters. We talked for over 2 hours, I think. It was fun. I didn’t have to put on make up today and wore my lounging clothes! Sweet! The tradeoff was that I didn’t go anywhere and didn’t keep Tom company when he went to take grapefruits to some friends in our ward. Not sweet. I guess I didn’t do much. Not a lot of Clean Queen, not a lot of anything to show for the day and it was nice. Well, I did exercise in the morning, so that was good. I made some soup from leftover vegetables, made some jello to strengthen my nails, cleaned the kitchen several times, and watched Unshaken – another Come Follow Me blog. This episode is 4 hours long, so I only got through about half of it. I get frustrated that he spends so much time editorializing and mentally edit out all the parts he could have left out. But I kept listening anyway and he really did have a lot of really good stuff – enough to keep me listening while editing. Tom finished the paver...

I had a dentist appointment this morning at 10am, and Tom had a doctor appointment (or an appointment at the lab) at 11am. Neither of us ate before leaving and had breakfast when we got back. Tom had leftovers of the corned beef from yesterday that the Knudsens left behind. I thought about getting a treat or gift or balloons or something for Valentine’s Day on the way home, but I had too many messages I needed to respond to for Clean Queen, so I hurried home. Instead, I made a little cake. I took a cake mix and measured out the mix, then used half of it and cut all the other ingredients in half and made a cute little bundt cake, just the right size for the 2 of us. Tom was so excited about the cake, he wouldn’t wait for it to be frosted. So I just sprinkled powdered sugar on it and it was really good! And that was the extent of our Valentine’s Day celebrations. After we got a nap, we spent the rest of the afternoon, until it got too dark to see, around 6pm, working in the yard. T...

Today is Trina’s birthday! We wanted to go down there to spend the weekend but it just didn’t work out. But I sent her a text in the morning so she would know I was thinking of her and in the evening we got to FaceTime with them. Gotta love technology!!! I was visiting 5 th ward today for their ward conference which meets at the same time as our ward, so Tom left early for his meetings, and I left at 9:30 for mine. I love visiting other wards. It ‘s fun to meet new people and see old friends. Half of the people in 5 th ward used to be in our ward before it was split up, so it was good to see some people I hadn’t seen in a couple of years! They had good food for their linger longer after Sacrament meeting, and I wanted to mingle some, but my feet hurt so bad, I just grabbed the food and left to eat in the car without shoes on. When Tom and I went to the thrift store in Dublin on our anniversary weekend, I thought I was so clever to find 3 pair of shoes that fit! Especially excitin...

It was going to be another nice day today, so we planned to work in the yard. Tom went early to the church to clean. They are always so grateful when he goes because hardly anybody else ever   shows up. I had enough to keep myself busy while he was go so I was grateful he didn’t expect me to go with him again. He likes to go every week. I prefer to expect other people to take turns. As soon as I finished stuff, I went out and started sifting out rocks again. I enjoy sitting out there, and listened to Follow Him while I worked. When Tom got home looked for me all over the house before I finally went out and found me digging in the dirt. He quickly changed clothes then joined me. He loved that I was out there working with him. Tanya wanted to come over to watch Amazing Race and brought Kaden to help with the rocks. She loves to try to get her boys to help us, but she doesn’t want to help, so they follow her example. She bribed him with donuts and Taco Bell so he would come. He ...