Scorching the World

I was asked to provide a meal for the sister who is supposed to minister to me, and I think they asked me to take enough for 2 days for a family of 6. I think that’s almost our whole food allotment for Tom and I for a week. Anyway, we got a slow start because I was doing Clean Queen and Tom was doing Synergy phone calls and emails (with my help) and suddenly we realized we needed to get a meal put together so we could deliver it on the way home from the temple. I didn’t want to make 2 trips to Fresno today. So I got potatoes washed, rubbed with butter, wrapped in aluminum foil, and put in the oven, then made a cake. Tom cooked chicken, and when they everything was cooked we got green beans and everything else put in disposable containers and put in a box nice and secure so it wouldn’t get thrown around in the trunk. The cake wasn’t quite cooled when I frosted it, but good enough. We didn’t have time to wait for it to cool. Our temple crew was great today, and they were happy that...

I thought Carma and Vic were going to stay most of the day, so I had planned some yummy food. Today I had portobello sandwiches on Cheesecake factory rolls that Tom and I had to eat for them because they didn’t stay long enough. They left a little after breakfast. So sad to see them go but it was sure nice having them here for a visit! I can’t think of anything else we did that would warrant any further comment.  

Tom had to go to work early today and had so many extra complications he was afraid he wouldn’t make it at all to the temple, but everything worked out, so he made it home in time to change and we went together. I got up when he left and decided I had to go get some groceries! We used up everything over the weekend with all the family we have had. I hadn’t seen Spencer yet, so I went while he slept in and he was still asleep when I got back! We convinced Spencer to go with us to help clean the temple. He planned to leave today. He is going to Monterrey to meet up with friends before he heads south to be with his family. He now plans to join the Air Force and is working on getting in shape before boot camp. Spencer slept in until almost time to go to the temple. I was glad he woke up in time to go with us. We didn’t really need the extra help, but I think it was a good experience for him. He got to meet Elder Lawrence and other super nice people. We had a great group of cleaners...

I’m so grateful for my older sister who has been such a huge influence in my life. I copied everything she did when I was little and I still follow her example in so many ways. What a blessing she has always been in my life! Tom got up at 5:15 to go do his Tuesday/Friday job, but got a text right away saying he needed to work tomorrow instead of today. It would have been nice if they had told him last night, or the last time he worked, but at least they told him before he left the house. So he was home to help me get breakfast ready which was super nice. We now only had Spencer here – our only visitor left, but Christian showed up some time later in the morning. Neither Tom nor I knew when he arrived; suddenly he was there. My phone notifies me when there is someone at the door, but I assumed it was Tom or our gardeners. Anyway, it was fun to have him back. It seems he is really enjoying all the time here with family and all the food! I worked pretty much all day on Clean Quee...

It was so exciting to have Pettus’ here another day! Because it was so exciting, Knudsens came back. Tom made another exciting breakfast of potatoes, burritos, sausage, etc. This time I also made pancakes and we had raspberries and blueberries to put on top. Actually, I was busy making a batch of bread so Trina made the pancakes. After breakfast I set out all of the snacks again so we didn’t have to worry about people getting hungry between meals. The bread was done just in time in the afternoon when other snacks had run out. It was a big hit! And then there were 3 loaves leftover for Trina, Tanya, and Christian to each take one home. Tanya forgot hers, so Trina got to take home 2. We sat around all morning and afternoon watching movies as if there was no end to the day. It was wonderful! At 5pm, Trina said, “well I guess I have to pack!” and within an hour they were gone. Knudsens left at the same time.  It was sad, but we still had Spencer and Christian here! Christian stayed unt...

People woke up slowly even though they needed to get ready for Church and had to leave by 9am. People woke up slowly even though they needed to get ready for Church and had to leave by 9am. To make life easier for me, we had bought packaged, ready-to-cook cinnamon rolls for breakfast and I made Mexican hot chocolate.  Tom and I left early because we were Zacharias and Elizabeth in the Sacrament program, but it really didn’t  do any good to be early. Still, I felt better and more at ease for being early. It was fun to see the Pettus family on the front row. Ravenna and Christian didn’t go, but they still filled the row near the front. What a beautiful sight. The program was beautiful. I questioned (to myself) whether it was ok to do a reader’s theater type program in Sacrament meeting, but it turned out so beautiful. There was beautiful music and very heart-felt speaking parts. It was just really nice. We hurried home and set up more hors d'oeuvres for people to snack on until ...

It was exciting to wake up with the Pettus’ here! We slept as long as we could, and worked on our computers for a while, then after Trina got home from an early Christmas shopping trip we went ahead and began making breakfast while a few people tried to sleep in. Tom made a wonderful breakfast of sausage, fried spuds, eggs, tortillas, etc. I was busy with other things so I didn’t help him much at all. I had planned to start a batch of bread but was also starting things for Thanksgiving dinner that needed done early and still working some on Clean Queen. It was super frustrating because I had previously printed out all the recipes and menu lists but couldn’t find anything. I don’t know where all those lists went! I kept having to go search for a recipe and having to settle on the closest I could find at the time. I felt like I was in an alternate universe or dragging through a fog. frustrating! Breakfast was wonderful in spite of me and because of Tom. Trina helped a lot. Knudsens made ...

Tom left early for his work. I had a rough night with some pain, so I had to take pain pills. I’m trying to convince my body I don’t need them any more and only took half of a pill. But then it was hurting too much to sleep, so I ended up taking the other half around 2:30am which made me sleep until almost 8am! I got caught up with Clean Queen stuff in the morning, and was just about to have breakfast around 9am when I heard this soft knocking. I was in the office, and went out into the hall to see where the knocking was coming from. I thought at first it was the air conditioner, but it wasn’t, so I kept moving through the house. I discovered it was someone knocking so softly on the front door. When I looked, I saw Caeli peeking through the upper windows of the door. Not very many people are tall enough to see through those doors. It was delightful to have Caeli drop by. She needed to get things from the car she left here that is dead/dying, but then she stayed. I was about the have br...

I wanted to go grocery shopping at 6am to avoid the crowds, but Tom and I were both awake from about 3am-5am, then went back to bed. We actually went to the store about 8am. I was very worried about the crowds 2 days before Christmas Eve, but Tom bet me a gee-dunk that it wouldn’t be crowded at 8am. I lost the bet. Walmart was not any more crowded than usual, so now I owe Tom about 200 gee-dunks. I don’t know why he is always right! We bought a lot of groceries, and by the time we headed home I had a lot of Clean Queen messages I had to attend to, so Tom brought in and put away almost all of the groceries by himself before I was able to help. After shopping, I took Tom to south Fresno again, so he could pick up his Comet from the upholstery shop. He said I didn’t need to follow him home; he was sure the car would run fine, so I hurried home. He was much delayed coming home because of holiday shopping traffic and car troubles. He was glad to finally make it home even thought it was ...

I don’t even like to get dressed in the morning when I have to get ready to leave for the temple at 11:30am. I just stay in pajamas with a bathrobe because I’m too lazy to change twice in just a few hours. I don’t like staying in my pajamas, but I dislike changing twice even more. I didn’t get much of anything done before we left. I don’t ever feel like I get much done these days, but we’re looking forward to this weekend with great anticipation! We had the biggest group we’ve ever had to clean the temple and every single job got done today! We were amazed! Nobody had to do 2 jobs. There is one sister who I adore who brought a mop she bought in Malaysia for us to use to mop the front steps. It works really well! She left it for us to continue to use. I wanted to run errands on the way home, like grocery shopping for the weekend, but just didn’t feel up to it.  My sisters and I didn't get to chat on Tuesday like we normally do, so we managed to get in a good chat today. Carma ...

Tom left early for work. I got up about then, and got to work on Clean Queen. I have to focus on the schedule 2 weeks in advance, and it’s sad to see that 2 weeks from now we will be in January! I got the schedule all set for this week, next week, and the first week in January. The owner, Jeramey is very hands on and doesn’t mind spending 1 ½ hours on the phone helping me figure out the schedule. It is incredibly complicated when you take into consideration appointment proximity, who requires morning appointments, which employee lives closest, and that we have 3 of our girls off work this week and next week for Christmas and illness. It took a long time, but we got it all figured out. There will be changed – there always are, but at least we have a good base to work from. I really appreciated his help and his willingness to spend so much time on it! He’s pretty amazing and fun to talk to. After that I cleaned up the kitchen, practiced piano, and made a good stirfry for lunch. It was ...

I wanted to see if I could sleep without the pain pill I got from the doctor, so I went to bed and tried. But by 2:30am I decided it wasn’t possible and took a pill. That helped me sleep so well, that I didn’t wake up until Tom came in and said he forgot what time we needed to leave and now we needed to go in 5 minutes! If he hadn’t come in, I probably would have slept another couple of hours. I got up and got dressed as fast as I could. I put makeup on in the car on the way, which is always dangerous, but we made it to the temple almost on time. There was already one person there ahead of us waiting to get in! We only had 3 people show up, so each person did 2 jobs and Tom and I filled in the rest. It is always lovely being in the temple. I was still groggy from the pain pill but managed to function and get through it! We’re so grateful for those 3 faithful members! When we got out, I had a few Clean queen things going on and managed to take care of them. The rest of the day was...

Today is Tami’s birthday. Apparently nobody planned a party for her. We thought that was really sad so last week Tom and I decided to do it. We talked to Marc and Alissa and they agreed to host at their new house they are renting in Lafayette. We invited Ryan who couldn’t come because he was working, Anitta, who didn’t come but I don’t know why, Mila who didn’t come, Ravenna, Tami and her “beau”, Nina (Nico), Caeli who rode up with us, and the rest of the Knudsens. I forgot to invite Christian! I felt so bad! We watched Sacrament meeting on Zoom, the as soon as Caeli got here we loaded up the car and took off. Caeli slept all the way. She had her puppy who didn’t sleep, but was fine in the back seat. Marc barbequed some tri tip stake. I bought hamburgers and veggie burgers, buns, potato casserole Tanya got from their ward Christmas party, and various other things. Marc’s house is quite nice. It is about 100% bigger than their little house in Alameda and is on an acre. Most of the...

I have the same pain that I’ve now had for about 20 days. All of the worse pain that I had for about 2 weeks is gone and just this one pain through my chest to my back is still there. I am SO MUCH better than I was, and now I have pain killers and sleep aids, so I shouldn’t be complaining at all! Tom left about 7:30 to clean the church, then went to Lowe’s, then went for groceries. The other counselor in the RS stake presidency had recommended I take TCH tincture for the pain and even managed to get some for me, so Tom went to her house to pick that up too. He was gone all morning. I had a couple of other things I was hoping to get him to pick up, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask him for one more thing! I woke up with a stomachache and always felt like I didn’t dare go far from the bathroom, so I never did get dressed today. Tanya and Todd came over to bring food for tomorrow and to watch the Fresno football game and then the BYU football game, so it was fun to have them keep u...

I was finally able to talk to my doctor today. I had a phone appointment for 10am, and shortly before that her nurse/assistant called to change it to 11:30am. That’s right when we leave for the temple, but I trusted it would work out. Also today was the first day that I took 2 doses of the pill for my nerves. That morning dose made me very groggy, loopy, and took away all the pain. It was wonderful but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to pull it together to serve in the temple! So I forced myself to get off the couch and dressed for the temple before the awaited doctor appointment so I would be ready in case the doctor phone visit went long. My personal doctor is pretty good. She listened to me and prescribed a better pain pill for night time and explained and adjusted the dosage of the pills the on-call doctor had prescribed. I felt much better after talking to her. Overall, I’m happy with Kaiser. My problem was having so much need over the weekends and during a pandemic when do...

Tom left early to go work on the yard at Christian’s house. He wants to make sure it doesn’t get overgrown in the back like last year, and also wanted to remove some large garbage items that Christian doesn’t know how to dispose of. Tom is ALWAYS thinking of what other people might need and of what he can do for everyone around him. Always! It is one of the things I most admire about him. Our neighbor’s kids are taking Spanish, Tom wants to tutor them. A sister in the ward is in the hospital, he wants to go mow her lawn. We’re going to the temple, he wants to take some persimmons to the people there. Our mandarin oranges are ripe, he sent a box of them to Tracey. And on and on. Those things never occur to me at all. Pain continues. I took it easy for the most part in preparation to go to the temple tonight. Caeli came over to visit. Usually she does some projects with Tom, but she hadn’t slept last night, so all she wanted to do was watch TV. I put on our favorite Christmas movie – T...

I managed to sleep through the night, but didn’t get dressed until time to go to the temple. My pain continues but it hardly hurt at all while we were in the temple. That is the happiest place on earth and is very close to heaven. It was wonderful being there. We had a pretty good group and got most things done that needed it the most. My doctor’s office finally called back and prescribed Ultram to help me sleep. I was excited to think I might be able to sleep tonight! We stopped at Kaiser on the way home from the temple. Then we treated ourselves to a Colorado Grill hamburger, which we split. It was good! One sweet sister, who I am just getting to know better because of working in the temple is Lorraine Walwork. She serves faithfully almost every week. She is 85 and I just found out she participated in the Senior Games in St George this year! Amazing! She sure doesn’t look or act 85! Anyway, she brought us a bag of carmelcorn to thank us for all we do. So sweet! Ha ha! Sweet! Get ...

The same pain continues. I do think it is a little less pain now.  I was able to sleep last night because of a contraband pill from our dear ministering brother, but that was the last pill. Tom left early for work, and I worked on Clean Queen and other computer stuff until time to chat with my wonderful sisters!   I don’t know of any other bond so wonderful as that of sisters. I’m so grateful that I have sisters! I have friends who don’t have any and they do feel the void. We had a great chat and talked about so many things! We neve run out of things to talk about and it is fun! I had scheduled a haircut for today and was extremely happy to get it. I had become very shaggy, but couldn’t schedule it sooner because of shingles. Today I ventured out. I warned Lisa when we began to not touch my back. She said she had shingles 2 years ago. Her case was extremely severe – more severe than some doctors had seen. It went into her eye and she was told to go to the hospital in Sta...

When I woke up I felt good enough again that I felt I could go help clean the temple. I am all better except for one pain that goes through me front to back and also radiates under my arm. It is extremely painful, but while I was cleaning in the temple, and doing all the things that are part of our assignment, it felt good. I’m not saying it didn’t hurt, but moving and serving felt good anyway! Way better to be in the temple than sitting at home aching. I was so happy to be there again! Other than that, I spent a lot of time recuperating and resting, doing clean queen, catching up on my blog, and even made a small batch of Chilean bread. It didn’t turn out very good – it didn’t ever really rise, but oh well. Tom still likes it. By the time we went to bed I was hurting bad. Distraction helps ignore pain; sleeping or attempting to sleep magnifies pain. I was glad I had one more pill left from our friends. I don’t know what I will do tomorrow night. Tom spent the day helping me be c...

I woke up when the pain medication wore off, but I woke up feeling so much better ! I still had the major pain that pierces through my chest to my shoulder blade, but overall, I felt so much better! So I got ready for church. I wasn’t sure if I would stay after Sacrament meeting, but sure didn’t plan to stay for both meetings and then the Sacrament meeting program rehearsal too. That would be too much. Sacrament meeting was good. I was so happy to be there. We sat in the foyer because again I was expecting a call back from a doctor “any minute”. So I held my phone in my hand and never took the chance of missing a call. I also tried to keep a distance from people who love to give hugs or rub your back while you talk. We are a very huggy church. Nobody called. I thought after Sacrament meeting I could handle Relief Society, so I went. They had a very special meeting planned. The lesson was excellent, but by then I had a migraine again. I hurt all over and needed to lie down. They h...