Scorching the World

I wanted to be at the church by 7:30am to practice the organ because I was playing today, but we overslept and didn’t even wake up until 7am. We did get there by 7:45, so that was close enough. We’re still meeting at the stake center, so I was playing on their fancy organ that I really don’t know how to work very well, so that made me nervous. Everything turned out fine and sacrament meeting was good! Sunday school was pretty good; we had a substitute teach who actually taught the lesson for the week. She got good discussions going, so that was good. Sadly, I totally forgot about tithing settlement after church! And sadly I accidentally left my hymnbook on the organ! I don’t have a key to the stake center anymore so I will have to wait until someone is there to go get the hymnbook and I have to set up another appointment for tithing settlement. We had breakfast when we got home at 10:30am, then got a little nap. It was needed. The afternoon was calm and we each did our own thin...

Yesterday and today, Tom had no time to exercise and try to get his knee to bend and straighten, but he did a whole lot of walking. By Sunday he was very sore. I was pretty sick all night with a massive upset stomach and headache. But we went at 9am to go back to the car repair place to see about some things. Sadly they didn’t open until 10am so we had to turn around and go back home. We had arranged to go with Tanya to see a car show in Merced. I really didn’t feel like going, and I know what cars look like, so I stayed home. Tom walked all over and around the cars, then they went to the airplane museum and he walked all over there. Oh wait, before they left for the car show, we shared out Monstera fruit with them. It is just so weird, but   it is delicious.      You only eat the white part. It comes off like kernels of a corn cobb. The black or green parts are said to be like razer blades in your mouth. But the white parts are pretty darn good! After he got...

Today is Nina McGill’s birthday! I love my grandchildren and I sure wish I could see them more often! Tom left early for work and I worked at home. I was so extremely tired when we went to bed last night, but I woke up happy and full of energy again. It is amazing what some sleep can do! I didn’t have much Clean Queen, so I cleaned bathrooms. That was lots of fun. Not really, but it sure felt good to get the sinks and toilets clean. I sure need to do that more often. I still had my head hands in the toilet when Tom got home from work. We went to the temple at 12:30. Today was the first day that we had all men and no women to clean. We sure appreciate the people who come to help and serve! It is a pleasure and it getting to know wonderful people adds to the pleasure. Tonight was our ward Halloween party. Tom had signed up to take chili and I signed up to take dessert. I guess we should coordinate better next time! Anyway, he put his chili in a crock pot (1 gallon can of purchas...

Tom had physical therapy this morning. It is very painful, but he is determined to get his knee to straighten no matter how long it takes or how painful it is. He is amazing. I had an appointment for my car at 9am, so I did a little CQ and had breakfast then drove it down there. Tom picked me up on his way home after PT. Then Tom had agreed to go to the temple at 10:30 with Jim Thompson who has Parkinson’s and needs a little help at the temple. I couldn’t go because I had already set up a luncheon with the person who is replacing me in the stake Relief Society at 11:30. We had arranged for her to pick me up because of me being temporarily carless. So Tom took off and I did my usual stuff until time to go to lunch. I didn’t know Suzanne R, but I’ve seen her around the stake. It didn’t take long to get acquainted and feel a connection. We went to a restaurant near my house in the new housing area. It was way busier than I thought it would be in the middle of the week right after it...

Tom left for work early because he wanted time to stop at Lowe's and buy a toilet seat. He noticed that the toilet seat in the company warehouse was broken and had a huge gap. Unbelievable that people still used it. He decided to take it upon himself to replace it without even asking the boss if he wanted him to. He had previously measured it and looked at it to see what tools he would need.. So when he got to work, he replaced the seat and took the old one to show the owner. The guy was astounded that it was broken. He didn't even know. He never uses the toilet in the warehouse because there is one in the office and nobody ever told him it was broken. Tom is a fixer. (He used the company credit card, not our own money.) I woke up early too and started working on {{DON'T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS}}. By the afternoon I actually almost finished. I'd say I'm 95%. Amazing an exciting! I got to chat with my sisters today. I love that we do that every week! I ha...

Yesterday at the choir rehearsal I felt a migraine coming on. It wasn’t very bad, so I ignored it until the middle of the night when I just couldn’t go to sleep and finally took something for it. It helped me sleep, but the headache didn’t go away so it was a very rude awakening this morning at 7am when my phone rang. I have a loud, funny ringtone that I really like, but it is definitely not what I want to wake up to. I tried to focus to take the call, but it was painful.   I woke up feeling both drugged, still in pain, and yucky. Fortunately the pain wore off after I got up, worked a little, served in the temple, and got a nap. I appreciate the temple getting me off the computer, out of the house, and moving around. We had a small crew today but managed. Tom is determined to make his leg straighten out. It’s been about 2 ½ months since surgery so it is harder each day because the leg thinks it has found its permanent position, but Tom keeps working it. He tried to go through a...

Our meetings were good. I thought the talks in Sacrament meeting were pretty good, but in Priesthood class they talked about how none of the talks were about Jesus. Interesting. In Relief Society, they passed around the list to sign up to feed the missionaries. I thought I should probably get my name on it again, and discovered that I was already signed up to feed them! Today! The only problem with feeding them is that they have limited mileage allowance and we live among the farthest from the Church, so they asked if we could go pick them up, bring them to our house, then take them back home. Tom probably would have been fine with that, but I try (unsuccessfully) to limit how many trips to Fresno we make a day/week/month and we already had 2 for today. Picking them up and dropping them back at home would add 2 more. So Tom and I discussed it and decided to take them a meal that I would drop off on my way to the choir practice. After Church we had breakfast then a nap. I like the...

Tom had mentioned that he wanted to go to the Hispanic Conference today. It is for anyone who is interested, from Turlock to Visalia. The last time they did it, there were hundreds and hundreds of people, so it is a big deal. I didn’t want to go very bad. Tanya had invited us to go with her to a 1. Car show, 2. The orchestra rehearsal for the quad stake Christmas concert, and 3. To a Grizzley game where they were going to have a whole bunch of food trucks. That all sounded fun except the car show. But I asked Tom on a scale of 1-10 how bad he wanted to go and he said 9. So we went to the Hispanic conference. It started at 10:30am.  The whole thing was held at the West Stake Center which is adjacent to the temple.   It was super well organized. They had missionaries helping sign people in and giving them name tags on lanyards. The first part was a meeting in the chapel and it was sad to see the chapel not even full. The speakers were good, and it was fun to see so many of...

 Tom left for work early, and I started on {{DON'T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS}} . I also practiced and did lots of Clean Queen. I'm glad I'm not bored. I was still working on CQ when it was time to leave for the temple. After Tom got home he took a little nap before heading to the temple. We love going to the temple. We love the people we meet there. This is a fun service mission and it sure keeps us from getting bored. I {{DON'T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS}} all afternoon until I just couldn't anymore. I think I am more than half done! Wow! Nice to see progress! In the evening we had popcorn and watched a movie after Jeopardy. Wow. Not much to report for today, but still, it was fun!

I had a 7am appointment to get my nails done. Before getting the manicure today, I had to take off all the old acrylic so last night I spent about 3 hours soaking in acetone, scraping and filing it off while we watched tv. Then I spent the night being very careful to not break my fragile natural nails or get them snagged on something. I was so happy to go first thing to get new acrylic put on. This new person I’m going to is really good and very fun to talk to while she does my nails. While I was gone, Tom went to Lowe’s to get supplies for the projects he wanted to do today. He had physical therapy yesterday and his knee was still sore, but he keeps on truckin’ anyway. I worked on ((DON’T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS)) for about 6 hours today – until I absolutely had to have a break. I think I’m close to half done. It did help to take a break to go to the temple. It is always a pleasure to be there! Afterwards I went right back to ((DON’T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTM...

I woke up around 3 because I had such bad breath that I couldn’t sleep through it. I tried for a long time to figure out how to not breathe in the same place that I breathed out. I finally got up and drank a bunch of water, which helped me be able to go back to sleep. Tom got up at 7 this morning while I was still asleep enough that I was so confused that I thought today was Friday and wondered why he was going to work at 7 instead of 6:30. He had to remind me it’s only Wednesday and he has Physical Therapy. Then later I saw that he accidentally left his phone at home and I worried about him being at work all morning without a phone. When he got home I remembered he had been at the doctor’s, not at work. We went to the temple at 12:15. Today we had 7 people. That’s not a terrible turnout, but one whole area didn’t get vacuumed. This stake started our strong and a whole lot of people have come once or twice. Now it feels like people think they’ve done their part and few are still co...

We had a really good turnout to clean the temple this morning. It was mostly men, which is unusual. We have a few who have come often enough that they are choosing their favorite jobs and know how to do them quickly. It’s nice when it gets to that point. Carma and Anne both had conflicts with our chat time for tomorrow, so they wanted to chat today. They were ready while I was still on my way home from the temple, so I tried to get on zoom on my phone, but it wanted my password. I didn’t know it, so we had to wait until I got home. I had a lunch date with our Stake RS presidency at 12:30, so while we chatted, I changed clothes and got caught up on Clean Queen. It was fun to talk, but it felt rushed and afterwards I kept thinking of more things I wanted to talk about. By Tuesday morning I had another list ready for our next chat. But it is always fun talking to my sisters! I’m so glad we do that every week. We went to Corner Bakery for our luncheon. We’ve gone there twice before, ...

Our ward is still meeting at the stake center while our building is being repaired. From what I’ve heard, the repairs might not be completed this year. Such is life. So we are still starting Sacrament meeting at 8:30am. I’m glad we don’t have little children to get ready so early in the morning. I don’t mind the early meeting schedule at all. Sacrament meeting was really good. Elder and Sister Tolman spoke. They are a missionary couple just finishing their mission here. They told stories (I like better that in Spanish the correct word would be histories so it doesn’t sound like they told fictitious stories) about miracles they saw during their mission. It was really good! In Sunday School, the teacher gave the lesson from the 3 rd week of September, I think. But his lessons are so general, it could have been a current lesson if he hadn’t written the scriptures on the board. I wonder if I should mention it to the Sunday School president. The manual for Come Follow Me is extremely...

For the first time in close to 2 years we went for a walk this morning. It was a very slow walk, but nonetheless, a walk. We haven’t gone because Tom’s knee hurt too much but now, a month after surgery, he can walk again. We didn’t go as far as usual but it was a start. Plus it’s nice weather in the morning which makes for a very nice walk. I spent all day working on ((DON’T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS)). It was fun, but slow-going. I’m beginning to wonder why I thought this was a good idea. Tom tried to talk me out of it, but I thought it would be fun. It is going to take many weeks and I’m only glad I started so early. Tom was a great help today and did a lot of ((DON’T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS)), which helped a lot. It was nice to have a Saturday with no commitments and we enjoyed just being together all day.

We are not at all afraid of Friday the 13 th !   Tom left for work early and while he was gone I worked on   ((DON’T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS)). It was fun. But then Tanya texted that she was coming by on the way to her massage and would bring things for Caeli’s party later. I’m not sure why Caeli chose to have her party here instead of her house, but it was fine with us! Tanya brought stuff for dinner and decorations, which she put up before leaving. On the way to her massage she called me so we could keep talking. There’s always so much to catch up on. Tom got home just in time to get to the temple, but had somewhere else to go right after so we went in separate cars. We only had a few people, but we worked hard and got everything done. It was sweet. After the temple Tom left to go to Madera and I went home and worked on ((DON’T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS)) until 3:30. Then I warmed up the food Tanya had dropped off earlier and did a little mo...

With Cai’s costume done I could turn my attention to ((DON’T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS)) things. Thursdays are nice because we don’t HAVE to go anywhere. I even take several hours before I actually get dressed. Tom sleeps in. We just have all kinds of fun with a day off. So I started my to ((DON’T ASK QUESTIONS SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS)) project. It was hard work for me – a lot of standing and bending over, but it was fun stuff that I enjoy doing. I spent ALL DAY working on it until I couldn’t stand up anymore. Tom really wanted to go see the Beach Boys at the fair and somehow had arranged to take Caeli. She loves all music and knows all the words to everything she has ever heard. They were delayed getting going because she decided she needed to dye her hair before going, but they got there in time before the concert started at 7pm. Tom sent me several videos showing how much fun they were having, and they really did have fun and loved the concert. Afterwards they walked a...

I had a ton of Clean Queen to do as soon as I got up. Tom had been up during the night so he slept in while I worked. He slept until about 8am! Today was his 1 month appointment with his surgeon to see how his knee is progressing. I wanted to go but had so much Clean Queen I didn’t dare be away from the computer for that and then for the temple shortly after the appointment. But Tom kind of insisted in his sneaky, sweet way, so I went. Happily, Clean queen left me alone during his appointment. Tom’s surgeon is such a nice man. He gives all glory for all good things to God. He said Tom is healing well, but gave him an elastic sleeve to help compress the swelling. He also said to push harder on making the knee straighten and to do it all day and even in the middle of the night when he gets up. He said there is a lot of scar tissue that need to just be stretched and the longer it takes, the harder it will be. But he said Tom is doing very well because he can laugh and joke and is basi...

Tom went to work this morning and I got up when he did. I did Clean Queen, practiced the piano, and worked on Cai’s costume. I made a couple more mistakes on it and spent some time ripping seams back out. Bother. It’s going to be cute, but I caused myself much grief by trying to adjust the dress to have a zipper opening in the back instead of button opening on the front. That one decision, which seemed like a really good idea at first, caused a whole bunch of problems. But I’ll figure it out eventually. After Tom got home, he asked if I wanted to go to the Fresno County Fair. There were things happening and displays that sounded fun, so we decided to go. He wanted to go at 2pm, but took a nap past that time. We left when we could after he took the time to pre-purchase our tickets and got there about 3pm. That’s when we realized he had read the schedule wrong and today it didn’t open until 4pm. So we sat in the car as long lines formed with people waiting to get in. It seemed very u...

All I wanted to do today was sew. But first we had to go to the temple to clean. Today they had a BIG group come from Merced to clean chandeliers. It takes a lot of people quite a bit of time to clean them all. At the same time we had our small group to do the rest of the cleaning. There was some cleaning we couldn’t do because the chandelier people were in the way, but we got a lot done and it was fun to see all the happy people so busy all over the temple. I love it! I had to do some Clean Queen – I had like 20 messages when I got out of the temple, but really didn’t have too much the rest of the day, which was sure nice. Most of the day I worked on Cai’s Halloween costume. It’s fun. I love sewing. But I can’t believe how many times I had to pick out what I had done and redo it. It would help a lot if I followed the pattern instructions, but I thought I had an “easier” way. I spent more time undoing than actually sewing, but still, it sure is fun. Tom had a physical therapy...