Scorching the World

Wednesday My house looked like Christmas exploded and left nothing but pretty chaos. I had 4 or 5 big bins in the dining area and unfinished displays pretty much all over the house. I wasn’t sure how I was going to arrange it all, but really needed to get it done today. I did quite a bit of Clean Queen and other things until time to leave for the temple at 12:15pm. I got an exciting call on the way to the temple.   Jeramey has been working to find my replacement for Clean Queen. I told him I wanted to retire before I turned 80 but needed a week off November 11. What he heard was that I wanted to retire this month, so he has been panicked to find someone. He has business contacts for almost everything and found a guy who helps companies find remote workers in other countries. Jeramey has been playing with that idea for a month. So when he called, he told me they interviewed 3 excellent candidates and hired one who lives in the Dominican Republic. She will start on Monday! So t...

I went to bed last night aching all over and exhausted. I woke up still aching all over and still quite tired, but no time to rest yet. Clean Queen kept me busy until time to leave for the temple. Funny how I didn’t feel so exhausted or aching in the temple! It was so nice and peaceful. We had 10 people show up, so we got a lot done. Such wonderful people! What a blessing! I did Clean Queen from when we got home until time to leave for lunch, then a lot of computer work after we got back home. We had a nice nap which sure helped. I stayed busy, but it was all restful enough that I began to feel much better as the day went on. The ability of a body to heal is amazing! Tom started bringing in Christmas stuff and we began to set up the tree. Fun stuff!

Trina, Dexter, Trevor, Geneva and Christian went to church with us and even Kim surprised us and arrived right before the meeting started. Ziona felt sick so Chris stayed home with her. It was a good meeting with a high council speaker who gave a good talk. Relief Society was pretty good. Trina nabbed Geneva and made her go to Relief Society with us, but she ducked back out after about 15 minutes. We weren’t thrilled that we had to ignore our family and stay for choir practice, but we’ve already missed 1 practice, and will be gone for at least 1 more, and then it will be time to sing on Christmas eve, so we figured we just had to. Ginger talked to me personally about joining, so I didn’t feel like I could ditch it this year. When we got home, we set to making enchiladas. I had already prepared the sauce and chopped the turkey, so all we had to do was cook the tortillas and set everything out and gather enough people to assemble. They went together fast. We only got 2 trays of the...

We asked Tanya to host Thanksgiving dinner this time because she has quite a bit more room, but she doesn’t cook so I provided most of it. So I spent the morning cooking and preparing. I baked another turkey, made more stuffing, jello salad, rolls, and banana cream pie. Alissa brought the mashed potatoes and half of a ham! Tanya did green beans and sweet potato casserole. I used the roll dough to make scones for breakfast and we added Mexican hot chocolate. Every single scone got eaten, and all the hot chocolate was consumed. Ravenna and fiancee,           Andrew arrived before we went to Tanya's and Marc and family and Kim arrived at Tanya's after we got there. It's so fun to see Ravenna! We love being around her. I wished I had had more time to spend with her! We ate around 2pm, after Kim and Marc and family arrived. The food was delicious, and all of the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and rolls got eaten. Marc brought tennis rackets, which made Tom ve...

Tom got up left early to get a few more groceries we needed to make it through today. After a while my ring doorbell rang and when I looked to see who it was, it was Ziona trying to get in the house. I went to do the door but by then she was gone. They came in the back door. Trina, Chris, and Ziona had gone to Target early this morning. They probably left even before Tom! They got a few really good deals and got in and out of the store before it got crowded. I was impressed! When people were waking up, I made breakfast. We had fried spuds, sausage and eggs and then we left out the leftovers for Geneva/Jay for when she got up later. I think she finally ate it just before we had lunch. We mostly ate leftovers and other snacks and watched Hallmark movies until we couldn’t stand them. Trina and I crocheted. She’s making good progress on her “ugly sweater” but is starting to run out of the colors of yarn she needs. In the afternoon I started getting things ready to make our tradition...

It is so fun to wake up with Pettus’s here! They just bring joy to our home and hearts! Trina was up first (not counting us) and was already showered when we saw her. Sadly, we had to go to the kitchen and be noisy before kids out in that area were awake, but we had to get the turkey in the oven. We tried to be quiet, but ………… We made a recipe Trina had given me for sausage balls. It would have been really good, but I forgot the Italian seasoning, so they were pretty bland. I will try them again sometime because they could be delicious and we made pancakes to go with them. There was plenty of food and leftovers even after Geneva Jay ate. We spent the day preparing food and watching Hallmark Christmas movies. It was fun and very relaxing. Trina is crocheting herself an ugly sweater, and her ribs still hurt enough that it feels good to do nothing. Tom got Dexter, Ziona, and Trevor to help him thin the blackberry bushes. Tomorrow he will get them to help put some starts in pots whic...

We were able to sleep in a bit. It just felt so cozy in the bed that we didn’t want to get out. Tom had a physical therapy appointment today so he wanted to make sure he was limber and warmed up before he went. He did all his exercises and then attached a board to the back of his leg to make it straighten. Every exercise is very painful, but that is one of the most painful because it holds it straight for as long as he can stand it. Then he lies on the bed and has me push down on his knee. That’s the other most painful one. I hate to see him in so much pain, so I really hate to do it to him, but when we went to Utah and he didn’t do any of the exercises for a few days, he was way stiffer and unable to walk without pain. So we keep doing it, hoping that sometime in the future, it will straighten out and quit hurting. I only put all this here so I can go back and see how long it took to quit hurting and to remind us of the huge blessing when it finally is healed. I did some Clean Que...

Today was Paula Andrade’s funeral at 10am. Tom left for work a lot earlier in hopes he could finish early enough to get there on time. I worked on lots of Clean Queen and other stuff and completely forgot to be on zoom at 8:30 for our sister chat! Carma texted she was ready, and I immediately got on. We talked about so many things for an hour. It was so nice! I love talking to my sisters. That’s part of the reason I can’t wait for the sister’s reunion cruise in 2 weeks! I got to the funeral parlor 5 minutes before it was supposed to start, but it started about 20 minutes late, so it was ok. Tom’s gps threw him off so he got there about 20 minutes after it started. I had been asked to give the opening prayer and he was giving the closing prayer. I was getting a lot of texts and phone calls before and during the funeral. That always gives me a bit of stress. I had to just hope there weren’t any emergencies. The funeral was very sad. So many family members were crying so hard. Paula...

It was nice to wake up in our own home in our own bed and not have to jump up to get anywhere quickly! I did listen to Pandora radio all night which helped me sleep much better. We have to go as soon as possible to pick up the motorhome we left at Carol Hadley’s house in Stockton. Tom thinks he knows what might be wrong with it, and if that is it, he might be able to get it fixed quickly, but it is 2 hours each way, so we need a good block of time to do that and this whole week is busy! Today we have the temple in the morning, then the senior lunch, which means we wouldn’t get to Stockton until 2pm. Tomorrow we have a funeral at 10am which means we wouldn’t be able to leave until at least noon or later again. Wednesday Tom works and we have the temple at 1pm, so we wouldn’t be able to leave until after 2pm, Thursday is thanksgiving so the repair place would be closed, and Friday Tom works and we have the temple so we wouldn’t be able to leave until after 2pm again! But when we went t...

Once again, I woke up almost 2 hours before anyone else but we all slept very well in the hotel and woke up refreshed. We packed up quickly and checked out. Tanya and Tom took turns driving again. I like to sit in the passenger seat where I can control the music, podcasts, gps, and talk to the driver. No matter which one was driving, those were my jobs. Fun. The trip was very smooth. We stopped at Peggy Sue’s for breakfast,  then at a place called the Big Red Barn for lunch. That was a very cool place which we decided to make a regular stop whenever we make that trip! Good food and fun stuff.  Big Red Barn   We got Tanya back home in time for her to get to Church on time, then we went home and unpacked. I caught up on some computer stuff and then we went for a walk. After mostly sitting for 3 days, it really felt good! I left for the choir practice at 5:15, leaving Tom alone. This music we are singing is glorious! We have 2 weeks left and I love it so much but thi...