Scorching the World

This month is almost over! We went early to Echo Ward so I could practice on the organ there, but the leaders who were there were in a meeting and the door was locked. Some other people came who were waiting to get in and finally one came who knew the combination. I lost more than half hour of practice time standing outside chatting with others. Fortunately the hymns today were easy enough and I knew them pretty good. I still messed up, but not too bad. We do like going to Echo ward because we have good friends there who are always so happy to see us! As soon as it ended we hurried to get to our ward. It was the 5 th Sunday so we thought there would be a 5 th Sunday lesson by the bishopric, but instead it was normal Sunday School. We sat way in the back because we were late, so we didn’t get as much out of it as if we had been on time and sitting closer because they hold Sunday School in the chapel. We decided to sign up for tithing settlement, but the only sheet there to sign ...

Happy birthday to my 5 th child, Marc! He is a great man, raising a beautiful family as best he can! We’re so proud that he is our son! Tom went to a neighbor’s house where they had a tree cut down, to gather firewood for next winter. He spends all summer looking for firewood. I didn’t help at all. He already got 1 truckload yesterday and today he brought 2 more truckloads. We will still need more, so he is still looking for more trees that have been cut down. I only did things in the house. It got up to about 99 today, which definitely shows it is cooling down, but not enough for me to go outside. So I did stuff in the house while Tom did all the hard work outside. I worked on my computer and spent some time playing with excel to set up my budgeting document for next year. I try to wait to November to start playing with that, but I couldn’t wait. It was really fun. That was probably the best part of the day. Lol. I love playing with excel. Knudsens and Christian came over about...

I wasn’t ready to wake up when Tom got up to leave for work. I woke up at 2:30am and didn’t fall back to sleep until after 5 and even then I was dozing off and on. Not a good night’s sleep and there was absolutely no reason to not be able to sleep. This is why old people need to retire. I was very grateful I didn’t have to get up early and go to work. I got stuff done in the morning – all the usual stuff- computer, scriptures, piano, laundry, etc. Tom got home about 11:15am, which is really early for a Friday. He had time for some lunch and to change clothes and to work on finding renters. We need renters for our studio and Christian’s house, and he hasn't had luck yet to find anyone. We had 13 people come to help clean today! We love West Stake. It is so fun to see people we know and love and have such faithful wonderful people come to serve! We didn’t go to the gym after the temple because I had set up to go with the sister missionaries to teach Phillip who came to Church o...

Tom started to take down the decorations that Tanya put up and I made him leave them.  I’m not ready to stop celebrating my birthday quite yet.   It makes me so happy to see all that she did and the decorations are so cute. I’ll leave them up at least through Sunday, I think. Tom and Tanya had agreed to work on the fence at her rental some more this morning starting at 8am, before it got hot. Tom and I agreed that 3 of us there would be a crowd, so I stayed home and did my morning routine, then cleaned the kitchen and swept and mopped the floors. That all really needed done. I was about to start another project about 10am when Tom called me to bring some more tools and showed me on a video chat where to find them and what exactly to bring. I was all dressed, so I was able to go straight down there right away. When I got there, they had lots of things that they wanted my help with. Tanya had cut down the olive tree and all of it needed cut up and put in the yard-waste bin. ...

We kept getting the schedule confused this morning, but finally figured it out and it went smoothly. First we went to the temple to do an endowment session at 11am. I had printed a name but left it on my desk. Tom didn’t have a name to take this morning either. Good thing the temple always has plenty of names of people waiting to have the work done. It was a FULL session, so it took a while to finish. I worried that I would be late to help supervise cleaning, but it all worked out. I didn’t wear my watch in the session and was tempted to ask the sister next to me what time it was, but decided to just have faith that it would all work out and it did. No need to worry when you are in the temple! I changed clothes as fast as I could to be ready for cleaning. Tom had already started. We had a smaller group today, but managed to get everything done by 2pm. When we went out to the car, we found it totally decorated! We assumed our bosses, Scott and Darren had done it, but they denied it....

Tom didn’t have to go to work today because they didn’t have enough sausage orders to make it worth his salary. I had a nail appointment that got canceled, so we had a slow, leisurely morning and no obligations for today! But Tom needed to run several errands for his newer truck, some of which involved me picking him up, and we decided to go see a movie as part of my birthday week.  So he took off as soon as we figured all that out, and I was supposed to meet him at the movie.  I had ordered new drapes for our bedroom and they arrived about 10:30 so I worked on getting them the right length and taking the old ones down before we left. I was having so much fun I almost forgot to leave for the movie on time. I had bought the tickets online, so to get in, I showed them the qr code on my phone. I had printed out the qr code for him to get in, but when he got there, they said part of it was cut off, so he had to call me to come down and show me my qr code. It was a good plan an...

2 more days to my birthday. I don’t know how to act like an 80-year-old. This is going to be fun. We only had a little time to do things before leaving for the temple. We got a little delayed and Tom was panicked that we would arrive late, but we were right on time. Last Monday we had 12 people come to clean. Today we only had 9. It was barely enough and we weren’t able to do all the Monday things we should do. But we got the important things done. Every time we go we see more preparations for the shut down in January. It’s getting exciting! We should be out of the temple by 10am, but we seem to be later and later getting out of there. It was about 10:45am by the time we left today. Tom and I had to finish up a couple of jobs so the slow people could leave. On the way to the gym we sent back bedroom curtains I had ordered and didn’t like. I love that it’s so easy to send back things on Amazon. We had a good workout at the gym. I’m still trying to get my energy back so I pushed ...

I was playing the organ in Sacrament meeting today, so I wanted to be there before 9am to warm up. It really does make a difference what organ you play. The one at church has a much more sensitive touch than mine so if I’m not very careful, I accidentally hit 2 notes at once. It takes some getting used to every time. Playing went well enough today. It always makes me feel good when Beverly Snow, the one who leads music is so happy when I’m the organist because I follow her. Today it was harder to follow her because there are 2 men who sing VERY loud and if I’m not careful, I follow them instead. It takes serious focus to ignore them! But the meeting was good. There is a sister who was baptized 2 weeks ago, Patty Mastro, who spoke and did a really good job. She told of her conversion. We love new converts! Relief Society was also good and then I had a meeting with the activities committee afterwards. I thought it was going to be the Relief Society activities committee because that...

Tanya needed help again this morning to repair the fence at one of her rentals and Tom said they could really use my help. I would normally have declined, but I am feeling quite a bit better and it has been much cooler these days. We were supposed to be there by 8am, so Tom planned to be at Lowe’s to get the supplies by 7am. Of course, we ran late because I hadn’t planned to go and it took him way longer to gather all the things he was going to need than he thought. When we got there, Tanya and Kaden were waiting and happy to see us. Tom and Kaden worked on setting a post to go next to a rotted-out post, and Tanya and I worked on replacing the gate hinge screws with bolts. I was on 1 side and she was on the other side. She would remove one screw, then drill the hole the rest of the way through, then put in the bolt. I would put the washer and nut on it and hold it with a crescent wrench while she screwed it tight with a socket wrench. There were 6 to replace, so it didn’t take very l...

Tom left for work early and I got busy on my stuff. It is amazing what I can do in a morning when I don’t feel crappy! He got home just in time to change and grab his stuff, plus something to eat on the way. We had 14 people come to clean today! I’m loving Fresno West Stake! We got all the jobs done plus had several people on some of the jobs. We went to work out afterwards, like used to be our habit begore I got the flu. Now it feels like it’s been months and months since I exercised. I did the best I could, but I sure don’t have my energy or endurance back yet! We were supposed to go out to dinner with Alan and Karen Barros at 3:30, but he called to say he wasn’t feeling well, so we postponed that. After we exercised, we went home and had a quiet evening resting and relaxing. I actually found a cute movie on Hallmark that wasn’t totally predictable and we enjoyed it with a little popcorn! Such a nice day. Common, ordinary days are the best. 3 Nephi 3 - Listening to John Hil...

Every Thursday I say how much I love Thursdays. I love the sense that I can do whatever I want without scheduling around obligatory schedules. Tom had things on his list. He wanted to help Tanya with the fence at one of her rentals and had a bunch of other errands he wanted to take care of. So he left fairly early and was gone all morning. When I woke up this morning, I was actually excited to wake up and get up. I haven’t felt that way for over a week. It was such a happy feeling. I did my scripture study and then spent all morning on computer related things. I realized that I hadn’t used essential oils at all while I was sick. I blame that on having flu-brain. When I’m sick I can’t remember any remedies that I know will help! So this morning I put some good oils in my diffuser and breathed that in the bedroom all morning. When I woke up I was coughing a LOT but as soon as I started the diffuser, the coughing stopped and the congestion was way less! Huge difference! I should hav...

A couple of days ago I listed Tom’s old truck with a blown head gasket for sale on Facebook. This morning Tom said he was surprised he got absolutely no response on the ad. Then I remembered that when I hit publish, I got a message saying it couldn't complete the task and to try again later! So I immediately went in and hit Publish, and within 10 minutes we were inundated with inquiries! Tom had just left to go pick up our food order from the senior center and I was getting a new pop-up message about every second. I would just put in that it was still available and to call Tom at his phone #. I was entering that on all the new pop-up messages as fast as I could hit “paste” and “send” – for about an hour!!! That meant Tom was getting phone calls and texts faster than he could answer them, especially while he was driving and picking up food. There was one super insistent buyer - Rudy, who was coming from Fontana (near L.A.) and said he was on his way and would pay all cash. He even...

My plan last night worked. I decided when we went to bed to skip the flu medication and take migraine meds instead. I slept so very well! I woke up feeling much better! I think I’m alive. I actually took a shower, got dressed, studied scriptures, practiced the piano, and took care of other computer-related things before I had to lie back down to rest. I was still coughing a lot but didn’t want to take more meds. I continue to take lots of vitamin C and now remember to take vitamin D also. But the problem is that this is a very boring post. I was clearly feeling better because my appetite and desire for food increased. I actually prepared 2 meals today! In the evening we called Ziona to be part of her birthday for a few minutes, but that is the sum total of the news for today. Thought from the scriptures today: I can identify with Nephi’s distress and his urgent, heartfelt prayer for the deliverance of the people when he prayed in 3 Nephi 1:13. But this scripture shows that while ...

I didn’t sleep well last night because I had a headache that just wouldn’t go away. My cold/flu is going away but the headache just won’t give up, and there’s congestion which isn’t painful but sounds really bad. Tom went to the temple to clean alone again and ran errands on the way home.  I spent some (painful) time at the computer trying to get caught up on lots of stuff and did manage to get quite a bit done. I also managed to get some piano practice in, then rested he remainder of the day. I watched lots of pour painting videos and a few other things. It was a fun distraction. While Tom was out, he bought me some medication for chest congestion/flu symptoms that helped a lot through the day! At bedtime, however, I decided to skip taking that and take migraine medication instead. I think I can sleep better with congestion than with a headache. Here's hoping! In the evening we called Marc & Alissa to wish Laelle a happy birthday! I can't believe she's 15 and startin...

I had planned for us to go to Old Town Clovis to just wander around and then have lunch at Luna’s, but Anne and Acell’s flight was at 5, which meant they had to be there by 3, which meant we had to leave Fresno by noon and to be safe in case there was traffic, we needed to leave by 11:30am. That meant we would have to eat at Luna’s by 10:30am and it isn’t even open yet. So we skipped Clovis completely. Instead, Tanya came over for Tom’s breakfast and played cards with Anne and Acell until time to go. Tom made a wonderful breakfast with bacon (which I burned), fried spuds, eggs, French toast, cantaloupe, and grapes. Delicious. It was such beautiful weather all week – not so hot as usual this time of year, and this morning it was still really nice, so we had a leisurely breakfast outside. Very relaxing. Anne and Acell were all packed and ready to go, so at 11:30, we loaded in the car and headed out. I felt better today than yesterday, so I didn’t have to have my face covered anymore,...

I felt horrible when I got up. I had a fever and chills, headache and a horrible cough. I found some allergy medicine that I took to relieve congestion, which helped with my head. I doubled down on vitamin C and D but really spent all day with a damp washcloth over my eyes and a blanket over my body. Tom left early for work, and was glad that he was able to finish work on time to come home and change before leaving for the temple. I really couldn’t go help at the temple so Anne and Acell stayed home with me. Acell really needed to rest after his big fall last night. So Tom went to clean all alone but he had lots of helpers show up, which was wonderful! I didn’t have anything planned for today except cleaning the temple and going out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. In lieu of that, we asked Tom to go to Cheesecake factory on his way home from the temple. We called ahead with our orders and he just had to pick them up. The food was delicious, but I sure couldn’t eat much. Tanya, T...

It was difficult to be up and ready by 8:45 to leave for our first appointment – the Underground Gardens in Fresno. Anne and I had both been there before, but neither Tom nor Acell had seen it and they both found it very interesting. It really is amazing what that guy did in his 40 years of working on it. Anne and I had worried about it being a lot of standing and walking for Acell, but he seemed to do fine, to our relief! We went back home and got some rest, lunch, and played cards for a little while before leaving for Roger Rocka’s. It’s a place where you get dinner and a live performance. Right now they are presenting The Sound of Music! Dinner was good, but there were a lot of people there, so service was a little slow. Since we were among the first to arrive, we got our dinner fairly quickly. Others who came later had to wait quite a while for their food. I had thought dinner would be at 5, so we got there a little before that. Turned out that they don’t open the doors until 5...

It is September 11. That is a date that will always bring sad memories of a horrible day in U.S. history. This morning I had scheduled for us to go out for breakfast at Batter Up. They have such good food! Tom worked in the yard before time to go at 9am. I was trying to get on their waitlist, but it wasn’t working, which said that meant that too many people were trying or that the system just wasn’t working. I didn’t know which, so as soon as Anne and Acell were ready we took of. When we got there we found no waiting line so we got right in. That was so great! I’ve never been there when there was no line before. The food was good, as always, and I think everyone liked what they got. I really like that place and relish any excuse to eat there. Between each thing we did, we had time to go back home to regroup. It was a lot of back and forth, but it gave us a chance to rest/change clothes. At noon we left to go clean the temple. It was so nice that Anne and Acell were willing to d...

I only planned 1 thing for today. That was to go to the temple at 6pm. So we had a relaxing day just sitting around. Anne and I watched a lot of paint pouring videos because she found a new technique she wants to try. Tom left for work at 6:30 and didn’t get home until almost 1pm. This was supposed to be his short day, but they had extra projects for him. I made a new recipe for breakfast – apple pancakes with oatmeal instead of flour. They turned out pretty good. I saved a bunch of them for Tom who was starving by the time he got home. We had leftover tacos for lunch and about then Tanya came over to play games with us. We played a couple of games she gave me for my birthday. They were pretty fun but we found we had to alter them quite a bit to make them work for us. It was fun. Tanya left when we had to get ready for the temple. The session was at 6 so we left about 5:15. It was a very small session, but really nice. It’s wonderful to see people we love there and it was spe...

I really thought I had been staying up to date with my blog. I can’t believe I skipped a day! Tom and I woke up pretty early, so there was time to get stuff done before leaving for the temple. That was nice. I felt like we were pretty ready for the day when we left. When we got to the temple, there were already about 10 cars there! That is very unusual because we are usually the first to arrive other than our bosses. There was a big truck right in front of the gate with a couple of men washing the exterior of the temple, and as we entered we found a bunch of men with blueprints in the waiting room, talking about the upcoming renovation that starts in January. We got thing ready while trying to get around all of them and their stuff, and then our people started to arrive. One of the first to arrive was a friend who I worked with when I worked for the Church. I knew she lived in Merced, so I was puzzled that she would be there. The stake to clean for the rest of the year is Fresno ...

Tom had an early morning leadership meeting at 7:30, so I got up the same time he did. When he got back, we went together to the general session of Stake Conference. It was super good. All the talks were so well done. I took lots of notes and plan to go further with those notes. Maybe even apply the teachings! How radical would that be! We had the missionaries coming for dinner, so we prepped that before getting a nap. That nap sure felt good. I woke up accidentally just before they got here and we finished getting dinner ready. These are a couple of awesome missionaries! Very mature and strong in Spirit. It was great having them here and hearing their stories. We made them tacos with flour tortillas, (which we regretted later) and rice and beans. Then I gave them the choice of ice cream with chocolate or a root beer float. They both chose the ice cream in a bowl and ate as they left us with a message. I had prepared a message to give them, which really surprised them but made them...